Lost to the wind

[Serpentis]

They got their rooms rather fast, could be because they were one of the few guests at the resort at that time. But, each crew got a room of their own, all next to each other. Each room had a porch, which could be opened up to the neighbors. Sergei decided to choose his room at the end of the line, so that the others could interact more freely, also so he wouldn’t have all the crew on his porch all the time. Of course, Karl ended up on the far side of the line, while Sergei had Alice as a neighbor. Most of them had no swimwear or such, but the resort had plenty to sell. And not only that, there were shops for all their needs and more even if the others weren’t enough.
After settling in, Sergei decided to wind down on his porch with a book and a drink, some fancy rum and some sweet soda. They had a bar both by the pools and down by the beach, not to mention the large one by one of the restaurants inside of the resort itself. But, they also had access to a large fridge that was refilled each morning with plenty of alcohol.
Sergei managed to relax, for the first time in a while. The view from his room was a beautiful one, looking over the pools in the center section of the resort. And in the distance, the black sand beaches and the ocean spread across the horizon. There were these ships on the water, yacht’s and smaller ones built for speed.
His room was larger than he was used to, two rooms. A large bedroom with a queen sized bed, it had the view out towards the ocean directly in front of you when you sat up in bed. Sergei couldn’t remember the last time he slept on such a large bed. Must’ve been back in the Coalition maybe? There was also a huge bathroom, with a f*cking jacuzzi in it. Marble floor and white cabinets, they had spared no expenses in making these rooms as luxurious as possible. Not that strange since the cost of getting these rooms were insane, for ‘regular’ people that is. There was, as hinted, a large kitchen as well. With a normal and alcohol fridge, the normal one had some normal items, bread, butter, cheese, some vegetables and assorted mix of things one might need. It even had one of those fancy coffee machines that were in the wall. Then the living room, a large corner sofa in white leather, real leather as well guessed Sergei. There was a TV, almost the size of the damn wall. Along with some chairs and a sofa table and a dinner table near the kitchen. These rooms were obviously made for couples and not lonely single starship captain smugglers. That’s a sentence.

As he finished reading the first chapter in his book, a fantasy novel, from some guy in Liberty. It wasn’t half bad and Sergei did find a certain appeal. Must’ve been his inner child that came out. Nostalgia they call it. He put the book down and got up to look out over the resort, seeing a few of the crew and a bunch of other visitors down by the pool. A door opened to his right and Alice walked out onto her porch. Sergei was a bit surprised to be honest, Alice had an amazing body, not an ounce of fat and she had muscles, where the hell did she hide that? He tried not to stare and switched to look out onto the resort again.

“Great view, right captain?” Alice asked as she drank from her own drink, a pink cocktail of some kind. She glanced over at him with a smile.
Sergei chuckled.
“Yeah, it’s gorgeous. I haven't seen anything like it. At least what I can remember.” He glanced at Alice again, she was sipping with a straw from her drink.
He then saw beyond Alice on the next porch, Jurgen that was waving at the two.
“Heya Alice and Captain.” He had a beer in his hand and what seemed to be some sort of tablet in his other hand.
“Heya Jurgen.” Sergei smiled and nodded at him.
“Having fun?” He asked, then looked out over the resort again.
Jurgen chuckled and drank some beer, then put it down on the nearby table.
“Oh yeah, had a blast at the pools earlier, but got a bit tired, decided to chill here.” He said as he checked the tablet in his hands, which was making weird noises, pings and dings.
“What’s making that noise, Jurgen?” Alice asked with a quirked eyebrow.
Jurgen just grinned.
“It’s a game I found while on Lindwyrm, some sort of platformer I think it’s called. It’s supposedly an old kind of game category. It’s really fun.”
And there it was, another evidence of his innocence, Sergei sighed, but smiled anyway. He was gonna have to learn with time.
Alice just snickered.
“That’s good.” She nodded and continued to sip her drink, looking out just like Sergei. Who at this time had sat down next to the forward railing, he lit up a cigarillo and took a few deep drags from it, letting out vanilla fragrant smoke. He picked them up from one of the shops, along with a few extremely expensive cigars, but those were for later.
Then Alice put some music on from her own tablet. Some sort of synthwave, he recognized the beat and it was quite good. He had not anticipated that she was into this kind of music, maybe pop, or even rock. But who was he to judge, he enjoyed old style metal, the really loud ones. He chuckled to himself while thinking back on how he used to hang outside a music bar back on Leeds, where there were live bands every now and then. There was this Molly metal band, he couldn’t recall the name, but he had one of their songs in his head now.
There they sat, quietly enjoying their time as the sun set slowly and the hot temperature cooled, with a warm breeze flowing over their porches. The pings and dings had stopped, Jurgen muted it as soon as Alice began to play music again. From beyond Jurgen, the others had returned to their rooms and were beginning to gather at Klaus’s porch as it was in the middle. Jurgen saw it and put his tablet back and headed over to the others. Alice looked after Jurgen and then looked at Sergei.
“Feeling social, captain?” She asked with a smile
Sergei shook his head.
“Not tonight, I think I just want to chill with music, book and alcohol.” he shrugged and lifted a smaller tablet with his books on it.
“And don’t forget the cigarillos, captain.” She winked at him, who chuckled and nodded.
“I’ll go hang with the others, see you later captain.” And she left and headed towards the others.
Sergei could not help but watch her walk away from him, wearing a bathing suit and a really light see through kimono over her shoulders, that flowed over her back. He did not mind that view at all, but he turned back to his tablet and continued to read by the light of the room behind him.
He had been a bit tipsy when he decided to head to bed for the night. He had heard the crew having fun the entire evening. He had a look over there once or twice, he saw them all save Karl, who Sergei didn’t expect to be there either.

