Bryn woke up with Doubar spooned against her back, one of his arms slung protectively around her waist, keeping her from falling out of the narrow bed. She felt warm and safe, the nightmares had stayed away.
She became aware of a pair of eyes watching her.
"It's almost shift-change," Sinbad whispered from his hammock, his blue eyes innocent and unassuming, still Bryn felt the need to defend herself.
"We weren't…" she said, her voice soft and low.
"You're good for him," Sinbad said.
Bryn had always known Sinbad loved his brother but in this dark, whispered conversation she could read it on his face and hear it in his voice. Right now, in this moment, Sinbad was happy because his brother was and that was all he wanted.
Bryn slipped out of bed and quietly rushed back to her own cabin, getting caught by the crew now would be embarrassing.
oOoOo
"So…" Maeve drawled, wandering into the galley and finding Bryn with her nose in a book. "Is it true?"
"Probably," Bryn said, not caught that easily.
Maeve dropped onto a stool across from her friend. "Come on, it's all over the ship! You have to tell me."
"Hmm," Bryn made a vague humming sound, trying to come across distracted by her reading.
Maeve plucked the book from between her hands with a cheeky grin.
"Hey!" Bryn exclaimed, making an unsuccessful grab for the book.
"Did you end up in bed with Doubar last night?" Maeve asked, holding the book out of reach of the shorter sorceress.
"Who told you that?" Bryn asked, opting to cross her arms and look cross rather than jump after the book and look like a child.
"Well as far as I know Mourad told Rongar who told Firouz who told me, and trust me, ending up in bed together is the mildest way to put what I heard," Maeve said, still grinning widely.
Bryn groaned, she could only imagine the embellishments the story would go through as it made the rounds through the ship. "So what you're saying is that by tomorrow the whole ship will think I've had a... a roman orgy with the entire day-shift," Bryn said.
"Basically," Maeve nodded. "So what really happened?"
"I had a nightmare and he comforted me," Bryn shrugged, leaning back in her seat, thinking furiously on how to fix this.
"And by comforting you mean…" Maeve wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Maeve!" Bryn protested only to receive giggles as an answer. "You're incorrigible."
"Don't worry so much, this will blow over," Maeve said, putting the book back on the table.
"Sure, I'll be an old crone by then, but it'll blow over," Bryn said.
"Shhh, do you hear that?" Maeve said, tilting her head and straining her ears.
Bryn followed her friend's example and heard what was going on up on the deck.
"I don't mind you taking pot-shots at me, I'm used to your filthy minds! But if I hear any single one of you pester Bryn about this I'll have your hide!" Doubar bellowed across the deck.
"Come on Doubar, you know we're only poking fun!" someone else said.
"Yeah well, don't poke fun at Bryn!"
"That boy's got your back," Maeve commented.
"I know," Bryn said, no longer embarrassed.