A/N-- The author is sorry, very sorry. She has no excuse for not updating last week, save that she had a cold. That being as pathetic as it is, I can still only offer you a chapter of normal length. Nothing of much importance happens in this one, but I hope you'll bear with me. Ah, and if you know the saying, you should be able to finish the chapter title in your head. It plays a minor part later.
Panda-- I luff you, and the picture you drew for me. Though you don't review very often, it's nice when you do. I swear I'll finish up your present one of these days. -fail-
Soukyuu-- Yep, 'this blonde one' would be Erstin. I'm holding you to that 'better review' bit, even though I thought that one was just fine. -grin- Why take an inch when you can take a mile?
Naiomi-- Heyla. I'm glad you like it. Oh... -more fail- I'm sorry, I was assuming most everyone had seen My/Mai Otome as well. Arika, Nina, and Erstin are characters from that series. If you have the time, you should go watch it. It's like an AU version of HiME. An...interesting one. But yeah, not Akira. If she was, it would be the most horribly out-of-character Akira ever written. Anyway, hope this continues to amuse you.
Sayosi-- Still counting on you, luff. I wrote this on very little tea and way too much coffee, but I'm sure you'll fine all the things that snuck past me so early in the morning. Alas, I fail in the art of multi-tasking. Ah, sleep, why must you elude me...? Oh, also, I'm blaming you for any future chapters that are influenced in any way by those rather...interesting plotbunnies you gave me. Of course, I mean 'blame' in the most flattering of ways.
To all my other readers, I've done my best to reply to your reviews. If I somehow skip over any of you, feel free to give me a nudge, or a good kick if needed. Also, I'll have a hopefully mistake-free version of this up by tonight. I can never find things unless I've got the chapter printed out. This only proves my case- my keyboard is a lesser evil. Do please review, and the author promises to do her best to reply.
The first thing Natsuki was aware of when she woke up was a splitting headache. The next was that she'd somehow become horribly tangled in her sheets. Oh yay, what a great way to start the day. What had happened last night…? She'd come back to her room, gotten in bed, and that woman had asked her…had… Her head hurt too much, and the harder she tried to remember, the further away the memory floated. Hn, probably nothing important.
Experimentally, she tired moving her legs. They were stuck fast in the white mass. Groaning, she rolled over and barely managed to avoid falling out of bed. Wonderful, lovely, she was going to kill Midori. Kicking and twisting, she managed to work a leg free. Forcing her stiff body into something resembling a sitting position, she pushed angrily at the sheets bunched somewhere around her knees with her arms. Working them off inch by inch, she failed to notice her close proximity to the edge of the bed until she actually did fall off.
Hitting the floor with a thump and yet another groan, she rolled away from her bed and pulled herself halfway up onto it. Vowing that this time she wouldn't fall, she forced the rest of the stubbornly clinging sheets from her feet. Well, that was something. Rubbing her forehead, she reminded herself very forcefully that it could have been worse. That woman could have still been in the room, or Nao could have witnessed the scene. But she wasn't, and she hadn't, so she supposed she ought to consider herself lucky. All the same, it would make her feel much better to grab Mai's ladle and deal their captain several good blows to the head.
She grinned as she imagined whacking Midori (and perhaps Nao too) with the dreaded ladle. Just as she'd gotten fairly far into her imaginary revenge, she was tackled to the floor by a large black blur. Vaguely wondering why the blur had it in for her and why it was sitting on her, she glared at it. The glaring helped it come into focus, and she realised that the blur was Mikoto. That raised two questions. Why had the girl burst through her door, and why was she still sitting on her?
"Good morning, Natsuki!"
Okay, third. Why was she shouting? Wincing at the unexpected noise, she reasoned it must only seem that way to her oversensitive ears. Speaking of which, she thought she could hear something… Deciding she must still be out of it, she scowled.
"Mikoto…"
Eyes bright and cheerful, the younger girl grinned and moved off her.
"Yes?"
"Why are you in my room?"
The grin widened. "Mai told me to wake you up, no matter what! She said I could do it however I felt like, and that she'd make me an extra large breakfast if I did."
So, this was all Mai's doing? Her eyebrow twitched. "So, even when you saw that I was awake, you had to tackle me?"
"Yep!"
Twitch.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Yep."
Twitch.
"Any chance you're going to let me get back in bed?"
"Nope."
