"So, I think you owe me an explanation."
The Queen Lady bobbed on the dark sea as her crew directed her away from the Gulf of Misery. Arthur and the mermaid stood on deck watching the sun set over the watery horizon. Behind them was the Eastern Continent and the Ruins of Tantus. The Captain's eyebrows furrowed unintentionally when he thought about what a hassle it was to get out of the cannibal-infested ruins.
After the mermaid had found him, they had run for their lives around in the maze-like ruins while trying to find an exit. The cannibals had been on their heels the whole time. Eventually, they had found a spot where the wall had crumbled enough to open up to the overgrown forest outside. The two made it back to the spot where they entered and found the crew members they had left behind waiting. Apparently, there was nothing of interest at the end of the hall, and they couldn't find any way to get down below where the Captain and the mermaid had fallen other than the hole. Arthur had chewed them out for being cowards.
The mermaid sighed from Arthur's right, which brought him back to the present. She held up the strange object she had been holding since she found the Captain in the ruins. It was oval shaped and fit comfortably in her palm. There were two small points on the top, and one of them had something that looked like a bow on it. The whole thing seemed oddly familiar.
"It was so weird," she said after a while. "After they got you, I...I attacked one of them. Then they all freaked out over my knife." She drew the blade, now free of blood, with her free hand and stared at the Leviathan design. "They started calling me Princess and dragged me away to some strange room with more carvings."
"Yes, go on," Captain Kirkland urged after she went silent.
"That was where I found this." She held up the gold object. "I don't know why, but I just knew this is what we were looking for."
Arthur inwardly kicked himself. He had forgotten all about the thing Yao wanted them to find. "And then what?"
"I didn't want to grab it with all of them looking, so I had to wait for a bit. They were all really excited to have me there, so it was hard to get away. I asked one of them...Banksy I think...where they took you. He told me, and then I...I..." She lowered her head.
"What happened, love?" Arthur didn't know what to do. She seemed so upset. He hesitantly wrapped his arm around her waist and gave her a gentle kiss right above her ear. "It's alright. You can tell me."
"I couldn't get him to leave me alone, so...I...I killed him."
"(Y/n)-"
"But that's not it!" The mermaid looked up with pain filled eyes. "With his dying breath...he said to me, 'killer'. I'm a killer, Arthur. A heartless, cold blooded murderer."
Silence replaced her quiet words. The Captain didn't know what more he could do for her, so he pulled her closer. "He wasn't wrong."
"What?!?" She looked like she was about to fall apart like a delicate glass bauble on the edge of a table.
Arthur grabbed her wrist before she could run away. "What was is he called you?"
"K-killer..."
"Princess." The mermaid froze and turned around. "They all said it. You're a princess. Don't ever let anyone say otherwise."
"You...you really mean it?"
The Captain smiled. "Of course, princess."
She managed a smile and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Arthur."
"Is that all I get?" he asked mischievously.
The mermaid leaned up and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. Arthur ran a hand through her hair and savored the salty scent that clung to her. It reminded him of the ocean on a calm summer day.
A wolf whistle sounded beside them as a few crew members walked past. "Nice catch, Cap'n!"
Arthur pulled away and blushed fiercely. The mermaid just laughed, her previous unhappiness gone. "Oh, Arthur!" She laughed some more.
He couldn't help but smile despite his embarrassment. "I'm just glad you're smiling again, princess." Her smile grew. "You haven't finished your story yet."
"Oh...well...after all that I ran to grab this...whatever it is, and I went back for you. On my way back to you they must have found the body because that's when all the screaming started."
The Captain softly chuckled. "You clever girl."
She shrugged. "Still. Let's never do that again."
"Agreed."
"Now, to get this back to Yao," she said as she held it up.
Captain Kirkland narrowed his eyes. "He better have a bloody good explanation for all of this."
~000~
"Ai-yah! You really did it, aru!" Yao held the golden object up to admire. "I didn't think I'd see you again, aru."
"And why would that be?" Arthur asked with narrowed eyes. I could tell his frustration was growing.
"Every group I sent out never came back," Yao answered. "But now I have what I want, aru!"
"Um, what is that exactly?" My curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I couldn't help but ask.
"It's an idol of the ancient god of everything cute!" he replied as he rubbed the object adoringly against his cheek. "The god Shinatty, aru! I have a scroll over there, see?"
I looked at the scroll hanging in his small office and clapped my hands. "So this is why it looked so familiar! That's exactly what the carvings inside the ruins looked like!"
"The ruins full of cannibals," Arthur growled.
Yao must have felt the sudden chill in the air because he stopped adoring the golden Shinatty in his hands. "Er...I didn't know they were there...honest, aru."
