Drink Up, Me Hearties } Chapter 3 - The Hanged Man
Word Count: 5297 (...:'D)
Ships?: None! ...Well, Roxas/Naminé in an implied sorta way?
Characters: Roxas, Axel, Demyx, Larxene, Naminé, Luxord, Xigbar, Tifa
→Cameos: Barret, Vivi
Rating: PG-13 for... mature concepts? Nothing actually happens though. xD
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.
Music: "Morning at Sea" ♪ "The Pirate Port" ♫ "The Wheel of Fortune ~ Below Decks"
Notes: Longest chapter. Ever. *headdesk* (at least it still isn't as long as Thank You that took me what three months to write? xD) Beta'd by spots_of_ink who I still love even if maybe she doesn't think so. ;^;
In which ‘stowaway’ might be Roxas’s last title.
Drink Up, Me Hearties
Chapter 3: The Hanged Man
The horizon was a coral pink ring at dawn, and a slight haze hung over the water. Roxas could see it from every direction, except for where it disappeared into the oncoming landmass. He was leaning carefully on the Carrion’s single mast, looking out over the bowsprit. He could hear soft snoring beneath him, presumably from the pirate named Demyx. The blacksmith hoped that he could hear it because the wooden deck was a little thin, and not from a hole that hadn’t been repaired somewhere. He shifted his weight cautiously.
“Hey, kid. Have you been out here all night?”
Roxas turned and saw that the Captain had spoken to him. At some point in the middle of the night Larxene had shoved the redhead above deck and told Demyx to get some sleep. If Roxas didn’t know any better, he’d almost say that she cared for the two of them. But then she’d thrown a dagger at his head for ‘staring’. It was still stuck in the side of the railing.
“Yeah, I have,” Roxas replied. “Couldn’t sleep.”
Captain Axel snorted from behind the helm. One of the spokes was missing from the wheel. “Was that ‘cause my ship’s not good enough for you to sleep in? Or is it just the adrenaline?”
“Adrenaline?” Roxas raised an eyebrow and turned around completely, but continued to rest his shoulder against the mast. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure.”
“First lesson, kid. You’re not supposed to tell the truth to a pirate.” Unexpectedly, he smiled wickedly, the red sleep lines around his eyes crinkling. “Unless your life’s threatened. Then you start telling the truth, running, or swinging your sword. One of the three - your pick.”
“Uh, right,” Roxas nodded.
Axel threw his head back and let out a peel of laughter. Roxas jumped. He wondered if hangovers and not just drunkenness could bring about odd bouts of laughter. “I like you, kid! You got guts,” he said, bringing his head back down and grinning widely. “I seem to remember Demyx saying I’m a jerk when I’m sober, so you’re lucky I’m still hung over!”
The wind picked up a little, catching the sail just behind Roxas. He coughed. “Well, uh. Okay then.”
Axel changed the subject, nodding at the landmass on the horizon that was getting bigger. “We’re gonna be landing there in a few minutes. It’s a cute little place, Destiny Island. Full o’ pirates. Y’know, the usual.”
“Wait. You mean there’s an island full of pirates a night’s journey away from my home?” Roxas asked, incredulous. And well, it had been a stroke of luck that these pirates were less than skilled. An entire island full of them wasn’t giving Roxas the best feeling (or perhaps he was getting seasick).
“Maybe not for your giant fancy schooners back home. The Carrion’s pretty damn quick for a ship that’s falling apart. It’s why we never just buy a new one. Even if we had enough gold…”
Roxas looked back to the island they were approaching. He could see bright green palm trees and wooden buildings. A huge system of docks and floating walkways were spread over the water of the harbour like a wooden labyrinth. He could see people of all shapes and sizes milling about, and he thought he saw the silhouette of a schooner disappear into the morning haze behind a cliff.
He jumped out of the way when Axel appeared beside the mast, leaving the helm unguarded and the boat essentially steering itself.
“Hey, don’t you think you should-” Roxas was ignored as the Captain lowered the sail and started stomping on the deck with his feet.
“Demyx! Larxene! Get up! We’re here!”
There was a loud groan from underneath them. “Jerk ass!” Larxene’s voice floated up from the hatch just fore the helm.
“You know you love me, babe!” Axel replied. He turned and nudged Roxas in the ribs with an elbow. “That’ll get her up.”
Sure enough, Larxene was soon heaving herself above deck through the hatch. Roxas noticed she had charged up without her boots on, eyes blazing. “Did you just call me babe?”
“Not at all. Can you take the helm? I have to get us a spot at the docks.” Axel was gathering up a coil of rope in his arms.
Larxene rolled her eyes and turned around to shout into the hatch. “DEMYX! Get up! You’re going to have to take the kid on his death march.”
Roxas gritted his teeth behind closed lips.
“Do I have to?” Demyx’s young voice whined as Larxene padded across the wooden deck to the helm.
“Yes!” Axel and Larxene replied in synch. Roxas could feel the Carrion starting to loose speed without its sail, and they were approaching the maze of docks at a slow cruise. Larxene steered it towards an empty stretch of dock to their starboard side and Axel jumped off to tie them down.
But Roxas was barely paying attention. He stared, wide-eyed as a man walked by with a peg leg, talking to the parrot on his shoulder. Nearby he saw a woman wearing a skull necklace talking to man with one arm and an eye-patch.
He was landing on a pirate island to sneak onto another pirate ship. And he was surrounded by pirates.
Well, then. This will go perfectly.
He jumped when someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned and Demyx smiled apologetically at him. “You okay, kid?”
“Uh, y-yeah.” Roxas nodded. Demyx hopped on one foot as he pulled his a boot on over what looked like an incredibly dirty sock. “Um, ‘death march’?”
“That’s… yeah, about right,” Demyx replied, hopping off the ‘ship’ and onto the dock. Roxas followed behind him, but cast a backwards glance to see Larxene retrieving her throwing knife from the railing. “I don’t think you realize how big a deal Captain Luxord and his crew are, Roxas.”
The teenager blinked, both at the use of his name and at a man who passed by with a scar over one eye, sealing it shut. He had forgotten he had told the Carrion’s crew his name over the course of the night. “What do you mean, ‘a big deal’?”
Demyx walked down a row of several open-air stalls where vendors were shouting advertisements for their wares (Roxas heard something about protective amulets). “Well, I don’t know if you ever heard back on your island, but Captain Luxord’s from a family of pirates that go way back… Well, his grandfather was a pirate, and just that’s enough to make him, like… royalty. I don’t remember how far back the great-greats go, but his family’s been in the business a long time.”
Roxas followed as Demyx suddenly ducked into a patch of jungle that began where the row of stalls ended. They were following a well-traveled dirt path underneath the bright green canopy, and Roxas saw that many other paths branched off of it. In the distance he saw another couple of pirates walking away from them chatting. Perhaps the jungle was a series of shortcuts around this ‘Destiny Island’. He stumbled over a thick tree root and remembered he was in the middle of a conversation.
“So… he’s gonna kill me because he’s from a long line of pirates?”
“Well, yeah. The Marrus family never takes prisoners. And unless you sneak right in and then, I don’t know, jump out a window you’re going to get caught.”
