Alfred paced.

Back and forth he went in the little space the prison allowed. His mind raced, a million thoughts and possibilities filled his brain.

He was stuck with pirates; that was a fact he had to accept. The most painful part of it, he thought, was that he was stuck with them for four months. Why four? Why not just a few days, or just several hours? Obviously, there was something behind Captain Kirkland's intentions, other than wanting valued possessions and treasures. But what was it? He knew the other reason; he was to test out traps and obstacles so the captain's crew won't get hurt 'too badly". But there was something else, he knew there was. Alfred slapped his head once, twice, three times, rattling his brain and it gave him a short-lived headache.

He stopped pacing as he came onto a revelation.

If he spent time with the pirates… they would eventually rub off on him… and he could become just like them!

That was it, wasn't it? He would return home (if his father gave into demands) but he wouldn't be the same person anymore. He'd be the lowest of the low, and leave unjust terror in his path! He might even lose a limb!

He shuddered at the thought of walking around with a peg leg or a hook hand.

He started to pace again, wondering how to get away, if he could. They were in a ship in the middle of the ocean sailing to, well, God knows where. Even if he could escape somehow, where would he run? He had no pieces, no reales, or any gold on him, so he couldn't just purchase a boat and sail back home. Not to mention the pirate scum that cruised around the seas, sinking other ships and taking (or killing) hostages.

He tugged at his hair in irritation. No matter how he looked at the situation, nothing could work.

He felt something gripped in his hand, and it wasn't just his hair. He glanced at it, and it held the now eaten fruit the captain threw at him a while ago. They had starved him before, so he tried to eat as much of the apple as he could without eating the seeds. Unsurprisingly, he was still hungry.

He gave up on thinking for now, as the thought of hunger crawled back into his mind again. Alfred looked outside of his cramped room and found that he was alone.

"That's odd," he thought out loud. "I thought I saw… that guy…"

"It's Matthew."

Alfred almost jumped out of his skin when he finally noticed Matthew sitting on a chair, smiling politely with the slightest tinge of annoyance lingering on his face.

"Oh yeah! Hey Mattie, it would be great if you could get me some more food. Maybe some bread, or fish… You can't expect someone like me to get full off of fruit, do you?"

Matthew almost fell off his chair, not having heard the latter part of the sentence. "M-Mattie?"

"Yeah."

"You… say it so casually. Are you really going to give one of your captors nicknames? I mean, given the situation…"

Alfred shrugged. "You expect me to be intimidated by you? I'm sorry Mattie, but you're the least terrifying person on the ship. I can barely see you as it is." He ignored the slight twitch in the other man's eyebrow. "Which makes me wonder, why are you here?"

Matthew regained his composure, and was amazed at how the American often changed subjects. "Excuse me?"

"Well, I mean, you don't look like a pirate, scruffy looking, dirty, not fading into the background..." There was another twitch in Matthew's brow that again Alfred decided to not notice. "You look like a regular person; a guy I would only see once in town or something. I mean, did you want to be a pirate yourself? Did the captain guy kidnap you or something?" He also looked familiar, he mentally added but decided not to say.

Matthew looked away as he suddenly became fascinated with the floor below him. "It's kind of complicated..."

"Tell me anyway."

"It's a long story…"

"Does it look like I have anything else to do?" The other man said nothing. "Oh come on! There's got to be some tales you want to tell right?" Well, he didn't care much about the guy anyway, so he let it go. But he was so bored of thinking to himself and pacing around small space and, hell, just the quietness of being down there; he had to make conversation or something. "Um, hey, did you meet the other pirates? You know, the ones with the highest bounty on their heads?" He might have hated pirates, but he couldn't pass up a good adventure story if there was one.

Glad at the change of subject, Matthew replied, "We have a few times. Actually, all of the captains know each other."

Alfred sat down on the hard floor, fascinated. "Really? Well, that explains a lot. Are they best friends or something? Comrades? Are they working together to conquer the seas and ruin lives?"

"O-One question at a time, Alfred." He would have to get used to Alfred's excessive speaking. "They are not working together, and they are not friends." He paused. "Well, actually, the captain isn't friends with them."

"Why?"

