Once Upon a Time 1. Chapter 1

Ruby had been drunk for three days.

Of course, it was still relatively early in the morning, but time of day never stopped a pirate from drinking. She'd been tipsy since seven and drunk since nine. Now it was rolling on ten in the morning, and her organs were thoroughly saturated with alcohol. She handled alcohol rather well for a woman, but she had grown up on a pirate ship, after all. She could almost outdrink an Irishman, and she'd proved as much when she'd challenged an Irish pirate to a drinking competition once several years before. Ruby wasn't a lightweight, so when she was so obviously inebriated, there was obviously something wrong.

She wasn't one of those happy drunks. She was entertaining, sure, but lately she'd been irritable and difficult. She'd lost her first mate, and this wasn't the first time she'd lost one. Deep inside, she began wondering if it was her own personal curse, but of course she would never admit that to anyone. Instead, she'd been mourning his death in the pirate way: with as much grog as she could get her hands on.

Unfortunately, resigning her title as pirate king didn't make her any less noticeable, and she certainly wasn't off of the new pirate king's radar in particular. Slamming the empty mug down on the table, she wiped her mouth with the back of her leather-gloved hand and raised her bleary eyes to cast a glance toward the bar. Before she could open her mouth to order another round, a shadow blocked her line of sight and she blinked, frowning as she focused and realized it was her cousin in front of her. No wonder the entire bar had gone silent. Even though David had been the pirate king for a year now, there was a stigma hanging around him. He hadn't grown up around them, but the pirates also respected him for everything he'd been through to become part of them. He hadn't just walked in and been handed an empty title. He'd earned it, and he held respect among their community.

But many pirates were unsure how to act around him. Ruby was not one of those pirates.

Smiling darkly, she dropped her gaze from his chest and looked blankly at the table in front of her as she pushed her chair back on its hind legs and threw her booted feet up onto the wooden tabletop. Admittedly, it seemed as if David couldn't stand still and he kept weaving back and forth, or he'd recently duplicated himself and there were now two of him.

"Well, if it isn't the pirate king," she commented off-handedly, more disrespectful than she'd really intended. Oh well. She could see the worry brimming behind David's characteristic blue eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at him. Nonplussed as always, she raised her eyebrows at him and sniffed slightly when he leaned over and planted his hands on the table near her boots. Frowning down at his wrists for a moment, she was only distracted away from them when she heard his voice rebuking her.

She'd been drunk for too long. She'd been in mourning for too long. She wasn't behaving herself. Blah blah blah. She tuned out after about thirty seconds.

David knew it too because he lost the worried look as his blue eyes hardened and he leaned closer to her so she couldn't see anything but him. Her brows drew together as she glared openly at him, the only one in the room with enough balls to stare him down. Inside, she knew she shouldn't be disrespecting him this way. She was the one who'd worked so hard to help him earn the respect he now had. She was the former pirate king. The pirates looked to her often for guidance on how they should behave. Right now, she wasn't being a very good example at all.

Although she was older than him, they were very similar in their protectiveness. They were the only blood family either of them had left. David had grown up on the mainland and never knew his true family, while Ruby had grown up with pirates who were her family. The two of them had no other living, blood relatives. She'd watched over him since he was a child, long before he'd known who she was, and since he'd moved to Sunken Reef Island, he'd watched over her in a similar way. She loved reminding him she needed no protection, but that didn't stop David. He was a stubborn asshole.

"You've been drunk ever since your first mate was killed in that fishing accident a week ago. You need to get yourself back onto the sea," he informed her in a thin voice. She smirked and snorted up at him - or at least to one of him since the three of them kept moving. He said she needed to get on the ocean. Yeah, well, here she was: not on the ocean.

Holding her hands out to her sides, only staying upright in the tilted-back chair because most of her long legs were laid across the table and held her stable, she smiled wickedly up at her cousin. "Do I look upset, Blue Eyes?" she asked him, shaking her head and snorting. Three days. She'd been like this for three days. He hadn't showed up until now. "Go back to your castle in the sky with your little porcelain princess. I'm fine," she snarked. Deep down inside, in a little shred of her that was still sober, she knew she was being an ass. She usually was, to be completely honest, but she was crossing a line. She loved David, and she liked his wife. She appreciated the little brunette princess's fire. She never meant to disrespect either of them, especially in front of the rest of the pirates who respected David and respected Ruby's opinion of him. She could potentially ruin all of that just by speaking out of her ass when she was on a drunken bender.

When he leaned forward and positioned his hands on both sides of her booted ankles, the movement shifted the table and rocked her equilibrium, making her boots slip off the table as she almost lost her balance. Her feet hit the floor with a thud and she sat upright, blinking as she focused on him. "Find yourself a new first mate and get your arse back onto your boat."

