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I am already so late!...So late!

30 AU Challenge:

3 – Pirate AU

It was yet another beautiful day. The sky is clear, the wind is blowing gently and the blue seawater shone under the sunlight. Seras let out a long dreamy sigh, she would never get tired of such sight and if she could, she would admire it for hours.

"Cabin boy!" a shout made her jump in her place and quickly before she turned around Seras lifted her scarf again and covered her face. A hand squeezed her shoulder and forced her to turn around. She was met with the angry frown of the Captain's right-hand man. "I know that you are mute but are you deaf too!"

Seras shook her head 'No' earning an irritated eyes role from the man.

"That was a rhetorical question you fool!" The man growled at him but only shook his head and sighed. "The Captain wants you in his Cabin, now boy!" She nodded quickly before turning from around the man and ran to the Captain's Cabin.

In her short time on the ship, Seras learned that the sea was another world far more different from the one that she had escaped. The sea has its rules that not even the king and his men who roam these waters know about. But the pirates, the people whom the stories that she heard of them being these filthy, greedy and blood lusted men which most of them were untrue, followed it as if it was the lord's bible. Those who break the rules will be met with…Heavy consequences. Her captain was one of the three masters of the sea. There was Captain "Integra the daring", her father was one of three masters of the sea before he was betrayed and killed by his own brother who wanted to take his place. Integra was a mere child when that happened, but when she grew up she returned with her own crew of females only and took the title back becoming the first female pirate to rule part of the sea. Then there was "Alexander the bright", from the stories that she heard the crew members speak of at night, he and their captain hate each other with passion. Alexander was the one who in forces the sea's rules, and he hated their captain because he always finds a way to break one of the rules and get away with it without punishments. She heard the captain once call him a "Judas priest" because of how much he is obsessed with the sea's rule book that Alexander kept it well with him and only took it out when it's needed, which is mostly around her captain whenever they meet.

Lastly, there was her captain.

"Vlad the Impaler" Seras whispered lowly to herself as she stood in front of the captain's doors. She took a deep sigh and looked over herself. Her clothes were dirty but big enough to hide her feminine curves, she grunted a little from how uncomfortable she felt, she had to wrap her chest with bandages to press her breasts flat as much as she could and hide her figure even further. It hurts a lot and she couldn't wait till the end of the day when everyone was asleep for her to unwrap them and set her girls free, but for now, she has to go through the pain. Lifting her scarf further up to hid her face and pull her small hat down to hide her now short hair after she'd cut it, She collected what courage she had and knocked on the door.

"Come in." a baritone voice called. Licking her lips nervously Seras opened the door slowly and walked inside. The captain's Cabin was big, with gold Candleholders of different shape and sizes that were scattered around to light the cabin when night came, there was a big bookcase on her right that did not only hold many books that looked worn out but items that Seras assumed was collected from all his adventures at sea. Was that a human skull with rubies for eyes?. On her left was a big long table that had a map spread on it with a compass, a handheld brass telescope and other objects that are used for navigation surrounding it and in front of her far away near the window was the captain setting behind another table but this one was smaller. The captain narrowed his eyes at her.

"I was wondering when will you stop staring at my door and enter already." He said sounding annoyed. Seras blushed at the idea that her captain already knew that she was standing there all the time. She lowered her head down, showing that she was sorry for being late.

He ignored her gesture as he stood up and walked towards her, Seras stayed still as not to do anything that might upset her captain. After all, they didn't call him "The Impaler" for no reason. In every town they attack, he would leave the corpses of the king's men and any other man who dared to go against him impaled by the seashore where their blood would form a red line between the brown sand and the blue sea. Some say that at times he would impale his own men who dared to wrong him in any way, just to show that he showed no mercy not even to his own me, and Seras didn't want to be next. He stood right in front of her, she still didn't not dear to look up. She stared down from the red sash that hugged his waist to his black leather boots, his arms were folded behind his back.

"Do you know why I called you here, Cabin boy?" Vlad asked calmly a hint of amusement was clear in his voice.

