A/N: Okay, next chapter. I'm slowly but surely coming up with a plan for this story. Glad to see so many people actually follow this hastily thought out idea though! Motivates me! I'm glad you all like the seeing of a goofy Cinder; cause honestly I love it. Don't fret though she won't ALWAYS be like that. There also will be a back story to this, so stay tuned. Next chapter is gonna be Pirate-y for all those who were asking as well! :)

"Ruby! What are you doing up there?" Yang half shouted.

Currently the blonde saw a head of crimson hair looking down at her; from all the way up in the ship's crow's nest. Yang had no idea how or why Ruby had climbed up there, but it was almost time to eat and it seemed as if Roman and Tukson were hell bent on using all of her spices on everything they cooked these last few days.

She and Ruby had been aboard The Queen's Vessel for about three days now, and so far they had been welcomed decently among the crew. Roman indeed was correct about having Cinder ask the two of them to join her crew. Yang decided for the both of them saying only that they would consider it. She seemed to accept the answer well enough, but Yang knew the raven haired woman had no intentions of losing Ruby. She seemed quite attached to her younger sister now it seemed.

"No! Cinder is down there! She- She'll get me if I go back down there… The sweets… She lied to me, Yang. Lied to me!" Ruby cried out.

Yang just rolled her eyes at the girl but couldn't help but chuckle. It was quite funny to her; Ruby's relationship with Cinder. The Captain was usually very stern and stoic in leading her crew, but when it came to Ruby she was the complete opposite of her usual self.

"Alright sis, I- I guess I'll leave you to it then." Yang called towards Ruby as she turned around to head below deck.

Shuffling back down the steps she walked past the twins; Melanie and Miltia Malachite. Both girls were currently servicing the vessel's impressive armaments. When Yang was introduced to the two a few days ago, the blonde had no idea that the entire ship's firepower were at the hands of these two girls. Both were dressed similar in their basic cotton tunic with Melanie wearing a white one and Miltia wearing a red one, complete with black leather slacks and brown boots.

They were both friendly enough towards Yang as well when they met, but still she was in awe that the girls were able to work so quick and in tandem with each other when it came to working the cannons together; only with Junior helping them reload when in a battle.

Yang couldn't wait to see it for herself; the twins in action. Of course though being in a naval battle was slightly unappealing to Yang but she hoped she'd get used to it soon enough.

Finally walking past the girls and giving them a small wave, which they returned; Yang finally walked into the storage area that double served as the kitchen and dining area below deck. She spotted Tukson; the ship's boatswain, cook, and surgeon. Quite the assortment of ranks befallen to the older man, but he didn't seem to mind all the responsibility. Dressed in a dirty white smock with brown shorts and boots he was currently setting a plate of cooked fish down on the large wooden table that occupied the large dining area.

The room was quite impressive; a large cedar table sat defiantly in the center with twelve chairs seated around it. It truly looked fit for royalty. The table was adorned with candles and cloth that seemed extremely out of place for pirates. As well as the chairs that were embroidered with scarlet and gold silk; Yang really couldn't help but wonder about the backstory of the boat.

Walking inside the room now Yang took note of everyone else already seated at the table; Roman, Emerald, Mercury, and Junior. All four of them were engrossed in a conversation about something that happened a few days before Yang herself was aboard so the topic was lost on her. The blonde still sat down at the table but couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in not seeing Neo present.

She and the odd colored girl seemed to be getting along well enough, but she never spoke to Yang. At first she thought she didn't like her, but she would always smile; so Yang finally decided to ask Roman what the short girl's problem was. And that's when she found out that the girl was mute. Even Roman himself had no idea as to what caused her to become mute, but even more surprising to Yang was that Cinder and Roman both decided that having a mute girl be their navigator was a good idea…

"So lemme guess Tuk; fish on the menu again?" Mercury asked the man in a sarcastic tone.

"By all means; if you find some chicken or any other livestock swimming around in the water feel free to bring it on board, smart ass." The elder man replied back, setting yet another plate of skewered fish down with a thump.

His rebuttal caused Roman, Emerald and even Yang herself to laugh at Mercury; who just grumbled to himself before grabbing a fish off the plate and taking a large bite out of it. Not soon after the rest of the table's occupants followed suit and once again Yang tasted her expensive spices grazed on the fish. She had long since given up on trying to salvage any of her wares and just let the crew use it.

The room soon found itself erupted in conversation and laughter; with even the twins Melanie and Miltia joining them at the table. It was quite the sight to Yang. Never before would she have pictured what she was seeing in this very moment, happening. With pirates no less. She had noticed that the crew of The Queen's Vessel were more than just the average greedy pirate crew; they were more like a close knit family. And it made the blonde wonder what was binding them all together like this.

Cinder must be a charismatic leader.

But just as Yang was thinking about the crimson cloaked Captain, the woman's voice rang out in the large room.

"Has anyone seen Ruby?"

All heads turned towards the room's entrance and spotted the Captain. She was dressed in her usual crimson overcoat with her tricone hat fixated atop of her beautiful ebon hair. Although there was something out of place.

