********* (I Love You) Chapter XXXI: SeasicknessFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is Chapter XXXI of ************ (I Love You)[/I]. I hope you all enjoy it.

Read and review please!

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)

Kasho IV- Suriyoru (Closer)
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(Aki XXX)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=112238583589703268&num=3

No dedications this time around...
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Chapter XXXI: Seasickness
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The ship pulled away from the dock before Hitomi or I could find our seats, causing us to almost tip off balance against the various goods being exported from Selbina to Mhuara for shipment to Windurst that were tied up alongside the various cargo hold walls.

"Attention passengers," a voice cracked into the cargo hold from a pipe that jutted out of the walls. The voice sounded hollow and far away, but it whistled through the air clearly.

"This is your captain speaking. This will be an eight hour trip today, and we should therefore be docking in port at about sixteen hundred hours. The weather is expected to remain clear all throughout our journey, with only a minor chance of rain or elementals happening upon us."

The ship changed directions slowly, and I could hear the main sail unfurling from overhead, and the canvas stretching out to its fullest as the wind slipping beneath it.

"Recent negotiations with the fisherman’s guild out of Windurst has led them to allow us to open up a small fishing shop just off of the main cargo hold where you all are now for your enjoyment while riding the ferry. If you need anything, please be sure to ask one of the various crew member’s spread throughout the ship, and they will be glad to help you."

I felt the ship finish turning underfoot, and start to sail off smoothly.

"Maat out."

When Maat’s voice stopped echoing down the pipe, I then took a look around the cargo hold to see who Hitomi and I would be spending the next few hours with. As I did so, I could tell out of the corner of my eye that Hitomi had already done so.

Geez...she’s sharp. If I was still the commander of the Ducal, I would try to recruit her into an officer’s position...

Looking for myself, I found that except for a family of tarutarus (whose kids were each trying to quickly eat a cone of snoll gelato before it melted all over themselves), and a woman whose face was hidden away in a brown shawl (and who seemed too busy trying to get her fishing pole out of its collapsible form), and a sailor who was guarding the above-deck doors, Hitomi and I were alone on this journey.

Maat’s voice then cracked in once more through the slender pipe that came out of a hole overhead.

"We are now safely in the Sea of Zafmlug, doing about fifteen knots an hour.", he said gruffly, "If you wish to go shopping at the fishing guild or to go fishing or just mill about the above deck, you may do so at this time." With Maat’s words, the sailor moved away from the door that he was guarding and then held it open for the tarutaru family, and the fisherwoman.

The sailor looked over at Hitomi and I, and made a motion asking if we were planning to go through the door. The man caught Hitomi’s eye, as she started to giggle a bit, and wobbled her way rather unevenly through the door and slowly up the steps. Not wanting her to be alone and possibly fall, I hurried to her side on the stairway, muttering thanks to the sailor as I rushed past him.

Taking Hitomi’s arm, I guided her up the stairs slowly and finally through the double doors that ushered us outside. Outside, the sun was shining a brilliant yellow as clear clouds drifted lazily by overhead, the only interruption being the occasional sound of a sea bird catching a small fish that had carelessly swam too close to the water’s surface.

Hitomi and I glided over to a railing overlooking the ocean, and watched the Selbina coastline fade away together in silence for a few minutes. Once the thin sliver of land had finally receded away into nothingness, Hitomi spoke.

"Dimitri-chan, you love Jeuno don’t you." The words came out a bit tiredly, but I assumed that it was because we had barely gotten any sleep from the night before, during Summerfest.

"Yes...even though I am exiled from the Grand Duchy, I still consider that place home and I would do anything for Jeuno and the Archduke in a heartbeat. I guess it might be my elvaan heritage and my elvaan patriotism coming into play here, but I doubt it. I simply love my homeland." I replied to her with as my fingers ran along the rope barrier that kept me from falling into the ocean.

"...What about the beastmen? You hate them?" Hitomi asked of me next.

I looked over at her, with a curious expression. "Why, aren’t you the one with all the questions. First last night, and now today...you planning to write my autobiography?" And with that, I threw the black mage a smirk and a wink.

She just instantly blushed at that. "Goemen nasai Dimitri-chan..." she mumbled out, looking down towards the sea below.

