stow it all away

Woomy hadn’t been talking to Blahaj for a while. Blahaj had been avoiding asking why, because on some level he already knew the answer. In the meantime, he had been searching for fish for the two to eat, and bringing it back to the island the two were hiding on. 

Woomy stayed huddled in the shadow of the island’s ‘cave’ made of gaps between huge boulders that barely gave shelter from the sun and the weather. They hadn’t been moving from their spot much, last Blahaj saw of them. Seemed like that hadn’t changed. 

Blahaj wordlessly tossed the fish he’d just caught onto the sand to flop around in useless panic, then sat down across from Woomy to coax fire out of the driftwood he’d left to dry in the sun that morning. He could feel Woomy’s eyes on him as he rubbed the stick between his hands, feeling more and more like this was all useless. 

“They’re dead, aren’t they? Our crew.”

Blahaj paused. “Probably not all of them.”

“Then we’d need to go check up on them.” Woomy’s frustration bled into their tone. “Or else we’d be known as deserters. We’d be taking a huge knock to our reputation.”

“I think we’re already deserters.” Blahaj muttered, not taking his eyes off the wood he was rubbing. 

“Do you care?” Woomy asked, their frustration not at all alleviated. “That all our time as pirates has now been knocked down to basically nothing? Proper might be dead?”

“Proper and I weren’t exactly best of friends.” Blahaj said sullenly. 

“The point isn’t friendship!” Woomy spat. “The point is rank and prestige! The point is to be respected so people don’t mess with you! What’s the point of friendship and relationships if they just take your agency and belongings away because that’s what you ‘owe’ to your ‘family?” It’s just a tactic to take advantage of gullibility!”

Blahaj half hesitated before he muttered, “So, we aren’t friends?”

Woomy fell silent, and Blahaj immediately regretted making this about himself. He had wanted to let out some of his own frustration, and it was just going to make it all messier. 

A movement towards the fish. Blahaj thought for a second it was seagulls and moved to slap them away, but it was Woomy, taking a raw fish and swallowing it whole. 

“I don’t understand you.” Woomy said quietly. “I can understand guys who aren’t thinkers, who thrive off following orders and getting a hard day’s work done. But you don’t enjoy the work needed to keep a pirate ship afloat. So, are you one of those drunken troublemakers, who want the pirates' glory and gold without the hard work? No, you still do your work, and it doesn’t seem like you do it for gold or much status. So, do you want friends? You don’t talk to people, you keep to yourself unless someone’s giving you work to do. The only thing I can think of is that you want to be friends with people, but you can’t get over your antisocial tendencies. So, Blahaj, if you want to be my friend, or anything else, I want to know who you are.”

“...Huh?”

“Who are you?” Woomy asked, looking Blahaj in the eye. “I don’t mean your name, I mean what do you want to achieve before the end of your life?”

Blahaj stared at Woomy, task of starting a fire thoroughly forgotten. “I don’t have anything like that.”

“Figure one out.” Woomy replied. “Quickly.” 

“Alright, I…uh.” Blahaj looked to the side. “Want to…eat a fish.” After saying that, he promptly took a fish, and ate it. 

“Can you possibly think a little bigger than that?” Woomy asked again. “Be as selfish as you want, by the way. I won’t judge.”

“I…” He swallowed the raw fish. “...wanna…” The fish kicked in his gut. “...get…” He looked around for something he wanted, anything that he could aspire to. His eyes slowly wandered across rocks, sticks, driftwood, sand, the ocean, the sky, and back down to the toto in front of him. “...married.”

Woomy blinked at Blahaj. “Married?”

“Yeah.” Blahaj stared back, trying to ignore the knot in his guts that probably wasn’t the fish.

“To…?” Woomy asked, with an oddly bemused tone. 

“T…to….oooooo…” Blahaj looked away. “Y…ou…?”

Woomy quirked their head to the side. “Am I that undesirable?”

“What?” Blahaj snapped his attention back to Woomy. 

“You sounded like I was pulling your teeth with that one.” Woomy sighed. “I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to marry me if you had other options.”

“No?” Blahaj felt hurt. “That’s not what I meant! If I didn’t wanna marry you, I wouldn’t have said anything!”

“What did you mean then?”

“I…!” Blahaj gripped the driftwood so hard he felt it might snap. “Never asked! Anyone! To marry me before! I don’t know! If you want to marry me! It’s a little selfish to just ask it! Out of the blue! Especially if you might not like me back! Because! I don’t understand you either! But! I! Want to! I want to know you before I die!”

Woomy was laughing. If Blahaj could blush, he’d be doing that right now. Could he? Was he, right now? He couldn’t know for sure.

“For…years, I think, I’ve only been making relationships for the purpose of moving up in the ranks of pirates. Before then, I was making relationships to get stuffy jobs from rich idiots. Now, what is there to gain? There’s no outside reason for either of us to want each other, no politics or gossip or drama. The only reason there could be is…love? I suppose?” Woomy chuckled, nervously. Blahaj had never seen them show any nerves at all, not once, not ever. 

“Ss…sso, do you…wanna marry me?” Blahaj asked, trying not to sound overly excited. 

Woomy giggled. “It’s supposed to be, ‘will you marry me?’”

“Whuh…ww…will you…?”

“Yes.” Woomy said, scooting next to Blahaj and resting their head on his shoulder. “I will.”

Blahaj sat, as though frozen in place. Then, slowly, he rested his head atop Woomy’s. Though it was only the two of them, as they snuggled together on that beach, for the first time they both felt that they weren’t alone.