Chapter 3:
Luna slammed her fist on to the table. In it was the letter that Zelas had sent her. A woman with long blond hair and tanned skin edged back a little.
"Zelas…I am in a huge need for an explanation. May I please have one." Luna’s face was pleasant but her eyes weren’t laughing. Zelas gulped and plopped down on the sofa.
"Um, really, you don’t need an explanation. It’s just as clear as it is on that letter." Zelas replied trying to sound carefree. Luna didn’t buy it and continued to glare at her friend.
"You canceled your appointment with me, and while I’m on the subject father is dying to see that portrait completed, and to make sure your work is equal to what you’re getting paid. And this is what your saying!? You’re going to go on a raid again!? I thought I convince you to leave that up to Xelloss-kun!!" Luna threw her hands up in exasperation.
Zelas winced at Luna’s yelling but studied the room. It was rare that she was allowed into Luna’s personal chambers, although the two were best of friends, Luna was a heiress to a millionaire, and Zelas was only an artist. Zelas’s art work was quite famous and she was quite well paid for it, but Zelas didn’t like the city life and preferred the islands she was raised on.
Luna was always dressed in formal attire and enjoyed more of the authentic clothes while Zelas didn’t care so much about formal dresses and preferred to go along with what the style was. Zelas had long blond hair, Luna had short purple hair. Zelas’s skin was tanned, Luna’s skin was white. On the outside the two were extremely different, but on the inside they were fairly similar. Both enjoyed teasing others, and hated it when others made decisions for them. They liked to have their opinions heard and didn’t like it when they weren’t.
"By the way, how’d you convince your dad to let Lina-chan go to Lakuteria?"
"Are you trying to change the subject Zelas? I want to know why you’re going on a raid." Luna had a sword in her hand as she threatened her best friend.
"…Well…I need some new art supplies, and I’m not going to get paid by your dad for another few weeks. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful."
"Your ‘careful’ is the last thing in the world I trust."
"But I really promise. If anything goes wrong I’ll have Lin come and tell you. Come on Luna. You know that pirating is the way I’m suppose to live. I’ll be careful, I promise. And if it helps I’ll have Xelloss come along with me."
Luna sighed before giving in. There was no point in trying to reason with Zelas, she wouldn’t listen.
"Thank you Luna!" Zelas smiled up at her friend. "Can I have an answer to my question."
"…I convinced dad by threatening him."
"…How?"
"If he didn’t let Lina go I was going to forfeit my right to his company and money." Luna answered. Zelas whistled in approval.
"Never thought I’d hear you say that."
"Well…I think Lina isn’t meant for this life. She’s meant to be more….like you." Luna explained. The memory of her younger sister crossing her mind. That strong minded, free-spirited child. But then again, that was the good thing about her. Luna decided. She was not meant to live in this social-status-ruled-world, but in the outside. "Besides…she IS my sister."
Zelas just smiled at that.

Lina was out on the deck looking for her friends. Xelloss hadn’t talked to her since he had left to talk with Lin and Gaury. Lina took that as he was having second thoughts about considering her his treasure. She didn’t have a problem with that, or at least she thought she didn’t. The problem was not seeing him or talking to him.
Lina had no clue why she thought that way, and decided to tell some one about it just so she could sort out her feelings. Upon not seeing Amelia or Filia or Gaury, Lina was ready to leave the deck when a voice rang out.
"I, Amelia Will Tesla Seyluun will now tell all of you members of evil on this ship the way of justice!!"
Lina fell to the deck with a loud thud and couldn’t help but wonder what that girl got into now. Lina looked up and sighed. "…They’re going to have to get a new lookout thing if she doesn’t stop soon…." She muttered in a tired voice as she saw her friend standing on top of the look out place. The crew started to gather around Amelia, there faces obviously interested in what kind of stunt the girl was going to pull.
"Pirating is a way of evil!! Taking from innocent people and claiming their prized possessions as your own!! I, as a servant of justice can not over look your evil deeds!!"
