AU Fic: Cracked 10
Title: Cracked 10/??
Author: Dria
Rating: PG
Previous Chapters: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.
Summary: Back onboard the Isis, there are arguments, insults and yet more stuff going wrong for our heroes.
Author's Notes: Firmly back in Tuti's POV for this chapter (and the next one). Enjoy ^^
Upon reaching the spread of soft cushions shaded by the white awning, Tuti didn’t so much sit down as crash down. It was as though all the tension, fear and worry about the Isis’s disappearance had been holding him upright, and with those emotions gone he simply fell back with precious little elegance and next to no consideration for anyone else. Rubbing first at his closed eyes, then at the bridge of his nose before moving up onto his forehead, Tuti let out an impressively large sigh of relief and decided that there was a nine in ten chance of him just falling asleep right here.
He was distracted, however, by someone nudging his calf with the toe of their sandal. Opening his eyes enough to squint upwards, Tuti asked, ‘Something wrong, Takashi?’
‘Stop hogging all the space, your Highness,’ was the answer he got, the addition of his title holding just enough sarcasm to propel Tuti into a sitting position.
Takashi was under no illusions about just how much hearing those two words from him irritated Tuti and, after the morning he’d had, hearing the hint of a disdainful sneer in Takashi’s voice was enough to get Tuti angry - just what was Takashi blaming him for now?
The irritable snap Tuti was on the verge of making was prevented, however, by Souta moving past Takashi to drop down onto the cushions himself. ‘Don’t know about you guys, but by Khnum I’m glad to get off my feet! It’s been one thing after another today.’ Stretching his arms up over his head until his shoulders audibly clicked, Souta grinned round at the others until Tuti pulled his legs beneath him, Takashi sat down opposite him and Daiki flopped onto the cushions next to Souta.
‘Glad to be back, Highness?’ Souta asked, still smiling cheerily as though their trip ashore had been as uneventful as they’d intended it to be.
‘Very,’ Tuti answered honestly and then, because there was no way Souta could keep grinning like that much of a lunatic and not draw out a longer reply, ‘The temple was just as I remember it, though I think this High Priest is keeping the place a bit less exclusive than the last one. In fact, most of the city didn’t seem to have changed. If I’d had more time I’d have liked to have gone out to the old royal cemetery and pay my respects there but...’ Tuti trailed off with a shrug as Souta nodded along.
‘Well I’m relieved you didn’t take a detour - Captain Washio was already on the verge of having a fit, weren’t you Captain?’
‘I... err... well,’ Washio took a deep breath of his own as he ducked his head enough to avoid his short hair being ruffled by the awning. ‘I’m sorry, Highness, for not realising I was being deceived but... it was a very convincing lure.’ To prove his point, Washio unrolled the scrap of parchment that until then had been crumpled in his fist, and smoothed it out a little before handing it over to Tuti.
Accepting the offering, Tuti quickly had to agree that if he’d been in Washio’s place he’d have reacted the same to such a demand. Succinct, threatening and, most worryingly of all, sealed with a wax impression that at first glance looked like it had been made with Tuti’s own ring, the ransom note sounded just as genuine as any Tuti had ever seen.
Passing it over to Takashi out of habit more than anything else, Tuti asked, ‘How was it delivered?’
‘Souta’ll be able to tell you better than me,’ Washio admitted, still looking thoroughly uncomfortable about his mistake.
‘Staked to the mast,’ was Souta’s immediate answer, before Tuti could even get the words out. ‘No one saw who put it there, although given how busy the docks are, that’s not saying much. One of your servants was the first to notice, and the pair of them made such a noise pretty soon we all knew! Captain Washio arrived almost immediately afterwards and we were out of there as soon as the sails could be raised.’
‘Well that’s not much help,’ muttered Daiki, frowning at his own crossed ankles.
Takashi shook his head, ‘But it’s not useless, either. To get onto the ship without being seen - either it was an opportunist or they’re so brazen they don’t care.’
