#come hell or Highwater masterlist

[imaginedreamwrite]

Come Hell Or Highwater: Part 1

With his feet propped up on the corner of the desk and a lit cigarette hanging between his lips, he had felt momentarily content. The buzz from the tobacco had hit him, a welcomed kind of high that made the lingering silence in the room seem less egregious than it was.

Ari and Steve had received the call and the order to be reassigned from the case they were on, the directive had come from the captain of their specialized team and within an hour they had been ripped from one case and moved to another.

Their replacements had landed in the safety zone to relieve Steve and Ari, the two of which had been pulled directly into their top boss’ office.

“She’s 22,” Steve cursed and slammed the file against the desk, stalking around the desk and turning sharply to lean against the edge, “witnessed a high-profile murder on her way to the apartment from university. A hell of a thing.”

Ari drew in a puff and held it in his mouth for a moment before slowly exhaling, the dart between his fingertips glowing at the burning butt. He didn’t speak until he leaned forward and tapped the edge against the ashtray.

The pile of ah had been growing and he had been putting off dumping the tray in the trash like he should have, although he knew that he would eventually have to clean the glass. As he sat back, Ari finally addressed his brother.

“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Ari drew his gaze away from the ashtray and the file he had been pouring over, watching Steve tap his fingers against the edge of the wood, “22 is a hell of an age to have this kind of target on her head.”

“Fucking animal.” Steve cursed and momentarily twitched as if he could still feel Sister Mary’s switch against his knuckles, a repeated punishment they had all received from catholic school.

Their ma attempted to straighten out the triplets’ boyish and troublesome nature if only the switches and the punishments had worked.

“He’s carved men twice as big and tough, this girl-“ Ari lifted a picture of the woman they were assigned to protect and hide away, his captivating gaze studying every inch of the image in his hand, his lips forming a deep frown.

You were enrolled in a bachelor of music and composition course, and almost finished your degree with just over a year to go.

You had been kept late at campus while helping a friend create a composition that was going to be recorded for a final grade. You stayed behind because he asked you to and when it had come time for you to walk home to your apartment, you denied his offer for an Uber or an escort home.

You claimed you didn’t have long to go, and you didn’t. It should’ve been uneventful, it should’ve taken you less than fifteen minutes. Hell, you even had pepper spray in your bag in case something happened. You were, for all intents and purposes, protected one way or another.

And then your roommate asked if you could stop at the drugstore on the way home because she forgot to pick up her prescription and you were close. You were a sweetheart, you wouldn’t have let her suffer so you agreed. You took a detour because she asked you to because she was your friend.

Your errand had almost gone off without a hitch until you stepped out of the drugstore and took a side road, one that would’ve saved you a few minutes. You happened upon the assault, robbery and murder of a high-profile dignitary. The politician was recognizable, even if you weren’t involved in politics in any possible measure you would’ve recognized him.

And you had.

Not only had you recognized the infamous man, but you had also bared witness to him and his partner being robbed, attacked and brutally murdered.

You heard the twisted and sickening gurgle, you had felt the air shift as someone had taken their last breath and another was holding on for dear life.

You listened and you tried to help after coming out of hiding. You were a gentle soul who had called 911, you had waited and done all you could to support the man struggling for his life.

It was a twist of fate, a simple errand that had altered your course in life because you were a good person.

The men you witnessed from your hiding place hadn’t been aware that you were even there watching them, frozen in place and fearful that you had been next. They had killed their political target, and they had later killed the man in the hospital room. They thought they had eliminated every witness, however, they were innately wrong.

You were the only living and breathing person who could attest to their horrible acts, and that had placed a detrimental target upon your head. Once it was found out that there was a living witness, your life would be on the line and so would the case that was being built against their criminal empire.

With your safety in check, the triplets were called in. Ari Levinson, Andy Barber and Steve Rogers had all worked for the Witness Protection Program, triplets who had given themselves different last names in order to add another layer of personal protection.

Ari and Steve were the best the WPP had for agents.

The two of them were ex-navy SEALs, two men who were battle-hardened and incredibly skilled with as many weapons as they could get their hands on. They had taken every opportunity given to them to become deadly soldiers hellbent on protecting those that needed them most.

They had become out of the brotherhood and deadly them that had encroached upon some of the most terrifying and deadly missions that were thrown at their squad. They had served and served their purpose well, and only after retirement had they continued to do good with another agency.

Andy had chosen to go to law school instead of joining the military like his brothers had, choosing to take the avenue of criminal prosecution and the courts. His intent was just as noble as Steve and Ari’s, he had felt that drive and need to protect people who couldn’t protect themselves.

It was after he had graduated from law school, becoming more seasoned as a lawyer, that the three of them joined the program.

“-she’s safe. Andy is with her getting more details about that night. They’re waiting to hear just like we are, we need confirmation that the safe house and all the documents are ready.” Steve crossed his arms over his chest before he turned his head, gazing at the clock hanging off the wall.

They were called to their director’s office and told to bring what they needed for a long-term stay with no foreseeable end date.

They had been ripped off one case, set upon another and given little detail as to where they were going or what the game plan was. Even with the files they had read, and what they had been told, there was still so much hidden from them.

“Orders.” The door to the office opened, and one of their team members entered with a manila envelope for each of them, closing and locking the door behind herself. “Star witness is ready for transport and you two have gotten your alibis.”

“Married?” Steve exclaimed in surprise, turning over the fake IDs, the faux passports and two sets of keys. “This is the ploy?”

“You’re headed for an isolated, almost self-contained town in the middle of nowhere. You got married last year and are seeking relocation to escape the rush of the big city, you’re wanting to settle down somewhere quiet to raise a family. Ari is gonna be foreman with local lumber yard, Steve you’ll be working from home as an online editor, both of you are skilled with your hands.”

“And Y/N?” Ari had reached for the cigarettes to his left, flipping open the lid of the box to grab a white filtered dart, his fingertips grasping the end as he yanked it out.

“She has to be with one of you at all times. If she’s not with Steve at home, she’s with you at the lumberyard.” The agent and their longtime friend had come to rest her hands on her hips, watching the two men as they thumbed through the envelope they were given, looking at the necessary paperwork for their new lives.

“Where does Andy fit in?”

“This town you’re going to,” the agent drew in a breath and huffed it out in a short burst, “the entire town is made of polyamorous units. It’s the perfect cover for having three men living with or visiting her. No one would bat an eye at having a young polyamorous family like the one you’re acting as-“

“Polyamory? Won’t that attract more attention from these sick fucks?” Steve raised an eyebrow, gaze flitting toward Ari.

“There’s more of them out there than you think. Besides, the world is a big place and there’s a lot of rumours that she headed into Europe.” With a final look at the marriage certificate, the drivers licenses, fake passports, housing deeds, the story had been set.

“Andy travels for work, he spends more time away than home. Long stints abroad, a week here and there at home.”

The question that hadn’t been asked had received an answer and then their friend and agent nodded her head. “Let’s get you boys some wedding rings and get you settled at home.”

“And where’s our young bride?” Ari questioned, shoving his paperwork back in the envelope.

“With her third husband, waiting for you two. Let’s go.”

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[equallyshaw]

𝓼𝓮𝓮𝓲𝓷 𝓻𝓮𝓭 | 𝓶𝓪𝓽 𝓫𝓪𝓻𝔃𝓪𝓵 𝓪𝓾 ↠ love at first sight! ↠ au masterlist!

↠ warnings: none? ↠ word count: 2.3K +

when sydney told olivia that they'd be hosting the team's new years party that year, olivia was not too thrilled. she was looking rather forward to spending the night out on the town, but once sydney demanded her sister's presence that evening; she'd be getting it come hell or highwater. it was around 7 pm when she heard music beginning to play, throughout the house and sighed. she had just finished her makeup and hair for the evening, and quickly sent a few texts out to her best friends naomi and nastia, who were in california and chicago that evening. sydney propped open her door just a bit, "can you watch the girls for a few minutes?" and with that olivia turned around with a huge grin on her face with her hands open wide for her two nieces for them to run towards her. she picked both of them up and pretended to eat them, causing them to shriek loudly bringing a smile to sydney's face.

⋆｡ °✩

it was two hours later, and after many many rounds of playing barbies with the two girls- she was relieved by another wag for a bit to grab a drink. she sighed loudly and playfully, once she reached the kitchen counter where matt and sydney were talking with another player. "god! they are so mini you's." she teased while opening up a seltzer, to which matt laughed loudly. "they are a mini syd." he joked, causing sydney to slap his arm playfully. "you are off babysitting duty for the night, i promise." sydney mused passing a small plate snacks,f from the charcuterie board. "good. i could use the night off every once in awhile." she joked, causing the two parents to laugh and tease her relentlessly. "oh! you need a night off?" both sydney and matt joked, causing her to giggle. "why yes!" she hummed, before taking her plate and drink towards the living room. she quickly made her way over towards grace - anders lee's wife and holly, bo horvat's wife. "hey!" grace beemed, pulling the red head into a small hug. "hi holls!" grace said hugging holly as well, "what have i missed?" she grinned sipping some of her drink. "oh lets fill you in!" grace joked, and the three went into catching up mode.

this was the first time in a few years that olivia had made it home for the holidays, her father and mother had been visiting her for the past four plus years while she had been at school in los angeles. she hadn't come back for much of her breaks, besides the off-season, because she was a sucker for new england summers.

she was engrossed in a long conversation when mat had shown up at the party. he greeted some teammates, and their partners before he saw the infamous red head that was never to be found. since matt had been traded from toronto, he had yet to see olivia in the flesh.

oh, how he could not bare to look away.

⋆｡ °✩

it was around 11 when mat had finally worked up the courage to say hi and introduce himself. the two found themselves in the kitchen grabbing some refreshment replacements, and snacking on some more appetizers. "you're olivia right?" mat asked as the two hadn't said anything to each other for a few minutes. she looked up from her phone, and nodded. "yes. and you are?" she questioned looking at mat. she had never seen him before, and she could see the somewhat arrogance oozing off of him. he looked at her, taking in her blue eyes. god, mat knew he was officially gone - even if she hadn't spoken more than a few words to him.

"im mat." he said not moving from where he stood, a few feet away from her. she nodded giving him a small nod, "nice to meet you mat." she said respectfully. he nodded, continuing to look at her as he sipped his amber looking drink. "this is the first time I've see you before, what got you over to the east coast?" he said somewhat teasing, somewhat seriously. she sipped her drink before responding, "well, I've been in los angeles at ucla for the past four years. i graduated in 2022, but haven't had a chance to come back since the summertime. which meant you weren't here." she mirroring his tone. he tsked his tongue, "such a shame. I've heard a lot about you, and how fun you are." he said grinning. "oh really? i am just enough fun, thankyou." she hummed, "a respectable amount." she teased cocking her head to the side just a bit. "interesting. but seriously, syd and matt always said that you're welcome but that you never take up their offer?" he questioned, sipping more of his drink.

the fucking nerve of this dude, she thought.

"well, thats not really your business is it?" she questioned slyly. he chuckled as she sighed, knowing he was not giving up. "since my parents moved to california full time, i really don't have a huge reason to come back here. besides, long island is their home. not mine." she said truthfully, "besides, its not like i can leave los angeles whenever i feel like it. i have work there, that i have to tend to." she said shifting her feet. "oh really? what kind of work, anything interesting?" he questioned, actually interested. she nodded, "i have a boutique jewelry shop that i run with my mom. im actually here on business, we are interested in opening up another shop in the hamptons actually." she said feeling the shift in the conversation. the tense conversation turning to genuine. "oh really? that's actually really cool." he said and she nodded, "yep." she said a bit too short, than she had anticipated. "whats it called, like the name?" he questioned. she smiled, "it's called greenwich jewels." she said. "i think that's the first smile you've had since this conversation started." she rolled her eyes. "there you go, ruining the vibe." she said chuckling just a bit. "me?" he teased, "yes! just when i thought that you were actually being nice and interested, you go and ruin it with your demeanor and your sarcastic tone." she said shaking her head, and mat was eating this interaction all up.

when he didn't respond, and all but continued to stare at her, she scoffed. "you're unbearable, guess all the rumors i've heard have been true." she chastised, before turning to leave. "oh? you have heard of me, huh?" he questioned, trying to get her to not leave. she froze, turning towards him just a bit, "unfortunately." she grimaced before leaving the kitchen.

⋆｡ °✩

she was on facetime with kappy, around 11:50 while she was in the office on the first floor. she needed a few minutes by herself and then kappy called, and it was good timing. "yeah barzal is an animal, definitely a jerk." he said and that made olivia laughed loudly. "are you sure you didn't describe yourself?" she teased, and he flipped her off in the process. "but seriously, when are you coming to st louis red?" he questioned and she shrugged. "do i seriously have to wait until the off-season?" he questioned, and she shrugged again. "ill let you know." she said truthfully. he nodded, "but you're the CEO you make your own schedule i thought?" he said causing her to laugh loudly again. "alrighty kap, hush." she said rubbing her face softly, holding back a giggle. " ill call you in a few days?" she questioned and kappy nodded, "happy new years red." he smiled, to which she mirroed. "happy new years kappy." she hummed, before ending the facetime. she plopped her phone onto the white desk in front of her, as she stretched her body out. she was ready to go to bed, and knew she'd be taking the two little ones to bed shortly at 12; and give their parents some time without the little ones.

her head whipped to the door, as it squeked open. she rolled her eyes as she scowled. mat smirked, stepping into the room. "if you wanted privacy for our new years kiss, you should have just said so. i had to search the whole house like a sleuth." he said amused. she scoffed, turning back towards him. "what is your problem?" she demanded, as her phone began to go off. the both of them looked towards her phone that was still on the desk, and 'zeeeegrass' flashed on the screen. she gave mat a glare, as she picked up her phone. she swiped to accept, and saw the lovely dirty blonde fill her screen. "hi z." she said looking up at mat who only leaned against the door, still staring at her. "yo! when are you back home again?" he questioned and olivia tore her glare from mat to trevor. "seriously z? i've told you how many times?" she said a tad bit annoyed, "oh woah, who pissed you off?" he asked animated. she giggled, "you'd never guess." she said monotoned. trevor grinned, "let me guess, matty said some bad jokes." and that made olivia laughed. "no, but i wish it had been that." she said truthfully, "but ill be back on the 7th." she followed up. "cool cool well happy new years ginger, but i gotta go. jacks calling me." and she felt the blood drain from her face. "oh. nice. well happy new years z." she said, now desperately trying to get off the phone. "alsooooo, my new years resolution is to figure out what happened between the two of you in the hamptons, will i have that resolution granted?" he teased, and she shook her head no before hanging up. she stood up now, feeling somewhat nauseous, and wanted to desperately hide her face from the world.

"please let me go mat." she said looking at the ground, as mat had not moved from the door. she looked up at him now, and crossed her arms. "id like to leave, without making a scene." she said unenthused. he grinned, "now i gotta know...what did happen between the two of you, huh?" he teased taking his arm off the door, and took a step closer towards the redhead. she shook her head, "none of your business- again." she chastised. he chuckled a bit, "if you tell me, ill tell you a secret." he said enticingly but she gave him a disgusted look. "you're actually crazy, mat. wild." she said as she heard the group outside beginning to count down from 12. he stepped right in front of her, invading her space. she could feel the heat and arrogance radiating off of him, making her shiver with a chill. "mat.." she trailed off as he leaned in, pausing just before his lips would have met hers. he smirked, staring straight into her blue eyes.

she swallowed harshly, as she looked down at his lips. as soon as they heard 'one' from the other room, mat swiftly took hold of her by placing his hands on her lower back while simultaneously kissing her. her hands instinctively went to his face, to hold on to him in some way. his hand began to move down further before she realized that she had been kissing him back. she pulled back, not meeting his eye. without saying a word or looking at him, she moved past him and out of the room. as soon as she was halfway down the hallway, she placed a soft finger on her rosy lips. she cursed herself on how vulnerable she had been, and how much she liked the kiss. but she hated the guy. she quickly filtered herself into the living room seeing sydney and matt with the two girls, and olivia kneeled down to them to hug the two. "who's ready for bed?!" she said and the girls shook their heads, and jumped up and down. "i thought we said no sugar past 9:30?" she questioned looking up at sydney, and then the both of them looked at matt. he put his hands up in innocence, causing the two sisters to laugh. "you guys enjoy the rest of the evening, im gonna head up with these two." she said grabbing ahold of their hands, and the three of them headed upstairs. as she picked up the youngest one at the base of the stars, she saw mat coming back into the living room. the two froze momentarily before olivia broke eye contact, and headed upstairs.

while she headed upstairs, mat went to go say by the hostess'. "mat! happy new years, darling." sydney said pulling the younger hockey player in for a hug. she left an arm on his shoulder, as they turned towards matt. "thanks for the hospitality, but im gonna head out. a bit more tired than i had anticipated." he said and the couple nodded. "lets walk you out. but first, take some desserts!" sydney said pulling mat towards the kitchen, along with matt.

matt for the rest of the night, could not shake the red head and even acknowledged that he may have gone too far. he realized that that he might have been a jerk, at some points. though the girl would argue, it was the whole time. even as he drove towards his apartment where his ex was waiting for him, he couldn't shake the girl. he cursed himself, once he realized he wanted to see her again. even if in the capacity he did not totally want.

but he knew one thing, he was smitten.

back upstairs a little while later, as the two girls were tucked in and read to sleep; olivia headed towards her room that the two young ones had dubbed 'tie tie's room', because it was right across from theirs. she laid down on her back, looking up at the white ceiling that was straight out of the gilded age. her thoughts were running a mile a minute, she hated mat and wished she would have slapped him. slap that stupid but attractive smirk off of his face. no, she despised that arrogant and cunning canadian. she turned over on her stomach and screamed into the comforter. she needed to get back to california without seeing him, or else she might hurt his feelings.

no, she'd kill him.

hope you all enjoyed! please like and reblog if you did (:

tags: @toasttt11 @cillianthinker

[pvrkacciosan]

The Only Way For Me

❈ Through HELL or HIGHWATER Masterlist

Taglist: @dreamiezpsycho @piratequeen-queenofgames @ms-starlight @yunascular

Word count: 3.6K

Warning: mention of branding (scar), mention of enslavement, emotional turmoil, character death mention

I gape up at the tall blonde as he spoke the response to my question.

Some of these pirates, were slaves to the Pirate Lord. I suddenly feel as though rocks have been dropped into my belly and my heart lept into my throat. I can't have imagined what being a slave to the Pirate Lord would have been like.

"I was one" the tall pirate says, there was no shame in the way he admitted his past as he didn't seem at all phased by what was once the semblance of his life, my body shivers for him at the idea of what he must have endured. He shifted his body around so his back was facing my direction, slipping a hand to the  collar of his cotton pale shirt he tugged down so a branded symbol could be seen on his left shoulder.

