“Put down the knife, Kavo,” Gwendolyn said. The doors swung behind her. “You’re being replaced in here.”
“I’m… being replaced? What the he—”
“We have two more people joining us, remember? We don’t need you cooking anymore.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do?”
“What do I care? Keep Hawk company or something.”
Jaleber and a couple who must have been the newly recruited pirates chose that moment to interrupt with their entrance. Upon seeing Gwendolyn and Hawk, they paused.
“I thought you would have him out by now.”
“He’s surprisingly dedicated to his job,” she explained.
“Well, we don’t need two cooks. Kavo, you’re going to have to find something else. Belle ain’t got any other skills,” Jaleber said. Kavo looked to the girl. She didn’t look old enough to have any other skills, either, or else he probably would have argued. She probably wasn’t much older than Aizel actually; Kavo guessed she’d be about nineteen.
The man next to her, the one who must have been her boyfriend, was possibly a little older, but not by much. If he was even Kavo’s age, it would have been a surprise.
Rafael swooped down from the ceiling, crying his primate war cry. Kavo hoped he’d maybe land on Jaleber’s face, but he simply dropped to Kavo’s shoulder and began playing with his hair, as he was wont to do. Clearly he wasn’t going to be of much help, either.
“What about him?” Kavo asked, nodding to the man.
“That’s Zeric. He’ll be working with Aizel.”
Kavo snorted. “So you’re telling me he has even less skills than his girlfriend, and I’m being replaced for them. Wonderful.” Kavo crossed his arms and headed for the door. He hoped they all slipped and fell on the floors that Zeric would be washing.
He wondered just what they expected him to do. Gwendolyn had suggest he keep Hawk companies, but she knew that he and Hawk had been enemies since the day he had woken back up; she knew that they’d been avoiding each other like dead rats. Was this another of her plans to get them back on companionable terms? It wasn’t working so far. Kavo didn’t in the least want to join Hawk anywhere, much less a hundred feet above the deck in cramped conditions.
He would rather settle for accompanying Jaleber everywhere, and the man detested him. Even Torian, who would only ever speak to Kavo while Aizel was near, would have been better company than Hawk. It sounded ridiculous, but it was true. Kavo didn’t know how he was going to look at Hawk without either hitting him or kissing him. Things were growing out of hand.
He didn’t want to kiss Hawk. He didn’t want to be with him romantically in the least. His wants and needs didn’t seem to matter to his hormones, which had determined for him that Hawk was the perfect person for lighting his fire. It didn’t even seem to matter that Kavo had never had an interest in any men at all; his body said that Hawk was the exception, the intriguingly beautiful exception, and he should just relax and let things take their course.
On the other hand, he didn’t particularly want to hit Hawk, either. But every time Hawk tried to hurt him, tried to push him away even farther, Kavo defaulted to a violent rage, and he had to hit something; that something simply always happened to be Hawk. And really, who could blame him? It wasn’t easy to be insulted and rejected at every turn. Kavo simply didn’t take it the way others may have in the past.
Despite not truly wanting either of the outcomes that had been probable as of late, Kavo still did nothing to change the results. He firmly believed that he wasn’t in the wrong in defending himself. If Hawk wanted to be an ass because of a misunderstanding that he had caused, he deserved a punch to the face and more. Kavo wasn’t about to apologize, let alone make a difference. That was stupid and weak.
And whatever anyone wanted to say, let it never be said that Kavo was weak. He fought for what he wanted and he fought against what he didn’t want. He knew that people would have problems with that, as any two people with opinions of any sort were likely to disagree at some point in time, but he still did it. Hawk’s displeasure was far from Kavo’s breaking point.
Kavo walked across the deck, Rafael still perched on his shoulder. Kavo could feel the monkey’s furry tail resting lightly on the nape of his neck, curled harmlessly. He hoped the Raf didn’t decide to actually wrap it around his neck for no good reason, seeing as he’d already tried to pull out half his hair.
“Oh, Kavo! Favour to ask,” Aizel said. “Do you think you can run this up to Hawk?” Kavo hardly glanced at the rock extended to him before Aizel tacked on a pleading, “Please.”
“Why can’t you do it? Or Torian, even?”
“Well… I’m… I’m sort of afraid of heights,” Aizel admitted, “And Torian’s busy with some repairs downstairs, so I really shouldn’t stall him. It would only take a minute. Besides, you’ve already been up there and everything.”
“Aizel, you really don’t want Hawk and I in the same room, let alone the same cramped basket.”
“Yeah, I know you two haven’t been getting along, but he dropped this and—”
“If he dropped it, it’s his own fault. I don’t care.”
“Well, technically, it’s my fault because he dropped it when I bumped into him and I feel really bad and you should take it to him.”
