Hi, my lovelies!
So, I really want to apologise for not posting anything in a couple of weeks, I have had a bit of a hectic time with work and some family stuff and I haven't had chance to actually post anything in a while. I've got a lot (and I mean a LOT) of drafts, plus several chapters of a pretty long fic that I want to start posting soon (but not until it's actually complete). I'm also happy to announce that I've been working on this year's Halloween one shot in preparation for October so you can definitely look forward to that XD (mini spoiler - this year, Alpheus is definitely getting involved with Halloween!).
Life has just gotten insanely busy lately and it's been a bit difficult to deal with at times but I finally got around to getting this one-shot finished after it's been siting in my drafts for months.
I hope you enjoy!
The Nektons had encountered the Dark Orca almost two hours ago. It hadn't moved, hadn't made contact, hadn't even given any signs to even suggest it was inhabited.
Technically speaking, the pirates had done nothing wrong (not yet anyway) but their submarine, whether they were on board or not, was still remarkably close to a WOA wildlife reserve and so Kaiko had suggested they stay a short while just to investigate the pirate's intentions - especially considering the abhorrent amount of oil and other pollutants the Dark Orca perpetually leaked.
However, after responding to none of the Aronnax's outgoing calls and still showing no signs of life on board, the Nektons had decided they were going to take a closer look. With Ant in the shadow knight and the rest of the family in the rover, they set forth, and within just a few minutes, they arrived in the Dark Orca's moon pool room.
The Dark Orca's very empty, quiet, pretty much entirely deserted moon pool room.
"Huh, well, this is strange," Kaiko remarked as she stepped out of the rover.
"Yeah," Ant agreed, distractedly, exiting his knight and beginning to look around, " Uh, Mum, I'm having some uncomfortable flashbacks back to when we last found the Dark Orca like this, "
"I'm sure it'll be fine, Ant, we aren't picking up anything on sonar and I don't know about you but I've yet to see any ghostly or eel-like sightings," Will reassured him.
"It's like they just left, there's no signs of them at all," Fontaine commented, also wandering around the room, searching for any evidence of pirate life, "It's never normally this quiet, why is it so-"
Fontaine cut off as there was the sound of rapid footsteps hurrying along the rusted flooring of the submarine, a silhouetted figure sprinting past the moon pool room door, not even stopping to notice the four additional people on board.
Said four additional people spared each other a glance before turning to hurriedly follow after the figure.
Eventually, they stopped upon hearing hushed voices coming from around a corner. Kaiko pressed her finger to her lips and shooed her family back a little as they all flattened against the wall to avoid being seen.
The voices were almost entirely inaudible however the words certainly seemed to be whispered with a manner of severe urgency.
Will and Kaiko shared a look before they shrugged and the entire family cautiously turned the corner, stopping still at the sight.
The corridor looked just like every other corridor aboard the Dark Orca: dark, dingy, rusted, smelling strongly of mould, damp and general depression.
However, what was different was the gathering of people all huddled in the hallway, seemingly collected outside the same door.
Gradually, the quiet voices became more audible.
"Danny Boy!" Came a whispered yelp from what sounded like Smiling Finn.
"Finn, I've searched everywhere, every cupboard I can find," Danny Boy replied.
At this point, Kaiko decided she had heard enough and couldn't get enough of a grasp on the situation without getting a little closer, and so she decided to simply approach them - Ant's hyperactive twitching slightly behind her would ensure they would be inevitably seen by the pirates anyhow.
She and the rest of her family approached the gathering of pirates, getting surprisingly close without anyone even batting an eyelid.
Until Finn caught sight of them.
"Nektons? What are you doing here?" He asked, startled and yet still speaking at an unexpectedly low volume.
At this, Hammerhead whirled around, "Argh, Nektons! What are yer doin'? Ge'r'off me sub!" He snapped, definitely louder than his son but much quieter than his usual tone.
"Hammerhead, what's going on?" Will asked, speaking at his regular, calm volume.
"Shhhh!" Both Finn and Hammerhead hissed at his noise level.
"What's going on?" Ant asked, whispering loudly, " Did you know that your sub has been here for over two hours without moving, it's been oddly silent on here since we've been aboard and now we've found you and your entire crew huddled in one corridor outside a single door? "
"You can't expect us not to have questions, what's going on, Finn?" Fontaine added, also whispering.
