1. The Surf Rat

The vortex glittered as we approached.

"Yeah! All right, 7Cs!" I cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

"Aye, lad, that's the way to do it! Rattle 'em boneheads!" Calabrass crowed from my shoulder.

"Keep it up, 'Brass, and I'll end up talkin' like ye," I joked, shaking my head.

"Belay that! 'Tis been a fair few years," he countered. "If ye don't start soon, I'm a bowlegged whale."

"Bowlegged whale?" I shook my head again. I'd knocked it in the fight, and it was still sore. "Now, where'd that come from?"

Calabrass opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by our resident poltergeist.

"Argh!" Clovis tried to impersonate a roar as he materialized on the quarterdeck. "The sea of Beru!" He placed a proud hand to his chest. "Welcomes back Captain Zak and his crew!"

"Ah, no, Clovis," Caramba groaned. "Not the rhyme phaseox again."

That was fair—Clovis had once spent an entire week speaking in rhyme. Everything he said verged on poetry, and none of it was enjoyable. "Zak" and "back" was only such an amusing rhyme after hearing it the first forty times.

"Crogar likes Clovis's rhymes," interjected Crogar, removing his horned helmet.

"Only because Crogar does not rhyme with anything," a new voice spoke up. "I believe what Clovis is trying to say, Zak Storm, is that that was an admirable bit of captaining there."

I felt my cheeks heat underneath my freckles as Cece mounted the steps to the quarterdeck. Her face, too, was flushed, a shy smile on her open features. Shy? Cece? Yet we both dropped our eyes as she joined us.

"Uhhh..." I tried to think up an excuse, anything, yet my tongue felt tied. I waved my hands a bit helplessly. "Yeah, it's just the 7Cs, kickin' ass and being awesome as usual! Couldn't have done it without my amazing Atlantean warrior." I rubbed the back of my head. "And my brain sure paid for it. I'm gonna start wearing a helmet," I complained.

Cece laughed a little bit, then her cheeks flamed. "Oh...I'm...I'm sorry, Zak," she said, her voice faltering. "I..."

I waved a hand. "Eh, you're fine. All right, crew. Head down and grab some grub, Crogar makes a mean winkle stew. The only mean stew," I added as an afterthought, reflecting on some of the awful things he liked eating, and worse, cooking.

The rest of my Triangle family shuffled down below, except for Clovis, who bounced around, appearing here, appearing there, as he played with some orb of light he'd picked up from Caramba. "Wheeee!"

I smiled and crossed my arms, surveying the deck. "You're never gonna grow up, are you, Clovis?"

"Little hard when I don't have me body! I don't have to deal wi' any o' that icky stuff!" He called back, never ceasing his play. He winked at me, then disappeared, no doubt to play some trick on the others.

I laughed and leaned over the wheel, lost in thought. Night was falling over the Bermuda Triangle—or at least the Sea of Beru. Stars were beginning to appear. I wondered if seeing the stars here meant you were looking into the Sea of Zite. And then I started thinking about the stars you could see from Earth, from home...I promised him. I said I'd make it back. But I'm not.

I sighed tiredly.

"Spit it out, Zak. What's eatin' ye?" Calabrass demanded. He had noticed that my smile had slipped into a frown.

"Oh...," I began, my voice cracking a bit. "I mean...it's been years, Cal. I've had four birthdays since I fell into the Triangle." I lapsed into thought. "I'm a man, 'Brass. By my world's standards, at least. And yet...I still haven't gotten my crew home. We've had some great adventures, but we've also lost. A lot. And I just started thinking about the stars and then it reminded me of home and—"

"Stars! Neptune's beard. The stars brought on this womanly display?" My friend scoffed. "Pull it together, Zak. I know ye, and I know ye'll get us out someday soon."

I shrugged. "Not the point. Yeah, yeah, I'm capable, but it hasn't happened. The point is that we should have been home. Already. A long time ago. You could have your body—and Clovis too—Crogar could return to his Vikings—Caramba to Wahoolia—and Cece...she could return to Atlantis. And I made my dad a promise! Don't you understand? Back in my world, he'd be sending me off to college now." I stopped talking, dejected silence taking over.

"We don't even know how the return works, laddie," Calabrass reminded me gently.

"He…he is right, Zak." I jumped a bit. I had been so distracted that I hadn't noticed Cece step back onto the quarterdeck, and now she was standing behind me. "We really do not know. How does Caramba get back to Wahoolia? And Crogar? He is not from our time. And I do not think Clovis is either. Does the portal just send us to our respective times, locations, homes? Or are we all just stuck where you came from?"

"Hey, that'd be cool," I said. "Party at my place! You could meet my dad and I could show you what real music is!"

"I've heard your real music, and I still prefer a good hornpipe," Calabrass grumbled.

"And it would not be cool," Cece added. "None of us would actually be home, after all."

"Okay…okay, you're right." I sighed. "I just…I'm really gonna miss you guys."

I focused on Cece with a question in my eyes. She looked down at the deck of the Chaos.

"Ye scrub, I ain't leavin' ye so easily," Calabrass rumbled, his gruff voice warm.

"Thanks, 'Brass," I said, eyes still on Cece, as I toyed with my belt.

