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intheheartTitle: Distress
Rating: PG-13; cussing, threats of violence.
Summary: Summer is less in distress than previously suspected.
AU: EPIC PIRATE AU
Notes: Like I said, this romance proceeds a bit differently here.
WARNING: vague threats of sexual violence.
There was movement up on the foredeck, a flurry of men and shouts and crude words. Not entirely unusual-- these were the worst kind of pirates, and they had only just left port. Island-hopping, Felipe hoped, because otherwise he and Zack were in serious trouble.
And so was whoever was at the center of that flurry, though her-- he thought it was a woman, from the tenor of the comments-- her worries were more immediate, and likely far worse.
The captain shoved his way through the crowd and bellowed, "Now, lads! Leave 'er alone. I need this one intact." He waited for the mock groans of disappointment, then added, "Until we get what's ours, anyway."
Felipe's hands clenched on his scouring stone, and he glanced sideways to see Zack doing the same. "What are they planning?" he whispered.
"Heard something about the Bedrock Drift," Zack whispered back. "Tavern last night."
Which would be why they'd sneaked aboard in the first place. The Bedrock Drift was an infamous pirate ship; she'd been sailing for nearly forty years, all told, since the last war with Spain and the age of the privateers. Anyone in league with the Bedrock Drift and her crew was worth investigating. "They sailing together?"
He couldn't see Zack's face, but he heard the frown in his partner's voice. "I don't... know. Something's odd about all this."
"Very odd," Felipe said. "Why kidnap--" He broke off as the crowd around the mast parted, and the sun glinted off red hair.
He remembered very clearly a night about a month ago-- he and Zack had been prowling the slums of Port Royal, tracking down a particularly notorious pirate. They'd found the man, all right, and three of his friends, and while they'd won the ensuing fight, he hadn't been fast enough to avoid a slash that nearly lost him his arm. It would have, too, if it hadn't been for a woman in the darkness, who'd tended his cut, laughed at them and refused to tell them her name.
Her face was stamped on his memory, clear as the sun. And now she was being tied to the mast, not thirty feet away from him.
Red hair, he thought, somewhat dazed. She had red hair. And pale blue eyes.
"Zack!" Felipe hissed, and jabbed his partner in the ribs. "It's her!"
Zack sat back on his haunches, lifted a hand to shade his eyes against the sun and looked at the woman being tied against the mast, pretending to ogle. "Oh," he said, sounding rather disinterested, and went back to swabbing the deck. "So it is. Keep your head down."
"Keep my..." Felipe stared at him for a moment, lost for words.
Then he found them again. "It's her, Zack! It's the woman who saved my arm!"
"I noticed," Zack said. "Stop yelping, you're drawing attention to us."
Annoyingly enough, he had a point. Felipe bent over his scouring stone, but he wasn't giving up on the woman. "She is tied to the mast," he hissed. "Since when does that indicate good things in the future?"
"It doesn't," Zack said, still entirely too calm for Felipe's liking, "but exactly what can we do about it? In case you've forgotten, we're not exactly supposed to be here."
The bosun walked by with heavy steps, and both of them shut up, bending their heads over the scouring stones until the giant man was safely out of earshot.
"And," Zack continued, as if they hadn't been interrupted, "we will be killed if they find out we are. Rescuing people isn't part of the plan."
Felipe's response to that would've been a lot more profane if he hadn't heard the reluctance in his partner's voice. "Then the plan is stupid," he said. "And you agree with me. Don't lie."
"Not getting killed isn't stupid," Zack said, and added, before Felipe could jab him in the ribs again, "Look, I agree with you, okay? We owe her. But sometimes there's nothing you can do."
Felipe stole another glance up at the woman; she was resting her head against the mast, staring out to sea with a vaguely bored look on her face. The captain still stood beside her, mouth moving, and the men still shouted at her, but she acted as if she heard nothing more than the rush of the sea.
Well, she was not short of composure.
"Yeah," he said, still looking at her. "Sometimes there's nothing you can do. Do you want this to be one of the times when you could've and didn't?"
Zack's fingers tightened on the scouring stone, but before he could respond, the captain bellowed, "Bedrock Drift ahoy! All hands to stations!"
Zack breathed a profanity. Felipe heartily agreed.
But there was nothing they could do, not without blowing their cover and getting killed on the spot, so they lined up at the rail like everyone else, brandishing cutlasses and trying their damndest to stay behind everyone else. Felipe managed to end up along the foredeck rail, near the woman-- when the fight started, he wanted to be where he could protect her.
