Chapter 21: Pickups for Pirates






"What are you doing? Hurry up." Tyler's insistant voice snapped him out of it, and he leaned over the desk to snatch up the map piece that the young boy offered.

Closing the drawer again and locking it quickly, he got up and they hurried to the cabin door. As the others snuck out onto the deck, he paused and looked back at Lily while chewing his lower lip. Giving an about face, he wandered back towards her, much to the others' disbelief.

"Idiot. You'll wake her up."

Ignoring the hushed scolding from his brother, he placed a hand upon the first mate's shoulder. She didn't awake, thankfully, so he knew she was out of it. The other hand rested upon her hip, and he gently pushed her over until she was upon her back and not leaning upon the swords. Lily gave a slight groan of pain at having rolled over her injured arm. Marty felt a hand upon his shoulder, and looked up to find his brother glaring at him.

"Marty. We need to get you off this ship, NOW."

The younger of the two looked back at Kirra, Alison and Sol before shaking his head. "No. They'll know something is up. They have the advantage of a fast ship. You guys have canoes. They'll eventually find us on this island. It's better for me to stay here until we're ready." he reasoned. That and he couldn't really leave Lily alone like that. He'd feel guilty.

"God damn it, Marty. This might be our only chance to get you off this damn ship. They're all too drunk to fight."

"Four words. 'Lily-With-A-Hangover'. It's not going to be pretty. She is going to even more irritable, and we've all seen what she's like when she's sober. I got whipped a bunch of times for staying with you guys for more than an hour. If I run away now, she'll probably kill me on the spot." he whispered. "At least this way I can claim I fell asleep looking after her and you guys snuck in and stole it."

Tyler gave a sigh, and rubbed his fingers through his sandy blonde hair in exasperation. "Fine. Whatever. Don't come crying to me if you get a box around the ears." turning on his heel, the older male stormed out of the cabin. The others just shook their heads and left as well, eager to get out of there.

After they'd left, Marty paced the cabin for a short while before going over to close the door and lock it, having remembered that she'd asked him to. Now with her passed out, there was no way for him to lock it without staying inside the cabin. Chewing his lower lip, he wandered over to her bunk and took a closer look at her. Something he couldn't do when she was awake. After a few moments of that, he shook his head and grabbed the thick belt that looped over her right shoulder and under her left and held a couple of daggers. Unbuckling it, he slid it off her and placed it upon her desk. The sword belt was next, which also held the dagger that she had been using as a form of a sling. A slight look of pain marred her face for a moment as Marty let her arm drop, unaware that she had been injured.

"Man, I'm going to be doing some major arse-kissing when you wake up." he sighed to himself, and flopped down in the chair behind her desk.

Wondering what to do now, he drummed his fingers upon the desk for a moment before smoothing his hands out along it. It was quite a nice piece of craftsmanship, actually. Letting his curiosity get the best of him, he fiddled with and looked at some of the trinkets upon the surface. Through his search, he found a book upon sailing, and a quick flip through it revealed that it would be perfect for him to read and learn about it all. Perhaps he could impress her with some new knowledge in hopes that he could win her over a little and not have her get so angry at him.

"Hm." he began, pretending to sound professor-like. "Did you know, that a bulkhead is a...transverse or longitudinal partition seperating portions of the ship? I certainly didn't. Oh look. A cofferdam is the space between two bulkheads set close together. Wow. How exciting." he joked around softly, pretending that they were old friends exchanging information in a classroom.

Flipping further through the book, he attempted to try some of the knots mentioned in the diagrams with a spare piece of rope that he found, but he was largely unsuccessful. "Hm. Guess I'll try that later. They look pretty complicated." he muttered, before continuing to joke around with pirate phrases.

"Keep a sharp lookout, you salty sea dog, or I'll hang you from the yards." he held the book in one hand, and pretended he was sword fighting with the other. Eying the sleeping pirate, and then the sword, he unsheathed it and took a look at the blade before pretending to fence with an invisible opponent. "Stem the tide! Avast! Raise the anch-...huh...wildcat? I though that was an animal." Marty squinted at the book and then shrugged it off, swinging the cutlass around a few more moments. Though he was careful not to knock anything down.

"Hah! This stuff would make some great pirate pickup lines. I can totally out-sleaze Tyler." he snickered. "Wanna shiver me timbers? That's the finest pirate booty I've ever laid eyes on. Polly want a cracker?'¦ Oh, wait. That's for Talk Like a PARROT Day." Marty read through the book to get some more ideas. "Man...I've so gotta try these out on Kirra and Alison for a joke." he cackled to himself.

"Hey, I should dare Lily to say some of these...I've crushed seventeen men's skulls between me thighs!" he thought some more. "You. Pants Off. Now!....And that's quite a cutlass you've got there, but what you need is a good scabbard!" flopping back into the chair as he chortled softly to himself, Marty kicked his feet up on the desk. "Man, pickup lines are the best."

For some reason he felt mighty powerful sitting behind that big old desk like that. Just like a real pirate captain. No wonder Lily seemed to have a God complex if she too felt like he did when she took a seat. Eyeing the flintlock pistol that was mounted at the front of the desk, he had the overwhelming urge to pick it up. But he had a feeling he'd be in big trouble if he did, so he stilled his itching fingers and turned them back to the book, unaware that he was being watched. Lily wasn't as drunk as they thought she was.



And she'd heard every word.

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