#zeroha

"We're just friends." Harlock deadpans. "Friends don't kiss." Kei counters, and she's not entirely wrong. "Some friends do. Like the kinds with benefits." Kei is not amused. It shows in the way her dark eyes glare at him, and the unusual force she puts into organizing the papers on her desk. If he didn't know her better, he might have thought her jealous; but Harlock is very, very aware of her preferences for partners, and they don't include sulky ex-Navy men. "I don't trust him," She says at length, "I don't trust any of them as far as I can throw 'em." In some ways that's a roundabout compliment. Kei Yūki may look sweet and possess a slight figure, but he's seen her take down fighters twice her size. And while outnumbered. So really, she could throw them all pretty far, Zero included. And she's not a force to be taken lightly, like a storm at sea, waiting to sink ships and sink hearts. The two of them aren't related by blood, but sometimes he wonders if she isn't another long lost sibling. Kei is overly cautious from being burned one too many times. He can't say he blames her. The world is already cold and cruel, and it's done a number on all of them. She doesn't often share what happened to her in the period between running away from home and meeting up with the Arcadia crew, and he's not one to press her for details. But he knows enough to realize it wasn't pretty and it wasn't kind. So Kei has good reason to be suspicious of anyone who hasn't gained her respect, and it's a hard thing to earn her trust. The only reason she's here in the first place is because Harlock asked her to be. "Tori likes him," Harlock mentions, "I'd say that's a good litmus test." She shoots him an incredulous look. "That's a terrible example. That bird doesn't even like you." "He likes me enough," Though really, that was only because he fed the dumb parrot, "That totally counts." "What on earth are the two of you arguing about?" Marina materializes out of nowhere, a startling and all too common habit of hers. She comes armed with what look like case files, petty grievances they'll need to take care of if they want to keep their jobs. Before he can come up with an excuse for her, Kei is already counting mutiny. "Someone has been kissing the commander in the fire escape." When she put it that way, it made it sound like they were a couple of teenagers skulking around for kicks. Which, maybe wasn't that untrue, but that didn't mean she had to tell Marina of all people. The one person there who had known Zero the longest, who wasn't often found far from his side, and who always managed to look stunning regardless of the situation. Delivering mission briefings or breaking noses, she never faltered or lost her composure.  "Oh, is that all?" Marina's voice rang true and calm, yet there was an edge of ice to it, "Anyway, look into these security breaches. We need to know how deep they've gone." Then Marina sweeps away, leaving without another word like a receding tide, barely sparing them a glance. Kei throws her hands up. He shrugs. "You trust me, don't you?" He counters, knowing it's a little unfair to pull that card, because she's never been anything less than devoted, "I know what I'm doing. Relax." Kei grumbles something along the lines of 'I don't know why any of us bother with you', and his phone pings that a new email has come through. It's a very specific notification, reserved for anything from the government server they're all wired into, and he frowns when he sees it's from the same M. Oki who was just talking with them. She's also only a few yards off, there's no reason she needs to be messaging him when she can communicate in person like a rational human. He flicks the email open. It's a curt correspondence, no introduction or signature, just her name attached to the top and his in the receiving field. <If you hurt him, there will be consequences.> Few people can get away with threatening Harlock so openly. There are fewer people who legitimately terrify him. Marina is very close to the top of both lists. "What is it?" Kei asks. "It's nothing," Only quite possibly the shortest and most direct shovel speech he's ever gotten, "We should be working." "You never want to work." She points out, but lets the subject go. He doesn't dare look in Marina's direction. Really, he's not sure how much of a secret it all should or shouldn't be; Zero can be so prickly on a good day, to the point that it's hard to decipher between the officer's normal personality or if he's being an ass on purpose. He's so flighty for someone with a reputation for being loyal and steadfast, shying away even behind closed doors and hidden from prying eyes. He's not even sure where the two of them even stand at this point, if there should be labels involved or it's better to keep it off-brand for now. (Fraternization laws probably don't apply in this case, even if they did, he'd ignore them anyway, because to hell with that.) And yet kissing him is so good that Harlock couldn't resist catching him by the back door that morning. Which of course was when Kei wandered by, nearly choking herself to death on her coffee when she saw them. He's probably lucky Zero didn't pitch him out the nearest window for that one. It's not like it had been on purpose, and they were all bound to find out eventually. It's impossible not to, when they're working and living in such close proximity to each other. And they're glorified experts in espionage, for crying out loud, he could find out everyone's favorite color and childhood pet in twenty minutes if he put his mind to it. If he was really determined, he could probably find every dark and embarrassing secret of every person in a five mile radius, and the whole city if Kei and Ishikura helped. So how were they supposed to keep a relationship of all things under wraps, under the noses of individuals trained to sniff out deceptions and half-truths? Only an idiot would try. Or, someone so stubborn and deep in denial that they ran the risk of drowning. Fucking Zero. Harlock had taken a calculated risk with him, when he had asked for his handler to be the same agent who had spent years trying to bring him to justice, but he hadn't expected this. Because, maybe, he hadn't planned on an infatuation, or half jokingly flirting with him, which  may have turned into whatever it is that they've been avoiding talking about. It wasn't Harlock's fault that he was stuck living with someone who was so accidentally attractive. (Except, it was his own damn fault, and now he had to deal with the consequences.) It started as just a way to pass the time, an exercise in seeing how he could get under his keeper's skin, and now he's fallen. Hard. This wasn't part of the plan. None of this was part of the plan. Not that the plan had been fool proof, or even fully baked by the time Harlock had put it in motion. Its still a vague sort of idea, floating about with loose strings he's tying together on the fly, but it had worked out so far. Mostly. Present situation not included. But the plan comes first, it always come first, because he'd die before he'd let a vow go unfulfilled. Even if it was hard to come to terms with the fact that they would eventually be jumping ship, slipping back into the sea once they'd gotten what they came for. What Arcadia members are on this team may not know exactly what's going on, but they're smart enough to realize they're all acting the parts the government wants them to until they're ready to bail, a deception and treason of the highest order. He never said he was an honest man. Harlock sinks low in the office chair.   This would have been easier without lingering attachments. And yet had made them anyway, like the idiot he was, repeating the same mistakes over and over again. You would think he would have learned by now, but there was still that stubborn part of him that was a hopeless romantic. At least it would be good while it lasted. Marina couldn't kill him if she couldn't find him. 

