Funfunfun, piratepiratepirate…

Review Replies:

Taisa: xD What else could We do but have more pirate fun? Tas might be over there writing what happened in the roleplay, but We've got the new stuff covered. xD

Rose: xD A spoon? xD You only say that cause you think he's HAWT. xDD

Disclaimer: Don't own it! Song is "The Walk" by Imogen Heap.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Captain Edward Elric? Was this him, then, the fabled "replacement" (as Rose had come to call him) captain? He didn't look fit to be leader of this bunch of misfits, but then again, the rest of them weren't all that pirate like either. She supposed that they got away with not looking like pirates by being deadly. So, in truth, Rose didn't really have a real reason why Edward shouldn't have been captain. She just knew he didn't fit the role. So when the boy introduced himself, she merely smiled and nodded. Better not to argue about it.

"So!" said Edward, as if he were concluding something. "Where's the rest of the crew?" He looked expectantly among the three that were there. "Armstrong and Havoc and Cook are missing, aren't they? And Rubens, too."

"We're right here," announced a mild voice. A hatch on the deck opened up, and a violet-haired man emerged, holding his hand out for the brunette that followed. The man turned, and Rose could see that he was wearing a pair of thick lenses with horn-rimmed frames above a pair of bright gray eyes. Shaking a bit of shaggy fringe out of his eyes, the man pulled up a girl. She looked to be around fifteen, unlike the in-his-twenties purple-haired man. A red streak stood out among her long chestnut locks, and the girl's eyes were a soft blue. "Sorry, we were talking downstairs," apologized the man, walking down the ramp. The girl followed. He looked at Rose, then blinked at Ed and Roy. "Who's this?" he quizzed.

"My niece," replied Roy, at the same time Edward said "Rose." They both looked at each other and scowled, but the gray-eyed man looked intrigued.

"Your niece?" he asked Roy, who nodded. "Kari's?" The darkhaired man nodded once more, and the other man looked rather excited. "I had no idea," he admitted. "Never believed Kari would have one. Then again, she always did like kids, and there was that one she trucked around, lying how it was her cousin's--"

Rose cut him off. "Um… Mister…. Could you tell me…" She trailed off. There was so much she wanted to know, and it was hard not to just explode with questions.

/ No response on any level /

He blinked for a moment, then gave a sheepish smile. "Right," said the man. "Sorry. I s'pose you want a name, right?" When the girl nodded, he bowed shallowly. "Lookout-in-charge Alexander Connor Rubens, the third, at your service." He paused for a moment, then swore. "Elric, you're rubbing off on me." Ed stuck out his tongue at Rubens, but obviously Rubens didn't care. He nudged the girl beside him. "Introduce yourself," he told her.

The girl nodded, and stepped forward. Unlike the gunner, Riza, who'd been wearing pants rather like the men, the brunette was wearing a light frock, an apron, and sandals. "I'm Mina," she told Rose, smiling shyly. "I'm the cook." When she'd said her name, Ed had roared out "COOK!" in the hopes of drowning out Mina's voice. Obviously he wanted everyone to call her that. Rose, of course, had no intention of calling the girl "Cook", since she wasn't an idiot. Hell, Edward probably didn't even know Mina's actual name. Never could be sure with him.

/ Red alert, this vessel's under siege /

"So!" said Edward again, in that same tone he'd used before. "Where're Armstrong and Havoc? Anyone seen them?" Everyone else shook their heads, and Edward sighed. "We gotta find them. We'll split up in groups of --" He paused to count. "—Two. Rubens and Cook--" Mina sighed at the name; "—Mustang and Hawkeye, and I'll go with Rose here. Sound good?" Everyone nodded, and Edward went on. "Good. We'll meet back here in half an hour to see if anyone's found them. Got it?"

Rose watched everyone shuffle off in amazement. She'd had her doubts about Edward, that was for sure. Now, though, she could see why everyone was so loyal to him. (Later, of course, she'd probably realize that despite Ed's superior leadership skills and his title, Roy handled most of the crew's affairs.)

She was shaken out of her thoughts when the longhaired boy approached her. "Ready to go?" he asked, grinning mischieviously. Without waiting for an answer, he shrugged and strode off. Rose trotted behind, slightly startled. He looked back at her, smirking as they walked. "If we don't find them in the half an hour, and Mustang or Rubens does, one of them's going to rub it in all night. That's why we're going to." She looked at him for a moment, slightly confused, but nodded and followed.

/ Total overload – all systems down, they've got control /

Unfortunately for the other teams, the first person to be spotted was Armstrong, and Rose and Ed found him. He was having quite a fun time carrying barrels of rum for some old bartender woman. He spotted them, and approached. Rose stared up at him. She'd never believed someone could possibly be that huge. Apparently Armstrong was capable of it, because here he was, all six-foot-five of him, shoulders as broad as two and a half men, and he was carrying barrels of rum. The large man seemed to be staring at Edward, and his yellow mustache was quivering. Rose took that to be a smile, because the guy was rather sparkly. Finally the large man cried out "Edward Elric!" and immediately bear-hugged the little captain. Edward struggled for a moment, then finally let himself go limp. You could just about hear the joints in the blonde boy's back cracking.

