Page 16 of Suffer No Fools
"Aye, quartermaster. What'll you do about it?"
For a moment, Vadim looked like he would cry. He even wiped the corner of his eye. "Nothing, since you're my crew. I only inflict punishment on the enemy. Captain's orders."
"That's an important distinction." Stan threw a thick arm around Tovey's shoulders and pulled him to his side, as much a show of protection as it was a gesture to keep Tovey warm in the blustery wind. "What were you thinking?" Stan whispered in his ear.
"He's crew," Tovey said. "Moreso now than he was before. I was welcoming him."
Stan nodded to Vadim. "You already know how I feel about your leadership."
"It's shitty, which is why I begged Efren for a spot on his ship."
"Aye. No one would dare sail with you after your first ship sank in less than a half-hour."
"Who was to blame for that?"
"We were!" Tovey slipped his arm around Stan's waist to counterbalance and turned them around toward the stairs to the main deck. "We'll see you at dinner."
"See you then," Vadim responded.
"That was almost civil," Stan said.
"I can be civil." He could also learn to forgive people. Yes, Vadim had left a gaping hole in their defenses when he'd leftStarlight Specter,but he'd more than made up for it in the last month since he'd been back.
Tovey's opinion of Vadim had improved the most when Hugo had dropped down from the sky alive and well. Vadim hadn't brought Coryn to justice, not yet, but they had a chance to free the empire of her oppressive rule once and for all.
"I told Hugo we would let him know when we were ready for dinner," Stan said. "Together?"
Tovey was relieved he'd only needed to explain it once. He couldn't justify it, even to himself, and if Stan asked him to explain, he couldn't. There was no rule that said Stan belonged to him, or that Stan and Hugo wouldn't be perfect for each other. Tovey needed to see it for himself.
"Together."
It would be easier for Tovey to let Stan go if he saw him happy with someone else. He hoped Hugo was the closure they both needed to put their broken relationship behind them.
"What's that sound?" Stan whispered when they reached the doorway in the partition.
"Oh no." Hugo was exactly where Tovey had thought he was, on his sail bed, but he was not sleeping. Stan lunged for the doorway at Hugo's first soft moan.
"No, big guy," Tovey whispered. He wrestled Stan around and planted his back against the partition with an air weave. "You'll embarrass him."
"He's hurt!" Stan tried to move toward the door.
Tovey walled him in with an air weave thicker than the planks behind him. "He's not."
Another soft moan drifted to them through the thin wall. "Are you sure?"
"His heart rate is elevated." Tovey had better hearing than Stan did, but he walked Stan through a few calming breaths, and then they both heard the sound of Hugo's flesh slapping flesh.
"Oh, gods." Stan heard it. Worse, he must have been able to smell it. "He's using the massage oil Klaus brought him."
"That is its purpose," Tovey whispered. "He sounds so fucking sad by himself. We should help him."
"Not until he asks."
Tovey wanted to argue, but Stan had been right to question what Hugo wanted. Perhaps the emperor didn't need Stan and Tovey to find his joy. He had his own hand and the books Klaus had given him, and apparently, that was enough.
Chapter 3
Hugo
