Bronsen and Cassy: Waking up on the slaver's ship.

The early morning sun shone through the small porthole, waking up Cassy, followed by Bronsen.

“See the location of the sun’s rays? It’s just like Drayden pointed out to me. The sun's rays never, ever change their angle or direction. If the boat is never moved, the sun will always shine directly at this spot. And wake me up since it's where my head is,” said Cassy.

She had a peek through the porthole. “It's a shame; no tasty crocigators are waiting to serve us.”

Five minutes later, Bronsen and Cassy were sitting, facing each other.

"So, our main objective is to repair this boat and get it to the other island, right?" said Bronsen.

"Sure."

"And whatever we do after that, we'll have to decide with Alice and Drayden."

"Yep."

"I don't suppose you've ever been sailing?"

"No," said Cassy.

"Pity. Neither have I. So we'll have to call a meeting of our motley crew and ask them how they are normally organised for sailing."

"May I suggest we make it straight after breakfast when everyone is reasonably well-fed and rested?"

"OK. And, we should ask Frannie and the other ladies to indicate some more men who are reasonably good to grant them some points by destroying slave collars. Having higher strength sailors could be a tremendous advantage."

"Well, there's several hundred slave collars in that box. Why were they carrying so many?" said Cassy.

"Let's ask Frannie or Hestia when we get a chance."

"So, what do you think is our timeline?"

"Harold said, with their newfound strength, it might be less than a week to get sea-worthy. And maybe one or two weeks to get to the others, depending on weather conditions."

"Sounds good so far. But it's only 500km or so to them. Shouldn't a boat be able to make it in far less time than a week or so?" said Cassy.

"It appears that it is not straight-line sailing; instead, we have to zig-zag through many shallow seas and channels to get to Marmalade Island."

"Ah, right. Also..." said Cassy as she giggled, "Alice is right, you do like to take over the leadership, don't you?"

"Ah, but, but, I'm also asking for your input! Right?"

"Right! Very good, Bronsen. You didn't just charge off to do your own thing. I'll have to complement Alice on her training." said Cassy.

"I think there is the possibility that you are now trying to get a rise out of me, aren't you ?" said Bronsen.

"Oh, maybe. Although I’m sure I can’t think of any reason why I would want to do that..." said Cassy.

"Anyway, it's probably the best that you be the leader. After all, a lot of the male Greys appear to be extremely prejudiced against us females."

Breakfast was the standard, undoubtedly highly nutritious, grey goop.

After breakfast was the meeting, but first, Bronsen asked Hestia the name of the island they were travelling to.

Hestia looked blank: "I don't know, it was just called the island."

"Never mind."

Bronsen stood up on a box and said:

"You were going to Marmalade Island anyway, so I propose we continue that plan. Does anyone have any objections?"

He got back many blank looks. Also, many disinterested looks. The only ones who seemed to want to disagree were Mr. Ex-Red and his two cronies.

Bronsen shrugged his shoulders. And flicked up his ears and tail.

"OK, Harold and his team will continue the boat repairs, and we will help them."

Harold nodded, and without any more ado, he walked to where they had already stacked up their tools, and his team began.

"Now, who are the ones that sail the boat?"

It took ages to get any coherent reply from them, but eventually, he worked out who the real sailors were and who provided the grunt labour.

Like on Earth, there was always a designated skipper when the boat was sailing. After talking with him for a few minutes, Bronsen decided that he did know what he was doing. He had a system-granted ability for it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

That night, in their private cabin after the evening meal:

“That's a relief that there is a skipper who knows exactly what he is doing. Although it is strange that the name he goes by is just Skip. Presumably, the slave society doesn't place any value whatsoever on individuality. Call a person by their job name and be done with it,” said Bronsen.

“Probably the Blues never bothered to even learn his name. They merely ordered him to go sailing, and that was that,” said Cassy.

“Oh, and when we do get sailing, I’m sure that the little shit, that is the ex-Red, is going to cause trouble,” said Cassy.

“Probably. Anyway, to start with, tomorrow we'll raise the stats of the sailors and boat hands. That OK with you?" said Bronsen.

"Fine, as long as we get Frannie's input on who might not be worthy of such gifts."

"And I will have to keep gradually getting them used to taking my orders. If I take it slowly and only make reasonable demands, I think it might work," said Bronsen.

"It won't work against the stupid git who used to be a Red."

"We'll just have to keep an eye on him."

Bronsen reached out and took Cassy's hands. For a while, they were silent, listening to the muffled sounds of the slaves settling in for the night.

Finally, Cassy smiled sweetly.

"Admit it, you have something in mind, don't you?"

"Hmm, as a matter of fact, I do," he said.

"And?"

"Now that we have some spare time, how about we..."

He moved closer to Cassy.

"Try a bit of cuddling?"

"Why, I would love that!" said Cassy.

After five minutes of smooching, they took a break. Mainly so that they could breathe properly.

"It's pretty good, even if we don't get the slightest bit sexually aroused, isn't it?" said Cassy.

"Ooh yeah, it sure is. And, maybe..." he said.

He took another deep breath.

