“Come with me.” Hawk didn’t pause before he spun and was walking. Aizel, on the other hand, being more polite, held out a hand to help Kavo up.
“You do know I’m not, like, an honoured guest, right?” Kavo asked. He didn’t take the boy’s hand.
Aizel retracted his offer and crossed his arms. “Fine then. Just trying to be nice,” he muttered. “It’s hard telling how much longer we’re stuck together.”
“You make being with me sound absolutely lovely.”
Aizel scoffed. “You’re not exactly everyone’s favourite person in the world.”
“I’m sorry. Should I be?”
“It would make our lives a lot easier, don’t you think?”
“Why would I want to make your lives easier? I’m a prisoner.”
“He will do everything in his power to make us miserable,” Hawk said from in front of them, “And he expects us to do the same. That is how prisoners of the government are treated.”
Kavo scowled. “What do you know?”
“Enough.”
“I lied,” Kavo said. “Hawk or whatever the hell you’re called, you are the most frustrating person aboard this ship.”
“I wish I could say I am sorry you feel that way. However, I cannot.”
“I can’t say I care much either way, whether you’re sorry or not. You’re all assholes,” he mumbled.
“Says the person who killed a man,” Aizel chimed in none too helpfully. Child or not, Kavo rather wanted to hit him.
“Whatever. Anyway, why the heck am I staying with you people? Shouldn’t I be, like, back in the brig or something?”
“You’d think so,” Aizel said, “But Mum doesn’t really like keeping you imprisoned. Dunno, guess you struck a chord or something. Anyhow, here we are,” Aizel announced, still managing to maintain a companionable tone. It almost— no, it really did— annoy Kavo that he could be so cherry and chipper almost endlessly.
The three pushed open a lightweight wooden door and stepped into a small closet space. Kavo raised an eyebrow. Not only were there two beds crammed into the room for the three of them, but it didn’t look like it could even hold all of them at once.
Weren’t there only six people left on the airship? Kavo understood the logic of having two men (if Aizel could be called a man, which hardly suited him) watch over him, but there had to have been larger rooms available.
“I know that it is small,” Hawk said, as if reading Kavo’s thoughts, “But it normally had accommodated only myself. Still, I do not think Aizel’s old room with Torian was at all larger.”
Aizel shook his head to confirm it. “Torian had a habit of tripping over my bed when he first woke.” Aizel’s voice was fond as he smiled lightly.
“So the two of you are pretty close, huh?”
Aizel shrugged. “We’ve known each other seven years now. It’d be pretty strange if we weren’t close, wouldn’t it?”
“Not really. I’d known men since childhood and I couldn’t stand them.”
Aizel sent him an odd look, and Hawk remarked, “It must be so unfortunate to be like you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It is a sad existence, to exist so dispassionately.”
“I don’t ‘exist dispassionately,’” Kavo argued. “Disliking a few people doesn’t suddenly mean I’m always apathetic—because disliking means I do care, doesn’t it? Even negatively, it’s still emotion, isn’t it?”
Aizel shrugged again, casting his gaze to Hawk. “I would rather be hated than have someone feel nothing. At least then my death would never be something.”
Hawk stared for a long moment before he finally turned away to dutifully smooth the covers on the new bed. I suppose you are correct. My death should be a blessing rather than a curse. Even so, I would rather like to be missed.”
Aizel grinned. “I promise I’ll miss you. Miss me?”
“I suppose it is only fair.”
“Always fair and judicious, aren’t you?” Aizel laughed.
“I make my attempts. I must admit I sometimes do not succeed.”
“Often,” Kavo interrupted. “I think you like to be unjust toward me.”
“I do not think you have any reason to condemn me. I have not harmed you but for once, during battle, after which I healed all of your wounds which I had caused. I have done all that is in my power to keep you safe since you arrived. You, on the other hand, show no remorse for the murder of my leader, not to mention your violence toward me personally. I see nothing which gives you any right to complain.”
“If it weren’t for that initial injury, I would not have attacked you.”
“You would have. You had planned to kill all of us that very day. I refused to accept defeat; you still do, although you remain at a loss. Clearly you understand my desire to win.”
