Francis had woken up laughing as something tickled his side, blinking open his eyes to see Yao fumbling through the pockets in his pants. Seeing that he had woken the blonde up, Yao leaned back so that Francis could sit up on his own.
"Good. You are up now. How is fever?" He asked more to himself as he placed a hand on the Frenchman's forehead and giving a satisfied noise at finding that it had significantly dropped with the rest. "Arthur is wondering if you still have sewing kit – and yes, he knows you carry it around like he carries his needlepoint." Yao said with an eye-roll at how alike the two could be sometimes.
"Why…ugh…" Francis started to ask as he stood up, only to have his back pop from being stiff. Yao shot him a sympathetic look, knowing how that could be and understanding that it was probably due to floating all day draped over Arthur and then sharing the bed with said British man that left no room for the taller man.
"Why does 'e need it now? I of all people can understand a concern to maintain one's appearance but…" He began, Yao not in the mood to let him ramble as he wanted nothing more than to get some much needed sleep as well.
"Alfred needs to be stitched up soon. He is not looking so good right now and we'll need him to be able to do anything other than drift aimlessly." He said, Francis' eyes widening at the news. He patted his pockets to see if he had the kit with him, giving out a small 'ah ha' as he produced it to hand over to Yao. It was still damp, but needle and thread were still there so it was as useful as it could be.
"But how do you propose to keep notre cher Alfred still long enough for you or Arthur to sew him back up? Assuming there is enough thread to do the job." Francis asked as he followed Yao, the older man heading back out to where Kiku was sleepily still working.
He stepped over where Feliciano and Romano had decided to sleep on the floor, reluctant to head out onto the deck should another unpredicted storm take them by surprise. Francis followed, watching as Yao grabbed the small bottle of rubbing alcohol to sterilize the needle as best he could, trying not to trip as Feliciano moved slightly in his sleep. But it seemed Yao chose to ignore that question for now, Francis sighing and looking over to Kiku to check on the other man.
"Any progress on that radio Ja-" Francis began only to have the usually stoic man seem to give a growl of frustration as he slammed an open palm onto the table, making a few of the pieces shake and causing Yao to steady the things he'd been holding.
"I can only do so much with broken pieces. Everyone needs to stop asking when I'll fix it. Broke is broke!" Kiku said before sighing and rubbing his hands across his face. "I apologize France-san. I am just…irritable. My leg is still bothering me and it does not seem I can do much with what I have. I would need to see if I can do something with the other instruments and maybe pull something together with them." He said, rubbing his injured leg.
His raised voice had evidently unsettled the Italians, although neither man needed to worry too much about them waking up as Feliciano just pulled his brother tighter to him and Romano complied in his sleep by wrapping a protective arm around his younger brother as they lay on the floor. Francis snickered as he watched the two of them, knowing Romano would vehemently deny any such affectionate actions and then likely call Francis a pervert for watching him sleep.
"You can only work with what you have Kiku. I'm sure after some real rest, you might have a clearer head." Francis said, Kiku sighing and leaning back against the wall to try and relax a little more. Yao had finished up with the needle, allowing the thread to soak in the alcohol for a while before doing anything else.
Seeing the way the man held himself, Francis once more decided to take charge. "Why don't you stay with Kiku to make sure he does not overwork himself? I will go up and keep watch in case we need to be prepared for anything else nature decides to throw at us." He said, Yao giving a small nod around a yawn.
"Britain-aru is up with America. I will need to get some rest if I'm going to try and patch the big idiot together tomorrow." Yao said, although the usual barb at America was softened given the circumstances and the exhaustion that they all were feeling. "We cannot do anything else anyway. Britain and I believe we may have figured out which direction we need to go but the Italys have determined that they cannot do much more for the engine. We're either going to have to wait for who knows how long for a glimpse of help and fire off that flare gun…" He said, Francis nodding as he followed the other man's train of thought.
