Chapter 16 Quisling’s Quarters #2
There’s a knock on my door, followed by the sound of Tilly’s voice. “Sivan, I was told you had a special visitor.”
Holy shit, it’s already time to get up. “I’m leaving two trays,” she says. “Also, I wanted to say that I had a talk with your father last night, and if you and Vincent would have me, I’d be honored to join your crew.”
Vincent wipes his eyes awake. “Who needs glue?” he asks in a raspy morning voice.
I laugh and ruffle his hair. “Tilly said she put glue in your food.”
He shakes his head and wipes his eyes again. “What?”
“It’s Tilly, she said she wants to join our crew, she didn’t say anything about glue.” I stand from my bed and walk toward the door to grab our trays.
“Hey! You’re in your underwear, don’t open the door for Tilly!”
I laugh and grab a pair of comfortable shorts out of my dresser and quickly put them on.
It’s cute that he’s worried about Tilly seeing me in my underwear.
I would be the same about him, though. I open the door and see Tilly’s smiling face.
“Thank you for the food,” I say, taking the two trays from her.
“Vincent and I will talk it over but thank you for wanting to join us, it means a lot to me.”
“You men let me know what you think,” she says as she moves to the next room.
Vincent is staring at his phone when I walk back inside. I put the trays on the bed and sit beside him. “You, okay?” I ask.
He rubs my face with one hand and smiles.
“I’m okay. I just—I don’t know what to tell my dad, and I don’t want to deal with any of this.
Today is our day, it’s the day we get our tattoos.
I don’t want to think about Matteo today.
It all feels like some kind of a bad dream.
As stupid as it sounds, there’s a part of me that still feels like it wasn’t him there. ”
“I understand. I feel bad not telling my dad about any of this, too. But Michael asked us not to, so I really don’t think we should.
My father already suspected he was going to defect, and he’s definitely talked to your dad about it.
They probably know more than us at this point.
They may just not be able to say anything.
” I smile at him while passing him his bagel sandwich.
“You need to eat, we’re getting our tattoos in a few hours, I don’t want you to pass out. ”
“I’m not gonna pass out. I don’t think it’s gonna hurt at all.
But I need your help today, because whatever is going to happen with Matteo, is going to happen, and I can’t control any of it.
So, if you see me acting differently, I need you to snap me out of it.
Just kiss me or something, that should work. ”
“You want to just pretend nothing is happening?”
“I do, because I’m sure there was a good reason for him being there, and even if that’s not true, I’m going to pretend it is. We talked enough about it last night. Until he looks me in my face and says he’s leaving, I won’t believe it. So, until that happens, I’m not going to think about it.”
· · ·
Walking outside while holding hands is so liberating. I can just hold Vincent’s hand now wherever we go, and even better than that—he said I can kiss him whenever I want.
I kiss him on the cheek, while our hands sway between us.
“It’s nice not having to hide being together, isn’t it?” he asks me.
“I like it. I get to show you off now. It will be even better when we can leave and head for the central port. Then it will be just you, me, and our crew.”
We step aboard Captain Rodrigo’s ship, and everyone is moving fast around us. Crew members are carrying things off for our ships. I wonder why they don’t just move this ship over by ours? It would take a lot less effort to move things from one ship to the other if they did that.
Several crew members smile at the two of us holding hands while some don’t even appear to notice. Rooster is the first one to greet us. “It’s branding day,” he jokes. “Your fathers are waiting for you in the office. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us today.”
“Rooster,” I say. “Why don’t you pull the ship around by ours? What’s the point in making everyone carry things all the way down to the shipyard?”
“Good question. If we move Captain Rodrigo’s ship and Captain Crawford’s ship beside your two ships, what would happen if there was an attack? We could lose all four ships in one go.”
“I hadn’t considered that,” I say.
“The easiest way is not always the right way. It’s important to remember that,” Rooster says with a smile.
We head toward Captain Rodrigo’s office hand in hand. “I wonder how much of my stuff they’ve moved out of my room,” Vincent says.
“We can check it out after we talk to our dads. Maybe we can finally find the camera.”
“Boys, come in,” Captain Rodrigo says, as we approach the open door.
Our fathers look tired. I don’t know what it is about their faces, but they look absolutely exhausted. I meant what I said to Vincent, our fathers are very smart—you don’t keep peace among pirates for twenty years by being a couple of idiots. They look like they’ve been working all night.
“Take a seat,” Captain Rodrigo says. “We’re supposed to wait until tomorrow to give you your promotion gifts, but just in case things go down the way we expect, we decided to give them to you today. Besides, we’re breaking all the traditions now, anyway.”
My father nods in agreement. “And, we’re the ones in charge, so we make the rules.”
“Promotion gift? Oh, no thank you. I don’t want the captain hat until tomorrow, that’s okay. I can wait,” Vincent says.
