When the storm had apparently blown over, Alfred hesitatingly released his tight grip on the wheel. The engine had given out after the deck had flooded enough through the wood to reach it, Alfred having to improvise with his strength to keep things together long enough to keep afloat. He took a few deep breaths as he righted himself in the cabin area, looking at the still lingering ominously gray clouds.
Sunshine expected all day so I was told, Alfred thought with irritation as he carefully walked over the deck to inspect the damage better. With that storm, I just hope everyone's boats held up alright, he mused as he lifted the mast to readjust where it lay, allowing him access to actually get to the back of the boat to see if the rudder was still jammed.
"Ve~!" A voice called out, gaining Alfred's attention as he squinted out over the ocean. Land had long since been out of sight as he'd purposely navigated that way, but he didn't think he'd been blown far enough backwards to reach the Italy brothers. But as he listened, Romano's grumbling voice was heard before Alfred saw off in the distance what looked like a white flag being rapidly waved.
Looking around quickly to see what he could use to make it over there, Alfred sighed as he realized he'd have to act as the engine and literally push his boat along if he wanted to control any movement. Short of just jumping in the water and pushing the boat, Alfred racked his brain for another solution, finding it in the broken pieces of the mast. Taking the metal piece that had held a portion of the sail, he tore off the door to the cabin and jammed it on the end to make a makeshift, large paddle. Here goes, he thought as he began to slowly but surely push the boat in the direction he'd last seen the tiny white blurb in the distance.
"Great…About time you got here lazy bastard." Romano said as Alfred approached, seeing the two men clinging to their capsized boat. "You brought us out into a damned storm!" He continued as he grabbed ahold of the 'paddle' Alfred made, climbing aboard the boat before turning to assist his younger brother who looked to still be shaking.
"Oh, come on. You'd think you'd never been in a storm at sea before." Alfred said with a huff as he matched Romano's barbs with his own teasing, receiving a very red-faced Italian. But before Romano could go off, Feliciano interjected with his own comments.
"N-Not in a w-while." The northern Italian said before he clung tightly to his American friend and began to cry, Romano huffing at the usual sight his brother made. "I w-was in the middle of making pasta. Now it's all at the bottom of the ocean." He wailed, Alfred awkwardly patting the man on the back as he listened to how he listed his priorities – pasta first, bodily safety second. But Alfred had been known to put food first sometimes too, although not when in 'hero' mode as he was.
"Okay, Feli…um…let go and I'll see if we can find our way back to shore." Alfred said, gently prying the crying man off of him. At that , Romano returned to glaring at Alfred, the American personification understanding a little more of why Ludwig seemed so stressed whenever he'd been dealing with both Italys at the same time.
"You mean you don't know where we are?!How stupid are you, damn fat hamburger-stuffing bastard." Romano grouched, making his way toward the cabin warily. "Don't you know how to use your stupid navigational…" He continued, only to slip on the water that had slicked the deck, landing flat on his back. He gasped as the wind was knocked out of him, Feliciano giving out a panicked cry and racing over to his brother.
Alfred watched as the younger Italian met the same slippery fate, only landing face-first into his brother as Romano recovered and tried to sit up. Despite the situation, Alfred laughed at the display as Feliciano apologized and began to voice his worries for his brother while Romano cursed the other's existence as he pleaded for his brother to get off of him.
"Well, when you two are done, Mr. Navigational Expert can take a look at the state of my instruments." Alfred said as he stepped over the two of them, carefully placing his paddle on the deck. "In case you hadn't noticed, there was a storm – an electrical storm. I got zapped a few times and it fried them. Engine's gone too." Alfred said, leaving his two guests on the deck to go grab some towels that might have managed to remain dry.
Feliciano and Romano followed after him, Feliciano extending his thanks on behalf of him and his brother as Romano grumpily took the towel. After making sure that the two weren't actually injured beyond being waterlogged, Alfred was back out on the deck with his paddle, Romano taking the wheel to try and steer with a partially jammed rudder. They sailed that way for what felt like to them at least a few hours before some pops came over the radio as someone was clearly trying to contact them.
While Feliciano fiddled with the radio unsuccessfully, his brother making 'suggestions' on how to get it to work, they came across more wreckage. Japan's boat was nowhere in sight but the man was sitting on the deck of the half-sunken Chinese man's boat with the older man beside him. The three of them could see Kiku in obvious discomfort, Yao continuing to adjust a temporary splint on his younger brother's leg.
"Yo! Hop on!" Alfred called out as he pushed his boat closer, Feliciano assisting as best he could to help steady the boat alongside the slowly slinking boat. "Come on, before you pull a Titanic. Just so long as you don't start singin'" Alfred said with a smile, hoping to help ease things for his injured friend.
"No way we are getting on that piece of junk." Yao grumbled as he looked over the state of Alfred's boat. "We have better chance of getting help with my boat." He said, ignoring how Kiku agreed with Alfred again like always. The Japanese man attempted to stand up on his own, taking Yao's attention away from Alfred and back onto Kiku.
"Dude, aren't your ships called junk?" Alfred asked with a laugh, the corners of Kiku's lips turning upwards as the older Asian personification sputtered at how Alfred used his words against him.
"Not in that context America-aru." Yao grumbled, pushing Kiku back down to sit on the deck. "And Japan should not move yet. He has a broken leg." He said, Kiku hissing as the older man began to focus again on tending to his injured leg.
"All the more reason to get off a sinking ship man!" Alfred tried again, emphasizing the fact that no matter how hard the Chinese man resisted, the fact remained that at some point, he and Kiku would be going underwater sooner rather than later. "Just…grab food and medical supplies and get off that thing." He said, Kiku mumbling something quietly in Yao's ear that Alfred hoped would be more convincing than his own clearly ignored reasoning. With a huff, Yao assisted in maneuvering Kiku to help get him onto Alfred's boat. Once Kiku was safely on board the more sound boat, gasping from the exertion, Yao disappeared below deck to gather supplies.
