Devouring midnight

Aidan simply raised a brow and went back to his map, putting the compass in the right hand corner. "We'll be there in two days...and its strawberry season." He grinned to himself.

This brought a widened grin to Kage's face which directed itself to M.
"Did ya hear that M? Two whole days to get you nice and clean and into something that smells just like a pretty flower, you know, to match your pretty tutu?" Perhaps it was the prospect of more water that did it but M was gone in an instant, not that he'd ever find a hiding place to outsmart Kage as long as there was a bath in the vicinity, and it took a lot for Kage not to laugh, instead he decided to go looking for Dennai. At least M could pretend he was safe for awhile.

Haru casually leaned over the side of the boat, watching the waves for a moment before pulling away, walking below deck in search of something to silence the persistant rumbling in his stomach. Opening one of the cupboard doors, his eyebrows raised at the sight of M crushing himself inside it. Haru paused for a moment before calmly shutting the door and walking out. Food could wait.

The blade slid neatly across the palm of Dennai's hand, blood sliding across in small trickles as the boy watched it, cringing at the scarlet streams.
"Don't think about it...just close it up..." Kage sat on the floor opposite, holding to tiny knife. He was watching Dennai's face for signs of improvement but the boy still feared the sight of his own blood enough to refrain from even touching the wound which continued to bleed.
"Dennai....?" Kage frowned, and when he saw that the wound had sealed itselfonly by a fraction, he took over and cleaned the blood away with a rag from his pocket, at last gaining the boy's attention as he realised .
"I...sorry..." He bowed his head, his cheeks pale.
"It's fine...it took me awhile too, but if you don't learn you may end up getting hurt..." He stood, wiped the blade clean in the rag and pat Dennai on the head.
"We'll try again tomorrow...I want you to be able to close the whole cut up before I give you another...I'm going to make it harder...and if you can heal properly before I get M to bath regularly then I promise to buy you something nice...got it?" With a smile as confirmation Kage handed the blade to him and walked off.
"Ohhh M! Bath time methinks"

Haru walked below deck, rummaging in amongst the barrels in search of parrifin. Night was drawing in and the ship was beginning to dissolve into indistinguishable shadows. Leaning across one of planks of wood, he pried the top off one of the barrels. Haru took a step back and held the laughter biting in his throat. "M, why are you...?Never mind. I don't want to know." He jammed the lid back on the barrel and continued to search the room, wondering how M could squeeze his folds into such a small space anyway.

Despite the lid returning to it's proper position, M decided to answer anyway, peering out through the cork hole he had earlier used to tap into what had been inside the barrel.
"For your information, I'm avoiding being humiliated! If you were a real cat you'd understand why baths are a bad thing!" Satisfied that he'd made sense of his cramped hiding spot, he replaced the cork and proceeded to play the role of 'pickle'.

"Baths are a bad thing." Haru agreed. "However, my father doesn't kick me out when I die from festering in my own shit for so long. So yeah, I wash. Some of us aren't immortal." He smirked, eyes falling on the parrafin wax, picking it up quickly. "Have fun in there. I guess."

"It's the most fun place in the world and you can't have it!" He hissed from inside the stuffy barrel, scratching the damp pickle-stained wood on the inside and licking the shavings as if they were sweets.
"And don't you dare tell Kage! Else I'll throw you off the boat!...You hear me kitten?!"

"Oh really?" Haru smirked, running up the stairs, clutching the wax close to his chest to prevent himself from dropping it. "Oh, Kaaaaaaaaaaaaage!" He yelled in a singsong voice up the stairs, knowing full well it would aggravate M.

M murmured a curse and pushed upward, expecting the lid to shoot clean off, there was merely a moment of unimpressive silence, for the lid had remained a tight seal. Again and again he shoved his entire body up against the lid but it seemed to push back down again, trapping both him and his desperation to silence Haru. He huffed angrily and squirmed until his feet stood firmly against the bottom. Having done so, he poked the cork back out and used the hole to locate the exit before jumping, barrel and all toward the door, one jump at a time.
"I FUCKING HATE CATS!" He snarled, still inside the barrel by the time he had reached the very top step, shuffling from side to side to get a quick look around.

Haru simply laughed, walking past Kage and began to place the wax into the various lanterns that were scattered around the ship, watching as Aidan lit them with a piece of burning wood. With a smirk, Haru walked back to the door and shut it, leaving M in it's dark wake.

Kage hadn't had such a good idea since first boarding the ship. He slowly looked around and found himself grinning as he found the tiny glimmer of red that assured him that M was going nowhere.
"Haru...could you maybe...get some water heated?" M was probably too far away from him for him to be sure, but he thought he may have seen the barrell shuffle back just a little.

Haru picked his way over to the small fire hidden under the ships wheel, designed to heat the floor and those who stood above it. Picking up a small bucket he hooked it over the fire, pouring water into it. "It'll be ready in about ten minutes." He told Kage, watching the barrel in amusement.

And the barrel moved, at a fast roll, as M attempted to make his escape.
"Oh no you don't" Kage laughed, stopping the barrel mid roll so that the single holefaced upwards.
"Ten minutes until we have a sudsy soaked pickle!" And before M could roll away once more, Kage sat on the barrel.
"Get the hell off me!" M screeched, bumping around inside the barrel, but Kage happily refused to move. "Ten minutes" He grinned.

Aidan watched in amusement as Haru unhooked the now steaming bucket of water and handed it over to Kage. Glancing down at the wolf pup who was happily snuggled on his feet, he let out a small sigh. "Mutiny on the ship eh?" He asked her as the screaming became louder and more pronounced, obscenities flying through the air.

Her tail swished softly from side to side but the screams did not phase her, head in her paws she mistook the hiss of water being poured for the sound of the ocean.
M didn't find the experience all that calming, the steaming water eventually half filled the barrell and once Kage had emptied the bucket completely he replaced the cork and sent the unhappy pickel rolling on his unhappy way to get clean.
"And this time your clothes are already clean!" Kage smothered a cackle.

Glancing at the horizon, Aidan paused a small line of gold appeared in his view. Yelling over to Kage, he pointed at the strip of sand. "We'll be there in about an hour. As much fun as this was, get your stuff together so I can get you all the hell off my boat." He grinned.

Convincing M to leave the suds spewing barrell was an effort and a half as he fought to irritate Kage further by remaining safe inside his preservative encasing. Eventually however Kage managed to hall the completely drenched M out into the open air on deck where he shivered profusely. "You're a right prick Kage, It's freezing out here!" Kage simply left M to shiver, going to get Dennai ready. Left to drip on the deck M glared out at the crest of land, feeling as if he'd never get warm again, especially once they set foot on their destination. "If I push my brothers into the ocean, would you haul them back out?" He asked Aidan, seriously considering it.


(got very bored, so decided to reply :3)

Aidan shook his head quietly. "I'm not a damn fishing ship. I don't have nets. They would have to swim to shore. Just like you guys will in a minute. I can only go so far inland or I'll get stranded." He said, putting some slack on the sails so they could get more wind. "Can't wait to get rid of you lot. Never doing a favour for Haru again." He told himself.