You walked toward your door, your new boots making light thumping noises against the wood floors. You reached for the door knob and turned it. You were expecting it to be dark like it always was. What you weren't expecting was to be greeted by a confused looking red head looking down at you with a quizzical expression in his emerald eyes. You jolted back, as you were startled by his sudden appearance. You placed a hand to your chest to steady your breathing.
"I-Ian! Oh you scared me." you said, sighing in relief. But then it hit you, your eyes snapped open.
'How long was he standing there for?' you thought, gulping a bit.
'Oh no. What if he heard me…' You slowly looked up at Ian and gave him a nervous laugh.
"H-Hey, uh…Ian?" you asked, hoping to not sound as nervous as you felt. He just continued to look down at you.
"Aye lass?" he said. You looked away a bit but then looked him straight in the eyes.
"How long have you been standing outside my door?" you asked slowly, tilting your head to the side.
"Long enough. Who is in there with ye lass?" he said, peering into your dim room. You began to panic some more.
'Crap! Ok (name) stay calm. Think..THINK' Your thoughts began to race for something, anything, to help you out of this situation.
"Uh" you tried to think of something. Ian sighed and pushed past you.
"Who are ye hidin' in here lass? Some git named Alfred? I don't even know an Alfred on this here ship!" he said, looking in all possible places a person could be hiding.
'Is he jealous or worried? I can't tell.' you thought. You sighed and walked up behind Ian who was about to look under your bed. You stopped him just in time before he saw the contents of your earlier 'stunt'.
"Ian" you said calmly. "There's no one in here but me, now would you just relax?" you said. He got up and stared into your (e/c) eyes, trying to see if you were telling the truth.
"I heard ye talkin' to someone in here lass. Ye can't fool me." he said almost glaring but not quite. You looked away a bit.
'Well, it worked on Peter…maybe it will work on Ian too' you thought as you directed your attention back to Ian.
"I was talking to myself." you said nonchalantly, folding your arms. Ian cocked an eyebrow.
"Talkin' to…yerself lass?" he said. You could tell he didn't believe you so you had to make it more believable.
"Well" you began "Being that Captain Kirkland has forbidden anyone to come in her except to bring me food I had to do something. I mean, I'm stuck in here all day with no one to talk to. It gets lonely, especially when your on the verge of crying or yelling. So I just sort of…talked to myself." you said. You prayed and hoped he believed you. Once you saw the look of doubt on his face had vanished you relaxed a bit.
"I see lass." he said, sighing as well. "Ye had me worried there." You cocked an eyebrow.
"And the fact that I was talking with myself doesn't worry you?" you said, cracking a smile. He gave you an adorably big smile. He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well…perhaps a little lass." he said. You smiled and nudged him with your elbow.
"Its okay to talk to your self…as long as you don't argue with yourself you'll be fine" you said, giving him a wink. You made him laugh. He covered his mouth so no one would hear him. He remembered he wasn't even suppose to be in here with you.
"I can't stay long lass" he whispered "I just wanted to see how ye were feelin' and all." he said. You smiled big but your smile turned into a guilty frown. Ian furrowed his brow.
"Lass? Are ye alright?" he asked. You looked away. You remembered how awful you had been earlier that day to Ian. You had thought he would avoid talking to you after that but now here he was, risking getting into trouble, AGAIN, just to see how you were doing.
'He is such a sweetie.' you thought. You closed your eyes a bit. You were sure you were going to get emotional again. Ian just continued to look at you.
'Is she alright? Was it somethin' I said?' he thought. He reached over to you. You felt a hand on your shoulder. You blinked a bit and looked back at Ian. Ian could see sadness in your eyes.
"Lass? What's the matter?" he said, moving a little closer to you. You sighed and motioned for him to sit. You both sat on your bed, you looking down at your hands and Ian looking at you concerned. You finally spoke.
"You were risking getting into trouble just to see me this afternoon." you said, looking up at him.
"Why did you do that?" He rubbed the back of his neck a bit.
"Well lass. I'm not sure meself." he chuckled softly "I suppose I always ate lunch with ye since ye've been here and I didn't want to break tradition." he said, looking over at you. Even in the dim light, his green eyes seemed to sparkle with that jovial, energetic life in him.
"But why did you do it again?" you asked. You knew that wasn't the only reason. No one would risk getting into trouble over something like that. He sighed but smiled at you, looking into your eyes.
"Well lass. I like ye." he looked away for a bit "I don't know, there's somethin' about ye, I can't quite put me finger on it. But things just seem borin' when yer not around. Yer fun and full o' life." he said, looking back at you.
