The next chapter, as promised :3 This one's on the long side :o Lots of dialogue. I hope that's okay!

Disclaimer: Idon'townSoulEater.

Maka spent 40 seconds under water, sinking slowly while she thrashed and kicked, attempting to remove the ties on her hands and legs. Finally, the one on her wrists loosened, and she kicked mermaid-style and paddled to the surface.

She broke through and gulped in the glorious fresh air. When she looked back up at the ship, the crew was definitely not pleased she managed to live so far. What, did they think she couldn't swim? Well, if she was being honest, she couldn't before a week ago. Tsubaki had taught her while their ship was in shallower waters.

A few fish men tried shooting at her, but none jumped in after her. Maka squeaked and dove back under water, she hoped far enough under that they couldn't aim at her. Then she swam blindly away from the ship for as long as her lungs would allow.

When she bobbed back to the surface, she was considerably farther from the ship. They seemed to have stopped caring whether she died immediately. It's not like I can live much longer with no food, in the middle of the ocean…unless..

She scanned the horizon, searching for a piece of land to swim to. There was none. I'm screwed.

She treaded water for who knows how long, contemplating her next move. She was already getting tired; she couldn't swim very far anymore, even if there was an island to go to. She was all alone. Just her and the ocean. Funny, in another context I would have been ecstatic to be here, she thought.

Suddenly, interrupting her thoughts was a splash a good distance away. Maka was terrified until she saw the fluff of white hair break the surface. And then there he was. Her former captain, the man she simply despised right now, Soul Eater.

"You have got to be kidding me! If I'm going to die, I'd rather it be with anyone but you right now!" she shouted over at him.

Then he smirked-how dare he smirk!- and said, "Calm down, love. I've got a way to save us."

"Don't tell me to calm down! Don't call me love! You deceived me; you turned from your crew to join Davy Jones! You stupid shallow pirate!"

"Harsh words. Let's stop and think about them for a minute." By this time, Soul had swum all the way over to Maka. Damn, he was fast. "Am I still aboard the Flying Dutchman? No. Am I here to save your ass? Yes. Now will you let me explain what happened these last few days?"

He had a point. But Maka was stubborn, so she turned away from him with a "hmph". She would have crossed her arms if she didn't need them to swim.

Soul laughed at her attitude. "We're alone in the middle of the ocean. You really can't get away from me now. But if you don't want to hear my side, fine. Let's just start swimming."
"Where?" her curiosity got the better of her.

"There's an island in the distance that's nearly impossible to see from the naked eye. I made sure Jones headed in a course that he thought was just open water and stop the ship right before he could see the island."

"Oh how sweet of you." Maka sneered.

"Tough crowd. Let's just swim." Soul didn't seem eager to argue with her. Maka wondered why. Could it be, he also felt like a bastard for the things he did to Maka? She scoffed. Well, he goddamn better.

Thinking of things Soul did to her, Maka realized the whiplashes on her back were stinging under her shirt. Great, one more thing to deal with right now.

But as they swam silently, Soul stopping every so often for Maka to catch up, Maka couldn't help but be a tiny bit grateful to him. He was saving her now- despite all the terrible things he had done in the last few days, he was saving her. Maybe the necklace plan had gone awry and he didn't need Jones and his ship anymore. All the same, Maka was glad to have company right now, though she would never admit that to Soul.

After swimming a good distance, Soul found a large piece of driftwood, and told Maka she could use it.

"I'll just push you," he said, like it wasn't an extra 130 pounds to swim with.

Maka just looked at him in disbelief, and then he sighed and added, "I'm stronger than you, love. I've done this stuff before. Besides, your back..it's probably stinging really bad now, huh?" Maka noted that unexpectedly, Soul seemed actually worried that she was in pain. While she shrugged and hopped up on the wood, Soul said, "Look, I know you don't want to talk about it, but I'm really, really sorry I had to do that. If I didn't, one of the crewmembers would have, and they would have whipped you twice as hard, for twice as long."
"So I'm supposed to be grateful that you tortured me?"
"Of course not," he frowned. "Just.. I just want you to know that I would never have done it if I didn't have to. That was horrible of me."

Maka chose not to answer, because she was still pissed but she saw that Soul was truly remorseful. She didn't have the heart to yell at him anymore, especially now that he was pushing her to shore.

