With four people dead at Plunder Outpost, that meant a normal galleon's worth of pirates were dead, but Z nor Blue felt safe after the fight that had occurred. They sailed most of the night, putting plenty of distance between them and the now cursed-feeling outpost. By the time that Z finally felt like they were being silly, they were closer to the next island over than not.

Z was in no condition to be making those decisions, anyhow. When they had gotten back to the ship, Blue had dragged him to the desk's chair, given him a towel to dry himself with and another to press to his knee, telling him to sit, and so that was what he did. Even after so many hours of doing what felt like nothing, sitting there putting pressure on the wound, it still bled a little. He'd be lying, too, if he said he wasn't a little bit woozy, the towel thoroughly reddened.

When the Forlorn Phoenix was fully stopped at Plunder Valley's southwest beach, Blue came down to check on him. She hid it well, but he knew she was tired.

"Has the bleeding stopped?"

"Eh, mostly?"

He lifted the towel for her to look at it. It took a few seconds for a droplet of blood to slip down from the lowest point of it and he pressed the towel back onto it. Blue sighed.

"If y're tired, go t' bed—"

"You are hardly in a position for me to do that even if that were the case," she said sharply. She gave him another disapproving look before turning around, ducking down into the ship's hold, returning a few minutes later with her sling bag on and that blasted stick.

"What, uh, what're we—"

"I was not allowed the opportunity to buy anything before we were intruded upon," she explained. "That" — she pointed at his knee — "still needs to be cleaned."

"… so we're hikin' up t' the waterfall…?"

"Correct." She offered him the stick and then her left hand.

Z made a face but Blue was wholly unaffected by his displeasure. With a sigh, he resigned himself to dropping the towel and getting on his feet with the help of her and the stick.

The hike up to the waterfall wasn't quite as bad as he expected it to be in his state. It was a difficult climb, what with them each being down a limb and groping around in the darkness, but they managed to get to their destination without obtaining any new injuries or worsening existing ones. Blue hadn't stopped dragging him along until they were both right underneath the waterfall, unceremoniously letting go of him so he could fall on his ass in the water. He swore he heard her chuckle after he yelped and got his bearings straight.

"Y' know, you could be a little less…" He gestured to her in general. Blue only laughed.

"Oh, hush. Now, do you want to clean that yourself or—"

"Nope."

He was honest about it. On second thought, Z realised that her aid meant he wouldn't be the only one soaked tonight. The Ancient Isles might have been warmer than the other regions, but the water was still chilly in the cooler air of the nighttime. That was a funny thought.

"No, what?"

Right, he hadn't been quite fast enough with his answer.

"Err, it'd be a lot easier if y'd just…" He gestured at the wound.

She looked him over once. "Very well."

A whole lot of rum would have made the experience all the more endurable. Blue gave him her sheathed dagger to bite down on just like before, but all that helped do was protect his teeth from themselves.

The initial sensation of water pouring into the open wound had nearly been enough to make him scream. Maybe he had, anyway. By the time Blue was back on her feet and pulling at him to move away from the waterfall, he was a sweaty mess despite the temperatures. Z only pushed himself over until he was sat at the water's edge before he stopped, too stressed to move any further.

He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again, Blue was sitting beside him with her legs crossed, facing mostly his way with his leg propped up along her knees so it was relatively straight. She had already begun stitching the wound closed and he had hardly noticed. She paused when she spotted his gaze.

"Do I—"

"It's fine."

She made a thoughtful noise before continuing.

Before, when they had just met and he needed her to patch him up, Z wouldn't have described her touch as gentle. This time, though he didn't ask, he got the feeling that she was trying to work as painlessly and thoroughly on him as she could, rather than just trying to get it over with. He almost wanted to ask, but how would he even voice that as a question? Even stranger was how fast her progress was.

"How y' workin' so fast in the dark like this?"

She paused for a moment before continuing, refraining from retaliating. He did have to wait another few seconds for her to respond, though, to which she gave him her awkward half-shrug.

"I see fairly well with the light from the stars and moon. If this were a moonless night I might have some trouble, but as it is…" She looked up from his knee to scan the area around them. "Perhaps I could not detect well hidden danger, but I see well enough to do this work."

