And The Sky Is Limitless Part Four
Apr. 14th, 2011 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laliandraI'm so sorry about the wait, everyone! I was in the US of A for two weeks and had an awesome time hanging out with my best beloved beta and talking plot points in a park in Brooklyn. Also thank you to my lovely "Does this plot point make sense without my explaining it to you" test readers :)
For summary, rating, notes etc please see the
Master Post
Part One Part Two Part Three
&&&&&
"And when Adam goes to pick me up, the metal of his Upgrade is so cold it's like a shock and I'm just wearing a blouse so I shriek, obviously, and the two of them start freaking out and Adam can't work out whether to put me down or keep still..." Katy somehow snatches in a breath among the laughter. "Oh god. And I'm trying to explain that I'm fine, it was just cold, but neither of them can hear because they're too busy talking over each other in a panic." She leans back in her chair, overcome.
"Well, I'm glad you find our distress so amusing," Kris says, but that just makes everyone laugh more, Matt snorting into his sleeve.
They're three days out of the Chantier and things are starting to feel normal again. Kris's body has stopped wrenching him out of sleep and into full alert every morning, and he's started to give himself five minutes to reassemble his thoughts in the calm of his bed, watching shadows play across the ceiling, listening to the small noises Adam makes in his sleep.
The crew finally have time to do everything they've been meaning to do, now that the ship doesn't have to be doted upon every hour of the day and night. Which is why he's been stuck in this meeting about water usage for nearly an hour now.
“We could stop and pump in some fresh, if we pass over a suitable body of water,” Katy suggests. “Do you have the groundwater chart?”
“I think Anoop does,” Kris says, spotting an out. “I’ll go get it.”
He's in Anoop’s room sorting through the mess of charts when he hears the sound of footsteps. The pattern of steps is so odd and slow that he goes to the door to see what’s going on.
It’s Adam, walking with both hands pressed to the wall of the corridor and his face turned towards it. Kris can see the muscles on his neck straining as he focuses. His steps are slow, one foot placed softly in front of the other. Adam moves his head a little and what Kris had thought was a smudge at the corner of his eye resolves into eyelashes, dark against Adam’s cheek. Kris almost laughs when he works out what’s going on.
Adam takes another step, intent on the whir of the ship as he slides a careful hand along the wall. Kris doesn’t know why he does it but he steps forwards, out of the safety of the doorway, and Adam’s eyes snap open, blue inked black by shock.
“Um, I was just…” he says, and stutters out a laugh.
“I know,” Kris says. “Trying to find the engine room by feel.” The fact that Adam even remembers that conversation is sort of unbelievable. “Making good progress?” he asks.
Adam nods, his longer-than-regulation hair falling into his eyes, and Kris has to jam his hands into his pockets to stop himself brushing it back.
“I’ve got really far,” Adam says. “I’m not giving up now.” He gives Kris a satisfied smile.
"It's harder than it sounds. I've been known to open my eyes now and then," Kris admits.
Adam shuts his eyes again, perfectly serious, and the fact that he’s really carrying Kris’s silly ritual through is strangely touching.
But now Adam’s face is exposed, and it’s almost too much to be so close, close enough to see the shadows caught in the dip of his collarbone and the laughter lines that run from the corners of his eyes.
There’s no way anyone could think that Adam wasn’t attractive. Kris can’t possibly be blamed.
“Think I can make it by lunch?” Adam asks, and Kris says, “Um,” because somehow, he can’t think of a single sensible thing to say.
"I won't be late," Adam promises. They're celebrating Katy's being able to move around under her own steam by having a picnic up on deck. "Katy threatened me with... Er. Anyway. See you there!" He hasn't opened his eyes again this whole time, trusting and unselfconscious.
Kris's mind offers, "Absolutely, it should be a fine meal." He's fairly proud of himself.
Kris lets himself watch Adam leave, the fluid line of his arm and shoulder that Kris could run his finger up to rest on that exposed patch of skin between collar and hair. It’s not Adam’s fault that he makes Kris think things and feel things that he hasn’t for, well, a while. It’s like... It’s like in those novels that Katy was addicted to when they were teenagers, the mysteries set in huge old houses with portraits with eye holes and secret passages. Adam doesn’t mean to open all of these doors in Kris’s head, he just leans on a candlestick or pulls out the right book or whatever and exposes them to the world.
Kris very firmly finds something else to think about. It's not like he's short of problems without solutions, these days.
&&&&&
Kris is contemplating his cards in mild despair when one of the bells on Katy's wall starts to ring. She frowns at him over the top of her cards. "If I find out that you've got Lil to sound that to get you out of playing whist with me, I’ll make you live to regret it," she threatens.
"Katherine! How could you suggest such a thing?" So he was down to his last token. Didn't mean he wanted to leave.
"So it's something to concern us," Katy says. Her face is still pale and pain-lined, and worry shows up all too clearly. "Off you go then," she adds, shooing him away with her cards.
"You didn't have a good hand after all," Kris says accusingly, and dashes off.
Lil and Anoop are waiting on the lookout. They appear a little uneasy but not panicked.
He mentally crosses his fingers.
"Ship in sight, just out of range," Lil says.
"Mercenaries?" Kris asks, stomach twisting. He's got a stitched up crew and a patched up ship; this is the very last thing they want.
Lil frowns. "No. Fleet. Well, we think - we don't..."
Anoop says, "It looks a lot like the Independent. Only she's staying out of range and going to broadside as often as possible. Which seems a bit strange."
"Huh. That is odd," Kris says. He looks into the proffered telescope. “And it does seem to be the Independent.” The Conway used to be docked next to the Independent in port so he knows her lines well.
“Signal Matt to reduce to minimum speed. Let’s see what they do then.”
“Er. There is always the chance that the Independent has been boarded and taken over,” Lil says. She winces, as if she might make the possibility real by voicing it. Kris sympathises. You get superstitious, flying.
“Good point. I’m putting the ship on tactical alert. Lil, sound it, please.”
Kris hears the clanging of the portholes being shuttered. He takes another look at the Independent. It doesn’t look battle damaged, but it’s too far away to be sure. It’s like Kris’s first drill sergeant used to say - there’s no such thing as being over prepared.
“They’ve slowed their speed to match ours, Captain,” Lil reports.
There is a clatter of feet on the stairs and when Kris turns, Adam is standing at the top of them, pink-cheeked and dishevelled.
“Bells?” he asks.
He’s not wearing any shoes. No jacket or waistcoat or even a necktie, and his feet are bare on the deck.
“Why are the bells of impending doom going off again?” Adam repeats, frowning.
“It’s the tactical alert signal. There’s a ship on the horizon that we think is an ally, but it’s acting oddly.”
“A Fleet ship? How is it being odd, is it...” Adam trails off, probably noticing the looks he’s getting from all three of them. “What?”
“You’re not wearing any shoes,” Kris says slowly and yes, it does sound just as strange said out loud.
Adam glances down at himself and shrugs, as if it’s normal for him to be anything less than perfectly turned out when in public.
“Oh, I was in the shower and then all these bells starting ringing so I thought I’d better jump to it. Time and sky pirates wait for no man, and all that.”
It’s an explanation, certainly. Kris wishes he could say that it’s put his mind at ease.
Adam comes forward to take a look through Lil’s eyepiece, hair dripping water down the back of his neck.
“Our concern is that she might have been captured. It would explain the distance they’re keeping,” Anoop says, and chews at his lip. “I mean, why else would they do that. We know her.”
“When you say ally,” Adam asks Kris quietly.
“Definitely on the list,” Kris confirms.
“They’ve launched something, coming this way,” Lil says. She adjusts the array and the lenses move, slotting into new positions. Kris sneaks a look at Adam, watches him watching the mechanisms.
Lil says, “Looks like a messenger,” and waves Anoop forward. He peers into another glass. Navigators have good eyes by necessity, so he’ll be a good second opinion.
“Do you agree?” Kris asks him. Lil turns her head back to give him an affronted look.
“You know I have to check. We can’t risk anything right now.”
Lil puts her eye back to the telescope for a few moments, and then cocks her head at Anoop, who nods.
“We’re sure. Messenger, standard class.”
Adam says, “Um.” He fidgets for a few moments and then blurts out, “An actual automated ship to ship messenger carrier. That’s what you mean? I thought... Really?”
“Aw, sweetheart,” Lil says.
Adam ducks his head a little. “I’ve never seen one.”
Kris goes to defend Adam without even thinking. “They are amazing, Lil. I should have shown Adam ours, even though it’s tiny.” He turns to Adam. “The ones they carry on a Standard class like the Independent, they can go really far.”
Anoop offers Adam a small telescope and a large grin. “Knock yourself out,” he says, getting up. “I’d better go let everyone know what’s going on.”
They wait it out on the lookout. Lil leans back in her chair, face turned into the spring sunshine. Adam’s hair curls at the ends as it dries, and they all watch the tiny shape traverse the distance from the Independent.
Once Kris can make out the wings on the messenger, he says, “Come on, Adam,” and takes him down to the carrier bay.
He opens the shutters. “Don’t stand directly in front of the magnets,” he tells Adam, who seems to be trying to investigate everything at once.
Adam stares around. “I can’t believe you haven’t shown me this before,” he says, with a heartbroken air.