Cinder was carrying a fishing pole, holding it over her shoulder. Of course normally that wouldn't be that much of a big deal; as Yang had noticed that almost everyone seemed to fish on the vessel. But what was affixed to the end of the line was odd. Instead of regular bait, there seemed to be a cookie embedded on the hook.

"Nope, we haven't seen the little squirt." Roman then answered, earning a slight glare from Yang.

Yang herself of course knew her little sister was hiding in the crow's nest from Cinder, but she decided she wouldn't rat her out, even though it was quite funny to see the two together. Ruby had informed Yang on the events that took place the first day they had come aboard the ship, and although Yang was slightly worried about Ruby; she learned that nothing too bad happened. It was a good thing she didn't jump to conclusions, unlike some people.

"Hey uh Cap'. Why do you have a cookie at the end of your fishing line there? You know fish probably won't go for that." Emerald asked concerned.

At least I wasn't the only one who was wondering that.

Cinder smiled wickedly then, barring her teeth. "Oh, I'm not fishing for fish."

This earned the woman several confused looks.

"Then what are you fishing for?" Melanie then asked.

Cinder turned on her heel to head out of the room and back upstairs to the deck before glancing back over her shoulder, still wearing her smile on her lips.

"Ruby."

And with that, she walked up the stairs and out of sight.

The once loud room bustling with conversation and laughter had fallen to an eerie silence at what Captain Cinder had uttered when she left. Everyone seemed to turn their gaze towards Yang as if wondering what she would do. And with that the blonde stood up from her chair and sighed.

"I uh, I'm gonna go look for Ruby." Yang uttered walking out of the room. "Thanks for the food, Tuk!"

Walking up the stairs, the blonde heard the room once more erupt into laughter; most likely at her expense, but she brushed it off for now. Stepping out onto the top deck though, Yang was met with a wonderful view of a full moon. The giant ball of silver seemed to envelop the entire sky on this clear and starry night. It was enough to catch her breath, witnessing such an exquisite sight before her. Mixed in with the cool ocean summer air hitting her body and the slight rocking of the vessel underneath her; it was enough to completely relax and calm the girl.

Walking out now onto the deck, Yang let the gentle splashes of the waves fill her ears as she slowly walked towards the center mast of the ship; that housed the crow's nest where she knew Ruby hid. But a peculiar sight grabbed her attention at the head of the vessel. If the moonlight image from earlier was enough to make the blonde catch her breathe; this new vision almost made the girl faint.

She spotted Neo sitting at the bow of the ship. She was perched atop of the narrow railing with her slender body facing outwards towards the ocean, but in that moment Yang forgot the exact reason why she had walked up here. The way Neo's body silhouetted against the giant moon and the night sky made the girl look like something out of a novel.

These past few days Yang had spoken to the girl, of course now knowing that she herself didn't speak. But she never really looked particularly upset that Yang was talking so much and even offered a smile every once in a while. It wracked the blonde's mind; never before had she been so nervous or spoken so much to one person and never received any kind of word back, it almost felt like she was bothering Neo to a point.

But I can't help it.

Smiling now, the blonde walked towards the Navigator still sitting with her back to her. With every step closer to the mismatched hair colored girl, Yang thought of something to speak about to her about. It was hard since the girl never uttered anything back; otherwise she'd have asked about the ship or how the crew had all joined up under Captain Cinder's command.

Something I actually should ask Roman about.

Finally right behind her now, Yang climbed over the railing slowly; as to not fall into the waters below, and sat down next to Neo. The shorter girl gave the blonde a small smile before looking back towards the object in her hands.

Looking down in her lap now, Yang spotted a large, well-detailed map. It had various scribbles and markings on it but seemed to show most of the main continents and main bodies of oceans as well; and Yang knew getting a map of this nature had to be hard, impossible even. Maps like these were reserved for royalty or esteemed explorers, even she knew that.

Just another mystery behind this crew…

But peering towards it further, the blonde noticed that the country of Haven was marked off with an X, with various lines surrounding the body of land. It was the only continent that had been crossed out. Alongside the X were various lines of travel in the ocean as well as notes near port towns on the other continents. Neo's feather tip ink pen was currently tracing a line from Vale to somewhere near the coast of Atlas, but now she was tapping the pen as if she were thinking.

"Are you trying to figure out where we are?"

Hearing her voice caused the small girl to glance up at Yang, and the former felt her heartbeat quicken at the sight of those multi colored eyes once again. Next though, Neo nodded her head once and averted her gaze off towards the water with a downcast look on her face now.

Luckily for Yang though, her father Taiyang had taught her and Ruby the fundamentals of star reading and navigation. Unfortunately though; the blonde elder sister didn't pay much attention to the teachings of it but still grasped the basics.

Thanks dad.

"No worries, everyone needs a little help sometimes!" Yang commented with a smile on her face. She watched the girl give her a slightly unsure look and shrugged her shoulders a bit.

