“Phew, finally finished.”

At long last, I laid down my spanner and got back to my feet to admire my handiwork.

A maintenance check on the Ocean Tornado was never an easy task, but it had to be done. We needed to make sure that all the boats in our mini-fleet were in good condition, for you never know when one of them will be needed.

Wiping some sweat from my forehead, I turned to climb up the access ladder and stepped out on deck.

As usual, it was a hot and sunny day out at sea. With calm waves and no clouds in the sky, you’d think the scenery was taken from a postcard.

We had stopped by a small island to let Blaze off so she could hunt for another Sol Emerald. If she found it, this would be the seventh, and we’d only need the three missing Chaos Emeralds before we could finally go back to our own world.

Since we figured she could be a while, we decided to take a break and relax. At least, Sonic and Marine did. I meanwhile, was below deck tuning up the engine, as I thought it sounded a little rough on our last voyage.

Now that was done though, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I could see Sonic in a deckchair nearby. The weather had been so warm that he had dozed off. I smiled as I heard him snore and mumble something about chilli dogs. It then occurred to me precisely how warm it was today. I generally wasn’t used to the weather being like this all the time, and I started perspiring as I felt the heat warm my fur.

I had to do something to cool off, ANYTHING. But just then, my answer came to me with a shout from the water below.

“C’mon Tails! The water’s bonzer!”

Well I figured that a quick dip wouldn’t hurt. Hopping onto the side rail, I took a quick breath, and jumped straight in. Swimming upwards, my head broke the surface of the water, and there was Marine, looking cheerful as always. She had changed out of her usual tube top and shorts into a green one-piece bathing suit.

“Nice one mate! And here I was thinking you were a conch!”

“Uhh... I don’t know what that means, but I’ll just take it as a compliment.”

Marine giggled her usual cheeky giggle, and then continued. “You HAVE to see under there mate, I found a spiffy coral reef! It's ripper!”

I simply smiled at this. I didn’t precisely know why, but I always found Marine to be extremely likeable, even before she got her delusions of grandeur about being a captain out of her head. I think it was because of how she always got excited whenever she found something new, and when you’ve lived on a small island your whole life, you tend to find a lot of things to be new. Sure, she can get a bit over excited at times, but that was just part of her charm. I remember feeling a little bitter towards Blaze for a while after she yelled at her for being a nuisance.

“C’mon then,” she started, “and take a deep breath!”

Complying, I gathered as much air in my lungs as I could, dipped my head below the surface, and started swimming after Marine, who was already heading downwards. Before long, we reached the bottom... and looked in awe at what was there.

There were no other words to describe it; the reef was beautiful. A vista of reds, blues, and yellows. Tropical fish swam around us in large shoals, and the water was crystal clear, perfecting an already wondrous sight. It was like being in another world entirely.

I started swimming through the reef to admire its sights more, each more breathtaking than the last. Then at one point, I turned my head to my right, and saw Marine swimming alongside me. There was something about her that made me feel slightly warm. Maybe it was her graceful swimming style, maybe it was the way her pigtails streamed behind her, but something about her made me look at her more than the reef around us. She turned to look at me, and smiled. I smiled back, not wanting to be impolite.

But that moment was short lived, as I suddenly felt a pulse in my chest. I opened my mouth for a second and let some air escape. I clasped my hands over my mouth to stop any more escaping, signalling only one thing: It was time to head back up. Kicking my legs and thrashing my arms, I bolted for the surface, each second creating another spasm in my lungs. I was pushed to breaking point, until I finally reached the surface. Taking a big inhale, followed by some spluttering coughs, I started treading water to stay afloat.

But, something was wrong. Where was Marine? Looking around, I noticed that she wasn’t with me. I started to panic slightly; what if something had happened to her on her way back up? Just before I considered the possibility that she might be in serious trouble, I felt something yank on one of my tails and pull me back under the water. Not expecting it, I squirmed frantically before kicking to the surface once more. As I was catching my breath, Marine finally resurfaced nearby with a triumphant smile on her face.

“Gotcha!”

“That wasn’t funny...”

“It was a bit!”

I felt annoyed about her little prank, but also relieved that she was safe. Then she started giggling again. Was she giggling at me, or something else? There was only one way to find out.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

Marine giggled for a little more before responding, “You really can’t hold your breath for long, can you mate?”

“Hey!” I replied, sounding a little annoyed, “That was a full minute! That’s not easy to do!”