‘No opportunist would produce something this convincing: the ring seal’s so good I can hardly believe it’s fake.’ Tuti waved one hand at the document as Washio shifted a little where he was kneeling on the cushions.
‘To be honest, Highness, that was what made me think it was genuine. I suppose... you do still have your ring, don’t you?’
For a moment the question baffled Tuti, but when Daiki’s eyes widened as he also asked, ‘Highness, where is your ring?’ only then did Tuti remember that he’d taken it off.
Hauling his satchel across the cushions towards him, Tuti fought to keep his voice level and calm as he answered, ‘Do you really think I’m dumb enough to parade through Memphis with my royal insignia on display for everyone to see?’ Throwing the bag open, he rifled through the contents with a forced laugh, ‘I took it off before we left Ptah’s temple, why do you think I wouldn’t let the bastard take my bag in that alley? One look at the ring would have told him far too much!’
‘Highness?’
Ignoring Washio, because pulling his satchel apart was infinitely more important, Tuti babbled on, ‘Never mind a feigned kidnapping, you’d have had a real one on your hands if he’d realised who I was! Lucky for you, and me, that Eiji knew what he was doing, right? Ah, here it is!’ Fingers finally closing on the band of gold set with a flat seal that Tuti had stared at so many times he’d long ago forgotten the details of the inscription, he drew it out with a relieved flourish and, having displayed it, forced it back onto his right hand where it slipped into its usual place.
‘Highness, what were you talking about?’ Washio’s question, so quietly delivered, nevertheless brought a flush to Tuti’s face when he realised what he’d let slip. ‘Why were you so late back?’
‘Err... ha... that!’ Tuti plastered a grin onto his face. ‘It was nothing - nothing really - everything was under control and it was... was - ’
‘We were ambushed, Captain Washio,’ Takashi interrupted, glaring at Tuti even as Tuti opened his mouth wider to object. ‘Ambushed in a back alleyway by eight men somewhere between the temple and the quay because the main road became blocked, an ambush that delayed us long enough for you to believe this ransom note. No, Tuti, don’t you dare tell me to be quiet - Washio needs to know!’
Tuti shut his mouth so suddenly he was sure the others must have heard his teeth click together. ‘I was going to tell him,’ he told Takashi sulkily. ‘But I was going to pick my moment so that Washio didn’t have to find out along with every soldier and sailor onboard my ship!’
‘You still don’t get it, do you Tuti?’ Takashi’s snap holding more cold condescension than Tuti liked to hear. ‘First the weapons vanishing forcing us to stop in Memphis, then a mysterious traffic collision that forces us off the main road, then an ambush by properly armed soldiers poorly disguised as thieves, then Washio being led on a wild goose chase and not to mention two of the crew falling sick with who knows what contagion! You really think this is all some big coincidence? Bad luck dumped on us because the gods are feeling whimsical? There’s been something wrong about this voyage ever since we left Pi-Ramesses, why won’t you admit that?!’
‘Why do I need to “admit” anything? Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out for me! But that’s it, isn’t it Takashi, you’re the brains of this operation, I’m just the dumb prince in need of a good advisor!’
‘I never said you were stupid.’
‘You don’t have to; everyone knows I’d be dead without the wonderful Lord Takashi, future vizier and all that. Bet no one needs to remind you that my grandfather was only a vizier before he became Pharaoh, do they?’
Takashi coloured at the accusation, but Tuti was already on his feet and, though he swayed unsteadily as the Isis rounded a bend, his voice was nothing but calm as he announced, ‘Feel free to dictate our course of action, Lord Takashi, this prince would rather drink expensive wine than lead you.’ And having thrown at Takashi the kind of insult he’d always sworn would never leave his mouth, Tuti stomped past him, out from under the awning and flung himself down the ladder so quickly his feet barely touched the steps.
