Chapter 7

The first thing Arthur did in such a situation was throw his hands in front of his face, the second was to scream, "You-what-why the hell are you NAKED? W-where am I? How are you here? Where's my ship? What happened to my men? How do you have legs? Good God put something on!"

"Whoa there," Alfred walked over to the panicking man, "Settle down, you're still sick."

Arthur tried to push the merman, away from him as Alfred stooped down to help him, "G-get away from me you-whatever you are!"

Alfred ignored the captain and pushed him down onto the blankets. Powerless from the fever, Arthur couldn't help but to lay down, blushing all the while, "Damn it, at least clothe yourself!"

The merman laughed and looked down at himself, "I don't get it with you humans and covering yourselves. You didn't have a problem with me when I wasn't wearing anything before. Not to mention you're not wearing anything yourself."

"Y-you fool, that was before you had-Wait, what?" Arthur lifted his blankets to see that he was indeed very much without clothing, "Where are my clothes? How could yo-,"

"Hey don't get the wrong idea," Alfred said hurriedly, "Your clothes were soaking wet and gritty. I had to get them off you so that you wouldn't get worse."

Arthur inwardly agreed but scowled all the while then remembered that the man in front of him was still completely nude, "Good God, CLOTHE YOURSEF!" he closed his eyes, reddening again.

"Toris felt the same way, hahaha! But fine, I'll go put something on," Alfred turned and walked away only to return a few seconds later wearing a loose pair of trousers. He saw Arthur glaring at him and cocked his head, "What?"

Oh Arthur could have screamed. So he did. "Don't you what me! You destroyed my ship and probably killed all my men! And now I'm here in some God-forsaken cave being held hostage!"

"Hold it right there!" Alfred put up his hands, "Calm down Artie. ("And stop calling me Artie!") Your ship…well it's pretty trashed but for the most part your men are fine. I made my old man promise to not kill anyone and last I checked they were doing pretty well in some other ship."

"How-?"

"Mattie did a good job at helping them and finding a ship to pick them up. They're kinda locked up right now but I'm sure it'll work out."

"Locked up? What kind of ship are they on?"

"Oh some British naval ship."

Alfred watched, a little worried, as Arthur's face changed from red to purple, "Y-you imbecile! Now they are all going to get hanged!"

Alfred rubbed his ears, "Man, are you easily excitable. Don't worry, Mattie and I will make sure that doesn't happen. For now you should be worrying about your own health."

At the mention of his current state a wave of fatigue washed over Arthur but he ignored it, pressing for more answers, "How did you escape? And why do you have legs?"

"Psh, escaping was easy! All it needed as a good punch through the glass and I was out. It did kinda hurt…" at the thought he rolled his left shoulder a bit.

"You mean, you could have escaped the whole time?" Arthur asked unbelieving.

"Yep."

"Well, why didn't you?"

Alfred wriggled his eyebrows and grinned impishly, "'Cause I like to watch you squirm of course."

Arthur had to hold in the scream of frustration. Was there any limit to how insufferable the tosser could get? "And the legs? I suppose you had them all along too."

Alfred laughed, "Yes and no. I haven't had them forever, just a few months ago. See this," he fingered the leather necklace, "The Sea Witch gave it to me so that I could have legs whenever I wanted. Not without a price of course."

"What did she ask for? Your intelligence?"

Instead of some witty, pervy, or stupid comeback, laugh, or smile Alfred, for the first time since Arthur had known him, blushed. Cheeks-pinking-little-bashful-girl blush. "N-nothing, just a little promise, that's all," he said shyly.

Arthur couldn't help but to stare in amazement. What a novel experience from the cocky brat, and cute. Wait, what? "But yeah," he coughed and fingered the thing hanging off of the necklace, "evidentially it's made of a human's toe bone. Contains powers or some crap like that."

Arthur looked a little closer and saw that it was indeed a little piece of bone with a hole at the top for the leather string, "Anyway it took me a awhile to get used to these things," Alfred flexed one of his feet in the air, "Walking was a bitch. Luckily Toris was a good teacher."

"Toris?"

"Yep, that's why I brought him here. And you know, he was right; even though I haven't walked around in a week or so it's pretty easy to pick up again," demonstrating the fact he spun around and jumped, clapping his feet in the air before landing with a flourish, "What do ya think?"

"I think it's a bloody nuisance," Arthur said, glaring, "You were already a problem with a tail; I can only imagine what you can do with feet."

Pouting Alfred crossed his arms, "Well, that's not very nice," the small frown disappeared quickly, "You know, you really should be getting some sleep. That's the best thing for someone sick."

Suddenly it seemed like his eyelids had gained several kilos, "I'm not tired," he mumbled stubbornly.

"Sure you aren't. Oh and by the way, if you wake up don't try to run off. There's a river over there," he pointed in the direction of the tunnel, "I wouldn't try to swimming in it, who knows where it leads. That pool right there leads to the sea but seeing as it took me fifteen minutes to swim here at full speed you probably won't make it unless you grow gills."

