Here's the first chapter.

Enjoy! :)

Chapter 1: Memories Take The Heart Out

He sat down at his desk. He still had to write several letters and postcards for his friends and family. He had made most of the 'friends' in the cities he had visited when travelling and exploring the seas. The shipper laid down his pen. It was not like his family actually knew what was going on in his life, or really cared about it. Three words were enough for them. "I am alive."

He peered into the darkness, only vaguely seeing the sea in front of him. It was quiet, except for the constant rhythmic beating of the waves against the ship. How much could she take? How much can a body take?

The man enjoyed living at the open sea. He had once tried living in a city. The ringing alarms from cars, the sirens from fire trucks, all the people rushing through their lives... It drove him on edge.

The sun shone bright above their heads. The beams of light catching in her long, brown hair. She was just so perfect, he couldn't stop looking at her. As if he saw a start falling from heaven. He shook his head.

The shipper snapped back to reality. His navigator stood in front of him, smiling a little. Apparently, he had watched the star-filled night sky deep in his thoughts. The large man smiled at him and for the very first time, the shipper noticed how large and skinny he actually was. "Skipper, we are still sailing on course." The shipper nodded. He remembered how his friends, or he could better say, former friends reacted when he wanted to be called as what he was doing. The friends he had now, in other words; his sailors, didn't mind that they didn't even know his real name. He didn't want the others to find out about his family. For him, that was the past. He knew two periods in his life. 'Before the sea' and 'at the sea'.

The first part of his life... He couldn't decide whether it was the best or worst part. Sure, falling in love was nice and all, but it never brought more than broken hearts and despair in the end. When you love something or someone, you're bound to end up heartbroken. When you're alone, without love or hope, there's nothing that could be taken from you. And that is how he lived at the sea. Sure, he loved his sailors on a non-romantic way, but what would be lost if they were gone? Just like Manfredi... Johnson... And... Nothing... Nothing would be lost.

The large penguin in front of him cleared his throat. Skipper looked up at him. He had been so lost in thoughts again that he had forgotten about the large man standing in front of him. He received a weird look, but ignored that. He knew perfectly well that it was nothing like him to be lost in thoughts. He was a man of action, punching everything that came too close for his liking. He nodded. "Good. Keep on the good work, Kowalski." He replied. The man in front of him quickly saluted and walked away. Skipper turned towards the railing. It was his favorite place to just come and think about strategies, or watch the sea. He loved violence on the tv, but he wasn't able to take a cable with him on sea. Luckily, he had still a radio, on which he could follow some events.

Her eyes, bright, brown. They appeared to be full of life, shimmering in the white light above them. But when he touched her left hand… Cold.

Skipper turned away from the railing. Maybe it was his friend, the sea, who made him remember the things he wanted to forget the most. He took a deep breath and went inside. He saw the other two sailors laying in their beds, sleeping tightly. He laid down on his own bed. If only he could think about that delicious plate of fish, a great battle on the middle of the sea… He fell asleep, dreaming of the things he wanted to dream about for once in a very long time, leaving his body laying on his bed with a big smile on his face.

Her white teeth, smiling broadly at him. With her hand, she threw her hair backwards, falling over her shoulders. Waving, long curls. She looked at him, happily, but then turned away. She took a hand, but not his. She held it close to her heart. If only he had been the one next to her.

He turned around. He tried to hide his head behind a pillow. He awoke and looked around the room. It was already led by small beams of sunlight and he became conscious about the salty smell of the rushing sea. He rolled over and laid the pillow back. The others were still sleeping. He took out his old watch, in one hour he would have to go wake the others, but now he had to check the course, the ship and the sea. He would watch the rest of the sunrise from behind the rudder.

He shuddered softly when he touched the rudder. It was a little cold, but the wood still felt soft and welcoming. He smiled and took the compass. Kowalski had been right, they were going in the right direction and that had been the same, even though everybody went to sleep. He loved his ship, he truly did. His eyes scanned the sea, empty as always. It had been a long time ago since he had seen another one sailing by. But he didn't mind. There was always a chance that there were pirates or enemies on those ships. He scanned the seas one more time, just to make sure everything was safe. He then took one of his tape-recorders out of a drawer. A shipper had to keep a log, and that's what he did. Only not with pen and paper, he used recordings. It never made sense to him to use something that could be easily destroyed by water as ink on paper. One wave, and you're log was completely gone. With tape recorders, only the recorder would break, leaving the tape and thus the log still intact. And that's how he liked to keep his logs. Intact.

Thank you for reading! I hope you're liking it! :)