This features one of my enduring Harlock headcanons (okay more than one) and was written as part of a Music Shuffle this last week (inspired by the Nickelback song Side of a Bullet).

"Yama!" Harlock tugged him close, which did nothing to calm his racing heart or the adrenaline burst from dodging the shot that had narrowly missed his face. He tipped his head up and saw a flicker of worry in Harlock's eye.

Yama could feel Harlock's heart pounding where they were pressed together, and he smoothed a hand over Harlock's side. "I'm fine." he promised, with a quick kiss to Harlock's cheek, then he ducked away as the battle surged around them once more.

Gaia Coalition soldiers were not really trained thoroughly in dealing with boarders - there were few forces that could pose such a danger - and as such they responded clumsily to this kind of attack. The Arcadia's crew, however, was in their element. Yama's lips twitched as he heard Yattaran howling with delight from down the corridor, punctuated with the sounds of crunching metal.

Yama side-stepped one soldier and blocked a blow from another with one forearm and before lashed out with a kick as he kept moving. He was clear of the pincer they'd been closing him into in a moment, and then-

Yama stalled with a jerk, pain cracking through him. His fingers twitched around his gun and he dropped it before he realised his grip was loosening. Breathless and weak, he wavered as he automatically tried to straighten. His vision went black and his legs gave way under him, and then the pain intensified as he hit the floor.

Then Yama knew nothing more.

"Oh do stop lying around and wake up soon."

Yama cringed at the echoing, metallic ping of the unfamiliar voice. It wasn't very loud, but it was making his head throb all the same.

"Yes no doubt it is unpleasant, but you are causing quite the mess by not getting up."

Taking a deep breath was a struggle with the way his chest was aching, and Yama winced before cracking his eye open, curious who was speaking. He got a glimpse of vaguely familiar ceiling - looked like he was on the Arcadia, as expected, that was good - and then a spike of pain through his head made him hurriedly close his eye again.

"There you go! . . .well, progress, anyway."

Groaning, Yama brought one arm up, covering his face for an additional shield against the light. Dim as it was, it was a bit much at the moment.

"Yama?" That was Kei's voice, although Yama had never heard her sound so wavery and hoarse. His brow furrowed as he wondered what was wrong. "Captain!"

"Ow." Yama said vaguely as her loud cry felt like it struck echoes off inside his head. Although even as it must also be echoing from the walls of the Arcadia, it didn't carry the same brassy tone as the voice he hadn't recognised.

He wondered if he'd imagined that one. He certainly hadn't seen anyone that close to him.

"She is rather forceful, isn't she? Then again, Phantom has been more than a little ridiculous; it seems he barely held it together enough to bring you back to me. Not that it would have mattered to you in the long run, although it did go faster and more smoothly once you were back here and I could help things along. . ."

Yama was more than a little lost, although at least his headache was beginning to ease, even with the torrent of words.

"Yama?"

The wrecked sound of Harlock's voice was startling. Yama dropped his hand and opened his eye again. He found Harlock leaning over him, looking unhealthily grey.

"Harlock?" he said, his own voice coming out raspier than he'd expected.

A warm, callused hand brushed Yama's face, and he smiled slightly. Harlock clasped Yama's shoulder, expression twisting as he dropped down. Yama reached up, shifting enough to realise he was . . . on a table? In the cavernous space behind Harlock's throne on the upper level of the bridge. Harlock had fallen to his knees beside it.

Harlock wrapped his hand around Yama's, and a hot drop splashed off his wrist, startling him. "Harlock?" he said tentatively, pushing his elbow down and wincing at the dull aches that throbbed through him with the exertion. He sat up anyway, ignoring it and swinging his feet off the side of the table beside Harlock.

A stinging tug made him look down to see a hole in his shirt over his heart . . . and blood dried into the fabric and on his skin beneath.

"You're all right." Harlock said faintly, smoothing his free hand over Yama's thigh. He gripped a little too tight, like he wasn't quite sure Yama was really there and needed the reassurance of feeling him. Yama moved one of his own hands to cover Harlock's, squeezing gently.

