Yoongi eyed me with irritation as I jumped up and down in excitement. I could feel my face splitting into two with how big my smile was. Hoseok would occasionally stop loading the Sand Glider to laugh at me and ruffle my hair. Usually I would get mad when he would do that but today nothing could bring me down.

Ever since it was decided I would go with both Jin and Yoongi to the Land of Water; I’ve been full of energy. And to make things better; the guy Jin wants to introduce me to lives in the Land of Moon, so we get to visit there first.

In the days prior, I put all the energy I had to good use and helped Hoseok clear the area he sectioned off for his house and showed him my invention for getting rid of all the cacti. But today; my energy was solely focused on running back and forth from the house to the Sand Glider and loading it as fast as possible. Yoongi kept telling me to calm down; that the ship won’t leave without us but he didn’t realize the sooner we left the better.

Namjoon kept giving me worried looks as I ran around with bags and crates in my arms; I ignored him when he tried to talk to me about being safe and to be on my best behavior for Jin. He still treats me like a child sometimes; luckily, Jin does not. However, Jin instead chides me all the time and tells me to act more like a grown-up. When I ask what he means; he tells me I need to have more poise and dress better and start being more sophisticated. I told him that it sounded boring; and he told me it only sounded boring because I didn’t know the reaction I would get from men if I acted that way. I guess he would know; he always has men drooling over him.

I place the last crate in the Glider and hop on and lift up the break.

“Woah woah woah, slow down there Pumpkin; don’t take off without the rest of us.” Yoongi gives me a grumpy look and grumbles to himself as he climbs in. He plops himself down and his shirt opens up a bit to reveal a pale chest and a ruby hanging from a silver chain.

I can’t help myself but stare at the very large jewel; much larger than any gem I have seen before. It must have been worth…it must be the most expensive thing in the world. Yoongi notices my stare and adjusts his shirt so the necklace is no longer in my sight.

“It looks good on you.”

Yoongi raises an eyebrow and looks up at me from under his silver bangs. He is so y when he looks at me this way, with amusement and interest in his eyes.

“What looks good on me?”

I my lips and I could feel my body heat up with desire; apparently my hormonal stage still wasn’t over yet. Jin told me it would end soon; but it always seemed to get worse when Yoongi was around.

“The color red…it looks good on you.”

Yoongi smirks and gives me a knowing look with his dark eyes, “Red is a very heated and passionate color, don’t you think?”

My tongue fails me then and I’m left with nothing to say in return. Instead, I turn away and try to change the subject, “What is taking them so long?”

I look over and spot Hoseok walking away from Jin and Namjoon with an uncomfortable and disgusted look on his face. I don’t blame him seeing that Jin’s and Namjoon’s lips were pressed together and they sure were taking their time saying goodbye.

Hoseok comes up to me and smiles, “It’s almost time for you to go.”

“Yes!” I laugh in happiness and he laughs with me.

“I’m going to miss you when you go.”

My eyes widen in surprise, “Really?”

Hoseok chuckles lightly, “Yea, I’m gonna miss all that energy you have. Because of you I already can start physically building my house. Actually, I’m hoping I can get it done by the time you get back.”

I laugh, “What? Are you trying to get out of my house as soon as possible?”

Hoseok shakes his head and looks at me and suddenly the emotion in his gaze changed; it was an emotion I recognized. His eyes flick down to my lips, “Actually, I’m just trying to get you into my house as soon as possible.”

I felt my smile falter at the realization that…Hoseok was flirting with me. Before I can even think to respond; a very loud grunt had both of us turning our gazes to Yoongi. He roughly cleared his throat and didn’t try to hide his annoyed and disapproving gaze from Hoseok. Hoseok’s ears and cheeks gain a light red tinge and he lets out an awkward laugh.

Jin and Namjoon come up then and I’m thankful for it since I still didn’t know what I was suppose to say to Hoseok. Namjoon offers his hand to Jin and he uses the extra support to climb into the Sand Glider gracefully.

Namjoon then turns to me and quickly pulls me down into a hug. I return it by wrapping my arms tightly around him as he ruffles up my hair with one of his hands and turns his head to place a kiss on my cheek.

We pull away and I give him a smile, “I’ll be back soon.”

Namjoon nods, “Be good.”

Jin sits down and I move over to the driving position. I saw Jin was wrapped up in a dark cloak; it was Namjoon’s cloak. It was dirty and frayed in some places and not at all something that Jin would ever wear; and yet he seemed very content with it wrapped around him.

I lift up the break of the Glider and open the sail; we wave goodbye to Namjoon and Hoseok as I navigate us out of the town boundaries and then I allow the Glider to travel at full speed. I smiled as the wind struck my face and the sun beat down on my skin. I would be escaping from all of this soon; no more sand; no more boredom; no more suffering.