Zack, perforce, went with him. The pair of them stared out at the rapidly approaching ship, and tried not to swear out loud.
The ship looked surprisingly new, considering she had been terrorizing the Spanish Main for forty years. Unbattered, graceful, the neat little ship was almost pretty. Even the pirates lining her rails were cleaner than most, though they displayed the usual gaps in teeth and greasy hair. Most of them, anyway-- there were a couple of men who looked healthy as anyone, and one uncannily beautiful woman whose direct and mildly interested gaze quite frankly frightened him.
Beside him, Zack inhaled sharply. Felipe followed his gaze to the red-haired woman standing proudly amidships, hands on her hips.
Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall.
Now they were really in trouble.
"Captain Benjamin!" she called, genially. "Seems you have something that belongs to me. Several somethings."
The captain smirked, and stepped back, gesturing at the woman tied to the mast. Felipe risked a quick look back, and saw her winding a red ringlet around a finger, still looking bored. "You mean her?" the captain asked. "Your pretty little sister. Shame if something were to happen to her."
Sister?
"My pretty little sister," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall repeated, her voice absolutely blank. "Yes. Her too. I was actually referring to that money you owe me, but my pretty little sister is one of those things I want, certainly."
The captain smirked. "Then I'd be letting us on our way," he replied. "Or your pretty little sister will be swimming with the sharks. You wouldn't like that now, would you?"
Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall gave him a look that was somewhere between pity and bemusement. "I wouldn't, no," she said. "In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I'd burn your boat to the waterline and personally cut you to pieces. But since you're not going to hurt her, that little issue won't arise, will it?"
"Shouldn't be a problem," the captain agreed, sounding smug. "So we'll be on our way, then."
She shrugged. "Soon as you pay me what you owe me, sure. Go wherever you like."
The captain abruptly lost his smile. "What the hell are you on about?" he snapped. "I just told you, I don't owe you nothing."
"Indeed," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall agreed, her tone very pleasant. "You don't owe me nothing, you owe me quite a lot. So hand it over, there's a dear."
"I told you," Captain Benjamin snarled. "I told you. I'll kill her!" He stepped back and pointed with a trembling hand at the mast. "I don't owe you nothing!"
Felipe stepped towards him, fingers clenching on the hilt of his cutlass, meaning to do... something, he didn't really know what. Protect her, he supposed.
But she wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere. And too late, he remembered she'd been twisting that ringlet around a finger that should have been tied behind her back.
"I'm tired of this," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall declared. "Boys, bring me that ship."
Felipe dropped his cutlass and dove for the deck.
A crowded and eventful time later, he raised his head and found himself staring at Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall's boots.
Oh, shit.
"Well, then," she said, and crouched down. "You boys are something of a mystery."
Boys? Felipe looked to his right and saw to his relief that Zack was pushing himself off the deck, somewhat groggily. "Yes, well," he said, still looking at his partner. "We like being unexplainable, us."
"Hmm," the captain said. She didn't sound convinced, and really didn’t look impressed.
Shit, he thought, and then rescue arrived, from a thoroughly unexpected source.
"Ivy," the woman said, and appeared in his line of sight, picking her way fussily over the bodies. "I found the... oh, it's you."
The captain arched her eyebrow at her sister, then looked down at Felipe again, a slight hint of amusement creeping into her expression. "You know him, Summer?" she asked.
Summer. Damn. Even her name was pretty.
"This is the man I saved," she explained. "Remember, I told you, he was hurt in the slums."
Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall looked blank for a moment, and then said, "Oh! The idiot? Right. Guess that makes blondie over there the trigger-happy partner."
Since all of this was fundamentally true, Felipe didn't feel he could object.
"He wasn't too bad," Summer said, earnestly. "And they were very nice, Ivy. Let them go, please?"
"Oh, all right," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall said. She looked back at Felipe. "We'll drop you on shore wherever we end up. Be happy with it." Without another word, she strode away.
Felipe stared after her for a moment, then looked up at Summer, who had just saved him again, and could think of absolutely nothing to say.
"And to think," Zack said, sounding slightly drunk, "you wanted to save her."
"Did you?" Summer asked, and smiled. "How sweet." She picked up her skirts and picked her way after her sister, again. Felipe watched her go, trying not to think about anything.
There was a momentary silence, and then Zack said, "Felipe, don't. Just don't."
"I won't," he said, and knew he was lying.
