#ketzan

But this time, Captain Adaire’s flowery words were followed up by a question that initially caught the lieutenant off-guard. 

“Would you come with me, if I asked?”

Nedizu hesitated visibly, pausing his writing and staring ahead with mild confusion as if gauging whether he had even heard the man correctly. 

“... Sir?”

“Barring all the complications regarding the Empire such a thing would imply, hypothetically, would you join me if I left the fleet?”

The captain’s question felt no less shocking even after he rephrased it. Nedizu thought he would have more tact than this, to ask a man with clear, hard-set loyalties whether or not he would go against what he believed in, and for what? To act upon someone else’s silly whim? It was just asinine. 

“There is no way to bar all relevant complications from such a suggestion,” Nedizu replied coolly, looking down at his clipboard again. 

“Hypothetical suggestion.”

“Right.” 

Does Captain Adaire really think calling it hypothetical would save him? If Nedizu brought something like this to Admiral Ripmaw, hypothetical or not, it would be the end of his career as a captain, and potentially even the end of his life. Nedizu had known the man to be frivolous, but his tactical prowess was what caused him to end up in such a high rank. Captain Adaire was not stupid. So then why was he asking something so blatantly treasonous to a man known to be loyal? 

Either his captain was more foolish than he originally believed, or he knew that Nedizu would do nothing to stop him, despite his beliefs. 

“So?” The captain urged. 

Ah. He really was awaiting an answer. Nedizu had thought his previous response would be enough to dissuade Captain Adaire from pursuing this line of questioning any further, but he apparently seems to want a direct reply. The lieutenant gives a light exhale, tapping the tip of his pen against his page. 

“... Permission to speak honestly, sir?” Not that Nedizu even need ask for permission. Insubordination was not something his whimsical captain tended to worry about, but at least one of them here had to acknowledge rank on occasion. 

“Granted,” Captain Adaire replied with a gracious wave of his hand and a toothy, yet ever-charming smile… A charm Nedizu was quite immune to. 

He tucked his clipboard under his arm and stood straighter, gaze cold and aloof as he stared ahead, looking past his captain. 

“I’m frankly appalled. Your suggestions of desertion from the fleet prove that you are weak and unfit for the position of captain, echoing a belief I’ve long had about you, and if you continue on this line of thinking, it will rightly cost you everything,” Nedizu explained, voice filled with a cold, robotic indifference. The weeks of listening to his captain fantasize about a life serving no one but himself have not done anything to move him. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Nedizu could see his captain straighten up too, the man’s smile slowly fading away as a realization finally dawned on him. He did not have the sort of relationship with his lieutenant that he originally thought. 

Despite everything, the Empire came first, and they definitively were not friends. It baffles Nedizu that it’s taken his captain this long to figure that out. 

“If it is found that these are not just hypotheticals, but actual plans,” Nedizu continued on, “it will be taken as a treasonous action that, at Admiral Goraxe Ripmaw’s discretion, could call for reeducation or even the termination of your life. It is my responsibility to alert the relevant authorities on this potential rebellious activity, but as your first lieutenant, I am willing to overlook it just this once, if you rescind your previous ‘hypotheticals’ in lieu of something more appropriate for a troll of your rank and standing.” 

That was the only grace he was willing to grant the man, and it was already too generous. But the look on Captain Adaire’s face made it obvious that he wasn’t grateful. Not in the slightest. 

Silence hung over them for several seconds, as Nedizu awaited his captain’s response. 

“... You are dismissed, Lieutenant.” 

Funny. This might be the only time he sounds like a captain. 

“Yes sir.”