It didn’t take us long before we spotted the large ship in the distance; it had black sails instead of white and loomed like a deadly skeleton out of the water. Jin did warn me we would be traveling with rough company; but he didn’t specify that we would be traveling with pirates.

I use the brake to slow us down and pull us up close to the ship. I feel my jaw drop as I gaze up at the massive, black beast; it was probably the largest ship I have ever seen.

Yoongi gets up and moves in front of me; he raises a hand and gently pushes my jaw up to close my mouth, “You’ll catch flies doing that.” I let out a puff of air that sounded somewhat like a laugh, “Y’know this is your last chance to turn back and go home. Once you get on that ship you’re stuck with us for the whole ride.”

I frown, “I’m not turning back.”

Yoongi tilts his head and pierces my eyes with his, “Oh? Even though you’re scared?”

I purse my lips into a pout, “I’m not scared.”

Yoongi gives me a look full of doubt and smirks. He steps to the side of me and points up to deck of the ship where thousands of pirates stood grinning down at us, “You’re really gonna try to tell me that those men up there don’t scare you?”

I flinched at his words and shrunk under all of their gazes. He was right; they were pretty scary. Most of them look like bones and skin; skin that was scarred and tan like leather. If they smiled; half of their teeth were missing and I would quickly find out later that their breath smelled like vomit. To make matters worse; they were violent and greedy and had all sort of weapons strapped to their bodies. I had nothing…I had no one except Jin and Yoongi.

“Don’t worry Pumpkin, none of them would be stupid enough to lay a hand on you.” Yoongi pats my shoulder reassuringly and hops off the Glider and starts unloading it. I start to help him and Jin while the pirates behind us lower a walkway down for us. Hesitantly; I follow Yoongi and Jin up that walkway with a small crate in my arms; and the farther we climbed the more nervous and anxious I became. They were all watching us; grinning at us; speaking words I didn’t know the meaning of and hissing tongues at each other. As we reach the top a loud bang of a door slamming shut causes everyone to go silent. At first all I hear are heavy footfalls and the small jingles of bells; then I see him; the captain of the ship.

I shrunk myself down; appearing much smaller than I already am; and try to hide myself behind Yoongi. The captain was giant; probably around 6’7 feet tall and was made out of raw muscle. The crew shrunk away from the monstrous man and parted like the red sea for him. He had long, black hair that was slicked back from his face but hung wildly down his back. Attached to the end of those dark stands were silver bells that chimed as he moved. His face was long and thin with a scar running down the left side of it; and his eyes glowed a frightening green. His face split into a smile when he saw Jin; and his canines were sharp like a tiger’s.

He was flanked by two other men; the one on his right was bald and shirtless and his entire torso and arms were layered in hard muscle. He came up to around the captain’s shoulder and he had a serious look on his face. The man on his left was beautiful; so beautiful I would have easily mistaken him for a female if it wasn’t for his lack of s and noticeable adams apple. His hair was jet black and had red feathers peeking out of it. It was cut to chin length except for the one long braid in it. His features were soft and beautiful; perfect nose; perfect lips; and long lashes that covered violet eyes. He didn’t look to be a pirate; and yet he had a sword strapped to his hip.

The captain and the two men flanking his sides come and stand right in front of us. The captain looks down at Jin with that frightening smiles and lets out a barking laughter. It was loud and rumbled like thunder and it made me whimper in fear.

“Jin! It’s been a long time since I’ seen you.” His accent was foreign and his voice was rough like gravel but I could still understand him. “Ya said ya heading to Moon, yea? Then ya gonna go to that freezing place in the North?”

Jin chuckles and doesn’t seem the least bit frightened by this man, “I prefer it if you didn’t call my home a freezing place Captain Zaraki but yes, that is the plan.”

Captain Zaraki lets out a growl of approval, “In that case, why the are all of y’all standing around with thumbs in ya asses?” He turns around on his crewmen who jump back in fear. “Ya see they got to board! Go and ing get it!”

The whole crew choruses a “Yes sir!” before men start to run past us to grab the rest of our stuff off the Glider.

Captain Zaraki turns back to us and focuses his gaze down on Yoongi and I, “Who are these little ones?” He leans down and squints at Yoongi and suddenly that ferocious smile is back on his face, “HA! I remember ya! What’s ya name again? Agusto? Agust…?”

Yoongi lets out a snort, “Agust D. But you can call me Yoongi sir.”

Captain Zaraki’s chest grumbles, “Sir? Why ya being so polite eh? I thought you and I were pals at some point?”