“That’s, uh… what I was going to do. Don’t you mean porthole?”
“Oh, no. The Wheel of Fortune has windows, not portholes. Portholes are too small to jump out of.” Demyx paused at a fork in the path. He tapped his chin with a finger, trying to remember which way he needed to go. “Well, in that case it might go well for you! What are you going to do while you’re in there?”
“Steal my sword back,” Roxas replied as they set off down the left-hand path. “His daughter stole it from me.”
Demyx tensed slightly as they approached the tree-line and put his arm out to stop his follower. Roxas followed his lead and crouched down in the bushes. Just off the shore, a schooner was anchored in the harbour. The metallic hull was a bright gold, with stark blue designs of stars encased in circles painted just beneath the bulwarks. The masts towered over them, white sails lowered. And just as Demyx had said, sunlight glinted off the reinforced glass panes of windows set in the side of the ship. People were bustling about the wooden docks around it, loading huge crates and barrels aboard.
“There she is,” Demyx announced mournfully. “The crew’s only, what… eight people? And the ship’s… well, look at it. So much better looking than ours. And bigger.”
Roxas wondered if he was supposed to pat the pirate on the back. But Demyx saved him the time. He stood, and keeping to the shadows, inched towards the far end of the huge piles of crates and barrels that were going to be loaded. “So, you and his daughter, huh?”
“Uh, yeah. We got in a fight.” Demyx popped the wooden lid off a barrel and a horrible smell wafted into the air. Roxas jumped back as it hit his nostrils. “Augh! What is that?”
Demyx was caught between grinning at the contents of the barrel and frowning at Roxas’s previous sentence. “Gysahl pickles! These things taste great! But uh, a fight, huh? Y’know, most guys send flowers to their girlfriends after they get in a fight…”
With one leg already inside the barrel, Roxas nearly tipped it over as he spluttered. “She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Shh!” Demyx hissed, looking around. As soon as Roxas was completely inside, he pushed him down into a tight crouch amongst the horrific smell of the pickles. He popped the lid back on and whispered through the hole in the side. “Do you want to get caught?” There was a brisk pause, then, “I’ll wait for you out here, okay kid? Get out of there as soon as you can.”
Roxas was left alone with only a tiny circle of light, the smell of gysahl pickles in his nose and the distant cry of gulls and muffled footsteps and voices. Then his stomach lurched and he was being lifted up into the air.
What felt like several minutes past inside the barrel. The sound of gulls drifted away and at one point he heard the distinct sound of metal being walked on. And then he was put down with a gentle thud.
He waited. What seemed like several hours past and then he heard a couple of voices, from across the room.
“Xigbar, isn’t it your turn to do storage duty?”
“What? Oh, well, yeah. I guess. But c’mon Naminé, no one’s going to sneak on your dad’s ship.”
“He’s gonna scar you if he finds out you’re shirking duties.”
“Pff. This flawless face? I’ve been a pirate longer than you’ve been alive, little lady. And not once has a knife gotten me. The bullet wounds, on the other hand…”
“Okay, okay! Don’t remind me.” A familiar giggle. “I get it.”
“We’re gonna be raising anchor in ten minutes, I think. Be up by then.”
“Right.”
He could hear the two voices go up the stairs. Ten minutes. That was more then enough time to find the armoury. He laid his palms flat against the barrel’s lid and pushed. Cool air hit his face as he half-tumbled out of the barrel and he gasped for it, breathing in whatever air didn’t smell of stinky pickles.
Looking around, he saw he was in a storage hull. Wooden crates were piled high above his head, nearly touching the ceiling. The only light was the golden shafts of sun coming through the windows. Looking towards one end of the huge room, he saw a single door. On the other there was a small room, unattached to the walls of the hull, sitting neatly in the middle. It was sealed with a set of double-doors, and as Roxas approached, he saw that the word ‘Armoury’ was carved into it. He couldn’t help grinning to himself.
There was an iron vault wheel locking the doors shut. He grabbed the spokes and pushed until the doors unlocked, throwing dim lit into the room beyond.
He found Two Across almost immediately when he looked inside. He could see the black and white hilt leaning against the wall in a far corner, already encased in one of the pirate’s spare scabbards. He crossed the room, and lifted the sword just a bit out of the scabbard and saw the checkerboard design he had carved into the langet. He strapped it to his other hip, and left the room.
He was going to lock the door when something launched out of the shadows and shoved him against the wall with a loud clang. His head ached, but when he opened his eyes he breathed a shocked “You!”
The blonde pirate girl blinked at him, her hands still shoving his shoulders back into the wall. Her blue eyes lit up in recognition immediately. “Wh- You’re the boy from the smithy! That was two days ago! What are you doing here?”
Roxas gulped but steeled his face. “You had my sword.”
“You… Wait. You somehow managed to catch up to us, on Destiny Island, a pirate port, snuck aboard in--” she paused and sniffed the air, “--a barrel of gysahl pickles to get a sword back. As brave as that is,” she leaned back, loosening her grip on him, “it’s also really, really dumb.”
“Yeah, well.” He hesitated and wondered if he should start begging for his life, before he remembered how rightfully angry he was at her. “This is the second time my parents have had to rebuild their home. You stuck me to a wall while you looted us. I don’t know how many of my neighbours are dead because of your crew.”
The girl was quiet. “Second time…” she mumbled, confused. Then remembering, “That’s right. Radiant Isle was destroyed in a storm. Tifa… I guess she’s not the same person that lived there, is she?”
Evidently, Roxas wasn’t supposed to have heard this. “Who?” he asked.
“Never mind.” The girl let him go and stood back. “What I’m saying is, you have a point. You deserve to take your sword back.”
His heart rose when he told it not to. “There’s a ‘but’ here, isn’t there?”
“Raising anchor!” a voice called dimly above them.
“But that,” she said.
Roxas’s heart started beating frantically in his throat. “That guy said ten minutes! And…and… you went upstairs too! I mean, I thought you did. Oh man…”
She looked at him sympathetically. “Metal stairs in a metal hull. They echo down here. And we must’ve been more prepared than Xigbar thought. We’re casting off early.”
“You just said that I deserved to leave! I’m getting off this boat even if it’s moving,” Roxas decided. He started walking back towards one of the windows, but the pirate grabbed his hand.
“If you jump now you’ll probably dive into the shallows and crack your skull open. And the Wheel of Fortune is a ship, not a boat. Listen.” She tugged his hand slightly. “I meant what I said about you deserving to keep your sword. It’s just that my father won’t take kindly to stowaways. You’re going to need to hide.”
Roxas sighed. “I’m not going to have to go back into the barrel, am I?”
“No - please, no. You smell bad enough as it is. If you get back in that barrel, it’ll never wear off. I’ll have to hide you in my room.”
She started towing him down a short hallway next to the armoury and opened the door that waited. “Your room…?”
Her room was at the bow of the ship, if the slightly curved walls were any indication. She picked up a box of matches from a desk and lit one of them, dropping it into a hanging lantern; the links in the chain clinked softly. She moved off to the other side of the room as he looked around. He saw a small leather couch in the back, and several wooden chests strewn about. He leaned down to look at the small golden plaque right above one’s keyhole.