"I- it doesn't matter, just leave, or don't, but be quiet," he replied before turning back to Danny Boy, "What were you saying? Have you found any?"
"None! We've got chicken, vegetable, even oxtail, but no carrot and coriander," the man replied, "I could heat up some cream of tomato though-"
"Well, we'd better look again, hadn't we? She doesn't want cream of tomato, does she? She wants carrot and coriander," Finn replied with a surprising, almost aggressive edge to his voice while still maintaining a whisper, even if it were a little more harsh.
Danny Boy sputtered for a moment, trying to find a response before Kaiko cut in.
"Okay, what's going on here? Your entire sub seems practically deserted asides from this one corridor which is apparently so interesting your entire crew is here, what is going on?" Kaiko asked, at a calm and yet perfectly normal volume.
"Shhhh!" Finn replied urgently.
"Wait, Mum, this isn't the entire crew!" Ant spoke up suddenly, as he came to an abrupt realisation, "Where's Mad Madeline?"
As though summoned by Ant's comment, the rusted, steel door everyone was crowded around squealed open with an unholy screech and emerging from the door came a bedraggled-looking figure. It had scruffy masses of black, wavy hair and appeared to be wrapped in apparently several layers of numerous blankets. It had a flushed and yet simultaneously pale face with a sheen of sweat and fever coating the skin.
"...Mad Madeline?" Ant asked, squinting at her as though that could help him make more sense of the scenario.
She didn't say anything. Her eyes were darkened with fatigue and apparent illness yet she just fixed Ant with a steely glare and ignored his comment.
"Mads, come on, you should get back in bed and sleep," Finn told her gently, his voice incredibly soft.
Madeline's harsh glare was turned almost instantly on her brother, although the moment was slightly ruined by a sudden coughing fit seizing her.
"Maddy, come on, please, you're not well, you should at least try and rest," Finn tried again, carefully patting her back as she coughed.
When the coughing had finally ceased and Madeline no longer sounded like she was being possessed by a goose with a chest infection, she turned to look at Finn.
"I was resting, then you said you'd make me soup," Madeline said, her voice sounding strained and raspy, "That was almost two hours ago, where is the soup, Finn? I know you can't cook to save your life but it doesn't take this long to heat up soup from a can, " She asked, sounding particularly accusing as she spoke.
"Ah, well, uh-, that's a great question, Danny Boy, where is the soup?" Finn asked, looking very much intimidated by his sister.
Danny Boy sent a nervous, slightly desperate look in Finn's direction before he spoke, "Uh, haha, well, uh," the rest of his sentence was mumbled inaudibly and with much hesitation.
"What?" Madeline snapped at him.
"Uh, we're out of soup," he repeated slightly louder, sounding absolutely terrified of the young pirate he was speaking to.
"What?!" She repeated, much louder and angrier before she lapsed into another coughing fit.
"Well, we have soup but none of the carrot and coriander soup that you want," Finn told her when she'd finished coughing, "However, Danny Boy could heat up some lovely cream of tomato -"
Finn was cut off by Madeline's violent coughing again.
At this point, the Nektons felt very out of place as they watched this particularly strange pirate interaction. It seemed apparent that Madeline was ill, that much was obvious from her appearance, it was probably just a cold, that wasn't the strange part. The strange part was that Finn, Danny Boy, Hammerhead and the rest of the crew seemed to be tiptoeing around her as though she were an unexploded bomb which could blow up at any second.
Will and Kaiko shared a look: of all the times they had encountered Hammerhead and his crew, this was definitely the strangest.
"I think we've got carrot and coriander soup back on the Aronnax," Will said, trying to avoid interrupting the pirate's conversation, "Right, Kaiko?" He asked to confirm.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've always got some in the kitchen in case Ant or Fontaine get sick," Kaiko confirmed, "We could go and get some if you like,"
Madeline looked up at them, it seemed as though she was trying to decide between accepting the offer immediately or resisting the temptation to accept help from Nektons of all people. Eventually, it seemed that her desire for soup and another bout of coughing won over and she nodded whilst she coughed aggressively.
"I'll go and get the soup, Mum," Fontaine said, almost desperate to extract herself from the situation and the greasy, unsafe, pirate submarine.
