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“Why doesn’t that ship ever move?”
Atsumu blinks at Rin in the morning light. He’s slumped on the windowsill, chin resting on his folded arms and gazing out at the docks with the same wistfulness as always. Rin always looks across the city like he wants to be far away. Like he’d rather be anywhere but here. Atsumu doesn’t blame him. He’d rather be in the palace than the slums here with Rin, but he can’t risk Rin being seen there. It’s worth it to see Rin shirtless in the sunrise though, the way the water ripples light across his face and bathes him in a golden glow.
“Are you even listening?”
“Three masts, gold trim, blue sails, beautiful lady on the front?” Atsumu says, folding his arms under the pillow. Rin nods. “That’s Grace.”
“Grace?” Rin says, tilting his head like he’s in love with the damn thing. “She’s beautiful. And she never moves.”
“Yeah,” he says. Rin’s longing smile makes something in Atsumu’s chest ache. “She never will.”
“What’s the point in a ship like that if you don’t take it out? She shouldn’t be just a trophy sitting in the docks.”
“She won’t move.”
Rin frowns at him and Atsumu sits up. He wraps his arms around Rin’s middle and leans into the back of his neck, watching Grace in the distance. As always, Rin is warm and firm as ever. Atsumu could stay here leant against him forever. As if Rin would accept that. Atsumu’s under no illusions that Rin feels the same.
“Is there something wrong with her?” Rin says, glancing back. “I can’t belive someone would spend that much money on a ship that fine only for her to be damaged.”
Atsumu shakes his head against his shoulder. “She’s cursed. She won’t move.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Bet I could sail her.”
Atsumu frowns. He’s sure Rin could. He’s cold and cruel enough. He leans into Rin’s side. Maybe Atsumu would accept that too. Maybe he’d let Rin sacrifice him to Grace just to know he’s having the time of his life. He could almost laugh at how pathetic he is. He really is in love with this asshole.
“So?” Rin says. He turns in Atsumu’s arms and pushes his hair from his face. “Tell me, what’s this curse that keeps her in dock?”
“Mmm, the story goes that Dad fell in love with a woman he could never be with,” Atsumu says, holding Rin’s palm against his cheek. “So he made a deal with The Witch of Zero Isle. If he found her Star Ship and brought it to her so she could finally escape her prison, she would give him the Night Stone which would allow them to be together at last.”
“What a romantic fool,” he says, gazing out at the ship and drawing his hand away. “Makes perfect sense that you inherited that from him. Don’t tell me that’s the ship.”
“That’s her. The Witch’s Star Ship.”
“Now I have to figure out how to sail her.”
“That’s what Dad thought,” Atsumu says quietly. “He found her, obviously, but while sailing her back to The Witch, he fell in love. He became so drunk on freedom and power. He totally forgot about what he was even doing it for in the first place. He ended up here. He overthrew the Queen and took her throne.”
Rin turns to him with a frown. “I don’t remember your family being new to the throne. Everyone acts like you’ve been here forever. Generations. Turns out you’re a usurper.”
“That’s the magic of a good PR department.” Rin hums, turning his gaze back to Grace. “Dad had forgotten all about the woman he loved. He had a crown, he had the ship and he was free to do whatever he liked. He refused to return the ship to The Witch and free her. In return, The witch cursed the ship.”
“I feel like you skipped a bit there.”
Atsumu shrugs. “That woman he loved and forgot about, she’s the heart of the ship now. Perhaps it was reassuring to her in the end, that he would love her once more if she became one with the ship. When Dad realised, he had the ship magically sealed. As if that makes up for what he did.”
“So she really won’t move,” Rin says with a sigh.
“Guess not,” Atsumu mutters, untangling himself Rin and getting out of bed. He knew from the start Rin’s brain was full of ships and nothing else. Certainly not him. “Not until the curse is satisfied.”
“Does the story say what’s needed to break the curse?” he says as Atsumu dresses. “Can I break the curse?”
“Yer just like Dad, y’know?” he says quietly, adjusting his hair in the mirror.
“I wouldn’t be so careless as to let a ship like that sit around gathering dust,” Rin says. Atsumu glances back. He hasn’t taken his gaze off of Grace, slumped over the windowsill, half leant out of the open window. “The damage was already done, why not keep using her?”
“How cold.”
“She’s not even your mother.” Atsumu shrugs and fastens on his cloak. “What would I have to do?”
Atsumu sighs. “Ya’d have to kill the person ya love.”
“What?”
“To make Grace move, ya have to fill her engine with the blood of the person ya love,” Atsumu says. He glances back and Rin is staring at him. “If even a drop remains, she won’t move. Thanks for last night, Sunarin. I really needed that.”
Rin nods thoughtfully, apparently still distracted by Grace. Atsumu sighs and shrugs. Whatever. Grace won’t move. Rin can’t ever get her to sail. But she’ll occupy his mind. He’ll obsess over her. And that’s why Rin will never be able to sail her.
Atsumu leaves Rin to think, shutting the door to his one room home and pulling up his hood as he descends the rickety stairs. Now he just has to make his way back to the palace and into his room before Aran notices he’s gone. Or at least, before Kita tells him he’s gone.
“Atsumu.”
Atsumu lifts his head to the window above him in the cramped, dirty street. The entire area is too cramped, too claustrophobic and overlooked, but somehow more anonymous than anywhere else. It’s more comfortable than the bright, open palace where everyone has their eyes on him. Where he’s not your highness, just Atsumu.
And Rin is gazing down at him from the open window, still shirtless and hair sticking up in all directions.
“I wouldn’t.”
“Huh?”
“I wouldn’t,” he says, something almost urgent about it. “You. Grace. The curse.” His eyes soften a little. “I wouldn’t.”
“Oh.” Rintarou frowns down at him and Atsumu grins back. “I know ya wouldn’t, Sunarin.”
He’d have to love him for that.