She hesitated. "I will miss you too. And I am sorry, Captain, for intruding on your discussion…and startling you...I just wanted to make sure you were okay. And I am sorry for laughing before. An Atlantean princess should not be amused by her captain's pain." This was delivered with great shame, and a bowed head.

"Ah, Cece..." I placed a hand on her shoulder. It was warm. "Don't sweat it. I did make a joke about it, and I do have a hard head, and I know you were probably just...well, you seemed..."
I trailed off. This was getting complicated. Oh yes, I definitely liked Chrysta Coraline Lejune. [BC1] [BC2] But we could leave the Triangle any day. And I'd have to face up to losing her after acknowledging what I felt. Was it love? Search me. I didn't exactly have a normal teenage experience. But how was that fair to me...or Cece?

Calabrass would probably tell me I was thinking too much. "A pirate never thinks," he would say.
I laughed out loud.

"I seemed what?" Cece asked after a long silence punctuated only by that laugh. Right now, she seemed put off. "And you do have a hard head."

"From you, I don't think that's a compliment," I replied, shifting from foot to foot.
In the starlight, she was beautiful—her ponytailed hair, which resembled the pink anemones I'd once seen at a tidepool, seemed to bristle. Those reflective, sober eyes glowed from within like a Marituga sunset.

"It's not." She had her fists clenched, the scaled gauntlets taut.
We stared at each other. Things I wanted to say were lost in translation.

"Well...Cece, I'm fine," I said at last. "And...well...you seemed nervous." I didn't really think there was any going back now.

"I was," she said faintly. Her brow furrowed. "I'm an Atlantean princess. How can this be happening?"

"Wha...what is that?" I asked, just as faintly.

She was looking at me like she'd never seen me before. Somehow tenderly.

The urge overpowered me. I found that my hand was still on her shoulder, and that it was slipping around to the small of her back. My other hand searched her cheek, where I detected wetness.

"Zak..." she breathed, her voice trembly somehow.

I brought our lips crashing together. It was passionate, but gentle, and when we pulled away, her eyes were shining.

"Nervous," I said, my own voice wobbly. "Because I wanted to do that. And I thought you might, too."

A big smile curved her full lips, lips I craved just then. God, I'd grown up in the Triangle. A lot.

"How did you know," she responded, still secure in my embrace. "And I was just imagining...how impossible it is that this Atlantean princess has fallen in love with this surf rat turned captain turned man."

Whoa," I said, gaping at her.

"Quite the metamorphosis," she agreed.

"Well, I was just...I was laughing because I was overthinking this. And I don't usually think—I act."

"I sincerely hope that becomes your new custom for how you approach everything," Cece smirked. I made a disgruntled sound and resumed staring at her. She blushed under my look, pretty as any mermaid. The way the light glinted off of her purple scales, the warmth of her body curved against mine, that feeling...like floating free of my body in Zite, and I knew, I knew, whatever else happened, however we left the Triangle, we could not lose each other.

Not an option.

"Hey, barnacle brain, stave off the gawking," a sharp voice sounded, way too close to my ear.
I gave a start, jarring Cece. "Calabrass!"

"Forget I'm here during that little moment of yours?" He sounded pretty miffed. Cece tugged on her ponytail, a tentative, embarrassed smile flitting across her features, as she pulled back. I caught her hand before she could walk away.

"Yeah, yeah actually I did. Sorry, Calabrass."

He snorted. "Never ye mind, Zak. I was always rootin' for you and the fish lady to figure it out anyway. Though ye are one of the weirder pairings I've seen."

I broke into a huge smile, mirrored by Cece's. She wasn't even upset by the use of "fish lady," which was a first.

"Thanks," I said, meaning it.

"Well, Zak..." Cece stepped back. "I'll leave you to your starlight vigil." Before she could free her hand, I knelt, bowed, and kissed her glove.

"There you are, Princess." I gave her my best smile and loosed her hand. She returned it with full force. Chrysta Coraline Lejune was at loss for words.

And it was because of me. I whooped.

...

After she'd left, much, much later, before I went to sleep, I flopped on my bed with a grin so big I worried my face might split.

"If ye've any more plans wi' the wee lass, remember to take me off and face me towards the wall," Calabrass said, breaking the silence. "I don't need to see any of that, mate. Bad enough I'll get to hear it. And stop grinnin' like that. Ye're fixin' to look like one o' Skullivar's boneheads."

"'Brass, if I could, I'd swat you right now," I replied, still smiling as I turned over in bed.

"Ye know I'm always right," he retorted from next to my pillow.

"So is a certain Atlantean princess," I said. "But don't tell her I admitted that. Ever."

"Secret's safe wi' me, lad. I don't want her findin' out either."

"Night, Cal."

"Night, Zak. Have good dreams so ye don't wake me wi' your screamin' and whinin.'"

"You don't sleep," I replied drowsily, rolling over.

"So ye don't disturb me, then."

"I'll dream of Cece," I said.

I drifted off to sleep still smiling.

Hey everyone! So I don't know how many of you know Zak Storm, but it's from the makers of Miraculous, Zagtoon. Anyway, it's pretty entertaining, but it has a tiny fanbase so I decided to contribute where I might. Most of the first season is on Netflix if you haven't checked it out. No shame here, I love it, haha,esp. ZaCe. Thanks for stopping by, and cheers!