The Otohime's Revenge
Part Seven
"Young man, I don't care who you are. If you don't stay in bed, I will personally break one of your legs to keep you there."
That was a dire thing to wake up to, Saeki decided, thoughts muzzy and confused.
"You know, Captain, if you don't like having a cabin all to yourself, you can trade spots with me."
"Shut up, Sengoku."
And that was reassuringly normal. Saeki pried gummy eyelids open, and stared dizzily at an unfamiliar set of timbers. After a moment, he decided that he could probably manage speaking. "Who hates me so much that I'm rooming with Sengoku?" he asked. "Or is this just hell?"
Whatever he was laying on dipped under additional weight, and Yuuta's face came into view. He had a plaster running across one cheek, and bruises darkening his eye. "Look who's awake," he said.
Saeki decided that Yuuta's grin didn't do much to disguise the worry in his eyes. "Hey," he whispered, and decided that if he was hurting this much, he probably wasn't dead. "...glad you're not dead."
Yuuta's fingers circled around his. "Yeah. Me too."
"If you're not going to move Sengoku, move me? So I don't drown in the sap?" came a querulous whine.
"Shut up, Bane," Davide's voice growled.
Saeki huffed at that, eyes getting heavy again. He struggled to keep them open. "So tired."
"So rest," Yuuta told him, squeezing his fingers. "Rest and get better."
"Aye, Captain," he said, and drifted back to sleep against the sounds of Bane and Sengoku bickering.
He woke again while someone was changing his bandages, to a dull pain that throbbed in time to his heartbeat. "Nngh."
"Awake again, are you?" Kind eyes in a vaguely familiar face looked down at him. "How are you feeling?"
"Hurts," he said, and winced at the tug of a bandage pulling tight.
"Wounds tend to do that," the man—no, doctor, the Dragonfly's doctor, that's right—said. "It's good. Shows you're healing."
"Nn." Saeki was silent, until Whatsisname finished the bandages. "Thirsty, too," he volunteered.
"Are you?" Whatsisname smiled. "That's good. I'll be back."
"How come you're so much nicer to him than the rest of us, Doc?" Sengoku asked.
"It's because he hasn't given me nearly as much trouble as the rest of you have." Whatsisname returned, and slid a hand under Saeki's head to help him drink. His shoulder protested the movement; Saeki ignored it. "Not so fast, now," the doctor murmured.
Saeki sighed as the cup went away and Whatsisname eased him back down. Everything throbbed with pain. "Thanks."
"Mm. Rest some more, if you can."
Saeki didn't think that was likely, with the ragged edge of pain crawling over his nerves, but it began to ease off and his thoughts started to fragment. The last thing he remembered thinking before sleep claimed him again was that there must have been something in the water.
Yuuta's fingers were in his hair when he woke again, although he was carrying on a spirited debate with Sengoku. "And I said it was going to be three months of double pay, not six."
"Think of it as severance pay." Sengoku's voice was wheedling. "Since we don't exactly have a ship any more."
Ah. There was that question answered.
Saeki watched Yuuta's mouth tighten. "The bonus for taking the Rose is severance pay."
"Well, what about the bonus for taking Yukimura?"
"That's mine, so keep your paws off it," Saeki announced.
There was a brief, startled silence. Yuuta looked down at him, mouth easing somewhat. "Didn't realize you were awake."
"Mm. I am." Saeki sighed as Yuuta's fingers stroked his forehead.
"Wonderful for you. Getting back to the subject of bonuses—"
"I shot Yukimura fair and square," Saeki interrupted Sengoku.
Yuuta snorted. "I'll settle up with you later," he promised.
There was an injured huff. "Well, damn."
"Better luck next time, Sengoku," Davide drawled, sounding amused.
"Fuck, do I look crazy? I know when not to tempt the lucky," Sengoku said. "It's time I called it quits and opened up that tavern I've been meaning to. My severance pay should cover the cost of it nicely."
"And again I ask—what severance pay?"
Saeki listened to them wrangling, drifting in the fog of drugs that were keeping the pain of his wounds at bay, and the pleasant feeling of Yuuta's fingers stroking his hair. Later, he'd have to ask who hadn't been lucky, and what had happened to the Rose, and what happened next, now that the Heron was gone.
Later.
