꧁𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙽𝚃𝚄𝙰𝙻𝙻𝚈☆ - AN AUL FIC (REWRITE)

SIX || LULL

SURPRISE!!!!!!!

A double update? In MY aul fic? It's more likely than you think.

I love writing grouchy Captain lol. Give my boy some more sleep

Sorry this chapter's kind of short compared to the latest ones. I promise chapter seven will be a little longer, and it's sure to be a juicy one. Hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 3243

CAPTAIN THIRD-PERSON POV

Eighteenth. This was the eighteenth time overall that Captain regretted accepting his role as leader of the crew.

It'd been a week since the last attack, eight days exactly since Luke's murder, and Mother hadn't left her room once since Rose had been ejected. It worried Captain sick. But what could he do? What could he say? She was grieving her son. Somehow, he thought I know how you feel wouldn't feel very sincere.

Instead of offering any lame words of comfort, Captain went with what he knew: leading. He'd gathered the crew last night, and after a short meeting, everyone agreed to watch Timmy and Franklin in shifts. Each shift would last about three hours, and shifts would be shared by roommates to lighten the load. Right now, Gnome and Engineer were watching the kids. Mother had teared up when Captain first told her, but when Timmy and Franklin begged her to let them, she allowed it. Captain hoped the next few days would be easier if she knew her children were being cared for.

It'd been a week, but lulls in attacks were no longer celebrated among the crew. The more time passed between attacks, the worse the next one was likely to be. It was the calm before the storm. Lulls invited fear rather than the false sense of security they'd had in the days leading up to Veteran's party. They were bad omens, and the crew certainly acted accordingly.

There had been so many meaningless arguments in the last few days that Captain was seriously considering orchestrating an attack of his own, if only to take the crew off edge for a couple of days. He'd been putting out fires day and night all the past week. He was exhausted. He needed a break. But since when was life that nice to Captain?

"I want to switch rooms," was the first thing The Gentleman said. No hello, no good morning, not even a tip of his hat. That was how Captain knew he was serious. The Gentleman only forwent manners when he was truly angry.

Captain sighed and, abandoning his half-eaten bowl of cereal, smiled at The Gentleman. He ignored the way his facial muscles protested at the gesture. "Hey, buddy! How's it going? Why the long face?"

"I want to switch rooms," The Gentleman repeated, scowling. "As soon as possible. I won't demand it happen today at risk of being rude, but if I have to spend one more night in the same room as that accursed Monster—"

"Yours too?" came Mr. Egg's voice.

Oh, great, more complaints, Captain thought.

Mr. Egg didn't even acknowledge him, making straight for The Gentleman. "My roommate has been nothing but inconsiderate to me thus far. His end of the room is always messy. Clothes everywhere! It's eggs-quisitely rude. And he's always working till late on some sort of machine or device. I can never tell. His name may be Not Orange, but I ought to call him Not Friendly. He didn't even thank me when I offered to bring him supper the other day!"

"Monster is quite the same," The Gentleman said. "Although he is neat. To a certain extent. Still, it his habit of working late into the night that has me in a state lately. I haven't had a good night's sleep in weeks."

"Perhaps we ought to switch the room designations around," Mr. Egg suggested. "We could share, and have Monster and Not Orange deal with each other."