Kavo opened his mouth but he could think of no smart remark, no witty return, no clever rejoinder. Whether he liked it or not, Hawk was right: he had been reasonably gracious thus far. He had cared for Kavo despite hating him, and he had tried to halt Ryk’s advances while Kavo was injured. He hadn’t even thrown a punch when Kavo attacked him.
Yet Kavo couldn’t help but loathe everything he stood for. His whole life, Kavo had learned of how savage and wretched the Islanders were; one exception would not change that. Kavo hadn’t even determined him to be an exception—Hawk’s actions couldn’t have reflected who he was. They simply couldn’t have.
And Aizel was probably much worse inside. No one was polite to a Prisoner of War. It didn’t make any sense to be. Were they trying to befriend him in the hopes he’d let out some sort of government secret? Fat chance, that. Kavo wasn’t about to tell them anything.
“I thought as much,” Hawk said in response to Kavo’s silence. “You are a remarkably simply person to read.”
Kavo scowled. “You don’t know me.”
“I know enough. You were a captain, and you still like to pretend you are. You think all of us are worthless and useless, and you are some sort of special being; we are lesser. You hate that I know this and everything else about you, you hate that Aizel does not, and you hate that I would say this aloud. What else is there to know? I think that very nearly covers it.”
Aizel snickered behind his hand. Kavo’s urge to hit him and hard was quickly returning; he found the whole situation far too amusing to not hit, really. Who laughed at things like that? Immature twelve-year-olds, apparently, even if they were technically five years older than that.
“He’s got you pegged, hasn’t he?” Aizel asked.
“Hardly,” Kavo argued.
“Mm, I disagree. ‘sides, Hawk’s never really wrong about people. It’s one of his thousands of gifts from the gods, right?”
“I would not claim it was a blessing which came from the deities, but I suppose you could think of it that way. It has less to do with guessing and more with observation, Aizel. Psychics, of whom I am aware you are thinking, are not real.”
“They can be.”
“In any case, if they are, I am not one of them. Now, Aizel, go finish your work for the day before you anger your mother after her trying day.”
“Fine, fine, I’m leaving. If he causes you trouble, you know where to find me.”
“I assure you that he is nothing I cannot handle, but I appreciate the sentiment.” Reassured, Aizel left Hawk alone with Kavo. Later he may realize that this hadn’t been a smart deal, after all, but at the time being, he was content to do as Hawk suggested.
“Why is it,” Kavo eventually asked, “That you claim I know nothing about you and you pretend to know my life story?”
“I think it is that way. Is it not? Was I wrong?”
“No, you weren’t wrong, but that’s today. That’s how my life is today. I can tell you that today, you’re grumpy and irritated that you have to watch me and you’re tired of fetching me out of trouble, and you want to keep a close eye on me. See? That wasn’t very hard. Anyone can do it. It’s called paying attention.”
“So you were listening when I said that this only involved my observational skills.”
“Yeah, but I mean, everyone has those observational skills, as you so call them. They’re called eyes! But that doesn’t mean you know who I am or where I came from, what my father did… you don’t really know anything.”
“You are incorrect there, as well. I know that you are called Captain Kavo Dula and that you commanded your own airship; I know that you would soon be acceding to the role of commander in chief. Judging from your accent, you lived in southern Gaea, therefore you likely went to the academy at Ava to train. I am guessing that your father was in the air fleet, and you joined to follow in his footsteps and carry on the family trade. Am I doing sufficient so far?”
Kavo growled. That was all true, so why did it frustrate him so much? Hawk didn’t to know any of that, and Kavo hadn’t even had to tell him for him to figure out everything that Kavo was, everything he thought was important in his life.
Kavo hadn’t even told his last name to anyone yet. How would Hawk know that?
“Wait, how do you know my last name is Dula?”
“One of your old crewmembers called out that name before he died. I assumed it was your name. I take it that I was not mistaken.”
“No,” Kavo conceded, “You weren’t. How do you know all that stuff?”
Hawk cracked a smirk. “I am not called Hawk for no reason. After all, it is only a nickname, and not my given one. Aizel once said that I resembled a hawk, and Ryk found the name fitting. At the time, I had not given them anything to call me, so it became my unofficial name.”
