Castiel really hated pirates. Having a ship attack your crew could really put a damper on both your day and voyage. Usually when they encountered a pirate ship, a few cannons were shot in warning but not much actually happened. Castiel was one of the newer members of the British Navy, and therefore, less experienced. It was only his third voyage when the Winchester attacked, almost bringing down the British naval ship.

Castiel had been in his quarters when something slammed into the ship, rocking the vessel to the side and causing mayhem to erupt in the crew. It didn't take long for Castiel to piece everything together, catching he cries of "Pirates!" as he rushed up to deck. In his hurried frenzy, he ran into his brother, Michael, who shot him a glare before his features switched to one of worry. "Castiel! What are you doing? You should be going down below to safety, not up there!" Calming down, Michael shook his head and tugged the sleeve of Castiel's uniform. "Come on, follow me."

Several other soldiers fled past them, bumping into them and one man nearly causing Castiel to lose his balance. "No, Michael, I'm going up. They need men to protect the ship."

His brother still looked unpersuaded, keeping his grip on Castiel's sleeve. After a moment of tension, Castiel spoke, "See you later, brother." With that, Castiel tore away his arm then sprinted up to the main deck, ignoring Michael's protests.

It was chaos on the upper deck. Soldiers were still attempting to flee down to safety, while others were preparing the cannons and loading rifles. The attacking ship was just in view, a black flag reaching up to the sky. It was dangerously close, so near that Castiel could make out the silhouettes of the pirates scurrying about and could hear their whoops of excitement. Just as the unmistakable sound of a cannon being fired rang in his ears, he could just make out someone calling his name.

Balthazar appeared by his side the moment a cannon ball struck the side of the British ship, another one ripping through the main sail a moment after. Castiel turned to Balthazar, who was examining the damage with a grimace. "Oh dear, Cassie, are we in trouble."

British officers and soldiers were still running around, one defiant crew mate firing a cannon without waiting for orders. The cannonball missed, splashing uselessly into the ocean. An eruption of laughter was heard from the pirate ship. Balthazar made a 'tsk tsk' noise with his tongue and sighed. "Guess this is the end. Oh, the king will have our heads if they don't."

"You're surprisingly calm about this, Balthazar. Shouldn't we be doing something?" Castiel asked.

"Like what?" He scoffed. "Cassie there really isn't much we can do but wait."

Another blast of cannon. The ship tipped to the side once more, and Castiel's fears were confirmed with the shouts of "We're going under!" and then the harsh order from the captain yelling above the mess, "Fire!"

A volley of cannons were shot off, along with a line of rifles. Both Castiel and Balthazar clasped their hands over their ears, ineffectively drowning out the noise. After the smoke cleared from the view of their attacker, they both rushed to the railing.

Maybe one cannon had hit the ship with the massive black sail. Maybe. Mayhem ensured, and when the captain barked out more orders to get everyone to main deck and to fire at will, the enemy attacked first once more. It continued on with guns and cannons that more than often missed. Soon all the crew was on deck, fighting and fruitlessly trying to stop the vessel from sinking. It was all pointless, and the pirate's were getting closer and closer. Surrender was soon necessary when the pirates boarded the Naval ship. Just as the fiends were jumping onto deck, whooping and cheering as they fired off pistols, a bullet knocked Castiel off his feet. He clambered unceremoniously to the wooden floor, gasping shortly out in pain. He was able to scoot off the side and avoid being trampled by the crowd, and asses his injury. The bullet had just grazed his leg. He'd live. Castiel scrambled to get up, only to collapse back down to the ground, failing at using the railing as a crutch.

The captain yelled surrender, but the crew of pirates paid no mind. They already were loading their jewels and goods and weapons onto their own vessel. Several of Castiel's fellow crew mates were chained to poles or had their hands tied behind their back, and neither Balthazar nor his brother were in sight. The pirates snooped around everywhere and were at it for a good hour or so before a man's voice called. "Alright men, let's head out!"

