Otasune Long story

The knot on his shoulder was making itself more evident for the lack of rest but he’d live. He just looked out for the crew members and the person he knew was there with them. It was hours before the ship stabilized better and the rocking subdued. Also by that time Sunny was looking around at the new (and scary) surroundings.



Hal was asleep in Snake's lap once in a while making soft noises.



Sunny noticed Hal was asleep and she saw his pet holding onto him and looking at her. She got up and started to look around. Snake just handed her a flashlight in case she needed it, but really to make finding her easier in case she decided to make herself invisible. Something he was sure she could not do better then him. So he let her explore.



Hal snuggled against Snake, for once having a pleasent dream. "hmmn...ha..ha.....bunch of...pans..pansies..." he smiled in his sleep.



Snake looked at Hal sleep for a moment, becoming distracted. When he looked back up he saw the empty area between the crates. That couldn’t be good. However he could still see the light form shapes on the floor sometimes so she was still not completely out of range.



"Fish paste!" Hal shouted as he shot upright. He put his hands over his mouth and looked at Snake sheepishly.



Snake grinned at his partner and chuckled. “Don’t let the fish get you, Hal.” He said not paying attention to Sunny for a moment which was more then enough chance for her to turn off the flashlight and crawl around the crates.



Hal stretched and looked around. "Where's Sunny?" he asked.



Snake looked up at where he’d last seen the light and made an alarmed sound; however he covered it up with a big smile so that Hal didn’t panic. “She’s right… um… around that… general area… over there… somewhere” he pointed.



Hal nodded. "I'm sorry if I'm getting too attached to her.." he said softly



“I can’t say anything against that. I just worry that you will hurt when her family takes her in if she has any left.” He said, not finding a true reason to lie at Hal. The fact that the person that would probably not like it was him was something he’d come to terms with and a demon he was ready to work with.



Hal nodded. "I'll try not to..It's just.." he looked down slightly at his hands in his lap.



“What is it?” he asked, worried Hal was falling pray to something similar then what he had and hoping that was not the case.



"I..I've always wanted kids.." Hal said blushing in embarrassment since he usually never wanted to admit such things infront of Snake.



“Ah.” He said, trying not to look at him. That was something he knew he’d only deter for Hal if he was with him. The fact that he wanted to give him whatever he needed was making that detail even worse since he’d probably be unable to give him that. He didn’t even know how to even approach the subject.



Hal laughed a little. "It's stupid I know.." he said rubbing the back of his head.



“Pretty logical” he mumbled, getting up to see if he could still see the kid. He noticed that the tapping of her feet on the hull was giving her away. She moved between the crates and Snake only went to her when she was approaching the ones that where stacked as he imagined them falling on her in his mind’s eye. “Let me go fetch that thing.”



Hal nodded and waited for him. "Fetch some food while you're at it." He called to him.



Snake disappeared between the crate and if you paid attention you could hear the giggling and the squealing and Snake’s “Sweet!” as he came back dragging a box smiling at Sunny as if she’d brought him a live rabbit.



Hal stood up using the wall. "Snake did you find a box?" he asked with a laugh.



“Even better! Sunny found a box with star-fruit in it.” He said, patting her over the head, which she loved. She then grabbed one of the things and looked at it, not having eaten this individually in Japan.



Hal smiled and looked at the fruit. "I love these!" he smiled picking one up. "Good job Sunny." he said patting her head as well.



Snake cleaned the one she was holding with his shirt and handed it back to her. “You can eat it directly, so it’s practical, and it makes me stop panicking over the water.” He said, cleaning one to eat it himself. He had thought they’d have to steal water from the crew, this was looking up.



Hal cleaned his off and started eating it slowly. He smiled at the familure taste. "Snake where do you think we are?" he asked



“Close to Canarias, I pray.” He said, as he didn’t know if this ship was going east or south and he didn’t want to break it to Hal yet. “I’m pretty sure we passed Bermuda, we can’t not have passed Bermuda already. Heh, we’re in the triangle if you trace a line. We’re probably either tracing it or close”



Hal laughed. "You know that's just a myth Snake." he said sitting down.



“It’s a geographical location, the missing ships are the myth.” He said, as that’s exactly where they were. However he was not about to try to convince Hal of something he didn’t want to believe.



Hal took another bite of his star fruit and smiled up at him. "I know." he said.



“Well… that’s all, really.” He said, not giving it much importance. Now he just wanted to be rid of the trip to Canarias so they could make the commercial voyage to where they needed to go. Sunny was not really worried about this as she was far more worried about the smell and the crates again. She had bored of watching them talk and had left again.



