Sham of the Sea

Chapter 23(S)

Y/N would deny the sudden wave of panic she felt when she awoke in a foreign bed. What she would deny even more though, was how the soft laughter of Jennie sounded not far from her made her calm down immediately and even got her heart to beating a bit faster.

How was she supposed to teach her heart that no, there was no time to be going all mushy inside right now? This was the harsh reality of life, of pirates and fights. There was no time for her to question her feelings.

Y/N sat up slowly, grimacing when her back cracked warningly. Even more deliberate than before, she pushed back the thin blanket resting above her body, searching the room for Jennie.

There her captain sat, next to that stranger at her make-shift desk (a flat piece of driftwood on a rock) and smiling at her companion brightly.

Y/N never saw Jennie smile like that and she took a moment to stare.

Jennie's gummy smile was radiant, making her seem much younger and much more bright. Her eyes seemed affectionate, and her nose did a little scrunch that Y/N hoped did not hurt her injury further. She smiled with a lot of teeth, blinding Y/N with their odd cleanliness (she already noticed Jennie having interests in particular topics such as keeping herself clean, which Y/N appreciated).

Even if that smile was not directed
at her, Y/N felt oddly struck by it. She wanted to make Jennie smile like that too, her brutal captain who finally showed her soft side.

The other woman had been laughing too, the deep timbre of her voice mixing with Jennie's. Now though, the woman turned around as if she had felt Y/N sitting up, locking their gazes with a polite curiosity.

Jennie lifted her eyes then too, her smile not quite dying down fully when she saw Y/N. "Good morning, sleepyhead. How do you feel?"

Y/N clumsily ruffled her hair, getting up to stumble over to them. Jennie patted her lap invitingly, and Y/N only threw a quick glance at their desinterested host, then she sunk down on the captain's warm thighs.

Jennie lifted her hands then, one coming to settle around Y/N's hips and the other carefully touching Y/N's lips. "How's it feel? It looks nasty but should not hurt much. Chaeng gave you some numbing medicine over it."

Y/N blinked at her, not quite sure what she was talking about. Thankfully the other woman at the table did. They had not talked yesterday, Y/N just wolfing down some food and then falling asleep, so she did not quite catch the woman's name.

"You were hurt while on the ship. Jennie and I assume your counterparts did those to each other and they projected on you. Tell me if it starts hurting again."

Y/N scrutinised that woman with her tanned skin and generally dark aura again, the same kind of unsettling energy radiating off of her as when they first met. It was different from the clones, but Y/N could not put her finger on it at all.

"What did they do?" Jennie carefully kept caressing Y/N's jaw, looking worriedly between her eyes and her mouth.

"Those cuts... We will show it to you after it healed a bit. Right now it looks pretty bad." The woman said.

Y/N could only imagine. She nodded weakly, not able to keep herself from carefully probing them with her tongue. The corners of her mouth felt strange indeed, the cut open flesh not smooth at all and she carefully retracted her tongue again before the feeling ingrained itself too much in her brain.

"Now, shall I leave you two alone for a bit? I will get some new herbs and see how the other two are doing on the way." The woman opposite of them rose, nodding at them curtly before stepping out, leaving Y/N alone with Jennie.