Chapter 425: Unplanned Friendship
Mornings at sea are said to be the most pleasant thing in the world.
The smell of the sea spray.
The gentle serenade of wind and tide accompanying the cries of seabirds.
The swaying of the ship as it rides against the waves.
One would be hard pressed to find more pleasant conditions to wake up to.
“Ugh…my head…”
Then again, the people who believe this sort of romanticism have probably never woken up with a hangover or a splitting headache before.
Unfortunately for Zhen Gou, he had both.
“Guh…what the fuck happened last night? Why does my bed feel like a wooden table? And why does it feel like my head got smashed in with a war hammer…wait a minute…no…”
Zhen Gou looked about himself for a couple moments and soon realized he wasn’t in his bed as he initially assumed, rather he was in the galley, hunched over one of the tables with an empty flagon in one of his hands.
‘Wasn’t this a wine bottle?,’ Zhen Gou managed to mentally ask himself as he released the flagon from his grip in order to rub his temples.
As Zhen Gou rubbed his eyes and head in pain, a feeling of deja vu descended upon him like the world’s worst fairy blessing.
The faint(traumatic) memory of waking up in the middle of an oasis, stark naked with some strange and presumably sexual word tattooed across his ass, suddenly arose to the surface of his mind as the weariness in his bones gave away to sheer panic from a possible repeat incident.
“Fuck no, not again!”
Shocked into proper consciousness by the possibility of having relive through the most embarrassing moment of his life, Zhen Gou quickly looked over his person to make sure he was still clothed and that not more tattoos had been added to his body.
A huge wave of relief came over him as he looked down to see that his clothes were still on his body and that no part of his body was sore from tattoos being added to his body again.
The tattoo from the last incident was still present though. He had no idea what the word “bussy” meant, but he hoped to the high heavens that he would never have to find out and that no else would find out about this word being tattooed on his ass either.
“Okay, cool, nothing embarrassing happened this time around,” Zhen Gou told himself as a type of affirmation. At this point in time he was up and on his feet, pacing about to get his blood flowing and to figure out what the fuck happened last night leading up until now.
“I remember eating dinner…then drinking, and then I-”
“Ugh…why does my mouth taste like copper?”
“-huh?”
Zhen Gou was so wrapped up in his own problems and questions in the moment, that he failed to notice that literally sitting across from him was one of the crewmen of the ship waking up from his own hangover. At least, that’s what he assumed judging from the empty flagon in the man’s hand that matched his own.
The sailor went through the same motions as Zhen Gou had just gone through, namely realizing that he was some place unfamiliar to him, realizing that he must have been drinking, and then jumping into consciousness once the shock of realizing he was in the wrong place kicked in.
Honestly, it was kind of refreshing to see someone else go through these motions from and outsider’s point of view.
The sailor eventually stopped freaking out when he realized nothing odious had occurred to his person while he was unconscious and proceeded to look about his person to try and figured out what the fuck happened to him last night.
Once he saw that the flagon in his hand matched the one that Zhen Gou was holding, a curious look formed on his face as he shifted his focus back and forth between the flagon and Zhen Gou.
A couple minutes passed in confused silence as the two men stared at each other and the flagons before one of them decided to just break the ice with a very simple question.
“Uhh…this is gonna sound weird, but did we drink together last night?”
“I…think so?”
“Did…did we ever exchange names at some point? Because I don’t know yours and…”
“No, no. I don’t know your name either.”
“Oh…good.”
Akward silence befell the duo once more as they realized that they barely knew each other even in passing.
Thankfully, the arrival of a third outside party would help them figure out not only who they were but what had happened last night.
As the two kept standing around, the ship’s cook arrived to the gallery with a box of potatoes.
“Ah! You two are finally awake! Good morning, Nemo. Good morning, Zhen Gou. Hope you guys like hash browns for breakfast.”
“Huh? Oh, good morning…,” Zhen Gou mumbled and trailed off, “what the fuck are hash browns?”
“Good morning, Jared! Wait, did you just say ‘finally awake’? You know what happened to us last night?!”
“Uh…yeah,” Jared agreed while placing the box of potatoes down by the stove, “kinda hard to miss you two drinking the night away as if you were the closest friends in the world.”
“We did?,” Zhen Gou and Nemo asked at the same time while staring each other.
Jared the cook stared at the duo, mildly confused at their confusion, until it finally dawned on him as to why they were acting like this.
“Oh wow, you guys must’ve been drinking real fucking hard last in order to not remember. This is why I stick to grog,” Jared mildly chastised the two men as he prepared the stove for cooking breakfast.
“I got breakfast to make and I’m fairly certain you two got stuff to do, so I’m going to explain while I cook,” Jared stated as he grabbed a pan from a hook in front of him and proceeded to season it with oil, “that good?”
“Sure.”
“Of course.”
“Well then, let’s see…”
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After dinner last night, after everyone either returned to their cabins or got onto their nightshift duties, you(Zhen Gou) decided to stick around and began drinking out of a bottle of booze you brought with you.
(“Really? Did I have a reason why?,” Zhen Gou asked.)
I wasn’t entirely sure, but you kept mumbling something about respect or honor or… something.
(“That…that checks out.”)
(“Wait, where do I come in in regards to this story?,” Nemo asked.)
I’m getting there, anyways, whilst you (Zhen Gou) were drinking, you became increasingly more and more irritable. While you weren’t actively trying to pick a fight or being an annoyance, you were giving off the same aura one gets when they’re near a lion with a thorn in it’s paw.
(“Yeesh.”)
(“I would like to apologize for my behavior last night if it was too belligerent.”)
Which is when you(Nemo) came in.
(“Seriously?”)
I was gearing up to kick his (Zhen Gou’s) ass out of my galley so I could get some sleep for the night, but you showed up around that time because of your night shift patrol duties.
You(Nemo) took one look at him (Zhen Gou) and proceeded to sit with him in an attempt to talk to him, calm him down and get him out of here.
In an effort to do so, you(Nemo) began drinking with him (Zhen Gou) as a means of establishing friendly rapport.
Instead, y’all ended up getting drunk together and started sharing the type of deep conversations only friends who knew each other for years would have.
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“Honestly, I was tempted to kick you both out when you started drinking with him,” Jared told Nemo, “but you two were so chummy together that it pained me to interrupt it, so I left it alone. That and it’s easier to lock two drunks in an empty galley than risk them going overboard on-deck.”
“Huh…wait, is that reasoning why my head hurts and this guy’s mouth taste like metal?”
“Maybe? I did find a head print on the door and bite marks on the door knob.”
“Gods damn.”
As the cook’s recollection came to an end, Nemo and Zhen Gou proceeded to look at each other with a touch more friendliness than they had before.
There was a small tinge of doubt in their hearts in regards to the credibility of this story, but it was better than not remembering anything at all.
At the exact same time they came to conclusion, Jared has finished making the hash browns and served it to the two of them on some metal plates with a wooden fork.
“Now then, gentlemen, I suggest you two fill your stomachs on this and then get out of my galley. You have a job to do and I’m pretty sure you got family wondering where you were last night. I got more hash browns to make.”
“Yes sir.”
“Thank you.”
The two young men did as instructed and began to eat away at the hash browns.
As soon as the first bite hit Zhen Gou’s tongue, he paused.
“Huh…best tasting breakfast I’ve had in a while.”
After that little comment, both he and his new friend began to just eat in earnest…unaware that out of sight and outta of mind, three little figures were hiding in the bannister.