Yoongi laughs, “Yea we were; until you threatened to kick my overboard into the water.”

The captain’s eyebrows furrow and he scratches his head in thought, “, I don’t remember none o’ that. When da did that happen? Was I drunk?”

Yoongi smiles, “Hell yea, you were. So was I though. I can’t even remember what the happened either honestly.”

Captain Zaraki grumbles in thought for a second longer before smiling once more; “Well if you and I can’t remember then who da cares?” He bursts into laughter and Yoongi does as well. Yoongi’s laugh sounds like a soft purr in comparison to the giant in front of him.

Captain Zaraki then stops and leans over a bit farther and I can see his luminescent green eyes focus on me, “What’s dis little one doing back here?” I try to flatten myself against Yoongi’s back but he turns and wrenches me out of my hiding spot and forces me to stand in front of him. I look up at the Captain with fear in my eyes and let out a pathetic whimper. The Captain frowns and turns to Jin, “Who is dis?”

Jin smiles, “That would be Namjoon’s son, Captain Zaraki.”

Suddenly, Captain Zaraki’s eyes light up and he smiles, “Ha! I’ve heard about ya! Namjoon use to tell me all about ya when you was small. He use to keep ya a secret; but not from me. He knew I wouldn’t hurt ya. What did he call you again? Hmmmmmm….was it ChimChim?”

Yoongi lets out a loud snort of laughter behind me and I shake my head slowly, “N-no…my name is Jimin.”

Captain Zaraki lets out a low hum in his chest, “Ya sure? I could’ve swear ya name was ChimChim.”

Both Jin and Yoongi try covering their mouths in order to hide their snorts and laughter; but I didn’t see any amusement in it; that’s probably because I was nearly pissing my pants in that moment.

Captain Zaraki raises an eyebrow and looks me up and down, “You don’t look like Namjoon’s kid. You look…” He is silent for a while as he looks at me and everyone seems to await his answer. He grumbles and huffs, “Ya look like a dandelion.”

The two men behind him snort and start cackling out obnoxious laughter, Captain Zaraki grimaces and turns on them, “I didn’t mean it like that ya sick s! I meant he looks like that weed that grows from the ground!” The two behind him continue to giggle and snort and I didn’t understand the humor of it at the time; but later on I would discover that  dandelion was a slang term used by the pirates for a man’s .

The Captain turns back to me and frowns; “Ya look small…and weak. Did Namjoon even teach ya how to fight?”

I shake my head and Jin speaks up next to me, “He didn’t want Jimin learning those sorts of things Captain Zaraki.”

The Captain raises his eyebrows, “Why the not? Ya need to know these things. Ya need to know how to kill a er if he crosses ya.”

The bald man beside him perks up, “Oh come on Captain! Don’t judge by appearances. I mean, take Yumi for example, he doesn’t look like a fighter but he is.”

Captain Zaraki looks at the bald man as if he has grown a second head, “What the are you talkin’ about? Yumi looks terrifying. He looks like the er who would stab ya in the back; and while he’s back there you will probably get a in your too.”

I could tell that ‘Yumi’ was the beautiful man standing next to the Captain. He didn’t look at all scary to me; but if the Captain thought he was frightening then I sure as hell won’t cross him. If you can get Captain Zaraki to admit you’re terrifying; then you really must be a monster.

By then, the crewmen were done grabbing all our stuff and were now hauling it up onto the boat. Jin caught sight of this and bowed to Captain Zaraki, “I hope you can excuse us Captain. We should follow the men to our rooms and allow you all to get ready for the long journey ahead of us.”

The Captain grunts, “Yea, ya right. We need to start ordering them to raise anchor. I expect to see y’all at supper.” He turns and his two men follow him like shadows.

Jin then starts to follow the men carrying our stuff and I follow behind on wobbly legs. Yoongi comes up beside me and gives me an amused look, “You second guessing yourself now? You’ve only just met the Captain and your acting like this.”

I shake my head, “The..the Captain is…” I couldn’t find the exact word to describe Captain Zaraki. The best I could come up with was that he was simply…a beast.

Yoongi nudges me lightly with his shoulder, “Don’t worry about the Captain. He’s actually a decent guy and he wouldn’t hurt you. He does like fighting and killing, but he prefers a challenge; you don’t pose any threat to him so therefore, he won’t care much about you.”

Surprisingly, Yoongi’s words did calm me down, but I still was very much aware of my current situation. I was now stuck on a ship; that would soon be out in the middle of the sea; and I was surrounded by some of the most bloodthirsty men on this Earth. This was a bit more than I asked for when I said I wanted to leave that sandy wasteland behind.

