Week 2- Matthew/Francis

In all the times Matthew had been out to sea, this was probably the first that he felt sick to his stomach, though the rocking of the boat was hardly the cause. He tried to at least appear calm, though he silently cursed his luck and this situation among other things.

His captain just had to get the idea of sending a spy out to a rival crew. Matthew had wanted no part in the scheme, although it was the popular opinion that he should be the one to do it; he was “pretty much invisible to begin with” as one crewmember put it. In the end, they decided to pick a name out of a hat, not that the end result was any different.

Several days (including an hour or two of pleading with the cabin boy to trade places without success) later, he was left at a port on his own to seek out the other group of pirates, and could only hope that they’d let him join. So here he was now, almost wishing that they didn’t and hoping most of all that he didn't give himself away from the very start.

The evening air was cold, and Francis already missed being on the huge ship as he walked along the port. Swinging his rapier casually in one hand, he kept an eye out for other pirates. It was just today that his captain had issued orders that they were low on manpower, and sent out his crew to look for viable members. Francis thought it was a considerably boring and unnecessary job. After all, all they had to do was to post up an advertisement about it, and he was very much sure that candidates would come flocking in.

As he wandered along the market stalls, he glanced at the vegetables on sale today. Well, they certainly looked good. Maybe he could buy some and sneak into the kitchen to - wait, he was getting off track here. He sighed a sigh and walked on. Weren't there any likely candidates at all?

As he searched the ports for anyone who could possibly be another pirate, Matthew muttered dryly of how it had been so much easier the first time when he didn't have a choice. In fact, he had next to no idea how this was even done. Was there some sort of code or could he just ask? And, more importantly, where were they?

After a minute or two of observation, Matthew noticed that while most people walked through the port looking like they needed to get somewhere, there were a few others who walked at a slower pace and looked as though they may be looking for something. Or someone. He bet that those were the people he should ask. And if he was wrong... well he'd just better hope that he wasn't wrong.

One of them in particular, a man with a rapier who appeared bored, was passing by and Matthew decided to go for it. He approached the man until he was walking next to him. "Um, excuse me, but would you happen to be...?" He trailed off, uncertain of what he was even trying to say.

Francis stifled a yawn. He had seen a couple of young teens who most probably were hoping to be recruited or something, but they were just... scrawny. If he picked someone who was too much of a weakling, he was worried that the fella would be placed under his supervision; essentially, he would have more work to do. And really, while he might have been a dedicated person in certain areas, Francis wasn't so quick to welcome work. As far as he was concerned, all he wanted now was to return to the cabin to have a good afternoon nap.

He glanced around with a raised eyebrow. He was quite sure he had heard someone speaking.... ah. He came face to face with another male with oddly similar hair. He smiled pleasantly at the other. "Could I happen to be what?" Surveying the other's build (which was rather difficult, for some reason), he decided that he should be good enough. He took a hold of the other's shoulder and beamed a brilliant smile. "Say, are you interested in becoming a crew member of The Phoenix Fleet?" If he resisted... well, Francis would just convince him with every method possible.

Matthew blinked, surprised at how easy that had been. He wasn’t expecting a series of challenges or anything like that, but at the same time, he also didn’t this part of the plan would have been that simple. He wondered if it would seem suspicious to answer yes right away, so he hesitated for a moment, appearing to think it over when in actuality he was still doing a miniature victory dance inside his head.

“Well,” Matthew muttered, as he ‘thought’ out loud to himself, “I guess I have nothing left to lose, so…” He nodded slowly before giving an answer in words. “Alright. What would I need to do, exactly?”

Another thing that surprised him was that a lot of the emotions that were probably making themselves known through his facial expressions were sincere. For all he knew he could be a terrible actor, but that didn’t really matter, he was as nervous as he looked. Matthew wasn’t sure if this should be a relief or a concern.

"Perfect!" He took the other and steered him around the streets. "I just need to get us back to our ship, and show you our Captain, and if he gives the 'go ahead then you'll officially be a member of the crew." Brushing past several crowds without a second look, Francis increased his pace, walking faster. Once he had him handed over to his boss, he could head back to his cabin for his urgently needed rest. That most certainly was a happy thought.

"Do hurry now, I am in... quite a rush." The other blond didn't have to know where he was rushing too, and he was tempted to just break into a run and drag him along if he couldn't catch up.

Matthew was a bit surprised by how enthusiastic in his actions the other man was now, based on how bored and indifferent he had looked when he was presumably looking for someone. He figured that the job must be mundane for someone to want to be rid of it so quickly. And it would have been amusing, if it weren’t for the fact that he was tripping over his own feet at times, trying to keep up without knowing where the man was going.

