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“Do you have a map?”
Simultaneously:
“No, I think that’s Buttons’ thing, why? Oh–”
“Because I find myself lost in your eyes– oh, uh–”
Silence, and then together again:
“Were you trying to use a line on me?”
“Forget I said anything, that didn’t happen–”
Black Pete was halfway through “Gotta-go-bye” by the time he was already out the door, leaving Lucius alone and grinning amidst the rations.
-
“Hey Pete, feel my shirt.”
Lucius caught him in the ball room the next day, aggressively avoiding him, which was not going to work. The ship wasn’t that big, he couldn’t hide forever, and if they were doing lines now, it was going to be a thing. Pete eyed him cautiously.
“...Why?”
“Oh come on, just trust me! I wanna check something.” Lucius waded around the cannonballs to give Pete easier access, which was all the bait he needed. Pete gave a wary look before reaching up to run the edge of Lucius’ striped shirt between his fingers. “Do you know what that is?”
“...Your shirt?”
Lucius grinned.
“It’s boyfriend material.”
-
"If you were a vegetable, you'd have to be a cute-cumber."
Pete dropped that one when restocking the kitchen, and looked so pleased with himself that Lucius did his best to contain his mock-pained groan.
"That was pretty sweet," Lucius admitted.
-
"Your hand looks so heavy! Can I carry it for you?"
Pete scoffed. “Really, Lucius? That was terrible.”
And yet he offered his hand, so how terrible was it really?
-
"I think there's something wrong with my eyes, babe" Pete approached him in the captain’s quarters, voice full of concern and worry. Oh no.
"What's wrong?" Lucius saw the flip in expression before Pete even started his reply:
"I can't keep them off you!"
“Get out.”
-
"If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together."
Pete said nothing, and for a moment Lucius wondered whether he hadn't heard. It was storming, after all, and the waves crashed heavy against the creaking boat while a few of the crew held the library in place. A quick glance at his intended's scrunched up face reassured him that he'd heard, but was stuck puzzling it out.
"What do you mean 'rearrange' the alphabet? Isn't that what writing is?" Frenchie chimed in from his bookshelf. Helpful.
"I'm not sure how to begin with that, so I won't" he said to Frenchie. "And the point is it's just a line," he turned to Pete. "Get it, cos the letters sound like 'you' -" he pointed "- and 'I'? And they're togeth- Forget it," he started to dismiss himself. In the midst of his gesture, another wave struck, and Lucius was only just able to save a row of volumes from scattering.
-
The next morning, waters now calm but skies still gray, Lucius ventured aboveboard after collecting the books he’d dropped from the corners they’d slid into over the course of the storm. Most of the crew was already up, enjoying the fresh air while they could. He found a place to lean near the mast closest to the door down, in case he needed to run back in. There was a nice breeze, but the cloud cover still made him nervous.
Black Pete came to lean next to him for a moment, wordless but warm. Everyone seemed to be tired from maintaining the ship through the storm. Captain was even wandering around acting like he knew what needed to be done with much less zeal than usual, which was appreciated.
“Oh hey, is the sun coming out?” Pete gasped from next to him. Lucius perked up, looking up and around.
“Really? Where?”
“Oh, my mistake,” Pete started to chuckle, a sly smile breaking across his face. “It was just your smile!”
This was met with groans, but not from Lucius. A cacophony of ‘Shut up!’ ‘Can you two stop already?!’ echoed from all sides, the rest of the crew apparently more than tired of this little game.
For his part, Lucius was too tired to stop himself from beaming right back.