Hoped to get this up earlier, but crazy morning!

I did a lot of research on ships and galleons for this fic and I made some edits to the previous chapters to reflect the changes to the ship. I literally redid a blueprint of how i designed the ship with the order and location of the rooms and buildings, so see below for the notes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. Characters are Takehashi's both manga and anime only (and i just realized there are a lot of anime only characters.

Chapter XI: Defiance

Timaeus couldn't have staged his surprise if he wanted to. At seven and twenty and used to the worst of war, he'd strutted into Rhebekka's infirmary numerous times, confident nothing would shock him. This had been no exception and yet here he was: frozen, arm still flexed, lone eye stretched vertically wide, eyebrows vanishing beneath his silver forelock, cheeks flat and the neutral line of his lips parted in a voiceless question.

The reason for his shock spun to unwittingly face him and stopped: a platter of bottles and bandages in one hand and an armful of towels in the other. Taken completely off guard, he inhaled a squeak, eyes blinking owlishly like an adulteress caught with her lover. Yugi's stomach dropped to his toes. The bottles jingled and some fell over as his hand shook, the towels immediately rose to cover his chest and shoulders, bare of all but the silver-ribboned bodice of the borrowed smock, identical to the ones Rhebekka used when she treated wounds—and thus was designed to be worn exclusively by a woman. Which Yugi was not.

Chivalry and respect command Timaeus look away but their demands were muted and his perfectly controlled body refused to obey. He was torn between laughing and chiding, interest and annoyance. After the spectacle he'd made about wearing the dress Timaeus had picked to reflect his status, here Yugi was willing wearing one of Rhebekka's smocks?

The witnesses to the spectacle soon included the whole room, and had gone quiet as a roaming storm. The Physician looked up from the patient she'd been treating, annoyed when her extra bandages had yet to arrive. She met the scene with a deer's inquisitive eyes, looking from Timaeus' stark shock and jilted annoyance to Yugi's mortified disbelief that he made no effort to conceal, and rolled her eyes.

"If you two are going to stare at each other all day, can I at least get my bandages?" she held up her hand and curled the fingers.

Reality crashed into them both: the mutual spell between them shattered like glass and the reality that set in was more striking and humiliating then the previous episode. Yugi spun to face her, his fair cheeks crimsoning and doing nothing to hide the color. Timaeus blinked then coughed into his hand, and she thought she saw his tan cheeks turn pink.

"Sorry Rhebekka," Yugi apologized surprisingly level and practiced dignity and control. Stepping back into the role of a Sekhmet priest, he set the platter down on the table next to her and laid the towels down next to it. He turned to the servant girl whose cheek he rubbed with balm and bandaged, and a boy who had a cut on his forehead but showed no other signs of trauma after he'd awoken that morning and Yugi checked his eyes for a concussion.

Only when their health was confirmed did Yugi turn to Timaeus with a glare. "Why are you here?" He accused like Timaeus very presence was an annoyance, his face creased in a frown and his bottom lip protruding. But the Trierarch's ears and eye were sharp and he caught the embarrassment pinking his cheeks, the stutter in his voice and the way his shoulders shook.

With an affectionate smile and his lids sultry sliding half-closed, he said "You're quite adorable when you're angered, did you know that, little one?"

Yugi gawked at him then his eyes were set afire, blazing like amethysts in the sun. "I beg your pardon."

"You're like a kitten trying to be a wildcat." He continued, gaze electrified and his smile curled with a twinkle of amusement. "All frazzled and teeth and claws."

But never enough to be a real threat, Yugi understood.

Timaeus single eye sparkled like a galvanized emerald, and the jagged line of his scar shinned dangerously seductive. Suddenly, the gaze slowly descended, smoothly, from Yugi's face to the curve of his bare neck, the arch of his naked shoulders, the line where the bodice hid his pectorals, smooth stomach, boyish hips and slender legs, to his sandaled feet. Then slowly slid back up, smile curling hungrily as he did and settling on the firm, but trimmed muscles of his arms, and broadness of his shoulders hinting at hidden but fierce strength. His wrists were small and his hands smooth as if he'd never held a weapon in his life, but the fingers were firm and the knuckles calloused from numerous fights. Then he locked eyes with Yugi. The look lasted for several minutes. Timaeus' gaze was impossibly bright and devastatingly penetrating.

