<div align="center"><strong>-=’Small Fry’ – cargo hold – the Gamble=-</strong></div><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l533/KeikoShinju/Cherish%20and%20her%20big%20Gamble/Blued-Eyed-Drew---Red-Top.png)</div><br/>Watching the captain stand there, she had no idea what he was waiting for, his manner terse but his body looking relaxed. She recalled the first time she’d seen that happen, only days ago –<em>{fade to flashback}</em><br/><br/>After shoving her inside the stateroom where the exposed unconscious sexual predator lay, he followed in after her, jabbing the end of the pistol between her shoulder blades. "Don't tell presume to me what I want. I don't know who the hell you are or how you got on my boat... or how long you've BEEN on my boat, so you'd better start talking." He paused when she mentioned the knife, recapping the scene that played out with Mae and her attacker. His lip snarled and he shoved past the sheet-wearing strawberry blonde, kicking the unconscious man in the ribs with enough force, he actually felt a rib crack against his bare heel.<br/><br/>“I’m not with them,” she started nervously. “I’ve no idea what their plans were or why they tried to sucker you and your crew. You can ask them to describe their people – I won’t be among them,” she assured him. “I… I just needed place to rest… to hide. Your ship was better suited…” Hm, maybe the captain didn’t really want to hear why she’d chosen the Gamble for her napping place.<br/><br/>He turned to face her again, his scowl deep and telling of his demeanor. He let the gun drop to his side as he stood over the man. Pointing the gun at the man casually, he asked the girl, "You did this?"<br/><br/>Blinking up at the change of his demeanor, she’d let her arms relax the slightest amount, her elbows bending, hands still together. “I reckon I did… with the help of your extinguisher there,” as she tossed her head toward the metal cylinder on the floor near the wall. He’d backed up, lowering to sit on the bed, draping his hand over his knee as the towel fell away from one leg, exposing his thigh. The gun hung over his leg, gripped loosely in his fist.<br/><br/>"Put your hands down and have a seat," he said, nodding to the chair near her. He let his gaze travel down her body before looking back up to her eyes. "Who are you?"<br/><br/>Almost shaking from the release of her tension, her arms lowered slowly, watching him for any sign that she would need to raise them again. She breathed more deeply, her body turning nervous with the change of scenario… suddenly she didn’t seem as in charge anymore. When was she ever? Hoping she didn’t look loopy, she shook her head as she sat, trying to figure out the most painless explanation. “I’m just<em>wu ming shao zu</em>that got caught up in a real damn mess, sir.” Looking more like an orphan expecting to be in trouble with her schoolmaster than a goddess, she tucked her borrowed boots up on the edge of the chair near her hips, her arms loose over her knees, wrists crossed.<br/><br/>Giving a tiny laugh, she glanced to him under her fall of red-tinted blond locks. “You know,<span class="bbc_u">you</span>fooled me first. That doesn’t mean you deserve what<span class="bbc_u">I</span>did but… I hadn’t meant to… well… that’s a lie.” Shaking her head again, she sighed and truly looked at him for a long and deep spell. “Your announced destination was Bernadette… way back on Persephone? And I believed you. I was gonna get off there. Swear,” she punctuated with a hand held solemnly up in the air.<br/><br/>Thus began the fragile back and forth of their discussions over the delivery of her meals.<em>{return to present}</em>And now, she stood four meters back, assessing the tilt of his head as he looked up to the catwalk. The captain might have been waiting for something, but she wasn’t certain what it was, his tread toward the chained together<em>Shāyú</em>crewmembers making her cease in playing with her lightweight skirt (http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=46704418). He grabbed their chain and used his other hand to flip open thin-edged shades, lifting them to his caramel eyes. When he addressed her by the name 'Small Fry' and expected her to accompany him, she felt a thrill inside and wound her scarf up over her hair, making a shield for her delicate skin. Keeping up with him was easy only because he was half dragging his prisoners into the harsh sunlight.<br/>