Rey had thrown a tantrum in the longhouse.

At first it had been alright. Bright-eyed and rosy cheeked they had come into the great communal building. Rey had insisted on clinging to Kylo's arm, earning him disapproving scowls from the predictable two of his Knights. They were still waiting on the others from the far side of the island to come so Kylo had taken her into one of the back rooms to keep her out of trouble while he packed up his own personal items into a trunk.

That action had apparently been very triggering to his mermaid. She had watched in curious silence as he began to fold and stuff his clothes. Then he had started to secure his array of weapons, making sure they were all properly oiled against the sea weather, when she must have abruptly put the pieces together: he was leaving.

He was leaving, and she didn't realize she was coming with him. The beginning stage of her tantrum had begun with her throwing things.

First had been his clothes. She had grabbed them and hurled, scattering them around the room. Then, when he had tried to stop her, she had started ripping at them.

"Stop!"

Kylo had put some of the Force into the command. Enough to stun her before his second shirt could become her next victim. He was sure the nearby Knights would have felt the pulse of it, but none of them dare to come back here to investigate or intervene.

"Rey, what in the gods has come over you?!"

He squeezed her wrists, trying to restrain her flailing limbs as she hissed at him with damp eyes. Then she kneed him between the legs and shoved him off. Next target was his weapons, and she started to hurl those behind her with angry force.

Then she had started to lunge toward the lit candelabra and it had taken Kylo wrapping his angry girl into a bear hug from behind to stop her stampede.

"Rey! Please! Control yourself!"

She stomps on his foot. Kylo rolls his eyes. Had he not been wearing his boots that may have been more effective, but now she reminds him terribly of an ornery child throwing a fit.

He squeezes her tighter, holding on strong until she begins to tire herself out.

"Rey, you're coming with me."

He meant it as soothing, but instead it comes out as rather strangled. He can feel her emotions radiating off of her. He's hurt her feelings. Or maybe more than that, because she starts to cry, snuffling with ugly, choked noises even as his grip loosens so he can stroke her arms.

"Rey."

He lets her go and she slides down, sobbing softly. When he takes a step backwards she grabs onto his thigh and clings, wrapping herself tightly around it in a clear announcement of I'm not letting you go anywhere.

Kylo sighs, grateful to his men for giving them privacy to attend to this despite the turbulent emotions they must surely be feeling.

What to do with her, though? If he could only speak to her this trouble could have been resolved before it even began.

"I'll just have to be creative with you then, won't I?"

Kylo lightly pats the top of her head, unsure if she's about to snap at him or not.

Rey huffs, her sobs ebbing but present. She rubs her face against his hand, wiping her snotty nose off on it.

"Unnecessary."

He catches her chin. Rey pouts, her teeth closing around his thumb and biting down then holding.

"I wish… I wish I could know what you're thinking to show you how wrong you are about all this. Did you really think I would leave without you?"

Kark, he's doing this for her. Maybe not all of it. Ostensibly, the need of protecting the island comes as the highest duty. But the fact that finding out the truth of Rey ties in neatly with this chosen duty offers Kylo a perfect excuse to indulge his inner need for chivalry.

"Here, look," he picks up one of the dresses he'd bought from the tailor. "Do you see this?"

Rey reaches out for it. Then wipes her face on the hem. Kylo clears his throat.

Yes, well- just watch me, will you?"

He starts to fold her dress. Fold it rather sloppily, unlike his usual precision, but it wasn't an easy task with a fitful half-mermaid clinging to his leg and slowly crawling her way up his body to see what he's doing.

Kylo loops one arm around her waist and hauls her with him over to the disarrayed trunk. With excessive fanfare he places her dress inside and slaps the sides of it to hopefully ensure that she catches the message.

Rey blinks, her eyes perhaps still blurry with tears. Then she points at her chest and Kylo leans down and kisses her forehead.

Her arms wrap around his neck, and she all but dangles herself as he folds and places another of her garments. It's only when he pointedly hands her the next piece does she remove herself from him to halfheartedly fold it- then wad it- into a corner of the trunk.

