jida | (no subject)

[ Of the few rules of operating within Rin's fleet, one of them is very simple: take no prisoners.

Unless the captain feels like it. And in this rare instance, Sousuke does feel like it. Usually he's perfectly content to put the survivors of a defeated ship on bits of flotsam and send them on their way. Someone would pick them up before long and Sousuke's crew could pick apart the remains of their ship at their leisure.

But then he's finally, after months of begging, let Momotarou take command of the cannons during battle. The results had been... rather predictable. Rather than systematically take out more and more of the ship's mobility until it was dead in the water Momo had focused too much firepower on the ships center, and a solid ram from the Sano had been more than enough to break the military vessel clean in half. Sousuke ultimately blamed himself. Momo had already been worked up over the fact that the navy ship had attacked them, rather than the other way around; he should have known better than to let him have his way.

Sousuke's position on his own ship as it lazily saws through the remains of the enemy frigate puts him near the other ship's bow, which allows him to see several very important things. First, that the captain is dead. Second, that the second in command is not. And third, that the second in command is very rapidly sliding down the sharply tilted deck as his half of the ship floods with water. And with their prize rapidly sinking, Sousuke decides that the next best thing to plunder from this outing is information.

So in a flash he's swinging on a rope (how dramatic), kicking off from the side of his own ship, and plunging halfway into the water to seize the flailing, brown-haired captain by the back of his shirt. He's laughing as he hauls him up. ]

Easy there, 'captain'! Flail too much and I'll have to drop you again!

Threaded | Flat

[ The idea of being dropped -- back into the water, back into the ocean, with no clear and definite sign of rescue -- is certainly enough to make Makoto stop flailing. In fact, he stops dead, wraps his arm around Sousuke, and lets out a noise that's half-hiccup, half-sob.

He is the worst sailor, the absolute worst, and he knows it; he's uneasy about swimming even at the best of times, when it comes to the ocean, but now? When his ship is sinking, when the waves are a little rougher than he'd like, when he might have to hope he finds a piece of wood to hold onto until he's rescued? He's not Haru and he doesn't think he could survive something like that. It's always a danger, when you're on a boat, but he was second in command -- there were a lot of risks he didn't have to take, anymore. And being attacked by pirates -- not even that, but attacking pirates first! Makoto hadn't wanted any part in it, had asked the captain to rethink the decision, but the man was adamant. And now he was dead for it, and Makoto felt a high degree of sadness (of guilt, of the sharp sting of surviving) over the entire thing, but more than anything was a desire not to end up the same way. ]

Please -- [ There's water in his mouth and salt in his eyes and Makoto just shakes his head a little, voice strangled and high and tight with anxiety. ] -- Please don't drop me! [ He sounds like he might die if Sousuke drops him.

He might actually die if Sousuke drops him. ]