Lina groaned. If what Val had told her was right, then the crew believed that Amelia was a pirate, they won’t listen to a words she says.
Amelia threw her hand up in the air, her pointer finger pointing. She bought it down and pointed it at the crew. "Have any of you ever thought the prize of earning a living through hard work would bring? How about of your after life?! If you quit this deed now and reform, god may forgive you for your foul deeds!!! Here me and listen to me no-" Amelia’s leg was pulled from under her. Amelia lost her balance and fell down onto the look out thing, obscuring her from the view.

"Are you crazy?!" Lin demanded as Amelia whined on and on about the ‘lecture of justice’ being interrupted. "Those guys think you’re a pirate!!"
"How dare they!! I am one who follows the code of justice!!" Amelia replied standing up and striking a pose. Lin sighed and gave up. There was no way she was going to be able to talk sense into this girl.
"Look, you may follow a ‘code of justice’, but it’s just safer this way for you if they think you’re a pirate."
"But I am being mistaken as evil." Amelia whined. Lin shook her head. Lin preferred the Amelia she had ‘caught’ at that raid. At least she was quiet since she felt guilty of the crew’s deaths, but now Lin had to take care of a girl that, for some god known reason, was obsessed with ‘justice’.
"No, they now think you’re a justice crazed pirate." Lin replied as she grabbed Amelia and put her over her shoulder. Lin wasn’t extremely strong like the men on the ship, but it didn’t mean she was weak and she was sure she could carry Amelia down to the deck.
Lin started to walk down when Amelia’s elbow hit her in the head.
"Let me down, I am to go up again and lecture them about justice."
"Behave yourself. Or else I’ll throw you into the ocean. Oh yeah, there were sharks around here." Lin threatened in her coldest tone possible. Amelia squirmed for a second but obeyed.
Lin was usually fairly out going and happy but that didn’t mean that she was always like that. At times when she wanted people to listen to her, she could be as intimidating as her brother.

Lina sighed out of relief when she saw Lin carrying down a surprisingly quiet Amelia. Thank god Lin stopped Amelia. Lina didn’t want to be footed with the repair bills since Amelia and Filia most likely won’t pay for them.
The crowd gathered around suddenly went wild. Lina looked up and gasped . "ARGH!!" She screamed in frustration as she saw Amelia hit Lin in the head with her elbow. They seemed to have a quarrel and Amelia continued to hit Lin. Lin finally gave up trying to reason with Amelia and threw her over into the ocean.
"GHE!!" Lina screamed as Amelia fell into the ocean on her back. Lina didn’t once suspect that Amelia won’t be safe. She knew better, Amelia can survive practically anything. What surprised her was that Lin actually threw her into the ocean, even though it seemed like a good idea.
"What is this commotion about?" A voice suddenly asked her from behind and Lina jumped a mile.
"Gaury!! Don’t scare me like that!!" She said as she calmed her self down. Gaury just smiled and apologized.
"Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. But what’s the commotion about?"
"Amelia was giving a lecture on justice when Lin tried to knock some sense into her." Lina replied. "When it didn’t work Amelia was thrown over board."
"Is she okay?!" Gaury asked, worried. Lina just pointed ahead of the crowd. Lin had finished climbing down just as Amelia jumped out of the ocean, soaked and pointed at Lin.
"See, there’s no way just being thrown into the ocean would kill Amelia." Lina said as she turned around and walked away from the crowd.
"This must be the first time I saw Lin-chan do something even remotely close to disobeying Xelloss." Gaury observed.
"Huh?"
"Xelloss told Lin-chan to let Amelia live, which meant not to mistreat her. Throwing her in the ocean is mistreating." Gaury pointed out but Lina just started laughing out loud.
"Amelia NEEDS to be mistreated. She’s been spoiled by her dad all her life she doesn’t think that any one would mistreat her…with the exception of me…but still to be mistreated should be a good lesson for her." Lina contradicted him easily.
"Well it may have been needed, but still Lin-chan mistreated Amelia, which means she disobeyed Xelloss."
