Amanda was just walking aimlessly down one hallway when she passed a door she recognised. Dipping inside she retrieved the bottle of medicinal rum and made her way back to the mess hall.

There she found Neko, sitting alone fiddling with the tuning of a tiny lyre. He smiled when she walked in.

“Hey! You play?” he asked holding up the lyre.

Amanda shook her head. “I’ve never tried.”

He offered it to her anyway.

She took a swig of the rum and then traded him for the instrument.

He chuckled. “I’m not gonna ask where you got this. It’d be bad for my future constitution.” He took a happy swig.

She grinned and took a seat. Then she plucked a few of the strings to get an ear for the notes. It wasn’t so different from the guitar from the picking strings side of things and she had no trouble playing an old children’s nursery rhyme. Her fingers aptly danced out the melody. The sound was rich but soft and she understood why he’d brought this one out so late at night instead of his usual boisterous accordion. It was the sort of sound one could fall asleep to.

“You really never played that before?” Neko asked.

Amanda shook her head and smiled. “No but I can play guitar. It’s not so different, easier in a way, and that was an easy song. Let’s try something a bit more difficult. She started up again with something with a little more range. She messed up once or twice where she accidentally got the wrong string but for the most part the music flowed smoothly. It was a sweet and sad melody, meant to embody the coldest of seasons. The song made the old ship sound almost haunted.

Neko was quiet for a long while even after she’d finished playing. “Wow,” he finally breathed out. “That instrument suits you more than it suits me. What else have you got?”

She played a few more songs, bits and pieces of some she only vaguely remembered but which she thought might suit the sound of the lyre better. Some she tried to transpose into the key of c, since the lyre didn’t have any sharps or flats but that was hard to do on the fly, so for others she just skipped a few sections. Eventually she traded the instrument back to Neko and while sipping on the rum she taught him one of the songs he’d liked the sound of.

“Yeah, I like this instrument.” he said to himself as spun forth a sweet sound.

“How long have you had it?”

“Not long, bought it in Little Rock.” Neko replied as he stroked the instrument tenderly.

“Really?!” Amanda replied in surprise. He was already quite adapt at it.

“Why do you sound so surprised when you played like you did.”

“You’re much better than I was.” Amanda took another swig. Her other hand, looking for something to do found it’s way into her pocket where she’d usually stash her trusty lighter. Her pocket was empty though. She wondered where they had put it. She missed it. It also reminded her of home. Perhaps this mission was a lost cause. Caught up in the music and a little bit of drunkenness from the rum, she found her annoyance at Sirius slowly dissipating.

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Her mind wandered idly as Neko talked and played. Forgetting where she was her fingers absentmindedly toyed with a small flame between her thumb and forefinger.

“Nah, you are much better.”

“Bull.” Amanda replied with a laugh and another flick of her fingers.

Neko stopped his playing.

“Is that a lighter?”

Far too late, Amanda remembered the rules. She closed her fist and then rolling with his assumption she pretended to put something back in her pocket. “I..”

“Ahh,... doesn’t matter, just... don’t let anyone else catch you with that. And don’t use it aye.” Neko still looked worried though.

Amanda nodded and sat up. “I… it barely even works.” she lied and then as if a touch of truth might help, “It belonged to my dad. It’s sentimental.”

“What’s sentimental?” Neko replied with a smile, hinting that he’d already forgotten.

She returned the look. Then his face fell and he seemed to be staring past her at something. She turned to find the captain standing in the doorway. How long had he been there? How was he so good at sneaking up on people? She decided to play it cool. Maybe he’d only just arrived. Although one quick glance back at Neko and she knew he wouldn’t be able to pull cool and relaxed off.

Luckily Sirius quickly found another reason for Neko’s guilty looking face.

“Is that the rum from the medicine room?”

Amanda glanced at the bottle that stood between them then looked back at Sirius and with a defiant faux innocent smirk spurred by relief she replied, “No.”

He replied with a snort and started toward the bottle with a look like he intended to retrieve it.

Amanda turned and snatched it out of the way before he could get to it. With another defiant look and bold tone she met his green eyes and replied, “It’s in my possession, that makes it mine right.” Her tone made it very clear she wasn’t talking about the rum.

That made him stop short and for a moment he had this look like he knew she had a point and he needed to think of an answer. Then he must have decided he didn’t need one for he held out his hand and demanded in a quiet voice, “Give me the bottle.”

“Give me what’s mine and I’ll give you what’s yours,” Amanda replied. She wasn’t sure what her plan what here but she just knew she wasn’t going to budge an inch. Most of what she did was because it felt like the right move in the moment. So far it had mostly worked out well for her. The important thing was once you’d decided something, to commit the whole way. She knew he could take it from her if he wanted, the bottle of rum and the pegasus. She wasn’t sure he wouldn’t, but he hadn’t yet. He’d let her roam. She suspected he wouldn’t use force as long as she didn’t use magic, as long as she wasn’t a threat, and she knew out here on the open ocean that wasn’t an option. She was also sure no human life on this ship was worth the pegasus and she didn’t have the kind of magic that took people down gently. She’d gotten to know the crew and she liked them. Even then Amanda had never been big on violence. If this was going to be solved it must be done with words and a heavy dose of posturing. If it came down to force she would lose. But you play the hand you’re dealt and sometimes you have to bluff.

Sirius did stand staring at her for several seconds. Long enough that Neko tried to sneak out the side.

Sirius turned to look at him.

Neko froze and raised his hands, one holding the lyre.

Sirius sighed. “Fine, go, but I expect to see you on latrine duty for the next week.”

Neko nodded and then disappeared out the door. Sirius turned back to Amanda before Neko had even made a move. Evidently he knew what Neko’s response would be enough that he didn’t need to see it. The brief distraction seemed to have cleared his mind for he only stared at Amanda a moment longer before he threw up his hands as if he no longer cared.

“Fine, keep it. Possession is the law out here. Serves me right for not locking it up better.” He turned to leave as if she was something he no longer cared to deal with.

That response sure took the wind out of her sails. For a moment Amanda sat there with the same expression she had seen on Sirius’s face a moment earlier, defeat. Then she stood up, slamming the bottle down hard enough on the table for Sirius to turn. His dark eyebrows were furrowed.

She tried the only other tactic she could think of. As she swept past him and out the door, leaving the bottle behind, she retorted briskly and with one last piercing look, “Fine, send me back, keep the pegasus that you stole, hope it brings you great joy knowing you took something that someone else loves.” She left before he could get another word in.