Chapter Fourteen:

 

#Millia:

 

The air ship was bigger from the inside than I anticipated. And the girls were much nicer than Sol could ever be.

 

“Hey Millia! Wanna look at my Anchor collection?”

“Millia Chan, do you want to share my room?”

“Millia, how about I help you with your hair?”

“Need help with the cast?”

“Is the sling on your arm too tight?”

 

I was attacked with kindness from every corner, even the little black cat was purring at my feet.

 

Was this heaven? Or is it just another dream? 

 

“Hey, Millia, If you ever need help just ask.” The only male around spoke, “The girls will be more than happy to house you with us.”

“Yeah.” Grinned May from his arm, “You don’t need to be with Sol anymore!”

I sighed and sat down on one of the couches in the guest room.

“For starters,” I began.” Could someone please help me untangle this cat from my legs?” my hair prickled in excitement.

“Hey, Aki.” May called and the cat ran over to her open arms. “Millia’s gonna stay here, you’re gonna be a good little kitty!”

“Just for a few days.” I smiled at the obedient cat. It was much easier to smile when Sol isn’t around, I wonder why.

The blonde man smiled for a moment before he left the female-infested room to ‘watch the road’. 

 

“Now, he’s gone!” The girl in blue bent down to my level, surprising me. “What happened between you and Badguy for him to leave you like this?” she had the evil grin and all the girl looked like they all wanted to know, too.

 

This’ll be a long night.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It’s been almost two days since Sol left me on the Mayship. June –the girl in blue- had helped me wash my hair and made sure the plaster didn’t get wet. I’ve had more food on the mayship than I can remember ever eating.

 

That’s why I was here in the kitchen snacking on cookies and milk with Dizzy. May insisted I drank lots of milk, she said it makes my bones heal faster, it just makes my stomach ill, though.

That’s why I usually brewed it with sugar. Dizzy loved Sugar.

 

“May Chan always drinks milk cold. “ the red-eyed girl smiled up at me in infinite energy. “I don’t know how she drinks it cold, it tastes icky!”

I smiled and dipped my chocolate cookie into the milk, only hearing bits of what the little girl was saying. Why can't I stop thinking about Sol? Because he left me? because he was the one who saved my life more than once? Because we were married? Why am I thinking about him too much as of late?

“You are worried about Sol san, right?” she had a small smile on her face, watching her milk.

“No.” I’m more worried about what he’s up to.

“I know that look, Millia Chan, worry.” she smiled up, her eyes soft. “I see it everyday in the mirror.”

 

Our eyes met for a long moment.

 

“Can you keep a secret, Dizzy.” I whispered.

“Hai.”

“Me and Sol.” Don’t say it, don’t say it. “We are married.” 

Her eyes shone. “Sol kun needs a friend, too.” She touched my hand, her fingers were warm, just like Sol’s. “Be a good friend to Sol, okay?”

I drank my milk without putting the cup down. I don’t want to answer that.

 

Sol is evil, he hates me, that’s why he left me. he’ll never come back to get me, that’s why he told me to not wait. I bet he just wanted to get rid of the contract between us.

 

Between him and Seri Luna anyways. Which was totally spelled wrong.

 

If only I could stay with the girls on the air ship. It had been fun up until now and the only thing I had to worry about was Johnny’s peeking when I was bathing.

 

He never tried to flirt with me, though, I wonder what’s wrong.

 

Or is it just me? am I that much of a turn off?

 

“Dizzy.” I put my cup down and watched her put her empty one in the sink. “What do you think… of me?”

She grabbed a soapy sponge and washed her cup while looking at me. “What do you mean?”

“Am I a good friend? Am… am I beautiful?” here I was asking another girl, what’s gotten into me?  

She placed her now-clean cup down and smiled. “You are a wonderful person, Millia Chan. You are beautiful, too. Why would you think otherwise?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

 

Sol seemed interested back at the hotel, but my shyness just killed everything.

