"Leon?" Tianyi asked, leaning her weight over my counter. "You want me to find him?" Sarovar leaned over the counter as well, lifting up a piece of paper displaying a small sketch I'd made of Leon.

His chin rested against Tianyi's head, and she looked up at him, swatting him away. He snickered, wrapping his arms around her waist. I rolled my eyes.

"If you lovebirds are done, then, yes," I said. "I haven't talked to him in so long— I don't even know if he's alive at this point."

"Well," Sarovar said, squinting at the drawing. "If he's still alive, we'll find him. Rest assured of that, my friend." He gave me a smile.

"You two are too kind," I replied.

"It's no big deal," Tianyi said, snatching the drawing from Sarovar and folding it up, tucking it into her cloak. "We're friends, after all. I'll try and get back to you as soon as possible. In other news— how about you and Mathias, huh?"

A particularly rough storm had moored the Meren Haamuja, and I had enlisted the help of the Vikings for a few unremarkable tasks around the forge to keep them busy. As it stood, Mathias spent most of his day around me, glued to my side and bantering without a care in the world.

I scoffed.

"What about me and him?" I asked. "He's a Viking."

"He won't stop talking about you!" Sarovar said emphatically. "Constantly and incessantly chatters about you. I was trying to purchase a replacement for my grappling hook here—" he patted at his belt, where a shiny metal hook laid neatly against his hip— "and he was constantly gushing about you. It was so baffling." He snickered. "And a little cute."

"You're gross," I said dismissively. "There's nothing between us."

"Sure, sure..." Tianyi winked. "Hey, Momo, that favor is always handy, you know. You still haven't properly redeemed it yet. I make an excellent wingman. Blackmail and all."

"It's true," Sarovar chimed.

"Don't tell me that's how you two..." I grimaced.

"No, no," Sarovar said. "That comes naturally after you've been raised together under the same mentor. For example, did you know that—"

"Oh, I'd hate for you to finish that sentence and see what happens," Tianyi said mildly, though her newfound grip on Sarovar's hand seemed threateningly tight. "Let me tell you, though, Sarovar used to be scared of the dark, and he was so— mmph!"

"Ignore her," Sarovar said. "But... seriously, what do you think of him?"

"I..."

I wished he would get out of my life.

I wished he would leave my head.

I wished he wouldn't make me feel so vulnerable and afraid.

I wished that my heart wouldn't pound at every smile, every quip in my direction.

I wished most of all that his voice wouldn't make me feel safe, because I didn't deserve it. I don't deserve it, even now.

I sighed, a stabbing pain pulsing through my forehead. I hissed, pinching at my nose bridge. "Fuck."

I didn't know when the headaches began, honestly. But they were getting worse, and rapidly so. I figured it was probably due to stress— I'd been receiving more and more clients recently, and the workload was definitely getting to me.

"You alright?" Tianyi asked worriedly. "Is it something we said?"

"No, no," I said, waving them off. "Probably just tired. Worked from sunup to... sunup today. Probably just need to sleep it off."

Tianyi frowned.

"Alright," she said uneasily. "If you say so. I promise to get you news of Leon whenever I can. I don't know if I'll be able to track him down, but I'll do what I can."

"Thank you," I said gratefully, trying to smile amidst the pain. "Really. You have no idea how much that means to me."

And as they left, I coughed into my fist.

My face went pale.

Blood.

How?

Moke.

It had to have been. I spent so much time with her, so of course— how could I have been so stupid? Of course I would get sick— but how long did I have left? How long could I—

Would I ever see Leon again?

I had long accepted that perhaps Yao was lost to me— after all, he had been somewhat old when I was a child, so of course he would be dead by now, if he hadn't been felled by the Red Plague.

But Leon...

I had fought so hard just to see him again—

Surely I could last.

But all of that was dashed from my mind when the bounty hunters came.

They were a nasty bunch. Whispers of the Vikings, of the infamous ghosts of an era long since gone, with a handsome bounty on each of their heads as decreed by the king— lured them to my village. And of course, the people were quick to feed the bounty hunters any information to spare themselves.

