Lyra's eyes locked on Nero's. Her puffy eyes demanded the answer he was too ashamed to give. "Hey why are you? I'm sorry about the old lady. I didn't think she would freak you out so badly".
She realized Nero's confusion on her point and repeated. "How do you know Kota?"
"Is this about his business with the pirates and the Peace Corp?"
"So you know. Get away. Get away from me and my family." Lyra shouted nero away and refused to look at him. "Anyone who is a friend of Krota can only be trouble." Lyra stomped away from Nero.
"Friend. I'm not Krotas friend. I was his bodyguard." Nero followed behind her.
"Bodyguard? Like that's any better."
"No." Nero rushed ahead of her and cut her off. "It was before I knew what he did and about his actual business. I thought he just sold weird plants and rare jewelry and he needed help. When I found out I put a stop to it all." Nero averted his eyes. "I didn't like how he had manipulated me. I sort of told him to leave this town. I didn't know he came back."
"Yeah well he did and you gave him a foothold into this port. Great job."
Flashback time. 9 months ago...
The morning sun shines over the head of a little old cottage on the edge of the woods. A home that sits close to the edge of a cliff overlooking the beach. The same cottage that Ouran, Lyra, and Quitum live now with the exception that their parents live with them too, a family of five. A Father, mother, daughter, and two boys make due with two rooms and too many heads under one roof to keep from butting.
"Hey where do you guys think you're going? Pick up after yourselves, I know I'm not raising some mannerless heathens." Lyra's mom scolds from the kitchen.
"Yes!" the children say in unison.
Lyra's dad looks at his wife. "Good one Ayala! We're not running a slave shift but we can bark orders just the same." He smiles gleefully and throws up a thumb. The Ayala rolls her eyes.
Ayala puts on her work boots and grabs her gloves and heads towards the front door. "All right I'm off to work now don't make any trouble for your father."
"Got it." Lyra and Ouran chime. Lyra and Ouran grab their plates and cups and head towards the sink. Quitum is still sitting down eating.
"Hope your not talking to me. Don't bunch me up with them." Quitum grumbles.
"You've got a glimmer of mischief in your eyes that's worse than any of theirs. Youre going to be the head of this family one day. They look up to you, so you're showing them that its alright to talk back and be disrespectful. You need to shake that attitude and start leading by example."
Ouran salutes his mother. "Don't worry. I'll keep him in check."
"That's more like it." She walks up and pats Ouran on the head then walks out the door.
The sun moves to the coast, dipping close to the water.
"Okay guys I prepared most of dinner. I'm off to work now. Don't cause any trouble for your sister Ouran."
"Oh, not that again." Quitum moans.
"Hahah. Just finish your studies." Quitums' dad chides and walks out the door and off to work.
While he's walking, he sees two pirates heading his way. He clinches his teeth then looks to the side but doesn't drop his head and shuffles to the side in an attempt to walk past them.
One of the pirates walks shifts to the side blocking him. "Hey brother. Do you have any spare change for the cause? We were kicked off our ship and don't have enough to even quiet our rumbling stomachs."
He looks the pirate in the eyes and his rage starts to bubble against his will. "Sorry, I have to get to work." He attempts to brush through in between the two guys but the other pirate grabs his arm.
"Hold it now. We're not trying to rob you. We just want whatever help you can give."
He looks down at his arm and up at the pirates again. "Feels pretty demanding." He tries to rip his arm free but the hold is too strong. "I don't have any help to give."
"Hey calm down man." The other pirate tries to pull the pirate off of him but he is pushed away.
"Just give us some money." The pirate furls his brows, frustrated he pulls him and grabs both arms. The pirate was at least half a foot taller than him and built. "Don't make me do something I don't want to do."
He persisted to struggle free at no avail. "I can't, make, you do anything."
Then a round house kick swings over the shoulder of the man holding father and into the pirates face. He Loosens his grip or loses consciousness and flies into the other pirate knocking him over.
"Hey!" The other pirate slaps his friends face. The man pushes his partner off of him and pulls out a knife.
"Quiram, are you okay." Ayala stands between her husband and the man with a knife. "If your hungry, work for it. Find a job and take pride in it. Do that and you'll never go hungry. Robbing and thieving, blaming your misfortune on others, is weak."