Yugi felt his own fire flicker and Timaeus smiled. "Especially dressed like that," he licked his lips like a hungry wolf, approving what he saw and hoping to taste it.

It took all of Yugi's will not to trip.

"May I ask why you're in one of my physician's smocks and not the dress I provided you?" He spoke in a clipped jibe.

The counter Yugi had prepared vanished when comprehension clarified the words. At first, he though he misheard it, but the dark spark Timaeus failed to mask was there beneath the burning green depths: the look of a jilted suitor.

Yugi cocked his head with a lop-sided grin and rolled his wrist. "Well, I was looking for a blade to cut the damn thing, but when I found so many fellow comrades wounded and the Physician working to her bones, I offered my assistance," he resisted a laugh when Timaeus' wolfish masked twitched. "But, of course, she refused to let me help unless I wore one of these wretched things," he tugged at the bodice's hem, shamelessly. "Something about the other one being the only outfit I'll have, but I was more than happy to make the sacrifice."

"Ha!" The laugh rolled off Rhebekka's tone, clear and obvious she'd archived the entire conversation without missing a beat in her work. "I forced him to change because he was going to be around blood." She chuckled, wrapping the arm of a rather young hem-netjer, who looked shocked to paralysis by her boldness. "I don't really care what the Trierarch and his guest do in the privacy of his quarters, but I'll be damned if I let anything that could lead to an infection spread in my infirmary!" Yugi spun to her, face stark with shocked betrayal.

She looked over her shoulder, green eyes snickering over the jewel-encrusted spectacles resting on her nose. She raised her chin to Timaeus whose eyes molted like the emerald sea just before it broke into a violent storm. "You know he asked me if he could cut that thing too? Kept complaining about wearing woman's clothes, but I'm the only Physician, so he had no choice. He's quite the physician though, then again I expected no less from the son of the living Sekhmet." Her praise did little to soften Yugi's rage towards his only ally.

Behind him Timaeus snickered. "I'll leave him in your care then, Rhebekka," He turned to the door. "I only came to check on him."

At the words, Yugi's fingers snapped, and his hands curled into fists, violet eyes fuming. "I," Defiance rolled off his tone in clips "Don't need a caregiver, least of all you." The snap was harsh and sharp, and made the room gasp. Even Rhebekka's eyes lifted.

Timaeus turned around and met the defiance with a frown. "You think that's true, Yugi?"

Yugi's mask remained neutral and hard. "My wounds have all healed, and your King only ordered you to protect me. I can do that myself, so no, I don't need your help. I am not a child, nor have I behaved like one. I demand you stop treating me as such!"

Saucy. It was the first word Timaeus could think to describe him that fit. Bold, wild, and full of spunk, coupled with that fervent determination to be in control. Oh yes, saucy, described his little Yugi perfectly. "I thought I made that perfectly clear when your safety was first entrusted to me." He said crisp, clean and straight to the point: neither answering the question nor dodging it.

Yugi's eyes narrowed, his fingers curled tightly into his palm and shook. "You don't trust me."

"No, little one, I don't," Timaeus said with a narrowed eye, the other a dangerous slit. His face was neutral and his frown hard. "I don't trust you not to risk yourself and attempt to fly with broken wings."

"That was circumstance," Yugi argued, defensively. "And I do not regret the attempt since I standby what I said, regardless of what your noble intentions, I knew only your reputation and I had no reason to consider you an ally."

"And you still don't," Timaeus finished, cutting him off with a harsh snort. "Ironic, how the one thing you ask of me you are not willing to bestow yourself."

Yugi's mask remained stoic, but the twitch in his shaking fingers betrayed him. "That was different."

"Indeed it was, Timaeus interrupted smoothly. "You already tried to flee once because you didn't trust me. What guarantee do I have you won't try again? Your will is too rash and your skull too thick. I, however, have given you no reason, not to trust me."