Kris laughs. “I didn’t want to peak too soon.”
Adam laughs too, low in his throat. The carrier room is a cupboard of a place at the best of times and it feels tiny now, with Adam filling it up with warm looks and appreciative noises.
The magnets click over. Kris tugs Adam out of the way as the messenger sails in and settles onto the array like a bird returning to its roost.
Kris picks out the content cylinder, moving aside to let Adam at the messenger.
The note is short and to the point, a request for identification, written in code. It’s signed “They say captured. Surely not? K.C.” Kris grins.
“Why aren’t I stuck fast to these magnets?” Adam asks, peering in a fairly unsubtle way at the paper in Kris’s hand.
Kris watches Adam’s frown deepen, but he just says, “Oh they’re not that strong. They’re specially calibrated to attract the messengers.”
“Hmm,” Adam comments, clearly distracted by the note, and Kris relents.
“You can’t read it because it’s in code,” he explains, passing Adam the paper. “Fleet officer code, to be precise, which I’m not supposed to tell you about on pain of... Anyway. It’s a request for a reply which identifies me. Proof that we’ve not been captured, which is what they think for some reason.”
Adam is staring at the message, head cocked. “You can do that? And, wait, just decode this in your head?”
“Sure.” Kris takes the paper back. And then, because the world so rarely lets you have the perfect comeback, he adds, “I am more than just a pretty face, you know.”
Adam says, “We have something similar, actually,” but his mouth is all curled up with amusement.
Kris scribbles back his reply as fast as he can, looking up occasionally to instruct Adam on how to reset all the magnets.
“You’re pretty good at following directions, for a Prince,” Kris says, watching Adam’s hands move to exactly where Kris had meant.
Adam seamlessly pushes the last lever back into place. “Only when I like my C.O,” he says.
“More like only when you like the directions,” Kris responds, trying for dry. It’s unsurprisingly hard when you’re smiling this much.
Kris finishes up his reply and tucks it into cylinder. The messenger sets back on its return journey, skimming the edge of the window and out into the blue.
He gestures at the note in his hand. “I should take this up to Katy.”
Adam still has one hand possessively over the lever. “Should I - ”
“No,” Kris interrupts. “You’ve no duty here. Stay, it’s fine. You can probably fix anything you break by this point.”
Katy and Michael are still sitting where he left them, cards on the table, but they’re not even pretending to play. “Anoop said... Do we have anything yet?” Katy asks, sharp.
“The message from the Independent.” Kris says, quickly, going over to hand it to her. “No, don’t stand up, Michael.”
Everyone is supposed to be on reduced duty, more rest. Michael – concussion, broken ribs – shouldn’t even be upright. But he and Katy are united in some sort of stubborn solidarity where everyone tries to act like nothing is out of the ordinary and no one asks how the other is feeling. Sometimes Matt joins them to all be crazedly determined together, and Kris can’t order them to just stop like he wants to. There’s just too much to do.
Katy reads the note and smiles at the end.
Kris says, “I told her ‘No, because you and K would kill me if I got us captured’”
She gives him a dark look. “Oh, death would be infinitely preferable to what we’d do.”
Kris supposes that’s kind of comforting, in its own way. “It should take about 20 minutes to get there, so we should know more soon.”
“I don’t think we should take the ship off alert though,” Katy says, and Kris nods along with Michael.
“Better safe than sorry is rather an upsetting life motto, but there we are,” Kris says. Katy pats him on the arm. “I was an interesting man with interesting mottoes once, I swear.”
“It’s a very Captainly motto, Sir. Much preferable to having something crazy,” Michael says comfortingly.
“Like, let’s see what this lever does?” Katy suggests. “Or, death or Glory!”
“Death or death!” Michael calls.
Kris laughs. “That would be much more upsetting, it’s true.”
&&&&&
The Independent draws alongside, all sleek lines and burnished copper shining in the sun. The crew yell greetings and instructions to the Conway, and pretty soon they have the two ships steady enough for a gangway to be rigged between them.
“Permission to come aboard,” Jen, the lieutenant, calls across. She’s standing on the railing, holding a line, and it’s all kinds of great to see her, smiling and dependable.
“Be our guest,” Kris shouts back.
Adam stands beside him, running his eyes over the Independent hungrily.
“Don’t you go cheating on our girl, now,” Kris warns him.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Adam says, looking indignant. “She is fine, though - the Independent – isn’t she?”
“A real old school beauty,” Kris agrees. “She’s much more robust than the Conway, a power hitter.”
“Nothing wrong with being understated,” Adam says, stroking the railing absentmindedly. Kris is almost shocked when the Conway doesn’t purr.
The crew of the Independent attach lines to secure the two ships, and then the Captain appears at the gate to the gangway. She strolls across, easier than someone separated from a very long fall by a very thin rope bridge has any right to be.
“Who on earth have you pissed off this time, Captain Allen?” Kelly says, by way of greeting.
“What makes you think I’ve pissed anyone off?” Kris returns, trying an innocent face on her. “This is Prince Adam, by the way. So watch your language.”
“Captain Clarkson, I presume,” Adam says, and inclines his head, ever the gentleman.
“Sire,” Kelly says, returning the gesture. “So. Maybe I should ask who you’ve pissed off, then.”
Adam snorts with laughter. “How long have you got,” he says.
“We have a list,” Kris tells Kelly. She doesn’t look surprised.
“Okay, who have you pissed off enough that they would send out a message that you’d been overrun by mercenaries and to shoot the Conway on sight?"
“They what?” Kris hadn’t thought that they were out of the woods, not by far, but this. This is miserable news.
Adam asks, “Why didn’t you shoot us on sight, then? What is it with you people and direct orders? This is all most disturbing for your possible future Commander.”
Kelly gives Kris a knowing look. “Yes, well. I can’t be held responsible for Captain Allen’s special interpretation of any given set of rules. But I do know better than to think that he’d let anyone fly off with his ship.” She throws Adam a smile. “He has this weird relationship with the Conway, don’t know if you’d noticed.”
“I might have,” Adam says with a conspiratorial grin.
“You give with one hand and take away with the other, Kel. But thanks, for the vote of confidence,” Kris says. “We were damn lucky it was you.”
“Not exactly.” Kelly smiles. “They gave out your last known co-ordinates, so I thought I should come take a look.” She slips an arm into Kris’s. “Now, take me somewhere, feed me coffee and show me that list.”
They go to the cabin and conversation is about 15 minutes in when Kris realises that Adam has gone from smiling to just sitting on his bunk looking mildly dazed.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“You’ve both been going further South with every word since Captain Clarkson got here. It’s slightly terrifying,” Adam says.
“Oh come on. Surely you mean gorgeously attractive,” Kelly says, grinning.
Adam goes very still.
Kelly raises her eyebrows at him. “Oh really.”
“It’s a weakness of mine, what can I say?” Adam says, looking slightly star-struck at Kelly’s smile. Kris remembers the feeling.
“Don’t worry, there’s not a man alive who can resist these vowel sounds,” Kelly reassures him, and Kris can hear it now, the cadence they’ve dropped back into, the way the words spin out.
Adam says, “So, the Captain - that is to say, the other Captain – is all up to date now? Because I lost you somewhere around the 10 minute mark. Sorry, but you shouldn’t be so distracting. It’s like chamber music.” He gives them both a particularly winning smile, one that Kris can imagine him bestowing on a favourite. How many boys heard something like that before Adam whisked them off to dance in front of the orchestra of however many it had been?
“And now you’ve wandered off. What is it with you two and having your head in the clouds?” Kelly says, prodding Kris in the arm.
Kris catches Adam’s eye and he can almost see the jokes forming. “Kel? We’re on an airship,” Kris points out, waving his hand towards the window.
“We don’t really have a choice in the matter,” Adam says, mouth in a serious line.
Kelly makes an exasperated noise that is usually accompanied by a roll of her eyes at Katy. “Yes, thank you. I am quite caught up. The number of people you’ve collectively managed to make want to kill you is becoming less surprising.”
She picks up their lists again. She’d looked half pleased, half amused to find herself up near the top of the list of allies, mouth twitching at the corner as she’d said, “Honestly, Kristopher.”
“She’s amazing,” Adam mouths at Kris while Kelly’s not looking, and Kris nods. She’s always been everything he admires in a captain. Plus she reminds him of home.
Kelly makes a hmming noise at the list of enemies. “If Commander Warwick really isn’t to be trusted, then that would explain the message about you being captured. It came privately from his command post, as opposed to the usual channels. We’d only been out of port a short while when we received it.”
“The plot thickens...” Adam says, sounding wearier than Kris suspects that he means to. “While you were there, did you hear anything about Allie?"
Kelly scrunches her face, confused.
“The Princess Select,” Kris clarifies.
“Oh! She’s ‘recuperating in Lord Gokey’s family estate’, apparently” Kelly says. She doesn’t sound at all convinced.
“That makes sense, keeping her out of Court but only an hour or so away, somewhere completely loyal to him,” Adam says. “But, she’s alright?”
Kelly nods. “From what I know. She’s not been seen outside the mansion; I’m thinking house arrest? The Bravo took up additional guards a couple of days ago, and a few of the crew mentioned her being there. Cross but well seemed the general opinion”
Kris gives silent thanks because cross he can live with. In fact, cross is great. It means Allie is still there, still fighting.