Whatsisname turned out to be called Oishi, and was by turns kind and briskly gruff. The gruffness came out most clearly with his other patients, and he took to chasing the liveliest of them out of the cabin at every opportunity, saying that the exercise would do them good. As he spent less time sleeping, Saeki privately decided that it did Oishi good not to have Sengoku heckling him, and Bane bickering with him. He sympathized completely.
It was the four of them in a cabin—an officer's cabin, by the looks of it. When he asked, Davide confirmed that it was the first mate's cabin.
"And why are we in it?" Saeki asked, peering across the way at him.
Davide shrugged. "Doc said he wanted the worst injured of his patients in one place." He patted the bandage on his leg, absently. "Said it made taking care of us easier."
Bane snorted. "You mean that he wanted us nearby so he wouldn't have to get too far from Sae," he corrected Davide.
"Whatever."
Saeki chewed on his lip, and tried to ask the question he'd been worrying over. "How many—" he started, and then stopped and tried again. "Who—"
Davide took pity on him. "Us, of course. The captain, although it was a near thing getting him to give it up and go."
"Shishido," Bane added. "He got Momo and Ohtori out of there, too."
"Nomura," Davide added, "Ishida, and Mori."
Eleven, of a crew of nearly twenty. "Ah," Saeki said.
Davide and Bane didn't say anything until Saeki cleared his throat and asked the next question. "What happened?"
"Guess you were too busy bleeding to see, huh?" Davide asked.
"I must have been," Saeki agreed. "Suppose you tell me what I missed?"
"Not all that much," Bane told him. "We managed to keep the Rose busy until reinforcements showed up." He made a face. "Fuji was a little late, but the Polaris was just in time."
Saeki blinked. "The Polaris?" He was pretty sure that hadn't figured into Yuuta's plans.
"Tezuka's ship, yeah." Bane grinned. "Fuji must have called in some favors, or maybe the commodore just wanted a shot at getting even with Yukimura."
"He kept the Rose busy, and the Dragonfly got us the hell off the Heron." Davide sighed. "And then they pounded the living hell out of the Rose... And that was that."
"Any survivors?" Saeki asked.
Davide's smile was thin. "We didn't take prisoners."
"Good." Saeki studied the timbers above his borrowed bunk. There had to be more to the story than that, he thought, things that Bane and Davide weren't saying. That was fine. He'd get the rest of the story from Yuuta, later.
Bane hauled himself to his feet with a grunt. "I'm going to get some air," he announced.
"Lucky bastard," Davide told him, making a face. Bane laughed at him and limped out.
Saeki was trying to find a more comfortable position when Davide spoke up. "Captain just about lost his shit when he saw you go down," he said, voice quiet. "Went completely nuts."
Saeki stopped, mid-wriggle. "He did?" Maybe he wouldn't have to ask Yuuta for more details after all. "What happened?"
Davide told him the rest of the story: how Yuuta had gone berserk, fighting like a madman, and how he'd refused to leave the ship until Bane had gone up to the quarterdeck to haul Saeki down. "Not," Davide said, "that we thought there was a reason to, but if it got him to see reason..." He shrugged.
"How lucky for me," Saeki murmured. "...Bane? Really?"
"Yeah, really. How do you think he got those cracked ribs?" Davide paused. "It was him and Akutsu, actually. Akutsu held the deck for him, and wouldn't go with the rest of us." He studied his fingers. "Always knew he'd go out in a fight."
Saeki blew out a breath. "...damn," he said.
"Yeah," Davide said, and went quiet for a moment. "And the captain was the one who told Fuji to open fire on the Heron, once we were clear of her."
Saeki closed his eyes, wondering how much it had cost Yuuta to do that to the ship he'd loved. "I see."
"Yeah. She was a good ship," Davide murmured.
They fell quiet again, until Saeki asked, "So what happens now?"
Davide's chuckle was rusty. "Wish I knew."
Evidently, Davide didn't like uncertainty. "So, Captain, what're we going to do next?" he asked the next time Yuuta came in to visit. Yuuta didn't respond as he dragged a chair over to Saeki's bunk, so Davide pressed on. "Get a new ship, right? A better one—not that the Heron wasn't a damn good ship—and kick some more pirate ass? Sounds good, eh, Captain?"
"Shut up, Davide." Yuuta looked tired. "You don't have to call me 'Captain' any more, either. I don't have a ship, and Shuusuke's loaning me the money to settle up with all of you, so for now, I'm just another sailor."
