Nagisa tried not to flinch when Nitori gestured toward the galley door, "After you."

After all that had taken place these past few hours he had half expected the surgeon to slip a butterfly knife from his sleeve and order him to the infirmary without further delay.

He was curiously disappointed by Nitori's failure to comply with his idle fantasy; the man looked downright professional.

"You sure I can't just head back to crew quarters? I'm warm enough now."

A lifted brow and knowing smirk were all the answer he received. Damnation.

"Nagisa, please, it's late and I would just as soon be abed." Rei's entire form was steadily crumpling in on itself, shoulders bowing beneath an invisible weight while his eyelids fluttered with the need to shut. Under any other circumstances Nagisa would have found the overall effect rather charming. As it was, he wondered who would watch his back when he nodded off in the dragon's lair.

With a final suspicious glare for Nitori, Nagisa marched out of the galley as though expecting to meet a firing squad beyond the door. No one was obliging enough to fulfill that fantasy either, more the pity.

"I take it you will complete a final round of the deck before joining us in the infirmary?"

Nagisa grit his teeth, snorting softly. Nitori only ever addressed Rei politely; no sharp words or veiled threats. Come to it, even when playing at being their timid healer he had always responded best to Rei, never deliberately evading the navigator as he had so many other crewmen.

"I shouldn't be more than ten minutes."

"Begin your final checks now. I will see to Nagisa."

"I can hear you." Nagisa snapped, vexed anew at their intimate tones. Rei wouldn't understand his jealousy, Nagisa knew, but thrice-damned Nitori likely had an idea of what he was doing.

"Is there some reason you shouldn't?" Sardonic amusement colored Nitori's tone. Unable to find a suitably witty reply, Nagisa chose the better part of valor and held his silence.

Rei cleared his throat uncomfortably, drawing a breath as though intending to break the tension with a handful of meaningless words but Nagisa could hear Nitori's dismissive gesture. Rei snorted softly but chose not to contradict the silent command. Technically a surgeon would rank just below the first mate in terms of authority over the crew, but with that lamentable silent phase… it would take adapting to, this idea that he owed any respect to the man.

Rei's footsteps echoed with the heavy weight of fatigue as he trotted away from them, eager to be done with his task. If Nagisa hadn't known better, he would have assumed Rei was the one that had spent the better part of the night on a botched raid.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Nagisa snapped, careful to keep his voice from carrying.

"What the hell am I meant to have done to him?" Nitori queried, all innocence.

"He's fucking exhausted. Rei is ship's navigator, not a cabin boy to run your errands, Aiichirou."

"I will do you the courtesy of attributing that slip to your recent adventures." Nitori's tone made it plain he assumed everything that had gone wrong could be laid squarely at Nagisa's door. Bastard.

"But you will never address me by my given name again."

If he had known it was such a sensitive matter, he could have exploited it far sooner. As it was, Nitori's strange bouts of insanity tempered the desire to taunt him.

"Fine." Nagisa snapped,turning to march toward the infirmary. Was it his imagination or were the shadows themselves cowering away from that door? Likely Nitori had struck some sort of infernal bargain to protect his domain or did the devil merely protect his own?

It was a minute longer before he realized Nitori hadn't accompanied him; even he couldn't move so softly as to make no sound at all.

"Nitori?" Nagisa winced at his quailing voice, curiously muffled even now. Son of a bitch. He hadn't even gone half a dozen paces and already the surgeon had duped him. "See to Nagisa" indeed.

In the next moment, budding nervousness was replaced with relief. If Nitori had not accompanied him, it would give him a few moments to inspect the infirmary and determine which corner he would claim for his own tonight. Preferably someplace far from the door where he could keep his back to the wall. He crossed the final few feet to the entryway, hesitated only a moment before pushing in, still bracing for a veritable cabinet of horrors though he had seen the unnatural organization of the place only hours ago.

No corpses had appeared during his absence; the room looked as neat and orderly as it had in the light of the afternoon.

Now that he no longer had an apology to tender or a crazed physician to contend with, he was free to inspect the room on his own. The infirmary said far more about Nitori than his gray surgeon's gown ever had; it betrayed far more than Nitori would ever willingly tell him. Anything he could learn here might well be of use later when Nitori lost his mind, as he was sure to do.