Adam lets out a breath. “The Gokey estate is practically on our way to the Court...” he says, thoughtfully, and Kris watches Kelly’s eyes widen.
“I can’t hear this,” she says, fast. “I support you all a hundred percent, but no one knows I’ve met you, and I plan to keep it that way. These are dangerous times, and I’m not risking my ship.”
“I know, Kel, don’t worry about it,” Kris tells her, because no one should ever feel guilty about putting their people first. The thing is, Adam and Allie are his people too, and he’s terrified Adam is going to make him choose.
“Well, then, I’m going to go yell at Katy for getting shot. People I am fond of are not to get themselves shot,” Kelly says, with the firmness of someone whose word has long been established law.
Kris holds out his hands. “That’s what I said, but what can you do?”
“Frankly, the Conway seems to breed a particular kind of madness. You should watch yourself, Sire, it’s catching.” And with that, Kelly sweeps out.
Adam gives Kris a reproachful look, as if he’d never done a foolhardy thing in his life before he stepped on board the ship.
“Don’t even try,” Kris says to him, with a grin. “I know you better than that.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Adam agrees, but his expression drifts out of teasing as he speaks, too caught up in whatever he’s thinking.
“So, about this ‘on the way to the Court’ business?” Kris doesn’t really want to bring it up, because he can only see a few ways that this could go and none of them are safe. He goes to sit with Adam on his bunk, leaning his back against the ropes at the other end of the bed from Adam.
“We should go get Allie. Once I’m back at Court, things are going to get nasty, and fast. I’d much rather that I knew she was safe; else Daniel will be able to use her as a pawn. Or, Le Renard will,” Adam amends, giving Kris a grudging nod.
It would be the perfect hold to have over Adam. It was only Kris mentioning her name that got Adam on the Conway in the first place, took him away from his battle, what seems like a decade ago.
Moreover, Allie is in danger now and it’s only increasing every day. If they left her, and then something happened...
“Exactly,” Adam says, watching Kris’s expression. “Not an option.”
“How well defended is this place? Because we’re already taking enough risks just flying. Most people aren’t Kelly. They’ll shoot first and ask questions later.”
Adam flinches at that. “There used to be one cannonade guard tower at the entrance to the landing bay at the Gokey house. But apart from that, nothing too scary. We could take out something like that without even going into their range, right?”
“We could, but... It’s one thing firing on a mercenary ship, even one hired by the Court, and another firing on an official guard post manned by soldiers of the realm. Kel told us that they shipped men in; they’re just ordinary soldiers, doing their jobs.” Kris knows what the Conway can do to a small guard post, the way the cannon rips through the wood until there’s nothing but flames and splinters and scattered limbs.
Kris notices that both he and Adam have moved from their positions at either end of the bunk, closing in on each other, and shuffles himself back. He spends half his time putting space, objects, anything, between him and Adam, and the other half leaning in, unthinking as metal to a magnet.
“Rock, hard place,” Kris mutters. There are no safe options anywhere, these days.
“I know, I know, and the thought of putting you all in more danger is unsupportable. But I can’t just leave Allie there, Kris, I can’t.”
“You know as well as I do that you can just order me to take you there,” Kris says. This would completely count as ‘In defence of the Kingdom and the royal family’ and so Adam’s authority is final.
Adam stops fiddling with the links at the wrist of his Upgrade and pins Kris with an intent look.
“I wouldn’t,” he says. “I won’t. I can only ask. It’s your ship.”
Kris remembers Adam’s face when he talked about duty, other people’s lives in his hands. He knows what he’s asking of Kris. Nodding, Kris says, “If we were to do this, how would we make it - well, not safe, but - something less than suicidal and treasonous.”
“Is that?” Adam starts, and then clears his throat. “Is that a yes?”
Kris says, “Convince me.”
&&&&&
It turns out that planning with Adam involves a lot more props than Kris is used to. He fails to find this surprising.
&&&&&
The first step in the plan is for Kris to stand on the steps to the Bridge and explain to his assembled crew that the action they are about to take part in may not be entirely legal.
It goes better than he thought it would.
"Did you see this coming?" Kris asks, when the worst reaction seems to be exaggerated sighing and a few sarcastic comments.
"We serve on the Conway. This day was always going to come," Matt says. "We either joined because of that fact, or we made our peace with it long ago."
Scott says, "There are only so many times you can do what's right and not what you're told before it comes back to bite you, right?"
No one looks like they are going to argue, and his crew are not exactly backwards in coming forward. Which means that they have faith in Kris, probably more than he does himself. He takes a brief moment to be unsettled by that.
“To your stations, then,” he orders.
&&&&&
Kris puts out an arm to stop Adam pacing in and out of the Bridge. “It’s going to work,” he says. It comes out a lot more certain than he was expecting.
Adam raises an eyebrow. “I saw you going for your watch. It’s only been 30 seconds since the last time you looked, you know.” He stares at the tower as if he can make them reply through sheer force of will. It almost looks like he could, the bright sunlight making everything flat and unreal, a little toy tower guarding a dollhouse. But there are lives at stake here -a very real tower of soldiers - and thinking of people as playthings might be seductively easy but it’s so, so dangerous.
Kris takes his hand away from his pocket. “Just. Stay out here. Then you can see what’s going on, alright? You’ll wear a groove in the floor at this rate.”
Adam bounces slightly on his heels, all nervous energy. “Why haven’t they sent the messenger back to us yet?” he says. “I hate waiting.”
“We would never have guessed,” Anoop calls, long suffering. The guard tower has only used up five of the ten minutes they were given in the message, but it feels a lot longer. “And before you ask, no, I haven’t heard from the lookout.”
The signal box pings and Anoop gives it an annoyed glance. “You just had to show me up,” he mutters then looks up. “Lil has sent the retreat signal. The guards have left the tower.”
Adam releases a long breath. Kris supposes that his experience in the Chantier had dented the certainty he had in his command, in the idea that he would be able to sign with his Commander’s seal and know that any soldier would obey without question. Kris thinks that they would have, though.
“Prepare to take out the tower armaments,” Kris calls down to Matt. He’s never going to feel completely comfortable with making his crew fire on a military outpost, but this way there’s no chance of the Conway being fired on as they approach the landing.
“I could make the call,” Adam offers, but he’s gone pale at the thought of it. If there are men left, they’re going to die. They could be Adam’s men, his subjects and his soldiers, and he’s risking that so that the Conway is protected. It wouldn’t be right.
Kris gives the order and he hopes that it will be to take out an empty tower, that all the guards really have followed Adam’s orders in the message and evacuated. That would be the best possible outcome to Adam’s plan; the one that keeps them vaguely within sight of the law, and at least touching distance of their consciences.
The tower is at the edge of their range, just a silhouette against the green of the hills to Kris’s eye. But their aim is true from the first shot, smoke billowing up into the sky. Kris sees a chunk of something fall to the ground.
“I don’t see any bodies,” Adam says, conversationally. Kris looks at him, face schooled blank, and then at the licks of flame in the distance and his stomach turns.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Kris says.
They disembark at the end of a long gravel drive, more suited for sweeping up in carriages. Kris has been to the occasional party where they’ve done that, picked the guests up from their ships in small buggies, as if the five minute walk to the house is too much to expect.
Matt whistles as they approach the house and the outline gains details – wide glass windows and carved stonework. “Nice,” he says.
Adam frowns at him. “You think so? I always found it rather…” he shrugs. “Provincial?”
Matt says, “You’re a strange and particular man, Commander,” and rolls his eyes. Kris has never seen Matt look anything other than laid back in stressful situations, even when they’re under fire. Walking into unknown enemy territory is not going to stop him being a smart aleck.
The house has a large main gate, heavily barred with a series of gear-ratcheted rails. There is one guard who has clearly been watching their progress, one hand on the butt of a large gun resting at his side.
Adam says, “We are here for the Princess Alison. You are holding her prisoner in this house and that is unlawful and unjust.”
The guard gives them a look that suggests he is somewhat unmoved by this. It’s likely that he’s Gokey’s man, more loyal than the guards brought in to man the watchtower.
"Or, I could signal to our ship to start with the cannonade of the house. You can see what became of your watchtower.” Adam gestures back towards the plume of smoke, unyieldingly calm. “It’s amazing how accurate they can be with the cannons. Your door wouldn’t last too long and then we’d have no reason to keep you alive.”
Kris swallows but says nothing. It's a bluff, but on a strong hand, and one that he would play on a day like today. He can't afford to lose Allie, in every way possible.
The man looks past them to where the Conway is waiting on the horizon, Kris's home made into a weapon primed to fire, and panic flashes across his face.
"Take her then, for the good it'll do you," he growls. "You'll get caught within the day."
The guard enters a combination, then twists a lever by the door and in moments it is swinging open to reveal a courtyard garden, rows of pristine hedges and manicured lawns. “I’ll just go get her,” he says.
Adam strides into the garden as if he's at the head of an all-conquering army.
They all follow, weapons drawn as they crunch along gravel paths. Kris draws level with Adam as they reach the centre, the garden still and sun-warmed.
"Don't worry. She'll be fine," he says, half to himself, heart beating hard already.