I could only be certain of a few things as we ran. Of course, I still knew where I was, even if I couldn’t tell where I was going. Oculus Station was a maze of twisting corridors. I’d never been on it before that day, but it seemed the men who’d taken it over knew the layout well. Even in my disadvantage, I needed to take them out, and I had to get those hostages, not just because I’d been assigned to, but because I wasn’t a heartless bastard like them. But no matter how many times I explained that, I kept being told to shut up and keep running.

The concussion I was sporting didn’t help matters. It made my vision tilt and double as though I’d drunk enough to destroy my liver. My feet would hit each other, or my knees would buckle unexpectedly against the pounding of my skull. Even on the rare occasions that I did hit the ground, I never stayed there for long, because Harlock’s grasp on my wrist was so tight that I was yanked forward to stumble back to my feet and continue running.

He knew his way around as far as I could tell, whipping us around corners and choosing a direction on a forked path without a second thought.

Occasionally he’d stop short and draw his gun, always prepared for me to slam into him. After taking out whoever was in his way, we’d continue on. Eventually I saw through the fog over my thoughts well enough to ask. “Where are we going?”

He glanced back long enough for me to spot the worry on his face. “To the control room.”

“Right.” I had a feeling he’d told me that before. “And where’s…my crew?”

He cursed under his breath before stopping to turn and grab me by the shoulders. I would have been content to fall against him and take a nap, but his grip held me steady. “They were captured, Zero,” he said, his voice firm like I made mine when giving an order. “You were there. Do you remember anything?”

I squinted at him to try pushing his doubles together. There was some sort of dark stain on the side of his uniform, just at the bottom of his ribs. Reaching out, I placed my hand against it to hear a hiss of pain from him. With my mind stalling, he turned and grabbed my wrist to continue running before I could ask.

