Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ A Star to Steer By ❯ Chapter 6

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Yohji woke when the warm body behind him tensed. In that hateful way his brain had when he hadn’t been drinking, he remembered instantly where he was, the knock that had awakened his bedmate, and who that was, going stiff at the summons.

Well, more stiff, hee hee. Ran had turned in the the night, and it seemed at least one part of him liked Yohji. But before Yohji could decide what to do about it—all sorts of ideas sprang into his head, but he wasn’t sure he had the nerve for any of them—the warm hand on his hip disappeared, and the heat at his back, too. Yohji sighed and rolled to watch the redhead wash—a novelty on this ship, it seemed—and dress. With his back turned, probably hoping Yohji hadn’t noticed several inches of rock-hard flesh pressed against his ass.

“Stay here,” that deep voice muttered. “I won’t be able to watch you.”

“I can take care of myself,” Yohji protested. “Ask Morton.”

“Do as you’re told.”

“Just because I’m not good with a sword doesn’t make me a child! I can—“

“What?” Ran spun on him, violet eyes glowing in the dim light of one tiny lamp. “Kill a man? Kill a King’s man? Can you, Kudou? If he stands before you, can you say for certain you will kill him?”

“If it’s kill or be killed—“

“You are a child.” Ran spun away to grab his sword. “It is always kill or be killed.”

Stung, Yohji waited till the door shut behind the redhead to get out of the bed. He was struck by the silence as he moved. The ocean was calm, the ship was quiet, and no one on deck was yelling orders or singing or even thumping their feet in the morning chill.

Their bare feet. Ran was barefoot too, though a good pair of boots stood in the corner between the desk and the door. The King’s sailors had told Yohji he’d do better barefoot, but as he’d spent most of his time on that ship leaning over the rail, he hadn’t seen it mattered. Now, though—Yohji left his treasures in his boots and his boots in the cabin. The way things had been going, he couldn’t afford to give away any advantages.

Hmm, why wasn’t he hanging over this ship’s rail?

Because if he turned green, he wouldn’t be pretty enough for Ran to protect. And he had no illusions of his ability to fight off several of them at once. So just keep on not thinking about it, Kudou. Especially as hanging over the rail he couldn’t see Ran, and would probably give that bastard captain ideas besides.

“Not a sound,” a pirate muttered as Yohji climbed onto the deck. “Keep quiet, lad, or your throat’ll be cut before you can scream.” Yohji nodded understanding and made his way aft. It was cold and foggy and barely dawn. He couldn’t see from the foredeck to the helm, though he thought he might see a patch of red in the lightening grey in the appropriate spot. Within three steps he was certain, the only thing he could see beyond the mast was Ran’s hair. At the top of the ladder onto the aft deck he paused.

Four men stood around a map, each holding a corner as they muttered over it. Even at this distance three were shadows only, but Ran... Where the others were washed out, leeched pale by the fog, Ran in black seemed to glow. Moisture beaded his hair, caressed his skin to glistening and left pearls on his clothes, and Yohji thought he was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Beautiful, but so deadly...

The vision lifted his head, his eyes locked to Yohji’s with an almost-physical shock. Stairs looked up at Ran’s stillness, and grinned, an evil pirate ghost. Ran scowled, still beautiful but breaking the spell, and the angel of death was just a surly pirate again. Yohji realized his chest hurt because he was holding his breath. Stairs waved Yohji over, handed him a warm mug like they were friends or something.

“Keep it quiet, lad,” he muttered. “We’re hunting.”

“How can you hunt in this?” Yohji asked softly. The man on Ran’s right pointed at the map.

“We’re in the shallows. The channels are marked, but if we miss a one we’ll run aground.” He lifted his eyes to glare at Stairs, who only chuckled. “Only so many routes a ship here can go,” he went on, “and they all come together,” he tapped, “here. King’s man wouldn’t risk sailing blind and won’t think we’d be hunting her. She’ll have anchored the night. If the captain’s right about a thousand things, in a few minutes we’ll be right on top of her. Or we might end up the hunted, if she’s got company, or we might be sunk, if the channel’s shifted.”

“Right on top of her,” Stairs promised softly. “You’ll see.”

“Ship ahoy,” Ran muttered. Yohji followed Ran’s eyes, and saw the almost-imaginary patch of shadows that could be a mast and rigging. “Stairs,” Ran growled, “you’re a goddamn witch.”

“That I am, lad,” the captain murmured, as the one who had explained ran to spread the word. Stairs took the wheel and barked a soft command. The fourth man picked up flags Yohji hadn’t seen, Stairs growled orders and the man waved flags. A ripple of tension ran across the deck. A ghost materialized at Yohji’s elbow, Farfarello in white, two long knives in his belt.

“It’s time,” he said to Ran. The redhead plucked a dagger from his belt and held it out to Yohji.

“Stay close to Stairs,” Ran said, “there’s not a man on this ship won’t put himself between him and a sword. Use this if any find the time to forget you are mine.”

Ohhh... Yohji fought a grin as he took the weapon. “Where—?”

But Ran was gone, at Farfarello’s side he somehow vanished three steps into the mist. Yohji told himself it was just a thicker patch of fog, it didn’t mean anything. A sail came down with a sigh, another was adjusted with a creak, and the pirate ship eased closer to her prey. Yohji’s hair lifted in a gust of breeze.

Wind. Wind would break the fog, would let them see—suddenly it slammed home to Yohji that this was a King’s ship they stalked, that the men around him were about to commit treason. Ran was about to commit treason. A swordsman of his skill, there was no other reason to have taken him from his post...

The blond felt himself turning green.

Another gust, briefly the fog parted letting him see the men lining the starboard side of the ship. Bolsters had been thrown over the rail to protect their ship from the side of the other, and every third man held a long boathook, to pull and hold the ships together. They were going to board without a shot fired, looked like.

Board a King’s ship. Yohji sipped warm rum to settle his stomach and reminded himself the king was not God, did not and might never know what happened on this little patch of fog-shrouded ocean. He told himself he couldn’t stop this, even if he’d shouted when Ran spotted the mast, the warning would not have stopped what was about to happen. If there must be a fight, it was better it was a surprise. Confused and sleep-mazed, the King’s men might just surrender...

Not before any died. And he knew who would claim those first victims. Ran stood on the rail, his sword drawn, one hand on a rope for balance. The tiny wind ruffled his shirt and his hair and Yohji almost forgot what he stood ready to do. Farfarello at his side reminded Yohji, squatting on the rail and ready to leap. God, he did not want to see the carnage those two would wreak.

A shout came from the prey, finally someone had spotted the shadow of a ship and realized it was not imagination. Farfarello leaped into swirling grey, Ran a heartbeat behind him.

Screams rang out, and Yohji was glad of the fog.