Pov y/n

On Wednesday, Lizzie arrived and when I say Rose was happy to see her, that's definitely an understatement.

She was thrilled and instantly claimed Lizzie, which made all of us smile.

Rose's and Lizzie's bond really is adorable and I love seeing them together.

Lizzie stays in the guest bedroom and Rose absolutely loves it and instead of waking us up in the morning, she now wakes up Lizzie.

The good thing about Lizzie staying is also, that we don't have to wake Rose up that early and see where she will stay that day. Lizzie loves taking care of Rose and when I got home on Thursday, I found them in the treehouse, having a tea party with Rose's stuffed animals. They looked adorable and I had to take a picture.

That day, Scarlett and I spent a nice evening together since Rose was occupied and we talked about our days before starting to talk about diving. Scarlett remembered that she gifted me a diving trip to my birthday and that I never did it, at first because it was winter and too cold and then I kinda forgot.

So, she made a few calls and came back with a huge smile, telling me we can do it on Saturday. My excitement grew with every day and I couldn't sit still at work on Friday because my mind constantly went to the trip on Saturday.

Rose also was excited, even though Scarlett said it's not for sure that Rose will be allowed to dive in the ocean as well.

Well, for her it would also be more like snorkeling but still. She was okay with the 'maybe' she got and was excited to be on the boat with us then since she never was on the ocean with a boat. Lizzie also asked to come with us because she likes to be on boats.

On Friday, after dinner, Lizzie showes us the pictures from her wedding and I smile at the cute married couple. When she shows us the pictures of Scar, Rose and me, my heart melts a little because they are really cute and we all look so happy.

It also reminds me of how Rose asked me to marry her mom that day and how it'll be under 72 hours, until I plan on asking her.

Well, planning is maybe a little much said but I thought about proposing on the 31st of July because that's when we met.

I don't have anything further planned and maybe I'll chose a later date to plan it properly but still, it's not long anymore.

We laugh at the pictures Rose took, some of them just blurry and others from random things like the dessert but it's cute to see the wedding from a child's view. When we see Anthony posing in front of the cherry blossom tree, I laugh so hard that tears pool in my eyes. He really is a goofball and it looks hilarious how he poses in front of the light pink tree.

Rose tells us all about that moment and it's really cute. After some more pictures, we go to bed and I feel the excitement rushing through my body again.

Lizzie, Scar, Rose and I am sitting on a boat, looking onto the blue water ahead of us as the captain steers the boat.

All of us wear life jackets and especially Rose looks adorable in hers.

I know she has a bathing suit underneath her cloth and so do I.

The diving gear is stored in a box next to my diving partner because diving alone is way too dangerous. Scarlett has one arm securely wrapped around Rose, so she won't trip or fall off and with the other hand, she holds mine.

I am smiling as if I just won the lottery but I definitely feel as happy as that, my life long dream will come true, if we don't count that trip in Florida.

Lizzie sits on Rose's other side and has her eyes closed, feeling the wind on her face and smiling peacefully.

The ride to the diving spot is quite long, because we really want to be on the ocean and not in some bay. The waves luckily aren't high or wild today because otherwise it would have been a little dangerous. And to be honest, we couldn't have picked a better weather, it's a clear sky with the sun shining down on us and even though it's pretty warm, it's not burning hot and the water around us also cools the air.

When we finally arrive, I could jump off my seat in excitement but I wait until the boat is secured and my diving mate comes over and we have a short safety instruction. Then we put on our wetsuits and I can tell, that Scarlett gets a little bit nervous when she sees, it's one with short sleeves but we picked a safe spot, where no jellyfish should be.

Lizzie took Rose to the front of the ship, to look over the water while my diving mate gets the air tanks ready. I walk over to Scarlett and she smiles at me, letting her hands run down my shoulders and arms until she reaches my hands and takes them.

"Are you excited?" She asks softly, her eyes full of love and happiness.

"I am. Super duper excited even." I say and her smile widens and she kisses me softly.

