George let out a gentle sigh as the wind coursed through his hair. His hands gripped onto the railing as he stood at the front of the ship, eyes set on the horizon.

The sky was like a painting today. Clouds rippled throughout the blue, and the sun shone softly throughout the sky's great expanse.

Everything was okay. It was more than okay. It was perfect.

After Schlatt's death, they'd spent three days in Lmanberg as George regained his strength.

Skeppy and Bad had shown up after the first day, extremely worried after not hearing from anyone. Dream had nervously told them he'd forgotten to send a letter back to the ship and had sat there being scolded by Bad for worrying them so much, while George had sat off to the side laughing at him.

George had gotten the chance to talk with Quackity and Tubbo more and had learnt of their plans for the future. Quackity was going to take over the throne until Tubbo was ready for it. Tommy and Tubbo had become fast friends, and the boys had not wanted to separate.

This, of course, led to Tommy deciding to stay in Lmanberg. And where Tommy went, Phil and Wilbur went too. Phil had been worried about leaving the crew, but Dream and George had assured him that it was okay. It gave them more time to bond with Techno anyway and to start the long road to building their relationship up again.

With lots of tears, they had parted ways. George had gotten lots of hugs from Tommy, who had murmured something about not wanting to leave George's bitch ass behind, but he had just rolled his eyes fondly and ruffled the blonde's hair, telling him not to worry. George would visit soon anyways.

That was another thing that had happened- they'd been pardoned. Their crew were no longer pirates, instead...adventurers. Quackity had sent them off with enough money to be on their feet and had offered them to visit anytime they wished.

George glanced up to the flag whipping back and forth in the wind above him and smiled. The pirate skull had been replaced with Lmanberg's flag.

Tubbo and Quackity had spent some time together looking through Schlatt's laws and getting rid of those they thought necessary to destroy.

This meant, of course, the banning of merfolk hunting.

George had been extremely pleased with this addition to the law and had thanked the two of them profusely. Tubbo had beamed, and said, "It's the least we could do after all the trouble we've put you through." Quackity had nodded, and said: "It never should have been a law in the first place."

Needless to say, George quite liked them.

Karl had decided to join the crew and George and he had spent hours catching up and talking about so many things.

Karl had been imprisoned since he was a teenager, and had been giving Schlatt his tears for many years. He'd started to get extremely weak, and had realised that his magic energy no longer worked. Ranboo had done some reading on it, somewhat following what Wilbur's role had been when he'd been on the ship, and had found that Karl just had to wait for it to recharge. It would take years, of course, but they had the time.

Despite the long time apart, Karl and George had managed to go right back to how they used to be. It was like nothing had changed, and all those years away from each other had been wiped clean.

George wasn't Karl's only friend though, as he realised within the past two weeks at sea, that the man had become fast friends with Sapnap.

George could only watch with a smile as the two became more and more like Dream and him.

Speaking of Dream-

"Heya George." a voice said from behind him, and George turned to see Dream standing there, smiling, no mask in sight.

After it had shattered to the floor those weeks ago, Dream had not commissioned to have one done. He was no longer a pirate, so hiding his identity was not an issue for him anymore. And with every passing day, he grew more and more comfortable with his scar.

George smiled warmly at the man as the blonde moved forward, kissing the brunette on the cheek.

Dream put his arm over the other's shoulder and pulled him close. George leaned his head against the man's chest as they stood in each other's embrace, looking out to sea.

Everything was just...so great.

Occasionally, they'd anchored the ship down and let George swim in the ocean in his merman form, which always refreshed him.

He'd even reunited with the pod of dolphins that had gotten him into that big mess and had watched with laughter when Niki the dolphin met Niki the human.

George chuckled slightly at the memory, and Dream looked down at him with a fond smile on his face.

"What are you laughing about?" the man questioned, and George shrugged slightly, or as well as he could with Dream's arms around him.

"Just thinking..." he murmured.

"Oh yeah? What about?"

George turned up to look at him, and he brought a hand to Dream's face as he leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss.

"Just about how perfect this is." George murmured, and Dream laughed, pulling him closer into a tight hug.

"My boyfriend is so sappy...who would have thought." Dream joked, and George beamed at him, butterflies fluttering through his chest at the words.

"Only for you." he promised, and Dream smiled, giving his forehead a kiss.

"Only for me." Dream echoed back, and George smiled, turning back to watch the horizon with Dream's arms looped around him.

He rested his head on Dream's chest and let out a content sigh.

The ocean was calm as it swayed as if it was glad that everything was okay again. George was happy, the ocean was happy, Dream was happy.

And that's more than anything he could ask for.

He didn't know what the future held. Despite being a merman with many magical qualities, foresight was not one of them. But he found himself not being scared anymore. No longer did he live in fear of the day ahead of him, worrying about if he would survive. Instead, he looked forward to it and instead focused on how he would live.

And he knew, with Dream by his side, that life would be good.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Hello friends!!! This chapter is early because I was just so eager to write it!! I cannot believe that this book is finally done.

It feels kind of surreal. I started this journey in late December, and here I am, nearly two months later, finishing it. I'm so happy that this book reached so many people, and I have loved interacting with each and every one of you.

Your comments, your likes, and your responses have made this so much better, and I cannot thank you enough for it.

Thank you so much to those who have been here from the start, to those who joined in when I'd already started, and to those who will read this book when it's complete. Your kind words and encouragement helped me write this, and without you, I don't know where this book would be.

Thank you.

I'm sad for this to end, but I'm happy to have written it. It's kind of bittersweet.

Look out for more books in the future. I might take a bit of a break to recharge before I make another book, but there will be one. This is the end of merman George and pirate Dream's story however, so say your final goodbyes.

There's a possibility of me writing another book in this universe about Technoblade's story, but I'm not sure when that will be out. I might work on a few different ones at a time, so come check in later and see if one of those is up.

Here we are friends. The end. See you later, and happy reading

-Bee

(21/2/21)

Co-posted on ao3