Sensing that there was no possible way out and resigning herself to her fate, Natsuki groaned yet again and pulled herself upright using a nearby chair. She hated mornings. Glaring violently at the wall, as if it were its fault that she'd fallen asleep still wearing her clothes, she stretched her arms out over her head and yawned. That noise was still there, and it was beginning to annoy her. It seemed to be a sort of thumping, every ten seconds or so… Keh, probably nothing. At worst, Nao had paid the price for trying to grab a bite to eat before Mai rang the breakfast bell.
First order of business, kill Mai and Midori. Then, get Mai to give her something for her hangover. Perhaps not quite in that order, but that was the general idea. Stomping over to her desk, she pulled on a grey bandana to cover her unkempt hair. She could brush it later. Much later.
Pointedly ignoring Mikoto's expectant stare, she made to open the door. She'd just wrapped her hand around the knob she heard the noise again, this time much louder. She frowned. It sounded almost like a knife hitting wood…
Upon opening the door, she found to her dismay and increasing anger that that had been exactly what it was. There was a warning shout, then a blade (that, if Natsuki had a chance to inspect it further, would have bourn signs that it had seen better days chopping various foods in Mai's galley), sailed past her left ear and buried itself in the wood of the doorframe. Yelping in surprise, she moved on instinct to the right, clutching the side of the door to keep from falling.
There was only one person on this ship who threw knives, which meant…
"Nao, what the hell are you doing!?"
To her surprise, the culprit looked genuinely apologetic.
"I didn't know you were awake, so I was using your door for target practice. After Mikoto barged in, I figured it would still be a while until you dragged yourself out of bed, so…"
Opening her mouth to yell some more, Natsuki realised that her head hurt too much to be mad. She not only hated mornings, she hated the odd logic that went with them.
"Look, whatever. Is Mai in the galley?"
Looking relieved at the chance to not be attacked by a still very hung-over Natsuki, Nao nodded and hurried off to try her luck with Chie's door, since the artist had showed no signs of wanting to leave her room yet that morning.
Making her way to the kitchen, she'd almost completely forgotten Mikoto until she was once more assaulted, this time in the famous choke-hold, designed to force the recipient into doing whatever one wanted. It turned out that Mikoto wanted a piggy-back ride to the galley, where she could pick up her reward for 'helping' Natsuki out of bed. When her half-hearted protests didn't have the slightest effect, the older girl decided to grin (or grimace) and bare it. And bare it she did, right up until the door. That was when her legs set up a more effective protest by buckling, apparently having decided that enough was enough.
Grabbing the door to steady herself and trying not to think of how many times she'd done that since the previous night, she noticed Mikoto hit the door, her weight forcing it open, and enter in a sort of flying hurdle, with a sense of detachment. The unique but very Mikoto-like entrance was followed by a yell, a crash, and a splash. Bracing herself for what was almost certain to be some lesser form of chaos, Natsuki entered the galley.
It was unusually dark, so much so that it took her eyes a few moments to adjust to the dim lighting. When she was granted her vision again, she was greeted by an uncommonly clean sight, with the sole exception a puddle of what appeared to be water upon first glance. With the second look, it was revealed to be liquor. Oh hell, if Mai tried to get her drunk again, this early, she'd take that ladle and stick it-
"Mai, I bought Natsuki!"
The fiery cook grinned, not seeming to be in any way angry at the events that had led to another mess to clean up. "You did indeed. Tell me, was she as hard to get out of bed as usual?"
Early or not, she wouldn't take insults from Mai. "I was no such thing!"
Mikoto hopped up from where she'd landed on the floor and stuck out her tongue. "That's only because Natsuki was already awake. She was grumpy enough anyway."
"That's not-"
Mai cut off her retort by stuffing a scone in her mouth. It took a bit of an effort not to choke, but… She was in the middle of swallowing a bite of it when she remembered that she was supposed to be mad. By that time, she'd already forgotten about the liquor.
"Oi, what's the idea of-"
Heartily ignoring her spluttering, Mai plucked the scone from her hand and placed it back in her mouth. Oh, for- but it was awfully good, and… Damn it! Gulping down the next few bites, she managed what she felt was a very threatening gurgle. The cook obviously didn't share her opinions, as her face split in a poorly concealed grin.
"So, do you like it?"
"Yes, no! No, it was-"
"Delicious?"
"Hardly, that was-"
"The absolute best scone you've ever tasted?"
Natsuki huffed, but that didn't dampen Mai's spirits in any way.
"I'll take that as a yes, then."
