Izel woke up, in a bad mood. Her bad mood intensified when she looked over and saw the Spaniard, sleeping next to her. He was lucky her clothes were still on; otherwise she would have murdered him.

Mumbling profanities under her breath she got up slowly, stomping over to the window she tried opening it. When it didn't budge, she grabbed a cane near the bed and bashed it open. The glass showered into the ocean, and clattered onto the floor. She was in a bad mood.

Turning around she ripped a piece of cloth from the bed, and took Antonio's spy glass from the vanity.

Why does he have a vanity? She asked herself, maybe he's gay.

Looking through the spy glass, she smirked and saw a ship in the distance, looking closer at the flag, she saw the Aztec inscriptions.

She tied the devil red cloth to the cane, and snapped it in half, tying the other piece of cloth to the other half of the broken cane; she waved them out the window. She could see a figure waving black flags back. Smirking she looked around the room for her weapons, finding them she hid them on her person, stealing a few other things from the Spaniard man. And as if on second thought, she sat down at his desk, put a few papers from a locked drawer in her bag and wrote something placing it in the drawer and closing it again.

Smiling even wider she took the sticks with the cloths tied to them and whacked Antonio on the back, hard. Dropping them on the floor, next to him.

Antonio woke up screaming, "Gaaaghk!" and fell off the bed. When he opened his eyes he saw Izel pointing a gun at his face.

"Where did you get that?" he asked. Izel growled, he looked completely calm, and he smiled at her like the previous night hadn't happened.

"Where are we?" she asked pushing the muzzle closer to his forehead.

Antonio sighed, she was already thinking about escaping. Leaving him.

"Listen, Izel, I can't tell you where we are going, because even I don't know. And if you do blow my brains out, the rest of the crew will come down, and kill you. So you'll never get to see that boy you were running with again."

"He has a name."

"Whatever, now will you kill me or will you let me live, your best chance of escaping is with me alive. Not that I'd ever let you leave me."

Izel ground her teeth together, she knew he was right but she chose to ignore it, instead asking him. "How does a captain not know where he is going next?"

"How do you know I'm captain?"

"…"

"You're right stupid question, I'm the handsomest on board therefore I am captain." He said jokingly. Izel threw the gun down, and wandered around the room, looking for ways to escape.

"Well, Izel, I do not know because we lost our target." Izel whirled around, immediately thinking about her ship.

"No, not your ship Izel, I have only heard of you and your crew, I've never seen either of you before until now. I am a Spanish privateer. I sack coastal towns that aren't ours, I drop off people to colonize areas, and I destroy opposing ships. I am the best privateer that Spain has. But unfortunately, as everyone in the seven seas knows, we go after pirates." Izel didn't respond, of course she knew that, she had spent her first pirate years running from privateers.

"Yes, so?" she asked turning around and running her hands over the ships interior.

"So, there is undoubtedly a prize of a thousand gold pieces for your ship and crew; and thrice as much for you." He replied, studying her. She didn't look nervous, like all the other pirates he had given this talk to.

"What is your name?" she asked suddenly.

"Antonio."

"Well, Antonio, if you have heard about me, then you should know I'm not an easy person to capture. I am not an easy person to scare, or intimidate. And I have a very explosive temper. So if you think that this talk you're giving me scares me like all the other pirates you have terrified, then you're wrong. And you might not want me to escape, but it doesn't mean I won't."

Antonio remained silent for a moment, a setback for him in the conversation, "And how will you escape Izel? Your crew is nowhere near." Izel looked up and smiled evilly, her eyes going brighter.

"Really Antonio? How do you know that?" she smirked, gazing down at the floor next to him. Antonio followed her gaze down to the two makeshift flags.

"What did you-?" he asked shocked, but never got to finish, because his ship lurched sharply to the right.

And all hell broke loose.

Everything in the room that wasn't locked down wandered freely around Antonio's sleeping quarters. Glass fell, and both could hear shouting coming from the deck. Cannon balls blew through the ship destroying everything in their paths.

Yet the only yell that Izel and Antonio heard was Eztli's, "Izel! Come on!" Izel looked at Antonio, and he looked back.

"As you and your people say: Adios!" she said smiling, and she was running up the stairs, faster then lightning. Antonio, didn't waste any time, running after her, dodging cannon balls, and crewmen. His sole purpose was to stop Izel from leaving him.

"Izel!" He howled. She was going, running away from him. He had only known her for a few hours but he already wanted her for his own.

He dodged a flying body, his first mate, José. He landed hard on the deck, but got up anyways, "Hola Antonio! Come to join the fight?" he asked sarcastically.

"My apologies, I had a distraction." He replied evenly, picking up a sword from a fallen crewmate, and fighting with a mulatto pirate. He had dark eyes and a curl, to the left of his face. He was an exceptionally good fighter, but Antonio couldn't be bothered with him when he had someone more important to find.

He was cornered against José, who was fighting an Asian pirate.

"What's up with the chinitos? Isn't the fighter Indian? Eh, hombre?" asked José, smiling. He kicked the pirate straight in the chest, knocking the air out of him and sending him flying.