Which is how they landed at my doorstep.

"Really? No Vikings?" one of the hunters, who had charmingly introduced himself as Liam Graves, asked me. "You don't know about a single one?"

I eyed the shotgun on his waist with more than a little apprehension.

"No," I said evenly. "Why don't you and your little partners here fuck off and get out of my shop? I've got a business to run, and you'll scare off all my clientele."

One of the other men, who had introduced himself as Travis Fate, snickered.

"Missy," he said. "We know that there have been Vikings here. Their moored ship, with the goddess Freyja? How could that be anything except Viking shit? Don't play dumb."

"I'm not playing anything," I retorted. "I just think you're barking up the wrong tree, partner."

"Oh, come of it," said the final hunter, a woman named Leblanc Fortuna. "If she doesn't know anything, then she doesn't know. I don't wanna stay here for any longer than I have to— haven't you heard that the Red Plague's made its way through this village—"

As she was about to finish her sentence—

"Mo?"

I cursed in my head.

Of fucking course Mathias showed up. The other four Vikings probably weren't close behind. Of course they chose to show up. At the worst possible time.

"What's going— oh, fuck," Mathias gulped, seeing the three bounty hunters.

Graves laughed, the sound menacing and mirthless.

"Doesn't know anything about any Vikings," he said slowly. His hand lowered to unbuckle his shotgun from his belt. "Cheeky little bitch."

"Graves," Travis Fate said, raising his hands as if to calm the other hunter down. "No need to get hasty. Think this through."

"God, shut up for one second, will you, T.F.?" Graves retorted, though not unkindly. It sounded mostly exasperated and frustrated. He addressed Mathias, his tone dark. "You're coming with me, or I'll blow your little girlfriend's head clean off. You don't fucking lie to Liam Graves and get away with it—"

"I'd like to see you try," Mathias snarled. "I'm not going fucking anywhere."

"Too bad, then," Graves sighed. He leveled his gun at Mathias. "I'm sure the King won't mind if I take you in dead."

My eyes widened.

The next few moments were a blur of gunpowder and shrapnel. Mathias instinctively kicked one of the tables with a few supplies laying across it up, shielding himself from the shotgun's pellets as they tore through the wood, sending pieces of it flying everywhere.

Travis cursed, pulling out his gun and leveling it at Mathias.

Mathias unhooked one of the knives from the wall, throwing it at Travis and knocking the gun out of his hand. I grabbed one of my swords off the wall, swinging at Graves as he struggled to reload his gun in the chaos.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" Travis screamed at Graves.

"I didn't think he would—" Graves shouted back, but Tobias scoffed loudly.

"That's your fucking issue, Graves! You never think! That's why we're here in this situation— I never wanted this stupid fucking bounty in the first place, and I never cared about the Vikings in the first place—"

"Okay, everyone shut up," I commanded, my voice going dark. It didn't sound like me. It sounded like the killer that the Pirate King had raised. "I don't know what the fuck's going on between you three, but you will leave my shop before I kill all of you. And I will make it slow and painful, and scatter your entrails to the fish. So get out."

Leblanc sighed.

"I told you two it was a bad idea to go after this," she hissed as she grabbed the two of them by their collars. "You're the Princess of the Pirate King, aren't you?" she addressed me, raising an eyebrow.

Fuck.

Fuck!

"And what if I am?" I asked. "What will you do?"

Leblanc shrugged.

"Nice little life you've got here," Leblanc said. "To think you've tamed yourself by playing house— it's such a damn shame."

"I don't want anything to do with that life anymore," I whispered harshly. "I'm not that person anymore."

"We don't all get that luxury, you know," Leblanc retorted. "To deny our natures."

"You and I aren't the same," I said. "Don't try to fucking compare."

"You killed my mother," Leblanc said mirthlessly. "She begged you for mercy. To save her children. And what did you do? You stood by and watched her die. You're scum. I could kill you right now— god knows I want to."

