Disclaimer- It still isn't mine. Don't sue me, I work in a pie shop for £4.50 an hour.
A/N- Nice long chapter to keep you happy if I can't udate before my holiday : Review, review, review!
After another day of hard toil, Twig finally allowed himself to slump on a piece of hull-section that was lying flat on the Mire mud, just in the cool shade of the Windcutter wreck.
"It's going well. You shouldn't be so keen to rush things, Twig,"
Maugin came and sat beside him, her leg making it awkward to sit comfortably. She looked up at the sky which was dimming into twilight and shuddered uneasily- this wide open space gave her the creeps.
"But it's useless! We'll never get it done, not for months!" said Twig, his voice laden with exasperation.
The day had been unbearably hot and, though Maugin helped where she could, Twig had to do most of the back-breaking work himself. It was just after supper and the bitter taste of the oozefish gave Twig's mouth an unpleasant tang.
"Woodgrog?" he offered, already standing and dragging a barrel out of the shadowy wreck.
"Please," said Maugin softly, she offered up one of the small metal pots she and Twig had been using as drinking vessels and he poured the amber liquid till it touched the top of the pot.
When he had filled his own, he sat back and drained the pot in one long gulp, leaning back on his elbows so his hammelhorn-skin waistcoat strained a little over his chest.
He had already removed his battered leather breastplate in the heat and now, he fumbled with the leather toggles that fastened the waistcoat and shook the garment off leaving his pirate longcoat unbuttoned over a white shirt, open at the collar and with poetic ruffles around the cuffs and chest.
Maugin couldn't help but stare.
The teenage Captain's chest was broad but not so that he looked ridiculously muscular. His shoulders were wide and his waist slim, the muscles in his arms straining a little against the royal blue longcoat he wore and the white shirt- made of thin material- allowed his toned stomach shape to define itself against the garment.
Maugin felt herself become very hot in the cheeks and lowered her head a little, looking into her pot and taking a sip once she felt cooler.
"Maugin, how old are you?"
Twig's voice snapped through her thoughts and she faced him, smiling a little.
"How old do you think I am?" she said, her voice quiet and stifling a laugh.
"Twenty years in the winter?" he enquired, leaning up on his shoulders so that he was closer to her.
"I had been a Stone Pilot two years before you were born. You are eighteen in the autumn of this year. I had been alive eight years when I was taken to a slaver."
"Then you are twenty-eight years!" Twig exclaimed in surprise. In truth he was quite disappointed for he had expected her to be closer to his age….more likely to be interested in her Captain….no! He shook his head.
"True. But a termagant will never look older than eighteen and her heart will always remain ten years younger than herself. An age is merely numbers to us termagants."
"Then you are eighteen?" he asked, quite confused.
Maugin laughed at the look of queer confusion on his face,
"Yes, my heart is eighteen and so is my body."
When she mentioned her body, Twig swallowed with some difficulty and tried hard not to look at her for a few minutes. He went to pour himself another woodgrog but, clumsy with nerves, he knocked Maugin's pot of ale all over her.
"Maugin! I-I'm so sorry! By Sky I never meant-"
Maugin bit her lip and touched the wet suit. In truth she was terribly hot inside the thick suit and, though nervous, she shrugged and managed a small smile.
"I-I don't…I didn't…" stammered Twig, still feeling incredibly stupid for his clumsiness.
"Relax. I'll be fine. Excuse me for a moment."
Maugin stood and went inside the wreck leaving Twig alone.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he cursed himself.
He pushed his face into his hands and tugged the thick black hair resting on his forehead. Now she'd think him a complete idiot, how could such a beautiful creature possibly think anything more of him now? Would she be upset? Would she be crying inside the ship, too brave to let him see her tears?
Guilt churned inside him and he started to stand up to apologise to her, to say anything to her that might redeem himself in her eyes, but Maugin was already walking towards him to sit down again. Twig's eyes nearly rolled out of his skull.
The suit was gone and she wore a slightly greying slip with the tiniest straps Twig had seen on a garment. It showed her smooth pale arms, so slender they looked as if they might snap and her tiny feet and ankles. Her doll-like waist was just visible as she walked a little more gracefully today- her leg wound didn't seem so angry and she sat beside Twig, shivering a little now that the sun had set and the Mire was covered with an inky sky.
"It's a little cooler now…" she murmured before pouring herself another pot of woodgrog and draining half of it. The sweet ale burned her throat, warming her body and blurring her mind.
"Then sit closer to me, we're friends after all, fellow shipmates," chuckled Twig, moving over a little so that she could sit beside him.
Gratefully, Maugin shuffled over and sat back beside Twig, their bodies forced to remain close on the narrow piece of wood, lest they should be covered in the sticky Mire mud.
Twig looked out over the vast landscape and drained his third pot of woodgrog. It was beginning to loosen his tongue and before he could arrange his words he had already spoken.
"Maugin, have you ever loved anyone?" he said jauntily, leaning back on his elbows again and looking up at her to await her response. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and she leaned back a little onto her hands.
