Vistus

“Oh, no...” Akorri mumbled. “I didn’t plan for this...”

“Plan for what?” Lae asked. She smirked as she watched the Fillian clutch his stomach, his head bowed.

“Ugh. That’s it, then.” Akorri ignored her and tried to raise his head but ended up staggering as the ship rocked. “Oh, crap. I think I might–”

“Aim it at the sea, not me!” Lae stepped back and waved her hands frantically towards the vast stretch of water they were now sailing on.

The Dragonferry was an incredibly extravagant ship. True to its name, it was shaped like a dragon, though a winged one rather than a sea one. Lae thought that was a missed opportunity. The inside was no less spectacular; there were several decks, each one with its own restaurant, cafe and other facilities. Lae even spotted a game corner on one deck. Large windows lined the walls, giving a view of the sea and other passing ships. The carpeted hallways on each floor had doors leading to the outer deck so passengers could enjoy the sea breeze as they sailed.

Lae and Akorri were standing on such a deck, at the rabbit’s insistence, of course. Akorri had wanted to stay inside and suffer, but Lae figured a bit of fresh air would do him good. She was regretting that decision now.

“This is how it ends,” Akorri went on, holding the railings tightly. “I’m going to drown in my own vom–“

“Seriously, stop!” Lae winced. “Didn’t Feri tell you we’d be getting to Greenglade by sea? Actually, hadn’t you figured that out yourself? Havran’s a completely different region after all. Stands to reason you gotta cross the sea to reach it.”

“This is the first time I’ve travelled by sea,” Akorri muttered. His brown face seemed pale. “I didn’t know this would be a problem.” He could barely manage a frown as he looked at her. “Why aren’t you seasick?”

“Guess my stomach’s stronger.” Lae stuck her tongue out at him. Perhaps she was enjoying his discomfort a bit too much, but given how rude he had been earlier she didn’t care.

“Ugh.” Akorri looked back at the sea, slumped over the railings. “I shouldn’t have agreed to come...”

“You keep saying that.” Lae furrowed her brow. “Am I that much of a drag to hang out with?”

“Yes.” Even in his incapacitated state Akorri could still be mean. Lae rolled her eyes. “The sight of you is what’s making me seasick.”

“Haha.” Lae gave him a flat look. She figured he didn’t mean it this time. “In that case I’ll leave you to hurl out your lunch. I’m going to see if there’s any cool stuff in the gift shop.”

“They have a gift shop on board?” Akorri’s ears pricked and he looked at Lae with wide, shining eyes. It was as though those words had dispelled his sickness.

“Uh, yeah.” Lae blinked at the sudden transformation. “It’s on the second floor. You didn’t see it?”

“I was too busy trying not to notice the ship rocking.” Akorri winced.

“Do you... wanna check it out?” Lae hadn’t expected him to be interested in gifts. As far she knew he didn’t have anyone to buy gifts for except for Feri and Kiyake. Maybe he wanted something for himself?

“Um, yes.” Akorri cleared his throat and stepped back from the rails, suddenly revitalised. He held his head high and flicked his tail in excitement. The change was remarkable.  Lae didn’t know whether to find it weird or amusing.

Lae and Akorri went back inside, sighing as the indoor air warmed them. It had been a bit chilly outside with the wind blowing. They headed for the gift shop, Akorri still stumbling about despite his newfound energy. Lae wasn’t sure she would buy anything, but she found it fun to look around.

The shop itself was actually smaller than it looked from outside. There were rows of food, drink and miscellaneous objects lining the room, with people shuffling about trying to find what they were looking for. There was enough space to move around, but Lae found herself squeezing through a few crowds as she explored.

“Akorri, look!” she said, pointing at a packet of sweets. “They have Flowerberry gummies! How cool is that?” She had eaten a pack once in Tananshia, but they rarely stocked it. Apparently Havran was known for its gummies, some of which came in strange flavours such as Flowerberry.

“I’d rather not look at the food,” Akorri muttered and put a hand to his stomach. Lae watched as his gaze trailed over to the souvenir section. There was an abundance of shiny items there and she found herself drawn to them as well, but she had to wonder why Akorri took an interest in them. Maybe he was the type to buy souvenirs from every place he visited? Lae had considered doing the same, but thanks to the sheer number of locations she’d travelled to her house would be filled to the brim with souvenirs with little room for anything else.