Kavo glared. “If I didn’t know better, I would say that this is a plan of your mother’s to get Hawk and I back on speaking terms.” Aizel smiled at him unsurely. It was hard to turn down a seventeen-year-old boy who looked like he was twelve, so Kavo took the gem. “This isn’t going to work, but I’ll do it.”
And he did. He had nothing else to do, anyway. A fight was at least entertainment, and if he was lucky, no one would be thrown off ledges today.
With those thoughts of comfort, as depressing as they may have been, Kavo started climbing. Rafael soon decided he didn’t trust Kavo’s climbing ability when his own was so incredibly superior, and he skittered off. All for the better, in Kavo’s opinion; he didn’t want any further annoyances or distractions.
Hawk looked irritated at best to see him. Kavo shared the sentiment.
“Trust me; I didn’t come up here of my own free will. Aizel said you had dropped this.” Kavo held out the stone he’d been handed. It was green and orange, the same colours of the one Hawk had been holding preceding their fight in the mess hall. Kavo wondered if it was the same one altogether.
“He would be correct.” Hawk took the stone, squeezing it lightly between his thumb and forefinger. “I suppose I should thank you for climbing up here in his place.”
“Why’s that?”
“He hates the lookout post. He says that when he is this far away from the ground, he would prefer not to be any farther.”
“I see,” Kavo said awkwardly, although he didn’t. Sure, at first there was some trepidation. However, they were already hurtling through the air at dangerously rapid speeds at a dangerously high altitude; another hundred feet wasn’t going to increase the risk of death much more.
Kavo didn’t see how a stupid stone was important enough for him to be required to climb all that way. It was just a stone. Hawk held onto it like it had magical properties of some sort, but Kavo didn’t see how. He had held it, and he didn’t feel any differently than he had earlier.
“Why’s that stone so important to you?”
“It is not a stone.” The way Hawk bristled was quite amusing to Kavo, who was taking great delight in his displeasure. “It is a gem. I understand the people of Gaea do not believe in the earth and its powers, but my people do. Unakite is meant to release pain and strengthen courage. I use it for meditation.”
Kavo snorted. “You would be the meditation type.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“In my experience, the best hypocrites are religious.”
“Now you are claiming that I am hypocritical.”
“You can’t say you aren’t. You blame me for causing fights when you’re the one constantly insulting me. It upsets you that I profile Islanders, but you’ve been profiling us Gaeans all along. You’re just as bad as the rest of us, but you just won’t admit it.”
“I never claimed to be better than you are, Kavo.”
“You didn’t have to. I can see it.” Superiority glimmered in Hawk’s eyes. Kavo turned, wanting to get away before he lost all self-control. “Anyway, I did what I was asked. Hope you didn’t miss your stupid stone too long.”
As Kavo swung his leg over the edge, Hawk said, “Do you remember when Ryk said that I was always cold?”
Kavo paused. “Yes,” he answered slowly.
“I take it you also heard his remark that I had not been quite so cold the previous night.” Kavo nodded. “I had not slept. I stayed awake to repent for the deaths of your crew. I had not wished to kill any innocent people.”
Kavo closed his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what you want to do. You still killed them.”
“I know. I am sorry, regardless, although apologies do nothing to ease the guilt.”
“Apologies won’t return them to their families, either.” Kavo slipped down the rope without looking back.
Aizel was at the bottom, smiling hopefully. When Kavo stared at him and looked far from happy, his smile slowly fell. “Did it work?” Every word was laced with hope for the better. Aizel’s concern, although touching, was in vain.
Kavo shook his head. “He was right. Things between us aren’t normal anymore.” Even Kavo was beginning to think that it was better if they stayed as far away from each other as possible.
“I’m sorry…”
“There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s fine. I’m a grown man; I can cope.”
“Yeah. I just wish tha— ahh!”
Kavo and Aizel were suddenly flung to the floor roughly as the airship jolted to a stop. Kavo shakily rose from his hands and knees, which he could feel bruising already, while Aizel sat up and rubbed at his head.
“What do you think that was about?” Aizel asked.
Before Kavo could hazard a guess, Gwendolyn was running toward them and looking quite panicked.
“Mum, what is it?” Aizel question as he stood, straightening his clothing.
“We’re being followed.”
Aizel’s clear eyes widened. “What?”
“There’s a government airship right behind that cloud,” she said, gesturing to the cloud at the back of the airship.
Kavo felt his world crumble. There was no way they could win against a government airship unless the soldiers were fresh out of the Academy. The pirates’ victory had been partly a fluke and partly due to Ryk’s skills. Kavo didn’t think they could win now.
They were all going to die.
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