Desdinova was the first to awaken the next morning. She smiled as she extricated herself from Imaginos's embrace and quickly changed into fresh clothing before heading up on deck.

In the bed, Imaginos smirked quietly to himself, having had one eye half open as Desdinova had stripped off the clothes she had worn during his rescue and then changed into the clothes she would be wearing for that day. If Desdinova had been aware of this little bit of mischief on his part, she did not say. Instead, she had turned her rather attractive form toward the door and walked out.

"One word about our new guest's sleeping arrangements last night, and you'll all take turns being keelhauled," Desdinova told her crew, some of whom were smiling as if knowing a pleasant secret.

"Yes, Captain," they all said, snapping to attention, the smirks disappearing rather quickly from their faces.

"Captain?" One of the crew asked. "Who is he and why did you rescue him?"

"In the world he came from, he is known as Imaginos," Desdinova explained. "And I rescued him because he is my counterpart."

"You mean he's your soulmate?" a woman on the crew asked.

"No," Desdinova shook her head. "He's actually me, just in male form from another dimension. So I don't want to hear any nonsense about falling in love or soulmates or being meant for each other. It can't happen and it won't happen. We're practically the same person, Imagines and I."

A couple crewmen exchanged smirks, but were wise enough not to comment.

The lack of comment wasn't enough to prevent them from pulling kitchen duty, however. And as Desdinova glared at them, meaningfully, and pointed toward the galley door, they slunk off to do their newly assigned chores.

A short time later, Desdinova stepped back into her cabin and rang the captain's bell that sat on her writing desk directly over Imaginos's ear.

Imaginos shot up, causing the hammock bunk to tilt and send him to the floor.

With a half-amused/half-stern look, Desdinova spoke. "On this ship, we work. We don't sleep all day. I don't know what kind of ship you ran before it capsized, but I can assure you that laziness will not be tolerated here."

"Yes, Captain," Imaginos said as he got to his feet. This wasn't his ship and being a captain himself, he understood the value of discipline on any vessel. Fixing his clothes as best he could, he followed Desdinova onto the deck, not neglecting to take note of the way her delicate but strong body moved as she walked.

"SInce you're such an observant young man," Desdinova told him, making sure that Imaginos knew he'd been caught in the act, "you can man the crow's nest."

"Yes, Captain," Imaginos said, and it was clear that he was abashed at having been caught checking out Desdinova.