"Yeah, good idea, I'll come too!" Finn spoke up, already heading in the direction of the moon pool room.
"Uh, excuse you, where do you think you're going? You can't just invite yourself onto other people's submarines," Fontaine told him.
" That's strange, didn't you guys do the exact same thing coming here? Last time I checked, the Orca wasn't your sub, " Finn replied.
Fontaine scoffed while Ant responded with, "That was different, we tried calling you to talk but you didn't pick up and when we got here, it was like a ghost sub, last time we found the Dark Orca like this, it was being haunted by eels, forgive us for caring,"
"Yeah, well, this is different too and I'm coming," Finn said, resuming his path to the moon pool room.
Fontaine sighed and dragged a hand down her face but she didn't complain any further as she followed after him. When she got to the moon pool room, she found Finn already sat in the rover waiting for her to pilot.
"So, how long has Madeline been sick?" She asked as she climbed into the rover and closed the canopy.
" A couple of days, " Finn replied, "I love her more than anything but she's absolutely terrifying when she's ill, she's the worst patient, doesn't listen to anything anyone says and can work up a furious temper, "
"Yeah, Ant's like that when he gets sick, it doesn't matter how ill he is, he just won't lie still and rest, " Fontaine responded as she piloted the rover out of the Dark Orca towards the Aronnax.
"She's got a sore throat and said she wanted soup, we normally always have some carrot and coriander since that's the only one she likes but apparently we ran out and didn't realise until it was too late, "
Fontaine carefully resurfaced the rover in the Aronnax's moon pool room before opening the canopy and leaping out alongside Finn.
"So, kitchen right?" Finn asked as he set off wandering the Aronnax's halls.
" Wait, hang on, you don't just get free range of our sub, " Fontaine called, hurrying after him, "Ugh, how do you know your way around the Aronnax so well? "
"I have my ways, " Finn replied as they reached the kitchen.
"Right, and that's not disturbing at all," Fontaine rolled her eyes, reaching one of the kitchen cupboards, "Carrot and coriander soup right? " She asked and Finn nodded in confirmation.
The soup was right at the top on the highest shelf, a few inches out of reach, even when she was stood on her tiptoes with arms outstretched. Just as Fontaine was about to climb up on the kitchen counter to reach, she watched as Finn stood behind her, reaching over her to easily grab it.
Fontaine froze for a moment before saying, " Get a few more of them, you might as well if the Dark Orca doesn't have any at all and Madeline could still be sick for a few more days, "
Finn nodded and did so, retrieving several more cans of soup from far above Fontaine's head.
"Thank you for this by the way, I really appreciate it, we all do, since it will keep Maddy from losing her mind at us," Finn said.
"Yeah well, you might be pirates but that doesn't mean we won't help if we can," Fontaine replied, grabbing a bag and holding it out for Finn to place the soup cans into.
"Most people wouldn't do that, they mostly just think that because we're pirates, we're automatically bad people to be avoided at all costs," Finn told her as they began to head back to the moon pool room, "Here, let me carry that, it's pretty heavy," he reached out and took the bag before she could say anything.
"Well, you are pirates, you can be pretty difficult to trust because of that," Fontaine replied, "Although, I may be willing to admit that maybe you aren't all that bad,"
Finn have her one of his trademark grins, leading to her scoffing and turning away from him just as they passed the Aronnax's med bay.
"Wait, you said Madeline has a sore throat right?" She asked as Finn nodded, " Come on, let's grab some throat lozenges as well, " she dragged him into the medical bay.
"Woah, everything in here is so high tech," Finn exclaimed upon entry, stopping still near the door, " Actually, I don't know why I'm surprised, everything in the Aronnax is so high tech, "
"Finn, no offence, but a pencil sharpener would be high tech compared to the Dark Orca, more technology has probably gone into a calculator than the entirety of your submarine," Fontaine replied, opening a drawer to find lozenges.
"Hey! Well, yeah I mean, that is sort of true but still that's my home you're talking about," Finn protested, "What even is this any way?" He asked, pointing to one of the many 'high tech' features of the room.
"That's a defibrillator, Finn," Fontaine replied.