Arthur only grunted, still trying to fight his eyelids as they continued to droop. Eventually he gave up, confident that he could keep awake even though his eyes were closed. In the background he could hear Alfred's feet scrape the stone floor as he walked around the cave. Following the steps was Alfred's soft hum of some lullaby.

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It was Arthur's stomach that woke him up. The experience was disorienting and uncomfortable. Arthur didn't remember falling asleep and though the fever had broken he still feel the aftereffects. Not to mention waking up hungry. Thankfully his nose could smell something that would fix that problem. His stomach twisted painfully at the thought and forced him out of the comfortably warm blankets.

Arthur spotted a pile of clothes not too far away and, after triple-checking to make sure the merman wasn't hiding behind some chest or tunnel wall, he quickly grabbed the clothes and slipped into them. The fabric was like the blankets, embroidered with fine lace and gold, velvet and silk, ostentatious but Arthur had a love for such things.

His nose, sensitive with hunger, led him to the tunnel that he could see branched off into three directions, two ways without torches so he could not see where they led. The other one ended abruptly and opened up into another chamber. In the middle of the chamber Arthur could see a fire and crouched in front of it, back facing him, was Alfred. The captain quietly approached the chamber and the smell grew stronger. Alfred's back was tanned from the sun and the defined muscles that stretched down it rippled as he rolled his shoulders. The movement emphasized the ugly jagged cut from the glass of the tank on his left shoulder blade.

Arthur tore his eyes away but before he could hope to sneak up and startle the boy his stomach let out a loud growl. Arthur blushed and Alfred turned, grinning, "Hey there Cap'n, hungry?"

Arthur muttered an affirmative and walked over by the warm fire. Alfred grabbed a plate right beside him, "I'm cooking up some fish. Here, have some of this while you're waiting."

"Is that…seaweed?" Arthur asked eyed the green contents on the plate with frown of disgust, "I'm not some fish."

Alfred rolled his eyes, "This isn't your normal seaweed. It's this special kind that even humans like," he pushed the plate into Arthur's hands.

Grimacing, Arthur sat down with the fine china plate. The dark green mound did not look the least bit appealing, more like goo but Arthur's stomach was demanding that something be put in. He grabbed a small bit with his hands and took a tentative bite.

"What do you think?" Alfred asked.

"It's…sweet," the scowl fell, replaced with a surprised o.

Alfred just smiled and stood, "So," he clapped his hands together, "What are you thirsty for?" he walked over to a group of barrels stacked along the wall, "We've got water and rum and I believe this is wine," he patted one of the containers.

"Rum," Arthur ordered, since he was here he might as well get drunk. Alfred laughed, grabbed a nearby mug, and filled it. Arthur made sure to take note of the place of that specific barrel for future reference. He accepted the mug gladly and took a long satisfying draught.

Alfred walked back to the fireside and checked the fish, "I think dinner's ready," without asking he grabbed Arthur's plate and took the two fish cooking on iron rods and scraped them onto the plate, "Careful, they still have bones."

"No silverware?" Arthur eyed the browned meat.

"I figured you were too hungry for those. You haven't eaten in two days or so. But I'll go get some for ya," he ran out. As soon as Alfred stepped out, Arthur's stomach realized that it agreed with Alfred and Arthur began to dig into the fish and sweet seaweed.

By the time the merman walked back into the cavern the man had already eaten the first fish and was starting the second. "You sure you need these?" Alfred asked with a smile, holding a gem studded fork and knife. Arthur gave him a customary scowl and took the silverware. The seaweed was too messy too eat with by hand anyway.

As Arthur ate Alfred did not try to hide his stares at the captain. The man found it more than uncomfortable that Alfred wasn't speaking or eating with him, just staring and smiling dumbly, "Stop that," he hissed as it became unbearable.

"What?"

"Staring."

Alfred laughed and looked into the fire but Arthur could still see the furtive glances his way. Arthur started to shift in his spot and after a few minutes Alfred suddenly jumped to his feet, "Well I guess I'll go grab something to eat."

Before Arthur could move away Alfred put his forehead to Arthur's and pulled it away just as quickly, "You're still a little warm. Be sure to get some sleep when you're done."

Arthur's hand few to his forehead and his mouth opened to further criticize the merman but no words came out. Alfred gave a small laugh and a flashed one final pearly white smile and jumped into the pool before he regained his sense of speech.

When Arthur finished his dinner and retired (sober, unfortunately) to his blanket bed the merman still had not returned. All that was left was a pair of worn trousers left by the pool's edge.

AN: I am so sorry that this chapter was boring and short but it was necessary. I was going to combine it with the next chapter but then it would have been over 5K words long and I didn't want to mess up the flow. The next chapter will make up for it *hint hint wink wink*.

Fun Fact: All seaweed is edible. This seaweed was actually based off some in a video I saw as a kid but I can't find it online :/