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Wemmbu taps his fingers idly on the table, eyes fixated on what of the night sky he can see outside the arch of the tavern’s entrance. The faint ocean breeze wobbles the candlelight, throwing weak light across the wooden structures.
The music flowing through the room barely registers — his hands itch for his mace and his armour, and his boot taps on the creaking floorboards with growing impatience.
If only the goddamned market would just open—
He’s snapped out of his train of thought by a gentle hum, a hand reaching toward his own. It doesn’t touch him, instead stopping a little ways and gently knocking on the table for his attention. “Wemmbu.”
“Wh-” Wemmbu startles anyway, hand snapping back. He blinks up at the other, and is only met with Jaden’s half amused, half bewildered look. “Oh. Hey, Jaden.”
“Hey,” Jaden replies. “You doing alright? You look kind of…” He gestures vaguely. “Prickly.”
Wemmbu, out of spite, frowns deeper. “A guy can’t even get some alone time to just, like, think anymore?”
Jaden shrugs. “You didn’t look like you were thinking. You looked like you were about to run out that door and start nuking or macing people or something.”
“I’m just waiting for the market to open,” Wemmbu grumbles in turn, leaning back in his chair.
This time, Jaden straight up laughs at him.
Wemmbu sits up straight, scowling. “What?”
“Nothing,” Jaden snorts, at least gracious enough to smother his laugh at Wemmbu’s glare. “It’s just that they’re only open during the day. You’re gonna be waiting quite a bit, so…” He pauses, and Wemmbu swears he’s wearing a shit-eating grin behind that mask. “Y’know. Good luck.”
Wemmbu just stares at the pirate leader for a few seconds before slowly introducing his forehead to the wooden table. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”
“Nope,” Jaden says mildly, and Wemmbu can hear him shifting to rest on the table as well.
“You know, you’re awfully cheery about this. It’s your pirate civ and your people that are gonna get destroyed if Lettuce gets those slimeballs,” Wemmbu points out, lifting his head.
That sombers up Jaden fast. “Yeah, I mean…” He shrugs. “Yeah. You’re right.”
Wemmbu can’t help but feel both a little satisfied and a little guilty. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Jaden returns evenly. “Doesn’t change the fact that the market will only open in the morning, though. Why not pour yourself a few since we’re already here?”
It was… Tempting, Wemmbu can admit that. “Egg and I already spent all of our diamonds on boats, bro. I think we’re gonna go broke if we keep buying things out here.”
The pirate waves him off. “You know, it’s on the house.”
Wemmbu blinks. “What?”
Jaden’s eyes quirk up in a small smile, settling two shot glasses on the table and sliding one over to Wemmbu. “Benefit of being the leader – you get the best drinks in the Great Sea for free.” He grins. “Anyway, I’ll get us some.”
“Man, we won’t even be fighting Lettuce anymore at this rate,” Wemmbu snorts. “We’ll just be fighting hangovers.”
“Just dilute some strength and add regen. It’ll cancel out the alcohol come next morning.”
Before Wemmbu could even open his mouth, Jaden gets up, disappearing into the crowd. Before long, he returns with an alarmingly large bottle, filled with clear liquid that reflects gold in the candlelight. He pours them both a cup.
Wemmbu wrinkles his nose as he lifts the shot glass. “Are you sure this won’t just knock me out cold?”
Jaden lifts his eyebrows. “Can’t stand alcohol?”
“Well I wouldn’t say that,” Wemmbu retorts with a drawl, lips twitching up in a genuine, competitive grin. He lifts his glass toward the pirate. “Cheers, JadenMan.”
Jaden raises his own glass with a light laugh. “Cheers, Wemmbu.”
Wemmbu downs the shot glass in one go. It burns down his throat like scorching fire, eventually replaced by a fuzzy, lingering warmth. He grimaces faintly, gingerly touching his throat and glancing at the glass with mild accusation.
Jaden, of course, notices. He lifts his mask back up, re-fitting it over his face. “Is it too strong?”
“It’s fine,” Wemmbu waves him off, setting his glass on the table. “Anyway,” he starts, interrupting whatever concerns Jaden had, “what’ve you been up to?”
“Well…” Jaden sighs. “Really, it’s a long story.”
“We’ve got time.”
“Alright.” Jaden shrugs, refilling their glasses. “I guess… Well, I guess it starts after we killed that guy, and you left…”
As Jaden recounts his story and Wemmbu listens, they continue to drink.