Every muscle in my stomach clenched at the grotesquely scarred skin, the white raised tissue was the imprint of a skull with a dagger going through it - the symbol of the Pirate Lord.

I wanted to ask more, what was it like, how did he become a slave for the most ruthless cruel pirate there was. How did he get out, But Wooyoung cuts into the conversation.

"This is Yunho, the ships sailing master"

The tall sailing master bowed his body forwards, in greeting, as if being formally introduced to me was a pleasure bestowed upon him as if he was meeting and becoming acquainted with a Neo royal family member. By no way was I royalty. My history made me far from such.

"and this is Seonghwa, Hongjoong’s First mate and the ships quarter master"

The equally as tall but slightly short first mate leaned his head down to nod in my direction.

" Nice to see you not caked in the scent of smoke" he spoke, his voice soft as he addressed me.

I troubled myself over my words for a second,  " it's nice not to smell as such" I try to make the comment come out as light hearted but I struggle to do so.

I can't seem to help as my mind travels back to Akio, what would he think about all this. Me getting acquainted with pirates. I could picture as his feature contort into fuming anger. Then an onslaught of cusses would follow as he delayed his worry for my safety.

The air catches in my throat, my mind detaching from my body the world falling away around me. Its scares me.

Akio is gone. Truly and utterly gone. There is nothing I can do.

A hand grips my elbow gently and I turn to watch Wooyoung as he meets my gaze. An understanding smile pulled to his lips, the rocks fade away and the hole in my chest stings slightly less as his grip grows soft and he draws my attention back up.

"You've already met Yeosang" he turns to face the main deck from where the small group of us stood.

How could I forget Yeosang. A prickle of anger at the frustration he had caused made the tips of my fingers tingle and my lips urge to pull back in a sneer.

Wooyoung steps closer to me, to the point I can almost feel the warmth of his body evading my space and air, the warmth buzzed and rippled around me as if it was its own living entity, with its own pulse. I bit my lip, tying my focus to the tip of his finger where he has begun to point things out on the ship.

The wood of the Fedora was dark and shone in the rising sun, the water sprayed up as the waves crashed the sides of the vessel. The pit of my stomach churned as the boat rocked.

My hand placed onto the barrier beside me to help steady my not so great sea legs.

There was a chuckle from behind me as I wobbled and I turn to look over my shoulder to find the other three males smirking while watching me not so discreetly.

" You'll get used to it after a while" Yunho spoke covering his amused lips with a hand, the leather bracelets attached to his wrist sliding down the length of his arm at the sudden new angle.

My attention is swung around when Wooyoung nudged my side gently.

" That door there is where the main sleeping quarters are, I'll show you that in a bit"

He points across to the left side of the main deck, pointing to a door which sat slightly more croaked then the door to their sleeping area,

" That's the medical room, where Yeosang mostly spends his time, may I advise you personally stay clear of there unless needed" His comment was hinted with amusement, his enjoyment for the situation shining through his words.

"come on" he clocked his head to the side, waving at the two working pirates we had now left up on the top deck of the ship. San's almost silent footfall following into place behind us as he made our way down the stairs in the direction of the barracks.

Perhaps my knees where on drugs because by the time we actually reached the door I could have sworn they were going to give out from beneath me.

I had to grip and lean into the door frame, giving my legs just a second of rest before I was following Wooyoung further into their sleeping quarters.

San fanned out away from us, his form falling into the shadows surrounding the corners of the room. I watched him from my place by the door as he stalked the length of the room stopping by a hammock hung slightly higher then the rest, he grabbed a bar suspended beside the hanging bed, hauling himself up I didn't even try to stop my jaw as it swung open as he effortlessly lifted himself from the floor and into the safety of the hammock.

" You'll be sleeping in here with us if that's alright, we don't have any where else for you to stay unless you'd prefer our prison hold at the bottom of the ship." Wooyoung toned in from his side of the room, I glance around taking in the neat appearance and smiled, there was something g homely to it all.

" That's okay" I say, walking around the suspended beds.

Wooyoung wandered in and out of the hanging beds and now stood facing me, I glanced away from his crew mate to meet his gaze over the top of two swaying beds, he cocked his head to the side.

I follow the direction to where he was aiming, another door was at the other end of the room, these rooms seemed to be awfully spacious considering they were all inside a ship. The holds inside slavers ships were far bigger.

" That's the captains quarters, we built it for Hongjoong a couple months ago, said he deserved to spend some time away from the rest of us despite his initial reluctance" I peer towards the door as he speaks, the crew had built that for their captain? For what? Pirates only cared about themselves, why would they care where their captain sleeps.

Maybe these pirates weren't just as such, their was part of me waiting out for them to all gut and torture me, go throw me into the prison hold.

But as we continued the tour and introductions around the Fedora, I kept on waiting. But those moments never came.

☽⋆❈⋆☾

My body was pressed to the mast inside the crows nest of the Fedora. The wood was stinging as it dug into the skin beneath my nails when I scratched them into the mast.

The air was cool up here and I had a moment to process all that had happened. To me, to Akio. To the pirates who had so willingly let me onto their boat. I allowed the tears to run which froze my cheeks as the wind hit them.

Perhaps I was merely dreaming and I would wake up inside our little shack and all would be back to normal again. Shiber would be lazily sleeping around next to the hearth, Akio would be nagging at me to do something  productive to help. I would laugh and at first ignore him before getting up to help.

We might have danced until our limbs grew tired and ached too much for us to continue.

With our bellies full and bodies warm we would then curl up and talk, about nothing in particular, we would just talk about anything and eveything until the heat of the day had died and the light of the moon had become our new friend.

A creak breaks me from my focus and train of thought, looking back I watch as a tuff of hair emerges up onto the crows nest. A warm smile still vacant on his features. Wooyoung.

The Pirate didn't utter any word of greeting as he pulled himself up and sat down next to me, legs dangling under the wooden railing.

The wind which caught my hair blew into the sails, giving them a breath of life. The air was ripe with the smell of salt and Wooyoung inhaled audibly from beside me.

I cast my gaze across to look and take in his appearance, upon such a close distance I could admire the softness of his skin and the tint of colour the sun had given him, from his days on sea under the blistering heat.

He breathed in the air as if it gave him life, meaning, purpose. Wooyoung had his eyes shut over but my cheeks flustered red upon the moment He chose to speak up.

" are you just going to continue to stare or are you going to say something to me?" he peeled the eye closest to me open, I saw my dazed expression in the dark hue of his iris.

I swallowed, hard. Lost of words, he chuckled into the air. A unfamiliar knot inside me tightened,

" I like to come up here alot as well, allows me to clear my head feel the wind for what it really is" as if giving a response the wind blew stronger around us.

My curiosity peaks, no word are passed from my lips before he starts to eleborate. I'm facing him now.

" My mother told me and my brother stories" he started, opening his eyes to look out to the open landscape of blue surrounding us.

" She talked of how the wind was one of our powerful forces of nature, she would tell us storied of a women so powerful she would manipulate the wind to bend to her will"

" A women?" I ask watching as a trickle of excitement seemed to ebb into his expression.

" There's four of them, gifted by the gods with gifts for each of the four elements" he answered, a smile etching his lips.

" The wind was always my favourite, there is something so powerful and unpredictable about the wind." the words were electrified with the excitement of his childhood stories.

Wooyoung folded his arms over the muscles of his chest, sighing heavily as the ship rocked back and forth.

The sun had begun to set now, the air around us cooling.

" Who was she?"

Wooyoung looks to me, the brow bone of his features lifted, " The women?" my eagerness churns in my belly. Or perhaps that just the acids in my stomach moving as the Fedora rocked us side to side, either one I couldn't tell the difference.

"She is one of the four NEO princesses in the North" the Pirate beside me turns, his shoulder bumping into mine when he does so,

" I've heard they were great siblings the lot of them, the NEO kingdom is huge spanning across almost the entire northern part of the mainland, lots of heirs from what I've been told" Wooyoung frowns into his words, "Never met one though, they have no business in this part of the world,"

I'm silent, I can't help but be. I had never given much thought to the Northern continent or who confined there.

" From what I've heard the NEO royals want nothing to do with the likes of us or the wrath of the Pirate Lord."

" Who would want anything to do with the pirate lord, I'm only still here because Akio and I didn't have enough money to buy ourselves passage to the northern mainland"

Perhaps I shouldn't be giving this details to a pirate I barely knew but some otherworldly feeling churning inside me, said I could trust him.

Wooyoung look across to me, the setting sun faded into his face, illuminating the curious expression in his features.

" I wouldn't leave even if I had the money for it" He admitted into the air between us.

There was no reply, not even from the wind as I awaited for him to continue sensing the rest of the sentence.

" I'm too tied here, this land, this sea, I've grown up in both. Its part of who I am"

Although I feel inclined to agree as I too grew up in this continent, I can't. There's nothing here for me anymore. Only revenge for Akio's death, a debt I will repay, even if our father had long since forgotten of us.

He deserved to pay. For everything he did to us while he ruled under the jurisdiction of the Pirate Lords rules.

" What lengths would you go to avenge your brother" I found myself whispering after our conversation began to dwindle in topics. My face was turned away from the pirate beside me. The cool air of the open ocean cooling my cheeks,

Though I don't know why, shame perhaps gotten the better of me. Wooyoung stayed silent for a few seconds, pondering over the question.

"to the ends of the sea" he said, his lips twitching as he spoke, a trickle of venom lacing his words.

Just then the hatch to the crows nest cracked upwards as another head popped up, cutting me off from replying to Wooyoung.

Yeosang was facing us, a sour expression crinkling the lines of his features, " Seonghwa sent me to fetch you both, meals ready"

The soft curls of his blonde hair moved as the light breeze brushed the strands across his brow,  the medic of the crew said nothing else as he slipped back down the ladder,

I frown at the space which his face had been, the vague familiarity of his features, I shake of the feeling as Wooyoung clamboures up from the spot he previously occupied.

Extending a hand for me to take, the tips of my fingers burning at the grip to his palm. I'm quick to let go once I'm standing.

Wooyoung clears his throat just as quickly, going for the hatch he begins to sling his body through the gap, taking each pace of the wooden ladder carefully.

I wait for him to get a short distance down,  what the crap was wrong with me, I was acting like a needing pup, I needed to set myself straight. He was a pirate. A pirate.

I begin to climb down the ladder after him, the wind blows against the ladder, catching the sail on either side of me, giving them life and us movement on the wide ocean.

It's a struggle to keep complete grip as the ladder sways with the weight of us both and the wind flowing around our bodies, But I hear the thump as Wooyoung comes in contact with the deck.

He was only a few steps behind me, and so was close enough to grip my waist as I met the last few steps of the rope ladder.

His finger curled to my side for a second longer when my feet were firmly to the ships main deck once more, it wasn't until I turn toward his own body that he pulls his hands away from my sides, which are left cool from the loss of his warm palms.

"This way" he uttered quickly, looking to the ground at his feet, he hurried off toward a door at the other side of the ship. The wind wasn't as strong down on the ships main level as it was when we were at the top of the crows nest.

I follow Wooyoung and thank him as he held the door open long enough for me to slip into the much warmer room.

Lit dimly by candle light, Seonghwa was pottering around the top end of a elongated table perched in the centre of the small room where the whole of the Ateez pirate crew were crowded around.

This one wasn't as spacious as the other rooms which I had been in when Wooyoung showed me around, but it was enough.

I stood by the door watching as each of the pirates took their seats, chatting and moving around one another in a breeze of movement so fluent, following through the motion as they probably had done for a while.

Looking along the table, I see multiple clean plates with crooked trays of food laid out before them, just waiting to be consumed. I stiffen in place when I realise I would have to fit in somewhere of which I did not belong.

The Captain of the Fedora, Hongjoong observed the room and I felt the moment his gaze stopped on me, "We won't bite, you can sit"

The eight pairs of eyes all looked to my direction now,

" Yeah we promise to only bite the food" Wooyoung perked up from beside San who was leaning across the table towards a bowl of steaming buns. His hand was slapped by Seonghwa who shot him a scowl a second after.

The warmth of the room seemed to flush my cheeks, or at least I hoped it was the heat of the room. Forcing my feet to move beneath me I go towards San and Wooyoung who both shuffle and bump into the boys beside them, Jongho and Yeosang, the latter moving a little but more reluctantly with a grumble, but kept his mouth shut.

I was finding myself grateful just to not be sat beside him. I sat myself down on the bench which was beside the table, I looked down as a plate was passed down the table by each member of the crew and dropped into the space before me.

"Have at it you lot" Seonghwa spoke as he sat down on the bench across the table from me.

All around me the room erupted into sound and excitement as each of the Ateez crew members tucked into the food laid before them, meat, hot buns and a small variation of vegetables and broths.

Hands extend everywhere in all direction on the surface of the table, I looked up and down as the plates of the crew grew in proportion.

My own plate clattered as a peice of steaming bread was dropped onto my plate, along with a decent slab of salted meat. I look to the two men on either side of me who both continue to fill my plate as well as their own.

I can feel liquid pool inside my mouth as the scent of the food wafts up into my nostrils, my stomach grumbles in response.

" The scavange for food at the table can be quite fast paced at first, but you'll get used to it" San leaned into my side from the right to whisper into my ear.

I look to him, the light of the candles lining the centre of the table illuminating his face. He is smiling at me when he shoves a peice of food into my mouth.

I bite into it and groan in satisfaction, eyes closing with pleasure as the sweet flavour bursts into my taste buds, the meat which San had made me eat seemed as though it turned into liquid gold when I began to chew.

The room falls silent, and I open my eyes to see what silenced the room when I catches everyone looking at me. San snickering at my side.

Oh god... 

"Is that good then?" Seonghwa smirked out the question, my fist clenches on top of my thigh as the embarrassing feeling spreads through my face.

" I'm glad" he chuckles to himself looking back down to his own plate as everyone begins talking again.

I may need to take a dunk in the sea to cool of my heating body at this rate.

The atmosphere of the room quickly goes back to what it was before, as if I hadn't just completely embarrassed myself in their company.

The clothes around my body feel foreign as I'm sitting in an unfamiliar environment, everything about this situation feels wrong to me and yet so right at the same time. Despite my instincts telling me to get off when we dock again, they were pirates.

Their supposed to be ruthless killers, who do not treat their women with respect and have no dignity for anyone but themselves.

But yet when I'm sitting here, eating their food surrounded by the atmosphere they built amongst themselves I can't help but question my image of the pirates I had once known. Because they, Ateez were nothing like the pirates of the world I had grown up in.

I don't know whether that was lucky or if I was being incredibly naive. But if getting their help was the only way to get revenge on my father for Akio's death then,

it was the only way for me.

[peaky-shelby]

coming soon in a tumblr near you:

• When he sees me | Chris Evans

“What If when he sees me, he wants to again?„ Inspired by the song When He Sees Me by Sara Bareilles from the musical Waitress. Listen to the song and you’ll know what the story will be about.

• Save the last dance for me, Part 4

“Don’t forget who’s taking you home...„ In the final chapter of the series, Caroline and Chris are getting married and to say the day is chaotic would be an understatement.

• perfect | John Shelby

“Darling just dive right in...„ You’re in love with him but he doesn’t know. Maybe it’s time to break the friendship. [based on a request]

• hell or highwater | Tommy shelby

“Was it the trick of the light?„ Is love enough to stay? Or is it time to run away?

• can’t go on without you | tom holland

“They thought they were made for each other...„ After a very good relationship comes a very bad break up, and after a long time you meet each other again. Is it addiction? Is it love? There’s a fine line. Can you go on without him?

these are the stories that I have writing right now. Which one are you most excited about? Send me your thoughts and requests💘

[ masterlist ]

[atc74]

You Were The First - Chapter 7

Summary: Dean Winchester completed basic training in March 1941 and was offered an opportunity he can’t turn down, to fly with the Allied Forces and England’s Royal Air Force. It will provide a better future for him and his bride-to-be, but what he doesn’t know is it will change the lives of everyone around him.(This is loosely based on Pearl Harbor).

Square Filled: none for this chapter

Written for: na

Characters: Dean Winchester, Y/N Bennett, Arthur Ketch, Father Murphy (OC), the Winchesters

Warnings: Angst, character death, fluff (like a lot), pregnancy

Word Count: 1468

A/N: Thank you so much to @crispychrissy for her patience and guidance, and exceptional listening/reading skills. This probably would not have happened without her. An Anon sent me a request that I will also fulfill later in the series for an Eagles song. Guys, this is the end! I am so sad to see this ride off into the sunset. I hope you all enjoyed this ride as much as I did. Thank you!

YWTF Masterlist

~Chapter 7~

“Where are you going this time Arthur?” Y/N demanded, seeing her husband’s bags packed by the door.

“I am off to Hawaii for a business trip; a negotiation with the United States Navy at Pearl Harbor and their hospital there. I shall be gone for two weeks. When I return, I am meeting with my attorney. You’re a harlot and I don’t want you sullying my good name,” he snapped and lashed out at her, but she was faster this time and she avoided his hand.

“Enjoy your travels, Arthur. I hear Hawaii is lovely the beginning of December,” she laughed and made her way back to her room. At least he was leaving and she could pack her things like she planned. Dean was only days away from moving into his own home and she planned on moving with him. As soon as Arthur released her from their marriage, they would be wed, just as they planned before Dean left for Europe.

Dean moved into his new home on the first of December, 1941. It was a two story craftsman style home with three bedrooms and a large backyard. It had never been Dean’s intent to stay in Lawrence, but after what he went through, he had changed. He was able to repair his relationship with his father and they were doing well as a family again. They didn’t know about Dean and Y/N sneaking around behind everyone’s backs, but until her divorce was final, it was what they felt they needed to do.

After John and Sam had helped Dean move in, the Winchesters shared a meal then headed home for the evening. The next morning, Dean arrived at Y/N’s to help her pack some belongings so she could move in with Dean. She only took some clothes and a few framed photos. The rest could wait.

Y/N and Dean shared a wonderful week. For the first Sunday since he had been home, he did not have dinner with his family. Y/N decided she was going to make dinner for them in Dean’s new home. It was Sunday, December 7.

With the radio on, Y/N danced around the kitchen chopping vegetables and preparing a pie. After she left the bread to rise on the stove, she turned her attention back to her stew, stirring it once more, then popped a fresh cherry pie in the oven. It was a cold day and a nice hot plate of stew would feel good. She checked the time on her watch and figured she would have some time to relax before she needed to check on the bread and take Dean’s pie from the oven. It was only one twenty in the afternoon. She had forty minutes before the pie would be ready. She planned on surprising Dean with a nice hot bath.

