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Fina knocked on the door of their quarters. "Um... Vyse? The kitchen - um, I mean the mess - says we're short on some things. Can I come in? I have a list."
"Sure," Aika said, "come in! We're mostly decent!"
Fina blinked slightly - she honestly thought that Vyse and Aika were a lot better than decent. But she went through the door all the same, holding the list that Polly had given her. She looked up, wanting to say something about the list, then blinked.
Aika was in their bed, waving, and Vyse had just looked up from something - his shirt, she belatedly realized, partially because he was no longer wearing it. He was holding a needle in one hand, and holding the cloth tight with the other. "Um," Vyse said, then glanced at Aika, eyes narrowed in the way he did when he was disappointed. "You could've let me put my shirt back on first."
"Hey, I said mostly, didn't I?" she said, not at all rattled. "Besides, there's nothing wrong with a guy not wearing a shirt! Some of the other pirates back home did it all the time!"
"I didn't!" Vyse protested, a bit of a blush on his face.
"It's... it's okay," Fina quickly said. "You don't have to be embarrassed... but why are you not wearing your shirt? Are you sewing it?"
"Well, yeah. It tore a bit on the last voyage, so I have to fix it. I like this shirt."
"Vyse likes sewing," Aika chimed in. "He's actually fixed a lot of my dresses before when they got too small, which was really nice of him!"
"Wow, I haven't met many people who like sewing... I mean, on the Great Silver Shrine we had machines to do that..."
Vyse shrugged a bit, smiling. "Grandma taught me when I was young," he said. "Said that it'd be stupid to be on a ship and not have anyone know how to fix someone's clothes if they tore. She liked making things, all kinds of things. She could make really interesting decorations, just by tying cords together and using beads and such - she once made a replica of a big map that father brought home using cords and beads, because she wanted a copy to hang on the wall. I never really learned to do that, but I thought it looked cool." His smile widened slightly. "I guess I sound like a bit of a dork."
"Hey, it's fine," Aika said with a grin. "We all have to have a hobby."
That made Vyse chuckle a bit. "Yeah, so I practiced sewing a lot with her. It reminds me of her. I guess that's why I keep doing it, even if I can't do anything really fancy like she could." He finally put down the shirt, and stuck the needle into what looked like a rubber ball that had been cut in half and covered in cloth. "Sorry, I got distracted. What did you say you needed, Fina?"
"Oh, yes. Polly says we're running low on a few things. She wanted to know if she could get any funds for them when we next get into port." She handed Vyse the list.
"Hm. Oh, right..." He read over it quickly, frowning. "How in the world are we already out of Green Loqua? We just stocked up in Ixa'taka!"
"That was ages ago, Vyse," Aika reminded him, "and we have a few more crew members now. Pretty much everyone likes the Green Loqua, remember?"
"How could I forget?" he answered, groaning slightly. "Okay, yeah. I'll finish this shirt and then I'll go talk to Polly. Thanks, Fina," he said. "And, um, sorry about. This." He glanced down at himself.
Fina furrowed her brow. "Why? You look good." And she was being completely truthful; he was a bit paler on his chest than on his face, probably because he always wore the tunic, and there was a bit of dark body hair. But he still had good muscles from fighting all the time - and a few scars, which Fina found interesting, as no one at the Shrine had scars, even the ones who'd fought all the time. The tattoo on his shoulder was interesting too, a stylized picture of a skull; she wondered who had given it to him. She wondered briefly if it felt the same as any other skin....
Somehow that only made Vyse blush more, and made Aika laugh out loud. "Ha! I told you so, Vyse!" she said gleefully.
Vyse lowered his head to his shirt, which worried her. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, it's fine," Vyse said, without raising his head. "Can we just... discuss this later?"
"Yeah, don't worry, Fina," Aika said with a wink. "We'll explain it when we get back."
"All right. I'll tell Polly you're going to come and talk to her. I'll see you later!"
Fina was a bit uncertain as she walked out - she'd had really thought compliments were always safe things to say! There was still so much she didn't understand... she could still hear Aika laughing through the door, and shook her head. She was going to have to have Aika explain that later. Things could be so strange on Arcadia.