Short chapter, but I hope you all like it.

Just finished a week of a soccer training camp. Now I get to do two-a-days all week. Soccer in the morning, lifting, then more soccer in the evening. Along with our team and the boy's team holding a soccer training camp for kids 6-12. I'm going to be helping with that so it's basically three-a-days for me now. Then next week, band camp starts. And soccer will still be going. Great.

Happy Monday!

Night was beginning to fall as Feliciano finally managed to secure the final cannon back into place. He let out a sign of relief and straightened, putting his hands over his head and stretching. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to look out over the water. He sent out a silent prayer, hoping his friends and family were safe, wherever they were.

The sound of someone coming up the stairs made him look over his shoulder and he smiled slightly. "Ciao, Lovi," he greeted his twin, glad to see that he wasn't injured, therefore, nothing bad had happened to him. "What did Toni want?"

"Asshole made me sit and eat next to him," Lovino grumbled as he walked over and stopped next to Feliciano, leaning on a cannon. "Didn't give me any fucking choice about it either. But... I guess he complimented the food in his own fucked up pirate way."

"Si si," Feliciano agreed. He looked at his twin's spot nervously. "Could you... um... not lean on those...? They're really heavy and hard to move... I just got them all back in place and now my back hurts really bad..." he said, gesturing to the cannons.

Lovino blinked, then looked down at the cannons and moved away form them. "Don't fucking sugarcoat things, dumbass. If you don't want me on the fucking things, then tell me. And it's those bastards' fault anyway! They didn't fucking tie it down!"

"They were tied down, you just somehow got the ropes untied. I have no idea how you did it," the Italian said, relieved as Lovino moved away from the dangerous, and heavy, artillery. A shot of pain went down his spine and he sighed, bending down to touch his feet. "Owwww..."

"F-Feliciano?! A-Are you alright?!"

"My back hurts... Really bad..."

"W-Well come on, dammit! There has to be a damn medic on here!"

"N-No, no, I'm fine, I'm just sore from moving the cannons around, really, fratello, don't worry about it," Feliciano said, straightening as quickly as he could.

"…. Fine, dammit. But I'm keeping an eye on you."

Feliciano nodded. "Okay. Let's go to bed. I'm tired..." he said, and the two started below decks. However, before they could get to their assigned room, another crew member approached them.

"You Feliciano?" he asked gruffly.

The Italian squeaked in fright and nodded.

"Cap'in wants you to do the dishes now that ye'v finished the deck. It's yer job as a swabby. Don't bother arguin'. That'd just make 'im angry and you'd get a worse job." This said, the man turned and left.

Feliciano whined softly, then hugged Lovino weakly, his arms tired from all the heavy lifting he had done. "Guess I'll sleep in a bit. Go ahead without me, fratello. I'll be done soon. Buonanotte." The poor teen then dragged himself away from his twin, going back down the hall towards the kitchen.

Lovino huffed and started to follow after him. "Hell no. I'm coming with you, dammit."

"No, you aren't." Antonio appeared behind the brothers suddenly, making them jumped in surprise. "Feliciano is going by himself, that is his job. You're job is to cook. So you need to go to bed, you have to get up early to make everyone breakfast."

Lovino glared back at him and growled, "He needs my damn help."

Antonio grabbed the front of Lovino's shirt and yanked him up, his eyes cold. "Don't. Argue. With. Me." Then, he let go, dropping Lovino, hard, onto the ground. "Get back to your room, cook," he spat. "And you," he added, turning to Feliciano. "Go finish your cleaning."

Trembling in fright, his eyes watering, Feliciano nodded and ran away to the kitchen.

Lovino growled and shot Antonio a dirty glare, but got up with a wince and headed back to his and Feliciano's shared room.

It wasn't until almost dawn that Feliciano finished all the washing. He looked around at the clean room from the spot on the floor where he had sat down. He was to tired to make his way back to the sleeping quarters, so he curled up on a pile of empty burlap sacks in the corner of the room and fell asleep.

At dawn, after Lovino was forcibly woken up, he staggered his way into the kitchen, only to trip then roll all the way across the room onto the sacks where Feliciano was with a startled yelp.

