I spent the next three days trying to prepare in my head what I was going to tell the captain of the Saratov. I would definitely need money but I didn't know what else the Russians valued and decided to play it by ear when the time came.

Gino was rarely in anymore and when he was he was usually asleep. The only time I really needed him was when I went into town because I spent most of my time up in the Moretti's Manor, sitting for hours on end while Sofia sang and played the harpsichord at me or making up excuses to Moretti on how my fine apartments were still being decorated and that is why they were unable to come and visit me for dinner.

On the Saturday morning I woke to find Gino standing over me, looking rather excited.

"Crugg!" he gave me a shake, "Look out the window"

I sat up, rubbing sleep out of my eyes, "What?"

"It's here!" He went to the window, pulling me by the wrist, "The Saratov's here"

True enough, there it was. Sticking out almost comically from the other ships, it was of extrovert Russian design. Cream sails fluttered in the Mediterranean breeze, and the almost maroon tinted wood clashed with the sky blue waters. In conclusion; it was very grand. There was no evidence of any crew about, so I assumed they were still in town trading or enjoying the heavily made up treasures that Livorno had to offer.

"It fantastic" I told Gino, unable to believe that I could be out on the ocean again in less than 48 hours.

He replied equally enthusiastically, "It is!"

I put a hand up and turned to look at him, "Hold on. Why are you so excited?"

His grin faltered on his flawless face, "What?"

"You're acting as though you are coming with me"

"Aren't I?"

I walked away and began to pull a red silk tunic over my shirt, followed by a cream cravat and dark grey overcoat, "Of course you can't! Your place is here, in the slums. Fighting your way through life, it's a beautiful thing to behold" I told him flatly, trying to find James' cutlass as it was more ornate than my own.

"I thought we are a team"

"We were!" I glanced up at him pulling the cutlass from under a pile of boots and shirts, "But life goes on! You seriously didn't think I was going to spend the rest of my days here did you?"

He was beginning to get angry now, "But why can't I come too?"

"You wouldn't know what to do with yourself! You survived here well enough, but the sea is a totally different kettle of fish" I was starting to lose my temper as well.

"Oh, and I suppose you know all about the world and how to cut it!" he said harshly, "You're only, what, 23? What makes you so special?"

I stamped my foot like a child, "I'm not claiming to be special! I'm saying that this is what I need to do"

"You don't need it, you want it! You're acting like a child that grows tried and wants a new toy to play with!"

"You're the child! Begging to come with me just because you have nothing else! No one wants you Gino, so you're trying to make me want you!" I told him spitefully. The tenants from the room below were banging on the floor boards for us to be quiet, but we both ignored it.

"And you think that someone wants you?" he spat, "You're just a filthy, no good pirate! A filthy, no good, female pirate that no one would touch with a barge pole!"

It was as though he had slapped me, I could feel tears prick at the backs of my eyes, "Shut up!"

"You go on and on about this Creed character and how brilliant he was! He can't be that brilliant if he's dead!"

"Shut up!" my voice cracked and tears began to dribble down my face, but he wouldn't stop.

He took a step towards me, "Stop telling me what to do! Stop acting as though you were better than me, you're the lowest criminal possible. Pirate!"

"Shut up!" I screamed. I unsheathed my cutlass and ran at him, tears blurring my vision. I wanted to hurt him badly, the way he hurt me. He grabbed my wrist and held it above my head and punched me hard in the stomach, making me buckle over. When I stood up again, he had my other cutlass in his hand and was ready to take me on.

"You're not being serious!" I said. The boy had never touched a cutlass in his life. He was probably worse than me.

We circled one another, never breaking eye contact and daring the other to make the first move. Gino suddenly lunged at me and I took a smart step backwards, parrying it with great difficulty. I tried my best to remember what I had been taught and fought as best I could, but Gino was always that little bit ahead. At one point I caught him off guard and sliced his upper arm with my blade, making him hiss in pain. I became overly confident then and he hit me hard across the face with the hilt of his sword. My head spun and I could taste blood but I kept going. He had me backed into a corner after ten minutes of this. I felt my back hit the wall and tried to think on what to do next. I had a sudden brain wave and tangled my foot under his knee, tripping him so he landed on his back. I knocked the weapon out of his hand and pointed my own at his throat.

"Never speak to me like that again!" I yelled, still unable to control my temper. I let my guard down too much at this point and he pulled me down by my ankle, pinning me down with James' cutlass at my throat. I could see that dark eyes almost black with hate.

"Go on then! Fucking kill me" I dared him, knowing he wouldn't. He screwed his face up and threw my cutlass to one side and ran out of the room.

"That's it!" I stood up and flung my arms around wildly, and yelled after him as his footsteps thundered down the rickety stair case "Run away! Run away little boy!"

