Chapter 2

Why me?

Jim sat in the cabin in disbelief. How did he end up with pirates again? When he had become a military cadet five years ago he had sworn to himself he would never set his foot on a pirate ship, or if he did, it would be because he was going to capture the pirates. Fate could be such an ass, he thought. But maybe this could also mean that he would have a chance of meeting the cyborg John Silver again since pirates seemed to know each other well.

It had been two days now since he had been kidnapped, and he hadn't left the cabin even once. It wasn't that he couldn't, it was just that he didn't want to. Sinbad didn't spend a lot of time in his cabin either, he usually just came to sleep or bring some food for Jim. At first he had tried to start a few conversations with him, but he had given up when Jim had only glared at him. After two days of silence it was starting to get to him, though, since there wasn't much to do in the cabin.

"I wish Eric was here," Jim said with closed eyes while lying on his back. At least Sinbad had been nice enough to let him sleep on the bed while he himself slept on a hammock.

"Who's that? Your boyfriend?"

Jim jumped up at the sudden voice, looking bewildered. Kale was leaning on the doorway with crossed arms and a smirk on his face.

"When did you come in?" Jim muttered, embarrassed. He wasn't really asking.

"So not your boyfriend?" Kale put his hands down, stepping in. Jim was still intimidated by how big the pirate actually was.

"What do you want?" He stood up. Otherwise he would have felt too short compared to the other one (not that standing up made any difference). "And no, he's not my… boyfriend."

"I'm glad to hear," Kale smiled shortly, and before Jim could ask what he meant by that, he continued, "Captain wants you to come to the deck. Says that otherwise the crew won't believe that you're not dead."

Jim snorted, but he was actually glad to have an excuse to go out.

"Oh, yeah. I've been meaning to say this, but sorry for almost killing you on the ship," Kale apologized. "Nothing personal, alright?"

"You were far from killing me," Jim laughed, even if it wasn't entirely true. "And yeah, nothing personal."

"Good, then. Ready to go?"

Jim followed the big man to the deck, and the pirates, who were gathered around the captain, whistled when they saw him.

"He's finally here!" one of them, an old man with white hair, shouted.

"You actually got him to get out of there," Sinbad directed his words to Kale, surprised. Kale shrugged, looking smug.

"Maybe you're just not his type," he said, and the crew started laughing. Jim crossed his arms and wanted to say 'hey, I'm still here and I can hear every word you say', but he guessed it would make the pirates laugh even more, and he was tired of being laughed at.

"Ha ha," Sinbad imitated, shaking his head. "Alright then, you have work to do. Leave us alone."

When the laugh had died, the pirates parted and went their own ways. Jim eyed the captain warily, wondering if he should speak his mind.

"Are you tired of sulking yet?" Sinbad asked, tearing his eyes off the wheel. Jim didn't answer, so the captain sighed and turned around to face him fully. "Listen, you're here whether you like it or not, and – "

"Just tell me what the hell you want with me!"

Sinbad was surprised at the sudden burst. At least he's talking, he thought. "I already said that I can't tell you. Not yet. But if it means so much to you, a person who might tell you something is coming to see you today." He looked past Jim and grinned. "Actually, she's already here."

Jim followed Sinbad's eyes to the horizon, where a ship was sailing towards them. It was still far, but Jim could make out it was a pirate ship.

"Great. This just keeps getting better and better."

"Not very keen of pirates?" the captain asked.

"Who would be? I've dealt with pirates enough in my life to know that they're always up for trouble. I've had to help them in the past, and now you're making me do something like that again."

Jim still remembered the events with John Silver and his pirate crew clearly. He had been 17 years old, young and reckless, and it had felt like an adventure. He kind of owed them, actually, because if it wasn't for them, he probably would have never come to this point in his life. But they were still pirates, and they had threatened him to make him help them.

"So I've heard," Sinbad nodded, and then yelled a command to his men: "Lower the anchor! A guest is coming."

"I'm flattered. I didn't know I was famous among pirates." Jim's voice was full of sarcasm, which Sinbad didn't seem to notice. Or he just didn't care.

"That's actually why we knew where to find you. And your past is part of the reason why we need you. Okay, that was enough information!" And to change the subject he put on a charming smile and leaned against the wheel with one hand. "So, tell me, what does the military say about me?"

"That you're annoying and arrogant?" Jim suggested. Sinbad's face fell. "To be honest, I've never heard about you." Sinbad's face fell even more if possible.

