Title: Victory's Thrill (chapter 2)
Author: Leah Jenner
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh
Rating: PG for now, but probably will go up in later chapters. I'll switch the rating if that happens.
Included characters: Duke and Yuugi
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I swear.
Notes: Very, very obviously AU of the Napoleonic Wars kind. Don't read if it's not your thing. This all was inspired by a MSN roleplay done with bardicsidhe :3
Devlin remained in the captain's cabin after Taylor had gone. The cabin itself was the best room that could be offered in the ship. It was private, first of all, unlike the large, open spaces beneath the decks where the rest of the seamen slept, all one hundred and fifty of them, sleeping in their hammocks side by side. The midshipmen had one room that they all shared, as did two lieutenants, but the captain was the only man who slept in privacy and solitude.
Until now, that is.
Oh, Devlin planned on stretching his control over the captain as much as possible. The room was well enough for he himself to stay in, he decided. The four walls were pale yellow, decorated by ornate navy blue flowering designs. Taylor's desk was a deep mahogany, built well, with an embossed leather top which made it all the more sturdy. The top of the desk was littered with various items, including a map of the Atlantic, a compass, and the ship's inventory logs. The captain's chair on the other side of the desk was identical to the one Devlin was seated in.
The captain's hammock was hung by the ceiling against the wall, a pale tan pillow and blanket thrown on top of it, both having the initials 'T. T.' stitched into them with blue thread.
A dresser and a bookcase made from the same mahogany as the desk were situated against the opposite wall. Each shelf was like a cabinet, having doors that needed to be opened in order to see the contents inside. It had to be this way, otherwise the tilts of the ship would have all of the captain's belongings strewn out over the floor. Various charts and maps were nailed up on the wall.
Devlin turned back to his cards, and continued his work on his game of Solitaire, a smirk spreading across his face at his predicament. French nobleman? If that's all the captain thought Devlin was, he was highly mistaken. The Frenchman, in actuality, was a captain of his own frigate, and had been ordered by his French admiral to engage in a charade to infiltrate England's Victory as a spy. Oh, Devlin knew the risk was high for this sort of mission – After all, the penalty for spying in England was death. The punishment couldn't be any less, for if spies were to get away with the information they had discovered, the results could be disastrous for the English navy.
But the plan was perfect. He was posed as a civilian, a noble who had simply been trying to get passage across the sea. His ship had been occupied not of his full crew of men, but of other civilians, women, mostly. If the English had continued firing knowingly on a civilian ship, the consequences would have been substantial. It would have been an unforgivable offense.
As it was, however, the scheme had now been put into motion. The captain was dense enough, trusting enough, to believe everything that he had said. Devlin had positioned that civilian ship directly in the path of Taylor's, for he had received word earlier from France that Taylor was a newly appointed captain. A novice, and an inexperienced one at that. True, Taylor needed work on his leadership skills, but he was an excellent fighter. He knew what his goals were and he ran for them without heeding the possibilities of failure. Taylor had been a successful lieutenant by just following orders, but now that he was the one giving instructions, his true personality and style of leading had yet to be shown through completely.
Devlin, on the other hand, was a master strategist and captain of his own ship, which was waiting for him back in France. This mission of his would last until Victory reached England, wherein he would escape from Taylor's hold of him and rendezvous with a French band of sharpshooters waiting for him on the coast to take him back to France. It was almost too easy…
Almost. After all, he did have work to do while he was onboard Victory. The captain, somewhere in this room, had hidden secret documents as to the location of all of England's frigates, the layout and number of men aboard each ship, and how many guns each frigate boasted. If Devlin could get his hands on this information, the English would be sitting ducks, just waiting unknowingly to be attacked. French battleships could move from one English ship to the next, until they had completely swept the Atlantic free of them. This would, naturally, mean France's victory in the naval war.
And it would also mean a promotion for Devlin. He pondered what sort of reward he would be given. Surely a position as admiral, and a monetary reward of some sort. He couldn't wait until he found those documents. And because Taylor would be out of his cabin for so long, for hours today, Devlin could begin his search presently.
After winning his game of Solitaire, the Frenchman left his cards on top of the desk and instead circled around to observe the other side of that desk. Across the frieze were three drawers, the drawer in the center larger than the two on either side of it. Each had a bronze handle, ornamental, the metal curved and curling into an elaborate twist. And each drawer had a key hole.
Devlin, at once, tried each of the drawers, starting with the leftmost. It was locked shut. He tried the center drawer, then the one on the right, but he found the same resistance there. They were all locked.
He sighed, and cursed inwardly. He knew he had to find the key, but he assumed the captain either had it on his being, or had hidden it somewhere else in his room. If Taylor did have it with him, Devlin would have to wait to look for it later. However, for the time being, he decided he could look around the rest of the room to see if he could find anything else that could be useful to him. He circled around the desk again.
When he reached the other side, the door creaked open, and a midshipman that had been posted outside his door peaked his head inside to relay a quick message. "Lieutenant Wheeler just came to tell me that the captain wants me to check on you from time to time, and to make sure you're not getting in any trouble."
Devlin rolled his eyes. "Naturally." But then he thought better of it, and calmed his attitude again. He had to make the officers trust him. He wasn't concerned with the seamen – they could think what they wanted, and probably would, but the trust of the midshipman, the lieutenants, and of course the captain, was what was important to Devlin. "Well, you may as well come in, then. Do you play cards? I'm devilishly bored."