I could hear noise outside and stumbled to the window, cleaning both cutlasses on my bed sheets. Looking out I saw the Saratov begin to fill with men, one of them shouting orders. I couldn't make out who he was but I assumed he was the captain, or at least the first mate. I pulled my boots on and ran down stairs, shoving past some of the disgruntled tenants and outside. I tried to make myself look as presentable as possible, smoothing my clothes and wiping blood from my face with the back of my hand, some of it had dripped onto my cravat but that couldn't be helped now.

Nearly tripping over the ramp onto the ship, I stopped, out of breath and tried to catch someone's attention.

"Excuse me!" I called in English, able to let the fake upper class tone of my voice drop and waved at a man with dark hair flecked with grey and a good set of side burns, he looked at me strangely before sauntering over.

"Aye?"

" Is it possible to speak to your captain? Is he on board at all?"

He leaned on the railings and gave me a mocking smile, "What interest is it to you if he is?"

"I want to speak to him"

"Why?"

I frowned at him, "I just do!"

"Well-", he was cut off by a middle aged man in a bottle green over coat and a wide brimmed hat approaching him.

"Gibbs!" He almost shouted, startling the man, "Why have you abandoned your duties to speak to passers-by in the street?"

Gibbs jumped, "So sorry captain! But this lad wants to speak with ye'."

I was relieved when I heard a cockney accent coming from the captain's lips. This meant I wouldn't have to try and communicate with him if all he spoke was Russian.

The captain leaned over the railings and gave me a once over, "What do you want boy? I'm a busy man"

"I'm sure you are sir" I scurried up the ramp so I could talk to him properly, "This won't take a minute"

The regarded me with a lazy gaze, "How much?"

"What?"

"I take it you want to barter passage on this ship, yes?"

"Oh!" I smiled at him, "Yes, yes I would!"

He began to pick at his finger nails with a dagger he pulled from this right pocket, "I'll need a payment, not much mind. I'm not a greedy man. And I'll require you to work."

"That is not a problem" I nearly jumped for joy, "How much do you want?"

"Two hundred florins" he put the knife away again, I and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, "And five sticks of tobacco"

I nodded as he thrust a tattooed hand at me, "Agreed?"

I shook it, "Agreed, Captain…..?"

"Jonathan Callow" I could tell I was boring him now; he rolled his eyes at Gibbs who laughed as though they were having a joke against me.

"I'm Crugg" I told him, determined not to be undermined.

He turned his back, "Don't care, lad. Don't care."

"When will you be leaving port?" This was the last thing I needed to know before I could leave him alone.

"Tonight" he had begun to walk away

My eyes went wide, that barely gave me any time at all, "Tonight?"

"Aye! And don't bother showing up at all if you don't get me that tobacco!"

I looked around at nothing particular, and began muttering to myself, "Right! Right, I need to…get myself cleaned up! And then… go and see Sofia!"

I continued talking to myself like this all the way back to the house, earning some strange looks on the way.

I puffed in frustration as I tossed, yet another, pebble at Sofia's bedroom window. It let out a loud clank and then fell to the ground. I sat down on a stone bench under the olive tree, close to the gardens. I had snuck in through the back garden gate and past the kitchens without begin caught, but it would only be a matter of time before I was spotted or I passed out from the midday heat.

I was about to give up waiting and start climbing up the creepers towards the window, when it swung open and Sofia's head appeared, wrapped in a dusky purple scarf.

"Sebastian!" she squeaked.

I put a finger to my lips, quieting her. "Sofia, darling!" I whispered, "Why are you wearing a scarf like that?"

"It is new idea that has come in from France!" he stroked the scarf, "Don't you just love it?"

"Hmm," I nodded, "Listen! There has been a change of plans. We are leaving tonight."

"Tonight?"

"Yes, I need you to bring as much money and riches as you can. And five sticks of tobacco."

She cocked her head to one side, "Tobacco?"

"I have recently taken up chewing it" I tried to convince her.

"Oh! Whatever you say!"

"Meet me at the south harbour at sundown. I'll be wearing a rouge plumed hat."

She got so excited she nearly fell out of the window, "Just think! We can finally be together, forever!"

She managed to make it sound like a threat, her expression changed and she looked at me strangle, "What happened your face?"

"Oh" I touched my swollen, bruised mouth tenderly, "I feel down a set of step in the anticipation of coming to see you!"

"How romantic!"

"Isn't it just?" I said hastily, "I must go. I'll see you when?"

"South harbour, sundown" she said it like an incantation to herself.

"Good girl" I blew a kiss at her and ran back the way I came, not wanting to spend another moment in her presence.

When I got back, Gino was there sitting on his bed his head bent so I couldn't tell how he was feeling.

