Tired

Characters: Uni, Law. Rating: K+. Warnings: minor injury

Taking the night watch was not itself inherently awful. Some members of the crew were less fond of it than others – neither Penguin nor Shachi made much of a secret of hating it, although they still dutifully did it when the rota landed on them – but everyone did it.

The worst bit about it if you asked most of the crew was the skewed sleeping times the individual on night watch would have to adhere to – bed in the early afternoon, after lunch, and then waking up in time for a late dinner before going to bed again just after breakfast for several hours until lunch.

It was a messed up pattern, and it just got worse when something went wrong.

Uni had struggled to sleep the previous afternoon, for reasons that escaped him, leaving him grouchy when the rest of the crew went to bed for the night and he had to forcibly stay awake in the control room for the eight hours of lights out Law insisted upon. He could have told Law he wasn't in a fit state to take the watch, but doing that would have simply pushed the responsibility onto someone else, who hadn't even had the opportunity to rest. Uni had no desire to leave that on the shoulders of any of his nakama, so he kept his mouth shut as everyone else retired for the night.

After such a rocky afternoon, Uni was pleased to see that the radars stayed quiet all night, leaving the watch a pleasant night of playing various card games with himself and even picking up a book on occasion in an attempt to stay focused. By the time the eight hours had crawled by, Uni was more than ready to flop in his bunk and crash out for as many hours as he could get away with. He even seriously contemplated the merits of skipping breakfast entirely and heading straight to bed, but the scolding he'd get from Law for missing a meal wasn't worth it and so as the light of dawn filtered in through the shallow depths of water they were currently cruising in he trudged his way to the mess hall to shove something supposedly edible down his gullet before flopping for the morning.

Life, it turned out, had other plans for him that morning. Bleary eyed and barely aware of what food he was shovelling in his mouth under the askew bandana, he heard the Tang's alarms sound. They were under attack.

If Law had realised that Uni was not going to retire quietly to his room while the others fought, he didn't mention it. In all reality, the night watch combined with the lack of sleep the previous afternoon meant that he should really have hung back, but Uni had never shied away from a fight before and wasn't about to start now. Besides, he was surrounded by his nakama; what could possibly go wrong?

Enough, was the answer. Enough could and would go wrong.

He'd barely reached the fight, weaponless like a fool and hardly steady on his feet, before one of their assailants caught him in the back of the head with a blow that knocked him down.

Blearily he opened his eyes, mumbled curses on the tip of a fuzzy tongue, but before he could coherently vocalise any of them he vaguely noticed that whatever he was lying on was not the cold, hard surface – deck? Land? He didn't even know where the fight had taken place or who it had been against – that he'd fallen on. It was warm, not unpleasantly so, and had a give to it that left him lying in what felt like the slightest of dips.

A bed, his mind supplied after several moments of confusion, some of the candyfloss in his head melting away slightly to leave room for mental processes such as basic observation. He was laying on a bed. In a bed, he corrected himself after another moment, registering the slightly scratchy feeling of a blanket on top of him.

It felt safe, familiar, so he assumed he hadn't been captured and allowed his eyes to open fully, blinking away the fog that clouded them to be greeted with the sight of the infirmary ceiling in the Polar Tang. Someone would be in there with him, presumably, but as he turned his head to scan the room for his inevitable companion the back of his head gave a large, painful throb, as if to remind him that something had smashed into it. Wincing, he pulled a slightly shaky hand up to probe the area, finding the familiar texture of bandages covering it.

Knowing better than to fiddle with them, he let his hand fall back down to his side and exhaled sharply. The air didn't congregate around his mouth and nose as he was used to, instead flying freely to join the rest of the room, telling him that someone had removed his neckerchief. He'd be annoyed if he didn't know it was probably his captain, making sure he wouldn't suffocate in his unconsciousness.

"How are you feeling?" The words cut into his awareness, and he turned his head – more gently, this time – to the side to see his captain approaching him. There was a discarded book on the desk in the corner, too far away for him to read the title, which Law had clearly been using to pass the time while he was out of it. That reassured Uni; if Law was dividing his attention whilst at his bedside, he was unconcerned about his injury.

"A crazy headache, Captain," he answered, grimacing as it sent another pulse of disapproval to his brain. Clearly his slower movements had done little to appease it. Law offered him a glass of water and tablet that he recognised as mild pain relief, which he accepted after tentatively pulling himself into a sitting position. His head was displeased by that, too, but soon quietened down as the medication took hold.

"You know your limits," his captain said after a few moments, presumably noticing a change in his countenance to indicate that his head no longer pounded like a drum. "It would be in everyone's interests if you adhered to them."

Uni knew when he was being scolded, even if Law was being coyer about it than usual. Uni was subjected to lectures on recklessness than some members of the crew – Shachi in particular was frequently on the receiving end of one – but even he knew that Law tended not to beat about the bush when he was telling someone off, especially when it involved their well-being. Law's less blatant attitude here implied that he was not holding Uni solely to blame for his injury, which was nice.

At least, it was nice for the minute or so it took his brain to process that the other individual being blamed was Law himself, for not noticing that he was not in a state to fight. He had neither the mental capacity, or the willingness to convince his captain that he was blameless, so he regretfully let it go for the moment, making a mental note to let Penguin or Shachi know that Law was being too hard on himself again at the earliest opportunity.

"I'll do my best, Captain," he said eventually, knowing that he owed the man an answer. "Sorry I messed up."

Law's response was a relaxation of his expression, letting some of the concern seep away to be replaced with a more prominent soft look, full of care.

I managed to hurt someone who isn't Shachi! No, Law is not pleased. Yes, I will probably write his PoV for this at some point, but no promises when. I still have a lot of plots lined up, even if I'm out of pre-written ones for the time being now.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari