For tonight we'll merry, merry be,

As long as my cup's full, you'll dance with me

For tonight we'll merry, merry be,

Tomorrow we'll be sober.

- a Yichan drinking song

Aly was awake and rubbing at his eyes when Jori politely shut the door behind him. Out of necessity mind, his head would no doubt combust at this point from the pounding it was receiving. He did not like drinking as a rule, he liked having all his cards in order, his playing pieces neatly organized on a board and being drunk made it very hard to think. He stared at Aly and perhaps he must have looked a bit too long because Aly frowned.

"Something the matter? Oh, did you not want me to—" Aly's hair was a mess, sticking up in all directions. He adjusted the shirt he slept in and reached for the pants that were somehow on the floor of the bunk.

Jori frowned, what on earth had they gotten up to last night? All he remembered was that they shared many drinks from that one bottle and when Aly made to stagger out of the cabin, Jori had stopped him. Which was for the better, Aly had been in not fit state to walk out the door let alone to the stairs where everyone slep.

"It's not about the cabin. I'm not going to have you breaking your neck returning to your own bunk. You were very drunk," said Jori, leaving out that he too had been inebriated and could only remembered bits and pieces of divulged secrets. He hoped that Aly couldn't quite remember the conversation either. He sighed deeply and ran his hand through his hair before seeing the mess that was Aly's hair, handed him a comb on the table. He was not drinking his father's stash again. "I do have a question though, does your name change coincide with our new stowaway? So that there's no familial confusion?"

"What?" Aly accepted the comb with a nod of thanks but he looked as though Jori was speaking gibberish.

Sometimes it was best to be blunt and let someone's head do the churning. "Ellis's onboard." At Aly's confusion, he decided Aly must have forgotten Marget's idiot decision of a name, "Your nephew is on board! Does it run in your family, stowing away on my ship? Shall I have Giersa check the hold to see if dear Marget hasn't gotten her skirt stuck somewhere as well?"

"Ellis? Here?" At that Aly bolt upright, and looked wildly at Jori, "He's onboard the Plucky?"

"Yes, here! Do I look like I'm lying?" Jori gestured out the door.

"No?" Aly to button his shirt and put on his boots. "I didn't speak to him at all. You were there, weren't you I barely said three words to him. Marget doesn't like it when I parent—"

"Your sister is the reason why this child is on Plucky!"

"She is technically also the reason why I'm here," Aly said matter-of-factly and Jori was too stunned to speak.

He could only splutter incoherently until Aly got off the bed and gestured for them both to walk out of the cabin. Usually some sailors would be sleeping in at this hour but curiously everyone seemed to have something to do on the deck of the Plucky. The wood ought to be spotless after this little family reunion, Jori thought irritably. Every man with a mop standing should be able to eat off the deck with how hard they were working on eavesdropping.

"Good morning, Ellis," said Aly, because of course, politeness was drilled into him. "What are you doing here?"

Ellis had been cowed and sweet in his mother's house but he met Aly's eyes with a stubborn defiance. Jori hadn't notice but Ellis carried a satchel with him. Too small for a road trip, or in this case, a sea trip, but then again, he doubted Ellis had any experience packing. "I'm taking a vacation. Uncle."

Their superior breeding or the years enduring Marget's admonishments must have stopped Ellis and Aly from rolling their eyes at that remark.

Aly was the first to recover and he put on the sternest face Jori's ever seen on the man, "Why?"

Ellis stared back, undeterred, "She made the house all fancy for an engagement party. I'm not stupid, I was there the last time you had one." Then too loudly, as if addressing the eager ears listening, "It's what rich people do. Or want-to-be rich people."

Surely Ellis was too young to be married, Jori thought, taking in the boy's appearance. There was no way the boy was over sixteen, maybe fifteen, but Jori couldn't judge him based on how he himself had been at that age. Fifteen year old Jori was brawny and primed for a fight on who was the better cook. Ellis looked like he could be blown over in a stiff sea wind. He was like Aly in built, delicate and pale, though without the freckles. Ellis was quite possibly the last person Jori would have expected to join them, though considering how Aly found himself on the Plucky, maybe he should have not judged so harshly those he thought to be shy and retiring.

"Huh." Stowaway or not, he was rather amused by this kid and his bluntness. Maybe his theatrics, it was a shame that it had been years since Jori stepped foot into a theater. "You didn't take all your little siblings onboard did you? I run a ship not a nursery."

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"They're not in danger of getting married anytime soon." Ellis cross his arms, and looking away from Aly said, "Mother's horrible at it."

Aly look stupefied at that, and Jori wasn't a priest to offer a blessing but he had to hide a grin. He wasn't going to give in though in front of an audience, it set a bad precedent, "And how did you find the Plucky?"

"I'm very good at sneaking around. Isn't that someone you want?" Ellis said brightly.

The odd crashing noise from when he and Aly had been walking back to the Plucky suddenly made sense, "You nearly gave yourself away back then. Not use to sneaking around places that aren't manors, hm?"

"You two were going to kiss!"

"No!" They both reacted, much to Ellis's satisfaction and glee. Jori decided to ignore any background noise.

"Nothing was happening," Aly insisted.

"Mother likes to think she's a good liar," said Ellis. "I know when she lies. You have the same sort of frown on your face. But," he shrugged, "it's not a bad thing. You're not lying to me. You're lying to yourself."

"Didn't they teach you manners in that fancy school your mother sent you to?" Jori said, more out of curiosity. Against his better judgement and probably all sanity and reason he decided he rather liked this new development.

"Sure," Ellis agreed. "But the teachers break them all the time. So clearly rules can be broken but to the right people."

