Chapter One

"If told you that you're not alone,

And I show you this is where you belong…"

~"Unity" Shinedown

.

A warm wind flew through the air, blowing back Matthew's long hair. He stood at the edge of the ship, smelling in the salty scent of the water below. The sun rose slowly on the horizon, painting the sky shades of orange and red. The waves rose and fell, rocking the large ship, that was Matthew's home, back and forth smoothly. The morning was peaceful, and Matthew could predict an easy and beautiful day. The only sound Matthew could hear was the waves crashing up against the ship, and the sound of the crew behind him working. But the morning's tranquility was shattered.

Out of nowhere, Alfred tackled him to the wooden floorboards of the deck, Matthew landing on his left side, directly on his shoulder.

"Morning, Mattie!" Alfred laughed in his ear.

Matthew pretended this wasn't happening. He laid there for a long moment, wondering if he ignored his brother, he'd go away. It didn't work. Alfred just stared at him, allowing his weight to slowly crush Matthew against the deck of The Raven. Matthew sighed. "Morning, Al."

With a giggle from his hyperactive twin, Matthew grunted as Alfred pushed against his right shoulder to help himself stand. Alfred then reached out a hand and helped Matthew stand. "Thank you." Matthew said, giving his brother a nod.

"So what were you doing?" Alfred asked.

"Staring at the sea." Matthew answered, locking his eyes back onto the mesmerizing waves.

Alfred laughed again. "You sound like Dad when you say that."

Matthew turned his attention to Alfred. "Why do you say that?"

"Dad's like, in love with the ocean." Alfred over-exaggerated.

"He's not in love with the ocean!" Matthew argued.

Alfred shrugged. "Then why does he stare at it every morning?"

"Because it's beautiful?" Matthew suggested.

Alfred's face twisted in thought. "No, it has to be deeper than that…"

Matthew rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Al, let's just go get food."

"Food!" Alfred exclaimed before running off.

Matthew sighed with a smile before running after his twin, dodging the working crew on deck. He jogged down the stairs into the galley, where the smell of porridge filled the room. A few crew members stood in front of the cook, Yao, who was serving up a bowlful each. Matthew got in line behind his brother. The line moved, and both he and Alfred got their share of porridge, they said their thank you's, and walked off to a table to sit and eat.

Matthew saw Kiku sitting at a table by himself, so he and Alfred went walking in his direction. Kiku was very nice and quiet, but both he and Alfred were told of Kiku's quick swordfighting abilities. Although his ability to be cut-throat or rude, Kiku was very respectful and caring. It was a known fact that Kiku and Arthur got along well, some people would even say that they act like close brothers at times. Matthew and Alfred both grew up with Kiku as parental figure, just as they did with Arthur and Francis.

"Hey, Uncle Kiku!" Alfred exclaimed before sitting across from their black haired friend.

Matthew sat down next to Alfred. "Morning, Uncle Kiku."

"Good morning, boys." Kiku greeted with a smile as he continued eating.

"How do you say that in Japanese?" Alfred questioned, cocking his head to the right.

Kiku swallowed a bite of porridge "Say what?"

"Good morning." Alfred clarified.

"Oh, good morning would be ohayou gozaimasu."

"That sounds really complicated." Alfred said.

Kiku chuckled. "People say that Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn, but still not as hard as English."

"English isn't too hard." Matthew replied.

"English is your first language." Kiku countered, "it's my second language, and it was very difficult to learn."

"It was?" Alfred asked.

"Hai." Kiku answered. "I'm actually still learning it."

Matthew cocked his head to the side. "You are?"

Kiku nodded, taking another bite of his porridge. "No one really ever knows the complete extent of their language before they die."

"I will." Alfred promised in a determined voice.

Matthew narrowed his eyebrows. "You always say stuff like that, but you never do."

"Name one time!" Alfred challenged with a mouthful of porridge.

Matthew rolled his eyes with a sigh. "You said that you were going to climb to the top of the mast but you didn't."

"That's because Dad stopped me!" Alfred yelled.

Matthew shook his head. "No, it's because you got scared."

Alfred shot Matthew a glare. "No, I don't get scared!"

Matthew rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Kiku had a small, tiny amused smile on his lips before he stood to excuse himself. "I wish I could stay and watch this, but I have work I need to do."

"We understand, Uncle Kiku." Matthew said.