“Shit,” I finally realized. “Are you bleeding? Did you get shot?”

He didn’t answer me. He didn’t even look back. I didn’t have the strength to stop him or catch up. I could only follow wherever he dragged me. My head hurt too much, and I was too tired to try remembering. Blurs of the past few hours were all I could grasp. I wasn’t even sure how long we’d been running.

As the falter of my steps increased, Harlock was forced to throw my arm around his neck. “Keep up,” he said.

“You could just leave me here. You’ll do a lot better without me.” That way I could sleep. Even if the enemy came to get me, I could rest for a while, and Harlock could storm the control room to take them out while being as flashy as he liked.

“They might kill you if I leave you out here,” he said. “And you’re the one with the access key to get into the control room.”

“I am?”

He gave an exasperated sigh. “Good God, Zero, I didn’t realize they hit you that hard.”

“Hang on. I’m working on it.” I stuffed my free hand in the numerous pockets of my jacket to find some mints, a communicator, and finally a card that had to be the key. “How did I get this anyway?”

“Just hold onto it, and keep it in your pocket. We’ll need it pretty soon.” It was odd to take orders from him, but I was in no state to do anything but follow them.

Before we rounded another corner, he set me down to lean against the wall. I started to ask why, but his gun appeared in his hand again. As he peered around the corner’s edge, I could see his bleeding side again. The stain had spread, seeping out to around a foot wide. I knew I couldn’t sleep while he had an injury like that. It was more important for me to get him some medical attention than anything else.

He took out whoever was in his way without much problem before turning to pick me up again. This time he couldn’t hide the wince of pain and the uneven breaths my weight against his wound caused. “Rest for a bit,” I said. “Let’s at least wrap it.”

His voice was scratched raw with pain. “We’re already here. There’s no point in stopping now.”

We turned to face a door with three dead or unconscious guards in front of it, so I handed him the card. I wasn’t sure why he couldn’t have just taken it and gone on his own, since he dropped me in the floor as he swiped it.

As soon as the door slid open, there were men shooting at him. The blasts flew harmlessly over me, so I pulled out my gun. With Harlock distracting them, using the doorframe as cover, they didn’t notice me until I was aiming at them.

Notably, my aim was worthless. I hit one in the shoulder and another across the cheek. Poor bastard. Maybe I wasn’t helping, since Harlock yelled that I was being an idiot, but he shot them down seconds later.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have dropped me in the middle of their sights,” I grumbled.

“You were supposed to play dead.” He grabbed the back of my collar and hauled me into the room. After locking the door behind us, he plopped down at one of the consoles and set to work.

“What are you doing?” I asked as I crawled toward him.

“First, I’m going to contact the Deathshadow to help out. Then I’ll free your crew and close off some areas of the station to keep the ones on their own from going anywhere or harming anyone.”

“Hm, that’s a good plan.” I reached his side and rested my cheek against his legs. “Then we should treat your wound.”

“It’s fine.”

I may have been the one with a head injury, but he was clearly the one being stupid. “No it’s not. What am I supposed to do if you die?” I reached up to paw at his chest, trying to grab his cravat. It was a surprisingly difficult task.

“I’m sure your injury is worse than mine,” he said. “It’s just a superficial cut. Stop being weird.”

Alright, maybe he had a point there, but he was still being obnoxiously stubborn. “Why are you even here?”

“I’m saving your ass,” he snapped, fingers typing furiously across the keys. “What does it look like I’m doing here?”

I had to smile. He started to open his mouth to say something else, but I cut him off. “I love you,” I said.

His cheeks tinged pink, his brows drawing together. “Not right now,” he muttered under his breath.

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Tochiro cooed over the communication link they must have established.

“Tochiro, Harlock’s being a stubborn asshole,” I called.

“What else is new?” Tochiro snorted. “Is it because he won’t say he loves you back?”

“S-shut up, you two,” Harlock stuttered. His radiant blush was half hilarious, half adorable. It covered his face in a burning red. “We have more important things to cover right now.”