"Captain doesn't really speak about the past much… but from what I know, they all knew each other when they were younger… and I guess… he just doesn't like them. Captain Bonneyfoy and Beilschmidt are… friends, in a sense. They were in a trio, actually. The 'Bad Friends Trio'. Have you heard of it?"

He shook his head. "The… 'Bad Friends Trio'? That sounds kind of…" He trailed off. "But, um, no, I haven't really heard of them."

"Well, the trio had competitions like who could find the hidden treasure first, who could capture the most ships, who could drink the most rum before passing out, things like that." He heard Alfred huff a breath of disapproval. "But Captain doesn't talk much about them either so there's not much I can tell you. There was however a reason why they were called the "Bad Touch Trio" but I won't get into that.

"Oh, but Captain Kirkland wasn't a part of the trio," he added rapidly, "There was another pirate who used to be one of the most feared in the seven seas, a conquistador named Antonio, he was in the trio along with them. Captain told me that he was too laid back for his own good, even letting his crew call him by his first name he would say, which led him to his downfall. He was too trusting. Captain stripped his title away underhandedly and took his spot. I was too young then to remember so I don't know the details... We don't see Antonio much these days, but if you ever saw him, you wouldn't think he was a conquistador at all."

Matthew expected Alfred would be bored of the information and would go back to playing with his shackles or pace around the cell again, but instead he saw Alfred enthralled. He was fairly shocked, as he noticed how vague everything was. He wished Captain Kirkland talked about the past other than giving him silence or sharp looks that could make the toughest pirate scurry away with their tail between their legs. He shivered.

"Hmm. So that Gilbert guy, what's he like?" Alfred asked, interrupting Matthew's thoughts.

Matthew put a thoughtful finger on his chin and closed his eyes. "Gilbert… well, he's someone you wouldn't want to cross. He's really, really, full of himself and annoying. He does nothing but fight whoever he wants, whether it be a civilian or a pirate or a navy officer; that's why he's at the top of the wanted list. He just goes around sinking ships and killing people, and has little to no interest in treasure." A beat. "Well, he says that only because he hasn't successfully recovered any buried treasure. He doesn't succeed at anything else but killing. If it wasn't for that, I'm sure no one would bat an eyelid at him.

"Anyway, he travels with a fleet of captured ships, and his crews are people he decided to let live and forced them to work under him. As you expected, not even his own crew take to him much."

"Well, yeah, he sounds like a jerk."

"If you were captured by Captain Beilschmidt, you'd probably be dead by now, eh?"

Alfred scoffed, "You make it sound like I should be grateful for being captured in the first place. Anyway, what about, Francis? What's he like?"

"He's—"

"Matthew."

Two heads turned to source of the sound and saw Captain Kirkland by the door, with a blank expression. Alfred was slightly surprised. Not because of his sudden entrance, but because he didn't burst the door open with his boot.

"You're needed on deck, sailor," the captain said, gesturing to the ceiling.

"A-Aye, Captain." Matthew stood up to leave, but not before muttering an apology to the American. "Sorry, I'll tell you later." He jogged out the quarters, leaving Alfred alone with Captain Kirkland.

The two stared at each other noiselessly. Don't blink, thought Alfred, don't blink don't blink don't blink don't blink — His mantra stopped when he noticed something in the captain's hand as he walked toward him with leisure strides.

It was an apple.

"Oh come on! Another apple?" He whined, "I know you have food on this ship. Why can't you just give me real food? Or at least a different fruit!"

Captain Kirkland threw the apple into the cell, and watched it fall with little ceremony next to Alfred. "Would you rather starve?"

"No—"

"Then you better eat what I give you."

If it was anyone else, they would have accepted that answer without another word. They would also be grateful that their captor gave them food in the first place. Unfortunately, Alfred F. Jones was not someone else. He continued to whine, "Come ooonnn Arthur, can't you be nice for once? It… wouldn't… hurt... Hey, are you okay? Haha, your face looks weird! Do you have to go to the toilet?"

Kirkland's face was suddenly screwed and livid, his thick eyebrows were knit together and his teeth were barred like a wild animal. He clenched his fists hard enough it threatened to draw blood. With emphasis on every word, he growled, "What did you call me?"