David was giving her an order. Typically, when she wasn't drunk off of three days' worth of mead, she would have accepted it. She needed another first mate. She was the newly-appointed pirate lord of the Caribbean after all, and here she was sousing herself in a pub when she should be out on the sea. Inside, she knew what he was doing. The ocean would heal her. Smelling the salt and the brine would sober her. She would forgive herself for her first mate's death eventually, but only the open sea could help her do that. The ocean was her home. She didn't usually stay on Sunken Reef Island for long. She liked the open sea. Solid ground felt so strange and permanent beneath her feet.

Behind her cousin, a bulky (she considered him 'flabby' but who was she to judge?) pirate appeared in all of his grotesque, red-bearded glory, smiling licentiously at her. Ruby had never gotten along with the man. On the contrary, he'd pissed her off on multiple occasions and tried to take advantage of his bulk to overpower her. He hated her and wanted to fuck her simultaneously, and she visibly fumed up at him as he stepped out of the crowd. David had saved his life during the pirate trials he'd won which made him the pirate king, and this pirate was loyal to him so he wouldn't touch her when David could see him. But she had no doubt he would attempt it if they were alone, or if David left.

"I'll be yer first matey, pirate princess," Red Locks jeeringly told her, chuckling heartily to himself with his pals who were near to him.

Perhaps it was the alcohol stirring her or perhaps she'd just had enough.

Suddenly, she surged up out of her seat, sending the chair flying backward in a flash. Grabbing his meaty wrist, she wrenched his arm backward, twisting it hard up his back and shoving the butt of her hand into his shoulder to slam his face down onto the table where she'd just been lounging. Leaning down beside his ear as he cried out like the pussywillow he was, she hissed threateningly. "If you ever call me that again, I will break your fucking arm off, you hear me?" she growled, shoving her hand harder into his shoulder and hearing the bone crack from the pressure. Red Locks whimpered and nodded, stammering that he understood. Yanking his wrist up higher so he whined in pain, she bared her teeth and snarled, "You can come along as part of my crew, but there's no way in hell you will ever be my first mate. And if you even look at me the wrong way, I'll shove my pistol up your nose and make you a new blowhole."

Releasing him, she shoved her booted foot into his ass, sending him stumbling to the laughter of the pirates joined. Straightening her leather corset which jacked her boobs upward, coupled with a black lacy pirate shirt underneath, Ruby looked back over at her cousin, seeing the mixture of disapproval and respect in his expression. She was glad he didn't question her defending herself. She wouldn't be stopping that anytime soon, and he knew it.

"I know how to take orders," she informed him in an even voice as she gathered her jacket off of the back of her chair. Her head was beginning to spin now that the anger which had sobered her was tapering off. She needed to get outside before she fainted in a drunken stupor right here in front of everyone.

"Do you?" he asked her with a hint of sarcasm, raising an eyebrow as he questioned her in front of the entire bar. She ground her teeth together, snorting out through her nose so her nostrils flared. "You know I do," she snapped, stepping toward him as anger flashed momentarily into her dark brown eyes. Sighing a little as she reacted, he nodded and pushed himself off of the table. She couldn't stay mad at him. He was her little brother, or the closest thing to it she would ever have.

Shrugging her jacket on over her shoulders, she pulled her long brown braid out of the collar and snapped the lapels down over her chest. "I know what I want, and I know where to find it," she added, stepping around the table so she was facing David. Reaching out, she grabbed his shoulder partly to balance herself and partly so she could pat him. Patting him on his shoulder, seeing that flash of worry in his eyes again that made her want to slap him, she glanced over at him. "Stop worrying. That's my job, Cuz."

Reaching forward as she touched his shoulder and told him to stop worrying, he nodded to her as he squeezed her shoulder. "Stop giving me a reason to worry and we'll be all set, you." He gave her a tiny smile then, showing her that he wasn't angry. "Just do whatever you have to do. I'll be here for you." he finished, watching her.

Releasing him, she moved off through the crowd and into the fresh air, cradling her stomach to keep from hurling thanks to the alcohol saturating her system.


	2. Chapter 2

Saying she'd sobered up was a misconception. She'd cut back to one jug of grog in the morning and one in the afternoon - down from two or three depending on her mood. She didn't like feeling pain, emotional pain especially. She'd felt enough emotional pain to last a person a lifetime. She'd been through two wars, she'd watched her cousin become orphaned, she'd lost her own child...

Grinding her teeth together, she shut her eyes tightly as the sunlight reflected off of the water and blinded her temporarily. Being hungover wasn't conducive with early morning sunlight.

She couldn't think about everything she'd been through. Not now. Not when she was about to see him again. For her entire life, he'd been her best friend, her closest confidante. Ruby didn't trust people. She trusted no one, but she trusted Killian and she always had. She knew how he thought, and she knew who he was. Throughout the Uprising and the rule of the Bloods, she'd known where his loyalties stood. In a world of dishonorable scallywags, he had some version of pirate honor: an honor she shared.

Even now, after four years, she still felt like she could walk right up to him and see the same man she'd always known.

Perhaps that was unrealistic - it probably was, considering all of the shit they'd been through and the fact that they hadn't seen or talked to one another in so long - but that was how she felt. That was why she knew Killian was the only person she trusted to become her first mate. He was the only one acceptable. He always had been.