Nagisa knew he didn't have Makoto's gift for observation neither Rei's particular talent for convincing men to tell him far more than they intended, but Nitori couldn't possibly be any more of an enigma than he was now. It would be worth all his efforts if he could glean even one fact he wasn't meant to know.

The cupboard in the far corner seemed the most promising place to begin. Obviously it had once been a drinking cabinet, dull stained glass set into wood that appeared recently polished but cracked as though it had been neglected for years. The captain's cabin held its twin, Nagisa knew, and wondered at what deal Rin had struck when they had first brought the surgeon aboard that he should have the next best appointed quarters on ship. Rather a sumptuous prison for such an unassuming creature.

Nagisa poked at it cautiously, warily using the tip of a blanket to remove whatever prints his fingers left. The wood was not warped but did not open to his gentle prying. Locked, then. Another surprise, that Nitori should be permitted a place to keep his private affairs. Nagisa squinted through the glass, cursing the age that had made it run like liquid to distort the image inside; doubtless the design was all the rage shoreside, but it did make investigating damned difficult. Rei would probably know how to trick the lock open; he had confessed to a few hours whiled away among his father's more risque papers when a boy.

Rei's loyalty was still very much his, no matter Nitori's gentle words.

As he paced away from the cabinet the scent of polish faded, replaced by something tantalizingly floral. Where the hell had Nitori found flowers this far out to sea? Had he brought them back from shore or did their surgeon have an admirer aboard ship? Nagisa quickly discarded the idea; there was an air of refinement that still clung to Nitori despite his time among the crew; he wouldn't share his bed with a salt-washed sailor if his life depended upon it. Though if that kiss earlier had been anything to go by he might well make an exception.

Feeling a blush rising, Nagisa pushed the thought away viciously. Sweet God, with the beds right there and a lock on the door-

And Rei lying in the next bed over, keeping watch. Hell, Nagisa hadn't thought there was much left that could bring the blood to his face, but that thought had the very tips of his ears scorching with a combination of lust and shame.

He ghosted his fingers over the finish on the small desk Nitori used for all purposes, ink-stained, but not recently. Their surgeon was as fastidious as any housewife. Moreso perhaps. Seeing as he had no choice but to spend the night in this room, Nagisa found he was grateful for it.

Ah. The flowers were there, dried out and brittle but still giving off their pervasive aroma. The scent would not normally have been to Nagisa's taste, but coupled with his image of Nitori- yes, the scent was fitting.

He had just turned his attention to the bed farthest from the door, contemplating its size and idly wondering if two men might comfortably share the space when the door opened to admit none other than the object of his thoughts.

"I take it you have satisfied your curiosity?" Nitori didn't so much as pause in stripping the sheet from a bed, kneeling to root under it for a small, battered chest. Nagisa watched with interest as he pulled out a cotton shirt before sliding it brusquely back into place.

"Tch. Not much to you that I want to know, healer. Where are you going with those?"

"The islander is as much at risk as yourself. Perhaps more so, If he should catch a chill and die on my watch, I think it would go poorly for me."

"I ordered the brazier lit before I returned." Why he had volunteered the information so willingly, Nagisa couldn't be certain; he silenced the voice that whispered he wanted the surgeon's gratitude or approval. The same one that suggested he might be a little jealous of the easy camaraderie between ship's navigator and surgeon.

"Did you?" Relief colored Nitori's tone, a dash of amusement lifting his lips into an uncomfortable smile. Dammit. Did the man have to see through him every time?

"If it wasn't for you, Rin would weigh me down and throw me overboard if he thought I'd cost him a prisoner."

"I imagine he would." Thoughtful now. Nagisa hated that tone. "In any case; these must be delivered. You will take the bed to the far wall."

Meaning he must not take the bed at the far wall under any circumstances. Unless Nitori knew he intended to be defiant and so thought to trick him into it. Or was he expecting Nagisa to think of that and therefore take the bed at the far wall? Perhaps he should ask Rei, or was he being maneuvered into position, slowly being taught to take orders from someone that had been his captive mere days ago?

Nagisa knew there was a very good reason he was not counted a strategist. Better to put a pistol in his hands and aim him in the right direction than ask him which way it was best to shoot. He would take the bed and be damned to whatever schemes Nitori thought he was weaving.

