Tuffnut continuously found himself staring after Coral, or being unusually kind to her, and the grin he'd catch on Snotlout's face, or the look of knowing on Rutila's, was beginning to get on his nerves. But it didn't keep him from noticing how long Coral's hair was and how her hips swayed gently when she walked. She was nearly as good a rigger as Rat was within a couple years of joining the crew, and now Rat was letting her take more of his duties.
One calm, nearly breezeless, night, Coral swung down after the lamp lighting, and joined Tuffnut, she was grinning happily. It was the first week of her turn to do the lamp lighting. Tuffnut grinned back at her, privately liking how Coral looked exhilarated after performing her final duty for the night. Tuffnut held out half an apple, he had eaten the rest. She ate it gratefully.
"Is there any more of that honey mead those Vikings traded us?" Coral asked, she rather liked the taste of it, having a sweet tooth aboard a ship was difficult to indulge.
"Just the wine from the Italian who wanted safe passage. It's weak, but good." Tuffnut said with a shrug as Coral made a face. She had grown up drinking watered wine and fruit juices. She didn't mind good wine, but she preferred to have anything but.
Tuffnut filled a pair of cups with wine and handed Coral one. She curled her lip, but drank the wine.
"Ugh. Practically vinegar." Coral muttered, making Tuffnut snort. He found the wine delicious, having grown up on thick, heavy ales and meads. He didn't care for the Rus vodka, or much else from the Northern most parts of the continent. The liquors from Rat's home had an unusual flavour, but didn't burn on the way in or out. Wine was a happy medium, and he doubted he could ever get drunk on it. He and Snotlout could now drink Kale under the table, but only if they took turns.
Tuffnut and Coral sat on the rail in silence, they'd be coming back around the Aegean sea to Syracuse again, and he had heard Coral telling Rutila that she was thinking of staying in Syracuse with Marina. The adventure with the Minotaur was a little too much for her and she wanted to stay off the sea for a while. Tuffnut found that he didn't like that idea and was planning on changing Coral's mind, he didn't know how yet, but he was working on it.
Coral watched Tuffnut's face go from relaxed to scowling in the span of a few moments. She wondered what he was thinking. Sinbad had told the Viking men that they had been away from Berk for more than two years already. Both had shrugged and said he'd pay them for four years or something. Maybe Tuffnut wanted to go back to Berk to stay. Two and a half years was a long time to be away from home.
"What is Berk like?" Coral asked quietly, Tuffnut started and looked at her in confusion. "What's it matter? We're here, not there." Tuffnut said with a shrug and jutted his chin out, mostly to show off his little thatch of chin hair that he was growing just under his bottom lip. Coral snorted inelegantly, in amusement of the gesture.
"I mean, you've been away for a long time now. Do you remember what a typical day would have been like? What would you do?" Coral asked, sipping her wine, to hide a grin.
"I'd be woken up by my twin sister jumping on my bed and screaming like a banshee from Eire. Then we'd fight over hat was for breakfast, my mother would make both of us help her cook, and then clean, then we'd be free for the rest of the day. Ruffnut would be called in after dark, girls aren't allowed out after dark unless they're with more girls and family, like brothers. We'd spend time in the training ring with Barf and Belch, our Hideous Zippleback. He'd let us fight over him for a while. After training, we'd all go our separate ways, usually me and Snot would go explore the rest of the island and try to figure out how Hiccup managed to shoot down a Night Fury. Basic stuff, nothing as exciting or interesting as sailing on the open sea." Tuffnut said, turning to lean on the rails and look out over the now flat ocean.
"We're becalmed, probably till morning. Come with me. I have something to give you. It's taken me forever to make, because you started growing and wouldn't stop for months. But now, I think you hit your full height." Coral said, she didn't like how wistful Tuffnut had sounded when he spoke of his dragon and his family. Both were very good reasons to return to Berk for good. "Remember that first storm? The one where I was nearly drowned?"
"Who could forget? I lost my old vest and nearly lost my dragon tooth." Tuffnut said, as he followed Coral to her little room. As big as it was, the Manticore was still a ship and space was limited. Thankfully, Rutila was quartered down below this deck, so that she and Snotlout couldn't be heard through the floor.
"You jumped in after me. And someone found your vest attached to the barnacles on the Chimera, before it was burned. I thought it was some kind of joke and tossed it overboard permanently. It was a day later I realized what the lump of nasty green fur was." Coral said, shuddering at the memory of the hideous thing. Tuffnut snorted at her. "Anyway, I was shopping not to long before the fire and came across a pair of skins. One was the tiger skin in my bed. The other was from a cat called a leopard. I couldn't make it and give it to you then without inciting a fight between you and Snotlout." Coral added with a grimace.
"Yeah, we grew out of that." Tuffnut drawled with a grin. They had discussed at length their childish actions. Coral was embarrassed of her actions from that time. "So, what did you want to show me?"
"Show you? No. I used that spotted skin to make you a vest to say thank you for saving my life so long ago. Like I said, it would've been done a lot sooner, but you started growing so quickly." Coral said, her cheeks turning dusky under her tan and natural olive skin tone. She pulled a heavy wooden trunk out from under her bunk and opened it.
Tuffnut was impressed with the new vest. The gold and black spotted fur had been carefully sewn so as not to ruin the symmetry of the spots, and the small wooden toggles were sewn into the lining, so that when they were latched, they disappeared under the fur. There were pockets inside the vest and leather straps inside to hold knives and small tools.
"I used my father's vest as a guide. There's straps sewn to the skin to keep it from splitting at the weakest points. The lining can be ripped away to be used as bandages." Coral began to ramble.