"Clever girl," he comments, tucking a lock of loose hair behind her ear.

Rey gives him a sulky, sidelong glare. Still upset with him though hr erratic swings of temperament ensure that the voyage ahead will never become dull.

An odd, alarming thought pops into his head then as he watches Rey scuttle about picking up all the items of both his and hers she had just thrown aside.

What if… No. Surely not. Rey surely would not aim for carnal indulgences when they were on the ship together. Right? Surely?

The Knights were all closely connected with each other. It would be impossible to mask such occurrences and, as such, it was an unspoken rule between all of them: keep such activities to a distance. Not even the twins for all the licentiousness would skip this manner of decency, opting instead to take their warm bedmate of the day or hour off to somewhere out of the line of shared thought.

"Just what are you planning- oh be careful, M'lady, you don't want to hurt yourself."

She was clumsily shoving things about in the trunk, but now she's taken out his saber and is playing with it, twirling it around in her hands and gripping it by the blade instead of the handle. He wasn't going to keep it in the trunk, certainly not, but now even having it laying out seems to invoke an almost childish fascination within the girl.

After a few more careless squishes through the air Kylo can't stand it. He coughs, gently taking the sword away from the wide-eyed girl. Then he flips it over, and wraps her palm around the handle with his own.

"Here, this is the basic swing. It all starts with a good fighting stance."

He steps behind her nudging her feet wider with his own. Then he shows her a few basic moves which she seems to pick up quickly though his lesson is rather hampered by her inability to stop giggling every time he has to adjust her posture with a firm grab.

After a few minutes a polite and almost shy knock on the door interrupts them as Ria calls them into the main room.

"So how much of what's happening does your young and silent lover really understand?"

It was a rare thing for any of Kylo's Knights to take such a challenging tone to their leader, let alone coming from Taleisin. The second youngest of them, however, seemed to have the greatest chip on his shoulder regarding Rey's formal introduction to the Knights. Perhaps even a greater antagonism than Ria who perhaps had some degree of cause to distrust her given their last few encounters with each other.

"Her mind is a mystery to me as I'm sure it is to you," Kylo says in measured tones. "But I believe she understands the principles well enough."

"Enough for what?" Aemon asks, leaning back and resting his boots up on the table. "What exactly? I had assumed this would be a straight forward meeting regarding our split, but the way you have brought her to use seems rather… formal."

Officially there was no ranking within the Knights, though it was widely understood that Aemon was to lead the remaining Knights during Kylo and the other's absence overseas.

"Is she to join us then?" Mayenne, their other female Knight asks. "Not just on our journey but- but to become the fourteenth Knight?"

Kylo immediately shakes his head, shooting down the notion before it could spread like wildfire. Rey's hand lightly touches his own and he withdraws it, placing it palm down on the tabletop.

"No, not in that capacity. M'La- Miss Rey will be our guest and our assistant at times. She will likely fight be our side if need be, but she will not take the Oath."

"Because she can't."

Taleisin holds Kylo's gaze for a long moment before dropping his chin and regarding his untouched dinner. Next to him is a very confused Silas, another Knight coming on the mission with them, and he's yet to speak though he regards Rey with a look of open uncertainty.

Rey, for her part, squirms a little closer next to Kylo, now half out of her chair and onto his own. He stretches his arm down stiffly, catching the back leg of the tall stool and holding it firmly to create a physical barricade between them.

"So she can't speak, and she can't be read," Aemon says. "Likely sh can't understand when you speak to her, either. Leader, far be it for me to question you-"

"A refreshing change, and one much appreciated Aemon."

Aemon hesitates, taking in Kylo's praise with a puzzled expression. Sitting next to the tall Knight is the even taller Ria who had remained uncharacteristically silent throughout the whole interaction.

"Er, yes," Aemon continues. "What I mean to say is that, given all this young girl's confusion and unique nature, perhaps she's a great liability to an already greatly perilous mission? Wouldn't it bet better to leave her behind for those of us who remain to watch over?"