My mind flashed back to that woman from all those years ago.

How she had kneeled and pleaded for mercy from the Pirate King.

It was an accident. She was just some random person— but I knew better. She wasn't random anymore. She was a mother. Children. And one of them was standing before me, barely holding back her fury.

"So do it," I said. "I know I still have a bounty. If you want me dead so badly, fucking pull the trigger instead of playing that stupid 'will they, won't they' bullshit."

"I won't, because that's what you want me to do," Leblanc hissed. "You think that by dying, you can just get out of this, right? That your actions will no longer be tied to you, because you won't be there to answer? Well, fuck that. You don't deserve that."

She turned.

"Feel free to lie to yourself a little longer, Mo Qiangxiang. But one day, you will get your retribution. Come on, boys. Let's go."

As the bounty hunters left, I tried to survey the damage to the shop. It was nothing too major– the table was a gigantic bummer, because of course it was– but otherwise, everything was at least somewhat passable. I would have to find some way to clean up the shrapnel, but that wouldn't be such a big deal.

I extended my hand to Mathias, who was sitting on the floor with a somewhat dazed expression.

"You alright?" I asked.

"I'm– I'm fine. How about you?" Mathias asked, taking my hand. His grip was firm, steadfast. Comforting.

"I'm– I'm alright," I murmured. I sighed. "You need to get out of here. I can't have you guys here any longer, as helpful as you all have been. I can't be put in danger like that again. Those guys kind of just fought amongst themselves, but think about how disastrous that could have been with a real group of bounty hunters that were here to kill you guys. I couldn't have that on my conscience."

Mathias wet his lips.

"Yeah," he said. "That's– that's what I was going to talk to you about, too. The ship's been fixed. We'll be back at sea tomorrow."

Tomorrow.

"That's..."

"Soon, yeah," Mathias said sheepishly. "Soon."

"Well, congratulations," I said slowly. "It's... that's been a long time coming, yeah?" I gave him a small, wary smile.

"Yeah," Mathias said solemnly. He seemed to steel himself for a moment before he blurted out, "Come with me."

"Huh?" I asked, not quite sure of what I was hearing.

"Come with me," he repeated. "Think of what we could do, together." He clasped my hands in his tightly, squeezing gently. His grip was warm, self-assured. His eyes were desperate, searching mine.

"I–" I swallowed.

Leon.

How was Tianyi going to get back to me? Well, I suppose that Tianyi wouldn't have had any trouble tracking me down, but–

I thought back to the blood on my hands when I coughed. The looming thought of the Red Plague and all that it would do to me– that it could do to the rest of the Vikings, not just Mathias. I couldn't.

But even as I reasoned with myself then, something in my heart fluttered.

Oh, what a joy it was to be wanted, it crooned. Go with him. Abandon all sense of purpose, of reason. Simply be wanted.

I couldn't.

"I can't," I said.

"Can't or won't, Mo?" Mathias asked desperately. "Please. I– I love you, you know? There's no one else I'd want to spend my time with. It's only you."

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" I blurted out angrily. "Who the fuck do you think you are to say things– things like that? I can't just– I can't just leave this!" I swept my arm around the forge. "This– this is my life! And– my family, I'm still– I'm still looking for them! You just stumbled into my life without any explanation, and you just– and you're asking me to give it all up?"

"That's not what–" Mathias sighed in frustration, squeezing my hands again. "That's not what I mean! I would never ask that of y–"

"Well, you are," I retorted.

"I'm– I'm sorry," Mathias whispered weakly.

My heart felt like it was going to break. But I couldn't be this for him.

I couldn't want this, no matter how much I truly did.

True love was not made for us, not made for this world.

"Get out," I said. "Don't ever say shit like this again. Please." Please.

Mathias left without a word.

I cried that night, heaving sobs that tore my chest clean open.

I'm sorry, Mathias.

In another life, I would have gone with you.

I promise.