Private Tales No Jackets

[Peyton]

She didn't want to be stopped, she was too afraid to fall apart in public and Luc would only try to comfort her which wouldn't help matters. She tried to protest as she heard him come after her, but as he pulled her into his arms she buried her face against him for a moment and shook as she tried desperately to hold it together.

"I'm fine.." she assured him of what they both knew was a lie, her voice cracking with rage. "I'll see you back at the ship.." she sighed and her jaw clenched as she pushed herself gently away from him,

Peyton stepped back with a glassy glance up at him and forced a painful smile before turning away and nodding toward the young pirate who followed quickly behind her.

 

[Lucius]

Lucius lingered for just a few seconds, watching after Peyton before he turned around and stalked back into the Inn. "Someone else go with them."

Two of the other pirates that they had taken with them immediately stood and hurried out the door after Peyton and Cooper, Lucius' words from the night before apparently enough encouragement that they all knew Peyton needed to be kept safe.

Without another word Lucius crossed back over the Inn, his hand reaching out to suddenly grab Felren and drag him out of the bench he was sitting on.

"How did he get the Concordant?" Lucius demanded. "What the fuck was going on with him?"

What the fuck happened?

His questions came, and Felren's answers were found wanting. He didn't know where Jon had gotten the ship, didn't know what was going on in his head, just that he blabbered about a "deal", about keeping his bargain, and about a Witch at the end of the world.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton didn't detour, she didn't slow down, and none of the men that followed her dared complain as they jogged every few steps behind her trying to keep up. She left instruction with Cooper and rushed up the gangplank, blatantly ignoring Chris and Ferg as they called to her offering food, and Vreek and Ferr rushing over as they realised something was wrong. She didn't so much as look at them let alone answer their questions of worry.

The cabin door was slammed in the faces of those who'd followed her that far, and the moment she was alone with the door locked behind her, she lifted a glass and her bottle of rum from her desk, slid down the wall, and broke. Tears flowed, but they were too hurt and angry to have any sound. Every muscle in her body ached from tension, and she poured and drank far too much far too quickly that it burned in her stomach and she had to fight to hold it down..

She didn't know how to process this. She wished she'd never taken the ship, wished she'd never found the journal in the desk, wish she'd never asked any questions. Not knowing couldn't be worse than this. Everything she'd thought about her father, her respect for him, her love, it was all gone. The man who'd allowed her to think he'd saved her from that life had been the reason she'd been a slave in the first place. he'd gone from hero to villain, and she found herself wishing he was still alive so that she could kill him herself.

She'd risked her life to get his daggers back, the thought of never seeing them again and losing all she had of the man had been too heartbreaking to bear.. The thought caused her hand to squeeze hold of her glass so tightly that it smashed in her grip and cut open her palm, but still she continued to squeeze and drank from the bottle instead.

 

[Lucius]

Lucius stalked through the streets of Teth with the remaining band of pirates that had originally accompanied him and Peyton.

They were moving quickly, though mostly because Lucius set the pace about as fast as he possibly could. His fingers tightened as he moved, flexing into fists and unfurling as his steps carried him back towards the ship. He had let Felren go after the last line of his questions, deciding that there was no reason to kill the man.

He was a sniveling rat, but murder would do him no good.

By the time Lucius and the others reached the ship it was raining already. His clothing was soaked, but he hardly seemed to care as he opened the latch to the cabin and stepped inside to see Peyton sitting there, her hand still bloody as she clutched a bottle.

A strum of despair rolled through Lucius, and he quickly shut the door behind himself. "Peyt."

Lucius said quietly as he crossed the distance between the two of them and squatted down besides her.

 

[Peyton]

"I don't want to talk, Luc.." Peyton answered in barely a whisper as he crouched in front of her, but she didn't look at him. She didn't know what to say, or what to think, and she didn't want to allow herself to take it out on anyone else. She was too angry to be coddled and too numb to speak.

