I don't own Skies of Arcadia.
===
She didn't know what it was, but since Vyse had left her room and eaten breakfast that morning, he was purposely avoiding her. She normally wouldn't have noticed, but he actually made a show of avoiding her. Whenever she was about to walk past him, he would turn, drop anything he was doing, and leave.
So, her thoughts immediately turned conniving, he did something to my room…I just have to find out what he did…maybe I should trap him first.
Aika, with a plan slowly unfolding, went to the stock room and looked inside. She saw a barrel full of food and decided to hide it beneath some old sails. Fully happy by the illusion that it made, she wandered out and found Fina.
"Fina, can you tell Vyse that we're out of food?"
Fina's eyebrows drew together. "Out of food? But didn't we just stock up at Nasr?"
Aika nodded, her face echoing the confusion that Fina projected. "I thought so, too. However, I looked in the storage to see if we had anything to eat, just for a snack, you know, but there wasn't anything there."
Fina nodded, accepting this as fact, but then asked, "How come you don't tell him yourself?"
"Well," Aika said, "I have to go and chart some of the maps." It was lie. She had finished the charts more than a week ago, but Fina nor Vyse knew that. Sometimes, it just paid to finish work sooner rather than later. "I'll see you later, okay?"
Fina grinned and went to find Vyse.
Vyse stared at the endless blue sky, his mind debating on how far he would go to keep him and Aika apart. So far, the avoiding her thing was working, but he couldn't do that forever. He needed another plan.
At that moment, he saw Fina make her way toward him and wondered briefly, should I make it look like Fina and I are together? He immediately squashed that idea. He wouldn't play with any of their feelings if he could help it. He had to deal with this on his own.
Fina told him about the lack of supply and he immediately became confused. "Take the wheel, I'll go check the stock room and see if Aika just missed it."
"Aye-aye, captain," Fina said as she gleefully took over the wheel. "Wait, Vyse, where are we going?"
Vyse thought for a moment. "Steer the ship toward Pirate Island. I have to talk to my parents."
Aika hid behind one of the boxes and waited till Vyse would appear. Her leg hurt like crazy, but she wasn't about to say anything, not until he appeared.
Then, the door creaked open and she looked up. Vyse pushed the door wide open and stepped inside, looking around. He scratched his head and stared at all the sails that were spread everywhere. He moved forward and tried to pull them off.
Seeing this as her chance, Aika extracted herself from the boxes and leapt toward Vyse, fully ready to tackle him.
Seeing something move from the corner of his eyes, Vyse reacted quickly, turning his body. He grabbed the entity in his hands and used their weight to hurl them to the floor. He sat on top of them, drew his blade, and pressed it against their neck. He looked down, his eyes widening, as he met Aika's gaze.
She didn't say a word. Her red hair, messed from the slight wind, was sprawled in a halo behind her. Her eyes, lit with slight surprise and amusement, stared at him unblinkingly. He could feel her chest rising and falling quickly pressing against his own, expressing the quick energy she exerted over a short period of time. He was so close to her, if he could just lean forward a bit then he could touch her lips to his…
"Vyse?"
He snapped out of his hypnotic trance and shook his head a little. He re-sheathed his blade and got up, holding out a hand to help her. She shook her head slightly and stood on her own, straightening out her dress and smoothing back her hair.
They were silent as they tried to search for a topic to fill the lack of talk.
"I--"
"That--"
They had both started and stopped at the same time. Aika was blushing furiously as she whispered, "Go ahead," and Vyse started with a "You first."
Again, uncomfortable silence fell over them.
This is ridiculous! We're suppose to be great friends! I've known him my whole life and I've told him everything! What's stopping me now?! Aika opened her mouth to speak but stopped when Vyse did likewise.
"There's still food here," he murmured.
Happy to grasp at any topic, Aika nodded. "I hid it on purpose." Vyse gave her a questioning look and Aika continued. "Well, you've been avoiding me since this morning and I wanted to know what was going on. It was clear that you weren't going to find and talk to me, so I thought that I'd make you talk to me."
Her old fire was returning to her eyes, making Vyse feel more comfortable. "Well, you did a good job in scaring the crap out of me."
Aika grinned. "I learned from the best, remember?"
Vyse smirked at her words. He recalled that when they were little, Aika and he would play tag with Luke and some of the younger people on Dyne's crew, and he would have Aika draw them into a trap and he would ambush them. "Yeah, I do. Those were fun times."
"Yeah, they were, but we won't have fun together, anymore at least, if you're avoiding me. So, tell me what you did to my room."
Vyse paused. "To your room?"
"Well, that's why you're avoiding me, right?" When Vyse didn't answer, Aika frowned slightly. She took a step forward, but to her horror, Vyse took a step back. He never did that. "Why are you avoiding me, Vyse?"
Because, I want to protect you…he wanted to say, but he couldn't get those words out. He knew that she would just argue with him, saying that she could protect herself, but her parents couldn't protect themselves. They were long gone and now she was the only one left from their legacy. In a strained voice, Vyse said, "Aika, I'm taking us back to Pirate Isle. I'm taking you back. I can't sail with you anymore."
Aika's ears rang. She couldn't understand--wouldn't understand why he was pushing her away like this. Did she do something? Was he not telling her something? She tried to capture his eyes with her to find the truth, but he was avoiding her stare. Damn him for not telling me everything…What had been in her room to make him do this? Her mind filtered through all her stuff and landed on one object: the journal. He had read something in there to make him do this.
