Arthur groaned as his headache became more prominent as consciousness came back, groggily looking around through half-lidded eyes to realize that he'd passed out again at some point and had ended up beside Francis on the ship's small bed. Opening his eyes fully, he immediately attempted to scoot away from the man that he'd ended up throwing an arm around in his sleepy state, thanking God that Francis was too exhausted to be woken up by that action.
However, his head protested the movement, resulting in an involuntary groan making its way out of his mouth as he held his head in his hands. He opened the door to the bedroom to see what the situation was like, finding Kiku in the same spot as he'd glimpsed earlier, tinkering with the radio that had been taken apart and spread out on the table. Sensing another's presence, the Japanese man looked up and sent a small smile to his British friend.
"Good evening, Arthur-kun." He said, setting down the piece of equipment he had in his hand to give the other man his attention. "How are you feeling?" He asked politely, motioning to the remaining space open for Arthur to take a seat.
"Italy, ah, Feliciano, was a little nervous in treating you. Especially after you passed out and fell into him." He said, the memory vaguely coming back to Arthur of having the fidgeting Italian offering to help clean up and bandage his head injury. He'd had no other choice but to gratefully accept, only to have his vision start to fade and the last thing he remembered hearing was the familiar frightened shriek of the northern Italian as he pitched forward.
"Well, I will have to apologize for giving him that fright as soon as I see him." Arthur said, feeling the bandage on his forehead. "Speaking of which, where are those two? And Alfred?" He asked, Kiku having already gone back to looking over the damaged radio.
"North and South Italy are doing something with the engine, convinced it just needs to dry out some in order to get it working again. But that might be difficult since water keeps leaking onto it from the damaged deck." Kiku explained, earning himself a frustrated sigh from Arthur at that news.
"China-san is still with the instruments to try and figure out where we are. He believes he will be able to better once the stars are more visible. We will have to rely on the old methods since the instruments are not fully functioning yet and China's earlier readings are not comfortably reliable." He continued, accidentally dropping onto the floor one of the smaller pieces he was handling. He reached for it as best he could, but Arthur interjected before the Japanese man fell off the narrow couch.
"I'll get it Kiku. Don't aggravate your leg anymore." Arthur said, slowly leaning down to pick up the piece as his own injury made coordinated movement difficult.
"How did you end up with that injury, if you don't mind me asking?" Kiku asked as he took the piece from Arthur, the British man heading over to the fridge to see if there were any bottles of water to be had. He was relieved to see that Alfred had, predictably, had his ship well stocked with food and water. Taking one, he soothed his itchy throat by drinking a few gulps of much needed water before answering.
"The storm wreaked havoc on my ship. I'm not as used to the storms of the Pacific Ocean as you or China, nor was I prepared for one with the sailing boat I'd prepared for the race. But I saw Francis' boat nearby – I swear the bloody frog must've tied a rope to my ship to be able to keep up with me no matter what I did to be rid of him." He said with a tone more resigned than actually irritated given their situation.
"He radioed for assistance and I tried to get to him. But his boat lurched violently when a tall wave came out of nowhere, much like that blasted storm. I went out on deck to try and spot him when next I knew, I went face-first into, well, something." Arthur grumbled with a scowl on his face at his own inability to have handled that better.
"I suppose I'm damned lucky that wine-loving fool saw me and was able to get to me before I drowned. Still can't believe he was able to push me onto that piece of debris and had the sense to grab some of the sail to keep me from burning to a crisp." He said, voice getting softer as he thought about the effort the other man had put into caring for the Englishman. "Ugh…he's going to use this for years to come in our arguments." He said, Kiku giving a short chuckle.
"I do not doubt it." The Japanese man agreed, realizing that he and his friend were in similar predicaments. He was certain Yao would be bringing up what happened between the two of them when their ships collided and Kiku had desperately clung to his older brother to survive. It was only a question of how long they would wait to regale the other personifications and of how long that story would remain circulating.
"Oh! Arfred-kun didn't come back down since he and Yao went up. Yao brought me the radio after he had apparently given up on it himself, but I haven't heard anything from our American friend." Kiku said, sounding apologetic.
"That's alright. I suppose I should head up there myself and see the damage." Arthur said, standing from his seat and holding onto the wall to steady himself. "I might be able to offer some assistance, or at least keep Alfred entertained so Yao can manage something." He said with a smirk as he left Kiku to continue rebuilding the radio.
Arthur slowly climbed up to where the steering wheel and other instruments were located on the damaged ship. He swore a few times as his body protested movement, clearly signaling to the Chinese man that he was approaching as he found Yao grumbling about him moving around as he helped steady the island nation.
