a calm morning

[Doubar]

For a moment Doubar felt a laughter exlode in his throat but tried hard to not let it out. He could tell from his brother's face that his own thoughts lead him far away from the pretty simple joke he and the sorceress had been sharing. And seeing Sinbad think so hard about what could lie behind all this only made the first mate enjoy it so much more.
Still grinning broadly he turned to Bryn again, adressing her with a voice that clearly held a chuckle in it. "Uh I'm not sure. What do you think, Bryn? Should we tell him?"

[alex]

She smirked at Doubar. "Certainly." She then looked at Sinbad, smiled, and turned to stare at an invisible picture at the end of the hall. She imitated Maeve's voice again, or what she thought was Maeve's voice. "Come here, Little Sinbad. Aw, good boy." She preshed her lips as if she was going to kiss the imaginary puppy.

[Sinbad]

He still felt kind of clueless. Obviously he had walked in in the middle of some joke or something, so he just looked from Bryn to Doubar and back to Bryn, not recognising who she was imitating (since her imitation was guesswork anyways) and reached over to grab for one of the last pieces of bread on the table. “And you are seriously worried for MY health?” he asked.

[alex]

She looked at Sinbad weirdly. "Of course we are worried about your health. But there is no reason to not have a little fun. Actually laughter, according to Firouz, could help your health. And Maeve would be so happy when you bring her Little Sinbad."

[Doubar]

At the mentioning of the Lass' name Doubar felt his smile fade a little. Cautiously he watched his little brother who was about to grab a piece of bread, listening intently to Bryn's words at the same time.
Unnoticably the first mate sighed at the situation. It was so strange, he thought, how he and Bryn could suddenly have joked about something that so clearly was related to memories that most onboard had dug deep inside their minds and avoided mentioning at all costs. And now, here they were. Making fun and talking about the Lass as if she were to come back soon. And if only she were!
But, once again, it was no use. It wouldn't lead any of them anywhere if they still kept all those good memories buried in some corner of their hearts and acted like darkness was all around them. Having Bryn speak so freely about Maeve had changed the first mate's spots. Time had come, he decided, to break that invisible border that had held all on board captive. And although Bryn could not possibly know what she had set into motion, he put on a smile again, being courageous for once and doing something he had not done in over a year.
He teased Sinbad.
"Not that she would ever need another captain to boss around then though", he added to Bryn's remark, making sure he did not miss to wink at the sorceress, "guess this position would already been taken."

[alex]

Bryn looked at Doubar surprised. "She bosses him around, too. I can understand arguing with the captain, but bossing him, that seems impossible. After all, he is the captain. He is the one giving out orders. Boy, now I really want to meet this Maeve."

[Sinbad]

It happened rarely, but this open, obvious denial to keep up the unsettling, yet comforting cover of simply not mentioning Maeve not just from Bryn, but from his brother as well, put the captain at a loss of how to react to it, his hand pausing in mid air briefly, before he took up the bread, looked at it, but didn´t take a bite. Instead he turned around to look for some water. Keeping himself busy and he knew it.

What was he supposed to do there, he wondered. He knew it was not fair, nor was it good in the long run to not mention her, to indirectly force his crew to pretend Maeve had never been here with them, but he found that this change from utter silence about the topic to … this… was not easy. Not at all. Like an old wound where a lot of healers had suddenly decided that rubbing salt into it was the best cure. He sighed inwardly, torn between simply leaving the galley without a word and meek, desperate attempts to reply something witty to their teasing. His pride as captain forbid the first, his whole self was not yet prepared for the second and his feeble attempt to have his voice sound as normal and light as he would have wanted it to sound failed miserably. “Well, wouldn´t we all.”

[alex]

She grinned. "Why? You already know her?"

[Doubar]

Doubar followed the whole conversation attentively. He chuckled on Bryn's remark, but had to notice that his joke didn't go that well - which in turn he should have known, he thought, since she had never seen the Lass and Sinbad act around each other. Bossing around like she seemed to have gotten it, definitely didn't fit the two; but that was nothing he had to worry about now, he decided. He could just as well explain that to her later on.
Right now however, other things were more important. Doubar knew his little brother well enough to hear it in his voice that he and the brunette where sailing near the wind. His every word betrayed that Sinbad did not think their teasing to be funny at all. And maybe, for someone in his situation it really wasn't.
Therefore, the frist mate reached over the table and laid a soothing hand on the sorceress' arm, squeezing it slightly and shaking his head slightly while he did so, hoping that she would get the meaning of it.
Then he turned around a little and addressed Sinbad again, making sure that his own words would come out calm but light-hearted.
"In deed we all wish for that, little brother. And some flask of water should be back there in the cabinet, if this is what you are searching for." Out of the corner of his eyes he catched the younger one's face, noticing now that odd look in his eyes that told him that Bryn and he really had to slow down now. But there was something else he noticed, too. At first he couldn't put his finger on it, but suddenly it struck him. The stubble. It was gone.