She turned just as the music ended to turn off the radio when a new bulletin sounded. She stopped, her hand frozen on the knob. “This is no joke; this is a war! I repeat, Pearl Harbor Hawaii has been bombed by the Japanese. It looks like the United States is finally entering World War II, America!” The announcer’s voice boomed in her ears as she sunk down from the cupboard to the floor.

“Doll! What’s wrong, Y/N? Are you hurt?” Dean’s voice was frantic as he entered the kitchen seeing her on the floor, but she couldn’t focus. She could only point to the radio as the news continued to broadcast. Dean finally listened to the report.

“Hey, hey, listen. I am not going back. They medically discharged me because of my leg when my plane went down. I am not leaving you ever again,” Dean vowed as she clung to him.

“Arthur is there, Dean,” she cried into his neck. “What if he’s dead? I don’t want him dead, I just wanted to get away from him.”

“I know, Doll, I know,” Dean comforted her the best he could. He picked up her up and carried her to the sofa, covering her small frame with a blanket. “I should probably take you home, in case there is news.”

“No, I don’t want to be alone in that big, cold house. I’ll go to my parent’s,” she mumbled, but Dean understood. He knew she never liked that big house. He packed her a small bag, and when the timer dinged, he took the pie from the oven. He took her bag and the pie to her car.

“I don’t want you driving if you’re upset,” Dean protested as she got up off the sofa, folding the blanket neatly and hanging it over the back.

“I know, but I need to go alone, Dean. No one can know,” she reminded him. She stepped forward and kissed him soundly and he sighed into her mouth. “I love you Dean. I will call you soon.”

Dean watched her walk through his front door and out to her car. He would count down the hours until she was back in his arms.

~*~

“It’s over,” Y/N announced as she walked into Dean’s house one afternoon, a month later. While at her parent’s home, she received a phone call from the United States Navy, saying that Arthur’s body had been found amongst the dead. As his wife, his entire estate was now hers. She put the house up for sale and donated all of his belongings, except for his personal items, which she returned to his family. The business still belonged to his father, but she was cut a rather large settlement check when Arthur’s shares were sold back to his father.

“I am so glad you’re here, Y/N. I missed you so much!” Dean wrapped her in his arms, lifting her off the ground. “Welcome home, Doll!”

“I am home, Dean. You’re my home and I am never leaving again and neither are you. I want to get married and start our life,” she professed.

“I told my parents and they would like us to get married at their house,” Dean admitted.

“You told them? Do they hate me?” she questioned him.

“No, they never stopped loving you. They understood and they are just happy we can be happy now,” Dean assured her.

“I want to be married as soon as possible,” she smiled at Dean.

“Nothing would make me happier than to take you as my bride, but why the rush?” Dean probed, just happy they could finally be together now.

“Remember that night in your apartment, before you moved in here? We made love and didn’t take any precautions. I am carrying your child, Dean; our child. We’re having a baby!” she cried, but it would only be happy tears from now until forever.

Dean dropped to his knees in front of her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressed his face to her stomach, peppering it with kisses. He looked up at her and slipped the ring back on her finger where it belonged. Y/N and Dean were meant to be together and come Hell or highwater, nothing would tear them apart ever again.

On Saturday, January 17, 1942, one week before Dean’s twenty second birthday, Y/N and Dean exchanged vows in front of their families. After Father Murphy had them repeat the church’s vows, they asked to say their own.

“I take you to be my best friend, my faithful partner and my one true love. I promise to encourage you and inspire you and to love you truly through good times and bad. I will forever be there to laugh with you, to lift you up when you are down and to love you unconditionally through all of our adventures in life together,” Dean pressed a kiss to the ring of her left hand.

“My love, you are the one person with whom I can share all that I am. I promise to trust you and to be honest with you. I promise to listen to you, respect you and support you. I promise to laugh and play with you and grow and bend with you. I promise to cherish every day we have together. I promise to do all of this through whatever life brings us: riches or poverty, health or illness, through good times and bad, until the end of my days,” Y/N held it together until the last words. She lifted Dean’s hand to her lips and kissed his ring, just as he had to hers.

“With the power vested in me by God, I now pronounce you man and wife. Son, you may kiss your bride,” Father Murphy told the happy couple and they kissed; it was the first kiss of the rest of their lives.

I’d love to hear/read your thoughts!

Tags: @iwantthedean​ @d-s-winchester @just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms @just-another-busy-fangirl @mamaredd123​ @ellen-reincarnated1967 @tankcupcakes​ @katymacsupernatural​​ @winchesterprincessbride @chelsea072498​ @meeshw777​  @tmccarney​ @ruprecht0420​ @theoriginalvicki​ @nanie5 @docharleythegeekqueen​ @megansescape​ @notnaturalanahi​ @impalaimagining​ @mrswhozeewhatsis​ @blacktithe7​ @emoryhemsworth​ @bringmesomepie56​ @devilgirlsarah​ @spnbaby-67​ @myoutletforfanfiction�� @deansangelgirl​ @jerk-bitch-and-an-angel​ @kayteonline​ @rockhoochie​ @percussiongirl2017​ @fanfreak07​ @sandlee44​ @moonstar86​   @squirrel-moose-winchester​ @growningupgeek​ @charliebradbury1104​ @evansrogerskitten​ @feelmyroarrrr​ @itseverythingilike​ @smoothdogsgirl​ @supernatural-jackles​ @ryantherandomhero​ @love-kittykat21​ @kathaswings​ @crispychrissy​ @paintrider13-blog​  @bethbabybaby​ @ravenangel33​ @shaelyn102​ @roxyspearing​ @nosleeptillbucky​  @x-waywardaf-x​

Dean tags: @whimsicalrobots​ @akshi8278​  @iamabeautifulperson18​ @suzannebeaketa​ @thing-you-do-with-that-thing​ @deandoesthingstome​ @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester​ @boxywrites​  @sparklesuperwholock88​  @ericaprice2008​   @tardis-full-of-fallen-angels​

YWTF Tags (CLOSED): @luci-in-trenchcoats​ @hexparker​  @meganwinchester1999​ @bitchy-tacos​ @ultimatecin73​ @neveah-potter15 @housav​ @thereisnolumos​ @frickfracklesackles​

[imaginedreamwrite]

Come Hell Or Highwater: Part 2

“We can start from the beginning, from when you first left the campus.” Did he introduce himself already?

Did he tell you his name?

Did you remember what he said or when he had even come into the room?

You were lost in your mind, you were distracted by your torrid thoughts barraging your nerves with the constant reminder that you previously had blood on your hands. You swore you could still feel the eerie warmth and the way it seemed to stick to your skin.

You could remember it all as it had just happened, from the smell of dank moisture that crept into your senses to the feel of wet concrete below your knees as you tried to help him. You can remember crawling out of your hiding place with adrenaline coursing through your body.

But you couldn’t remember his name.

You couldn’t remember asking for water or getting water. You couldn’t remember using so many tissues as you sat across the lawyer in this room, or why your voice was so hoarse. It was a blur, it felt like a blur to you, and yet you could remember the scene you happened upon while trying to do something nice for your roommate.

You could remember the phone falling from your hand when one of the officers at the station told you that the man the ambulance had taken to the hospital had died from someone screwing with his IV. You could remember the panic and fear, even the chill of the leather seat in the police cruiser as they escorted you to the station to answer a few more questions.

That had all been a lead-up to the moment you were transported further and set into this room, under the watchful eye of some federal agents since you were the only living witness to the crime that wouldn’t be completely unsolved.

You were the only living person who could have aided the case against someone you had never heard of, the man who ordered the hits had assumed it had gone off without a hitch until it was reported that someone was still living and someone was a witness.

It was just the two of you in the room although there was an audible and video motion capture camera hanging on the ceiling that was watching you. The room was bare and seemed dim despite the bright lights that beat down on the two of you.

You found yourself unable to focus on anything but the piercing blue eyes that were fixated upon you, the colour striking and bold. You couldn’t have been sure if you remembered his name correctly but those eyes…

“Y/N, I want you to know that you’re safe here. You’re safe.” He reminded you twice before, constantly reassuring you that nothing and nobody was going to harm you while you were here. His reassurance was stalwart and steady, it was as ironclad as you could have expected, almost as if it was his creed to keep you shielded.

“What’s gonna h-happen to me?” You were on the verge of tears again, your breath hitching in your throat as hot stinging tears obscured your vision.

You had wiped your tears and drew your hands back to the table, rubbing your fingertips over any wall scratch or chip that you could find.

Your mind was both your ally and your enemy, the testimony of that night was engrained and vividly being replayed in your mind over and over, and yet another part of your brain was telling you that you were going to meet your end. “I don’t want to die-“

“You’re not going to die,” he reached forward and rest his hand upon yours, his gaze soft and protective, “you’re not going to die. I promise you’re going to be safe.”

Your bottom lip trembled. Your breath had become strained and you turned suddenly in your seat, facing away from him as you bit down on your bottom lip to stop yourself from letting every verbal sound fall from your tongue.

You were riddled with fear, you were in a violent cycle of panic and anxiety, and the resulting surge of emotional weakness was grating to you. You didn’t know what to say or how to react, all you could feel was the acid in your stomach churning as if you were going to succumb to the feeling of nausea.

“Look at me, Y/N. You need to look at me so I can tell you what’s happening.” His voice was like honey, smooth and sultry. Slowly you turned to look at him through blurry vision and with your hands balled into your sweater, knuckles tucked under your chin.

“You’re going into the Witness Protection Program, you’re going to be relocated. There are two agents who are going to take you somewhere safe. There’s a whole story contrived and created to protect you and not raise suspicions about the three of you in one house.”

“I don’t…” You angled your head and wiped your cheek against your shoulder, the trail of tears that had rolled down your cheeks and neck had almost been dried before your latest bout. “What kind of place is this?”

“You’ll be moving there under the guise of a polyamorous marriage. It’s an easy way to explain two men and a young woman moving in together, no one will ask questions. No one would think anything of this situation you’ll be in.” His voice never wavered from comforting or supportive, his eyes had never once lost their comforting lustre or empathy, even as he dove into the explanation of what your temporary future would be and you were left feeling conflicted, he was kind.

His eyes, which you had been so enthralled by, had remained as light as when he first sat down. He had given you his entire attention, focusing and fixating everything on you. There had only been one instance when he stepped away to take a phone call, and even then he kept a watchful eye on you from across the room.

You were in and out of thought, either completely silent or quietly stewing and mumbling to yourself, a clear divide between acceptance of the mess you were caught in and disbelief.

“Y/N,” he spoke again after a bought of quietude, pushing his chair back to stand, “we have to go. They’re ready for you.”

The chair scraped against the floor with a sound that made your ears hurt, the squeal reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard and you’d visibly winced. You tried not to recreate the same sound when you pushed the chair out from under the table between you, your eyes flickering toward the movement you caught through the window of the room.

“I promise,” Andy stopped you from moving too far, holding you in place with his sturdy and husky rasp, “you are going to be okay.”

A knock sounded on the door, the rapping of knuckles was another indicator that your life was going to be uprooted and held in someone else’s hands. You were going to have to put your trust and faith, your entire future, into the people destined to keep you hidden and safe from the clutches of whatever devil wanted you dead.

“Ari, Steve.” Andy had greeted two men across the threshold of the room, standing at a half angle toward you, allowing the two guards you’d be relying on to get their first look at you.

You took in the stock of the men, you took in the similarities with wonder and mild confusion. You were already rattled, your mind already seemingly frayed and debilitated by what screwed-up mess you were in, and it had taken you longer than you would’ve liked to realize that they were almost direct carbon copies of each other.

“You’re triplets.” You mumbled, clutching the sleeves of your sweater as if it was some kind of comfort or shield for you to cling to, and your stipulating statement was confirmed correct with a nod from Andy.

With few differences like one of the triplets having a clean face while the other two had beards, and the man with a clean face having more blonde in his hair than not and the same blonde having more green, they were almost like clones of each other.

Although Andy appeared to be the smallest in physical size, he was no less tall than his brothers and the three of them had conductively made you feel like a rag doll compared to them.

“We have to leave,” the blonde spoke, holding the door open further for you, “Andy we’ll see you in a few weeks.”

You couldn’t stop staring at the ring on your finger, the foreign piece of jewellery carried weight that you hadn’t expected and it was with silence that you’d observed and studied the object. It was simple and minimalist, the metal carved and formed to look like branches made of rose gold that extended to the claws holding the gem that was at the centre of the ring.

The claws were set in forms of three all equally spaced around the centrepiece, holding it into place securely, giving the ring an ornate and unique design. It was smooth against the pads of your fingers as you played and toyed with one of the pieces given to you as part of this grand act you would be required to keep up.

The ring was just part of it, a small detail as you crossed into the unknown with the two men who were agents part of the witness protection agency. They were ex-Navy SEALs and had done tours in some of the most dangerous and deadly territories in the world, completing missions that were more than your imagination could handle.

They were your protection as you fled to a small polyamorous town to be shielded until you could face trial as a witness, the two of them would be your only hope in avoiding death by whatever means this faceless phantom had wanted for you.

You didn’t even know who was after you, you didn’t even know the man who ordered the hits that had wiped out two lives. You had only bared witness to the men who committed the crime and the orders that came from above their station were like a faceless monster hiding in the closet.

Steve, Ari and Andy knew although they wouldn’t tell you. They wouldn’t give you any notion of who wanted to eliminate you, and you wondered if it was because you were already dealing with enough as it was.

“You can ask later.” The statement given to you by Ari, the eldest of the three, had been a directive to what was temporarily hidden from you.

It was one of the few things they had said to you before you were given the keys to an older truck that would take you from the city to whichever small town you were destined for.

The truck itself was unassuming and heralded rust spots near the bumper and the wheel wells, giving the truck an aged appearance that wasn’t captivating enough to draw attention. You didn’t know much about vehicles beyond the basics, and you had no detailed opinions on the transportation that was part of the overlying picture.

To you it was another token that added to this story they were trying to convey, it was as fake as the passport and identification you had been given while your real ID was kept safe or destroyed. It was as false as the ring on your finger, as the marriage certificate that legally bound you to Steve and the ‘open relationship’ you were in with Ari and Andy.

For the time being, you would be putting on act. For the time being while you were under their protection, you were settled in this polyamorous relationship and your performance in this situation would either aide their efforts to keep you safe, or it would be one of the things that tore you apart.

“Ari’s back.” Steve’s voice had pulled you from your daze and your hands fell back to the seat, fingers gripping the seam when the other statuette man started walking back to the vehicle from the doors of the gas station.

His eyes were focused, his head was tucked ever so slightly to keep his face as disguised as possible from the cameras that had been set up for security in the parking lot. His long strides had brought him back to the driver’s side of the vehicle, before opening the door he had looked to the left and the right as another security measure.

The door popped open and he tossed one of the bags back to Steve without a word, a seamless action that didn’t require much thought. The plastic bag was snatched in one fell swoop and set on the seat beside him, tucked between the duffle bag behind your seat and his right thigh.

“I got you something to eat, I didn’t know what you wanted.” Ari had stolen your attention off of Steve by holding out another plastic bag for you to take, the thin material weighed down by a bottle of water and a container with a whole sandwich held between the folds of the container.

You reached out and grasped the handles of the bag, bringing it toward yourself with uncertainty, and then you rest it in your lap. You peered at the contents inside, studying the generic label on the water bottle and the nutrient contents of the simple ham sandwich with a lack of hunger that didn’t do much for you.

“Thanks.”

“You should eat something.” Steve leaned forward as he spoke, his fingers folding the handle of the bag down to peer inside. “There’s not much, you need to eat.”

“Is that an order?” You ripped the bag away from his, snapping at Steve with sudden and biting fire that was rooted in your helplessness. “Are you ordering me-“

“You haven’t eaten all day. We still have hours to go.” Steve hadn’t reacted with anger or aggression, he had almost seemed to absorb your anger and your irritation with ease, and not a single beat of retaliation had come from him. “You’re not doing yourself any favours-“

“I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want…” You yanked the bag into your lap and turned away, your eyes trained and fixated on the pillars of the gas station as Ari began pulling away, the rumble of the engine not overshadowed by the quiet crooning of the voice on the radio.

Music played as silence had fallen between the three of you again.

It had been a relatively quiet trip, even between the two who had switched out driving halfway through the trek. They made conversation with each other at times but you had never felt the need to enter into it. You seemed to be happier in your silence and quietude, thinking endlessly about your life and what you had to leave behind.

“I know you’re scared,” Steve spoke again, his voice and his attention on you even if you weren’t giving him the time of day, “Ari and I are going to keep you safe. This is our job.”

“I shouldn’t have done it, I should’ve told my roommate no. If I would’ve said no…if I would’ve gone straight home…” You whispered to yourself, your hands twisting the plastic bag while you watched the scenery morph from slight urbanization to rural again.

It was a far cry from the city, a far cry from the constant noise and steady stream of traffic and people who were involved with each other’s lives whether they knew it or not.

The concrete streets and steely buildings had given way to nature and greenery, to the dense and towering pillars of mountainous terrain that would be your home for the unforeseeable future. You were put in a position where you had to trust Steve, Ari and Andy because if you hadn’t you would end up dead.

“Y/N, this is not your fault.” Ari had relayed his own message of comfort and reached out with his hand to rest it on yours. “None of this is your fault.”

You bit down on the inside of your cheek and screwed your eyes closed. It was all playing out in your mind, relaying over and over again like a broken record. You were the cause of your own breakdown, or at least it had felt that way.

“You need to eat,” Steve’s voice was thick as honey and as comforting as a warm blanket, his directive sinking into your bones with a gentle demand, “do you need help opening anything?”

“No,” you reached into the bag and yanked the sandwich out, using your nails to tear the sticker off the enclosure, “I can do it.”

You returned to silence as you lifted one half of the sandwich out of the plastic, nibbling on the bread while the radio played in the background. You ate like they wanted, taking your time while feeling their eyes on you occasionally, their steady gazes delivering a sense of warmth and resignation that staved off some of the chill in your bones.

“We promise, sweetheart.” Your teeth dug into your cheek when Steve whispered a vow to you.

You knew you had to get used to the pet names that were standard for any relationship, you knew that when you arrived at this new place, people would be expecting you to be in love and recently married. It wouldn’t help your cause if you flinched or reacted negatively when they addressed you as their wife.

“We’re all here for you.”

[imaginedreamwrite]

Come Hell Or Highwater: Part 4

Andy Barber, even as young as he was compared to other lawyers who were as seasoned as him, was at the top of his game.

He was a lawyer who built himself a reputation that exceeded others around him and had just as ruthlessly defended anyone that he could have helped. While his brothers had joined the military and became navy SEALs, the two driven by some force demanded they give back to the world by saving everyone that they could.

Their impressive military careers were commendable and had secured the two of them a position with the Navy SEALs, while Andy had chosen to attend university and get his law degree. Ultimately the three of them would end up working for the same goal to aid the Witness Protection Program as best as their skill sets would allow.

