Chapter Text
The boat is too small for two people who don’t know what they’re doing.
Zoe rows anyway.
Around them, the ocean isn’t empty.
Boats scatter across the water in every direction—some ahead, some behind, some drifting too close before awkwardly correcting course. Voices carry over the waves in fragments: laughter, shouting, someone arguing about directions, someone else calling a name that gets lost in the wind.
A thousand people, all moving toward the same idea.
Zoe squints past another boat that nearly cuts across their path.
“Okay—hey—watch it—!”
They don’t hear her.
She huffs, steering slightly to the side. “Great. Love that. Perfect coordination.”
Reina watches quietly.
Her gaze flicks from boat to boat, tracking movement, distance, direction—like she’s mapping everything without saying it out loud.
“You’ve been to Skymore yet?” Zoe asks. Wait that was a stupid question to to ask aughh no one went to Skymore!!
Zoe awkwardly smiled
Reina shakes her head.
“…No.”
“Same,” Zoe says. “I mean—I’ve heard about it. Parrot’s thing, right? A new civilization. Safer. Organized.”
A louder shout echoes from somewhere to their left. Someone cheers. Another boat bumps into it, both of them wobbling before stabilizing again.
Zoe winces. “They’re not selling the ‘organized’ part very well.”
That gets the smallest reaction.
Reina’s lips twitch. Not quite a smile. Close.
Zoe catches it and grins.
“I’m serious! Like—what does that even mean? ‘Civilization’? Are we building roads? Laws? Taxes?” She makes a face. “I’m not doing taxes.”
Reina huffs softly. It almost gets lost under the noise of the water.
“Don’t think… that far.”
“Oh, I am absolutely thinking that far,” Zoe says. “If someone hands me paperwork, I’m leaving.”
A boat passes closer this time, two people arguing over a map, one of them pointing in the completely wrong direction.
Zoe watches them drift.
“…We’re going the right way, right?”
Reina glances at the sun, then the water, then back ahead.
A small nod.
“…Yeah.”
Zoe exhales. “Okay. Good. Confidence restored.”
The crowd thins slightly the farther they go. The voices fade just enough to breathe.
Then,
“…House,” Reina says.
Zoe blinks. “What?”
Reina doesn’t look at her.
“…We build one.”
Zoe’s expression lights up immediately.
“Oh—yeah. Yeah, we should. Definitely!”
She rows a little straighter now.
“What kind?”
Reina hesitates, like she’s picking the words carefully.
Zoe waits.
“…Big,” Reina says. “Not… small.”
Zoe laughs. “Alright, bold. Big house. I like it.”
She glances around at the dozens of other boats.
“We might need it, honestly. Everyone’s gonna be packed together.”
Reina watches a group pass by, talking loudly over each other.
Her shoulders shift, just slightly.
“…Not too close,” she adds.
Zoe catches that instantly.
“Yeah,” she says, softer now. “Not too close.”
A beat.
Then, brighter again—
“Two stories?”
Reina nods.
Zoe points at her. “Yes. Two stories. And—oh! A balcony.”
Reina glances over.
“…Balcony?”
“Yeah! So you can stand there dramatically and look over the entire civilization we helped build,” Zoe says, gesturing to the horizon where all the boats are headed. “Very important.”
Reina considers it.
“…Okay.”
Zoe grins, satisfied.
“And farms nearby. I can handle food stuff.”
Reina nods, more certain now.
“…You’re good at it.”
Zoe shrugs, a little proud despite herself.
“I won’t let us starve.”
The words slip out easily.
Reina looks down at the bottom of the boat.
“…Good.”
Another boat passes, laughter echoing as it goes.
Zoe keeps rowing.
“And you?” she asks. “What do you want to do?”
Reina watches the water for a long moment.
“…Build.”
Zoe smiles.
“Yeah,” she says. “I think you’re good at that.”
The ocean stretches ahead of them, filled with people chasing the same future.
But in the middle of it—
it feels quieter here.
“Hey,” Zoe says.
Reina looks up.
“When we get there… don’t just disappear, okay? We’re doing this together.”
Reina blinks.
Then, softer—
“…Okay.”
Zoe nods.
“Good.”
She looks ahead, toward where Skymore is supposed to rise out of nothing.
“It’ll be nice,” she says. “Having a place that’s ours.”
Reina follows her gaze.
This time, she doesn’t look uncertain.
“…Yeah.”