Gritting her teeth together so her jaw tightened visibly, she leapt from the boat and landed on the floating dock, almost losing her footing. That was another downfall to being only half-sober: her natural agility was shit. Weaving slightly and waving her arms at her sides until she planted her feet and caught her balance, she glared pointedly at the other pirates as the piled off behind her and chuckled at her loss of surefootedness. Sniffing, she lifted her chin and attempted to march off but was forced to stomp purposefully up to the shore when her hips and feet didn't seem to want to cooperate with one another.

She headed straight for the Phoenix Crest Inn, the inn and alehouse where she'd been directed to find him. He was holed up on one of the smaller, no-name islands in the Caribbean of all places, as if she didn't know the entirety of the Caribbean like the back of her hand. This was her territory. This was there she'd grown up. If he was trying to hide, he wasn't doing a good job of it.

Shoving the door open, she blinked as her eyes attempted to adjust to the light. Just as she did, the din asssaulted her and she frowned as she realized there was a brawl broken out in the center of the pub. The pirates on the fringes cheered it on, some of them screaming for one opponent or the other. Narrowing her eyes, trying to focus through the growing migraine in her head, she recognized the very person she was looking for. Sighing audibly, she motioned for her men to follow her, to help break it up.

Her Sunken Reef pirates peeled off attackers, separating men so she could reach Killian who was at the center of it with a particularly brawny, blond-haired pirate who looked like he'd been thrown up out of Norse mythology. Since she wasn't an idiot, she didn't intend to throw herself between two men throwing punches at one another, but as she focused on Killian, she recognized the stagger to his gait. He was drunk.

What a small world. At least they had that one thing still in common.

"Fuck you, you rotten bilge rat!" Killian roared at the fair-haired pirate in front of him, a man who dwarfed him in stature. Diving forward, he went for the man's waist and drove his head into his gut. The blond man grunted and grabbed him by the top hem of his pants, both of them falling back toward the bar from the force. As her crew broke up the fighting on the edges, Ruby watched as carefully as her bleary eyes could muster, waiting for her opportunity. And then, suddenly, there it was. Killian staggered back, blinking to focus on his opponent, which created space between them. The blond man reeled back to go for another hit, and in that moment, Ruby inserted herself, deftly kicking Killian beneath his knee so his left leg buckled and took him drunkenly to the floor. Bringing her gun up before the other man's punch could fall and hit her instead of his intended target, she shoved the barrel of her pistol beneath his chin hard enough to make him catch his breath with surprise.

"I'm going to need you to stop," she informed him nonchalantly. Motioning with her head behind her were Killian was, she shrugged slightly. "I need that."

Cocking the gun as the man seemed about to argue with her, she heard Killian beginning to argue behind her, and she inwardly rolled her eyes. "What the... hey! Who do ya think ya ar?" he muttered drunkenly as he attempted to stand. Thankfully, Red Locks came in handy at that moment to gather the slighter, dark-haired pirate and Ruby offered blondie a smile before lowering her gun. The blond pirate had no quarrel with her, and removing Killian from the bar seemed to be the trick to make the fighting stop. Not caring, Ruby followed directly after her crew out of the pub and into the bright sunlight.

No one followed them, to her relief, and she blinked to regain her focus as Red Locks dumped Killian onto the ground. Holding up a hand to block the sun, she blinked and lowered her chin to focus on Killian as Red Locks dumped him unceremoniously outside of the bar. He was cussing wildly and fighting, but since he was very obviously drunk, his fighting wasn't gaining him as much ground as she was sure he would have preferred. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she sighed hard through her mouth and dropped her hands to her side.

His black clothes were coated with dust as he remained on his knees for a moment before pushing himself to his feet and simply patting himself down. Finally getting his balance, he blinked blindly as he stood in the middle of the sunlit street. A migraine blossomed behind his eye, but he'd grown to ignore it over the past four years since he'd stayed drunk for most of it. He was in a state of constant hangover, and he was accustomed to it by now.

She hadn't seen him in four years, and time had certainly changed him. Over the years they'd known one another, she'd never really paid much attention to him until she'd grown into adulthood. Now, after four years of not thinking about him - or at least trying not to - she was weakened to his natural good looks. The new, darker air around him was also surprising since she'd been expecting the Killian she'd known four years ago. This version of him was far different, tanner even, and his dark hair was longer. His facial hair had grown in and aged him over the past four years, and he was leaner and obviously more refined. He was no longer the boy she'd grown up with.

Confused and blinded as his eyes slowly adjusted to the sunlight, Killian squinted and covered his face, and then he heard it. Her voice haunted him like a ghost from his past, and at first, he thought he'd imagined it. He'd imagined her voice so many times before; why should now be any different?

Turning slowly, his eyes widened as he noticed her standing behind him, dressed almost entirely in black. Crossing her arms over her chest as she watched him, she used her characteristically sharp tongue to protect her. It was her defense mechanism. Hopefully he was too drunk and it had been too long for him to remember that. "Rogue pirate. I can't say I'm surprised, but I must say I'm impressed," she remarked. One thing about her that hadn't changed was her sardonicism.