"Huh." He leaned back on his hands and scanned the area as she had. He realised now that he had mostly been trying to make conversation to distract him from the awkward pain of his wound being tended. The topic, however, was still engaging. "I guess so. I feel like I'm flounderin' 'round sometimes. Then again… Well, I guess we're better off than most folks are."

He could see well enough to see her quirk her brow at him. "What does that mean?"

He couldn't help a grin. "It means more pirates than not have trouble lookin' in the dark spots'a their ships even in the middle'a the day."

She stopped again but shook her head at him with some exaggeration.

"Y' know, tucking away on somebody else's ship?"

"No," she started loudly, "I have not—" She cut herself off very sharply, freezing. It was one of those moments of pause that Z now knew better than to disturb. "I do know what you mean," she admitted. "And no, I have not stowed away on anyone's ship here."

Here was the keyword to Z. "Ah, but you have away from here, haven't ya?" he shot, a stupid grin on his face.

Blue's mood visibly shifted and he regretted saying those words. Before he could say anything further, she rolled her shoulders as well as she could and leaned further towards his knee.

"I have," she said quite unexpectedly. That gave him some hope that she wasn't about to butcher his leg any more than the shark had. "But it is irrelevant to your interests and business."

"Huh?" Z was surprised, both that he hadn't upset her as much as he thought — or had he? — and that she elaborated at all whatsoever. He tapped his index fingers at the dirt. "Y' know," he started, feeling brave; "y're awful secretive."

There was the rough poke of the needle and yank of the material that he expected. He hissed lightly.

"Am I?" she asked. "I know nearly nothing about you."

"Wha, really?" he shot back. "I don't—"

"You know far more about me than I do you," she said. "I haven't a clue where you came from or if you've been here all your life." She finally stopped to look at him properly. "I do not know that. I haven't a clue how old you are, what you actually do or why, how you met any of your friends or why they are your friends. I do not know what motivates you, what you strive for, who you pray to—"

With a huff, Blue silenced herself. She gripped his leg on either side of his knee now, clearly frustrated. Z just regretted getting to this moment in the first place.

"Perhaps not a lot more," she said, each word like molasses on her tongue. Z just recoiled. "But more nonetheless."

"So… wh… what do you wanna know?" he asked with a great deal of uncertainty.

Blue just smiled and shook her head. "Nothing. Nothing at all," she said as she started working on his wound again. "It is the future I am interested in."

He bit the inside of his cheek. "Y' know, y're a bad liar."

Blue looked so stunned when her eyes turned back to him.

"If that were true then y' wouldn't be so upset 'bout this."

Her eyes narrowed some at him. "Be that as it may, my point still stands. If it is irrelevant to the direction we steer ourselves, is it worth knowing?"

He didn't think it was true that he knew more about her than she did him. Or perhaps it was, but it was such a slight difference… No, what he wondered was how much she really wanted to know.

"Is that what you tell yourself?" There was another rough poke at his skin but he reacted no more beyond the flinch that he could not help. Z looked off to the stars. "Maybe that's what we got in common: neither of us want t' linger in the past."

Blue worked on his knee for a long moment before stopping. "That's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say."

He snorted. "What, jus' 'cause I don't read don't mean I'm stupid!"

"Can't read," she corrected.

He eyed her back once he noticed her gaze, but there was no ill intent from either of them and he couldn't keep it up for long, looking away with amusement. A moment later Blue patted his knee — it wasn't a great sensation but it was a far cry from the pain he had been in earlier.

"Done?"

She nodded. Blue then got back onto her feet before extending a hand to help him up to his. His knee might not have been bleeding anymore, but it still hurt and he found that he didn't want to let go of her once they started in the direction back to the ship. He was just glad she didn't seem to mind supporting him.

"You know," Blue started, startling him out of the comfortable silence that had surrounded them. She waited to make sure he was listening before continuing: "I say I am interested in the future, what it holds. But that does not mean that the past is not worth remembering and revisiting. … Sometimes."

"Huh." They took a few steps as Z thought on that. "Y' know, that's the smartest thing I've ever heard y' say."

Blue narrowed her eyes at him but he could see her fighting back the amusement. He just chuckled to himself and they made their way back to the sloop.

