I wonder if anybody missed me. - Okay, okay, I KNOW at least some of ya'll missed me. Well…how to put this…I'm back. Oh, yeah. Sorry to have suddenly vanished on ya'll. I kinda lost track of things and this and that and…ya'll know how things get.

But WOW just look at the site! It's changed a bit since I was here last…ooh, what's this button do…? XD I'm gonna be exploring here for a bit, yah! So, now that we're on the same page here…

Welcome to my newest story, a crossover between Kingdom Hearts and Tsubasa…with a few little twists, of course!

Title: At Berth in the Sky

Summary: Sora is a cabin boy, working aboard the Valiant with his best friends, Riku (fellow cabin boy) and Kairi (ship's cook). The Valiant was infamous for never having been boarded by pirates—until now. The Captain entrusts a small key to Sora, and the trio watches in horror as all those on board are killed and the ship commandeered. Now aboard the pirate's ship, Sora, Riku, and Kairi are off to find out where the key fits. Little do they know the perils along the way.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Tsubasa. Kingdom Hearts is owned by Squaresoft and Disney, and Tsubasa is owned by CLAMP. I do not profit from this story at all, only for my love of writing is it here at all. XP So back off, ye mangy beasts called lawyers!

So, welcome aboard the Maleficent—and batten down the hatches!

Chapter 1: A Curious Key

The seas have forever been tormented by the slap of pirate's ships to the waves. Since man first climbed into boats and set sail, there have been crews and captains and Jolly Rogers unique. Sora knew this as he stared out into the open sea, a cabin boy along with his buddy Riku and their friend, the cook, Kairi. He dared them to come and attack the Valiant. Not a ship in the sea could catch her, nor a man sink her.

Riku tapped him on the shoulder and nodded toward the bow of the ship. Captain Jun directed orders, as any sea-worthy and ship-worthy and crew-worthy as ever there was a captain. Captain Jun was known for sailing through known pirate's territory without ever being boarded by pirates. She had outmaneuvered every pirate that had ever dared cross paths with the Valiant.

"Cabin boys!" She called over the heads of the other shipmates. "Go fetch Tiddler, he's in the galley again!"

Sora nodded and took off at a pleasant jog down into the bulkhead, where the galley and the crew's quarters lay. Tiddler was gnawing on a bit of tack. His job, as the boatswain, was to maintain the ship's sails. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at his job because he was always in the galley eating something or other.

"Mr. Tiddler, Captain Jun is calling," Sora said, nodding toward the upper deck. "I think the foresail has come loose from the boom again, sir."

"Agh! That blasted foresail, just as I was gettin' the best of this ole stale bread, I was, too!" Tiddler slammed the tack down onto a tin plate and grabbed his hat. He shoved past Sora and up onto the deck. Sora could hear Captain Jun tearing into him about leaving the sails unattended for so long again.

"He's not a very good maintenance person. Tiddler, I mean." Kairi came round the galley table, drying her hands off again. "Supper will be ready in a while. Why can't he wait till it's done like everyone else. Our tack supply is almost gone!"

Sora shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe it's kinda like everybody else can't wait till land is in sight, but nobody says anything." He grinned as Kairi laughed.

"That may be true." She sighed. "I'll have to have a word with the Captain at any rate. He can't just keep eating up the tack supply. We'll die of starvation before we get to the islands."

"Makes you wish we could hire a new—"

Sora didn't know quite what had happened, other than Kairi and he had been knocked to the floor. He helped Kairi to her feet, only to have them both be knocked against a wall again.

"Wait here," he said. "You'll be safer here."

Kairi nodded, watching as he all but crawled up the stairs to keep from falling again. At the top, Sora yelled back down to her. "PIRATES! Hide, Kairi!"

While she did, he charged up on deck to see what use he could be to the Captain and the rest of the crew. The Valiant had several large holes in her side—cannon holes. She still floated fine, but that was the least of their troubles. The pirates were preparing to board them. The signature on the side of the smaller craft was unmistakable. The Maleficent was one of the sea's toughest crew of pirates.

And they were going to board the Valiant.

"Cabin boy!" Captain Jun made her way through her crew, all of whom were lined up and prepared for battle. Cutlasses and swords and pistols drawn, not a man or a woman was backing down without a fight. "Sora. Take this. Keep it. Hide it. Don't let anyone see it, especially not the pirates." She pressed a small trinket into his hands, though he didn't take the time to study it before stuffing it in his pocket. "Take Riku and Kairi in the dinghy and get out of here! If we fight off the pirates, return. If not…save yourselves."

"But Captain—!"

"Don't question my orders, cabin boy!" Captain Jun shouted. "Now move! Move it!"