"…or we'll need to rely on America not moving too much right away to give his arm a chance to heal enough for him to at least hold the paddle and give us some momentum." Yao finished, sounding more and more tired as he spoke. Francis chose to give him a simple pat on the shoulder before gesturing to the bed and exiting the crowded area of the boat, climbing up to where Arthur and Alfred were supposed to be.
Upon entering the section with the wheel and other instruments, Francis couldn't help but let out a little gasp at seeing the two tucked away as they were. Both were sound asleep despite what Yao had said, Arthur's hand still in Alfred's hair from where he'd obviously been caressing the boy in an act of comfort to him or possibly to both of them.
Francis approached as quietly as he could with the lantern he'd taken from Yao to halt any protest the other might have made. As much as the Frenchman would have liked nothing more than to indulge in some more beauty sleep, he also didn't like the idea of the ship having no one keeping watch on it while it was already significantly broken. And if I'm being honest, he thought, how much more improvement could there be to my stunningly handsome looks?
But he knew that he was also likely quite a sight with peeling reddened skin from his prolonged sunbathing, Francis deciding not to dwell too much on that. Choosing not to immediately wake the other man, although he was concerned about his possible concussion, Francis settled himself on the stool next to the table that Yao had spread the map out on earlier.
He could see the marks he and Arthur must've scribbled as they worked to determine the direction to attempt to set the boat on once they could with Alfred's help, the Frenchman going over it himself to keep track of how far they might drift in the meantime. He had to fight off sleep for the next few hours as his head drooped along with his eyelids.
But dawn eventually came and so did the grumblings from below as Romano apparently woke up to find to his displeasure he'd been cuddling with his brother. Francis couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him as he then heard scuffling as he could imagine Feliciano either continuing to cling and plead for more cuddling or by cowering and trying to get some distance between him and his irate brother.
"Hmmm?" Arthur groaned as the yelling woke him up, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the early morning sunlight as he tried to get his bearings. "Oh, yes…I was rather hoping it was all a ridiculous nightmare." He said with a wince and shifting a little before remembering his brother in his lap who hadn't stirred despite the ruckus that both Europeans worried might rock the boat more than it could handle.
"If only, mon ami, if only." Francis said, standing up and stretching as he made his way over to kneel next to Arthur. "Is your head feeling any better?" Francis asked as he raised a hand as though to gently touch the bandages to see for himself that state of Arthur's injuries, but the British man grouchily swatted his hand away.
"I'm perfectly fine, thank you." Arthur said a little stiffly, receiving an unamused scowl from Francis that made him feel a little guilty. "Ahem…I'm doing better, Francis. It's not going to be healed overnight but…I'm here to complain so I can't say too much about it." He said to the Frenchman in a softer tone, seeing Francis' expression become less tense as well. Both knew that now was not the time to have one of their usual squabbles with the urgency of the situation.
"But it's Alfred we should be focusing on. The git tore his arm pretty good when he decided to go shark wrestling and we need to repair it somehow or we're more or less just drifting about the Pacific Ocean in a crowded lifeboat with no phone signal, no working radio, and a rapidly dwindling supply of food and fresh water." Arthur grumbled as he looked back down to the pale American who had begun to stir a little in his lap at the outburst, Francis rolling his eyes.
"Oui. Yao is, or was, getting some sleep to help take care of this." Francis said to the other man as he ran a hand across his face tiredly. "He's letting the needle and thread he plans on using soak in the rubbing alcohol to try and sterilize it as best he can. But you know as well as I do that the thread isn't going to hold for very long once he starts rowing us back to shore." He said with a pointed look.
That earned a small sigh and nod from Arthur as the other man went back to gently running his fingers through Alfred's hair as the younger man slept. "And I don't think I need to mention that out of all of us, he's going to need to eat a lot more than what we have – but he won't. As much as he loves food, his hero complex will win out to make sure we all eat something."
Arthur nodded again before wincing as the movement irritated his head. "Yes. Which is why we probably shouldn't tell him how much we've got left so he doesn't give us some ridiculous response about how 'the hero's supposed to take care of everybody' and refuse to eat what he needs." He said as he looked back up at Francis.
