Annnd I'm back. Hehe.
I won't say much, except to sit back and enjoy the ride.
--------------------------------------
Chapter 10Goto Maki was having a massive hangover. And serious backache. Passing out on the floor wasn't a very good idea.
A gentle hand was wiping her face with a wet towel, and she struggled to open her eyes, wincing at the piercing sunlight. Groaning softly, she tried to sit up.
"Oh good, you're awake." Oh, so it was Nacchi who was taking care of her. A cup was handed to her, and she took it blindly, drinking the water in a single gulp. It eased the burning sensation in her throat, but the headache remained. Oh well, she would get over it eventually.
Natsumi was speaking again, and Maki tried her best to focus on the words instead of the drumming within her skull.
"...poison....Aya..." The two words that Maki did manage to catch immediately woke her up. Before she even realised what she was doing, her eyes were wide open and she had turned to grab the older woman by the shoulders, dropping the empty cup in the process.
"Aya, what happened to Aya?!" She shook Natsumi by the shoulders, her anxiety outweighing her own physical discomforts.
"...Gotsuan, relax...!" The First Mate was trying her best to speak while being shaken like a rag doll. She had to grab Maki in order to steady the younger girl, whose bloodshot eyes looked absolutely wild at the first hint of danger to their captain.
"Aya's fine now!" Hearing that, Maki calmed down just a little, loosening her deathgrip on her senior's shoulders, but not removing her hands entirely. Natsumi took the opportunity to give a brief explanation of the situation, or as much of the situation she knew of herself.
"So she's resting upstairs now?" Maki queried, rubbing at one side of her head in an effort to ease her headache. Looking up at Natsumi, who had nodded in response, Maki noticed for the first time how worn out the older girl looked. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her eyes were also bloodshot, although for completely different reasons from Maki's. The older woman was pale and haggard-looking, as if she were moving on pure will alone.
She must have stayed up the whole night to watch over Aya. Maki realised with a slightly guilty twinge. Natsumi hadn't had a good night's sleep in the last 2, 3 days? She had had the night shift the night before they pulled into harbor, and had spent the day after they had docked in on more work. Maki had dragged her along in the evening (the day before) to go drinking, just to let her unwind, but clearly that hadn't been the case in the end.
And then Nacchi had had to take care of her as well, and what did she do? Yell at her and shake her. Maki felt bad, and this time it had nothing to do with her physical condition.
"I'm sorry..." Natsumi blinked at the mumbled apology from the younger girl, who was currently hanging her head, her long tresses shading her face. Now what was the girl apologising for?
"Sorry for being a brat..." Ah. Natsumi couldn't help but smile, despite her exhaustion. Her Gocchin could be so adorable when she was feeling unwell. The silly girl.
Maki found herself wrapped in an embrace by the smaller woman. "Silly Gocchin, it's fine. I don't mind." The taller girl found herself relaxing, the stiffness in her limbs easing from the comforting hug. Maki had lost her mother at a very early age, and while Natsumi wasn't quite a substitute for a mother figure, she was a lot like the wise elder sister that would always be there for her. A sister that she admittedly slept with on occasion, but Nacchi could always be counted on to comfort her, one way or another.
"You're so cute when you don't feel well," Natsumi added with a giggle. On hearing that, the younger girl pouted, trying her best to glower at the other woman, but was failing miserably since Natsumi only just pinched her cheeks teasingly, clearly unaffected.
"Nnn it's only for awhile..." Maki grumbled, burrowing unconsciously closer into the older woman's embrace. "Don't tell the others, it'll ruin my reputation."
"Of course not." Natsumi smiled indulgently down at the younger girl, who had closed her eyes and was leaning on her shoulder. The "bad girl" persona that Maki paraded around with usually was clearly not present at this very moment, and to tell the truth, it was exaggerated most of the time. Maki could be surprisingly gentle and childlike underneath the playgirl image, but that part of herself usually didn't surface except on very select occasions.
Natsumi looked around the still wrecked tavern, allowing Maki to rest for a while longer. Everyone who had passed out in there the night before were still in the places they had fallen unconscious in one way or another.
Yuko was sprawled not too far away from where Maki had originally laid, cuddling an empty bottle of rum to her. A blanket was on her, clearly the work of one of her shipmates. Yuuki had somehow flipped around and was now lying on his stomach, his face pillowed in his arms. As for Risa...
Natsumi smirked slightly at the sight. Well, it should be interesting to see Risa's reaction when she wakes up to find herself firmly entwined around the equally comatose barmaid from the night before. She was fairly sure nothing had happened the night before between them, since they had passed out fairly quickly, but at first glance, those two appeared to be in a somewhat incriminating position. Risa's face was buried in the crook between Ai-chan's neck and shoulders, and her hands held the other girl in a firm embrace...except that those hands had somehow found their way under the loose blouse that Ai-chan was wearing. The barmaid's skirt was also somewhat hiked up, and since the two were pressed so closely together, the whole situation looked decidedly suggestive as a result.
Yossi and Mari had left the tavern a little while ago, probably to run some errands or some such. Reina and Makoto had gone back to their ship somewhere during the previous night after Miki had charged in with Aya in her arms, supposedly to inform their other shipmates who were on guard back at their ship about the situation, and to take over guard duty as well.
Then the doctor came in through the broken doors of the tavern. Kei, it was, Natsumi remembered the name after a moment. She was holding a few packages of what was probably medicine of some kind. Kei nodded politely at Natsumi as she passed, and the naval officer took the opportunity to ask.