Kylo looks down at Rey. She'd been curling up tight around herself, clearly aware how greatly she was outnumbered now that the full rankings of the Knights were present, but her head picks up when she notices him giving her attention. He immediately frowns and looks away, dodging her second attempt to grab onto his wrist.

"No, Master Aemon. Maz believes- and I agree with her on this, that Rey here is somehow involved right in the center of both the troubles we've been having on the Island and the erratically violent behavior of the merfolk. Our best chance of finding the answer to both lies with taking her to the Sages and hearing what they have to say."

Rey yips. It's a soft but high-pitched noise, and when Kylo looks at her she smiles up again. He sighs and squares his shoulders.

"Sir," Ria finally breaks her silence. "She's a half-mermaid. Such an impossibility shouldn't exist, let alone share quarters with us at times when our guard is down."

Kylo huffs, brushing aside Rey's hand as she starts to tug on his shirt.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of her, Ria? M'Lady's nearly half your size. And I have been sharing my tower with her for these last days and I can assure you that she's-"

Kylo's voice trails off as he thinks back. The attempted toe-feasting. All the kicking and biting and snapping of their early days. The beheadings.

He chooses his next words very carefully.

"I… I believe we are past the time of concerns regarding her behavior to us. In the beginning yes, I had conflicts with her, but that has changed completely in the time that's passed."

"Since she became your lover?"

Taleisin's dinner and his icy expression both remain unchanged from when the evening began. At the far end of the table both the twins bark out into a loud fit of laughter, causing Rey to stiffen by his side and lean in all the closer.

"Talesin, mind your-"

"How old is she? Do you not even know?"

His question, though impudent, gives Kylo pause. He regards Rey who is now on the verge of edging him right out of his own sat with her clinginess. She looks young, he'll admit.

"Old enough to take care of herself and be a valuable ally, Brother," Kylo tells him. "All you are all to remember this. If you have any troubles with her, taking them up with me and only me."

Another yip comes from Rey and this time she punches her arm as he pushes her back toward her own stool. She growls, her eyes narrowing, and the entire table falls silent as they watch on.

"M'Lady," Kylo warns.

He starts to rise to, if necessary, pick her up and correct her proximity himself. She slaps at him, aiming straight for the still raw bite mark hidden under the shoulder of his coat.

"Rey-"

"Oh for the love of the Gods, Master!" Taleisin interrupts. "Just hold her! She clearly wants you to!"

Kylo snaps his attention between his troublesome Knight and the even more troublesome and fitful half-mermaid he's currently wrestling with. A hushed round of laughter breaks out amongst more than just the twins at the sight.

"You… called her M'lady," Ria says quietly. There's a faint hint of a smile on her lips.

"Gods have mercy," Kylo grumbles.

It's just easier to give in, isn't it? He sighs again, dropping his arms and letting Rey cleave herself to his chest. Then he uses the Force to drag her stool right next to his so they both can sit tightly together.

"Er… right." Mayenne looks down at the chart in front of her. "Shall I give her her own bunk on the ship then or..."

She gestures through the air at them and Kylo shakes his head. Rey immediately settles down, now resting her chin against his arm.

"Yes. Her own bunk. Ideally her own room, though I'm sure it will be very small. She gets fitful around people she doesn't know, and most of you are strangers still."

Mayenne makes a face, drawing her lips tightly together to control what was most likely a highly amused grin.

Kylo nods, clearing his throat again before changing the conversation to the rest of the business at hand. They were to leave tomorrow at noon after the morning fog had cleared. Six of the Knights would stay behind and be lead by Aemon while Taleisin, Ria, the twins, Mayenne and Silas would set sail with him. If the journey went well it should take less than a month to return, though Kylo had a sinking feeling in his gut that the waters they would encounter would offer anything but smooth sailing.

Rey had ran away after dinner.

She had eaten the best of four plates all herself before passing out in an overfull comatic state against Kylo's shoulder. The evening had worn on then, filled wit much discussion of what to do should certain events happen in Kylo and the six Knight's absence. Then, around midnight, Rey had gotten up and quietly slipped out. Kylo had assumed she had simply been going to relieve herself- hopefully she knew the correct location to do so in the village's longhouse- but she hadn't come back.