“Like the injury he has,” I said.

“Oh, he got himself shot again?” Tochiro sighed. “Is that what he’s being stubborn about?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not important right now,” Harlock snapped. “Zero can’t even say anything about injuries. He’s got a concussion and short term memory loss.”

“But he remembers that he loves you,” Tochiro sang.

Harlock stammered uselessly for a minute until his mouth recalled how to form words. “Both of you shut up right now! We have a job to do.”

I snickered, reaching up to paw at him again. “You’ve got a me to do.” It was too much fun to see him blush, and I finally understood why he always said embarrassing nonsense to me.

Tochiro was laughing so hard that it turned to wheezes. Harlock looked like he wanted to die right there. “T-Tochiro, have you gotten all the hostages yet?”

“Yeah,” Tochiro said through continued giggles. “I think the men have most of them.”

“I love you,” I said again.

I tried not to mind that Zero smoked, because it was hard to consider it a bad thing if it wasn’t hurting him. When I asked him once, he said he used to really smoke but moved to the funny little electronic ones that lit up blue on the end for a reason he didn’t feel like telling me. It was even harder not to like the habit since he always used fruit flavored smoke, and was cutely childish in a way. It tinged the air with a sweetness that tempted me to snatch the little stick from him to try it myself, but he refused to let me, so I was left to curl close to him and smell the air.

I tried not to mind, because it shouldn’t have been a problem. It should have just been an odd quirk of his, but it was clear to me from the very first time I watched him smoke that it was something he did while stressed.

And he was stressed more often than not.

But he didn’t want his crew to know that, so I was one of the few who ever saw him smoke, usually while he lounged against the pillows of the hotel room I’d buy for us, still wearing all of his clothes unfortunately. The hotel rooms often became nothing more than a place for us to be away from everyone else to talk, because we were usually tired and spent the last of our energy catching up.

“Harlock,” he said. “I’ve been hearing some rumors about you.”

“Is that right?” I cracked an eye open as the wisps of his words trailed above me in the form of vapor. “Sounds like we’re back in high school. What has the rumor mill been spewing about me this time?” I felt somewhat like a cat, lying back with my head in his lap. I took a deep breath of the sweetened smoke – strawberry. How cute.

His eyes flicked down to me, clearly studying me for some reason. “Well, there are two sides of what I’m hearing. The government is getting information that you’re starting up a rebellion, gathering men out near Andromeda.”

“And you believe that?” I smiled.

“No, but it concerns me that there is someone doing that, and either they’re being mistaken for you, or they’re using your name.” He sounded grumpier than usual, but he looked more tired than usual too.

“I’ll look into it. Don’t you worry. No one gets away with using my name for something stupid.” While I couldn’t blame someone for the idea of rebelling against the government considering how messed up things were, it was also in the middle of repair. They needed time to work it out. Destroying it to start over wouldn’t yield better results at that point. We needed to wait and see what the final product was before we went on the attack.

The end of the cigarette glowed bright blue as Zero took another drag. “Hey, blow that in my face,” I said. His brow furrowed, and he looked down at me as if he thought I was an idiot. “Just do it. Smells nice.”

He breathed down to let the foggy trails of vapor wash over me. It smelled like strawberries along with hints of the peppermints he popped like pills so often. “The other rumor was that you’re apparently well known for picking up people for the night on populated planets you stop on.”

For a moment, I could only stare at him. I couldn’t fathom what he meant by picking people up. Like…for sex?

I sat up so fast I nearly caught the cigarette in my eye. “What!?”

He refused to look at me, frowning dejectedly at the floor. He might as well have been a kicked puppy. “I understand that I don’t see you often and I don’t really…” His cheeks tinged the color of the strawberry scent filling the room. “But if you had just talked with me about it-“

“No!” I finally snapped to my senses. “I haven’t slept with anyone! Oh my God, Zero.” I slapped a hand to my face, rubbing at my forehead. “I would never do that to you. Who’s even telling you these things?” I needed to kill them.