As he turned to face her, she watched him through the tops of her eyes, the breeze blowing solitary tendrils of her dark hair across her forehead as she kept her eyes trained on him. Her own drunkenness had faded to a dull roaring headache behind her ears, so she no longer saw multiple images of people. That certainly didn't help her immunity to him, or lack thereof. There had been a time when Killian didn't affect her. She hadn't been attracted to him her entire life. When she'd grown up, when she'd realized she was a female and not just one of the boys, he'd been the one she was the most interested in. Whether she toyed around with others or not, that didn't matter. Killian was the one who got her quality time. He was the one who knew what she was thinking. He was the only one she trusted, the only one she truly confided in.

Whether he'd known it or not, that meant a lot. Ruby's trust in humanity was lost at a very young age. Her father and brother had always been ruthless. They'd murdered their own family. Her own brother had caused her to have a miscarriage. They were murderers. When a girl couldn't even trust her own family, who could she trust? Ruby had had Killian. Now she had David and his wife Snow, but that was a very limited pool to choose from.

She had changed remarkably since the last time he'd seen her. Standing silently, facing her now, he examined her coolly, having trouble reconciling the versions of her in his head with this woman before him. She couldn't be here. She'd left, and she'd never bothered to return. She'd left while she was pregnant with their child... with his child. With that thought came the tiny hope deep in the pit of his stomach that perhaps she was here to introduce him to his son or daughter who would now be a toddler. Anger filled him simultaneously that she would keep his child from him, and in his drunken haze, he stupidly peered around her for some sign of the mystery child. However, there was no child to be seen, and he wilted slightly in front of her but said nothing. His eyes darkened as he watched her, allowing his anger to overpower anything else he may be feeling.

But the one thing that hadn't changed was how often he thought about her. He'd tried desperately not to, but he found himself thinking of her without even trying. He'd wondered often about why she'd left, and if their child was with her. He didn't understand, and he'd tried painstakingly to figure it out each and every single day. He had been away on a mission one moment, and when he'd returned, she was gone. He was still devastated by it (as evidenced by his perpetually drunken state), but now here she was. He wasn't elated to see her. On the contrary, she was a black widow of his nightmares, the embodiment of all the pain he'd felt and imagined over the past half-decade.

The moment was long between them, or at least in her mind it felt long. In reality, it was probably only seconds as he caught his balance and examined her, but she felt like she was standing in a spotlight, his gaze tearing her open to reveal all of the secrets she'd kept hidden for the past four years. To everyone else, she'd been a closed book. No one could read her, and she was an expert at protecting herself, but she'd never hidden herself Killian. She'd never even tried, and she wouldn't. The only truth she would keep hidden from him was what happened to their child. And if at all possible, she would keep the topic from coming up at all.

"Fuck yerself," he retorted finally in response to her comment about him being a rogue pirate.

It was true, he was a rogue pirate and he had no desire to deny it. When his precious ship, the Jolly Roger, was stolen from him during the Uprising which had changed the pirate world entirely, he'd become a man-for-hire, signing up for any work he could get his hands on. He was a disgraced captain, and he'd done what he could to survive. He'd changed any way he could just to keep his head on his shoulders and to eat a meal on a regular basis.

But when he cursed at her, she relaxed visibly. She could handle anger. What she couldn't handle was how her heart felt like it was now set to overdrive. Of course, he argued with her even though he knew how much she hated it. That was only natural. It felt like falling into an old familiar pattern, a pattern she'd prophesied would arise once they saw one another again. The familiarity of it, albeit annoying since she was still irritable with the after-effects of her hangover, served to break the tension between them. It was a tension none of her crew would understand, but a tension all the same.

Readjusting her weight, she tilted her head to brush the dark brown tendrils of hair out of her face, shifting her long braid so it laid across her shoulder. She'd removed her jacket on the boat since her hangover made her feel hot all over, and the black of her leather and the lace of her shirt drew the heat right down into her skin, covering her with a sheen of heat. Fixing him with her blue eyes, she spun her pistol around her index finger of her right hand and shoved it down into the holster on the smooth curve of her hip. "I could go in to how four years is a long time, but I require your help, and you know I hate arguing."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise as she admitted she needed his help in her backhanded way. "'Elp you?" he asked her in disbelief, snorting and raising one eyebrow at her. After all these years of no word, she wasn't going to show up out of nowhere and demand anything out of him. "No," he paused for a moment and shook his head, his brows drawing together irritably, "Fuck no. Fuck yer crew. Fuck you. I ain't helpin' ya."

Punctuating his announcement, he turned on his heel to walk away, laughing derisively at her attempt to ask nicely. Or at least as nicely as Ruby ever asked. His sharp laugh barked from his lips at her audacity, and he shoved his way through the circle of her band of misfits.