She drank the last drop of rum and set the bottle on the floor. The tears on her cheeks had dried in, but every now and then another one or two escaped.. "I'm not really the best company right now.." she told him, and glanced at the door as she heard Cooper and Mitch arguing on their way up to the cabin door before Mitch pounded at the door with a fist.. "Peyt, lass! Call this mutt off!"

"I were just doin' as she asked y'old bastard! Let her be!" Cooper's growling voice responded as he attempted to pull Mitch away from the cabin.

Peyton huffed and shook her head at Luc.."Ignore it."

 

[Lucius]

Lucius looked up at Peyt with a frown, reaching out to her bloodied hand and peeling open her fingers for a moment. He glanced at the shards of glass with a scowl, shaking his head.

"OI!" The Captain barked, glancing back towards the door with a scowl.

The door seemed to shake one more time as someone tried it, but Lucius' voice seemed to still it. There was something in the air for a second, hesitation someone might read it as.

"Knock it off!" She'd said for him to ignore it, but it was a hard thing to do. "Leave us be for a little while, lads."

He said with a frown, his voice a bit softer.

There was no comment on the state of her, no word of judgement or anything close. As he heard the steps fall away all Lucius did was gently hold her hand and begin to pick out the shards of glass still stuck in her flesh.

He didn't care what kind of company she was right now. Lucius wasn't leaving her side.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton's eyes fell on her bleeding hand, her brow furrowing with a look of confusion. She hadn't felt it, and she wasn't sure how long she'd been clutching hold of the broken shards. Her eyes closed as Lucius yelled at the men at the door..

"I asked him to bring me something from Mitch's supplies.. I just wanted to sleep for a bit.." she muttered, her words slightly slurred and her head thunked against the wall as she let it fall back and allowed him to pluck the glass from her hand.

Something, anything..Shade, whatever, I don't care...was what she'd said, and she realised now why Mitch was cracking up. Cooper had been doing what she'd asked, but she had to assume that Mitch believed him to be lying to him.

The mental turmoil of the last few weeks had taken it's toll. The last time she'd been so distraught about her father, Luc had chosen the time to tell her how he felt about her, and it was enough to stop her spiralling. This time she wasn't sure she could stop it. She wasn't as strong as Lucius was. Behind the mask of confidence there was a terrified girl in a seriously cruel world, and she'd only just scraped by after losing her father and their crew..But this was worse than even that, now she was bereaved of the lie that was her own life, and it was all crashing down on her at once.

"I hate him... so much, Luc..." she told him quietly through gritted teeth.

 

[Lucius]

"I know Peyt." Lucius said softly as he took a small piece of glass out if her palm, looking up at her with an expression that spoke of sympathy but not pity.

Lucius would not say that he understood

He was trying to, he could see her pain, but his own family situation was vastly different than hers. Lucius had chosen to abandon his parents, had chosen to walk away from them and do his own thing. That was so far removed from what Peyton was going through that he wouldn't even try to placate her in such a way.

When the last of the glass was gone Lucius grabbed the bottle from Peyton's hand, glancing at her for a moment before he tossed it away and retrieved another one off the shelf. He pulled it open with his teeth.

"I know." He told her as he stood, kissing her forehead softly. "You have every right to."

There was no cutting away that justification. "I can't fix it. But I can promise I won't leave your side."

Not now, not ever.

Before she could argue with him Lucius poured some of the newly found spirit over her hand.

 

[Peyton]

Her mind seemed to freeze up, blocking her from trying to think about anything at all, like there was a silence in her soul. She felt the chill in her blood, coldness bringing the synapses of her brain to a stand still.

She'd never felt more empty in mind, body or soul, never so bereft of any comfort. She had never felt so worthless or disposable, never so wretched and cold. Her face betrayed no emotion, but she shook as grief bled from her bones and she stared at nothing.

The kiss to her head didn't register, and the sting of the alcohol was ignored but for the slightest crease between her brows before her other hand reached to take the bottle from Lucius' grip with a slow blink.

"Can you get me something to sleep?.." she frowned and finally found his eyes with hers.

 

[Lucius]

He knew exactly what the question meant. "I'm here."

Fingers tightened around the bottle, holding it in place so that it did not move from his grasp. He was stronger than she, a virtue of who he was. His eyes met hers, and there was a sternness to him that spoke volume of the moment.

He was hardly ever stern with her.

"I'm here." Lucius repeated. "And I'm not going to leave."

His hand wrapped over hers. "Ever."

It was the best that he could offer. The past was the past. Impossible to forget, difficult to get over, but they had a future. They had each other. That was what she had showed him, and he would do the same.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton's brow furrowed at him as he denied her any further medicinal aid, she wanted to block it out and deal with it tomorrow.. maybe the next day. But not tonight. Her jaw clenched as she pulled fruitlessly at the bottle.. "Luc. When you needed shade, I let you have it. I let you sleep under my roof whilst you came off it and I gave you the space you needed. At least let me have the fucking rum." she huffed, and anger flashed in her eyes.

She'd already warned him how unpleasant her company would be right now, and she reminded herself of that as a brief wave of guilt battered against her as she heard the tone that she'd used. He was trying to help her, she knew that, but comfort wasn't what she wanted or needed right now.

 

[Lucius]

"The rum." He agreed with a nod of his head, but that would be it.

There would be his shade, not when he was around.

Lucius knew the vice well. Knew what it meant to take it. Even right now he still craved it. Somewhere deep down in his very soul he still wanted it. The entirety of his body craved the sweetness of the drug and the high that it gave.

That drifting dream.

He would never allow Peyton to taste that dream. Would never allow her to fall into that Rabbit hole. Not as long as he lived.

His fingers unfurled from the bottle.

 

[Peyton]

Golden eyes fixed on him, tired, sullen and blinking slower than usual. She'd already drank too much too quickly, but she pulled the rum greedily from his grip, clearly displeased that he'd sought to withhold it from her in the first place.

She used the wall to help her to her feet and she pushed gently past him, taking a long drink and settling the bottle on the table as she stripped off her clothes and cast them onto the floor unceremoniously when she'd normally have taken great care. Care wasn't something she had right now.

She lifted the bottle and brought it to her lips, her face a grimace as she drank. The liquid burned her throat and stomach, but she was determined to finish the bottle and so she did before slipping into bed and facing away from Luc as she curled up.

 

[Lucius]

There were a thousand things he wanted to say, a thousand things he wanted to point out to her or make her feel better with, but as Peyton crawled into bed and began to fall asleep all he could do was watch.

A sighed escaped his lips, head shaking as he slowly walked around the Cabin.

With careful and quiet steps Lucius cleaned up the space that he and Peyton shared. He placed everything in it's proper area, shifted things around, and then placed the journal into the desk and locked the drawer. The key was not at all hidden, but he thought it prudent to do anyway.

When that was all one Lucius opened the door to the cabin, whispering his orders to the crew before he slowly closed and locked the cabin door.

A sigh then escaped him, head shaking as he looked back into the cabin and towards the bed. He frowned a moment, considering what he had learned today and what the days to come would yet bring. Fingers tightened for just a moment, and then he slowly walked over towards the bed. He slipped inside, wrapping himself around Peyton's sleeping form, but allowing himself no rest.

Not yet.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton passed out pretty quickly and heard nothing of Luc pacing and pottering around the cabin. She fell deeply, and woke mid way through the night to find the room spinning and the feeling of her head in a vice. Her stomach lurched and she groaned and pulled Luc's arm around her a little tighter as though he could stop her moving.

For a brief moment, it'd seemed like a bad dream, but she quickly fell back to reality and groaned again..
She turned to face him and curled against his body, her face burying into the crook of his neck with a deep huff, hot tears rolling onto his skin. She held him as tightly as she could and only started to relax again when she drifted back to sleep.

She managed an hour more and the image of her father's face and the anger she'd felt caused her to wake with a sharp gasp and her heart thundering in her chest. The room was still dark other than the silvery beams that poured in through the windows. She'd try to move as gently as she could to slip herself out of bed without waking him..

 

[Lucius]

Lucius was already awake, in fact he had never actually gone to sleep.

For weeks when she had originally found him he'd known that Peyton had done the exact same thing. She had pretended to be asleep and instead stayed awake to watch him and ensure that he did not sneak away. Paranoid some might have called it, but perhaps something that was necessary at the time.

Just as it seemed it was necessary now. As Peyton slipped away from him Lucius spoke up. "Hey."

The Captain said softly.

His eyes were open, staring up at her as she was half way crawling over him to get out of the bed.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton near jumped out her skin as Lucius spoke, having believed him to have been fast asleep. Her hand pressed to her chest and she let out a shaky breath.. "Shit, Luc.." she huffed..

"I just need some air.." she whispered, because it was too early to speak any other way. She leaned to press a kiss to his cheek and got up to wrap her dressing gown around her.. "I'll be on deck.." she assured him quietly as she opened the cabin door..

 

[Lucius]

Lucius frowned for a brief second, pulling himself up from the bed as she stepped out of the cabin.

He wondered briefly if she would find out the order she had given the crew, if the watchmen on deck would have to end up doing what he hoped they would not have to do. Before he had slipped to bed with her he had given a single order; make sure Peyton doesn't leave the ship.

It had been a private word, a quiet one, but it would be kept.

The Captain frowned for a brief moment, glancing up at the heavy wooden door for a moment. He considered following her out, but instead he simply waited.

 

[Peyton]

The cool sea air whipped at her hair as she stepped out, the storm had died away but left a pleasant breeze in it's wake. The sky was clear now, and she stared up at the millions of shimmering stars and the crescent moon that hung low in the sky, preparing for it's descent back into the inky black horizon. A few men paced the decks here and there, but she avoided them as she wandered toward the bow of the ship.

She paused by the gangplank for a moment, staring down at the docks below in consideration before continuing to the bow with a furrowed brow. She shouldn't have mentioned shade, she'd only given Lucius a reason to worry. She'd only tried it once before, and it'd made her sleep for well over a day. But after the incident with the orc, she wasn't sure Luc would be so willing to stay by her side if she betrayed his trust this time.

Peyton climbed up to sit on the carved mahogany railings to simply breathe and loose herself in the sound of the ocean, letting it soothe and clear her mind as the sea air eased her headache.

 

[Lucius]

He did not hear shouting, fighting, stabbing, nor any other indication that Peyton had decided to leave the ship. None of the crew came to grab him, and no sound reached him of anything.

A small sigh of relief ran through Lucius after a few moments his head lulling with lack of sleep. He could feel the tiredness pull at him slightly, could feel the heavy weight of the lids of his eyes. His body wanted sleep, craved it, but the Captain did not feel fit for it in the slightest.

His heart still ached.

It was the pain born of today. Of seeing Peyton the way she was, of hearing that a man he'd respected and loved had been less than dirt. The weight of those things crashed down on him, and Lucius couldn't help the hurt that held his chest bound tight. His lips thinned as he sat on the edge of the bed, eyes catching on the desk at the other end of the room.

Soundlessly he stood, crossing the small cabin and moving behind the desk. His fingers grasped the key, opening the drawer and standing above the journal and log book.

Lucius had never been the smartest. He'd never had a head for numbers or puzzles. His role on any ship had been as a fighter, a tactician sometimes, but things like this had always been left to Peyton. His head turned as he glanced towards the door. "This ones on you."

He said addressing himself, pulling out the two books and placing them on his desk.

Lucius was sure he could find something. The next steps.