Yoongi and I end up in a small cabin together next to Jin’s slightly larger one. Yoongi waited till all the men left and it was just me and him before turning and giving me a wicked smile. “You really look like you’re about to yourself.”

I huff at him, “Give me a break! I’m adjusting to all of this! It’s all…new…”

Yoongi tilts his head and his silver hair falls lightly into his eyes, “So long as you don’t start any trouble here, then nothing will happen to you. These men here don’t care about much; they just want to , drink, steal, and kill. If you don’t get in their way when they are doing either of those things, then they won’t bother you.”

I nod and listen intently to Yoongi’s advice. He would know better than I about this sort of thing. “Why do you know the pirates so well?”

Yoongi smiles and shrugs, “We’ve done business in the past together. I don’t know a lot of them, no point in knowing most of them since they usually end up dying out here on these rough waters before they even reach the age of twenty-five.”

I frown, “That sounds…terrible. If it’s that bad, why are they out here? Why would they want to join this?”

Yoongi’s eyes darken and he walks up close to me and lays his hands on my shoulders, “They all have their reasons. Some may not even be here by choice. I don’t ask for their back story; and you shouldn’t either. Some of us are dealt a rough hand in life, which means we should make the most out of it.”

Yoongi lets his hands slide off my shoulders and walks past me to the door, “I’m gonna go get us some food before dinner. You just stay here and relax for a while.”

I nod and he leaves me in silence. I make my way over to the single couch in the cabin; it was nailed to the floor so it wouldn’t slide when the ship rocked to and fro. I lie down on it and take a deep breath. I felt…overwhelmed.

I was so excited to leave the sand dunes and cacti behind; but I don’t think I quite knew what I was leaving them for. Truthfully, I wanted to go back home to the Land of Lightning. Even though Namjoon tells me that it’s no longer our home, all my friends and memories are there. And I figured, if I can’t go back home then I should see the rest of the world and hope I can find a place that’s similar to it. But so far…this was nothing like home.

I shook my head and tried to reassure myself that everything is going to be okay. So maybe…the first part of this journey is going to be rough but…I may find something at the end that will make it all worth it. And besides…it’s not like I’m in any real danger. And I shouldn’t be such a hypocrite! I keep saying I want to be independent and strong, and yet I’m hiding all alone in my room; safe and away from any trouble.

I sit up and a sudden determination takes a hold of me. I can’t be who I really want to be unless I change myself! No more hiding behind others, and no more being scared of facing the unknown! I stand up and walk over to the cabin door and fling it open. I step out and shut it behind me and stand in the hallway for a couple seconds; not quite sure what to do with myself. I didn’t know which way to go; and I can’t remember which way I came in from earlier. I decide to take a left and continue to take random turns until I finally hear some voices. They are loud and boisterous and I follow them until I finally spot the room where they were coming from. I stood at the end of the hallway and squinted to try and see what was happening inside. The room was dark and full of smoke. Men were laughing and shouting and I was surprised when I heard a women’s voice shout some obscenities as well. I tip-toe closer and the harsh and terrible smell from whatever they are smoking makes me scrunch my nose up in disgust. I near the entry way and the more I see the more shocked I become. In one corner, it is very apparent one of the men is ing the women who shouted earlier; and she is a very ugly women with blackened teeth and dingy, red hair. Some men in another corner are drinking and shouting at each other as they play some game where they roll dice on the ground. But the main portion of the room is taken up by a table where a handful of men sat and were playing cards. I recognized two of the men, Yumi was one of them and the other was the bald man who stood next to the Captain earlier.

Some part of me kept screaming that I should turn away, that I shouldn’t let them spot me. Another part was somehow entranced though; I was intrigued at how they could fit so much sinful and dirty things into such a small room. They had ing, drinking, drugs, gambling, and even a little bit of fighting all within a single enclosed space.

Yumi’s eyes lift up from his cards and he spots me. I freeze and my initial reaction is to run, but my brain quickly realizes that it would be futile. I’ve already been caught…running would get me nowhere.

Yumi’s eyes become hooded and a corner of his mouth upturns at he watches me. I bite my lip and think that he must have sold his soul to the devil in order to become that beautiful. Gracefully, powerfully he rises from his chair and makes his way around the table towards me. The men at the table all stop and give him curious looks, wondering where he was going but once they saw me they knew.

Yumi steps into the doorway and leans ily against its frame; blocking the room’s view of me and blocking my view of the room. He was lean and around my height, actually he even may be a bit shorter. I look at him with wide, guilty eyes; as if I have done something wrong. He seems to like this, and he smiles.