"Hello China." Arthur said as he attempted to stand straight like usual. But the Chinese man only rolled his eyes. "I thought I'd see how things were coming along. If I might be able to offer you a hand." He said, Yao merely shaking his head at Arthur's stubbornness.
"I do not suppose if I said you would help by going back to bed, you would do so?" He asked, folding his arms over his chest. Arthur smirked at the other man before giving his reply.
"You could ask, but there happens to be a Frenchman in that bed at the moment." He said, Yao rolling his eyes as he turned to walk back over to the map he had spread out over the small table next to him.
Arthur followed him with his eyes as he leaned against where Yao had more or less propped him up against the window, finally noticing Alfred asleep on the floor. "Good God!" Arthur exclaimed, pushing himself off the wall to walk over to his younger brother as quickly as he could. He dropped to his knees, inspecting the red bandage around his arm before brushing a hand gently over Alfred's forehead.
"You will wake him up." Yao said, coming back over to pry Arthur away from Alfred. "He has lost a lot of blood. I have tried to stop the bleeding but we do not have all the supplies to sew him back up and it occasionally still bleeds. Let him sleep so our natural healing abilities can repair his arm enough so he can row us back to land." He said, Arthur scowling as he looked back to the Chinese man.
"You're just going to let him bleed out on the floor?" Arthur asked in a tone that Yao considered overly dramatic, the British man eyes quickly darting back over to the sleeping Alfred.
"You of all people, Yao, should know that it takes a while for that to kick in. Kiku will take several weeks or more to have his leg healed completely if he doesn't get additional treatment. Alfred may be a large and powerful nation, but even he will take a while. Especially if you can't get the bleeding to stop." Arthur rambled, pausing only when his head throbbed.
"I do know that, Arthur-aru, but rest is the only way to give that process a chance to start." Yao said, taking Arthur by the shoulders. "If that shark damaged an artery or something, he needs to keep calm so we can do what we can for him. If he's constantly awake, that won't happen. You know he's going to be back to pushing the boat along as soon as we have a proper heading." Yao said in as placating a manner as he could.
"So in the meantime, Arthur-aru, let him sleep. He really is our best bet at getting all of us – and him – back to proper help." Yao finished with a strong look, Arthur swallowing thickly at the other's sound reasoning. The British man gave a small nod, feeling as though Yao was treating him like a child with the way he held him and spoke to him. But at the moment, with his head throbbing painfully, he just let that go unmentioned - especially since Yao was prone to occasional bursts when he would speak to everyone like they were children compared to him.
"At least let go of me so I can look him over." Arthur said, Yao sighing but complying with Arthur's request. Arthur carefully sat next to where Alfred lay, looking over his injured arm to see that Yao must've changed the bandages a few times to cover the deep gash.
That detail made his thoughts wander to other concerns. "How much of the medical supplies do we have left? He'll need more bandages at some point and food." He said, Yao rubbing his forehead as he thought over what he had clearly been pondering himself for a while.
"There's not much left in the kits with half of us needing to use the two of them." Yao answered, not looking at Arthur. "As for food, with the seven of us, it probably won't last more than a few days at best – fewer with the amount that Alfred needs to eat. And he won't if he learns what's left." Yao said, Arthur unable to help gently running a hand along the side of the American's face as he noticed how much paler Alfred looked than usual.
"I had to force him to eat all of the food I brought up here earlier. And I'm not letting either of the Italys come up here to see Alfred, since it would only cause those two children to run around in a panic like chickens." Yao sighed with a shake of his head, although Arthur had to agree that the Italy brothers would most likely let their panic get the better of them for a while if they thought their rescuer wasn't going to be able to get them all the way back to land.
"Hopefully, Kiku will be able to radio for help shortly and we won't have to worry about ensuring Alfred's up to being the engine for the ship." Arthur said, confident that the Japanese man might make some progress on that particular project. "Or the engine can be fixed fixed once it's dried out." He suggested, although the level of confidence in that suggestion wasn't quite there.
"I wouldn't put it past either Feliciano or Romano to be able to just sprint on top of the water at the speed they can run away if I maybe scare them enough." Arthur continued with a small laugh, Yao giving out a chuckle as well as he walked over to the window to look at the sky.
After that though, there really wasn't much more to be said as they tried not to focus too much on their grim circumstances. Yao and Arthur worked to figure out just how far they may have drifted in relation to where they knew land was supposed to be on the map Alfred had, coming up with some promising results as it got later in the night. As they worked, a groan interrupted the silence and had them both looking over to see that Alfred had woken up and was propping himself up.
