A Rude Awakening

The captains' quarters aboard the Nautilus were luxurious and quite spacious. It was a comforting room, filled with fine fabrics and soft furnishings, decorated with dark, oak panelling on all sides despite the functional pipes and metal bulkheads.

The large copper tub took up most of the far corner and beside it, sat a four poster bed, draped in brocade blue curtains and a deep yellow blanket. By the door into the room was the silk upholstered sofa on which a discarded chess set lay in the middle. One wall was completely occupied by a fine painting of a map of the word.

The electric lights were all off and the room was dark, it also swayed a little with the movement of the ocean, but only a little.

All was quiet and peaceful and the occupants of the bed were fast asleep. Nemo lay his back, his white shirt askew and his hair ruffled from sleep. Beside him, between his body and the wall, slept Humility Lucas. Her arm was slung over his chest and her leg wrapped around one of his. Her own shirt sleeves were pushed up past her elbows, the curls of her hair had escaped the braid she'd tied her hair in and was splayed across her own face and over Nemo as well.

Her perfectly tailored gold waistcoat was depose diver the sofa and their boots lay scattered around the room. Even after just over a month of living in the Nautilus following their escape from London and destruction of the company, Humility had vowed to never return to wearing skirts and corsets if she could possibly help it. If a disguise was needed to move in society, she kept one dress stored away in a chest. But she much preferred her tailored trousers and shirts.

After a long night of playing chess and pondering new ideas and designs for the ship, Humility and Nemo had finally gone to sleep in the early hours after midnight.

Having never shared a bed before, it had taken a while for Humility to actually close her eyes and sleep. Sharing kisses and gentle, loving touches; the touch of a hand here, or a press of lips at the helm, was one thing, but sharing a bed was quite another form of intimacy.

Despite that, Humility was fast asleep now in a bed not her own beside the man she loved. It was a perfectly quiet and lazy morning.

That was until a loud knocking on the metal door, woke them both up.

"Nemo?" Kai called loudly from the other side of the door as he knocked again.

"Hmmm…" Humility let out a groan of irritation and burrowed further into the covers in an attempt to escape the noise.

The knocking at the door continued and it jolted Nemo awake, sluggishly. He stared up the canopy of the bed with a sigh and scrubbed a hand over his eyes.

"For a Captain…you get lousy wake up calls just like the rest of us," she grumbled against him, her voice muffled with sleep and he chuckled.

"Captain? You awake?" Kai asked.

"…What time is it?" Humility asked.

"No idea," Nemo grumbled back, yawning. Then he turned his head slightly towards the door and spoke as loudly as he had the energy. "What is it, Kai?" he asked.

The door wheel spun with a loud, high pitched squeak, making them both wince, as Kai let himself in.

"You should probably fix that, it doesn't sound right," he remarked and pointed at the door.

"Yes, I'll see to it," Humility grumbled, not having even opened her eyes yet.

"Erm…right," Kai raised an eyebrow at seeing her in Nemo's bed but to his credit, he said nothing. Instead, he switched on one of the lights, hanging at entrance of the room.

"Is something wrong? Please don't tell me it's the British. It's impossible for them to have found us here…or at least I hoped that it was," Nemo said.

"No…it's too early in the morning anyway," Humility remarked.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Kai asked, amused.

"Well…they won't have even had breakfast yet…" Humility muttered. "It's very unseemly to fight or give chase and whatnot before tea and breakfast…"

"Well, actually, it's almost ten in the morning," Kai told them with a grin.

"Is it? Hmmm," Humility hummed in disbelief.

"Kai, did you come to wake me because I am late or is there a problem?" Nemo sighed. He threw an arm over his eyes to shield them from the sudden onslaught of light.

"Well…there's a leak in the dive room…it's only a small one. We went fishing earlier and we ran into some sharks, had to get back quick and one of them rammed right into the hatch. It's opened a bit of a crack. We've had worse though," Kai explained.

"Does that mean that we have shark for lunch?" Humility asked, raising her head a little and now, opening her eyes, blearily taking in the room.

"Well…yes," Kai replied, bemused.

"Splendid," she smiled.

"I think you're rather missing the point," Nemo said, trailing his hand down her back.

"I don't think I am. Kai cooks a wonderful fillet of shark. Don't you, Kai?"

"Yes, I do…"

"See."

"Agreed. But more importantly, there is a leak in the dive room. Or did that bypass you entirely?" Nemo asked.

"Oh, no, I heard," she settled back down against him.

"You're being very blasé about this."

"A cosy bed does wonders for one's mood. But incidentally, you should go and take a look at it," she said.

"Me?"

"You're the Captain. She's your ship…you go…" Humility grumbled into his chest.

"If she is broken then she's your ship. You are the engineer. That was what we agreed in terms of problems…" he retorted, just as languid as she was.

