The sound of waves crashing against the shore was all together strangely calming Rocket thought. Especially after their slightly hectic morning. He'd found Floor sleeping curled up in the living room, which wasn't where he'd left her last night, and the first thing she did on waking up was ask him to upgrade her limbs. Which he hadn't been expecting at all, but he agreed to as soon as they actually had the parts necessary to do so.
Then he had to try and convince Soren to take them to the ocean. Which ended up being easier than he thought it would be. The Kymellian seemed eager to please and loaded the two of them and Tikki into an aircar.
The beach itself was actually kind of impressive, with an old fashioned wooden pier, though Rocket definitely noticed parts where it was reinforced with more modern materials albeit well hidden. There were even people fishing from it and the thought crossed his mind over whether he'd enjoy doing that. Floor certainly wouldn't have the patience for it though, and thinking on it he probably wouldn't either.
Floor hopped excitedly bouncing from spot to spot as the two walked down the pier, Tikki and Soren had gone into a shop at the beginning of the pier leaving the two to walk together and soak it all in. They reached the end of the pier, which apparently had a bar hanging off one end of it that Soren would probably kill them if they went into, not that Rocket wasn't tempted anyways, but he didn't want to cause problems with the Kymellian at least not this early.
"Look, look an island!" Floor half shouted as she pointed him towards a small island out in the distance, or at least it looked small from here though he could just barely make out people walking around on it.
Floor and Rocket watched the waves sway between them and the island, the scent of salt on the air and the crashing of the waves was soothing, if he closed his eyes he could almost imagine that Teefs and Lylla were with them, even if just for a moment. Rocket's paw found itself grabbing Floor's as the pair sat there.
"So is it everything you wanted?" Rocket asked, Floor nuzzling into his side.
"Yes, no," Floor said hesitatingly. "Is almost. Almost everything."
Rocket didn't really know how to respond to that, even if he did completely understand what Floor meant. Something was missing and there just wasn't really any way to get it back. He pulled Floor closer and the pair sat there on the pier in silence, quietly enjoying the moment.
It wasn't much longer before Tikki slithered up to sit beside them, coiled next to Floor. "Dad's arguing with the fish market guy, so I think we're gonna be here awhile."
"What does Tikki think of the ocean?" Floor asked, glancing over at the serpent boy.
"Well it's kinda beautiful, but dangerous, always shifting. Is this your first time seeing it?"
"Up close yeah, we obviously saw it from the ship and before that well..even being outside was a rare thing." Rocket shrugged, remembering the handful of times they'd actually been outside for one reason or another, him more than Floor sadly.
Tikki looked up at the sky before hesitantly looking at Rocket. "Do you think you can take me up there sometime? I've never actually been up there, not that I can actually remember anyways."
Rocket had to think about that, he wasn't actually that eager to get back up into space, even if the itch to fly something did scratch at the back of his head something fierce. He didn't actually have a reason to deny Tikki if he ever had a reason to go back up there though.
"Rocket should take Tikki flying." Floor answered, half pleading it felt like, and Rocket was finding it really hard to refuse his sister anything.
"Maybe, we'll see."
Before the conversation could go any further they spotted Soren, carrying a basket full of food motioning for them to follow him down to the beach proper.
The black rabbit looked at the pier through a pair of binoculars, a smirk growing on his face. They had only stopped here to refuel their ship but it seemed they had just become incredibly lucky.
"What's got you so happy?" The rabbit's partner, an otter who sat nearby taking a sharp looking knife to a fish, asked.
"Well Lylla i do believe we have just saved a lot of time on our mission," the rabbit said. turning to see the murderous look on the otter's face, like she was going to come filet him with that knife. He loved getting a rise out of her, though he had to be careful about when he did that, she might lack the cybernetic augmentations he had but she was still dangerous.
"I told you to stop calling me that, that's not me!" She stabbed the knife into the cutting board, the fur on her arms rippling with the action, as she stood up. She was halfway to throttling the rabbit before the rest of his word caught up to her. "Wait, they're here?"
"Right across from us. Though it looks like they're leaving now."
"You sure it's them Blackjack?" The otter asked, returning to the fish.
I mean, how many like us can there be running around out here, the High Jackass can't have lost more than a handful right?"
"Mhm," The otter hummed slightly as she began to walk away carrying the fish.
"Hey where do you think you're taking lunch!" Blackjack shouted as he chased after her.
"I'm not feeding you after that stunt."
"Aw come on, you know I wasn't serious!"