That settled it. Someone somewhere had something against her this morning. Arguing, glaring, throwing the ladle overboard, or all of the above would get her nowhere, so she threw herself down in one of the chairs Midori had asked (very politely forced) her to make when she'd first signed on. Grabbing a glass of water from the rough-ish table in front of her, she made short work of it. With the coolness rushing down her throat, she felt almost better. Almost.
"What did you want me for?"
It was uncanny how Mikoto could mimic Mai's grin. She was already regretting asking.
"Nothing much. Mai needs a taste-tester for her new recipes, and you get to be the guinea pig! Natsuki's so lucky…"
That was funny, considering she felt anything but. She had more than half a mind to bolt, but was stopped by Mikoto's perfected version of the 'sad eyes'.
"You're so mean… Mai will think you hate her cooking…"
Gah. It wasn't fair, it just wasn't.
"…Fine, I'll do it."
The tears that had been about to fall disappeared immediately.
"We wanted to catch Nao, but she had knives, so… But you'll be much more fun."
Natsuki gulped. Catch? Fun? Maybe this had been a bad idea after all… Before she could leap up to return to the safety of her room, Mai was looming in front of her with something speared on the end of a fork. It looked like a clump of seaweed, but that couldn't…
Mikoto chose the moment to pipe up, "Mai's teaching me to cook, so I've been trying different things."
Oh bloody hell. It probably was seaweed, then. Wait, but if Mikoto was the one doing the cooking… Her eyes widened as she made a desperate leap for the door. She never made it, as the ladle cracked down faster than she would've thought possible. It wasn't fair, not at all.
"Why me…?"
Outside the door, Nao smirked. It had either been her or Kuga, and she'd had the good sense to steer clear of the galley. It was a shame though, since she'd been looking forward to getting Kuga to help her break Chie's door down. She needed someone to be a human shield, in case the artist had gotten a hold of more ink bottles. Besides, things were boring when everyone stayed in their rooms.
Things had been different ever since she and Kuga had come back from the Navy ship, and she highly doubted they'd been missed that much. Certainly not enough to have everyone in this sort of mood, especially after they'd come back. The obvious answer would have been a fight, if there had been any signs of discord between them. There weren't though, which was perplexing. The money shortage shouldn't bothering them this greatly, and so…
Annoyed with the gloomy mood hanging over the ship and the lack of someone to talk to, she drew an old kitchen knife from her belt and threw it with as much strength as she could muster.
It whistled through the air and sank up to the hilt in Chie's door with a particularly satisfying 'thunk'. Not a moment too soon, she remembered the danger of making any sort of noise outside the artist's cabin before noon. Leaving the knife stuck in the door, she raced to the upper deck of the ship and disappeared down the hatch into the supply room. It would be a convenient place to hide until someone managed to work to knife out, hopefully without too much damage to the door.
Haruka's bad day(s) were apparently contagious, something Yukino hadn't been the least bit happy to discover. Not only were the younger crew members sleeping through some of their watches, but she was almost certain that the barrel with the apples in it was watching her.
It didn't matter that it was 'highly unlikely that the apples have developed some grudge that they're dead set on carrying out on you', as Haruka had told her earlier that afternoon. They were, and that was that. Yukino had a reputation for being level-headed, but not even that could make her blonde companion believe that the apples were alive. It wasn't surprising though. Still, the apples weren't the only inanimate objects that had taken to watching her.
Since yesterday, she could have sworn that the larger table in the mess hall, the only one with a tablecloth, had been watching her too. She chalked it up to being slightly stir-crazy, since she hadn't had the chance to get off the ship when they'd stopped at Windrift. In fact, no one had. That had been a bit odd, but orders were orders. Ones that Haruka had protested quite loudly against, but that hadn't changed a thing.
Also odd was the way the captain was acting. Before, he'd only been the perfect picture of benevolence, but now… It may have been a trick of the light, but she was sure she'd seen him glaring at Haruka that morning. The only explanation she could come up with, farfetched as it was, was that he was somehow angry with her for letting Ms. Fujino take her watch for her that night. Still, everyone agreed that it wasn't her fault at all, and even though Ms. Fujino had been, no, was an amazing and extremely capable officer, things were going on alright without her.
Yes, there was some minor discomfort, but none of the officers had really taken it personally besides Haruka. After all, for all her polite mannerisms, she hadn't really been close to anyone. The younger members idolized her, and were still a bit shaken up over it, but she was willing to bet they weren't losing much sleep over it.