Stepping forward as he pushed his way through the men ringing them in, she unholstered her pistol, spun it in her hand and whacked him hard just at the base of his skull. She nailed him on the tender part of his head, knocking him out with the hit. Stepping back as his knees went limp, she raised her eyebrows approvingly as one of the burlier members of the crew caught him just before he hit the ground. She didn't want him getting hurt, even if her pirate definition of pain was a bit different than a civilian's idea of pain.


	3. Chapter 3

Standing with her arms crossed over her chest, her ankles crossed, Ruby watched calmly as Shaco - the biggest member of the crew, a massive Jamaican with dark black skin and black eyes - tossed a bucket of cold seawater into Killian's face, waking him instantly. He started yelling the moment the water hit him, and she raised her eyebrows as she watched him thrashing around in the grip of the men holding him. She'd never seen him this way. He'd always been calm and collected when they were kids. Even when she'd told him she was pregnant, he hadn't freaked out. He'd been calmer than she had been actually.

Those thoughts made her grind her teeth together, her blue eyes hardening as she watched her crew fighting to keep him under control. She should have known being around him would make her think of the baby again. She hadn't thought about it in four years, at least not in the front of her mind. The thought was constant in her dreams and eternal deep within her, but she refused to think about it all the time. Just as she resisted the urge to think about him. But she couldn't stop thinking about him. She could keep him a secret all to herself. She could keep how she felt about him to herself, but she couldn't stop thinking about him altogether.

As he thrashed, she focused to get her attention off of thoughts of their shared past, and she realized with a shock that his left hand was gone entirely. The fact that his hand was gone wasn't a shock to her, she knew how he'd lost it to The Crocodile, but what surprised her was the lack of his trademark hook. The black sleeve of his shirt ended in shadow instead of the silver glint of the infamous hook which had served in place of his left hand for years.

"GET OFFA ME!" he yelled, shaking her violently out of her thoughts. Yelling. There was so much yelling. Her head was still pounding from the remnants of her hangover. Killian's head throbbed until he thought he might be sick, but he yelled anyway. He wanted to be free of all of this. He wanted to be free of these men, and most importantly, he wanted to be free of her. Struggling against his captors, he bucked several times until he managed to free his right arm from one of the men. Throwing a punch wildly at them, he kept fighting relentlessly until he had to be tackled to the ground. Even without his hook, he was a formidable fighter.

Shaco turned to her with an exasperated look on his face, ""Cap!? Are you sure this is the one? He's nuts!" The comment made Ruby smile and she chuckled, one short amused sound as she glanced up to the tall, broad chested Jamaican. "He's the one."

Killian's anger caught her attention again, and she sighed as he threw his elbow into the gut of one of the man pulling him up off of the ship's deck. "Fuck you," he snapped viciously, his temper flaring. One of the crew growled at him to quit his struggling, but he continued to battle valiantly in an attempt to escape them all. He wouldn't stop until he was free of all of this, of this indentured servitude.

Nodding to Shaco when Killian wouldn't cease his resistance, Ruby directed him to splash her former lover and friend with another bucket of saltwater at least to shut him up for a second or two. Of course, it pissed him off more - like dunking a cat in a pool - and Ruby uncrossed her arms to lean back on the side of the ship as he tired himself out.

He didn't want to do this; he didn't want to be here with her. She had hurt him, and she had betrayed him. She'd been pregnant with his child, and he'd prepared himself to be there to support her. He'd loved her as a best friend, and he'd begun to feel something more even before they'd slept together and she'd incidentally gotten pregnant. After everything that happened with Milah, Ruby had been there for him even as he'd gone into a darker time in his life than she'd ever seen. She'd understood him, and she'd never turned her back on him through it all. She'd been his comfort during those darkest hours and even in his struggle to find that Crocodile to kill him.

Their friendship had progressed normally, bonding them since the time they were kids, until they were adults and their bodies and minds began to change. They'd both been raised on the sea, and they thought similarly. He'd seen her lose Peter, and she'd seen him lose Milah. They understood one another. Their friendship only deepened until they'd both secretly developed feelings for one another. Neither of them acting on those feelings at first, and their natural flirtatious friendship stayed roughly the same as it always had, with an overtone of desire seeping in.

Then, after a night that filled them both with grog and happiness, they'd given in and finally slept together. It was marvelous, cathartic and fulfilling. It was unlike anything either of them had experienced. There was no regret, and they'd remained friends even through the revelation that Ruby was pregnant. In the midst of war that spanned the entire pirate world, they'd planned part of a future. They'd taken the steps toward a future...

Then she was gone. Two months after finding out about her pregnancy, she'd disappeared and Killian hadn't seen her again. He'd heard the news her brother was dead, leaving her the only surviving member of the Lucas family line, but there was no news of her afterward. After the months and years spanned by, he purposefully blocked out any word of her. He knew she'd become the pirate king after the war ended, a position which was forced on her at the time. But he hadn't bothered trying to find her. If she hadn't bothered to tell him where she was going, then she obviously didn't want him to know. He'd never felt so horribly betrayed in his life, and he wouldn't forgive her for it.