The royal cabin door was slammed with enough force to make the surrounding timbers shake, but Tuti was too disgusted with himself to hear it. Of all the stupid remarks to ever come out of his mouth, Tuti was sure that last comment probably won first prize. What had he been thinking saying something like that to Takashi?
But even as his conscience chided him, Tuti kicked out at a chair, his anger snapping back that Takashi shouldn’t have talked to him like that, so patronising and condescending. It had nothing to do with status, Takashi was his best friend and best friends weren’t supposed to belittle each other, especially in places where they could be so easily overheard. Tuti could feel his stomach turning itself over and over as the tone Takashi’s voice had taken poured into his ears. Takashi should have known better, Tuti knew Takashi knew better than to talk to him like he was a child and yet he’d still sneered, still said “you still don’t get it” as though Tuti was trying to deny from which horizon the sun rose.
‘He’s barely any older than I am,’ Tuti muttered to himself as he turned on his heel and stomped across the cabin to the door. But when he reached it, the hand that had reached out automatically for the handle instead slammed into the wood, palm first. Still smarting from the jarring impact, Tuti spun round and fell against the door, sliding down it until he was half sitting, half sprawled on the floor, his frown directed at nothing in particular.
Stupid Takashi, the thought rose immediately in Tuti’s mind, trying to draw together all the injured pride and bitterness that had propelled him into his cabin in the first place. But the half-hearted insult didn’t do a very good job of stoking his anger because for all that Tuti was annoyed with his friend, what made him far more angry was that he’d lost his temper and slipped into an argument he hadn’t wanted to have. So okay, yes he should have told Washio the full story about the attempted ambush straight away instead of trying to cover it up; it was precisely the sort of thing the Captain needed to know if he was going to do his job properly after all, and Tuti had promised his mother he wouldn’t make the Captain’s life any harder than he could help. But telling Washio, telling anyone, had at the time felt too much like an admission of guilt, as though Tuti had been responsible for the ambush himself, and so for Takashi to go ahead and do it instead...
Tuti sighed and gave his head a sharp shake, as though it might dislodge some of his paranoia. He didn’t seriously think anyone was going to blame him for what had happened, it wasn’t like he’d deliberately led anyone into a trap, but it had been a trap... hadn’t it? Accidents happened, even in the most orderly of cities, and while most Egyptians were a law-abiding lot, there’d always be some who weren’t... but the two things combined... and coinciding just when Tuti happened to be passing through with no guards and next to no protection? For all that he might hate the way Takashi had phrased it, his friend had been right to say that there was something that had felt wrong about their venture ashore; after all, hadn’t Tuti himself felt it?
If the ambush and the blockage leading to it hadn’t been a case of simple bad luck then that meant they’d been planned. If both those incidents had been planned then who was to say the initial disappearance of Washio’s soldiers’ weapons wasn’t planned by someone too? Once you started thinking like that, it was obvious that the ransom note had to be a part of it - Takashi obviously thought so - and that line of thought led to only one conclusion, someone was manipulating them.
Tilting his head back until his skull rested against the door behind him, Tuti stared up at the ceiling and muttered aloud, ‘If someone is manipulating situations in order to harm me... they’re not doing a very good job of it.’ If the first act had been to swap the soldiers’ weapons with dried fish... well, that had now been rectified by a visit to the Memphis barracks. If the second act had been to block Tuti’s way to force him off the familiar main road and into a labyrinth of alleys in order to ambush him... wasn’t that leaving a lot to chance? He might have decided to wait until the main road was clear. He might have got himself terribly lost and completely missed his ambushers. And the third act, the ambush itself, eight against four weren’t exactly overwhelming odds! Sure, Eiji and Takashi had done all the actual fighting, but Eiji used to work for the army and Takashi was a nobleman who could easily have had a career in the chariot core if he’d wanted it. In Tuti’s entirely unbiased opinion, their ambushers hadn’t stood a chance.
