There was a sombre mood around the table that evening, where Jacob's entire crew sat to eat a much deserved meal of beef stew and dumplings. The somber mood was due to the exhaustion that followed a bloody battle, and also the fact that three members of Jacob's crew had suffered some serious injuries and so were currently being taken by Doug in a small boat to the nearest port to get medical attention. But despite this, there was also a level of calm and belonging in the group that Raephier hadn't experienced before.
There wasn't the usual banter and teasing that often dominated when they were all together, but instead they were sharing stories of home, and talking of what they planned on doing in the future. It was only in this exact moment, with Jacob's leg pressed firmly up against his own, that Raephier realised that he wasn't the only one who'd buried away any thoughts of a future in the fear that there wasn't anything there to look forward to.
"What about you Raephier?" James asked. "Do you miss your home?"
Raephier found himself a little flustered by the question. Not for any other reason than he didn't quite know the answer himself.
"I think I miss what could have been," he eventually settled on saying. "But the home I knew is not there to go back to, so it's not the same. For me, saying I miss my home is like saying I miss my childhood. Yes, I do think back to it with fondness, but there is no point in wishing for the impossible. I'll never be a child again."
Raephier felt Jacob's hand slide onto his knee and give it a gentle squeeze.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing your home," Raephier told the men, to try to lighten the mood again.
"Yeah, well I wish I could grow a tail for a day and see under the water like you do," James said, smiling at Raephier.
"Yeah, me too!" Gabriel added from the far end of the table while a few others nodded in agreement.
Raephier felt a warm glow inside at the fact these men were making him feel included, and in their own way were letting him know that they were ok with who he was.
And so Raephier shared a few stories of his own. Nothing too personal, and nothing that would give too much away about his tribe and homeland, for as much as he trusted these men, he knew that sometimes all it took was too much ale for things to slip out.
The men slowly drifted away from the table to turn in for the night, and while Jacob was doing his last turn of the ship making sure everything was in order before he went to bed, Raephier found himself standing on the deck, staring at the cloudless sky, watching the stars sparkle and dance to some unheard song.
There was the sound of footsteps walking past him, and Raepheir turned to see Lyle heading towards his quarters for the night.
"Lyle," Raephier said, getting the man's attention.
Raephier walked over to where Lyle had stopped.
"I haven't had a chance to thank you," Raephier said.
"For what?" asked Lyle looking confused.
"For saving my life," Raephier replied, but if anything Lyle's frown of confusion deepened.
"Saving your life? When?" he asked.
On any other day, Raephier would have thought he was just being deliberately obstinate, but after feeling the general mood of the crew, coupled with the genuine look of surprise on Lyle's face, Raephier was beginning to think that maybe his memory loss went further back than when he first heard Raephier's song.
"You don't remember stopping me?" Raepheir asked.
Lyle sighed, starting to look frustrated.
"Stop talking in riddles boy, obviously I don't remember."
"Oh....right....well," Raephier muttered, feeling awkward, and wishing he'd never brought it up. "Well, I guess I should tell you that at one point today, I thought that the only way to save Jacob was to kill myself, but you stopped me before I could do anything."
"I did?" Lyle asked, looking rather flustered, probably at not remembering something like that.
"Yes, you did," Raephier replied. "And so I just wanted to say thank you. And seen as I kind of owe you my life, if you ever need anything, let me know."
Lyle's look of confusion was already gone as he laughed at Raephier.
"Don't be so dramatic. You owe me nothing. I probably wasn't even trying to save you anyway."
"Oh, ok then," Raephier said, looking away feeling rather embarrassed.
Lyle turned to walk away, then stopped. After a few seconds he turned back round to face Raephier.
"Actually, there is something you could do for me," he said, his face back to it's usual serious scowl.
"Ok," Raepheir said, feeling relieved that he could actually do something to help, but also wary of what he might ask him.
"That woman who was on the boat. The one with the red hair. Do you know her?"
"Yes, of course," Raephier replied. "Her name is Hermoine and we shared a master for a while."
"So she's a Siren then?"
"Yes."
"And would you know where to find her?"
Raephier thought for a moment.
"I'm not sure. Her master was called Henry McDowell but I don't know if she still belongs to him."
"Ok," Lyle said, and his tone held that much disappointment that Raephier added,
"If I get a chance though, I'll try and find out for you."
Lyle gave Raephier a sort of half smile.
"Great. You find that out for me, and we'll officially be even."
Raephier couldn't help the big beaming smile he gave Lyle as he wished him good night.
"What's got you so happy?" Jacob asked, taking Raephier's hand and leading them to his cabin.
"I don't know," Raephier said with a shrug. "I guess I just feel useful again."
Jacob narrowed his eyes at him.
"You've always been useful. It's not your fault that they chose to ignore that."
"Stop it!" Raepheir said, hitting Jacob playfully on the shoulder. Compliments from Jacob always left him feeling a weird mix of emotions that left him wondering whether to hide under a rock, or beam with pride.