Three shots in, the activity in the tavern begins to dwindle as the night progresses and more people settle. Their conversation shifts to anything they can think of.
Having had his fair share of drinks, Egg returns to their table, promptly falling asleep on Wemmbu. He gently moves the angel to rest on the table instead, for fear his own movements would cause Egg to slip and fall off his chair.
By the fourth or fifth shot, the tavern around them is starting to grow fuzzy, and a warm quality seems to overtake their surroundings.
Slowly, Wemmbu starts to ease up as well — the stress and adrenaline melts out of him with the liquor. He rests his head on his hands, eyes drifting to the slivers of moonlight on water as he listens to Jaden talk.
Jaden, annoyingly, barely seems affected by the liquor. He finishes his tale with a wave: “So. I’m pretty sure that’s how this market came to be. Most of the bandits that used to run this place are gone now.”
Wemmbu just hums in response, swirling his glass slightly. His eyes flick up, voice lowered to not wake Egg. “Damn. You’ve been places.”
Jaden laughs. “You could say that. What about you? What have you been up to?”
“I… Well.” Instead of answering, he takes another small sip, grimaces, and licks his lips. “That’s a really long story.”
“If there’s any night for long stories, it’s tonight,” Jaden offers.
“Well. It’s just been a lot. But also, like, it’s just been the Law hunting me. So.”
Jaden hums, a little sound for him to continue.
“I had the whole, like, 1v1000 with Flame, and then, well, Flame betra- tried to kill me right after. And, like, I couldn’t exactly take that.” Wemmbu toys with the little scrap of the prison uniform he’d kept — it stains more red than its original neon orange, now. “And then I got captured by Lettuce, and escaped, so…” He shrugs. “We’re here now.”
“Sounds like you’ve had a rough month or so,” Jaden notes, something like sympathy in his voice. Maybe the fatigue of being on the run was wearing down on Wemmbu more than he’d thought – he lacks his usual instinct to bristle at such a remark.
“Eh,” Wemmbu considers. He knows, of course, that Jaden’s right; it has been hard, truthfully, but it still feels foreign to him to admit such a vulnerability out loud.
“It could be worse,” he says instead.
Jaden studies him. “I guess you’re not wrong.” He exhales, the sound like a quiet laugh. “Strange that we’re on the same side, after everything.”
Wemmbu laughs with him, his words a little slurred even to his own ears. “I mean. Yeah. PrinceZam Empire… Your first pirate civ.” He frowns. “Really, I had my doubts.”
“I don’t blame you,” Jaden answers evenly, eyes fixated on the table.
“Really, I still don’t quite know how to feel about you,” Wemmbu starts, voice wobbly. “You’ve taken away a lot of places I’ve called home.”
“I did,” Jaden replies, voice quieter than before. Wemmbu waits for him to continue.
When he doesn’t, they lapse into silence once more, only interrupted by the faint murmuring of voices and clink of glasses around them.
Wemmbu studies Egg, still fast asleep at their table. He brushes one of the angel’s wings away from where it rests, precariously close to the candle’s fire. His breath catches when Egg shifts.
When the other doesn’t stir awake, Wemmbu breathes out a sigh and lets his own hand rest on the table. Eyes still fixated on Egg, on the rise and fall of his chest, Wemmbu directs back to Jaden.
“Do you regret killing Rejoice?” His voice comes out quiet, but clear — sharp.
The other starts a little, perhaps not anticipating the question. Jaden exhales, one finger tapping on the table restlessly. “I didn’t kill him, Wemmbu.”
Wemmbu stares into the candles on their table, bright flame burning over dripping wax. “You know what I meant.”
Silence. Silence for long enough that Wemmbu wants to take back his question, wants to down another shot and drop his head on the table so he doesn't have to feel this come next morning.
He swallows down the bitter taste in his mouth. “Nevermind, Jaden, nevermind. Forget it, don’t ans—”
“Wemmbu.”
Wemmbu lifts his head, schooling his expression back into a half scowl with the remaining of his faltering composure. “What?”
Jaden’s hands still their tapping on the table. “I just wanted to say, like.” He shifts, uncomfortable. “There’s a lot of things I’ve done to you that I’m really not proud of.”