"Is that such a big deal?"
"Yes!! Lina you don’t know how much Lin-chan would do for Xelloss! She’s practically in love with him!! Disobeying him is like…well um, equal to killing a god in Lin-chan’s view point!!!"
"Are you serious?" Lina asked as she looked unbelievably at her friend.
"Of course I’m serious!!" Gaury replied as he waved his hand in Lin’s direction to emphasize his point.
"It’s …. Weird to think that one would think in such a way towards another, especially just for disobeying."
"You never disobeyed Luna-san." Gaury pointed out.
"I was SCARED of her Gaury, not what Lin feels towards Xelloss, or so I think."
"Well, yeah Lin-chan certainly isn’t AFRAID of Xelloss." Gaury looked at the girl who had a tired look on her face as Amelia gave her at least 100 lectures on justice.
"Ne Gaury…" Lina decided to ask the question that had been pondering her mind for some what of the day. "How many ‘treasure’s has Xelloss found?"
"Well, um…lots!" Gaury stretched his arms out to the side as if to show how many.
"Lots!!" Lina exclaimed and then grimaced. "What kind were they usually…"
"Well, um…mostly gold, lot’s of rubies and diamonds…I don’t know really, I don’t care that much about it, Val makes sure we get our share." Gaury said.
"…wait a second…gold, ruby and diamonds….Gaury, you mean treasures as in real treasures that are hidden in caves and things?"
"Well, yeah, what else would you be talking about?" Gaury didn’t seem to comprehend why Lina was looking at him with an exasperated look.
"I mean more like…you know…how many women has he called his treasure?" Lina slightly blushed as she attempted to talk to her friend that had the comprehension level of a five year old.
"You mean like he called you?"
"Yes." Lina nodded, glad that he was finally getting it.
"well…um, as far as I know" Gaury thought for a second. He had known Xelloss for roughly three years. Of course he really wasn’t close to him but he did know him better than most of the crew. "None other than you…but I really don’t pay much attention to his personal life."
Lina nodded, no luck here, she wasn’t going to get the answers she wanted. She wouldn’t risk talking about something like this with Val, although he seemed understanding he still seemed intimidating. Lina sighed, she wasn’t going to be able to complain to someone about her worries over Xelloss, at least for that day. She wouldn’t feel right talking about it to Gaury, and she wouldn’t feel secure discussing it with Filia, who Lina knew disliked almost every single pirate. Lina didn’t blame Filia, her family had suffered a lot from pirates, there was no way Filia could trust them. Amelia wasn’t the wisest choice either.
Lina gave up, there was no way she was going to sort out anything. She might as well go back to the room and sleep or write or do something to take her mind off Xelloss and her current situation.
Lina walked in the room and her eyes opened wide with surprise when she saw Xelloss sitting on the bed, staring into space. If he noticed that she entered the room, he made no outward show of it. It seemed as if his mind was focused some where else.
Lina slowly walked over, careful not to disturb him and studied his face. His semi-long violet hair reached his shoulders and his bangs covered his forehead. Lina distantly thought that if his hair color was a little lighter and his bangs were longer he may be able to pass as her sister. His eyes were closed, or else Lina was sure he would have turned to look at her, his mouth was set in concentration, neither smiling nor frowning. Lina wondered how a man could look so beautiful. His skin color was on the lighter side, but that could be understood since it was only early summer.
Suddenly she felt something grab her and next thing she knew she was sitting on Xelloss’s lap. Xelloss chuckled at the surprised look on her face. She was so honest that he doubted she was capable of lying, it would easily show through her magnificent red eyes. She was the most amusing creature he had ever met. Xelloss ran his fingers through her long hair, the most magnificent color he had ever seen. The yellow tint to the red-orange hair made it look like fire.
"Would you stop playing with my hair?!" She demanded sharply, though she was not sure if she really wanted him to stop paying attention to her hair. It was one of her best features, or at least Lina though so. It was long and curled slightly around her waist, the color of it was like a blazing fire. She had been told often enough that she should take extra care of her hair, and Lina had.