"I am excited for you too." She says and wraps her arms around my waist, pulling me a little closer. I grin at her and rest my arms on her shoulders.

"And I was right."

I raise my eyebrows in question, not understanding what she's talking about.

"About you looking hot in a wetsuit." She adds and her eyes light up a little with mischief. I chuckle and kiss her softly.

"Well, thank you, my love. I'm glad you're getting something out of it as well." I snicker and wiggle my hips a little, making her hands drop to them and rest on my butt.

"I most certainly am." She smirks before kissing me again and lightly squeezing my butt. I chuckle into the kiss and kiss her cheek when we pull away.

"Your obsession with my butt is almost unhealthy." I laugh and she grins and shakes her head in delight.

"You're just jealous because you are just as obsessed with by breasts but can't touch them in public." She points out with a grin, making me laugh.

"Can't fight you on that." I giggle and give her another peck on the lips before turning to my diving mate and getting into the gear.

Lizzie and Rose also come back and Rose watches me with big eyes, even though she already saw me in diving gear a few times before her swim lessons.

I check if I can breathe through the mask and nod, it works perfectly. My mate also is done with all his checks and we put on our goggles and fins. Rose giggles a little.

"Mama looks a little like a penguin with those things on her feet." She says and I grin and look down on me, she might be right. Lizzie and Scarlett also seem amused.

"Be safe." Scarlett says softly and I give her a smile.

"Always." I assure her before dropping back into the water.

It feels incredibly nice to be in the water, also because it's warm today and the water is nice to cool down a little.

I turn to my diving mate and he gives me the ok to dive.

I look up at the boat to see the other three looking at me and Scarlett's eyes shine with so much love that it almost makes me dizzy.

After a last wave, I dive down and all the noise from above the water vanishes.

Around me there is just blue and when I look down, it becomes a darker blue, the ground not visible from up here but I know it's not too far down. My mate signals me to go deeper and I slowly dive deeper, the water becoming cooler but it's nice.

And the feeling of being in the open ocean, honestly is amazing and makes adrenaline rush through my whole body, but the good kind.

Of course, I am aware of the dangers out here but most of them aren't actually dangerous for people. Well, not on purpose at least.

Like, yeah, a sharks bite would really hurt and depending on how much that shark bites off, it can be threatening but they aren't interested in humans and after one bite, they will stop because we are not what they eat.

While diving down, I feel completely weightless and it feels a little like I am flying, indescribable free with endless options where to go. How could people not be fascinated by this?

Where else do you have the possibility to go in every direction you want?

On the ground you can't just decide to go into the streets or the dirt at the park and you also can't just take off and fly. But underwater, there is no wrong way because you can go anywhere you want.

I can't help it and spin slowly around myself, making me internally giggling. This is amazing and I never would have thought that I will be actually diving in the ocean one day.

I always hoped I would but really believing it was a different story.

Slowly but surely it gets darker around us but I also see the ground now and when I look up, I can see we dove quite deep but it's actually the perfect spot because on this depth, there seem to be more creatures.

A small swarm of fish swims past us and I turn around to watch them disappear into the blue again. Honestly, that already was amazing and totally worth it.

Another swarm follows but this one is bigger and I watch impressed as they swim past us, my body filled by a feeling that I can't quite describe but it's something between fascination, excitement and freedom.

Those fish here live so peacefully and it's literally so impressive how many fish there are and how less we know about some of them.

We slowly dive into the direction where the fish came from and see a few corals on the ground of the sea and decide to explore that a little further. The water pressure is clearly noticeable now but it doesn't hurt and since I know what it feels like, it doesn't frighten me.

Around the corals there are many tiny fish in almost every color and it is breathtaking to see this. It's incredible how nature can create something like this. Like, how are they able to be this colorful and beautiful?

It's literally magically.

I check my air tank and see that we used about half of the air already and signal that to my mate. He nods and we stay at the corals for a few more moments before slowly making our way back towards the boat.

We pass another swarm of fish and then I suddenly see a big creature and stop.