So much time had been spent sailing to get them here that it was nearly morning by the time they were back aboard, dried off and fed, and ready to actually get some sleep. Z wasn't sure if he would describe himself as excited by the inevitable prospect of them having to share the bed down where it was dark enough to sleep, but there was a certain piece of himself that was certainly looking forward to it.

He had to sleep in the bed. With this fresh injury, it simply could not be argued. He was unsurprised to see Blue simply accept this fact. What surprised him was her bringing a torn length of sailcloth over and wrapping his knee in it once he had started getting comfortable.

"It was still oozing after all that time," she explained.

"Kind'a feels better, too."

"That as well."

To say that Z was shocked when he was offered the pain reliever she had spent so much time sipping at was an understatement, the amount much closer to the bottom than the top. He eyed her and the bottle and back and forth at least once more. Blue rolled her eyes at him.

"Well, hey now, I-I don't…" He shook his head. "Y' need that more than I do."

"It is going to run out eventually all the same."

"Y-Yea, but…" But it didn't feel right. He shook his head again.

"Fine," Blue said, setting it atop the contents of the clothing chest; "Have it your way."

He made a noise of acknowledgement and was just glad that Blue didn't push the matter any further.

He was also glad for foresight, having settled down closer to the edge of the bed than he previously would have. It had been quite a gamble, but after what was probably a moment of deliberation, Blue was curled up against his side once again. Guessing from what he had observed between how she had slept the other morning and on the Octavia, it must have felt great to be able to sleep on her side again. She always had done that on her spot on the canvas.

As they got comfortable, a thought occurred to Z. He was impressed by his ability to control the urge he felt to laugh, realising that he couldn't help but say this one. He shouldn't, but it'd be way too funny not to.

"Y' know," he started. When he was sure she was listening, he continued: "There is a way for us both to find some relief from the pain we're feelin' without usin' up that medicine."

Blue was not stupid. Z, however, felt like he was the biggest idiot of them all when she slowly sat up and brought a leg over him, straddling him at the middle. A moment later and something felt off, if the situation could have even been more so.

"Is that so?"

No, that wasn't right. That wasn't how this should have gone — in either direction he could think of — and now he was concerned. Before Z could even get a little 'Huh?' out, Blue dragged the extra pillow over his face and pressed down, albeit not very hard. It was more like a little bit of weight was shifted onto her hands.

It took a moment to register what was happening and Z started laughing into the pillow. He swore he heard a snort come from Blue but he didn't check her expression before grabbing her upper left arm and putting his other hand around her midsection, wrestling her back onto her side. She seemed to think the matter quite funny and yielded right away with an amused huff. Z just poked her nose with as stern of a face as he could muster before getting settled on his back again. Blue's smothering pillow was brought partially underneath her head as she got settled against his side and then she wrapped it and her left arm around the top half of her head, covering her eyes, and Z found that he had simply wrapped that side's arm around her side.

With all that taken care of, they could finally get some sleep.

A sharp pain in his side woke him and then he realised he heard Blue panting beside him. No longer was she curled up against him, rather she was sitting upright and looking quite alarmed. A glance around the hold revealed nothing. Z chanced touching her left arm and she startled out of her daze, stiffening before she jerked her head to look at him.

"What is it?"

Blue just stared at him for a moment longer before bringing her hands onto her arms, holding herself and looking away. She looked rather horrified before she put her back to him and Z couldn't deduce any reasoning for that.

"Blue?"

"It's all right," she said with a slight waver to her words.

He sat up on his elbows and winced slightly, having moved his leg awkwardly as he sat up. "Y' sure don't look all right."

He sat up all the way and placed a hand on her back, right between her shoulder blades. She tensed slightly at his touch, leaning away just a little. His side hurt still.

"Well, I sure don't feel all right after whatever that was," he said, wide awake. He eyed her curiously, wondering just what exactly she had done and why—

Oh. She was the noise he had heard occasionally since…

"Uhh—" He cleared his throat, unsure of how to word his question any way other than straightforwardly. "Did you have a bad dream or somethin'?" he asked slowly.

Blue hunched her shoulders a little more and that just about confirmed his suspicions. She didn't need to, but she answered reluctantly, saying, "I did."

