Chapter 6

"Look at the sky." Alfred raised a hand, his palm flat, parallel to the cloudless stretch of atmosphere. His crew, standing before him, looked up in unison. "Do you see that?" Many of the men in front of him shook their heads, to which Alfred rolled his eyes, annoyed. "Look harder."

Arthur, who stood diagonally behind Alfred, seemed to be the only one who knew to what Alfred referred, though he mentally rolled his eyes as well, as the situation seemed rather obvious. A storm was coming. While a cloudless sky sounded nice, instead of its usually blue it was more a greyish tone. From the looks of it, the storm coming was going to be bad. But they were pirates. They lived for this kind of thing.

"Zeus is coming and his goal is to strike down our ship. So keep an eye out, alright?" A strange way of phrasing it, Arthur thought, but Alfred had always been a little strange. The men seemed to understand what he meant well enough, and went back to manning their stations. Alfred looked back at Arthur with a smug countenance. "Not bad, huh?"

"I suppose." Arthur refused to fall victim to Alfred's cocky attitude. He flipped his head, tossing his hair out of his eyes. It had gotten rather shaggy, but he didn't mind. He caught Alfred sneakily watching him out of the corner of his eye. He flipped his hair again; making sure his long neck was well exposed. He smirked when he thought he saw Alfred's breath hitch.

Arthur didn't really know what to call them, nor did Alfred. Nothing had actually happened since the morning in Arthur's room, but there definitely had been a few stolen glances and undressing with the eyes. Both had noticed it, but neither had acted on it. They didn't need to. They knew the time would come. Suddenly Arthur felt tired of waiting. He stepped forward so he was directly next to Alfred, shooting him a quick, but obvious glance. Alfred knew what it meant. It was too obvious not to know. Arthur continued to walk forward, straight down to his cabin. Without a moment of hesitation, Alfred raced after him.

"Damn it, Alfred." Arthur breathed, breaking their steamy kiss to gasp for breath. He ran his hands down Alfred's exposed chest, over his toned muscles. The men were in Alfred's cabin this time, sitting on his cot. Alfred's back was pressed to the wall, and Arthur sat on top of him. His fingers tangled in Alfred's hair, while Alfred's wrapped around Arthur's waist, pulling him in closer. "Don't do that."

"What? You don't like being bitten?" Alfred asked, smirking. He then leaned in and gave Arthur a hard bite on his neck.

"God! Ah, I hate you." Arthur groaned, glaring hatefully at Alfred, who just smiled.

"I hate you too." He mused. Arthur sneered and dug his fingernails harshly into Alfred's shoulder, making him hiss, then laugh. Arthur had never really heard Alfred laugh genuinely. He had to admit, it sounded a little obnoxious, but it was nice enough. Almost methodical. Of course, he would never say so. At least not out loud.

"Shut up, asshole," Arthur growled, raking his nails again across Alfred's scalp. "I don't even know why I agreed to this."

"Yeah, well, you did, so quit your complaining." Alfred murmured, only half serious, pushing Arthur against the wall and biting him again, eliciting a harsh scratch on the shoulder from Arthur.

"I'm serious. Stop doing that." Arthur growled, somewhat defeated. Alfred saw this as a weak moment on Arthur's part and smirked.

"Well you certainly seem to be enjoying it." Alfred loomed over the other, staring him in the eyes almost harshly. The room was dark, but illuminated by the moonlight so that they could still see each other's faces, paler than usual in the white luminescence.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of yellow light followed by a roaring thunderclap, rattling the windows and causing Alfred to nearly jump out of his skin. He crawled off of Arthur, pressing his back to the wooden wall the bed sat against and breathing heavily. Arthur merely looked at him, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow.

"Christ, tell me you aren't afraid of thunderstorms." Arthur nearly laughed aloud. "That's completely bollocks. You're supposed to be a strong, tough pirate and you can't stand a little bit of loud noise?" Arthur chuckled, finding himself rather clever.

"Shut up. I just don't like it, okay?" Alfred yelped as there was another loud burst of thunder. He hugged his legs tightly, curling into a ball. "It's loud and I don't like it."

Arthur felt strange. He felt like he should be making fun of Alfred. After all, he had just exposed a huge weakness and was now completely at Arthur's disposal, but Arthur said nothing. Alfred was allowing himself to be seen by Arthur like this. Honestly, Arthur wasn't too shocked that Alfred was afraid of something like thunder and lightning, but never, ever before would he have thought that he would confess it to him. Arthur felt the strong urge to comfort Alfred, though he didn't really know how.

"Um, it's okay, Alfred…it's just a noise, you know." Arthur gently patted the other man's shoulder, trying to calm him. At the same moment, the rain started; loud, heavy drops that burst as they hit the wood of the ship. Arthur and Alfred could hear men running above, scrambling to get out of the rain's way. Arthur could see out the small window that the sky was completely dark, illuminated only by the occasional strike of lightning somewhere out in the ocean. The rain fell like bullets, stirring the sea monsters awake and angering the ocean. The waves grew larger and harder, crashing forcefully against the ship. Luckily it was nothing they hadn't dealt with before.

"Make it stop." Alfred whimpered, burying his face in his hands. Arthur simply couldn't believe it. Alfred was totally vulnerable now and yet Arthur felt the need to be nice. It was strange and he couldn't get his head around it.

Wordlessly, Arthur laid down next to where Alfred was curled in the fetal position on the bed. He put a hand on him and gently rubbed his shoulder, quietly whispering consolations as Alfred shivered away and the thunder continued rumbling. After a while, the storm settled down and Alfred drifted off, followed soon by Arthur, the two being gently rocked to sleep by the calming motion of the waves.