Disclaimer: I don't own Treasure Planet, it belongs to Disney and RLS I suppose. Finn and Konrade? MINE BITCHES!

Author's Note: Hi everyone! Apologies apologies blah blah blah I know its been almost another year and I'm sorry but good lord COLLEGE IS A BITCH. As is life. Write that down, kiddies you'll need it for later. Anyway, new chapter quite literally almost a year in the writing (the sections were written months apart from each other) so I hope you all enjoy it!

"I don't think that belongs to you."

Finn jumped and spun around, dropping the wrench she'd been holding. It landed on the dirt floor of the shed with a dull thud, but she couldn't hear it above the rapid beating of her heart in her ears. Hazel eyes glinted in amusement at her.

"Whatcha doing, Finn?"

Her mouth opened to retort, but instead all she could do was glare. It was usually all she could ever to at the cadet standing smugly before her — glare, and smile broadly.

"None of your business, Konrade."

Cadet Dtarn smirked and stepped into the shed, his eyes sparkling in that mischievously good-natured way. "Spying on Jim, are we?" He raised an eyebrow. "I think we both know there are better ways to go about doing that."

"I'm NOT spying, Smrott sent me to get something—"

"From the mechanics shed?"

Finn froze and sputtered a moment, then fixed him with an indignant glare and repeated, "I'm NOT spying."

But Konrade just shrugged at her. "No matter. He's spying on you."

Amethyst eyes widened. "What?"

"Jim. He's spying on you. Well, not really spying, beyond going through your file and such, but still…" He flashed her a grin. "Let's be honest, love. You're spying."

"He's been through my file?"

Konrade went over to the tool bench and messed with the tools there half-heartedly. "Small detail. He didn't learn much anyway. I told him he wouldn't."

Her eyes narrowed. "You got it for him didn't you?" she hissed.

He glanced at her, then went back to examining a ratchet. "Again, small detail. Insignificant compared to the myriad other things we could be discussing, like that lovely gold sheen you left on poor Jim's hand." He grinned wickedly, and Finn felt her cheeks warm.

"Nothing happened. Get your mind out of the gutter."

Konrade shrugged. "Just wondering. But…" He cocked his head slightly, curiosity creeping into his eyes. "If 'nothing happened,' why can't he get rid of it? It only sticks when—"

"Konrade, stop it." She turned away and picked the fallen wrench up off the floor. "Nothing happened and that's that." She set the wrench back on the bench and muttered, "Nothing's going to happen."

"Uh-huh. Still… What did you do to him?"

She rolled her eyes. "Tried to push his finger out of my face. Why do you care?"

He shrugged again. "He's my friend."

"Konrade, you don't have friends."

"I've got you."

"I'm not your friend."

He raised an eyebrow. "So what are you?"

"I'm—" She frowned. "It doesn't matter. What do you want?"

"Nothing. I'm just checking on Jim's… project?" He shook his head. "Better to call it his distraction, I think."

Finn thought about asking him, but she knew better. She sighed, feeling slightly defeated.

"He's building a solar surfer." Her fingers twitched on the tool bench as she grasped for her next words. "It's… nice."

Konrade lifted a corner of the sheet that had been draped over the surfer and let out a low whistle. "Not thinking of stealing it, are you?"

"Why would I?"

He dropped the sheet and gave her another shrug. "Dunno. Why'd you steal his letter?"

Finn didn't answer for a while, then shook her head with a sigh. "I need to get back to work."

"So you did steal it?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Where is it, Finn? He's pretty sore about it, you know."

"I know he is, but I don't have it."

"Wha—?"

"Can we not talk about it, please? I need to go back to work."

"So you've said."

They watched each other for a bit, and Konrade knew that he had her. All at once her shoulders fell and he went up to her.

"It's not going to kill you, you know."

She met his eyes. "I can't. You of all people know that."

He shrugged, and when she began to shake her head he reached out and took her hand. He wasn't expecting any electricity from her touch, and wasn't surprised when he felt nothing more than the warmth of her palm. Still, somewhere in the pit of his gut was the remnant of the desire to feel that buzz, but he couldn't help that. No one could. At least, no one that had experienced it before. That was the problem with her — one taste and you were hooked. No one could help it, not even her. It was who she was, part of her nature, her being. He'd asked her once if she'd change it, change who she was, but she'd never given him an answer. At times like this, though, he had a feeling that she'd change it in a second.

"You can." He squeezed her hand and felt her carefully squeeze back. "But it's who you are, love."

"Don't remind me."

He smiled at her. "Well I'm rooting for you."

She laughed a little and mumbled "thanks," and then shuffled her feet a bit. "I really do need to go."

"I know. But hey, give him a chance, would you? Talk to him, at least."

She considered a moment, then sighed. "I'll think about it. Now let me go."

He rolled his eyes and released her hand. "Fine. Go clean something."

She rolled her eyes too. "I hate it when you're serious, you know that, right?"

"It's why I only save it for special occasions such as these. Go."

She smiled at him and left. Konrade watched her go with a sigh and shoved his hands into his pockets. Upon doing so, he (rather girlishly) squealed and pulled from his pocket a napkin-wrapped bundle. His eyes when skyward and he muttered a 'thank you' before he unwrapped the cookie and shoved it in his mouth.

