1000 Ships, 1000 oneshots, 1000 followers

*Ripnami

Riptide and Tsunami had been writing each other for months. Since the end of the war, really. They'd only had a brief moment after the chaos of it ending to take to each other in private, but it had been enough for them to agree to start talking more.

Riptide would be lying if he said Tsunami's letter weren't the best part of his life. He just wasn't sure what to do with himself anymore. The Talons of Peace didn't mean much anymore, and he still wasn't welcome in the Sea Kingdom. He had thought about reaching out to Webs, but it just didn't seem worth it. Webs didn't care about him, so why should Riptide care in return?

But he cared about Tsunami. He cared about her a lot more than either of them were willing to admit, but he knew that she knew that too. They didn't write each other every day, but the letters Riptide received were long enough that he knew she cared about him, at least a little bit. They hadn't seen each other in person in the months they'd been writing, but Tsunami promised that once the chaos of the school year was over, she'd visit.

Where they'd go, he had no idea. The Talons of Peace wasn't too keen on having a dragonet of destiny stop by, and Riptide wasn't sure Tsunami's sway as a princess would be enough to get him back into the Sea Kingdom. But he didn't really care where they ended up- as long as Tsunami was with him, he'd be happy.

But then she'd written him again, a short letter explaining that she and Turtle were going to the Lost Continent. Leaving immediately, in fact, but she'd taken the time to write a short note before they left.

Riptide was floored. He knew Tsunami was the adventurous type, but the Lost Continent was a myth! And yet she seemed sure enough to drop everything and head off into the ocean, even though she wasn't a big fan of there either.

He didn't know what to make of it. He wanted to fly right to JMA the second he read the letter, to beg her not to go or maybe to just go with her. Tsunami was always up for saving the world, and while Riptide was a bit more hesitant, he didn't want her to go somewhere neither of them knew anything about. He didn't want her to leave, especially not to some place where she could die and no one would know what happened.

It was terrifying to think about.

So he flew to JMA, but Tsunami and Turtle were already long gone. Sunny explained the situation to him- how there was a dragon from the Lost Continent here, and they had gone to explore. It still stung, for some reason, and Riptide couldn't help but worry. They were so far away... Anything could happen, and no one would be able to help. 

He wouldn't be able to help.

He stayed at JMA after that, awkwardly avoiding Webs as much as he could. It took Sunny three days to make him admit that he'd been writing Tsunami for months and that, yes, the more he thought about it, the more he realized he was, in fact, in love with her.

Sunny had screamed and approved wholeheartedly. Starflight and Clay were skeptical at first, but they remembered how he had helped them in the Sea Kingdom, and when Clay had been bitten by the viper, so they eventually accepted it. Glory had flipped a table, screamed "I KNEW IT!!!" and then promptly threatened to kill him if he hurt Tsunami in any way. From the fear on Deathbringer's face as she had warned him, Riptide knew she meant business.

And here he had thought that Tsunami and Glory hated each other.

He waited for weeks at JMA, growing more anxious for news each day, wondering if Tsunami was okay, and when she'd return. He grew a bit closer to the other Dragonets in that time, and they told him all the stories about Tsunami that she had failed to mention in her letters.

Somehow, the stories made him miss her even more.

But then, out of nowhere, she returned, with Turtle and an army of strange dragons behind her. Dragons had panicked, everyone was confused, and Riptide found himself shoving his way through crowds of green, leaf like dragons, searching for the one blue one that mattered.

"TSUNAMI!" She whipped around at the sound of her name. Riptide nearly wept at the sight of her, all his worrying for nothing. She was fine, she was smiling, she was running at him as fast as he was running to her, flying being impossible with so many dragons around.

She flung her tired wings around him as they hugged, and he never wanted to let go. 

"What are you doing here?" She asked, surprised, although she didn't look mad. Riptide opened his mouth to respond, but he couldn't think of any excuse. Why was he here?

He was there because her letters were the only thing he looked forward to. Because everyone else in his life had spit at him, but she had stuck around, even after finding out who her father was. Because she didn't care what Coral thought of him, or that he was in the Talons of Peace. He was there because he'd spent the last seven weeks waiting to here that she was fine and happy on her adventure. He was there because she was there, and that's exactly where he wanted to be.

But of course, his heart knew all of that and he couldn't translate it to words, so he blurted out the first thing he thought of, because he knew that if he didn't tell her, then Sunny or Clay would spill it the second they got the chance, and she'd never forgive him if she found out through somebody else.

"I love you." He declared. She went still, her talons still resting on his, a world full of dragons running wild with confusion around them. Dragons who were lost on this continent, dragons who would need her guidance because they were familiar with her. She had a job to do, and he'd interrupted it because he just couldn't hold the words in anymore and it didn't feel right to write them down and mail them to her.

Tsunami stared at him, and for a second, Riptide got the feeling that he'd gone about this horribly wrong. That every second they had spent together, every word he'd written, had been misinterpreted and she only saw him as a friend and he was the idiot for saying all of this.

But then she smiled at him.

"Hey," She started, her grin growing every second. "Sparkling teeth. I totally love three of your claws, but not the others, and I wish your nose was a herring so I could eat it." Riptide grinned back.

"And, also," He continued. "Your wings sound like sharks snoring." They burst out laughing and Tsunami pulled him closer.

"I love you too, Squid brain." She declared, kissing him.

And somewhere in that huge crowd of dragons, Sunny started fangirling.