Hawk’s eyes certainly fit the profile. They glinted with ancient knowledge and what was very most likely insanity. Their golden amber depths, bright against his darkness, seemed to exude some sort of exotic nature. The rest of him, however, was far too bulky and large to be a hawk or any sort of bird, for that matter.
Kavo glanced at him covertly. His hair, as well, perhaps resembled a bird. It was smooth and shiny like the feathers of a starling, and it glistened in the sunlight just as well. He found it rather amusing that Hawk’s hair was so well-kept and groomed almost to the point of being more so than Gwendolyn’s. It was especially amusing that Hawk’s hair was nice considering that he seemed to be such a strong and masculine figure in the crew. After all, he was the largest, and he stood the tallest; he seemed to be quite dominant over the rest, despite the fact that he didn’t seem to exert any sort of pressure or force over them. In fact, aside from his actions toward Kavo, he seemed to be reasonably companionable toward everyone else, actually. Even Aizel, who grated on Kavo’s every last nerve, didn’t look like he was on Hawk’s bad side. Hawk had actually been rather nice to him.
So why couldn’t Hawk be nice to Kavo? Sure, Kavo had done very little do deserve it, but Hawk was hardly doing a good job of starting a relationship that wasn’t entirely drenched with animosity and enmity. Shouldn’t he have believed in some crap about worldly harmony and peace, or being the better man, or something? Shouldn’t he have taken the first step in being amiable? He knew Kavo wouldn’t; he had even acknowledged that Kavo was not likely to be nice to much of anyone. But the fact remained that Kavo was still being treated like a lesser creature for no real reason other than he was the supposed enemy, captured and cared for or not.
“You know,” Kavo eventually said, deciding on some ridiculously insane whim to verbalize these sorts of thoughts, “I’m not some kind of lesser creature just because I was a government captain.”
“You treat me as if I am not good enough because of my background as an Islander. Why should I treat you any differently than you treat me? I do not care much for earning your respect or affection. I care even less about your feelings, however hurt they may be by my disrespect. When you begin to show me some sort of respect or kindness, I will return it. Until then, I will not act as if we are equals, because that is not what I believe. Above all, I believe that honesty is the best policy. Honestly, I greatly dislike you, and if I had been commanding this ship, you would not have lived. However, you struck favour with Ryk and apparently Gwendolyn, as well. I cannot change that, nor will I attempt to. Simply know that I will not treat you with dignity as I treat the others. The others have earned it, and you have not.”
“So I have to earn the right to be treated like I’m human?”
“You have to treat me as you expect to be treated. I began by treating you as a human; I healed every wound you had. Most enemies would have left you to rot until you woke and then tortured you for information. Instead, the crew and I kept you alive and well, kept you healthy. When you were released from your bindings, you attacked us. First you attacked me, and then you murdered our leader. You have done nothing that is worthy of being treated as if you were a human; you have not acted anything like any human being should ever act. You are being the unreasonable one here.”
“How am I being unreasonable for wanting to fight against my captors? I only want to escape! That is all I want out of life.”
“However, you cannot be allowed to escape, so you resort to attacking people who have been undoubtedly kind and gracious. You murdered the only reason you were still alive; if it were not for Gwendolyn, you would have been killed for that crime. Yet for some reason, you struck her fancy, so you must remain here with us. That does not grant you the right to treat everyone poorly and expect better. You have proved neither your worth nor your humanity. We have no reason to treat you well; we would receive nothing from it. Do not say that we should act as if you are one of us. You are not a friend. You are the enemy.”
“I murdered my enemy, just like you want to kill me! How are you justified and I’m not? I murdered the man who was trying to take the one last piece of dignity that I had left. What makes you right?”
“He had been perfectly civil to you until you chose to attack him, as well. As I have already told you, he is the reason that you find yourself alive now. If it were not for Ryk’s attraction toward you, you would have been killed just as your shipmates were killed, and we all would have celebrated and moved on with our lives. You would have never been a second thought in our brains. Ryk, however, saw some value in you even before the battle was over; he chose to personally carry you to our ship away from the fighting, because he wanted to ensure that you were not injured further. He was always chivalrous when he could afford it.”