“Not where I come from.” Marine claimed, “I could hold mine for four times as long as you could!”

“Pfft, yeah right!” I shot back.

“I’m serious!”

“No you can’t.”

“Yes I can.”

“No you can’t.”

“Yes I can!”

“You can’t!”

“I can!”

“Can’t!”

“Can!”

“Can’t!”

“Can!”

“Prove it!”

Marine stopped at this point, a confident smirk showing on her face. “Is that a challenge?”

I smirked back. “Why yes it is.”

“Okay then, you’re on! Right here, right now!”

But her adrenaline rush didn’t last long, as we heard Sonic shout out from the boat.

“Hey! Blaze found the emerald! Let’s get moving!”

“Awww...” Marine sighed, “And just as it was about to get fun...”

I lost my smile as well. Another thing I couldn’t quite figure out was how I just couldn’t bring myself to be cheerful if she was sad. I pondered for a second, and then an idea hit me.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out when we get back.”

“You will!? Thanks mate!”

And with that, she swam up to me and gave me a hug. I was taken aback by this act of friendship, and started to feel warm again. After only a few seconds, she pulled away, and then looked curious.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Are you feeling alright mate? You look flushed.”

I knew it, I had been blushing! “Err... I-it’s just the weather...” I lied quickly.

“Oh, Okay!”

With that out of the way, the two of us began to swim back to the Ocean Tornado, so we could dry off and prepare for the trip back to Southern Island.

***

“Tails, you’ve done it again!”

“Heh heh, thanks.”

It was later that same day, and me and Marine were standing in front of a large water tank that I had managed to build using some of the spare materials lying around. It was fairly big, and had a window in one side, along with a small ladder to get up to the opening in the top. Marine was beaming at my work, which caused me to blush slightly; I tend to be a little modest about my work.

“Well, are you ready?” I asked her, although I guessed there was really no need to do so, as she was still wearing her bathing suit. She hadn’t taken it off since we got back.

“You bet mate!” She replied, already starting to climb the ladder, enthusiastically wagging her striped tail as she did so.

I smiled at her enthusiasm, and pulled out a stopwatch that I had borrowed from Sonic. (He always has one handy so he can time his runs.) As Marine dipped herself into the water within the tank, she started breathing in and out heavily, which I could only guess was probably a warm up exercise.

“I’ll start as soon as you’re ready.” I told her, holding the stopwatch at the ready. She nodded upon hearing this as she continued her warm up. After a short while, she breathed in, and submerged herself completely. I started the timer, and kept my eyes on her through the window.

All I could do now was wait...

A minute soon passed, and I looked away from the stopwatch and back to Marine. She seemed completely at ease under the water, keeping very still with her eyes closed and a small smile on her face. The water in the tank was calm, but it was still enough to gently caress her pigtails around her head. Once again, there was something about her that made me stare, just like when we were at the reef. I don’t know precisely what came over me, but I placed a hand on the tank’s glass, and sighed wistfully. Marine was such a fun girl; she was perky, and sweet, and smart, and pretty, and...

Wait... did I just think she was pretty!?

Well... she WAS pretty. I never really noticed that about her before. There was something about her being underwater that seemed to highlight it somehow.

All of a sudden, Marine opened her eyes and her smile disappeared. Wondering why she had done this, I looked back at the stopwatch; it now showed that two minutes had passed since she started. I looked back into the tank, and noticed something strange. Her chest and stomach were rising and falling at a steady rate. I guessed that she must be struggling in there.

I felt differently about my little dare now. At first, I wanted to do this to try and take Marine’s ego down a bit. But now, I actually wanted her to succeed.

The clock hit two minutes and thirty seconds, and Marine was showing more signs of struggling; her cheeks were now starting to swell, and the twitching in her midriff was increasing in pace. A part of me wanted to jump into the tank myself and pull her out, but if I did that, she wouldn’t soon forgive me, so I did the only thing I could do at the time.

“Two minutes, forty five seconds! You’re doing great! Keep it up!”

She smiled for a second, but she was being pushed to the limit. Her mouth was starting to let loose small amounts of bubbles, and her face made her look as though she’d eaten something sour. I started to feel a little scared, but urged her on.

“Three minutes! Come on Marine!”

Marine closed her eyes tightly shut and let more air escape. She brought her hand up to her mouth and started squirming about in the water. I started to panic slightly, but I didn’t want her to give up now.

“Three fifteen!”

