The answer was: both.
Somehow after getting roped into more chores for the evening, though Anna appreciated the change of scenery willing to get some work done instead of allowing her negative thoughts to overwhelm her again (the break with Erika served them well, too), the two of them were intercepted by the captain at the back of the mess hall during their late dinner.
Of course, the old lady didn't believe in subtlety so she simply called loud enough for everyone in the hall hear: "HEY! Redhead and mop of misery!"
Anna's nickname, courtesy of her own proudly self-proclaimed and rigorously exercised pessimistic behaviour during the evening, morning, the day, the breaks, her sleep, sometimes with a more courteous mood, made the owner of said name run shivers down her spine.
For a heartbeat, they really thought that they were going to be skinned and thrown into the sea.
Luckily or not that wasn't the case.
For now.
The captain managed to get a perfect balance of laughing or the better equivalent was sinisterly smirking at them, albeit more at Anna, and then proceeding to 'understand, why on earth she thought she could blatantly comment on a commander and then get away with it without any broken bones or bruises, and no, her sickly demeanor was not an excuse."
Ann and Erika looked at each other having no idea what to do or more precisely say.
So Ann blurted out the best stray thought she picked up. She simply told her the truth.
"I don't know."
Her words left the lady in front of her sign in exasperation.
"How you managed to survive is beyond me," she told her and promptly went to get some food.
"That also leaves me quite surprised," she mumbled, her head hung low.
Helena in all her roughness in her feature looked at her keenly. And then scoffed at her.
"If you turn out to be a D then seriously I wouldn't be that surprised."
Ann was about to ask the meaning of that, but Helen simply turned around to get herself a generous helping of some marvellous fish, which they were given by their saviours in exchange for some help at accounting or something like that.
The short small talk with the captain didn't deter Ann from the beauty before her eyes.
Looking at her plate, a mid-sized roasted fish with some sauce, a bit of salad and four big steamy potatoes and a glass of water made Anna forget about the unpleasantries of the world whilst drooling at the beauty and magnificence of food and its flavour. It almost made the two, seeing as Erika had tears welled in her eyes, get on their knees for the pirates. Going as far as to walk up to the one commander on the opposite side surrounded by both his crewmates and the merchants next to the captain.
On second thought, reason won the battle of feels leaving them savouring the food and thanking God for letting them find a ship which let them stay for 2 straight days while providing them with food. At least Ann made sure to thank for every minute spend in peace in this midly put torrent of a world.
"Life is good," she would have said for that scarce moment, but better not test her luck any more than needed.
Which was why her problems would only increase in quality and quantity.
The dinner, apart from the very generous charity in form of food, also presented to be a small affair. With the commander and a few pirates of his as the main points.
Helena and the first mate were the ones to give a small announcement about how the WB pirates were to travel along as their main destination was also Busket island. And in a show of good faith and in exchange for information from the merchant's navigation team they would help out with the damages. To which Ann noted that some heaved a sigh of relief. Not much astonishing considering the rather beaten forms of some crewmates that, from what she gathered from the small talks, normally would have done the repairing on the ship.
It wasn't much of a nice sight. Burly man with blood stains on their clothes, bandages around their arms, heads, legs or even the stomach area, the skin littered with many, thankfully, fading purple bruises. It truly wasn't nice.
Her eyes wandered from these people. Her heart rate dangerously having spiked and plams wet with sweat at this picture.
Which was why she changed her view to the lesser beaten up forms of the navigators and captain.
That didn't exactly explain much as to why the commander was sitting there eating amongst them at all. His title was enough for him to be exempt from taking part in socializing with people, especially strangers.
Or he was simply invited.
"Would be logical if he was invited by Mrs Helen or the first mate Jake. But then why isn't the other guy here, too? He might have been invited but could have declined. Maybe he had some matters to attend to," she thought, her gaze zeroing in on the group on the opposite side.
"Ah, who cares?" she shrugged and went on to eat of the last crumbles of her plate. Her face and Erika's were only millimetres away from licking off the food. Of course, someone had to point it out.
"Oi, oi, oi. Ladies, if you keep on going like that then you're going to eat the plate, too."
It was someone on the left side, and judging from the voice it must have been some older guy which they didn't meet. Though with a crew with over 80 people it wasn't easy to remember everyone within roughly 2 days.
Ann made it her new resolve to ignore anything irrelevant to her survival, alas eating, sleeping, taking a shower, or getting some medical help, or ensuring Erika's safety. The rest would be only a bleak matter of existence. The muscled and very tanned guy didn't seem to notice her desperate call for privacy. The ones at the table or next to it seemed to share that sentiment.