She left Akorri to go look at the souvenirs as something else caught her eye. A row of clothing items, some of which appeared to be very modern. Far too modern for Havran. Were these Nemon imports? Lae’s eyes widened when she saw one of the hooded jumpers. It was pale brown and fluffy to the touch, but what really made it interesting was the hood itself. Or rather, the long rabbit ears drooping from it. It was quite cute. Come to think of it, Akorri liked to wear hooded clothing, didn’t he? What would he say about this jumper?

Grinning excitedly, Lae took the jumper off the hanger and rushed to the till. Akorri would have a nice surprise waiting for him once he was done perusing the shop himself. She wasn’t entirely sure if she’d bought it to be mean to him or not, but she figured not even he could deny that he needed extra clothes.

She waited for him outside the shop, swinging her bag around. She almost slapped him in the face with it once he emerged, just barely stopping the motion. “Ah!” she gasped, clapping her hands together. “Did you get anything?”

“No,” Akorri said with a shake of his head. “Oh, you did?”

“Yes!” Lae gave him the bag. “It’s for you! Take a look.”

“You... you got a gift for me?” Akorri stared at her with an unreadable expression. She couldn’t tell whether he was touched or annoyed. He was probably just puzzled at the gesture considering their animosity towards each other.

“Take a look,” Lae urged again.

Akorri peeked inside the bag and immediately gave her a flat look. “Seriously?”

“Seriously!” she chirped. “This’ll keep you warm in the cold months. It’s probably even warmer than your cloak!”

Akorri raised an eyebrow and stared at her, but before he could say anything there was some commotion coming from inside the gift shop. His expression changing to panic, he grabbed Lae’s arm and rushed her away into the closest room, which just so happened to be the bathroom.

“Dude, what the hell?” Lae yanked her arm free. What was Akorri doing, leading her in here? Was he planning something? She’d heard stories of people taking their significant others into the bathroom to do ‘things’ together. “Nuh-uh,” she said, shaking her head firmly. “No way.”

“Th-this has nothing to do with that!” Akorri protested, his face lighting up. Clearly he had the same train of thought. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting this to happen so quickly... I’m gonna have to level with you.”

“At least buy me dinner first or something,” Lae mumbled.

Akorri paused, his face flushing before he tried to regain his composure. “I said it’s not like that! Shut up and listen.”

Lae snickered. Teasing Akorri was fun. “Go on.”

“I just stole something from the gift shop.”

Lae stared at him for a few moments. What was that? What did he do? No way. He couldn’t have done that. No way. “You what?!”

“Shh!” Akorri waved his arms wildly. “Keep your voice down or people are gonna think something bad’s going on in here!”

“Something bad is going on in here!” Lae protested. “You stole! From a shop!”

“All right, that is pretty bad, I’ll admit...” Akorri rubbed his head, his ears twitching. “But I couldn’t help it. It was so shiny...” He swallowed as Lae glared at him. “I know, that’s a terrible excuse. It’s not like I actually needed to do it. But...”

“Oh, by Vacerus’s tail!” Lae felt a strong desire to slap some sense into Akorri, but she settled for the less violent option of grabbing his shoulders and shaking him instead. “We’ll deal with your excuse later. Right now we need to get you out of this mess.”

“Y-you’ll help me?” Akorri raised his eyebrows.

“Yes.” Lae frowned. What Akorri had done was terrible, but she couldn’t afford to have him accosted on this ship. They were on a mission after all. “Do you think their security suspects you?”

Akorri swallowed again. “Possibly... I was the last one to leave the shop before they noticed something was missing, so...”

“In that case, we’ll just need you to hide out for a while.” Lae removed her hands from Akorri and folded her arms. That seemed like a reasonable idea.

“There’s nowhere to hide on this ferry,” Akorri retorted, “Security’s gonna search every nook and cranny until they find me...”

“Well, there is this bathroom. There’s no way security’s gonna barge into a locked stall.” Lae shrugged. “You’re okay to stay here ‘til we dock?”

