Chapter 13: "Why must we fight?"

Where some things seem amiss

Francis continued to stare as Arthur focused his attention on the pesky little lock that stood between Francis and freedom. That determined face would usually send icy chills down his spine- yet somehow this time Francis didn't feel as afflicted with these intense yet torturing emotions. He still felt them, but not majorly so like it usually was. It was strange, but he pushed this thought aside for the moment as he spoke.

"Mon Dieu... I cannot believe it. It's really you." Francis whispered.

"Who were you expecting?" Arthur grunted- expressing this as more of an ordinary statement rather than a question.

"I expected no-one." Francis muttered. "I thought I was done for, I thought that no-one would come."

Arthur gave a short sigh and Francis saw the slightest of smiles flash across his face in that instant before disappearing quickly. The door swung open finally and Arthur tilted his head back towards the door- gesturing Francis to run out with him.

"Well you thought wrong." Arthur stated simply. "Now let's get going."

Francis gave him a quick confirmation nod and Arthur darted out of the room with Francis following close behind.

"Ai ya..." Yao sighed, carelessly stumbling out of Kiku's room.

He knew he couldn't get too careless or weak let alone even think about letting his guard down when on an enemy ship but right now it was rather hard to keep his defences up. He was just rather overwhelmed by what he had just experienced: the voices that had rushed to his head when he saw Kiku's odd painting.

But then again, it's not like I haven't experienced this before. In fact, there was that one time-

"Yao!"

Yao snapped himself out of these thoughts- but it didn't matter since he would have more chance to think about these things later.

Right now, Arthur was speeding towards him- almost reminiscent of an angry raging bull (he would have to tell the captain that one later- or at least reference him to a bull somehow in the near future). This however was not important right now. What was important was that Francis was quite clearly visible behind him- this telling Yao instantly that they had done what they had set out to do and that Francis had been found.

But they were not out of the woods yet and so Yao joined them, running alongside the two at full speed. Before they knew it, the trio was back in the small and just about stable rowboat with Arthur and Yao rowing as fast as their bodies would allow- hurtling themselves further and further away from the dreaded Captain Ludwig's ship.

The mission was almost perfect. That is, if it weren't for the cunning black haired swordsman watching carefully and intently with a bird-like focus as he watched from his position in the crow's nest.

Meanwhile, back at the home ship

"Wow."

He had said it, although Alfred was not sure if he really meant it. After all there he was, seated comfortably in the middle of the room with his behind seated firmly on the hard, expertly polished wooden floor with a letter clutched in his hand and plenty more where that came from scattered around him- almost like he was some proud bird in a nest of letters.

He carelessly let go of the one in his hand and it floated down to the floor to be amongst its kind. As previously stated, Alfred had breathed one simple word: 'wow'- yet whether he meant it or not was another story entirely.

Not surprisingly (especially so considering this had been the only thing that Alfred had done for the past hour or so) Alfred had finished reading the letters from Mattie's weird and mysterious brother. He had been there for a good while now, reading away like a young teenage fanatic with some new fantasy novel. Now he had finished every letter- even the ones that didn't spark his interest on his first skim through.

Yet nothing (bar the incident where Mattie's brother was pushed into the water) interesting had happened. He had read no sad sob stories, no tales of heroic adventures- nothing: just plain old boring letters.

What was more: the letters had no real end. There was an obvious beginning- yet no end. Only some of the letters had dates- and the one that Alfred had guessed to be last was one them. Despite the fact that the date had been a long time ago (sometime last September) - the letters hadn't really ended.

Alfred felt like he had been deprived of something- like he had missed out on a good opportunity for something interesting to happen. Yet there had been nothing- nothing at all.

It was roughly at this point that Alfred began frantically looking through the letters again- at a higher speed this time. He skim-read through any letter he could get his hands on, and chucked back any letter he deemed to be a waste of time.

"There's gotta be something!" Alfred whined. "Maybe if there's some hidden code? Yeah that makes sense! Maybe I've gotta read every 3rd word of the letter or something? Yeah let's try that! Okay so... 'Mattie me I are see your I see I'm as this can in of-' Okay screw this- it's crazy talk. Maybe try another..."

"Excuse me Mr Hero..." Whispered a voice that made Alfred bolt up straight in surprise. "But I don't think Matthew would appreciate you looking through his letters."

Alfred quickly scrambled into a standing up straight position but then relaxed into a slouch as he saw who it was standing in the doorway.