Adam says, "I'm not worrying," while biting his bottom lip. "That went well? I thought that went well. I tried your calm reasoning trick, it seemed to go over well. Oh dear, I can't seem to stop saying the word well."
Matt says, "Most tricks go over well when backed up by the threat of cannon fire."
Something bangs above them. Kris has his acoustic out and his back to Adam's before the echo stops ringing around the courtyard. Then the door at the end opens and the guard appears with Allie trailing sulkily behind. Adam makes a choking sound and her face changes as she sees them, smile lighting up like a signal flare, and then Allie is a blur of red and black as she runs to them. Adam catches her and holds her tight, wrapping her up in himself.
"Why are you crying?" Allie says into Adam's chest, and he laughs, or at least tries to, the sound coming out jagged.
"I don't know, baby girl. Why are you crying, Kris?"
Allie looks up at that, and the smile that she gives him makes Kris's chest hurt. "Allie started it," he says, wiping his eyes. He goes over and kisses her on the top of the head, because it doesn't look like Adam is going to let go of his sister any time soon.
Adam says, "It's good to see you, is all. Are you... Are you alright?"
Allie straightens up a little. She looks much the same as when Kris last saw her, although the colour of her hair has faded slightly, and her expression is not as it should be - a little too wary. "I'm fine," she says. "They only started locking me into the house after I escaped for the third time."
"Good for you," Matt tells her, moving back towards the door, gun in his hand and pride in his smile.
Adam says, "Well, even if we can't rescue you from your tower like a proper princess, I thought I would come pick you up on my way home anyway."
"He hitched a lift with us," Kris tells Allie, grinning sideways at Adam.
"Captain Allen claimed to have the best ship in the Fleet, how could I say no?" Adam says, glancing quickly at Kris, eyes teasing.
Allie bumps Adam with her shoulder. "Don’t you mean Captain Kristopher?"
Kris usually feigns annoyance at the nickname, but he doesn't even want to try right now.
"Well, just Kris most of the time, but I didn't want you to think I lacked respect for the good Captain," Adam says, very seriously. Kris should be used to the way that Adam says his name by now, all Northern vowels and intimacy, but it still makes his mind stutter.
Allie rolls her eyes at him. "That's right, else I'd think you were taking liberties." She looks around, a little anxiously. This is not a look Kris expects from the Princess Select. "Shouldn't we go? I would rather... I would like to go."
Kris signals to Matt who peers round the door. Adam still isn't moving, arms tight around Allie.
"Adam?" Kris tries. Adam frowns at him. Allie sighs and adjusts his arms so that his upgrade is free and his other arm is over her shoulders. She shares an indulgent look with Kris that says a lot about Adam and as much about love, and they finally start back across the garden.
The guard is waiting at the gate and says, "His lordship will hear about this." His expression is vindictive, worsening when Allie sweeps Adam past him, easily dismissive, as if he'd never had any power over her at all.
Matt is already fumbling out the flags as they hurry along the road to the harbour. "Signal to be ready for immediate cast off?" he asks Kris.
"Please," Kris says. There's no way they can build up enough of a lead to get to the Court before the message gets back to Daniel about what they've done. But then, they were always susceptible to something like this, and looking at Allie and Adam, he finds he's not sorry. Certainly not as much as he thought he'd be.
He finds himself walking a little faster anyway, away from the house that had caged Allie in, and he begrudges it every spark of brightness it took from her.
The crew are all standing by when they get back, and as soon as Allie steps onto they give her a quick synchronised salute, which she returns neatly. She learnt to salute Fleet style last summer, when she would hang around the Port and pretend to be crew, carrying anything she could lay her hands on and calling all the Captains by their titles. Kris has never loved any of them more, the crew and their Princess, who's now helping them to undo the final lines as the engines rev to get them flying again.
Allie coils the rope at her feet and then looks round. Adam is by her side again instantly, putting his arm round her like he has to keep making sure she’s real. “We have some catching up to do,” he says, and leads Allie down below deck.
Kris goes up to the bridge. “Here, let me take that for a while,” he says to Anoop. He doesn’t take the controls all that often these days, but he’d been a fair navigator in his time. It’s.. uncomplicated.
He flies until he can see the wide bay of the capital - the busy port and the towers of the court. When he looks at his watch, it turns out that half an hour has passed in catching currents and pulling levers. He feels calmer in himself, ready to deal with the emotional maelstrom that is Adam and Allie, Adam with Allie. He goes to Katy’s room but she waves him away.
“They went off to your cabin. I think Adam was starting to get tetchy about sharing his sister, although obviously he was too polite to say so.”
When Kris opens the door, Allie gives him a very pointed look. She’s sitting on Adam’s bunk with a blanket around her shoulders, and the expression on her face as she cuts her eyes to her brother reminds Kris of the one she’d wear after someone tried to make her come down from a high place or take a weapon from her hands.
Adam is watching Allie with nervous eyes from his place at Kris’s desk, sitting very straight on his chair. Kris can almost see the worry bleeding out of the tense lines of him.
Kris says, “I hear you’ve been writing tales of me to your brother,” in an attempt to bring Adam back from the brink a little.
“Only good things,” Allie promises with an innocent expression that would work if Kris didn’t know her much better than that.
“Only lies then,” Kris says with a sad shake of his head. “You must have been so disappointed, right?” he prompts Adam.
Adam tries on a grin. “You were certainly shorter than I was expecting."
Allie laughs and says, "It's not Captain Kristopher's fault that you somehow grew into a giant and alarmed Lady Abdul." She looks at Kris. "Lady Abdul was our governess. She's tiny."
"Your governess? That explains a few things," Kris says. He'd only met Lady Abdul once, but she'd made something of an impression. “I mean, I did wonder what kind of socialising influence Adam had as a child.”
Allie makes large, sad eyes at Adam. “It’s not his fault, poor boy.”
Adam gives them both a disappointed look. “I love that you both get on so well, I do, but could you not bond over my short-comings?”
“But it’s fun!” Allie tells him, all bright smile and bright hair.
“I have stories too,” Adam warns. “I’m not the person who stood up in the middle of a grievance session and started to sing about mice. Loudly, I might add. ”
“I was nine years old! Anyway, I’m not the one who, at age five, spent the whole summer dressed in a tiny three piece suit,” Allie responds and Kris doubles up laughing.
Adam gives Kris a betrayed look.
“What?” Kris says. “You’ve heard lots of my stories. God only knows what Matt has been telling you while I’m not around.”
“I’d tell you, but there are young ladies present,” Adam says with a shake of his head.
There’s a knock on the door.
“Come?” Kris says. People don’t usually knock, but then he supposes there are two members of royalty in here. It’s sort of hard to remember that about the two tired-looking people currently making ridiculously undignified faces at each other.
Matt sticks his head around the door. “Could I have a word, Captain? Er, you too, Commander, actually.”
“Would you like to go see Katy?” Adam asks Allie.
“Please,” she says, face brightening. Kris has always suspected that Katy is Allie’s role model.
Once she’s gone Adam says, “Sorry, I don’t like the idea of leaving her on her own.”
Matt is standing by Kris’s desk with a piece of paper in his hand. He’s rubbing the edge of it between his thumb and forefinger, which is one of his worse tells. Matt’s childhood sweetheart had sent him a letter telling him she was getting married to someone else, and he’d worn a hole in the top corner of it.
He holds it out to Kris. “It’s a warrant for our arrest. There’s a battalion waiting for us to dock. We’re being court marshalled for treason.”
Of all the worst case scenarios Kris had come up with, this is above and beyond. As far as he knows the Admiralty have never actually gone as far as calling a ship to court for treason because, “The penalty set for that is death.”
For summary, rating, notes etc please see the
Master Post
Part One Part Two Part Three
&&&&&
"And when Adam goes to pick me up, the metal of his Upgrade is so cold it's like a shock and I'm just wearing a blouse so I shriek, obviously, and the two of them start freaking out and Adam can't work out whether to put me down or keep still..." Katy somehow snatches in a breath among the laughter. "Oh god. And I'm trying to explain that I'm fine, it was just cold, but neither of them can hear because they're too busy talking over each other in a panic." She leans back in her chair, overcome.
"Well, I'm glad you find our distress so amusing," Kris says, but that just makes everyone laugh more, Matt snorting into his sleeve.
They're three days out of the Chantier and things are starting to feel normal again. Kris's body has stopped wrenching him out of sleep and into full alert every morning, and he's started to give himself five minutes to reassemble his thoughts in the calm of his bed, watching shadows play across the ceiling, listening to the small noises Adam makes in his sleep.
The crew finally have time to do everything they've been meaning to do, now that the ship doesn't have to be doted upon every hour of the day and night. Which is why he's been stuck in this meeting about water usage for nearly an hour now.
“We could stop and pump in some fresh, if we pass over a suitable body of water,” Katy suggests. “Do you have the groundwater chart?”
“I think Anoop does,” Kris says, spotting an out. “I’ll go get it.”
He's in Anoop’s room sorting through the mess of charts when he hears the sound of footsteps. The pattern of steps is so odd and slow that he goes to the door to see what’s going on.
It’s Adam, walking with both hands pressed to the wall of the corridor and his face turned towards it. Kris can see the muscles on his neck straining as he focuses. His steps are slow, one foot placed softly in front of the other. Adam moves his head a little and what Kris had thought was a smudge at the corner of his eye resolves into eyelashes, dark against Adam’s cheek. Kris almost laughs when he works out what’s going on.