While Ari and Steve had aided the program with their skills learned in the military which had provided protection for the people integrated into the service, Andy had worked through the courts to ascertain protective orders and handle the proceedings that would hopefully allow whoever was in hiding to find some level of peace.

Some level of peace that would only be achieved once the men responsible, for beating the prominent businessman and politician to death in the darkened alley on that fateful night wherein your good nature won out, had been put through court and thrown into a tiny windowless cell.

Until then you were at risk of death, or an even worse fate if they had gotten their hands on you. And while Andy, Ari and Steve would do everything within their power to keep you safe and out of their hands, ultimately there was only so much they could do and if you hadn’t played the role given to you by the program, you could theoretically be the cause of your own downfall.

Although that chance was low, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities especially not for someone like you.

Naïve and good-natured to an almost fault, there were definite avenues that could be exposed, there were cracks that the other side of the coin would try and expose. If they had gained access to your heart that you wore on your sleeve, or if they had tapped into your willingness to help as many people around you as they could, they would have you exactly where they wanted you.

However they had to find you first, and finding you would grant them the most difficulty. Especially given the numerous trials they had left that directed the organization after you in countless directions. It was a ploy, an intricate plot to have your direct location hidden.

And the benefit of being in a place that was a secure and safe community for polyamorous couples and family units was its secrecy and tendency to stick to each other. A safe place that wasn’t well accessed by the general public, the town you were hiding in was like its own little separate world beyond the usual.

Andy had stolen himself out of his thoughts by the crisp crinkle of the receipt in his hand was almost as necessary as blowing on the cup of coffee in his hand before he had a taste.

With the weight of a case on his shoulders that was a vital step to making the defences’ argument entirely destitute, Andy could have declared himself rightfully stressed. With long hours being pulled at the office and lengthy scheduled meetings to build layer upon layer before heading to the courts, Andy was rightfully stretched thin.

However, as the cords were seemingly pulling him in every which direction, he had received confirmation from Ari, taking Andy’s name as a persona, that introductions had been made upon your arrival.

Steve, Grant, was to take a job at the local mill working on stripping lumber and smoothing it down.

Ari, Andy, was going to be taking shifts at a construction yard transporting materials to the surrounding area.

And Andy, Cole, was a travelling businessman that went in and out of town frequently, a role that would give Andy an excuse to be gone for weeks.

Arrived safe. Bunny fawn is safe — A

Andy read the message once, and then again. As he comprehended the encrypted text for the second time, he raised the cup to his lips and exhaled a soft breath to further cool his black brew. There were a number of files on his desk, a number of records that alluded to your reputation as being a good girl—an exemplary being of softness and empathy that helped anyone within your reach.

And that kindhearted was had struck you on the path of these men who wanted to strike you down to keep their crimes silenced and under wraps.

They would test your bravado; they would test you within all your boundaries of sanity in order to have you crack and crumble. There was nothing more they’d love than to have you cave and give them everything they wanted while they extended their cruel hand toward you to get what they wanted.

It was the true nature of their brutality that faced you if the brothers failed.

But you were a witness they couldn’t lose, and it was Andy, Ari & Steve’s jobs to make sure you made it to court. There was a chance to finally deepen the cracks in the system, the organization that tried to cripple an entire city with their cruelty and brutality.

There had never been an opportunity like this, to commit major players to the steel and iron walls of a highly secure federal prison, one that was untouched and unable to be infiltrated by every source they knew and had.

“Mr. Barber, there’s a call for you. Someone from New York.”

Andy waited for this.

He had sat further upright in his desk chair and set his cup down, a few beads of condensation darkening the coaster beneath the porcelain. He reached for the receiver and yanked it from its nestling hold, first hearing a beat of silence and then a crack thwack of a blade meeting something dense and sturdy.

“Barber.” The voice was concise and controlled, Andy’s name the only verbal catalyst to get the conversation rolling.

You could only see slivers of moonlight that were peeking through building clouds, the promise of rain later in the early morning hours had hung over the area. While the house was still bare-boned and empty, boxes scattered with hastily packed dishes and other kitchen items were all a ploy to make this whole story more believable.

It was all a faceted cover to keep you in a safe area while somewhere else on the east coast, an entire legion of cold-blooded killers and criminals wanted you strung out because you were too kind. It was a choice you made to do good and be good, to try and help other people who needed you, that caused your life to be held in the hands of three men and the WPP they worked for.

Ari, Andy and Steve didn’t know you from Eve, they didn’t know who you truly were off of paper and out of files and yet your life depended entirely on them. Your life, your short life that barely grazed the 22nd year, was in the balance and you were meant to play the part of a young wife. A woman who was in a polyamorous relationship and new to this whole idea of having multiple husbands while in a community that was incredibly tight-knit and close.

You were cursed by your inability to mind your own business and say no. You were going to be fucked over by your innate need to be a people pleaser and overextend yourself to errands that hadn’t belonged to you.

It was your kindness that drove you to stop and grab your roommate’s prescription, saving her from going out herself. It was your inability to turn away from someone who needed help that made you a target, a witness that could put some Butcher away in a federal prison.

Your kindness, your sense of urgency to be a Good Samaritan had caused your entire life to upheaved.

And now you were in a position where you were set to play a young married wife with two men who had seen hell while in the army, and a lawyer who was deep diving into your life to build a case to protect you.

Now, you were restless.

At the moment you were unable to sleep despite the weight of the day driving you to close your eyes and find slumber.

Every time you closed your eyes you saw them, the two men abandoned in the alleyway bleeding out.

Every time your eyes shuttered you could feel the warmth of blood on your hands, the stench of copper hanging in the air while you attempted to stop the bleeding. The two men whose life had been brutalized, with one losing his life entire, and the other almost dying before the ambulance came, had set you on this path.

The men, or man, responsible for this beating had been sure that they wouldn’t live until you stepped in and when word got out that the other tangent was alive the task had been finished in the hospital room.

You were the only witness left, the only one who could possibly testify against the hellish beast that sent the two men to hades. There was more riding on your testimony and your future witnessing in the courts of law than you even knew.

If you had made it to court, you had a sneaking suspicion that you would aid in the devastation in whatever hellhound had called for the extermination of those two men.

For now, until the day came when you were thrown into court, you were going to have to keep your mind clear.

Though it was a task that was easier said than done, restfulness had found you and you had managed to shift on the bed and face the window with your hands cupped under your cheek.

Through the clouds the silver streams of moonlight had acted as a siren song, one that came over you in a haze to usher your to sleep. Your eyes grew heavy and fluttered closed like the groggy clouds shifting in the night sky, and slumber had come to you quicker than before.

Time was fickle. Time had given you sleep that felt like minutes instead of hours while simultaneously slowing down to an infinite crawl once you had stepped foot into the kitchen in the morning.

The two guards who were you faux husbands were already awake and although only Ari had been dressed for his first shift at the construction yard. The pair of jeans had been faded and worn, still in well enough shape to be used until the end of their life however you could see scuffs against the hems of the legs and a few small holes in the thighs.

Underneath the flannel he wore there was a white loose shirt with a scuff along the neckline and a small tear that could have alluded to him working with tools and lumber, just as Steve was supposed to. He truly had looked the part of a blue-collar employee, a man who was used to lugging materials and lumber around from construction yards to their destination, added by his clothing choice and the sheer size of him.

The long drive from the city to this remote and rural settlement, this closed and secured community where you’d be hidden, hadn’t affected him anymore than a single raindrop against dry sizzling earth. If anything, you were the one who’s been affected the most of the three of you, with your body aching still from the long hours in the truck, and your eyes heavy from not white enough sleep.

“Did you sleep okay?” Ari’s question bared no answer.

At least not at first.

Not until you had gotten your bearings and settled your weight on your toes instead of your heel or the ball of your foot.

Truly you didn’t know what to say to Steve and Ari, how to communicate your fears and inability to sleep due to your stress and anxiety. How could you have easily quantified your feelings while being forced to trust them despite not knowing them?

How could you open yourself up to being honest with them while feeling as if you needed to guard yourself?

Your answer was soft, mumbled and came with you rubbing your hands on your fleece-lined joggers, wiping your sweaty palms on your thighs.

“Sure.” It was a weak answer, you knew it was. It wasn’t anything close to the truth but how truthful could you really get when your head was full of garbled chaos?

“I made coffee-” Steve had just slid the porcelain cup against the cupboard toward you when a knock on the front door had rung out in the house.

Your head whipped around to face the sound, the steady knocking sounding more like an alarm than anything, and you were not the only one to think so.

“Stay here,” Steve’s hand was steady on your shoulder, directing you toward Ari and his black and red flannel, “don’t move.”

Steve brushed past you and Ari, trekking from the kitchen through an arched doorway to the front entrance, his voice calling through the door with firmness that created an illusion of a man who was not a morning person.

“Hi! Sorry to bother you!” The neighbour from yesterday called through the door, eliminating the tension almost instantly, and yet Ari still kept you close. “I thought maybe your wife might want to go to the farmers market with Sam and I.”

You heard the twist of the lock before the door opened, the subtle shift of Ari’s body next to yours had stolen your attention off of Steve and your new neighbour if only for a moment. It was enough of a distraction to allow Steve to bring Lia & Sam into the house, and even further toward the kitchen.

“Hi! Hope we’re not interrupting,” as if Lia’s gift of food yesterday wasn’t enough, she had shown up with her husband and a new basket of locally crafted jams and cookies, “Sam and I wanted to invite you to the farmers market.”

“I’m off,” Ari had whispered lightly, stooping low to kiss the top of your head as an affectionate send off, “be good, sweetheart. Grant, you going?”

“Sam, right?” Steve had stepped aside to let Ari past, and then he moved toward you, hands resting on your hips. “Nice to meet you again, yesterday was a long day on the road.”

“That’s right.” he confirmed the name with a smile and then slipped an arm around his wife’s waist, “Are you headed out to work too?”

“I’m sticking around with Danah,” hearing your fake given name for the first time with over people had been the catalyst that drew your eyebrows together in a furrow, and cast your lips into a frown, “we should go to the farmers market, love.”

This was your life for the moment, this was who you had become. This is who you were meant to be in this moment without much of an argument allowed.

For your well-being and to save your life you had to wholeheartedly accept this role as if you were born the persona, you had been assigned.

“I’d like that.” Your reply came as you accepted the basket of gifts and set it on the countertop, and then glanced down at the clothes you’d slept in, rolling your shoulders and picking at the front of the sweater. “Let me change first.”

You escaped without hearing the next spoken word, leaving the room to take the stairs back to one of the guest rooms you’d occupied while using the excuse to change as a chance to catch your breath.

[imaginedreamwrite]

Come Hell Or Highwater: Part 3

A/N: Trigger warnings for mention of blood/mild violence/bruising/wounds

It was difficult not to be distracted by the appearance of raindrops that rolled down the clear glass of the music room. It was almost as difficult to ignore the rain as it was to look past the overhanging clouds that gave the city an inauspicious and dismal appearance.

The forecast had been calling for rain for the past seven days, each consecutive day supposedly going to be barraged with precipitation and yet only today had the city gotten any.

It would have bothered you if you hadn’t been staying later to collaborate on a project with one of the other music composition students. You would’ve been concerned about trying to make it back to your apartment in the dreary weather, even if the rain had already stopped, but seeing as how you’d be working late you figured the rain would stop.

Although the longer you watched the rain while your classmate worked, the quicker you had become doubtful that the clouds would lift and the rain would stop. It was a heavy and trodden blanket that hung over the city, the rain and the dense burrowing clouds adding yet another layer of darkness.

“I can walk you home.” Your classmate and collaborator, Ryan Beauchamp, had offered you a ride when he was done.

Normally you would’ve taken him up on the offer although the prospect of staying another hour past what you already had seemed worse than facing the weather.

You appreciated the offer anyway, you said as much when you gathered your notes and the composition pages and tucked them into your bag. You knew Ryan was a good friend and more trustworthy than most college guys you knew.

Ryan was a brother to three younger sisters and he’d liked to consider himself a universal campus big brother. He had chided you more than once for trying to walk home on a particularly cold night, or when he was worried about you running into trouble.

You’d told him countless times when you were working together that the walk was short and it was safe enough.

Once you got off campus onto the main road you only had a fifteen-minute walk and you would pass a few places that were open late in case you needed somewhere to hide if anything had happened. It was a reoccurring event that you’d grown used to in the past three weeks while working on the project with Ryan.

You would gather all your composition papers and notes, all the thoughts and ideas in your head that you’d bounced off each other, shove them into your bag and then start to head to the exit with him. Ryan and yourself would make small talk, insignificant conversation before you’d part ways.

That night had been no different, to your relief the raindrops that had barraged the portion of the city you were in had stopped, the cement drenched and pooling in sections of the surface. You started your trek through campus as usual, avoiding the grass that was soaked headily with moisture only stopping once you’d stepped off campus to find your phone.

It was the message you’d gotten from your roommate that was the catalyst for your night gone to hell, the innocent message asking you to stop at the drugstore on the way home to pick up her prescription.

It was a simple request, an errand that you hadn’t thought twice about doing since you were closest and the pharmacist was closing soon.

Your roommate wouldn’t have made it to the drugstore before they closed and she needed the medicine for the morning, a problem that you hadn’t minded helping her with. It was a detour that you had made before, the quick stop at the pharmacy wouldn’t add but minutes to your trip home from university—a short errand that bled into a flurried hell that you couldn’t escape.

It was nothing but a moment between stepping outside the pharmacy with your roommate’s prescription in your bag, to the pained and wounded cry that called you toward a side street near the drugstore.

You were caught off guard by the sound that was reminiscent of a wounded animal, the whimper tugging on your bleeding heart and stirring your engrained desire to do good in the world. You followed the sound, your naivety compelling you to help where you could even if you were heading further down the side street.

You found them dumped in the corner of a dead end, two men slumped over together against a chain link fence. Their clothes were torn and ripped to shreds, very little pieces of their once pristine jackets had remained intact and even through the dim lighting you knew they needed help

Dropping to the cold wet concrete, you reached for the man closest to you, the one whose eyes were in a constant flux of opening and shutting as he tried to remain conscience.

You grabbed hold of the front of his jacket and attempted to move him, your stomach churning at the acrid stench of copper that hung in the air, twisted and mixed with the unpleasant malodour of grave injuries.

Even in the darkened side street, you could discern the severity of their wounds. Through the dim light, you could recognize the man furthest from you as one of the more prominent businessmen in the city who had founded a number of councils and boards. You could recognize him through the wounds and the bruises, the blood that clung to him hadn’t done enough to misconstrue his identity.

Jason Wallen was a rich man, he was a man whose face was on countless billboards with his prominent message a vow to the city council to eradicate the crime districts. He had vowed to commit a vast majority of his wealth and influence to find and track down every underhanded man who had invested in the seedy dealings of this place.

“P-please-“ The man clinging limply to the chain link fence pleaded with you, every breath was coming at the cost of his ability to stay awake and verbally communicate with you.

Your hands were going to be stained with blood, and tracings of the necessary and vital substance to keep them both alive were soaking into your clothes as you tried to keep the main you were helping upright.

Sinking back on your haunches, you dug through your bag for your phone, adrenaline pumping through you while you dialled 9-1-1. Your mind was far from you, you were being led by your instincts while talking to the dispatcher detailing everything you had found and needed.

“I d-don’t want to d-die-“ The sound of his gurgling nauseated you, it was a sound that you felt you would never be able to uproot from the corners of your mind.

“You’re not going to die, you’re not going to die. An ambulance is coming, okay? You’re going to get help.” Your voice trembled, your hands desperately trying to stop the bleeding from his chest while you looked at the prominent businessman, watching his chest slow down and his eyes become distant. “You’re going to be okay, you’re going to be fine. Help is coming.”

Despite your effort, it felt like you hadn’t done enough. You should’ve done more.

The sound of sirens pierced the ill silence, the sharp signals of ambulatory care were echoing in your head like an air raid siren only you could hear. You fell back with a strained scream when bright lights illuminated both the side street and the damage done to the two men that were left to die.

You couldn’t get out of the way fast enough for the paramedics, struggling to rise to your feet and grab your bag while they worked on the two men. Your feet carried you out of the side street where you were stopped by two police officers, one speaking on the radio and the other trying to speak to you.

It was all muffled and quiet, discourse between what you couldn’t hear and the images engrained in your mind of the two men and their broken, bruised and battered bodies.

You were jostled from sleep by a warm large hand shaking your shoulder, and the husky whispering of one of your guards.

Your first reaction was to smack his hand away from you and protest his disturbance with a muttered threat that was incomprehensible. Your eyes remained closed, screwed shut while the faint and unrelenting memory that invaded your sleep was replaced with a stern prompt to get up.

“We’re here, Y/N. You need to get out of the vehicle and stretch your legs.” He placed his hand on your shoulder once more, shaking you twice until he could see you open your eyes and feel you shift in the front seat.

You raised your hands to hide your eyes in the palms of your hands, fingertips and nails digging into your scalp as a temporary release of tension. It was only a moment of the dull sense of pain before you lowered your hands and settled your vision on the location of your new and falsified life in the Witness Protection Program until you could head to trial.

The house was another piece of this fabricated story that you would be living until things had come to a close, this structure would be filled with fake memories and dinner parties, gatherings that would all allude to you, Steve, Ari and Andy being this new to town polyamorous unit who wanted peace in a safe place.

It was a fine thread spun into a fairytale-like story that was convoluted, just like the ring on your finger and the rings on theirs. It was all a necessary addition to a lie that was put in place like a shield to hide you until you were useful. So much of the drive had been lost to you being caught in your mind or to sleep that felt less fruitful than it should’ve been.

And now you were home.

It was a cute little house if nothing else, with an enclosed porch that would face the sunset. It was built of solid wood and stained white to match, with a solid oak door that led into the porch and further on into the house. Attached to the left side of the enclosed porch was a swing built into the left of the space with two mismatched hand-sewn pillows.

The house was on two levels, and as far as you understood, had six bedrooms and 4 baths. It was beautiful and newly renovated, it was a farmhouse on the edge of this small town where no one would know your real name.

It was a dream come true in any other situation, if you weren’t here for your protection you’d have loved to live in a place like this. This house was cozy and seemed welcoming, in a small town where everyone helped each other out and neighbours took care of neighbours. This would have been ideal for you, it would have been encompassing some version of your dreams that called to you.

You took it all in with scrutiny, on the edge of fear weighing you down and apprehension rooted in uncertainty. You couldn’t plan your future days, weeks or months. Not even in the most minimal way could you have planned anything and that had sparked your anxiety.

However it wasn’t the homely state of the house or the enclosed porch that had made your attention wander from two of the three men acting as your husbands, it was the trio standing on the lawn waiting for you. The two men and one woman appeared friendly and welcoming, with trays of food and homemade baking resting in their arms.