The morning after he joined the others at breakfast in the nearby restaurant, most of which looked like they had a lovely hangover, all except maybe Klaus and Morgan, they were a bit heftier than the other three. Not long after the others sat down came Karl and sat down as well. They had a nice chat, the others were gonna go snorkelling in the nearby reefs, they were gonna hire a boat to take them. Surprisingly, Karl wanted to tag along. Sergei wasn't that interested, instead telling them he’d see them later when they got back.

Sergei decided instead to hang by the pool bar and drink and read, that counts as being social, right? He thought to himself. There were a few others at the bar and in the pools, but most seemed to just be families or couples. Sergei didn’t really mind, he was never much for random socializing after all.

After grabbing a quick bite at the bar, a nice burger. He headed back to his room, it was around three when he decided a nap was good. As he walked into his room, he heard some old jazz music from the outside, very close nearby. Thinking Alice had returned he walked out on the porch, but the music came from the left, from the next door porch. Which yesterday had been vacant. As he walked out on the porch he looked over at where the music was coming from. There in a sunchair lay a beautiful blonde woman, maybe in her late thirties, she had a very revealing bathing suit on, but some linen coverup fabric around her shoulders and around her waist. She looked over at Sergei as he looked over at her, she smiled and then clicked off the music with a remote next to her.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you, sir.” She said with a smooth confident voice. For a moment, he thought he had heard that voice before, but he couldn’t place it. He thought it might be a Libertonian accent that he recognized.
“Oh, no, it’s fine. I actually enjoy Jazz, well. In smaller doses.” He said with a chuckle, he nodded at her.
“Did you just get the room, miss?” He asked, leaning against the railing, turning towards her. He noticed she had a tattoo on her left arm. He couldn’t get a good look at it though.
“Oh, yeah, I got here a few hours ago.” She grabbed a glass from the table next to her, drinking something clear and with bubbles, most likely some kind of champagne or sparkling wine.
“Alone?” Sergei asked, then realizing how creepy it might have sounded.
“Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask.” he chuckled and so did she as she waved a hand dismissing the awkward question.
“Yes, I came alone. I realized I had not had much time for myself lately, work work work, you know.” She smiled and sipped her wine.
“Oh yeah, work. The thing one needs to do to survive and all that.” Sergei smiled.
She giggled, which made him smile even wider, he liked her.
“Yeah, the thing.” She tilted her head at him as she observed him.
“You’re quite handsome.” And then smiled at him.
Sergei, not used to getting any sort of compliments, especially not from women, froze, then just barked a short laugh. Which made the woman look confused and tilted her head to the other side.
“Did I say something funny?” She asked, sitting up in her chair, looking as if she had done something wrong. Sergei shook his head and waved a hand.
“No no, miss. It’s just that I almost never get a compliment. Sorry, didn’t mean to laugh.” he sighed.
“I’m sorry.” he said eventually again. And she got up to walk to the railing, offering a slender fair skinned hand at him.
“Lina.” And smiled at him. Who turned and took her hand in his and shook it. He felt that she had some strength in that handshake, surprisingly so. Immediately, Sergei thought she might be military. He then, without making it obvious, took a closer look at her body, arms and legs. Sure as hell, she had some impressive lean physique, finely toned muscles, hiding below a beautifully slender outside.
“Sergei.” he said with a smile.
“Pleasure, Sergei. Want to join me for some wine?” she asked as she opened the door between their porches.
At first, he was hesitant, but then just shrugged. “F*ck it.” he thought and joined her.

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