"Heard that you managed to get sick, missy. And then piss off some WB pirate. Shame that I didn't see that. Heard it was seriously funny." He hopped onto the bench next to her without a care to the glaring daggers that the redhead was sending him from behind Ann.
"Yeeea," was the only thing that came to Ann's mind before taking her glass of water and slowly drinking it slowly as not to engage in any conversation with him.
Anna could swear that her mind was projecting a rather obvious sign of "Why me?" and "I-don't-want-talk-with-you-or-socialize-more-than-necessary-needed"
Even in her realm of thought, her exasperation seemed to rub off on the girl next to her.
As well as on a young woman in her 20ies and from the looks of it a cabin boy in his late teens, who were one of the few that believed in a nice and peaceful dinner having calmly eating on the opposite bench till the rude exuberant guy just sat in-between them, his gaze locked on Anna. Needless to say, the guy didn't seem to mind the dirty looks thrown his way.
"Just say, what or more how did you do that?"
The blatant confusion made him elaborate further.
"How did you manage to make it out alive without being roasted by the pirate. I wasn't there but my friend saw the whole thing and he said that you were like a dead person looking at him till, well, you snapped. "
She blinked at that.
"No, no, it was like you simply began spouting off apologies or something like that. That seriously made him shut up, at least that's what I heard. But actually, what did you do? Because I ain't going to believe that some words kept that guy off your case."
Anna opened her mouth and ...
"That's what she has done." Erika's small voice seemed to have gained a sharp edge on her words.
"Yeeea. But really what did you do? Just some nice words aren't enough to keep one alive, even less a confrontation with an angry pirate."
"She simply apologized." The redhead's green eyes bored into his skull. Though her body was for the most part hidden behind Ann, partially out of shyness and the less than comfortable tension brought by the turn of the conversation.
The man's eyes twitched and he was to say something more but Erika just repeated herself. Her tone firm, albeit her posture betrayed her stiffness.
"She apologized."
He swiftly ignored her in favour of the dark-haired woman.
"And you? Maybe you offered something. Like a bribe or begged him for forgiveness on your knees if you really 'simply apologized'." He snorted lightly yet it left a sour aftertaste for the mentioned girl.
Some people around the table visibly leaned into the conversation. And if someone were to look at the mess hall then maybe the person would notice the perked-up ears of the pirates, especially that of the fishman commander, whose hearing managed to keep him alive on the rough seas.
Anna sighed. She would rather have this questioning over, have a shower and then go off to sleep. It didn't even matter that it wasn't dark outside. Anxiety and a heavy touch of anger boiled up in her stomach. Unfortunately, it didn't warrant an immediate excuse to see the nurse. Meaning she had to suck it up and answer.
"Yes, I apologized. It seems I unconsciously insulted someone of importance and I apologized for that. That's all."
"You're kidding me," The man's surprise was painfully visible on his face.
"There is no way-"
That turned out to be the trigger to fuel her own annoyance and irritated state. It was like she couldn't eat dinner or something without being pestered or having to defend herself.
"What did you expect? A juicy tale of betrayal, forgiveness and added murder mysteries? Come on, I did something wrong, though I didn't mean to, was confronted, albeit a bit too harsh for my liking, and as said before 'simply apologized'. See, not everyone wants to have ongoing problems with people. Some might want to solve problems as soon as possible and go on peacefully with life."
The man furrowed, his black mop of dreads partially hiding his face.
Of course, the universe decided to add another hero to the play.
This time in form of one of the 3 mechanic ladies. A blonde woman in her mid-30ties in a slightly dirtied blue work overalls. She was sitting at a nearby table which explained how fast she got there, appearing next to Erika.
"Hey Ann, say then, I heard from some cabin boys that you insulted the commander," At that Anna's skin reddened more, her own irritation/embarrassment adding to it.
Then, her mind stopped the racing levels of the sudden anger. She took a quick look at the opposite side of the hall.
That was how her mind caught up the proper words like 'insult' and 'commander' whilst the person in question was just a few tables away. Upon this quick realisation, Anna became the owner of a fiery blush and cold sweaty palms.
Yet despite her close-mindedness to her surroundings. the conversation carried on.
"But you actually apologized to the pirate who confronted you and not the commander. Tell me, how does that work?" questioned the mechanic.
Luckily she caught on that particular question.
That was a pretty valid point.
How did it work?
She stared at her dumbly for a moment. Her so-mightly-highly-eloquent vocabulary skill abandoned her.