Davide didn't pause. "All right, so you've got some debt to pay off first. We'll—"
Saeki was in a better position to see the look on Yuuta's face. "Shut up, Davide," he said himself, cutting off whatever scheme Davide had to propose.
Yuuta smiled a little at that, but it never reached his eyes. "We'll be making port in a few days. I'll settle up with everyone then, and you'll be free to sign with another ship. Shuusuke says he'll take all of you, if you want to sign on with him. That's what I'd do, if I were you."
"What are you doing?" Saeki asked.
"I don't get a choice." Yuuta shrugged, picking at a seam on his coat. "Shuusuke has decided that since it's been a while, I have to go home and visit Mother. He's putting me on the first ship going that direction that he can find."
"Huh. Really?" Davide asked.
"Not much point in keeping it a secret, is there?" Yuuta asked, shrugging. "He says he'll tie me up and have me carried on board if he has to." He laughed, short and forced. "So anyway. Sign on with Shuusuke. As long as you're not his brother, he'll do well by you."
"Even for a guy with a bad leg?" Davide asked, grinning.
"Oishi keeps telling you that you'll be good as new," Saeki told him. So that was it? Sign on with Fuji, now that they'd done what they'd set out to do?
"And Shuusuke says that any man who I thought was good enough for my crew is more than good enough for him," Yuuta said. "He'll have you, bad leg and all."
Davide sucked in a breath through his teeth. "I'd rather sail with you, Yuuta."
Yuuta spread his hands. "If I had a ship..." He shrugged, and let them drop again. "But I don't, and that changes everything."
Everything, huh? Saeki bit the inside of his cheek.
Davide grunted. "If you ever make it to sea again, look me up."
"Of course I will." Yuuta crossed his arms. "There you have it. That's what happens next."
"Hm." Davide went quiet, but his silence had a thoughtful tone to it. "Is your brother going to spring for two berths on that ship, or is he going to make Sae pay his own way?"
"Say what?" Yuuta stared at Davide.
"Well, he's no fit sailor in his condition," Davide observed. "It'll be months before Sae's well enough for duty again, and Fuji can't be generous enough to haul him around until he is."
Yuuta scowled. "That may be, but I can't ask him to go haring off across the ocean with me."
"...why not?" Saeki asked, since it was no good letting them talk over him like he wasn't even there.
"Yeah, why not?" Davide was obviously enjoying himself entirely too much for Saeki's comfort. "Sounds like he wants to be asked to me."
Yuuta looked at Saeki, eyes searching. "I don't know when I'll get back to sailing," he said. "If I'll get back to sailing."
"So?" Saeki retorted.
"Sailing's in your blood," Yuuta said. "You love the ocean."
Saeki felt his mouth curling. "No," he murmured. "Not the ocean."
It took a moment, but this time, Yuuta's tiny smile made it to his eyes. "I see." He paused. "You want to come with me?"
"Yeah," Saeki said. "I do."
Once the Dragonfly made port, Fuji lost no time in finding them passage on another ship. Yuuta came below the very same evening to tell Saeki, "You'd better brace yourself. We're moving to the Contemplation first thing in the morning."
"That didn't take long," Davide observed. "Guess they'll be kicking me out of here, too," he added, dolefully. "And here I was getting used to living like an officer."
"You're going soft," Saeki told him. "Going back to the crew's quarters will be good for you."
"Hah. Like you're one to talk," Davide retorted. "How long has it been since you slept in your own hammock?"
"Enough," Yuuta interrupted, before they could begin wrangling with each other in earnest. He took a wallet from his breast pocket. "The Contemplation is sailing with the morning tide, so I'm here to settle up."
Davide lost his smile. "He's serious about seeing to it that you go home."
"Very serious." Yuuta rifled through the wallet, and handed Davide a packet. "Think that makes us even."
Davide accepted it and tucked it away without checking the contents. "You're one of the best I've ever sailed with, Captain," he said. "Don't let yourself get landlocked."
"I'll do my best not to. Run away again, if it comes to that." Yuuta laughed a little, and dug out a second wallet. "Here's your pay, Sae," he said.
"I'll try not to spend it all in one place," Saeki told him.
Yuuta snorted, and ruffled his hair. "Do that. And get some sleep. Tide's going out early tomorrow, so they're moving us at first light."