"Aztec." He mumbled back looking for Izel. He spotted a braid whipping back and forth along the deck. She was fighting with her crew, everywhere, stopping by to help someone, she even hugged a boy— a man almost. He smiled at her and she smiled back, he wished she would look at him the same way. She turned around and caught his eye; she smirked and waved at him, then went back to driving her sword into one of his crewmen.

"Yeah, right, here take this one for me; I need to find their captain." He motioned towards the one he was fighting.

But at the mention of 'their captain' the pirate that was fighting with Antonio went into frenzy.

"Bata! Kite mwen komandan pou kont li! " He yelled and abandoned all his fancy moves to tackle Antonio.

Antonio was battered by fists, and he swore he felt the man bite him. But José had pulled him off and started to bash his head against the railing.

"What was he speaking?" Antonio gasped feeling his face for broken bones.

"Haitian Creole" grunted José while the blood started to run down his hands from the Haitian's wounds. Antonio not bothering to stop José turned around to see Izel running towards him, or more specifically towards José.

"No!" she cried, "Leave him bastardo!" And she socked José in the back of the head, a bone breaking on impact. Growling like a beast she ripped his hands from her crew man and punched him in the stomach multiple times until José began to cough up blood.

Antonio didn't think to help until he saw the blood drip from his friend's lips.

"No Izel!" he grabbed her and gently pulled her away. Setting her on the deck he looked down at her, as if to apologize that he interrupted her from pulverizing his friend. But she wasn't even looking at him; her eyes were on the man on the floor bleeding badly.

She pushed past Antonio, and knelt by the man's side, "Janjak?" she whispered he garbled some words in reply, and blood trickled out of his mouth. She turned around, and looked at Antonio's ship, his crew was hurting much more then hers, the only one from her crew that was wounded was Janjak.

She caught Eztli's eye and he shouted, "Sufficient! I pensar ellos saber ahora no a ensuciar con nosotros, vamos a ir!" Her crew fought off a couple of pirates as they made their way over and on to the ship. She picked up her crew man and threw him over her shoulders.

She looked at Antonio, and smirked down at his friend in his arms, "Don't fuck around with me." Was all she said before she ran and jumped off his ship. She landed in the water, and began swiming towards the rope dangling from her ship.

Breathing hard Antonio pushed his friend into the surgeon's arms and retreated to his room. As he walked down the stairs he couldn't help but marvel at the damage the girl had done. Her crew had helped a lot, but she was the mastermind. The captain.

Antonio smirked as he walked into his room, she was a good opponent. He had underestimated her but he wouldn't in the future, he swore silently. As he changed into a fresh shirt, he lay down to sleep.

But sleep refused to bless him with its shores. So he got up, growling. He walked over to his desk, looking for his papers that gave him orders. They always calmed him, his reasons to live. These papers were especially important to Antonio, they were given to him by the king, but they also licensed him as a Spaniard privateer. He would be lost without the papers because they told him what his next task was once he finished another.

And when all he found in his papers drawer was a single note, he screamed in fear and outrage.

** Izel's ship**

Izel sat next to Janjak as Datu addressed his wounds. He hummed in his language as he stitched together the gash on Janjak's face. When he flinched, Izel took his hand and held it. Janjak opened his eyes, to see his captain next to him. He smiled weakly.

"Buenos Dias Janjak. How are you feeling." She asked softly, fingering the rolls of parchment she had in her pocket.

"Fine, mesi komandan. Ou te jwenn nan?" he asked glancing over at Datu. Whose head shot up, and a mischievous glimmer crept into his eyes.

"Ginawa mo talagang isipin na maaari mong panatilihin ito lihim na mula sa akin?" he asked.

"Sorry Datu, but we didn't think you would approve of a plan that would put Izel in danger." Janjak said apologetically.

"Huh, well you were smart to keep that from me. Now what papers Izel?" he asked pointedly, placing mint leaves on the cuts of Janjak's face.

"Long story." She replied grinning at Eztli who had just walked in.

"We all have time." Datu said sourly.

"Datu, we have been following this ship for days. All for a good reason. You see Eztli got wind of the Spanish plans to re-colonize our village. Not only was this disrespectful to our dead home and loved ones, but we had both planned on going back continually, throughout our pirate careers. And we had planned on settling down once we were done, and we can't do that with the Spanish ready to kill any native around."

"Get to the point!" Datu growled.

"So we followed the ship and pretended not to know what they were doing and we set up a whole charade so that we could get to the same place that the conquistador ship would go. We all had lines and it worked beautifully—"

"So you played at the ship not having any more necessities?" Datu growled astonished that Izel would put her crew in fake but possibly real danger.

"No no, that was a mere coincidence and contributing factor to our plan, anyways we track down this ship, we happen to stop a couple of miles away from them. Then me and Eztli pretend to go off for supplies and Janjak distracts you. Then Eztli and I get caught, and we pretend to run away like desperate helpless sissies—"

"Although, me getting bashed hard wasn't part of our plan." Eztli grumbled.

"And I was the one who suggested we go down the coast Datu." Janjak cut in wincing when Izel took some yellow paste form a pouch on her person and rubbed it on his broke collar bone.

