A/N: To old readers: some of the chapters in the beginning might seem the same-and they mostly are-but I've probably made one or two small edits to keep it in the continuum of my new plot. So I suggest you reread them anyway :D

"I don't WANT to!" Lily screamed.

"But, Lily-"

"NO! I won't, and you can't MAKE me!"

But they did.

And that was why Lily was laying on her bed, pouting and scowling for all she was worth.

On a ship.

She groaned. She knew this would happen. She had just pushed it to the back of her head. And now that it was actually happening, she didn't know what to do.

Sighing, she placed the heels of her hands over her eyes and rubbed them tiredly.

It had only been a few weeks ago she was okay. Everything was as it should be.

[***]

Lilianette Bloom-Lily for short-was perfect, or so she would have said of herself. Sitting in front of the vanity mirror, she admired herself from different angles. She wouldn't call herself vain, simply…prideful of the assets she possessed. She was built like a doll. She was skinny, pale, petite. She did not have one blemish on her skin, because, as a nobleman's daughter, she had not done a day's work in her entire 19 years of life. Her fingers were thin and dainty, and as they reached up to brush her hair behind her ear, she admired the shining gems she had adorned herself with. Her father was a jewel trader-a rather odd specimen, a nobleman merchant. Apparently, they had always had money, but her father was quite bored as a child and took up a business with gemstones. He proved to be a natural, and quickly dominated the gemstone market. As for Lily, as a daughter, she was not expected to continue the business as much as she was expected to keep herself marriage-ready. But nights of sitting at her father's side while he worked had made her very good, if not better than her father, at the art of separating the fakes from the genuine, the ones that would sell well and the ones that were a dime a dozen.

And she was not a dime a dozen, she mused silently, brushing her golden curled locks. Her father was very handsome, and she had inherited his quick mind, but her beauty was all her mother's. A button nose, wide blue eyes that mirrored the sky on a clear day, and long lashes were framed by carefully styled bangs. Again, a perfect, porcelain doll.

And like a doll, she quite liked being pampered and praised. She heard about daughters of noblemen being frustrated and running off to pursue some foolish dream of adventure and whatnot, but Lily simply laughed at them. Only utter fools willingly left a warm home, money, wealth, riches, a warm bed, for "adventure". What did that entail? Most likely less food, uncomfortable shelter, and the fear of death and disease and interaction with all sorts of common thieves and villainy.

To be sure, she was not a World Noble. She had heard tales about their wealth and fame, but sneaking into the kitchen at night, she had also heard frightening tales of their cruelty to slaves and pirates and marines alike. She had always brushed it off as tales servants told each other to pass the time, but she couldn't shake the images that they had described- tall, towering people who lived in isolation from most of the common world, beatings, abuse, torture. Their regime had once almost collapsed due to the ingenuity and courage of some brave pirates from a long time ago, she had heard-but soon that age of peace had ended and the World Nobles regained their reins over the world. She shuddered at the thought. She at least, had always been taught to treat servants with respect and charity, as they were the unfortunate, and not as well off as she.

"Mistress Lilianette?" A soft voice called quietly from the door. A maid poked her curly, brown haired head in Lily's room. "The Madame wishes to see you in the parlour."

Lily nodded. "Tell her I'll be just a second." The maid shut the door, leaving as silently as she arrived.

Lily gave her hair a few more pats and rose from the table. Her skirt swished past the table legs. The dress was made of blue silk and white velvet, with a smattering of ruffles here and there, and a large lace ruffle under her neck. She loved the two fabrics- but velvet especially.

She headed downstairs to the sitting room where her mother loved to frequent and entertain visitors. Knocking three times on the door, she heard a "Come in, darling," from her mother and pushed the door open.

Her head was politely angled downwards, as was appropriate for young ladies upon entering a room. But she did glance upwards and quickly assess the situation she was walking into. She simultaneously relaxed and tensed when she saw the brown-haired bodyguard standing behind her mother.

"Lily, sweetheart. Have a seat. We're expecting some guests to come over. Be a good girl and remember your etiquette…" her mother's voice faded out of Lily's head as she inspected Mikhaael.