"I don't suppose Yao's up for this yet either. The poor man only got a few hours last night, or so I guess. I'm afraid I drifted off not too long after Alfred woke up again in the middle of the night. The blood loss is making his sleep not as restful as it should be." Arthur remarked, inspecting the bandage in the hopes that the bleeding had stopped. He breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed that it seemed like it had at some point in the night, silently grateful for the American's strength as it seemed he was beginning to heal – although sewing him back up was definitely something that still needed to be done.
"Well, if we're going to do this, I do believe we will be needing all of us to hold our friend still long enough." Francis said, Arthur mentally wincing at how rough it was going to be to convince Alfred to let them help him. "Unless we want to try and do this while he is still asleep?" He suggested, Arthur giving a shrug in response.
"I suppose we should give that a try. But get the Italys up here too so we can put up some fight when he decides to toss us off him like a bull at one of his rodeos." Arthur said, Francis tightly smiling at the attempt to inject some lightheartedness into their situation before he went to retrieve the Italy brothers.
It had taken longer than Francis had thought to pull the two away from trying to make a 'suitable breakfast' in their stubbornness over food that neither Francis nor Yao could honestly criticize without sounding incredibly hypocritical. But after the brothers had eaten a rationed amount of food, along with Yao munching on something to give him some energy, they headed back up to find Arthur had fallen asleep again while waiting for Francis to return.
The Frenchman gently nudged Arthur awake, any apology for having to do so quickly dying on his lips as Arthur instinctively began spewing profanities at the other in protest at being awakened. But the blush on his cheeks as Romano grumbled out something that sounded suspiciously to Arthur like a 'well done' earned Arthur only a fond shake of the Frenchman's head.
"Alright, let's do this quickly." Yao said, holding his things away from Francis when the Frenchman offered to do the job instead. "I am older than all of you. I have the most experience in medicine so I am best one to be doing the job." He huffed, the others in the room rolling their eyes at the statement.
They could only imagine what Kiku might have responded with if he'd been with them, the Japanese man only semi-awake to witness the sunrise spectacle that was Lovino and Feliciano. The thought briefly passed through Arthur's mind that the Japanese personification was likely going to be in for an equally confusing wake-up call once Alfred realized what was going on.
Taking a deep breath before he began, Yao looked steadily at the others as they each positioned themselves to be able to brace for when Alfred protested, Feliciano choosing to essentially just sit on Alfred's legs. Seeing the others prepared, he began to undo the bandages.
He'd almost gotten to the point where he could start stitching the wound when Alfred began to twitch as he registered something going on around him. Arthur took to petting his hair again in an attempt to soothe him back into sleep, but the damage was done as soon as Yao decided to go with the approach of doing this as fast as possible. He'd gotten through a few stitches before Alfred's eyes flew open and he tried to jerk his arm away.
"Ghh…wha….get offa me!" Alfred grumbled, Feliciano whining as Alfred attempted to kick his legs and had lifted him up off the floor. "Nghh…st-stop…I'm….grrr…." Alfred protested before shouting loudly as Yao rushed to finish what he could with the length of thread he had to use.
"Alfred, idiot, stop thrashing. It's for your own good!" Arthur said as he pressed down firmly on his brother's shoulder to keep him from sitting up. Yao grumbled as he had to pause a few times when Alfred moved too much.
"Ugh…you are big baby! Be a man!" Yao barked out to Alfred, hoping an insult to the ever child-like personification's manliness would get him to think clearly through his pained and exhausted mind. "Your brother is right. This is for you…and….so you help us…." He said, struggling to hold Alfred's arm still. Alfred paused for a moment, just long enough for Francis to secure his hold on the American's shoulder to keep him from lashing out anymore even if he wanted to.