“Are you lost? The bathroom is that-“

“I’m not lost.” I interrupt him and quickly shut my mouth tight afterwards, internally berating myself for doing such a stupid thing.

Yumi doesn’t seem to mind though and raises a perfectly arched eyebrow, “Oh? Are you saying you intended to end up here?”

I pause and rub my hands together in nervousness, “Well…no not exactly. I was just exploring…”

Yumi’s eyes light up at that, “So you’re a little adventurer, huh? Are you curious?” He says that last work like a hiss while he runs a single finger down my nose. His touch was playful, and yet it sent shivers all the way down to my toes. “Do you want to come play with us?”

“Yumi.” The Bald Man says the name roughly and threatening; giving the beauty in front of me a stern look, “Don’t you be trying to cause any trouble now.”

Yumi flips his hair and faces back to me, “I’m not Ikkaku. I’m just trying to entertain our guest here.” His eyes flash and in some way I knew parts of his words were lies. His hand snakes forward and my face and he runs his fingers through my hair. I’m sure most men’s knees would give out from being touched by him like this; but mine were rigidly locked in place. I couldn’t help but feel that his hand was like a viper; waiting for a moment to strike with its fangs.

I gulp and wet my lips, “I don’t have anything to bid.”

Yumi tilts his head and reaches into his pocket to pull out a single, gold coin. He offers it to me, “I’ll lend it to you. You can pay me back by the end of the game.”

I hesitate and look up into his seducing eyes, “What happens if I lose it?”

He smiles and leans forward, his eyelashes flutter and I lose my breath, “You will still pay me back. You’ll just have to pay me back in other way though, and it has to be something of equal worth.”

He smiles, showing off his immaculate white teeth, and grabs my wrist and places the coin into my hand. I knew at this point there was no turning back, “What game are you playing?”

“Ombre.” He wraps his arm around my shoulder and brings me into the room. Everyone was staring at us, some with curiosity and others with disapproval.

“I hope you don’t mind gentlemen but we will be adding one more player to this game.”

Yumi pulls out a chair and sits me down in it. The man in the corner was still ing that hideous women but luckily my seat didn’t face them so I didn’t have to see it. The bald man, Ikkaku, was sitting on my right side; while a much older man with a pipe in his mouth sat on my left.

The old man grumbles, “Does this kid even know how to play?”

“I do.” The man turns towards me and I bite my lip from saying anything more. I knew how to play Ombre, and I was very good at it as well. It wasn’t played much back at the Land of Lightning or in the Land of Wind; I learned it from Namjoon when I was much younger and taught it to my friends at school.

Yumi’s hips swayed ally back and forth as he made his way back to his seat. He sat down and started to shuffle all the cards. He deals the cards out quickly and the game begins. Ikkaku starts the first bid at five silver coins; I sigh and realize that unfortunately I have to double the bid since I only had the gold coin which is worth ten silver ones.

I place it down and the old man beside me whistles, “That’s a high bet there. Hopefully ya win.” He gave me a crooked grin and I could tell he was underestimating me. The truth is though, luck is on my side and I was dealt a perfect hand.

Yumi and the old man meet my bid and Ikkaku folds his cards; indicating he was out and not willing to put more money in. The three of us left look at each other; it was time to reveal.

Yumi places his down first, “Four cups.”

The old man grins and places his cards down, “Two kings and two queens, guess that means I win.” The old man starts to lean forward to pull the coins to him but my words stop him.

“Actually…” I place my cards down, “I win. Ace of clubs, king of swords, queen of cups, and prince of coins.”

The old man’s jaw drops and his eyes look at me in surprise, “How the hell ya get that hand?”

I smile and pull all the money towards me, “I guess it’s what we call beginners luck.”

Ikkaku bursts into laughter at that and shakes his head, “Damn, the kid actually beat ya.”

The old man grumbles, “ing . I ain’t losing no mo’ money to any of y’all. Ikkaku, hurry up and deal. We ain’t got all day, I need to show this kid how the game works.”

Yumi chuckles at that, “It seems like the kid already knows how this works.”

Ikkaku shakes his head, “Nahh, he just got lucky! We’ll show ‘im. That was an easy round let’s play the complicated version.”

Yumi shrugs, “Fine by me.”

They explain to me the more complicated version of the game and I lose track of time as we continue to play. They were surprised by how good I was at the game; even with the new rules I won enough to keep a nice, healthy pile of coins in front of me.

As the game continued on; I learned more and more about the pirates in front of me. They all had a very crude sense of humor and used a multitude of obscenities and slang terms that I didn’t understand. Every time I asked them what they meant they would laugh and tell me; I could tell they weren’t laughing at me for not knowing; they just thought the nasty words were funny and my disgusted expressions made it all the better for them.

