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An echo of a headache away, Sun was attempting to cook a few more additions Tagis had mentioned before, it wasn't until he nearly used sugar instead of salt, salt instead of flour, that he realized he was distracted by his own thoughts.

With the realization, he tried to blank his mind and get the work done, including cleaning the dishes. Then he leaned back against one of the counters to think, letting his head fall back as well, closing his eyes, and just listening to the sound of the water under the boat.

His knuckles turned white at the thought of facing anyone, after what he'd done...Owle or Vahn, he'd run from them both, as soon as he'd been able enough to walk on his own. <********, I'm angsting over nothing...again. I should just go see him." He was cursing more these days, he made a mental note to stop as he opened the door...and ran smack into blue hair and brown wings.

"Sonofa-!"

Sun blinked down at Owle before grinning, which promptly turned into a wince as soon as she wrapped her arms around him. It wasn't because of the hug, that was greatly needed, but the wounds on his back were still nasty and sore. He let his breath out slow before hugging her back, practically lifting Owle off the deck.

"Heh, yeah, I kinda guessed that Vahn missed me, else I wouldn't have been able to come down and make dinner. Had a talk with Tagis about it, though," He smiled sadly. Sun's heart ached and it was more apparent even if he still had only one eye to show it.

"I was just going to speak to him...being in these close quarters have kinda forced my hand in the matter. Can't run when there's only a few decks to hide in, eh?"

He stared down at her for a moment, and then gave her a heartfelt smile, a real one, and leaned down, planting a warm kiss on her forehead, before making his way by with a soft, "Thank you."

It was a long way to the top of the stairs, and he pushed open the door, swallowing hard as the salt air whooshed through, stealing his breath. Carefully, the door closed behind him, sound lost to the waves.

He kept moving forwards...Vahn had shifted since the last time he'd seen him, and was looking out over the railing. Sun opened his mouth to speak, then shut it, not knowing what to say. Anything he thought of sounded too temperamental, too sterile, or too harsh.

So Sun put his hand flat against the other man's back, not low enough to be inappropriate, but enough so he could move it up the spine and between the shoulder blades, where it would rest til Vahn turned.

Sunstrike had to grin, and actually caught a hand, afraid that the shock would knock Vahn overboard.

So there they stood, clasping each other's arm, and suddenly Sun didn't know what to say. He'd built himself up this far and had no way out now. There, staring into the eye he'd left behind, seeing it reflected with emotion that wasn't his own, Sun was frightened and elated all at once.

"You..." He mimicked Vahn unintentionally, and continued after a pause to get over the shock. "You destroyed your own eye for mine?!"

The implications staggered Sun emotionally, and his hand tightened almost painfully against the darker skin. Elation was shoved aside for fear. For his friends life, for the volitile nature of the eye itself.

All that brought the anger bubbling to the surface, surprisingly pure after months of trying to avoid it. He didn't want to get angry at Vahn, didn't want to take all the frustration and fear out on him, but to shove it all down now would do irrepearable damage inside.

"Vahn....you, you could have died!!"

No sooner had Lucind finished her last sentence than her ears wiggled with curiosity: she witnessed the brief but friendly exchange between Owle and Sun out in the corridor. Upon an asking look coming from Tagis who only understood a few words, the Half-Siren commented that the first critical meeting hadn't been critical at all.

"Well," Tagis filled their cups a third time,"ye said ye wouldn't expect something else."

"Hnn." Lucind nodded, while the wine filled her stomach with a pleasant, growing fire. "But you never know. Couldn't be sure." Another mouthful of the gold liquid ran down her throat. "No idea what's happened during the last months."

"Anyway. Good start. And now?" Tagis sat down and Lucind followed. The bottle stood between them on the table then. The captain must've left her worries and horrific images of burning remnants of the ship floating on the endless sea behind - maybe the wine had helped her? - for she looked quizzical, if not excited, as if waiting for the next scene of a thrilling story or tale.

"We're waiting for the big bang." Leaning back, the blue haired woman shot a one-sided grin at Tagis, a part of her wondering how long it would take them to finish that bottle.

"Alright." One of Tagis's boots landed with a thump on the table top. "Ye dun think we should...you know...have an eye on them guys?"

"Well...well..." Lucind tilted her head. "If I wanted to be upfront with you, I'd have to admit that I'd barely be able to stop either of them, should they really decide to unpack the fiercest of their powers."

"But you're preferring to keep yer mouth shut?" Tagis's grin was accompanied by a cocked brow.

"Indeed." A throaty chuckle. But...after what Tagis had told her about the conversation with Sunstrike, Lucind somehow felt that something more serious than an argument wasn't going to occur.

And so the two of them went on rambling about any topic that was loosely connected to the current crisis on board and from there on jumped to the next subject.







There wasn't that much to see for Owle. The Feiruza held indeed more space in its bulky hull than it would seem from the outside, but all rooms of the base-deck were either a cabin or a store room - and most of them would be unlocked. Only the room right beneath captain's chamber and common room wasn't accessible.

Out of a sudden, Kaled left one of the cabins at the ship's bow. For a man of his impressive height he moved nearly soundlessly. It was only one of those skills Siren were known for. Still...you wouldn't really expect him to walk that carefully.

"Can I help you?" His sonorous voice was to be heard behind Owle. Kaled's facial expression wasn't really one: it was the usual mask lacking any emotion.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean to." Just like when they all had met for the first time only a few hours ago at the docks, his worlds rolled a little clumsily over his tongue. Apparently, he hadn't used Gaian tongue that often lately. However, only the couple of weeks on the ship would be needed for him - and the other Azumerian Sirens - to find back to an astonishing fluency.

Skipping Owle's explanation as to what she was doing here, he nodded a second time, locking his wrists behind his back.

"I am fine, thank you. I brought to the others some..uhm..sandwiches.

What about you, Miss Owle? Do you too feel fine?

You didn't...don't are really okay with traveling with the ship, or is it my imagination only?"

If one could tell anything by his scarce, close to non-existant signs of sentinent, then that he wasn't faking interest.

"Hm, I understand." He stared down at the floor for a moment before facing her again.

"Have you already visited Azum? Because you can see there that many people have the same opinion on simple technical inventions, but especially many don't like high-tech devices.

And even though more and more latest technologies come to us from other continents, you often find very poor men having their houses next to people using extremely advanced machines...computers, for example."

While talking to her, the man bowed down ever so slightly, as if he intended to diminish his height, showing politeness just like you do when kneeling down to talk to a child.

"So, you are a friend of Lucind?"