That night, Henry woke me up, dragged me above decks, and forced me to train with the captain. At first, I trained with Tanner, who was an actually an archer and had been long before becoming a pirate, I found out. But then I switched to training with the captain when I became more advanced. Cedrick usually left everyone alone and was alone for most of the day, but no one bothered with him. A week passed as everyone eventually got into a routine: Working during the day, sleeping for me, then the captain, me and one other sailor always stayed awake to work the nightshift and train. Every day I felt more and more attracted to the captain, beside one thought in my head that always rang out: She’s a pirate. On the seventh night, the training became harder for me.

Serah, pulled back slightly, “Okay. Hold with one hand this time, use the other hand to balance yourself out.” She held her sword in her left hand and stretched out her right to show me. I nodded and copied her movements.

“Fight only with one hand. Use short wrist movements, and don’t move the rest of your body so much. This will conserve energy.”

In the darkness, I could only see her from the light of the moon. Her blonde hair was tied back and her eyes sparkled with something that surprised me. Mischief? This made me wonder what she was planning. Her eyes didn’t look so turquoise in the strange light anymore. Instead, they looked deep, navy blue. I sighed inwardly. My mother would’ve loved to meet her.

“Ready?” The captain asked.

I nodded as I readied my sword, spreading my feet apart in balance and wiping sweat from my forehead. She lunged at me. I quickly managed to block her strike and used the block to push her farther away. She twirled, which surprised me, then kicked her foot out mid-twirl and knocked one of my legs out from under me. I stumbled backwards, trying to find my balance, when she struck again. This time her sword came flying towards my face. I flinched, but at the last second, she turned the blade and smacked my face with the flat side. I recoiled from the hit, scowling at her. She laughed and I blinked. I hadn’t heard her laugh yet. It was a rare laugh, one of those kinds that you only get when you’re really enjoying life, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Attack more.” She said, her laughter fading, but she was still grinning, “Stop using defense. Defense is only if you don’t have any more energy.”

“I don’t.” I protested, “We’ve been going for, what? Three hours?”

“It’s only been one hour.” She said simply,”You need to be able to hold out. Our fights with Uthera last very long.”

I sighed as I balanced out again, readying my sword. This time, Serah stood back, in a defense motion. Holding her sword with one hand, and stretching out her right hand, I saw my chance. Would this be it? What if she really hurt me…Or what if I really hurt her? She was looking too good in the moonlight for me to resist.

I lunged at her, diving towards her left shoulder. She instantly blocked the blow faster than I could’ve thought. I lunged again, stretching my right sword and towards her left shoulder to distract her and using my left hand, I grabbed her right. Then, faster than even I knew I could move, I twirled her in a circle and, still holding her hand, I pinned her empty hand against her own waist and pulled her back against my chest. She jerked her head sideways, frowning at me slightly, but I didn’t care. I pushed the sharp side of my sword against her throat, making her freeze.

Then I kissed her.

I guess she was very surprised from the way she reacted. First, her sword clattered from her hand, then her entire body went limp against me. For a moment, I was so surprised myself, I forgot I still had my sword at her throat. I quickly dropped it and moved my hand to caress her cheek. My thumb brushed over the scar on her cheek. She didn’t pull away.

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She put her hand against my chest and pushed me away slightly, our lips parting, “I don’t like royal boys.” She breathed, our lips still brushing.

“I don’t like pirates.” I replied. But neither one of us was convinced by our own words.

Her hand slipped from my chest down my arm, and before I knew what was happening, the kiss ended, she whipped around and placed the sharp tip of my own sword against my neck. “Gotcha.” She smirked.

Then her foot kicked out agin and she whipped both my feet from under me. I grunted as my back slammed onto deck.

I began to raise myself up, but Serah stopped me. She placed one knee on my chest and pushed me down again. Then, using both hands, she grabbed my face and kissed me again. When she pulled away, she was studying me, as if trying to decide whether I was worth it or not.