That was the most expression Alfred had seen on the captain's face. He cocked an eyebrow. "Huh? 'What did I'… oh, Arthur? That's your name isn't it?"

"It's Captain Kirkland to you."

"Why? You're not my captain."

"You're on my ship."

"And? I'm not going to call you 'Captain Kirkland' just because I'm on your ship, that doesn't make sense. I am going to call you Arthur because that's your name."

The pirate cringed at the sound of his name and he grabbed the bars ruthlessly. The boy was lucky he didn't have the keys to the lock; he would have invited himself in and cut his whole tongue off. "No one calls me Arthur. No one."

"Except me."

He bit his lip as he looked at Alfred with a piercing glare and suddenly sneered. "Do you want to get stabbed, boy?"

But Alfred rolled his eyes at the threat. "Well geez, if you don't like 'Arthur' that much, I can call you something else! Hmm… how about… Artie?"

The captain sputtered. "N-No!"

"Okay…" Alfred thought. What could be a good nickname for him? Well, from his endearing accent and short-temper, he's definitely English. "Iggy?"

"'Iggy'?"

"No? Man, you're picky." He shrugged, "Then I'll have to call you Arthur."

"It's Captain Kirkland, you wanker!"

"Arthur, calm down, there's no need to get so upset over a name, hahaha!" Now he was just provoking him. And it was working. The captain was incredibly red in the face, from embarrassment and anger, but mostly from anger. Alfred enjoyed the sight. He smugly picked up the apple from the floor and bit into it. He felt that irritating the pirate up to a boiling point was an accomplishment.

Kirkland suddenly had a look of realization on his face, anger gone but still red in the face. "Oh for God's sake, why in the hell am I arguing with you?" He pulled out his cutlass from underneath his great coat, sharp metal shrieking against its sheath, and pointed at his prisoner. "Now, let's try this again. Captain Kirkland."

Alfred stood and backed up to the wall behind him, which wasn't very far. At this distance, the sword could still give him a deep wound. He swallowed. Too bad he was quite stubborn. "Yeah, like you would stab me. You need me alive, remember?"

A deadly grin ghosted his lips. "Ah, but do you recall when I told you that I would not hesitate to get rid of limbs? You can still live without them."

Oh, right. "Well, you can't really cut off any of my limbs from the other side of the bars, now can you?"

"I'll stab you until something comes off."

"I'd like to see you try," where not the words he meant to say, and regretted it the instant he saw a glint of excitement in the pirate's eye. This was too extreme… all of this because he didn't call Arthur 'Captain Kirkland'!

He pressed against the wall as hard as he could. There was nowhere to run. He trembled slightly and his heart pounded loud in his ears but his face was that of determination. He was scared but he wouldn't admit it, nor would he show it.

"You won't have that look on your face for long, lad." And he held up the cutlass, positioning it to his prisoner's upper limb. "Let's see how you would look without an arm." He plunged the razor-sharp weapon forward while Alfred closed his eyes and braced himself—

"Captain!"

Alfred, not feeling any excruciating pain, slowly opened an eye. He looked to the side to see the captain's sword stopped a hair's length away from his arm. Now with both eyes opened, he glanced up to see nothing— oh, Matthew at the entrance.

Matthew cleared his throat. "Um… We're almost to the island."

After a short silence, Captain Kirkland clicked his teeth and sheathed his blade away. "…Alright, let's meet in the main cabin." He gestured to Alfred. "Bring him too. He needs to know what traps he's up against." Without looking at neither of them, he stomped out of the quarters.

When the door closed, Alfred loudly blew out the air he held.

Matthew frowned slightly. "Are you okay?"

"My God! He was seriously going to hurt me! Oh man, you saved me, Mattie!"

The other boy sighed heavily. "Try not to provoke the captain, will you Alfred?" He strolled over to a corner and picked up thick ropes. "He doesn't need much provoking, anyway. What did you say to him? He looked awfully red…" Almost as red when Francis would tease him to no end, he thought.

"I know right? You should have seen the look on his face when I called him Arthur! Oh man, it was hilarious! That's something I would pay to see again." He laughed loudly, and Matthew resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Come on, I have to tie you up."

Captain Kirkland pointed his gloved finger on the paper map. "We'll land here," he tapped his finger before dragging it across the land to the large 'X'. "This is where the treasure is, which isn't too far from shore, so traveling the land shouldn't take more than a day."