The drug was his life.

Everything he did was for the next hit, the next high. He'd traversed the galaxy, seen every measly moon and planet from here to Alpha Centauri, but none of it meant anything to him without the poison in his blood.

He'd been a real man once — most junkies had been. He'd had a wife and some kids like most men, a respectable job like most men, too. He'd been a sailor on a merchant vessel, had made decent money to support his family in exchange for the dangerous job of traversing the galaxy. But that livelihood had been the doorway to his destruction, and he knew it. He didn't have a family anymore. He didn't have a respectable job or a home to live in. He was just a shadow of the man he'd once been, walking from a shadow of the life he'd once had.

The drug was his only reality now.

His entire farce of an existence revolved around staying close to a source, around getting his dirty hands on the next lifeline. Sometimes that proved harder than other times, especially closer to the center of the galaxy where the navy was thickest. Being stranded in a capital city like Carviene was a living hell. Every place in the port city was so heavily watched by sailors of the Interstellar Navy it was nearly impossible to dock a ship carrying anything even remotely illegal. If he were on the Crescent it would be one thing — so many ships went through those docks it was too difficult to keep accurate records of trades and berths. But Carviene…

Carviene was crawling with Stellar Academy snub-nosed brats who thought it was their personal duty to run screaming to the nearest authority with any information on suspicious behavior they had. They were little scabs, little copies of full-fledged officers patrolling the city.

And every time he saw one he wanted to stick a shiv between their ribs. But he wasn't a stupid man. Despite being slave to the poison he still had his wits about him, and he knew better than to do something so foolish. He was a wanted man in five systems. No, better to lie low, get what he wanted, then get the hell off this dusty piece of rock.

The clock tower chimed eight o'clock, and he straightened from the piling he'd been musing against. He was meeting Silver at eight. And if he didn't have what he wanted this time, there was going to be hell to pay.

Jim moved down the hall at quick pace, knowing that if he was caught he'd be screwed for sure. Still, the shortcut through the student quarters would get him to his room a hell of a lot faster than going around in the rain. He passed Konrade's room, not bothering to stop in. He was probably passed out on top of his homework.

That thought made him frown. Already it had been two weeks, and there was still no sign of his letter from the Captain. Were they trying to teach him a lesson or something? And if that was the case, for what?

As he grumbled, he was unaware of a door opening further down the hall. The click of the latch caught his attention, though, and just as someone exited the room he ducked into a dark alcove, his heart pounding in his ears. He quieted it quick because the someone started to speak.

"I expect you back here tomorrow night," said a male voice, and Jim knew it was familiar.

"I can't, I have chores to do—"

Jim froze at the second voice, his eyes wide. It was female, and definitely familiar.

Finn.

It took everything in him not to peek around the corner. What the hell was she doing here?

"Find another time for them," said the boy, and the arrogance in it sparked his memory. Warren. What had Finn been doing in Warren's room?

"Warren I can't, I'm busy — gng!"

Her voice caught suddenly, pitching higher, and Jim couldn't help it: he looked. Sure enough, it was Warren and Finn, and the cadet had the girl by the wrist. But instead of the defiance Jim expected to see on Finn's face, all he saw was pain and… fear? He frowned. He needed to do something, but if he showed himself Warren would see him gone for sure.

"You'll be here," Warren was all but hissing at her. "Same time. Or I'll see to it that you won't work in any of the upper Circles again." An ugly smirk plastered itself on his lips. "You'll be back on the docks where they found you."

"No—"

He gripped her wrist tighter and she whimpered; Jim dug his nails into his palm so hard that he could feel the little half-moons in his skin breaking open.

"You come or its back to whoring yourself off to pirates, you understand?"

Jim frowned and watched as Finn nodded once and yanked her arm out of Warren's grasp. As the cadet smirked the lamp light caught on his hand and Jim swore he saw a shimmer of gold — but he had to duck back into the alcove again before he could get a better look because Finn was hurrying down the hall in his direction, her face a perfect mask of calm and collectedness. But as she passed, completely unaware of his presence there in the shadows, Jim could see tears burning in her amethyst eyes. His fists clenched tighter and he felt his teeth grinding, but by the time Finn had rounded the corner Warren had snapped his door shut, and the scullery boy was alone in the hall once more.

Warren's words filled Jim's mind as he hurried down the hall towards the stairs. He'd said Finn was from the docks, and the something about whoring herself off to pirates? It left a bitter taste in his mouth, but neither were impossible. Smrott had said something about everyone deserving a second chance, but was that what he'd meant? And if she was from the Docks Circle, was that how she knew Silver?

Who the hell was she?

More importantly, where the hell was his letter?

By the time he made it back to his room he was frustrated enough to shut his door with a loud snap. The noise jolted him and he groaned on his way to his bed, flopping onto it rather childishly. Not that he cared.

This was all such bullshit…

Though he tried to sleep, he couldn't stop thinking about Finn, and he groaned again and rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

He wasn't stupid — he knew what she'd been doing in Warren's room. What surprised him was that she allowed it to happen. But if her position here was at stake…

Jim sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. That was it. He was talking to Finn.

It was time for this bullshit to end.

Author's Note: There ya go! Now review! If only because you love me? :3