"I seem to enjoy me day more when I can talk with ye." You were completely stunned and flattered. It's always nice to hear compliments from people, but especially when their telling you something truthfully from their heart, like Ian was doing just now. You couldn't help it, tears were starting to well up in your eyes.
"I'm so sorry Ian…" you whispered, looking down at your hands. You couldn't believe it. Not only was he not mad at you but you were about to cry in front of someone else AGAIN. You hated doing that. Ian placed a hand on your shoulder.
"Fer what lass?" he asked, trying to look at your face that you hid from him. You sniffed a bit.
"For being a complete jerk to you!" you said in a raised voice.
"You were just trying to be nice and come visit me and I blew up in your face!" A tear rolled down your cheek and landed on your scabbed hands. This didn't escape Ian's notice. He gently took your chin in his hand and made you look up at him.
"Tis alright lass. I'm a big boy. I don't get offended easily by ye. I know yer crazy anyways." he said chuckling a bit. You cracked a smile and laughed a bit through your tears.
"But I said some awful things to you-"you began to say but he cut you off by pulling you into a hug.
"No lass. Ye said all the right things. Ye were right." he said, hugging you tightly. You were a little surprised by this but hugged him back as best as you could. Your arms were a little squished in his embrace. You just placed your hands on the back of his shoulders. You smiled.
'He has his Uncles kindness for sure, he just hides it from everyone.' you thought. In fact, there was a lot in Gibbons that you saw in Ian. It was cute.
He let you go after a minute and looked down at his feet.
"Ye were right lass…I need to pull up me britches and confront him." he said, looking up at you.
"Ye helped me to realize that, I thank ye fer that lass." You smiled at him. It seemed operation 'Get Ian and Gibbons talking again' was working. Well, they weren't talking just yet, but at least things were moving. You smiled and stood up, patting his shoulder.
"Atta boy! Good for you!" you said.
"Now, you'd better go before someone find's you and does something…unpleasant."  You gave him a grimace which made him chuckle. He got up and started to walk to the door.
"Yer right lass. I'll say g'night then." he said opening the door. You stopped him with a question.
"Hey Ian?" you said. He turned around to face you.
"Aye lass?" he said.
"What exactly would happen if someone caught you or someone else in here when your not suppose to?" you asked. You wanted to know exactly what Ian and Gibbons were risking, you were curious like that. Ian gave you a sigh and half smile.
"Punishment fer disobeyin' the Capn's orders is forty strokes." he said. Your eyes widened.
"Ouch." was all you could say. Why forty strokes? That seemed a bit harsh. Then again you remembered how he acted around the crew. Mean and nasty. You figured there was a reason for this and you wanted to know why.
"You'd better go then." you said. He nodded and closed the door on his way out. You sighed.
'Man, the Captain is being really unreasonable. I mean, come on! Whipping people just for disobeying orders? Psh' you thought. You walked over to the door again.
'I still want out of this prison.' you thought before heading up on deck.
When you got up there you saw someone leaning on the side of the ship. You figured it was the Captain, no one else on the ship would be up now. Besides. You could tell by the hat.
'I wonder if he's still embarrassed about earlier today.' you thought. You slowly and quietly walked up to him, being careful not to let him hear you. You saw he was looking at something in his hands. You sidled up right next to him and bumped him with your hip.
"Hey there Captain." you said, leaning on the railing as well. He was startled and a bit embarrassed by your action. You couldn't tell from the darkness of night and the hat covering most of his face, but he was blushing. He looked down at you. You were looking up at him, smiling. You just loved to mess with this guy.
"O-oh! (name). What are you doing out here? You should be in bed resting." he said, sounding concerned. He mostly wanted you to leave because he didn't want you to find out he was blushing. You waved him off.
"Bah, I've been in that prison all day. If I get anymore rest I'll get sick." you said, smiling at him.
"How are you?" you asked, genuinely curious. The Captain was taken aback by this. You weren't usually this casual around him. But he wouldn't say he didn't like it. He smiled and looked down at his hand.
"I am well." he said softly. You looked down at his hands and noticed a picture. It was small, hand sized. But it wasn't a photo. Obviously, photography didn't come out until the early eighteen hundreds. You remembered that when you took a photography class in school. Instead it was a small but very well done painting. You marveled at the size and the detail that was put into it. There were three people in the picture. There was a man who had a striking resemblance to the Captain. He was tall and had what looked like a naval officer's coat on. He had the Captains hair and eyebrows. Now you knew where he got it from. There was a woman standing next to him, she looked to be slightly pregnant in the picture. She was very pretty. She had a soft small smile on her face and her eyes…they were just like the Captains as well. But she had brown hair. Then there was a little boy in the picture. It looked like a cute, little version of the Captain. You figured this was painted when he was younger. He looked almost Peters age in the picture. You figured the little bump on the woman was Peter. The Captain noticed you looking at the picture as well. He chuckled slightly. You looked up at him.
