Private Tales Above Deck

[Selene]

Selene emerged from the bilge, blinking blindly at the daylight. She stumbled over the last step, not daring to touch her face or rub her eyes now that her fingers has rubbed along the damp length of the wooden planks beneath.

For a moment she looked particularly disgruntled, blinking rapidly to clear her gaze and quickly try to fuss out her surroundings.

“How much of that did you understand?” She asked curiously, calling Gal out in her native tongue. She had expected the woman to listen. She wasn’t bothered as she would have thought she’d be. Rather she was … amused. It had been a small game to her to use grandiose words in particularly invigorating moments, if only to frustrate her kidnapper and subsequent … well. Whatever the hell the pirate was to her now. At the end of it all, she was glad to not be kept down below with her prince. She was sure it was a crueler fate than a well lit, spacious tower.

 

[Gal]

“How much of what?”

Gal didn’t even have to play dumb – Cerano hadn’t yet returned from belowdecks to report on what had been said. Certainly she wouldn’t shed any tears over the fact, though this would hardly change if she actually had to lie.

“You know ships gotta be steered, yeah?” She grinned and turned her gaze back to the endless blue. “Especially in these waters. Lotta isles to round, and plenty of others in the waters too. Gotta keep a weather eye.”

 

[Selene]

Selene near rolled her eyes, but caught herself. The time alone had certainly ... loosened her manners, a fact which called for mild concern as her return to proper society drew all that much closer.

She climbed up the steps of the steering deck, mulling for a moment over today’s developments. Well gods be damned, she was actually going to do this. She was going to marry the oaf. She shook her head hard, dismissing these frets for a private time.

“Do any of those isles have a stream I could wash in? I take it your rations wouldn’t support a bath,” she asked, giving a pointed look down at her dirtied state.

 

[Gal]

“They sure do,” she said with a tilt of her head, tipping the helm a touch to starboard. One of the aforementioned islands was coming up ahead, complete with a long stretch of shoals full of nasty rocks and shipwrecks of those less prudent.

“Don’t see what’s wrong with the sea, though. If it’s good enough for the rest of us, it’s good enough for you.”

 

[Selene]

Selene frowned, holding her tongue. She had no intention of pushing her luck in this situation and she was all too aware that demanding a whole ship stop so she could spare her skin from harsh salt was…

It was certainly a line she wouldn’t consider crossing.

“Very well,” she amended with a careful tone. “How does one … secure a bath then while onboard?”

 

[Gal]

“Bucket.”

 

[Selene]

Her brows pulled in. Her lips pursed. Selene’s eyes flickered left and right, trying to glance said ‘bucket’ around them.

Her protests hung in the air around them, present but unspoken as she picked her battles. Mostly.

Spotting one back on deck, she turned from the woman with a huff and went to it. The task of lowering it into the water was surprisingly hard when one wore a robe with nothing underneath. The semi strenuous task of yanking over rope and setting up the bucket risked several exposures.

But she did it. She had lived alone in that tower tending to all sorts of tasks, she’d be damned if a bucket of salt water would be the thing to do her in.

It sloshed across her front as she lowered it to her feet, the wind yanking her braid into a loose mess around her face. She looked up at Gal, thoroughly disheveled, her hands going to her hips.

“And what,” she challenged. “Just wash myself here?”

 

[Gal]

Gal shrugged the languid shrug of those truly not giving a shit about the situation. Her grin was wide enough to provide the whole answer, but she nonetheless supplied words as well.

To avoid confusion, of course.

“You’re free to carry it below if you wanna.”

 

[Selene]

Her expression hardened. She straightened and practically marched her way back onto the upper deck, looking as rough as she felt as she jerked out her hand expectantly.

“Hand it over.”

 

[Gal]

A pair of unimpressed black eyes met those silver ones from high above. Her smile, however, hardly faltered at the aristocratic tone of voice.

She tilted her head to the side and ignored the demand.

 

[Selene]

Selene huffed in frustration, strained. “P-lease,” she added, each syllable begrudgingly pronounced.