Though Matthew’s main concern was whether or not the captain would let him in. He wasn’t physically weak, but if he ended up giving the impression of being passive and mild mannered, as was often the case, he could see why things may not end up in his favor. And if they didn’t, where would he go? It would mean he had failed and he’d have no way to get back. That was certainly troubling…

He spotted several ships as they neared the docks. “Is the ship one of those?” he asked, hoping it was to get this half running, half stumbling nonsense over with.

"The largest and grandest one there." Francis commented, nodding at the towering oak wood ship that stood out among the others. He may not admit it at times, but he was most certainly quite proud to see their colours and flag fluttering in the cold breeze. The Phoenix Fleet was an enviable ship, and despite his own occasional apathy, Francis would guard his ship quite zealously.

It wasn't long before the both of them reached the ship, and he took a hold of the other's hand, pulling him up and running along the brown corridors of the ship's interior. "My boss rather likes manners, so do remember to be just a fair bit polite, though you don't seem like a rude one." He said, making a sharp turn at a corner and going down some steps. "I also forgot to mention that the only thing you'll be doing is to swab the decks, but, ah, you can't back out now." He turned to wink at the other and stopped before a door, giving it three successive knocks.

“O-oh…” was all Matthew could say as he took in the sight of the ship the other man had pointed to. He had been given little information about The Phoenix Fleet before being sent out on this task, so he had no idea that the ship would be noticeably bigger than that of his own crew. Probably because they thought that he’d run if he knew what he was getting himself into.

“Polite, okay, I can do that,” Matthew muttered to himself while being guided along.

“Wait, I have to what?” Well that was great. He had just gotten out of that job a few months ago and now it was back, just to mess with him. Though he really shouldn’t have expected anything better. Matthew was distracted from this thought when he noticed the door opening and took a nervous intake of breath. This was it…

Francis smiled an innocent smile and laughed, pushing the other in with amusement. "In you go and good luck!" Hopefully the captain wouldn't be too harsh on the boy, but Francis thought the chances of that were extremely low. Nonetheless, something told him that the other would be able to make it through alright.

A good while later, Matthew emerged from the room, muttering inaudibly of how this ship’s captain was such a strange man. The aura of paranoia this leader of sorts gave off was quite nerve wracking for someone in Matthew’s situation, but the good news was that at least he had been accepted onto the ship. Yet, of course, there was a bit of bad news as well.

The captain had took the cause of his nervousness to be inexperience aboard a ship, which this was good for Matthew’s cover, but meant that he would have to follow one of the crew members around for a while; the same one who had brought him here, in fact. It wasn’t that he disliked the man, who he learned was named Francis. He was just afraid of being an annoyance to him. And, as a second round of bad news, yes, he did have to swab the decks.

He wandered about the ship to find Francis and to tell him of this situation.

Right after he had sent the other into the room, Francis wandered off into one of the lower cabins that was used mainly for storage. It wasn't that he couldn't quite be bothered about the outcome of it, but hey, nobody could accuse him of not having done his job before slacking off. Even if the Captain decided to boot out his candidate, Francis would not care very much, because in his opinion, there was nothing more he could have done.

He set up his hammock at his usual spot and laid onto it, stretching like a lazy cat and smiling in bliss. It was a little known corner, and he had yet to be found for a long time whenever he was escaping from work. Hopefully, that would be the case for a while. Closing his eyes and swaying the hammock slightly, Francis soon found himself being pulled away to sleep.

“The hell if I know.”

“Francis? Yes, he’s…actually, where is he?”

“Who are you?”

Needless to say, asking the members of this crew wasn’t working out very well for him, even excluding the fact that half of them ignored him unintentionally and others intentionally. And Matthew couldn’t decide which one he found more irritating.

Eventually, Matthew made up his mind to try to find him on his own. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a bit of exploring while he was at it. He meandered his way around the ship, deciding at one point to look around some of the lower cabins.

There was nothing really worth noting, so Matthew was about to turn around when he almost bumped into a sleeping figure in a hammock. For once he had been graced with luck; it was the very person he’d been looking for. Not wanting to disturb his sleep, Matthew sat on top of a crate patiently. Francis couldn’t sleep for that long, right?

Francis snoozed quietly on his hammock when he felt something hit against him gently. He opened an eye subtly, and noticed that he had been found, and none other than by that the newbie that he had picked up. He closed that eye and laid quietly in deep thought. If he was still around, then it meant that he had not been thrown aboard. And if he actually expended that much effort to look for him, it meant that... Oh dear. It meant that the Captain had most likely assigned the newbie to him to look after. Which, essentially, meant work.

He shifted uncomfortably in the hammock. He had only laid in there for a few moments, and he definitely did not want to get up now and teach someone how to mop the floor. Deciding to play possum, Francis decided to continue lying there, eventually drifting into sleep again.