Throughout the game they also told me a variety of tales; some were obviously myths but some were the real deal. They also talked about some of their adventures and I was amazed at all the stuff they had seen within the world. And just by listening to them and watching them; I quickly came to understand their personalities. Yumi and Ikkaku had some sort of relationship; that was obvious by the way they would secretly touch under the table and Yumi would give Ikkaku bedroom eyes. Yumi is vain and fierce; and people don’t mess with him because he holds grudges and finds the most painful way to kill people. Ikkaku is aggressive and overly optimistic; but he also seemed the most understanding and friendly out of everyone there; despite his stern appearance. The old man is grumpy and critical; but he is also the most wise because of how much he has seen.

As time passed on without me knowing it; I learned so much from the three of them. They were the exact type of company I shouldn’t be around; but they made me feel alive.

“Let’s talk about you, kid.” Yumi slides his stunning gaze over to mine, “How old are ya?”

“I’m eighteen.”

Ikkaku slabs me on the back with an open hand, “Yea! That means you’re a man now!”

The old man snorts, “What are ya talking about? A man becomes a man after he’s ed a girl so good she can’t walk no mo’.”

I blush at that and Ikkaku lets out a sly smile, “Heyyy I’m sure the boy has been around the park with a couple of gals and lads. I’m sure ya had them swooning all over ya.”

I smile awkwardly, “Well…um,” Ikkaku raises an eyebrow as I fumble over my words, “you see…I haven’t really done that sort of thing yet…”

They are all silent for a minute before they burst into an obnoxiously loud laughter. Ikkaku’s laughs almost turned shrill by how much he was enjoying himself and the old man nearly fell out of his chair.

Through his laughter Ikkaku spits out some words, “Ya telling me pfffttttt ya ain’t never got ya pecker wet before? Bwuahahahahaah!!!!”

I probably looked like a tomato by how much heat rushed to my face. Yumi snorted and leaned over to Ikkaku, “Y’know what they say! s taste like cherries!”

They cracked up even harder at that and I didn’t really understand the humor in it…to be frank I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to know.

I pouted at all of them, “I doubt I taste like cherries.”

Yumi makes this disgusting noise that sounded similar to ‘pfftshshshsttttt’ before howling up to the sky in another fit of laughter. Ikkaku continued to chuckle and snort and gave me an amused look, “Trust me, once your cherry pops you’ll taste it.” The rest of the men in the room laughed at that.

“What cherry? I don’t even know what you guys are talking about!”

The old man pats me on the back reassuringly, “Don’t worry about it kid. They just teasing ya.”

Ikkaku wipes the tears from his eyes, “I’m surprised though kid. You ain’t ugly or nothing so what’s wrong with ya? Boys your age usually try to get anything they can into bed with them.”

I shrug, “It’s not like I didn’t have offers. It’s just that no one was my type.”

Yumi hums in interest at that, “What’s your type then?”

I look away from them and blush, “You’re going to laugh at me if I tell you.”

The old man snorts, “Probably.” They laugh and I sigh.

Ikkaku shakes his head and holds a hand up, “Okay okay. We all promise not to laugh at you, aight? Everyone in this room now vows we won’t laugh at the boys answer!”

Everyone in the room raises a hand and shouts ‘aye!’

They all turn to me with serious expressions and I rub my hands against my thighs nervously, “Well…I like…bad boys.” The last little bit comes out as a mumble and the room is silent.

I look up from my hands and Ikkaku has his mouth covered and his eyebrows were twitching sporadically and it was obviously painful for him to not laugh. Yumi has his eyes closed and his shoulders were shaking up and down in silent laughter. The old man wasn’t even looking at me.

“Okay! You guys can just laugh at me already!”

At that they all once again fill the room with raucous laughter and slam their hands against the table. I roll my eyes but couldn’t help but laugh a little bit at my answer as well.

Yumi wipes some tears from his eyes and gives me a wicked smile, “Bad boys huh? You don’t seem like you could handle one of those.”

I smile and shrug, “You don’t know that…”

Yumi gives me a wicked look, “Oh? Should we put it to a test then?”

Before I can respond someone shouts my name and the room goes silent. We turn to see Yoongi in the doorway; glowering at all of us although I felt his glare was especially directed at me.

“Jimin, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” His eyes scan the room and his frown deepens, “I doubt Jin would approve of you partaking in such activities…especially unsupervised.”

Without saying it, I knew he was ordering me to get up and leave. I feel my smile fall off my face and my head bows in shame. I get up from my chair but the old man grabs my wrist, “Ain’t ya gonna take your winnings?”