He gently took his hand away from her and leaned forward on his knees. "Do ya wanna talk about it or…?" Though he phrased it as a question, Z fully intended to push the matter and hoped she picked up on that. He didn't think she understood with the way she further stiffened. That, or perhaps she was more annoyed with him than he realised, or—

"It's been ev'ry night since the Winter's End. I didn't think I would have to deal with that, not here, and then Graymarrow…"

There was an unsettling monotony to her words as she spoke. This sort of thing was pretty new between them and Z didn't think he knew her especially well, but he could tell she was… not doing well. Blue could be annoying with that aura of pride and confidence she carried, but there was none of that right now. No, it was just like it had been back on the Octavia after dealing with the Gold Hoarder, only without the tears. So far, at least.

With a breath that helped him stay calm and release some amount of tension, Z gently — but firmly — got his arms around her and pulled her close to his side. He felt her fight a little, but as soon as they were back down that stopped and she was holding onto a fistful of his shirt, pressing her forehead into his side.

Neither of them went back to sleep after that.

Discovery Ridge was rather far away and took them further away from the rest of the Sea of Thieves. Sailor's Knot Stronghold was just straight up far away. With these unappealing choices before them, the decision was made to simply stay at Plunder Valley for another day. Z was allowed to rest his leg and recover from his fight in the tavern and they were able to reset their sleep schedules. Though there was a simple genius in alternating when they slept, neither of them seemed appreciative of that idea now.

The next day they set out for Sailor's Knot as it was the closest island upon entering the Shores of Plenty from the angle that they did. It was also along the way to Golden Sands Outpost if they turned north after visiting it, though they didn't do that. Z did note that Blue didn't manage to conquer this stronghold's towering peak, but perhaps that was for the better — if she fell, he had no idea how much worse she might make her injury.

Why they ended up at Mermaid's Hideaway, Z didn't understand. They hadn't talked about it, but it made sense that they would go to Golden Sands. Some supplies had been managed from the skeleton fort of yesterday, but…

"Why are we here?"

Blue looked up from the papers she was working on to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Why are… Hm. We're goin' t' Golden Sands, ain't we?" She nodded to him and he added: "Then why didn't we just go north t' the Lagoon'a Whispers?"

"Well, I thought we could use the proper baths that we avoided at Plunder Valley."

That was fair. He thought that would be it, but Blue shifted and continued to speak.

"I have been fighting the waves on the way here, yes?" He nodded to her even though that seemed irrelevant. "Of course. We continued to head directly northwest, fighting those waves. Now, however, we can turn and ride smoother over the waves."

The understanding must have shown on his face because Blue pointed at him with a haughty smirk. "Yea, yea, I get it," he said. "That's pretty smart."

"I know," she said, beaming at her own cleverness. "It means you will have an easy job tomorrow when you take the helm from me."

"Oh."

Blue hadn't been wrong in the least and that annoyed Z on some level. On one hand, it was nice to know before the matter that he would have an easy time sailing that day, the wheel only requiring minimal attention. That did, however, also make the day rather uninteresting for him. Blue busied herself with something downstairs, probably tending to her books, so he was left on his own; that mostly consisted of thinking about nothing — or sometimes sharks — and enjoying the sea breeze.

They had arrived too late in the evening to eat at the tavern so instead they fished a few morsels out of the barrel to eat before curling in bed for the night. At that point, Z couldn't help himself, teasingly pointing out that he felt like she was just using him as an elaborate pillow.

"And what if I am?"

He had no rebuttal for that response and it penetrated his thoughts for quite some time before sleep took him.

In the morning, Z was surprised to find Blue already awake and on the deck. She didn't look at him when he came to stand by her side and that was curious. Following her gaze out into the ocean, he understood. A brigantine was far out, but it was certainly coming towards the outpost with purpose.

"Whaddya thinkin'?"

"Well, we have the entire island between us and them," Blue pointed out. A far, unused dock had been the easiest place to stop the ship last night rather than beside the shipwright. "If we leave now, we may catch their attention and they may pursue out of— mm, it's unimportant. If they pull into the main dock and act as though they are uninterested, we may have time to put some distance between us and them." She gave him her lopsided shrug. "Or perhaps they have no nefarious intentions whatsoever."

He blinked. "All right. I s'pose I asked." He rubbed his chin. "So, whaddya wanna do 'bout it?" he clarified.

Blue looked at him for a long moment before shrugging again. He pulled at his short beard.