Yugi glowered. "Then you're even more arrogant than I thought." His voice was a whisper, low and sharp. "You say I'm a guest but I'm little more than a glamorized prisoner."

Timaeus glared at him. For a moment he looked conflicted, then sighed and shook his head with a patronizingly amused smile. "No, little one, you are not. They," he gestured an arm around him, "Are glamorized prisoners as you've so lightly termed. You, however," He paused and leaned forward, his fingers slipping to curl over the hem of Yugi's bodice and with a sharp tug pulled him directly level with his penetratingly lustrous gaze. The same gaze that sent a treacherous shiver of surrender down Yugi's spine and stole all his will to fight. "Are mine to protect."

Timaeus released him. Yugi remained still. Timaeus turned around and over his shoulder said "I'll return after dinner, until then, he's yours Rhebekka." Timaeus didn't wait for an answer, and shut the door tightly behind him. Once the thick wooden barrier was between them, he collapsed against it. Unable to keep it with in his chest, he bellowed a snort: snort that quickly evolved into a hearty chuckle and finally exploded in a voluminous laugher so rich and humorous that down below, every sailor and soldier stopped to listen. It lasted so long and roared so loud and booming, for an instant they feared their Trierarch had gone mad.

"Great Leviathan!" Timaeus roared his amusement to the Gods. "That boy is a challenge!"

And he enjoyed every minute of it.

X X X

It had felt like ten years, Yugi had stared frozen at the door. In reality it couldn't have been longer than ten seconds. His nerves shot, unable to process what happened and struggling even more to accept it. His face crimsoned and his eyes bulged, slowly understanding. His hand suddenly flew to his chest like he had been burned. The area still warmed from Timaeus' gloved fingers. Why that blasted—

Remembering where he was, he controlled himself, and sought a place to escape before he could humiliate himself. He found the descending flight of stairs in the back and stomped to the mess deck a layer below.

Rhebekka watched the whole debacle with a relaxed amusement, counting in her mind, as Yugi no doubt searched for a pot to scream in. Her tease of a Trierarch was weaving his spell a little too well, this time. There was a muffled roar of anger and frustration just as Rhebekka finished counting. The boy returned a minute later: face still red and eyes still angry, but stood solid against the wall. Rhebekka finished bandaging her last patient, grabbed her supply satchel and strolled over. Yugi saw her coming and caught her smirk, and felt his pride wound further. He felt like a child and chided himself, and uttered curses on the cause of his frustration.

"Vexing," he grumbled.

Rhebekka froze with a bewildered blink. "Beg pardon?"

"Vexing," Yugi repeated ringing his fingers. "It is the only way I can describe that man. Completely, utterly and uncontrollably vexing!"

Rhebekka's smile curled with amusement, she looked over each shoulder, before leaning forward to whisper. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were sweet on him."

Yugi gawked. "I—what?"

Rhebekka giggled. "Oh don't be embarrassed. You're not the first to find his rugged mystery appealing. Mine was horrendous when I was a girl."

Yugi blanched. "N-no, that's not—" He paused at the echo of her words. "You were one of his lovers?" He barely chocked the words out.

Rhebekka roared laughing. "Oh heavens no, I'm much too young for him, besides it would've made out ship lives very awkward if you catch my meaning."

Yugi did and said nothing.

Rhebekka leaned against the wall with a cat's grin. "You like him. Don't deny it."

"Where'd you get that idea?" Yugi snorted. His cheeks pink.

Rhebekka's smile was intellectual but cunning. "I've been the youngest of my company since I was a child. People mistake me for a child, despite my advances, but that is their biggest flaw. When people think you a child they mistake you for being naïve. They get careless with their words and their gestures. I know people, Yugi, all I have to do is listen, and they'll tell me everything."

"And what have I betrayed about myself?" He demanded, harsh.

Rhebekka smiled. "Right there," She pointed. "I bring up the subject and you twist it to something else. You get defensive almost immediately. It's because you don't want to admit you find him appealing. So instead you mask it with a witty remark, but you can't hide your blush." Her lashes slid and her smile curled.