She frowned at the uncharacteristically annoyed thought. She supposed she was just a bit on edge; being stalked by apples and tables was a trying experience. It she hadn't slept last night, she could have blamed it on that. But she couldn't, since Haruka had insisted that she sleep while she scribbled down notes and gone over charts, trying to figure out where Ms. Fujino was most likely to have been taken to.
Though there were few on the ship who knew it, Ms. Fujino was more the First Mate than Mr. Wong was. The captain consulted with her more than him, for one thing. For another, she spent almost more time in the captain's cabin than she did in her own. That had sparked several rumors, all of which Haruka had resolutely squashed as soon as they popped up. It was impossible to stop the whispers though, but Ms. Fujino didn't seem to be bothered by them at all.
She hadn't- (didn't, she reminded herself) seem to be bothered by much of anything. Ironically, that only served to make Haruka more bothered, to the point of making it her mission to get beyond that carefully crafted mask. So far, the only emotion she'd managed to get was surprise, which had been when she'd challenged her to a food-eating contest when they were both still in training.
She idly flipped through a couple more pages of her book before setting it on the nightstand, not bothering to mark her place. It being a book of poetry, she could come in whenever she wanted.
She and Haruka had been looking through various maps of the coast again, but a few hours after the lunch bell had rung, they'd become aware of the existence of their stomachs. Very empty stomachs, having gone without breakfast. If Haruka would just hurry up with their trays…
She was alerted to the presense of the older officer by a bang as she walked into the door to their cabin, tray and all. Luckily (for both Haruka and the floor), nothing spilled. A few moments later, a rather miffed looking Haruka, now sporting a sizeable bump on her forehead, swept into the room with as much dignity as one could manage for having just walked straight into a door.
"Yukino, I've brought back the food. Now we can floor over the maps again."
"Pour, Haruka. And thank you for bringing our lunch."
Sitting next to each other, with Haruka pointing out a likely spot every so often, Yukino decided that the day hadn't been so bad after all.
Shizuru was bored. Really, truly, utterly bored. So bored that she was seriously considering attempting to read the copy of The Odyssey that she'd been lent by the artist. Ms. Harada, was it? Even when one re-reads a book several times over, it begins to look awfully good after a while.
Never mind that she'd hated having to recite passages from it when she was still in Ms. Maria's School for Proper Ladies, or that it was ranked near the top of her least favorite things to read.
It was still a book, so it would provide a sufficient distraction.
She should have been tired, having not slept the previous night, but the coffee in the kitchen, though weak, had been more than enough to keep her up. After leaving her cabin-mate to get further tangled in her sheets, she'd come out to the upper deck to look at the stars. It was nice to relax, feel the rolling of the ship beneath you, and be enclosed in a rare veil of solitude for hours on end. She supposed it might be odd that she didn't love company the way most people did, but the annoyingly superficial small-talk that people made when given the opportunity had always disgusted her. It was too much like the balls her school used to have. Countless faces swirling around and around until you couldn't tell one from the other, a whirl of colour, sound, and nothingness.
Chuckling at the absurdity of her thoughts, she pulled out her journal. There was barely enough light to see by, but neatness hardly mattered.
November 3rd, 1749
Day 3
I remain on the ship; little has changed. This morning I found myself seeking a place to be alone, and in doing so found my way to what appeared to be the supply room. I lay there for some time, simply enjoying the quiet. After an hour or so there was a small commotion above deck, ending in a stream of cursing and promises to 'skin that girl alive if she doesn't pry this out of my door'.
It was relatively amusing, if only because I suspect 'that girl' was the one who came to the room to hide a few seconds before. As I was near the back, she was not aware of me.
After she left several long minutes later, I dozed until the bell rang, presumably for breakfast. Being hungry but not wishing to talk, I stayed in my hide-away of sorts until the lunch bell. Being unable to ignore the need for food anymore, I returned to above-deck, and from there found my way to the galley.
N-the one I share my cabin with was sulking in the far corner, muttering something that may or may not have been 'food poisoning'. I find that hard to believe, since the food was, I grudgingly admit, quite good. There were several questionable lumps of what seemed like dried seaweed on the floor, but they were unimportant.
They may need to return to town soon, as they're running low on food. I wonder if I should make my bid for freedom then… Ah well. A group of heavy clouds are beginning to obscure the moon, so I am forced to abandon this for now.