"Y' really have no ideas?"

"None that speak to me."

He rose a brow at her. Then; "Well, why don't we… why don't we jus' see what they do then?" Blue looked curious. "Y' said that we could see if they pull int' the main spot and see if they'd act like they're stoppin', yeah?"

"Hmm. So you are suggesting that we do take that route?"

"Somethin' like that. We'll see how it goes. Maybe we'll have a chance t' take somethin' off their hands or somethin'."

Blue gave him a look and he realised he had rambled some. He kept his attention on the brig as she gave a thoughtful hum.

"We will see."

Despite discussing the handling of the brigantine without being hostile, both he and Blue armed themselves, grabbing supplies just in case of a fight. It admittedly made Z a little nervous doing that, but better to be prepared for it than not.

It turned out their concerns were uncalled for. Once a galleon's worth of people disembarked from the brigantine — who turned out to be two sloops' worth of crews — so came the crew of the brigantine: a lone Jackson. He and Z's greeting, yelling at each other in what almost seemed like aggression, spooked everyone away. Why Blue chose to instead mingle with the two sloop crews, he didn't know.

Later in the day, though, the three of them were sat at a corner table in the tavern eating dinner. Z had spoken quite a lot with Jackson, learning that he had sunk one sloop with the help of Rylund and Marcus. The beaten crew had been so insistent that they be aided and taken to the next outpost that they had eventually conceded and allowed the crew aboard — against everyone's better judgement though it satisfied their curiosity. The brigantine, then manned by a five-man crew, took down another sloop that had instigated a fight. The original sloop crew then suggested taking the new one on as well.

Z was quite pleased that this brigantine was friendly. Getting into an open fight with Blue in her condition was not something he looked forward to. He didn't look forward to bringing up the topic of them crewing up with Jackson, either, yet he and she occasionally made eye contact and he knew that was on both of their minds. Z was beginning to grow uncomfortable with how loud it had become in his.

"Say, I got another question," he said.

Jackson swallowed his current mouthful of pork. "Yeah?"

"Where are Ry and Mark?"

"Oh. I dropped them off at Sanctuary."

"So you need replacements for them," Blue said flatly without looking up from her own meal.

"Well, yeah," Jackson admitted. He smiled. "Why? You guys offerin'?"

"Yea, I think so," Z said with some amusement. Blue's tone wasn't the most excited, but he was glad she hadn't shied away from the topic.

"Well, that'd be great! I got the ship all ready, I just needed the crew. We can get some sleep t'night, move supplies in the mornin' and then go huntin'!"

Blue paused and gave him a look he didn't notice. Z wondered why she looked so sour but now didn't seem like the time to ask. Explaining the situation to Jackson would be… difficult, he thought.

But it wasn't.

"I think we could do with jus' focusin' on makin' some coin," Z had said.

He and Jackson were at the table in the brigantine's captain's quarters, shoddy as they were.

"Whaddya mean?"

Z rubbed at his chin. "What I mean is… let's… hm, why don't we go t' the Roar?"

Jackson didn't look convinced. Last time they had crewed up with him, Z had to keep Jackson from openly questioning his decisions concerning Blue, keep him content regarding her behaviour. Now, though, there was a different kind of concern across his countenance…

"Does it have somethin' to do with that scar on her face?" Jackson was not a stupid man. Sometimes a little awkward, not so great at reading — but he could read! — and something of a hothead, but stupid he was not.

Z took a deep breath. "… Sort of. I'm not sure it's really my place t' be tellin' y' what exactly happened t' her— us. It— Jus' take my word fer it, all right? We both got roughed up an' she almost lost her right arm."

"Oh." Jackson had that sort of look on his face that Z knew to usually come before him saying something dumb. "I thought she was just slouching."

Z only kept his composure for a moment before snickering. "No, no, not at— well, she does kind'a do that now, but no. That drop in her shoulder is… yeah."

Jackson made a face but nodded a moment later. "If you say so," he said not unkindly. "But, uh—" His tone changed to one more sincere; "is she all right? After… whatever?"

Z's immediate response was to nod. In the back of his mind, he thought Sure, she was fine, and he voiced that thought, but then he recalled the night she had woken them both up, the way she carried herself now, how much the scar on her face bothered her…

No. No, she was not fine.