Chapter 11

Decisions

"Let's talk."

When Sinbad heard those words come out of Kale's mouth, he knew exactly what the topic was going to be and that he couldn't escape it. He was the captain of the ship, but Kale had his ways of backing him into a corner and forcing him to talk, whether he wanted or not. And even if he didn't want to admit it, he actually needed to talk to someone about what had happened, so he willingly followed Kale to his own cabin and sat down on the bed where Jim had slept. He couldn't help but notice it still smelled faintly like him.

"So, what's up?" Sinbad asked, glancing at Kale who was standing in front of him with his arms crossed, looking like a mother about to scold her child.

"Did something happen between you and Jim again?" Kale pursed his lips.

"Why do you ask?" Sinbad lay down on his side on the bed like Kale's question didn't bother him at all.

"Because you have been avoiding him, he has been avoiding you and this tension between you two has been driving us all nuts."

"Just because we don't spend every second together doesn't mean that something happened," Sinbad said.

"Yes, you're right," Kale stepped forward, "but we've been sailing for hours now and every time I see Jim on the deck of Silver's ship, he's looking daggers at you! So what did you do?"

The captain bit the inside of his lower lip, not meeting Kale's eyes, and then he groaned. "Okay. I might have kissed him."

Kale was genuinely taken aback, and his arms dropped to his sides as he blinked, trying to process what Sinbad had said.

"And," Sinbad continued, "I might have run away after that."

Kale's face turned into a frown. "Just because you're afraid to admit your feelings doesn't make it right to –"

"I'm not afraid to admit my feelings!" Sinbad jumped up. "It was a mistake. And I regret it, alright? I'd take it back if I could!"

Kale shook his head like he couldn't believe his ears. "So you're not even interested in him?"

Sinbad hesitated for a moment. "He's a good guy."

"Okay," Kale shrugged. "Okay, fine, whatever. I accept that. Just make sure to make up with him. He's the only one who knows how to use the map, so it'd be better to be in good terms with him." He turned to leave, but then he stopped in the doorway, and without even looking at Sinbad he added: "You're my captain and a friend, so I don't want to be too harsh on you. But I warn you: if you're not going to get together with Jim, I will."

Sinbad was left alone in his cabin, and he felt like there was a lump in his throat when he swallowed. The talk with Kale hadn't helped at all; instead he was more confused now than before. Was there actually something going on between Kale and Jim? Sure they had been buddy-buddy with one another before he and Jim had left the ship to hunt the map, and sure Jim seemed to trust Kale more than him, but he hadn't read too much into it back then.

"Fuck," he cursed and took a knife in his hand, throwing it to the wooden door in frustration. Then he kicked one of the tables, making a golden helmet - a souvenir from their trip to China - clatter on the floor. One of the dragon decorations cracked when the helmet hit the hard wood, and Sinbad cursed again. "Shit!"

There was a small knock on the door, and the captain grunted a permission to enter. The door opened slightly, and Li's face peeked through it.

"I saw Kida get on Silver's ship, so they're probably going to open the sphere. Thought I should inform you if you wanted to join them," he said, choosing his words carefully.

Sinbad rubbed his temples. "Yeah, thanks. I'll be there in a moment."

Li closed the door, and an exchange of coins between him and Jin happened behind it.

"I knew he would go," Jin whispered to Li with a snicker, happy to have won back the money he had lost to him before. "Hey, wanna bet if he and Jim will make up?"

The sphere felt cold and heavy in Jim's hands as he examined it while sitting on the bow of Silver's ship, legs dangling over it. It hadn't been hard to attach the two halves together; he had only had to press here and there, and the force of attraction between the pieces had done the rest. It seemed the pieces attracted each other only when they were within a short distance from each other, so it would have been impossible to try to track down the one half by using the other. And that wasn't all: the sphere didn't open in the same way like the previous one, so it had taken Jim a while to figure out how to use it.

"Either Captain Flint was even more of a sly bastard than we originally thought or we're dealing with someone much cleverer," Jim muttered, throwing the map in the air and catching it. "Could it be a copycat? The spheres look exactly the same, but they function differently."

Finally he stood up and walked to the captain's cabin, where Silver and Kida were sitting and discussing how to avoid the nearest asteroid belt over a glass of wine. Their heads turned as he came in, and both started grinning when he showed the full sphere to them.

"You managed to figure out how it works?" Kida beamed. "I tried to do it too, but I couldn't even attach the halves together."

"It took me a few tries too," Jim said, scratching the back of his neck and smiling.

"Look at you! Bein' so modest and all," Silver laughed. "Well, what are we waitin' for?"

Jim turned the pieces of the map seven times before there was a 'click' and a green hologram spread out, filling the whole cabin. It was mesmerizing to see all the planets, the moons and the stars just floating around them like they were the universe itself, and for a few minutes they just stood there, admiring the map. Even Silver, who was eager to know the destination.

"It's so… beautiful," Kida breathed, afraid to touch it. She had never seen anything like that even though she had been to space a few times before.