Where they would have to go from here.

 

[Peyton]

The moment the pounding in her head had died down, there was more room for her thoughts to run wild. She had no desire to think, or speak, only sleep. She slid down the railing to sit on the deck, her head tilted back toward the dark sky as she watched the few gulls that floated lazily in the breeze.

The few crew men that were patrolling seemed to be keeping an eye on her, and yet knew to give her space and let her be. She managed to pinch another bottle of alcohol from a sleeping crewman, though she grimaced as she drank it, whatever it was it was vile but it slowly numbed her all over again.

Time passed and the sun was ascending somewhere beyond the horizon, casting soft blush and violet low in the sky and more of the crew were waking..

"Peyt..?" Verr frowned as he leaned over the sleeping pirate, gently shaking her shoulder to try and wake her but she only grumbled irritably. The orc scooped her up and the empty bottle clunked to the floor.

"Cap'n?.." Verr gently called and gestured for a sleepy Ferg to open the door.. "She was asleep out on deck sir.." he glanced down at the frowning face of a slumbering Peyton and cleared his throat awkwardly..

 

[Lucius]

Lucius was still hunched over the desk when her heard the man's voice call our, looking up to see the door opening and a sleeping Peyt in a crew members arms. A slight frown touched his features for just a brief moment, hand coming up to run through his hair as he stood and walked over slowly.

A dozen papers were now scattered over the desk, three books plucked from the shelves in one corner of the cabin also opened up to their middle. A few notes had been hastily scrawled on scraps of parchment, but Lucius left it all behind as he closed the distance between himself and those at the door.

His arms slipped beneath Peyton, taking her from Verr. "Thank you."

The Captain said quietly.

"It's been a long day." He continued on softly. Then a frown touched his lips. "I need you to do me a favor. Make sure we're ready to sail by sundown, send a message to the central island. We're leaving tonight."

Shock crossed the other man's face, and Ferg jittered slightly besides him, but both of them nodded as Lucius gave out a couple more quick orders in a hushed tone before finally closing the door. A few seconds later he carried Peyton over back towards their bed, gently setting her down among the sheets.

 

[Peyton]

Peyton was out cold, but she nuzzled subconsciously at Lucius' chest as she was transferred into his arms. When she finally roused a little, her eyes narrowed against the light and her brow knit as she gave a sleepy groan. She had no idea how she'd got back here, nor what day it was, all she knew was that whatever she'd drank was about to make a sudden return.

"Bucket." she snapped quickly and rolled out of bed to skid on her knees toward the empty water bucket and heaved the contents of her stomach into it. It tasted just as bad coming back up as it had going down. She lurched and coughed until her sides hurt and there was nothing left.

 

[Lucius]

Lucius was still at the desk when Peyton suddenly popped up and vomitted the contents of her stomach into their water bucket.

A frown touched his lips, and when she looked up Peyton would see dark circles beneath his eyes. He had not slept a lick the night before, and the papers that had been present hours ago were still scattered around in a mass that seemed to have absolutely no rhyme or reason. They were like a maze, but Lucius seemed to pay them no mind as he stood.

A few quick steps took him to Peyton's side. "Easy."

He gently patted her back, placing a cup of tea on the small nightstand besides her for when she was done emptying her stomach. His finger brushed gently over her skin, a soft and soothing touch.

"Drink this." He told her softly, motioning to the cup.

 

[Peyton]

She threw up until there was nothing left to throw up and her body shook with convulsions. She managed the smallest of smiles as Lucius took care of her, and she obliged in taking the tea to her lips and sipping on it. "Thanks.." she murmured weakly, her voice gritty with sleep.

She was in a bad way, and the moment she felt safe enough to move she finished her tea and climbed back into her bed to curl up in a quivering ball. "You haven't slept.." she observed, her voice shivering along with her body.. She eyed the desk and it's strewn papers with a small frown..

"What have you been doing all night?..."