"Oh, that's… unexpected. I've always thought that I have a reputation to maintain, but if you've never even heard about me, I guess I haven't done enough bad things. One would think that being accused of stealing the Book of Peace would be enough, but never mind then."

"Wait – it was you? You stole it?" Jim gasped. He had been in space at that time, so it hadn't affected him that much, but he had read about it in another planet's newspaper. The paper hadn't said who had stolen it, though, and he hadn't remembered to ask about it when he had returned to Earth later.

"So you do have heard about me!" Sinbad grinned. "But anyway, it wasn't me who stole it. It was a goddess called Eris. I just returned it."

The pirate captain was happy to notice that this was the first time they were having an actual conversation where he wasn't the only one doing the talking. He didn't admit it to himself, but he had been a little bit worried about the man when he had basically locked himself up in the cabin for two days and had barely eaten the food Sinbad had brought him. Of course he had known it would take time for him to adjust to this, but it was still worrying.

"Right… A pirate who returns stuff."

Jim could see the ship clearly now. It was made of dark wood, and it was much bigger than the one Sinbad had. There was a Jolly Roger signaling the nature of the crew, and Jim wondered what kind of captain such an enormous ship possessed.

"We should go and get ready to welcome the guests," Sinbad told him, walking away to give commands to his men.

The deck got busy soon, and the pirates were hurrying to get everything done. One brought the finest wine they had while the other was cleaning the deck from all the ropes and buckets, and Spike was covering everything with his drool. Jim felt useless, but he didn't know what to do, so he settled for watching the nearing ship until it had stopped right next to them. A narrow wooden bridge was lowered from it, and down walked a very beautiful but dangerous looking woman. She reminded Jim of his former captain Amelia.

"Captain Sinbad," the woman greeted with a small smile. It wasn't a friendly smile; it was merely political. She extended her hand, and Sinbad kissed it lightly.

"Captain Kida," Sinbad returned smile. "How was your trip?"

Kida tossed her white hair over her shoulder, and Jim was glad her icy blue eyes were staring at Sinbad instead of him. She was even more intimidating than Kale.

"It took us one day to get here because of the weather. There was a storm coming from the North," Kida explained. Then she raised her hand slightly, signaling for his crew. "I hope you don't mind if I bring a few of my men with me."

"Not at all, be my guest," Sinbad answered. He led Kida to a table set for them, offering her wine. Kida looked pleased. After a few lines of formalities, the female captain seemed to decide it was time for real talk.

"Do you have the man with you?"

"Indeed I do. Jim," Sinbad called, motioning for the said man to come to them. Both of them followed him with their eyes, but his steps didn't falter because he didn't want to look weak in front of the captains. Only then when they both openly checked him out (Sinbad seemed to do that in every chance he could, and yes, Jim had noticed) he felt slightly embarrassed. And angry. He wasn't a pet for people to show around!

"Quite a looker," Kida stated and smiled at Jim. "Sit down." There weren't any other chairs than the ones Kida and Sinbad had, so Jim sent a questioning look at Kida. She, on the other hand, stared at Sinbad and raised her eyebrows until he got the message. Sinbad stood up and gave his seat to Jim, and there was a tight smile on his face.

Jim was starting to like this woman.

"Shang, give me the thing we found," the female captain said to one of his men, who was standing a little bit farther away and observing the other captain's crew around them. He had his long hair tied up, and he looked ready to fight anyone who tried to do anything stupid. He nodded at Kida, bringing a wooden chest to them. Jim wondered why this scenario seemed so familiar.

He didn't have to wonder it for long, though, because then Kida opened the chest and took out a half of a sphere, and all the memories from his teenage years came back to him. He knew what the sphere was, but why did they have it? Wasn't it destroyed during the explosion on Treasure Planet? Even if it was just a half of it, it looked exactly the same as the one that had led to Treasure Planet.

"I know what you're thinking, but no, this isn't the same one," Kida sighed. "We found this on an island buried deep in a cave. First we didn't know what it was, but then we remembered the stories. About you and the map and Treasure Planet."

"This doesn't make sense." Jim rubbed his temple. He was really confused at this point. "Have you opened it?"

Sinbad had crossed his arms and was listening to their conversation with mildly-interested face.

"We tried, but there's some sort of a technique to it that we don't know of. So we thought that you might be able to do it." Kida handed the half sphere to Jim, who watched it carefully. There was kind of a metal wall where it had been halved, so he couldn't see the inside. He tried to move the pieces like he had done with the other sphere, but they didn't click right, and nothing happened.