"Where's the map leading us?" Sinbad asked, and everyone's attention turned to him.

"So you finally decided to show up." Jim's voice was close to absolute zero, and no-one failed to notice it. "Anyway, where was I?" he continued as if Sinbad's appearance didn't affect him in any way, touching the hologram to make the map move forward. It took them on a journey through the universe, passing by other solar systems and galaxies and showing them the tens of billions of stars, black holes and lonely planets. A warm feeling washed over Jim as they passed the Montressor, his home planet.

Then the map stopped, and seeing the area made Jim frown.

"What is it?" Kida asked.

"For some reason there are three different planets highlighted. It's possible that there's some sort of secret code and the other two planets are just traps, but I guess we have to check each of them out." Jim directed his words to Silver and Kida, turning his back on Sinbad.

"Great," Sinbad nodded, trying hard to not mind the cold shoulder Jim was giving him.

"Where exactly are these planets?" Silver wondered out loud, rubbing his chin with the cyborg arm. He looked around the map and tried to identify some of the closest solar systems, but he came up with nothing.

"Honestly? I have no idea," Jim said. "I'm not familiar with this galaxy. Kida?"

"Don't ask me, you're the experts," the white-haired captain shrugged. "The limit of my knowledge stopped after the Coral Galaxy."

"Well, we'll have to carefully follow the map's directions then. We should keep this course until we're in the next solar system," stated Jim and closed the sphere, making the map around them disappear. No-one disagreed when he suggested that he'd keep the map with him, so he took his leave.

He had told Silver earlier that he'd sleep in the lower deck where the rest of the crew slept, and after a ten-minute argument the captain had had some of his men put up a hammock for him. The day had been exhausting; everyone had worked hard to make sure the military wouldn't be able to catch up with them; so most of the crew had already gone to bed. Only one man was patrolling around, keeping an eye on the other pirate ships.

Time lost its meaning in space since there wasn't any way to tell the difference between day and night. Of course everyone had a clock on their ship, but the crew seldom looked at it because every planet had their own way of measuring time. And that's what made Jim love sailing in space so much: the freedom of not knowing what time it was.

"Jim," Sinbad's voice followed him, interrupting his thoughts. "Jim, wait. I said wait!"

Jim stopped dead in his tracks, turning aggressively towards the pirate. "I heard you the first time!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Sinbad hushed. He licked his lips, suddenly not knowing what to say now that he had managed to grab Jim's attention. "Look, let me explain."

"Explain?" Jim let out a short, bitter laugh. "I think you made yourself pretty clear. I'm sick of seeing your face right now, so I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

He turned to leave, but Sinbad pushed him roughly against the wide main mast, trapping him between his hands. Jim's breath hitched in his throat, and he hoped Sinbad hadn't had time to catch the spark of lust that had flashed in his eyes.

"Just hear me out, will you? Please," Sinbad said in a husky voice, staring into Jim's eyes.

Jim nodded slightly, breaking the eye-contact. "Okay."

They were so close to each other Jim could feel the heat radiating through Sinbad's clothes and his heart started beating faster against his own will, but then Sinbad stepped away, making him sigh in frustration.

"About that kiss," the captain started, running a hand through his hair, "I'm sorry. It wasn't intentional. Can we just… forget it?"

The earlier annoyance turned into a disappointment, but Jim swallowed those feelings and hid his emotions behind an expressionless mask. "So… You're saying it didn't mean anything?"

Sinbad took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "It was a mistake that happened in the heat of the moment. Besides, you and me? It could never work. Let's just go back to the way we were, eh? "

The air around Jim felt suffocating. "Fine. Let's pretend it never happened," Jim said coldly, but his voice almost cracked. "Are we done now? I'm tired and I need some rest."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," Sinbad nodded, reaching his hand out to touch Jim's shoulder, but Jim flinched away. "Night, Hawkins."

Jim didn't answer, and tears welled up in his eyes as he stomped to the lower deck. Vitani snarled sleepily at him for his loudness, but he just kicked the shoes out of his feet and crawled to his hammock. He stared at the ceiling for a long time, refusing to cry over a stupid thing like this although his heart ached like it was going to shatter into pieces. Finally the sounds of men snoring and the creaking of the ship as the patrol walked on the deck lulled him to restless sleep, and a single tear rolled down his cheek.

A cold shiver running through him woke him up, and Jim realized his blanket had fallen on the floor. He groaned, rubbing the tiredness away from his eyes – he had probably slept for two hours, tops – and dropped down on the floor. He bent down to get the blanket, but then a blue pirate with antennas on his forehead who was sleeping under his hammock mumbled in his sleep, grabbing a hold of the blanket. Jim tried to jerk it to himself, but the pirate's grip was strong.

"I didn't want to go back to bed anyway," Jim muttered, letting go of the blanket. He was fully awake now, so after putting on his shoes he went up to the deck, walking towards the patrol who was dozing off while leaning against the mast. "Hey, I'll take the next shift."

The patrol jerked awake, trying to look like he had been awake the whole time. He reeked of alcohol, and Jim noticed the half-empty bottle of rum next to him. "Huh? I wasn't sleeping! And who're ye?"