“Naminé,” he read aloud.
“Yes?” the girl said. He stood up and turned. She was pulling back a white curtain hung from the ceiling and tying it to a hold in the wall.
“That’s your name,” he explained awkwardly.
“Oh! Yes.” Her face flushed a little, embarrassed. “I forgot; we didn’t really have time for introductions when we met.”
“You can say that again.” He stared at what was behind the curtain. “Your bed? I’m hiding underneath your bed?”
“I don’t have a closet and I can’t fit you anywhere else.”
Roxas groaned and crouched down on the floor. The area between the bottom of her bed and the floor was a tight squeeze, but he managed it. “By the way,” he stuck his arm out from underneath the bed frame, “I’m Roxas.”
She giggled (again with the weird chills) and shook his hand. “Alright, Roxas. In a couple of hours, that smell will wear off and I’ll have probably convinced my father to take us to a new port. You can find your way home then. I’ll be back with some food in a couple of minutes.”
---
Roxas missed ‘a couple of minutes’ by about an hour. When he woke up, his cheek was stuck to the cool metal floorboards. Turning slightly, he saw a plate of cheese and bread on the top of the small bookshelf across from him. She reads? he thought pleasantly, senses dulled slightly by sleep.
And then his senses snapped him awake. A pair of boots was crossing the room, much heavier and darker than Naminé’s were.
Somebody else was in the room, and judging from the sniffing sound he was hearing, they could smell him.
Before Roxas could get another thought in, something clamped around his elbow and dragged him up from under the bed, knocking his head on the bottom of the frame.
For half a second, Roxas thought he was dreaming. Then he started praying to whatever could hear him to let him be dreaming.
The Dread Pirate Luxord himself had dragged him up. From underneath his daughter’s bed. And he was not happy.
Roxas started backing up, his mind moving a mile a minute and yet seizing up. His brain was taking in small details about the angry famous notorious pirate captain (short blond hair, goatee, pierced ears, eyes that were yes storm-like oh god) and yet his words were crawling. “It’s not… I just…”
A sickening sound. The Dread Pirate Luxord had unsheathed his sword. The blade was curved and silver in the dim lantern light. Roxas’s back hit the wall. “She stole my sword, and…”
“And what did you steal?”
Roxas turned to ice. He knew exactly what that meant.
OH GOD, his mind screamed. OH GOD HER BED. WHY.
“Hey, is it just me or does something smell like gy-” There was a creak in the doorway and Roxas was somewhat relieved to see that the Dread Pirate turned to see who it was too. A pirate with an eye-patch and greying hair tied back in a ponytail stood in the doorway, and making eye contact with Roxas, jumped slightly. “A stowaway? How the hell did that happen?”
“Yes, Xigbar.” The Dread Pirate turned just slightly, his sword still at the ready. “By all means enlighten me as to how this ruffian managed to sneak on board on YOUR WATCH?!”
The shout echoed all around the small confines of the metal room. Both Roxas and the eye-patched man jolted, and it seemed to restore some feel to the boy’s legs. Run like hell Roxas, something told him confidently.
He obeyed. He ducked under the Dread Pirate’s arm while he was distracted and hurtled through the doorway. Staircase staircase staircase, his head chanted as he tore up the metal stairs.
(Behind him, the Dread Pirate strode out of the room with only a few choice words for his first mate: “We’ll settle this later. Count on it.”)
Roxas nearly collided with a wall as he came up to the first deck. He tore around a corner and passed what he thought looked like a bar counter - how the hell did that work - and then oh God another staircase with sunlight. He could throw himself overboard once he was up above oh God.
“COME BACK AND FACE ME, YOU COWARD!” The Dread Pirate was chasing him.
OH GOD I AM GOING TO DIE.
He tripped as he came up onto the deck. His mind registered that he was facing the stern in half a second, so he turned on a dime and started running towards the bowsprit. Maybe there he would have an easier time jumping to his death by the hands of the merciful ocean.
Wait, wasn’t drowning supposed to be a horrible way to die?
OH GOD SHUT UP BRAIN.
And then something collided into his side, sending him into a stand-still. His heart was still hammering in his chest, and after gulping for air and observing the situation, it sped up again, however weakly.
The Dread Pirate Luxord had stopped chasing him only a few paces away. And the thing that collided with him, keeping him an arm’s length away from death, was his daughter, pressing her back into his chest.
“Naminé Alcyone Marrus,” the Dread Pirate said. He was breathing slowly and calmly, despite the icy glare in his eyes.
Roxas’s mind was still working in overtime. Pirates have middle names? Oh God, he used her middle name. I am dead I am dead I am so very dead.
“Papa,” she said. “You know it’s against the code to harm children.”
“That may be true, but the code does not extend to those who have stolen a young woman’s virtue - particularly that of the daughter of a captain!” Luxord leaned forward, pointing the tip of his blade accusingly at the stowaway.
Naminé sighed deeply. “Roxas did no such thing, Papa. If you had stopped to see reason, you would know that!”
“Then why was he so frightened that I discovered his hiding place? Everyone knows that the innocent don’t run!”
“You confronted him with a sword in your hand and fire in your eyes. Not to mention the fact that you’re the Dread Pirate Luxord - the terror of the high seas! Is it any wonder he bolted?” Naminé stepped forward slightly, and Roxas felt whatever security he had had melt away.
“That makes little difference. What matters is that he was found skulking around your room like a common bandit! How on earth was I to witness that and not question his intentions?”
“Question his intentions! Not chase after him with your sword drawn!”
“Put yourself in my shoes, Naminé. If you had found a strange young man hiding under your daughter’s bed - one who had the mark of guilt written all over his face - what would you do? Would you not take whatever measures possible to avenge her virtue?”
Naminé sighed again. “There’s nothing to avenge! Nothing happened.”
Luxord frowned and shifted back slightly, sheathing his blade on his hip. “If your little miscreant is so innocent, allow him to explain yourself.”
There was silence and Naminé turned to look at him. The Dread Pirate glared, and behind them both, he caught swift glances of other members of the crew staring at the scene. His heart leapt into his throat. He was going to explain himself to a group of pirates.
“I… Well…” Deep breaths, Roxas. Now get this over with. Go! “Naminé broke into the forge and I thought she was a boy because it was nighttime but then I fought her because I thought she was going to steal something and then she pinned me to a wall and stole Two Across anyway and I had to get Two Across back because I made it and the whole town was falling apart and I couldn’t just sit around so I duelled this other pirate captain and got a ride here and snuck on board in a barrel of gysahl pickles and then your daughter found me and hid me under her bed, Captain sir.”
He gasped for air.
Both Naminé and her father were staring at him in twin expressions of blank shock.
“Can you repeat that, kid? I wasn’t paying attention,” the man with the eye-patch had reappeared above deck. He was standing back near the quarter deck with the other crew members.
“Xigbar!” The Dread Pirate barked over his shoulder.
“Trap shutting, Captain,” Xigbar replied.
“I don’t know, Captain,” a taller man with a cannon replacing his right arm said. “He’s probably telling the truth.”
