Chapter 3

A new destination

The tension between Jim and Sinbad was still high the next day. Jim pretended like Sinbad didn't exist, and Sinbad tried to do the same (although Kale caught him staring at Jim a few times when he wasn't looking). Spike had taken Jim's side and was following him around, and the man didn't seem to mind.

Kale groaned. Why did they have to be so stubborn? He really didn't want to interfere, but there wasn't much of a choice here. It was a pain in the ass to try to work on a ship if two people hated each other's guts because the tense atmosphere affected everyone. And that's why he decided to talk to them.

"Do you have a second?" Kale asked Jim, who was sitting on the bow of the ship with Spike, munching on a pickled cucumber. Jim shrugged.

"I might even have two seconds since there's not much for me to do," the man answered, giving the rest of the cucumber to Spike. Kale snorted and leaned against the railing.

"Sinbad is not as bad as you may think he is." Silence. "Okay, who am I trying to fool? He's selfish and arrogant and sometimes like a little kid, but he's got a big heart. And he's a great captain."

Jim watched Kale from the corner of his eye, seeming disinterested, but Kale knew he was listening and thinking about his words.

"What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to be friends. Or lovers," Jim cringed at Kale's words, and Kale laughed at him, "I just want you to get along without wanting to kill each other."

The smaller man sighed and rubbed his tired eyes (it had been a bad idea to sleep on the deck; he had barely got any shut eye). Kale was right, of course, but even seeing only Sinbad's face annoyed the hell out of him, so what could he do?

"I guess I could try," Jim finally said, turning to look at Kale. "But I need something to do. I can't just sit all day twiddling my thumbs." He hated being inactive, and since he was going to stay on this ship anyway, he might as well do something that would make him forget Sinbad's existence.

"Leave it to me."

Kale hummed, satisfied at his own work as he walked towards his next victim: the captain himself. Convincing him would be a lot easier since he knew him better than Jim.

"Sinbad."

"Kale."

They looked at each other, and Sinbad tried to win the staring competition, but after a while he was the one to turn his eyes away.

"What do you want? I saw you talking to Jim."

Sinbad knew he was acting childish, but it had taken all of his willpower to apologize to the other man yesterday, and then he hadn't even listened to him. It seemed talking about his father was a very uncomfortable topic for him, and yes, Sinbad regretted bringing it up. Hell, he would be insulted too if someone brought his parents up in a fight, even if he hadn't seen them in 10 years, but somehow it had just slipped out of his mouth.

"You know what I want," Kale said, raising one of his eyebrows and nodding towards Jim. "Besides, you're the one who wanted to go after the possible treasure. He's the only one who knows how to use the sphere. Do you really want him to join Kida if he decides being with you on this ship is worse than being with her?"

Sinbad cursed under his breath, wondering why he had hired Kale to his crew. He always seemed to find the right things to say to convince Sinbad to do something against his will. Wasn't he supposed to take his side on these matters? And the damn dog, too. He had heard dogs were loyal, but it seemed Spike's loyalty had changed its course from Sinbad to Jim.

"You sound exactly like my mother… Alright, I'm going, I'm going," the captain grunted. His steps were determined, but as he got closer to the other man his speed started slowing down more and more. What was he even going to say to him? 'Hey, I apologize for not knowing about your daddy issues'? No way in hell.

And before he could think of an answer to his own question, Jim was in front of him and he had to say something. Anything.

Sinbad cleared his throat.

"About yesterday – "

"About yesterday – "

They started speaking at the same time, and they both stopped abruptly, waiting for the other to finish.

"You first – "

"You first – "

Again. Not a very good start.

"Okay, listen," Jim huffed, raising his hand to stop Sinbad from saying anything else. "Sorry. I shouldn't have lost my cool so easily."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too. It was stupid of me to mention your father. I... I didn't know."

"It really was stupid of you," Jim agreed, but a sly grin on his face told him he was joking. The captain smiled back at him and stretched out his hand.

"Peace?"

Jim hesitated for a second, but then he grabbed Sinbad's hand, accepting the peace offering with a nod. Sinbad had a strong grip, and he held Jim's hand a little longer than needed. Jim swallowed.

They both were glad when the bridge was lowered again from Kida's ship, interrupting the whatever-moment they had had from becoming too awkward. Kida was beautiful as usual as she strode towards them with two of her men, looking suspiciously refreshed (it was only a break of dawn, for god's sake, and everyone in Sinbad's crew was dead tired).

"Good morning," she greeted and received a nod from Sinbad.

"Are your men ready to set sail?" Sinbad asked, standing a little straighter to try to cover his tiredness. Kida said yes, and they walked together a little farther from the others to discuss the course they were planning on taking. Sinbad didn't reveal the exact place they were going, of course, but Kida wouldn't need to know it since she was going to follow Sinbad's ship.

Jim's attention moved from the captains to Kale, who was tying some ropes beside the mast. He had a fine figure, and the muscles on his back moved nicely when he moved his hands or stretched out to grab something. Jim slapped himself mentally. This was definitely not the right time or the right person to start daydreaming about.

When the captains came back they both had a satisfied smirk, which they tried to hide, on their face. Everything so far was going according to their plan. Or more likely according to their own plans since they both probably plotted against each other and tried to find ways to get rid of each other when the chance arrived.

"Alright, Jim, you'll come with me," Sinbad commanded and threw his arm casually around Jim's shoulders, making the man frown in confusion at the sudden closeness. Kida pouted while watching them, and it made Jim realize that all of this was to make the other captain jealous and to show that Jim belonged to Sinbad, which he definitely did not.

