Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that's you.

Author's Note: Two sapphics at sea.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: In a Flash; Two Cakes!; 3rd Rule Bribery [HP Edition] (Y)
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 02
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Romance Awareness [D22] (One Sentence a Day) (Pirate AU); Insane Prompt Challenge [877] (Swashbuckler); 365 [89] (Blade); Galleon (navy blue)
Space Address (Prompt): n/a
Representation(s): Katie Bell/Alicia Spinnet
Bonus Challenges: In a Trench; Surprise!; Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Ladylike; Not a Lamp; White Dress; Clio's Conclusion); Chorus (Wind Beneath)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: FR (Satisfaction; Evolution)
Word Count: 555

(^^)
Bell Ringer
(^^)

Katie felt the tingle of words appearing on her skin. Today's mark curved around the swell of her breast. She longed to strip off her navy blue shirt and then the strips that she used to keep her breasts from moving too much just so she can see what words that Fate had brought her from her soulmate. However, present company and activity preclude such things. She couldn't very well go stripping out of her clothes in the middle of a sword fight, after all. With any luck, the words will still be there when the fight was done and loot stowed. If not, then at least she had recognized the words had stained her skin.

Her soulmate yet lived, even if they had not met.

Her opponent took advantage of the minor distraction to slash at her sleeve. It caught more fabric that flesh, but what flesh it did catch gave as easily as any fish that Cook cleaned for roasting. Immediately, the blood darkened the already dark fabric of her shirt.

"This is my favorite shirt, you fishmonger!" Katie swung back into battle, prepared to make the man pay for ruining her shirt. The sea wind rose suddenly, making the ship tilt threateningly. The sails snapped in the shifting wind, sounding just like the wings of an avenging angel. With quick motions of her blade, she dispatched the man and turned to look over the ship currently bound to her own.

It was a sorry lot, as she had come to expect from those who hunted those fleeing slavery or persecution. She would not shed a single tear for any of these men and would still sleep soundly tonight. She would loot what cargo there was to loot and welcome aboard her own ship any property the bounty hunters had managed to retrieve. They could sail with her for as long as they liked, including just to the first safe harbor if that was their wish. This ship was not worth adding to her growing fleet, so they were set it burning as a pyre.

"You're the one they call the Bell Ringer," came a voice from above. Standing in the crow's nest and leaning on its rim was a woman with skin the exact color of Katie's ship. A multitude of curls spilled over both her shoulders. From her back rose feathered wings the exact same shade of as Katie's shirt. She was the most beautiful woman that Katie had ever seen, and Katie had a taste for the feminine form.

"They do," Katie agreed. She smiled saucily at the angel. "Would you like to find out why?"

"Does that line usually work for you?"

"I would not need any lines to know that you are perfection incarnate," Katie countered, "and deserve to be treated as such. I would delight at the chance to show you, in exhaustive detail."

The woman flapped her wings just enough to assist herself out of the crow's nest before half-flying and half-gliding down to the deck near Katie. This close, Katie could see that she was even more beautiful. Katie could also feel a tension in the air that made her breast tingle like she was gaining even more words.

"I'm Alicia," the winged woman announced, "and I would be very interested in those exhaustive details."