It seemed early in the day when Yuuri woke up. The tiny porthole that Yuuri had discovered behind one of the tapestries a few days earlier showed the sun just rising out of the waves in the distance.

Absentmindedly, Yuuri reached up to his neck, and brushed his fingers against where his star stone necklace used to hang. Even though it was months ago that he lost it, Yuuri still felt the necklace's absence from time to time.

After he had woken up the next day, he had, admittedly very sheepish and ashamed, had told Phichit that he had lost the necklace.

This had resulted in Phichit being far too overdramatic, and instead of keeping this 'hush hush' or 'just between them', Phichit had stormed up to the highest tower, holding a saucepan and a spoon, and, basically, made the loudest noise he could, all while screeching 'GET YO BUTTS IN ACTION, PEOPLE! MY BEST FRIEND'S NECKLACE HAS GONE MISSING, AND I EXPECT TO SEE RESULTS! DO YOU WANT THIS GODDAMM SPOON HITTING YOU ON THE HEAD?"

Since it was a fairly quiet and still morning, Phichit's yells had echoed all around the castle, and all of the servants had sighed, and rolled their eyes at Phichit's antics, but had pitched in to search. Not so much because of their fear of Phichit's spoon, but because of their kindness, which had in no way been exploited during their time at the castle.

Long story short, they never found the necklace.

Yuuri's parents, and Mari all offered to cut a piece off their own stones to replace Yuuri's, but he had declined.

He didn't want them to have to pay for him being careless while drunk- Yuuri had to take care of his own problems.

But now he was away from the castle, his family and friends, Yuuri felt like that star stone would have been his only link back home.

Now who was he?

A failure of a prince who somehow got himself captured by pirates?

Suddenly, there was a series of pathetic knocks on the door, accompanied by the beautiful sound of a full grown man crying like a baby.

Georgi.

"Yes?" Yuuri called out, opting to not question Georgi on his tears

"Y-you're wanted on deck." Georgi managed to get out, cracking the door open, and poking his face out.

Yuuri immediately hopped up from bed, and stretched out. He was tired of being stuck in a cabin for the last few days. If he wanted to earn the captain's trust, he'd have to prove himself in one way or another. Then he could escape easily.

Yet, for some reason, the thought of leaving Victor sent a dull ache to Yuuri's stomach.

"Coming" Yuuri said monotonously, deciding to not think any further on the topic.

…

Victor sat in the crow's nest with his spyglass in hand, occasionally using it to quickly have a glimpse of Yuuri mending a sail on the deck.

Next to Yuuri, Yurio and Otabek stood, keeping close watch to make sure he didn't go anywhere. The former had a terrifying expression on his face, which somehow softened when the latter tapped him on the shoulder, and said something to him in his usual stoic tone.

Victor groaned, and whacked his head against the side of the crow's nest.

"What is it, mon amie?" Chris asked from where he was hanging off the rigging nearby. He'd been banished there by Lilia as punishment for making too many highly suggestive jokes in her presence.

Which he was currently in the process of painting on the sails (along with a few….pictures), because this is Christophe and that is just what Christophe does.

As a captain he should be trying to stop him, but Victor currently had his hands full with a certain dark haired prince. Speaking of a certain dark haired prince…..Victor started to raise his spyglass again.

A few splatters of black paint landed in Victor's hair, prompting him to squeal and immediately rub his hair.

"Victor" Chris rolled his eyes from where he had flicked the paintbrush "I asked you why you were spying from up here when you could be down there, chatting up the love of your life."

Victor huffed, and looked over at Chris, deliberately keeping his eyes off the sails, because he really does not want to see that.

"I will. But right now, Yuuri is out in broad daylight, and this is where I can keep a good eye out for other ships."

"Riiiiiiighhhhht." Chris rolled his eyes once more (he seemed to have it down to a fine art), and continued "Of course this would have nothing to do with the fact that you are having a self-proclaimed bad hair day today, right?"

"What, so I want to look my best in front of Yuuri! That's not a big deal!"

"The day you met with him in private, you came banging on my door at five in the morning, demanding that I help you pick an outfit. You really-"

Chris was interrupted by a bark from far below.

Victor glanced down….and screeched, reaching for his spyglass, and shoving it to his eye.

The scene down below was amazing.

Yuuri was laying sprawled out on the deck, the sail knocked out of his hands. Above him, was Makkachin, barking happily, and nuzzling Yuuri.

"So…..CUTE!" Victor breathed, leaning on the wooden side of the crow's nest with an adoring expression.

As he smiled at Yuuri, Victor could hear Chris resuming his crude painting, with a mutter of something that sounded something along the lines of

"So whipped"

…

Yuuri laughed as he pushed Makkachin off him, giving the dog a big hug as he picked up the sail and resumed working.

This reminded him of the time Phichit had somehow convinced Yuuri that stitching all the bedsheets together and climbing out of the window would be a great idea- it wasn't.

Yuuri had broken his collarbone.

Phichit had broken their guard's will to live.

It was a bonding experience.

Suddenly there was a cooing noise beside Yuuri- he turned around to see Yurio sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding up a cat like it was Simba.

Otabek said something about cat food to Yurio, got up, and left, with one glance backwards.

After a second, Yurio carefully brought his cat (was its name Potya?") down, and held it out towards Yuuri, simply saying

"Hold her"

Cautiously, Yuuri leaned over, and took Potya, cradling her close to his chest.

"Why?"

"She likes you" Yurio simply answered, standing up, and running over to where Otabek was returning in the distance.

Yuuri blinked, and looked down at the cat he was holding. The fur seemed to glint in the midday sun.

"CHRISTOPHE!" A loud yell reverberated through the air, causing the cat Yuuri was holding to hiss and run away.

An older woman stood out on deck, staring in horror at the sails which were….okay, yeah, Yuuri got why she was shouting. He quickly turned away, only to face…..Captain Nikiforov, who had a pirate had roughly stuffed on his head, and was holding a hand out to him.

"Fancy a swim?"