Walk on Water or Drown, 03

Stage Three, In Which A Disgusting Sort of Understanding Is Established.

The first couple nights were nights Nepeta spent in denial. This was not happening, she would think. Or, I'm dead and this is hell. And sometimes, I'll fucking kill him.

Him being her lovely captain, her new moirail, her captor: Eridan Ampora, who actually wore a small purple pirate-esque hat with a lavender feather in it. Who established his authority every chance he got because it actually made him feel better about himself. Who made Nepeta sleep below deck with the workers in a goddamn hammock.

Eridan Ampora was a naval captain working directly under the Princess, Feferi Pixeis. He sailed around the world and did the things that she could not – on the surface, at least. In reality, he was flashing his badge to everyone who had eyes and taking advantage of his role and status. In the first couple of nights that Nepeta spent in denial, staring up at the ceiling of the compartment of the bottom of the ship with the workers and the supplies and the hammocks, Nepeta would ask herself what she had to do with this man, and why fate had decided to make her path cross with his.

They had nothing in common – except that they working on two opposite ends of the same goal. Nepeta to help a faction, and Eridan to destroy it. And while helping this faction was illegal, going out of your way to destroy it was, too, and so the two had quickly reached a stalemate and there was really nothing to do about it except lie to everyone they met and worry about technicalities when they had time.

And really, when you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean, reasoned Nepeta, one should have nothing but time. But apparently, Eridan did not, and so those technicalities were never brought up, much less worked out. So as they days went by, both parties pretty much steered clear of each other. When Eridan wasn't directing everyone, he was up in his private little room, and when Nepeta was not moping in her uncomfortable hammock, she was cleaning something on the boat.

This brought her to current problem: the fact that boats were in water. And while Nepeta prided herself on being fierce and fearless, water scared the fuck out of her. She made this clear to Eridan this first day, and he told her she would get used to it and left, but three days had past and she had still not gotten used to anything on the boat.

"I don't wanna fall in," she told Gamzee, diligently scrubbing the railing of the side of the boat, and trying her best to tell herself that on the other side of this railing was endless water. "I can't swim."

Gamzee scoffed, washing the top of the railing rather than the side a good five feet away. "Kitty, if you fall, 's not like nobody's gonna rush in and go save you. I told you, I got ya back."

With a soft whine, Nepeta scrubbed harder and shivered as a speck of saltwater splashed onto her face. "That's… a little reassuring," she admitted, "but you can't be with me all the time. A-And what if Eridan pushes me in?"

"Pushes you in?" cackled the Capricorn, ruffling his own hair as he paused, leaning on the balustrade of the ship. "Now why on earth would he push you in?"

Nepeta shrugged, feeling a little sheepish at being laughed at. "It'd keep my mouth shut, wouldn't it?"

"If there's one thing the cap'n wants," Gamzee said, wiping his thumb under his nose. "'S for you to run your mouth, that's for sure."

At this, Nepeta paused, her scrubbing slowly coming to a stop as she looked up at the Capricorn quizzically. "N… No he doesn't. Right…?"

"Uhh, Actually." Tavros, who had been working on the opposite end of the boat, turned to look over his shoulder and make an attempt to join in on the conversation. "I-I'm pretty sure he really wants you to talk. How, uhh, else would he find out where Karkat Vantas is?"

"Tav," said Gamzee, his head falling back as a rather funny grin spread across his face. "You're so goddamn smooth."





"Eridan!"

Ah, Eridan confessed that her catlike wails of distress were like music to his ears.

Her being his darling Kitty Cat, his new moirail, his hostage: Nepeta Leijon, who meowed and whined whenever the opportunity arose. Who shrieked any time the boat rocked. Who thought that he couldn't hear her, mumbling about what she'd do to him when she got him alone when she was cleaning the deck.

Nepeta Leijon was a small girl who had no special talents. She lived in a tiny seaside town and the most work she ever did was cleaning up after her housemate, who ran a mechanics shop and made sure she was safe and protected her whole life. She had never had to really do much in her life, and it was that innocence that made Eridan hate her so much. He wanted to make sure he was the one that would rip that virtue and virginity to shreds and see what she made of life then.

She was fighting for the very thing that Eridan despised and was out to rid the world of, but given the circumstances, he supposed they would have to work together. But if they were, they'd do it on his terms, and he made sure of that. After all, Eridan reasoned, he didn't walk around with the title of Captain for nothing. What was a lowly greenblood like her compared to him?

"Hm?" With that same lazy sort of smirk, Eridan leaned back in his chair, crossing his ankles on top of his desk. "How can I help you, katzchen?"

Once inside the private room, Nepeta visibly shuddered, looking away and making an odd face. "Stop with the names," she hissed, though the way her tiny nose bunched up and the way her voice squeaked out made it difficult for her to sound threatening. "We have to talk."

"Do we? I'm all ears, katzchen."