Adam takes another step, intent on the whir of the ship as he slides a careful hand along the wall. Kris doesn’t know why he does it but he steps forwards, out of the safety of the doorway, and Adam’s eyes snap open, blue inked black by shock.
“Um, I was just…” he says, and stutters out a laugh.
“I know,” Kris says. “Trying to find the engine room by feel.” The fact that Adam even remembers that conversation is sort of unbelievable. “Making good progress?” he asks.
Adam nods, his longer-than-regulation hair falling into his eyes, and Kris has to jam his hands into his pockets to stop himself brushing it back.
“I’ve got really far,” Adam says. “I’m not giving up now.” He gives Kris a satisfied smile.
"It's harder than it sounds. I've been known to open my eyes now and then," Kris admits.
Adam shuts his eyes again, perfectly serious, and the fact that he’s really carrying Kris’s silly ritual through is strangely touching.
But now Adam’s face is exposed, and it’s almost too much to be so close, close enough to see the shadows caught in the dip of his collarbone and the laughter lines that run from the corners of his eyes.
There’s no way anyone could think that Adam wasn’t attractive. Kris can’t possibly be blamed.
“Think I can make it by lunch?” Adam asks, and Kris says, “Um,” because somehow, he can’t think of a single sensible thing to say.
"I won't be late," Adam promises. They're celebrating Katy's being able to move around under her own steam by having a picnic up on deck. "Katy threatened me with... Er. Anyway. See you there!" He hasn't opened his eyes again this whole time, trusting and unselfconscious.
Kris's mind offers, "Absolutely, it should be a fine meal." He's fairly proud of himself.
Kris lets himself watch Adam leave, the fluid line of his arm and shoulder that Kris could run his finger up to rest on that exposed patch of skin between collar and hair. It’s not Adam’s fault that he makes Kris think things and feel things that he hasn’t for, well, a while. It’s like... It’s like in those novels that Katy was addicted to when they were teenagers, the mysteries set in huge old houses with portraits with eye holes and secret passages. Adam doesn’t mean to open all of these doors in Kris’s head, he just leans on a candlestick or pulls out the right book or whatever and exposes them to the world.
Kris very firmly finds something else to think about. It's not like he's short of problems without solutions, these days.
&&&&&
Kris is contemplating his cards in mild despair when one of the bells on Katy's wall starts to ring. She frowns at him over the top of her cards. "If I find out that you've got Lil to sound that to get you out of playing whist with me, I’ll make you live to regret it," she threatens.
"Katherine! How could you suggest such a thing?" So he was down to his last token. Didn't mean he wanted to leave.
"So it's something to concern us," Katy says. Her face is still pale and pain-lined, and worry shows up all too clearly. "Off you go then," she adds, shooing him away with her cards.
"You didn't have a good hand after all," Kris says accusingly, and dashes off.
Lil and Anoop are waiting on the lookout. They appear a little uneasy but not panicked.
He mentally crosses his fingers.
"Ship in sight, just out of range," Lil says.
"Mercenaries?" Kris asks, stomach twisting. He's got a stitched up crew and a patched up ship; this is the very last thing they want.
Lil frowns. "No. Fleet. Well, we think - we don't..."
Anoop says, "It looks a lot like the Independent. Only she's staying out of range and going to broadside as often as possible. Which seems a bit strange."
"Huh. That is odd," Kris says. He looks into the proffered telescope. “And it does seem to be the Independent.” The Conway used to be docked next to the Independent in port so he knows her lines well.
“Signal Matt to reduce to minimum speed. Let’s see what they do then.”
“Er. There is always the chance that the Independent has been boarded and taken over,” Lil says. She winces, as if she might make the possibility real by voicing it. Kris sympathises. You get superstitious, flying.
“Good point. I’m putting the ship on tactical alert. Lil, sound it, please.”
Kris hears the clanging of the portholes being shuttered. He takes another look at the Independent. It doesn’t look battle damaged, but it’s too far away to be sure. It’s like Kris’s first drill sergeant used to say - there’s no such thing as being over prepared.
“They’ve slowed their speed to match ours, Captain,” Lil reports.
There is a clatter of feet on the stairs and when Kris turns, Adam is standing at the top of them, pink-cheeked and dishevelled.
“Bells?” he asks.
He’s not wearing any shoes. No jacket or waistcoat or even a necktie, and his feet are bare on the deck.
“Why are the bells of impending doom going off again?” Adam repeats, frowning.
“It’s the tactical alert signal. There’s a ship on the horizon that we think is an ally, but it’s acting oddly.”
“A Fleet ship? How is it being odd, is it...” Adam trails off, probably noticing the looks he’s getting from all three of them. “What?”
“You’re not wearing any shoes,” Kris says slowly and yes, it does sound just as strange said out loud.
Adam glances down at himself and shrugs, as if it’s normal for him to be anything less than perfectly turned out when in public.
“Oh, I was in the shower and then all these bells starting ringing so I thought I’d better jump to it. Time and sky pirates wait for no man, and all that.”
It’s an explanation, certainly. Kris wishes he could say that it’s put his mind at ease.
Adam comes forward to take a look through Lil’s eyepiece, hair dripping water down the back of his neck.
“Our concern is that she might have been captured. It would explain the distance they’re keeping,” Anoop says, and chews at his lip. “I mean, why else would they do that. We know her.”
“When you say ally,” Adam asks Kris quietly.
“Definitely on the list,” Kris confirms.
“They’ve launched something, coming this way,” Lil says. She adjusts the array and the lenses move, slotting into new positions. Kris sneaks a look at Adam, watches him watching the mechanisms.
Lil says, “Looks like a messenger,” and waves Anoop forward. He peers into another glass. Navigators have good eyes by necessity, so he’ll be a good second opinion.
“Do you agree?” Kris asks him. Lil turns her head back to give him an affronted look.
“You know I have to check. We can’t risk anything right now.”
Lil puts her eye back to the telescope for a few moments, and then cocks her head at Anoop, who nods.
“We’re sure. Messenger, standard class.”
Adam says, “Um.” He fidgets for a few moments and then blurts out, “An actual automated ship to ship messenger carrier. That’s what you mean? I thought... Really?”
“Aw, sweetheart,” Lil says.
Adam ducks his head a little. “I’ve never seen one.”
Kris goes to defend Adam without even thinking. “They are amazing, Lil. I should have shown Adam ours, even though it’s tiny.” He turns to Adam. “The ones they carry on a Standard class like the Independent, they can go really far.”
Anoop offers Adam a small telescope and a large grin. “Knock yourself out,” he says, getting up. “I’d better go let everyone know what’s going on.”
They wait it out on the lookout. Lil leans back in her chair, face turned into the spring sunshine. Adam’s hair curls at the ends as it dries, and they all watch the tiny shape traverse the distance from the Independent.
Once Kris can make out the wings on the messenger, he says, “Come on, Adam,” and takes him down to the carrier bay.
He opens the shutters. “Don’t stand directly in front of the magnets,” he tells Adam, who seems to be trying to investigate everything at once.
Adam stares around. “I can’t believe you haven’t shown me this before,” he says, with a heartbroken air.
Kris laughs. “I didn’t want to peak too soon.”
Adam laughs too, low in his throat. The carrier room is a cupboard of a place at the best of times and it feels tiny now, with Adam filling it up with warm looks and appreciative noises.
The magnets click over. Kris tugs Adam out of the way as the messenger sails in and settles onto the array like a bird returning to its roost.
Kris picks out the content cylinder, moving aside to let Adam at the messenger.
The note is short and to the point, a request for identification, written in code. It’s signed “They say captured. Surely not? K.C.” Kris grins.
“Why aren’t I stuck fast to these magnets?” Adam asks, peering in a fairly unsubtle way at the paper in Kris’s hand.
Kris watches Adam’s frown deepen, but he just says, “Oh they’re not that strong. They’re specially calibrated to attract the messengers.”
“Hmm,” Adam comments, clearly distracted by the note, and Kris relents.
“You can’t read it because it’s in code,” he explains, passing Adam the paper. “Fleet officer code, to be precise, which I’m not supposed to tell you about on pain of... Anyway. It’s a request for a reply which identifies me. Proof that we’ve not been captured, which is what they think for some reason.”
Adam is staring at the message, head cocked. “You can do that? And, wait, just decode this in your head?”
“Sure.” Kris takes the paper back. And then, because the world so rarely lets you have the perfect comeback, he adds, “I am more than just a pretty face, you know.”
Adam says, “We have something similar, actually,” but his mouth is all curled up with amusement.
Kris scribbles back his reply as fast as he can, looking up occasionally to instruct Adam on how to reset all the magnets.
“You’re pretty good at following directions, for a Prince,” Kris says, watching Adam’s hands move to exactly where Kris had meant.
Adam seamlessly pushes the last lever back into place. “Only when I like my C.O,” he says.
“More like only when you like the directions,” Kris responds, trying for dry. It’s unsurprisingly hard when you’re smiling this much.
Kris finishes up his reply and tucks it into cylinder. The messenger sets back on its return journey, skimming the edge of the window and out into the blue.