The other pirates nodded their heads to show that they understood.

"Right. Now, I want one group to stay with the ship and take whatever food they can find, and do maintenance to the ship if needed. The other group comes with me."

There was a quiet murmur in the cabin, group of men trying to decide what to do until there was a mutual agreement. One pirate spoke up, "My group will stay with the ship, Captain."

He nodded curtly, "Good then. Prepare yourselves for tomorrow morning, you scurvy dogs!"

"Aye Captain!" And with that, the crew either disbanded or stayed in the cabin to talk among one another.

Without looking away from the map, Captain Kirkland reached out to the side of him and grabbed Alfred by the rope that held his arms down. He knew the boy wasn't looking at map just to be a rebel, so he held the back of his head and forced him to look down. His free hand pointed at the chart, at a small vertical gap. "There is—pay attention, you arse! – There is a long unstable bridge right here I need you to cross first. This is what stopped me from going further before. The fall isn't too bad. There is flat land below, and you'll most likely break a couple of bones. So, try not to fall."

"Yeah, okay, I'll try not to," Alfred said flatly.

"There are also the traps near the treasure, or so I've heard from the bloke who gave me the map. Poison darts, spears, pits of spikes, bombs, mines, poisonous snakes, scorpions… Or a pit with a combination of all of them." When Alfred stopped resisting, he had let go of his head and finally looked at him. He was pleased at the look; Alfred swallowed hard and turned slightly pale. "Those are some of the things you need to look out for. Hmph, not bad for your first run. You might come out unscathed if you're careful."

After he took a deep breath to calm down, Alfred rolled his eyes. "Thanks Arthur, I'll keep that in mind."

He watched as the pirate widened his eyes. His cheeks turned pink, then red, and then his face was contorted in fury.

He reached for his sword, only to be held back by Matthew once again, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Matthew held down his captain's arms. "Don't Captain! We're almost to the island! We can't have an injured man crossing the bridge!"

Alfred chirped up, "Yeah! I can't cross an unsteady bridge if I'm hurt you know."

Swallowing a death threat, Captain Kirkland roughly shrugged out of Matthews grasp and glared at Alfred, who looked boastful. Oh how he wanted to take his blade and just shave off that skin of his off his face. The only one who got to look cocky on his ship was him, not his prisoner.

Like a parent to a spoiled child, he silently grabbed Alfred's ear and pulled him out of the cabin with an aggravated look on his face.

"Ow ow ow ow! L-Let go!" Fearing that his ear would practically tear off, he tried to keep up with Arthur's steps all the way back to the prison quarters, where he threw him in and shut the iron bars. "Geez, what was that for!" He rubbed his ear delicately.

Arthur tried his best to not grab the sword, but it was getting harder and harder to not hurt him in some way. A bullet to the head would shut him up. Blasting his jaw off would also do the trick. No, no. He had to leave. It was the best option. No talking, no threats, just walk out the room and go onto the deck where the dark blue ocean is and calm his mind—

"H-Hey! Aren't you going to at least take off the rope! A-Arthur! Where are you going? Arthur!"

Each time Alfred called his name, the captain only walked faster to the exit.

The door slammed with a resounding shut.

Alfred pouted, "What the hell…" He looked down at himself. Not only were his wrists in shackles, but now he's in wrapped in thick rope. As if sleep wasn't uncomfortable before…

Tomorrow, he was to go treasure hunting. He was all up for adventures, discovering buried riches and the like, but not when he would be the purposely put in danger so those scum could get to the treasure as soon as possible without the fear of injury or death. No, that was his job! Well, they can wait on that, because the moment he gets off the ship, he's going to make a run for it.

A/N: sorry this took so long! i got distracted with some video games i brought. especially FF9. oh i love that game
it'll be mentioned sometime in the story but for those who's wondering "why is canada always there," it's because he's the first mate. HOW he got there will be explained ~in due time~

i can't believe this website took off "! ?" i can't put it together. laammmeee

this story has 1000 hits! ! ! s-so little reviews BUT IT'S OKAY it's pretty understandable for this type of story. i love you guys anyway
should i make my chapters shorter? or... longer...