After a while, Matthew had grown tired waiting. Though he wasn’t going to leave, just in case he wasn’t able to find the man again for quite some time, but he also wasn’t going to wake Francis up and try his patience. Coming to the conclusion that the only way to make the time go faster was to go to sleep too, Matthew did so, even though the square containers weren’t the most comfortable thing to lean against.

Yet at one point, the entire ship rocked awkwardly and Matthew was rudely awakened, having been flung from the crates he had been sitting on, bringing a few objects down with him in a much-too-loud crash.

It took him a moment to regain a sense of what was going on and another moment longer to realize that he had probably woken Francis up.

Francis woke up with a slight shock when, simultaneously, the ship lurged and something rather heavy hit him as the louch crash of something was heard in the background. In his surprise, he mistook it as to be an enemy attack and drew out his rapier from his side, leaping out of the hammock to point the blade at the offender, only to find himself staring at a face of mild panic, before he managed to get his bearings right.

"Ah, Matthew... you're still here?" Keeping the sword away casually as if he had not bore it at the other, he glanced around, taking note of all the wooden crates that had fallen on to the ground. "It's a good thing nothing in this storage room is fragile, otherwise it would have been quite troublesome. Help me out here." Sighing a sigh. he picked one of them up, and placed it back in its place.

Matthew looked up on the floor, only to end up staring cross-eyed at the edge of a blade, only inches away from his face. But when Matthew blinked, the rapier was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. He recovered from this shock quickly, standing up so he could help the other man put everything back where they were originally.

“I think I can handle the rest,” he told Francis with an apologetic look. This hadn’t exactly been the ideal start. After moving a few crates, he continued, “Er, according to the Captain, I’m to follow you around as your “shadow”, as I think he put it. Well, when I’m not cleaning things.”

“But…but I’ll try not to get in your way or anything and please tell me if I’m too much of a bother,” he added hastily, in part because of a natural politeness, but also because he didn’t want trouble from anybody. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to be able to obtain valuable knowledge he needed and leave without incident. And by not making enemies, it would surely help.

Francis watched Matthew a little wearily. Just perfect, he thought sarcastically. He really was assigned to more work that he didn't want or ask for. After he finished shifting the crates, he took a seat on one of them and patted the side, motioning for the other to sit down beside him. Well, if he had to do something, he might as well do it well.

"So, let me know. What kind of skills do you actually have? State anything and everything, it might come in useful some way."

Matthew sat down before furrowing his brows in thought as he tried to come up with an answer. Now that he thought of it, he’d never been asked that question; usually people just assumed he was competent at some things and incompetent at others. So what was he good at?

“Hm, skills, skills, everything, let’s see…” he started, “Well, I’m good at…hiding? No wait, that’s not very useful, and I’m not really afraid of anything so I don’t need t—oh, that’s something. And I’m not ridiculously strong, but I’m stronger than I look, at least…I’ve never needed to fight much, but…Oh! I was a navigator for this trading company at one point, but you guys most likely have one of those…”

“Er…I have a good memory?” he finished weakly. It was safe to say that being charismatic was not one of his skills.

Francis nodded absentmindedly in thought as he listened to Matthew list off his skills. He stroked this chin and hummed. "Being good at hiding... And a good memory? That's fairly interesting..." Thinking about it, there wasn't much for a pirate with only skills as such. It was usually more or less about reckless fighting.

Still, even someone like himself managed to secure a place on a ship, so there should be no reason why the other couldn't. His mind ran through a list of possibilities. He smirked slightly.

"Hmm... Perhaps.... I could make a spy out of you..." He commented, glancing over at Matthew and studying him carefully. "It sounds like something you would be perfect for, after all."

(I am extremely sorry about the extremely, extremely late post. OTL Please forgive me!)

At the word ‘spy’, Matthew almost felt like his heart had skipped a beat and he was pretty sure he now sported a rather uneasy expression on his face. He quickly came up with something to say as to not blow his cover.

“A spy? You think so? How…dangerous would that be, exactly?” He inwardly groaned at how he kept coming across as incompetent, but it was better than coming across as suspicious. Much better.

And this gave him yet another reason to try to get what he needed to know and get out as soon as he could. Matters were difficult enough without potentially having to spy on a third ship.

(Nothing to worry about, Fran, it's no problem =3=)

"Oh? Well, there's nothing dangerous about it, not at all, unless of course, you get caught. So, don't get caught. That's all there is to it." He commented rather chirpily.

An eyebrow rose on Francis' face. "But oh. You don't seem to be excited about it." He leaned forward and stared at the other, studying the odd expression on Matthew's face. "Is there something else you would prefer? Something more... dull, maybe?"

(There's a VERY, VERY good explanation for my lateness. Seriously. *kowtows* Or am I like, too late?)