Same Ship, New Story
Chapter 1: Two Tickets For Titanic
A/N: I don't own Titanic. I own my characters.
At a small pub in Southampton, 20 year-old Canadian, Balto Kodiak, and 22 year-old Italian, Umberto Nordico, are playing a game of poker. They're playing against two Russians, Boris and Ivan, who were stupid enough to bet their Titanic tickets.
Balto is from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is approximately 5' 10" with hazel green eyes and dirty blonde hair that went down to her shoulder blades. Balto has a scar that goes over her left eye, which she received after an encounter with a wolf in Kaltag, Alaska. She wore a blue hat, which she almost never takes off, a grey jacket, white shirt, and a brown over shirt, brown pants, and tan suspenders. She was a social outcast among all of the girls where she lived, mainly because she only wore mans clothes, and was the only girl wherever she went who was wearing them. She didn't mind, though. She was a poor, rambling artist who made her living off of small jobs and selling her drawings.
Umberto is from Rome, Italy and met Balto while she was staying there. Umberto has dark skin and black hair, brown eyes and is 5' 9". He was wearing a white shirt, grey jacket, brown pants, black suspenders, and a greyish-brown hat. He is also Balto's best friend, and traveling partner. He is poor as well, but perfectly happy and optimistic.
"Balto. You're pazzo, you bet everything we have!" Umberto whispered to her. Balto just stared at him, then back at her hand before she answered.
"When you got nothin' you got nothin' to lose," she replied with a wink. Umberto understood and just went back to looking at the two Russians, pondering their thoughts. The pocket watch that Ivan bet was ticking away, adding to the tension between the four people.
"Alright. Moment of truth. Somebody's life's about to change. Umberto?" Balto said, looking over to Umberto as he laid down his cards. "Niente," she said, raising her eyebrows.
"Niente." Umberto confirmed.
"Ivan?" Balto looked over to the Russian to Umberto's left. "Nothing. Boris?"
Boris laid his hand down with a triumphant look on his face. It took all of Balto's strength to keep back her smile as she looked back at her hand.
"Ooh. Three of a kind. I'm sorry, Umberto."
"Voi idiota! Scommettevate tutto il nostro-" Umberto yelled, before Balto cut him off.
"I'M SORRY! You're not gonna see your dad again for a long time!" Balto yelled back. "'Cause we're going to America, straight flush boys! Whoo hoo hoo!"
Umberto gave an excited yell as he picked up the tickets and shook them in the air as Balto gathered their winnings. However, before Balto could put them in their bag, Ivan grabbed her by her shirt collar.
"Gryaznye malenʹkie dvornyazhki!" Ivan grumbled, raising a fist. Balto closed her eyes and looked away, awaiting the blow. Much to everyone's surprise, he punched Boris square in the nose instead of Balto. "Svolochʹ! Vy idiot! Yeshche by nashi bilety! Nash yedinstvennyĭ putʹ v Ameriku!"
"We go to America, Balto!" Umberto yelled.
"Then take a train home!" Balto yelled back, hugging Umberto.
"No, mate! Titanic goes to America! In five minutes!" The bartender reminded then, gesturing towards the clock.
"Shit!" Balto and Umberto exclaimed in unison as Balto got out the bag they travelled with. Umberto began rapidly pushing their winnings into the bag, and ran out of the pub whooping and hollering.
"We're ridin' high style now! We're a couple of regular swells! We're practically goddamn royalty, ragazzo mio!" Balto yelled back at him, running as fast as her legs could carry her towards the gangplank of the great ship.
"Sì! Come sovranità sulla grande nave che ci prende in America! Poi prendiamo un treno di nuovo al Canada!" Umberto exclaimed, running after her, trying to keep up.
"Can you believe after all these years, I'm finally going back to Vancouver?"
"You're pazzo!"
"Maybe, but I won the tickets! C'mon, I thought you were fast!"
"Sono! Sono solo emozionante e stanco dal gioco del poker! Che cosa siete siete giustificazione?" Umberto hollered in Italian.
"Whoa! Bastard!" Balto shouted as they crossed in front of a horse carriage. They ran up the gangplank just before it was being pulled away. "Wait! Wait! We're passengers! We're passengers!" Balto pulled out their tickets and showed them to the officer.
"Have you been through the inspection?"
"Of course! Anyways, we don't have lice, we're Americans. Both of us." Balto replied, when in reality she was Canadian and Umberto was Italian, but it was 1912. Nobody had any proof.
"Right. Come aboard." The officer told them as they jumped on board, running down to the third class decks.
"We're the luckiest cane bastardos in the world, you know that?" Balto said excitedly as they made their way through the crowds to their stateroom.
"Balto, we're in, eh, 358." Umberto announced.
"Okay, 358, 358, excuse me," she said after bumping into somebody, "358, where's 358? Oh, right here!" Umberto opened the door since Balto had her hands full, and Balto set down their belongings.
"Hey. I'm Balto, nice to meet ya," she said shaking one of their roommate's hands. "Balto Kodiak, nice to meet ya," Balto held out her hand for the other guy to shake. While Balto was distracted introducing them to their roommates, Umberto claimed the top bunk. "Who says you get the top bunk, huh?"
"Gde Ivan i Boris?" Asked one of them. The other guy just shrugged his shoulders and went back to unpacking.
Meanwhile, up on the first class decks, 17 year-old Codie Alaska and his fiancée, 21 year-old Aurora Hawkhide are unpacking in their stateroom.
"Well, I'm goin' up to the deck. See you later." Codie proclaimed as he started walking towards the door.
"Wait right there, young man," Codie's mother told him. Codie stopped in his tracks and groaned, turning around to face his mother. "We have lunch scheduled with Mr. Andrews in less than an hour, and I expect you to be at the first class dining area by then."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, but I want to see more of the ship. At least before we get too far out to sea!" Codie complained. Even though he was seventeen, his mother still treated him like a four year-old boy. He didn't like his mother; much less Aurora, but he had no other options. Codie was about 5' 7" with blue eyes, tannish skin, and blonde hair that was down to his shoulders in length. He was very handsome, and the desire of most of the girls his age in high society. However, he's unwillingly engaged to Aurora Hawkhide, courtesy of his mother.
That afternoon at lunch, since he had nothing to say, Codie kept quiet. He let his mother and Aurora do the talking. Bruce Ismay tagged along for lunch, and Codie doubted he would talk to him or ask for his opinion much due to his young age and lack of life experience. Codie never had much of an interest in construction, or politics, so he only half-listened to their conversation. He was getting bored and would've fallen asleep, had his mother not noticed.
"Codie, sit up!" His mother whispered harshly.
"Excuse me for a minute," Codie excused himself as he walked out to the deck.
"I do apologize for my son's behavior. He's not quite himself today." Codie's mother said, embarrassed by his actions.
"Oh, no need to worry Mrs. Alaska. Quite normal among teenage boys like young Codie. Keep in mind, the lad's still growing." Mr. Andrews replied.
"I suppose," Aurora shrugged and continued drinking her tea.