(Disclaimer: Pintel, Ragetti, and POTC don't belong to me.)

Just the Way it Should Be

It was midnight when Pintel finally decided what to do.

He was in the crow's nest, positioned high above the deck on watch duty where his punishment had forced him to be. The ship had dropped anchor for the night, and the rest of her crew had gone down to the sleeping quarters for a much-needed seven hours of rest. Now the balding pirate was by himself, and he was staring intently over at the captain's cabin doors. More specifically, he was staring at the sliver of lantern light that was filtering through the gap of space beneath them.

Pintel was at the end of the rope; he'd uncovered a vital secret about Pellinore, which he hadn't had the sense to keep quiet about in front of the captain, and he'd put himself at odds with nearly every other crewman—dangerously so. The stocky sailor had a sinking intuition that any untimely "accident" that might meet him would be overlooked by the Englishman, given this situation. The only option Pintel had left was to escape from the Glass Urchin, and with this darkness as a cover, he realized he would have to make his move right now. Besides, his neck wasn't the only one on the chopping block anymore.

At last, the lantern light flickered out—Pellinore had gone to bed as well. Seeing his chance,. Pintel carefully made his way to the edge of the crow's nest and slowly began climbing down the ratlines.

"Sorry, Cap'n," he muttered spitefully under his breath. "I'm just keepin' bof eyes on the kid."

A minute later, his feet touched down on deck, then he crept along and silently descended the steps to the crew's quarters.

Pintel and Ragetti had been forced to go separate ways after dinner; Pellinore would only allow one man on watch duty. However, the elder of the two had seen Cormac's suspicious actions, and he'd pulled his younger companion aside to give him a sharp instruction.

"You likes 'at Yager fellow?" Pintel'd said warningly. "Then don't let yerself out of 'is sight!" There'd been no need to worry Ragetti any more than that; Yager was an equally observant man.

With that hopeful thought in mind, Pintel came to a stop in front of the hammocks, and after anxiously searching the whole lot of them, he found Ragetti fast asleep in the one beside Yager's. Squaring his jaw disapprovingly, he nudged the boy awake.

"Wot the 'ell're yeh doin' sleepin'?"

Ragetti sat up with a jolt. "Yager told me I could, " he whispered timidly.

"I doesn't care," Pintel snapped, noticing that the bearded man was also sound asleep. "I wouldn't even blink if one a' these bloody sots was in a mile of me!"

The lad hugged his legs nervously. "That other fellow made sure they all fell asleep first. 'E don't trust 'em either."

Pintel stopped and blinked. "Who?"

Ragetti pointed, and following his direction, the older man's eyes came to rest on a crewmember who'd fallen asleep sitting against a support beam. It was Wood.

"He said 'e weren't tired like Yager was," the youngster sheepishly added. "Fink 'e misjudged." When Pintel failed to comment, Ragetti continued with a quieter, more thoughtful tone.

"He were a stowaway too once, 'e told me. Didn't like 'is home so 'e snuck on a ship, four years ago. 'E got caught like we did too, an' that's 'ow 'e met Yager." The boy lowered his head then. "Guess Yager were the one what found 'im."

Pintel stared quietly down at the curious duo, understanding. "And they've been together even since, aye?" He felt a small pang of guilt at that. Yager and Wood had both been decent men after all; he felt that he owed them some sort of grateful farewell, but waking anybody, even two allies, would be too risky for his plan. Instead, he gave them a final regard, then turned to Ragetti again.

"Come on." He motioned for the kid to get up. "I fink we's officially worn out our welcome 'ere."

Without a word, Ragetti hopped out of the hammock and followed his companion above deck.

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Preparing the lifeboat was an easy enough task. All Pintel had to do was pull on the rigging to lift the boat, then adjust the ropes to haul it over the ship's rail and position it above the water. The only things the little escape vessel needed now were its passengers. But before either of the two renegades climbed on board, a curious thought came to the older one, and he stopped to glance around the Glass Urchin one more time.

Pintel casually scratched at his stubbly beard. "Yeh know…it kinda sends 'em the wrong message, us just leavin' in the middle of the night like this. Kinda seems like we's givin' up, runnin' away."

Beside him, Ragetti's eye strayed to the floor planks. "Yeah," he murmured. "Kinda does."

Pintel went on with his point, pretending to sound sincere. "I guess maybe it'd make more sense for us to…I dunno…" He tilted his head towards Ragetti "…Grab us a li'l keepsake for all our trouble?"

The lad looked up at him then, oddly starting to understand. "You mean…steal sumfin'?"

Pintel grinned dastardly. "Aye, mate."

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The moonlight was peering eerily through the dust-fogged windows when the door to Pellinore's cabin slowly creaked open. It paused after half a meter, then Pintel cautiously poked his head through the opening to scan the room for its lone resident. He spied the captain lying in a bed off to the left, and seeing that the man was sound asleep, pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped inside. Ragetti warily peeked inside after him, watching as Pintel crept closer to the Englishman.

Pellinore had gone too far. He'd threatened Ragetti, even allowing the other men to terrorize the boy, and he'd kept Pintel busy just to separate the two. It was his suicide mission to Pilón that had put the pair in danger from the beginning, and now the Englishman had given Cormac permission to shoot them both. What was more, Pellinore's lying and deceit had ultimately cost Ragetti his eye, and Robert Pintel wasn't about to let that go unpunished. Eagerly, angrily, the stocky pirate came to a stop beside the bed and crouched down to feel for the item he'd come to claim: the black case.

