Virgil was pacing. His hair was standing up at odd angles from how much he'd ran his hands through it. He worried Patton often but this was much worse. The atmosphere in the Captain's Quarters definitely wasn't a pleasant one.

Eventually, Virgil stopped pacing. He ran a hand through his hair again, this time smoothing it down. "Janus," he turned his head slightly as he spoke, "how fast can you get us on the tail of the King's Loyalty?"

Janus shrugged helplessly. "I can't sail if I don't have a heading."

"What d'you mean?"

"I mean..." Janus tried not to let out a sigh too exasperated. "I mean, we don't even know what direction they sailed in. We could be out there for months only to find we've been going in the wrong direction." He hesitated and then ventured, "Aaron's not worth that."

"Aaron is as worth-while to this ship as you or I!" Virgil yelled, turning on Janus suddenly. He was usually difficult to read but there was no mistaking what he was feeling now. "If I were to shoot you right now, we'd have a pretty tough time getting anywhere. Aaron is worth just as much as that."

He glared at Janus for a beat, almost challenging him to speak out. Janus said nothing. Virgil turned away.

"Remus, what do we know about the King's Loyalty?" He asked. He forced his hands into the pockets of his coat. To stop him punching something.

Remus shrugged. "I know about people, Virge, not ships," he said. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine," Virgil forced out. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair again. He looked to Patton. "Pat?" He asked helplessly.

Patton shrugged. "Sorry, Kiddo."

Virgil groaned and tipped his head back. The groan evolved into a wordless yell and he kicked his chair. "Fuck!"

"Kiddo?" Patton asked gently. "We could get Daniel."

Virgil shook his head. "Nu-uh, absolutely not. He's on his last life as it is!"

"If he was on his last life, you would've killed him by now," Patton reasoned. Virgil shook his head again. Patton raised an eyebrow. Virgil sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes.

"I hate you when you're right."

"You must hate me a lot then."

Virgil huffed out a laugh. He pushed past Janus and Remus - who had already moved out of the way anyway - and pulled open his door.

"Daniel!"

There was something about Daniel that made Janus' blood boil. He just had one of those faces that would look so much better if his nose was broken. Or if he had a bullet between the eyes.

And believe him, Janus had tried that many times. Mostly when Daniel made a comment on him or Remus. Which was a lot.

Daniel raised an eyebrow as he noticed Janus glaring at him from the corner. "What're you looking at, snake skin?"

Janus cracked his knuckles.

"Jan." One word from Remus was, surprisingly, all it took for Janus to stop.

Daniel smirked. "That's right, let your illiterate boyfriend control you, great idea."

Janus stood up off the wall. In two strides, he could be in front of Daniel. In two strides, he could make Daniel regret his words.

"Jan." Janus blinked in surprise at Remus' hand on his arm. "It's fine." Remus turned and smiled sweetly at Daniel. "It's not his fault he doesn't have a single original insult in that free-rent space he calls a brain."

Daniel's face clouded first in confusion and then in anger.

"Children!" Virgil called in a tired sort of voice. "Once you've quite finished, can we please get on with finding one of our kidnapped crew?"

Daniel gave Remus and Janus a self-important, 'see? I'm better than you' smile and turned to Virgil. "What do you wanna know, Captain?"

Virgil sighed and rolled his eyes. "What do you know about the King's Loyalty?"

Daniel shrugged. "There's not much too know," he said. "It's very good at hiding, I wouldn't know where to-"

"Just tell us about her trading routes or Janus here will sail you out into the middle of the ocean and you can walk home from there," Virgil interrupted.

Daniel harrumphed and crossed his arms. "If they've just left Lybaria, they'll be heading to Gyria next. They'll need to restock and Gyria's good for things like textiles, jewels, books and masks."

"And as we all know, the Masked Prince himself has to keep up his image," Virgil made a gag sound and nodded. "Great. Get out."

Daniel gave Virgil a surprised and indignant stare before leaving in a huff. Virgil sighed and shook his head.

"Sometimes I don't know why I bother." With a fake grin, he turned to Janus. "How fast can you get us into Gyrian waters?"

Janus felt a small spark of excitement and purpose inside him. "With the tide."

IIIIII hate Daniel with a burning passion but, unfortunately, he has to be smart or he'd never be part of this crew.
Bye,
Blaize