"Easy lad. Can't have you hurting yourself any further." Arthur said as he knelt next to his brother, Alfred still in the process of waking up. "You should probably just get some more sleep Alfred." He said, easing the younger man back down to the floor, this time guiding Alfred so that the American was resting his head in Arthur's lap.
"But how are you doin'? Yao told me you fainted onto Feli…" Alfred said with a snicker, no doubt regretting that he had missed that particular show. "And Francis?" He asked, Arthur understanding what Alfred meant.
"Other than a little dehydrated and showing off a rosey shade of red, Francis is fine. Last I left him, he was shaking a little from the fever that sunburn caused, but he'll be back to his annoying ways in no time." Arthur said with a small smile.
He hoped that answer would ease Alfred's compulsion to be the hero so as to allow him to get his own much needed rest. Already he could see that the bandages were getting redder around his arm, and Arthur was doing his best to avoid bringing to Alfred's attention the fact that the floor next to him wasn't wet with just water alone.
"Oh, good. You're okay?" Alfred said, opening his eyes to gaze up in concern for his brother, softening the British man's look too.
"Yes, Alfred. I've had to deal with splitting headaches before." Arthur said as he gently and subconsciously ran his hand through Alfred's hair. "Usually you've done something to cause them, but I suppose you can have a pass this time. Unless you did some rain dance and made it storm…" Arthur teased, Alfred weakly smiling back at the older man.
"Nah. You and your hocus pocus must've done it." Alfred said around a yawn. "Man, why am I so tired? The hero needs to get back to savin' everybody…" He complained, Arthur placing an arm gently over Alfred's shoulders to make sure he got the message to not even think about getting up yet.
"You've done a lot of hero work. You're just tired." Arthur said, doing his best to sound unconcerned about the fact that Alfred was apparently losing his energy. "You'll be back to running about as soon as China and I have figured out for certain whereabouts we are." He said, Alfred closing his eyes and giving a sleepy 'mmm hmmm' in response.
"Sounds like a plan. I'll just take another five minutes." Alfred said, Arthur convinced the younger man was already asleep mid-word by the end of his brief statement. The British man sighed as he took in the change in their situation with Alfred out of commission to push them, literally, back to civilization.
A sudden thought came to mind as Arthur sat with his brother, the British personification glancing back over to where Yao was trying to still see their map in the limited light the backup lanterns Alfred had stored below had provided.
"Yao, can you go see if Francis is up? Ask him if he has his small sewing kit that he always has in his pocket in case of fashion emergencies." He said, earning a confused look from the older man. "He'll deny he has such a thing, but if it wasn't washed out of his pocket while we floated about all day, then tell him I need to use it." He said as Yao picked up the lantern to get closer to Arthur.
"And what exactly do you plan on doing with it Arthur?" Yao said, although Arthur was fairly certain that the Chinese man knew exactly where Arthur was going with this train of thought. "In case you didn't notice, it is too dark to see what you are doing, assuming he even has that still." He said, Arthur huffing in irritation.
"I am aware, Yao. But Alfred's losing too much blood if we continue to just keep wrapping up his arm. We need to sew the wound closed so it doesn't keep opening up with every little movement he makes." Arthur said as he tried to argue his case to the other man to just do as he asked. "I don't think he's had his artery sliced open, but it's a deep cut and even with his fast healing, we should try and speed things along as best we can. It'll keep him from getting ill too." He said as calmly as he could to avoid rousing Alfred out of his sleep.
Yao held the other man's gaze for a moment before looking back down at Alfred and sighing. "Very well Britain. I'll wake up France to see if he has this sewing kit. But we wait until morning so we don't make it worse. He should be alright until then. It's not as bad as it looks." Yao said, standing up. "We may even be rescued before we need to do something like that. But this still is assuming he both has a needle and thread and that there is enough thread to stitch up everything." He said, Arthur internally agreeing with the man.
"Well we'll learn that as soon as you find out if he even has it. Just go ask Yao." Arthur said as he was getting increasingly irritated with the other man's lack of apparent urgency.
"Fine, fine. I'm going." Yao said. "But I'm not giving it to you even if he does – not tonight. We both should get some sleep since it will most likely be me having to sew him up. You have concussion and I have most medical experience out of everyone." He said, going down the ladder before Arthur could respond to that comment. Arthur grumbled at the usual remark of Yao's regarding inventing medicine (a trait he denied sharing with a certain Korean family member fond of claiming invention of everything...). But the English man decided to make himself comfortable, shifting a little and checking to be sure that the movement hadn't disturbed Alfred, opted to try and rest a little as well until one of the other unwilling occupants showed up to interrupt his dozing.