The Dread Pirate crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“It's true, Papa!” Roxas stiffened when the pirate's daughter reached for the scabbard on his right hip and took Two Across from him again. “This is the sword I stole, remember? I showed you myself!”
Luxord only snorted as she handed it back to Roxas, who sheathed it as quickly as he could.
“Let him stay as a swabbie!” Naminé suggested swiftly, turning back to her father. “You know we don’t take prisoners. Vivi could-”
“I shall not permit a tottery oaf on my ship for any interminable amount of time!” Luxord shouted.
Naminé finally looked frustrated, throwing her hands down by her side. “Now you’re just being fecklessly pertinacious.”
Luxord responded with another line of steady vocabulary that Roxas couldn’t decipher. If he hadn’t known it was English, he would’ve sworn he and his daughter were speaking another language. His heart jolted again when a hand suddenly came down on his shoulder. He looked up and the man with the eye-patch smiled crookedly down at him. “You got ‘em using their vernacular, kid. Good on ya. But you’ll probably want to stand over here.”
The Dread Pirate started pacing about the deck as he and his daughter argued. Xigbar, as the man with the eye-patch was apparently named, lead him away, back to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the poop deck, where built black man stood watching. He saw that the man had a bright blue tattoo of geometric designs all up his arm and a crystal the same colour around his neck before Xigbar’s grip on his shoulder tightened. “Guess we’ll just have to wait it out,” he said.
The two combatants were pacing somewhere between the main mast and the foremast. He heard Naminé say “You’re being entirely asinine!”
“Did she just say he has nine as-”
“No.”
More shouting. “What he’d say there?”
“Uh… I’m pretty sure you don’t want to know, kid.”
Just as he felt certain, yet again, that he was going to die, a woman with long dark hair came into sight, climbing the staircase from below decks. She sighed as she came up from the stairwell. “I thought I heard the captain shout.” Roxas jumped slightly when she spotted him, her hands on her hips. “A stowaway?” she asked.
Xigbar grinned at her. “Captain’s gone into dictionary mode ‘cause of him, Tifa. Lucky you, eh?”
Tifa. Naminé mentioned that name, Roxas thought. He saw the woman was wearing teardrop earrings before she turned and looked fore to where the captain and his daughter were pacing.
Her shoulders slumped and she sighed again. “Okay, I’ll deal with it. And Xigbar, who’s steering the ship?”
Xigbar jolted before a voice sailed through the air, behind and above them. Roxas couldn’t see who was speaking, but they all raised their heads in response. “I am, Miss Lockhart! I… hope you don’t mind?”
“You’re doing a great job, Vivi! Keep at it!” she said over her shoulder as she walked forward. Roxas felt Xigbar push him forward, and followed.
The Dread Pirate and his daughter were duelling with words just beyond the main mast, and Roxas had no idea who was winning. Miss Lockhart stopped right beside the mast and closing her eyes in concentration, swung and hit the wooden pillar with the outside of her forearm. The stowaway flinched, expecting her to hop away in pain, but was instead greeted with a loud collision of sound that stopped the arguing pirates in their tracks.
“Both of you stop arguing or so help me, no card games for a month!” was all she said.
The Dread Pirate Luxord - terror of the high seas - looked as though he had been slapped. His daughter spoke for him. “Tifa, you wouldn’t!”
“I would.”
“They stopped for that?” Roxas whispered to himself.
“Obviously, you don’t know the Captain and Naminé that well,” Xigbar answered him, having heard.
“Captain.” The man she addressed was, by the looks of it, attempting to look unimpressed by her threat. “As boatswain, I suggest we place the stowaway in the brig so we can discuss his punishment privately.”
She then looked pointedly at Xigbar, who raised his hand hastily. “Uh, as first mate, I approve of this suggestion.”
Captain Luxord crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his daughter. “And for assisting a stowaway instead of reporting him to her Captain, I believe Naminé should receive the same punishment.”
She sighed, glaring at the deck out of the corner of her eye. She raised an open hand sullenly. “I’m perfectly responsible to lock myself and the prisoner up, Papa.”
“Captain,” he said sternly, dropping a key ring from his pocket into her hand.
“Captain,” she repeated morosely.
Xigbar let go of Roxas’s shoulder and Naminé stalked past him. When he noticed he was suddenly without her, surrounded by three glaring pirate adults, he realized he was supposed to follow her down the staircase. He did so as fast as he could without breaking into a run.
He followed her back down to the lowest deck, keeping his face mostly to the floor. If he was going to be a prisoner, he’d have plenty of time to check out the ship later, right? Unless they decide to keep me in the brig the whole time. At least I’m alive.
Naminé was leading him to the back of the storage room, where he had seen the single door opposite the armoury before. He hadn’t noticed another door beside it, on the other side of the hull.
She unlocked the heavy metal door and it swung open with a creak. She flicked a switch beside the doorway, and two dim naked light bulbs strung from the ceiling flickered to life, one for each narrow cell.
She walked inside and unlocked a cell. He followed and, walking inside, saw there was… a cot. With a blanket and mattress. And pillow.
He turned around to see she had already locked his door and was finishing locking herself in. She tossed the key ring casually through the bars where it landing, spinning, around a hook in the wall.
Apparently, she was used to getting trouble. Roxas didn’t know whether to be impressed with her, or scared that his only hope seemed to be a troublemaker among pirates.
“Try to get some sleep, Roxas,” she said softly. She reclined on her cot, leaning against the wall. “We’re probably going to be in here until tomorrow morning, with how stubborn Papa is.”
The stowaway sat down on his cot obediently, but the only thing he could think was What have I gotten myself into?
Foot Notes/Glossery
• Schooner: any of various types of sailing vessel having a foremast and mainmast, with or without other masts, and having fore-and-aft sails on all lower masts.
• Bulwark: a solid wall enclosing the perimeter of a weather or main deck for the protection of persons or objects on deck.
• Gysahl pickles are a minor plot device/running gag from Final Fantasy IX. They're a delicacy from the regency of Lindblum. They smell awful, but as Steiner discovers, actually taste delicious. Princess Garnet hides in a sack full of them to sneak past guards.
• That's right! Xigbar's line up there about not getting touched with a knife? He doesn't have the sexy face scar in this universe. Boooo. He's a long distance fighter, and pirate!Xigbar hasn't encountered any clawed creatures that close.
• Langet: refers to an extension of the cross-guard towards the blade, which overlies the base of the blade.
• In case you didn't know, the Dread Pirate title is a reference to the book (and movie) The Princess Bride. The Dread Pirate title is passed down a line of pirates in both this universe and that one. Luxord is referred to mostly by his Dread Pirate title here because this chapter is from Roxas's point of view and he's kind of terrified. xD Poor kid.
• And finally! The pirate ships in this universe are a lot like Final Fantasy airships/Treasure Planet ships. They obviously don't fly but they do have electricity in certain rooms.
• ...Yes, I have actually sketched out the layout of the Wheel of Fortune. I'M GETTING TOO INTO THIS FIC AHHHH.
...So I'll scan the doodles later? That good with everyone?