“Robbing us, griefing us,” Wemmbu prompts. “Egg’s empire. Sure, Egg went a little power crazy, but you didn’t have to…”
Desecrate Mane’s tree even further. Take away my mace. Take away my home. Wemmbu doesn’t say any of that – just shakes his head. “You didn’t have to do any of what you did to me.”
“I didn’t,” Jaden agrees. His words are careful, tight, and it only serves to infuriate Wemmbu more. “I didn’t know you… Cared, like that.”
“For who? Like what?” Wemmbu shoots back, warily.
Jaden gives an awkward shrug. “For… You know, Egg. Rejoice. Just… Other people in general.”
Wemmbu laughs, the sound falling somewhere disquietingly around a giggle and a sigh. “I thought I didn’t, too.”
“I thought you were selfish. Just… Always looking for a fight, that you didn’t care about the people around you. So… Yeah.”
Wemmbu snorts. “I fight to survive. Hell, I wouldn’t have even wanted to fight you and your pirates,” He swallows. “All I wanted to do was be left alone with my friends, you know? And you couldn’t even let me have that.”
“I know,” Jaden replies. There’s a quiet sympathy in his tone, sympathy Wemmbu wants to laugh at and spit right back in his face.
“You told me to say hi to Rejoice for you.” By the way the pirate stiffens, guilt flashing across his face, Wemmbu assumes he remembers. “He gave me sunflowers, you know? They don’t grow well in the deep dark.”
Jaden looks away. “I’d assume not, no.”
“He gave them for me to grow. Said we could grow them together, since I didn’t know shit about farming.”
Wemmbu snorts, remembering Rejoice’s flummoxed expression as he tried to water the other’s plants with strength pots. “You know, I’d have liked to grow them.”
Something blurs his vision, stinging his eyes. Wemmbu wipes at his face with mild surprise.
Jaden doesn’t respond, but there’s quiet understanding in his eyes, understanding that wasn’t there before. When Wemmbu reaches for his glass again, Jaden gently nudges it away, handing him a flask of water instead. He accepts it gratefully, gulping the cool liquid down.
Jaden tilts his head, refilling the flask with more water. “Feeling alright?”
Wemmbu closes his eyes for a moment, letting the afterimages of candlelight lull him, before he collects his composure as best as he can. “Yeah,” he replies, voice rough even to his own ears, “I’m fine.”
Silence. Then, so quietly Wemmbu almost misses it, Jaden murmurs: “I’m sorry.”
Wemmbu lifts his head, blinking at the other a little blearily.
“For… Well. You know. Destroying your empire, killing Rejoice, all that,” Jaden says, awkwardly but sincerely. “Um. Yeah.”
“Lame apology,” Wemmbu laughs wetly. “But sure. Apology accepted, I guess. And I’m sorry for lying to you and, you know, nuking your pirate empire. All that.”
Jaden waves him off. “Water under the bridge, dude. I think we’re even for that.”
“Okay, whatever,” Wemmbu waves him off, a small smile on his face. He exhales, rubbing his eyes. “Damn. Where do we go for the night?”
Jaden looks around, finding that the tavern has mostly cleared out for the night. “It’s late. Unless you want to carry your friend all the way to some residential area...”
“Oh, I’m not dragging Egg that far,” Wemmbu says instantly. “I’m not picky about sleeping on the floor, like, here.”
“Really?” Jaden looks skeptical. “I can talk with the owners about letting you stay, but it gets cold here with the wind. Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” Wemmbu gets up, wobbling a little on his feet as he walks toward a corner of the tavern. He waves Jaden off. “Seriously, bro. I’ll literally be fine.
“You are surprisingly coherent for someone this drunk,” Jaden notes, steading Wemmbu with an arm.
“I’m not drunk,” Wemmbu protests, stumbling as he leans against Jaden.
The pirate gives him a long look. “Right.”
Before he knows it, he’s curled up in the corner of the tavern with Egg laying against him — Jaden must’ve carried him over, too, at some point.
The angel curls up into Wemmbu, wings swathing him in white feathers. Despite Egg’s warmth, he still shivers from the drafts that billow in from the sea.
“I told you it would be cold,” Jaden says quietly, crouching down to wrap… Something warm around Wemmbu. His jacket? “Take this for now, okay?”
“Okay,” Wemmbu mumbles, heavy eyes slowly drifting shut. “Thanks, Jaden.”
“Rest well,” is the only thing the other murmurs, his words slipping in like a quiet comfort as Wemmbu drifts off into warm nothingness.