He gestures at the note in his hand. “I should take this up to Katy.”
Adam still has one hand possessively over the lever. “Should I - ”
“No,” Kris interrupts. “You’ve no duty here. Stay, it’s fine. You can probably fix anything you break by this point.”
Katy and Michael are still sitting where he left them, cards on the table, but they’re not even pretending to play. “Anoop said... Do we have anything yet?” Katy asks, sharp.
“The message from the Independent.” Kris says, quickly, going over to hand it to her. “No, don’t stand up, Michael.”
Everyone is supposed to be on reduced duty, more rest. Michael – concussion, broken ribs – shouldn’t even be upright. But he and Katy are united in some sort of stubborn solidarity where everyone tries to act like nothing is out of the ordinary and no one asks how the other is feeling. Sometimes Matt joins them to all be crazedly determined together, and Kris can’t order them to just stop like he wants to. There’s just too much to do.
Katy reads the note and smiles at the end.
Kris says, “I told her ‘No, because you and K would kill me if I got us captured’”
She gives him a dark look. “Oh, death would be infinitely preferable to what we’d do.”
Kris supposes that’s kind of comforting, in its own way. “It should take about 20 minutes to get there, so we should know more soon.”
“I don’t think we should take the ship off alert though,” Katy says, and Kris nods along with Michael.
“Better safe than sorry is rather an upsetting life motto, but there we are,” Kris says. Katy pats him on the arm. “I was an interesting man with interesting mottoes once, I swear.”
“It’s a very Captainly motto, Sir. Much preferable to having something crazy,” Michael says comfortingly.
“Like, let’s see what this lever does?” Katy suggests. “Or, death or Glory!”
“Death or death!” Michael calls.
Kris laughs. “That would be much more upsetting, it’s true.”
&&&&&
The Independent draws alongside, all sleek lines and burnished copper shining in the sun. The crew yell greetings and instructions to the Conway, and pretty soon they have the two ships steady enough for a gangway to be rigged between them.
“Permission to come aboard,” Jen, the lieutenant, calls across. She’s standing on the railing, holding a line, and it’s all kinds of great to see her, smiling and dependable.
“Be our guest,” Kris shouts back.
Adam stands beside him, running his eyes over the Independent hungrily.
“Don’t you go cheating on our girl, now,” Kris warns him.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Adam says, looking indignant. “She is fine, though - the Independent – isn’t she?”
“A real old school beauty,” Kris agrees. “She’s much more robust than the Conway, a power hitter.”
“Nothing wrong with being understated,” Adam says, stroking the railing absentmindedly. Kris is almost shocked when the Conway doesn’t purr.
The crew of the Independent attach lines to secure the two ships, and then the Captain appears at the gate to the gangway. She strolls across, easier than someone separated from a very long fall by a very thin rope bridge has any right to be.
“Who on earth have you pissed off this time, Captain Allen?” Kelly says, by way of greeting.
“What makes you think I’ve pissed anyone off?” Kris returns, trying an innocent face on her. “This is Prince Adam, by the way. So watch your language.”
“Captain Clarkson, I presume,” Adam says, and inclines his head, ever the gentleman.
“Sire,” Kelly says, returning the gesture. “So. Maybe I should ask who you’ve pissed off, then.”
Adam snorts with laughter. “How long have you got,” he says.
“We have a list,” Kris tells Kelly. She doesn’t look surprised.
“Okay, who have you pissed off enough that they would send out a message that you’d been overrun by mercenaries and to shoot the Conway on sight?"
“They what?” Kris hadn’t thought that they were out of the woods, not by far, but this. This is miserable news.
Adam asks, “Why didn’t you shoot us on sight, then? What is it with you people and direct orders? This is all most disturbing for your possible future Commander.”
Kelly gives Kris a knowing look. “Yes, well. I can’t be held responsible for Captain Allen’s special interpretation of any given set of rules. But I do know better than to think that he’d let anyone fly off with his ship.” She throws Adam a smile. “He has this weird relationship with the Conway, don’t know if you’d noticed.”
“I might have,” Adam says with a conspiratorial grin.
“You give with one hand and take away with the other, Kel. But thanks, for the vote of confidence,” Kris says. “We were damn lucky it was you.”
“Not exactly.” Kelly smiles. “They gave out your last known co-ordinates, so I thought I should come take a look.” She slips an arm into Kris’s. “Now, take me somewhere, feed me coffee and show me that list.”
They go to the cabin and conversation is about 15 minutes in when Kris realises that Adam has gone from smiling to just sitting on his bunk looking mildly dazed.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“You’ve both been going further South with every word since Captain Clarkson got here. It’s slightly terrifying,” Adam says.
“Oh come on. Surely you mean gorgeously attractive,” Kelly says, grinning.
Adam goes very still.
Kelly raises her eyebrows at him. “Oh really.”
“It’s a weakness of mine, what can I say?” Adam says, looking slightly star-struck at Kelly’s smile. Kris remembers the feeling.
“Don’t worry, there’s not a man alive who can resist these vowel sounds,” Kelly reassures him, and Kris can hear it now, the cadence they’ve dropped back into, the way the words spin out.
Adam says, “So, the Captain - that is to say, the other Captain – is all up to date now? Because I lost you somewhere around the 10 minute mark. Sorry, but you shouldn’t be so distracting. It’s like chamber music.” He gives them both a particularly winning smile, one that Kris can imagine him bestowing on a favourite. How many boys heard something like that before Adam whisked them off to dance in front of the orchestra of however many it had been?
“And now you’ve wandered off. What is it with you two and having your head in the clouds?” Kelly says, prodding Kris in the arm.
Kris catches Adam’s eye and he can almost see the jokes forming. “Kel? We’re on an airship,” Kris points out, waving his hand towards the window.
“We don’t really have a choice in the matter,” Adam says, mouth in a serious line.
Kelly makes an exasperated noise that is usually accompanied by a roll of her eyes at Katy. “Yes, thank you. I am quite caught up. The number of people you’ve collectively managed to make want to kill you is becoming less surprising.”
She picks up their lists again. She’d looked half pleased, half amused to find herself up near the top of the list of allies, mouth twitching at the corner as she’d said, “Honestly, Kristopher.”
“She’s amazing,” Adam mouths at Kris while Kelly’s not looking, and Kris nods. She’s always been everything he admires in a captain. Plus she reminds him of home.
Kelly makes a hmming noise at the list of enemies. “If Commander Warwick really isn’t to be trusted, then that would explain the message about you being captured. It came privately from his command post, as opposed to the usual channels. We’d only been out of port a short while when we received it.”
“The plot thickens...” Adam says, sounding wearier than Kris suspects that he means to. “While you were there, did you hear anything about Allie?"
Kelly scrunches her face, confused.
“The Princess Select,” Kris clarifies.
“Oh! She’s ‘recuperating in Lord Gokey’s family estate’, apparently” Kelly says. She doesn’t sound at all convinced.
“That makes sense, keeping her out of Court but only an hour or so away, somewhere completely loyal to him,” Adam says. “But, she’s alright?”
Kelly nods. “From what I know. She’s not been seen outside the mansion; I’m thinking house arrest? The Bravo took up additional guards a couple of days ago, and a few of the crew mentioned her being there. Cross but well seemed the general opinion”
Kris gives silent thanks because cross he can live with. In fact, cross is great. It means Allie is still there, still fighting.
Adam lets out a breath. “The Gokey estate is practically on our way to the Court...” he says, thoughtfully, and Kris watches Kelly’s eyes widen.
“I can’t hear this,” she says, fast. “I support you all a hundred percent, but no one knows I’ve met you, and I plan to keep it that way. These are dangerous times, and I’m not risking my ship.”
“I know, Kel, don’t worry about it,” Kris tells her, because no one should ever feel guilty about putting their people first. The thing is, Adam and Allie are his people too, and he’s terrified Adam is going to make him choose.
“Well, then, I’m going to go yell at Katy for getting shot. People I am fond of are not to get themselves shot,” Kelly says, with the firmness of someone whose word has long been established law.
Kris holds out his hands. “That’s what I said, but what can you do?”
“Frankly, the Conway seems to breed a particular kind of madness. You should watch yourself, Sire, it’s catching.” And with that, Kelly sweeps out.
Adam gives Kris a reproachful look, as if he’d never done a foolhardy thing in his life before he stepped on board the ship.
“Don’t even try,” Kris says to him, with a grin. “I know you better than that.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Adam agrees, but his expression drifts out of teasing as he speaks, too caught up in whatever he’s thinking.
“So, about this ‘on the way to the Court’ business?” Kris doesn’t really want to bring it up, because he can only see a few ways that this could go and none of them are safe. He goes to sit with Adam on his bunk, leaning his back against the ropes at the other end of the bed from Adam.
“We should go get Allie. Once I’m back at Court, things are going to get nasty, and fast. I’d much rather that I knew she was safe; else Daniel will be able to use her as a pawn. Or, Le Renard will,” Adam amends, giving Kris a grudging nod.
It would be the perfect hold to have over Adam. It was only Kris mentioning her name that got Adam on the Conway in the first place, took him away from his battle, what seems like a decade ago.
Moreover, Allie is in danger now and it’s only increasing every day. If they left her, and then something happened...