"Here," Yang pointed up towards the night sky, towards a particular set of stars. "Do you see that constellation of those seven stars?" Yang asked as she watched Neo nod her head once again. The blonde lost herself in those brown and pink eyes though as she watched the girl's small and cute face turned skywards in full concentration. Her eyes sparkled with the light of a thousand stars reflecting off her irises.

"U-uh y- yeah that's called the Lucky Seven! It's a set of seven stars you can use to find the North Star." Yang continued as she finally tore her gaze off the small girl seated next to her.

"Then you have the pointer stars, these are the two stars that are curved off slightly at the tip."

It felt as if the more she looked up at the sky, the more she actually recalled the lessons her father had taught to her.

Feeling a lot more confident now, Yang pressed on. "The North Star will always be five times the distance between these two pointer stars in the direction that they point. True north lies directly under this star."

She watched as Neo seemed engrossed in this new teaching; the girl's mouth hung slightly open as if in awe and her expression had changed from unsure and confused to curious and happy. Yang once again found herself staring at those soft full pink lips that were just calling her name.

But there was something that was on the blonde's mind about Neo.

"Neo, you're The Queen's Vessel's Navigator though right? You have a pretty damned detailed map, so where's your compass?"

The once joyful looking girl now widened her eyes in surprise at the question before glancing to meet Yang's curious gaze then looking down towards the splitting waves below the girls. After a moment Neo pointed downwards at the water.

She… dropped the compass in the water?

Yang could barely hold back the laughter that threatened to erupt. She stifled it as best as she could while covering her mouth with one hand, until it came out in full force, causing the shorter girl's gaze to borderline rage as she pouted towards Yang.

"W- What kinda Navigator… D- drops her compass i- in the water?!" Yang asked out between her bursts of laughter.

But it seemed as if Neo didn't like being poked fun at, as the girl quickly collected her map and other devices and stood up, walking off and leaving Yang sitting off the railing alone.

"W- Wait Neo, I'm sorry! I didn't mean-" Yang started, desperate to apologize to the girl, but something odd caught her eye, and it wasn't watching Neo's hips sway as the girl walked off in a hurried but eye capturing manner.

It was Captain Cinder.

The woman was currently walking around the deck with the same fishing pole in her hands, holding it upwards with her 'cookie bait' still on the end of the line. Seeing the odd sight now, reminded Yang of why she had come back up in the first place.

"Ru-by!" Cinder called out loudly with a hint of playfulness in her words. "I have something for you… And it rhymes with… Nookie!"

Yang face palmed at the woman's choice of words, but did give her credit at the cleverness of them. And of course, knowing Ruby she would emerge from her hiding spot, only having putting the word cookie with sounding like it.

"Are you telling the truth this time?!" A voice rang out.

Gods Ruby, you're really gonna fall into her trap that easily?

Cinder and Yang both snapped their heads up towards the voice that came from the crow's nest. The scarlet clad Captain swung her fishing rod towards the girl, who now was peeking over the ledge of where she was residing.

"My little jewel, since when have I ever lied to you?" Cinder then cooed out.

"Since the first time I met you! Y- You almost made m- me…"

"I was just changing into something more comfortable, and then you bolted out of the room! I'm unsure of what kind of … depraved acts you were thinking of." The older woman defended with a sly smirk on her face. "Anyways I do have some cookies, but they're; All. The. Way. Down. Here."

After a brief moment of silence, Ruby's childish voice rang out once more. "H- How many cookies?" She asked curiously.

"As many as you can handle ba-"

DING! DING! DING!

All attention was turned toward the stern of the ship where Neo was ringing the alarm bell.

Confusion was cast over the group on the deck, and even the rest of the crew who were below deck rushed upstairs into the night swept upper deck at the sound.

"What? What? Who's ringin' my bell?"

"Are we under attack?"

"What's goin' on?"

All heads once again turned towards Neo as the small girl was pointing out towards the starboard side and right at…

"Shit." Roman uttered as he noticed it.

Yang gazed out towards the vast blackness of the sea, but spotted multiple shadows that contrasted against little orange balls of light. The little lights out in the ocean reflected off what she could tell to be a boat. One that was sailing towards them, but it was too dark to spot any type of insignia or markings to tell who was in pursuit of them.

"Man your stations! Looks like we're earning our night's rest tonight!" Roman hollered out.

Yang watched as Melanie and Miltia hopped back down the stairs below deck; no doubt to get the cannons ready.

"Emerald; unfurl the sails! Mercury; blow out all the lanterns on this ship; we don't want to give them a beacon of our current whereabouts! Junior; get below deck and prepare the cannons with the twins!" Cinder ordered quickly.

She immediately shifted back into leadership mode it seemed to Yang. The blonde stood up quickly and made her way towards the center of the deck, slightly unsure of what she was going to be doing. That was until Cinder turned to face her with a small smirk playing on her lips.

"Ready to earn your keep, Blondie?"

A/N: The Lucky Seven I mentioned in this chapter is in fact the Big Dipper or Saucepan.