𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙢𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩-𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙨 || ʲ. ʰᵒˡˡᵃⁿᵈ

_three_

          "A'ight, a'ight, calm it, ye lads," Their designated chef laughs as she walks to the large table carrying two large, uncovered containers with steaming piles of food, the metal clattering as she grins widely in pride. "Dig in! Got food courtesy of the monster that almost successfully killed the lot of us. Prepped and cleaned by our very own Doctor Edward!"
         
          Jacob couldn't help but cheer as well when literally everybody else did the same, raising his pint in celebration as many pushed and hyped up the awkwardly waving doctor.
         
          Morgana, their chef, was a proud, dark woman of many scars. She had an unbuttoned vest and tunic that dipped down her chest, sleeves loose and displaying long cuts that looked like they were gained from otherworldly claws and sharp teeth. She had a scarf tied tightly around her waist, and she uses one end of it to wipe the sweat off her face that held the largest grin. "What are ye waiting for, ye dogs? Eat! Come, come!"
         
          Jacob could barely steal a glance of the food before every other hunter was running to get a piece, having to politely push his way past before seeing what it was they were so excited about. In both the trays were piles of the cut ends of the tentacles, formed to create a flower of sorts with a fish head propped up-top in the middle. It faced upwards displaying the smooth blue surface, but from what he could see on the parts already taken by the other hunters, the teeth beneath had been removed. He couldn't help but chuckle as he recalls you mentioning how it was edible. "Well I'll be damned."
         
          Somewhere near the entrance leading down to where dinner was being served was a stumbling mess that went by the name of Y/N Cruickshank, barely having had enough time to fix yourself before Sarah had dragged you out of bed. The woman in question was quick to grab the back of your tunic before you could tumble down face-first, helping you regain your balance as you reached the last steps of the creaking stairs.
         
          "I'm gonna go get a drink." You barely mumble out, words slurring as one hand slaps against the side of your head trying to wake you.
         
          Sarah didn't respond, because she herself had already left.
         
          "Y/N! You're alive! I was so sure that the—" Your friend gets cut off as you so shamelessly take her pint, the girl's eyes widening as you sling an arm around her. "You're the best Fen, and I love you." She stammers as you down the drink in one go, the liquid enough to burn your throat and chest to force you awake. You hollered loudly when you finished it.
         
          "Bless you, bless your weird hat." You use your other than to knock on it, barely avoiding the many spikes as you land a sloppy-ass kiss on her cheek and walk off.
         
          "O. . .okay??" She's left standing alone in confusion with an empty pint, saliva on her cheek and no alcohol in her system, with you so shamelessly leaving her to no doubt steal another drink. She wonders how you two are still friends.
         
          "Maria! Maria, Maria, my gal! My woman, my buddy, my pal!!" You saw the woman visibly tense before she sighs heavily, already handing you her glass as she gestures for another one. "Glad to see you up and about, Cruickshank." She greets you, brushing her headscarf out the way as she finally turns to look at you. She was dressed in her usual getup, consisting of a pair of leather boots, worn pants, multiple belts, black scabbard, and lime green corset worn over her dirty white top. Maria was one of the most beautiful women on this ship, and if you hadn't found out about her partner you probably already would've made a move on her.
         
          (You did once, actually. You were drunk, and when you didn't remember a thing about it the next day she thought it was best to just never bring it up ever again. You've been good friends since.)
         
           You grin, gratefully accepting her offer and drinking it without much thought. "Feel better than ever! So? How ya feeling tonight?"
         
          "You don't have to pretend to be interested." She rolls her eyes, but laughs as she waves off a tanned hand, the other finally getting her drink to replace the one you took. She had multiple rings in both. "Just take the beer and go."
         
          "Oh don't say that, I love your stories!" You defended, bringing the glass to your lips and nodding eagerly as you take smaller sips. You knew that Fen usually took the lighter drinks, but you found out the hard way that whatever it is Maria drinks, it'd be enough to knock out a fully grown adult in two pints. You didn't want to take your chances.
         
          She raised a black brow, sipping on her own serve of the beverage. "Okay, recall one."
         
          "That time you were surrounded by sharks on a plank but you still managed to survive because of some beast that scared them off and one you barely had time to hide from." You maintain full eye contact as you take another sip, before your eyes widen. "Oh and you kicked one, managed to get that thing's tooth, and now wear it as a constant reminder that life isn't permanent. Did I get everything?"
         
          . . .
         
          She looks disgusted as she holds a hand to hide the shark tooth around her collar, scowling at you as you only grin back. "Cheater."
         
          "But I still recalled one!" Despite how obnoxious you sounded and acted she still couldn't help the smile breaking out on her face, the mole above her lip moving upwards as she did. "You're annoying."
          
          "Yet you're still letting me give you a kiss." Her face morphs into confusion, and you don't give her much chance to react as you simply kiss her cheek and skip off, managing to switch your drink for hers as now she's left with a half-empty pint and a smell of alcohol on her cheek.
         