"It's great. Thank you." Tuffnut said, he didn't miss the beaming smile on Coral's face. She was getting obvious in her liking him. He put the vest on and admired the fit, loose enough to allow ease of movement, and fitted well enough so that it wouldn't fall off. The toggles and loops fitted tight enough so that they wouldn't come loose in a storm.
Tuffnut tugged on the hem of the vest, Coral had made it in the manner of her father's people. The vest seemed a little too short, even though it was proper length for a Spaniard. He didn't mind, he wouldn't have to fight with a long hem in high wind.
"It fits you pretty well." Coral said, mentally taking new measurements of Tuffnut, and noting just how long his waist now seemed to be. She and everyone else on the ship knew what everyone else looked like without clothing. Injuries, baths invaded for a prank, torture, all of these brought some version of nudity. Rutila had her share, having been a bathhouse whore, and Coral had grown up on her island, naked till the day she began her womanly courses. Before now though, knowing just what a man looked like had never been appealing.
Tuffnut watched in silence as Coral circled him like a hawk. Eyeing the vest and him like she was already planning a new one. He sighed and her eyes shot to his and she blushed, confusing him.
"Something wrong?" Tuffnut asked in a low voice.
"No, just thinking that you'll need a new pair of deck shorts soon." Coral said, neatly avoiding Tuffnut's eyes as she busied herself with her sewing basket.
"Got a few extra in my bag." Tuffnut said dismissively, as he played with the fur vest, he wanted to try to kiss Coral, but aboard ship was a dangerous place with Rat nowhere to be found. He decided to wait until they made port.
Coral watched in confusion as Tuffnut shrugged slightly and then left her room without another word. She sighed, feeling ridiculous, of course a Viking wouldn't want a woman as small and thin as she was. There women were the equal of the men and sometimes the better. Tuffnut and Snotlout had told her about shield maidens and Valkyries. And then there were the stories about their gods and goddesses. Tuffnut and his sister Ruffnut were once considered to be a blessing from Freya and her twin brother Freyr. Both beautiful and blonde Viking gods. Coral herself was a bastard child, her mother was little more than a teenager when she convinced Rat that she was an adult.
Rat had believed her and hadn't been overly surprised to find that he would be a father. The birth of Coral had weakened her mother greatly, she hadn't lived to see Coral turn five. After Rat had returned all of three times in Coral's life, he had been greatly disappointed in her uncle. He was going to sell Coral to traders as a slave. Rat had seriously wounded the other man and had taken Coral with him. She didn't know him as anything more than the man who had fathered her. Coral sighed again, she was depressing herself and getting lost in thought when she had things to get done.
Sinbad noticed it first. He watched as Tuffnut came up from below decks, lost in thought. Coral was on deck afterwards, looking disappointed. Kale hmphed and shook his head.
"You see it too?" Sinbad asked quietly.
"We may lose four crew members when we return to the northern seas." Kale observed. Snotlout had come up a few hours ago, a little frantic and excited. "We'll have to go north anyway. Snotlout intends to be married and settled in before his child is born."
"Yeah. Start plotting ports for that. We'll need to restock a few times." Sinbad said, looking at his maps. Tuffnut's ability to navigate had grown exponentially, if he didn't stay on Berk, Sinbad was considering making him navigator under Kale. Snotlout was already head oarsman and if the steering ever went, no one else was strong enough to pull the rudder for steering, since the only one larger was Kale and he was outmatched by a narrow margin in sheer strength.
They made port and were hustled back to Marina's villa. A party was in the works and she wanted her husband around long enough to make an impression on their son. Sinbad had to refuse to stay very long, he was returning Snotlout to Berk and had only a few months for the voyage. Marina considered this, as much as she loved the sea, her son was still too young to go on long voyages so far away. She sighed and allowed the journey. They would leave in a week, after a maintenance check and respelling the ship.
Tuffnut had cajoled Coral into showing him around the back lawns of Marina's villa. They had gotten to a long field with a gentle sloping incline, and studded with statuary and a water garden at the end of the field. Tuffnut trailed along quietly, as Coral chatted about the name and god each statue represented. He finally got fed up with waiting for her to tell him that she was staying in Syracuse.
"Are you staying or not?" Tuffnut demanded suddenly, startling Coral.
"Staying? Where?" Coral asked in confusion.
"Here in Syracuse. I heard you and Rutila talking about it." Tuffnut said, glowering at a statue of Eros.
"That was ages ago. I was exhausted after escaping the minotaur's labyrinth. Poor thing was so lonely in there. He should be with his herd by now." Coral said lightly, as she walked further ahead. Tuffnut followed her.
"So you're still going to sail with me, uh, us?" Tuffnut asked, hoping he had covered his slip quickly enough.
"Till the day I can't pull the ropes. Then I'll be a deck hand." Coral said with a grin.
Tuffnut stared down at her for a moment, then went in for a kiss. Coral froze for a moment, then leaned into the kiss. They kept kissing, not really taking care to notice their surroundings. Li and Jin had followed them, thinking something was up, and they knew that Rat was going to follow them as well. They had been waiting with ropes and a gag. Rat didn't see the trap he had walked into, and was made to watch his daughter kissing a man he didn't approve of. Of course, he didn't approve of any man, Li and Jin were still on his radar, he wasn't taking any chances with anyone.
Coral and Tuffnut didn't notice Li, Jin, and a bound and gagged Rat, disappear back towards the house. They were too engrossed in each other for the moment. After a while, they broke apart, both grinning.
"That would be a good argument against staying in Syracuse." Coral said breathlessly.
"Yeah, I know." Tuffnut said with a satisfied smirk, Coral gave him a light punch in the arm.
Sorry for the delay. Real Life got a bit too real for a little while. Please Read and Review