"Well, since absolutely nothing can happen, and, after all, we have all seen each other naked, maybe..."

Cassy laughed her head off.

"You boys! We're in this fantastical situation, facing death daily, and all you're interested in is our naked bodies!"

"Yep!"

"Oh well, since you asked nicely, I'll strip down."

Cassy took off her clothes. Feeling much encouraged, so did Bronsen.

Standing there, they took some time to admire each other's bodies.

"You're still a poor, poor boy. You just can't get it up at all. Not the slightest. Maybe I'm just not good enough for you?" said Cassy.

A snort of derision from Bronsen. He didn't reply to that question. But he posed a question of his own.

"How about we lie down and cuddle up to each other?"

Cassy must have decided to save the mock coyness for another day. She immediately said: "I'd love to!"

They spent an enjoyable hour or so sharing their body warmth. After they had explored more than just a few possible ways of cuddling, they broke apart, lay next to each other, and did some mellowing out.

"I agree, it's still lovely doing this, even if our bodies are not responding in the slightest," said Bronsen.

"Do you think Drayden and Alice are doing the same?" said Cassy.

"Hmm, there's a 99% chance that they are. And the other 1% means they have gone to sleep because they are too exhausted from dealing with whatever situation they found themselves in today."

"Soooooo, what do you think about my Drayden having sex with your Alice?" said Cassy.

“Incendiary statement, much?” he said.

“Hmm” she said.

"Well, now, I guess you could say that some conflicting thoughts are going around my head. It's a bit like the clothes going around and around in a spin dryer. There's this gut-churning feeling about all sorts of things. For example, losing Alice, feeling betrayed because she's with someone else, feeling uneasy at myself being with you, or little stabs of jealousy, or, well, the image of Drayden making love to Alice is sometimes so intrusive and negative! And I don't want it to be! After all, we can end up with our desired four-way romance!" said Bronsen.

"Yeah, that sounds similar to what I'm thinking. If we can get over the negative crap, it should end up being fantastic!"

"And, since System-san is carefully arranging things, we should be able to make things work!" said Bronsen.

"Yeah, all this would be impossible if we had remained as those four naive little high school students we were. I also have these intrusive images of Alice making love to my Drayden."

Bronsen hesitated for a moment, then continued.

"When I think of those two making love, I still think that Alice is absolutely gorgeous."

"Well, I have to admit she is. And Drayden, of course, has a gorgeous body!" said Cassy.

She made an exaggerated sigh as if longing for his body.

"Actually, I think Drayden's body is kind of attractive too."

"Nice to agree... Wait! You think that Drayden is hot, too?

"Err, not quite to that extent, but sort of..."

Cassy squealed in excitement. "It's Boy Love, after all!"

"It is not Boy Love! Which is prohibited by System-san anyway. I'm just saying I, err, appreciate Drayden's naked body. Just a little bit. But not enough to be a subject of your Boy Love obsession. Ahh, that's right, because of the prohibition, you can't enjoy that stuff anyway. Poor Cassy."

Big, slightly predatory grin from Cassy.

"But still, you have some attraction, don't you? Enough to fuel my fantasies. Oh yeah, I can think up a few little scenarios... At some stage, I must have a private discussion with Alice... giggle."

"Ahh, perhaps not tell the others straight away... Please?"

"Nyah, nyah, I'm sure I'll show restraint."

"Also, remember, I will also be running a few forbidden scenarios through my head involving a certain pair of young ladies. I don't suppose you find Alice's body attractive..."

Cassy cut in immediately.

"Nope, nope, noppity nope. I mean, she does have a beautiful body, and I have nothing against people who are homosexuals, but tough luck, boy, I don't have the slightest bit of sexual attraction towards her. It's platonic friendship all the way!"

"Oh well, it's fantasies only then. And, really, I certainly don't want a non-platonic relationship with Drayden..."

"Of course!" said Cassy, with just a touch of amusement.

"I can slightly appreciate his body, is all I'm saying."

"Slightly?"

"OK, maybe slightly more than slightly. But that's it!"

"This is going to be so much fun," said Cassy.

"Now I'm getting slightly worried," said Bronsen.

There was silence for a while, with the occasional giggle from Cassy.

Bronsen kept quiet and did not ask what she might be giggling about.

Eventually, Cassy thought about another topic.

"You know, when we do meet up again and get comfortable with our new situation, we are going to have to come to a, shall we say, more sophisticated arrangement on how to conduct our four-way romance."

"How about we have a roster where we swap over every night?"

Cassy thwacked him with her tail. "That is not the slightest bit romantic!"

"Then, we have a committee meeting and discuss who is feeling the hottest for whom?" said Bronsen.

"Far too clinical! And besides that, you know perfectly well that us Misfits find it impossible to make a choice like that."

"Toss a coin?" said Bronsen.

"Is my body to be given to the winner of a gamble?"

"No, of course not!"

"Well, think, how do we decide?" said Cassy.

Finally, Bronsen said his most sensible suggestion. "We let the girls decide?"

Cassy cheered. "That's right! You win the prize!"

"A prize? Like your's or Alice's body?"

"We will have to see," said Cassy.

After that, they settled into a sleep.