Nitori had ducked out of the infirmary again before he had a chance to say as much. Taking advantage of the bright moonlight still filtering through the door, Nagisa scrambled for the wax candle embedded on table's edge, scrabbling around the desk until he found tinder dry enough to light. Candles were precious, especially now when it had been so long since they had put in for supplies, but Nagisa wasn't about to be left alone in the darkness.

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Rei had not known how tired he was until Nagisa had set off for the infirmary, all his carefully-concealed worry at last allowed free reign. Nagisa took it poorly when he fretted; he always counted it a poor reflection upon his abilities.

Rei knew exactly how fast a routine mission could fall to pieces. Nagisa was a better shot than he had ever been, and Rin was not near so incompetent as some of the officers with bought and paid for commissions Rei had served with, but much as Makoto might like to argue the point, humans were unpredictable predators at best.

In fact, Nanase Haruka might well have been a blind spot for Makoto as well; no one had predicted his attack against the ship.

Rei's feet turned at last toward the hold, satisfied that the deck was free and clear. He couldn't say for certain how long Haruka and his crew had been at work, but doubtless the ship had taken some damage. With the dearth of supplies they were facing now, Rei devoutly hoped it was nothing too serious.

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Nitori very deliberately did not rush across the deck as fast as his legs could carry him. It would be unseemly if any member of the crew caught sight of the gleeful skip that might have betrayed his intentions to the insightful observer.

In his blatant attempt to predict Nitori's orders, Nagisa had quite neatly solved the very dilemma that had begun to play upon his mind the very moment the crewmembers had escorted Haruka from the galley.

However was he supposed to get the troublesome islander off the ship?

The easiest method would be to help him escape, but that was mutiny and punishable by death. Not one of the crew would lose a moment's sleep over his sudden demise, Nitori was sure. Not until a suitably gruesome plague took the ship in its clutches. Rin was wise enough to know he had been fortunate in finding Nitori; another surgeon might well have deliberately fouled his wounds or spread sickness. Another might have made multiple bids for freedom.

That would not stop Rin from putting an abrupt end to Nitori's activities if he realized his ship's surgeon was working against him. The best he could hope for then was a chance to make it back to land and hope the locals hadn't taken his actions to heart. Nitori would not have laid coin on that outcome, even had he been a man prone to gambling.

Nagisa, though… in his eagerness to please, he had inadvertently given their prisoner a sure means of escape if he was clever and bold enough to take it. Nitori had no doubt he was reckless enough; he was beginning to think it might even be catching. An interesting thought, that emotions could be prone to spreading like illness- if he had the proper tools to hand and even a vague idea of how to prove it, doubtless it would have made an interesting pamphlet.

As it was, he would have to content himself with pure theory until such time as the materials became available again.

Which wasn't going to happen if he ended up being taken aboard the naval vessel because of Rin and Makoto's recklessly immature desire for revenge against Haruka.

With the ship in this sorry state, pursued by a vessel in exceptional trim and the potential for a third entering the fray, it was better to simply give the islanders their leader and hope they were too distracted to pursue his erstwhile captors. It was their best chance at continued freedom, and Nitori was determined to take it, captain's orders be damned.

He glided past the guards at Haruka's door, not bothering to ask their leave or even so much as knock before he pushed his way in.

Haruka's guilty leap at Nitori's entry confirmed his determination to slip away. It wouldn't take him long to settle on the brazier as his only viable option; the guards outside had been explicitly instructed to gut him if he emerged. The only solution would be to ensure they were otherwise occupied, and how better than to once again damage the ship? Vengeance and practicality neatly combined into one pleasing package.

"I am sure the captain will see to the rest of your needs tomorrow, but you will need the blankets tonight." He proffered the shirt and blanket, watching Haruka's expression for some hint of what he might think of this development. Disappointingly, he did not make the obvious connection between cloth and flame. Not immediately at least.

Nitori could see the moment Haruka decided to attempt making him an ally. It seemed the man was expecting a captivity of no little duration, and while Nitori could respect his foresight, he could not help but think the man must be blind.

"Thank you."

Nitori only nodded, turning back to the door before Haruka could say more. He liked being manipulated even less than he liked being coerced, and if this man thought to play on his sympathy, he would find it was a quality all of his captors were sorely lacking.

He emerged from the makeshift prison feeling immeasurably lighter, an indefinable weight lifted from his shoulders. If the guards noticed the pleased smile hovering about his lips, neither dared to breathe a word of it.