He had been her bodyguard since she found him in her garden. As a child she had been fascinated with the flowers, especially her namesake, the lovely white lilies of virtue and the majestic tiger lilies of pride. She had been rushing out to see which ones had bloomed that year, when she saw his figure lying motionless under an almond tree. The pink flowers of the sweet almonds, and the white flowers of the bitter almonds that her father so loved, were all in bloom. Some petals had fallen on him. She had knelt down beside him and brushed some flowers off his forehead and into his wavy brown hair, then long and unkempt. She was 8 then, he had just turned 16. He had been twice as old as she, but she liked him instantly. While he recovered, Lily begged and pleaded and whined incessantly for her parents to accept him and give him a job and make him stay somehow. Long story short, when he awoke, he found himself thrust into the position of unofficial bodyguard for the young girl who was so taken with him. While at first he was watched intently for any signs of questionable behavior, he soon proved to be a quiet, serious boy with no bad intentions. He, too, soon grew into the lifestyle. Lily's father had found him to be quite intelligent, and often talked over business with him. He was sent on errands infrequently, for Lily could not bear to be apart from him for too long. After a few years, her father gave him a permanent place in the household; someone who would tolerate Lily for so long was definitely a diamond in the rough. Being so much older than her, he was her brother, father, friend and confidante all in one. There was no one else she trusted more in the world.

But although she trusted him with everything, he never offered much about himself in return. The most anyone got out of him was that he was called Mikhaael Lektav, he initially spoke with a lilting foreign accent, and he was a good fighter who was patient and willing to leave whatever life he had before to serve the Bloom family.

For Lily, that was enough. That used to be enough.

Yet as she got older, she wondered if perhaps, he thought of her as much as she thought of him.

But she brushed those thoughts aside. She didn't want to scare him off. Mik was a patient person, and if he wanted to he would make his move in his own time. If not, then Lily's feelings were not a good enough reason to risk damaging their relationship in any way.

"I do believe they have arrived!" Her mother's voice broke into her musings. She looked around to see the maid pull the door open for the butler, who led a splendidly dressed woman and a younger teenage boy behind her into the room.

"Thank you Bentley, you may go." The butler bowed once and left the room.

"Please have a seat," Lily's mother motioned towards the empty armchairs across from them. "I am so pleased you were able to find the time to accept our invitation. I trust the travel wasn't too hard?"

"It was our pleasure," the other woman responded. "The travel went splendidly. The seas were quite calm and devoid of pirates or other mongrels." Her voice was confident, self-assured. She was dressed in simple fabric, but its subtle design and embroidery proved her aristocratic status. Unlike Lily's mother, Lily noticed, with her demure voice and ruffled dresses, the other noblewoman spoke with straightforwardness, held herself with grace, and had impeccable dark hair and green eyes. The qualities were likewise seen in her son, who was dressed in black dress pants, a white button-up shirt, and a dark green vest that matched his eyes. He wasn't that bad looking, Lily concluded. When he saw Lily giving him a once-over, he smirked and winked at her, causing her to blush, embarrassed to be caught staring.

But, she pondered, glancing surreptitiously at Mik, there is only one person whose eyes could ever make my heart race.

For the next quarter hour, the two noblewomen made the necessary polite small talk that was the norm among high-class ladies, as Lily and the other boy picked at their nails or stared outside the window or counted tiling on the floor or something to keep themselves amused. Mikhaael simply stood impassively, in the shadows beside the window, either staring at nothing or closing his grey eyes.

"Shall we talk about the matter at hand, Madame Bloom?" The other noblewoman asked.

Lily's mother smiled. "Of course, Madame Rain. Have the necessary preparations for the wedding been made?"

As Madame Rain nodded, Lily's ears suddenly perked up at the word 'wedding'. She knew it was rude for her to interrupt when grownups were speaking, but she couldn't help it. "Wedding? What wedding?"

As her mother silently scolded her with her eyes for talking out of turn, Madame Rain answered. "Why, your marriage of course, dear. To my son, Jupiter."

Lily was completely shocked into silence. But not for long. "With who? Him?" She asked while pointing at the other boy. Her mother quickly smacked her hand while hissing, "Lilianette! That is enough!". The other boy seemed amused. His mother raised an eyebrow and replied, "No dear, this is my son Cirrus, who has escorted me during this journey. Jupiter is his older brother." She sighed. "Unfortunately he had business to attend to, so he could not arrive for our meeting. Our deepest apologies."

Lily was still opening and closing her mouth from the sheer shock, like a fish on land.

Married?!