It's slow but majestic and my breath catches in my throat.

It's a sei whale.

It swims calmy beneath us and I can't take my eyes off this enormous creature.

Never in my life would I have to dared dream about seeing a whale in real life in the open sea. But here I am, watching a 15 meter whale swim beneath me.

My heart beats fast and I feel pure excitement rush through my body. I knew, there are whals in the sea and some of them also don't live far away from the coast but I never would have thought we would see one.

I almost hold my breath when I watch it disappear into the blue again, way too stunned to do anything else. But luckily, my mate reminds me that we have to go up again because no matter how beautiful this creature was, we don't have endless air supplies.

When we break through the surface again, I take the mask off me and push my goggles up, my breathing a little quicker from the diving and excitement. I swim to the ladder that leads up to the boat and when I come into sight, Scarlett jumps up from playing a card game with Lizzie and Rose and looks excitedly at me.

I feel like if I smile any wider, my lips wouldn't fit my face anymore. Scarlett smiles happily, looking over me to make sure I'm okay when I sit down on a bench on the side. My diving buddy sits down on the other side and also looks pretty happy with the trip we just had.

"That was the best thing I ever witnessed." I say honestly and Scarlett chuckles a little and sits down next to me, helping me to take off my gear.

"What did you see?" She asks and I need a few seconds to collect my thoughts.

"Well, first we saw a few fish swarms, then we found some corals on the ground with a bunch of different fish around them and it was so beautiful and I though we saw everything but then, you won't believe it, but we saw a whale. A sei whale to be exact and it was so majestic and huge, at least 15 meters." I ramble and Scarlett looks really impressed.

"How did it swim past you?" She asks and Rose's attention is now also pulled away from the cards game that Lizzie is packing away and the little girl comes to me, in her swimsuit now.

"It swam beneath us and it felt so surreal!" I tell them and Rose looks at me with big eyes.

"Did it try to eat you?" She asks and stands between my legs, her hands resting on my knees, looking up at me. I smile a little and shake my head.

"No, it was very peacefully swimming beneath us, it didn't even look at us." I explain and see my mate smiling before he makes his way over to the captain.

"Was it really that big?" She asks and I nod and ruffle her hair.

"It was around twelve times as big as you." I tell her and notice a small impressed side glance from Scarlett. Rose thinks about it and then looks at the water.

"Woah, that's a really big fish." She says and I nod in agreement.

"Will I also see one?" She asks excited and I smile softly but shake my head. I talked to Scarlett about snorkeling with Rose and she said it was okay, as long as I would say the waters are safe and they are, I saw nothing dangerous during our diving trip.

"I doubt that, sweetie, because most of the times, whales are a bit deeper in the water because that's where the fish are they eat." I explain and Rose nods but sighs a little.

I smile but am honestly a little relieved that we won't meet a whale because even though Rose may think it's cool now, I am not sure, how cool she will find it once she actually sees it and the difference to the aquarium is, that here is no glass between her and the creature. And if I am being honest, it would make me worry a little to see such a huge creature with Rose in the water, even though I know they don't harm humans but Rose has no clue about them and it just would make me nervous.

I look over to Scarlett, silently asking if I can take Rose snorkeling now and she nods.

"Alright, little dolphin, let's get you into the water." I say and Rose cheers.

I help her put on a wetsuit as well because I don't want her to freeze before putting on a life jacket again and this time I wear one as well.

We won't really be snorkeling under the surface, it'll be more like just looking down into the water because I don't want to risk anything and the waves here are stronger than at the beach or in a swimming pool, obviously.

Rose bounces around and excitedly puts on her mask and snorkel. I am first to go into water and it just feels familiar by now.

Rose looks between the boat and the water before looking at me. The boat isn't very high above the water and I can tell she is thinking about jumping in.

I look around where I am and there is nothing she could get hurt by, so I reach out my arms for her, showing her I will make sure she won't sink, which is more like a symbol because of the life jacket thing but still.

Scarlett nods to Rose, allowing her to jump and Rose stands at the edge of the boat and looks at me, before holding her nose closed and jumping into the water with a squeal. It splashes and I am quick to pull her into my arms. She giggles happily.

Pov Scarlett

I smile down at my two girls in the water and watch how y/n explains Rose what to take care of.

They put on their goggle-masks and y/n makes sure Rose's snorkel sits right before they dip their heads underwater. It looks adorable.

I usually like swimming but the thought of being in the ocean, the ground not nearly visible and now knowing that there might be a whale down there, is quite scary to me.

The more I am proud of Rose for being so fearless and joining y/n.

Even though I don't really have anything of this trip, it still makes me incredibly happy to see y/n enjoying herself so much and finally living her dream.

A nudge from Lizzie pulls me out of my thoughts and I smile at her. She has a soft smile on her face.

"You know, you two could get married right away because the way you look at each other makes it pretty obvious, that you love each other endlessly." She says and I grin a little, looking from her down to the two snorkelers.

"I really do love her, more than I have ever loved anyone else." I say and Lizzie's eyes sparkle at my words, truly happy for me.

"She just makes me so happy and whenever I hear her laugh, I get butterflies in my stomach and can't help it but to be happy." I admit and Lizzie puts her arm around my shoulders.

"You're totally whipped for her, just as you should." She smiles and I lean against her a little.

"Yeah, I am."

"How's the ring shopping going? You didn't update me after last time." Lizzie asks, keeping an eye out for y/n, to make sure she doesn't hear us.

I grin and feel exciting pulsing through my body at that memory. I started ring shopping a little while back but wasn't successful so far and pretty much discussed every option with Lizzie but it never seemed right.

"I actually found one." I tell her excitedly. Her eyes grow big.

"Show me, show me now." She demands and I smirk a little and get out my phone, scrolling through my gallery, which contains mostly out of pictures of Rose and y/n. I open the picture with the ring and Lizzie's eyes light up.

"That is definitely the one." She agrees and I smile even wider at her confirmation.

"It's perfect, it has a purple stone, her favorite color, and isn't too flashy because I know she wouldn't like that. For her easier is better. It wasn't cheap but also not overly expensive for an engagement ring, so she doesn't have to feel bad about it." I tell Lizzie, taking in consideration that y/n would hate seeing me spend too much money on the ring. Lizzie nods and looks at the picture again.

"She's going to love it!" She agrees and I nod happily before putting my phone away again.

"And about the proposal?" She asks and I get even more excited but also nervous because it's not long until then anymore.

"I planned everything and if the weather won't betray us, it'll be just perfect. You still are able to watch Rose on Monday?" I make sure and Lizzie nods, padding my shoulder.

"Don't worry, you have my full support on this and I would do anything to make this happen." She assures me and I smile thankfully at her, she really is an amazing best friend.

"Do I get some more information though about what's planned?" She asks and I glance to y/n and Rose who are still occupied snorkeling before I nod.

"I decided to..."

Pov y/n

When Rose and I get out of the water again, she has the widest smile on her face and can't stop rambling to Scarlett about the snorkeling.

We only saw a few small fish but it was enough for Rose to be extremely excited and sometimes I think, that even though I'm not her biological mother, she has 'inherited' some of my characteristics and I love it.

Lizzie wraps a towel around Rose while Scarlett wraps me in one and kisses my lips.

"Salty." She observes and I laugh and nod.

"I would be worried if not." I say and she playfully nudges my shoulder before pulling the towel a little tighter around me and taking off my snorkeling mask.

We sit down and watch Rose telling Lizzie everything while leaning against her and the sight makes me happy.

I look over to Scarlett to find her looking at me, with an endearing expression.

She wraps her arm around my shoulders and I lean my head against her shoulder, watching Lizzie and Rose and the water behind them as we make our way back to the coast.

Scarlett kisses the top of my head.

"Happy birthday, I guess." She chuckles and I grin up at her and kiss the underside of her jaw in return.