"Toris!" Alfred grinned gleefully for he knew he had nothing to fear with him. "How are ya?"

"I am well." Toris smiled while still looking a little uneasy as always. "But I don't think that Matthew will be when he finds out that you've been reading letters addressed to him."

"I understand." Alfred nodded sagely when it was obvious that he didn't as the last hour or so had proven. "But hey Toris, did you know Mattie has a brother? In fact do you know a bit more about him?"

Toris had been in the process of leaving the room shortly after Alfred had lied about saying he understood, however he had stopped at the word 'but' to listen to what Alfred had to say. It was obvious that Toris was preparing to visit whoever the tray of food was for, yet he still managed to spare a few moments to reply with his back turned to Alfred as he muttered his response:

"Forgive me, Mr Hero, but I don't know Matthew that well. In fact we only met through Arthur and we do not talk that often aboard the ship."

"Oh..." Alfred replied, his face looking slightly dumbstruck. "Okay."

Then Toris left, leaving the door to shut with a light, soft thud. Alfred frowned. Somehow, although he did not know why exactly, he felt less at ease and less comfortable- despite now being alone in his shared room- letters encircling him at his feet. He stared at the door where Toris had just exited, still frowning but now in deep thought.

...Was it just him? Or had there been something wrong with what Toris had just said?

Back at Captain Ludwig's ship

"Are you certain Kiku?" Ludwig frowned, inquisitively raising his brow.

"Hai. I would not lie to you." Kiku responded, accompanying this comment with a serious blank stare.

"Well I trust you." Ludwig concluded after a while. "And since I trust you, we will follow them. It should take a few days based on your description, and I plan to make this battle the last."

"As you wish captain." Kiku bowed. "I will follow you to the end. You have my word that I will be loyal and above all, I will never surrender."

"Sehr gut." Ludwig muttered approvingly in his native tongue. "We're giving them a home advantage by attacking them, so make sure that you have all you need to counterattack that fact."

Kiku nodded before swiftly moving off, leaving to do just as Ludwig had instructed. Now that the captain was alone, he took this opportunity to mutter quietly to himself.

"I will get my revenge."

After he had said this, he pulled back the neat layers of his clothes to glance at the scar from the bullet wound that Arthur had caused: the symbol of his revenge, the essence of his hate for the fellow captain...

Yet as he looked down he saw that the scar wasn't there- despite the fact that Feliciano had said it probably would remain there forever.

"Hm. Odd..." Ludwig frowned, but he quickly shook his head and softened his expression as he headed back to his room to make preparations. "I guess it was just another one of his mistakes. That silly fool."

Speaking of Feliciano, although the peppy brunette did not hear much of battle-related news (he knew vague bits- like how they were at war but not the specifics) - he had heard that Francis had escaped. Even if Francis was known as a prisoner to practically everyone in the crew- Feliciano still saw him as a friend and he did hate to see him go.

"Hey Lovino? Are you done in the bathroom yet?" Feliciano called.

There Feliciano stood in the main part of their shared room. At one end was a door that led outside, a handmade wooden set of drawers placed to the left of it. At the other end was where Feliciano stood- just beside the other door that led to their private bathroom. It was a reasonably sized room, yet most of the space was taken up by the large double bed positioned in the middle against the back wall. Though fortunately there was just enough room at the foot of the bed for Feliciano to bob and pace around as he got dressed in the mornings.

"Shut up you bastard brother!" Lovino snapped- his voice echoing from within the bathroom. "I'm not done so quit being so impatient!"

"Okaaay! Take as long as you want!" Feliciano sang. "You usually do anyway!"

"I swear that when I get out of here I'll force you into this stupid cramped space and see how you like it!" Lovino threatened.

"Well I would like to use the bathroom soon." Feliciano nodded thoughtfully. "But anything for my brother, so take all the time you need!"

There was a silence, yet due to Feliciano's inability to read the atmosphere he couldn't tell that Lovino was probably being quiet because of the sweet, sentimental comment that his brother had just made. Although knowing Lovino with his quirky and odd mood swings- he would never admit this to Feli.

"Hey big brother?" Feliciano asked loudly, leaning against the bathroom door lightly as he did so.

"W-what is it?" Lovino stammered. "Don't tell me it's another soppy stupid-"

"Why do we all have to fight?" Feliciano interrupted. "I don't even know what made Ludwig and Mr Kirkland start this war in the first place."