She fled from the storage room and ran all the way back to her room. She had to read what he had seen. She had to know why.
Her mother's words echoed across the page. If we just left each other alone…Aika bit her lip. That was what this was all about. Vyse was trying to protect her from getting hurt by pushing her away. Fully angry now, she was about to gut him alive when she decided to continue reading. Maybe there was more to these journal entries, another way that she could use to keep the awful thing from occurring while still being at Vyse's side.
Opening the book, she decided to skip the pages marked Wedding Nights and read about the day her and Vyse had come into the world.
===
Dyne was like a little hurricane as he stomped across the room, his hands held tightly behind him and his eyes burning like mad. His parents, Raven's parents, and all the other parents had long since moved to another island to begin their lives as retired folk and gamble their savings away, so that he was now the captain and leader of Pirate Isle. Even though he was promoted to such a fine task and seemed the fearless leader, something always got through his barrier and defenses he had to erect as a leader. That something was his wife, Rain.
Rain had been with child for close to 10 months now, the child was late, and that morning had complained of pains. It wasn't long before her water broke and he had, half dressed, run out the door searching for a mid-wife. The best he could do was find Lake, the only one awake enough, to come and help.
Lake was inside the room with Rain now, and Dyne was shoved out into the living room to await the cries of a baby. Raven, too, who had married Lake a few months after Dyne and Rain, was watching him with too much amusement that Dyne was annoyed. "What?" he asked after a few moments.
Raven shrugged. "Damn, Dyne. I just can't picture a miniature you running around this place, bumping into walls and sharp corners and ordering people around. Oh man, we're in for 18 years of hell, aren't we?"
Dyne scowled for a second, but his mouth broke into a fierce grin. "If I'm not mistaken, isn't Lake 6 months pregnant. Could you imagine a person with your smooth manner and calculating mind coupled with your wife's sarcasm and clumsiness? You, my friend, have created a monster."
"Touché," replied Raven as he lay back in his seat. He looked up into the dark planks over his head. "You know about the prophesy, right?"
Dyne nodded absently, half his hearing focused on the other room, the other half on his friend. "What about it?"
"Well, I was wondering, what if the horrible tragedy was the life of my child. I don't think I could handle that."
Dyne stared at Raven. "Nothing has happened to you guys yet. Besides, I never thought of you to listen to a prophesy; I thought you had that devil may care attitude that makes you think that none of that crap could ever happen."
"I did," Raven began, "before I became a father. Now, I have to think of all these other things and it's making my head hurt."
"I know." Dyne replied and found himself a seat. He leaned on his knees and stared at Raven. "What if we screw up and accidentally throw them off the island?"
"How can we--" Raven began but as that thought formed, his eyebrow arched showing Dyne that he gave that question a good thought. "I think if we screw up in anyway, the only answer is: our wives would kill us," he said with finality.
Suddenly, they heard some crying from the other room followed by Lake's tired voice. "Dyne, your ugly baby's here." She emerged from the room, her hair disheveled and a smug smile on her lips.
Dyne bolted up off of his chair and flew to the door where he would meet his son for the first time. The baby, small and chubby, wailed as loud as he could in his mother's embrace and his arms and legs wiggled in the air, reaching out for something that it couldn't touch. Dyne smiled in bliss and kissed his wife on the forehead. "He's beautiful," he whispered as he took the baby out of his wife's hands and held him close. "I have a feeling he'll be the bane of my existence."
"Me too," Rain whispered. "This little one, he was breeched, according to Lake, that's why it took so long. However, she told me that he was a fighter, he never gave up, and that's why he's here. He's definitely got your blood," Rain murmured.
Dyne grinned. "What are we going to call him?" Dyne asked as he caressed his son's cheek. It was soft and smooth, like the feathers on a young bird. He ran his eyes over the brown hair, barely visible, and the determined brown eyes.
Rain returned his smile, exhaustion apparent in her face. He replaced his child in his mother's arms as Rain whispered, "I think we should call him Vyse."
Dyne grinned. "Yeah, I like that." He turned to his child, his little Vyse, and cooed at him.
From the doorway, Lake and Raven were watching. Raven had twined his arms around his wife's shoulders and lay his hands on her swelling baby. Thoughts of the prophesy flitted across his mind as he watched Dyne and Rain and Vyse. He couldn't imagine himself, Lake, and their little child in that position, only to loose the kid. He couldn't, he vowed, let anything happen to the unborn baby. He would protect it no matter the cost.
He leaned his chin against Lake's head, who batted him away. "You're chin's too pointy. It feels like your jabbing me with a blunt knife."
He grinned at her and twirled her around. "Yeah? Well, yours isn't much better. A cleft in the middle there? It looks like someone's anus!"
Her eyebrows drew downward, but her eyes hinted of amusement. "Well, I know it's a lot more firmer than people's real ones," she said as she glanced over her husband's shoulder.
His hand darted under her chin and forced her to look up at him. He couldn't imagine loosing his love either. He would die before anything would happen to them, he did hope it would never come to that extreme, but he knew that he would. He fiercely kissed her lips, the sheer force of it pushing her head back slightly. She looked at him after they broke the kiss. "What was that for?" she asked.
He shook his head and took her by the hand. "I'm hungry, go cook something for me woman!"
"Go to hell, man."