“He wasn’t chivalrous to me.”
“He was not chivalrous to you after you pinned him to a table and tried to smash in his face. Few people could manage even civility after an attack like that; few people would have left their assailants alive. Yet he did, because he liked you. You were not meant to be a one-night stand for him. I would even confess that I believed he had planned to truly court you, if I knew the notion would not incite your anger.”
“Too late,” Kavo muttered. “My ‘anger’ is already quite ‘incited’. I don’t see how anyone who practically molested me at the dinner table could ever be considered above par, let alone chivalrous. I attacked him after he tried to feel me up. It wasn’t like it was out of nowhere, you know. I’m not that temperamental.”
“Oh, so you are only just temperamental enough to attack and murder someone for wanting to date you. That clearly is very normal.”
Kavo gave a loud, fake laugh. “Ha! As if anything on this whole fucking ship is normal. You’re all out of your minds! Ryk was a creepy-ass molester, Gwendolyn’s a psycho bitch, Aizel’s got some crazy disorder like he’s still ten, that old man’s a fucking senile coot, Torian’s insane, and you’re just… you’re fucking you, some condescending bastard who thinks he’s better because he believes in some shit like harmony. Newsflash, dickhead: belief systems don’t make you right, and they certainly don’t make you better than anyone else.”
“I never said once what I believed in, nor did I state that I am superior because of it. I do not think our beliefs have anything to do with the differences in status between the two of us. However, I was chief, and you were never a king; I think already that that places me ahead of you.”
“I think you’re wrong there, too. Our beliefs have everything to do with it. In Gaea, the fact that you were the chief in your tribe means nothing; you are still nothing to us. Saying that your land’s government makes you better…”
“Yet you do the same. You think that being a government official means that you are automatically excused from accepting any responsibility for your actions. You forget that you are no longer that same government official; they think you are long dead. Your life belongs to us and not to them. Belonging to the government does not mean you are no longer fallible. Your government killed my family and my people, and you continue to slowly exterminate them. There is no situation in which anyone could consider this the right thing to do unless that person was legitimately insane.”
Kavo growled. “My government killed no one who didn’t deserve it.”
“My daughters did not deserve anything that they were given.”
“My government didn’t kill your family in cold blood! That’s not what the government is like. You may be a fucking savage, but that—”
“Do not ever call me that. I am no savage.”
Kavo glared in response, quite aptly communicating that he was absolutely positive that Hawk was, in fact, a savage. Hawk returned the harsh look with one of equivalent intensity when the door slowly creaked open.
Aizel looked between the two of them awkwardly and, frankly, slightly fearfully.
“Uh, hi, guys. Erm, I’m back.”
“So we’ve noticed,” Kavo said, not tearing his eyes away.
“M-maybe I should come back later… things seem kinda tense…”
Hawk scoffed and looked away at long last, staring at the wall. “It is nothing. Stay, lest we tear each other’s throats out.”
“Oh. Er, i-is that likely to happen?”
“Possibly. Did you not know what you had volunteered yourself for? After all, he certainly has a past record for murdering the people with whom he is left alone in a bedroom. Surely you had not expected a tea party upon your return.”
“No, but I had expected that if things got this intense, one of you’d be dead.”
“I am afraid you are mistaken. I am sure we both wish that were the case, however.”
“Without a doubt,” Kavo replied.
Aizel blew out a long breath. “So,” he tried. No one seemed to even consider answering up. “What do you guys wanna do now?” he attempted again.
“I do not care what the two of you wish to do, as long as it is done either quietly and in the dark or outside of this room. It is time for me to sleep.”
“Whatever,” Kavo mumbled, “I’m going to sleep too.”
The two grumpily climbed into the two beds, leaving Aizel standing awkwardly with nowhere to sleep.
“Uh, guys?” he tried. “Where am I supposed to go to sleep?” No one answered him this time, either. “Guys.” When only silence followed, he sighed. “Whatever. You suck. I’m going to Torian’s.” He didn’t bother to make sure anyone was listening before he left, shutting and locking the door behind him.
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