At that Jori gave in, "I like him," he said, and held out a hand to Ellis. "Welcome onboard the Plucky, Ellis. I do have three rules. Never call me the Captain, don't come into the Captain's cabin—"

"Why would I want to see you two going at it—"

"—and when you're told to do something in a storm, do it or you'll risk life or amputation, understood?"

"Sounds fun," Ellis said brightly and shook Jori's hand.

There were callouses on the boy's palm that suggested one of his hobbies was horse riding. Come to think of it, Jori looked the boy up and down, Ellis did dress half-way decently for a ship. Those trousers were too well made for a sailor but they suited ship life well enough and looked like they could handle the stress of running up and down or climbing. He glanced towards Aly to see what the other man made of it only to see Aly's lip a thin line.

Which quickly disappeared when Ellis came to him and pulled something out from his satchel. "Mother was clearing out your room when you left. I thought you'd want this back."

Ellis held out the object like a peace offering, and Aly took it with slightly trembling hands. He took the book and flipped through it quickly, though Jori was quite experience in reading fast moving pages by this point to recognize both numbers and words. It looked like a theorem page, which perfectly suited whatever abilities Aly had. How nice of the kid. He glanced between the two and wondered if, given different circumstances Aly would be more like Ellis. But then again he doubted he would trust Ellis in the kitchen, he seemed to be too boisterous and excited and would no doubt be pulling oven doors open too early and spilling things.

"Thank you."

"It was yours," said Ellis and he didn't meet Aly's eyes. "Mother shouldn't have just—" whatever words Ellis was going to say was interrupted by the hug Aly pulled him into.

Apparently this was too much emotion for one morning because the deck was now empty of sailors. Except for Giersa and Ralphye because of course they would want to talk about the next steps. They kept themselves scarce until Aly and Ellis went off to find a place for the boy to sleep.

"What a sweet little family," Ralphye said. Jori eyed the man suspiciously but it sounded sincere. "When is the wedding?"

"There is no wedding!" He scowled when that sounded like a denial and settled for false sweetness, "Who is getting married? You? Which unfortunate soul should I send my condolences to?"

Ralphye merely smiled in a way that suggested Jori had already lost. It didn't help when Giersa chimed in, "If we have another heist that involves a priest we could have a wedding."

"Didn't Hari run away from a monastery? He might qualify as a priest," Ralphye mused.

Sometimes he wondered if he was the one drunk on this ship. He did not care to understand what Ralphye was implying and nothing had happened between him and Aly. So they shared a bunk after a drunken night, it was nothing compared to the state he'd seen several, no forget that, all of his crew in at some point in time. Jori scowled, and made to argue more but decided to settle on a lie. "Aly hates weddings."

"Aly?" Giersa raised an eyebrow, directed at Jori. Then they mused aloud, much to Jori's dismay, "I see. Aly. Sounds nice, very rhyme-able."

There were something clicking along in Giersa's head that Jori did not like the sound of, so he leaned in and whispered, "If I hear a verse of Jori and Aly you will suffer bodily damage."

"To my heart," Giersa said, hand to their heart. "How sad. It's alright, I'll save it for the wedding."

That was not worth a response so Jori ignored Giersa and strolled towards the ship's wheel.

"Where to Jori?" said Ralphye, "I've set it for Viribyr, considering the script and all. Am I wrong?"

"No," Jori shook his head. "You were perfectly right, I need to go to Viribyr."

"You want to speak to Olkvardr Stigeson?"

"No. I want to speak to his seer."

Ralphye frowned, then shrugged, and patted Jori's back. "Well, let's hope this time it goes better than the last."

The sail to Viribyr went well enough, they had to skirt past some icebergs, dodge past some unfriendly ships and endure the bitter cold that came biting at them. This, Jori decided, shivering under his many layers, was why he avoided sailing this way. The food was horrible this far North. But at least the traders in Viribyr would pay well for the animals he had onboard and maybe Olkvardr's seer would offer him an ear.

He had wondered if Aly would do well in the cold, but whatever was in the notebook seemed to have lightened Aly's mood enough that he didn't seem to mind. The other man had offered to show Jori what was inside and Jori had nodded along politely because Aly had looked so happy explaining the numbers to Jori. It was some sort of theorem by some dead mathematician and if you prove his theorem then it would change something very important.

"Sounds like you're getting there," Jori had offered and Aly had looked pleased enough by this remark that he had continued talking about his scribbled notes. So even as he understood absolutely nothing of what Aly was saying he was content to sit by and watch because Aly had endure Jori talking about the merits of different breeds of chicken and their eggs.

As for Ellis. Well, Ellis was an experience. It would seem like whatever school Marget sent him to should demand back their money because Ellis was incapable of sitting still and being 'silent and unheard'. He was everywhere, pointing at this thing and that thing. For some reason unknown to Jori the crew tolerated the questions being thrown at them. They weren't stupid, mind you, Ellis was asking why things work, which was always a good thing to know. Aside from the more technical questions, he had a fascination for shanties and songs.

Unfortunately this just so happened to be Giersa's favorite evening activity and once his first mate learned that playing an instrument was part of Ellis's education, a guitar had been summarily presented to Ellis.

"It's very badly tuned," Ellis had remarked after strumming some discordant notes. "But thank you Giersa, I'll see what I can do."

Jori had, on principle, never paid attention to the songs being sung on the deck. But this time he had, and felt a twinge in his chest as Giersa directed the notes of his father's song to Ellis. If he closed his eyes it would be Amard sitting there with the dusty guitar and his hand offered to Jori for a jig.