Nepeta sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, mumbling to herself, "I don't even know what that means and I don't like it…" Then, with a sterner face, she straightened up. "I mean—Yeah, we need to—"

"—Talk, I heard you the first time." Eridan fixed his position, his feet coming off his desk and his lazy look changing for something almost stern. "But first – you do realize you're not in a position to talk down to me, or 'get things straight' or 'finalize anything' or any of that shit, because at the end of the day, you're still my prisoner."

"Oh, sure," Said Nepeta, waltzing over lazily and putting a hand on his desk, her high-pitched voice laced with sarcasm. "Prisoner, moirail, really what's the difference?"

"You know what's real cute?" asked Eridan. His eyebrows pulled down, and he looked childishly perplexed as he wagged his finger to the ceiling. "That fact that you thought when I said 'deal,' I really meant it. I don't owe you anything. You could've pushed me out of that closet and told the princess everything, but you didn't. You could've denied the fact that you were doing anything, you could've made the world think that you, a poor, defenseless little kitten, were just being picked on and pushed around by big, creepy me—"

"And that's exactly what you are," growled the Leo, placing her palms firmly on the desk and leaning forward. "A creep!"

"—But you didn't." Eridan leaned forward, meeting her harsh gaze with a confident smirk. "You got yourself into this mess. When you think about it, I really didn't do anything."

"Cornering me in a dark alley and telling me you would help me, then trapping me in your boat is most certainly doing something!"

While Eridan was usually good at keeping his overly-confident façade up, sometimes that flicker of uncontrolled rage broke through, and hearing a lowly little peasant-girl yell in his face was not helping that rage stay inside. Quickly, he pushed his chair back, standing up fully, as on his feet he was a good much taller than Nepeta and he could tell she minded by the visible change in her expression. "Everyone fuckin' lies," He hissed. "Get used to it, Nep. People'll take advantage of you, hurt you, but if you don't fuckin' do anything and just take it you're just as bad as they are."

Nepeta's back straightened, as a curious expression passed over her features. Perhaps, the both of them though, this would be the moment where she would have to face her denial.

"Are you trying to make it look like this is my fault? That I'm here because of things that I did?"

"Good to know that you can follow simple logic."

The last time Nepeta had been this close to Eridan, he had been radiating a desperate sort of feel that made him, almost, not seem like such a bastard. It almost made him seem like a normal person. But here, in front of her, was the Captain wearing his other face, and his aura was one that almost made her scared.

Nepeta did what any cat would've done when confronted with something that made them uneasy: she scratched the offending thing clear across the face.

And if Eridan had been expecting anything, it sure as fuck wasn't that, so you can imagine he was caught quite off-guard, stumbling back and almost falling into his chair behind him. He cursed and sputtered in another that language that Nepeta didn't understand, but she was definitely the most confused in the room. She simply stood there in front of his desk, her eyes wide and her hand still up in front of her.

When she looked at it, she found her claw-weapons were still sheathed. She had only scratched him with her fingernails.

{What a fucking pussy.}

"You fucking—you scratched me?" While he was definitely mad, Eridan was more confused than anything. "Why the fuck did you scratch me?"

"Well," Nepeta sputtered, actually shrugging and looking away. "It just felt like the—uh, you were really close and I didn't like it so—"

"So you fuckin' scratched me? Christ, Nep, when was the last time you even cut your nails, those things are lethal fuckin' weapons, that hurt like a fucking—oh my God—I can't believe you fuckin'—"

Nepeta was, above all else, briefly amazed by two things about Eridan: that his aura could change from menacing to laughable in all of two seconds, and what a drama queen he was.

"I didn't even—that hard, and—oh, c'mere!" Flustered, Nepeta went around his desk and tentatively reached her arms out and tried to pry his hands away from his face.

"No," said Eridan, quite loudly, hunched over and turning his back to Nepeta like a stubborn child. "Gonna gauge my eyes out next."

"That's stupid," She hissed, yanking him over anyway. "Geez, don't be a baby."

"A Baby—just a second ago you were scared of me!"

"Yeah?" Almost gently, Nepeta dusted Eridan's tuft of purple hair away from his face and examined the welts across his features. "Actually, yeah, those're gonna sting for a bit. Hehe, guess I don't know my own strength!"

"Hehe!" Eridan barked, imitating her high-pitched laugh, his lips were jutting outward in a righteously undignified pout. When she removed his glasses from his nose, his face fell and a look Nepeta hadn't seen before crossed it. "What are you doing," he asked, quick and deadpan.

"'M not gonna hurt your glasses," She assured him, like a nursery-worker calming a grub.

Eridan's eyebrows pulled down stubbornly, his forehead wrinkling as he looked away sharply. "Good," he muttered, and he if had had enough room to stomp his foot and cross his arms, Nepeta was sure he would've.

"Stop moping!" If Eridan was going to act like a spoiled brat, Nepeta reasoned, then she would have to be the upset mother. "You act as if you expect an apology!"

"Well, yeah," He admitted, his eyes darting around the room for things to focus on. "Course I am, you—"

"Scratched you, I know—but you kidnapped me!"

Eridan reached up to absentmindedly trace the welts on his face, his lips tightly pursed together. "Well, yeah, but."