Seras shook her head 'No', as she tried to hold back a shiver, feeling her captain's signature grin spread on his face as he looked down at her. He moved to her left and started walking in circles around her, like a shark circling its prey in the water. His right hand moved from behind him, she heard the rustling of paper, the paper must be big because she heard heavy unfolding sounds, he then placed it in front of her. Seras's eyes widened by what she has seen. The paper was a newspaper that she knew was from her old town but what horrified her was what written on it with big letters.

"A nobleman's daughter kidnapped by Vlad The Impaler"

"When we stopped in Tortuga a rat calling himself a pirate came up to me showing me this," he said pushing the paper towards Seras more to hold it, which she did still not looking up. "Then asked me where the girl was and what did I do with her in this disgusting way, I shot him not only because of his disgusting attitude but to how he talked to me as if I was a friend of his."

Seras still didn't look up or said anything looking down at the paper and read more. it said that the girl was kidnapped after the pirate's men broke into her home and took the poor girl away. Seras recalled that night. She was in her room planning to escape this hell they called her life, then she heard a loud explosion from far away, when she looked outside she saw that it was pirates attacking her town. She was afraid at first but she pulled herself together and started to collect whatever she could take with her, using the pirate's attack as a chance to escape. She changed her clothes and cut her hair and then the moment she heard them break the front doors open she climbed out of the window and ran away.

"If I remember correctly, we found you hiding in the lower parts of the ship after that night." Seras froze at that." You are mute so we couldn't understand you with all your different hand gestures but in the end, we understood that you wanted to be part of our crew, you looked so eager when I made you the new Cabin boy."

With a quick move, he reached to her while she was distracted by her shock of being found out and pulled her scarf down revealing her face and earning a high feminine gasp as she took a few steps back dropping the newspaper to reach the scarf in a fail attempt to hide her face again. Vlad laughed at her reaction.

"I knew you didn't have a 'Nasty scar' underneath." He said emphasizing on her excuse. Seras finally looked up and as she expected she was met with his crazy grin that reminded Seras of the Cheshire cat. Seras was afraid of what to come next. Is he going to throw her in the first town they stop in for supplies? Is he going to use that her father is a rich man and keep her for gold? Was he going to throw her into the sea for deceiving him? is he going to impale her so that she would be an example? Her thoughts were cut off when Vlad took a step forward, and Seras took a step back. He raised a brow at her action, he took another step forward and another step back, it went on until Seras's back was met with the cabin's door. Quickly Vlad slammed his hands on the right and the left side of her head, causing her to flinch.

"Now that I have your attention, Seras Victoria, Answer me this…" He said quietly, as he looked at her straight in the eye. Seras's blue eyes widened at the mention of her real name. "Why did you sneak into my ship in the first place?"

Seras found it hard to breathe at how close the captain was to her, and his intimidating height made it worst. He was so close that she could finally see his face clearly, after failing to do so from the main deck. He has such a pale skin for someone who sailed these seas for years under the hot sun, and his scruffy beard and mustache were well trimmed for a pirate, But what caught her attention the most were his eyes. His eyes were piercing deep green, that didn't hold any hatred or anger for her, they looked calm and amused.

"Well?" Vlad said pulling her from her trance, Seras blushed that she was caught staring. Realizing that the Captain held no negative emotion towards her, he licked her lips and took a deep breath before finally talking after months of silence.

"My name is Seras Victoria." She said out loud, earning a pleased grin from Vlad as he pulled away to give her some space to talk freely. She continued. "I escaped my home because I didn't want to live a life where it considered a great disgrace to my family when a speak out loud or my mind, where my only way to survive is to marry a rich man with great power. That night, I took your attack on my town as a chance to escape. However, because I know that no matter how far I go on land my father would use his money to find me."

She took off her hat showing her blond hair and pulled away her scarf revealing her face.

"I boarded your ship deciding to hide in it then to get off from it at the first stop, but you found me." She fidgeted in her place." I disguised myself as a mute boy in fear of what would you do to me if you found that I was a woman."

"You feared that the big bad pirates were going to kill you… "Vlad said his smirk flattered from his face." Or violate you?" Seras looked away almost ashamed.

