Forty Years of This [Monster Hunter World]

Chapter 21

"██!" The Commander stepped into the storehouse on his way to the dock. "Quartermaster! Get out here! I can't believe you're both so shy!" He pounded on the doorframe to shake them out of whatever quiet thing they were doing to avoid the hullabaloo of the ships' arrivals, and soon enough they sulked out of the shadows. The Quartermaster balked when he saw the hulking figure of the Admiral. He stiffened, but the Commander recognized it not as discomfort but the Quartermaster's habit.

His daughter, surprisingly, hid behind the Quartermaster.

"What is this tiny thing?" The Admiral laughed. "Am I so terrifying that your kid would hide behind the Quartermaster before facing me?"

"I wouldn't say you're terrifying, but you're new and loud, and as you can see..." The Commander waved towards the Quartermaster. "She's following the lead of more quiet company. If I had spent all day with him, I'd be wary of you too. Come on, ██. He's just loud and obnoxious."

She stepped out from behind the Quartermaster (who still stood silently), and looked up at the Admiral. He grinned down at her, his arms crossed in front of him, appraising her. She was all gangly limbs, dark hair, and (compared to the Commander) light skin. The Admiral elbowed the Commander and not so subtly whispered to him, "are you sure she's adopted? She's your spitting image."

"Shut up." The Commander punched the man's arm. "██, this man is a brother to me, and so he is an uncle to you. He is loud, he is stupid--" The Admiral elbowed him again. "And he's the best friend I've ever had."

"And I brought my son!" The Admiral raised his fist. "To the ship! I can't believe I have a niece!" The man threw his arms in the air and marched off to the docks without waiting.

The Commander, swept up in his energy, turned to follow, but as he began, he heard his daughter say to the Quartermaster, "An even better friend than you?" His heart froze, and he balked hoping to hear the Quartermaster's response, but whatever the man murmured was too quiet for him to hear.

He didn't have time to dwell, as the moment he was back in the Admiral's sphere, a wild energy filled him with joy and excitement. His oldest friend was back-- the Admiral was back! The very air around him seemed warmer and steadier. Members of the First flocked around him, eager to greet him as an old friend and celebrate his return. When the ships pulled into the dock, and when the ramp was drawn, the excitement of the Admiral's return exploded into celebration of fresh supplies and new faces.

Among them was a young lad. He was tall and wide like his father with a mop of dark, curly hair on his head. He leaped over the side of the ship with a wide grin so similar to his father's that the Commander almost mistook him for a young Admiral.

"Boy!" The Admiral flagged down his kid. "Commander, this is ███."

"What the hell, ███████? What are you feeding this kid? He was barely past my knee last time I saw him." He looked around for his daughter, but she was nowhere to be found in the mass of people. So he searched for the Quartermaster and spotted the man directing inventory with the Second's Quartermaster. But if his daughter was with him, the Commander couldn't see her.

"Hello, Commander." The kid beat his chest. "I'm going to be useful to you all sir. I swear it."

"I have no doubt of that." The Commander moved to take something from one of the crewmen, but the moment he started to take the weight of it, a dull pain echoed through his leg, and he had to give it back. He glanced away ashamedly, but the sailor didn't seem to notice and kept on with their work. "I'll see you at tonight's dinner in the canteen, kiddo."

The boy shouted some sort of affirmative before helping carry some massive keg filled with (probably) beer. The thought that the kid was too young to be drinking drifted through the Commander's mind, but he had begun to shift into his work mindset, and that meant taking back up the administrative and managerial duties of unloading the ship and briefing the new arrivals.

He was pleased to see the two quartermasters working together with the First next to a stack of crates and the Second standing on the crates. The First quartermaster, his quartermaster, was tall enough he didn't need the boost, and the Second was loud enough that the First didn't need to shout. She directed, and he took reports. It was a synergy the Commander hadn't really been able to observe until then, and it seemed as though everything were falling in place again.

When dinner rolled around, the canteen was bustling with life and stories. It was loud enough to challenge even the greatest wyvern's cry with the Admiral leading it all. He was loud, he was large, and his energy was endless. The Commander's daughter watched with awe as the Admiral singlehandedly ate a steak the size of his head.

When the Commander didn't see the Quartermaster at dinner, it didn't strike him as odd. In fact, the Commander had not spoken to him or really made an appearance since the Admiral's arrival. He didn't think anything of it-- it was loud, it was busy, and the Quartermaster had a tendency to get overwhelmed. So when the Commander suddenly felt the Quartermaster's hand on his shoulder in the middle of a loud and drunken tale, he nearly jumped out of his seat.

The Quartermaster was masking. Masking, as he'd once described to the Commander, was simply acting or presenting himself in a way that would let him blend in. He wore a pleasant expression and met the Commander's eyes, but he had to be boiling beneath it all.

"████████!" The Commander was drunk enough to forgo titles. "You came!"

"I did indeed." The Quartermaster affectionately squeezed the Commander's shoulder. "Admiral--"

"I knew it! I called it!" The giant of a man slammed his fist on the table, rocking everything on it. He smiled at the couple, his expression only briefly flickering when he saw the Quartermaster withdraw from the Commander in thinly disguised horror. The Admiral seemed to shift mid-thought, something the Commander barely perceived but noticed none-the-less. He had wanted to say something, but he'd changed his mind, and in half a breath he'd changed his course of dialog.

"My meowscular friend's cooking is so good it draws out even the busiest of us all!" He elbowed the Commander forcefully and winked at the Quartermaster beside him.

"Indeed." The Quartermaster had frozen up, but when the Admiral turned away he seemed to relax. "Goodnight, ████. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wait--" The Commander loosely grabbed the Quartermaster's wrist. "Is everything ok?"

"Yes," the Quartermaster responded in a strained tone.

"Are you sure--"

"Trust me to be open with you, Love." He glanced over the Commander to the large gathering of people around them. "I wouldn't be able to talk here anyways. You know that."

"I... yeah..." The Commander squeezed his wrist. "I'll see you tomorrow."