After Dark {N. L}

8

˗ˏˋ ✧ ˎˊ˗

The next few weeks were rough on Sturmhond's ego. Word had gotten around about the privateer and Ira's little spat, and it created some tension amongst the crew members. The girl wouldn't even look at him. He never knew how much her banter and encounters filled in some gaps in his life until she was gone.

The privateer tried to reason with her but failed miserably. It's been weeks. He'd had enough. Sturmhond marched to the front of the ship where Ira had been working. She climbed one of the sail ropes to try to repair a torn sail with a sewing kit.

There you are.

'Ira!'

No reply.

'Ira! Ira damn it, I know you can hear me.'

The girl blankly looked at him and continued her work.

Stubborn witch.

Sturmhond decided to climb the sail and meet her at the top. How hard could it be? Hard.

He'd managed to reach Ira with much struggle.

'Irania Ghafa!'

'Irania?'

'I gambled Jesper for your full name. But that's beside my point.'

'What the hell do you think you're doing? You'll fall.'

'As if you could care! Hell, you'd throw me overboard if you had your own way. You'll feed me to the sharks, poison me, and dump me on another ship. What the hell do I have to do for you to believe that I didn't do all those nasty things? Saints, we even brought Zenik, a human lie detector. All the crew attested to my innocence. What more do you want from me?'

Ira seemed to not know herself. What did she want?

'I don't know.' She whispered.

Sturmhond tightened his unstable grip on the ropes and moved closer to her.

'You don't know. You don't know how to believe me or is it that you don't want to believe me?'

She didn't want to believe him. But she knew that there was a possibility of him telling the truth, but she judged him based on a grudge. He did take her friend's home after all.

'Ira, I said I'm sorry.'

'I don't care.' She deadpanned.

Sturmhond would be lying if he said that her words didn't sting.

He could just see the disdain on her face, her eyebrows were furrowed, her eyelids slightly met, and her breathing increased.

'You're not even going to give me a chance? Why do you have to be so stubborn?'

'Why can't you just leave me alone? Why is my attitude affecting you? Why the hell do care so much about what I think?'

Sturmhond didn't have the answers to her questions because he wondered the same thing.

The two seemed to forget that they were dangling from a sail sticking out of the ship as they argued.

'I'm not the person that you think I am.'

'Oh shut up. You're a rich, selfish, brute of a man.'

'Just let me prove you wrong!'

'Why? Why is it so important to you?'

'I don't know! I can't sleep at night because I constantly think of what you think of me. I miss it when you insult me and stay up with me all night to steer this damn ship. I miss the way you would try to contain your laughter when I made bad jokes and how angry you made me when we bicker. I don't care if you make me angry or cry, just make me feel something. I felt like nothing for weeks. You made me feel like nothing. Guilty for a crime that I never committed!'