“I can’t stay in a bathroom stall for two hours!” Akorri’s eyes widened. “People are gonna start wondering...”

“Security would probably be suspicious of a stall that’s been locked for two whole hours.” Lae had to admit her idea was flawed. What other option did they have? “Do you think they got a good look at you before you left?”

Akorri sighed. “Yeah, probably.”

Another plan slowly formed in Lae’s mind. It was rather lacking, but there was still a chance it could work. If the security guards had seen Akorri, that meant they knew what clothes he was wearing. But what if he changed his outfit; would they recognise him then?

“Hey, Akorri...” Lae looked down at the bag. “What if you undressed?”

Akorri stared at her. He said nothing. He blinked. Then his eyes widened as his cheeks lit up. “E-excuse me?!”

Lae had to take a moment to register the reason for such an outburst before she realised how her request might have sounded. She couldn’t help snickering. “Sorry, I meant, what if you changed clothes? And maybe messed up your face a little? That way they won’t recognise you.”

Akorri gave her a flat look, though his cheeks were still a bit red. “Are you suggesting I beat myself up?”

“No, I meant like, change your appearance. Here, put this on.” Lae took the hooded jumper out of the bag and tossed it at him. “Put your cloak and stuff away so they won’t know it’s you.”

“You think that’ll get past them?” Despite Akorri’s obvious incredulity he complied, quickly removing his cloak.

“It might. It’s worth a shot.” And I want to see you wearing my present, Lae thought, but if she said that he would immediately stop listening to her.

Akorri seemed to hesitate after he took his cloak off, since his shirt was the next thing to remove. Lae waited expectantly, but since he still wasn’t moving she decided not to embarrass him further. She didn’t know he was the type to be self conscious about his body, but that was the one thing she wouldn’t tease him about, so she turned away. She heard a muttered “thanks” behind her as Akorri undressed.

“Okay, you can turn back around,” the Fillian muttered after a while. Grinning with excitement, Lae whirled around to look at Akorri.

The jumper was quite big for him. It was purposefully baggy, but even so it was still too large; Lae couldn’t even see his hands through the sleeves. His head was mostly covered by the beige hood, though his red eyes were clearly smouldering with irritation beneath it. She could see the rabbit ears behind his head; they looked almost like locks of hair.

In short, he looked ridiculous.

“Don’t laugh,” Akorri ordered.

“I wasn’t gonna...” Lae barely stopped herself from giggling. “You look cute.”

Akorri glared at her, but before they could do anything else there was a knock at the door.

“Crap!” Lae gasped. “No time to waste, we gotta get out. Oh no. What if they assume we were ‘doing something’ because we’re both in here?” Her face burned at the thought.

“We’ll have to deal with it.” With a resigned sigh Akorri unlocked the door and stepped out. Not daring to look around, Lae shuffled out behind him, radiating heat as she stared at the floor. This was humiliating.

Luckily for her there were no comments made, and the two of them were able to grab seats in the hallway. They sat in a booth, staring out at the sea through the big window. Akorri made sure to keep his face turned away from anyone suspicious that might be passing by.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook,” Lae whispered once she was sure the immediate danger had passed. Nobody had checked on them yet, though she could hear people asking around for ‘a boy in a black cloak’. “You have to return what you stole.”

Akorri sighed deeply. “I know. There was no way I was gonna get to keep it after telling you...”

“Don’t act so nonchalant about it! Don’t you feel even a little guilty?”

“This is something I’ve been doing for years.” Akorri’s voice was quiet. “I’ve kind of forgotten I’m supposed to feel guilty about it.”

“You stole something for the hell of it,” Lae hissed. “This isn’t like being too poor to afford food or whatever. You did this for fun!”

“Yeah.” Akorri hung his head. At least Lae seemed to be getting through to him. “But I think it’ll be a bit of a problem if I take it back myself...”

“Do you think they’ll let you go if you fess up?” Lae suggested.

Akorri winced. “I don’t want to risk it.”

“True. We don’t need them taking legal action even after this trip is over,” Lae said. She wasn’t entirely sure how security worked in these matters since she had never stolen anything, but if there was even a chance of Akorri being held back she didn’t want to risk it. “What if I return it? I’ll just say I found it on the floor or something. Hopefully they won’t suspect anything.”

