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Nights on the open sea are always chilly. It’s something that Suou has learned by now. It’s not cold in the way it always had been on Mud Whale.
Even if the island had floated on the open sea for years, the wind had never been as biting as it was on a smaller ship.
Suou was starting to grow used to the new way the salty wind would bite at his cheeks. However, he still couldn’t quite hide the shivers that would run through his body at particularly cold breezes, even after a few months of sailing around with his newly assembled crew.
Ouni didn’t seem to be bothered by it as much as he was. He had never struck Suou as someone overly sensitive to the cold anyways, but even so Suou had seen him shiver once or twice.
Rochalízo, however, didn’t seem affected by it at all. Suou had noticed rather quickly. It makes sense of course, he had been sailing longer than any of them combined. The ways of sea travel seem to come to him naturally, his body moving in practiced motions as Suou watches him working on deck. It seems that even the few months spent on land, assembling a new country basically from scratch, hadn’t caused him to get rusty.
While Suou was sure that Rochalízo could deal with his new responsibilities rather well, and that he was doing so with enjoyment, it wasn’t hard for him to tell that he had missed traveling or just simply being on the open sea.
He was glad that they had finally managed to get him to go on a bit of a cruise with them, even if it was only for a short three weeks. He had really missed talking with the blond face to face and not just through letters. But a land wouldn’t just build itself, both of them knew that.
Suou had been watching the other for a while until Rochalízo eventually notices his audience and starts to approach him.
“You’re here too? What a coincidence!” He says in a joking tone.
Suou snorts at that and gently elbows him in the side.
“Yes, this is my ship you know.” He answers with a grin.
Rochalízo makes a fake wide-eyed expression. “Really? I couldn’t tell.”
He leans against the railing, standing right next to Suou, cheeks a bit flushed and grinning ear to ear.
Suou catches the faint smell of rum on his breath.
Suou playfully pushes the blond’s face away with his hand. “You smell like alcohol,” he says.
“I might have had a sip or two with Ginshu earlier,” he replies as he tries to doge the offending hand.
Suou smiles at him and stops his teasing, deciding to lean back against the railing instead.
“You two seem to be getting along well. I don’t remember you guys talking to each other before.”
Rochalízo shrugs. “Please, the girl never stops talking. You’d have to be a master at hiding if you didn’t end up in a conversation or two with her, especially when she is roommates with your friends.”
Suou looks over at where Ginshu and Shuan are sitting. The girl is chatting away about something and Shuan, as always, listens.
“She always has been talkative,” Suou says.
Rochalízo follows Suou’s gaze. “She was really excited to see Shuan again, couldn’t stop talking about it, really. I think she enjoys Fterna’s and Foni’s company, they seem to get along greatly, but she was practically vibrating at the idea of meeting up with you guys.”
Suou looks fondly at the pair.
“I was excited too. Traveling is great, it really is, but that doesn’t keep you from missing people.” He looks back over to Rochalízo, a gentle smile on his face.
Rochalízo’s eyes soften a bit. “Yeah…it doesn’t.”
Suou hums and moves closer to the other to rest his head on his shoulder. Rochalízo stiffens at the sudden contact, but the tension in his shoulders fades as fast is it had appeared and he relaxes against Suou’s warm weight.
They stay like this for a while. Looking at the moving waves and listening to the whistling wind.
It’s Suou who speaks up again after a while.
“So…what have you been up to these past months?”
Rochalízo lets out a long breath. “Like you don’t know that. I write you almost everything.”
Suou rolls his eyes. “While that is true, it has been a month since your last letter. Also, conversations are better in person anyways.”
“Well, everything is still going great in case you were wondering. No catastrophe, or anything like that,” he brushes some hair out of his face, “It has been a bit stressful I will admit, but I can handle it.”
“I’m glad to hear that everything is still going well, and that there were no surprises.”
Rochalízo goes a bit quiet at that and Suou can feel him fidgeting with his hands. He frowns and reluctantly removes his head from the other’s shoulder to look at him properly.
“Actually…there is something that happened that I haven’t told you yet,” Rochalízo says while biting his lip.
Suou immediately straightens a bit, visibly growing concerned.
Noticing Suou’s distress, Rochalízo quickly raises his hands defensively. “Ah, it’s nothing bad, Suou!” He exclaims. “Don’t worry so much,” he murmurs.
Suou tilts his head to the side, still looking at him with a questioning gaze, though noticeably less tense.
“It’s just,” he again looks down at his fidgeting hands, “I’m…an uncle now.”
There is a brief pause. The way that Rochalízo had said it had almost sounded like a question, not a statement. However, Suou’s eyes light up quickly and he starts smiling widely, the worried expression from before forgotten.
“Oh, really? That’s so lovely!” He exclaims excitedly.
Rochalízo rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, it is,” he pauses again,” I think…it has been a while since I’ve seen Anticheiras this happy…he has always wanted a daughter too.”
Suou can’t help the soft look which settles in his eyes. News of children being born were always happy ones. While Suou didn’t know Rochalízo’s brother that well, he was happy for him.
“Have you met her?” He asks.
Rochalízo nods. “Yes I have. She’s a cute baby, all tiny and everything.”
Suou lets out an amused huff of air. “Very cute.”
Rochalízo is smiling a bit now, beginning to match Suou’s enthusiasm. “She looks just like him too. It’s a bit scary almost, like a carbon copy. I didn’t know a baby could look so much like a grown man.”
Suou laughs at that, he covers his mouth to stifle it a little.
“This is great news. You had me worried for a bit at first.”
Rochalízo tucks some of his hair behind his ear, looking a little embarrassed. “Sorry for making it sound ominous, it’s just,“ his expression changes into something a bit more thoughtful, “it’s so new.”