Then there had been the ransom note... well that had worked in getting Washio to sail off and leave Tuti behind. But Washio had also left a soldier and a messenger hawk on the quayside, and once the mistake had been made clear he’d returned soon enough. No one had attacked while they’d been waiting for the Isis’s return, nothing had attacked the Isis either, which meant they were now back on their way and making good speed again. Sure, they’d wasted a day messing about with ambushers and wild goose chases, but it was time they could regain and at most they’d reach Thebes in the afternoon five days from now, rather than in the morning as they’d planned.
It almost sounded like a prank when Tuti thought about it like that, an annoyance but nothing more, if they were being manipulated, whoever was planning it wasn’t very competent...
Tuti continued to stare up at the ceiling for some immeasurable stretch of time until he had to admit to himself that sitting cooped up in his cabin was giving him a headache. He wanted to feel a breeze on his face and the sun on his limbs, not hide in a windowless, wooden box like he was a kid who was sulking because he’d lost a game of tag. Realising this didn’t make pulling himself to his feet any easier for Tuti, not when he remembered with a wince what he’d said to Takashi, but the headache was nagging at him more insistently than his still-bruised pride, and so Tuti eventually got himself out the door and far enough up the stairs to peek out onto the deck.
No one noticed the top of Tuti’s head rising up through the open hatch; the sailors were going about their duties, half a dozen soldiers were sitting in the bows, loudly playing a game of dice, and the cushions under the awning were empty.
Tuti moved up onto the next step, head and shoulders now clearly visible and looked again underneath the awning. The additional step apparently made all the difference, the shaded area of the deck wasn’t completely empty, someone was laying flat on their belly, head pillowed on folded arms and face hidden by hair that was getting just a little too long.
The sight brought a smile to Tuti’s face despite everything that had happened, a smile that transformed into a grin when the head was lifted enough for him to catch a glimpse of the expression on it. Seeing the drawn together brows and slight tug of a pout around the mouth was even more of a relief than the Isis’s return had been; that wasn’t the face of an angry Takashi, that was a miserable Takashi, a Takashi who was sulking and bored and lonely.
Climbing the last few steps with ease, Tuti mollified his smile as best he could as he approached the canopied spread of cushions. Takashi tilted his head enough to look at Tuti as he crouched down at the very edge of the shade, the sulk of the pout still present at least until Tuti asked, ‘Mind if I join you?’
Takashi’s mouth opened at once, but he stopped the retort before he could make it. Looking away, Takashi gave what could just pass as a shrug, ‘If you like.’
‘I would like to... but only if you want me?’ Tuti persisted, earning himself another glance from Takashi that slid from sulk to sheepish smile in a heartbeat.
‘Idiot, you’ll get sunburnt if I let you stay out there.’
Knowing forgiveness when he heard it, Tuti crawled over the cushions to flop down beside Takashi, propping himself up on his elbows and examining his companion as intently as his companion seemed to be studying the passing countryside.
‘It scared me, you know,’ Takashi eventually said, voice quiet as though he didn’t dare say the words any louder. ‘Someone pointing a knife at you like that. Someone planning to kidnap you. Someone trying to hurt you.’
Unable to think quite what to say, Tuti reached out one hand to ruffle Takashi’s hair. His companion squirmed under the contact, batting Tuti’s hand away and somehow making it so easy for Tuti to unbalance Takashi enough to push him onto his back.
‘You -’ began Takashi, but Tuti cut him off.
‘I know, I’m an idiot.’
‘No, I was going to say that you must have forgiven me, then?’
Tuti was on the verge of making some fairly sappy reply to Takashi’s half-serious question when, with a clattering of sandals on wood, Captain Washio burst out of the hatch and onto the deck.
‘Highness! Highness! I swear on Pharaoh’s breath I don’t know how this happened!’
‘Washio?!’ Tuti stared at the trembling soldier who’d just fallen to his knees in front of him.
‘Our weapons are gone, Highness, again!’
