Good gracious I was not expecting the response I got for this story! Thank you all so much for adding it to your story alert, and to the one of you who added it as a favorite, and the one who added me to their author alert.

A shout-out to WaNderiNgDovE for the review! Thanks, It means a lot! And also to my good friend Adam for filling the roll as my editor :]

I realize that this chapter took much too long to be published. Classes have just started up for me so last week was really hectic. Thanks for your patience everyone, I'll try and get a schedule going asap! :D

And now, on to chapter 2.

Blaine, sweetheart, whatever happens, know that I Lo—

"Hhhh, hhhaa," Captain Anderson breathed out heavily as he woke with a start. He stirred and sat up in his bed, wiping at the sweat on his brow. Quickly he tried to retrieve a memory, any memory, in which he might be able to find the reason he always woke up this way, but to no avail.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

"Um, Mr. An—oops, uh, Captain! I have your meal!"

Oh yeah, I forgot that boy joined us.

"Right, come on then."

The door handle wiggled a bit and then with a creek, just enough light poured in through the opening to see the silhouette of a boy balancing a tray in his left hand as the other pushed the door shut.

Placing the tray on the nearest available surface Kurt groped in his pockets to find something to light the room with. There was a scratching noise and then a bright light that quickly dimmed into a dull orange. The flame was transferred to a wick inside of a gas lantern and the match quickly extinguished. Kurt fumbled nervously, picking the tray up again and carrying it over to the bed-side table nearest the captain.

"It's cooked oats this morning, captain."

"Is it ever anything else?" he replied lightly.

Kurt thought he saw the hint of a smile on his face, but he couldn't be sure. Feeling slightly less nervous Kurt shuffled over to a window on the far side of the cabin and drew the curtains letting in a sliver of morning light. He looked over at the captain and gave a warm grin. Blaine looked back at him with a scrunched up face, trying desperately to adjust his vision to the newly lit environment. He looks exhausted Kurt thought, his smile gradually circles rested below his eyes, and a rough plot of stubble covered his lower face.

"Captain, are y-."

"Hummel, you're only the kitchen boy, there's no need for you to call me captain."

"Oh….right. So uh, Mr. Anderson, are you…not sleeping well?"

The usually sturdy captain's eyes widened. It was the first time in a very, very long time that anyone had asked him something like that. Did he really care? Or was it just small talk to keep the silence at bay? Though he was skeptical of Kurt's motives for asking, Blaine decided to jump on the situation, it wasn't often people wanted to know about him.

"As it turns out, no, not really."

"Is it the sea, sir? Or-"

"It's a dream actually."

"sir?"

"Some sort of nightmare I think. I wake up in the most awful conditions, but can't seem to remember what made me like that; it happens every night, and just before you came in I had just woken up from it."

Blaine looked at Kurt, staring back at him with somewhat of a loss for words. He instantly regretted going into so much detail and wished he could just swallow his words back. He had to say something to break this tension that seemed to course thickly through the air between them.

"I, uh-" he started, but before he could go on, Kurt opened his mouth. He said something almost inaudible at first, but then cleared this throat and tried again.

"Um, Mr. Anderson, if you ever need to, um, talk, or something, I'm always around if you need me to be. You said I wasn't exactly part of your crew, which means you can be someone else to me. You don't have to put on a façade in front of me because I won't judge you."

Won't judge me? Façade? What? It's like he took one look at me and saw right through everything I've ever built around myself. Damn it.

"I- I'll keep that in mind, Hummel."

The boys sat and stood in silence just looking at each other for what could have been millennia.

The light in the room began to grow into a steady presence as the sun rose higher in the sky as if to signal to the two boys that the day was moving along and it would continue to move along with or without them.

"I, uh, better be getting back to work, it'll be time for the mid-day meal soon." Kurt said sheepishly, his eyes darting around the room, avoiding Blaine's intense stare.

Snapping back into reality Blaine shook his head a time or two before running his hand through his dark matted curls.

"Yeah" he replied to the boy. "work."