Gilbert and Antonio just stood there, grinning at Arthur while France was trying oh so very hard not to laugh. Knowing that doing so would result in Arthur's fist being lodged in his face. Francis prided himself in his looks and couldn't risk a broken nose, lest the ladies found him…undesirable. Of course, if you have any sense you yourself would be smart enough to stay away from these kinds of men as they can be described in two words "Jack Wagon".
"Francis must have been mistaken. He thought Peter was a lady, after all he's small enough and-" Arthur tried to explain but was cut off by Antonio.
"-Bah, enough of your excuses. Show me this chica." he said, still grinning like an idiot. Gilbert shared the same grin as he looked around to see if he could spot the fraulein he had heard about, a.k.a you.
"So, vere is she?" Gilbert said, standing on his tipy toes to get a better scanning range of the ship, trying desperately to spot even the slightest feminine looking figure to no avail. All he saw were big, dirty, sweaty men.
"I told you. I have no woman on board. Francis is just pulling your leg." Arthur said as calmly as he could. Unfortunately his voice faltered and all three of the men caught on to it.
"I'll bet she's in his cabin." Gilbert said to Antonio to which Antonio just chuckled. Arthur's eyes widened a bit, not enough for anyone to notice but enough for him to look slightly nervous.
"Amigo you look nervous." Antonio said with a sly grin. Arthur shook his head quickly.
"I am not. I am just eager for you all to get off of my ship." He said, thinking of a quick lie. Antonio clicked his tongue at Arthur, as if scolding a small child instead of a grown man trying to hid something.
"Its not good to lie Artur." he said. Arthur scowled at Antonio for mispronouncing his name yet again.
"Arthur." he said through gritted teeth "My name is Arthur!" Antonio chuckled again to which further irritated Arthur.
"So zen you vouldn't mind if ve took a look ourshelves." Gilbert said with a sly grin. Arthur was at an impasse. If he said no it would be obvious he was hiding something, but if he said yes he risked them finding out about you and who knows where that would lead.
"Uh-" Arthur began to say but was stopped by Antonio taking the lead to his cabin, with Gilbert following right behind.
"Let us take a look then, si?" Antonio said, quickly making his way to Arthur's cabin. Arthur panicked and raced after them.
"Wait! I have not given you permission!" he said, but the others just ignored him. Arthur shot a nasty glare in Francis' direction, almost causing him to wet himself, but not quite. Francis merely just winked at him and followed his companions.
'I'm sorry (name)' was all Arthur could think as he followed his unwanted guests to his cabin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you thought you were bored before, erase that, now you were bored. You did everything from moon walking across the wooden floor of the cabin to juggling apples that were in a bowl on a table, which you weren't that great at and resulted in two bruised apples. You slumped in Arthur's chair and rested your chin in your hand, blowing a stray hair out of your face, which proceeded to fall right back down in your face. You glared at the hair.
"Stupid hair" you muttered before manually moving it with your hand. You looked around the room and wondered how long you would have to be stuck in this room.
"Whatever" you said "As long as I don't have to be around that creeper Francis I'll be fine." You sighed and swung your legs over the armrest of the chair, sitting sideways in it and tilting your head back to see what the room looked like upside down. It looked pretty cool. You began to wonder what it would be like if the world suddenly flipped and you had to walk on the ceiling.
"That'd be crazy" you said. Just then you heard commotion outside, and it was coming your way. You figured it was just Arthur arguing with Peter or the crew so you didn't think anything of it and went back to your upside down world. The blood just started to rush too much to your head when the cabin door swung open quickly. You didn't bother looking, you knew who it was…or at least you thought you did.
"Welcome back Sahib, took you long enough." you said to which you expected Arthur to make some remark or to scold you for addressing him like that in a sarcastic way. Instead you were answered by chuckling. Unfamiliar chuckling. You opened your eyes and looked in the direction of the door. You were surprised to see two unfamiliar faces. One was in a dark green coat with a black hat and a black plume on top of it. But the face took you by surprise. The man had tanned skin and chocolate brown hair that was tied up in the back. But his eyes were what interested you the most. They were green just like Arthur's, only his seemed to have a different gleam in them. The second one shocked you a bit at first. His skin was very fair, which matched his platinum hair. And his eyes. It looked like someone stuck rubies in his eyes because that's what they looked like. He too was wearing a black hat with a black plume, but his coat was dark blue, navy you concluded. Both of them had a stupid grin on their faces. Standing next to them was the infamous creeper, Francis, who was also grinning.
'What the duce?' you thought as you cocked an eyebrow at them.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" you said, sounding less then thrilled. The one with the green eyes chuckled before speaking.