Yugi stood still as stone, listening but not commenting. His gestures, though he tried to restrain them, spoke for him.

"I think" Rhebekka smiled, her chin falling to rest in his open palm and balanced it on a jiggling elbow. "Secretly, you enjoy his attentions: you're humbled by his acts of kindness, but they frustrate you because you think he's boasting. You're flattered by his praise, but refuse to acknowledge it because you believe it to be only teasing. And you find yourself attracted to him, but you fight it because you believe his charm the mask of a rake. Am I wrong?"

She wasn't but Yugi did his best not to betray that fact. He didn't need to. "You're imaging that."

Rhebekka's giggled, loud and clear. Her confident smile told him she already knew. "I'm your friend Yugi; don't friends talk about that sort of thing?"

"Girls might," Yugi snorted. "But I don't gossip."

Rhebekka chuckled like a child. "I understand why you don't trust him, yet, Yugi. You simply," she paused and rolled the world off her tongue in a long, final syllable. "Haven't been around him long enough. He isn't wrong about trust being earned not given. I know you don't believe it, but he is trying hard to earn yours. Is it really so difficult to perhaps do the same?"

She was telling him matter-of-factly but it still sounded like a scolding. Even worse to be scolded from someone young enough to be your sister. Yugi thought, reddening. "Perhaps not," Yugi admitted but quickly added. "But he doesn't have to be so arrogant about it."

Rhebekka shook her head and smiled.

This was another split chapter, but it worked SO much better didn't it? I love Rhebekka, she really stole the show this chapter! And i hope you all liked Timaeus' "surprise"-at Yugi's expense of course ;)

Note on the Eye: I did a LOT of research on Spanish Galleons, Pirate ships (specifically the pirates of the Caribbean designs) and Ancient boats to make Atlantis' ships as advanced as possible but still set in this time period which led to me doing some rethinking of Timaeus' set up since it needs to be large enough for an army and crew but also light enough to sail in the Nile 9large boats could only be sailed during the flood) so anyway, here's what i got:

The Eye of Timaeus is a trireme galleon, which means its three masted, and three decked including the main deck and has a higher after-castle and helm, and a smaller forecastle. The Forecastle is the front or bow of the ship, which is normally used as living quarters for the crew but this was removed to make the ships faster: instead, the Timaeus has the infirmary in the forecastle (which I thought made sense since you can bring injured directly there instead of having to lug them up and down stairs), beneath the infirmary is the mess and galley where everyone eats that can only be entered through the upper stairs. The second level is the berth deck: where the crew sleeps, on The Eye, since the crew needs to go right to work, they sleep in hammocks then go right to work either getting ready for battle or rowing the oars. And directly beneath the after castle are the crew's toilets and the magazine where the armor and weaponry is stored: this gives the soldiers easy aspect when they're preparing for battle, and its well guarded by the whole army. The bottom level is the storage deck: from the bow to the main mast is the storage shelved, then the ship's pumps and in the far back beneath the magazine is the brigg or jail.

The top layer is the main deck, with the main mast, in the front is the forecastle, and in the back is the after-castle: this is where the Great Cabin is, but i redesgined it, so it includes not just the Captains quarters and bath but several other rooms: the first room is the state room which doubles as a navigation room for battle plans and the captain's dinning room: this is where the captain keeps all his treasures, prizes, equipment etc. directly behind it is the Captain's room which takes up half the space and the left half is the Quartermaster's chambers and a joint bath. On either side of the after-castles entrance are two stairs to the helm, where the steering is. Originally, i was thinking of putting the navigation room up there but thought that would be impractical so I went with the back of the helm being the ornament back of the ship. So that's the design i came up with for the interior. The Exterior you all got and i hope this clarifies some stuff, that'll be important later in the story.

Until then, as always read, review, comment, ask questions, post theories and just go nuts!

Next Time: Yugi decides to take Rhebekka's advice, Timaeus shares a secret and Yugi's living arrangements come into question, and something happens that has the whole crew talking!