After Kida and her crew were an earshot away, Jim freed himself and sent a glare at Sinbad. "I'm not your property."

"I didn't say you were."

"No, but you acted like I was."

"Can you two stop bickering at each other?" Kale sighed. "Captain, the course?"

"Oh, right," Sinbad grinned, turning around to ignore Jim and calling his crew to stop doing whatever they were doing and to come closer to listen. "Gentlemen, we'll be soon drinking some good wine under the burning sun and having beautiful ladies serve us grapes from silver plates. This ship is going to Greece!"

The overall tiredness seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye at the mention of Greece, and the crew started cheering. Jim didn't understand what the fuzz was all about, although he was interested to see what kind of a country it was. He had never been to Greece before, but he had heard stories from his fellow sailors about a hero named Hercules, who had defeated many kinds of monsters. According to the legends there were also gods living there, but no one had apparently seen them in years.

The anchors were raised and the ships set sail. They had to go slower than usual because even though Kida's ship was bigger and more pleasing to eye, it was much slower than Sinbad's ship, and no matter how much Sinbad wanted to get rid of her, they wouldn't do anything with only a half of a sphere if they happened to find it. They didn't even know if it was worth the trouble since there was no guarantee that the sphere would work. Sinbad and Kida were both ready to take the risk, however, because if there actually was a treasure, it would mean enjoying the rest of their lives on a beautiful island, drinking coconut juice and living like kings. It had been the original plan with the Book of Piece, but since things had gone like they had gone, it was still only a dream.

They had been sailing for a few hours now. Sinbad wanted to concentrate on steering the ship and keeping it on the right course, but it proved to be difficult with seeing Kale and Jim hanging out together like some good friends. When had they become so close? He had thought Jim hated everyone who was a pirate, but apparently he had been wrong. He tried to ignore the gnawing feeling inside him, telling himself that it was only because he hadn't managed to make Jim like him and was feeling annoyed when someone else had. What else would it be?

"Mr. Hawkins, what do you think you're doing?" Sinbad called. Jim and Kale raised their heads, and Jim had the usual annoyed look on his face.

"Being of help?" the man answered, raising one of his eyebrows. Kale looked questioningly at Sinbad too, dropping the rope he had in his hands.

"Well, you can come here and be of help to me," the captain commanded, daring the other man to say something. Which he, of course, did.

"What? Since when did you have the power to give commands to me?" Jim snapped, but to Sinbad's surprise, he obeyed (cursing and kicking empty buckets on his way, but still obeyed). He stopped in front of him with a hand on his hip. "And since when have I been Hawkins to you?"

Sinbad smirked, giving space for Jim to come to stand with him behind the wheel. "Say, have you ever steered a ship before?"

Jim had never steered a ship in his life. He knew how it worked in theory, but he had never had the chance to try it himself. Besides, in space the ships were quite different than on Earth, and they weren't always steered with a wheel. He shook his head.

"Good. I'll teach you." Sinbad put Jim's hands on the wheel, and the heavy responsibility that came with being in control of the ship struck Jim. He didn't dare to do anything until he felt Sinbad press his body against his back and place his own hands over Jim's. Jim tensed when Sinbad rested his head on Jim's shoulder. What the hell was the pirate doing?

"So when you do this," Sinbad guided Jim's hands and moved the wheel slightly, "the ship turns to right."

"And it turns to left when I do this?" Jim rolled the wheel carelessly, making the ship do a dangerously sharp turn that sent Sinbad and the rest of the crew who weren't holding onto anything flying down the floor. Jim grinned and turned the wheel again to get the ship back to its course. He was pretty sure Sinbad had learned his lesson.

The captain and the men (excluding Kale, who had noticed the mischievous look on Jim's face and had hold onto the mast, and Rat, who had been in the crow's nest) groaned from the floor, pulling themselves up.

"Seriously?" Sinbad glared at Jim, who was trying to look innocent and hide his smugness. "I think I'll do the steering from now on." He tried to get back behind the wheel, but Jim didn't let him.

"I thought you said: 'You can come here and be of help to me'?" Jim repeated Sinbad's words.

"Yes, but – "

"So I'll be of help to you and steer. The. Damn. Ship. Just like you said."

Sinbad tried to come up with something, but then he realized that he had already lost this argument, so he just huffed 'fine, do what you want' under his breath. He decided it was safe enough to let the man do the steering as long as he checked the course every now and then.

"That man is unbelievable," Sinbad vented to Kale. He had marched straight to him, and now they were sitting on the railing and watching Jim do the steering. Kale chuckled.

"I didn't know you gave up that easily," he said. "It took you awhile to even let me steer the ship because it was 'so precious and important' to you and you didn't want it to take any damage."

"I didn't know you as well as I do now. And Jim, well, I'm quite sure the legends about him being a great sailor are true," the captain explained, but they both knew they were just excuses. Sinbad was still very careful of his ship, and he usually didn't let anyone else except Kale steer it. "Anyway, how long do you think it'll take until we arrive to Greece?"

Kale stroked his beard, thinking. "I'd say about two to three days if the wind is on our side."

A/N: So, this is already the third chapter! I guess this fic will be longer than I first expected because I'm getting new ideas as I write, haha... I feel like this chapter was a little bit boring, but in the next one we'll get to go to Greece and meet new characters. Will they find the half of the sphere? Stay with me and you'll find out!