"Hawkins, remember?" Jim stared at him, a little bit amused.

"Oh. Right. I knew that. I ain't stupid." The man looked like he was going to argue about letting Jim take the next shift, but then a yawn caught him off-guard and he stood lazily up. "Aight, mate. Don't let the ship blow up or else I'm gonna skin ye." There was a slight stagger in the pirate's step as he walked away, and when he was finally gone Jim sat on the deck and took the bottle in his hand.

The rum was burning his throat as he drank the bottle empty with three gulps, and the strong feeling made him cough. How pathetic it was: drinking alone on the deck while everyone else was sleeping. And over what? A damn pirate? Jim would have laughed at himself if he hadn't felt so miserable. It wasn't even like he and Sinbad were close – surely they had saved each other's lives, but that was it. He shouldn't have let himself be fooled into thinking that there might be something more, because there wasn't: Sinbad was only after the treasure.

"Jimbo? You're still awake?"

Silver startled Jim out of his thoughts, making him jump up and drop the bottle like he had been caught red-handed doing something he shouldn't.

After managing to gather himself together, Jim posed with a military-like pose and imitated the pirates' accent with a sarcastic tone, saying: "Aye, Cap'n, just me and me rum watching over the ship."

"Talkin' like a bilge rat doesn't suit ya," Silver chuckled, ruffling Jim's hair. "Come with me."

"Why?" Jim asked, but followed the captain anyway.

They walked to the bow of the ship and watched the universe open up all around them in silence. When Silver didn't say anything, Jim sighed and started talking himself.

"Have you ever liked anyone?" he asked, feeling slightly tipsy.

Silver stared into the distance as he answered: "There was this one girl. Pretty as a bloomin' flower, I tell ya."

"What happened?"

"She married some guy in her village. Never heard a word from her since."

"Oh." Jim didn't know what else he could say. He hadn't even expected Silver to answer so honestly, so it had taken him by surprise. "She didn't love you?"

"She did. I just didn't realize it until t'was too late. We made quite a team back then, me and her," Silver told him, taking his hat off and looking at it like it brought back some memories. There was a hint of sadness in his words. "I'm tellin' you this 'cause I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did."

"Yeah, well, I'm not the one running away," Jim muttered.

"I know. But every time I look at Sinbad, I see myself in him," said Silver. "Give him another chance. He needs to realize his feelings himself."

Jim went silent for a while, but then he shook his head. "No. I'm tired of being toyed with, and from now on I want things to go my way. I'm going to help you find the treasure – if there even is one – and then I'm going back to the Interstellar Academy and finish my training. After that you can call me Captain James Hawkins."

"Alright, Captain Hawkins," Silver guffawed and patted Jim's back. "If that's what makes ya happy."

Sinbad had thought that after making things clear with Jim, he would feel relieved because this was how things were supposed to be. But he didn't. In fact, he felt horrible, which he took out on his crew by making them clean up the whole ship twice. He had bags under his eyes, and he was marching around the ship restlessly, snapping at everything that didn't please him. Even Spike felt that something was off, so he stayed out of the captain's sight.

"Rat, how many times have I told you to keep these damn ropes out of the deck?" Sinbad growled and kicked a pile of rope.

"Three times today, Captain," Rat answered, hanging upside down from the ropes above the deck.

"Exactly! Do something about them," the captain said, continuing on his way.

Sinbad stopped when he saw Jim heading his way, but surprisingly the man didn't seem angry or even the slightest bit of annoyed. Seeing him so indifferent made his heart wrench, but he tried to play it cool.

"Is Kale here?" Jim said, looking around and nodding kindly as his eyes locked with some of the crew members who had noticed him coming.

A spike of jealousy stabbed Sinbad right in his chest at the mention of Kale. "What do you need him for?" he couldn't help himself asking.

"I'm going to try out the fast attack boats and I need a first mate," the man explained, looking like he would rather be anywhere else but in front of Sinbad.

"A captain's not good enough to be a first mate?" Sinbad tried to joke but earned no smile from Jim.

"I'll gladly come with you," Kale said behind Sinbad and walked over to Jim, putting a hand around his shoulder (their height difference was ridiculous and didn't look good with them, Sinbad noted).

Sinbad swallowed, staring at their backs as they walked away and trying to tell himself he had made the right decision before. This was better than ending up getting his heart broken in the end. He would get over this. Wouldn't he?

A/N: Do you ever feel like you want to punch one of your characters? Sinbad is making things so hard for him and Jim! And now Kale is getting involved too. Some of you hoped for a Sinbad/Jim/Kale love triangle, so here you go. :D

I was listening to Battlefield by Jordin Sparks and Chokehold by Adam Lambert while writing this chapter, and I realized that they pretty much describe Jim and Sinbad's relationship. Also I finally kept my promise and didn't keep you waiting for too long for this chapter! Although I feel like my writing is gradually getting worse chapter by chapter… Ugh. I might just rewrite this story once I'm through with everything.