If Uban wasn't mistaken, Hana seemed slightly reserved as they stalked through the forest and chatted. Maybe reserved wasn't the right word. Embarrassed? Cold? Distracted? He couldn't put a finger on it exactly, but he was sure there was something there. Despite this, he did not press. After all, she was still new to them and he knew that not everyone was so open as he was about their life. So he let it go and didn't let it trouble him anymore."

"Soldier's wine, meant to be diluted? Oh, pity..." he said with mock disappointment. "Alas, whatever will this pirate do?" He flashed a grin and dumped his gatherings by the fire for her to use as she saw fit. Uban could fry bacon and was a master at butchering an animal, but he was a sore cook. A cool breeze wafted through and as Uban shivered slightly, he put his shirt back over his head. "I'm a truly miserable cook, but I can chop things," he said, pulling a knife from his belt and using it to slice the vegetables into a large pot. As he worked, he hummed to himself, but then he began to sing softly:

[I]"Buried under my feet is a man I did meet
tally roo ta dai roo aah ayy!
He sullied my name so I put him to sleep
tally too ta dai roo aah ayy!

Buried under Oak Hill is a feller I killed
tally roo ta dai roo aah ayy!
I opened his throat for he looked at me ill
tally roo ta dai roo aah ayy![/i]

Uban looked up at her with a shit-eating grin like he'd just told some great joke. "I wrote that in prison. The other inmates thought it was great fun, and a few of them would add their own verses, though I can't recall any of those."

Berlin and Pieter shuffled over then, the Captain with a drawn, sullen look on his face as he smoked his pipe. Berlin sat down, eying Uban. "You telling her the story of how you lost your finger?"
"No!" Uban said with a small laugh. "And so what if I was, anyway?"
"He's got a different tale for each person who asks," Berlin explained, his tone dry and distant, though there was a hint of humor there. 
"I'll admit to nothing," the younger man said, though he was trying (and failing) to stifle a smile. 

Uban studied Pieter and Berlin quietly for a moment before asking softly, "So...what's the matter?"
Berlin did not ask what made him guess something was amiss, he simply said, "Mm, you two missed it, that's right. Good news is I narrowly avoided a brawl between Rheoaan and Wheel. The bad news is I severely wounded Rheoaan's trust in me."
Uban, knowing, cringed a little. "How bad?"
"I won't know for sure till he comes back, but if you'd like to ask him, he's at the bottom of the damn ocean. And Wheel...you seen him? He's got thick skin in more ways than one, but he was no doubt irritated." Berlin sighed, then in a very informal tone he muttered, "Someone tell me we've got alcohol somewhere."


--

Rohaan watched the glimmering scales sparkle green in the sunlight (or was it blue..? Purple?) and once again felt himself drawn in. Not that he was thinking of it at the moment, but he could understand after this experience how even the most wary of sailors could be lured to their deaths by mermaids. He didn't blame them, either. But then she spoke and it snapped him out of his reverie, and he looked up just as she flowed away into the wide blue, her radiant hair streaking behind her like a furling banner. 

And then she was gone.

Rohaan floated there for a few moments, watching where she'd gone before he even bothered to look at his quiet surroundings. They felt even quieter now without her there. Suddenly, he felt the ocean's chill as if for the first time and thought it might be nice to sit by a fire. He was blissfully drowsy, after all. So he skillfully surfaced, and after wiping his curls from off his face, he swam ashore. By the time he came close enough to see the expressions of his crewmates seated around the fire, he noticed Berlin's looked particularly tight and anxious. Rohaan didn't know it, but Berlin had expected him back at least two hours ago and had grown more worried and fretful as each additional hour passed. Rohaan looked up at the sky to find stars. Somehow that seemed darker than he thought it ought to have been, but it didn't trouble him.