TBC
Author: Dria
Rating: PG
Previous Chapters: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.
Summary: Back onboard the Isis, there are arguments, insults and yet more stuff going wrong for our heroes.
Author's Notes: Firmly back in Tuti's POV for this chapter (and the next one). Enjoy ^^
Upon reaching the spread of soft cushions shaded by the white awning, Tuti didn’t so much sit down as crash down. It was as though all the tension, fear and worry about the Isis’s disappearance had been holding him upright, and with those emotions gone he simply fell back with precious little elegance and next to no consideration for anyone else. Rubbing first at his closed eyes, then at the bridge of his nose before moving up onto his forehead, Tuti let out an impressively large sigh of relief and decided that there was a nine in ten chance of him just falling asleep right here.
He was distracted, however, by someone nudging his calf with the toe of their sandal. Opening his eyes enough to squint upwards, Tuti asked, ‘Something wrong, Takashi?’
‘Stop hogging all the space, your Highness,’ was the answer he got, the addition of his title holding just enough sarcasm to propel Tuti into a sitting position.
Takashi was under no illusions about just how much hearing those two words from him irritated Tuti and, after the morning he’d had, hearing the hint of a disdainful sneer in Takashi’s voice was enough to get Tuti angry - just what was Takashi blaming him for now?
The irritable snap Tuti was on the verge of making was prevented, however, by Souta moving past Takashi to drop down onto the cushions himself. ‘Don’t know about you guys, but by Khnum I’m glad to get off my feet! It’s been one thing after another today.’ Stretching his arms up over his head until his shoulders audibly clicked, Souta grinned round at the others until Tuti pulled his legs beneath him, Takashi sat down opposite him and Daiki flopped onto the cushions next to Souta.
‘Glad to be back, Highness?’ Souta asked, still smiling cheerily as though their trip ashore had been as uneventful as they’d intended it to be.
‘Very,’ Tuti answered honestly and then, because there was no way Souta could keep grinning like that much of a lunatic and not draw out a longer reply, ‘The temple was just as I remember it, though I think this High Priest is keeping the place a bit less exclusive than the last one. In fact, most of the city didn’t seem to have changed. If I’d had more time I’d have liked to have gone out to the old royal cemetery and pay my respects there but...’ Tuti trailed off with a shrug as Souta nodded along.
‘Well I’m relieved you didn’t take a detour - Captain Washio was already on the verge of having a fit, weren’t you Captain?’
‘I... err... well,’ Washio took a deep breath of his own as he ducked his head enough to avoid his short hair being ruffled by the awning. ‘I’m sorry, Highness, for not realising I was being deceived but... it was a very convincing lure.’ To prove his point, Washio unrolled the scrap of parchment that until then had been crumpled in his fist, and smoothed it out a little before handing it over to Tuti.
Accepting the offering, Tuti quickly had to agree that if he’d been in Washio’s place he’d have reacted the same to such a demand. Succinct, threatening and, most worryingly of all, sealed with a wax impression that at first glance looked like it had been made with Tuti’s own ring, the ransom note sounded just as genuine as any Tuti had ever seen.
Passing it over to Takashi out of habit more than anything else, Tuti asked, ‘How was it delivered?’
‘Souta’ll be able to tell you better than me,’ Washio admitted, still looking thoroughly uncomfortable about his mistake.
‘Staked to the mast,’ was Souta’s immediate answer, before Tuti could even get the words out. ‘No one saw who put it there, although given how busy the docks are, that’s not saying much. One of your servants was the first to notice, and the pair of them made such a noise pretty soon we all knew! Captain Washio arrived almost immediately afterwards and we were out of there as soon as the sails could be raised.’
‘Well that’s not much help,’ muttered Daiki, frowning at his own crossed ankles.
Takashi shook his head, ‘But it’s not useless, either. To get onto the ship without being seen - either it was an opportunist or they’re so brazen they don’t care.’