"Me?" the midshipman replied, looking rather taken aback. "But I haven't been given permission to enter the captain's cabin. And when we reach the Éternité, I've got to return to my post on deck. One of the seamen will take my place here."
"Well, if the captain complains about your actions, tell him I forced you to play," Devlin replied with a wave of his hand. "Come here, will you?"
The midshipman, a little shyly, finally agreed to the offer, closing the door behind him. He was small, young for a midshipman. Devlin guessed that he was perhaps thirteen, and his hair, partially hidden beneath his hat, was discolored, as if by chemical pollution, or by some accident. Devlin didn't inquire about it, and instead waved his hand to offer the captain's chair to the boy, then sat down again across from him. "Your name?"
The other replied as he took his seat, "Midshipman Yuugi Mutou, of His Britannic Majesty's – "
"Oh, don't bother with the titles," Devlin interrupted. "'Mutou' would have been enough. What do you play, Mutou?"
"Mm…" the younger boy had to think for a moment. "Faro's well and fun. I never play with money, though."
"Ah, Faro. That's forbidden in France," Devlin replied with a helpless shrug. "I don't know the game, I'm afraid. You English are far more loose on gambling laws."
The other's gaze suddenly turned concerned. "But we don't gamble on the ship! Definitely not. Just with chips, see?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of colorful playing chips.
Devlin knew why the boy had become so defensive – the penalty for gambling in the navy was flogging. "I know you're not gambling. But people in France did, and it caused too much trouble, so the game was banned. Do you know any other games?"
Relaxing a bit now, Mutou pocketed his chips again, and then considered what other games he knew how to play. He tried to think of a game that the Frenchman might be familiar with. "How about… Piquet?"
"Ah, Piquet… Fine game," Devlin replied as he picked up each of the four stacks of cards left over from his Solitaire game, and removed all numbered cards below seven, except the aces, and set them aside. This was an easy task because the cards were already placed in order from his previous game. When the deuces, treys, fours, fives, and sixes were all set aside, he gathered up the remaining cards and shuffled them out, then dealt the cards. "Tell me about the captain," he requested, making what seemed to Mutou like polite small talk. But to Devlin, this information might be able to help him later in his mission.
"The captain?" Mutou asked, examining his cards. "What about him?"
"How old is he? How long have he and his wife been together? What sorts of things does he like to do in his free time?" Devlin rephrased for the young boy.
"How old?" Mutou repeated. "I should think… twenty five? Something like that. About your age, it looks like. I can't remember exactly. His wife? Oh, the captain hasn't spent much time with her at all after they were married. You see, he knew he was going to be sent away on duty, so he quickly married her the day he was going to be sent away at sea. That's what Lieutenant Wheeler said one day. The kinds of things he likes? …I don't know. I don't see the captain much except on duty, but I've heard from the lieutenants that he likes to fix things. He was supposedly really good at being a regular seaman, doing the lowly work, you know? And he likes music. I don't think he's much for parties and things like you are, though. Nobles really like parties, don't they?"
"Quite," Devlin replied automatically, studying his own cards. "So what did Wheeler think about Taylor marrying his sister so quickly?"
"I think he was a little against the speed of it all, but he said if they're in love, then they should go ahead with it," Mutou replied with a smile. "I don't think the captain's the sort to be cruel to a lady, anyway."
"Has he ever been married to anyone before Mrs. Taylor?"
"Mm… no," Mutou replied, discarding one of his cards, as was the requirement of the game.
"Would you call your captain a man of good morals?" Devlin asked, discarding one of his own cards.
"Oh, yes, most definitely," the other replied, still smiling. "He's a really good man. He's kind to everyone, unless he has reason not to, of course, and he's never been cruel to any of the men unless they did something wrong on the ship. He's very fair."
As Devlin observed the boy in front of him, he could clearly come to the conclusion that Mutou was able to see the good in just about anyone. After all, he was sitting playing cards with a 'frog.' He can't be a bad boy, Devlin decided. "Did he get to see Mrs. Taylor much the day they were married?"
"No, I don't think so," Mutou replied. "He had to leave to come to the ship right after."
Devlin smirked inwardly. Well, it seemed as if Taylor had never been with a woman. He might be able to use that against the other man later. But for now, Devlin continued to ask questions. However, he veered from the captain, not wanting to seem suspicious. "What about you? Your name… seems rather foreign. Where are you from? Your English doesn't sound any different than the rest of the men here, though…"
"My name?" Mutou asked. "Oh, my great-grandfather was from the east, in Japan. He married a woman in England, and there's been nothing but English blood that's entered my family after that. But… I guess my family has a tradition of naming children names that are from the area where the family originally came from. I don't get it, really… I was teased dreadfully as a seaman… But the captain received word for my promotion the day he became captain. So I'm not teased about it so much anymore."
"Because your bastard underlings could get flogged for disrespect to an officer," Devlin replied knowingly. Turning his attention back toward the game, Devlin asked, "What do you have?"
But before the two could speak another word, cannon fire was heard - the French frigate must have been closer than the captain had expected. After a quick look at Devlin, Mutou stood after dropping his cards, and he abruptly hurried out of the cabin to prepare for battle.