"Yeah, we understand." Alfred added.

Kiku began walking off, saying over his shoulder, "Have a good morning, boys."

"You two!" They both called to their uncle-like figure.

After Matthew and Alfred took their time eating their breakfast, they knew that there were morning chores that had to be done before afternoon training. The brothers played around and had kind conversation with pretty much anyone who entered the galley.

"Good morning, boys." A French accent greeted.

"Morning Francis!" They twins said in unison as they ran out of the galley and onto the main deck, where they immediately heard the sounds of their father yelling at Alistair, who was up in the nest. Matthew followed Alfred up to where their father stood, piloting the massive pirate ship that was The Raven.

"Listen here, you fu-" Arthur silenced the curse that he was yelling and exclaimed, "boys! You're up early."

Matthew looked to the sun, then back to their blonde haired, green eyed father. "No we're not, we're actually late-"

"You don't have to tell him that!" Alfred yelled.

"So you're late?" Arthur accused.

"Well, we were up on time, but we got distracted by talking to people." Matthew explained.

Arthur nodded suspiciously. "Alright. Just go do your chores."

"Can we skip them for today?" Alfred asked.

Arthur narrowed his eyebrows. "And make everyone else do your work for you?"

Alfred hummed in thought for a moment. "Yeah, exactly."

Arthur shook his head, looking from his sons to the sea. "No, we all do our part on this ship. Which means you two need to do your chores."

"Oh, okay." Alfred whined.

"Go on," Arthur began, "the sooner you two do your chores, the sooner we get to have training."

Matthew and Alfred gasped in excitement and ran off to swap the main deck. "I'll swap the main deck, and you go clean with Yao!" Alfred ordered, "We can get done faster!"

"Good idea," Matthew replied, racing to the galley. He entered the galley, sprinting directly for the serving table, where Yao always is. "I'm here, sorry I'm late."

Yao narrowed his eyebrows for a moment, expressing his irritation, before he shrugged Matthew off. The brown haired cook waved Matthew over, who followed Yao's direction. Yao pointed at the dirty dishes that were piled up, instructing Matthew to clean them, although he didn't want to.

"Yes, Yao." Matthew sighed, walking over and grabbing the first dish. Yao paced off, probably to swap the galley floor. Yao was from China, and knew very little of the English language, which is why he didn't speak much. Yao couldn't speak English, although he could understand some of it. Most of what Yao knew was direct orders from Arthur.

Matthew spent about an hour cleaning in the galley with Yao. He finished the dishes, then helped Yao clean the floor, tables, and counters, before he was dismissed by the Chinese cook. When he was, he ran to the main deck to see what kind of progress that Alfred had made, which was a lot, surprisingly. Matthew's twin was nearly done, but Matthew did help him finish the last few parts before they put all the cleaning supplies away, and cleaned their area of Arthur's quarters.

They ran up to Arthur, who was having a debate with Francis at the time. "We're done!" Alfred announced loudly.

Arthur turned to them, staring down at them suspiciously. "You did everything?"

"Yes," Matthew promised, "Alfred swapped the deck, I helped Yao, and then we cleaned our quarters and made our bed."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "That was fast."

"Well we divided and conquered." Alfred explained.

"Francis," Arthur began, getting the French blonde's attention, "pilot the ship, I'm going to go make sure they're not lying."

"Yes, Capitaine." Francis replied, sarcastically saluting him.

"How have you been, Francis?" Matthew asked, tilting his head to the side.

"I'm well, you?"

"We were working all morning!" Alfred exclaimed.

Francis laughed. "Yes, very hard work, too."

Alfred smiled. "Finally, someone gets me."

Francis laughed in reply. "Well, I'm glad to be the only one who understands." The ex-French naval captain turned his head to Matthew. "How have you been?"

"Like Al said, working pretty hard, but besides that, I'm good." Matthew gave Alfred a look, "But unlike Al, I don't complain about my work every time."

"I don't complain that much!" Alfred argued.

Matthew nodded slowly. "Yes you do."

"You lie!" Alfred yelled, pointing in Matthew's face. "You see, Francis, he's lying!"

Matthew rolled his eyes at his brother. "I'm not lying, whether or not you accept it, Al, you complain."

Francis laughed. "You two know how to start a morning off right, don't you?"

Alfred tilted his head to the right. "What do you mean?"