"Are you going to check on them?"
Kei paused and replied in the affirmative, before proceeding up the stairs near the back of the tavern. Natsumi then gently shook Maki awake, coaxing the younger girl to stand by baiting her with the promise to see Aya. Groggily, Maki followed after Natsumi as they too mounted the stairs to go look in on Aya.
They ran into Kei at the open door to the room. The doctor was shaking her head in an amused fashion. Natsumi tiptoed up a little to peek over the taller Kei's shoulder, and almost fell over in surprise at the very compromising position Aya was in on the bed. Deciding that Maki really shouldn't see this, lest she be tempted to kill that girl who was currently on top of Aya, Natsumi tried to pull Maki away before the taller girl focused enough to look inside the room.
Unfortunately, Aya had chosen that moment to speak out loud.
"It's not what you think! Will someone please get her off me?" Natsumi had known Aya since they were in their early teens, and this was just about the first time that she had heard her sound so aggravated and mortified.
Of course, Aya's voice immediately drew Maki's attention to the room, and the tall Second Mate appeared to shake off the worst effects of her hangover to push past a panicking Natsumi, searching out for Aya...and finding her pinned under another girl. Natsumi groaned. This wasn't going to go down well at all.
Maki saw red. What was a strange girl doing touching her Aya? And from the looks of it, Aya looked like she was struggling to get out. Unacceptable, completely unacceptable. If it was a case of mutual consent between her best friend and someone else, Maki would be able to marginally choke down any objections, although she would probably sulk about it for awhile. But someone forcing themselves on Aya? Well, she would probably make them wish that they've never been born.
Striding over to the bed (and pushing roughly past Kei in the process), Maki roughly took hold of Miki and tried to forcibly yank her off. Which was probably not the best move in the world. Kei was torn between getting the hell out of the way or going forward to try and save someone's life. Natsumi had no doubts about her decision though, quickly going forward to try and hold Maki back from slaughtering Miki in her sleep (or so she thought).
Natsumi's intervention might have saved Maki from a very nasty fate of being skewered by one of Miki's flying daggers. It was a very narrow escape though. Kei had to duck when one of the daggers hit the door next to her. Maki got a very nice cut across the same arm where Yossi had wounded her the night before, and a lock of Nacchi's hair had been cleanly sliced off even as she and Maki had tried to duck to the floor after the first dagger had flown past their heads.
Aya, for her part, decided to remain very very still once she saw what Miki was capable of even in her sleep. Fortunately, Miki didn't seem inclined to hurt her, so it wasn't that bad. She did however wish that Miki would stop unconsciously groping her in her sleep.
After that first flurry of flying blades, Miki settled contentedly back into her Aya-pillow, snoring a bit as she made herself comfortable again. Aya sweatdropped. What kind of person was this? As if sleeptalking and all that nonsense with groping her weren't enough, now she's a homicidal maniac while unconscious?
Aya wondered what she had gotten herself into. Looking helplessly at the nearest person in her line of sight, who happened to be Kei, she mouthed "help me!".
Kei was shaking her head when she replied. "Only Yossi knows how to wake Miki up without getting killed. Besides, she's not hurting you, so why not let her wake up on her own for now?" If looks could kill, Kei would be reduced to atoms by Aya's deathglare by now.
Kaori, who had come in behind Kei in the meantime, was murmuring absently to herself. "Well, if Miki is well enough to attempt murder in her sleep, then she must have mostly recovered..."
Meanwhile on the floor off to one side of the bed, Maki was muttering various obscenities while clutching painfully at her wounded left arm, with Natsumi busily trying to staunch the bleeding with fabric torn off the hem of her own shirt.
Seeing that no help would be forthcoming for her in the meantime, Aya decided she had to resort to extreme measures to free herself. She had very little room to move her arms, but her fingers were free. Hoping that Miki wouldn't decide to stab her for what she was about to do, Aya braced herself......and tickled Miki.
The reaction was instantaneous. Miki started spasming and giggling in her sleep, and her grip loosened just enough for Aya to push her off, the pirate rolling off her and hitting the floor with a very hard thud. This time, that
did do the job of waking her up.
Aya had immediately sat up and attempted to get off the bed after dislodging Miki. However, she didn't count on the wave of dizziness that hit her just as she tried to stand up, and she lost her balance, tripping and falling...
...right onto a now conscious Miki.
The knife-throwing pirate grinned upwards despite the pain caused by first her impact on the floor, and then by Aya falling onto her. The two were practically nose to nose as they stared straight into the other's eyes (well, more like glared in Aya's case).
Miki was smirking. This was just too good to pass up.
"You know, I could get used to waking up with you on top of me. But next time, try it on the bed, it's more comfortable." Miki paused, still grinning flirtatiously. "Although if you like it rough, I don't mind either..."
In the background, Kei and Kaori were snickering, while Natsumi had to physically pin Maki down from going over to kill Miki herself.
Aya wanted to strangle that infuriating woman. In fact, she did. Or was about to. Her hands had already closed around Miki's neck, when Miki, sensing danger to her own continual wellbeing, decided to take steps to delay the inevitable. Miki being Miki, she just did the first thing that came to mind.
She simply pulled Aya back down and kissed her again.
==================================================
Miki, as usual, has no problems shooting her mouth off. No sense of self-preservation indeed. And she can cause chaos asleep or awake. Sigh, she needs someone to keep her in line. *coughAyacough*
Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.