Chapter 2 ← Chapter 3 → Chapter 4
Chapter Listing
Ships?: None! ...Well, Roxas/Naminé in an implied sorta way?
Characters: Roxas, Axel, Demyx, Larxene, Naminé, Luxord, Xigbar, Tifa
→Cameos: Barret, Vivi
Rating: PG-13 for... mature concepts? Nothing actually happens though. xD
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.
Music: "Morning at Sea" ♪ "The Pirate Port" ♫ "The Wheel of Fortune ~ Below Decks"
Notes: Longest chapter. Ever. *headdesk* (at least it still isn't as long as Thank You that took me what three months to write? xD) Beta'd by spots_of_ink who I still love even if maybe she doesn't think so. ;^;
In which ‘stowaway’ might be Roxas’s last title.
Drink Up, Me Hearties
Chapter 3: The Hanged Man
The horizon was a coral pink ring at dawn, and a slight haze hung over the water. Roxas could see it from every direction, except for where it disappeared into the oncoming landmass. He was leaning carefully on the Carrion’s single mast, looking out over the bowsprit. He could hear soft snoring beneath him, presumably from the pirate named Demyx. The blacksmith hoped that he could hear it because the wooden deck was a little thin, and not from a hole that hadn’t been repaired somewhere. He shifted his weight cautiously.
“Hey, kid. Have you been out here all night?”
Roxas turned and saw that the Captain had spoken to him. At some point in the middle of the night Larxene had shoved the redhead above deck and told Demyx to get some sleep. If Roxas didn’t know any better, he’d almost say that she cared for the two of them. But then she’d thrown a dagger at his head for ‘staring’. It was still stuck in the side of the railing.
“Yeah, I have,” Roxas replied. “Couldn’t sleep.”
Captain Axel snorted from behind the helm. One of the spokes was missing from the wheel. “Was that ‘cause my ship’s not good enough for you to sleep in? Or is it just the adrenaline?”
“Adrenaline?” Roxas raised an eyebrow and turned around completely, but continued to rest his shoulder against the mast. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure.”
“First lesson, kid. You’re not supposed to tell the truth to a pirate.” Unexpectedly, he smiled wickedly, the red sleep lines around his eyes crinkling. “Unless your life’s threatened. Then you start telling the truth, running, or swinging your sword. One of the three - your pick.”
“Uh, right,” Roxas nodded.
Axel threw his head back and let out a peel of laughter. Roxas jumped. He wondered if hangovers and not just drunkenness could bring about odd bouts of laughter. “I like you, kid! You got guts,” he said, bringing his head back down and grinning widely. “I seem to remember Demyx saying I’m a jerk when I’m sober, so you’re lucky I’m still hung over!”
The wind picked up a little, catching the sail just behind Roxas. He coughed. “Well, uh. Okay then.”
Axel changed the subject, nodding at the landmass on the horizon that was getting bigger. “We’re gonna be landing there in a few minutes. It’s a cute little place, Destiny Island. Full o’ pirates. Y’know, the usual.”
“Wait. You mean there’s an island full of pirates a night’s journey away from my home?” Roxas asked, incredulous. And well, it had been a stroke of luck that these pirates were less than skilled. An entire island full of them wasn’t giving Roxas the best feeling (or perhaps he was getting seasick).
“Maybe not for your giant fancy schooners back home. The Carrion’s pretty damn quick for a ship that’s falling apart. It’s why we never just buy a new one. Even if we had enough gold…”
Roxas looked back to the island they were approaching. He could see bright green palm trees and wooden buildings. A huge system of docks and floating walkways were spread over the water of the harbour like a wooden labyrinth. He could see people of all shapes and sizes milling about, and he thought he saw the silhouette of a schooner disappear into the morning haze behind a cliff.
He jumped out of the way when Axel appeared beside the mast, leaving the helm unguarded and the boat essentially steering itself.
“Hey, don’t you think you should-” Roxas was ignored as the Captain lowered the sail and started stomping on the deck with his feet.
“Demyx! Larxene! Get up! We’re here!”
There was a loud groan from underneath them. “Jerk ass!” Larxene’s voice floated up from the hatch just fore the helm.
“You know you love me, babe!” Axel replied. He turned and nudged Roxas in the ribs with an elbow. “That’ll get her up.”
Sure enough, Larxene was soon heaving herself above deck through the hatch. Roxas noticed she had charged up without her boots on, eyes blazing. “Did you just call me babe?”
“Not at all. Can you take the helm? I have to get us a spot at the docks.” Axel was gathering up a coil of rope in his arms.
Larxene rolled her eyes and turned around to shout into the hatch. “DEMYX! Get up! You’re going to have to take the kid on his death march.”
Roxas gritted his teeth behind closed lips.
“Do I have to?” Demyx’s young voice whined as Larxene padded across the wooden deck to the helm.
“Yes!” Axel and Larxene replied in synch. Roxas could feel the Carrion starting to loose speed without its sail, and they were approaching the maze of docks at a slow cruise. Larxene steered it towards an empty stretch of dock to their starboard side and Axel jumped off to tie them down.
But Roxas was barely paying attention. He stared, wide-eyed as a man walked by with a peg leg, talking to the parrot on his shoulder. Nearby he saw a woman wearing a skull necklace talking to man with one arm and an eye-patch.
He was landing on a pirate island to sneak onto another pirate ship. And he was surrounded by pirates.
Well, then. This will go perfectly.
He jumped when someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned and Demyx smiled apologetically at him. “You okay, kid?”
“Uh, y-yeah.” Roxas nodded. Demyx hopped on one foot as he pulled his a boot on over what looked like an incredibly dirty sock. “Um, ‘death march’?”
“That’s… yeah, about right,” Demyx replied, hopping off the ‘ship’ and onto the dock. Roxas followed behind him, but cast a backwards glance to see Larxene retrieving her throwing knife from the railing. “I don’t think you realize how big a deal Captain Luxord and his crew are, Roxas.”
The teenager blinked, both at the use of his name and at a man who passed by with a scar over one eye, sealing it shut. He had forgotten he had told the Carrion’s crew his name over the course of the night. “What do you mean, ‘a big deal’?”
Demyx walked down a row of several open-air stalls where vendors were shouting advertisements for their wares (Roxas heard something about protective amulets). “Well, I don’t know if you ever heard back on your island, but Captain Luxord’s from a family of pirates that go way back… Well, his grandfather was a pirate, and just that’s enough to make him, like… royalty. I don’t remember how far back the great-greats go, but his family’s been in the business a long time.”
Roxas followed as Demyx suddenly ducked into a patch of jungle that began where the row of stalls ended. They were following a well-traveled dirt path underneath the bright green canopy, and Roxas saw that many other paths branched off of it. In the distance he saw another couple of pirates walking away from them chatting. Perhaps the jungle was a series of shortcuts around this ‘Destiny Island’. He stumbled over a thick tree root and remembered he was in the middle of a conversation.
“So… he’s gonna kill me because he’s from a long line of pirates?”
“Well, yeah. The Marrus family never takes prisoners. And unless you sneak right in and then, I don’t know, jump out a window you’re going to get caught.”