She had ruined everything, and she hadn't even had the decency to find him and explain herself. What hurt worst was the fact that he'd been her best friend, and he would have done anything in his power to help her. It didn't matter if she was afraid to have a child. It didn't matter what plagued her, he had always been there for her, and somehow she'd lost sight of that.

As his thoughts got the best of him, his mental exhaustion overcame him and he finally slumped in the arms of his holders. "Finally..." Ruby muttered as Killian relaxed exhaustedly and the two men holding him hauled him up to his feet in front of her. Pushing away from the edge of the boat where she'd been leaning, she stepped forward and watched him as he tiredly lifted his head. The way he glared at her was unlike anything she'd seen out of him, and it disconcerted her for just a moment. Her countenance faltered, but she recovered swiftly so the crew never noticed. They weren't watching her anyway since they had their eyes on the man she'd chosen to be her first mate. Silently, they were wondering what she was thinking and where this guy came from, but none of their opinions mattered to her. Killian was her only choice, not because she had no other choice, but because she didn't want anyone else.

"Let me offa yer shitbox. I ain't doin' nothin' fer ya," he slurred painfully. As far as he was concerned, he was done with her forever, if he could just get off of this boat.

So be it. Let him hate her. He didn't have to like her, and he didn't have to love her. It would make this entire deal easier anyway. She didn't want him to find out the truth because it hurt too badly, and that was not the sort of pain she could endure. She was not a woman to be coddled or felt sorry for so typical female emotions were hard for her to deal with. In fact, Killian was the only person who'd ever seen her cry. When her uncle and aunt died, she'd cried. When her mother died, she'd cried. She'd cried three times in her life, and he'd been there for two of those times. The third time was on her knees as she'd gotten sick to her stomach after her brother murdered her child. She'd been alone then. No one was allowed to see her sorrow in that moment.

Held up by two pirates, he lifted his gaze and glared at the woman who was the object of his deepest desires and greatest hatred. Summoning his energy, he spat at her feet as she approached him and curled his lip in a silent snarl. As she stepped forward, her thoughts flying swiftly through her head, she paused for a moment, her eyes shutting as she ground her teeth together when he spat at her. She felt it hit her boot, and she opened her eyes to glare at him just as Shaco reacted instantly and hit him hard against the side of his face for the blatant disrespect to his captain. Killian groaned and winced, squeezing his eyes closed tightly as he fought the rising pain and nausea blossoming through his face. Holding up her gloved hand, she shook her head, casting a hot, angry glare at the man who'd struck him. "No," was her simple command, and he backed off without a word against her.

Turning back to Killian as he recovered and snapped at her, she planted her hands on her hips and sighed. "I would let you off of my ship... trust me, I would," she commented offhandedly, cocking her head in a small nod as she looked up at him. "But neither of us really has a choice. You see, the pirate king has given an order, and that's that I need a first mate," she pointed out, taking another step toward him and raising her chin to face off with him even though he was a few inches taller than her even while slumping exhaustedly in the grasp of two other men.

"The way I see it: there's only one candidate for that position," she noted, looking directly into his eyes, her bright blue gaze darkening as she watched him. "That's you," she pointed out, her tone lilting sardonically.

He snorted in derision at her comment, straightening slightly in the arms of the men restraining him. "You're mistaken. It seems you've lost your mind... truly," he countered, his drunken slurring fading as he sobered slowly.

Killian looked at her with his consistent look of irritation and anger while his thoughts began to run away. What could the former Prince Charming possibly know about him? And why would he care? Killian knew how much Ruby's cousin meant to her, and he knew how the man had only recently learned of his pirate bloodlines. Ruby saved David when he was only an infant, getting him out of the middle of the bloody war at his parents' behest. She'd left him with a landlubber family, but she'd watched over him all of his life. He'd never known he was a pirate but believed to be a prince of a land-locked kingdom. But on his twenty-seventh birthday (a number significant to pirates), Ruby tracked him down and told him the entire history of his true family.

It took time to convince him of the truth, since he'd always believed a landlubber's truth, but after months of coercing, she was finally able to get her cousin to Sunken Reef Island. A pirate's council was held, and the long lost pirate prince was revealed: much to the chagrin of the enemies to the royal family. Ruby was the pirate king at the time, an empty title given to her after she'd killed her ruthless, murderous brother and ended the war. However, she'd always believed the power should remain with the royal family, and David Odaire was the last of their line. The Council decided the rulership should be determined by the Trials: trial by poison, trial by fire, trial of the cross, trial by burning oil, and trial by water. It was a medieval ordeal, and David and Red Locks were the only two to survive (Red Locks only by the grace of David saving him from drowning at the end of it all, hence the man's devotion to the pirate king).

After competing in the Five Trials and surviving, David took his place as the rightful pirate king. Of course, that didn't stop all of the backbiting and duplicitousness in the pirate world, but it did help to bring more peace to their community. However, Killian felt he was a rather small detail for the pirate king to worry himself over. The details about Ruby's life seemed to grow thicker and thicker, and he was more and more ignorant to them. It was all becoming so tiring.