"Be careful Sunny." Hal called after her. He looked at Snake. "You know I find it strange that a ship of this size doesn't have more security. Like cameras and gaurds." he said. The realization came to him as he looked around and it seemed odd to him.



“It’s only here, we can’t move from here as this is just to dump things in. The places they stop in don’t really strike suspicion either. However some ships really need to place the security, some even don’t” in his little speech Sunny had made it her very own mission to disappear from sight completely, except for the still light of her flashlight.



Hal nodded. "Yeah." he replied. "This just seems too easy in my opinion.."



“Well that’s really because there’s three of us.” Snake then heard some suspicious noise from the compartments above. “I think they’re coming here. I’ll go get Sunny.” He said, getting up to go to the girl and tell her to turn off the flashlight. However once there he saw she’d placed it on the floor and forgotten it. “Crap!” he said, picking it up and using it to look around.



Hal quickly hid behind the crates. "Sunny??" he whispered loudly. he poked his head up to look around



Snake turned the light off when he heard someone come in and hoped. However right now luck was not on his side when he heard some commotion in Papiamento and the words ‘girl’ and ‘lost’ where thrown in. ‘Shit, shit, shit’ he thought.



Hal quickly ducked into the shadows behind the crates and waited quietly. He was nervous and started biting his nails



Snake saw that they scouted some of the place in the hopes if finding her ‘parents’ but found nothing so they just took Sunny to the upper levels kicking and protesting so that they could get help from the authorities. Once they where gone Snake turned the light back on to look for Hal.



Hal got up and quickly rushed over. "What happened??" he asked franticly.



“They found her, think she got lost in the process and sneaked in by mistake. They’re going to contact the authorities when they get back.” He explained, hands on Hal’s shoulders reassuringly.



"Snake we have to get out of here! If they catch us we're definately in trouble!" Hal said holding onto Snake's strong upper arms.



“I have to go get her first, and where do you suggest we go? Open sea?” He asked, trying not to get anxious.



"it's that or try to come up with fake identities.." Hal replied.



“Try not to panic. We’re going to have to wait until we’re reaching land so that we can get Sunny first.” He said, finding he was very worried about the girl.



Hal nodded and tried calming himself down but he was really worried about Sunny. "How?"



“We wait until we’re nearing land, you find us a safety boat we could use and I get Sunny. She should be close to the captain quarters if I’m thinking right.” He said, wondering if they might hurt her. “I just hope they don’t do anything to her… Much of old men and all…”



Hal nodded. "Where should I look?" he asked



“Wait, just wait until we’re near. It should be in some hours, so try to sit down until then” he suggested, as he’d like to get to that but knew he was not going to be able to with the kid up there between those people.



Hal sighed and sat down. "I feel like a failure.." He said softly looking down.



“What? You didn’t do anything!” he said, failing to make sense of Hal’s claim. He’d only been doing what was prudent the entire time.



"I can't even take care of a kid.." Hal said softly. "Just like I couldn't take care of..E...Emma...!"



‘Oh shit.’ He thought placing his hands on Hal’s shoulders. “Calm down, Hal, it’s going to be alright, I’ll get her back, you’ll see, just don’t break down on me and we’ll be fine.” He said, trying to get the man to relax. “We’ll be in Portugal before you know it.”



Hal trembled and sniffled a little.



Snake tried pulling the man against him to keep him still and so that he’d stop trembling. He didn’t like seeing Hal like this, it made him uncomfortable.



Hal held onto him tightly and started to calm down a little.



Snake felt a little dizzy from the whole thing and it surprised him. However he needed to give Hal a less alarming version of what was happening to him. “I think I’m seasick.” He said, as he was a little feverish with the rate of his pulse.



Hal looked up and wiped his eyes. "I've been feeling like that all day.." he said checking Snake's forehead. "You feel as warm as I do." he added. "Maybe you should lay down..i...it helped me a little.."



“Alright” he said, not one to needlessly throw his health out the window when he had not much of it to spare. He laid down where they’d originally sat and tried not to thing about this.



Hal laid next to him on his side facing him. "Try not to focus on the rocking of the boat.." he said soothingly. "Focus on my eyes." he added looking at him with his grey eyes.



“Mmm… Nice point of focus.” He muttered. The sickness wasn’t really from the ship but he was not really going to tell this to Hal so that he didn’t have to work with it just yet.



Hal smiled and looked at him. His eyes shimmered a little with a strange, silvery sheen.



“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked, a little embarrassed by the gaze the man was giving him.



"Like what?" Hal asked blinking. as he blinked his eye color changed from green back to grey.



