A Merfolk's Tale

Chapter Fourteen

Never in his life had Eiji saw Shoto so mad that the moment the prince stepped into the deck and witnessed the fight that broke out, Eiji made a small whimper and unconsciously stepped back as the vibe around his cousin changed from a friendly one to a cold one that awfully reminded him of King Enji's anger.

"Stop this!" Tenya had yelled as the other guards pulled the ones involved in the fight away from the poorly beaten up blonde.

Eiji saw Katsuki about to fall and had run just in time to catch him and gasped when he saw the blonde's situation up close-- right eye was swollen, his cheek turning blue from the bruise as blood ran down his nose and mouth. The blonde kept eye contact with the prince but he could tell that Katsuki was starting to doze off from the beating he received.

"Y-your highness...!" One of the guards said as they trembled and knelt before Shoto who had just been standing on the deck, silently witnessing the fight with anger radiating from him.

"Tend his wounds," Shoto ordered the other guards, pertaining to Katsuki who had fallen unconscious. "Bring the rest down below deck. You are to not come out until daylight when I have dealt with your actions for starting a fight,"

Ochako was still sobbing as the other guards carefully brought Katsuki below deck to tend on his wounds but were stopped when Shoto had called her.

"You must understand that I do not tolerate trouble makers," Shoto told her and the brunette nodded as she wiped her tears away. "We took you in this ship to keep you safe but if your brother won't help with that then he will face charges. Don't think that I've forgotten about how he almost killed Eiji at first meet and now starting a fight like this, startling the other passengers and disrupting the peace among the ship. A third offense would mean him being shipped off the voyage, even if it means tying him down on the Skiff and let him float aimlessly on the ocean,"

Shoto didn't wait for any response as he turned and left while Eiji lightly put a hand on Ochako's shoulder and smiled at her apologetically. "Sorry 'bout him. Most days he's harmless,"

"N-no, my Prince... I should be the one apologizing... but... Katsuki and I have just been through a lot, w-we left home to find his brother and mother who got abducted, and--"

"Abducted? By slavers?" Eiji asked, surprised to hear the story.

Ochako, realizing that she almost spilled their secret, bit her lip and nodded. "Y-yes..." she answered. "We were trying to find them and rescue them but... we got caught and made it more difficult,"

Eiji didn't answer. If he caught on the fact that Ochako acknowledges Katsuki's other sibling and mother as if they weren't related, he didn't show. Instead, he smiled and assured her. "I'm sure Shoto would be calm enough to deal with what happened lightly,"

***

Oh, how wrong was he when Shoto was still fuming with anger the moment the guards and Katsuki faced him.

Katsuki had a cast over his left arm after lightly dislocating it from trying to struggle out of the guards' grasps, his right eye was still swollen and an ugly purple circled around it, along with a couple bruises on his cheekbone and mouth. However, his opponent had it the worst-- One eye was swollen and the other bruised and patched up after cutting an eyelid, lip busted with a few front teeth missing. It would have been a hilarious sight, but Shoto was steaming mad it would be the death of Eiji if he started laughing now.

"Seeing your situation, I decided I won't have you scrub the decks since you two could barely move," Shoto said, "So I've decided, you--" he said, pointing at the guard. "You accompany Tenya at all times and you," he pointed at Katsuki. "You're with Eiji,"