Feliciano squealed in surprise, jerking waking and flailing to get away from his brother in his half-asleep stupor.

"Ow….." Lovino groaned as he pulled away and rubbed his face. "Fucking ship…. On the fucking water….."

The younger twin whimpered. "Sleep..." he whined, looking at his ruined spot sadly.

"Sorry... You want me to help you back to the room?"

"No time for that." A new man entered the kitchen. It was the other cook for the ship. "It's time to make breakfast. And he needs to get up and start swabbing the deck for today. If he finishes, then Cap'in will let him take a rest."

Feliciano gave an exhausted sigh, then dragged himself up and waved good bye to his twin, then went to start mopping the deck. Suddenly, he slammed into something and fell to the ground. "O-Ow!"

"Oh… er…. I'm sorry about that," an awkward, yet very familiar, German accented voice spoke as he helped Feliciano stand. "Are you alright?"

The Italian looked up. His eyes widened and he squeaked. "L-Luddy...?"

The blond German raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Ex… cuse me….?"

"I mean! U-Um! Ludwig! I'm s-sorry. I didn't mean to r-run into you," Feliciano stammered, inching backwards away from him.

Ludwig blinked then frowned. "You're one of the new crew members, ja? How do you know my name? We've never met."

"I-I... I..." the poor teen stuttered, shivering in fright.

"…? Are you alright?"

"I-I'm sorry. P-Please don't be a-angry with me," Feliciano whimpered, his eyes filling with tears.

"Er…. I'm not…"

"Y-You sure?"

Ludwig nodded. "Ja."

"I-I have to c-clean... S-Sleep... F-Finish m-my job..." Feliciano babbled, barely able to speak coherently, terrified that Ludwig would treat him the same way Antonio treated Lovino.

"Hmm. Well. Then you better get back to it. I'll leave you to your work." Ludwig answered and started walking off.

Feliciano reached out his hand after him, then let his arm drop back down, a soft, sad sound sliding from his lips. Once the German teen had disappeared, he turned slowly and walked up the steps to begin washing the deck again, feeling the soreness from the days work before settling into his body.

"Hmph. You wankers should know that glaring at me can't make me work faster." The British mage scoffed as he searched through one of his magic books.

The group had crept around until they had discovered a library. Going in, Alfred had been forced to set Arthur down and the Brit had located the books the magicians had taken from his home and began to search through them for a spell to get them back.

Antonio and Ludwig had been placed into arm chairs, the both of them pale, shaking, and weakly glaring at Arthur.

Arthur glared back at them. "If you really feel that horrible then you should speak with Yao so he can give you something to lessen your systems. Then MAYBE you'll actually allow me to work!"

"Artie, what's wrong with them anyway?" Alfred asked, hugging his boyfriend from behind. He wasn't going to let anything happen to his Brit ever again, even if that meant annoying him by being clingy.

"I'm not entirely sure yet…. But I'm sure a bit more research will explain it."

"I hope it's nothing to serious. It would suck if something bad was happening," the American murmured, nuzzling the British wizard.

"D-Don't do that!" Arthur stuttered as his face flushed red.

"I can't help it. I was freaking out! I didn't know what'd happened to you! You have to forgive me, at least for a little while, for the stupid amount of affection I'm going to be giving you," Alfred reasoned.

"O-Oh… w-well, very well….." Arthur stuttered then gasped when he looked back at the book. "Oh no…."

Everyone was alert instantly.

"What is it?" Gilbert asked, looking between his brother and Arthur, his red eyes flashing with worry.

"T-Their bonds…." The mage gasped out. "It's their BONDS doing this to them! B-Because they're separated! O-One can't live without the other! This separation from each other is literally killing them!"

The teens froze.

"Wait... So you mean..." Gilbert said slowly, "that if we can't get them back... Ludwig and Antonio will... die...?"

Arthur sighed and nodded as he closed the book with a loud slam. "Yes… unless the Vargas' are brought back as soon as possible, they will indeed die. Slowly and painfully to boot."

Gilbert voiced the single thought on everyone's minds. "... Fuck."