Captain's Rivalry (Keaka)

((Forgive my repetition. Trying to establish something.))

Din's Avenger, the large black beauty she was, was peacefully docked alongside the peaceful shores of the Great Bay. The quaint, peaceful huts were quite peaceful this evening, seemingly tormented by nothing. The sound of the waves lapping in and out was also peaceful. Over all, it was as if the shore itself was the image of peacefulness.

Suddenly a scream sounded, instantaneously severing all the peaceful threads that once existed. "Get your hands off of me, you prick!" A woman shouted, a loud, cringe-worthing slap echoing. A brief murmur of unrest passed by within a minute or two before the air returned to its tranquil calm.

Zak had to have a brief talk with his beloved crew member, Petri, before he beat the shit out of him for tormenting women. Harassing the opposite sex was definitely his job, not Petri's. Leaving his friend laying bloodied in the sand, Zak returned to his seat in the Zora's Bar. Flipping his shaggy black hair, he scratched his tanned, bare back before taking a hefty swig of rum.

"It's a pirate's life for me." Zak was wearing his normal attire; short, low-rise pants, no shirt, and his skull medallion. Red beads circled his neck. His slightly freckled face was adorable as usual. It was all in the look of a Captain that his hat sat beside him, though he only wore it occasionally and as a formality.

"Alright you scums! Good job on that last raid. As a reward, tonight we're staying at that bar right over there!" Kat announced from her spot in front of her crew, one hand placed on her hip, one hand pointing to a Zora bar. A groan sounded from the crew as a whole.

"You mean a reward for you." Lenny spoke up from the back of the group. "We're the ones who hav' ta deal with yer drunkard arse later when yer too wasted to stand up." Leny, by far, was the idiot of the crew. Kat sent a glare that could have killed toward the man.

"Excuse me? I don't think I heard you." Her eyebrow twitched and the crew took an instinctive step back.

"He didn't mean it, Kat." Timbek laughed, nervously. "You know what a blote he can be sometimes. Let's just go to the bar now, 'aight?" Kat reluctantly took a deep in to calm herself before raising her chin and, sticking out her chest, and walking off the boat.

"Well, don't just stand there ya mongrels! I'm ready for a long night o' beer!" Her ferret perched on her shoulders, she strut her way into the bar, not caring if her crew followed her or not. She sat herself at a table, got herself a beer, and started chugging. "Ah. Nothin' like a night of relaxing after a long day."

It would have been a lie to say that Zak did not notice the newcomer. She was fairly attractive, clearly a person like himself. He'd never met a lady pirate. Didn't think women were quite competent enough to lead a herd of men. This one must have been different. A daring look in his eye, the man stood and approached the female with the ferret. He sat next to her, spun around on the bar stool, and flashed her a charming grin.

"Not often we get to see such a nice pair of melons in these parts." Zak laughed at his own joke, pleased to be how he was. Might as well bring attention to her breasts, as they were obviously meant to be noticed. He was deserving of a smack and prepared himself for what he felt was inevitable. He couldn't control his urges when he was sober, let alone when he was tipsy. "You're a lovely lass."

Kat looked over at the man, an unamused look in her eyes. No way was she drunk enough to do this, she didn't care how cute this boy was. She ordered over five more beers before chugging two on the stop. "Look kid, you're adorable, but flattery will get ya no where with these melons." She crossed her arms in front of her, pushing said melons together, giving the man a better view. Kat gave a cheeky grin before continuing. "Aren't ya a little young to be in a bar like this? Out past your curfew?" She loved teasing men. Of course she knew this man was a lot older than what she was giving him credit for, but it was simply too much fun to pass up on a night like this one.

Grabbing another beer, she started drinking again, but a little bit slower this time. She slid one over to the man next to her, figuring she might as well. It wasn't like she was going to pay for any of it. "So, kid, what's yer name?"

Zak, still grinning, shook his head while he laughed. He liked her already, he did. "Aye, nice ones they are. Tis a pity I can't have my way with them. Though I've no doubt they'd like my company."

This woman wasn't afraid to be who she was, or was she? Whether or not she was putting on a facade, he didn't care. He liked it. Perhaps he could score, but it wasn't like he actually wanted to. One like this could have some kind of disease. He'd best calm his hormones and continue friendly conversation. Looking to the beer, he laughed again. It wasn't often that a lady gave him a drink. "Believe me, I'm plenty old enough. Old enough to give consent as well." With that he smiled again, even bigger this time. They may as well just call him smiley.

"The names Zakari Skinner. Captain Zakari Skinner, if we're to get into formalities. And yours?"