Rating: PG-13; cussing, threats of violence.
Summary: Summer is less in distress than previously suspected.
AU: EPIC PIRATE AU
Notes: Like I said, this romance proceeds a bit differently here.
WARNING: vague threats of sexual violence.
There was movement up on the foredeck, a flurry of men and shouts and crude words. Not entirely unusual-- these were the worst kind of pirates, and they had only just left port. Island-hopping, Felipe hoped, because otherwise he and Zack were in serious trouble.
And so was whoever was at the center of that flurry, though her-- he thought it was a woman, from the tenor of the comments-- her worries were more immediate, and likely far worse.
The captain shoved his way through the crowd and bellowed, "Now, lads! Leave 'er alone. I need this one intact." He waited for the mock groans of disappointment, then added, "Until we get what's ours, anyway."
Felipe's hands clenched on his scouring stone, and he glanced sideways to see Zack doing the same. "What are they planning?" he whispered.
"Heard something about the Bedrock Drift," Zack whispered back. "Tavern last night."
Which would be why they'd sneaked aboard in the first place. The Bedrock Drift was an infamous pirate ship; she'd been sailing for nearly forty years, all told, since the last war with Spain and the age of the privateers. Anyone in league with the Bedrock Drift and her crew was worth investigating. "They sailing together?"
He couldn't see Zack's face, but he heard the frown in his partner's voice. "I don't... know. Something's odd about all this."
"Very odd," Felipe said. "Why kidnap--" He broke off as the crowd around the mast parted, and the sun glinted off red hair.
He remembered very clearly a night about a month ago-- he and Zack had been prowling the slums of Port Royal, tracking down a particularly notorious pirate. They'd found the man, all right, and three of his friends, and while they'd won the ensuing fight, he hadn't been fast enough to avoid a slash that nearly lost him his arm. It would have, too, if it hadn't been for a woman in the darkness, who'd tended his cut, laughed at them and refused to tell them her name.
Her face was stamped on his memory, clear as the sun. And now she was being tied to the mast, not thirty feet away from him.
Red hair, he thought, somewhat dazed. She had red hair. And pale blue eyes.
"Zack!" Felipe hissed, and jabbed his partner in the ribs. "It's her!"
Zack sat back on his haunches, lifted a hand to shade his eyes against the sun and looked at the woman being tied against the mast, pretending to ogle. "Oh," he said, sounding rather disinterested, and went back to swabbing the deck. "So it is. Keep your head down."
"Keep my..." Felipe stared at him for a moment, lost for words.
Then he found them again. "It's her, Zack! It's the woman who saved my arm!"
"I noticed," Zack said. "Stop yelping, you're drawing attention to us."
Annoyingly enough, he had a point. Felipe bent over his scouring stone, but he wasn't giving up on the woman. "She is tied to the mast," he hissed. "Since when does that indicate good things in the future?"
"It doesn't," Zack said, still entirely too calm for Felipe's liking, "but exactly what can we do about it? In case you've forgotten, we're not exactly supposed to be here."
The bosun walked by with heavy steps, and both of them shut up, bending their heads over the scouring stones until the giant man was safely out of earshot.
"And," Zack continued, as if they hadn't been interrupted, "we will be killed if they find out we are. Rescuing people isn't part of the plan."
Felipe's response to that would've been a lot more profane if he hadn't heard the reluctance in his partner's voice. "Then the plan is stupid," he said. "And you agree with me. Don't lie."
"Not getting killed isn't stupid," Zack said, and added, before Felipe could jab him in the ribs again, "Look, I agree with you, okay? We owe her. But sometimes there's nothing you can do."
Felipe stole another glance up at the woman; she was resting her head against the mast, staring out to sea with a vaguely bored look on her face. The captain still stood beside her, mouth moving, and the men still shouted at her, but she acted as if she heard nothing more than the rush of the sea.
Well, she was not short of composure.
"Yeah," he said, still looking at her. "Sometimes there's nothing you can do. Do you want this to be one of the times when you could've and didn't?"
Zack's fingers tightened on the scouring stone, but before he could respond, the captain bellowed, "Bedrock Drift ahoy! All hands to stations!"
Zack breathed a profanity. Felipe heartily agreed.
But there was nothing they could do, not without blowing their cover and getting killed on the spot, so they lined up at the rail like everyone else, brandishing cutlasses and trying their damndest to stay behind everyone else. Felipe managed to end up along the foredeck rail, near the woman-- when the fight started, he wanted to be where he could protect her.