"I tried to tell him, but he needed to see it for himself, I suppose. Phantom has always been something of a here-and-now sort of man."

"Phantom?" Yama repeated vaguely.

Harlock raised his head further, fingers tightening around Yama's as their eyes met. "What- Yes." he said, looking faintly confused. "How are you all right?" he added, with a lost sort of look in his eye. "I saw, but there's no way. . ."

"What happened?" Yama asked, squeezing Harlock's hands comfortingly in return. He didn't really . . . remember much of anything helpful, only boarding the Gaia ship, the battle, then . . . a shock of pain and nothing before waking up on the table. "What did you see?"

"I gather you were shot."

"Shot!" Yama yelped, looking down at himself, pressing one hand to his chest on top of the hole in his shirt. There was no corresponding hole in him beneath it, only intact skin and dried blood that stung a bit as it flaked off, and while he ached all over, there was no particular pain there. Certainly not enough for it to be caused by him having been shot.

"You were shot," Harlock confirmed, his voice thick, "and then, afted, dark matter streamed out around you. . ." He shook his head. "I didn't-"

"The Earth might be living still, and now recovering from the shock, but it isn't yet safe for complex life. Yama, you were exposed rather more than was advisable to wholly unleashed dark matter. I didn't realise myself until he brought you back today, dead, and yet not." The voice sounded almost sheepish, regretful.

"I was dead?" Yama said, but couldn't quite be surprised as he felt the beat of his own heart under his fingertips. If he had been shot there, it should - would - have killed him nearly instantly. "Wait, I was irradiated with dark matter?"

"It is dangerous and unpredictable . . . but when Harlock brought your body back with it already running wild from where it had been coiled inside you, I could seal it - to you, but also to me. It won't kill you . . . but nor will anything else. And you must stay."

"Stay?" Yama repeated, still halfway lost and wondering.

"Tochiro." Harlock shook his head. "Arcadia. The dark matter. . . You linked him to you, as you did with me?"

"More directed this time. I am afraid all those years ago neither of us were at our best, Phantom, and I did not know exactly what I was doing."

"You should realise I had no intention of leaving the ship anyway." Yama said firmly. "Is the . . . link why I can hear you? I'm sorry, I never realised you were. . ."

"Still there?" Harlock's lips twitched, his expression easing a little. "Indeed, at times he refuses to shut up."

"As opposed to Phantom here, who practically refused to speak at all for nearly a decade once. . ."

"Your name is Phantom?" Yama said, covering his mouth with one hand as Harlock met his gaze with a frown. "Your actual name?"

"I know! Phantom Harlock! He was clearly born to be a pirate, don't you agree?"

Yama laughed, sliding right off the edge of the table with it. Lunging to his feet, Harlock caught him with one smooth movement, steadying him in a gentle embrace. "Why do I feel the two of you being able to properly understand one another is not going to end well for me?" he said, though he didn't sound very upset. He'd managed to add a touch of lightness to his tone, but it wavered. Harlock buried his face against Yama's cheek, holding him tight.

Yama returned the hug comfortingly. "I love you." he said quietly, running his fingers up and down Harlock's spine.

"I feel regret that you too now share my curse," Harlock said, his words barely more than a breath, "but that you can never leave me. . ." He drew back enough to look at Yama properly again. "Forgive me."

Yama nuzzled their faces together. "Nothing to forgive. I am here to stay, and I am grateful for it; I never intended to leave. And now. . . You will never be alone, love." he said gently. "I will always be here with you." A low rumbling noise came from the Arcadia around them as Harlock pulled Yama nearly off his feet with the ferocity of his embrace.

Yama laughed and leaned up, drawing Harlock into a kiss that quickly turned hard and almost painful with desperation. Yama knew that Harlock needed him, needed not to be alone, that was nothing new to him - and with his heart having long since tumbled into Harlock's hands, he had no intention of deserting that.

Being 'cursed' to an immortal life on this ship beside his Captain really only made it a little easier, and more lasting than Yama's prior capabilities alone would have allowed.