"When did we agree to such a thing?" Humility asked. She folded her arms atop his chest and rested her head on them, staring up at him and flicking her wild, bed-mused curls back from her face.

"I distinctly recall…" Nemo began.

"Look, we can fix it. It's fine, really. Ranbir was getting the welding torch ready, anyway. We just thought you ought to know," Kai said, biting back a laugh. "We thought you'd be awake by now. You're not usually one for sleeping late," he held up his hands and stared at Nemo.

"My fault, I'm afraid. He defeated me at chess last night and I was determined to repay the favour," Humility explained, sheepishly.

"Remind me…how many times did we have to play before…"

Humility stopped Nemo from saying anything else by placed her hand over his mouth. The bride lets of his beard and moustache tickling her palm.

"That's quite enough out of you, thank you very much," she said. Then, she tilted her head pensively. "Perhaps we ought to add some extra strength around the hatch in case this happens again. We've had rather a few close calls as it is…Some kind of buffer, maybe," Humility mused, still with her hand over his mouth.

Nemo mumbled something but it was muffled by her hand. He rolled his eyes and reached up to pull her hand from his mouth.

"Good. Do that. I shall remain here," Nemo repeated and make an exaggerated movement of settling against the pillow.

"That's rather an unchivalrous attitude," she remarked, dryly.

"As was your attitude to our chess game last night. You attempted to cheat. I'm saw it quite distinctly," Nemo joked.

"I am a woman, I don't need to be chivalrous. That's your job."

"And the cheating?"

"I didn't cheat. Perhaps your eyes are failing you," she grumbled, haughtily.

"Hah! You take your defeats very unsportingly," Nemo laughed.

"I'll…get back to the dive room, then", Kai remarked, still grinning as he turned back towards the door.

"The captain shall be there presently," Humility called after Kai just as he was leaving.

Kai waved a hand over his shoulder in affirmation and then, he was gone.

"I suppose I've little choice in the matter," Nemo drawled.

"None whatsoever," she replied angelically.

He breathed in deeply and then out as though building himself up to doing just that.

"Hmmm…good morning to you, too," Nemo looked down at her.

Slowly sitting up in the bed, Nemo scrubbed a hand through his hair and turned so that he could drop his feet onto the floor. Startling him a little, Humility's arms wrapped around his chest and she placed a gentle kiss to his shoulder. He covered one of her hands with his own and smiled.

"Good morning," she smiled even though his back was to her and he couldn't see it. "I'll go with you…though I'd much prefer that we simply stay here all day," she added.

"You heard Kai. The damage isn't significant. They can repair it easily. I can go and you can stay here for a while. You've been working hard as it is…"

"Yes, but I'd feel terrible idling in bed all day while they worked…rather like I'm taking advantage," Humility admitted with a pursed lip.

"Taking advantage of what? Of me?" Nemo laughed.

"Of…captains' privileges. This glorious bed, for one. You're fortunate that no one else knows how comfortable it truly is, or you'd have to fight them off every night."

"Then I'd thank you to keep my secret."

"And I shall. Provided that you play chess with me again tonight" she said in a mockingly sinister tone.

"I'd have thought that you were above stooping as low as blackmail."

"Honour is at stake, I shall do what I must," Humility retorted.

"Hmmm. In that case you shall have your rematch."

"Wonderful," she patted her hand palm against him happily.

"In the meantime, perhaps your idea of adding some measure of protection around the outside of the dive hatch is one that we should look into," he said, turning his head slightly to catch her eye.

"Mmm. I will," Humility nodded and reluctantly relaxed her hold on him so that he could get up.

Nemo quickly hunted down his boots and pulled them on, then straightened his shirt and tucked it into his trousers. Picking up a hair brush from his paper and book covered desk, brushed his hair in the mirror and pitied up our do the way.

"I'll go and see what damage has been done and how we can prevent it again," Nemo remarked as he buttoned up his waistcoat which he grabbed from the back of the sofa.

Humility stretched her arms above her head and tried to bring some sense of order to her wildly erratic red curls of her hair which were flying off in all directions.

"I think…after I have seen the damage I should like to take a bath," she said,

thoughtfully.

"Well, help yourself," he gestured to the large bathtub.

"More captains' privileges?"

"It is the largest bathtub on the Nautilus," Nemo smiled.

"Shameless boasting…utterly shameless…you are right, though," she admitted, enviously eyeing the shining tub.

Nemo walked back over to the bed and gave her a tender kiss on the lips, feeling her smile. "Take your bath, we can handle the repairs without your expert guidance," he assured her.

"Well…if you insist," Humility said.

"Captains' orders," he replied sarcastically.

"Sir, yes sir," she gave him a mocking salute.

"Besides…it will give you time to ponder your next chess strategy," Nemo joked and, at her unamused expression, he ran for the door.

Humility tossed a pillow from the bed at him but he managed to evade it. He let himself out of the room and she could hear his laughter from the corridor.