"Here." Yao said, leaning over the side of his boat, which he'd reluctantly realized had sunk farther than it had been when Alfred and the Italys had first arrived. He handed several bags to Feliciano and Romano to take, the Italians assisting him as Alfred carried Kiku below deck to rest in his bed.
"Do your instruments still work? Hamburger-head's are finito." Romano said, Yao pausing a moment as he sighed at that information.
"Mostly, but I can't just pick them up and hand them to you." He said with a shake of his head, huffing in irritation as he thought about a course of action. "I was able to get some reading from them but I cannot be totally sure. Help me see if we can take parts and we can repair Alfred's instruments." He said, Romano groaning at having to climb aboard the other ship.
But the two men quickly scavenged as many parts as they could, staying with the boat until it was almost completely submerged. After China's heavy sigh at seeing his boat practically sunken and therefore not the most reliable place to wait for help, Alfred paddled away from the wreckage as quickly and carefully as he could to avoid any debris causing any damage to his own already-damaged boat. Yao quickly got to work trying to get the instruments fixed, Feliciano disappearing to go look after his Japanese friend while Romano continued to begrudgingly assist Alfred in making any repairs to the boat.
"You really think kicking the damn thing is going to make any progress?" Romano said as he leaned against the doorway, watching Alfred attempt to tinker with his busted engine. The salt water had made short work of it, Alfred doing his best to try and determine where the main problem lay to then go about finding an alternative mode of cutting through the water rather than the quickly exhausting paddling he'd had to resort to for most of the day.
"Guess so. Maybe if you curse at it some more it'll start to work." Alfred grumbled, his annoyance level reaching its peak at receiving no 'thank you hero' from Romano or Yao after he had just saved them. Romano just smirked as he rolled his eyes, Alfred thankful the other had kept quiet. But as he continued to work with no progress, Alfred let out a noise of frustration and tossed his wrench, Romano ducking at the last minute to avoid getting a wrench to the face.
"Gesù Cristo! Watch it bastard!" Romano said in a tone that might seem to indicate that his temper wasn't to be trifled with, but his widened eyes at seeing Alfred actually getting angry was proof of his fear. "Take a damn break before you sink us all! Go get a snack or something." He said, Alfred taking a deep breath and running a hand through his hair as he heard the attempt to be helpful from the southern Italian. He silently walked past the other man, hearing Romano give a sigh of relief at his retreat before muttering himself at how stupid the engine was as he apparently took a look.
Alfred climbed back up to his cabin, seeing Kiku resting semi-comfortably in the 'bedroom' area with Feliciano next to him chatting away like normal. "Oh, hello Alfredo. I was going to see if you and big brother had made any progress. Yao's got a few things working again…well, not really….sort of…" Feliciano said as Alfred opened the small refrigerator to take out a yogurt, figuring they should eat the foods that would spoil quickest first. "…but that's mainly thanks to asking Kiku for help, but don't tell him we told you, ve~" Feliciano cheerfully said, Alfred taking a seat on the bench with a sigh as he ate his snack.
"Ah, I take it that the engine is being…uncooperative?" Kiku asked delicately and receiving a pout from Alfred in answer to his question. Feliciano made an appropriate disappointed noise before tilting his head as he opened his eyes to get a better look at Alfred.
"You look really tired. Are you okay Alfredo?" He asked, watching as Alfred finished the last of his yogurt and made his way over to the fridge. But Alfred paused, hand outstretched as he'd reached for another yogurt, before sighing and closing the fridge.
"We should probably be careful with how much we eat – like when we all thought we were stranded at Seychelles' place." He said, looking like it was the saddest thing to have to use what self-control he had to not just eat like usual. "And yeah, I'm exhausted. You try rowing a boat this big. It ain't like your gondolas." He said as he sat back down beside his friend, Feliciano patting his shoulder.
"You should then have a little more to eat, Arfred-kun." Kiku said, Alfred shaking his head despite wanting to do just that as he figured he could probably go for a little longer. "Then at least take a break to get some rest." The Japanese man said, pushing himself off the bed as quickly as he could as he ignored the protests from the other two personifications. "No, you take the bed. Feliciano will help me to the bench that is supposed to pass as a couch. I can prop my leg up there." He said as he waved off Alfred's concern. Giving a sigh as he watched his friend determinedly shuffle to where Alfred had previously sat, Feliciano gently lifted Kiku's injured leg onto the cushions that Alfred thought felt much harder than they should have.
"How did this happen anyway?" The northern Italian asked of Kiku after the other was settled, Alfred plopping down on the bed without further complaint. He felt his eyelids grow heavy, listening for his friend's answer.
"When the storm hit, I did my best to keep my boat steady. But China and I were blown into one another and my ship didn't fare as well as his I'm sad to admit." Kiku began, Alfred imagining him shrugging in defeat at the tone in his voice as he kept his eyes closed, although he knew that the Japanese man probably would avoid looking overly emotional if he could help it. "I tripped over something as my boat tilted and wasn't quite able to brace for the fall. China-san was able to pull me aboard his boat once the wind let up. His ship only held up better because of the way we crashed, but it was lucky that Arfred-kun and you two came by when you did." He said.
"That's the hero's job." Alfred mumbled from his spot before rolling over to get comfortable, drifting off to sleep. Shortly afterwards, Romano came back from his own unsuccessful efforts with the engine, taking one look at the sleeping American personification before grumbling about him being a 'lazy bastard'.