[Sinbad]

Bryn´s words were meant humorous, another attempt to tickle for a bit more of information that he had denied her for all this time. Sinbad understood that, yet it was the sound in his brother´s voice that kept him from retorting something harsh or just from leaving. The second option popped up in his mind briefly, but his pride dismissed it, a tiny voice that had been dormant for a long while insisting that he would not give in to a woman´s verbal banter that easily. Still, the whole situation was uneasy.
"I dare say so." he replied to Bryn´s half mocking question. "I´m good with remembering names and faces, she was here long enough to have me remember hers." It was an answer that had not been planned, a short tinge of his humour that had prompted to reply something Bryn would not expect and he was glad he had his back turned towards them since the slight smirk on his face did not quite match the casual tone that had crept into his voice. Neither did it match the weirdness that this sort of joking woke inside him. Oh, Maeve would have slapped him for those words for sure. And he would gladly have accepted that slap.

"Thanks Doubar." he said, referring not only for the tip on the flask, but found one easily enough and turned around to give his brother a glance.

[alex]

Bryn had noticed Doubar touching her arm. She had looked at him, wondering what he wanted to tell her. She saw him shake his head. She smiled and nodded. She knew what Doubar meant; go easy on Sinbad. Strange, because that was exactly what she was trying to do in the first place.

She turned back to Sinbad, who replied to her comment. All she could say is "I hope so." She smiled and nodded.

[Sinbad]

It was a rather abrupt change from Bryn´s teasing just a few seconds ago to her seemingly giving in and Sinbad silently wondered if his brother was partly responsible for that when he had not been looking. It didn´t matter for now, all that did matter was that the tension that had been in the room and that the captain only now noticed had been there, was now slowly dissolving into something more pleasant, a feel more fit to a random breakfast down here just a short way before they made it to another port. For a moment he considered giving back a lighter reply to that, but pretty much anything that Bryn´s words had him come to mind would have been some sort of innuendo regarding Maeve and he gave a barely noticable chuckle at that thinking that no, this was definitely not something he wanted to go into now.

Instead he gave Bryn a somewhat wry smirk which was probably more telling than he would have wanted it to be and instead prompted: “I have to admit I still don´t get the connection to that other Sinbad you were talking about when I came in.”

[alex]

At this Bryn rolled her eyes. She gave Sinbad an 'are you that stupid' face. She smiled slyly then stood up and stared at him. She put her hands on his cheeks. "Oh, you're so sweet." She hugged him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I just love your gift." She turned to an imaginary object next to Sinbad and bent down. "Sit, Little Sinbad. Good boy. Now roll over. Play dead."

[Doubar]

Doubar's gaze was still drawn to his brother's shaven face, when Bryn's actions made him snap out of his thoughts again. Having his eyebrows raised a little, he followed her tracks with his eyes and waited for what she was going to do. Seeing her move towards the captain and hugging him for seemingly no reason, for a moment made him wonder what had gotten into the young one. But at her next words it all became clear to him and Doubar couldn't help but chuckle at the situation. After all, imagining having a young puppy named Sinbad was what they had been joking about in the first place.
Eyeing his little brother then, Doubar waited for his reaction on that - hoping, he would at least smile at it.

[Sinbad]

Sinbad´s first impulse was to wonder about what by Allah had gotten into Bryn. Since he couldn´t really find a quick answer to that, he figured that her and Doubar had been joking about something he had only gotten the last bits of - according to her rather weird attempts or reinacting said joke: about... a puppy.

It was not too common a sight to see good old silly joking in his presence back on the ship and, but he couldn´t completely fight off the slightly bitter feeling that came with the whole context. Still, he was unable to fight back a smirk - an honest, real smirk that reminded of old SInbad´s earlier smugness. "We can buy you a puppy in Basra, Bryn." he said in a somewhat joking tone. "and a male one sounds good. You know how it´s females on board. Just causing trouble." She had been teasing him before and his joke was meant in good nature. Something Maeve would have been able to respond to - probably with something snappy or smug. Bryn was not too used to his verbal banters, but he didn´t think of that.