Footsteps echoed on the wooden planks of the deck, a band of hooligans following what was obviously their captain. He was dressed in a long coat and laced up brown boots, his clothing mostly tattered. His honey brown hair was ruffled, and in the glint of sunlight Castiel could make out what appeared to be piercings decorating his ears and eyebrow.

A wider man with a beard and peg leg hurried up to his side. "What should we do with the passengers, Captain?"

"I don't care." He sneered, his eyes snapping around, taking in the scene. "Just leave 'em."

They were nearing Castiel, and he squeezed his eyes shut as if it would make him disappear from the situation.Please don't notice me...Don't notice me-

The heavy footsteps stopped, and Castiel didn't have to open his eyes to know that the Captain had stopped in front of him. He blinked open his eyes to see the captain's vivid green eyes staring back at him. It took all Castiel had not to squirm under his lasting gaze, or look down from it. They both continued like that for what could had been hours, or minutes, or even seconds, it wouldn't have mattered anyways. Dean's lips curved up into a smirk, and yes those were definitely piercings decorating the top of his ears and a hook and stud topping just above his right eyebrow. "'Cept him. Take pretty boy here."

The pirate with a peg leg and two surly men lumbered towards Castiel, yanking him up off the ground and trying his hands behind his back with a heavy knotted rope. He cried out as a wave of pressure and pain shot through his wound, and nearly stumbled back down until a pirate caught him, not so gently forcing him to keep his balance. A gag was quickly forced into his mouth, the vile taste nearly causing him to throw up his lunch. Dean called out something Castiel couldn't understand and he was shoved, the three men leading him next to the Captain as they all rushed across the sturdy plank of wood that lead to the pirate ship. The band of pirates and fiends all made it across, noisily cheering and yelling with excitement of their most recent robbery. Once they were all aboard, the captain flashed Castiel a look and he could just barley make out him telling someone to patch him up. The peg legged man wobbled back to the British soldier, and just before Castiel passed out, he heard the captain shout out above the ruckus. "Burn it down!"

Castiel could make out the gleefully cheering and the smell of burning wood as his vision blurred to black.

"Just drown the pansy, Dean."

"No, Benny. I want to keep him awhile longer. We'll do the usual; See if he's worth it, and if he's not...then we'll drown him."

Castiel could hear the peg legged man's, Benny's, mumbling as sunlight blinded his vision. He found himself tied to a wooden pole, the gag thankfully removed from his mouth. As he pried open his eyes, he saw the captain and Benny both staring at him. Benny still appeared scornful and unamused, but Dean now flashed him a quick smile before demanding. "What's your name?"

"Cas-" His voice was scratchy and several octaves too high until he cleared his throat. "Castiel."

"Last name. Spit it out buddy."

"Castiel Novak."

The captain, Dean, broke into another small smile. "Very good. Weird name. What kind of name is 'Castiel?'

He opened his mouth to speak, but was hushed by a harsh glare from Dean. "Don't answer that."

Benny cleared his throat, announcing his own presence. "Dean-" He warned.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." The captain brushed him off. "I'm getting there." His eyes sparked dangerously as he turned back to Cas. "I'm going to assume you know why you're here and remember us capturing you and etc, but I'll shorten it for you; We burned your ship down and took you as hostage."

Castiel looked down at the wooden floorboards. "I know." He grumbled.

"I thought so." Dean stood up, running his fingers through his already tousled hair. "Now listen, we're happy to keep you here and yadda yadda, but before we can let anyone stay here they have to pass a little test of ours." The smirk he had given Castiel before returned. "You have to fight me, and if you're good enough, we'll keep ya. If you chicken out or are really awful, then you're fish food. Got it?"

Castiel nodded, and Benny was already working on untieing his hands. When the rope fell to the floor, Castiel examined his wrists, which now had a thick line branded into each, undoubtly going to leave an unpleasant bruise later. He was about to stand up when he remembered something. "My leg, it-"

"Don't worry about it, Benny here patched it up for you. Should be good as new." Dean reassured him.