"Oooo a captain eh? Imagine that. I'm Captain Kathrine Rose at yer service." She thrust her hand out to him abruptly, waiting for him to clasp it. It was right about then that her crew came stumbling towards her.

"There you are, Kat! We've been lookin' all over for ya!" Lenny exclaimed drunkidly. The other crew members nodded and voiced their agreement. Lenny took one look over to Zak and twirked an eyebrow (best that he could while drunk, anyway). "Wose dis bloke? Kit-Kat, you know what yer dad would say if 'e saw ya with a thing like him!" In one fluent motion, the entire crew stepped away from Lenny, leaving him in the wide open. "'Ey, what was that for?" He accused his crew mates, not even notising the fuming captain right behind him.

"Lenny..." Kat growled lowly (and extremely threateningly) towards the poor, poor soul. Nervously, Lenny turned to his captain, trembling.

"A-aye, C-captain...?"

With one more giant chug of her beer, no more words were spoken from Lenny as Kat slammed her mug down, tackled him to the ground and began beating the living tar out of him, screaming all the while, something along the lines of:

"WHAT DID I TELL YA ABOUT CALLIN' ME THAT WRETCHED, CURSED NAME, YOU WORTHLESS SCUM-BAG OF A POOP DECK?! I'VE TOLD YA A THOUSAND TIMES NOT TA EVER SPEAK THAT BLASTED NAME, ESPECIALLY NOT IN PUBLIC. ARE YA LISTENIN' YA ARSE OF A MERMAID?!?! GO DROWNED YERSELF IN A PUDDLE, YA BLUBBERING SLUG FISH!!"

The rant continued as the entire crew sighed, just watching. They knew better by now than to interrupt their captain in one of her fits. Timbek sat into the seat next to Zak and drank out of his beer. "You'll have ta fergive our captain, sir. She gets this way sometimes. Ya'd think Lenny would learn better by now, but he ain't that smart, ya see."

It was a few more minutes before Kat finally got off poor, beaten Lenny and calmly walked back to her seat, chugging another beer as soon as she sat down, deathly silent.

Not one to avoid a fight, Zak sat there, cheering the lady captain on. "That's it! Hit him in the face! Oh, come now! You can do better than that! He called you a nancy's name! HIT 'EM HARDER! C'mon!" All the while the pirate was laughing his own arse off, marveling in the spectacle. He was glad none of his men had the nerve to call him such silly names. His crew members were all over eating, as they tended to leave him alone when he was talking to a woman. It was customary, after all. All of them knew how he tended to get when in the presence of breasts.

Just the words that came out of the woman's mouth caused the majority of his crew members to turn around and stare at the female, eyes wide. Within a few seconds, upon noticing their own captain's cheering, they interrupted with cheers of their own, laughing merrily all the while. Another round of drinks were served, all of the men planning to get drunker than skunks.

Looking to one of Kat's crew members, Zak smiled and shook his head, chuckling in an amused fashion. "No worries there. You might say I'm not too unlike her." He wasn't. Once he went off, there was no turning back. He fell into the same kind of rage-driven shit-fits, though his tended to result in deaths of innocent people. Once the raven haired woman had resumed her seat, Zak turned to her, smile still firmly on his face.

"Please. You could have done better. What was that he called you, again, Melons?" The man had never ben one for formalities, and, being himself, he wanted to see if he was able to set her off like the other man had. Surely he could result to calling her Kit-Kat, but it did not seem like that would be a good idea.

Her crew, noticing her eye was starting to twitch again, decided that they should leave. "E-ey, captain... W-we'll be headin' back to the ship now, if ya'll be needin' us... Gotta go... Take care o' Lenny here..." And with that, the crew got the hell out of that place, before Hell itself actually broke lose.

Even Kat's ferret noticed she was about to lose her temper again and scurried onto a random stranger's shoulder, deciding to stay away from this one. Kat took a few more drinks before facing him, her face eerily calm. "I would prefer to be called by my name. I don't much care for nicknames. They don't settle too well with me."

It was amusing how all of Kat's crew ran away, seemingly scared shitless. Zak mused at the sight, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. Could she really be that potent? Perhaps he had misjudged her. Whatever the case, he wasn't going to not chase after her. She was one of a kind and he wanted to capture her attention.

How he would do that, he himself wasn't sure.

"That's perfectly fine. Does that include melons? Or is melons okay? Because I would love to continue calling you melons. It suits." Zak shrugged, face still smiling. He would learn that nickname she despised and use it to his advantage, whenever possible. He liked being a nuisance, especially when it made him feel like he could weasel his way into someone's heart.