The moment the door to Jacob's cabin shut behind them, Raephier saw a different look in Jacob's eyes. And it was a look that Raephier had only ever seen once before - in the eyes of a shark that had nearly turned him into lunch.
Raephier felt himself walking backwards under Jacob's predatory gaze, until the back of his knees hit the bed.
"Whatcha doing?" he asked with a nervous giggle, as he felt excitement course round his veins.
"Starting up where we left off." Jacob replied, pulling off his jacket and tossing it onto the floor.
Jacob only managed to undo half of the buttons on his shirt before could wait no longer and closed the remaining distance between himself and Raephier, grasping hold of him as their lips immediately found each other.
It was wild and passionate, and Raephier didn't even remember how they went from that moment to ending up naked in bed together. But Raephier was too consumed by feelings to worry about that.
They spent several hours just kissing, touching and caressing, and Raephier felt that there wasn't a part of his body that Jacob hadn't explored and tasted.
Everything was so new to Raephier, and incredibly overwhelming in the best possible way.
When they eventually fell asleep, Raephier slept so soundly that despite only having a few hours rest, he felt fully rejuvenated in the morning. Although it may have been the way he woke up with Jacob gently kissing his shoulder that was the real reason why he was suddenly wide awake.
"I wish we didn't have to do anything today," Jacob said, pulling Raephier closer into his chest.
"Oh I don't know," Raephier replied, feeling utterly blissed out wrapped up in Jacob's arms, "there's plenty of things I'd quite like to do today." And just in case Jacob was in any doubt about Raephier's meaning, he wiggled his bottom which was currently pushed up against Jacob's morning wood.
Jacob let out a growl and flipped himself over so he was lying on top of Raephier, making him squeal in surprise.
A knock at the door made Jacob's head droop onto Raephier's shoulder.
"Captain?"
Jacob sighed in disappointment, then lifted his head.
"I'll be out in a moment."
Raephier heard the sound of footsteps walking away and briefly wondered why he'd never heard them approach.
Jacob groaned in frustration, then rolled off Raephier, leaving him feeling surprisingly cold.
"Come on," Jacob said, sitting up and reaching for his clothes. "As much as I'd like to stay in bed all day with you, we have a lot to do today."
Raephier slid out of the bed and started getting dressed too. Even though he also wanted to spend the day cuddled into Jacob, he had to admit that he was also excited about what else the day held. He was looking forward to finally being part of the crew and helping out with whatever tasks Jacob assigned.
Once they were both dressed, Jacob drew Raephier in for one last hug.
"Will you be ok?" Jacob asked.
"Of course I will," Raephier replied.
"Because if you want to hide out in here I don't mind."
"No!" Raephier said, pulling back out of Jacob's arms. "Don't you dare treat me any different to the rest of your men!"
Jacob looked a little amused by Raephier's outburst.
"Are you saying you'd like me to invite them all into my bed?" he teased.
Raephier bit back his smile, because he wanted Jacob to realise how important this was to him.
"No, of course not. But out there I want you to be my Captain. In here, I want you to be something else."
"Ok," Jacob said, looking closely at Raephier. "If you think you can handle hard work and taking orders, I'm up for that."
Raephier narrowed his eyes, not quite sure if Jacob was still teasing him, but when Jacob kept his gaze steady and his expression fixed, Raephier nodded, accepting his fate.
And it didn't take Raephier long to realise that Jacob wasn't joking. There was a lot of work to do and Raephier was given orders with the rest of the men.
There was maintenance needed to Jacob's ship, and the supplies needed transferring back from Jinx's ship to The Flying Bounty. There was also the rather gruesome task of taking care of all the dead pirates.
Despite who they were, each body was wrapped up respectfully, weighted down with stones, and given up to the sea.
Raephier couldn't help but look for a certain pirate among the dead.
"Do you know what happened to Jinx?" Raephier asked James.
"No, we've looked but we can't find him."
"So you think he survived?!"
James shrugged. "It's a possibility, but I think it's more likely that he got tossed overboard in the commotion."
Raephier couldn't help but walk to the edge of the ship and stare out into the ocean to see if he could see any floating bodies. Chances are that even if he had been thrown into the sea, his body would have floated away by now, but Raephier still spent the rest of the day occasionally gazing out to sea. There was something very unsettling about the idea of Jinx still being out there somewhere.
By mid afternoon everything was ready and they were ready to haul anchor.
"Raeph!" Jacob shouted, beckoning him over.
Raephier hurried over, and followed Jacob into the navigation room where Pete, James and Lyle were standing round a table which was covered in maps.
After the men shared nods and smiles of greeting with Raephier, Jacob turned to him and said.
"We've come up with a plan to get us home, but we wanted to run it by you to see what you thought."
Raephier froze for a moment, not expecting such simple words to trigger an emotional earthquake inside. And once he'd convinced himself he wasn't dreaming, and he'd swallowed the lump in his throat, Raephier shook off his emotions and simply said,
"Ok then, what's the plan?"