"Is this your family?" you asked. He nodded and looked at the picture again.
"Aye…it was." he said. You frowned a bit, remembering that his parents were no longer alive. But you wanted to make him feel better.
"Is this your father?" you asked, pointing to the man in the picture. The Captain nodded and smiled.
"Yes. It is. His name was Arthur Williams Kirkland." he said, a small smile still on his face. You smiled. The resemblance between him and the man standing next to you was uncanny.
"You look just like him." you said, smiling at him. You noticed him smiling proudly under his big hat.
"I've noticed that too, love." he said. He pointed to the woman in the picture.
"And this was my mother. Victoria Marie Kirkland." he said. You looked at the picture of the woman again.
"She's beautiful." you said softly. He looked at you and smiled.
"I told you she was." he said. You chuckled a bit. He was starting to loosen up a bit. That was good. You pointed to the little boy in the picture.
"Is that you?" you asked, half giggling. He chuckled and looked at the picture again.
"Aye, that was me when I was eleven." he said. You thought it was funny, even thought he was a little boy he still had those over sized eyebrows on his face. It made you laugh. The Captain looked at you.
"What's so funny, love?" he asked. You looked up at his partially shaded face.
"You were so cute when you were little. What happened?" you said, flashing him a devious smile.
"Hey!" he said. You laughed at him and elbowed him.
"Oh I'm just joking you big baby." you said, grinning at him. He chuckled and placed the picture back in his pocket.
"So what are you saying? That I'm still cute?" he said, giving you a cocky look. You gave him a look that said 'Oh please'
"Oh please. Get over yourself. If that head gets any bigger you won't be able to walk." you said, flicking his hat up a bit with your finger. He gave you a smirk and looked out to the stars. You did the same.
"So, what are you doing out here anyways?" you asked. He looked longingly at the sky.
"Well…I was just…" he began to say before turning to you. You looked at him.
"What?" you asked, unsure of what he was up to.
"Well…(name)? Have you ever…? Oh never mind." he said looking down. You scooted a bit closer to him.
"What?" you asked again, wishing you could read minds at the moment. He sighed before speaking again.
"Do you ever wonder…what the stars are made of?" he asked, looking down at you again "I always have. I've always wondered how they always manage to shine so brightly every night and never run out of light." he looked up at the stars again.
"Its like a ever shining lantern in the sky." he said. You smiled big at him. You of course knew what the stars were made of and all that stuff from your science classes in school. Shoot! You passed that class with flying colors. Astronomy was always a favorite subject of yours. He shook his head.
"I know that's a silly thing to wonder about." he said. You shook your head in return
"No its not. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to think about." you said, leaning closer to him.
"I know the answer to that." you said, flashing him a big smile. He turned his head quickly to you and gave you a surprised look.
"Y-You do?!?" he asked. You giggled and stood up straight.
"Yup! I learned all about that in school. It's pretty interesting." you said. He looked at you some more.
"You were schooled as a young child?" he asked. You chuckled.
"I've been going to school since I was five years old." you said, turning your head toward him.
"Needless to say it can get exhausting after a while." He looked at you dumbfounded. 'Oops' you thought 'Was that too much to say?'
"You can read and write as well?" he asked. You nodded.
"Oh yeah, that's like the first things they teach you when your younger. Then they get into stuff like math, science, history, language arts, social studies…" you said, numbering off all the classes you remembered taking when you were younger.
"And then when your older and go to high school you get to choose the classes you take. You can take harder, more advanced classes like Psychology, economics, astronomy-" he cut you off at the last one.
"-You learned astronomy?" he asked. You nodded.
"Yup." he got a little closer to you in anticipation.
"So tell me. About the stars I mean." he said. You could tell he was aching for information.
'It couldn't hurt to just tell him...right?' you thought.
"Well." you began "The stars are made up of various gasses-" he cut you off again.
"-Gasses?" he asked. You sighed.
'Looks like I'll have to explain that too.' you thought.
"Its like a substance similar to air, only its made up of different elements. Like hydrogen and helium." you said. He looked confused.
"Its different types of air-like substances that you can't see with the naked eye." you said. He nodded slowly, slightly understanding you. You smiled.
"Anyways. They are made up of various gasses which acts like a fuel for them to burn off of." you stopped and thought of something he could relate to.
