4. Seasickness

"I don't think Anissina's Magic Anti-Vomit Machine works too well," Wolfram moaned woefully.

"Why's that - Oh, yuck. Aren't you supposed to use it before you throw up?"

"I did... oog."

Yuuri put his hands on his hips and thought for a moment. "Alright, I know what we can do. First, let's get you out of this room, and find someone to clean that up. Wanna go up on the deck?"

"No deck. Deck moves. Waves go up and down. No deck."

"Well, we have to get you someplace stable then." He furrowed his brow, then snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. "I know what to do! I saw it on TV once!"

"TV...?"

"Never mind that. Do you have a sheet or something?"

Wolfram pointed weakly at the beds from his hunched position on the floor. Yuuri strode over to one and ripped the blanket off in one sweeping motion. "This should do. Seems heavy enough," he mused, weighing the fabric in his hands. "Okay, now I need some nails or something." This posed him some more trouble, before his eyes landed on Morgif in his scabbard, resting on the table.

"Wolf, gimme your sword," he said, taking the Maken in one hand.

"Over my dead body, wimp..."

Yuuri sighed and approached Wolfram. He bent down and drew the boy's sword out of its scabbard easily. "I kinda like you when you're sick," he teased, hefting it appreciatively. "Too weak to fight back." Wolfram just glared icily at him.

The young king put the swords down on the one of the beds, ignoring Morgif's grumpy moans. With a grunt he pushed a small table out of the corner, then reached for the blanket. He folded it in half, and snatched his sword up with one hand. With a yell, he speared one corner of the blanket securely into the wooden wall.

"Hey..." Wolfram moaned weakly. "Gwendel will kill you. This is his ship, you know."

"Better than you puking all over it," Yuuri retorted, securing the other corner on the opposite wall with Wolfram's sword. The result was a messy, but useable, makeshift hammock. "There!" he said triumphantly. "If you lay down in this, gravity will keep you from swinging from side to side as the ship moves!"

When Wolfram made no effort to get up from the floor, Yuuri sighed exasperatedly and went over to pick him up. "Come on," he grunted, tugging at Wolfram's arms. "Geez, you sure are heavier than you look."

"Wimp," the young prince muttered sullenly, struggling to get to his feet. Yuuri helped him over to the hammock, which he fell into with a heavy thump. Morgif whined noisily.

"You be quiet," Yuuri said in his best Maou voice. He glanced at the mess on the floor. "Gross," he moaned, shaking his head. "What kind of Mazoku can't even -"

He turned around, ready to tease Wolfram mercilessly about his weakness, but he was stopped when he saw the young boy was already comfortably dozing in the makeshift hammock. "Oh, that figures," he said. "Leave it for someone else to clean up."

Yuuri sighed and rubbed his eyes. When he opened them again, his vision focused on the strange machine that Anissina had apparently made for Wolfram. Tilting his head curiously, he stalked forward to look at it more closely. It looked like a small tank on wheels, with a few buttons on one side and a long tube coming out of the other. The tube had a familiar funnel-shaped attachment on the end of it. Yuuri blinked and started to chuckle.

"A vaccuum cleaner," he croaked out between laughs. "Anissina, you're a genius!"

Somewhere far away, in a dark room deep in the Blood Pledge Castle, a little light blinked, accompanied by a pleasant ding. Anissina looked up from her workbench and smirked. "Why thank you," she chirped to her favorite invention, before turning back to her research.