Captain Rodrigo walks toward the weapon cabinet. “It’s not the captain’s hat, that you actually have to wait for. But I hope you’re ready tomorrow for the largest red plume you’ve ever seen.”
He walks back toward us and passes Vincent a sword tucked inside a black scabbard.
The handle is braided red and black leather.
Vincent is smiling so big as he unsheathes the black blade.
He stands and moves to the side of the room, slicing the sword through the air.
“It’s beautiful. Wow, and it’s so light.
This is folded steel. I’ve always wanted one like this. I love it… Thanks, Dad.”
His father hugs him and pats him on his back. “I’m glad you like it. Took Manny forever to find folded steel. Had to get it imported, it took months.”
My father hands me a black and gold pistol.
“This is the pistol that I used twenty years ago, when we staged the mutiny. I want you to have it because you may soon find yourself in a situation that requires you to do something very brave, that may feel very stupid. When you hold this pistol, I want you to remember that there was a time that we were afraid, too, but we did what needed to be done to protect those around us.”
I stand and hug my father. He doesn’t separate from material things easily. This pistol has been in a glass case in his office for years, the fact that he gave it to me means everything to me.
“Why are you talking to them like we’re going into battle or something? Do you know something I don’t?” Captain Rodrigo jokes with my father.
“Well,” my father says, “they have to get their tattoos in just a bit; they’re gonna need to be brave then.”
“Oh, they’ll be fine,” Captain Rodrigo says, waving him off.
“Boys, I think most of your stuff has been moved onto your ships. Oh, and we spoke with the crew members last night that originally expressed interest in joining your crews. Not a single one said they didn’t want to join after learning of your relationship.
We were missing two crew members, but they’ll likely be back today, so we can ask them when we get back from the studio,” he says.
I bet those are the bastards that were with Matteo last night.
“Oh, and I didn’t see Sheena around this morning, which is odd, but Tilly expressed an interest in taking on the lead position of housekeeper for your ships,” he adds.
“I’m telling you; I remember Sheena having a thing for Captain Slicer,” my father says to Captain Rodrigo.
“Not now, Ray.” He holds his hand up. “Many women had a thing for him, doesn’t mean she would run off and join him. She’s probably out doing something.”
Wow. How deep does this go? Is Harlow’s mom involved, too? My head is spinning a bit, and I suddenly notice Vincent zoning out. I lean over and give him a quick kiss. “You okay?”
He nods. “Yep. And you just kissed me in front of our dads.”
“I told you I wanted to kiss you all the time,” I say, kissing his cheek again. “I don’t care if the old men are here.”
“Hey!” my father shouts. “You can’t call us old men; you’re not captains yet! And now that you’ve kissed him in front of us, we have a question about this relationship.”
“Oh, Ray, don’t. Just leave them alone,” Captain Rodrigo says.
“Just one question, boys. Rodri and I have different guesses here. Which one of you made the first move?”
Vincent and I smile at one another. I point at Vincent with my thumb. “Technically, it was Vincent.”
“I knew it!” my father says.
Captain Rodrigo shoves him to the side. “Yes, you are the smartest. Well, let’s go get you two inked up.” He heads into the hallway and the rest of us follow behind him.
“I want to stop off in my room and see what’s left,” Vincent says. “Besides, I can’t go to the studio with two swords on me. I need to leave one behind.”
“When we get on deck, hand the sword over to Rooster,” Captain Rodrigo says. “He’ll make sure it gets transferred over with everything else, same goes for your pistol, Sivan.”
Our fathers wait in the hall, while we step inside Vincent’s room. It’s pretty much been emptied out. The bed is still here, but the closet is open, and it looks like a good portion of his clothes have been moved over.
He slides open a drawer that has very few pieces of clothing in it.
“Hmm,” he says. “I guess they wanted to leave a few things behind in case I stayed the night here.” He slides the drawer closed.
“I wonder if they cleaned out my nightstand.” He pulls the drawer out, and there’s nothing left inside.
“That’s awkward, I wonder who cleaned this drawer out.
That bottle of lube was basically empty.
” He shakes his head, while walking around the room.
“This is weird being in here, knowing it won’t be my home anymore. ”
“Are you sad?” I ask him.
“Oh, no, definitely not. I said it was weird, not that I was sad. I just have a ton of memories here, but I’m really excited to make new ones with you.”
I pull him in for a quick kiss and he squeezes me tight. “I love you, Sivan,” he whispers.
“I loved you first,” I say.
“Oh, come on, you don’t know that. Also, you told our dads that I made the first move on you, but I seem to remember you being on top of me,” he jokes.
I tilt my head at him. “After you stuck your tongue in my mouth.”
“Ha! So, you admit that I loved you first.”
“Vincent, Sivan, let’s go,” Captain Rodrigo says. “What are you two gonna be known for? Kissing all day?”