"If I remember correctly, we had many stops since you got her and you didn't disembark on any of them, why?" he asked but the way he asked made Seras think that he might already know the answer.

He wanted to hear her say it.

"Because I liked it," she said with a bashful smile. "I know I must sound like an idiot to you, but this short time I spend her on your ship being part of your crew even a small part as a cabin boy, was more fulfilling than living among the nobles through my entire life." Vlad's smirk returned at what she said.

"And what do you want me to do about that?" he asked calmly. Seras stood straight as she builds up the courage to say what's coming next.

"I wish to stay a member of your crew, to learn to not just clean and cook, but fight and live the life that is full of adventure and danger." She took a few steps forward no longer scared of her captain and stopping in front of him. Seras clenched her right hand turning into a fist and placing it over her heart. "I pledge my undying loyalty to you, please let me fight at your side and only serve under you, Captain Vlad sir!"

It was dead silence for a while. Seras was not fazed by it although she was starting to feel a bit uneasy. Then a burst of deep laughter filled the room making her jump, it was the captain's, but what made her jump was the fact that this laughter was not cruel in any way like the once she heard him give before whenever he drowned an enemy. This laughter was full of amusement. Seras was starting to fear that he was laughing at her.

"Amazing!" Vlad said as his laughter slowly died down. "I admire that fire in your eyes and I have a feeling that you will live up to your word. Also, you are quite fun and it would be a great shame to not keep you around"

Seras eyes widened at what he said and a smile spread across her face. She was going to stay. Vlad placed a hand in her back bringing her from her small celebration, then started to push her forward. Seras didn't protest as he lead her towards the door and Seras stopped earning a confused look from her captain.

"I don't have my scarf or hat." She said timidly. His smirk widened.

"That won't be a problem, you won't need them anymore." He answered making Seras the one confused now.

When they got outside, they saw the crewmembers were hard working but stopped when they saw their captain come out of his cabin. Seras swallowed hard as she felt eyes on her, she hunched down wanting to disappear but the firm hand of her captain squeezed gently as in encouraging her to stand tall, which she did.

"Everyone!" He called then gestured for Seras." I would like to welcome our newest member on board, Seras Victoria. Treat her nicely and teach her everything she needs to know for she won't continue with us as a simple Cabin boy, or in this situation, a Cabin Girl!"

It was silence, the only thing you could hear was the waves crashing around the ship and the seagulls. Seras showed a bashful smile as she waved to them, she was embarrassed because when she first came here, her captain didn't introduce her like that at all, it was just the right-hand man throwing her into cleaning duty and when anyone asked who she was he would tell them that she was new. One of the members yelled from up the crow's nest and pointed to one of the other member's bellow.

"HAH! You owe me 10 gold coins." That made the man bellow groan in annoyance.

"Huh?" Seras was confused.

"Did you really think that we didn't notice that you were a girl?" called the right-hand man as he took the stairs to them.

"WHAT!?" Seras screamed making the rest of the crew laugh at her reaction, and the captain joined in. She pulled away from the captain and glared at them but not hatefully. "You all knew I was a girl and just let me suffer in silence?!"

"Of course we knew!" one of them said.

"How do you think you got all the privacy you needed whenever you wanted to change clothing or use the head." Another added. This made Seras blush grow even redder.

"Shut up!" She screamed gritting her teeth at them but they laughed even louder.

Vlad stared at her this entire time. She was full of fire and having her around would be quite a nice change. He imagined the look of anger Integra would give him now that he has women serving under him, making him grin, nothing makes her blood boil more than seeing a woman serving under a man. He assumed that she might try to take Seras away from him and make her part of her crew, she already tried that in the priest's female crew members what would stop her from doing the same to his own. That thought angered him. He will not give Seras away to anyone. Seras was still yelling at his crew and that made him smile again. Whatever is going to happen is in the future but for now, he will enjoy Seras's company.

I hope you guys liked this one!...Please Don't forget to check out "Oxford Not Brogues" version of this!

Bye bye!

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