"See, high tech! Why do you need a defibrillator anyway?" Finn responded, " None of you have any life threatening cardiac conditions, do you? "
"No, that's fair enough, we don't really use it but mum says it's important to have it in case something were to happen and we couldn't get to a land hospital in time, I think I can only remember it being used once when we responded to an EPIRB distress beacon and one of the people on board the vessel went into cardiac arrest, other than that I can't remember a time we've ever had to use it,"
"Huh," Finn mumbled under his breath, stepping away from the defibrillator and moving on.
"What does 'huh' mean?" Fontaine rolled her eyes as she walked over to one of the many cabinets in the room.
"Just 'huh'," Finn replied, resuming his inspection of the room," It's just an observation, that's all,"
"Right, well, could you do your observations a little quieter, you're very distracting," Fontaine complained as she rummaged through the contents of the cupboard.
"Oh, yeah sure okay," Finn mumbled before speaking up again to address Fontaine," By the way, Fontaine, I really do appreciate this,"
"What?" Fontaine asked distractedly, she hadn't truly been listening to the pirate as she blindly tried to reach what she hoped was a pack of throat lozenges at the very back of a cabinet.
"You and your family helping Maddie, it really means a lot to us, including Maddie even if she won't admit it just yet, she's grateful as well," Finn elaborated.
"Really?" Fontaine commented doubtfully - she sincerely doubted the youngest pirate could really express gratitude, she just didn't seem the grateful type.
"Yeah, I know it doesn't seem like it but honestly, she appreciates it, I can tell,"
"Right," Fontaine said, her eyes rolling, still obviously doubtful and disbelieving of Finn's claims.
A few moments later, Fontaine held up a packet of cherry throat lozenges victoriously and added them to the bag of soup that Finn was carrying.
"Okay! Let's go, " Fontaine announced, the pair already heading back along the maze of hallways towards the moon pool room.
"Good idea, I can't be away for too long, Maddy might have killed everyone by the time we get back," Finn agreed.
"She's really that bad of a patient?" Fontaine asked, not particularly surprised given the pirate's aggressive habits but still slightly shocked.
"Oh yeah, she's always like this when she's sick, it's been the same since we were little kids," Finn replied, looking almost reminiscent of some distant memory, "She's always been the same about the soup too, only liked carrot and coriander, or occasionally cream of tomato depending on how sick she is, "
"Huh," Fontaine nodded in acknowledgement as they approached the moon pool room.
Their conversation continued as meaningless and mild small talk as they entered the rover and Fontaine piloted back to the Dark Orca. They resurfaced in the pirate's moon pool and Fontaine trailed after Finn along the Orca's dingy corridors until they arrived at the hallway they had been in before.
Clearly Finn was right, in the short time they'd been gone, the entire sub seemed to have descended into anarchy.
Hammerhead, Will and Kaiko were all whispering to each other furiously. The captain was repeatedly hissing at them to be quiet, overall being much louder than the minimal noise Will and Kaiko were making.
Madeline was now leaning heavily against the rusty door frame, still swaddled in numerous blankets, but still attempting to yell at Danny Boy about something or other - her raspy, cracking voice disturbing the illusion slightly, not that Danny Boy didn't look intimidated by her, the man looked terrified.
Ant was watching their strange interaction with unusual curiosity, his head flipping side to side like he were watching some sort of tennis match and he still seemed disconcerted by Mad Madeline's state.
Finn rushed over once he saw her, Fontaine not far behind him.
"Hey, Mads, look we got soup," He spoke softly yet with great caution, as though addressing a dangerous, wounded animal.
He held out a can of the soup to her at arms length.
She just stared at him with a tired glare for a moment and then replied with:
"Well? Do you want me to drink it cold out of the can?" She asked dryly, her personality apparently not being too badly impacted by whatever disease she had contracted.
"Right, yeah, good point," Finn stammered, "Uh, Danny Boy, how about you go heat this up?" he held out the can to the crew member.
Danny Boy looked unbelievably relieved to have a way out and he practically snatched the soup from Finn before rushing off down the hall, presumably headed for the kitchen.
Madeline burst into another coughing fit, tightening her grip on the door frame and looking as though she were about to keel over, prompting Finn to place the bag of soup down on the ground and reach forward for her as her knees buckled. Just before he could reach her, someone got there faster.
Ant caught Madeline's arms just as she fell, softening her fall as he lowered her to the floor with a surprisingly gentle grip. Both of them turned to stare at each other in shock - the pirate seeming surprised she had been caught by a Nekton, and the Nekton surprised that he had caught the pirate.
