warnings: Relena! Lots of drinking

Chapter 10: ing

"If we find the treasure, we'll split the profits equally?"

"You get 20%." Quatre replied.

"..."

"..."

"Wait, didn't he say -"

"20 % means splitting equally, Duo."

"Okay." Well, I've already told you about the abysmally low level of education among us pirates, haven't I?

"Everyone gets an equal share of the treasure no matter how much or little that may be," Trowa clarified patiently and obviously considered the issue settled.

"I'm not interested in the treasure. You can have my share," someone suddenly said and four heads snapped to attention.

"HUH?"

"I said I don't want my share. You can have it," Heero repeated seriously.

"Heero," I began, determinedly trying not to let my professional greediness get the better of me.

"Well, if he really doesn't want it—"

"We should honour his decision—"

"Duo said not to force him, so we shouldn't—"

"H-Heero," I tried again. "Um, this is not exactly... logical. The map has been tattooed on your back after all. Without you, we wouldn't have anything. So... why?"

"If I had been interested in gold, I could have just as well accepted the offers of my suitors." Which were, as you know, quite numerous. "And it is exactly because the map has been tattooed on my back that I require your help."

Heero's logic was undeniably flawless and I caught the others nodding enthusiastically.

"Well, but what's in it for you then?" I must admit I had this wild hope that he would say he did it for me, but well, this is Heero we're talking about and, anyway, he had already made it more than clear that he didn't care for me at all.

"When we find the treasure and you sail back to Europe, I would like to accompany you. That's all."

"Oh, so you would like to travel," Quatre asked brightly.

"No. In Europe, I intend to procure a ship and become a pirate like the four of you."

Well. That was a surprise... I mean, Heero was not exactly weak or defenceless (Zechs and myself could attest to that), but with his slender frame and adorable face he also didn't strike you as a fearsome pirate. And if he wanted something – anything really – he certainly wouldn't have to threaten someone or extort it by force, he would just have to ask one of his admirers and repay them with one of his rare smiles. They would fall over themselves to please him, myself included.

The others were obviously thinking the exact same thing and so Heero's revelation was only met with polite silence.

"Ok," Trowa eventually said. "I think we can all agree to Heero's terms?"

Everyone nodded vigorously.

The next day passed rather uneventfully. Then, in the late evening, Quatre swapped his ladle for a goose quill and left with Heero to draw the map.

I thought about joining a group of pirates, who were just getting drunk and boisterously chanted one bawdy song after the other, but did not really feel like company. Instead, I retired to a much quieter corner of the room to nurse my broken heart and a bottle of rum.

You see, I might have had dozens of more or less successful love affairs, but I'd never had my heart broken before. As a pirate, you cannot even afford to have a heart—let alone allow someone to break it. So I decided to drown my sorrows in alcohol and maybe they wouldn't hurt so much that way. After an hour or so of excessive drinking, Wufei and Trowa, who had worked overtime that day and had just finished their dinner, came over and helped themselves to some of my rum. I was far too drunk already to stop them.

"They aren't finished yet," Trowa asked after his second glass, sounding mildly astonished.

"Obvioushhly... no."

"Ah, don't worry. Probably takes some time." He was certainly trying to be nice, but only made me feel worse.

"Oh, r-r-really?" I slurred, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Quatre probably had to take a lot of measurements," Wufei supplied.

"Meashhurements." I bet, he did.

"And the map practically covers his entire back, doesn't it? Duo?"

I sighed, remembering. "Yessh, I does-sh."

"Well then, no need to worry."

Right... I decided to take him at his word and resumed my drinking with renewed enthusiasm. The bottle was empty surprisingly soon and I staggered to my feet, announcing that I would get some more.

"Jussht a minute. Be riiight back!"

I was on my way to the bar when I spotted a particularly cheerful group of card players, and, on a whim, decided that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to join them for a friendly game or two. It had been such a long-long time since I'd gamb— I mean, played cards and one harmless little game wouldn't hurt anyone. Suddenly in much higher spirits, I commended myself for my very reasonable way of thinking. It really seemed that I had finally put my addi- my pronounced fondness for games of chance behind me and, I realized drunkenly, it had been surprisingly easy. So I left two bottles of rum at Trowa's and Wufei's table and purposefully staggered back to the card players, quickly making my introductions and joining the very next game.

After the fourth game, I had somehow completely forgotten that I had originally just wanted to stay for a short time; after the sixth, I could barely remember anything at all. Because, believe it or not, for the first time in a long while, I won hands down! You know what they say: Lucky at cards, unlucky in love. Well, that was exactly what had happened to me and the most curious thing was that the more I drank, the luckier I got. I'm sure I would have made a fortune that night, if anyone had actually played for gold coins instead of tin buttons and crooked copper spoons... Still, I was deliriously happy and my worries seemed to dissolve like cigar smoke.

At one point, however, my vision grew somewhat hazy and the ear-splitting noise around me (caused to a considerable degree by my unhappy co-players, who were loath to part with their cutlery) seemed to die down a little. Some time after that, my memory begins to fail me... I still vaguely remember a blond girl in a horrible pink dress, smiling rather peculiarly and looking disturbingly smitten with something... and about there, my memory stops altogether. But considering what happened afterwards, I am quite lucky that it did...

I could really really really need a beta reader, so if anyone would like to help me, I would be eternally grateful! (English is not my native language and it takes hours to check and re-check everything... literally.)