I look at all the money I won through the game and shake my head, “I don’t need it. You guys can take it.”

I turn away, knowing I must look awfully pathetic and weak, following orders and scared of being punished. I got teased a lot about it back at the storehouse, I’m sure it would be even worse here. I push pass Yoongi and let my feet carry me forward; my brain itself was too full of other things to know where I was going.

Yoongi reaches out and grabs me by the arm, “Didn’t I warn you earlier? What were you doing hanging out with all of them? You could have gotten yourself killed.”

I let out a sarcastic laugh, “Oh yea, they’re gonna kill me over a game of cards?”

Yoongi gives me a serious expression and I can see his jaw tighten, “Yes. They will kill you over a game of cards. These guys can change and turn on you in a second. One minute they are your friend, the next they are accusing you of cheating and slicing your neck with a dagger.”

I wrench myself out of his grip and give him a disgusted look, “They aren’t like that! We were having fun and-“

Yoongi cuts me off, “Yea, you were having fun then, but trust me when I say you wouldn’t be having fun for very long if I didn’t get there in time. You have poor judgment in character and I bet you couldn’t even see Yumi planning to pounce on you; even though he was setting it up right in front of your face.”

I shove him and Yoongi’s eyes widen in surprise, “My judgment of others is perfectly fine! In fact, I think I can see you crystal clear now! I don’t think there is a single flaw in my judgment of you!”

Yoongi shoves me up against the wall of the ship and my breath is pushed out of my lungs, “Since when did you decide you were able to pass judgment on me? You don’t know the first thing about me, you child.”

I look up at Yoongi with wide eyes and swallow hard. He was in no way hurting me, but he made it impossible for me to move. The small amount of pressure he applied to keep my body up against the wall was enough to have me locked in fear.

I stared at his harsh face, made up entirely of sharp features. There was evident anger in his eyes, but there was worry in his brow. I could see the small cut on his lip where he bit through it earlier, it probably formed in between the time he left to go get food and when he started to search for me. His grip on me was rough, but he didn’t hurt me. That was the thing that stood out to me the most; if he was really angry at me, he wouldn’t be so gentle.

I straighten my back a little bit and search Yoongi’s gaze, “I may not know much about you, but I know you are only acting like this because you worry for me.” Yoongi pulls back at that and steps away from me. I take a step forward and follow him, “I know you were scared earlier. Scared I may have been hurt or in trouble; you aren’t mad at me you just…” I didn’t finish the sentence but the words hung there. You just don’t know how to express yourself Yoongi.

Yoongi’s mouth tightens and his words sound like he is snarling at me, “If something happened to you, Namjoon would have my head for it. Don’t cause me any more trouble, okay?”

I nod and he turns from me. I follow him obediently and he ends up leading me to a giant dining room that was quickly filling up.

“It’s dinner time. We will be eating at the main table with Captain Zaraki, behave yourself and think before you speak.” He gives me a sharp look and I nod quickly to show I’m listening.

He walks me over to the giant table made of dark wood at the far edge of the room where it overlooked everyone. Captain Zaraki was already sitting there next to Jin; they both seemed to be smiling and having a humorous conversation.

I take my seat next to Jin and Captain Zaraki peers over at me. “What have ya been up to Dandelion?”

I frown, why am I always given such terrible nicknames? I look up at Captain Zaraki and smile hesitantly, “Well…”

Before I can come up with a lie, a familiar voice answers for me, “He was with us Captain.” We all look over and spot Yumi and Ikkaku, who took their own respective seats on the other side of the Captain.

Hearing their words, Jin turns his head slightly and pierces me with a cold eye. I shrink under his disapproving gaze and I hoped they wouldn’t say much more.

Captain Zaraki grunts, “He was with you guys? Doing what?”

Yumi smiles, “He played Ombre with us. I would warn you against gambling with him; he might actually steal a good amount of money from ya.”

Jin then turned fully in his seat to face me and I knew I was ed then. “You were gambling?”

He gives me an incredulous look and I smile sheepishly, “It was just a small…friendly game.”

Jin’s expression shows he doesn’t buy my words, “You were gambling with pirates!? What the hell do you even have to gamble with?”

Yumi spoke up then, “I lent him a coin of mine.”

Suddenly I wish I could disappear because the burning anger in Jin’s eyes was frightening, “You borrowed money…from a pirate? You let a Pirate loan you money?!”

Panicked I flailed my hands around a bit and tried to think of something to calm him down; “I paid him back! I paid him back so it’s no big deal, right?”

Jin jabs his fork at me, “Wrong! It most certainly is a big deal! What if you couldn’t pay him back? Huh?”