‘No opportunist would produce something this convincing: the ring seal’s so good I can hardly believe it’s fake.’ Tuti waved one hand at the document as Washio shifted a little where he was kneeling on the cushions.
‘To be honest, Highness, that was what made me think it was genuine. I suppose... you do still have your ring, don’t you?’
For a moment the question baffled Tuti, but when Daiki’s eyes widened as he also asked, ‘Highness, where is your ring?’ only then did Tuti remember that he’d taken it off.
Hauling his satchel across the cushions towards him, Tuti fought to keep his voice level and calm as he answered, ‘Do you really think I’m dumb enough to parade through Memphis with my royal insignia on display for everyone to see?’ Throwing the bag open, he rifled through the contents with a forced laugh, ‘I took it off before we left Ptah’s temple, why do you think I wouldn’t let the bastard take my bag in that alley? One look at the ring would have told him far too much!’
‘Highness?’
Ignoring Washio, because pulling his satchel apart was infinitely more important, Tuti babbled on, ‘Never mind a feigned kidnapping, you’d have had a real one on your hands if he’d realised who I was! Lucky for you, and me, that Eiji knew what he was doing, right? Ah, here it is!’ Fingers finally closing on the band of gold set with a flat seal that Tuti had stared at so many times he’d long ago forgotten the details of the inscription, he drew it out with a relieved flourish and, having displayed it, forced it back onto his right hand where it slipped into its usual place.
‘Highness, what were you talking about?’ Washio’s question, so quietly delivered, nevertheless brought a flush to Tuti’s face when he realised what he’d let slip. ‘Why were you so late back?’
‘Err... ha... that!’ Tuti plastered a grin onto his face. ‘It was nothing - nothing really - everything was under control and it was... was - ’
‘We were ambushed, Captain Washio,’ Takashi interrupted, glaring at Tuti even as Tuti opened his mouth wider to object. ‘Ambushed in a back alleyway by eight men somewhere between the temple and the quay because the main road became blocked, an ambush that delayed us long enough for you to believe this ransom note. No, Tuti, don’t you dare tell me to be quiet - Washio needs to know!’
Tuti shut his mouth so suddenly he was sure the others must have heard his teeth click together. ‘I was going to tell him,’ he told Takashi sulkily. ‘But I was going to pick my moment so that Washio didn’t have to find out along with every soldier and sailor onboard my ship!’
‘You still don’t get it, do you Tuti?’ Takashi’s snap holding more cold condescension than Tuti liked to hear. ‘First the weapons vanishing forcing us to stop in Memphis, then a mysterious traffic collision that forces us off the main road, then an ambush by properly armed soldiers poorly disguised as thieves, then Washio being led on a wild goose chase and not to mention two of the crew falling sick with who knows what contagion! You really think this is all some big coincidence? Bad luck dumped on us because the gods are feeling whimsical? There’s been something wrong about this voyage ever since we left Pi-Ramesses, why won’t you admit that?!’
‘Why do I need to “admit” anything? Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out for me! But that’s it, isn’t it Takashi, you’re the brains of this operation, I’m just the dumb prince in need of a good advisor!’
‘I never said you were stupid.’
‘You don’t have to; everyone knows I’d be dead without the wonderful Lord Takashi, future vizier and all that. Bet no one needs to remind you that my grandfather was only a vizier before he became Pharaoh, do they?’
Takashi coloured at the accusation, but Tuti was already on his feet and, though he swayed unsteadily as the Isis rounded a bend, his voice was nothing but calm as he announced, ‘Feel free to dictate our course of action, Lord Takashi, this prince would rather drink expensive wine than lead you.’ And having thrown at Takashi the kind of insult he’d always sworn would never leave his mouth, Tuti stomped past him, out from under the awning and flung himself down the ladder so quickly his feet barely touched the steps.
