As he sighed again, he lifted up my head, by my chin. “Look… I am not angry, but can you please promise me that whenever I say ‘you need to leave.’ You do it? No matter what the situation is.”

“I…”

Did that mean ‘go’ as in if we break up? Wait, no… Of course not….

“Can you?” He pressed me again.

There was something about the pleading in his green eyes that made me nod. I might not know why, or even find out the reason why he insisted on that, but there must be a real honest reason.

“Good girl.”

As he started to caress my cheek, I leaned into it. It was so warm.

“This might take a little longer than I thought, but he’s on my turf, so I make the rules….”

“Is he the poacher?”

“Something like that. So I am sorry I can’t be there for you.”

Be there for me? Huh? This was the first time he was apologising about that.

“Don’t worry about it.”

As he smiled at me, he lowered his hand. He then gave me a peck on the other cheek, before taking a step back.

“I’ll make it up to you….”

He then gave me a sly wink, as he took the handle to the door and turned his head around. “Oh, don’t forget that you still have the buzzer for food.” With a little smile, he turned the handle and headed back into the dining hall. 

When Nocte left, my hand moved to my chest. I noticed that my heart was pounding. I don’t know why, but his concern and the softness in the tone of his voice made me go into overdrive.

God, I love him.

But did he even love or care about me at all? I mean his actions screamed it, so maybe he was more of a shower than a teller? With a little smile to myself, I headed back to my room.

Whilst I was back there, a few hours went by, and there was still no sign of Nocte. I also noticed that the boat was still there. As I was feeling hungry, I ordered food and, once again, it was all the food that I knew quite well, and they were cooked to perfection. After food, I used one of the bath bombs. I didn’t read what the scent was, but I noticed that the one that I used smelt like strawberries. As I hugged my legs in the bath, it just reminded me of him. When I finally got out of the bath, I noticed that there was still no sign of him. If this was for work, I should be there, right? But apparently that is not the case. 

As I was inside the main area before my bedroom, I sat down on the sofa and turned the TV on. The reception wasn’t that good on some channels, but I did, in fact, manage to find one that was re-airing one of my favourite guilty pleasure TV shows. It was about a blog writer living in New York, along with her three friends and their stories about men and love. My mum loved this show too, so we used to binge watch it together, with my dad just moseying off somewhere else. He usually went to his garage, since he liked painting little figurines. 

Whilst I was watching my guilty pleasure TV show, I also ended up ordering dinner and, as the outside started to get dark, I noticed that there was still no sign of him. It got to the stage where I even once checked up on that boat, but I saw that it was still there, still docked beside us.  

When I finally turned the TV off, I checked the clock. 

10:21

So… He’s been away for basically the entire day. Sighing to myself, I headed off to the bedroom, changed into the little night dress and got into bed. It was still rather early, but I just kind of wanted to lay here. For some reason, I felt lonely. I’ve had many days where I just had time to myself, but now? I just felt alone. Was this what my mother called ‘love sickness’? If so, I don't want it. 

I must’ve fallen asleep, as the sound of a boat woke me a little and, as I sat up onto my elbows a little, I could see someone moving in the darkness.

“Who's there?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

“Just me.”

Wait, that voice. As the form got closer, they sat on the side of the bed. My eyes were now adjusting to the darkness but, sure enough, that was, in fact, Nocte.

“You were most definitely a while….”

“That man? Can talk….” He sighed.

I quickly noticed that he sounded really tired. Dealing with that must’ve been taxing on him.

“Hey….” I touched his shoulder and, for some reason, he ended up tensing. “At least you can relax now.”

“Heh… I don’t usually sleep this early in the night. I’m more of a… Night owl.”

I couldn’t help laughing a little, it was rather amusing since I found out that his name can just mean ‘Night’. Hell, it made me remember that my grandmother once had to take tablets that said ‘Omne Nocte’ which legit just basically meant ‘every night’.

“Well, lemme put you to bed.”

“Eh?”

The confused sound he made made me chuckle, as I climbed off the bed, and stood in front of him. 

“Are you sleeping in your clothes?”

“Are you going to undress me?”

My eyes widened and, thanks to the darkness, my blushing face was hidden.