“Hi! We wanted to be the first to welcome you.” The woman was beautiful though older than yourself, with rich dark hair that was fastened in boxer braids and tied back in a silk scrunchie.

“I’m Lia and these are my husbands, Sam & Carter.” Her husbands, like her, were equally as beautiful as she was and no less friendly or welcoming to the three of you. They had all appeared to be relatively close in age and there was a deep bond between them that was apparent to you even if you’d just met them.

“Grant,” Steve gave his faux name and rest his hand on the small of your back to ease your worries, “my brother Andy and I share our wife.”

They didn’t bat an eye at the idea of sharing, they hadn’t hesitated to extend the polite first meeting with encouraging and warm smiles that matched their personalities.

“The realtor mentioned there were three of you?”

Carter had questioned them, no less polite than he was before.

“Cole works long distance, he’s here for a few days and gone for weeks.” Heat bloomed beneath Ari’s hand when he placed it upon the small of your back, a nudge for you to converse despite your lips feeling like they’d been seen shut.

“I’m sorry, we never even asked your name.” Lia had drawn attention to you, her warm eyes cast upon you expectantly.

“Danah.” You mumbled the name that had become your new identity. “My name is Danah.”

The name felt foreign rolling off your tongue, unclear and unfamiliar though you would have to grow used to it. You repeated yourself, a little more clearly than before and with more enunciation.

“We know how hard it can be to move so we wanted to welcome you with some food. And if you need any help when your things arrive tomorrow, Sam and Carter have the day off.” Lia handed the gifts of food to Steve, trading them off with a polite and warm offer to have dinner together once you were settled.

With the food and gifts of sweets given, the new neighbours had made a quick departure to give you privacy, though you followed them with your eyes until they were out of view.

“We should get inside.” Ari led you first, following behind you as a shield to block you from view as you walked up the steps of the porch, through the screen door and further to the front door of the house.

For now, you were home.

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[imaginedreamwrite]

Ari Levinson Masterlist

Brat Taming - a/b/o polyamory, a/b/o, courting dates, omega!Jake Jensen

Come Hell Or Highwater - ex-navy seal!Ari x reader x ex-navy seal!Steve Rogers x Andy Barber, triplets with reader, witness protection program

Here’s Your Perfect — historical au, silverfox!Ari Levinson x reader x silverfox!Bucky Barnes, mercenary!Bucky, landowner!Ari

Higher Love - professor!Ari Levinson x student!Reader, hockeycoach!Ari Levinson x figureskater!Reader, a/b/o, age gap, professor/student

Like My Father - a/b/o au, mob au, mob boss!omega!Reader, polyamory

Like No One Does - ceo!Ari Levinson, best friend’s brother

Love On the Brain - a/b/o, a/b/o polyamory, polyamory

More Hearts Than Mine — triplets au, university au

Once Bitten, Twice Shy - mob au, mob!Ari x reader x mob!Bucky, childhood friends turned lovers, meet cute

Sugar & Spice - ceo!Ari Levinson, sugar baby au, older ari & younger reader

Ring Of Fire - Steve Rogers x reader x Ari Levinson, divorced au, Bucky Barnes is bad

Taste Of Honey - werebear!Ari Levinson, monster au

Thick Thighs Save Lives - reverse harem au, cowboy au, university au

[pvrkacciosan]

The Revelations of False Truths

❈Through HELL or HIGHWATERS masterlist

Taglist: @dreamiezpsycho @piratequeen-queenofgames @ms-starlight @yunascular (If you wish to be added or removed just ask)

Word count: 3k

Warnings: Swearing

Akari’s POV

The arms unravel from around my torso at my words, as the pirate behind me climbs to his feet. He extends a hand out to me. I met his gaze, his signature engraved cutlass strapped to his side once again.

I slip my hand into his, allowing him to help me to my own feet. I’m a whole head smaller than him and it's only now as I look around that I realise they are all so tall.

“Why did you guys even come back, I assume pirates only look after their own?”

Wooyoung drops my hand after holding it for a second longer than I expected, I smiles at the reddened tone to his cheeks as he steps back from me, hand settling to rest on the handle of his weapon.

“Well we had a little help in our persuasion” one of the pirates with a wide set of shoulders said, turning his body around to open the door behind him.

Joy fills my chest as I recognise the small patter of shiber’s claws on the wooden floor boards of the ship’s main deck.

Going down onto one knee I spread my arms as the preppy wee dog flew into them, almost soundless whimpers of happiness escaping his furry golden body.

“Shiber” I cooed as his stub of a tail shook violently with excitement.

“It's a fine little companion you have yourself there” Hongjoong laughed, as he spoke, eyes never leaving shiber’s body for a second.

“He came to get you guys?” I ask, lulling my head back to look up to them, a couple had now dispersed from the group leaving only a few members of the crew on the deck.

“Yeah, he came flying onto the deck faster than a bullet fired from a gun” San admired sharply, his tone showing nothing but adoration for the little dog.

I dug my fingers into the thick coat at the back of his neck, he was such a good dog.

The captain took a couple steps towards me, gaining himself my attention

“You need to change, your clothing smells of smoke”

My gaze down cats itself to the clothes that still hung from my body. It was never the right fit for me but they had kept me warm when I needed them to.

“Well you lot don’t exactly smell of roses either” I snapped back in defence of myself. There's a snort as someone tries to cover their laughter, Hongjoong tilts his head with an eyebrow raised in waiting, I eventually give out sighing.

Now that he pointed it out, I could also smell the smokey aroma of the burnt wood as it clung to the cotton shirt.

“If I could go back, I can try to salvage some stuff from the house,” I offered, hoping with all hope I could go home and hopefully find Akio still alive.

Hongjoong stared at me with a blank expression for a second before shaking his head.

“Not a wise idea, we're about to set off anyway” he added, casting a guilty look my way. Did he perhaps feel… bad for me?

Never had I ever expected for pirates to be helping me out of everyone in the world. It makes the skin at the base of my neck curl at the mere idea that they may not be this willing to help me if they knew who I was.

“Where exactly are we going?” I ask rising to my feet once more, following behind Hongjoong after he gestured for me to do so. Wooyoung easily passed me with his strides.

“Typiani, it's the next island over from here and we can get you some proper cloths there”

He pushed open another door that I saw one of the crew members enter while we were on the deck.

“In the meantime you can borrow some of our cloths”

Borrow their clothes?

The clothes of a pirate?

What in God’s name have I gotten myself into.

We walked on into the room, there was a chest and barrels layed neatly around the wooden beams supporting the roof above us. The wood began to groan as the ship started to sway, signalling the departure from Zydari’s small port and dock. My throat throbbed as tears of fear brimmed at the surface with my memories. Memories of being out in the open water.

Hongjoong stopped to look at me, I can breathe somewhat normally again when the light of his presence seemed to out glow the surrounding darkness. They were in the past, the memories were simply that─ memories. They can’t touch me, at least not in this form.

“Wooyoung and San will help you find something relatively close to your size and then I expect them to show you around” he sent a pointed look to the pair standing behind me. I wasn’t even aware that San had been with us at all.

I try to hide my shock, but I get the sense the silent-moving man behind me enjoys the surprise he causes people when he goes undetected. It was becoming clear that was his calling in life. Hongjoong give a quick departing nod before walking passed up back towards the door. His presence officially leaves with the creak and sealing of the door.

“Okay” Wooyoung starts, moving to be in front of me, gripping to the lid of one of the chest he lifts it, the hinges protest. He scours through the pile inside assessing the sizing ranges, lifting some up as he searches.

None of them actually answer my question back on the main deck. Why did they help me? I owned nothing to them, or them to me. I was never one to get personal gain from somebody who wasted their sympathy on me. I hated the dishonesty of pirates─ they must be trying to get something from me.

“This should fit, '' Wooyoung said, turning with some clothing laid over his forearm.

“You guys didn’t answer my question” I voiced my thoughts. San had moved out from behind me in the darkness and was perched on top a barrel off to my right, his arm extended to hold the beam above him, steadying himself as the ship swayed.

Wooyoung raised an eyebrow, as they exchanged looks,

“Why did you guys help me?” I repeat my earlier question, Wooyoung looks to the ground beneath him as San purks up,

“I think you’ll find we did answer, it just wasn’t the one you wanted to hear” I struggled to read his expression as he sat his form moving like fluid in rhythm with the ship sailing against the waves. My gut twists as the ship precariously tips slightly to the right, my foot moves to balance my body.

“You are so sure?” I ask, reaching a hand to take the clothing from Wooyoung, he avoids my gaze for a moment before finally looking up, he cheeks a tinted a blush of pink, if I didn't know any better I would suggest he was running on a little bit of a fever, I keep my mouth shut of course. His health should be of no concern to me.

“Well what is it you wanted to hear?” Wooyoung spoke, extending the clothes out to me. I take them mulling over his words in my thoughts,

“I want to know why exactly you all helped me, we own each other nothing”

“We’re all human we shouldn’t have to own each other anything to help when one is in need of it” San said, using his hands to push and drop himself off the barrel

“But you guys are..” I started

“We’re what exactly?” a voice from the door said sharply, a challenge dripping from the words spoken almost in silence.

“Pirates" I challenged back, turning to face him, the blonde waltzed in an air of arrogance exuded from his very skin. It buzzed the air and I could have rolled my eyes.

“What’s she doing with my stuff?'' he voiced, not avoiding to show his anger as his head snapped in the direction of Wooyoung. The other boy held a hand up in surrender,

“Yeosang, Hongjoong just told me to find something that would fit her”

“Well couldn't you have given her something from your chest, or jongho’s I’m sure they would fit the same” Yeosang head tilted to look my up and down, he snatched the clothes from my arms, walking over to the chest Wooyoung had opened, he dropped the clothes back into it carelessly before slamming the lid.

I couldn’t help but jump as it cracked shut like thunder across the clear night sky, he glared at both other boys before sending a death stare at me as he walked back out.

“Who shoved a stick up his ass?'' I ask the other two once I was sure Yeosang was gone. Wooyoung tries to stifle a laugh, disguising it as a cough probably in case Yeosang was still outside listening.

“Try to ignore him, he can be…”

“A twat” I interject, crossing my arms over my chest as Wooyoung dips into another chest pulling out another set of clothes for me to replace mine with. The pair of them don't seem overly fond of me name calling their crew mate, and seem more willing to stay out of our little distribution then get involved. My gut twist in guilt perhaps I shouldn't insult their crew mate directly in front of them.

“Here you can take my stuff” Wooyoung sends a small smile at me when he extends the pile to me, I take it gratefully returning the expression

I stand awkwardly as the two stare at me, there eyes drawing over my skin and the clothing held in my arms.

"Are you both just going to stand there and watch me change?" my eyebrow lifts with my question.

Both of them fluster in seconds, cheeks darkening to an embarrassingly dangerous tint of rosy red.

"Right" San choked over the word as he cleared the air from his chest. Tapping Wooyoung's upper arm the two of them turn and I wait for them to move towards the door but neither do.

I guess this is what I'll have to settle with for now, dropping the clothes to the ground at my feet. I grab the hem of my top and begin to undress. The air feels foreign against my skin as it becomes exposed from under my clothes. The cotton which had encased me now was discarded on the ground as if it was nothing but a price of rubbish tossed to the side of a road.

The sentimentality of the worn cotton shirt makes my head and heart ache at the memories of the nights I had spent cuddled to the material as I wait for my body to finally grown into it. I never got a chance.

Partly because I think I've stopped growing.

The rest of my belongings are quickly stripped and dropped onto the floor at my cooling bare feet, my frigid toes that curl into the wood beneath them.

Picking up the clothes of the Pirate, I'm surprised when I don't immediately catch a whift of a purtid smell instead I'm met with a soft and delicate scent, like flowers. Not that I had the chance to find ones to compare this smell with, but it's what I imagine flowers would smell like. Or freshly cut wood.

It's different from the scent of the others, it's strong but pleasant. In my smelling daze I forgot the two were standing meters from my now half naked form ─ I left my underthings on of course. I make a quick haste in slipping the shirt over my head, pulling it down to fit around my waist. Reaching I pull the pair of dark trousers up, they have fabric straps to string up over my shoulders, to keep the trousers up I presume.

Once done, I stand awkwardly for a second or two before clearing my throat. The duo turn to look over their shoulders, San makes a snort of a noise as he looks me up and down. I can't help the frown that etches onto the present scowl of my brow.

In my distraction I pretend to ignore the smirking look Wooyoung is sending my way, he tries to hide it by bringing his hand up to rub his chin but I don't miss it for a second.

"Well..?" I prompt, San has stopped his sniggering and turns to Wooyoung who's face has now seemingly gone back to normal now that he has managed to contain his emotions.

"Shall we go for a tour?" San suggests, I give my clothes a kick off to the side and nod to them. Awaiting for them to lead the way for us.

Wooyoung moves first, avoiding my gaze when he casts his frown to the wooden floor boards that groans as we walk their spines.

Our exit out the door is quick and we make a haste way across the main deck of the ship.

"This is the Fedora, our ship, our home away from homes" Wooyoung beams, circling his body around with his arms extended at his sides to gesture to the wooden frames, ropes and sails surrounding him.

"You all have homes to go back to? I just thought pirates always lived on their ships"

Wooyoung seems to freeze his spinning for a second, "Well, not all of us have homes to go to.."

The solemn tone to his voice brings the air around us down as it it was tied to weights, he shakes his body with a sigh checking a look with San before exclaiming

"But some of us share our families, we'll be going to mine just in time for the Meuali Festivals" his voice went higher a pitch, a small sparkle of pride shinning in his eyes as he spoke of his home and family.

"What is that? Meuali festival?" I ask as we walk to the other side of the ship. We came to the bottom of a set of stairs.

"shouldn't have asked that" San mumbles as if he has already anticipated Wooyoung boasting and ranting about his home islands festivities.

"Only the biggest celebration in all of the world" Wooyoung exclaimed excitedly. Throwing his arms upwards, leaning into a banister as we began to assent the stairs.

"what's it celebrating?" I ask, genuinely curious as he walk up another level, I spot another couple of bodies busy at work with a pile of ropes.

"we celebrate our freedom and indepenced from the Pirate Lord" Wooyoung speaks aloud as if its the most common sense thing ever.

San appoints a scowl in Wooyoung's direction, my stomach drops at the name.

"The Pirate Lord?" I ask aloud, in shock.

I was hissed instantly, both males putting a finger to their lips, to silence me.

I had heard of the Pirate Lord. How could anyone not, he was the most ruthless of pirates and all his power was spread far and wide and his men where everywhere. My father was in close association with the name. So I kept my tabs on people, or Akio did.

"We don't talk about him on this ship"

My gut twists, as if a great giant from one of the southern islands has grabbed me around the abdomen and begins to knot my body, twisting me entirely.

"Seems pretty stubborn to try and avoid the-" I pause when I see the anxious glimmer to their expressions "- his name, when everyone in this part of the world lives under his rule"

The spies he had all over the world make it pretty difficult for anyone to openly speak ill of their Lord. He would have their heads if they utter their disrespect around one of his men.

"But not all of us live under his rule though do we?"

I'm confused by that, when Akio and I moved to Zydari no one had ever moved against the Pirate Lord, any who did weren't heard or see from again. How had things changed so drastically since out time on Zydari.

Wooyoung had talked about how his town celebrated their freedom from the Pirate Lord. When we left the main land, that would have barely been a dream for many people, for other a distant hope. Perhaps the 'great' pirate Lord's grip on the world wasn't as strong as I once knew it to be.

"Rebel groups have started to form against him" San spoke excitedly, warranting himself a sharp look from Wooyoung. This caught my attention, group's?! there were full on groups going against the Pirate Lord.

"It all started when a group of the Pirate Lords slaves were released in a number so vast it cracked right through his power over the people"

My jaw unhinged in shock. The two pirates in front of me stopped at the top of the stairs looking at me in surprise and mild amusement.

"No one knows who the guy who released them was, but he went missing" San stated, Wooyoung looked between them, moving to make room for me at the peak of the steps.

"We all assumed he was finally captured by the Pirate Lord for what he did, but he gave everyone else the courage and hope to finally fight back"

My mind goes straight to a memory of Akio, he never did like the Pirate Lord, hated him with everything he was. My chest hurt─ the giant was now squeezing harder. Akio was a great person always stood up for what he thought was right. I wonder if he knew about the rebel groups when he went on his checks. I pondered on what he truly thought about the person who released the slaves. I wish I could ask him now.

" I still don't get why that means you guys don't talk about him" I exclaim moving to follow them over to the two figures who had now risen upon noticing us approaching.

"Because some of us were those slaves"

❈ Next Part

[pvrkacciosan]

Pvrkacciosan presents...

Last Update: 14 June 2022 at 22:11

Hello there! I see you have made it to my Masterlist,

WELCOME.

To the universe of PvrkAccioSan.

A place where I will teleport you into the world of my writing, an escape from reality.

❈

Will you join us?

please read warnings on posts if they are there, I will not take responsibility for what you choose to read. If I have missed any warnings or have written something offensive please notify me so I can fix it right away.

Hope you enjoy my work, and have a nice day/ night

-PvrkAccioSan

--------------------☽⋆❈⋆☾--------------------

Series (~Over 10 parts~)

Creatures Within Us Masterlist (Ateez Werewolf AU)

Staus: On hold until (!UNTIL FRIDAY 30TH MAY!)

Ateez X Female O.C

POV : 3rd person

Teaser Trailer

Info: The Fedora Pack is small─ at first. Throughout the years they begin to pick up more members as each of them find their mates, when dangers arise will the boys band together to keep each other and their families safe, even if that means joining with other creatures, of whom they have to befriend first.

Through HELL or HIGHWATER ( Ateez Pirate AU)

Status: On hold (!UNTIL FRIDAY 30TH MAY! )

Ateez X Female O.C

POV : 1st person

Info: Akari Nakamura never had any intention of stepping foot onto a pirate ship, she never wanted to bring one home with her and she never would have if she knew he would be followed by seven more

The one and only Pirate Queen (Ateez female Extra member AU)

Status: On hold (!UNTIL FRIDAY 30TH MAY!)

Female O.C

Info: The one and only female member of Ateez, pretty self explanatory if you ask me

Reactions

How they met their S/O: Hyung line ¦ Maknae line

Their S/O has a medical condition / disorder: Hyung line ¦ Maknae line

How they react to an suprise/ Unplanned pregnancy: Hyung Line ¦ Maknae line

Oneshots

Seong Hwa

Nothing yet

Hong Joong

Nothing yet

Yun Ho

Post coming soon

Yeo Sang

Nothing yet

San

Nothing yet

Min Gi

Missing Match- Assasin Au

Woo Young

Nothing yet

Jong Ho

Nothing yet

[pvrkacciosan]

Surprising Arrival Home

❈Through HELL or HIGHWATERS Masterlist

Taglist: @dreamiezpsycho @queenofgames @ms-starlight (If you wish to be added or removed just ask)

Word count: 2.5K

Warning: Ateez seem like a little bit of assholes at first, but I promise by no way do I believe the boys would ever act like this to anyone ever. Sexist, old fashion view of women

Note: 'Gruean', is just the currency I have made up for the purpose of this story.