"Well, I did say going and apologizing to the commander, though the pirate,eehm, said that it wasn't necessary anymore so I just-"
"Thought it was alright. Seems nice and all, but better be safe than sorry. I think that you should go and directly apologize."
"Or not, she did say she was terribly sorry and regretted the unfortunate choice of word, right? I know because I was there," another random person, a guy with scars on his muscled arms, a round bald head, came to the scene.
"Nah, it still is no good if you insult someone and say sorry to another person. That's just not right."
"Hey, she said it wasn't on purpose." This time it was the first guy, whose existence everyone at the table forgot for a moment.
"I think that accidentally or not, you have to apologize to the person yourself instead to another one," said the woman who finished her dinner and decided to put her own input into the matter.
"Wasn't she confronted by some random guy from the pirate crew, though. He wanted an apology so she did it. Isn't it enough?" said the cabin boy chewing on his half-eaten fish.
"I doubt that's how it works," answered the woman next to him.
"I personally think-" another person appeared out of thin air and that was how half of the mess hall was occupied about what was right or not, justice, honour and whatever else.
Having had enough, Erika tucked on the sleeve of Anna's hoodie, successfully pulling her from the sudden social paralysis and pointed with her fingers down to the ground.
Both of them managed to get away from the small crowd who were too much occupied, or let them escape in hopes that Ann was actually going to apologize. From under the tables, Erika was leading them to the entrance. A bit cramped and too much odor of feet, yet still better than being stuck listening to dubious advice.
Finally!
She literally saw the sun poking out from behind the horizon pouring out the last rays of light.
"I really need to stop that half-assed literary speaking in the confines of my own head," she thought as Erika got out from under the long table and went to the side so Ann could also free herself from the shackles of the odor.
"Yep, definitely got to stop that."
She poked out her head, pulled herself out from the table and was about to get up from her position when a strange sight of blue feet met her.
She even blinked a few times to make sure the odor didn't make her hallucinate.
No, it didn't.
She turned her head and was met with an equally confused expression, an eyebrow raised.
The same commander that everyone and herself included was fretting over whether to apologize or not.
She breathed out a strange sound mostly consisting of "Eeeeee..." Yet the fishman beat her to that.
A voice in the back of her head muttered in a hauntingly humorous way. "Talk about awkward. And potentially life-threatening."
"I see that someone decided to apologize. A person of their word, indeed."
He took a look at her kneeing position, a rather mad glint in his eye."
"Not that I mind." His sharp white teeth shining in front og her eyes.
But, she could have sworn that under the cool yet mad surface she saw a spark of mischief in his eyes.
She wanted to say something. Preferebly a good comeback which would save her poor excuse of her behind whilst not inciting more problems.
Her mouth remained faithully shut. Maybe her brain being thoughful of her as not to cause any more trouble with her own words. Or her voice had enough excitement for days and the fishman seemed not to be done.
"Oh, consider yourself forgiven then. I don't hold a grudge against prepubescent girls who have led a life sheltered lifestyle. Be thankful for my nice mood and kindness or otherwise you ..."
He leaned forward, the shiny teeth not so shiny anymore, the sharpness of them having added to the quickening heartrate of hers. The eyes firmly locked upon hers, his pupils dilated as though he was on high. Or was she on high with her short gasps for air, sweat on her forehead, the light shaking in her arms and legs?
Her mind didn't process her with anything. Only her senses on edge awaiting the next move. Like a victim and its predator.
He, mighty and towering over her. She, still kneeing and not capable of doing anything other than simply being there, like backed into the corner.
And then, it happened. Her mind picked up some vague movement in fornt of her. From exhausingly slow to a relative normal thinking pace, which for her right now was agonizingly fast, her eyes registered some movement.
A quirk in his lips. And the markings of a shift in his jaw.
He smiled.
A smile.
Or better put he eerily quirked his lips upwards.
Stood up from his position and left. Simply turned around and went out.
But not before heartily letting out a raucous chortle.
The canned sphere which made her heart nearly explode, dissipated into thin air.
Like before, with the other pirate. The bubble of tension popped leaving her to deal with the aftermath of her previous lack of response to the situation.
Barely surpassed laughter reached her ears when she got up whilst looking at the giggling gang of the other pirates who were also retreating from the mess hall.
Erika made it her mission to emulate the current state of Ann and blushed madly at the entrance. Not that Ann was any better off with her additionally wide eyes.
The last one to add insult to the injury was Helen herself, her smirk not leaving her face, behind her the first mate, also fairly amused by all that.
"It seems like someone deserves some desert for entertaining our guest of honor."
The later on cool shower didn't help to wash off the wave of redness and growing concern for her well-being.