“That’s, uh… what I was going to do. Don’t you mean porthole?”
“Oh, no. The Wheel of Fortune has windows, not portholes. Portholes are too small to jump out of.” Demyx paused at a fork in the path. He tapped his chin with a finger, trying to remember which way he needed to go. “Well, in that case it might go well for you! What are you going to do while you’re in there?”
“Steal my sword back,” Roxas replied as they set off down the left-hand path. “His daughter stole it from me.”
Demyx tensed slightly as they approached the tree-line and put his arm out to stop his follower. Roxas followed his lead and crouched down in the bushes. Just off the shore, a schooner was anchored in the harbour. The metallic hull was a bright gold, with stark blue designs of stars encased in circles painted just beneath the bulwarks. The masts towered over them, white sails lowered. And just as Demyx had said, sunlight glinted off the reinforced glass panes of windows set in the side of the ship. People were bustling about the wooden docks around it, loading huge crates and barrels aboard.
“There she is,” Demyx announced mournfully. “The crew’s only, what… eight people? And the ship’s… well, look at it. So much better looking than ours. And bigger.”
Roxas wondered if he was supposed to pat the pirate on the back. But Demyx saved him the time. He stood, and keeping to the shadows, inched towards the far end of the huge piles of crates and barrels that were going to be loaded. “So, you and his daughter, huh?”
“Uh, yeah. We got in a fight.” Demyx popped the wooden lid off a barrel and a horrible smell wafted into the air. Roxas jumped back as it hit his nostrils. “Augh! What is that?”
Demyx was caught between grinning at the contents of the barrel and frowning at Roxas’s previous sentence. “Gysahl pickles! These things taste great! But uh, a fight, huh? Y’know, most guys send flowers to their girlfriends after they get in a fight…”
With one leg already inside the barrel, Roxas nearly tipped it over as he spluttered. “She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Shh!” Demyx hissed, looking around. As soon as Roxas was completely inside, he pushed him down into a tight crouch amongst the horrific smell of the pickles. He popped the lid back on and whispered through the hole in the side. “Do you want to get caught?” There was a brisk pause, then, “I’ll wait for you out here, okay kid? Get out of there as soon as you can.”
Roxas was left alone with only a tiny circle of light, the smell of gysahl pickles in his nose and the distant cry of gulls and muffled footsteps and voices. Then his stomach lurched and he was being lifted up into the air.
What felt like several minutes past inside the barrel. The sound of gulls drifted away and at one point he heard the distinct sound of metal being walked on. And then he was put down with a gentle thud.
He waited. What seemed like several hours past and then he heard a couple of voices, from across the room.
“Xigbar, isn’t it your turn to do storage duty?”
“What? Oh, well, yeah. I guess. But c’mon Naminé, no one’s going to sneak on your dad’s ship.”
“He’s gonna scar you if he finds out you’re shirking duties.”
“Pff. This flawless face? I’ve been a pirate longer than you’ve been alive, little lady. And not once has a knife gotten me. The bullet wounds, on the other hand…”
“Okay, okay! Don’t remind me.” A familiar giggle. “I get it.”
“We’re gonna be raising anchor in ten minutes, I think. Be up by then.”
“Right.”
He could hear the two voices go up the stairs. Ten minutes. That was more then enough time to find the armoury. He laid his palms flat against the barrel’s lid and pushed. Cool air hit his face as he half-tumbled out of the barrel and he gasped for it, breathing in whatever air didn’t smell of stinky pickles.
Looking around, he saw he was in a storage hull. Wooden crates were piled high above his head, nearly touching the ceiling. The only light was the golden shafts of sun coming through the windows. Looking towards one end of the huge room, he saw a single door. On the other there was a small room, unattached to the walls of the hull, sitting neatly in the middle. It was sealed with a set of double-doors, and as Roxas approached, he saw that the word ‘Armoury’ was carved into it. He couldn’t help grinning to himself.
There was an iron vault wheel locking the doors shut. He grabbed the spokes and pushed until the doors unlocked, throwing dim lit into the room beyond.
He found Two Across almost immediately when he looked inside. He could see the black and white hilt leaning against the wall in a far corner, already encased in one of the pirate’s spare scabbards. He crossed the room, and lifted the sword just a bit out of the scabbard and saw the checkerboard design he had carved into the langet. He strapped it to his other hip, and left the room.
He was going to lock the door when something launched out of the shadows and shoved him against the wall with a loud clang. His head ached, but when he opened his eyes he breathed a shocked “You!”
The blonde pirate girl blinked at him, her hands still shoving his shoulders back into the wall. Her blue eyes lit up in recognition immediately. “Wh- You’re the boy from the smithy! That was two days ago! What are you doing here?”
Roxas gulped but steeled his face. “You had my sword.”
“You… Wait. You somehow managed to catch up to us, on Destiny Island, a pirate port, snuck aboard in--” she paused and sniffed the air, “--a barrel of gysahl pickles to get a sword back. As brave as that is,” she leaned back, loosening her grip on him, “it’s also really, really dumb.”
“Yeah, well.” He hesitated and wondered if he should start begging for his life, before he remembered how rightfully angry he was at her. “This is the second time my parents have had to rebuild their home. You stuck me to a wall while you looted us. I don’t know how many of my neighbours are dead because of your crew.”
The girl was quiet. “Second time…” she mumbled, confused. Then remembering, “That’s right. Radiant Isle was destroyed in a storm. Tifa… I guess she’s not the same person that lived there, is she?”
Evidently, Roxas wasn’t supposed to have heard this. “Who?” he asked.
“Never mind.” The girl let him go and stood back. “What I’m saying is, you have a point. You deserve to take your sword back.”
His heart rose when he told it not to. “There’s a ‘but’ here, isn’t there?”
“Raising anchor!” a voice called dimly above them.
“But that,” she said.
Roxas’s heart started beating frantically in his throat. “That guy said ten minutes! And…and… you went upstairs too! I mean, I thought you did. Oh man…”
She looked at him sympathetically. “Metal stairs in a metal hull. They echo down here. And we must’ve been more prepared than Xigbar thought. We’re casting off early.”
“You just said that I deserved to leave! I’m getting off this boat even if it’s moving,” Roxas decided. He started walking back towards one of the windows, but the pirate grabbed his hand.
“If you jump now you’ll probably dive into the shallows and crack your skull open. And the Wheel of Fortune is a ship, not a boat. Listen.” She tugged his hand slightly. “I meant what I said about you deserving to keep your sword. It’s just that my father won’t take kindly to stowaways. You’re going to need to hide.”
Roxas sighed. “I’m not going to have to go back into the barrel, am I?”
“No - please, no. You smell bad enough as it is. If you get back in that barrel, it’ll never wear off. I’ll have to hide you in my room.”
She started towing him down a short hallway next to the armoury and opened the door that waited. “Your room…?”
Her room was at the bow of the ship, if the slightly curved walls were any indication. She picked up a box of matches from a desk and lit one of them, dropping it into a hanging lantern; the links in the chain clinked softly. She moved off to the other side of the room as he looked around. He saw a small leather couch in the back, and several wooden chests strewn about. He leaned down to look at the small golden plaque right above one’s keyhole.