"I'm sorry," Izel said rolling her eyes at Eztli, "I misjudged what he would do! I thought he would try to shoot you, so that's why I made you fall like you were hurt. But he still kicked you, so not my fault." Eztli stuck his tongue out at her.

"Stop playing like kids and go on." Datu said impatiently.

"So I play damsel in distress, and heroically—"

"Honestly, you think that I would let my cousin push me from danger and not go after her?" Eztli said in mock outrage, "I am insulted!"

"- push Eztli forward to the ship, while I cause a diversion and attack Antonio—"

"You know his name?" Janjak asked in disbelief.

"Well…yes. Yes I do, now shut up." Izel said, thankful that her skin was dark enough so no one could see her blush, "Anyways, I purposely let him catch me, I can't believe you Datu, you didn't realize our trick when I let him catch me? So he takes me to shore and I play pretty, vulnerable, flirty teenage girl and he takes me back to his ship."

"Then Izel wakes up—" Eztli said.

"And I take a look around, and steal some stuff, my things…and some papers. Then you guys attack the idiot's ship we escape and we are all safe and happy, the end!" Izel said cheerfully, "Although I am sorry that Janjak got hurt, that was stupid on my part, sorry Janjak." He just nodded and nipped her fingers affectionately.

"Izel." Datu said quietly, "The only thing on these seas that are more dangerous then a pirate…is a crew with brains, backed by an ingenious pirate captain with no morals. I congratulate you all, on keeping this from me and devising a truly devious plan."

Izel grinned down at Janjak and Eztli, while he pulled out a bottle from under the bed Janjak was lying on, "To us the best pirates in the universe." Eztli cheered banging the bottle open on the bed rail. Breaking the bottle cap and spraying Datu with rum.

"Izel," Datu said gravely, "What were those papers?"

"Ah, I thought you would never ask Datu." She said fondly, "These papers," she held up from her pockets, "Are the license for Antonio to be a privateer, the proof that he is not a pirate. Without these he is lost, and an easy target." Datu was silent for a moment, the realization sank in.

"Izel, you are one of a kind." He said eyes wide with shock and admiration, "I can't believe you would do something like that but then again I completely can."

Izel grinned and took a swig form the bottle then passed it to Janjak who started to argue with Eztli who could take a longer drink.

"One thing Izel," Datu said quietly, "We could have taken them even without this elaborate plan, we could have made them vanish from the face of the earth. Your 'gift' is special and you could use it against them. Why didn't you? Unless you specifically wanted those papers. This has something to do with your past don't it?" He asked.

When she didn't answer and just stared out the porthole he whispered softly, "You can't captain a ship unless you let go of your feelings."

Izel said nothing and walked up the stairs to be alone on deck.

** Antonio's ship**

He stared at the note that replaced his paper with venom, but admiration. It read:

When you are reading this right now you will most likely be very angry, and I will have been gone from your ship and several miles away on my own. I was not joking when I told you I'm not the easiest person to subdue. Anyways I am done rubbing this in your face. Obviously I have your papers, you do not. I have control over your future you can only pray that I was in a good mood when I wrote this. Frankly I was not, so instead of offering you this note for a good sum of money, I am playing cat and mouse with you: I am going to make you accept my deal. If not then well say good bye to Spain because you'll only be going back in a body bag. Now the deal; to put it simply, you stay away from the land you were on yesterday, and you will forge a copy of a privateer document with your signature saying that we are a smaller branch of your privateer segment; and you will back us on it. Otherwise, you can kiss your precious 'papers' goodbye. I will await your answer at Tortuga. Normally we would both chose, but oh wait! I have the upper hand here, so I will see your sorry ass in Tortuga, you may bring one man from your crew the rest must stay in port. Heed my expectations; I have friends in Tortuga and under the ocean. They will be watching you. I know that there is a prize for my crew and ship and an amount of money that will set you for life for my head, but you can try and try gain, I will always win. I expect some fights in the future and I look forward to seeing you there…and kicking your ass every time.

Have a nice evening,

I.

"I have underestimated you once Izel but it will not happen again." Antonio whispered softly as he ran his fingers over her word, "But I like that you are unpredictable. That will just make winning and making you mine even better."

He sighed heavily and blew out the candles dousing the world in black, waking over to his floor length window he looked up at the moon.

It's brightness cast a beautiful glow and he could swear that he saw Izel next to him, cuddled in his arms, and standing up on her tip toes for a kiss.

"Izel." He murmured softly.

**Izel's ship**

Izel looked out on the waters, silent, and tired. She looked at the moon's reflection and could swear that she heard Antonio behind her whispering her name.

Eh, yup.

Ginawa mo talagang isipin na maaari mong panatilihin ito lihim na mula sa akin= Did you really think that you could keep this secret from me? (Filipino)

Fine mesi komandan. Ou te jwenn nan?= my captain. Did you get the papers? (Haitian Creole)

I pensar ellos saber ahora no a ensuciar con nosotros, vamos a ir!" =I think they know now not to mess with us. Come on let's go! (Spanish)

Bata! Kite mwen komandan pou kont li!=Bastard! You leave my captain alone! (Haitian Creole)