"They're pirates remember? All the same. Fighting and rum is all they ever care about." Lovino muttered.

"But Ludwig is different." Feliciano responded. "And I don't see what's so bad about Mr Kirkland either. He may have creepy eyebrows and he may look a bit scary- but deep down he has to have something special close to his heart that he cares about, right? And when we care, we find compassion. And when there's compassion, there shouldn't be fighting."

"...You're an idiot..." Lovino mumbled, just about audible through the wooden door that separated them.

"Well... If thinking differently is silly and stupid." Feliciano began, slowly raising his head as he smiled a big, happy smile. "Then yeah, I guess I am an idiot!"

After this, Lovino heard the sound of the door to their room being opened and he stiffened up slightly- causing the water to splash and stir.

"H-hey Feli, what are you doing?" Lovino asked in a panicky worried tone.

"It's alright Lovino. I'll use Ludwig's toilet- I'm sure he won't mind! So go ahead and have your bath because you've got all the time in the world!" Feliciano explained.

And with that final statement, Feliciano shut the door. Lovino looked up towards the closest door himself, although he wasn't worried that somebody might barge in for he always locked the door anyway. He thought back to what Feliciano had said, looking down into the clear, crystal water and what lay below.

"Time..." He whispered to himself, reflecting back on Feliciano's words.

The next day

With their combined efforts, it had taken Arthur, Yao and Francis almost a day and a half to get back to the ship- never stopping once and alternating turns in rowing the boat. After being helped back up onto deck, Arthur was fully back in the swing of his role of captain. To his surprise, Alfred was there on deck waiting for him as he returned.

"Captain! You're back!" Alfred gasped excitedly.

"Yes Al- Hero. I am back." Arthur smiled, correcting himself as he realised that Alfred's name was still a secret.

Al? What was he going to say? Francis thought. And my Arthur is smiling? I've spent more time with Arthur compared to that stupid Hero and even I have never seen him smile that often!

"I knew you'd make it. I just knew it!" Alfred beamed happily.

"Well thank you for that." Arthur nodded. "I trust everything ran smoothly while I was gone?"

"Uh-huh." Alfred nodded eagerly. "Though it was pretty boring without you around Artie!"

Artie? Francis's thoughts raged on furiously. It took ages for me to get permission just to call him Arthur! The nerve... How can he speak so casually with him? And how can Arthur actually be SMILING at this idiot?

"Now now, I'm sure that Matthew did an excellent job." Arthur sighed, defending his temporary replacement. "At least there was no trouble."

"Well yeah, but you're really the only one I can trust here." Alfred went on. "You know, because of..."

The rest went unsaid, much to the annoyance of Francis. Because of what? They must be keeping secrets! Like good friends, or maybe even...

The image of 'Hero' sleeping in the arms of Arthur a few nights ago flashed into his mind at the very thought of it being more than just a simple friendship. This young man had not been with them for long, yet now he was already making more progress than Francis had in three years of travelling with Arthur. His rage was slowly building, the tension slowly rising as he watched the two talk like old friends.

Until finally, Francis snapped.

"ARTHUR!" Francis yelled, screeching at the very loudest volume that his voice could muster.

"...Yes?" Arthur eventually muttered after flinching at the sudden outburst and slowly turning around.

"I... I..." Francis panted. "I love you Arthur!"

The nearby crew all stared wide-eyed, open-mouthed and hardly blinking at the outburst. Members like Yao and Ivan had not been with the crew for long, although they knew of Francis's flirtatious advances. However, they would never have guessed that he had actually been in love. No, it seemed that no-one had been expecting that.

And of all the members witnessing the scene, Alfred looked the most shocked. Yet Arthur's facial expression did not falter whatsoever. He just stood there, large brows at normal height, emerald eyes at regular size and closed mouth in the shape of neither a smile nor a frown- but merely a straight, neutral and horizontal line.

And that was what confused everyone, for no-one (not even Francis or Alfred) could tell what he was thinking.

Sorry for the wait guys! Hopefully updates should be quicker now because I've actually reached Chapter 19 where I am in my writing. I can't wait to show you guys- cuz two of my favourite scenes are going to be happening soon!

I've also stopped dropping hints. Looking back on it I should have just left you guys to guess the plot twist and meaning of the foreshadowing on your own. Perhaps I should go back and take those bits out for those reading in the future? Let me know what you think!

Sayounara minna-san!

~Neko

(P.S thanks to everyone who reviewed!)