“Exactly,” Adam says, watching Kris’s expression. “Not an option.”
“How well defended is this place? Because we’re already taking enough risks just flying. Most people aren’t Kelly. They’ll shoot first and ask questions later.”
Adam flinches at that. “There used to be one cannonade guard tower at the entrance to the landing bay at the Gokey house. But apart from that, nothing too scary. We could take out something like that without even going into their range, right?”
“We could, but... It’s one thing firing on a mercenary ship, even one hired by the Court, and another firing on an official guard post manned by soldiers of the realm. Kel told us that they shipped men in; they’re just ordinary soldiers, doing their jobs.” Kris knows what the Conway can do to a small guard post, the way the cannon rips through the wood until there’s nothing but flames and splinters and scattered limbs.
Kris notices that both he and Adam have moved from their positions at either end of the bunk, closing in on each other, and shuffles himself back. He spends half his time putting space, objects, anything, between him and Adam, and the other half leaning in, unthinking as metal to a magnet.
“Rock, hard place,” Kris mutters. There are no safe options anywhere, these days.
“I know, I know, and the thought of putting you all in more danger is unsupportable. But I can’t just leave Allie there, Kris, I can’t.”
“You know as well as I do that you can just order me to take you there,” Kris says. This would completely count as ‘In defence of the Kingdom and the royal family’ and so Adam’s authority is final.
Adam stops fiddling with the links at the wrist of his Upgrade and pins Kris with an intent look.
“I wouldn’t,” he says. “I won’t. I can only ask. It’s your ship.”
Kris remembers Adam’s face when he talked about duty, other people’s lives in his hands. He knows what he’s asking of Kris. Nodding, Kris says, “If we were to do this, how would we make it - well, not safe, but - something less than suicidal and treasonous.”
“Is that?” Adam starts, and then clears his throat. “Is that a yes?”
Kris says, “Convince me.”
&&&&&
It turns out that planning with Adam involves a lot more props than Kris is used to. He fails to find this surprising.
&&&&&
The first step in the plan is for Kris to stand on the steps to the Bridge and explain to his assembled crew that the action they are about to take part in may not be entirely legal.
It goes better than he thought it would.
"Did you see this coming?" Kris asks, when the worst reaction seems to be exaggerated sighing and a few sarcastic comments.
"We serve on the Conway. This day was always going to come," Matt says. "We either joined because of that fact, or we made our peace with it long ago."
Scott says, "There are only so many times you can do what's right and not what you're told before it comes back to bite you, right?"
No one looks like they are going to argue, and his crew are not exactly backwards in coming forward. Which means that they have faith in Kris, probably more than he does himself. He takes a brief moment to be unsettled by that.
“To your stations, then,” he orders.
&&&&&
Kris puts out an arm to stop Adam pacing in and out of the Bridge. “It’s going to work,” he says. It comes out a lot more certain than he was expecting.
Adam raises an eyebrow. “I saw you going for your watch. It’s only been 30 seconds since the last time you looked, you know.” He stares at the tower as if he can make them reply through sheer force of will. It almost looks like he could, the bright sunlight making everything flat and unreal, a little toy tower guarding a dollhouse. But there are lives at stake here -a very real tower of soldiers - and thinking of people as playthings might be seductively easy but it’s so, so dangerous.
Kris takes his hand away from his pocket. “Just. Stay out here. Then you can see what’s going on, alright? You’ll wear a groove in the floor at this rate.”
Adam bounces slightly on his heels, all nervous energy. “Why haven’t they sent the messenger back to us yet?” he says. “I hate waiting.”
“We would never have guessed,” Anoop calls, long suffering. The guard tower has only used up five of the ten minutes they were given in the message, but it feels a lot longer. “And before you ask, no, I haven’t heard from the lookout.”
The signal box pings and Anoop gives it an annoyed glance. “You just had to show me up,” he mutters then looks up. “Lil has sent the retreat signal. The guards have left the tower.”
Adam releases a long breath. Kris supposes that his experience in the Chantier had dented the certainty he had in his command, in the idea that he would be able to sign with his Commander’s seal and know that any soldier would obey without question. Kris thinks that they would have, though.
“Prepare to take out the tower armaments,” Kris calls down to Matt. He’s never going to feel completely comfortable with making his crew fire on a military outpost, but this way there’s no chance of the Conway being fired on as they approach the landing.
“I could make the call,” Adam offers, but he’s gone pale at the thought of it. If there are men left, they’re going to die. They could be Adam’s men, his subjects and his soldiers, and he’s risking that so that the Conway is protected. It wouldn’t be right.
Kris gives the order and he hopes that it will be to take out an empty tower, that all the guards really have followed Adam’s orders in the message and evacuated. That would be the best possible outcome to Adam’s plan; the one that keeps them vaguely within sight of the law, and at least touching distance of their consciences.
The tower is at the edge of their range, just a silhouette against the green of the hills to Kris’s eye. But their aim is true from the first shot, smoke billowing up into the sky. Kris sees a chunk of something fall to the ground.
“I don’t see any bodies,” Adam says, conversationally. Kris looks at him, face schooled blank, and then at the licks of flame in the distance and his stomach turns.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Kris says.
They disembark at the end of a long gravel drive, more suited for sweeping up in carriages. Kris has been to the occasional party where they’ve done that, picked the guests up from their ships in small buggies, as if the five minute walk to the house is too much to expect.
Matt whistles as they approach the house and the outline gains details – wide glass windows and carved stonework. “Nice,” he says.
Adam frowns at him. “You think so? I always found it rather…” he shrugs. “Provincial?”
Matt says, “You’re a strange and particular man, Commander,” and rolls his eyes. Kris has never seen Matt look anything other than laid back in stressful situations, even when they’re under fire. Walking into unknown enemy territory is not going to stop him being a smart aleck.
The house has a large main gate, heavily barred with a series of gear-ratcheted rails. There is one guard who has clearly been watching their progress, one hand on the butt of a large gun resting at his side.
Adam says, “We are here for the Princess Alison. You are holding her prisoner in this house and that is unlawful and unjust.”
The guard gives them a look that suggests he is somewhat unmoved by this. It’s likely that he’s Gokey’s man, more loyal than the guards brought in to man the watchtower.
"Or, I could signal to our ship to start with the cannonade of the house. You can see what became of your watchtower.” Adam gestures back towards the plume of smoke, unyieldingly calm. “It’s amazing how accurate they can be with the cannons. Your door wouldn’t last too long and then we’d have no reason to keep you alive.”
Kris swallows but says nothing. It's a bluff, but on a strong hand, and one that he would play on a day like today. He can't afford to lose Allie, in every way possible.
The man looks past them to where the Conway is waiting on the horizon, Kris's home made into a weapon primed to fire, and panic flashes across his face.
"Take her then, for the good it'll do you," he growls. "You'll get caught within the day."
The guard enters a combination, then twists a lever by the door and in moments it is swinging open to reveal a courtyard garden, rows of pristine hedges and manicured lawns. “I’ll just go get her,” he says.
Adam strides into the garden as if he's at the head of an all-conquering army.
They all follow, weapons drawn as they crunch along gravel paths. Kris draws level with Adam as they reach the centre, the garden still and sun-warmed.
"Don't worry. She'll be fine," he says, half to himself, heart beating hard already.
Adam says, "I'm not worrying," while biting his bottom lip. "That went well? I thought that went well. I tried your calm reasoning trick, it seemed to go over well. Oh dear, I can't seem to stop saying the word well."
Matt says, "Most tricks go over well when backed up by the threat of cannon fire."
Something bangs above them. Kris has his acoustic out and his back to Adam's before the echo stops ringing around the courtyard. Then the door at the end opens and the guard appears with Allie trailing sulkily behind. Adam makes a choking sound and her face changes as she sees them, smile lighting up like a signal flare, and then Allie is a blur of red and black as she runs to them. Adam catches her and holds her tight, wrapping her up in himself.
"Why are you crying?" Allie says into Adam's chest, and he laughs, or at least tries to, the sound coming out jagged.
"I don't know, baby girl. Why are you crying, Kris?"
Allie looks up at that, and the smile that she gives him makes Kris's chest hurt. "Allie started it," he says, wiping his eyes. He goes over and kisses her on the top of the head, because it doesn't look like Adam is going to let go of his sister any time soon.
Adam says, "It's good to see you, is all. Are you... Are you alright?"
Allie straightens up a little. She looks much the same as when Kris last saw her, although the colour of her hair has faded slightly, and her expression is not as it should be - a little too wary. "I'm fine," she says. "They only started locking me into the house after I escaped for the third time."
"Good for you," Matt tells her, moving back towards the door, gun in his hand and pride in his smile.
Adam says, "Well, even if we can't rescue you from your tower like a proper princess, I thought I would come pick you up on my way home anyway."
"He hitched a lift with us," Kris tells Allie, grinning sideways at Adam.
"Captain Allen claimed to have the best ship in the Fleet, how could I say no?" Adam says, glancing quickly at Kris, eyes teasing.
Allie bumps Adam with her shoulder. "Don’t you mean Captain Kristopher?"
Kris usually feigns annoyance at the nickname, but he doesn't even want to try right now.