"Kind of like a lamp. The wick acts as the 'fuel' it burns off of. Does that make sense?" you asked. He nodded.
"Yes" he said. You nodded as well.
"Good. Now, the stars come in various sized and colors, depending on what types of gasses they are made of and how hot they are." you said.
"How hot are they?" he asked. You paused for a moment.
"Hotter then lava in a volcano." you said. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. You laughed.
"That being said, it's a good thing they are so far away from us." you said. He looked at the stars again.
"Amazing." he said quietly before turning back to you.
"So then, where do they go at night?" he asked. You smiled back at him. It was like teaching a little kid, he was so clueless about that sort of stuff.
"Well, they never go anywhere. They stay in one place. The earth rotates very slowly and when it gets to a certain point the sun appears to disappear and the stars look like there moving." you said, making hand motions to give him a visual of what you were talking about.
"And the moon? It stays the same as well?" he asked. At him mentioning the moon your face fell a bit, but not enough to be noticed by him.
"Actually, the moon does move. It rotates around the earth." you said, gazing up at the moon. It appeared to be mocking you even though you knew the moon didn't have any sense to mock people. It was because of it that you were stuck here for a month.
'If only it would move faster!' you hissed in your mind. The Captain looked up at the moon.
"Wow. That's amazing that you know all this. What sort of place to you live in that has such information?" he asked. Your breath hitched in your throat.
'He's asking too many questions.' you thought.
"Now now Captain." you said looking at him. "That's more information I can't tell you." you said. His face fell a bit.
"I see." he said looking up at the moon again.
"Well with that sort of information-" he paused and looked at you "-you could become famous and have lots of money and you would never have to worry about having want ever again!" he said.
You looked up at the moon again and sighed.
"I'm not concerned. In a month it wont even matter…" you said, letting your sentence fade away. You realized what you had said, but you didn't care at the moment. The Captain slowly looked at you, he was clearly confused.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked. You closed your eyes and shook your head, sighing.
"It doesn't matter anyways." you said, starting to walk away. But he grabbed onto your wrist to stop you. You looked over at him. His emerald eyes were very piercing in the moonlight.
"(name), tell me what you meant by that. That's an order." he said. You sighed and looked away.
"I can't." you said simply. He grabbed onto your shoulders and looked at you right in the eyes.
"What do you mean you can't tell me? I gave you an order now tell me!" he said in a raised voice. You looked away from him, not speaking. He gave a heavy sigh.
"What is all this (name)? More secrets that you refuse to tell me?" he asked, getting frustrated. You just nodded. His grip tightened.
"Blast all these secrets! That's all you ever are is one big secret! Its making it very difficult to understand you (name)! Every time I try to learn something about you, you shut me out and refuse to tell me!" he said, staring at you even though your head was turned away from him.
"Why?" he asked, but you didn't respond.
"Why!?!" he asked again, shaking you a bit "Why do you refuse me? Why do you refuse to tell me anything? What sort of trouble are you in (name)? Just tell me! I can help you!" You slowly looked up at him.
"That's just it. You can't help me." you said. He looked deeper into your (e/c) eyes.
"Why? Why can't I help you?" he asked, pleading for an answer. You just shook your head gently.
"Because. It involves things that you don't understand." you said. He lessened his grip a bit.
"Enlighten me then, so that I may help you." he said. He was really determined to help you. You sighed and looked down.
"I can't. I'd be endangering a lot of people if I did." you said quietly. He lifted your face with his hand and made you look at him.
"What do you mean!" he said. You shook your head again.
"I've said too much already." you said. "Please, let me go now."
As much as he wanted to pull the information out of your head he decided to comply.
'I'll find out another way.' he thought as he let go of your face and arm. You walked away from the Captain quietly but stopped about halfway and looked at him. He looked back at you with a look of frustration. You sighed.
"I'm sorry Captain. I really wish I could tell you right now…but I…I can't." you said before turning around again and walking toward the stairs.
"Good night Captain." you called back. You heard no reply. You sighed quietly and walked down the stairs.
Arthur continued to look in the direction that you left.
"Goodnight." he said quietly before turning his attention back to the sky. He now had a new way of looking at the stars because of you.
When you got to your room you closed the door and leaned on it.
'Was that a mistake? Telling him all those things?' you thought. You shook your head 'What's done is done. I can't undo it.' You realized that you gave him information that no one in this time knew about. However, sooner or later, he would find out more. You secretly knew that…and it made you a little nervous. He was smart and would catch on somehow. You would say something that would give it away, he would catch you on your phone or find it himself. Something was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time now…