His frustrations were as clear on his face as his blush. He never gave away a source, but this wasn’t something he needed to keep from me. “I don’t know, Harlock. You’re famous in your own way, and every time your name comes up, I hear things, and I never know what’s true.”

With a sigh, I adjusted myself on the worn bed to sit in his lap, which immediately made him more flustered. I hated how often I had to see him tired or stressed or sad. He deserved so much better than that. “Please look at me,” I said, a request instead of an order. His misty eyes darted up to catch mine, only a few inches away. Now I really was irritated with the cigarette, keeping me from getting too close. “There are two things you need to know about me, because I guess I never told you before. One, I don’t sleep with people I don’t know. Two, I don’t lie to people I care about. So I don’t want you to listen to what those people say about me. Don’t ever listen to them. Listen to what I tell you, because it’s always the truth.” To get around the wall he’d put up, I moved around to his neck, kissing up to his jaw. “Besides,” I purred. “Why would I sleep with someone else, when I could just buy a hotel room to take a nap with you?”

He broke with a snort, his shoulders shaking as he laughed. “We sound like old people.”

My grin kept me from kissing him more, so I settled on stealing his hat from the bedside table to put on. “Maybe if you actually got some sleep, we could have more fun.”

“Don’t put this all on me. You’re always half dead when we meet too.” With his guard down as he scolded me, I snatched the cigarette away and finally nabbed myself a proper kiss. His breath tasted like strawberries and mint. I found myself growing fond of the combination. My hands tangled in his hair, and his locked around my back to drag me close. At some point his hat fell off my head, but I was too caught up with drowning in that kiss to care. It was the one thing he was better than me at, and he managed to leave me humming my pleasure against him, my toes curling. I was always panting harder than him when we broke apart.

“Why would I bother with anyone else when you can do that?” I sighed.

His smile held a hint of triumph. “I can’t think of a single good reason.”

I dropped my face into his shoulder with a childish whine. “It’s not fair. I’m so tired!”

He snatched the cigarette back from between my fingers, switching it off before he set it aside. I heard the room’s lamp click off. “We’ll pick back up later,” he breathed through a laugh, turning to kiss my temple. He was always so unfairly sweet. He began running his fingers through my hair, and it felt so nice that I couldn’t be bothered to move. “Thank you, Harlock,” he said.

“What for?” I muttered.

“For staying with me, even though you could have anyone else.” He almost sounded sad again. I hated that.

I turned to lean my face into the crook of his neck, just as warm and smooth as always. “Why would I have anyone else when I could have you?”

I’d fucked up.

“Don’t you ever think before you start attacking?” Zero’s voice was growing scratchy from yelling. His hat had been thrown across the room, and his hair was a frayed mess from how much he’d run his hands through it. “I can’t believe you. I just can’t believe you!”

“There was no way for me to know that ship was undercover,” I attempted pleadingly.

It had been clear from the moment he’d invited me aboard his ship for a parlay that something was very wrong. His crew all glared at me, and his first officer was more curt than usual as she’d led me to his room. “He’s been drinking,” she said just before she threw me into the lion’s den.

“Don’t you ever just think that maybe if you just damaged a ship without going all out, it would be good enough? You don’t have to kill all the other men who claim to be pirates.”

“I don’t!” I started to stand from the chair he’d told me to stay in, but his glare forced me back down. “If they raise the white flag, then I’ll leave them alone. These ones refused, so we kept fighting.”

“But you’d already won.” His voice cracked, broken from pain. “They sent out an SOS.”

“I thought they were calling for backup. It was a coded signal. I didn’t know.”

“Just take a moment to think! Those men had friends and families! They were just doing their jobs! That could have been me and my crew out there. If you had just…” He poured himself another glass of bourbon with trembling hands and knocked it back without taking a moment to breathe as he drank.

“I’m sorry, Zero. But I can’t just let pirate vessels go with a slap on the wrist if I have evidence they’re harming people.”

He threw his glass against the wall, where it shattered into a brilliant mess. “Those files were forged.”

With his anger rising, I couldn’t stand sitting there submissively. I jumped to my feet to finally fight back. “Then you should have told me!”