He said nothing. An uncomfortable silence fell upon their shoulders and Nepeta gave him a blank expression that made him feel like an idiot, a feeling he did not appreciate. "Still," he added, awkwardly.

"Still, nothing!" Nepeta stood on her tiptoes for a moment, angling her head and gracelessly sliding Eridan's glasses behind his ears and onto his nose. He would admit, she did look catlike, the way her eyes dilated with almost playful concentration, her nose twitching. "Uh," She mumbled, settling back into her normal height. "Never mind the talking, not like I'd get any—"

"Hey, Kitty," Called Gamzee, poking his head into the doorway of Eridan's room. "You got like, a message on your little phone thing."

In an instant, the so-close-to-being-nice atmosphere froze. The faces of Eridan and Nepeta instantly changed to surprised, Nepeta's eyes wide and her pupils small, and Eridan's brow creasing shockingly. The pair glanced at each other, and then Nepeta leapt over the desk and Eridan scrambled to get his glasses.

"Phone Thing," Eridan echoed, tossing his hat to the side, not even watching as it landed gracefully into a chair. "What other little goodies have you been hiding from me, Katzchen?"  

Still oblivious as to what Katzchen meant, Nepeta only scowled in response, quickly grabbing her device from Gamzee's hand and attempting to shove it into the pockets of her jeans. "'S not a little goodie, it's mine!"

"Uh-huh," Eridan said, reaching for it. "And you're mine. Following my logic?"

"Well," Said Gamzee, quietly, standing between them. "Whose am I?"

And Tavros, who had been steering the boat since neither Gamzee nor Eridan was around to do it, simply looked down upon his new friends, his eyebrows pulled down in worry. Briefly, Tavros considered how he wished he could just bake a cake for his friends, and he could fill it up with all the good things they loved, and they would all act like they did when Eridan and Nepeta were still in the docks. But then, it wasn't really his business. He just had a lot of feelings.

He was content to listen to the bickering of the Captain, First Mate, and Prisoner as he tried his best to steer the boat. Gamzee was usually the one to navigate, and the past three nights Tavros had known him he had only needed to glance up and look at the stars to know where they were. As it stood, Tavros was simply doing his best to be not-useless, which was always very difficult because he was, well, useless, but it didn't stop him from trying. Gamzee was the best friend he had had, well, ever, and he'd known him not even half a week.

However, the fact remained that he was indeed useless, and when the boat rocked upwards and hit an unknown something, Tavros felt a twinge of guilt. Partly because, oh, he'd never get this steering thing right, and partly because everyone got to watch as Nepeta's tiny little green mechanism fly out of her hands, bounce against the railing and flop into the ocean, where it didn't even float for a half a second before falling to the bottom of the ocean.  And as Nepeta looked at her now-empty hands with utter confusion, Eridan looked around, smiled wickedly, and from his lips slowly but surely bubbled up a nice little chuckle.

"Did you see that?" He said, walking up to the railing that Nepeta was bracing as she looked into the never-ending sea. "That was just—talk about bad timing, ya? Haha! That was priceless—shoulda seen your face!"

Nepeta let him laugh and jeer. Besides, she was too shocked and sad to be angry at his cackling in her ear.

"And I really," giggled the Captain, propping his arms on the railing. "I really think it's funny you could hide that from me for so long. I mean—that's actually... almost… clever!" Here, he playfully smacked Nepeta's back, patting once or twice before ruffling his own hair and sighing to himself. "It's just… it's just rich—Damn nice job you did on the railin', too—"

"Hey," Nepeta sneered, turning to glare at the captain, who almost jumped back at her sudden ferocity. "You know you coulda gotten to with that phone? Karkat. Know who was messaging me? Karkat. Isn't that just hilarious?"

Turning away dramatically, Nepeta marched past Gamzee and scampered down all of four miniature steps to get to the cabin room with her smelly hammock, and Eridan only stared at where she had stood.

It wasn't until after a silence had settled onto the boat, that Tavros dared to pry his lips apart and squeak, "Sorry!"





"I'm really sorry, Nep."

"Tav, really, you didn't mean it, and—"

"Yeah, but it still happened! It's all my fault."

Since Nepeta couldn't argue with that, she simply swung in her little hammock lazily, an indifferent expression on her face, and one hand almost scraping the wood of the cabin room.

"Wish you'da told me not to mention the phone," Gamzee murmured, dejectedly. "I wouldn't 've said anything if you…"

The silence that filled the room was depressing and miserable, and if Nepeta had to spend one more minute in it, she would just hurl herself off the boat right there.

"OK, you know what!" With a new, happy spring in her agile movements, Nepeta twirled in her hammock and swung her feet off the side, he lips painting a picture of glee to light up the atmosphere. "It doesn't matter! I mean, it's kinda obvious, isn't it?"

Her answer was silence. Standing up and dusting off her jeans, Nepeta's catlike eyes dilated in the dark, little green lanterns to light her way, and said, "There's only one other computer on the ship. I'll just have to borrow Eridan's."