"It’s a beautiful color…" he muttered as he still ran his fingers through her hair as if he didn’t hear her demand. "It looks beautiful down…I wonder how it would look up.." He grabbed a loose hand full of her hair and put it at the position of where it would be if she had a pony tail. "I prefer it down.."
"I said would you stop playing with my hair?!!!" Lina demanded again as she shook her head to free her hair from his hand.
"You must make a lot of women jealous with your beauty.." He whispered as he put his hand under her chin and made her look at him.
Lina felt calm listening to his husky voice, calmer than she had been in the past few months. She loved the color of his eyes, the shade of an amethyst. He felt so warm and safe, something Lina hadn’t felt in a while.
Just that Lina knew she shouldn’t feel safe. Xelloss was a pirate, and it won’t make sense if she felt safe with him. She should keep her distance from him as much as possible, as soon as he’d let her go.
"Lina…" he whispered as he stared into her eyes. "How did you get such red eyes." Suddenly a look of shock and fear crossed her eyes.
"They’re too red aren’t they." She stated. "I know that they’re weird, no one else has weird eyes, most people have brown, or blue, or green eyes. Red eyes are weird and scary."
Xelloss blinked at her seriously wounded face and fought the urge to laugh. Her eyes were beautiful, didn’t she know that? "How did you reach such a ridiculous conclusion?"
"When I was a kid the other kids always teased me, called me I wasn’t human because I had red eyes. They’ll keep their distance from me because of it. Gaury and my sister were the only ones who didn’t treat me differently from the way they treated others."
"They were most likely jealous. They wanted to have eyes like yours but since they didn’t they teased you about it." Xelloss stated clearly.
"Are you sure? Besides, I’m convinced that it’s ugly to have red eyes." Lina nodded at her statement. "No one’s ever complimented me, Neechan was the one who got all the praise."
"Well then you lived around fools. They were certainly idiots not to notice something that’s perfectly obvious to everyone else."
"That’s not going to persuade me."
"Well then, I’ll just take my time persuading you." Xelloss smiled. He did have all the time in the world to persuade you.
"Good luck, I’m not that easily persuaded."
"Thank you for the warning."
Lina turned her head away from him at his smile. "I want to stand up now. I think I better check on Filia."
"She’s safe."
"No, I’m wondering if Val’s safe. Filia could inflict a lot of damage on people if she wishes it to happen. And I’m not joking. She hides a mace under her skirt, and it ways at least 100 pounds, yet she swings it like it’s as light as a feather."
"…You know the most interesting people."
Lina didn’t argue with that. It wasn’t exactly true though. She didn’t know the most interesting people, she knew the weirdest people. Starting with her family and going to her friend’s families. "Well, my family is a lot more normal than Amelia’s."
"You mean the girl that was giving an interesting speech? Yes, her family would probably be a very interesting family."
"Interesting is not the word. It’s a scary family I’d say." Lina shuddered. "Especially her father and sister. You never want to meet them, they’re worse than Amelia." Lina tried to block out the unpleasant memories of Amelia’s sister, Glacier a.k.a. Naga. "I never want to meet her sister again."
"Is she that scary?"
"Scary…yes, but worse." Lina admitted. "She laughs this…annoying laugh and she doesn’t have the common sense that even Gaury has."
"That is….scary." Xelloss replied as he tried to imagine what kind of family Amelia grew up in and what kind of environment Lina grew up in. He decided that it was definitely a weird one.
"Can you let go of me now?" Lina demanded as she remembered what her current position was. "I want to get some rest."
"Are you sick?"
"No, just tired." Lina replied. Xelloss obeyed her and let go of his arms that were wrapped around her small body reluctantly.
If he was reluctant to let go, he was more reluctant to leave.
"Can you go?! I want to be alone for awhile." Lina turned around in the bed so that she was facing away from him and tried to let sleep consume her. It came easy for she was extremely tired out. Xelloss watched the sleeping body of Lina and ran his fingers through her hair once more before he left.