"Seems like it can only be opened when it's whole," he said, giving it back to Kida. The woman looked disappointed.

"It was worth a try." Then her face lit up. "So, what do you say?"

"About what?"

"About joining us and finding out what the map is all about! You have the knowledge, we have the men," Sinbad interfered, but he only received a snort from the other man.

"Why should I be joining pirates? This half belongs to the military if anyone. And for all we know, the other half may be on some other planet. If it's not destroyed."

Sinbad and Kida exchanged looks, and Jim just knew they were up to something.

"But do you really have a choice here? You're surrounded by pirates and miles of nothing but sea water," Sinbad grinned, reminding Jim once again that he had actually been kidnapped onto this ship and had no saying in this matter.

"Aren't you also interested to see where the map leads us?" Kida continued.

Jim was defeated.

"Fine, then. But just so you know, I'm not doing this willingly. When the military starts looking for me, you'll be in trouble."

"Don't worry about us, we know how to deal with them," the female captain smiled sweetly, drinking the rest of his wine and getting up. "We'll leave the first thing tomorrow." And with those words she left the ship with his men, leaving Jim baffled about what just happened.

"That damn woman, thinking that she can order me around," Sinbad muttered. Jim looked at him amusedly, asking one question that had been bothering him.

"Why are you two working together then?"

Sinbad's focus moved to Jim, and his playfulness was back again. "Why, I'm glad you asked." He paused and seemed to think about his words. "I happen to have a lead to where the other half might be."

"But you didn't know whether it needed the other half or not, so why..?"

"We both wanted to be sure. If the other half wasn't necessary, she would probably have tried to kill me and take you with her."

Jim could never understand pirates. Although he could kind of reason with that.

"Anyway, are you hungry? There should be some food left in the kitchen," Sinbad asked, and now that Jim thought about it, he was starving. "I could come with you. "

"No. I'll go alone," the man refused without a second thought. He still didn't like the captain, even if they had managed to get along enough to have a civilized conversation.

"Why do you have to be like that? We could get to know each other better since you'll be staying with us anyway."

Jim rolled his eyes. "Gee, I wonder why. And I don't want to get to know you any better than this."

Sinbad frowned, taking a step closer to the other man. "You know, I've been quite patient with you until now, but enough is enough. You should start treating me with respect."

"Are you being serious right now?" Jim also took a step closer. "Why should I treat you like anything but a thief you are?"

"A thief? Don't put me in the same category with those amateurs! At least I'm not a military's petty dog like you! Your father must be so goddamn proud."

Jim froze at the mention of his father, and Sinbad must have realized it was a mistake, but it was too late now.

"Fuck. Off."

The tone in Jim's voice could freeze even Hell. Sinbad punched himself internally. Many, many times. Now it would be even more difficult to get the other man like him.

"I didn't mean to…" the captain started, but Jim had had enough. He shoved the captain out of his way and stomped back to the cabin, slamming the door after him. The crewmates, who had been listening to their conversation not-so-secretly, sent disapproving glances at their captain, and Sinbad sighed. Kale had crossed his arms, huffing and shaking his head. Even Spike stared at Sinbad.

"What would you like me to do then?" Sinbad asked, but no one answered a question that obvious. The pirate captain ran his fingers through his hair, marching then to the door and knocking it.

"Come on, open the door." The other man didn't even make a sound from the other side, and Sinbad knocked again with more power. "You can't stay there forever. It's my cabin, you know." Still no answer. "I'm sorry, do you hear me? I'm sorr–"

The door slammed against Sinbad's face, making him fall backwards on the ground. Jim came out with a pillow and a blanket in his hands, mumbling something about 'sleeping the night on the deck'. He didn't even spare Sinbad a look when he stepped over him and walked to the farthest place from him he could find. Sinbad didn't bother to go after him this time; instead he was the one to lock up into his cabin.

Kale watched them from afar, wondering to himself how Jim managed to bring out the worst in Sinbad when their captain usually managed to keep his cool even with the most annoying pirate captains.

Maybe tomorrow would be a new start for both of them.

A/N: Yay, the new chapter is out! What do you think? I tried to make the characters as IC as possible, but sometimes it's hard since writing about them is still quite new to me, so please bear with me. If you have a character that you'd like to be in this story, you can tell me and I'll consider it. See you in the next chapter~