Sure enough, he retrieved the cursed prize out from under the bed, and after beckoning his young comrade to come closer and see, he opened it.

…And a greedy smile immediately appeared on Pintel's face.

It was a medallion. The thick bronze chain was simple and undecorated, hardly worth a second look, but the pendant itself was something to behold. A perfectly round circle of gold, etched with copper and framed by three small garnet stones that all led to and revolved around the largest ruby either of the two renegades had ever seen. The sight of the jewel even made Ragetti grin with amazement.

More than satisfied with their find, Pintel stuffed the trinket inside his pocket, then closed the ebony case and carefully slid it back under the bed. With that, he stood up and sent Pellinore a final, triumphant glare.

"G'bye, chum." Then the pair turned and left, silently snickering at their perfect revenge.

They would never know just how perfect it was.

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Pintel took it upon himself to row the tiny lifeboat away from the mother ship. His glee had given him energy to spare, and since Ragetti was too small and inexperienced to help with the job, the burly pirate had a chance to put his newfound vigor to work. He was feeling optimistic, and for the first time in a terribly long time, Pintel was rightly feeling like a victor as well. Still, it wasn't until the next morning—after he'd rowed a safe, untraceable distance away from the Glass Urchin—that he felt confident enough to gloat about it.

"HA-HAAAAA! Try an' put a leash on us, eh? Well guess again, yeh ugly mutton 'ead!"

"Lousy wood rat!" Ragetti hooted and jeered alongside him. The two were tauntingly shaking their fists in the long gone ship's direction.

"Rotten pomp! Filthy git!"

"STUPID BLIGHTER!"

Both of them burst out cackling at that. Before it could wear off, Pintel sat up straight again and quickly cursed towards the Englishman one more time.

"Fink you can string us out t'rot, yeh dumb cad? Well you gotta be a lot sharper than that t'pull a fast one on us, 'cause we're Pintel and Ragetti!" The pair whooped in unison. "Schemer an' scholar!" They whooped even louder. "Captain an' first mate!"

Ragetti let out a final victory howl and chimed in, "Uncle and nephew!"

Pintel was about to cheer along with this, but the boy's words suddenly dawned on him and his shouting came to a halt. There was obviously no lie to those words, but somehow, they didn't sit well with him. He paused and adjusted his grip on the oars for another awkward moment, then finally spoke.

"Eh…Ragetti?" He shifted in his seat a little when the kid stared at him. "I…sorta' been finkin' 'bout that. Wot say we forgets 'bout the whole uncle nephew fing?"

Ragetti's gleeful expression suddenly turned confused. "Forgets?"

"Aye."

"What for?"

Pintel had to stop to gather his complicated thoughts again. "Well…it's sorta' got a bad connection to it, if yeh finks about it. I mean, admittin' we's uncle and nephew means admittin' yer mum exists, and…seein' 'ow she done us bof' wrong, I says it's best if we just forget the whole fing. Aye?" Somehow, family just didn't mean that much to Pintel anymore.

Ragetti looked visibly disappointed by this notion, but lowered his gaze and nodded reluctantly. "Aye. Bad memories shouldn't be memories at all."

Pintel watched the lad stew in his thoughts for a moment and frowned. He had to get away from this subject. Forcing a smirk, he reached out and gave Ragetti a light slug in the arm.

"'Ey, we don't need any a' that anyways." He pointed to himself and the other. "Pirate and partner, aye? That's all the connection we need."

Ragetti considered this, then smiled back and nodded in agreement. "Pirate an' partner!"

The older man began rowing again. "Aye. Now that's one fing that filthy ol' Rebecca Pintel don't have," he crowed. "A real partner." A rare look of content appeared on his face then as he turned to scan the horizon.

The boy grinned widely at the comment. "Fanks Pinters," he said.

Pintel abruptly stopped and lifted one crooked eyebrow as he looked at Ragetti again.

"Wot you say?" he asked in a suddenly less friendly voice.

"I said fanks."

"No, after that." There was a nasty glint in his yellowed eyes, the tenderness of the moment now gone. "You said my name wrong! It's Pintel! People call me Pintel, yeh li'l fool!"

"But don't ye' ever get tired of it?" the youth pressed on lamely.

The other was adamant in his response. "No. I doesn't." That said, he turned to glance ahead once more.

Ragetti glanced sheepishly down at the floor of the boat, half in his own thoughts now. "I still like 'Pinters' better…" he mumbled flatly.

The comment hadn't gone unheard. Pintel stopped in mid-thought and spun around a third time to stare at the persistent youngster with hard black eyes.

"Oh you does, does yeh?" he scowled. "Well then I guess I'd rather call you…" He thought for a second. "…Rags! Yeah, that's it!"

The boy looked puzzled at this. "But me name's Ragetti," he said. "Y'said so yourself."

"Well now I says your name's Rags, hear me?!" And with that, Pintel finally resumed his rowing in silence.

Ragetti turned his eye back down to the floor between his feet. He shifted his position once or twice, again returning to his own little world of thought. A grin split his thin lips just then.

"Rags," he murmured, laughing softly and dumbly to himself.

Pintel just rolled his smoldering eyes and paddled on.

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Soon to be updated! That's the end of the flashback portion of the story.