After leaving the two youngest to stare at each other in stunned silence for a moment, Finn reached out for one of his sister's arms and helped Ant to lift her to her feet, leaving her to lean heavily against her brother's side with his arm wrapped around her.
"Come on, Mads, let's get you back in bed and I'll bring you your soup when it's ready," Finn told her, opening the door to her room with his free hand.
"Don't take two hours this time," The youngest pirate could be heard mumbling, to which Finn chuckled, his evident and abundant fondness and utter love for his sister taking over.
With that, the Nektons were just left in the hallway with Hammerhead and some of his numerous crew members - all looking amongst each other rather awkwardly.
"Righ', well, you've 'elped, now ger'off me sub!" Hammerhead barked at them, still in a rather quiet tone compared to his usual callous yelling.
With that, the Nekton family decided it was in fact quite a good time to leave, especially considering this was such an odd pirate encounter. Once they had made it to the moon pool room, had gotten into the rover and shadow knight and were now safely outside and well on their way back to the Aronnax, Ant voiced those exact thoughts out loud.
"Well, that was the weirdest experience I've ever had with the pirates, and that's saying something," He said as he manoeuvred the shadow knight into the Aronnax's moon pool.
"Yeah, I have to admit, that was a new one for me," Will grinned as the rover resurfaced in the Aronnax's moon pool room.
"And me," Kaiko added in agreement.
"Well, Fontaine, did you and Smiling Finn have a nice time together when it was just the two of you going to get soup?" Ant teased as he climbed out of the shadow knight.
Fontaine rolled her eyes in her typical fashion in response to almost anything her younger brother had to say.
"I don't know, Ant, it seems like you and Mad Madeline were getting along incredibly well while we were gone, especially when you caught her as she fell, anything you need to tell us?" she shot right back with a grin.
Ant had no response to that other than outraged spluttering and storming off down one of the Aronnax's many corridors, much to Fontaine's amusement.
Later that evening, just as Fontaine was beginning to consider going to sleep, her tablet lit up with a familiar caller ID and ringtone. She rolled her eyes as she heard it and accepted the video call without even sparing a moment to take a proper look at who was calling - there were very few people that it could possibly be and she was fairly certain she knew who it would be.
"Hey, Pirate Boy," she greeted as she picked up her tablet, seeing that it was indeed Finn who was calling her.
"Hi, Fontaine," Finn grinned at her, "We just wanted to call and say thank you for the soup and all your help today,"
"You already said thank you earlier, remember?" Fontaine replied.
"I did," Finn said before changing the angle of the camera to show his sister sitting beside him. She still looked rather ill but seemed a little more like herself.
"I- uh, thank you," Madeline spat the words out quickly but nevertheless they were still spoken by her.
Mad Madeline apologising to a Nekton. That was definitely an odd occurrence.
Fontaine was rather shocked and didn't truly know what to say at first.
"Uh, yeah, no problem, Madeline," she eventually replied.
Finn then shifted the camera back onto his face and said, "Anyway, yeah, just wanted to say thanks, really, Fontaine, thank you," a moment later he continued with, "Wait, what time zone are you in? It looks late,"
"Yeah, it's uh, pretty late, I was planning on going to sleep soon," Fontaine replied, eyeing the clock, technically it was the early hours of the morning as Kaiko had piloted the Aronnax for several hours after their encounter with the Dark Orca as they were heading to a pod of whales to monitor their migration patterns. They had crossed into another time zone since they had been travelling away from the Dark Orca and it was safe to assume that the pirates had probably moved into another time zone too since Finn was pointing it out.
"Well, I guess we'd better go then, don't want to keep you from your beauty sleep," Finn winked at her, "Goodnight, Fontaine, sweet dreams,"
Fontaine rolled her eyes and responded with a fond, "Goodnight, Pirate Boy,"
And that's a wrap, folks, I hope you enjoyed! This is the first fic of this kind that I've ever posted so please let me know what you think (because there's several more in my drafts that could get completed and posted it you want to read them XD).
If anyone has any suggestions of what they'd like to read, please feel free to let me know! Also, I apologise if there is any errors in this, I did my best to edit and proof-read it but I probably missed some if I'm being honest.
Until next time! :D