 

I don’t know if that had been good or bad, especially if he was meaning to leave me.

 

I sound like an angry wife.

 

“You are just depressed!” Dizzy grinned at me and held my hand. “Let’s go see what Aki-Neko is doing!” she pulled me slowly towards her and smiled when I grabbed my crutches.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Its been almost a week since Sol had left me on the Mayship. Its not fun anymore. I just seem to get more depressed with everyday that passes.

 

I couldn’t sleep last night. Even when I was rooming with June, the dream kept repeating over and over until I couldn’t take it anymore and just sat around the couch in the living room. An hour ago Johnny walked over for a midnight snack and tried to talk to me, but his voice wasn’t as comforting as Sol’s.

 

”You okay, Millia?” he’d whispered in the silence, a funny hat on his blonde hair and his black shades still on.

”Yes, I’ll be fine.”

“Can't sleep” he sat down next to me, a cookie in his hand.

”No, Johnny, I’ll be fine. You can go to sleep I’ll be okay.” I had shook my head and stared at the reddish-pink wall before me.

”You don’t want to talk about it?”

”There is nothing to talk about, really.” I had smiled and shook my head, he shouldn’t worry, I’ll take care of myself.

When I look back at it now, he looked disappointed when he hung his head and stood up to go to his room in silence.

 

The room was silent and all I could hear was my breathing. We were still in mid-air, and have been for the last week. Even if Sol had decided to come up here he wouldn’t have been able to.

 

What am I saying, I’m pushing my luck too much. Sol won’t be coming back, I’m just going to have to work around the Mayship as best as I can until I get better and leave. He had protected me enough.

 

“Millia.” I was startled with the voice that called me in the stillness. It was Jan (short for January) , probably her night shift. “There is a call for you.” She voiced from the doorway of the control room.

“Call?”

“On the broad-band communication line, hurry up, its Sol.” She smiled and went back into the room.

 

Sol?

 

I don’t know why my heart chose that moment to beat in my ears. My hair twitched and I tried to calm down, what’s gotten into me? its just the bounty hunter.

The man who left me alone.

 

The man who had protected me and saved my life and kept me with him for as long as he could before leaving me in good arms.

 

I breathed a few times slowly, and wiped all emotion from my face. It wouldn’t be good to meet him with a shy, flushed face.

 

I sighed once more and marched towards the control room, as best as a wounded leg allowed, anyway. 

 

I walked into the cockpit and watched Jan smile at a bored looking Sol.

“Hello, Badguy.” I stood in front of the screen and watched the light in his eyes flicker. It could have been from the interference and the wobbly screen, but I just found it heart-warming to think he cared –if even a little- about me.  

“Rage.” That’s the voice I’ve missed through last week.

 

Missed?

Oh God… this probably means trouble, how can I like such a guy?

 

He looked at me, his jaws tight, “They fed you well.” He glanced at the side.

“Yes, they did.” What else could I say? Why is he calling at this time of night?

Jan looked up from the panel she was looking at, and mouthed: ‘say something!’

I joined my brows and acted angry, it was much easier to be angry at him than be nice. “What do you want?”

He nodded to somebody outside the screen and then looked back at me. “You still wanna stay with me?”

Where he couldn’t see, I shuffled my legs and wrung my hands. “Why should I?”

The answer surprised him, it’s dryness even surprised me. “Well, its your call, if you don’t want to.”

I want to! I shook my head, “Give me a reason.”

He sighed and I watched him put a cigarette in his mouth and search for a lighter. “Rage, its either yes or no, this line costs money.”

 

I’ve already said the yes… is it time for the no yet? I’m so confused…

 

Five minutes ago I wanted to just jump off the ship and find him. And now, now that I’m not worried about his well-being anymore, I feel like I just need more time on the ship. What’s happening to me?

 

“Yes or no.” he puffed smoke and frowned at a person outside my field of vision.

I sighed. The girl’s were fun, but there are a lot of tangled matters between me and Sol, things that are not their problem, they do not need to know any of it. “When are you coming?”