She didn't expect, after all of the fight he'd been putting up so far, for Killian to agree to this willingly. However, she believed she still knew him. Even if he was angrier, even if he was even darker than he was after Milah's death, he was still Killian. Four years was a long time, especially in their fast-changing world, but she had a deep-set belief that he was still the man who'd been her best friend through childhood.

As she stepped forward and her crew stepped back from them, Killian felt as if it was only the two of them in the world. They were together again, together at last, and he felt it should be a happy reunion. They'd been friends since childhood - they'd unwittingly become more - and they'd been separated; that warranted some sort of happiness at seeing one another again.

But it wasn't a happy reunion at all. It never would be, and he blamed it all on her.

"Release him," she said suddenly, never looking away from him as she firmly ordered the pirates to let him go. They looked at her as if she was insane, but she didn't even glance their way. Cautiously, the two men holding him let go of his arms and stepped back, bristling and prepared to defend if Killian attempted to attack their captain. Still watching Killian with her bright blue eyes, she swallowed and didn't budge before him. "It's been four years, but the Killian I remember wouldn't back down from a challenge," she noted in a softer voice, an almost tender edge inching into her tone despite her will to keep her feelings for him in check.

He huffed audibly at her words, and his sobriety appeared in that moment so he could focus. He supposed he had several buckets of water being splashed in his face to thank for that. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly and looked at her through vicious, dark eyes. "This isn't a challenge, Red. This is an ultimatum," he pointed out in a low tone. "If you claim to remember the me you used to know so well, then you know I don't accept ultimatums." His words were a brazen challenge, his tone holding no respect or return of her moment of tenderness. He drew himself up as best he could, his muscles refusing exhaustedly.

She instantly regretted allowing any tenderness seep into her voice as Killian countered her and shot her down. Her face steeled over, her sea blue eyes hardening as she crossed her arms over her chest. Standing with her feet comfortably apart, her cutlass hanging off one hip and her pistol on the other, the leather of her clothes creaked as she fixed her former best friend with her glare. She wasn't known for being kind. If she was, then she wouldn't have lasted this long. The position of pirate king may have meant nothing when she held it, but she hadn't gotten it just by being related to the former pirate king, Riordan Odaire. She'd earned her place here in a world rife with men, and she wasn't one to take 'no' for an answer. Her cousin had hated her for her inability to back down and accept his refusal to learn about his past, and she'd still ended up coercing him into it anyway. She intended to do the same in this situation.

Stepping up to him, she fixed her glare directly on his, staring him down as he looked at her. She could capitulate to the storm raging within her chest. She could show him what she'd been feeling for the four years since they'd been apart. She could express her confusion over what she felt for him, but that wasn't her way. She wasn't the sort of female who talked about her feelings. She didn't trust people, and there was a very good reason for that, so she kept herself closed up. Since she hadn't seen him in so long, he was no longer her confidante even as her mind wished to just give in and allow him to be.

A few members of the crew shifted and looked at her for direction, curious as she faced off with this foreign pirate they didn't know. She knew they were watching her, waiting for her to react to his disobedience. Her reaction would make or break not only their respect for him, but for her as well. So she steeled herself against everything she was feeling, everything she reminded herself she'd already been prepared to feel: everything she hadn't been prepared to feel as strongly as she was.

When she heard the nickname from his lips that he had once used for her, it hit her like a tidal wave. She hadn't heard the name 'Red' in so long, and it surprised her. The surprise flickered in her eyes, but she stood steadily before him as he straightened himself and ran his fingers through his hair. As he declared disrespectfully that this wasn't a challenge, but was an ultimatum, her natural sardonicism found its foothold and she smirked at him as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest. "Ye're right," she agreed, raising her eyebrows slightly, her teeth showing as she grinned her characteristic, lop-sided grin. She scrunched her nose and held her hand up with her fingers held about an inch apart, "It's a little bit of both."

"Ye see, we're in th' middle 'o th' sea," she pointed out as her voice slipped into her natural pirate dialect. She motioned around her with one hand before looking back at him as she recrossed her arms over her chest. "So ye don't really have a choice. In that sense, tis an ultimatum." She waved one hand in the air as she expounded her point. "But tis yer choice to take it as a challenge or to mope around like a damn ta hell barwench who needs her ass slapped."

Her brown eyes flared challengingly at him, but she still didn't back down and she wouldn't. They weren't friends anymore, and despite what her insides were deciding to do at the sight of him, none of that mattered. She was the captain of this ship, and fully in charge. She had a reputation to uphold.

The crew whooped at her comment, but she ignored them as she fixed Killian with her hard eyes. Part of her wanted to just tell him how much she missed him. She wanted to explain what happened and that none of it was his fault. It was all her fault. It was her brother Rasputin's fault, but Rasputin was dead. She was solely to blame for disappearing and never telling him what happened to her.

But she wouldn't tell him. Stubbornly, she would keep that to herself. She couldn't relive that day. It was horrific and violent and a bloody stain in her thoughts. Those memories were repressed, and she intended to leave them that way.