The boy stepped into the firelight and found a place to sit beside Pieter. "I'm hungry. Is there food?" Was all he said to announce himself. Quite neutrally, Uban handed him some. Berlin (who released a great deal of his tension as soon as he saw him) was watching him, studying him, trying to gauge how best to proceed. He knew they had to air the issue, but he didn't want to force it either if the time wasn't right. Berlin thought that even as long as it had been, he was remarkably relaxed. He expected him to be sour and cold, but not quite so calm and cool as this. Briefly, he glanced to Pieter as if to say '[I]what did you do?[/I]'.

"Rheoaan..." Berlin began slowly, softly, like one would speak to a startled wild animal. "Will you come walk with me?"
Rohaan considered for a long while, then eventually took a final bite of food and stood, nodding. "Te."
Berlin was quietly relieved at his willingness to re-engage, but he made no sign of it. He led the boy along the beach, their toes occasionally slapping onto muddy, wet sand or were licked by the far reaches of broken waves. Where was he going to start...? How? He took a deep breath and tried, "You were gone an awful long time. You had me worried. Can I ask where you went?"
Rohaan blinked. "I was not. I was gone for only a little bit. Like maybe twenty minutes."
Berlin stared at him, concern written openly on his face. "No, Rheoaan. It's been hours. Don't you see the sky? It was afternoon when you left."
"Was it..?" He hadn't considered it, really. It hadn't mattered. He shrugged it off. "I didn't go nowhere. Just the reef." 

Berlin had guessed when Pieter had gone off that he'd done something, and asking a favor of a mermaid was somewhere on that list of possibilities, but Berlin hadn't really thought that was the case. "Stars above.." he muttered. But he was strangely fortunate, and he didn't doubt that Pieter knew what he was doing when he asked a creature with powerful allure and a distracting nature to go find him. Rohaan was calm. He was not the skittish, feral creature Berlin expected him to be, and this would make things much easier.  "You know I'm sorry, right?" When Rohaan looked up at him with a sort of dubious expression, Berlin continued, "I am. Truly. I never meant to do that. You know me. You know I wouldn't."
With an injured tone, Rohaan asked, "Then why did you?"

Whatever reply Berlin thought he had at the ready came out in a deflated sigh. The question was direct and both sought understanding and was accusatory at the same time. He deserved that, he supposed. "I...I guess I was scared. And so I did it without realizing what I was doing until after I'd done it."
"You were scared?"
Berlin almost gave a laugh, but he held it in. "Yes! Old men like me are scared sometimes too. Everyone has something. I fear seeing the two of you tear each other apart, or the rest of us in your attempt. I panicked, and I'm truly sorry. Will you forgive me?" 

Rohaan considered it for a long, long moment. Long enough to make Berlin sweat. But finally the boy sighed and said, "Yeah, I guess so. I'm still kinda mad at you though. Just a little."
The man nodded, hiding a small smile. "I deserve that."

The two walked and talked for a long while, and Rohaan told him of the mermaid he met beneath the waves with a kind of reverent awe. They talked of the day's training, and of the mission ahead of them. And finally, Berlin coaxed him to tell the full story of his brush with the Barizians two years ago. It was a heartbreaking tale; if it weren't for Berlin's naturally cool and impassive demeanor, he might have been much more visibly distraught. But he saved that for himself for later where he could process the gravity of it. It explained some things, and not for the first time Berlin was glad that he'd been the one to find him. Berlin knew that those hurts could callous over into bitterness, and bitterness into hate. Rohaan would always hate the Barizians and that was just fine by Berlin. But if that had been his first real encounter with humans, and if he'd been left to his own devices (assuming he survived) the combination of power and hate would form a true monster, one that would give truth to all the tales told about vokurians and their horror. 

[I]Not this one,[/I] he thought. 

The moon was very high when they returned, and though the tension between them seemed to have faded, Rohaan still wanted his space for the night. Berlin understood this without question and simply sat down beside Pieter with one arched eyebrow and whispered, "Mermaids..?" His tone was mockingly reproachful, but his eyes, his true and honest eyes showed thankfulness. That had been far easier than he expected.

Rohaan sat beside Uban and with the man as a buffer between them, he occasionally snuck glances over him at Hana. He did not feel in the mood to engage tonight, but there was a lot to be learned from watching.