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Auric sat on one of the flatter rocks on the coastline, thoroughly drenched and chilled to the bone. The silence after the storm was deafening. The rain and wind had stopped so suddenly that it left a ringing in his ears. He would have almost preferred the sounds of the storm to the eerie silence it left behind now.
The hush over the water made his own thoughts feel far too loud. He couldn’t stop replaying everything over in his head. The thunder. The slip of his sword from his hand. Andrew’s wide eyes from across the deck. The rain running harshly into his own eyes. The ship’s railing digging hard into his back. The desperate drawing of Andrew’s lips to his own before he fell.
He sat alone, thinking, while the sky changed from a deep, inky black to a dark blue with soft, gold streaks peeking through from the horizon. Uncertainty coursed through him, not knowing what lay ahead of him now. He hadn’t thought he was going to ever see another sunrise when he had plunged deep into that dark water. As his lungs ached and burned underneath the surface, he could think only of one thing.
He hoped Andrew would forgive him one day.
Auric had crossed a line that they could never come back from. A line that he had never intended to cross. A line that he had made himself not even think about when he was around Andrew. He knew he would never have Andrew’s affections. Andrew’s heart belonged to someone else, and he had made peace with that a long time ago.
But as the storm had raged across the deck, and the direness of their situation was made apparent, his usual guard had been worn down. He couldn’t keep his selfish desires at bay any longer. Auric thought that moment with Andrew was going to be his last, and even if nothing was reciprocated, he couldn’t die without Andrew knowing he cared for him.
But Auric had made it out of the water alive, and the consequences that he hadn’t planned on facing were a reality now. He laughed under his breath. His career ruined for kissing one of his superior officers. He hoped it would at least make a good story one day, if he ever got back home from wherever the hell he was.
He didn’t know if Andrew would be able to find him. The storm had carried him to a rocky shore in the dead of night, and he couldn’t see anything out on the water at the moment. He also wouldn’t have blamed Andrew if he didn’t want to find him. It would certainly make everything easier for both of them.
The sky was brighter now, more golden and orange than black. It was almost sunrise. The light illuminated more of the water, and he could see a ship in the distance. His ship. The HMS Neptune was on the horizon, lit in the soft, warm light.
The sun peaked over the ocean as he sat waiting. He thought about how many sunrises he had taken for granted over his life. This sunrise felt different. Something new awaited him at the other end of it; good or bad, he didn’t yet know. One certainty, however, lay on the other end of it - he would get to see Andrew again.