Then, it happened...

Marine jerked her body forward suddenly, letting out a large burst of air, her eyes opened wide and her mouth hung open. She stayed like that for a few seconds.

“M-Marine?”

Slowly, her eyes closed, her limbs fell limp, and she floated down to a kneeling position on the tank’s floor, before toppling over sideways as if she were in slow motion. She came to a rest on the tank’s floor... and didn’t move.

“MARINE!!!”

Acting on sheer impulse, I quickly flew up to the top of the tank, dove in, wrapped my arms around her and kicked the two of us back to the surface. Flying back down, I laid her down onto the floor, and checked her condition; she still had a steady heartbeat, but she wasn’t breathing.

“Marine! Wake up! Please!”

No response... I panicked again. She was dying, and I couldn’t do anything to save her...

Then, it hit me...

CPR.

I had performed it once before on Sonic, (an experience I found to be extremely unpleasant...) It worked then, so what was to stop it from working now?

I placed my hands onto Marine’s chest, and started pressing down rhythmically.

One, two, three, four.

Now came the tricky part...

Hesitating only slightly, I locked my mouth with hers, and released some of my own air into her lungs, before resuming the pumping motion.

For about a minute or so, the cycle repeated itself, with me losing more and more hope each time. Until eventually, Marine coughed up some water, and began moaning and squirming in a dull panic. Hope flooded back into me as I tried to calm her down.

“Marine! It's okay! You’re safe now!”

After a few seconds, she settled down, and started breathing heavily. I sat back, and breathed a sigh of relief. After a few more seconds, her eyelids finally fluttered open, showing me those aqua blue eyes I thought I’d never see again. She looked around for a second before her gaze finally fixed on me. Eventually, she spoke in a weak voice.

“How’d I do?”

****

Later that night, I was sitting on the pier where the Wave Cyclone was parked. It was a full moon that night, but that wasn’t able to cheer me up. Earlier on, Blaze had given me a chewing out for being irresponsible. Sonic wasn’t nearly as rough on me, but he still expressed his disappointment in me for letting something like that happen for something as silly as a dare. I hugged my legs close to my chest and sighed. They were right; Marine almost drowned because of me... I almost killed her... Just as I was about to start crying, I heard a voice next to me.

“Tails?”

I turned my head and saw the very raccoon I was thinking about standing next to me. I turned my head away again, not really wanting to see her right now.

“What’s the matter mate?”

“It's nothing...”

“C’mon, you can tell me!”

“It’s just...” I hesitated for a second, “How can you still talk to me after what happened?”

“What do you mean by that?”

I raised my voice slightly at this point, “I mean that you almost died because of me earlier! How can you talk to someone who almost killed you!?”

Marine stopped for a moment to think about this before continuing, “Tails... that wasn’t your fault mate...”

“Yes it was!” I practically yelled, “I saw that you were in trouble, but I didn’t do anything about it until it was almost too late! How can you still think of me as a friend after that!?”

I finally let my tears flow, streaming down my face and hitting the wooden floor beneath us. Silence fell. For a second, I thought she had walked away, until I heard her speak again.

“Because you believed in me...”

Hearing this, I turned my head to meet her gaze again.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“I was trying my best to stay in that tank, and you were cheering me on. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten support like that, even from the Coconut Crew.”

I simply stared at her, only half believing what I was hearing. She continued.

“And... You saved my life. When I gave out, I thought I was gonna cark it. But you saved me.”

I perked up slightly upon hearing this. She was right, I did save her.

“Thank you Tails.” she carried on, “You’re a real hero.”

I blushed at this; it wasn’t often that someone called me a hero.

“In fact...” she continued, “I think I need to reward you.”

She stood up and motioned for me to follow her. I then noticed that she still hadn’t changed out of her bathing suit. I also noticed where she was going; she was heading for the edge of the pier.

“You still want to swim?” I said, surprised that she still wanted to do so even though she had almost drowned.

“If you think I’m scared of the water now, you’d best think again!” she replied cheerfully, “It’ll take more than a near drowning to stop me!”

Motioning again for me to follow, I finally stood up, dried my eyes, and walked over to join her at the edge of the pier. Marine took a quick breath, and leapt in. I quickly followed her, getting wet for the third time that day. She turned to face me and smiled. But this was a different kind of smile, one that I couldn’t figure out what it meant.