After a decent amount of water, a small island came into view. Soul was right, it was hard to spot unless you were pretty close. Maka noted several variations of trees but nothing else- you could easily see from one side of the island to the other. She sighed and lazily dipped her finger in the water as Soul carried her, noting how the water got considerably warmer the closer to shore they came.

Finally they reached the shore. Maka got off the piece of driftwood and waded in, Soul following her. When they both stood on the sand, the first thing Maka noticed was two bottles of alcohol tied to Soul's belt.

She glared at him. "You have got to be kidding me."

Soul smirked, "What? A pirate needs his rum..Who knows how long we'll be here."

"And you didn't think to bring, I don't know, food?"

"Relax, Maka," he drawled, "There's plenty of fish in the water and coconuts in the palm trees. I'll start gathering wood." And with that, he was off.

Just how many times has he been marooned on an island before?

Maka walked further inland so that the tide could not reach her later and dropped down to the warm white sand. She lay sprawled out, basking in the sun, while she listened to Soul rustle around in the trees, collecting wood. After some time, she heard him saunter back to her and drop a pile to the ground.

"No, that's okay Maka, I don't need any help getting the fire started. But thank you so much for the offer."

"Mmmmm, my bad," Maka was half asleep already, and too relaxed to bother retorting to his sarcasm. Even though she was trapped on an island with only Soul for company, it was easy to simply lie in the sun and forget it all. There's something so peaceful about solitude-or, near solitude, I suppose.

She cracked her eyes open to Soul, who was rubbing two sticks together furiously to start a fire. She chuckled, "Does that actually work?"
"Of course," Soul stated. "You just have to know what you're doing." And with that, he created a spark, which he expertly coaxed into a fire. Impressive.

He stood again, declaring, "I'm going to go catch some fish for us now. And before you offer, it's okay, I don't need help." Maka smiled and let him go, much too tired to move anymore. It's been a rough last few days for me, I deserve a nap.

Maka woke to the smell of delicious cooked fish. She sat up groggily; it was already dusk.

"Hey," Soul started, offering her a stick with a fish on it.

"Thanks," Maka hadn't eaten anything decent in days, so the fish was mouthwateringly tasty. She finished the whole thing quickly. Soul had eaten three. Wordlessly, he offered her a bottle of rum. She looked at it with pursed lips.

"Come on, it's all we have to drink. There's some water in it, at least.."

He had a point- it was either the alcohol, or salt water. Heaving a sigh, Maka took the bottle and put it to her lips, careful to drink only a little. It burned down her throat and she made a face. Soul laughed.

"Amateur. By the time we're off this island, you'll be drinking like a champ."

"I'm not sure that's something to be proud of, Soul."

They fell into silence again, which was somewhat awkward. They both knew they needed to talk about what happened to them the last few days, but Maka wasn't sure she wanted to hear it.

After a while, she gave in. "Alright, fine. I'm ready to hear your side now."

"Okay. Well, where do I start…I guess I should tell you about the necklace. It's very, very old. It belongs to a family that goes back countless generations, but it's fallen into many hands of pirates. It's actually a map, you see, to a secret cave which is said to contain treasures unknown to any man. Those symbols on it?" Maka nodded, "They all stand for landmarks you must head to, in a certain order, to find the cave. But the necklace is so small, most find it hard to interpret what the symbols are. Hence why no one has succeeded in finding the cave. The last pirate that had hold of it…Was actually a part of the ancient family who are the rightful owner of the necklace." Soul paused.

"It was Red Beard. Red Beard Albarn." Maka gasped at the name. "It was your great grandfather," Soul continued. "But his son hated that his father partook in piracy, so he stole the necklace and kept it safe when he created the town of Mideel. He was very smart, your grandfather. He made sure word got out about the necklace being in multiple different places. He started rumors that it was in South America, Jamaica.. All over the world. And so, not many pirates successfully figured out where the true location was."
"So how did you figure it out?" Maka asked.
"Kid is.. rather obsessed with treasure," Soul admitted. "He spent a long time at countless ports gathering information on the necklace. Eventually the pieces just fit together for him."

"Wow." Was all Maka could think. "So the necklace is my family's heirloom, and a map to a cave of treasure?"
"Pretty much."

"Wow."
Soul was fidgeting around now, though, like he had more to say.

"What is it?" Maka inquired.