She simply could not believe it. When did they decide this? Why did she have no say? Why so sudden? She wanted to protest, but one steely glance from her mother had told her she had already said too much, and to sit down and shut her mouth. So, against her wishes, she sat still and numbly listened to her mother and Cirrus's mother talk over the last minute plans. She was to marry Jupiter in around a month's time. They would have the wedding on June Island, where the Rains lived. However, it was quite far from Spring Island, where the Blooms resided. Weather willing, the journey itself would take around 2 weeks. She would have the rest of the month to pack all her things and get ready to depart on the first of May, so that they could get married at the end of June, as per the island's name.

May, she thought tiredly as she escorted the Rains out, fake smile replastered easily on her face. The time when spring ends and all the prettiest flowers begin to die on Spring Island.

How appropriate.

[***]

The month had passed in a whirlwind of activities. Packing her things, bidding farewells to friends.

She had never thought she would ever leave her family, her home. She had never thought about even the possibility that she might have to say goodbye to the nurses and maids that she had known since she was a toddler. She had always known, of course, that she would be married, but she had always dreamed to be married in the gardens of her childhood, with someone that she loved. Of course, she knew that as a daughter of noble birth, she would most likely have little to no say in who she married, but she always pushed that thought away.

And now it was coming at her full force.

She was going to travel hundreds- no, thousands! - of miles to marry a man she had never seen before, to spend the rest of her life on their island, never seeing her homeland again! She knew, on a certain level, that she was overreacting- she would obviously be able to visit her parents later on- but it didn't matter. The only thing that kept her sane through the entire month was the fact that Mik would be with her during the trip. Because her parents would not be escorting her- in fact, they would not leave until she had settled in and set a wedding date- the only protection she had was Mik and the transport service that her family had hired. Transport service, she snorted. As if I were just a crate of goods, waiting to be shipped off the customer.

She knew she was being unfair. After all, Jupiter would be in the same situation, with no say in the matter either. Through careful probing (well, screaming did the trick) she had learned the reason for the abrupt marriage. There was a large market for jewels and gemstones that had yet to be tapped into over at June Island. A marriage between the two families would further the alliance between the two islands. The jewel trade of her father would prosper, and their status would rise even higher with the influence of the Rains. It was for the good of her family, and she shouldn't be selfish. This was her duty. It was what she was raised for.

That didn't mean she had to like it.

So in the days before leaving, she had protested, kicked, screamed, scowled, pouted, whined, pleaded, begged…done anything to change her parents' unwavering minds. But on the day of departure, she grudgingly accepted the fact. At least the Rains were noble and rich, and she would still have the luxuries, if not more, that she already owned. She hugged her father, and kissed her mother goodbye. They wished her happiness and a safe journey, and soon she stood on the ship with everything she owned packed into boxes. She thanked the Gods she was not seasick.

After watching the last vestiges of the island she called home disappear, she locked herself in her room for the journey, and threw herself onto her bed, which is where we found her at the beginning of the chapter.

Rubbing her face, she groaned and punched her pillow in frustration. The action hurt her hand, and she cradled it in her other arm. She really was quite a dainty person. When she first got on the ship, a ship hand had asked her to grab a rope from across the ship and hand it to him, as he tried to steady a piece of the ship that had come loose. She had simply stared at him. Did he think that she would actually run all the way across the ship to grab a rope for him? Who did he think she was? She was about to scold the poor sailor when Mik, ever-understanding, had gotten the rope and brought it over for the sailor and together, helped steady the boom to the column of the mast. He then quietly led Lily to her room, where she had stayed.

He rarely reprimanded her, as he knew that her upbringing had caused her to be, well, quite shallow-and Lily knew it too. But he nudged her when she got too carried away, and because he rarely told her off, she would take his words deeply to heart and immediately stop whatever displeased him.

But the fact remained. What if she was expected to do things at the Rain household? Then her parents would never know, and if Mik left, she would not be able to do anything! She would be like Cinderella, forced to run her own errands, or cook her own meals, or, God forbid, make her own bed! All the horror and injustice she could experience ran through her head and she shuddered.

She was driving herself crazy with these thoughts, she told herself. She needed to sleep. She grabbed a long, light blue nightgown and changed quickly before crawling into her blankets. She did not have dinner, but that was okay. She wasn't that hungry. Her stomach was busy tossing and turning from her earlier thoughts. And if she did wake up in the middle of the night and wanted something, she could always make Mik get her something. She quickly drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

[***]

"Pirates!"