“Deep breath...” She said, in a surprisingly soft voice. I didn’t know what kind of reward she had planned, but I was curious to find out. So, I inhaled as much as I could, and ducked my head under.

Underneath the surface, the moonlight was illuminating the area in an otherworldly glow. I looked around, and saw Marine swimming down to meet me. She was still smiling in that odd way and I started to get nervous about what she had in store for me.

Then she did something that surprised me. Reaching behind her head, she removed the gold coloured rings that kept her pigtails in place. As she let them drop to the floor, her hair ran free for the first time. I started to grow warm again, now she wasn’t just pretty as I thought to myself earlier; she was beautiful! Her hair was long and flowing, the waves caressing it around her. Then, she started swimming closer to me until we were face to face. I felt warmer than before as she looked at me dead in the eyes. Her hair was now curling around both of our heads. What did she have planned for me?

I soon got my answer, as without warning, the gap between us disappeared, leaving something very soft pressing against my lips.

She was kissing me...

It was my first kiss...

After a few moments of shock, I relaxed, closed my eyes, and pushed my own lips against her, equalling the kiss. It was amazing to feel her soft lips against mine, and being underwater, it felt like we were in midair. She opened her mouth ever so slightly, and I did the same, our lips now forming a watertight seal, keeping the air in and the water out. I reached for her hand and held it gently, not wanting to let her go. Soon enough, I felt her wrap her arms around me, holding me closer to her body. Feeling warmer than ever before, I did the same as our kiss continued, neither one of us wanting to stop. This was rapidly turning into one of the best moments of my life, right alongside when I first met Sonic.

After a while, I felt a twinge in my chest, telling me that my lungs couldn’t hold on for much longer. But I didn’t want to stop kissing her, so I continued, pushing the thought of air out of my head for now. Eventually though, my need for oxygen became too great, forcing me to pull away, and causing water to spill into my mouth. As I started to choke, I felt like this was the end for me...

That didn’t last long though, as I felt us move upwards and break the surface. Coughing up some water, I spluttered for a few seconds before eventually catching my breath again. I looked up at Marine, she was also panting. Her long hair now rested on her shoulders. She had noticed that I was in trouble and pulled me back up. We simply gazed into each others eyes for several moments before I eventually spoke up.

“Wow... that was amazing...”

She smiled a lovely smile upon hearing this, “Yeah... it was spiffy alright...”

I took a few more seconds to recover before speaking again. “Thanks for saving me.”

“Just returning the favour mate. Sorry that we spent too long down there...”

“You don’t need to be...” I replied softly, placing my hand on her cheek as I did so, “I wouldn’t have missed out on that for the world.”

Still clutching each other, we made our way back to the shore, and laid ourselves down next to each other on the sand. Several more moments passed before I spoke up again.

“I... I didn’t know you felt that way about me...”

“Of course I do Tails... you’re the nicest boy I’ve ever met...”

I turned to look at her, still lying on the sand.

“You’re brave,” She continued, “You’re kind, you’re smart, and you’re cute as well!”

I blushed like crazy at this remark; she thought I was cute!? But that soon stopped as I noticed she had turned away, looking sad.

“And...” she trembled slightly, “I’m really gonna miss you when you go back home...”

That was when it occurred to me; despite my newfound feelings for her, we just couldn’t stay together. We were worlds apart, literally. I felt depressed at the prospect that we would inevitably have to say goodbye. But I stayed strong as I moved over to her. I gently cupped her chin in my hand and turned her head so she faced me again. Her eyes were swimming with tears, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

“Well... we need to make the most of whatever time we have left.”

She wiped her eyes after hearing this, and looked back at me, her blue eyes meeting my own. She smiled as we pulled each other into a loving embrace.

“Thank you Tails...”

After only a short time, we pulled away, though still holding each other, and turned to look at the ocean. The moon made the waves shimmer with light, making for a truly romantic sight. After a while, I heard a yawn next to me, and then felt something resting against my shoulder. I turned my head to see Marine resting her head against me.

“Tired?” I asked.

“Yeah...” she responded, “Can we sleep here tonight?”

I smiled again, “I don’t see why not.”

Gently, we laid ourselves down onto the sand, linked our hands together, and gently held them between us. After about a minute or so, Marine gently dozed off. I was starting to feel tired as well. But I was still able to do one thing before I went to sleep myself; I moved my mouth to her ear, and whispered something that at first I wasn’t sure about, but now I knew for definite.

“I love you Marine...”

The End