The pirate starts to walk towards the Quiram and Ayala. "You're the one who attacked us."
"Wait." The other pirate regains his consciousness. "Lets get out of here."
"What? You're just going to let her walk all over us." He says clutching his knife tight.
"We aren't thieves or killers. Now, help me up."
He reluctantly puts his knife away.
Ayala helps Quiram up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm late. I'll see you at home." He responds passive aggressively.
When he gets to work it's more hectic than usual. "Quiram, we're gonna need you to serve today." Della the restaurant owner says rhetorically.
"But I'm a chef?"
"Well our server joined a pirate crew." Della says sarcastically and ironically.
"Will I get paid more."
"Sure you can keep the tips."
Quiram brings the food to the table of pirates that look like they've already had too much to drink and should head out.
"What took you so long we're starving here." Says one of the pirates.
One of the guys looks up at Quiram and gives him a dirty look from across the table. Quiram makes eye contact with him for a second but sensing some danger in interacting with these men he casts his gaze around to the table as to address everyone, but no one for too long.
"Sorry a little short today." He says not actually addressing the mans question and not completely audible either. If the man hadn't said anything he would have still said the exact same thing. It was what he decided he would say when Della told him he would have to serve pirates.
Quiram never liked pirates and he never had a definitive reason why, he just didn't. He had made it up in his mind that the port had gone to shit since the pirates first stepped foot in it. He wasn't wrong but he also wasn't right. There were many reasons why the town had gone down hill, that wasn't the only one and it wasn't the biggest one.
Just them being in the same building and in eyesight, and ear shot made Quiram's blood boil. So he clenched his teeth and tried to just hand out the food with out making eye contact because if he did they would see the rage in his eyes instantly and he knew no matter what, weak as he might be, he wouldn't back down.
"Yeah like I was sayin', it's only thanks to the dock workers for bein' such cash cows. They're the reason the Peace Corp keep comin' back."
"Yeah if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have such a reliable source to unload our precious cargo. Hey that's mine, you gave him mine."
Quiram doesn't stop handing out the food.
"You take your time bringing us our food and... you know what?"
He grabs Quiram by his shirt and pulls him close. Quiram averts his eyes, clinches his teeth and balls his fists. He can't hold it in anymore.
"I said look at me." He jerks Quiram again and this time he loses his footing and is slammed into the table if he hadn't put his hands in front of him he would have slammed his face into the table. He knows that all of his rage is selfish. He hates himself for that and understands why he should keep these feelings bottled up. But He also hates that his children aren't able to experience the life he wanted them to have, he hates the pirates for that and right now the hate for the pirates was the only thing on his mind.
He reached up and grabbed hold of the mans hand clutching his shirt and looked into the eyes of the pirate. Quiram's brows were furrowed and his eyes stared coldly back into the eyes of the pirate.
"You little scrawny bastard." The pirate balls up his fist and swings it right into Quiram's nose sending his head flying backward and his body following. The pirate grabs on tight and pulls him in for another one and another one. His nose is broken. Blood is running into his mouth and down his chin.
"Hey man you gotta stop can't you tell he doesn't have much glow if he has any at all. You're gonna kill him then we'll be handing you over to the Peace Corp." Another pirate tries to calm down his crew mate.
The pirate looks back at his mate. "Was that a threat."
"Just leave it at that. Plus if this place shuts down too we'll have no choice pbut to eat The chefs shifty cooking."
"Hey! Fuck you." Says a crew mate that during all the commotion never payed it any mind and just stuffed his face.
"Well at best your meals are edible and that's on a really good day." He defends his statement, after forgetting he came with them.
"Well between you and me I ain't no chef, but it keeps me from having to do any hard work." He laughs and then goes back to stuffing his face.
The crew mate grabs his buddies shoulder. "Just let it go. It's not that big of a deal." The angry crew mate shrugs his buddies hand off his shoulder and shoves Quiram on the ground landing him flat on his back. The pirate then takes a seat and starts to eat the food. "Just get out of here."
Quiram rolls over and gets up onto his hands and knees and spits blood on the floor. He manages to barely stand up. He looks around but no one makes eye contact. They know better than to meddle in pirate business, it always ends badly. He stumbles past the tables and behind the bar passing the owner. He goes into the back and continues cooking.
Ouran and Quitum are at the table playing cards.
Ayala is sitting at the table with them reading a book.
Ouran looks down at his cards and back up at Quitum. Quitum is relaxed in his chair completely confident. He has Ouran right where he wants him. His arm is laying across the table the cards faced down.
Quitum is staring Ouran down but Ouran doesn't waver and glares across the table.
"I put up 4 Kuli tree nuts." He puts the tree nuts on the table and slides them to the center. Ayala looks up and tries to see Ourans cards but he hides them.
"Alright, I'm only trying to help."
"Are you sure? you don't look like you have much left." He looks at the rest of Ouran's Kuli nuts.
"if you're scared just fold already."
"You're the one that still sleeps with a doll. I mean how old are you?"
"Well mom said you still have yours."
Quitum looks at mom with a betrayed expression. "Mom!"
"Well I didn't want him to feel bad and you shouldn't either." Ayala reasons.
Ouran giggles from across the table.
"Oh you think that's funny huh. Alright I raise 15 Kuli nuts. How many you got over there?" Quitum glances at his pile.
Ouran looks down and mouths his numbers as he counts them "10." He says in a challenging tone.
"Looks like your all in huh. Unless you want to admit defeat and fold. Like a big baby. If you need to go grab your doll I can wait." Quitum teases
"Quitum, stop it." Ayala reproaches Quitum's treatment of his brother.
"Or I can get yours and hide it."
"Both of you stop it." She smacks Ouran on the back of his head.
"He started it."
Quitum laughs at Ouran. Ayala kicks him underneath the table. "That's enough."
Ouran pushes his Kuli tree nuts to the center of the table. Quitum smiles suspiciously. "Okay."
"Okay!" Ouran repeats angrily.
Quitum doesn't move to show his cards and neither does Ouran. "Alright let's see."
Ouran holds his cards to his chest. "You first."
"Same time."
The front door opens and father stumbles in. Ouran is the first to notice and throws his cards and he runs to the front door. Quitum looks over the table and sees his hand, it's a royal flush. He definitely didn't have a better hand than that one. He decides to put the cards together and shuffle them.
Ouran see's the bruises all over his fathers face and the dried blood around his nose and grabs onto him. "Dad, what happened?"
Quitum looks up and Ayala turns around in her seat. Ouran follows Quiram out of the dark living room and into the kitchen. As soon as the light touches his face Ayala gasps. "Oh my."
His face is bruised all over and dried up blood is all around his mouth and nose. There's blood in his hair down to his shirt. Ayala gets up and cradles his head in her hands. "Come here. Ouran go and grab me some water and a towel."
Ouran slowly steps away. "Okay."
"It's alright. Quitum help me and grab some alcohol from the cupboard."
"What happened?" Quitum looks at his father confused. Asking the question almost to himself out loud. His father wasn't a fighter he never even had much glow. He didn't even have enough to work on the docks like mom. The last thing he would ever do is get into a fight. He didn't even want mom to train them how to fight.
Ayala lays Quiram down in the bed and he groans a little.
"Who did this to you? Was it those pirates?" Quiram shakes his head. "Then what happened?"
Quiram looks away. Ouran and Quitum come in. Ouran hands her the bucket. Mom smiles.
"Ouran can you get me a towel."
Ouran smacks himself in the forehead. "Oh towel." He barrels out of the room almost running into Quitum.
"Quitum, can you pour him some into a glass. And leave the bottle by the bedside.
Quitum pours a glass and leaves the bottle on the night stand by the bed.
Lyra walks into the door way as Quitum is walking out. "Hey what's going on?" She asks groggily still half asleep.
Quitum stops in the doorway. "We don't know he just got home like this."
Ouran squeezes in between the both of them and hands the towel to the mother. "Here mom." Ayala takes the towel and washes Quiram's face.
They all fall asleep in the room together. Ouran is in the bed with Ayala and Quiram. Quitum and Lyra are sleeping on the floor with their backs against the wall. Quitum head is resting on Lyra's shoulder and Lyra's head is resting on Quitum's head. They are sharing a blanket draped over their shoulders.
Ayala is woken up by Ourans kicking and scoots closer to Quiram, accidentally bumping her head into his face. He grunts a little and she apologizes.
"it's okay."
"Did I wake you. Do you want another drink." She looks up at him but is unable to see his face in the darkness.
"No, I'm fine. I actually never went to sleep in the first place."
"You should have another drink."
"No, if I have another drink it will only make my thoughts even crazier."
"What do you mean? Quiram, what happened?"
"We were busy and short handed so Della asked me to help bring some of the food out."
"They were pirates?" She confirms out loud.
"Yeah and I guess wrong place. But shit I was so frustrated and helpless."
"Honey no..."
"No, I'm not the only one. Like they're making the rules, and we don't have a choice. And the Peace Corps not only sits back and watches they're the reason the pirates are here."
"What, that can't be true sometimes the Peace Corps even arrests pirates."
"Yeah, I know but I heard them right before, when they were talking. The pirates sell their stolen goods to the Peace Corps."
"What? That's not even possible. They're the Peace Corps, so stealing or even buying stolen goods is a crime."
"That's not all. The Peace Corps is only in town so they can recruit the dock workers. The stuff they get from the pirates is just the cherry on top. The dock workers are the reason they are here."
"What do you mean? They're stationed here for our protection."
"Yeah right that's their cover. Since they've gotten here, so many men and women have been drafted. More than ever before."
"They said all of this in front of you?" She gets up, bumping into his chin on accident. "Sorry."
"Yes! Ow! They aren't afraid of us. They don't have to hide anything from us."
"Just take it easy okay."
"Why? Since they got here how many valuable dock workers have been drafted?"
"I don't know. A lot I guess."
"We were distracted by all the mayhem the pirates were causing in town and we thought that was our biggest problem."
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know yet. I'm still thinking on it."
Quitum eyes are opened and he was listening to the conversation. Then his eyes close and when they open he looks over at the bed. There's no one in it.
Quitum gets up slowly, not trying to wake his sister, Lyra, but he does anyway.
She opens her eyes and then she squints her eyes really tight immediately after, because the sun is breaking right through the window. Into her face. "Where is everyone?"
Quitum shuffles away from her getting up. "I don't know. I just woke up and nobody was in here."
They both get up and walk out of the bedroom and into the kitchen.
Ouran is at the table drawing on a piece of scrap paper that his father gave him that he messed something up on.
Ouran hears Quitum and Lyra stumble into the kitchen. "Took you guys forever to wake up. Dads been up since before the sun but he said we got up just a little after that."
Ayala chimes in, "Yeah that's what he says."
Their father looks up from his sketches and smiles. "I just woke up a little early and didn't want to just lie in bed so I got up."
"...and grabbed your note pad? You haven't used that since Ouran was born." Ayala remarks.
"Well is there anything wrong with me using it?" He defends himself.
"It's just about what we talked about last night." She gives a concerned look across the table and grabs his arm.
"What?" Father returns with a confused smile.
"I just don't want you to put yourself in between."
"I'm not going to tell you I'm going to do nothing." Ayala takes a deep breath in and out. "...but I can promise you I'm not going to do anything dangerous."
He puts down the pen in his other hand and places his hand on top of Ayala's hand that's on his arm. She tilts her head to the side and smiles then bites her lip and looks away. Quitum is watching remembering what he heard the night before. Looking at the look on his fathers face then to the look on his mothers.
Ayala turns back to the kids Quitum and Lyra. "Sit down. I still have some time before I have to go to the docks I can make you guys some breakfast." Mom gets up and gestures for one of them to take her seat and sit down
Ayala makes breakfast and sits it in front of Lyra and Quitum. She then leaves the room and comes back changed into what she wears to the docks. She gives Quiram a kiss and Ouran a kiss and heads to work. Quiram sits at the table with Quitum and Ouran and Lyra. Lyra gets up and mouths to Ouran to come with her. Father sits with Quitum at the table. Quitum gets up and goes and grabs a fruit and peels it watching his dad. He offers his dad a piece. He takes it and tells Quitum to take a look at what he was doing. Quitum points at something on the page and father thinks about it. Then Quitum turns the page and takes out a piece of paper sits down next to Quiram and starts writing. Father gets up and looks over his shoulder and takes another piece of the fruit. when Quitum is finished he shows his father. Quiram puts the picture close to his face and smiles. He pats Quitum on the shoulder. Lyra and Ouran return with groceries in hand and Ouran has a toy. He asks Quitum to play with him and Quiram tells Quitum to buy him some more paper if he does go out. Quitum reaches into his pocket and pulls out lent. Father leaves the room and comes back with a box and gives him some coins out of it.
He hands them to the boys and they bolt out of the door. He continues working and after a while is interrupted by Lyra. He turns around and talks to her she gestures at the groceries she just bought and he gestures at the papers on the table and she yells at him and he puts his hands up and he comes over and gives her a hand they make a rabbit stew together he stops her every now and again and shows her the right way to chop and how to hold her hands when chopping and what size to chop what. He shows her how to skin the rabbit and and how to trim the fat.
When the food is all in the pot they put a lid on it and go sit at the table. Quiram starts to work on his project and in between here and there Lyra would show him the cook book she was reading and show him a picture he would nod and smile. She would get excited about making it, then she would get up and check the food. After doing this about four times she calls her father over and he tastes the food and looks at her surprised. Then she looks at the food with pride and he puts his arm around her and hugs her and kisses her on the top of the head.
Lyra goes out of the room. Father runs out of paper and sits and waits and becomes impatient and looks at the wall and grabs a pencil and walks over to it and starts to write on the wall. Lyra walks back into the room. Her and Quiram both acknowledge each other. Lyra stops in her tracks and Quiram mouths a question. She then just continues to walk and tend to her rabbit stew. When Ayala walks into the room, she throws her hands to the sides and yells at him. He is startled and runs to the other side of the table when she starts walking towards him. She's yelling at him when Ouran, Quitum, and Frander return home. They walk into the room and Quiram storms over to them and puts his hand out and Quitum smacks himself on the forehead and Frander laughs. Then Quiram says something and emphasizes his extended hand and Quitum returns some of the money. Quiram gives Quitum a look and Quitum walks out of the room followed by Frander. Ayala chases after him.
Quitum runs into Lyra and she explains what happened and points at the wall. Quitum and Frander and Ouran look at it and break out laughing. Lyra prepares some steamed rice to eat with the stew. Ayala walks in while Quitum is laughing with his friend and says something that makes him completely shut up. She looks at Ouran and he walks out of the room. Quitum puts his hands in front of him and then she looks and tells him something and walks out. He turns and looks at the Frander and he starts laughing. Quitum grabs a piece of paper and copies it onto some paper he finds next to the trash that Ouran was drawing on. Frander takes a seat at the table. After Quitum is done writing it all down he walks over to the sink grabs some soap and a rag and wipes down the wall until there is nothing left. He steps back and stares at the wall satisfied. Lyra walks over to the door and yells out then walks back to the stove. Quitum goes to the table and sits down and talks with his friend. Ayala and Ouran walk in and Frander stands up. Ayala puts her hand on his shoulder she tilts her head and he laughs and looks at Lyra. Then he backs out slowly. Ayala looks at Lyra and Lyra looks away out the window. The camera goes out the window and back into it as someone leaves the kitchen and turns the lights off.
Then a dark figure walks across the room and turns the lights on. It's Quiram. He puts the papers together and goes though them one by one and laying some out. Then after he's gone through the whole stack he picks up each sheet of paper and spends time looking it over and puts it down and picks up the next sheet. Then he puts the separated sheets of paper into a pile and gets up and throws the other pile in the trash and turns off the light.