“Can you lie to them like that?”

“... Maybe.” Lae was the first to admit she was not the best liar. Not telling the truth always made her feel guilty, not to mention she couldn’t hide her emotions very well. “But I’ve gotta try. I need you around after all.”

Akorri blinked. “So you’re admitting it?” There was no scorn in his voice. He actually seemed a bit taken aback.

“Yeah. If I leave without you I’ll never hear the end of it from Feri.” Lae stood up.

“Oh, right. Yeah.” Akorri cleared his throat.

Laerya held out her hand expectantly. Begrudgingly, Akorri took the item from the jumper’s pocket and quickly placed it in her hand. Both of them made sure no one was around to see this exchange. Lae took the object; a small glass leaf which shone brightly in the sun’s light; and closed her fingers around it. With a deep breath, she left Akorri and made her way to the gift shop, steeling herself for her encounter with authority.

There was a security guard standing just outside the shop. He was a tall brown wolf man dressed in a black suit, his sharp eyes narrowing as he saw Lae approaching him. “Yes?” he asked, his voice deep as he addressed her.

“Uh...” Lae swallowed nervously. She wasn’t usually afraid of figures of authority, but there was something intimidating about this guard. Maybe it was the fact that she was about to lie to him that set her on edge. “I, uh... I saw an item on the floor and, uh... I mean, it was leaf... I mean...! Oh, dear Vacerus.” This was going terribly.

The wolf raised his eyebrows with interest, prompting her to continue.

Laerya exhaled slowly and tried again. “I saw this on the floor.” She tried to still her shaking arm as she presented Akorri’s stolen item to the guard. “I don’t know if anyone bought it, but since it was just lying there I thought... Why not return it, right...?” She managed a smile, which she hoped was disarming. It probably wasn’t.

“You just saw this on the floor?” The guard’s hard gaze shifted from Lae to the leaf and back again. “Are you aware we’ve been looking for this? This is a stolen item.”

Lae’s blood ran cold. Was he suspecting her? Oh no, he was, wasn’t he? She was being so obvious. Oh no. She shouldn’t have done this. She couldn’t lie her way out of anything if security questioned her further. She was going to tell the truth and get Akorri in trouble. Oh no. What if she also got in trouble? How was she going to explain this to Fericeus? What if he was so ashamed of her that he cut her off– 

“That being said, since it is now in our possession once more, I wouldn’t worry about it.” The wolf guard took the item from Lae’s trembling hand and smiled at her. “Thank you for returning it to us.”

Lae’s eye twitched as she attempted a smile.  “It’s no problem,” she croaked.

The guard’s smile widened and his eyes narrowed further. “Please tell your young Fillian friend not to do anything like this again.”

Lae’s mouth dropped open. She could barely believe what she had heard. There had been absolutely no need for this entire charade. “Will do...” She stared at the guard, dumbfounded. “Um... thanks for letting him off...”

“I’ve dealt with plenty of shoplifters on here before. They usually return the items once they realise there’s nowhere to run on a ferry.” The guard shrugged. “Did you honestly think such a transparent disguise would work?”

“Well... I just wanted to see what he looked like with the jumper, honestly...” Lae rubbed her head. “Um, sorry for bothering you. I’ll be going then.”

The wolf guard nodded and waved her off.

Laerya nodded her goodbye and rushed back to Akorri, still reeling from shock. Once she was done explaining the situation to him she was calm again; calm enough to appreciate his rabbit disguise. She collapsed into laughter, causing Akorri to scowl and look away with a huff.

“Please keep wearing it,” she begged, “it really does make you look cute.”

“Oh, just shut up.” Yet even as he shot down Lae’s request, he kept the hood on.

“Look on the bright side.” Lae leaned forward in her seat. “At least you’re not seasick anymore!”

At that, Akorri immediately paled, as if he just remembered where he was.

Lae’s smile stayed as she watched him try to reign in his nausea, but she wondered why Akorri had started such a mess in the first place. Why exactly had he stolen something from the shop? There was something shifty about him, and Lae was sure that, in time, she would find out exactly what his problem was.