[team three] hands on deck

[wolfodder.livejournal.com]

Adding a bit to my pirate story from last time. I changed the names of the characters, who knows how many more times I will do that?

“Less soap. Don’t waste it — we can’t restock for weeks yet,” said Rachel, leaning against the door frame.

On her knees, scrubbing the wooden floors of the deck, Leah mumbled something under her breath — Rachel could only pick up looking over my shoulder. “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Rachel couldn’t help but grin. It was a lot of work to be good enough when your father was the ship’s captain, but a nice privilege was that she didn’t have to clean — and she could take her breaks to watch Leah.

It wasn’t so much wanting to see Leah clean as it was an excuse to see Leah. She was fucking gorgeous, and Rachel could hardly be at fault for hovering nearby to sneak looks at her since she joined the crew. At first it had just been curious interest — Rachel had for a long time been the only woman on a ship full of men. Men who she loved and appreciated, several of whom had been there throughout her childhood, but day in and day out on a ship seeing no one else made her long for a change.

And then she walked onto the ship. Rachel simply wanted to sneak peeks at first, but then she noticed her looking back, and she got bolder. But being the captain’s daughter she still had a reputation of sorts to uphold, so thus far she had kept it to excuses — showing her the ropes around the ship, assigning chores, and watching over her shoulder while she scrubbed the floor. Was it mean? Maybe a bit. She hoped Leah wouldn’t hold it against her.

She crouched next to Leah, who stopped scrubbing to look at her with a frown. “Here, let me help.” She took the brush from her hand, and to the sound of protests from Leah — “Hey, wait, wait, what are you doing?” while trying to grab it back, but Rachel simply moved it out of reach — dipped it in the water, and started to scrub the floors.

Leah gave up on trying to take it back, and sat back on her heels. “I’ll go get another brush,” she said, starting to stand, but Rachel stopped her movement with a hand on her wrist.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get to work more. I’m just giving you a break. Accept the reprieve while you can.” Rachel winked. “Now keep me company while I get this awful shit off the floor.”

avantnuit you're next! <3