He looked up, “Yes or no.”

“Yes.”

A shadow of a smile played over his lips before the connection was broken.

“What happened?” I must have sounded shocked.

“It’s a fault in the system.” The girl shook her head, “It can't keep a connection too long, especially from that far.”

“Where was that from?”

The girl looked up at me. “Hey, the system isn’t complete yet, I’m sill working on it!” she shrugged helplessly, “It’s the first time anybody had used it on a portable vehicle! Give me time!”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” I smiled at her and went back to my place on the couch. Resting my head on the pillow and closing my eyes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

#Sol:

 

I glared slowly at the man next to me, he was holding a baseball mid-throw and looking guiltily at me.

“Uh, Sorry?” the blond man with the horse teeth grinned.

I clenched my jaws and took the slobber-filled baseball off the ‘reset’ button. I threw it at the dog that whined and growled.

 

It was the week from hell.

 

I had to go back to my old apartment to finish some business with a certain dead body. After that I had to get all the furniture moved into another one. My new one is at the city the Mayship is docking at tomorrow, I made sure the pirate guy wouldn’t miss the city.

After that I had to make Low re-make the card, this time with the appropriate picture and information. The bastard knew his job and did it well, unfortunately, it wasn’t free either.

 

He makes the cards and I don’t tell Boy scout.

 

So here I was, waiting for a phone call from the moving company. I made sure would never move anything around, she’d probably want to arrange it herself.

 

I’m getting too soft with her.

 

Maybe because you are already considering giving her the apartment when she’s healed?

Freddy, been a while.

Yeah, you still wanna give it to her?

I dunno.

Come on.

Yeah… 

 

I shook my head and walked out of the room into the kitchen where the dog had made a whole lot of mess. the woman of the house would be pissed. I just hope I wont be there when she wakes up.

 

The phone rang.

 

“Yeah.”

“Sol Badguy?” the man on the other end questioned, “Your apartment is ready, we haven’t arranged anything, just as you requested.”

At this time of night, no one but a heavily-tipped worker would dare call about work.

“Yeah, you received the money right?”

“Yes sir, thank you for doing business with us!” he sounded too cheerful, I could just picture his little sweaty hands fingering the wads. “The key would be right under the door if you would just slip your fingers under!”

“Yeah.” I sighed, and with that I shut the phone and leaned over the door frame. I watched the childish act for a moment before I stubbed my cigarette on the door frame and announced, “I’m leaving, see ya around, Low.”

“That was the call?” he called, “See you, chief, don’t ever show your ass around again!”

I snickered and made my way out, making sure the door shut loud enough to wake the dead.

 

I climbed into the rented car –it was a black Mercedes- and drove over to the next city, the night will be a long one.

 

Another lone one, at that.

 

After what seemed to be hours, I reached the building and scanned the almost-familiar area for convenient stores. At the end of the block were neon lights, so I drove towards them.

 

I walked into the 24 hour store and took a quick glance of what they had, unconsciously recording every single brand in my memory. The man at the counter was reading a paper, he looked up at me. “Can I help you, Son?” he only looked 50, I’m not your son.   

“How are the prices?”

He was startled with the blunt question, it seemed. “Well, I know we can reach an agreement. What do you want?”

I leaned over the counter and scanned the cigarette packets.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

I climbed the four sets of stairs before setting my bags down and sliding my fingers under the door. I opened it with the brass key I found and stepped in, with an intention to change the locks tomorrow.

 

I sighed and threw myself on the cotton-sheet covered couch. I haven’t been to all the rooms of the place, just checked it out quickly before bargaining with the owner and getting a good price for a room with no furniture nor heating systems.

The place would probably be cold had I still had a heating failure.

 

Never mind that now. I closed my eyes and yawned. Finally, I’m going to wake up without having to wash dog drool off my face in the morning.

 

At least I hope so.

 

End of chapter fourteen