“You’re cute when you’re bewildered.” She said simply. Then she got up, walked across deck, and vanished down the staircase to belowdecks.

I lay there in shock for a moment. Thoughts raced through my mind until the world was spinning. I just kissed a pirate. I thought first. Then I thought, I just kissed a pirate captain. My dad’s gonna blow a fuse. Then I thought, I just kissed Serafina, the baddest pirate captain to sail the Seven Seas. And I’m okay with that.

I pulled myself to my feet, picking up my sword and sheathing it. Then I glanced around the deck. It was completely empty, except the helm, where, to my horror, stood Colten grinning down at me. I groaned as I made my way up to him.

He clapped my back, “Amazing!” He cried, “You’re amazing! I thought, hey, this is gonna be a boring sword fight like last night, and half of the time I wasn’t even looking. But the moment I looked, you! You…You boy genius, kissed my freakin pirate captain. I’m so proud of you.” He pat my arm fondly.

“It was nothing…” I started, but he cut me off.

“Nothing!? You call that nothing!? She even came in for a second kiss when she floored you! That, my friend, is something. And it’s something great. You’ve got her twirled around your little finger, literally, and you don’t even realize it.”

“I doubt it.” I replied coldly, “it’s just a kiss.”

“JUST A KISS??” He demanded, “Perryn, any boy who even attempts to touch my captain ends up losing a limp. You’re so emotionally nearsighted, it’s scary.”

“Yeah, in the middle of it I remembered something.” I snapped. He went silent, surprised at my sudden attitude change.

“What?” He asked quietly.

“I’m a prince and she’s a pirate. And sure, I’d love it if the entire crew could come live in the castle with us, but my father would explode and then kill you all.”

Colten was silent for a moment, “But hey, we saved his son’s life and your friends. Wouldn’t he appreciate that?”

“Sure, he would.” I replied, “But even then he won’t let you come live with us. It gives the royal family a bad rep.”

“Whatever happened to true love?” Colten asked, sighing, “I remember back in the day when a guy would kill to be with his love.”

“You think I should kill my father?” I asked.

“No. But talking from experience here, Serah wants a guy who’s gonna fight for her. Who’ll do anything just to call her his own. Not a guy who’s going to leave her, even though he loves her, just because it might give him a bad reputation. Serah’s a good leader. She might be able to do wonders to help your kingdom.”

“She’ll never come to live in my kingdom Colt. You can’t just take a pirate and put her into the royal courts and expect her to become a perfect princess.” I scowled.

“No one can be perfect.” Colten said slowly, “Serah isn’t the perfect captain. She has her flaws. Yes, she hides them very, very well. But she still has them. Sometimes she’s too cold and ruthless. You just need to help her the way Lydia helps her. Lydia will let her know if she’s doing something wrong, and she listens. Lydia’s not afraid of Serah’s quick temper like the rest of us, you shouldn’t be either. If you want to be her lover, you have to act like it. Don’t take complete control, but don’t let her take control either. Serah wants a guy who’s going to take the leadership role. She wants to sit back and let someone else take control for a while. It’s hard to be the captain of a seventy-manned ship. It might take her a while to get used to it, but she’ll appreciate it.”

I stared at him, “it was one kiss and you’re already telling me how to be the perfect prince.”

“One kiss is all that it takes.” Colt said, grinning, “What do you expect? Something more?”

“Well, no.” I said slowly, “But I’m still not certain.”

“Then why did you kiss her?” He asked.

“What?”

“Why did you kiss her if you weren’t certain? You knew there were three ways it could have gone: She’d either kiss you back and love you forever, she could slap you across the face but still feel complimented, or she could impale you with her sword and demand what the heck you were doing.” Colt explained.

“Yeah, that’s kinda how my thought process went.” I admitted.

Colt grinned at me, “Get some sleep. Tomorrow we should get to the Forgotten Isle.”