“Naminé,” he read aloud.
“Yes?” the girl said. He stood up and turned. She was pulling back a white curtain hung from the ceiling and tying it to a hold in the wall.
“That’s your name,” he explained awkwardly.
“Oh! Yes.” Her face flushed a little, embarrassed. “I forgot; we didn’t really have time for introductions when we met.”
“You can say that again.” He stared at what was behind the curtain. “Your bed? I’m hiding underneath your bed?”
“I don’t have a closet and I can’t fit you anywhere else.”
Roxas groaned and crouched down on the floor. The area between the bottom of her bed and the floor was a tight squeeze, but he managed it. “By the way,” he stuck his arm out from underneath the bed frame, “I’m Roxas.”
She giggled (again with the weird chills) and shook his hand. “Alright, Roxas. In a couple of hours, that smell will wear off and I’ll have probably convinced my father to take us to a new port. You can find your way home then. I’ll be back with some food in a couple of minutes.”
---
Roxas missed ‘a couple of minutes’ by about an hour. When he woke up, his cheek was stuck to the cool metal floorboards. Turning slightly, he saw a plate of cheese and bread on the top of the small bookshelf across from him. She reads? he thought pleasantly, senses dulled slightly by sleep.
And then his senses snapped him awake. A pair of boots was crossing the room, much heavier and darker than Naminé’s were.
Somebody else was in the room, and judging from the sniffing sound he was hearing, they could smell him.
Before Roxas could get another thought in, something clamped around his elbow and dragged him up from under the bed, knocking his head on the bottom of the frame.
For half a second, Roxas thought he was dreaming. Then he started praying to whatever could hear him to let him be dreaming.
The Dread Pirate Luxord himself had dragged him up. From underneath his daughter’s bed. And he was not happy.
Roxas started backing up, his mind moving a mile a minute and yet seizing up. His brain was taking in small details about the angry famous notorious pirate captain (short blond hair, goatee, pierced ears, eyes that were yes storm-like oh god) and yet his words were crawling. “It’s not… I just…”
A sickening sound. The Dread Pirate Luxord had unsheathed his sword. The blade was curved and silver in the dim lantern light. Roxas’s back hit the wall. “She stole my sword, and…”
“And what did you steal?”
Roxas turned to ice. He knew exactly what that meant.
OH GOD, his mind screamed. OH GOD HER BED. WHY.
“Hey, is it just me or does something smell like gy-” There was a creak in the doorway and Roxas was somewhat relieved to see that the Dread Pirate turned to see who it was too. A pirate with an eye-patch and greying hair tied back in a ponytail stood in the doorway, and making eye contact with Roxas, jumped slightly. “A stowaway? How the hell did that happen?”
“Yes, Xigbar.” The Dread Pirate turned just slightly, his sword still at the ready. “By all means enlighten me as to how this ruffian managed to sneak on board on YOUR WATCH?!”
The shout echoed all around the small confines of the metal room. Both Roxas and the eye-patched man jolted, and it seemed to restore some feel to the boy’s legs. Run like hell Roxas, something told him confidently.
He obeyed. He ducked under the Dread Pirate’s arm while he was distracted and hurtled through the doorway. Staircase staircase staircase, his head chanted as he tore up the metal stairs.
(Behind him, the Dread Pirate strode out of the room with only a few choice words for his first mate: “We’ll settle this later. Count on it.”)
Roxas nearly collided with a wall as he came up to the first deck. He tore around a corner and passed what he thought looked like a bar counter - how the hell did that work - and then oh God another staircase with sunlight. He could throw himself overboard once he was up above oh God.
“COME BACK AND FACE ME, YOU COWARD!” The Dread Pirate was chasing him.
OH GOD I AM GOING TO DIE.
He tripped as he came up onto the deck. His mind registered that he was facing the stern in half a second, so he turned on a dime and started running towards the bowsprit. Maybe there he would have an easier time jumping to his death by the hands of the merciful ocean.
Wait, wasn’t drowning supposed to be a horrible way to die?
OH GOD SHUT UP BRAIN.
And then something collided into his side, sending him into a stand-still. His heart was still hammering in his chest, and after gulping for air and observing the situation, it sped up again, however weakly.
The Dread Pirate Luxord had stopped chasing him only a few paces away. And the thing that collided with him, keeping him an arm’s length away from death, was his daughter, pressing her back into his chest.
“Naminé Alcyone Marrus,” the Dread Pirate said. He was breathing slowly and calmly, despite the icy glare in his eyes.
Roxas’s mind was still working in overtime. Pirates have middle names? Oh God, he used her middle name. I am dead I am dead I am so very dead.
“Papa,” she said. “You know it’s against the code to harm children.”
“That may be true, but the code does not extend to those who have stolen a young woman’s virtue - particularly that of the daughter of a captain!” Luxord leaned forward, pointing the tip of his blade accusingly at the stowaway.
Naminé sighed deeply. “Roxas did no such thing, Papa. If you had stopped to see reason, you would know that!”
“Then why was he so frightened that I discovered his hiding place? Everyone knows that the innocent don’t run!”
“You confronted him with a sword in your hand and fire in your eyes. Not to mention the fact that you’re the Dread Pirate Luxord - the terror of the high seas! Is it any wonder he bolted?” Naminé stepped forward slightly, and Roxas felt whatever security he had had melt away.
“That makes little difference. What matters is that he was found skulking around your room like a common bandit! How on earth was I to witness that and not question his intentions?”
“Question his intentions! Not chase after him with your sword drawn!”
“Put yourself in my shoes, Naminé. If you had found a strange young man hiding under your daughter’s bed - one who had the mark of guilt written all over his face - what would you do? Would you not take whatever measures possible to avenge her virtue?”
Naminé sighed again. “There’s nothing to avenge! Nothing happened.”
Luxord frowned and shifted back slightly, sheathing his blade on his hip. “If your little miscreant is so innocent, allow him to explain yourself.”
There was silence and Naminé turned to look at him. The Dread Pirate glared, and behind them both, he caught swift glances of other members of the crew staring at the scene. His heart leapt into his throat. He was going to explain himself to a group of pirates.
“I… Well…” Deep breaths, Roxas. Now get this over with. Go! “Naminé broke into the forge and I thought she was a boy because it was nighttime but then I fought her because I thought she was going to steal something and then she pinned me to a wall and stole Two Across anyway and I had to get Two Across back because I made it and the whole town was falling apart and I couldn’t just sit around so I duelled this other pirate captain and got a ride here and snuck on board in a barrel of gysahl pickles and then your daughter found me and hid me under her bed, Captain sir.”
He gasped for air.
Both Naminé and her father were staring at him in twin expressions of blank shock.
“Can you repeat that, kid? I wasn’t paying attention,” the man with the eye-patch had reappeared above deck. He was standing back near the quarter deck with the other crew members.
“Xigbar!” The Dread Pirate barked over his shoulder.
“Trap shutting, Captain,” Xigbar replied.
“I don’t know, Captain,” a taller man with a cannon replacing his right arm said. “He’s probably telling the truth.”