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"Shit." Rei clamped his lips shut over the stream of profanity that threatened to follow. A gentleman was never supposed to so thoroughly lose his temper that he could not govern his own tongue. Of course, gentlemen weren't supposed to make themselves invaluable members of a pirate crew either, and they certainly were not supposed to seduce the weapons-master of said ship.

By contrast, a few gutter words seemed downright innocent.

"Bloody-minded hackums. What the hell am I meant to do with you?"

In a ship this size, the small breach he eyed wouldn't normally be a concern; a round with the bilge pumps would set all aright and they could be on their merry way with a fancy bit of carpentry and some tar.

With the vessel limping along as it already was and no supplies to hand, this minor inconvenience was set to become a disaster.

And damn it all to hell, but it had happened on his watch. The impudence rankled. Always the Samenoe had been safe in his keeping, and now the captain left the deck for a matter of a few hours and suddenly the whole ship was ready to fall to pieces at the first sign of rough weather. If this luck continued they would have no choice but to surrender to the Imperial navy and plead for clemency.

He had served under Rin long enough to know that surrender was never an acceptable strategy as far as the captain was concerned.

Still, for the time they had spent near the ship's hull the damage could have been far worse. Unless-

"Mother of-" Rei turned and bolted from the hold, his long legs taking the stairs two and three at a time as he scrambled for the deck, nearly bowling over Nitori in his haste to make for the aft end.

The surgeon's graceful hands found his coat when he tried to slip by, clamping down with surprising force so that Rei would have had no choice but to throw him to the deck if he wanted to continue unchecked. He froze, surprised at the frustrated growl that spilled from his mouth. Sweet heaven, he needed sleep; he was becoming little more than an animal.

"Unless all the demons of hell are chasing you I think there is no need for such haste."

"The tiller. The fucking tiller. He's cut our lines. If we can't steer this ship then we're going to flounder. The damned navy might as well have caught us."

Nitori's grip tightened to the point of pain, eyes widening with panic for a split second before he squeezed them shut tightly, opening them again when his fearful expression had been replaced with one of determination.

"Is there any way to repair it?"

"I don't know. I have to inspect the damage; if we had a dry-dock or even a little more time-"

"We don't, though."

"I have to wake the captain."

"He will be furious and far more likely to kill his captive than keep him."

"Good. He can come along to hell with the rest of us."

"You are not thinking. He mentioned that island is not their permanent home. Let us suppose it is a seasonal settlement-"

"I need to inspect those lines." Rei pulled away with a practiced motion, one learned well after he had used it dozens of times against Nagisa. Nitori followed, still speaking despite Rei's seeming inattention.

"That would indicate a need for another ship. One we could scavenge for supplies. If the islanders are feeling well-disposed toward us, it will make it easier-"

"To cannibalize their only way home? It would never work, even had we not taken Haruka captive."

"If we return him-"

"Against Rin's orders? Mutiny. You are mad."

"I am the sanest man here."

Rei yanked at the tiller, noting the lack of any resistance or response from the ship. "As I thought. He cut the rudder lines and crippled the ship. It wouldn't be an easy repair under any circumstances; as it is now, I would call it impossible. With the leak in the cargo hold as well, I need to wake the captain. His orders did not cover this."

"Leave him sleep. Do you think he can weave apart the severed ends?"

"No, but Rin is captain. This is his ship, and if he thought I were keeping anything from him-"

Rei spun in the direction of the captain's cabin, trying not to let his hesitance show.

"Rei, better to keep a man on watch and let the current carry us until morning. You and I will see if any there are any other materials to hand we might use."

He knew the laughter rising in his throat verged upon the hysterical, but Rei didn't bother to smother it. All of this, on his watch.

"Would it not be better to confront the captain with a problem solved than yet another worry to disturb his rest?"

It was wrong. It was all wrong and Rei knew it, but somehow he let the healer's soft voice continue with its insinuations, until at last he seemed to make sense, and if his mind still whispered a warning, it was softer still than Nitori's words.

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A.N.

Tuesday it is. Long weekends really mess up my internal calendar, but I'm not complaining. One more chapter before this is caught up! :)

Takara Yume: Weeelll, not everyone maybe. Their crazy is showing a lot more than it was when I first drafted the outline. Then again, Rei isn't as much of a gent as he used to be, and Rin hasn't even got started. But that's all for later. :p

Takara Yume: