SEASICK

72- Vision of Red

"We won't be here long, in and out. Understand?" Kazumi spoke, arms crossed with his back to the group as the crew lowered the gangplank.

Alana stood back, by Leven, not hearing a single word Kazumi just said as she stared holes into the back of Ivo's head. If he could feel the intense stare he never gave tell, he never looked her way.

"Aw, Captain, don't be so harsh. Ekapan is such a nice place. In fact, I hear there is a fi—" Leopoldo began but the sudden glare Kazumi shot his way made even him bite his tongue.

A sudden nudge in her arm gave Alana a start, snapping out of her daze she looked down to Leven who had just elbowed her.

"You excited?" He questioned.

Her brows pulled together. "Huh?"

Leven looked from her to the lowering plank. "You get to see your brother, that should cheer an idiot like you up." Leven practically murmured, as if he was worried the others would hear.

"Oh," Alana grinned softly. "I suppose."

"Weren't you yapping about wanting to be with family?" Leven quite boldly insisted.

"Brother," Leopoldo snapped.

It was the first time one of them had casually mentioned that night. It went unnoticed, as Leven's question had caught everyone off guard, but Ivo's entire body tensed at the memory of that conversation. He took a long, quiet deep breath in and released it just as steadily.

"What?" Leven scoffed, he played dumb, but he had his reasons for bringing it up.

Alana cleared her throat a bit, trying to formulate exactly how to respond if she did at all.

"Um," She shakily began, shaky but confident. "I haven't seen my brother in so long, it is like getting to know a whole new person, but at the same time, he is someone I've known my whole life. He left as a teenager, and now I meet him as a man. It is a different sort of excitement."

Alana felt good about her answer, it was the truth. They were both so young when he left, and so much has changed, she was excited to meet the man her brother has become, the king.

The loud slap of wood hitting stone made Alana jolt and gave her hope the conversation was over. Though, an unexpected voice interjected.

"So, you lost contact with your brother for—however, many years and coincidentally find him midst a bar fight in a foreign land." Kazumi more so stated than questioned, never looking back as he began to make his way down the gangplank.

Alana took hesitant steps following the group off the ship.

"Six, six years." She offered. "But we didn't lose contact, we wrote each other often, but a letter is not the same."

Why are we talking about this? Is that interesting? Alana thought as she carefully treads down the steep wood.

"Why?" Leopoldo now spoke, a hint of suspicion behind his sweet tone. "Why were you separated? He just up and left?"

Alana's heart began to beat faster, for a reason she couldn't say. She felt guilty and cornered for no true reason. She was terrified of saying the wrong thing, what if her lies are exposed with one answer.

"He... I suppose. It was quite sudden. I didn't know he was gone until three days had passed."

Leven now had an odd twang in his heart, with furrowed brows he half turned to look at her. "How could you not notice your brother missing for three days?"