"Bickering," Francis stated simply, "you two are definitely brothers."

Matthew and Alfred glanced at each other. "We know." They said simultaneously.

There was a silence between the three of them. Francis focused on piloting Arthur's ship through the waters. The tide was rougher today than it has been all week, and Matthew wondered if there was going to be a storm soon. That's the only thing that he disliked about living on the sea like he did. Storms, especially bad ones, were always so terrifying. With some storms, it would take the strength of Arthur, Francis, and Kiku to control the wheel of the ship, or so Matthew's heard. He's never seen Arthur pilot The Raven through a storm, he was always in Arthur's quarters or below deck. Matthew was pulled out of his thoughts at the sound of Arthur walking up.

.

Arthur strode up the stairs to where Francis was piloting the ship, Alfred and Matthew on either side of him, observing how to steer the ship through the rougher waters of the North Atlantic.

"Boys," Arthur began, getting his son's attention, "go get your daggers, it's time for training."

"Yes!" Alfred cheered, running off, Matthew right on his heals.

"Race you!" Matthew challenged, passing him.

Alfred took the challenge, racing after him until they disappeared into Arthur's quarters to retrieve their weapons.

"So they cleaned everything pretty well?" Francis asked.

Arthur shrugged. "Good enough, they slacked a little with making their bed."

Francis chuckled. "You still gave it to them?"

"I figured, why not?" Arthur responded, "They work hard, with little complaint."

"You have a good point."

Arthur looked over to the blonde Frenchman. "Is this alright?"

Francis shot him a confused glance. "What do you mean, 'is this alright?'"

"You piloting for a while." Arthur answered.

Francis nodded. "Yes, that's fine, you know I love steering this ship of yours."

"Just making sure." Arthur said, looking forward to the sea in front of them. He heard Matthew and Alfred come running out of his quarters and started running for the stairs. "Just stay down there," Arthur ordered, "and don't wear yourselves out by running everywhere."

He descended the stairs, drawing his own dagger from its sheath at his left side. He pulled his cutlass sword and scabbard, and dropped it on the ground and out of the way. Arthur stood in front of Alfred and Matthew, and took a stance, readying himself for the sparring match between himself and his twin sons. Alfred and Matthew took their stances, readying themselves.

"Matthew, what's wrong with Alfred's stance?" Arthur asked as he noticed the slight problem in his son's stance.

Matthew looked Alfred up and down, studying his brother's stance. "Um… It's not wide enough."

Arthur nodded. "Now, Alfred, fix your stance."

Alfred nodded, adjusting himself so he'd have more stability on his feet. Matthew and Alfred were two completely different fighters, so they stood in different stances. Alfred was an offensive fighter, one who would attack first and try to end the battle there, where Matthew was a defensive fighter, who was already looking at being highly skilled with stealth. So, Arthur knew when he started the sparring match with the word "Begin," Alfred would attack almost immediately.

Arthur inhaled, reminding to slow himself down so his sons actually stood a chance against him. "Begin." He said.

As predicted, Alfred lunged forward with his dagger, swiping it abdomen-level. Arthur jumped back with a counter, swinging his own dagger to Alfred's right arm, who deflected the attack perfectly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Matthew sneaking off to the right, probably trying to take Arthur from the side or from behind. Arthur stepped slightly towards Matthew, readying to swing at him, but Alfred was faster, and swiped his dagger chest-level on Arthur, who again, jumped back to dodge.

"Nice speed, Alfred." Arthur praised in a pant.

Arthur heard a slight shift behind him, he deflected another attack from Alfred, and stepped to the side, dodging a lunge from Matthew. Arthur caught Matthew by the collar so he wouldn't go flying into Alfred.

"Great speed and stealth, Matthew," Arthur complemented, "but you do need to be a little bit quieter." He added.

Matthew nodded in reply, readying himself to dodge attacks.

This sparring match continued,for about an hour, stopping to take breaks every few minutes. Arthur slowed himself down to his son's paces, but he could already see much potential in them to become strong fighters, skilled pirates, and very great and merciful captains. Arthur couldn't be happier.

Translations:

Capitaine- Captain (French)

The quote at the very beginning of this chapter is from the song Unity by Shinedown. I believe that this song matches the theme of this story, and the plot line. I do not own this song.

Happy birthday to TorisLaurinaitis96, one of my best internet friends!

~Feliks Out (^J^)