 

[Gal]

“Please, what?” Gal rolled her eyes, then rolled the wheel as the ship began to heel around the island. “I amn’t a mind-reader.”

 

[Selene]

Selene closed her eyes, more tested in this moment than she had been in some time. Zero proper sleep. Kidnapped. Men killed before her. Pirates. Going to home to her father and oh. She’s engaged. To a man.

She took a deep breath, trying to regain her head. “Please. Give the key. To your cabin. So I can bathe.” And regain some semblance of control.

 

[Gal]

“In my cabin?” Brows went up first, then a chuckle escaped her throat. “And what, leave the planks stinking of fish and saltwater the whole night long? Not on your life.”

Gal gestured behind her, to the stairs encircling the galley doors and leading up to the poop deck. “Nobody but you and me topside, princess. Relax.”

 

[Selene]

She opened her eyes, a fleeting look of desperation there before she gained a steely resolve. “Fine,” she snuffed. She had just wanted one shred of dignity in an otherwise degrading turn of events.

Fine.

“And I’m not a princess.”


She turned from Gal and went back down to her bucket, irritated beyond measure as she sat on the deck.

 

[Gal]

“Clearly not,” Gal said, ogling without a hint of shame. “Who’s ever heard of a princess getting naked for a pirate?”

 

[Selene]

Back to Gal, she started the frustrating task of washing the dirt and soot off her body with nothing but a bucket and her hands.

A bare leg was exposed. A shoulder. Selene showed no small amount of exasperation when she realized her ass, too, had gotten mud on it from when she was thrown to the ground.

She glanced back over her shoulder, narrowing her eyes on Gal. “You are taking too much amusement from this.”

 

[Gal]

“There’s no such thing as too much amusement, Selene,” Gal chided on a, yes, amused voice. She closed her mouth again, content to watch the show put on by the sun and moon.

“Y’know… I never got why you mainlanders get so worried over some skin. We all come out naked.” She shrugged, turning the helm portward again as they emerged from the shallows. “It’s just skin, innit?”

 

[Selene]

“If that’s the case, why are you wearing any clothes at all?”

She hesitated for a moment, then let one side of the robe fall off her so she could access her back. She scrubbed her skin red, a blush to her cheeks, trying not to think long on the development of last night.

Gal’s gaze wasn’t innocent and the weight of it only made her blush more. She wasn’t sure why.

 

[Gal]

“Me? ‘Cause the wind’s a cold bitch up north and I don’t want my nipples freezin’ off. And nothing’d ever get done on this here ship if I walked around like the spirits made me.” She cast the girl a long look before breaking out into a laugh.

“Bit hard to rob a merchant with your dick hanging out, I think.”

 

[Selene]

She laughed despite herself, her lips pursing to bite back a smile. “I am pretty sure you do not have one of those.”

She slipped on the robe, then dealt with her other side, the soft curve of her hip and ample rear near blinding as the sun reflected off her.


She was in for a sunburn, there would soon be no avoiding it.


She shook the water droplets off her leg, then twisted to get one last glance at herself before deeming her whole body… acceptable. Quick motions secured the robe back around her and sent the water back overboard.


She carried the bucket back up to Gal, letting it clunk down at the woman’s feet.

“Although I’ve heard of men who dress as woman. Perhaps that is something I wouldn’t put past you.”

 

[Gal]

“Wanna put a hand down my breeches and make sure?”

 

[Selene]

Selene blushed deeper.

She held out her hand, purposely ignoring the question. “Keys, please.”

 

[Gal]

Gal smirked. “Chicken.”

Still, she looped the chain around her neck on one long finger, extracting the key from her cleavage. Her grin grew wider.

“Of course, your majesty.”

 

[Selene]

Selene huffed, snatching up the chain. “If you must know, it’s Princess at most. I will never see the line of succession through!”

She tucked it around her neck. “Unless you go dropping everyone like flies. Which is another thing I wouldn’t put past you just to prove a point,” She snuffed, crossing her arms.