The royal cabin door was slammed with enough force to make the surrounding timbers shake, but Tuti was too disgusted with himself to hear it. Of all the stupid remarks to ever come out of his mouth, Tuti was sure that last comment probably won first prize. What had he been thinking saying something like that to Takashi?
But even as his conscience chided him, Tuti kicked out at a chair, his anger snapping back that Takashi shouldn’t have talked to him like that, so patronising and condescending. It had nothing to do with status, Takashi was his best friend and best friends weren’t supposed to belittle each other, especially in places where they could be so easily overheard. Tuti could feel his stomach turning itself over and over as the tone Takashi’s voice had taken poured into his ears. Takashi should have known better, Tuti knew Takashi knew better than to talk to him like he was a child and yet he’d still sneered, still said “you still don’t get it” as though Tuti was trying to deny from which horizon the sun rose.
‘He’s barely any older than I am,’ Tuti muttered to himself as he turned on his heel and stomped across the cabin to the door. But when he reached it, the hand that had reached out automatically for the handle instead slammed into the wood, palm first. Still smarting from the jarring impact, Tuti spun round and fell against the door, sliding down it until he was half sitting, half sprawled on the floor, his frown directed at nothing in particular.
Stupid Takashi, the thought rose immediately in Tuti’s mind, trying to draw together all the injured pride and bitterness that had propelled him into his cabin in the first place. But the half-hearted insult didn’t do a very good job of stoking his anger because for all that Tuti was annoyed with his friend, what made him far more angry was that he’d lost his temper and slipped into an argument he hadn’t wanted to have. So okay, yes he should have told Washio the full story about the attempted ambush straight away instead of trying to cover it up; it was precisely the sort of thing the Captain needed to know if he was going to do his job properly after all, and Tuti had promised his mother he wouldn’t make the Captain’s life any harder than he could help. But telling Washio, telling anyone, had at the time felt too much like an admission of guilt, as though Tuti had been responsible for the ambush himself, and so for Takashi to go ahead and do it instead...
Tuti sighed and gave his head a sharp shake, as though it might dislodge some of his paranoia. He didn’t seriously think anyone was going to blame him for what had happened, it wasn’t like he’d deliberately led anyone into a trap, but it had been a trap... hadn’t it? Accidents happened, even in the most orderly of cities, and while most Egyptians were a law-abiding lot, there’d always be some who weren’t... but the two things combined... and coinciding just when Tuti happened to be passing through with no guards and next to no protection? For all that he might hate the way Takashi had phrased it, his friend had been right to say that there was something that had felt wrong about their venture ashore; after all, hadn’t Tuti himself felt it?
If the ambush and the blockage leading to it hadn’t been a case of simple bad luck then that meant they’d been planned. If both those incidents had been planned then who was to say the initial disappearance of Washio’s soldiers’ weapons wasn’t planned by someone too? Once you started thinking like that, it was obvious that the ransom note had to be a part of it - Takashi obviously thought so - and that line of thought led to only one conclusion, someone was manipulating them.
Tilting his head back until his skull rested against the door behind him, Tuti stared up at the ceiling and muttered aloud, ‘If someone is manipulating situations in order to harm me... they’re not doing a very good job of it.’ If the first act had been to swap the soldiers’ weapons with dried fish... well, that had now been rectified by a visit to the Memphis barracks. If the second act had been to block Tuti’s way to force him off the familiar main road and into a labyrinth of alleys in order to ambush him... wasn’t that leaving a lot to chance? He might have decided to wait until the main road was clear. He might have got himself terribly lost and completely missed his ambushers. And the third act, the ambush itself, eight against four weren’t exactly overwhelming odds! Sure, Eiji and Takashi had done all the actual fighting, but Eiji used to work for the army and Takashi was a nobleman who could easily have had a career in the chariot core if he’d wanted it. In Tuti’s entirely unbiased opinion, their ambushers hadn’t stood a chance.