Akari's POV

The tip of the blade kissed the end of my nose, the four men dressed in rugged clothing, smelling strongly of sea salt argued in front of me.

Bickering like children fighting over the last piece of chocolate─ Pirates, not so dissimilar to children, I thought.

Frantically I'm searching for some way to get myself out of my current situation.

There is a small knife on the counter top arm length away from my position, if only I could reach it.

The tall dark haired man with the sword in my face lowers his weapon as he turns to argue with a much shorter man who has a gun pointed at my head, both their backs are turned, it's now or never.

I slid my bare foot along the flooring panels, trying to creep my body towards the small knife, it wouldn't be much to defend myself, I had given myself the peace of mind─ That it would be enough.

Internally I chant away, praying they don't notice me moving, halfway there...

"Don't move." A voice commands from behind me, brushing the ice cool feeling of a steel dagger to my windpipe.

For fuck's sake, can a girl not just catch a break.

The four in front of me now turn, abandoning their line of arguments against each other. They watch me like predator to prey, my skin feels like it's hit with a cold sweat, some female part of me feels something with four, very good looking men, watching me. My gut twists pleasantly, warming me from the inside.

The shorter out of the four in front of me clicks his pistol into place, aiming the barrel at the centre of my forehead and holding it there, I wait for him to pull the trigger. But he doesn't.

I frown scanning each expression of the men around me, they seem vaguely....excited. Of course they would be, they're Pirate they live and breathe for this stuff.

My eyes are drawn back to the barrel of the small handgun, after another second of nothing happening I urge courage up through my stomach, "I'm sorry" his gaze meets mine along the spine of the pistol,

"Are you going to pull the trigger or not?"

He looked genuinely taken aback by my question, now it my turn to be excited because this excites me. If I could get into their head maybe I could distract them long enough to get my hands on the knife.

The Pirate holding the gun sends an almost confused look back to the three behind him.

"Oh, I get it" I add, aiming to bring his focus back to me, I smile when I succeed, so I continue making my lines up as I go, In a desperate hope it will turn whatever this is into my favour

"Are you waiting for me to start sobbing and begging for you to spare my life" The cold line of the dagger to my throat only makes my adrenaline pump faster, "Well sorry to disappoint boys, but I'll be dead long before I beg a man for anything, so you're better of just pulling the trigger now if that's is what you're looking for"

There was silence in the room for a few seconds before the dark haired tall male who previously had a blade pointed at my face, laughed aloud, it was a bubbly sound which I found myself resisting the urge to join in with.

A man stood at the back of the group behind the others, with his own pistol held loosely at his side, lowered next to his thigh, steps forward, "We aren't looking to take your life, we're just looking for our friend"

Ah so this is the rest of the Pirate crew shit why didn't I think they would come looking for him. "So you're the friends of the guy who got himself stabbed and half bled to death"

Every single one of their faces pale,

"What happened? Is he alright?" A tall blonde headed boy asked rather quickly, I barely had time to register what he said,

This could be my chance

"I could show you to him but..." I flick the dagger held at my throat with my finger, smirking at the satisfying clink my nail made as it made contact with the sharp weapon.

"San '' the shortest of the group spoke, his words heavily weighted with authority. The knife was slowly released from around my neck, They continued to watch me as my hand came up to rub the skin, I gasp lightly when I see spots of blood on my finger tip.

"You drew blood" I mutter under my breath, trying to ignore the sting spreading under my jaw, I sure as hell hope that knife is clean.

"Just be thankful I didn't slit your throat"

I turn to look at the guy behind me, Scowl tightening the skin on my forehead, his angular eyes and sharp set of his jaw draw attention to his attractiveness, he smirks down at me.

"Keep talking like that to me in my own home and I'll castrate you─" His face falters in its cocky expression for a fraction of a second "With your own knife" I finish, adding salt to the wound.

A snort comes from the doorway positioned behind me, that leads towards mine and Akio's room, my defense is instantly up as I look over my shoulder to spot a new Pirate, leaning against the door frame, which was now more an archway after the door fell off its hinges.

His dirty blond hair fell into his eyes, covering them from my view at first, he is scowling straight back at me but that angered expression doesn't dampen his obvious good looks, "You're a girl, you would never be able to do such a thing"

"And I suppose you pirates are ballsy enough to do it yourselves"

"It isn't natural for girls to do such things" he sneered in my direction, I matched the look with my own internal fury. I may not be able to stomach the idea of pirates, but I've never backed down to anyone especially arrogant pirates.

"No, what isn't natural is for someone to be as stupid as his friends and yet here you all stand" the insult passes through the group and the dirty blonde pirate whipes out a knife.

"Yeosang, Chill" the shortest male said, I could only assume he was the captain. This is valuable information

"Yeah Yeosang, behave" I mock, watching his anger build beneath the surface, he is scowling at me. This was fun.

"Do you know where Wooyoung is or not?" The man with the pistol at his side asked, I glanced across the room to him, something about the genuine worry on his face made me want to help them. I nod, sighing before walking through to the back of the small wind rippling house. Running my hand along the counter top where the knife lay.

On the low rise table is the pirate, still looking like death, the colour had started to come back to his cheeks. I stood at the door, watching as a couple of them rushed down to his side, giving him a double check over. The air of nervousness in the room died as soon as Wooyoung's chest rose, it was steady but slow all at the same time, but it rose nonetheless, allowing all those around him to breathe freely once more.

"I can't guarantee he will make it, but I gave him a decent fighting chance" I spoke softly, folding my arms over my chest while I watched the Captain stand to look back at my form leaned against the door frame.

"It looks like there's nothing wrong with him"

"Well I guess I did my job right then" I didn't care if I sounded cocky, I had gained my right to be after everything I had gone through to get here, I didn't care of what they thought of me, they would be gone soon and I would have nothing to do with them ever again. That was what I wanted.

"How did you do it?" Yeosang asked, his tone still sharp with anger which bubbled inside him, I shrug trying to brush off his question.

"Why did you do it?" another one of them asked, providing me with the best distraction, but it ignited a thought within me, why did I help him?

The answer to that I wasn't entirely sure of, other then what I felt in the moment I saw the pain in Wooyoung's eyes after he was impaled, sometime between then and when he hit the floor I realised I couldn't leave him, some attraction to him made me haul his ass all the way here. I didn't really have much more than that to explain myself.

"He saved my life so I chose to return the favour" some of them gave me looks of respect at my words, had it really been that big of a deal.

"What happened?"

I sigh pushing the weight of my body further into the wooden frame, praying it didn't give way.

"Some guy had a hold of my companion, your dear friend came flying around the corner and jumped in to help. '' I was leaving out some details but they didn't need to be privy to all information about me, in fact they didn't really need to know anything.

"Where is your companion now?" the Captain asked, narrowing his eyes in my direction, I bite down into the sneer straining to break out onto my lips.

"Shiber!" I yell,

A couple of the Pirates shift, everyone of them seeking to reach for weapons concealed within the sea-taminated clothing clinging to their bodies.

The tapping of the small canine’s claws catched the boards of the flooring, his small rounded golden head appearing next to the low rise table Wooyoung lay upon. While watching the small dog, my heart beats harder within my chest when my eyes drift across to look at Wooyoung.

Three of the Pirates stood over their friends looking down to scan the body of the small dog, one of them, San if I recalled his name correctly smiled widely down at Shiber though he tried to keep his gleeful expression hidden from his friends.

Pushing my shoulder into the frame I begin walking over to them, crouching down next to the table, brushing my hand into the fur around Shiber's neck, he lips the side of his snout, It was a starking contrast to me, he seemed highly relaxed with the strangers in his house, usually he wasn't like this.

There was shuffling behind me as one of the Pirate's moved closer, He stopped right behind me, the scent of salt was the strongest on him.

It was at this very moment that I slipped the small knife out from my sleeve, tightly gripping between my fingers I spun while rising, driving the knife up so fast until it was under the jaw of the Captain.

The air burst from his lips, fanning my face with warm air that smelt of some kind of alcohol. The five other Pirates around the room all jumped to whip out their weapons, probably ready to kill me within a second in defence of their Captain who was currently under the control of my small knife.

Something solid pressed into the back of my head, I saw the sudden spark of shock in the Captain's eyes when I didn't dare blink with fear at the prospect of dying, I didn't need to, I stared into the face of death and laughed at it before, what was so different now?

"Who are you?" I whispered lowley so the Captain could hear me.

"Tell me when Cap, and I'll drop her" the voice of San said from behind me─ I almost laughed at his statement.

"Tell them to put their weapons down" I spoke softly

The Captain matched my stare, "Why, scared?" The expression on his face reflected a hint of hope, it was clear in the way his lips twisted he was trying to not laugh or smirk.

"Not scared, would just prefer to not have that gun pressed to the back of my head and possibly mess up my hair" I tighten my finger around the leather straps wrapped around the knife "It's a terribly difficult job to fix when one doesn't have a mirror─ Now tell them to drop their weapons" the sweetness I mustered into my voice almost made me want to boak.

"What makes you think they'll listen to me?"

I smile downward "I already figured out that you are their Captain, and if they value your life, trust me they'll listen to you"

The room falls silent, and one by one the noise of weapons drop to the floor. "Now let me repeat myself, Who..are..you?"

I didn't know what changed but something, some expression or thought, but something changed within the Captain, he swallowed against my knife before talking, "I'm Kim Hongjoong Captain of the Fedora ship and Ateez Pirate crew"

"Why are you in Zydari?" I question, applying pressure to the knife when he refrained from answering.

"We're searching for a slaver, he has a price of 50,000 gruean on his head"

The image of the man from the alleyway popped into my head, was he perhaps the one they were searching for, it would make sense why Wooyoung showed up, but one question continued to linger at the back of my mind,

"So, Were you sent by someone?"

Hongjoong looked taken aback by a second, looking to the faces of his friend before looking back to meet my gaze.

I couldn't risk all Akio had done for me, I couldn't do it. I wouldn’t put at risk my brother and all he had sacrificed and so I move the knife from under his jaw, I beat him to a reply

"Leave"

Hongjoong stares at me with a look of almost confusion, I catch the movement of his eyes as he looks down to the knife still gripped in my hand.

"Did you not hear me" The questions slips faster from my lips them the knife did to my hands,

There was a hesitance to their movements, and I watched them with a glare as hard as I could muster while I watched them gather up Wooyoung's limbs, his torso flopping like a ragdoll when two tall men picked him up, each of his arms over their shoulders while they lifted him up. It didn't look like much of an effort to the two tall males, but I watched them all begin to gather their things to leave.

The front door swung open and I saw the reddening face of Akio as he stood in the doorway, his shoulders squaring out with his bag hung over his shoulder, muscle tense beneath them.

His face turned thunderous when he looked over, taking in the sight of the Pirates filling our home space, his eyes meeting mine over the seven figures.

"What the Fuck?!" he hissed,

Well shit,

I’m in for it now.

❈Next Part

[pvrkacciosan]

The Ugly Fate of Family

❈Through HELL or HIGHWATERS Masterlist

Taglist: @dreamiezpsycho @piratequeen-queenofgames @ms-starlight @yunascular (If you wish to be added or removed just ask)

Word count: 3.2K

Note : I'm aware I said I wasn't going to post anything until after May 30, once my exams are finished but this is just sitting here and it's doing my nut ' in. Don't know if I'm happy with this tho, feedback is welcome :)

Wooyoung's POV

I fight the darkness of the smoke as it surrounds us, the girl is clung to my chest, my cutlass no longer in hand as both of my limbs wrap around her form to keep her from falling away from me.

The flames lick up around the walls surrounding us both and her limp weight is clutched tighter to me when I build the urge to move, the heat blooms along my spine─ nips at my heels and corrals me on faster towards the light of the rising sun.

Faltering in a step over an unrooted floor board, I finally burst into cool air and fresh lungs liberating oxygen which makes me cough on reflex as it mixes with the dusty thick smoke caught in my throat. Dropping to the dirt all the while curling over the figure of the girl to ensure she doesn’t hit her head on our shared descent to the floor outside her crumbling home.

A couple coughs is all it takes to clear the shards of figurative glass from my airway, a hand grips tightly to me shoulder, nudging my form back so my face angles up to look at them─ My captain’s worried expression meets mine, barely acknowledging the girl at my lap, he seems to check my a couple times over before he glances down then back up at the house behind us.

“Her brother?” he asks into the space between us, looking down to the girl laid on the ground next to my legs, it's like my heart cracks open at the idea floating through my mind, casting my own gaze over my shoulder at the house now entirely engulfed in flames. My eyes shut over in sorrow, a head shake is all Hongjoong needs to know what to do next.

“Lets go, she comes with us”

“Are you kidding?!” Yeosang suddenly appears, shoving past Mingi and Jongho for a second to come towards us, “Because of her Wooyoung almost died twice and you want to let her onto our ship? Are you guys completely forgetting how hard we’ve all worked to get this far”

“Yeosang..” Jongho tries to reason with the older male, I leaned back watching the interaction from afar, our medic’s expression darkens slightly,

“Don’t drag me into this, both times I almost died I put myself into those positions willingly” I utter, the scratch returning to force me to cough once more. I glanced down at the girl at my legs, specks of smoke dusted her cheek bones and side of her body, but even through that I could see the golden glow to her skin, probably from her time spent in the sun of the Zydari island.

“I agree with Hongjoong, we can’t just leave her '' San spoke softly, his attention casted more at brushing dust or ash from the palm of his hand.

“She isn’t suited for a life with us on that ship” Yeosang protested further, pointing at her. I had been friends with him for quite some time, but I couldn’t help the slight protectiveness I felt when he went to move towards us.

“And what qualified any of us for this life when we met each other?” Yunho whispered, rubbing his lower lip in thought, he met everyone’s gaze by looking up once he finished his sentence.

“She is different from the rest of us” Yeosang commented, adding fuel to his argument as best he can, Hongjoong shook his head but was beaten by Seonghwa in response.

“She may be different to us” Seonghwa takes a second to wave a hand in gesture at the other crew members standing in an almost semi circle formation around the girl’s body in my lap,

“but If I recall correctly Yeosang you were in a much similar position to her when we first found you” he finished.

My mind reels back to the story of how Hongjoong came across Yeosang in the first place. I wait for him to snap at the mention of his past but he doesn’t utter anything in retribution, Seonghwa’s comment all but shuts him up.

“It’s settled then” Mingi expressed, a nod to us, “She comes with us then?”

Hongjoong crouches down to meet me at eye level, wringing his hands together with his elbows balanced utop his knees. The rising morning sun streamed over his shoulder to hit me in the eye. I frowned to shield my delicate sense organ but my captain, the great one that he is , angles his shoulders so it blocks the sun entirely.

“Can you carry her or do you want one of the others to take her?”

If he wasn’t keeping eye contact with me right now he would have noticed when the girl moved to nudge her head into my leg, a warmth bloomed from the contact to my lower thigh but I brushed the touch off with a cough. Nodding to my leader, which I had agreed to follow over a year ago, I had made a promise, all of us had. To follow Hongjoong was an oath we all took. Through Hell or Highwater we would back up and defend him, as he had helped and aided each of us in ways of which we could never repay.

There's a shuffle from around me and a resounding crack as the building behind us starts to give way, the fire gnawing at the material like parasites. Picking myself up from the ground I tuck an arm under the legs and back of the female figure at my legs.

The dead weight of another human body was not a burden I liked to endure often, but she had done it for me.

San had been fully enthusiastic in telling me all about how none of them assumes a girl could drag my heavy ass back to her hut, even though she did just that.

And for that I was forever in her debt.

Akari's POV

Ruination. That all my life had been so far, it was what Akio is, the same if not more so than me. From the day we fled I knew they would one day find us. Akio had been doing so well, especially with the amount of effort he put into his checks. Akio had always…

Akio

Jolting from my position on a bed, my limb flailing around to keep myself from toppling over the edge I clung to, finger tightly gripped into the material of cloth I lay upon. A breeze of air brushes across the exposed skin of my arm, turning my head in the direction it came from. I spot a singular door sat slightly ajar. I push into my arms to sit myself up, the room surrounding me is strange and a cripple of unease curls into my belly, where the hell am I?

There are hammocks hanging around the beams in the room. The bed I’m on seems to be the only one of its kind, there's a strong whiff of putrid sea salt, the aroma making me curl my upper lip and crinkle my nose. The smell was so strong here, wherever here was

The sound of footsteps approaches the door, I throw my body backwards, back onto the bed, the door creaks. I freeze, snapping my eyes shut.

The wooden floor boards make a squeaking sound as the person approaches the bed I was laid utop of.

The room falls silent as the individual stops, my skin prickles as they watch me. Without seeing them, I feel them there as if they’re close enough for me to feel their breath on my cheek. A citrus scent floated as this person drew closer, my heart was hammering in my chest and I had to grip the sheet under me to keep my breathing as neutral as I could.

“Is she still out?” the voice of a male asked softly, from what sounded to be the other side of the room his voice was gentle as he spoke with an edge of worry to it.

“Out cold” another spoke, a lot closer to me, widening my eyes in a snap I met the surprised eyes of the guy kneeling in front of me, next to the bed

He went to jump back away from me but I had the element of surprise in my corner. Grabbing the sheet I unravel it from my legs, wrapping it around his neck and using my body weight and elbow to turn him so his back is to my chest, he faces the door as another male crashes into the room, I can only assume he was the one who spoke with a soft voice before.

His hands came up into surrender and he met my gaze over the shoulder of his friend who I still had strangled under the control of the blanket wrapped around his neck.

I needed to get away from here, Akio would be waiting for me, probably worrying.

The guy in my grasp struggles, his hands coming up to claw at the sheet constricting his movement, I nudge him in the spine with a raised knee,

“Move” I whisper, walking us both forward toward the other guy and the door, if I could just get out I could make a run for it.

The draft from before meant the door had to be near an exit, so I could find my way.

The guy in the doorway, walked out under my word probably doing so just in case I decided to restrict his friend from any more oxygen. Smart guy.

I push myself forward my weight driving the guy in my grip through the door after his friend.

The world suddenly opens up. I’m on a fucking ship.

I follow out onto the deck of the ship,  there's a couple other guys wandering around, they all stop what they're doing when they see us emerge. More than few catch my eye, a flicker of familiarity shones inside me, they were the pirates from before. Wooyoung began walking towards us stopping at the one who had been in the room with me and the guy I currently had hold of,

“Jongho?” he asks, leaving room for an unspoken question and potential elaboration.