The sun rises into the kitchen. Quitum and the Ayala are up first and in the kitchen then comes Lyra. Ouran slowly walks into the kitchen barely awake and sits at the table. By this time breakfast has already been made and Ayala serves everyone at the table and turns and yells at the ceiling then waits and then yells at the ceiling again then walks over to the table and prepared two more plates. She grabs one and takes a seat. They all stay to finish eating. Quitum finishes eating first, then Lyra finishes and she grabs their plates. Ouran finishes and squeezes in between her arm. When he tries to tip it into the sink she raises her arm instinctively but before it falls in Lyra grabs it. She looks down at him and frowns and he appears to say something snarky back. Lyra drops her elbow on his head. Ouran steps back and rubs his head and turns around with a tear in his eye and yells at his mom. His mom yells at Lyra. Lyra turns to face the mom gestures at Ouran and yells at her. Then Ouran reaches his arm back and smacks his sister on the back. It makes a loud sound. Quitum looks up and mom turns around. Lyra reaches her hand around to her back to try and rub away her pain. Mom gets up and grabs Ouran by the arm and drags him out of the room. Lyra goes back to cleaning dishes and Quiram walks into the room sees the plate and grabs it, sliding it towards an open seat at the table. He looks over at Quitum and says something. Quitum gestures with his head towards Lyra and Quiram whips his head quickly at Lyra and says something to her. She pushes her arms down against her side and yells and storms out. Quiram looks at Quitum and Quitum smiles. Quiram then looks away and shakes his head. He then starts to eat and Ayala walks into the room saying stuff. She walks over to Quitum and kisses him in the forehead. Then walks over to Quiram leans in, kisses him on his lips, and Quitum looks away. She walks out of the room and Quiram follows her with his eyes. He turns around with a smile on his face, and says something to her as she walks out the door.
Quiram turns back around and looks at Quitum then reaches for the papers that he put in the middle of the table the night before. He hands them to Quitum and he looks over them. Quitum lays them out on the table gets up and leaves the room and Ouran walks back in. Ouran sits at the table and doesn't look straight at his father. Quiram starts talking to him and yells at the ceiling then Lyra walks into the room. Quiram stops eating and looks from Lyra to Ouran and then Ouran gets up and hugs his sister. When they hug, Quitum walks into the room with a book and laughs. Lyra yells at him and then walks over to finish cleaning. Ouran goes over with her, grabs a stool, and places it on the side of her. He dries what she cleans, steps down after its dry, and places it in the cabinet.
Quitum brings the book over to the table and compares what's in it to what's on the sheets of paper and decides on one. While he's taking a look at the papers and the book. Frander walks through the door and Lyra turns around and smiles takes a step forward and stops. Araechna walks in after him and Lyra smiles at her and then turns around and continues washing dishes. Frander and Araechna walks over to the table where Quiram and Quitum are. Quiram and Quitum exchange a few words then Quiram leaves the room. Quitum and Frander continue talking. Araechna looks over her shoulder and watches Lyra clean dishes for a while. Quiram walks back in and looks at Araechna. He looks at Lyra and asks her to get her something to drink. Quiram looks over to Frander and asks him if he wants anything to drink. Frander puts up a hand instead, waving away the offer. Quiram walks over to them and explains that he has to work and could they go and get him some parts.
The next week he affixes a lever pulley system on the side of the cliff. Quiram places a boat on the bottom and pulls it up increasing the weight over time. Quitum helps him. The crank falls because it's too heavy for the cliff. They come up with a solution for the cliff to make sure it can withstand the weight.
They come back with a new and improved pulley system. It shows a shot of how well it is placed in the ground. They have placed two to insure that it can carry a large boat.
Quiram asks a few of the burly port workers to sit in the boat at the bottom. "Are you sure these things are going to be able to lift this boat? It's got 10 men on it." One of the men asks.
"It should!" Quiram yells looking over the edge of the cliff, then looks over to Quitum. "Ready!"
Quitum nods his head. "Yeah. It's on tight."
"Don't worry these things can lift a boat two to three times the size of that boat. Look you're boat already has the hooks and is built to withstand the strain of being lifted. Instead of the dock workers it's just going to be lifted by these things. No labor involved."
"We only came for the free drinks you promised. Nothing's going to happen to my boat, right?"
"My sons on that boat as well." Quiram chucks a thumbs up and Quitum returns it. Quiram pulls a lever until it pops and makes a noise, then runs to the other pulley and does the same. Then the pulleys go to work and begin to slowly pull up the boat until it's out of water.
The guys on the boat with Quitum, can't believe this machine can do this all by itself. Quitum watches them with a look of satisfaction on his face. Then he looks up at his dad and they both start laughing.
"Your dad is the pulley system guy." Nero asked interrupting her story.
"Yeah, why?" She asked slightly vexed.
"Because, I've met your dad before." He revealed.
"What do you mean you know my father?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thanks for reading!