An hour past midnight and Kylo drew the meeting to a close and wished the Knights a good rest to prepare for the start of their journey tomorrow. Normally he would sleep with them in the longhouse before such a mission, but he had a rather clear guess where he could find his missing mermaid.

Unsurprisingly the lights were on when returned to the watchtower.

Not only the candles were lit but Rey had started a fire, too. She'd left the door open, the room filled with excessive heat and the flames drawing high in the confines of the stove.

Kylo attends to it, correcting the door and the damper, but it's only a few moments before his presence is noted.

Rey bounds in from behind him. Her dress is damp, the hem of it approaching soggy, and there's a dead and crudely filleted fish in her hands.

"Nighttime fishing, M'Lady? Surely you can't still be hungry after all your four dinners tonight?"

Rey grins, shouldering him aside to lay her catch out on the griddle top to the stove. It's close to how she'd seen him do it when he cooked, and Kylo can't help but find some of her enthusiasm begin to wear off on him despite the late hour.

He reaches out, lightly touching her shoulder and pretending to correct her disarrayed clothing.

"My Lady, do you know that we're leaving tomorrow? Do you understand that?"

It's a mixed feeling of melancholy to think that this might be their last night here. For a while. He has no idea what their trip to the Island would bring. There was a possibility, a very very slight one, that Rey wouldn't be able to return back with them.

He quickly brushes that thought from his mind, opting instead to be bold and embrace his mermaid from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist as she fusses over the rapidly cooking fish dinner.

Rey giggles. She looks up at him from over her shoulder with mischievous eyes and Kylo sighs before giving her a quick and chaste kiss. Then she grinds her backside against his frontside and he steps back, letting go of her in favor of drabbing a plate and utensils.

"M'Lady, it's far too late in the night for that kind of conduct. Come, let's have a midnight snack together then I'll set you off to bed."

Dinner was a sleepy and informal affair. Rey sat in his lap and, unlike when the judgmental scowls of his Knights were upon them, this time Kylo is content to let her linger on him. He took a few bites of the fish she fed to him with her oddly black-stained fingertips, though the pressing need for sleep had ended most of his appetite.

Afterwards, Rey bounds up off him. She grabs him by the hand and starts to drag him up the long flight of stairs to her watchtower room.

"You truly have endless energy, don't you?"

Was it because she was a half-mermaid? Maz had been able to offer him only a scant few answers regarding her nature. She didn't mind cold water, she apparently was an expert swimmer, and the fact that she couldn't talk was apparently quite the oddity.

And oddity just as her room had become. Last time Kylo had seen it, it had been messily decorated with fingerpaintings courtesy of his half-aquatic guest. Now there was artwork everywhere, papers strewn about and ink spilled across the tabletop.

"Ah, that explains the stains on your fingers then. But what's this?"

A burlap sack- the kind he would use to store potatoes in- is laying on her bed and a number of angular items are sticking out from it. While he goes to inspect it, Rey bounds about, picking up some of her artwork and crushing them to her chest as she carries them.

Food and more papers. That's what's in the bag. Oh, and ink though this time it's not spilled. Kylo flips through the items, noting that many of the pages are blank. Then something pricks his fingers rather deeply, and he withdraws his hand to look deeper.

"Ah. Your headcutter. I shouldn't have guessed that you'd willingly leave that behind. This is your bag that you're taking with us, is it?"

Rey's all wide, toothy grin as she takes the bag from him and clumsily shoves her armful of paintings inside. Kylo hums, watching her before taking over and pulling everything out to straighten them and fold them nicely. Her artwork is honestly quite impressive. Many of them must have bee drawn with her fingers, though it seems she'd found his brush set as well and had just started experimenting with them for finer details.

Then a particularly unique image stops him. Kylo gaps at it, blinking rapidly.

Rey giggles joyfully when she sees what he's looking at. She snatches it away from him and holds it up image-side out for him to see all the better.