“She just grabbed him, we thought she was still knocked out” I heard him whisper, the guy in my arm just wriggles some more, tightening the sheet makes him freeze and he emits a noise like an injured animal that alerts and catches the attention of the others.

Wooyoung hangs his arm by his head and begins to take slow steps towards me, I pull the sheet closer to me and back away, Wooyoung stops,

“We don’t want to hurt you” he said softly, he had changed clothing since last I saw of him, his cutlass was now tightly sucured to his side once more, my gaze flicks to it, It didn’t look too hard to get it off from the rope like belt he wore, I could definitely get it from him.

The weight of the guy held by me appears too much as he finally passes out, he crumpled to the floor, Taking me with him. I’m powerless to stop it as the momentum and gravity bring us both to the ground, subsequently my grip of the sheet is loosened and I can hear the guy suck in breath of air right before we hit the ground. I try to extend a hand out so I don’t land directly on his back, but my wrist snags on the sheet and restricts me as I try to reach out.

He hits the floor a second before I land on top of him, if the air wasn’t knocked from him when he hit the deck, it most definitely was now.

Flattening my palms against the back of the male beneath me, My insides ripple as my fingers feel to the sensation of his tense muscles of his shoulder and upper back, my thoughts jolt to a stop when a grumble eemits from him and he begins to move.

Springing up I only have a second of standing time before I’m tackled to the ground by another body. The new comer wrapped his arms around me, knocking the air from my lungs at the sheer impact of his body against mine, when we hit the floor I hear the yell of the others around us, my spine burns from the hit from the wooden planks of the ships deck, the guy tries to pin me down to the floor, thrusting my hips and waist upwards I knock his balance completely off, rather successfully as he goes flying over my head, rolling onto my side once I’m relieved of his weight I pushed my weight through my wobbling knees, they fail me and I’m kneeling once more, looking up the tip of a cutlass is tucked beneath my chin.

“Well this seems vaguely familiar” the mountain of a man is at the other end of the cutlass, I also recognise him from our interaction before─ Mingi.

I look around to see all the pirates from before, and one who I don’t recognise, he was the one who was in the room with me before, Jongho, Wooyoung had called him. One was getting up from the ground, rubbing at his throat from where the sheet had previously been, Yeosang. He was the one who didn’t seem too fond of me back in the house despite me having saved his friend.

“If you don’t want to hurt me, why is there a cutlass at my neck?” I ask, looking around for the Captain, he is at the top of the set of stairs, he descends down them, walking towards us, the rest of the crew watching his every move as he walks past. They seriously admire and look up to him, I thought. He matches the gaze of Mingi, giving him an unspoken message with the tilt of the head in my direction. The cutlass is removed from the column of my throat.

Hongjoong shifts the material of his trousers with his hands, preparing them as he crouches down in front of me. I can feel the eyes of the crew on me this time. Probably watching to make sure I don’t harm their precious captain.

“Why am I here?” I snap out in a tone sharper than I thought I could make it. Hongjoong’s brow scrunched for a second before meeting my gaze.

“Where’s my brother? Where’s Akio?”

They all stiffened at my question, I don’t miss it as even Yeosang gives skeptical looks to the other guys around him. A sickening feeling plummets into the pit of my stomach, Hongjoong turns to me fully, the look on his face does nothing to ease any of the nerves wracking my body.

“Do you not remember?” Seonghwa asks from behind Hongjoong, his eyes hold a sadness and sympathy to them that makes my skin burn when he watches me. What were they talking about?

“There was a fire…” Hongjoong starts off, drawing my attention back to him,

Akio is knelt on the ground with one of the men standing behind him with a knife to his throat… “Just how long did you think you could hide”....I can hear Akio screaming that he’s going to kill them… “Where’s the fucking amulet?”... “Please get her out of here”... Akio being trapped off by a beam collapsing from above…I’m unable to call out to my big brother as the roof encased in flames collapsed from above him.

There’s bile rising up the back of my throat and I don’t even have time to move before it's all escaping out my mouth, Hongjoong springs back in surprise, the others either looking away or screwing their faces up in disgust. An arm is wrapped around my shoulder and I lean back into the body once I’ve dry heaved a couple times with no result.

The arm encasing my frame didn't ease up, but this is different from the times the pirates grabbed me before, this wasn’t restricting at all, in fact it was comforting, warm and made goosebump ripple and erupt like little volcanoes across my skin.

I’m still tucked tightly to the chest of the pirate behind me when another kneels in front of me, “you guys were hiding weren't you?”

“Hongjoong─” another voice intercepted the air as the ship's captain asked his questions.

A chuckle comes from my lips at the irony of someone other than Akio defending or mildly protecting me, a wipe my cheeks free of tears, not cleaning my throat before I talk

“What gave it away?” even to me my own voice sounds brittle.

One of the other pirates from behind Hongjoong, crossed his arms over his chest leaning in to contribute to the conversation,

“Believe it or not darling but you're not the only one on this ship to have been in hiding before”

I look up, eyeing each of them from head to toe, what were their individual stories?

Hongjoong shifts his weight easing from one bent leg to the other, probably trying to stop them from going numb.

“Back in your home, you asked me Who I was?”

My spine goes rigid despite being moulded to the chest of the still unknown body behind me. They can never know.

Here it comes.

“I think it’s time I ask you the same thing”─ there it is.

I avert my eyes from the captains, he continues.

“So who exactly are you?”

Shit.

“My name is Akari Golwerin, I’m the daughter of a wealthy merchant from the north”

A lump formed faster than the rapid beatings of my heart

“And the guys who attacked you both?” Hongjoong looked at the expression on my face, as if trying to figure out whether it was put on or not, almost as if he was looking straight through me, the nerves begin to bundle.

“Sent by my father” my reply is quick and straight to the point

“A wealthy merchant's daughter is in hiding, what did you do?” Mingi asks, earning himself a sharp and quick jab in the ribs from San. The slightly short male, saves me in a way he never even knew when he retorted

“We don’t tell each other everything, her business is her own”

The bundle of nerves tightens to a full blown knot now. They can’t find out, I fear if they do they will either kill me or hand me over to my father.

Either option is not viable in my view, my only choice was to make my old man pay for what he did to us.

What are you going to do now?

Akio’s voice spoke silently like a whisper in my head, the voice grew louder as it repeated itself over and over. I’m voicing a verbal reply to my brother out loud before I can even stop myself,

“I’m going to make him wish I was never fucking born”

❈ Next Part

[pvrkacciosan]

Prologue

❈Through HELL or HIGHWATERS Masterlist

Taglist: (if you wish to be added or removed just ask)

Word count: 429

A pair of icy fingers dug deep into the flesh of my forearm in the dark, I jolted up smacking my face off something solid.

A small explosion of pain burned around my face, gripping the side of my head I peeled open my left eye to peer up at my brother hovering above me, rubbing his forehead. His promenant high cheek bones angled his face perfectly in the small amount of light in my still dark room.

"Akio, what are you doing?" I quierried, glaring at him. He pointed at something on the floor at the foot of my bed,

"I was going to dump a bucket of water over you, but you started having a nightmare so I thought to be nice and wake you up first"

I put my hands under me, pushing up my weight I tried to get a glimps of the bucket,  it was filled to the brim with water, that had small floating peices of ice in it. I quipped up an eyebrow.

"So you were still going to dump water over me?"

His face broke out into an excited grin, "Exactly!"

"Oh how considerate of you" I said flatly, shoving my hands into his shoulders, he stumbled away from my bed a small laugh coming from his parted lips

"Listen," He spoke with a tone and air of seriousness, catching my attention I watch as he rubs at the skin at the base of his neck.

"I have to go out of town again, to do my checks"

I frown throwing my hands onto the thin blanket covering my legs. It only felt like he had just gotten back from his last trip.

"but you only just got-"

"I know, I know" he prattled softly, sitting on the side of my bed, he placed a soothing hand utop my knee. He thumb rubbed it in small circles.

"I'll try not to be long"

A sudden prick of unease curled in me, as tears burned the brink of my eyes.

"You can't leave," Akio gave me a glare, much like me he hated being told what to do "it's almost Mum's anniversary" I watched his glare almost instantly mellow out.

He shuffled up the bed towards me, taking my arm just below the elbow, "I know it's hard for you, but you know why I have to do these checks"

Yes, I did, but that didn't mean I liked the reasoning behind them. But none the less, I sigh and look him dead in the eye.

"How long will you be gone?"

❈ Next part

[pvrkacciosan]

Forceful Removal

❈Through HELL or HIGHWATERS Masterlist

Taglist: @dreamiezpsycho @piratequeen-queenofgames

@ms-starlight @yunascular (If you wish to be added or removed just ask)

Word count: 3.2K

Warning: Swearing, violence, death

Akari's POV

"What the fuck were you thinking bringing them here?!" Akio bellows in my face, his knuckles no longer a balance between his normal lightly tanned skin colour, his hands all but gone white from pressure, the pressure he was pushing through his hand from his grip on the table.

"I don't know I was-"

"Kari, I have simple rules," he points in my direction, face turning red, spittle close to flying out his mouth "rules which you agreed to follow!"

He is right so therefore it's annoying me.

Chewing into the side of my lip, my eyes drift into the sitting area where Akio had tied up the group of pirates. All back to back with their arms and legs bound, their weapons a pile by the door.

My eyes drift over to Wooyoung, who only woke up a couple minutes ago, I can only imagine the shock he must have felt when he woke. His cheeks appeared flushed, and he looked as though he seemed to be growing a fever, his skin looking almost yellow. I’m suddenly more concerned for his health, and it surprised me when I found myself forgetting about the argument, or should I say one sided yelling session I was currently being subjected to.

"Kari look at me"

My defiance annoys him, so therefore I ignore him.

A deep sigh leaves his lips, " I know you're not happy"

"Not happy?" I snap my head up, "did you only just figure that out? Come on Kio I thought you were smarter than that"

I swear smoke is flowing from his nostrils, like a fire breathing dragon, " do I need to send you to your room?"

He can't be serious? He is fully leant against the table by now staring me down. I copy him, slapping my hands down onto the slab of cold countertop material ,

"Your not my father, you have no way to make me do that"

His face instantly faltered, sorrow flowing over every feature on his rough face. It was only now that I took notice of the stubble running along his jaw bone and chin and the deep sunken look of his eyes, he looked so unbelievably tired. It physically made my heart hurt inside my chest cavity.

"I-I'm sorry" I whisper into the air between us,

The weak shake of his head when he refused to look at me made coils of guilt build in my stomach, feeling like I was going to throw up. Akio is always going away doing his checks and this is how I repay him.

I can't help when my lower lip begins to shake under the sheer pressure of the emotion I try to bottle down, biting back at the bile rising.

"I'm sorry" I whisper again, almost flinching from the raw disappointment shimmering onto my brother's face.

"All those years I've done my check to make sure we were okay, that you would be safe, All I ask is that you don't drag attention to yourself, do I need to remind you of what happened last time"

It suddenly felt like loads of insects were crawling along my skin. No that reminder was plenty,

"I shouldn't have brought them here, but what was I supposed to do, leave him to die?"

Akio pinches his nose, "Akari I love you so much because you're my little sister, I swore to protect you and everything I've done since we moved here has been to ensure you stay safe, if they talk I- I just I can't.."

"You can't do what?" the words got clogged in my throat when I spoke them, if he was about to say what I think he was.

"I can't let them go"

There it was, looking back to the pirates tied up I struggled to suppress the weep of emotion bursting at the seams. I hadn't known them long but when I looked at Wooyoung my heart plummets into my stomach, making my insides feel so heavy, as if I've been filled with weights and tossed into the sea.

"If you're worried we will tell anyone of your location you are wrong" a voice spoke from the direction of the Pirates. San.

He had somehow wriggled himself forward, the rope drawn tight against his wrists still behind his back.

"This is none of your business" Akio snapped, but San persisted on, his ambition was admirable, I fraction of a smile lurked onto my lips.

"We won't tell anybody, we swear" he awkwardly angles his back for some unknown reason and it isn't until Yeosang looks down to his friend that we both realise what's happening

"Are you trying to fucking make a pinky promise?" the other Pirate asks, voice raspy with confusion.

San jolts back into a sitting position, head turning to look at Yeosang while pulling a face "there is nothing wrong with a little honesty once in a while"

I almost laughed aloud, but managed to stop myself, the sound of others was still a weird aversion for me. Often when Akio was away doing his checks I spoke very little, my home wasn't used to having banter in it, the walls and room grew quiet after so many nights spent with the sound of me weeping myself to sleep after a nightmare.

What might my life be like if I knew people outside my brother and Shiber. My chest restricts at the thought, the thought of what I've missed out on in life purely because I've been stuck on this lump of rock.

"We could let them go" I mutter, if these pirates have the choice of a better life than what I have right now then I will make sure to give them that opportunity.

A muscle in Akio's cheek twitches, he sighs while looking to the counter top a vein suddenly appearing on his forearm.

"Akari"

I feel a muscle twitch in my own jaw, I raise my gaze to meet Akio's, his eyes no longer hold their rounded softness, instead being sharp and narrow in a way I've only seen once, there must have been something he saw in my expression because what he said next shocked me straight to my core.

"Fine."

I don't wait a second to race across the room, grabbing a knife from the countertop as I pass. Dropping onto the ground a couple of the Pirates look at me with a perplexed expression but don't shy away as I start to cut away at the rope bounding them all together.

Finishing off after the other I am lastly cutting the rope around Wooyoung's limbs, my fingers brush along his rapidly heating skin.

His gaze magnified to mine and I felt the second the world stopped on its axis, the air halting in my lungs.

There was something unbelievably attractive about him despite his current sickly expression.

I bead of sweat trickles down the side of his temple and I have to pry my eyes from his direction as my cheeks turn to molten lava, I focus my attention back to cutting the rope from his wrists.

When the last strand snaps loose his hands fall apart from each other and two of the other pirates come to his side to help him up to his feet.

I climb up from my knees standing before the group, they watch me like analysts, it makes my skin crawl from the attention but I divert myself, they should be leaving before my brother changes his mind.

As I walk myself to the other side of the room I gesture to their weapons, saying nothing as I walk back in Akio's direction.

His lips part as if he is about to speak but the words seem to lodge themselves half way up as no sound comes from him. And so I walk straight past, towards my room.

I can hear the soft patter of Shiber behind me and as I step into my room I wait for him to come in after me before shutting the door over.

✥﹤┈┈┈┈❈┈┈┈┈﹥✥

I'm suddenly jolted awake when a resounding thumb echoes through the house. Shiber sits up, his ears perked up on alert from next to me on the bed.

There's another thump then whispered voices which I don’t recognise coming in through from the kitchen area. I throw the covers from around me, swinging my legs off the bed rising up as Shiber jumps off after me.

The floor is cold against my bare feet but I try my hardest to ignore it as I reach for the door knob, twisting it slowly I wait for the door to creak as I slowly open it, the hinges, much to my surprise, actually stay quiet, making it a much stealthier move as I slither out into the shadow of the small hallway.

There is a warm glow of a lit lantern brightening up the passage through and as I avoid all the wooden floor boards that could get me noticed I leap lightly across a few until I'm hidden behind the wall, peaking my head around it.

Four burley shouldered men, dressed in dark clothing stood around our kitchen, one was off to the side leant into the archway leading through to the living area. I try to not find amusement in the idea of what might happen if he put too much of his weight into the beam but as one of the men steps aside my heart drops into my stomach at the sight I sit witness to;

Akio is knelt on the ground with one of the men standing behind him with a knife to his throat, his head tilted back as he seemed to stare daggers at the man standing in the doorway. His eyes burned with an anger so potent in the air it made me somewhat scared to look in his direction.

Before I'm able to do anything else the man in the archway begins to talk. It silences everything inside me as I focus on turning my head so I can better hear the words coming from him.

"Just how long did you think you could hide?-" he started, a hint of blissful amusement in his tone, "I'll give it to you, I'm impressed with how well you managed it '' he finished walking up the Akio he leant forward so his face was almost brushing Akio's.

A small gasp breaks from me when the man drives a fist up to strike Akio across the cheek, I slap my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound.

The man turns to look in my direction and I'm quickly spinning to press my back to the wall, squeezing my eyes tightly together while I wait for someone to move towards me, no one does.

The is a small snuffle from next to me and I spot Shiber move in my direction, I assume he will stop but when he doesn't I reach to try and grab him but he somehow evades my hands and runs to the other side of the room slipping out the house by a small dug out hole.

Did the little twat just abandon me?

I barely realise I've now exposed myself until I hear a light chuckle coming from over my shoulder, "Well, well there's the little runt in all her...glory," his voice rattles in through one ear and out of the other, it makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

Akio has now spotted me and his eyes have sunken in sadness and panic as he stares at me, I can feel his sudden worry rolling from him in my direction, As the Man starts to strut in my direction Akio manages to jolt himself free of the other man's grip.

Kicking out one of his legs he swipes the man off his balance, he lands hard and Akio doesn't have time to move before a couple of the guys have tackled him to the floor of our kitchen.

"Kari run!" he yells at the same time the leader yells

"Grab the little bitch"

I spring myself up and begin running when I hear footsteps behind me, I run back to my room jumping over my bed, I throw open the side door, leading into Akio's room, I know the best hiding place.

The fight the urge to look over my shoulder when I hear the henchmen crash into my room behind me, knocking over the few things I do own. My heart only goes out to anything he may have broken when it sounds as if he falls to the floor.

When I make entrance into Akio's room I am halted when I spot the chaos that was once his well organised room, he had close to nothing in there but somehow it now appears as if his room is a dumping ground for every object in the room.

The sheets of his bed are all over the place and splatters of blood cover the cream cotton sheets and floor boards. I run again when I hear the guy behind me swear as he gets back to his feet, I leap over a fallen over pile of books I had never seemed to notice before, but just as my foot comes into contact with the floor again another man, covered almost entirely in blood, sporting a black eye, appears in the open entrance to Akio's room.

He smirks at me, perfectly showcasing the blood stained gaps from missing teeth in his mouth. I cringe at the idea of the metallic taste of blood, but I try to side step away from his outstretched hands only to practically run straight into the path of the man clattering into the room behind me.

A yelp of pain leaves me when he painfully fists my hair from behind, the roots burning when he begins to drag me over the objects and junk lying around the room.

I struggle to get a footing as he hauls me through the house, the bloodied man laughing as he watches me twist and turn in pain.

My hands are clawing at his solid hand holding my hair, he only clenches his fist and yanks at the coil of my hair he has fisted.

Burst of pain like nothing I've ever felt before bloom from ever centimetres of my scalp, like someone was pouring acid onto an open wound I cry out when he purposely slams my into a wall as he round a corner to the kitchen, My ribs crack into the beam and I can already tell it's going to leave a bruise.