“I’ve done everything I can to protect you and your crew, even with all the trouble you cause, but I can’t just hand government secrets over to you. You’re still a pirate. I couldn’t trust you with that information. I didn’t think you would just kill them without them attacking first!”

“They were wanted men, and I took them down,” I spat. “I was doing your job for you. There was no way for me to know they weren’t filthy pirates like me, so quit trying to put all the blame for this on me.”

His hand clenched into a shaking fist, and I braced myself for him to run up and swing. Instead, his anger seemed to drain away. Tears began to roll down his face as he sank down to his knees beside the table. He grabbed the bottle of bourbon, looking far weaker than I’d ever wanted to see him. “The captain of that vessel was the best man at my wedding, and you wiped him out without a second thought.” He took a long drink as the cogs of my mind began to turn.

Oh.

Oh…

I’d really, really fucked up.

Even though I was on my feet, I felt like I was crawling toward him. He didn’t look at me until I knelt down in front of him, reaching out my hand to take the alcohol away. “Don’t touch me,” he snarled. “I don’t want to see you anymore.”

He might as well have plunged his hand into my chest. “Zero, I’m sorry. Please, I really am. If I’d have known, I-“

“But you didn’t, because you didn’t think, and you didn’t care.” He finished off the bottle that I swore had been full when I’d walked in.

“I know I made a mistake, and I hate myself for it, but I don’t want you to hate me for it. I love you, Zero.” It was the one phrase that always broke him. No matter how mad he was or what stupid mistake I’d made, he would always sigh and return it.

He dropped the bottle, stood, and walked away from me. “Leave my ship. This meeting is over. Don’t try to contact me further.”

It hurt to breathe. There had to be something I could say, something that would bring him back to me. “Zero, please,” I begged, returning to my feet. “Just let me talk to you.” I reached out a hand for him as though I could pull him back. “Please don’t leave.”

The door closed behind him. I couldn’t see straight. I wanted to break something, so I picked up the bottle and threw it against the wall where he’d thrown his glass. Maybe if he’d been sober, he would have listened. Maybe if he’d been sober, he would know well enough to see how much I cared about him and how stupid he was being. Maybe if I’d been sober during that fight, I might have thought. Maybe those men would still be alive.

I ran out into the hall to find him, but I found his first officer standing there instead. “I’m sorry,” I told her, but she shook her head.

"I know I say this a lot," Harlock began before a long yawn cut through his words. Scooting his chair closer to the infirmary bed, he settled his arms on the side to rest his head against as his words left him through a murmur. "But you really owe me this time."

"Mm-hm," Zero smiled. His skin tone was still close to the bed sheets, the dark circles under his eyes standing out like swipes of black paint across a new canvas. Overall, he felt dizzy. The air seemed to have turned the consistency of water, but his limbs were far too heavy to try swimming with.

"So next time try to not bleed out so much," Harlock huffed, reaching up to lightly smack at the man's cheek. "You're damn lucky we have the same blood type."

"Why didn't your doctor just have some donor blood available?" Zero breathed. His tired smile stayed constant. The whole fiasco had left him strangely amused, and he was just happy the infirmary beds on the Deathshadow were comfortable.

Harlock's eyes meandered suddenly around the room with a newfound interest. "Well it was all, uh, out of date. No one had bothered to donate in a while, so…you know."

"I'm impressed you all haven't managed to kill yourselves yet with policies like that," Zero laughed softly. He raised his hand with strength he hadn't thought he still possessed and ran his fingers through Harlock's tangle of hair. So many knots. "You need to brush your hair."

"I'm sorry I woke up to Tochiro yelling that you were going to die. Didn't have time to do much but throw clothes on." Harlock's eyes returned to his ship's new guest, checking to make sure he was still recovering. "We need to contact your crew so they know you're not dead." Zero hummed his agreement and waited for the question he knew was coming. "So are you going to tell me what you were doing bleeding out on a Cosmo Fighter?"

"Top secret," Zero laughed until his amusement was cut off by a harsh cringe. His hand slipped from Harlock's hair to press against the bandages across his stomach. Besides a few renegade splotches of blood, they were mostly clean, wrapping half of his chest along with his middle. "Would've been alright if the console hadn't blown up," he hissed. "They got me good."

