SCATTERED PEARLS ☆ KIMCHAY AU

☠︎︎ 6. The Reckoning ☠︎︎

"Be careful because if you won't be nice to me, next time you won't get anything," Rosa bent over to grab her dress from the floor, making sure that Kim had a perfect view of her naked ass.

When she turned back to him, tying a little bow on the front of her dress, Kim just chuckled, "dear Rosa, I'm afraid this was our last time."

Rosa cocked her head and a little wrinkle appeared in between her eyebrows, "oh, captain, you know that you like my company way too much to resist."

Kim shook his head, "not anymore. I'm going celibate."

Rosa burst out laughing so much that she had to cover her mouth with her hand, "you?"

"Indeed, I," Kim nodded with a straight face. "It's for the higher purpose. But no worries, my dear, you'll be always with me in my dreams." Lies. Lies. Lies.

Rosa tipped her chin up and glared at Kim, "well, I hope that that higher purpose will suck your dick as well!"

After that she stormed out of Kim's cabin, leaving behind an open door and grinning Cranky Filmore standing in them. "Feisty," he laughed.

Kim shrugged, "I just broke her heart."

"Our captain—heartbreaker of the seven seas."

Kim chuckled, wrapping a belt with his pistol and a sabre around his waist, "is there something you wanted, Cranky?"

"Yes, captain. Captain Archer is impatient to sail. It looks like a storm is headed our way, so he sent me to wake you."

"Well, I'm already up. We can start sailing."

Kim found his place in the crew surprisingly easily. At first, he cleaned the deck until it was crystal clear or he distributed food to the crew, some days he would be in the captain's chamber reading maps and books because Captain Archer thought that the smarter Kim would be the more valuable for the crew he would become. Already at the age of sixteen, Captain Archer decided to name Kim the Captain of one of their smaller ships in the fleet—The Scorpion. Kim had his ship and a small crew. Still sailing under Captain Archer, but feeling at least a little bit independent.

Pretty quickly, Kim found out that being a captain felt even better than it looked all those years that he had spent watching and learning from Captain Archer. Slowly, but surely it felt like a burden to be under the captaincy of someone else. What did it matter if he was a captain of a ship if he still had another captain above him? Kim needed independence. Needed power. Needed to be the only one making decisions that would get him closer or further away from his plan to get his mother back.

Seven years since she was gone and now Kim had way more information than he had when he was only twelve. His mother was held on the Old Island inhabited mostly by the English navy and privateers. Working for Richard Moore alongside many other women, she was beaten, she was starved and tortured... she had lost so much weight. Kim saw her once. A year ago. Richard Moore took her and a couple of other enslaved women back to the Port la Royale. Kim was there at the time, he and Captain Archer were mooring their ships. He caught a glimpse of her when she was being dragged back on the ship. He didn't need more than that. He would recognise his mother everywhere. The first thing he felt was relief because finally after all those years he had real proof that his mother was alive. That everything he was doing was worth it. That becoming a pirate was the right decision to make.

But then he felt a strong sense of urgency to just run. Run to his mother and get her back. She was so close and he was no longer a defenceless little boy. He had a ship, he had a crew, he had weapons, and on top of it all, he had the determination to do everything to get his mother back.