Begin!

~Fiona's POV

I eagerly ran into Quigley's room to wake him up and tell him the good news. My stepfather is always up bright and early so I've learned to be the same way over time. Quigley however, has to be woken up most days by either me or Mari. He's happier when it's me though because Mari likes to pour water on his head to wake him up.

"Quigley! Quigley wake up!"

He rolled over and pushed his hair out of his eyes to stare up at me with confusion. "What is it?"

"We're getting a little shore leave!"

"What's shore leave?"

I rolled my eyes. "It means we get to leave the submarine for a while, silly! Now hurry up and get dressed. We're almost there already!" I also added that he could wear something casual instead of his uniform because we'd be leaving soon.

He smiled and got out of bed as I quickly left the room so he could change and so I could gather my things for our short trip. Once Quigley was dressed, he joined me in the library where I was picking out a couple books to take with me.

"So where are we going," Quigley asked rubbing his eyes.

"Every once in a while, the Queequeg stops for maintenance on a V.F.D. owned island far off the coast. It's normally a training facility for new volunteers so there are a lot of people our age around. But it's really nice resort too. My stepfather says he has a meeting with another volunteer named Gustav so he's letting us have a few days at the resort while he works. Mari was trained there, so she knows the place too."

"So they don't train people at the Mortmain Mountains headquarters? Jacques never took me there."

I laughed, "We wouldn't be a very smart organization if we only trained people in one place! I've been to the headquarters a few times; it's mostly a base of operations. We train volunteers wherever we can."

Quigley nodded. "Understandable, so who's Gustav?"

"Gustav Sebald is Dr. Montgomery's assistant," I explained, "He's friends with Jacqueline, the heiress to the Duchess of Winnipeg."

He smiled, "Well I'd love it if you could show me around when we get there."

"I'd be happy to," I replied smiling back at him.

"Get a room."

"Oh my god Mari," I replied looking at the doorway at my friend who was smirking at us. "Leave us alone!"

Mari chuckled evilly, "Whatever you say, boss."

Quigley seemed to find her comment amusing because he was clearly trying not to laugh.

"I don't like him that way. I've been repeating it to myself in my head for just over 2 months now and I have to say... it's working very slowly."

~...

We left the Queequeg parked in the docks with a few other V.F.D. submarines and boats and Quigley followed me as I showed him around the area. Once my stepfather found us the rooms we were going to stay in, we ended up finding Gustav waiting for us in the resort.

He walked first to Quigley and handed him a bag, explaining that it was a gift from Jacques in case Quigley needed some extra clothes.

"Oh well thank you," Quigley replied, "Tell Jacques I said thank you too when you see him again."

Gustav nodded, "You're welcome. It's nice to know he cares about you. Now if you kids will excuse us, the captain and I have some urgent matters to discuss."

"Aye, that we do," My stepfather replied. "Fiona, make sure Quigley stays out of trouble."

I grabbed Quigley's arm and pulled him away as the two started talking business and recent events in the organization.

"What was that about? Gustav looked grim... like somebody just died."

"His telegram said somebody did, unfortunately; but it didn't have many details. I assume he wanted to talk about it in person. We've lost a lot of good people recently. But we're still in training, or at least I am, so we can't be too involved yet."

"I guess adults always have those kinds of conversations, huh?"

I nodded. "That's right, and it won't stop anytime soon. But for now it's best to focus on staying out of trouble."

~Quigley's POV

It's nice to be out of the submarine for a couple days. Fiona wasn't kidding when she said this place was nice. There's a ton of kid volunteers here as well, and a few of them even recognized me because I look like my brother and sister. (Guess they read the newspapers about what happened.) I was sitting in my hotel room reading a book that I had been lent from the local library.

Knock knock

That is until I was interrupted by someone at my door. I was prepared to get annoyed at whoever it was for interrupting my reading but when I opened my door all the words I had planned left me.

There are some things in this world that you can't help staring at for a while. And the sight of Fiona standing before me in a simple, short, but also elegant, strapped dark red dress was one of them.

"Quigley?"

I blinked and snapped out of my trance and smiled back at her. "What's the occasion?"

"No occasion," She replied, "There's a place downstairs that's a sort of club area for people who aren't old enough to drink and I wanted to know if you'd come with me."

"You don't seem the type."

"Alright if you don't want to come that's fine too. It'll be lonely without someone to talk to though..." She smirked and turned to leave but I quickly called out to her.

"Wait! I didn't say no! Uh, just give me a minute to get ready first."

She was still smirking at me as she replied, "You'd better not hesitate then."

I closed the door and went over to the bag that Gustav had given me. He said it was from Jacques so maybe there's something in here that's semi-formal enough for where we're going. After all, she got all dressed up like that for me... it'd be rude to not return the favor. I searched through it for a minute before finding a note on top of a specific set of clothes.