"Come now Alfred. It's alright." Arthur tried again, this time in a less harsh tone and succeeding in getting Alfred to look directly at him. "It's alright. Hold still and it'll be over before you know it. This is just to help speed things up a bit so we can all get back to land soon enough." He said, Alfred taking a short breath and wincing as Yao took that opportunity to finish up with what was left of the thread. Alfred turned his head toward Arthur to avoid watching Yao work, the British man continuing to speak softly to Alfred as the younger blonde stopped trying to fling the others off of him.
"Ve~….can we get off now?" Feliciano timidly asked as Yao finished up with tying off the thread, grimacing at the still nasty looking slash in Alfred's arm.
Francis' kit didn't exactly have the kind of thread necessary to hold together such a gash, but it seemed Alfred was just lucky enough to avoid having his arm mangled when he punched the shark like he did. While not completely closed, Yao had sewn together the most severe and deepest portion of the injury and Alfred could feel like his arm wasn't about to fall off from burning so much.
"Oui, Feli…I think it's safe for you and your brother to get off his legs now." France replied, seeing as Yao was back to bandaging the wound with the supplies they had left and Arthur was too focused on keeping Alfred calm.
Both Italys immediately sprang up and away from Alfred, obviously wanting nothing more than to just keep away after seeing all that. It was only when Feliciano turned to cling to his older brother that anyone noticed the bloody nose Romano was sporting.
"Oh! How did that happen?" Feliciano asked, making as though to reach out and touch the injury but Romano pulled back.
"How do you think it happened stupido? Damn bastard kneed me in the face with all his squirming and shi-…ow! Santa Maria, madre di Dio!Gesù Cristo!" Romano began, only to start sputtering in pain when Feliciano unexpectedly reached forward and quickly pushed against his brother's nose so that everyone heard it snap back into place from where Alfred had accidentally hit it.
"Sorry, sorry….Germany did that for me once and it felt better shortly afterward. I thought I'd do it quick so it …ah! Don't hit me!" Feliciano said, eyes opening in fear as his brother growled and lunged at him, prompting him to squirm out of the way to flee from his irate brother.
Francis and Yao both reminded them that there was not enough room for them to do that in the space they were in, Francis shielding Alfred's outstretched arm before either one of them tripped over it and tore the stiches sooner than Alfred was sure to.
"It's only because I love you fratellone!" Feliciano exclaimed as he climbed down the ladder to head out onto the deck.
"Si? Well love hurts. Come here and let-a me show you!" Romano grumbled as he followed his younger brother, one hand still clutched around his nose. Alfred snickered at the sight of them before attempting to sit up.
"Whoa. Easy Alfred." Arthur said as he helped guide the superpower into a sitting position without aggravating his arm. "You should just rest a bit before you do anything." He said, Alfred leaning into him and giving a nod.
"I know. I wanna head below to get a drink or somethin'. Bed sounds good if nobody's in it right now." Alfred said, blue eyes looking as imploringly to Arthur as ever when Alfred decided to use the 'kicked puppy dog' look.
"Is not a bad idea, Alfred-aru." Yao said, handing the sewing kit back to Francis who took it with a hesitant look that clearly indicated he was not planning on keeping this particular needle for quick clothes repairs after seeing it used for something else.
"But can we carry him down without tearing the stitches? There are still too fresh to move about." Francis said, Alfred huffing at that remark as he struggled to stand on his own. Arthur once again scolded him for not listening as he protested such movement with only marginal success.
"I'm the hero. Heroes don't get carried around like damsels in distress." Alfred grumbled, although the paleness of his face and lethargic movements didn't quite match the tone he was trying to convey. "I can walk just fine." He said, Arthur having given up on keeping him still and opting to hover close by in case Alfred tipped at all. But they all had to admit that he was doing well for someone who'd kept making his wound bleed again periodically throughout the night.
Alfred managed to stumble below deck where an obviously concerned and confused Kiku was waiting for someone to come to tell him what was going on. Seeing this, Alfred gave a small nod to his friend as Francis took the lead in assisting Alfred to his bed, the American sighing in relief at the softness.
