[she listens, though, just like he always listens to her. she tries very, very hard to take in every word, every feeling, and when he ends it with sorry, it's stupid, she punches him in the arm.]

Shut up, it isn't.

[... i wanna go home, he said. her heart aches. she wants him to go home, too. she wants him to have what she can't.]

... They noticed. Ace, obviously they noticed. They were coming for you, they love you, and if they didn't find you -- [a pause. that's not worth getting into, she thinks, it's - what ifs, like he said. so she changes tracks.] You're not dead now.

[she thinks about how weeks ago, nico talked to her about this. about how changing your ending is always possible, and how it doesn't have to be what you thought it was going to be, especially when people love you. nimona isn't sure she has a future past this, but ace does. ace will. ace deserves to go home, to the ocean he loves, to his brother, to a life cut short. the guilt and embarrassment makes her grab his face and thonk their foreheads together.]

You can write your ending however you want it to go. So if you wanna go home - you should go home. If you wanna live, you should live. Your after is whatever you want it to be, even if that's scary as hell. You won't know what happened unless you go find out, right? So go find out, you dumb pirate, take what you want. Start thinking about it.