Ephemeral | A Captain Puffy Fanfic

Chapter VI - Hopes Up to go Down Again

Days past of my pathetic and stubborn behaviour. I hated this, I really did. Most days I'd simply lay there and do nothing. Sometimes I'd watch the children play or write to pass the time but most of the time nothingness was my solution to existing. If I ever did peak out of my covers to watch Lillith and Teddy frolic around I avoided eye contact with Ezra. It was slightly annoying to still have to share a room with him. My awkward nature just hated the entire past three days.

Today though I had decided I'd do something different. I had to be useful today. Doing nothing was getting boring. As dawn came, I awoke from my rather shit rest. I left my room for the first time in days to have members of the crew who I had barely talked to staring at me. I didn't want to do this anymore. I had already been reminded humans are bitches and I'd literally only been out my room for a few seconds.

I went up to the deck and then sat. I sat on the soaked wooden planks that make up the deck. I had just gotten to the top of the stairs to the deck before sitting down at the top of them. I watched Puffy steering the boat from afar. It's fair to say she also noticed me. She was clearly quite suprised to see me out my room for the first time in days.

After what realistically was probably ten minutes Puffy got another member of the crew to steer as she came to sit next to me. As she approached I tried to mentally prepare myself. I had been a childish fuck for the past three days, what can I even say?
"I see you're out your room huh," Puffy stated the obvious which you couldn't really blame her for. What else could she say? I just nodded my head response to her.

The conversation was trying to progress but was getting nowhere. I did have one question though that could urge the conversation on.
Then I built up the courage to ask it, "Hey Puffs, could I start doing jobs around the ship like everyone else does? I want to try and have things normal here." I spoke right from my heart. Puffy seemed shocked to the point where her cheeks flushed. I'd understand that she might be shocked but her cheeks were going awfully red making me anxious. I scanned back through the sentence in my head and then realised the nickname.
"Sorry," I apologised quickly and quietly before we moved on.

Puffy and I spent a while conversating after that, but her answer to the question was yes which was most important to me. She said I could help with the sorting stuff but also suggested a new job for me to try: helping the children. They needed an education, which honestly I wouldn't be the best at providing but it would still be better than nothing.

With that conversation over I went back down to my room to see Lillith and Teddy. They'd both been spending almost all day here everyday so I knew they'd be here. Now I just need to figure out how to educate them.

I decided in the end I decided I should educate them subtly, like a game, make it fun.

That same day I showed them how to play some card games . First I taught them how to play snap since its probably the easiest card game there is. Then I showed them how to play top trumps which personally was my favourite card game growing up. Last but not least, I taught them how to play uno. What I realised from this though is that most card games involve numbers which they both seem to be quite good at. Next I need to teach them reading games, especially considering Teddy was struggling to pronounce uno correctly and didn't understand the concept of multiple languages.

As the day turned into night, I felt joy. The joy I had felt when I first got on this ship, but this joy more fulfilling. I had achieved something. I did something useful. That night I slept better than ever. For once I was ready. Ready for the next day. Ready for life's challenges. Ready for fulfillment like I had today.