          "I don't. . .okay." She shakes her head, going to take another sip but disovering what you had done a moment too late. Her almost-empty drink stares back at her sadly, and she scoffs so loudly you heard it even through a crowd of rowdy hunters. "Y/N! IKAW NA GAGA KA, BUMALIK KA DITO!"
         
          Okay now that one you couldn't miss.
         
          "Love you, Domingo!! I'll get you more next time!!" You pause, turning to shrug at the growing scowl on her pretty face. "And alcohol too, I guess!"
         
          The girl's frustrated screech was pretty much easy to ignore as you got far enough away from her, laughing in amusement all the way even as you breeze right past an amused Jacob and Sarah.
         
          They sat at a table with several other hunters, each having their own conversations and plates of food. The basement was starting to get more than a little crowded, and from the corner of his eye he could see many other hunters exiting to go and eat up on the main deck. His attention is turned back however when there was a multitude of loud cheers from the exact opposite, finding a drinking game that you crashed into halfway yet somehow managed to catch up to at a close second. He didn't even wanna begin to think of the implications of that.
         
          "You know, you'll be achieving nothing unless you actually grow a pair and tell her how you feel." Sarah's voice was clear and concise as she sat next to him nursing her own second pint, slowly swirling the liquid with one hand as the other taps on the wood of the circular table. He raised a brow. "What? How I feel about what?"
         
          "Oh gods you didn't know?" In all his years living on the Inevitable, raised by the captain and learning valuable lessons to be a better hunter, never had he once heard Sarah Sharpe so openly displaying a moment of genuine confusion.
         
          It was enough to catch him off-guard and put his drink down, fully turning his attention back to her who stared at him with slightly widened eyes. "You're so obvious, Jacob. If you got any more obvious you'd be doing a mating ritual atop the main mast and proposing to her."
         
          "Wha— I do— hu— huh???" Holland repeatedly stammers as he sets his drink down with a loud clatter, eyes wide as he stared at the untouched plate of fish and tentacle ends before snapping them to an unbothered Sarah. "I don't— whatever made you come up with such accusations? I don't have feelings for her!"
         
          "Yes, and I don't have a fake leg." She so sarcastically retorts, rolling her eyes as she gulps down a large portion of her drink. No doubt she needed it. "It's not accusations if it's true, Jacob. You've been nothing but gloomy the past few years, and yet the moment she comes back you're back to your jolly chipper self."
         
           "Because she's a friend, I was bound to miss her!"
          
           "Alright, but am I supposed to believe that she's just that? Just some friend?" She finds it in her to chuckle, hand gesturing to the vaguest direction where he sees the girl you were just tormenting now having a lively conversation with. . .ironically enough, Fen, a girl who you also just tormented. "What about Maria? She's been on this ship pretty much as long as you two have, yet I don't see you giving her piggyback rides and. . .carrying her when her reckless endeavors resulted in her injuring herself." Sarah was full-on laughing now, managing to still be so full of grace as she finally finishes her drink.
          
           "Yeah well. . !" He stammers once again as he tries and fails to think of an excuse, drink now forgotten in favor of attempting to remember how to argue. "I don't. . !"
          
           "I'll give you time to ponder that one, love." She gets up from her seat and goes off, one hand putting her hat back on as the other carries her empty glass for another refill. She disappears into the crowd pretty much immediately, and Jacob is left alone with his thoughts that ran about a mile a minute.
          
           What the hell was she even going on about? He didn't have feelings for you!
          
           Like yeah sure for his first few years on the Inevitable you were the only person who joined that was close to his age, and yeah maybe the fact that you were also an orphan and were both raised on the vessel together had you two becoming the closest because of how lonely it felt being the only kids in a monster-hunting ship. And yeah sure, maybe, just maybe he cried himself to sleep later that night when you left for the Poison Orchid and periodically did so every few months, and maybe the first time he's felt even a little bit happier was when they got a letter stating that you'd be coming back from that trip early. But none of those mean anything!
          
           . . .
          
           And okay yeah, maybe he's felt an attraction to you in the past, but he was seventeen! That was a long time ago!
          
           . . .
          
           He looks to his left and finds that most of the other hunters had left to go do whatever, left alone in the table with Mr. Crisp. Shaved head, heavily armored and had an armbrace made from green scales of a beast he couldn't recall. He was the very definition of unapproachable.
          
           Jacob looks down and finds a perfectly untouched glass of beer, and he turns to look at the quiet man. "You gonna drink that, mate?" Bushy eyebrows furrow as he looks at Holland, then down to the drink he was gesturing to.
          
           . . .
          
           His attention turns back to where he was previously blankly staring, a deep voice cutting through the relative silence in this part of the ship. "S'a'right, you can have it."
          
           "Aye, cheers." He takes it and wastes no time drinking it, the faster he could get himself absolutely wasted the less he had to think about what Sarah said.