The sudden yell woke Lily. She gasped and sat up. Taking a second to get her bearings and let the room stop spinning from her sudden movement, she shook her head quickly and let her gaze examine the room.

Pirates? Had she heard correctly? Or was it in her dream, and everything was fine? She quickly got up and looked for Mik. He would know what was going on. She padded softly to her door. She had just placed a hand upon the knob when a loud BANG sounded as the door shuddered from the impact of someone or something. Lily let out a scream and fell back. The door opened and she was about to scream once more at the towering figure looming above her…

When she saw that it was just Mik.

Not holding back her sigh of relief, she leapt upward and hugged him. "Oh my God, are you okay? I heard the noise and…" she trailed off as she noticed the blood on his shirt, now on her own nightgown. Feeling faint, she asked, "What…?"

He looked down and apologized. "Sorry. Get your things together." He quickly filled her in on the information as she packed her things without a word.

Apparently, pirate scouts were attacking the ship and searching for valuable cargo. Although they had been easily defeated, there was no way of knowing how many others were on the pirate ship that was approaching. Fearing the worst, Mik had come to get Lily and hide her down below, in the compartment under the ship's hold. "I need you to wait there until I come get you," Mik said as he led her across the ship.

She nodded wordlessly. She had left the cabin to see the deck in a tense atmosphere. Crew members rushed around, readying cannons and guns and keeping a wary eye on the pirates. She could see the battered and bloodied bodies of the dead pirate scouts, and held back the bile rising in her mouth. She focused on Mik's tan, trenchcoat covered back, and refused to look at or acknowledge anything else.

He led her down to the hold, then opened a door to where the rowboats were stored, in case of a quick getaway. He then opened the door to the "secret" hold, disguised as the hull of a rowboat. Opening the trapdoor, there were steep stairs that led to a tiny, cramped room, already full of her chests of clothes and gold and jewels. The room was also slightly damp, suggesting that it was the absolute bottom of the boat. This made Lily painfully aware that there was only a 3 inch thick piece of wood between her, and the seawater.

She clamped her teeth shut so that they wouldn't chatter in fear.

Mik motioned for her to have a seat on a trunk. Before closing the rowboat/trapdoor, he gave her some instructions. "Remember. Don't open the trapdoor for anyone, no matter who comes knocking. If you do hear someone, crawl inside one of the larger trunks and close the lid until the sounds go away. Don't make a sound. I will come back as soon as they're gone. Don't leave this room for any reason, do you understand, Lily?" He spoke softly and urgently.

She looked up at him, wide eyes brimming with fear, unable to answer. She gave him a slight nod. He smiled.

"It will be okay, Lily," he soothed her before closing the door with a large thud, leaving Lily in complete darkness and alone in her thoughts. She took several deep breaths, before deciding that she wanted to crawl into a trunk. The room, though small, felt large and cold. She opened the biggest chest, and finding relatively no clothes, crawled inside and brought her knees up to her chest and buried her head between her knees.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod this was NOT what I signed up for when I left. She was understandably worried, as she had never been in this kind of situation before and was quite losing her head over it. Being forced from a lap of luxury to a damp trunk, hiding from pirates-this was just sad, she thought sarcastically. She knew there was nothing she could do, so she just prayed for Mik, and began to doze.

Suddenly, she snapped her head up and bruised it against the top of the trunk. Rubbing her head in agony, she confirmed what had woken her up, again.

Pirates.

"Whaddya think's down here?" a gruff male voice sounded from above, muffled by the layer of floor between them. She heard boots thumping across the ceiling and curled herself up tighter, forgetting to breathe.

"Rowboats, from the looks of't," another voice muttered. "Buncha cowards could use 'em ta getaway."

"Shall we burn them?" a soft voice spoke, different from the others. Lily opened the lid of her trunk to see upwards. Between the cracks of the floorboards, she could see fire, flickering among the shadows.

"Hmm…" the original gruff voice muttered. He seemed to be the leader of the group. "Crush 'em, boys."