"Well, there's..one other thing about the heirloom.." Maka waited for him to spit it out.

"In the cave, before any treasure can be taken…There needs to be a sacrifice."
Suddenly Maka remembered what Kid had said the night in Tortuga.

Her shoulders dropped.

"It needs to be a member of the Albarn family." He finished softly.

"So, me."

"Yeah."

"And that's why you took me on your ship."
"Well, that was the plan…"

"But?"

"Me and Kid started arguing as soon as you were onboard."
"About?"

"Um.." In the darkening light, Maka could scarcely see Soul blush. "I had taken a liking to you. And decided I didn't want to kill you." Maka gaped. He continued, "But Kid wouldn't have any of that. Like I said, he's obsessed with treasure. Don't take it personally." He managed to smirk at her. "I figured as long as we didn't have the necklace yet- it wasn't in the bag of stuff you stole from your dad, so I believed it was still at the castle- I had more time to think about it all."

"But then Kid saw my necklace."
"Right. And we obviously didn't have time to talk about it, because then you and I were captured."

"Wow." Maka repeated. "Okay. Now I'm up to speed with the necklace. So can you tell me what the hell you were doing on Jones' ship?"
"Stealing the necklace back, of course." He grinned and pulled it out of his pocket to show her.

"But now they're going to realize it's gone and come back for it!"
"I replaced it with a duplicate. It's nearly exactly the same, except for two symbols. They shouldn't realize any time soon." Maka breathed a sigh of relief.

By this time, it was dark outside. Only the light from their fire and the half moon showed Maka Soul's face. His jaw was taut and he was staring at her with a certain intensity.

"What?" She asked.

"How's your back?"

She laughed at him. "Why do you care so much about that?"
Soul looked pained as he answered. "Maka, I never wanted to hurt you. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."

Maka didn't know what to say. Before she thought up an answer, Soul scooped her up in his arms.

"Ah! What are you doing!" She exclaimed.
He carried her down to the shore, placing her in front of him with her back facing him.

"Take your shirt off."
"Wha-!"

"I'm cleaning your wound," he explained patiently.

Maka hesitated. Even though she trusted Soul, even as more than a friend, it was still awkward.

He laughed. "Really, Maka?" Afraid of looking like a child, she obediently took her shirt off, covering her breasts with her arm. Soul gasped and gingerly touched her back.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.
"It's okay, Soul," Maka answered, and she realized she meant it. Soul really pissed her off sometimes, but there was no way she could stay mad at him.

She heard a rustle and craned her neck around to see Soul take his shirt off.

"What are you-" she started nervously before he leaned forward and got his shirt wet.

"This is going to sting," he warned.

Maka nodded and braced herself.

"Ah!" she couldn't help it, as the salt water licked clean her wound.

"Sorry," Soul said again. He dabbed softly at each whiplash, occasionally rinsing off his shirt in the ocean.

"Okay, I'm finished."

Maka turned and gazed at him. No more words were needed as the two leaned closer until their lips were touching. Maka turned to face Soul completely and wrapped her arms around his neck, forgetting they were both shirtless. He held her by the waist gently, careful to avoid her cuts, as they kissed with fervor Maka didn't know she had. Maka noted how Soul smelled once again, like the ocean and leather and cologne all mixed together, which was intoxicating. And he was so warm compared to the night air, she never wanted to let him go. This is love, Maka marveled.

After a while, she pulled back to breathe. She laughed softly, "This is so cliché."

"What?" Soul blinked.
"Oh come on. We're stranded on a desert island, and I was pissed at you to begin with, and now we're kissing. I feel like the star of a romance novel."

Soul smirked at her, "You are so weird." But that didn't stop him from kissing her again, and again after that. Eventually, he carried her farther inland and laid her down in the dry sand, placing himself over her.

"Maka, are you sure about this?"
She'd never been more sure in her life. She wanted this life- she wanted Soul.

And that night, she got all of him.

Come on, you knew that would happen the second they were alone on the island xP I couldn't decide whether I wanted anything to happen, because, as Maka stated, SO CLICHE. But their relationship needed to progress. Now it has. bwahaha.

So how'd I do? How's the plot coming along? There was a lot of explaining in this chapter- does everything make sense? REVIEW TO LET ME KNOW, ARGGG :3

As always, thank you, dear reader.