I decided to ignore him and begin to organise myself to leave. I bustled past him and began pulling all of my gentlemanly clothes into a pile on the bed, including the ones I was wearing. I stared into space, trying to think what to do next, whilst sub-consciously tugging at the uncomfortable binding on my chest. I snapped back into action when I realised Gino was behind me and squirmed under the bed, finding my old attire, neatly folded into a satchel and pulled the shirt and britches on before crawling back out again dragging the rest of my things with me and placing them on the bed.

"You're still going then" Gino said quietly.

"Obviously" I replied, not turning around and placing my four weapons in a row in front of me.

There was a pause as I hopped about, trying to pull on my boots and then I said, "I'm sorry for trying to fight you, you're clearly the better swordsman."

I glanced up, giving me a small smile, "That's alright"

"And I'm sorry if I insulted to with all those things I said."

"You did" his smile broadened

I stopped and looked at him, "Well, are you not going to apologise?"

"Yes"

"You better get on with it then!" I told him humorously.

He wandered over and sat on the small available space at the end of my bed, "I'm sorry for calling you all those names and insulting Mr Creed. I shouldn't speak ill of the dead."

"That's better" I sat down beside him, glad of the small space, meaning our legs were touching.

"I don't think you're ugly you know" he said out of the blue, "You're not beautiful, but you can still be attractive."

I let out a small laugh, "Always so honest!"

He laughed too. I decided to see if he found me attractive and began tracing patterns on his leg with my finger, "I do find you very handsome you know, Gino"

"Do you now?"

"I do" I moved my face closer to his, "Do you find me handsome?"

He stood up and moved over to his own bed again and sat down with his arms behind him, swinging his legs, "Possibly"

I took this as an invitation and sprang across the room and leaping on top of him. I kissed him roughly on the mouth and rolled onto my back so he was on top of me. He began to remove his clothing whilst still trying to kiss me. Once undressed, he began to pull up my own shirt, but I stopped him.

"No" I murmured in his ear, too self-conscious, knowing I wasn't a patch on the big breasted Italian beauties he was used to.

He pulled my trousers down around my ankles, unable to get them past my boots. Sighing with frustration, I pulled him back up by the hair and kissed him again. From that point we did want both animal and human do best, taking no care not to rattle the bed posts and disturb the neighbours from an evening's staring at a brick wall. We did it wonderfully as though the world was ending, and it was not a practise were rapes, incest and foolish young brats are made.

It was more refreshing than sweaty, possibly because it was near evening, but I liked to believe that it was because we were both so wanting of it.

Once finished, I pulled my britches up again and stood up. I looked around the room with my hands on my hips as though I had just finished some manual labour of a different kind and then continued getting ready. I pulled on my tunic and fastened each weapon to my belt, whistling to myself as I did so.

"Did you enjoy that then?" Gino asked lazily from the bed.

I smirked to myself, "Possibly"

He laughed, pulling the sheets up to cover himself, "Of course you did"

I didn't reply, putting any money I had into the leather satchel, my clothes had been in. I stopped when I pulled out a blue piece of material; James' neck tie.

"Gino" I turned, to look at him trying not to be distracted by his chest, "Do you still have that hunting knife you won? The one with the pearl handle?"

"Yes" he went into his coat pocket and pulled the knife out, "What do you need it for?"

I tugged on my hair that was now reaching down my back in ratty strands, "Would you do the honours?"

"My pleasure" he gave a mock bow and within the minute my hair was just below my ears again. I wrapped the faded material around my head and secured it with a knot at the back.

I gave the room another glance to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, "I think that's me ready"

"What about your clothes?" Gino motioned to the pile of finery on the bed.

I slung my satchel over my shoulder, "You keep them. See what sort of gentleman you can be"

He smiled, "All for me?"

"Yes!" I approached the bed and picked up a pink satin, tri-cornered hat with cream plumage and placed it on my head, "Except this one, it's mine"

Gino let out a chuckle, "Right"

I paused and then hugged him tightly, "I can't say I won't miss you slightly"

"The feeling's mutual"

I stepped back, "Aw come now! You cannot have spent the last year with me and not say that you're devastated and that you've fallen madly in love with me!"

"I'll certainly remember you for a long time to come Marion" he patted me on the back.

I blinked and then smiled, it was the first time anyone had said my real name in a while, the first time since Jack Sparrow had. I frowned at the sudden memory, but quickly caught myself and said a last goodbye. I didn't look back at Gino as I headed out of the building and towards the docks, but I could feel him watching me from our dimly lit room as I walked into the darkness and towards my awful, squealing fiancé.

Please give some feedback. I would like a few reviews just to tell me how I'm doing. Next chapter should be up soon.