Arthur placed his hands on the shorter man's desk and leaned in close. "We got what you wanted, so tell us how to get through the fog."
"Well, I don't actually know-"
"WHAT?!?" Arthur grabbed Yao by his collar and forcibly pulled him up out of his chair. "You sent us to our deaths to get you some silly trinket, and then you tell us you don't know anything?!?"
"No...wait...I can...explain," Yao gasped as he tried to pry Arthur's hands away.
"I'm done with your excuses! I should kill you right now! They'd find your no good, lying corpse on the ground with that stupid trinket shoved up your-"
"Arthur!"
The pirate let go of Yao, who fell back into his chair and coughed for air. He adjusted his mussed collar and leaned back as if nothing had happened. "Not so tough with your girlfriend around, I see, aru."
In the blink of an eye, Arthur had his revolver cocked and pointed at Yao's head. "Say that again. I'd love to have an excuse to blow out your brains."
"Ahhh! I was kidding, aru!" Yao tried to move out of the way, but his office was too cramped for him to get far.
"Then tell me why you said you knew how to get through the mists."
"I-I have a relative, aru. North of here in Zenos. H-he knows, I s-swear."
"Why was I told you know if you don't?"
"Well, I do in a-a roundabout way, aru." Arthur moved the gun closer to Yao's face. "I-I told people that so they would find Shinatty for me!"
"Coward." Arthur lowered the gun and disarmed it before slipping it back into his coat. "Zenos is at least three days away. We've wasted enough time on this continent as is."
"And whose fault is that, aru," Yao mumbled under his breath.
It seemed to me that he didn't want Arthur to hear. Unfortunately for him, the pirate did. That's when all the depths of the ocean broke loose.
~000~
"Ouch! That hurts!" Arthur swatted my hand away from his face.
"Well, maybe if you held still it wouldn't hurt as much!" He crossed his arms stubbornly, and I went back to dabbing at the gash on his face with a damp rag. "It's your own fault for starting a fight."
After hearing Yao's comment, Arthur had jumped at the smaller man and began punching him with gusto. The commotion had attracted some attention, and soon three more much larger men had arrived to help Yao. At first I thought Arthur was done for, but he actually did pretty well on his own. We were kicked out of the tea shop eventually though. The funny thing was that the four other men were in much worse shape than Arthur. That wasn't to say he got away completely unscathed.
Arthur snorted. "That git was getting on my nerves. He deserved exactly what he- Ouch!"
"Sorry, sorry." I moved the rag away from his face as he winced.
"Can't you be a little more careful?"
"I'm trying! I don't enjoy watching you in pain you know."
"Sometimes I wonder..." he mumbled under his breath.
I narrowed my eyes and jabbed the cloth none too gently at his face. He howled in pain. "I enjoyed that one."
Arthur snatched my wrist and leaned in so close that our noses touched. "That hurt," he growled.
"It's your own fault," I replied.
His hand around my wrist tightened. "If I didn't love you so much, I'd throw you overboard right now."
"Well, it's too bad that I'm-" I paused mid-sentence as his words sunk in. "W-wait...what...did you just say?"
He pulled back and looked away just as a bright red blush appeared on his cheeks. "Well...er...I didn't...nothing...I didn't say anything." His blush intensified.
I was speechless. No one had ever told me anything like this before. I was complete stunned. "A-Arthur?"
He didn't turn to look at me, but I heard him mumble, "What?"
I pulled my wrist back and wrapped my arms around his sturdy chest. The smell of something musky and masculine wrapped around me, and I breathed in Arthur's scent hungrily.
"I love you too."
There was silence at first, but I soon felt him return my embrace. Something pressed softly onto the top of my head, and I knew it was his lips. His warm, perfect lips. My cheeks heated up from the intimacy of this moment. I could feel something fluttering in my stomach, and I tightened my hold on the pirate. Everything was so warm, so wonderful. I didn't want it to change.
"Are you going to finish fixing me up?"
"Hmm?"
"There's still blood dripping down my face you know."
"Oh!" I jumped back in time to see a thin trickle of blood slide down Arthur's cheek and drip onto the floor of his room. "Sorry! I'll get back to work."
I wiped away the blood with my rag and carefully pressed it against the wound. Cook had made some kind of poultice to be put in the gash, so I moved the rag away long enough to spread some into the cut. Arthur hissed in pain, but didn't protest otherwise. His emerald eyes weren't focused on me, but they sparkled like the jewel that shared their color. I was content to stare at them forever.
The sea was calm, and the two of us stood there without disruptions as then Queen Lady sailed north to Zenos. Everything was as it should have been.