I just waved it off. "I’m teasing you Hitomi! Sillah..." I said, softly chiding her before allowing my voice to go harsh. "And anyway, to answer your question. Yes, I hate the beastmen. I hate every last goddessdamn one of them. Whether they are the children of Promathia or not, I couldn’t give a damn. I wish they would just all...disappear off of Vana’diel."

"I see." Hitomi replied with, in a subdued voice that I could only guess was in response to the tone of voice I had just used. "Dimitri...I get fish rod and then fish. I’ll be back, okay?"

I just nodded as I turned back to the sea that stretched out to infinity, while hearing Hitomi scamper away below the decks.

Everything was peaceful for a couple minutes until...

"You know, the Ducal Guard arrived in Selbina just as the ferry was departing for Mhuara Dimitri."

I could see that those words came from the woman in a brown shawl as she slowly slid up to my left side and extended her fishing rod over the ocean.

"Oh? And why do you think I would be interested in this?" I replied, trying to act as coolly as I could while trying to figure out who it was, and if she posed some threat to me and Hitomi.

"Because...just like at the casino, someone must have betrayed your trust to the Guardsmen. They want you Dimitri, and if they are willing to violate the sovereignty of a protectorate city, they must want you for something badly..." The lady continued, lowering her voice as the tarutaru family passed by us on their way to the opposite end of the ship’s deck.

"Who are you?" I asked slowly, wishing desperately that I had my sword with me.

The woman chuckled, and finally turned towards me, lowering her shrawl enough so that I could get a good look at her face...and her mismatched red and blue eyes. "Can you figure it out now?," she said lightly, “Usually my eyes give me away rather quickly.”

I felt a rush of anger flood my body. "What, does ‘Papa’ not think that I can do this job successfully, and so he has to send his body guard out after me?!" I shouted out at her, attracting the attention of a couple sailors and of the taru family (who was trying to fish with a couple of new poles) for a couple of seconds.

Aoi turned away from me, and snorted. "Hardly. My lord has the utmost trust in you, and only sent me along to watch for the Guardsmen who seem to somehow be able to keep tabs on your whereabouts. I don’t think they know you are aboard the ferry, but we will find that out in a couple of hours via pearl. Anyway...I better go before your lady friend gets back up here and gets jealous."

I looked over at the double doors, to see them open, and Hitomi slump her way through them, her arms laden down with fishing gear. The ship then suddenly lurched beneath a wave, and I watched as Hitomi then fell over onto the hard wooden deck surface with a audible thud, scattering all of the fishing gear everywhere. Instantly, I rushed over to the mage’s side and I felt rather than saw Aoi fix the shrawl back over her face and then withdraw to the otherside of the boat.

"You okay Hitomi?" I asked quickly as I quickly looked over her body and then touched her head to look at her face. Around Hitomi’s cheeks, I could see that her skin had turned a slight shade of green and her skin felt rather clammy beneath my fingertips.

"I-I sick Dimitri..." she said lethargically, as she her back arched up into the air while she started to dry heave and finally became knocked out.

One of the sailors saw what had happened and rushed over.

"Looks like sea sickness m’ boy. We have a bed below decks that she can lay down in until we get to port. Its nothing serious, but I am surprised that she rode the ferry if she knew that it would make her sick."

My mind flashed back to earlier today, with Hitomi not knowing that there was a ferry that ran from Selbina to Mhuara.

"Yeah...I’m surprised too." I muttered out, becoming more and more privately convinced that she had never ridden in a boat before.

The sailor motioned a couple more of his shipmates over, and had one help him carry Hitomi below decks while the other picked up the fishing gear that she had purchased before succumbing to sea sickness.

They laid her carefully down in a white linen bed, and I dragged over a chair from a corner of the room to her side.

"If you don’t mind...I’ll wait with her, okay?" I said quietly as the sailors started to exit the room, dumping the fishing gear into a small empty box.

"Not a problem sir. Have a good afternoon, and I hope she gets to feeling better soon." The one who helped us first said as he then shut the door slowly behind him.

I turned my attention to Hitomi’s face, and I could see her sweating visibly and a look of nausea was written all over her face as she slept.

Hitomi...what all are you hiding from me?

The ship whistled, and rocked some more as it slowly chugged its way to Mhuara.

[/i]-fin Chapter XXXI: Seasickness[/i]