"Yes, that includes the term 'melons.' You will receive no special treatment from me, and if you thought you would, then you would be dead wrong. I ain't no lass to be swayed by cutsie nicknames or flattery or anything of the sort." Kat humfhed and crossed her arms. Men could be such difficult creatures at times. Sure, her attire practically screamed 'come talk to me,' but that did't mean he was any different from the rest of the scum-bags out there.

Kat eyed him over once more before taking another swig of beer. He wasn't bad looking, but too bad she didn't give brownie points for hotness.

"So, bucky, what's your goal here? To lure me in for a one night stand? 'Cause that ain't happinin' if that's the case."

One of 'those' moods was beginning to settle in over Zak. Though it was likely not evident to Kat, his crew members started to shift uncomfortably. One of them even came up to him, tapped his shoulder, and suggested they leave. The dark-haired man politely shook his head and looked back to the drink in front of him, eyes dark as the night outside. He sighed into his glass, briefly ignoring Kat.

"If you think I'd settle for just any woman, you're wrong." The tone in his voice wasn't nearly as light as it was before, it was dark, saturated with feeling that couldn't be described. He began to drown himself in his drink, trying to hide from the world around him. It wasn't too often that he fell into those moods, but today seemed to be an exception.

"Oh, it that right. I'm sorry, your comment about my 'melons' seemed to throw me off." She rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure how she felt about this whole conversation. This man was weird, that was for sure. She noticed his little mood swing and decided to play it nice for a bit. She ordered several more drinks (she was out again), and gave one to the man. It wasn't every day that she gave away free drinks. But she was beginning to get curious about this one.

"So, where are you from, Mr. Captain?"

With a multitude of his men exiting the premises, Zak sighed and looked into the warm brown liquid that was housed in the glass. It sure was nice to drown himself out. How did he let himself get this way, anyways? Since when was he a greedy, money-grubbing, womanizing butthole? It wasn't every day he sat and contemplated this, but he was definitely not a very fun drunk. He snatched the drink Kat offered and downed it in one swig, wiping his mouth afterward. It was a classic dwarves idea, after all.

"I was born in Holodrum, residing now in Termina and staying anywhere else they'll let me. Not too many people take kindly to pirates, after all. Makes me wish it wouldn't have come to this." He was being emotional and slightly melodramatic, but it could totally be blamed on the alcohol (or so he hoped).

Kat rolled her eyes. "What do you mean by 'come to this'?" Everyone always has a choice. Choose to start a new life. I did. Best choice I've ever made." She scratched out a bit. She was beginning to get bored with this bar. Too much talking, not enough fighting. She stood up, only staggering slightly and looked towards the door. "I'm... Going to get some fresh air." She mumbled, suddenly not feeling too well. Cursed alcohol. She made her way to the door and went to the nearby back ally. She leaned against the cool brick wall for a minute before proceeding to puke her guts up.

She knew she shouldn't have drank so much so fast. But it was strange.... She didn't usually throw up so soon. She didn't linger on the thought as another wave of nausea rolled over her. It was going to be a long night...

"I've already started a new life once..." A life full of treachery, not the life of an honest man. It saddened him how he, once a marvelous prospect, had turned so quickly into a tyrant pirate lord who pillaged occasionally. Downing the rest of his drink, Skinner paid no mind to the evacuating female captain. He wasn't in the mood for conversation. He wanted to get to bed and mope about in his personally manufactured depression. Eyes staring at the wood floor, he shoved the door open and left, just in time to hear Kat vomiting in the alley. Out of curiosity, he peeked down there, and while she was hunched over, a dark figure was approaching, the silhouette of a knife in his hand.

It wasn't often these days when Zak did something else. When he was younger he did things for others very frequently, never forgetting to lend a helping hand, never asking for a contribution. A cleaning wave shot over the man who reacted very quickly, hoping to save Kat from the rape that could very well have been in her near future.

"Oi! Watch out, Katarina!" The dwarf boomed as he barreled down the alleyway at full speed, crashing into the dark figure. He was dwarfed (pun intended) compared to the large creature, but he had the upper hand. After delivering a swift punch to the jaw, Zak was thrown from the man and into the wall. Before he knew it, he felt something plunge into his shouder. Must have been a blade, and it hurt like hell. Before he could control it, a burst of flame came from Zak's hand and engulfed the stranger, who screamed in agony. Zak could feel himself growing weaker, blood leaving his body.

((During writing this, the song "All I Want" was playing; then, when I wrote the last bit, "A Thousand Years" came on. Meant to be? lollll))