“What? No! I just thought…. Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable to sleep in your clothes?”

“I’ve slept worse.”

The way he said ‘worse’…. He kinda hung on the word a little too much. There was no time to get all blushy, I needed to take care of him. He had been taking care of me, so now it was my turn.

“Ok.”

As I edged in closer, I started to undo his shirt buttons. I had to get my breathing in control, but that came pretty quickly, because I heard him exhale really weirdly. Like he wasn’t getting enough air?

“You sure that man only talked?”

“.... I may have had to do another job in the meantime….”

“Oh?”

“...... Me…. Hi….”

The rest of the word became inaudible as he frumped forwards. I got increasingly worried, and felt his forehead, I noticed that he was extremely hot. As I turned on the bedside lamp, I also noticed that he looked like hell. I unbuttoned the rest of his shirt, took it off and made him lay down. At this point, I noticed that his breathing was very slow and ragged.

“Maybe I should call someone….”

As I tried to find the buzzer, a hand grabbed my arm.

“Do not do that.”

“But you don’t look right.”

“I’ll be fine… In the morning. Turn the light off.”

“I…”

As I took a deep breath, I turned the light off.

“That’s…. Better.”

“Are you sure I can’t do anything?”

Nocte was still holding my arm. He then pulled on me, and I fell into him, then a weak hand started to touch my hair.

“Sleep.”

“.....”

How could I sleep when I was worried about him? I only really cared about my well being today, and I didn’t even really take his well being into account. I moved my head so that I could see him.

“How can I sleep when you come to me looking half dead?”

“.... Sleep.”

Somehow, my eyes instantly became droopy and, no matter what, I couldn't open up my eyes. It felt like I was getting forced to sleep, betrayed by my own body…. What luck.

The following morning, I was woken up by rather laboured breathing. As I sat upright, I could clearly see the source. I saw that Nocte still lay there, looking worse than he did last night. Now I had to get someone. As I  rushed out of the room, I headed towards the cockpit. Maybe the Captain was there? As I opened up the door, breathing heavily, I was in luck, since there, looking into the monitor again, was the Captain.

“Captain!” I called out to her and she turned to face me.

“Good heavens, child. What’s wrong?”

“Is there a doctor on board?”

Her eyes widened, but she shook her head. “No…. But why?”

“It’s Nocte…. There is something wrong.”

“... I’ll head back to the mainland as soon as possible. Return to him for the time being.”

“I will.” 

I dashed back to my room but, as I opened up my door, I saw that there was someone standing right next to him. They had their back to me but, from what I could tell, they were dressed all in black. 

“Umm…. Who are you?” I called out to them, and, as if it was a reaction to my voice, they turned.  “Huh?”

I stood there a little dumbfounded, since the figure that was staring back at me looked awfully like Nocte, but he was dressed all in black apart from the red tie. They didn’t say anything, they just raised one eyebrow. I looked past this man to make sure that this wasn’t Nocte. But, to my dismay, I saw that Nocte was still on the bed, looking even worse.

“Who… Are you?”

“It doesn’t matter... How long has he been like this?” 

The man completely ignored my question, and just pointed at Nocte.

“Since last night….”

“Tell me exactly what happened?”

This man was playing twenty questions with me, and I still didn’t know who this Nocte lookalike was. But he seemed concerned for his well being, so perhaps he was ok?

“I don’t know, he was dealing with this man for work, but it took quite a few hours….”

“And is that everything?”

“Yes…. Wait, no.. He also said that he took on another job.”

“Another job?”

“Yes. I asked what it was, but he only said “Me and Hi”?”

The man turned around.

“Are you a doctor?”

“No….”

“... I asked the Captain, and we are heading back to the mainland to see if we can find one.”

“Normal doctors won’t help….”

“What?”

The man let out a heavy sigh. “I know you’re hanging around… Do something about her, would you?”

I was confused and now worried about what that man just announced, but I then heard another voice break the air.

“Only because she is asking too many questions….”

The voice came from behind me and, as I turned around, I saw that there, standing behind me, was a completely different man. How long had he been there?  Before I could get a decent look at him, he clicked his fingers, and everything went dark.

Why…