I had nothing left to say to that and looked to the others for some form of help. Captain Zaraki comes to my rescue by laughing and patting Jin on the back with his massive hand, “Now now, Jin. Ya have to let the boy up a bit here and there so he can learn from his mistakes. Ya can’t shelter him so much; he needs to see that the world is a rough place.”

Jin purses his lips and turns back to his food, “You have a point Captain however, it’s only natural for a parent to warn their child against making such mistakes.”

In my head I say “You aren’t my parent”, but physically I keep quiet. I fill my plate with the food set out in front of me, and keep to myself for the rest of dinner. If any of them addressed me, I would respond with a quick and simple answer before returning to silently eating my food. I could feel Yumi’s gaze on me from the other side of the table and I wondered what he thought of me. He probably thought I had no spine.

After supper, I followed Yoongi back to our room. Luckily he knew the way, since I had no idea how to navigate myself throughout the ship. When we got there I immediately went to my hammock and flopped myself into it. Yoongi walked over to a small table and lit a candle on top of it. I thought it amusing that he didn’t need matches to do it; he just poked the wick with his finger.

He turns to me and the shadows from the flickering flame dance upon his face, “You should stop pouting. It’s an unflattering look for your face.”

I roll my eyes and turn away from him, “I just hate it.”

I hear him walk closer to me, “Hate what? Hate that we are trying to keep you safe?”

I shake my head, “I hate that I need to be protected.”

I hear him sigh and walk closer. It’s surprising when I feel his warm hand land on my upper arm, “I can understand why you would hate it…but you are just going to have to deal with it for now. It will get better once we hit land.” I don’t respond to that and just lay there quietly. He squeezes my arm, “I’ll make a deal with you. If you want to go hang with the pirates and play cards or whatever, I won’t stop you but either Jin or I have to accompany you when you do it.”

I peek up at him from my hammock, “Do you really have to be there though? You told me earlier, before we got on the ship, that they wouldn’t hurt me.”

Yoongi grimaces, “Yes, most of the men wouldn’t be stupid enough to do it. But Yumi…he doesn’t fall into that group of men.”

I flip over on to my back so I can see his face better, “Yumi doesn’t seem stupid. And are you really sure he was going to do something to me?”

Yoongi’s eyebrows furrow and I could see him contemplating his answer, “Yumi isn’t stupid, actually he is probably the most cunning man on this ship. Which means he should be the number one person to avoid. In most cases…I don’t think Yumi would care enough to hurt a guest on the ship; even though he knows he could get away with it.”

I let out an annoyed sigh, “If that’s the case then why would you think he would hurt me?”

Yoongi’s black eyes pierce mine and I feel my hearth thump painfully in my chest, “Yumi can get jealous very easily. He’s the reason why none of the men or on this ship are even remotely attractive. I think…” He pauses and his eyes search my face; the hand that was once touching my arm was now gently the bangs from my forehead.

I could feel my eyelashes flutter at the touch and embarrassingly I could feel that familiar rush of hormones shooting its way down to my groin. I look away from him in hopes that my racing heart would calm itself, but Yoongi’s touch continued to set my body alight. He runs his hand softly down and cups my cheek. His thumb pushes against my bottom lip and the playful touch caused my mouth to fall open slightly.

“I think your beauty would turn him green with envy.”

My eyes race back from where they were staring at the wall to look into Yoongi’s dark ones. He couldn’t be speaking the truth; there was no way he meant those words. I could never cause a man as heartbreakingly beautiful as Yumi to be jealous. Yumi was the god of beauty himself; I’m sure he falls in love with his reflection every morning. Yoongi could not possibly believe I sported any threat to a man like that, but yet his eyes spoke no lies to me.

“I’m not that beautiful.” My words come out as a whisper and Yoongi’s eyes focus on my lips as I speak them. He opens his mouth but no words come out. His eyes grow lustful and they seem to trace every line and curve of my face and body. His thumb rubs my plush bottom lip harder until suddenly he pulls entirely away from me.

His face reverts back to cold marble, just like a statue but his eyes still burn with fire, “Well, you look like it in the candlelight.”

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Sorry it took me so long to update! I've been busy with school and I'm also working on the chapters for State of Honor. I hope you guys like this update! It was actually a lot of fun for me to write and I hope you find Jimin's point of view to be interesting.

The characters Yumi (Yumichika), Ikkaku, And Zaraki do not belong to me, they belong to Tite Kubo who is the writer for Bleach. The pictures below for these characters also do not belong to me and I give their respective artists full credit.

Picture of Yumi (this art is beautiful): http://pavius.deviantart.com/art/Yumichika-532388283

Picture of Ikkaku: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Madarame-Ikkaku-52892608