Fanfic: And A Bottle of Scotch:: Ch 3

[kappa77]

The next installment! Note, I'm still trying to sort out the pirate-talk, so I' apologize if the dialogue gets repetitive. I'll figure it out... eventually.

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At the sound of his door creaking open, Zisteau woke up from the nap he had accidentally taken. His brief sleep had been filled with thoughts of the man not 5 feet away from him. He shook his head, getting rid of any remaining bits of dream and looked up.

There was no one at the door.

He was going to mark it as the wind when something rubbed against his leg. He looked down and smiled.

"Hey Vechs, how ya doing?" he said, leaning down to scratch the cat's ears. The red tabby only purred in response.

"You seem happier than normal. Did you get to Pause again?" Somehow, starting from the day he ambled onto the ship, Vechs had made it his mission to either scratch Pause or scare the living crap out of him. He usually succeeded, which led to Pause going on long rants of how "that cat" was evil. No one argued against him.

The cat looked at Zisteau with his green eyes as he meandered into the middle of the room, right where the examining table was. He got on his hind legs and-

Zisteau started to get out of the hammock, "No Vechs, don't!"

But before he could reach him, Vechs leaped onto the table and landed right on Kurt's family jewels.

He would've let out a long string of curses, but he heard a soft, "oof!" and was promptly frozen in place. The next few moments seemed to go in slow motion. First, a blink. Then, the man on the table lifted his head just enough to see the cat that had by now made his way up to his chest. When the man on the table finally spoke, it was barely a whisper, "You. Are not Wolfie."

Actually, his name is Vechs. The man's head turned toward Zisteau as he quickly got on to his elbows, finally noticing the other man. Their eyes met and Z was taken aback at how brown they were, the deepest brown he had ever seen. Had they been outside, Zisteau wouldn't have been surprised if they sparkled in the sunlight, but they looked pretty spectacular with just the couple of gas lamps.

"Shit, I said that out loud, didn't I," Zisteau said, realizing he had voiced his comment about the cat, which was still on Kurt's chest. The man on the table only nodded hesitantly.

Fuck my mouth. Zisteau found himself rubbing the back of his neck, feeling more like the examined one than the man on the table.

"Well then," Zisteau started, barely making eye contact with the man on the table "Welcome aboard The Mindcrack. We-I found ya floating on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean and brought ya in. Captain Guude isn't very pleased with ya being here and wants ya in the brig as soon as possible." And then, because he couldn't not hide the medical part of him, he added, "Ya seem to have taken no major damage from being out in the goddamn ocean. Only a few minor cuts that got irritated from the salt water."

There was silence for a moment. Zisteau could practically hear the other man thinking, his thoughts moving from one to another at the speed of 20 knots.

Finally the man cleared his throat and quietly said, "Then I guess there's only one thing I can say."

Zisteau looked at him straight in the eye, ignoring the part of his brain that was admiring the man's smooth voice and why the hell hadn't I noticed that when he first spoke?

And with a little gleam in his eyes, the man on the table simply said, "Parley."

~~~~~
Eventually, I'll post links to past chapters, but for now, the story so far can be found HERE

Comments

[kappa77]

Exactly, he's the ship's cat, which, by pirate lore, means the crew can't throw him out or bad luck will befall the ship.

Man, I love how superstitious pirates were.

[scaredykitty]

Gotta love him making Pause's life hell too, tehe. Just wanna pick him up and say whooooos a cute evil cat? You is! (...I might like cats and vechs too much, together, melty brain)