Turning away from her, Killian looked around the wall of men ringing him in and he stopped with his back to her. His disrespect of her was blatant, and she ground her teeth together again as he stilled, facing away. He was trying to piss her off, and he was doing a good job of it. He knew, as well as she, the rules of pirate etiquette. They weren't a soft, fuzzy sort of people, but there was a code. Turning your back on another pirate was both dangerous and extremely rude: especially the captain of a ship.

Her jaw twitched as she ground her teeth hard together, and her eyes were glaring daggers into the back of his head as he began speaking to her without turning to face her. The pirates in the circle shifted restlessly, equally as upset by his blatant disrespect of their captain on the deck of her own ship. "The Killian you knew, the Killian you want to remember, is dead. You'll have to move past that," he announced calmly, raising one eyebrow as he shifted to look back at her over his shoulder. "Then again, moving on was never something you had a problem with before." His tone was flat, but his words cut deep, and he knew it.

Her chest constricted, but she only snorted softly through her nose even as her head spun with the accusation of his words. But what about the Ruby he'd known? She was dead as well. What innocence she'd had was gone along with her child and her brother. She breathed out evenly to control her rising temper. He still knew how to push her buttons even though he claimed they no longer knew one another.

The pirates stood in confusion as Killian pushed his way past the smallest man in the group, and they began murmuring, their voices muttering in irritation and anger at this man who was so brazenly insolent to their captain. They weren't accustomed to Ruby not immediately striking out at someone, and she knew, if they were given the time to think about it long enough they would notice the difference. It would become her weakness in their eyes, and she refused to accept that. She already had a distinct disadvantage because she was a woman. Even if pirates viewed their womenfolk differently than landlubbers, Ruby still had to fight every single day to earn her place among them. Even now.

Striding forward as Killian stalked away from her, she reached out with her gloved hand and snatched his upper arm, digging her fingers into his muscle so she caught him off guard with the force. Bracing her elbow, she threw her weight against him and swung him so she was half-dragging him. The momentum made him stumble, and she used his drunkenness to her advantage. Pushing through the crowd of pirates who nodded approvingly, she kicked open the door to the captain's quarters and shoved him inside before slamming the door shut behind her.

He stumbled and almost fell, catching his balance by planting both hands hastily on the nearest surface. His fingers slid across the maps strewn out against a massive wooden table, and he blinked to adjust his eyes to the darkness of the cabin, recognizing it as the captain's quarters. The cabin was sizable and lined with windows on one side which allowed her a view of the ocean beyond when she had them open. Right now, the windows were drawn so the inside was lit only by the yellowish flickering lamp inside. Beyond the table at the far corner of the wall was the door which led into the inner chamber where she slept when she could and held her clothes and the few personal belongings she kept. She traveled lightly, and always had, so there wasn't much personable about her bedroom. It was a place to sleep, and that was that.

Groaning audibly as he realized Ruby had trapped him in her quarters with her, he wheeled around to face her, his face dark and stormy. Swaying slightly, he narrowed his eyes at her and she fixed him with a hard glare as she advanced on him, not backing down as he growled at her. Deftly, she pulled each of her leather gloves off and tossed them onto the table as she closed the distance between them. Reaching out after she'd divulged herself of the gloves, she grabbed the layers of his shirts across his chest with her right hand and stepped up directly in front of him, staring him down although he towered over her by a few inches. Her fingers curled into the fabric as she narrowed her eyes at him, refusing to surrender to him or to give him the space he was angrily demanding from her with his eyes.

"Why are you being so persistent with this?! I don't care what yer cousin says; this isn't my place anymore, and I won't be workin' for ya, Red."

"You don't really have a choice," she hissed at him, her voice losing the pirate lilt now that she was irritated. "Unless you want to swim back to shore, which will take you at least a day," she pointed out, tilting her head slightly as her blue eyes flashed angrily. "The sharks aren't as nice as I am."

Momentarily shutting him up with her flash of anger, she released his shirt and shoved him away from her. It felt good to strike back at him even if it was such a small thing. She still didn't back down from him, however, and instead, she continued looking up at him with her darkened eyes. "Since we're already out to sea, and you have no options other than becoming shark food - and I'm sure there are several of the crew who would enjoy helping you jump overboard if that was what you chose - then I suggest you suck it up and do the job for a few days until we get back to Sunken Reef."

"Technically..." she trailed off, her eyelids lowering as she took one step closer to him. "... you do have a choice. The challenge: playing the role of first mate until we get back to the island, and then I'll let you go. you can do whatever you want, fuck whoever you want, live your life however.. you... want," she accentuated each word, leaning closer to him. She could smell the saltwater on him, intermingled with the leathery pirate smell she unintentionally liked so much. "Or there's the ultimatum: you walk your ass to the end of the gangplank and hash it out with the fish."

Holding her arms out to her sides, she pursed her lips and raised one eyebrow. "Your choice... ultimatum or challenge?" a dark smirk slowly curved over her lips as she watched him. "I always prefer a challenge, personally."


End file.