Castiel was more than relieved to find he didn't have a matching peg leg when he looked down to his leg, but did have a piece of fabric from his own clothes secured around the wound. He picked himself up off the ground, finding Dean was only a few inches taller than him.

"You ready, Castiel?"

No, no he was not. Castiel was half tempted to take up the option of flinging himself into the ocean, but instead, he nodded. A crowd had now gathered around them, watching with interest and whispering among themselves, much unlike their usual rowdy shouting. Dean unsheathed his own sword, expertly drawing it out. "Benny, give our guest here your piece" he hollered, and soon Castiel had a metal sword of his own.

Dean stanced himself, and Castiel mimicked his actions. Yes, he could do this. Just try to survive. He'd taken training with swords before, and if he remembered correctly, was exceptionally good at it. Maybe he'd be a bit rusty, considering the military and switched mostly to rifles in the past few years, but at least he knew how to do this.

All that could be heard was the sound of waves pounding against the ship, and they both waited for the other to move. Dean was almost teasing with the way he circled around Castiel, occasionally pretending he was about to swing, his eyes never moving from his captive. Castiel didn't dare to make the first move, so he played along with Dean's game. He moved when the pirate did, readying his weapon and bracing himself when he noticed Dean tensing as if about to attack.

Finally, Dean made the first swing. Castel was quick to guard himself, catching Dean's blade with his own. Noise broke out through the crowd of men, cheers and chants pounding through Castiel's ears. undoubtedly, they were rooting for their captain, but Castiel liked to think that they were his own friends and family encouraging him, despite the cries of "Drown him!" and "Stick it right through him!" There were other insults dragged out at Castiel, so eventually he decided it was best to ignore the noise and concentrate on the only important thing at the moment; Dean.

He really was good. Castiel only had a split second to prepare himself before the captain was moving once more, ripping his sword away from Castiel's and he attacked once more. It had to be luck that Castiel was able to counter his moves, defending himself and never attacking the pirate first. It felt almost like a dance, Dean being the leader. So that's how Castiel saw it as; All he had to do was follow.

It continued in a whirlwind of blades clashing together and metal ripping through the air, coming down to meet a similar element. Once, Castiel dodged the sword so completely, Dean had to pry his blade out of a crack in the wooden floor. Castiel noticed another sheath tied to the back of his belt, this one carrying a smaller blade. "Nice move, Brit." Dean had mumbled, almost smothered throughout the mayhem of the crew.

Castiel made his first attack just a moment after Dean spoke, swinging his sword in the captain's direction. But Dean was faster and their swords met together once more. At some point, they had made it to the stern of the ship where Castiel found himself cornered between the metal railing and Dean, who was taking slow steps toward him, his ever famous smirk lingering on his lips. "Just give up, pretty boy. You're cornered."

Taking a final step backwards, Castiel's body slammed against the railing. He put the sword down to his side, as if in defeat. "I don't think so."

With that, Castiel climbed up the railing, his mind reeling as his leaped off, landing a distance away from Dean back on the port after kicking away Dean's blade. Landing behind the pirate, Castiel swiftly took the small dagger out of his belt, placing it under Dean's chin as he turned around. When their eyes met, Castiel pressed it closer to the skin of his throat. Dean raised an eyebrow, and the two stayed that way for what could have been forever. The band or pirates was silence once more, anticipative for whatever would happen next. Without any further comments, Dean dropped his sword, holding up his hands in surrender. "You got me." Castiel kept the thick blade against his throat. Dean managed a weak smile. "You can put down the blade, sweet heart."

Castiel slowly put down the dagger before holding it out for Dean to take. His smile widening, Dean snatched the dagger and sheathed it back up, now holding out his hand for Castiel to shake. Their hands clasped together in a firm shake, and the crowd of pirates let out a cheer after an uneasy silence. Dean winked carelessly at Castiel. "Welcome to the Winchester, Cas."