"Who's they?" Harlock growled. "And where's your crew?"

Zero sighed and tried to relax against the mountain of pillows holding him up straight. "Crew's fine. The mission was just for two of us, and they didn't find my partner out, so he'll be okay. Less recognizable than me, you know."

"An undercover mission," Harlock scowled. "You can't be serious. Last time you all nearly got executed in the middle of that party, and you would have been if I wasn't there. Quit doing those, Zero! Clearly you can't handle them, and I'm not going to be there every time to save your ass."

Zero's smile held a hint of irritation as he returned his hand to smack at the pirate's cheek. "Harlock, as I recall, you were the reason they found us out at the party, so I'm going to need you to take those opinions of yours and just shove them right up your ass."

That was the drugs talking probably. Or at least Harlock hoped so, because he'd never heard Zero be quite so blunt before. It was so hilariously unfitting that he could only nod as he tried to suppress a laugh. "Alright, but this time wasn't my fault."

"Yeah-yeah. I just thought I was a better pilot than they were gunners. I figure they just got a lucky shot. My escape plan nearly went off perfectly."

"But it didn't," Harlock frowned. "You're damn lucky Tochiro's the type of person to save a lone fighter like yours."

Zero's smile softened. "And you're not?"

"And you're lucky my doctor's good enough to stitch up a hit like that," Harlock continued, ignoring his question. "But it was scary seeing you bloodied up like that, so you have to do your job better."

"Are you just going to keep talking cute, or are you going to lie on this bed with me?" Zero asked, his expression still calm as he watched his favorite pirate's cheeks tinge pink. He couldn't imagine why, since Harlock was usually the type to feel comfortable whispering unrepeatable things to him when they were surrounded by people.

"Well, if you want," Harlock huffed. "You could have just asked." Dragging himself to his feet, he climbed onto the bed hardly big enough for both of them and squished himself up against Zero's side.

"I did ask," Zero hummed as he turned to nuzzle Harlock's ear. "I just didn't think I would've had to."

"If I'd known drugs would make you so sweet, I would have given you some ages ago," Harlock muttered as his neck began to warm with a blush.

"I told your doctor not to give me anything. I'm just happy to be alive and happy to see you," Zero purred before biting at Harlock's ear, giving it a gentle tug.

It wasn't just Harlock's face feeling hot then. He felt like his entire body was consumed with a blush. "Yeah, and that's great," he said. "But this is going to be really disappointing for me since you're injured, and that means nothing strenuous."

"Well, it's disappointing for me too, but you could at least turn this way for me."

Harlock turned with a renewed interest, hoping for at least a little action. He was caught off guard by the purely adoring smile on Zero's face. It made the older captain's red-hued eyes shine with an overpowering yet gentle love that turned Harlock's stomach to knots as he dove forward to give his rival a heated kiss. But it quickly turned to be soft as he remembered to be careful. He couldn't risk agitating Zero's injuries, so he would just be as slow and loving as he could manage.

It left the Independent practically purring as Harlock's hand carded through his hair. While Zero's eyes were so heavily lidded when they pulled apart that he was looking through his lashes, he tried his best to focus on Harlock's flushed face and shining, wet lips. His pirate looked horribly disappointed, and all he could do was lean forward to press their foreheads together, his eyes falling shut. "I won't die unless you're at my side," he whispered. "So you never have to be scared."

"So that's your trick?" Harlock's brows pulled together. "But I don't know that I like the idea of you dying much at all." His fingertips traced down Zero's arm until he could hold onto the slightly larger hand lying limp atop the bed sheets.

"You have to understand, it's better to be together when it happens." Because he couldn't imagine an ending where either of them lived much longer. None of the other Independent captains had, and he'd never heard of a pirate with such a high bounty getting old. "But I'll do whatever I can to stop it, because I hate to be away from you."

"And I love you," Harlock sighed. "So you should really just join me here. Then you'd be my pirate too, and I could keep an eye on you."