"I'll do what I can," Saeki agreed, and kept his expression solemn until Yuuta was out of the cabin. "...if he keeps fussing like that until I'm healed up, I may have to kill him."
Davide laughed. "It's the novelty of you not being dead. Once he gets used to it, he'll settle down."
"I certainly hope so," Saeki muttered.
"He will," Davide assured him, settling back against his pillows. "You're going to have to keep him out of trouble now," he said, suddenly serious. "Since I won't be around to do it for you."
"And just how am I supposed to do that?" Saeki asked, amused.
Davide looked up at the ceiling, studying it. "Just remember that he'd keep secrets from himself, if he could. Hell, he probably can, and does. So if he doesn't tell you something, it's from habit. Okay?"
Oh. That kind of trouble. "I'll remember."
"Good. And when you're fit for it again, get him back to the ocean," Davide instructed.
"Aye, aye, sir." Saeki mock-saluted.
Davide leaned over to snag Bane's pillow, and slung it at him. "Asshole. Here I am, trying to give you good advice—"
Saeki picked the pillow off of his face and tried to throw it back; his wounds protested sharply and it fell short. "Ow, fuck!"
"Serves you right," Davide told him.
Saeki blinked watering eyes. "If you say so," he wheezed.
"Mm." But Davide didn't offer any more advice. "I expect you two'll manage," he said, a while later.
Saeki hoped he was right.
Transferring from the Dragonfly to the Contemplation was arduous, involved two of Fuji's burliest deckhands, a litter, a great deal of swearing, and rather more pain that Saeki had anticipated. He was in no condition to appreciate the cabin that Fuji had secured for them, once he was finally settled in his bed, but Yuuta was, and prowled through the stateroom, examining every inch of it. "Just how much money did you spend on this?" he demanded.
Fuji waved a hand, as his men hauled a pair of trunks in after them. "Not as much as you think. Enjoy it, Yuuta. You've earned the right to indulge yourself a bit."
"I've been indulging myself," Yuuta muttered. "It's Goddamn boring."
Saeki wasn't too busy trying to breathe carefully that he didn't notice the flick of Fuji's eyes in his direction. "If you say so," he murmured. "The cabin is paid for, it's no less than my baby brother deserves, and unfortunately for your temper, there is not a thing you can do about it."
"I'll pay—"
"And besides," Fuji carried on, blithely interrupting Yuuta, "I thought that it would help Saeki's recovery to have the best cabin available."
Yuuta opened and closed his mouth a few times. When he finally recovered his voice, it was strangled. "You fight dirty."
Saeki noted, privately, that it must run in the family.
Fuji smiled. "Of course I do. Now shut up and enjoy your voyage, little brother, and give my love to everyone."
"Hmph." Yuuta embraced his brother fiercely, despite his ire. "I will. Stay safe, Shuusuke."
"Always."
After Fuji showed himself out, Yuuta blew out a breath. "Well," he said to the air, "here we are."
"Yep," Saeki rasped.
Yuuta was leaning over him before he quite knew it. "Are you all right?"
"I just got jostled over a quarter-mile of docks," Saeki told him, batting at the hand resting on his forehead. "What do you think?"
"Do you need something?" Yuuta asked, instantly. "Oishi gave me some medicine, and Shuusuke says this ship has a doctor—"
"I'll be fine," Saeki told him. "Not moving is helping."
"If you do—"
"I'll say," Saeki told him, and couldn't quite keep the exasperation out of his voice.
Yuuta laughed, self-deprecating. "I'm annoying you, huh?"
"A little." Saeki raised his eyebrows as Yuuta sat himself on the mattress next to him. "Yuuta...?"
"...thought you were dead," Yuuta said, softly. "Thought I'd lost you, too, Koujirou." His fingers were warm and rough against Saeki's cheek.
"You didn't, though," Saeki reminded him.
"I know." Yuuta brushed a fingertip over the curve of his mouth. "How did I get so damn lucky?"
"Sengoku finally rubbed off on you."
Yuuta laughed again. "Maybe that's it." He leaned down and kissed Saeki. "Whatever it is, I'm glad."
Saeki brought his good arm up, and circled it around Yuuta's shoulders. "Me too," he agreed. "Stay here?"
"Okay," Yuuta agreed. "I'll stay."
Send Comments to Lys ap Adin
Lys ap Adin is not associated with any rights-holder, nor did any rights-holder authorize this derivative work.