The man dropped Edward, turning to Rose. "And who is this lady, Edward-kun?" he questioned. "Are you a suitor?" he asked Rose, who colored slightly. He leaned back, chuckling "merrily". Rose looked him up and down, taking in his appearance. The guy was enormous, as she'd figured out as soon as she'd seen him. His name fit him well. (As did Hawkeye's, but when she was drunk it didn't matter if her name had something to do with birds of prey – she was much too drunk to care about aiming.) He had no shirt – he didn't need one, because it would just rip – and he had a pair of fitted pants that he'd tucked into his boots. He had a pair of gauntlets strapped to his hands, spiked metal ones that he used in hand-to-hand. He was musing about something. Maybe it was the relationship status between Rose and Ed, maybe not. Whatever it was, the man shrugged and trained small, bright blue eyes on the pair, his small coil of yellow hair quivering. "So, Edward-kun, what are the current goings-on?"

Edward blinked for a moment. You could tell that he'd just about forgotten all about the search parties due to the bone-crushing hug he'd just received. Upon the question, however, he nodded. "We were looking for you and Havoc," he replied. "We found you, so… Have you seen Havoc?" He rather hoped so. It would be annoying to have to keep looking, but then again, they had decided to organize a search.

Oh, he was diverging.

/ There's no way out, we are surrounded /

Armstrong shook his head, obviously confused. "No," he replied. "I left him at the ship. He was supposed to have waited for your return. Perhaps he went to eat?" he suggested. "Even if you can't find him, he shall most probably turn up." He seemed to think this was the end of the conversation, because he began to shuffle off.

Edward stood still for a moment, then took a flying leap and clung to the man's back. Armstrong was rather startled until he realized what was going on. "You can't leave," Edward informed the man. "First of all, it's getting dark. And secondly, if I lose you, Mustang and Rubens are going to make fun of me if one of them finds you. So you're staying with us, thank you very much." He slipped off Armstrong's back, dusting himself off.

Armstrong just stared for a moment. (Honestly, even Rose had been startled, though not because of Ed's reasons for jumping. It was more the fact that Ed had simply launched himself on the big man's back.) He seemed rather fazed by this. "Er... Alright," said Armstrong finally. He had nothing else to do, anyway. Might as well stay, was Armstrong's decision on this one.

/ Give in, give in /

Half an hour later, everyone was simply standing around near the ship, pondering. No one had seen Havoc anywhere. It didn't make much sense, but then again, this was Havoc, and he was always getting lost in different places. Edward had been sitting on a barrel, chin in his hand, when he hopped off it and marched up the ramp to the ship. Rose followed, watching as he clambered down the hatch and walked off. She supposed he could have taken the stairs on the side, but Edward Elric wasn't such a good thinker when he was mad about something.

Ed came back up, and he was leading a taller blonde man, who'd been downstairs the whole time. The guy was smoking what looked to be a cigar, and it was giving off a strange colored smoke. His eyes were red-rimmed and slightly bloodshot, and Rose could guess that along with the smoke, it was what he was smoking that was making this man look like he'd been cutting onions or something. He had on simple attire, quite like the rest of the crew, and he was sporting a gun on his hip. (There were cutlasses in the storage, of course, but they only took them out when they were doing something. So right now no one was carrying one.) His hair was rather odd, Rose found, since had two tones to it, a darker, mud-colored bit and a lighter, blonder bit. Then again, she shouldn't have been surprised. Everyone was weird in this place.

So this was the infamous Havoc… He seemed to be rather giddy, and Rose attributed that as well to his cigar. Whatever he'd been smoking, it had to be some sort of drug. It was, of course, marijuana. Of course, Rose couldn't identify whatever the hell else was in the cut of the greens. Apparently Havoc's version of a high involved laughing at anything that happened to be in the vicinity.

Edward broke into her thoughts by standing up on the rail. "All right, then," he announced. "Shall we set sail? There's a whole chest of gold stamped with our names on it, and we're the ones who're going to get it." The rest of the crew seemed to like that idea. Ed's eyes slipped over to Rose for a minute, before he looked down at Mina. "Hey, Cook, get her some proper clothes. She's not going to be a maid, after all. She needs proper pillaging wear."

Mina's brow furrowed in confusion for a moment before she nodded, though she looked exasperated about the nickname. "Yeah, yeah," she replied. Obviously she wasn't as shy as Rose had thought. "I'll be sure to. Also, remind me to hit you with something next time you call me that."

The blonde boy blinked, obviously not realizing what she was talking about. "All right, then," he said finally. "First thing tomorrow morning, we set sail." He grinned. This was going to be quite the party, he knew already. And with a new crew member under their belt, there was about to be a twist to their usual seafaring, plundering party.

/ And relish every minute of it /

----------------------------------------------

Yeah, there you are. :3