"Will someone please tell me what is going on? I heard Arfred-kun's terrible yells and then I heard the Italys running about on deck." Kiku said, readjusting his position on the couch to angle himself to talking with the others better. "Are they still there?" He asked, wondering if the quiet from the two of them could mean any more issues to worry about – namely if they'd managed to toss themselves overboard by accident.
"I'll go see if they are still conscious." Yao said with a sigh from where he was lingering in the entryway to the living area of the boat, turning to head back out on deck to check on them. Kiku watched him leave before turning back to see Francis and Arthur tend to a grumbling Alfred, Francis grabbing some food and water to bring over to the American.
Arthur shot a worried look to the Japanese man that silently communicated the concern over their supply of food. They'd been adrift for less than a full day, but with so many on board the small boat, the supplies were being polished off quickly.
"Here Angleterre." Francis said, handing over what he had in his hands to the other man. "I'll see if I can help Yao. There should be a decent amount of sleep shared between the two of us and who better than moi for you to place your trust in to get us home?" He said with a smile, the British man rolling his eyes and giving a friendly huff at the attempt to keep things relatively sane between them.
"Besides..." Francis continued,"...I am taking the easier task. Bon chance avec lui." He said as he gestured to Alfred, Arthur nodding at the daunting task of making sure Alfred took care of himself. With that Francis left, sharing a brief conversation with Kiku who asked to have some help later on getting to the other instruments to try and fashion together whatever still worked to fix the radio.
"Have a drink first Alfred before you get some sleep." Arthur said as he held out one of the three remaining water bottles. "You lost a lot of blood the other day. You need something to replenish yourself."
Alfred groggily took the bottle from Arthur, taking a few sips before handing it back to the British man. "Nah, save the food. I'm just gonna take a nap for a few minutes. Then I'll start rowing us back as soon as one of ya points me in the right direction." He muttered, but Arthur shoved the package of food back into Alfred's face.
"If you don't put fuel in the engine, it doesn't work. And it appears you're going to be our engine, so eat up lad." Arthur said, Alfred sighing and readjusting how he lay to take the food. He fumbled with the plastic packaging with one hand as he tried to not move his other arm so much, but it was clear he was having some trouble.
He resorted to trying to use his teeth but Arthur snatched it away from him to open it for him. Alfred scowled at Arthur for what he considered to be him treating him like a child again, but catching the look from Kiku as the other watched the exchange, he silently took the offered food. Alfred made short work of his snack, letting his head fall back onto the pillow as he rested some more, giving a little shiver.
"Is it me, or did the Pacific get colder since I fell asleep?" Alfred asked as he did his best to cover himself with the blankets, his injured arm kept close to his side as he moved. Arthur immediately worked to help his younger brother, tucking him in as though he was a toddler again.
"That's what happens when you let a shark take a bite out of you." Arthur grumbled, the worry evident to Kiku as he listened into their conversation. "You'll get warm soon enough once you've got a little more blood running through you and not out your arm." He said as he watched Alfred snuggle with the blankets.
"Yeah, well, I'm cold now." He said, yawning and burrowing his face into the pillow. "And you're welcome bro. It's what heroes do." He said, although it was said around a yawn and muffled by a pillow. He was quiet after that, leaving Arthur with a frustrated blush on his face as he stood next to the bed.
He looked over to Kiku before shooting a look to the other and shutting the door to the bedroom portion of the cabin. Reminded of the time Alfred had taken Arthur's complaint about being cold to mean he wanted Alfred to cuddle with him, Arthur decided to climb into the tiny bed as well to help Alfred warm up. "Uh…what are you doin'?" Alfred asked in a wary tone, Arthur feeling his face flush even more.
"You're not the only one with an injury Alfred." Arthur said, proud of himself for the quick save rather than admitting that he thought Alfred was asking for someone to cuddle with him. "The bed was big enough for Francis and I to sleep on so it should be big enough for the both of us, assuming you don't decide to sleep in the shape of a starfish." He said, smirking at the sleepy noise of protest that came from the younger man. Alfred slowly shifted a little to give Arthur some more room before he promptly fell asleep next to his older brother.