Snake noticed the change then but he just blinked wide-eyed and shook his head. “What the hell?” he thought to himself. “I’m seeing things.” He said, trying to get the rest. If he was seeing things like this then he was slowly loosing it.



Hal looked at him and sat up. "What is it?"



“I thought I saw something but it can’t be for real, so forget it.” He said, hoping he could get to the islands without the virus eating him.



"Please tell me.." Hal asked giving him the 'if you don't tell me i'll cry' look.



“I think I saw a light color effect in your eyes, that’s all.” He said, being completely honest.



Hal blinked again and his eyes shifted to more colors. "I have no idea what you're talking about."



Snake blinked for a moment and grabbed the flashlight. “Come here” he told the man a little scared. Last time he’d seen something this weird it was an arm and it was not pleasant. He opened Hal’s eye as if he where making a retina exam and pointed the light to it from a distance, having placed the glasses on his lap.



Hal's retenas didn't get smaller or bigger when the light hit them. "What are you doing...?"



“I think you have an eye problem” he said, not having seen this ever before. “A serious eye problem” he punctuated this by moving the light to observe the way his retinas stayed the same size.



"My eyes are fine.." Hal said.



“Your eyes are changing color and stationary, I’m half expecting you to tell me you have night vis- Hal… can you see the fruit crates?” he asked, turning the flashlight off a little fearful.



5 "Star fruit, Oranges and other fruits." Hal replied as he turned the light off he stood up quietly. "Do I frighten you...Brother?" came Liquid's smooth voice.



Snake fought the urge to leap back. He just stood on his feet and put the standard four-feet combat distance between him and Hal. It sort of burned him to think- no, he’d rather just ask and get this nightmare over with. “What did you do this time?”



Liquid laughed and paced around. "Don't you just love the smell of the sea air?" he said making idle chit chat as he paced around Snake. "Never thought I'd see the day when you would mistake your fathful little pansy of a scientist for me. Ocelot really out did himself with this one."



It wrenched, and it was wrenching deep. However he kept his defense on and buried himself in sweet, sweet denial. “Where’s my…” he made a quotation sign “…pansy little scientist?”



"Right here. I'm just borrowing his body. and I did make some slight modifications to it which judging by previous conversations would benifit you. Since you were infected with FOXDIE..." Liquid replied with a sly grin



“The hell did you do to him?” damn it, even when it made him feel immensely relieved to know it had not been Liquid the whole time he knew now he could not take it on the man.



3 Liquid grinned. "Soon soon. But you should learn to use some protection when helping yourself to this body." he smirked before letting go of his control of Hal, who afterwords fell to the ground.



Snake blinked a few times then helped Hal up. He still didn’t let the man touch him, though, or at least not from an angle that Snake could not make an unbreakable grip from. He made a slight face when leaning him to a crate. “Why do I feel like I don’t like the way you said that, Liquid.” He said, his first thought was sickness… that’s the worse that could happen; Hal was sick!?



Hal groaned. "S..Snake..?" he looked up at Snake with a confused look. "Why did you call me Li..Liquid...?"



“I’ll tell you in a moment.” He said, lifting Hal’s face and examining his eye with a flashlight again. He handed the man his glasses satisfied but not exactly calm. He was still pretty shaken and now… Now he just had to throw up.



Hal's grey eyes dialated and he squinted. "ow! Snake stop that hurts.." he said shielding his eyes



“Good. We need to take you to a medical professional as soon as we hit land. I need to know what you have” he said, grave and extremely nervous. However he knew that if he told the man about liquid right away he’d panic. “You where out of it for an alarming amount of time.”



Hal blinked. "What I have..?" he looked at snake like he had just grown a second head. "What's wrong..?"



“I’m pretty sure you’re sick with something, near positive. I’ll work on the lifeboat, you just wait here the entire time… Fucking Liquid…” he mumbled a line of curse words that could make a sailor hush him.



"Liquid? What does Liquid have to do with this?" Hal asked following him like a lost puppy



“Don’t ask” he mumbled mentally pleading ‘Not Foxdie, let it be anything but that; hell I’d take pneumonia, infections, I’ll take bullet wounds…’ as he checked on Hal’s temperature and pressed him to sit. “Do you feel anything out of the ordinary?” he sat down and took a calming breath to explain. “Liquid possessed your body just now.”



"W...What???" Hal shrieked. He had felt out of the ordinary since Snake rescued him from the hospital. “I..I feel sick but it's from the rocking of the boat.."



“That’s not what he told me.” He sighed and placed a hand on Hal’s face, leaning his forehead on the man’s. “I’m just asking you for a few stupid tests, nothing outstanding, that’s all I ask.” He was genuinely scared and he found he absolutely /loathed/ the feeling.