Chapter 5: Dinner with Arch

After awhile, Arch finished his work and climbed down the ratlines towards Scroop. He gave him a brief nod.

"So, you're up."

"Very observant," Scroop sneered.

Arch ignored his sarcasm and motioned over to a barrel. "Wait over there."

Scroop raised a brow but he did what Arch indicated and went over to the barrel as Arch went down into the galley. A little while later he came back with two plates of food, settling both of them on the barrel. Scroop stared down at the pitiful meal.

A type of fish, small bits of green vegetation and a bit of salted meat, not a meal he considered filling.

"Dig in," Arch said. Scroop frowned and carefully took a bit of the meat. It tasted all right, if a bit salty but he was used to that. He ate his meal in silence, not bothering to look up from his meal until Arch said something. He lifted his head to stare at him.

"Huh?"

"I asked what your favorite color was." Arch took a bite of the green vegetation.

Scroop paused and thought for a moment before answering with the first color that came to his mind. "Green."

"Green? Why green?" Arch paused and added swiftly, "Mine's yellow."

Scroop glared at him. "And why should I care about that? In fact, why were you asking about favorite colors in the first place?"

Arch gave a small shrug. "I figured since we'll be shipmates for awhile, we'll have to get to know one another." He then leaned forward a bit, causing Scroop to lean back. "I want to know all about you, where you came from, what you worked as, and all that."

Scroop paused and looked down at his half eaten meal, narrowing his eyes. The silence lasted for a few minutes before Arch spoke again. "You still don't trust me, do you?"

Scroop looked up, eyes still narrowed suspiciously.

Arch gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, I guess I'll go first then. Like every Mantavor, I was hatched on our home planet, Lekdera. I had four sisters and I was the only boy in the clutch of eggs that managed to hatch, so I was bullied a lot by them. Can you believe that?"

Scroop gave a smirk at the thought of a miniature Arch being bossed around by four female Mantavors.

"Life wasn't all bad though," Arch continued, "my mother made sure I had enough attention and my father visited every week."

Scroop was taken aback at this. "Your father visited you?"

In Mantavor society, males would usually leave the family when their eggs hatch, often at the insistence of the mother Mantavor. Hearing that a male was allowed to see his children was quite surprising.

Arch nodded. "I guess my mother had a strange fondness for him, so every week he would visit us, spend the night and then leave the next morning or sometimes he stayed a little longer."

Scroop frowned. He had never known his father and even though he knew it was how Mantavor society worked, he still wondered how his father was like and what he would think of his son. In a way, he was a bit jealous of Arch.

"When I became old enough to work," Arch continued on, "I managed to snag a job as a dock worker…loading…unloading ships…"

Now Arch's voice had slowly drifted away. Scroop watched as the Mantavor stared off into space and became quiet. The silence lasted for several minutes before Scroop gave a cough. Arch suddenly seemed to have snapped back into reality at the sound of the cough and finished his story rapidly.

"Well after years of that, I decided to go solo and sailed through the galaxy by myself."

He looked at Scroop. "The end."

Scroop stared long and hard at him, causing Arch to shift nervously and ask, "Anything else you'd like to know?"

"Yes," Scroop said, remembering the creature he encountered, "I didn't know you own a pet…"

"Oh, you mean Calico Jack?"

"Is that what the thing is called?"

"Yeah…found him as a kit roaming around an alleyway during one of my stops. Took him in, gave him some food and he's been with me ever since."

"And what good would a thing like that do?" Scroop sneered.

Arch gave him a glare. "He keeps the rats out of the storage."

Scroop sniffed and placed his chin on his claw, poking his food with the other.

"I told you my life story," Arch said, "now tell me yours. Did you have any siblings?"

Scroop's eyes looked up towards Arch. "Just two…"

"And they were?"

"…a brother and a sister…"

"And where are they now?"

"Don't know."

Scroop continued on poking his food, thinking that if he gave brief answers maybe Arch would stop asking questions. However, the next question got his attention.

"So why were you floating around in the Etherium with a pirate flag?"

Scroop felt a jolt as he looked up in alarm. "Pardon?"

"When I pulled you into my ship, you were tangled in a pirate flag. Where did that come from?"

Scroop felt his body tensing up. If he revealed to Arch that he had been a pirate, he would find himself in a jail cell at the next port. But if he kept silent, Arch would become suspicious. Scroop tapped his claw on the barrel, trying to come up with a story.

"Well…before…I…I was working on…a merchant ship." He slowly began to relax as the story formed. "We were heading to Montressor to deliver solar crystals…but our ship was attacked by pirates. They slaughtered half of the crew…the other half they took prisoner. I was part of the prisoners, but I managed to escape their cells and made my escape. I was so desperate to escape I climbed up their main mast and ran into the flag, causing the rope to snap and sent me flying into the Etherium."

He shrugged. "That's about it…I'm not sure if they are still looking for me…probably gave me up for dead, just as well."

Arch said nothing but stared at Scroop for a long time. Scroop focused on his food, poking at the green vegetables. He then felt a claw on his shoulder. He looked up and looked straight into Arch's eyes. He was surprised to hear how serious he sounded when he spoke.

"You don't have to worry about that now. You're safe here and I am not going to let any pirates crawl on my ship."

Too late for that, Scroop thought darkly. Arch's gaze was starting to make him feel uncomfortable. He pushed his plate away.

"I think I've had enough for today…"

"Yes," Arch nodded, "I understand."

Scroop started to leave, but Arch stopped him.

"Wait, before you leave…I want to know your name."

Scroop stared at him. "My name?"

"Yes. You've been here for a couple of weeks, but I still don't know your name." He gave his usual smirk. "I can't keep on calling you 'the poor ungrateful sod' forever, can I?"

Scroop paused at that request. He debated with himself for a brief moment on whether to reveal his true name or use an alibi name. He took a deep breath.

"Scroop."

A brief pause.

"Scroop, eh?" Arch was nodding. "Interesting…"

Scroop rolled his eyes and started climbing up one of the masts. He reached the topsails and settled between the mast and the topsails. As he watched the evening sky turning into night, he began thinking about his dinner with Arch.

It had been insightful, somewhat. However he felt that there was something Arch is hiding about his past, something too secretive to be revealed to anyone. Unknown to him, Arch was thinking about the same thing.

A loud yowl made both Mantavors jump. Scroop looked down as Arch went below deck when the yowls grew louder and louder. The pirate cringed when he realized where those yowls were coming from.

He had forgotten he had locked the cat in the storage room.

A/N: Hey there! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a good New Years. I've made resolutions myself, which is to finish the fanfics I start!

Well this chapter features a little "dinner date" I suppose between Arch and Scroop. Still no romance yet, but soon eventually. Here you also get to discover a bit of Arch's past but that doesn't mean he has revealed all of it yet. He still has some secrets. What type of secrets do you ask?

I'M NOT TELLING! MWAHAHA!

But don't worry, you'll find out...eventually.