The Hunter and the Pirate (Pirate!England x Reader)

Things Always Get Better...

Guess who's still drowning in schoolwork?? (Me!!)

Guess who's neglecting said schoolwork and writing?? (Me!!)

So I have been reviewing the past few chapters and inwardly cringing. I'm not used to writing in present tense, so it seems as though I have relapsed to past tense every now and then. I blame it on the sleep deprivation, and I will do edits after the story is done, promise. Trust me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left it as rough as it is now. Characters are still doing what they want, but the story does have a final "finish line", if you will, that I have already planned out. How do they get there? (Frankly, I'd like to know the answer to that myself :/)

Sleeping schedule's still weird. It's like I'm tired up till midnight, then I get a shot of adrenaline, and I'm running for another few hours either working my butt off or feeling useless. IDK man.

I apologize ahead of time for any mistakes (which are basically inevitable at this time of night). I'll correct them... sometime.

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"Now the first thing to remember about mermaids is to never listen to their song," Arthur says, looking uncomfortable on the edge of the bed. He's still fiddling with his hands as though he doesn't know what to do with them. You figure he's probably still running off residual adrenaline. "I learned that the hard way about eight or nine months ago."

You raise an eyebrow. Arthur coughs.

"I know what you're going to say, and yeah, years was a bit of an exaggeration. In reality, this whole fiasco only ended...," he continues to mutter under his breath.

"Sorry, didn't quite catch that," you say, rolling your eyes.

"Maybe a couple weeks ago?" he finishes weakly. You nearly choke on air.

"A couple weeks ago? You mean to tell me you've been involved with that lunatic up until two weeks ago? I've been here for a month!"

"Let me explain, please?" he pleads. You grumble but shut up. After all, he's the knowledgeable one here.

"So we hear the mermaids' songs for the first time, right?" he continues. "Men start jumping overboard. I don't hear anything. Before you ask, I don't know why. All I know is I starting hearing scraping sounds. The kinds of sounds that make your hair stand up on end? Yeah, that kind of sound.

"By now, about seven men from my crew are overboard, and the rest of them are in a daze. I'm standing there confused, just watching my men basically commit suicide for no reason when the mermaid that attacked you appeared in front of me."

"Aleika, right?" you recall from the snatches of conversation that you had heard when you were still under her spell.

"The one and only. Her song hit me pretty hard in the beginning, of course, but I naturally snapped out of it, though not fast enough to prevent serious damage. She was understandably curious about my half resistance to her spell."

"And this is the first time you met her?" you clarify.

He nods and continues.

"The day it happened I had just received news of one of your brother's latest victories..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flaaaaaaaaashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arthur woke up in the middle of a rainstorm. Which was odd. Because he had just been in his cabin a short time ago, wide awake and watching the water twinkle beneath the bright yellow sun. He didn't have time to dwell on the oddity of the situation though as he was just realizing what was going on around him.