It's a portrait of him. One of many, for he and the ocean waves both seem to play nearly equal roles as her choice of muse. The thing about this picture, however, was that he was naked in it. Naked and boasting a girthily flattering though physically impossible erection that he just so happens to be gripping with both hands.

"Oh gods."

There's no other words for it. Kylo feels him cheeks flaming, and he has to take a steadying breath to control the urge to turn heel and flee until his mortification wears down.

Rey apparently takes his stunned reaction as a positive, however. She giggles again, the sound of it lilting with musicality, and points at the picture. Points at that part of the picture, the tip of her index finger running across the length of it with enthusiasm.

Kylo stops her then. He forces a feigned smile, taking the picture from her while not daring to look at it in any more detail.

"How wonderful," he manages to say. "Let's just put this treasure away somewhere safe. Out of sight. We wouldn't want it to get damaged in our absence would w- Oh, you're taking it with you. I see."

Rey places it in the spot of honor on top of her now neatly stacked pile of artwork. She wraps it up in a cloth- one of his cowls, he notes- and Kylo holds open the sack for her to place it inside. The headcutter runs risk of splitting the bag clean open so he dips downstairs for a moment to secure a length of leather bindings for it.

When he returns, Rey is laying on her bed, her head propped up on her palm. She pats a spot next to herself for him to sit.

It's very late or very early now. Sleep was once a luxury he enjoyed on occasion before his mermaid entered his life. She may have boundless energy, but even she yawns when hew gives in and begins to unlace his boots and take his outer robes off. He lays down with a weary exhalation, and Rey immediately tucks herself right into his side and lays her head on his chest.

"You shouldn't sleep in your clothes," he tells her.

Rey's eyes drift close but there's a content smile on her lips. It's a rather moot point since he forgot to order her any nightgown or such, not that she was likely to wear it anyhow.

When he blows out the last candle sleep claims him almost immediately.

They make love as dawn starts to warm up the crest of the horizon.

It hadn't been Kylo's intention. He was still profoundly tired and they had already engaged in such activities less than twenty-four hours before. However, Rey had woken him up with her squirming as she moved over him to look out the window at the rising sun. He got the impression she often woke around this time, perhaps explaining many of her earlier absences.

But with all her close, wriggling proximity a certain situation had happened. One that had caused her to first squeal then pounce upon him when she noticed. She'd began with pinning him and attacking her lips with her usual vigorous spirits, though this time Kylo had opted to take over the lead in their encounter.

It was his turn to have her under him, and the beginning had been more of a wrestling match than a gentle, sensual undressing. He had eventually gotten his way though, Rey finally giving in when he'd gotten her fully undressed and began to rain kisses down the length o her body.

The coupling that had followed was a tangled mess of entwined limbs, sloppy kisses, and building pace. Neither of them had taken particularly long to finish, and afterwards Kylo had let her rest another two finger's length of sunrise.

The final preparations to his tower were straightforward. Ensure any perishable food was secured away. The Knights remaining on the Island would periodically visit this tower as part of their patrols so he knew nothing would go to waste. Then put out the fire completely, draw the shutters closed along all the windows, and make sure that absolutely none of his guest's more implicating artwork was out in the open. The ocean pictures he left though, feeling keenly proud of them even though he hadn't drawn them himself.

The final step was securing the front door and then placing Rey's bag of items across the rear of his horse's saddle.

She walked at a distance next to them as he rode slowly into town. Too close and her presence seemed to unnerve his horse, not that he could blame it given her clear proclivity to eating everything in sight.

When they reached the hill before the bend in the rode Kylo paused to give the watchtower one last look. Then he shook the reigns lightly, urging his steed to pick up the pace and match the half-mermaid girl who had already bounded well ahead of them on their way into town.

Author's Note:

Last day before the big anchor's away!

Spoilers? Well there might just be a little bit of drama on the high seas before they reach the Isla Los Sabos. Just a touch ;)

And a friendly reminder that you can find out a little more about the Knights at the ending notes for Chapter 16!