He hauls me up right so I'm kneeling beside Akio. I can see the concerned look he is sending me from the corner of my eye but I'm too busy staring the guy in front of me down to turn and acknowledge his look.

The ringleader of this whole...operation crouches down to my eye level and he begins to analyse my face, I build up the saliva in my cheeks before spitting it straight into his sour expression.

His eyes were closed but he brought a hand, using his sleeve to wipe away my attempt at defiance. There is a sudden tug at my hair and my neck is then exposed as the man opens his eyes once more, looking down to me he sends a look to the man gripping my hair.

"I should have expected such actions from Akari, or would you prefer to be called by your other name?"

I don't think I can stop scowling now, "I don't know what you're talking about" If only...

A smile smears his horribly ugly fucking face, "Oh, I think you do...Phantom"

"Fuck you." I spat, My response was rewarded with a hard punch to the side of my temple, then another, another and another.

At some point I was let go by the guy behind me, I fell forward and a swift kick landed into the ribs that I'd hit off the wall before.

I can hear Akio screaming that he's going to kill them. I feel as though I'm about to lose consciousness as I could have sworn I saw actual stars floating in the sky but I'm hooked back up to my knees and someone has again got a tight hold of my head, They tilt it back and I can do little to stop it as the guys come close to my face.

"Although I know there is someone who is so desperate to see you both, that's not why I'm here, where is it?"

It pains me to pull by features into a confused expression but somehow I manage it,

"Where's the fucking Amulet?!" he suddenly screams in my face, slapping my cheek in his fit of anger.

There's a bark that resounds through the air and Shiber comes running into the room, I try to warn him off but my small furry companion runs straight for the man who had just hit me, his jaws clamping tightly around the guy's ankle, the man howls in pain as a result.

As I look up I spot another group running into the house after Shiber. At first I assume this is backup for the guys who had ambushed Akio and I but I feel a shimmer of excitement pulse through me when the faces of the Pirates from earlier come into focus in my field of vision.

So that's where Shiber ran off to.

I'm suddenly dropped, and my head hits the ground hard. Everything becomes a blur, I must have hit my head harder than I originally thought because at one point Akio was in front of me, and then Wooyoung appeared and the pair of them seemed to start arguing.

The room around us seemed to grow in temperature and when I lift my heavy head from off my shoulder I see the dance of fire as it climbs the walls around us.

"Just please get her out of here" I catch Akio yell over the roar of the fire clawing at the ceiling above us.

I feel my body being passed off to someone's arms and the gravity around my changes as I'm picked up off the ground, I'm unable to control the weight of my head and it lulls off into the side of someone's solid shoulder.

I try to fight the urge creaking up my neck and to the back of my head, but the allure of darkness is much stronger than my will.

The last thing I see before the world goes black is Akio being trapped off by a beam collapsing from above him, he catches my gaze and seems to give me a look I don't quite understand, in his final stand in life I am able to see the evidence of a tear as it curls down his cheek bone.

I want to call out for him, but I'm unable to call out to my big brother as the roof encased in flame collapses from above him.

I lose the fight to the darkness, as everything goes black.

❈ Next Part

[pvrkacciosan]

Unexpected Beginnings

❈Through HELL or HIGHWATERS Masterlist

Taglist: (if you wish to be added or removed just ask)

Word count: 3.7K

It had been a little over a week since Akio had left to do his checks.

Over the passed few months he had been doing them more frequently, and I could see very clearly how that fact alone was putting him on edge. When ever he was home, he always glanced over his shoulders and kept the curtains shut.

Although he was still as annoying as ever when he was home, I couldn't help but miss him dearly when he wasn't here. I missed the bear hugs and the late night games of hide and seek when I had a nightmare and couldn't sleep. And gosh did I miss the dog. Shiber. Our beloved dog.

Usually Akio took Shiber with him to do his checks, but when I persisted this time Akio allowed the small canine to stay.

So here I saw curled under bundles of blankets with Shiber tucked close. It was nice to have the companionship while Akio was gone, it did get lonely sometimes all by myself.

I had people I could talk to, but it just didn't always feel right to do so when Akio wasn't here.

When I made my trips down to the town's market people stopped to chat with me, but I haven't always been the one to hold long conversations, the was always up to Akio.

The people in Zydari are nice and friendly, but most of them look as though they would roll over and die at any given moment. The population of the small sea side town was mostly made up of elderly, they were the many who refuse to leave after the towns old economy collapsed after the war. When Akio and I had first arrived when I was fifteen and he in his early twenties, the people had told us that many of them grew up here as kids when Zydari was vibrant and alive with music and colour.

To me now that is hard to see, but it works. I'm happy here with Akio, we have never had such a good life as we do right now and I wouldn't change it for a thing in the world.

I throw the blanket of from over my head sitting up straight in the bed, the room around me was not my own, mine was a lot messier then this.

I was currently in Akio's room with Shiber on his bed, something that was not allowed to happen when he was here.

Throwing the blankets back I slip from the mattress, Shiber rolled over laying on his tummy while he watched me from the bed.

"Come on Shibs" I call as I follow the cold floor boards through the shack we call home.

I slid into the would be kitchen and op

En up the top cupboard, empty.

Definitely, not what I wanted. Shuffling over to the other side, I could hear the small claws of Shiber shadowing behind me. The next cupboard I opened was basically also empty, besides a small rope string bag of apples.

Grabbing one, I pushed the door shut and walked from the 'room'.

I munched on the fruit while I walked back to my own space, the juice was slightly sour and I wanted o badly to screw my face while it made my mouth tingle. Apples were not my favourite.

The small expanse of my 'room' came into quick view, it wasn't much,

A bed, a chest to put my clothes into and a wooden plank for a shelf. It wasn't a lot in terms of belongings but it was enough.

I walked may way over to the chest, I grabbed the lid pulling it up with a heave of audiable effort. The sight in side was one of an organised choas, a mix of cotton shirts, dresses, a singular pair of trousers. A couple of whale bone corsets were slid into a mesh hang on the roof of the chest.

I grab one, leaning into the chest I decide on a plain white cotton shirt and a long dulled navy colour skirt.

I didn't take me long to dress myself. Attaching each individual hook of the corset to each other across my front, I suck in a breath to enable myself to clip the top few over.

Grabbing the cotton white shirt off the bed I make quick work of drawing it up over my head.

The small patter of claws on wood resound from somewhere behind me, Shiber sounded like he was stalking something once more, perhaps a mouse maybe

I move across the room to what was once a mirror, the shards had been laying somewhere when Akio found it, its edges were sharp and I had cut myself on them plenty of times before, but I quickly learned to stop picking it up while looking into it.

Brushing a few loose strands of my dark hair away from my eyes, rubbing away at a smudge of dirt on my cheek.

I hadn't always been so fond of my looks, sometimes my hair looked too dark for my liking or my eyes were too blue. Akio had discouraged my insecurities many times before, he always told me I looked a lot like our mother. I don't remember her face, or her voice but for whatever reason I could remember her having piecing blue eyes, Akio says I took her genes with that.

I smile at the thought of my brother, he often cursed me for being the 'lucky' one, he wished he had been the one to have blue eyes. But as he had said before, it was just my luck that I got her eyes.

Clearing my throat of a lump that had formed, I slouch off to grab my boots. I would be needing to go to the market today and I was already wasting sunlight.

Grabbing the footwear by the brim I haul them up from the floor, sitting down with one in my lap I undo the laces. It was a messy task, but one I completed quickly.

The high rise leather tucked tight to my calf when I sunk my foot into the boots base, I start the next challenge of tightening the laces up again. Repeating the same two tasks with the other boot, I stand and shake the dress skirt down until it covered my legs and the top half of the boots.

Quickly I gather my things and head for the door. Shiber quick to be at my heels, the small patter of his paws resounding behind me once more.

"You okay boy?" I ask leaning over to smooth the little hairs on the top of his head. He replies with a small yip and movement from his curled tail that sat like a stump on the top of his backside. I smile at the sight.

Moving out the door I leave the house behind after shutting the door behind me. The route down to Zydari's market wasn't one the took someone long to walk, the rough steady level path was deadly when wet and I often tried to not walk on it when it was raining, but it was something I could follow. The soles of my boots scuff the ground as I walk along, Shiber at my side.

The soft face of the canine glances up at me, tongue hanging out of his loose jaw.

A dull ache builds in my shins as I climb a small incline. The walk to the market wasn't long but it did get a little tedious after doing it several times a week. Holding onto the material of my skirt I stop taking fresh intake of cold air into my lungs, almost there.

I knew as soon as I reached the top of the incline I would be able to see the market buildings, I could already hear the steady bustle of the people going about their mid-day errands.

Shiber ran on last me, flexing his use of four legs in my face. He bounded his way to the top, the stumpy curled tail wiggling on his backside. He spared me a sudden pant and tongued 'smile'.

I laugh, running to chase him with arms held out at my side, he took off running away from me.

The market came into sight when I reached the top, panting I watched Shiber running of towards it his little legs carrying him away from me. I place my hands onto my hips, feeling them brush the bottom of the corset.

Damn, I'm so unfit.

It took me only about two minute to walk the path, I was quickly engulfed into the bustle of the afternoon. It hadn't been my intention to sleep most of the day away but when Akio was away I had no reason to really get out of bed, unless to eat.

Shiber was again at my heels, the pair of us moved through crowds of people as they moved.

Freezing, I let a women with greying hair and a hunched back to pass in front of me.

Zydari seemed to have less enthusiasm to it today, the sky was duller, less people were out.

Shiber led the way towards our usual market, we had no trouble getting there like we usually did. No people got in our way and we got there in a new time record.

The run-down familiar building quickly came into sight, the small wooden sign hung by the door swaying in the wind. The windows were dust covered and yellowing, but the entrance was wide and open with a couple of barrels on the front porch.

I walk up into the threshold being hit with the smell of damp molding wood, glancing up to the water dripping support beam I wince, in a few years time many of the building in Zydari's market would be decrepit and unsafe to use.

I wooden bucket position under the leak. I walk around it, narrowly avoiding knocking it over. Shiber sticks his snout close and takes a wiff of the buckets, shaking his head, he walked off behind one of the shelves.

I pluck a couple things off the shelves as I pass, moving through the muscle memory. Arms hugging objects to my chest, I walk around coming to the wall covered in weapons, my eyes cast up to a set of twin blades, the pair are curved and the metal shines in the light streaming in through a hole in the roof. Beautiful. They hang on the top hooks on the wall, looking like a stag head stuck up for decoration.

Balancing my objects into one arm I reach my right hand up, stroking my index along the blade towards its tip.

"Magnificent set of blades those are" a voice spoke suddenly from behind me, surprised I flinch, my finger tip snagging against the sharp edge of the blade. An instant sting blooms in the full length of my finger.

Everything in my arm clatters to the floor as I spin around to face the figure behind me. A man stood in taggered clothing, with hair long around his face he waited studying me, he had his arms folded behind his back and he was watching something, "You cut yourself"

As if I hadn't noticed. I shake my hand out by my leg, crouching down to start collect my items. The man joins me, grabbing hold of a cloth wrap. He hold it out infront of my face.

I glance up and meet his eyes, and suck in a breath, there was something about him...

He catches sight of something and at first I assume he is staring at my breasts, before I go to slap him but I realise he isn't looking at me inappropriately he is instead staring at something hanging infront of them. His interested eyes watch the pendant as it swings around from my neck, falling out from the cover of my shirt.

I hurriedly put my things down, grabbing the pendant I hid it back under my shirt and the guy meets my eyes once it's concealed once more.

He goes to say something but I gather my things, snatching the wrap from him I stand rushing over to the counter. Dumping the items into it, I look over my shoulder, unnerved to find him watching me. Act natural. Clearing away the anxiety creeping up the back of my throat I look back to the counter, Kaoran, the elderly shop keeper was standing their his usual wrinkled smile peering at me.

"How are we today, kid?" he asked his croaky voice sounding harsher then usual, his boned fingers shook as they picked up my objects and bags them for me.

Despite being unnerved by the guy, I was relatively fine, not that I would ever wish to lie to the elderly gentleman.

"I'm doing as good as always" I make myself say, he pushed my now bagged items across the wooden countertop to me. I go to hand Kaoran the money for my purchases but he curls his hand around my, closing my finger.

"Keep it"

Instantly I begin to shake my head, "Kaoran, I can't it's your money"

The stubborn old man turns away from me, walking towards the back of the shop

"Kaoran" I call out, but he simply taps his ear with a single finger, uttering a quick 'I can't hear you, sorry'

A heavy sigh escapes me, this was the fifth time he had done this, I wanted so badly to pay for what I buy but since he too had noticed how Akio was leaving more frequently he had started giving me stuff for free. He had once made the trip out the back to Akio and my home, the argument we had about that made me smile now.

Kaoran's knees looked like they could give out any second and yet he insisted on walking back over the hill after dropping off some tea for me while I was sick, Akio had been away doing his checks once more and Kaoran had noticed my absence in the shop.

No words could fulling describe the admiration I had for the old male, I couldn't imagine my time here when Akio was away without him. Grabbing the bag from the counter I make my walk back over to the entrance of the shop. Scouring each aisle for Shiber, he wasn't in the store.

My boots scuff the wood on the porch when I step out onto it,  Paper bags hugged to my body a peer around for any signs of Shiber, a couple of people walked past and I had to move to see past them when I caught a small glimpse of Shiber's stubby curled tail as it disappeared behind a building. I grip my fingers around the thin paper bag before rushing off after the small canine.

A speed around the corner and freeze at the sight in front of me,

"Shiber. Come." I snap my fingers pointing to the ground at my feet, the creepy man from the shop grips the scruff of Shiber's neck. Preventing the dog from coming back to me, my blood runs cold in my veins stopping my movement. I smell the scent of the nearby salt water, hear it crash into the rocks, it calms me as I try to figure out a way to diffuse this situation.

The man from the shop looks up at me, his eyes peak with curiosity and he points a singular rough skinned finger in my direction.

"You've been hiding for how long now?"

My heart stops.

He laughed, smiling at me while he tightened his grip on the squirming Shiber, my heart went out for my canine companion, I had to find a way to seperate them.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I break out, his tight lipped sneer sending shivers racking my spine, stiffening it into a board.

"Who I am doesn't matter, you on the other hand-" his sentence is broken when a man comes flying around the wall from behind me. He crashes straight into me from behind, knocking me flying forward onto my knees, dropping my bag of items as I extend my hand to catch myself. He landed on his knees up straight next to me.

I turn my head to glare at him, the male looked around the same age as me he had dark hair with the top layer of the strands being a mix of blonde and blue. His appearance struck me, he definitely  was not from around Zydari, I would know him if he did, I couldn't stop the part of me that saw his handsomeness.  He quickly jumped to him feet, a weapon held tightly in his fisted right hand.

He spares my crumpled figure a quick glance and when his dark eyes meet my gaze, my heart stops for a moment in my chest. He was breathing heavily, but his eyes held a sort of kindness to them. He extends a hand out for me, I don't hesitate to take the gesture.

"My deepest apologies ma'am" I hadn't expected him to sound the way he had, but as he pulls me up from the floor, I take the chance to take in his appearance.

He was in a dirty cotton shirt that appeared as if it was once white, his brown trousers were tucked with a leather strap where his weapon must have been hanging, my throat dries up as I'm struck with a sudden realisation. He is a pirate.

A scream lodges in the back of my throat pulling my hand from his I back away until my spine hits a building wall. A look of disappointment flickers through his features but he covers it up quickly turning back around to the man, who still held tightly to Shiber. I cast my half terrified gaze to my beloved companion as the guy curls his salt cracked lip up into a snarl.

The pirate flips the thin sword he was holding, playing around with the handle.

"You didn't think we could let you go so easily? You've got a high price on your head" he spoke.

The man laughed, roughly throwing Shiber forward, the small dog ran past the boy's legs, hurriedly in my direction. I reach out and wrap my arms around his furry body, hugging him to me. I scurry out of the way as the pirate launches forward, sword raised as he jerks it at the man.

The dark male seemed to move like fluid as I watched from behind a barrel, fingers gripping the top, fixated on the two as they moved around in a violent dance for dominance. I had no clue what trouble they had between them, but I certainly was not getting in the way of a pirates business.

The man from the shop continued to side step and evade the young pirate's attack─ after attack. I could see the moment the young pirate grew more frustrated, his moves became sloppy and uncalculated as he stabbed his sword at the man. The older male grabbed hold of the Pirates wrist, with an inhuman amount of strength he flung the boy up into the air.

A scream tore from my lips when the pirate landed into the crates behind which I was hiding. I wriggled out from under the rubble, Shiber tapping his paws in front of me, begging me to crawl out faster. The corset wrapped around my torso made it near to impossible to move, I don't know why I continue to put the stupid things on. The dress did nothing to stop my knees from being cut up as I crawled out. I grip onto Shiber for balance when I get to my feet. Spinning, I gasp when the man appears right in front of my face.

His breath mocked the skin on my cheeks and I had to resist the urge to vomit when bile rose at the back of my throat. He was far too close, a feeling of coldness passed through the alleyway between the two buildings and Shiber whimpered from someplace behind me. The breath in my lungs evacuated when the man brought a hand up to stroke at the base of my neck, a finger hooking into the chain hung around my nape.

He began to pull it from between my breasts and I snatched it from him right as it was about to appear from under the cover of my shirt. He scowled and a growl of a sound rumbled from within his chest, the noise was interrupted when a sword impaled through his shoulder.

I hadn't realised I had screamed until the sound echoed in my ears, covering my mouth. I watched as the man dropped to the floor, bleeding out all over the cobblestone. My horrified gaze casts up to the young Pirate standing panting, holding the sword covered in blood.

He met my eyes, and despite the blood peppering his face, he still was incredibly good looking. There was no time to exchange any form of communication, as the Pirate dropped to the floor, his own pool of blood pouring out from some open wound on his body.

My jaw hitched open and I sent a look to Shiber, checking if he was alright, he trotted past me, walking up to the young Pirate.

"No nononnon, stop" but it was too late, Shiber was already at the males body, sniffing around from the source of the bleeding.

This was going to go against everything I had ever told myself, but I walked up to the unacquainted duo, crouching. I placed a hand on the back of Shiber's head, patting it I looked at the passed out boy on the floor.

Shiber sat and seemed to smile at me, the stub on his butt moving violently from side to side, In an unmatched excitement I didn't understand. As if he was trying to tell me something, I didn't know how I guessed it but as soon as the thought pondered its way into my mind I sighed, letting my head hang.

I swore I would never have anything to do with Pirates, I guess I was now going to go against years of promises I had made to myself, but It was just one Pirate...

I'm sure it couldn't be that bad.

❈Next Part