"Well, just Kris most of the time, but I didn't want you to think I lacked respect for the good Captain," Adam says, very seriously. Kris should be used to the way that Adam says his name by now, all Northern vowels and intimacy, but it still makes his mind stutter.
Allie rolls her eyes at him. "That's right, else I'd think you were taking liberties." She looks around, a little anxiously. This is not a look Kris expects from the Princess Select. "Shouldn't we go? I would rather... I would like to go."
Kris signals to Matt who peers round the door. Adam still isn't moving, arms tight around Allie.
"Adam?" Kris tries. Adam frowns at him. Allie sighs and adjusts his arms so that his upgrade is free and his other arm is over her shoulders. She shares an indulgent look with Kris that says a lot about Adam and as much about love, and they finally start back across the garden.
The guard is waiting at the gate and says, "His lordship will hear about this." His expression is vindictive, worsening when Allie sweeps Adam past him, easily dismissive, as if he'd never had any power over her at all.
Matt is already fumbling out the flags as they hurry along the road to the harbour. "Signal to be ready for immediate cast off?" he asks Kris.
"Please," Kris says. There's no way they can build up enough of a lead to get to the Court before the message gets back to Daniel about what they've done. But then, they were always susceptible to something like this, and looking at Allie and Adam, he finds he's not sorry. Certainly not as much as he thought he'd be.
He finds himself walking a little faster anyway, away from the house that had caged Allie in, and he begrudges it every spark of brightness it took from her.
The crew are all standing by when they get back, and as soon as Allie steps onto they give her a quick synchronised salute, which she returns neatly. She learnt to salute Fleet style last summer, when she would hang around the Port and pretend to be crew, carrying anything she could lay her hands on and calling all the Captains by their titles. Kris has never loved any of them more, the crew and their Princess, who's now helping them to undo the final lines as the engines rev to get them flying again.
Allie coils the rope at her feet and then looks round. Adam is by her side again instantly, putting his arm round her like he has to keep making sure she’s real. “We have some catching up to do,” he says, and leads Allie down below deck.
Kris goes up to the bridge. “Here, let me take that for a while,” he says to Anoop. He doesn’t take the controls all that often these days, but he’d been a fair navigator in his time. It’s.. uncomplicated.
He flies until he can see the wide bay of the capital - the busy port and the towers of the court. When he looks at his watch, it turns out that half an hour has passed in catching currents and pulling levers. He feels calmer in himself, ready to deal with the emotional maelstrom that is Adam and Allie, Adam with Allie. He goes to Katy’s room but she waves him away.
“They went off to your cabin. I think Adam was starting to get tetchy about sharing his sister, although obviously he was too polite to say so.”
When Kris opens the door, Allie gives him a very pointed look. She’s sitting on Adam’s bunk with a blanket around her shoulders, and the expression on her face as she cuts her eyes to her brother reminds Kris of the one she’d wear after someone tried to make her come down from a high place or take a weapon from her hands.
Adam is watching Allie with nervous eyes from his place at Kris’s desk, sitting very straight on his chair. Kris can almost see the worry bleeding out of the tense lines of him.
Kris says, “I hear you’ve been writing tales of me to your brother,” in an attempt to bring Adam back from the brink a little.
“Only good things,” Allie promises with an innocent expression that would work if Kris didn’t know her much better than that.
“Only lies then,” Kris says with a sad shake of his head. “You must have been so disappointed, right?” he prompts Adam.
Adam tries on a grin. “You were certainly shorter than I was expecting."
Allie laughs and says, "It's not Captain Kristopher's fault that you somehow grew into a giant and alarmed Lady Abdul." She looks at Kris. "Lady Abdul was our governess. She's tiny."
"Your governess? That explains a few things," Kris says. He'd only met Lady Abdul once, but she'd made something of an impression. “I mean, I did wonder what kind of socialising influence Adam had as a child.”
Allie makes large, sad eyes at Adam. “It’s not his fault, poor boy.”
Adam gives them both a disappointed look. “I love that you both get on so well, I do, but could you not bond over my short-comings?”
“But it’s fun!” Allie tells him, all bright smile and bright hair.
“I have stories too,” Adam warns. “I’m not the person who stood up in the middle of a grievance session and started to sing about mice. Loudly, I might add. ”
“I was nine years old! Anyway, I’m not the one who, at age five, spent the whole summer dressed in a tiny three piece suit,” Allie responds and Kris doubles up laughing.
Adam gives Kris a betrayed look.
“What?” Kris says. “You’ve heard lots of my stories. God only knows what Matt has been telling you while I’m not around.”
“I’d tell you, but there are young ladies present,” Adam says with a shake of his head.
There’s a knock on the door.
“Come?” Kris says. People don’t usually knock, but then he supposes there are two members of royalty in here. It’s sort of hard to remember that about the two tired-looking people currently making ridiculously undignified faces at each other.
Matt sticks his head around the door. “Could I have a word, Captain? Er, you too, Commander, actually.”
“Would you like to go see Katy?” Adam asks Allie.
“Please,” she says, face brightening. Kris has always suspected that Katy is Allie’s role model.
Once she’s gone Adam says, “Sorry, I don’t like the idea of leaving her on her own.”
Matt is standing by Kris’s desk with a piece of paper in his hand. He’s rubbing the edge of it between his thumb and forefinger, which is one of his worse tells. Matt’s childhood sweetheart had sent him a letter telling him she was getting married to someone else, and he’d worn a hole in the top corner of it.
He holds it out to Kris. “It’s a warrant for our arrest. There’s a battalion waiting for us to dock. We’re being court marshalled for treason.”
Of all the worst case scenarios Kris had come up with, this is above and beyond. As far as he knows the Admiralty have never actually gone as far as calling a ship to court for treason because, “The penalty set for that is death.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2011-04-15 12:41 am (UTC)can't wait for more!
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Date: 2011-04-15 07:23 pm (UTC)Part 5 is both very long and mostly written :)
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Date: 2011-04-15 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 07:24 pm (UTC)I'm so pleased that you liked it, and Kelly. Her awesome cannot be denied. Adam and Allie are the cutest ever, I just love them :D
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Date: 2011-04-15 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 05:27 am (UTC)Incidentally, the "chapter four" link from the bottom of chapter three goes to the top of chapter three, as does the link from the Master Post.
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Date: 2011-04-15 07:26 pm (UTC)Yeah, the perils of coding late at night, I'm really sorry about that. Thanks for pointing it out, all fixed now :)
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Date: 2011-04-15 08:49 am (UTC)I gotta say, I loved Kelly and the Independent and the comparisons to Kris and the Conway. And they rescued Allie! Who, of course, has Katy as a role model, I mean, who wouldn't? I want to be Katy when I grow up, lol!
Also, treason? Death? You better get back soon, you hear. Btw, I'm so glad you enjoyed your visit to the US, aaaand jealous, too, a little bit.
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Date: 2011-04-15 07:31 pm (UTC)Kelly and the Independent are pretty great, I had a lot of fun writing them, the other kind of ship. I too would like to grow up to be Katy Allen, real or co-owner of the Conway *g*
Yeah, sorry about that! I was like, "everyone is going to HATE me" to my beta but she only encouraged my
evilplan. I have most of part 5 written (it is already 10,000 word, wtf) so it should be done soon-ish.Thank you! I had a completely magical time hanging out with fangirls and lovely friends. I would totally be jealous of me too *g*
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Date: 2011-04-15 05:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 07:33 pm (UTC)I will totally take the blame/credit for a steampunk obsession, it is the prettiest of all the genres. Although it may lead you to loose many hours on etsy looking at all the cog themed jewellry...
Sorry about that! The wait shouldn't be too long, I know I did leave it on somewhat of a cliffhanger *g*
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Date: 2011-04-16 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 10:22 am (UTC)Thanks for commenting :D
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Date: 2011-04-16 02:59 am (UTC)I kind of love that sentence.
Oh, and I really love your world.
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Date: 2011-04-16 10:18 am (UTC)And yay, I'm so pleased. I've had a lot of fun creating it :D
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Date: 2011-04-16 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-16 10:21 am (UTC)The next part is mostly done, so the wait shouldn't be too long. Thank you again for your lovely comments :D
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Date: 2011-04-16 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-18 08:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-17 08:44 pm (UTC)PS STILL SNICKERING OVER LE RENARD :DDD
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Date: 2011-04-18 08:23 am (UTC):D I am so happy that you are still reading and liking! I am staying on my course of CAMEOS, CAMEOS FOR ALL, obviously, because I am like that.
It is still unreasonably funny to me *language nerd high fiiiiiive*
<3!
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Date: 2011-04-18 08:04 pm (UTC)BIEN SUR I am still reading bb! I just had it on open on a tab waiting for my brains to be online and capable of giving somewhat coherent feedback as your writing deserves its due :DDb (and not just the YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS of my heart <333) Also the weekend was surprisingly busy and distracting, what what.
IT IS A CLASSIC, I would say *continues the nerd five until segues into a fistbump then KABLOOEY-noise finale*
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Date: 2011-04-21 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-21 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-24 10:15 pm (UTC)OMG!
Date: 2011-05-23 11:59 pm (UTC)Re: OMG!
Date: 2011-05-24 01:24 am (UTC)I ~think it's going to have 6 chapters in all, so two more. If LJ co-operates with length. I'm so happy that you're enjoying it, though :)