Gustav told me where you'd be; you'll need this to get into the club. I hope they fit.

-Jacques

I smiled. Thank you Jacques!

The outfit he gave me was a black jacket, with a white button-up shirt, and some black pants. I already know I look good, but I looked even better wearing it.

"And Duncan thinks he's the better looking one. Yeah right..."

After making a short attempt to tame my hair, I eventually gave up, I opened the door and found Fiona waiting patiently in the hall for me. She smiled at me, I wonder if she liked my outfit because she didn't comment, and we walked off to wherever it was we were spending our evening.

As it turned out there was a reason why we had to dress up: the place was black-tie required. I guess it's because we're all made up of kids from wealthy families so it's expected. The place was already full of other people, ranging around our ages. I asked if it was alright to wander and Fiona didn't mind. It's not like we were technically here together. I watched her leave and get a drink as I walked around the place.

I was approached by a few people who recognized my face once more and they asked me a couple questions about my family. The thing is... the people who approached me were mostly girls. They're very pretty, and I can tell they think I'm something to look at too. But I couldn't take up their eventual offers for a date. Once I rejected them, I gladly went to join Fiona at the bar where she was drinking root beer. She pushed her glasses up her nose and glanced warily at the girls I had just been talking to, who were now looking at her with jealousy.

"The view here is quite interesting," She said after a moment.

I glanced at the girls, understanding what she meant, but then I looked at her once more and smiled.

"Perhaps... but I like the view in front of me much better."

Good, that made her smile, I love her smile; she also blushed a shade darker than her dress color. "You're lucky we're alone or else you'd get in trouble for saying that..."

I shrugged and ordered a root beer for myself. "I don't mind getting in a little trouble every now and then."

"You're a real piece of work aren't you, Quiggles?"

"Don't call me that in public," I said hurriedly.

Honestly, it's a dumb name but I kind of like it. But only if she says it! If anybody else called me that I'd punch them... And I'll never tell her I like it either. That'd be a disaster.

Fiona laughed at me trying to shut her up, "Ok I won't do it in public, but to be fair nobody heard me."

I sighed in relief, "Thanks, doll."

She doesn't seem to mind when I call her that. We drank our root beer and talked about various things for the rest of the time while other people partied around us. She explained that she comes here because of her limited shore leave. She doesn't care much for parties, but she likes to "get out of the house" so to speak. I'm more extroverted than her though so I like both sides. But sitting with her and talking, rather than meeting other people, is a much better way to spend my evening than reading a book. (I can always get back to it later anyway...) She even told me she has an older brother that doesn't live with them anymore, and in return I told her about my siblings that I miss as well, technically I'm the middle child though.

After what appeared to be an hour of talking, Fiona asked if we could step outside to finally get away from the girls who had still been giving her nasty looks behind my back. I agreed, since I wanted to prove to them I wasn't interested, and she happily took my arm and led me outside onto the balcony; the place was on the second floor of the resort.

"That's much better," She said leaning against the railing. "I'm not used to having girls be jealous of me. I'm not sure why they are though."

"They're just bitches," I replied, she doesn't care about swearing since she was allowed to do it herself. "They're not worth paying any mind."

"Have you ever dated a girl who acted like them?"

"Yes and I regretted it," I said. "I've been with a lot of girls since I started dating, and those kinds are the worst. I've been trying to change though."

She raised a brow at me so I continued.

"I want to find a special girl," I explained, "Someone intelligent... fun... likes to read... someone who laughs at my jokes even if they're dumb... someone just perfect."

"You'll have a very difficult search then," Fiona replied, "Nobody's perfect."

I smiled, "Doesn't mean I can't still look."

She smiled at that and we fell in a short, but comfortable silence staring out at the view of the ocean from our location. The sun had gone down long ago and the moon was out.

"I like coming out here whenever we stay. The view out here is lovely, isn't it?"

"Very lovely indeed."

I wasn't looking at the view. And she soon realized that and even in the dark I could tell she was blushing again.

She looked at me after a minute and smiled softly. "Me?"

"Yeah... you. Fiona, I think you're lovely. And nothing would make me happier than for us to be together." I reached over and grabbed her hand gently.

Her smile faltered slightly. "And why would you want me? You could have any girl you wanted. Or am I just another number to you?"

"You're not just another number to me," I replied, sincerely.

I wasn't shocked that she would assume such a thing. With the way I act it's to be expected that she would jump to that conclusion. But rather than press me further on the matter she laced our fingers together and gripped my hand tightly as her smile returned.

That was the night we had our first kiss. And it began the start of our 8 month official relationship.

~End of Chapter!

See you in the next part! Yay for actual romance this time!