The Dread Pirate crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“It's true, Papa!” Roxas stiffened when the pirate's daughter reached for the scabbard on his right hip and took Two Across from him again. “This is the sword I stole, remember? I showed you myself!”
Luxord only snorted as she handed it back to Roxas, who sheathed it as quickly as he could.
“Let him stay as a swabbie!” Naminé suggested swiftly, turning back to her father. “You know we don’t take prisoners. Vivi could-”
“I shall not permit a tottery oaf on my ship for any interminable amount of time!” Luxord shouted.
Naminé finally looked frustrated, throwing her hands down by her side. “Now you’re just being fecklessly pertinacious.”
Luxord responded with another line of steady vocabulary that Roxas couldn’t decipher. If he hadn’t known it was English, he would’ve sworn he and his daughter were speaking another language. His heart jolted again when a hand suddenly came down on his shoulder. He looked up and the man with the eye-patch smiled crookedly down at him. “You got ‘em using their vernacular, kid. Good on ya. But you’ll probably want to stand over here.”
The Dread Pirate started pacing about the deck as he and his daughter argued. Xigbar, as the man with the eye-patch was apparently named, lead him away, back to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the poop deck, where built black man stood watching. He saw that the man had a bright blue tattoo of geometric designs all up his arm and a crystal the same colour around his neck before Xigbar’s grip on his shoulder tightened. “Guess we’ll just have to wait it out,” he said.
The two combatants were pacing somewhere between the main mast and the foremast. He heard Naminé say “You’re being entirely asinine!”
“Did she just say he has nine as-”
“No.”
More shouting. “What he’d say there?”
“Uh… I’m pretty sure you don’t want to know, kid.”
Just as he felt certain, yet again, that he was going to die, a woman with long dark hair came into sight, climbing the staircase from below decks. She sighed as she came up from the stairwell. “I thought I heard the captain shout.” Roxas jumped slightly when she spotted him, her hands on her hips. “A stowaway?” she asked.
Xigbar grinned at her. “Captain’s gone into dictionary mode ‘cause of him, Tifa. Lucky you, eh?”
Tifa. Naminé mentioned that name, Roxas thought. He saw the woman was wearing teardrop earrings before she turned and looked fore to where the captain and his daughter were pacing.
Her shoulders slumped and she sighed again. “Okay, I’ll deal with it. And Xigbar, who’s steering the ship?”
Xigbar jolted before a voice sailed through the air, behind and above them. Roxas couldn’t see who was speaking, but they all raised their heads in response. “I am, Miss Lockhart! I… hope you don’t mind?”
“You’re doing a great job, Vivi! Keep at it!” she said over her shoulder as she walked forward. Roxas felt Xigbar push him forward, and followed.
The Dread Pirate and his daughter were duelling with words just beyond the main mast, and Roxas had no idea who was winning. Miss Lockhart stopped right beside the mast and closing her eyes in concentration, swung and hit the wooden pillar with the outside of her forearm. The stowaway flinched, expecting her to hop away in pain, but was instead greeted with a loud collision of sound that stopped the arguing pirates in their tracks.
“Both of you stop arguing or so help me, no card games for a month!” was all she said.
The Dread Pirate Luxord - terror of the high seas - looked as though he had been slapped. His daughter spoke for him. “Tifa, you wouldn’t!”
“I would.”
“They stopped for that?” Roxas whispered to himself.
“Obviously, you don’t know the Captain and Naminé that well,” Xigbar answered him, having heard.
“Captain.” The man she addressed was, by the looks of it, attempting to look unimpressed by her threat. “As boatswain, I suggest we place the stowaway in the brig so we can discuss his punishment privately.”
She then looked pointedly at Xigbar, who raised his hand hastily. “Uh, as first mate, I approve of this suggestion.”
Captain Luxord crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his daughter. “And for assisting a stowaway instead of reporting him to her Captain, I believe Naminé should receive the same punishment.”
She sighed, glaring at the deck out of the corner of her eye. She raised an open hand sullenly. “I’m perfectly responsible to lock myself and the prisoner up, Papa.”
“Captain,” he said sternly, dropping a key ring from his pocket into her hand.
“Captain,” she repeated morosely.
Xigbar let go of Roxas’s shoulder and Naminé stalked past him. When he noticed he was suddenly without her, surrounded by three glaring pirate adults, he realized he was supposed to follow her down the staircase. He did so as fast as he could without breaking into a run.
He followed her back down to the lowest deck, keeping his face mostly to the floor. If he was going to be a prisoner, he’d have plenty of time to check out the ship later, right? Unless they decide to keep me in the brig the whole time. At least I’m alive.
Naminé was leading him to the back of the storage room, where he had seen the single door opposite the armoury before. He hadn’t noticed another door beside it, on the other side of the hull.
She unlocked the heavy metal door and it swung open with a creak. She flicked a switch beside the doorway, and two dim naked light bulbs strung from the ceiling flickered to life, one for each narrow cell.
She walked inside and unlocked a cell. He followed and, walking inside, saw there was… a cot. With a blanket and mattress. And pillow.
He turned around to see she had already locked his door and was finishing locking herself in. She tossed the key ring casually through the bars where it landing, spinning, around a hook in the wall.
Apparently, she was used to getting trouble. Roxas didn’t know whether to be impressed with her, or scared that his only hope seemed to be a troublemaker among pirates.
“Try to get some sleep, Roxas,” she said softly. She reclined on her cot, leaning against the wall. “We’re probably going to be in here until tomorrow morning, with how stubborn Papa is.”
The stowaway sat down on his cot obediently, but the only thing he could think was What have I gotten myself into?
Foot Notes/Glossery
• Schooner: any of various types of sailing vessel having a foremast and mainmast, with or without other masts, and having fore-and-aft sails on all lower masts.
• Bulwark: a solid wall enclosing the perimeter of a weather or main deck for the protection of persons or objects on deck.
• Gysahl pickles are a minor plot device/running gag from Final Fantasy IX. They're a delicacy from the regency of Lindblum. They smell awful, but as Steiner discovers, actually taste delicious. Princess Garnet hides in a sack full of them to sneak past guards.
• That's right! Xigbar's line up there about not getting touched with a knife? He doesn't have the sexy face scar in this universe. Boooo. He's a long distance fighter, and pirate!Xigbar hasn't encountered any clawed creatures that close.
• Langet: refers to an extension of the cross-guard towards the blade, which overlies the base of the blade.
• In case you didn't know, the Dread Pirate title is a reference to the book (and movie) The Princess Bride. The Dread Pirate title is passed down a line of pirates in both this universe and that one. Luxord is referred to mostly by his Dread Pirate title here because this chapter is from Roxas's point of view and he's kind of terrified. xD Poor kid.
• And finally! The pirate ships in this universe are a lot like Final Fantasy airships/Treasure Planet ships. They obviously don't fly but they do have electricity in certain rooms.
• ...Yes, I have actually sketched out the layout of the Wheel of Fortune. I'M GETTING TOO INTO THIS FIC AHHHH.
...So I'll scan the doodles later? That good with everyone?
Chapter 2 ← Chapter 3 → Chapter 4
Chapter Listing