Lily knew what was going to happen next as she closed the lid of her trunk hurriedly. Her hands were shaking when the sound of the first CRACK echoed through the hold, the sound of splintering wood reverberating through the floor- or ceiling? Lily couldn't tell anymore. She just clasped her hands further together and prayed silently in her little trunk as the sound of destruction and burning rang above her. Oh Gods, I promise I will never complain about this marriage again if you let them leave. I will be a good wife and I will serve my husband and I will not think about Mik ever again and I will be a good person and just please please please make it stop…

She took a deep breath and inhaled smoke. She muffled her coughs desperately in her clothes. Were they burning things?

Every part of her wanted to bolt out of the room to escape being burned alive; yet she stayed put, a testament to how much she trusted Mik that she didn't act on her instincts.

"Ey, boss. I tink dis part's 'ollow." she heard thunking somewhere above the ceiling. Her heart leapt into her mouth. Could they hear her heartbeat?

To her relief, she heard someone else. "Yeah, it's called the hull, idjit. Below us is water. Of course it's gon sound 'ollow."

Soon it was over. "Let's git outta here." she heard, before hearing the boots tromp away. She was alone again. The fire never spread down to her secret room, courtesy of the damp wood she had protested at earlier.

She clasped her hands tighter, if that were even more possible. She had adjusted to the sounds pounding furiously from above her head and simply ignored it as she waited for Mik to come back and tell her everything was okay.

After what seemed like forever, she heard the door being moved. Too afraid to look to see who it was, she didn't move from her trunk in the hiding spot until she heard the soft, whispered, "Lily?"

It was Mik! She jumped out from the trunk- banging her head once again- and rushed out, sending them both tumbling. "Mik! What's going on? What's happened? There were some pirates who were above and set the room on fire and I was scared so I locked myself in a trunk and-" she stopped as Mik put his hand over her mouth and whispered, "shh."

Her eyes widened and she shut up. Without her voice, she could hear what had been bothering her ever since the pirates had left.

"Mik," she asked hesitantly, afraid of the answer. "Is the ship crashing down around us?"

At his lack of an answer, she closed her eyes, fighting the urge to go into hysterics.

"Lily," he said. "Listen. The pirates are burning this ship down and taking everyone on it prisoner. By now, I think they've left and are watching the ship burn. But," he pushed Lily off him until were both in a sitting position. "under no circumstances can we be taken prisoner, understand? We are quite close to an island, I think. Hopefully someone will come and help us. But for now, all we can do is wait. After the water puts out the fire from above us, we have to take all the trunks with us and try to float on debris somehow." Lily nodded, too tired and drained from trying to keep from tearing her hair out or doing some other unladylike act to listen to what he was saying. She was only listening to his voice, soft and gentle, running through her ears and caressing her tired head, like velvet.

Her favorite material.

She nestled her head in his chest, searching for warmth, and finally fell unconscious.

[***]

About a half a mile away, Mira was humming lazily to herself as she floated along, blissfully unaware of anything but the early morning sky and how nice and peaceful it was. She loved the quiet, soothing feeling of being alone, unguided, on the wide expanse of sea. Checking her log pose, she saw that she was not that far away from her destination. In a few hours she would reach Mercor Island. She needed to stock up on a few supplies, then she would take a long nap in a tavern room. It wouldn't do for her to be sleeping on the ship, because she was on the sea. And being attacked on the sea, especially as she was alone, meant certain death. And although Mira was curious about dying, she didn't want to go just yet.

She still had things to do.

A/N: As you can see, this isn't gonna be an adventure story. Well, it is, but it's not a "I have a crew now let's go fight the World Nobles and stuff!" because if you want one of those, PM me and I'll send you 2 bazillion links of stories like that. It doesn't take that much to find them, they're fairly common in the archives. So if you wanted something like that…please accept my dearest apologies and a plate of cookies!

There will probably be cursing in this, but I'm loathe to make it anything metaphorically "worse" than "hell". So stuff like "Damn it", "bastard", etc, might be in there (although I personally don't curse regularly [out loud, anyway], so…it's a bit awkward to write. Just be warned. (And no, I refuse to do the **** thing in stories because I feel like if you're gonna say something, it's not like the asterisks make the meaning less or hide the meaning or anything…I mean. Just go out and say it.)

Leave a review if you're any sort of interested in the story please~ It would make me happy :D

If y'all interested in symbolism...

*Almond flowers mean knowledge, the "secret" hidden within, birth and resurrection; unrequited love; hope and indiscretion.

**Mercor is Latin for meeting, reward, recompense.