3 Pirate

Of all her luck, of course Cardia would land on a pirate's ship. And who's devilishly handsome at that. Running from home was deemed to be more difficult than she anticipated, but did she really think she'd be able to go about on her own with no troubles inquiring about her? Well, the novels she had read in secret made it out to be that way. The protagonist always found their happy ending but it didn't look like Cardia was going to find hers on this ship.

"Are you going to kill me?" the girl asks, her previous show of courage faltering.

"Why would I stain my deck with your blood?" Kaito questions, making a show of scrunching his face in disgust.

"Make me walk the plank?"

Discontented sighs rise from the crew and she looks back at Kaito who was now looking more annoyed with her questions.

"That's exactly what everyone says when they come on here," he claims whilst looking around at the boys. "Is that how we're seen? Always pushing people off a sheet of plywood?"

Cardia's ears burn from the realization of how naive she must have sounded and her shoulders hunch over in embarrassment. "My father has always said-"

"I'm going to stop you there," Henry says before she could finish, "he's wrong, you're wrong, everyone who isn't a pirate is wrong."

"Yeah," Jasper nods, eyes glancing around at his friends, "we wouldn't make you walk the plank, anyway."

"We'll feed you to sharks if anything." Mark casually shrugs, hands clasped together behind his back.

Kaito's amusement rises when he sees the girl's cheeks grow pale and eyes widen in size. He takes the opportunity to close the distance between the two of them, leveling his playful gaze with hers once she notices his actions. His breath fans against her cheeks and Cardia merely blinks at the sensation.

"Give me a good reason why we shouldn't feed you to the sea," he demands, chin slightly raised in confidence.

"I don't have one," she admits. Cardia wasn't sure if her face was warming up from the beams of the sun or over the fact that he was close enough that she could feel his breathing.

"I don't carry freeloaders."

"I'm good with sewing." She utters out, catching him by surprise. She turns in her spot, looking at each of the boys and their ragged-looking clothing. "It looks like you tear your clothing often. I could re-sew the seams."

His face is unreadable as she awaits his response, and Cardia begins to grow nervous.

Despite being hot-headed and cunning earlier, the adrenaline she beared disappeared and left her in a desperate mess. Internally, she was begging for him to allow her to stay on this ship. Although it wasn't the best of situations, anything is better than going home and facing a future she didn't wish for.

"You'll need to prove your worth." Kaito finally says. "I'll give you until our next stop to show us how good you claim to be. If I think you're useless, we're leaving you wherever we dock. For now, you've got yourself a parley, got it?"

"Yes… sir?" Cardia tilts her head, unsure of how to address him. He looked no older than her but she didn't want to risk the chance of offending him once again. Looks can be deceiving, after all.

"It's Captain Kaito to you, seamstress."

With these final words of his, Kaito spins on his heel and walks away from the group. With his hands behind his back and face only slightly turned to look back, he calls out, "Get those fishes off my deck. If I even catch a whiff of the smell, you're all sharkbait."

Once Kaito was out of sight, Cardia turned to see the crew already staring back at her.

"Um, I look forward to working with you all?"

She only then realized that it was probably the wrong thing to say, especially from the baffled reactions received.

Coming to terms with how embarrassing she can truly be, she ducks her head low, unsure of what to do next. Cardia was on unfamiliar, dangerous territory and the wrong move or word could potentially get her into serious trouble.

She had heard nasty things about what pirates are capable of doing. Highjacking trade ships, stealing goods, killing people. The last thought makes her shiver in fear, wondering how many of these rumors were facts, instead.

"You know," she looks up to see who was talking, finding herself looking at the shortest one among them, "I think I speak for everyone when I ask… How the hell did you end up out there?"

"It's a long story," the young woman sighs, shaking her head at the memories that flooded her mind.

Indeed, it was. After haphazardly climbing down the gutter that was conveniently near her bedroom's window, she was able to escape from her entrapment. From there, Cardia managed to find fishing docks where varying boats came in and out from.

She was able to bribe her way onto a certain fisher's boat with the help of some coins from the pouch she brought. He promised to take her to the next port he would dock in but things went South from what he had promised.

Cramped in the small room under the deck, she overheard the conversation he was having with his two-man crew. Because of the pearls and jewels that adorned her neck and ears, they were planning to rob and abandon her in the middle of their fishing journey. In the midst of panicking, she planned an escape.

Once night would come, and the sky was at its darkest hour, Cardia would unfasten the lifeboat that was located at the back of the boat and sail away. It hadn't been long since she'd left the docks so it couldn't be hard to find them again.

Of course, that's what she had assumed would happen. Although she did manage to escape with the swindling fisherman's lifeboat, finding the docks deemed to be impossible. Night had passed and so did a majority of the morning and midday before she found this ship. In her desperate attempt of getting its occupants' attention, she securely tied her money pouch to your upper thigh and abandoned the lifeboat's security, delving into the water.

"And that's how I ended up here on your ship." Cardia finishes, finding it amusing to see the reactions on their faces.

Christopher lets out a laugh. "I think you're going to fit in just fine."