Then there had been the ransom note... well that had worked in getting Washio to sail off and leave Tuti behind. But Washio had also left a soldier and a messenger hawk on the quayside, and once the mistake had been made clear he’d returned soon enough. No one had attacked while they’d been waiting for the Isis’s return, nothing had attacked the Isis either, which meant they were now back on their way and making good speed again. Sure, they’d wasted a day messing about with ambushers and wild goose chases, but it was time they could regain and at most they’d reach Thebes in the afternoon five days from now, rather than in the morning as they’d planned.
It almost sounded like a prank when Tuti thought about it like that, an annoyance but nothing more, if they were being manipulated, whoever was planning it wasn’t very competent...
Tuti continued to stare up at the ceiling for some immeasurable stretch of time until he had to admit to himself that sitting cooped up in his cabin was giving him a headache. He wanted to feel a breeze on his face and the sun on his limbs, not hide in a windowless, wooden box like he was a kid who was sulking because he’d lost a game of tag. Realising this didn’t make pulling himself to his feet any easier for Tuti, not when he remembered with a wince what he’d said to Takashi, but the headache was nagging at him more insistently than his still-bruised pride, and so Tuti eventually got himself out the door and far enough up the stairs to peek out onto the deck.
No one noticed the top of Tuti’s head rising up through the open hatch; the sailors were going about their duties, half a dozen soldiers were sitting in the bows, loudly playing a game of dice, and the cushions under the awning were empty.
Tuti moved up onto the next step, head and shoulders now clearly visible and looked again underneath the awning. The additional step apparently made all the difference, the shaded area of the deck wasn’t completely empty, someone was laying flat on their belly, head pillowed on folded arms and face hidden by hair that was getting just a little too long.
The sight brought a smile to Tuti’s face despite everything that had happened, a smile that transformed into a grin when the head was lifted enough for him to catch a glimpse of the expression on it. Seeing the drawn together brows and slight tug of a pout around the mouth was even more of a relief than the Isis’s return had been; that wasn’t the face of an angry Takashi, that was a miserable Takashi, a Takashi who was sulking and bored and lonely.
Climbing the last few steps with ease, Tuti mollified his smile as best he could as he approached the canopied spread of cushions. Takashi tilted his head enough to look at Tuti as he crouched down at the very edge of the shade, the sulk of the pout still present at least until Tuti asked, ‘Mind if I join you?’
Takashi’s mouth opened at once, but he stopped the retort before he could make it. Looking away, Takashi gave what could just pass as a shrug, ‘If you like.’
‘I would like to... but only if you want me?’ Tuti persisted, earning himself another glance from Takashi that slid from sulk to sheepish smile in a heartbeat.
‘Idiot, you’ll get sunburnt if I let you stay out there.’
Knowing forgiveness when he heard it, Tuti crawled over the cushions to flop down beside Takashi, propping himself up on his elbows and examining his companion as intently as his companion seemed to be studying the passing countryside.
‘It scared me, you know,’ Takashi eventually said, voice quiet as though he didn’t dare say the words any louder. ‘Someone pointing a knife at you like that. Someone planning to kidnap you. Someone trying to hurt you.’
Unable to think quite what to say, Tuti reached out one hand to ruffle Takashi’s hair. His companion squirmed under the contact, batting Tuti’s hand away and somehow making it so easy for Tuti to unbalance Takashi enough to push him onto his back.
‘You -’ began Takashi, but Tuti cut him off.
‘I know, I’m an idiot.’
‘No, I was going to say that you must have forgiven me, then?’
Tuti was on the verge of making some fairly sappy reply to Takashi’s half-serious question when, with a clattering of sandals on wood, Captain Washio burst out of the hatch and onto the deck.
‘Highness! Highness! I swear on Pharaoh’s breath I don’t know how this happened!’
‘Washio?!’ Tuti stared at the trembling soldier who’d just fallen to his knees in front of him.
‘Our weapons are gone, Highness, again!’
TBC