"No. I don't suppose I will either; I'm not really a normal girl am I?"
She gave him a small smile but there was something in her eyes that told him how much it hurt to say what she felt out loud.
"You've never liked anyone? Never…never kissed a man?" he enquired delicately, wondering whether she would slap him in the face for asking.
"I've never kissed anyone. I've never liked anyone before," she whispered, the ball of misery in her throat making it difficult to talk any louder.
"Neither have I. I know a beautiful girl but somehow I can't think how under open Sky she'd ever feel anything for me."
Twig turned and saw that Maugin was lying flat on her back, her legs bent slightly and her hands folded on her chest. Her eyes glittered a little in the starlight and their shimmering reflectivity drew Twig closer to her so that he was lying on his side, one leg crooked behind him both his feet bare having kicked off his boots hours ago.
Maugin sighed and swallowed away the lump in her throat before she turned her head a little and noticed Twig's closeness. She also noticed how smooth and pale his skin was, his raven hair, fairly long and unkempt, tiny curls and waves falling onto his face and the rest pulled back into a piece of shabby black ribbon. The slightly upturned nose and full lips below long, dark lashes that surrounded those wild, gleaming eyes, as green as marsh gems or emeralds.
She shivered slightly and smiled nervously at him.
"Tell me about her. How beautiful is she? What does she look like?"
Twig smiled and inched a little closer.
"She has beautiful long red hair that tumbles right down her back and skin fairer than the first wood-blossom. Though her eyes are what make me want to hold her, their so…unusual. Silvery yet blue. Happy yet sad. And framed with the most beautiful long lashes…but she'd never be interested in me Maugin…"
"Have you told her how beautiful she is? How you admire her? Long for her? Want to hold her?" asked Maugin, her voice barely a whisper as she stared straight into Twig's sparkling eyes, hardly daring to breathe.
"I don't know how to tell her. Sky knows I haven't tried but I can't seem to find the words…" Twig paused and glanced down at Maugin, her long slim frame, large eyes and fiery hair. She was far too perfect for him.
"You've gotten closer…" breathed Maugin suddenly noticing the distance between them had disappeared and the left side of her body was just touching Twig's chest as he lay on his side, propped up on one elbow.
"The night is cold. I thought it'd be warmer to be close…" he murmured.
Maugin watched him, her eyes flickering. To feel him against her even a little was making her whole spine tingle. She kicked herself mentally. He was her Captain. Her friend. Cloud Wolf's son. She shouldn't feel this way, it was wrong wasn't it?
"Twig, how would you feel if a girl you knew told you she liked you as more than a friend?" she asked inquisitively.
Twig looked at her, a tiny frown line of thought wrinkling his brow and he licked his lips before he answered.
"It depends on who she was. How would you feel if a boy told you he liked you as more than a friend?"
His eyes had grown fairly serious now and rested on nothing else but Maugin's own silvery blue eyes. Her breath caught in her throat before she thought out an answer.
"I'd ask him to kiss me. Then I would know how he felt by the way he kissed me," whispered Maugin, barely breathing. Twig was closer than ever and she could just feel his breath on her cheek. She turned to face him straight on and simply looked at him.
He had cast off his longcoat and now he wore just his tight black pants and the thin white shirt, open just a little to expose the tiniest amount of dark curling hair on the Captain's chest. His body was a smooth line, his legs long, his waist slim and the shirt was untucked, giving Maugin the tiniest glimpse of the fair skin of his hip. His eyes were serious and questioning, yet sensitive, his eyebrows were dark and one arched itself into the most unusually beautiful expression Maugin had ever seen on a male before. The pale skin of his face contrasted beautifully with the black of his long lashes and the messy raven hair that strayed over his forehead slightly.
Maugin swallowed. She could see every tiny lash on his eyelids and the exact shade of the middle of his iris- she couldn't move at all.
Twig simply looked at her. He bit his lower lip slightly as his eyes roamed over her.
Every lash around her huge silver eyes, the velvet paleness of her skin, almost liquid in the dark of the night and the mass of fiery locks tumbling innocently around her face, her swanlike neck gave way to an ivory collarbone and the soft white skin of her breasts, round and full beneath the flimsy dress, Twig could just make out the outline of her delicate nipple and below it, her navel and tiny waist. Her curves screamed for him to touch, her mouth called for him to taste, her body begged him to take it.
"And what would you do if your Captain- that is to say, myself- kissed you Maugin?" whispered Twig, his voice barely audible, slightly purring with lust and laden with hesitation.
Maugin froze. She hadn't been expecting anything of the kind. The Captain, already far taller than her and strong as a full grown man was more handsome than anyone she'd met before and here he was, lying so close, offering himself to her, allowing her to be so close to his perfect body…
"I-I- I don't know Twig…I can't think straight…I have to sleep!"
And leaving him alone, she got up and fled as fast as her leg would permit her into the darkness of the mainhold, slamming her own door behind her and leaning breathless and tear-streaked against the wall, her head in turmoil and her naïve heart confused and sore.
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