Zack, perforce, went with him. The pair of them stared out at the rapidly approaching ship, and tried not to swear out loud.
The ship looked surprisingly new, considering she had been terrorizing the Spanish Main for forty years. Unbattered, graceful, the neat little ship was almost pretty. Even the pirates lining her rails were cleaner than most, though they displayed the usual gaps in teeth and greasy hair. Most of them, anyway-- there were a couple of men who looked healthy as anyone, and one uncannily beautiful woman whose direct and mildly interested gaze quite frankly frightened him.
Beside him, Zack inhaled sharply. Felipe followed his gaze to the red-haired woman standing proudly amidships, hands on her hips.
Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall.
Now they were really in trouble.
"Captain Benjamin!" she called, genially. "Seems you have something that belongs to me. Several somethings."
The captain smirked, and stepped back, gesturing at the woman tied to the mast. Felipe risked a quick look back, and saw her winding a red ringlet around a finger, still looking bored. "You mean her?" the captain asked. "Your pretty little sister. Shame if something were to happen to her."
Sister?
"My pretty little sister," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall repeated, her voice absolutely blank. "Yes. Her too. I was actually referring to that money you owe me, but my pretty little sister is one of those things I want, certainly."
The captain smirked. "Then I'd be letting us on our way," he replied. "Or your pretty little sister will be swimming with the sharks. You wouldn't like that now, would you?"
Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall gave him a look that was somewhere between pity and bemusement. "I wouldn't, no," she said. "In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I'd burn your boat to the waterline and personally cut you to pieces. But since you're not going to hurt her, that little issue won't arise, will it?"
"Shouldn't be a problem," the captain agreed, sounding smug. "So we'll be on our way, then."
She shrugged. "Soon as you pay me what you owe me, sure. Go wherever you like."
The captain abruptly lost his smile. "What the hell are you on about?" he snapped. "I just told you, I don't owe you nothing."
"Indeed," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall agreed, her tone very pleasant. "You don't owe me nothing, you owe me quite a lot. So hand it over, there's a dear."
"I told you," Captain Benjamin snarled. "I told you. I'll kill her!" He stepped back and pointed with a trembling hand at the mast. "I don't owe you nothing!"
Felipe stepped towards him, fingers clenching on the hilt of his cutlass, meaning to do... something, he didn't really know what. Protect her, he supposed.
But she wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere. And too late, he remembered she'd been twisting that ringlet around a finger that should have been tied behind her back.
"I'm tired of this," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall declared. "Boys, bring me that ship."
Felipe dropped his cutlass and dove for the deck.
A crowded and eventful time later, he raised his head and found himself staring at Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall's boots.
Oh, shit.
"Well, then," she said, and crouched down. "You boys are something of a mystery."
Boys? Felipe looked to his right and saw to his relief that Zack was pushing himself off the deck, somewhat groggily. "Yes, well," he said, still looking at his partner. "We like being unexplainable, us."
"Hmm," the captain said. She didn't sound convinced, and really didn’t look impressed.
Shit, he thought, and then rescue arrived, from a thoroughly unexpected source.
"Ivy," the woman said, and appeared in his line of sight, picking her way fussily over the bodies. "I found the... oh, it's you."
The captain arched her eyebrow at her sister, then looked down at Felipe again, a slight hint of amusement creeping into her expression. "You know him, Summer?" she asked.
Summer. Damn. Even her name was pretty.
"This is the man I saved," she explained. "Remember, I told you, he was hurt in the slums."
Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall looked blank for a moment, and then said, "Oh! The idiot? Right. Guess that makes blondie over there the trigger-happy partner."
Since all of this was fundamentally true, Felipe didn't feel he could object.
"He wasn't too bad," Summer said, earnestly. "And they were very nice, Ivy. Let them go, please?"
"Oh, all right," Captain Hirschfeld-Kendall said. She looked back at Felipe. "We'll drop you on shore wherever we end up. Be happy with it." Without another word, she strode away.
Felipe stared after her for a moment, then looked up at Summer, who had just saved him again, and could think of absolutely nothing to say.
"And to think," Zack said, sounding slightly drunk, "you wanted to save her."
"Did you?" Summer asked, and smiled. "How sweet." She picked up her skirts and picked her way after her sister, again. Felipe watched her go, trying not to think about anything.
There was a momentary silence, and then Zack said, "Felipe, don't. Just don't."
"I won't," he said, and knew he was lying.