Suou puts a calming hand on his shoulder. The both of them look at each other and Rochalízo relaxes a little.
“…Don’t worry so much, Rocha.”
Rochalízo jabs him in the side with his elbow. “Don’t throw my own words back at me like that!”
The both of them start grinning. Suou had really missed this banter with Rochalízo.
He had moments like these with Ouni too, the both of them had started to grow close during their months on sea, but this was still different in a way.
They resume their previous positions and continue to watch the rest of the crew go about their day.
This time it’s Rochalízo that breaks the silence.
“Is it me or is Ouni looking a bit green around the nose?”
Suou’s gaze follows Rochalízo’s quickly. The other is right, Ouni is looking a little pale. He stands a bit slumped, leaning against a few wooden boxes.
“Does he get seasick?” Rochalízo asks.
Suou shakes his head. “No, I think he just might be fatigued.“ He looks at the sun, which getting closer to meeting the horizon. “Ouni sleeps a lot now, remember?” Suou reminds Rochalízo.
The blond runs his fingers through his hair once again, moving a few loose strands out of his face. “Right, you told me. Is it because of the…” he waves his hand around like he is unsure of how to describe what he means. Something Suou can’t blame him for, considering all that had happened.
Ouni’s new tiredness had scared Suou at first. When the symptom first started to show, his thoughts had gone to all of the Marked lost to their short life spans. The first bad omen had always been unexplainable fatigue. Though, after months of his condition not worsening, his worry and paranoia had lessened.
Suou nods. “Yes, thats the running theory.” Suou pushes himself away from the railing. “I’m going to check in on him,” he starts walking towards Ouni, but turns back towards Rochalízo for a moment, “join me?”
Rochalízo pulls a face. It’s clear to Suou that he looks unsure, and he knows why. Rochalízo and Ouni weren’t exactly friends like each of them were with Suou. They didn’t seek out interaction with each other, at least not unless Suou was also around.
“Come on, Rocha, it’s not like he bites,” Suou says as he extends his hand towards the blond.
Rochalízo slowly takes it. “Are you sure about that?” Suou gives him a look, “Ah, sorry.”
Ouni is in the middle of hiding a yawn behind his hand when Suou arrives at his side. The lack of response to his arrival only confirms the level of exhaustion the ex-daimonas must suffer under.
“Why don’t you go and rest a bit, hm?” Suou suggests with that characteristic gentle tone to his voice.
Instead of giving a proper response, Ouni only makes a dismissing hand gesture before leaning even more of his weight against the stack of wooden boxes and sliding down into a sitting position.
Suou soon follows, sitting down besides the other.
Ouni looks up from where he had been resting his forehead on his knees.
“It always comes out of nowhere,” he murmurs quietly and lets the weight of his head rest against the wooden surface behind him.
Ouni’s tiredness hitting him like a bag of bricks isn’t something that is new to Suou or to the rest of the ship’s crew.
They had grown accustomed to the sudden changes in Ouni’s energy levels by now and knew how to accommodate for them.
However, that didn’t change the fact that they must feel debilitating to Ouni sometimes. Not being able to have control over when his body just gives out on him, wasn’t something that could be just easily brushed off by the young man.
Suou can see Ouni struggling to stay awake and makes the swift decision to move Ouni’s head to his shoulder, allowing him to rest it there, instead to the hard, and probably uncomfortable, wooden box.
There is no protests from he other, the weight against Suou’s side gets heavier even.
He doesn’t even have time to tell Ouni to get some rest like this before Suou notices the other’s breath evening out.
Rochalízo lowers himself into a crouch in front of Suou, eyeing the both of them with something Suou can’t quite place.
“Is he out?” Rochalízo asks while slightly tilting his head to the side.
Suou looks over to Ouni and as there is no response for a few seconds he directs his gaze back to Rochalízo and nods. “I’m pretty sure he is.”
“That was fast.”
“Yes, well…it does happen suddenly most of the time.”
Rochalízo hums and lets his gaze trail over the two of them once more.
“Okay, well then, I’m gonna…” he begins to rise, but Suou grabs his wrist with his free hand to stop him from leaving.
Rochalízo looks down at Suou’s hand, then his eyes move to give him a confused look.
Suou only tucks at his wrist once more and Rochalízo seems to get the message.
His face shifts into something a little amused as he plops down to sit at Suou’s other side. Soon Suou assumes the familiar position of resting his head on Rochalízo’s shoulder, and instead of tensing up this time, Rochalízo lays his head on top of Suou’s.
Suou feels warm surrounded by the other two like this. The smell of whatever fancy citrus scented perfume Rochalízo is wearing and the earthy smell of Ouni’s dark hair mix in his nose to something comforting and familiar. It almost causes Suou to to get a little sleepy himself.
He hears Rochalízo sigh contently in his left ear, so it seems that he isn’t the only one to find this…relaxing.
He hopes Ouni is dreaming of something nice.
The sun dips closer to the horizon and the warm light of golden hour basks the deck of the ship in the rich colour of honey and chamomile tea.
It is so very beautiful.
Suou feels something in his chest swell.
He feels Rochalízo taking a shaky but deep breath.
“You know…” Rochalízo pauses, there is a trembling almost undetectable in his voice, something less practiced ears might have missed, “I don’t think that a younger version of me would have believed me if I had told him that I would one day genuinely feel this… this happy.”
Suou reaches for the blond’s hand and squeezes it.
He appreciates this.
This moment of genuine vulnerability that he never could have dreamed of ever seeing during their early days of friendship.
He smiles warmly.
“Me too.”
The best part is that despite everything, Suou doesn’t think that he needs to ask Ouni anymore to know that he probably agrees with that sentiment as well.