And without hesitation, Sora raced down into the galley again, grabbed Kairi's hand, and pulled her up onto the deck. She sputtered and queried, but he wouldn't answer until they were safely off the ship. He grabbed Riku's hand, and the three of them lowered a dinghy, and the three floated off away from the Valiant, but still out of the pirate ship's line of sight.

Riku rounded on Sora. "Why did you drag us both off?"

"The Captain ordered me to," Sora said. "She said to keep us, and whatever it is she gave me, safe from them." He nodded toward the other side of the Valiant. He didn't even have to do that for his friends to know who he was referring to.

"What did she give you?" Riku asked.

"I don't know. I shoved it in my pocket before I even looked at it proper."

"Then look at it now!" Kairi said, incredulous.

Sora reached in his pocket and pulled out the trinket. It was a small silver key on a black cord, ornately decorated with several tiny rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. The three of them stared at it, dumbfounded. What was really worth Captain Jun's life over a stupid little key? Sure, it was covered in jewels. But it wasn't all that important, to the eyes of the three teenagers in the dank little dinghy.

Sora pocketed it again, and stared up at the ship they'd just basically abandoned. He wasn't too worried. After all, there was some reason that Captain Jun and her crew had avoided being boarded by pirates, right? But as he watched, the pirates seemed to kill more and more of the crew. Tiddler the boatswain was run through with a cutlass. Ming the deck officer was shot with a pistol. It seemed to never end, until, at last, the three heard splashes on the other side of the ship.

The pirates didn't seem to notice them at all. For over an hour, the three teenagers watched the pirates move treasures and books and maps over onto the Valiant. They dared not move or speak, in fear that the spell or whatever it was keeping them safe would break. They heard the pirates laughing and shouting and opening up their watered-down rum. Kairi growled deep in her throat as they ate the dinner she'd been preparing for the sailors who were now at the bottom of Davy Jones.

After only a few moments more, the pirates fixed the foresail and were off in the Valiant. They had successfully commandeered the last ship to have had a reputation against pirates. Sora felt miserable, thinking that there should have been something he could have done. He sighed and looked up at the pirate's abandoned ship.

"Well…anyone think they know how to drive one of these?"

"I've seen Tiddler about the decks sometimes," Riku said. "I think I can handle the sails. At least till we find an island."

Kairi sighed. "Yeah…I bet anything the only reason they took our vessel is because they ran out of food."

The three teenagers slowly peddled their little dinghy over to the pirate's ship. It was covered in stains that Sora didn't want to think about. The sails were dirty, but they were well-made and ready to be unfurled. This ship was definitely not a three-person sailboat, but the teenagers knew better than to curse their luck. They could have just been left in the middle of the ocean with just a dinghy.

Riku wasn't very good at working the sails, but he was better than Sora or Kairi could do. The three set off with only one chart aboard the ship—a chart of the area they were in, lucky enough. Since the charts had already been laid out for the journey to the island only another day's sailing away, Sora thought surely they had just not needed the chart. But he and Kairi made the best estimate they could for the nearest island.

It was almost uncharted for its size, and because it was uninhabited. But it was close enough that they could restore the shelves of the ship and decide what to do next. For, as Kairi had predicted, the ship was all but barren of this very small thing known as food. There was enough watered rum to last for a couple more days, but only for the three of them. No wonder the pirates had been so eager for a new ship.

"So, what do you think is so important about this key that the late captain gave it to Sora to save?" Riku asked, holding up the tiny thing. "It doesn't even look large enough for a normal door lock."

"So maybe it's for something smaller?" Kairi said. "We ought to find a crew. Clean up this ship, sand down those awful stains. The pirates left enough behind for us to do all that."

"With that much booty, of course they could afford to leave behind a small fortune," Sora grumbled. "No wonder they needed a larger ship. They probably had too much money and were sinking, too."

"Well, whatever their reasons were for taking the Valiant, we have enough to take this ship and the leftover money," Kairi said. "So what do you guys say? We go for this or what?"

"Yeah. I'm in." Riku placed his hand at the center of the captain's blank desk. "What about you, Sora? You in?"

"Captain Jun gave her life for this thing. Of course I'm in," Sora grinned.

The three shook hands, one atop the other. Kairi, always the cool-headed one, said: "Then let's get restocked, and then we'll head for the islands. Surely King Mickey has a few extra hands around who would love to help us out."

"The King has always helped us before!" Sora said.

"Yeah. One more adventure to go."

The three laughed and climbed back out onto the open-air cockpit to steer the ship.

So…was it awesome or should I slink back out the back door as if I never came back? O.o