"Francis. Why didn't you tell me she was such a hermoso chica." he said, eying you in a strange way that you didn't like. You noticed his accent and figured out he was from Spain right away. Francis chuckled.
"I wanted you to see for yourself mon ami." he said, stepping aside to let Arthur through. Arthur looked at you with pity as if to say 'I screwed up, sorry.'
The one with the red eyes, an albino you assumed, piped up.
"Hey zere pretty Frau." he said, winking at you to which you let out a scoff. This man had what appeared to be a German accent. Arthur walked toward you, looking apologetic as if to say sorry a thousand times.
"I'm so sorry about this." he said quietly to you. You gave him a puzzled look. He sighed and held a hand out to you to help you out of the chair, to which you took.
"Artur, aren't you going to introduce us?" the Spanish one said, still having that same stupid grin on his face that you didn't like. It actually made you laugh a little. Arthur gritted his teeth again when Antonio, once again, mispronounced his name. You giggled at his expression.
"These are the men I was telling you about earlier." he said, shooting a glare in their direction, which only made them seem delighted. Then it clicked in your head.
'These were those 'dangerous' guys he was telling me about.' you thought, scanning them over.
'They don't look very dangerous to me.' you concluded. With a sigh Arthur led you over to them, close enough to where you could greet them but farther away enough so they couldn't try anything without Arthur intervening.
"(Name) this is Antonio Fernandez Carriedo." he said gesturing to the one with the green eyes and stupid grin. He tipped his hat to you and took your hand.
"It is a pleasure to meet you chica" he said, kissing your hand. You tried hard not to laugh, even though the way he rolled his 'R's' was nice. It still made you laugh internally. Mostly because you could practically feel the heat radiating off of the Captain. He didn't appear to be appreciating the fact that Antonio, not only touched you, but kissed your hand. He quickly grabbed your hand out of Antonio's grip, because it didn't seem like he would have voluntarily let go.
"Ahem, this is Gilbert Beilschmidt." he said, not even looking at the albino, but instead shooting daggers at Antonio. You chuckled quietly at them, they seemed to really not like each other. The Albino, know as Gilbert, grinned at you and puffed his chest out.
"Guten tag frau! I am awesome und a lady such as yourshelf should know zhat by now!" he said to which you started laughing. This caused Gilbert to give you a funny look. He was absolutely confused as to why you were laughing. All the ladies he met fell for him all the time because of his awesomeness!
"Vhat are you laughing at frau?" he asked. You halted your laughing to a giggle and pointed to him.
"You." you said "Your hilarious." Gilbert gave you a look like you were crazy. In all honesty this guy seemed to have an ego problem, no, it was an epidemic. If his ego got any bigger he would start floating off from all the hot air. You laughed a little at the thought of him with a giant head, floating in the air like a hot air balloon. Your thoughts were interrupted by a certain creeper.
"Bonjour mon cher." said none other then, you guessed it, Francis. He tried reaching for your hand to kiss it but you crossed your arms as if to say "Back of Jack". Francis chuckled at your reaction, as did Gilbert. Arthur and Antonio were to busy arguing and insulting each other to notice.
" Ohonhonhonhon, play 'ard to get are we?" he said, winking at you. You gave him a short laugh.
"Are you kidding me? What makes you think I want that?" you said, pointing your finger up and down to him to emphasize that you were referring to him. Gilbert chuckled again, obviously amused by you. Your tone of voice caught both Arthur and Antonio's attention. Francis was less then amused by you at the moment, but he wasn't about to go down that easily. He chuckled again.
"Come on mon cher. You know you want me." he said, leaning down a little closer to you. Arthur would have gladly strangled Francis right then and there but you responded before he could.
"Your right Francis, I want you. I want you so badly…" you started to say, which just inflated Francis' ego even more, thinking he had finally won you over with his "charm". Arthur looked at you in disbelief.
'I can't believe she fell for him! How could she be so blind?!?' he thought, staring at you in disappointment. Francis chuckled in delight.
"I knew you wanted me." he said, smirking. You smirked back.
"Yes I do. I want you so badly…..to go away." you finished before turning to leave to the deck. Francis stood there, dumfounded. Gilbert was laughing very hard, as was Antonio. In fact they both had to hold onto something to keep their balance. Even Arthur was laughing a bit.
'That's my smart girl.' he thought, relieved that his first assumption was wrong.
'I should have known she had something up her sleeve.'
You grinned at your success in putting Francis in his place. You knew he had probably never gotten that response from a woman before, which made it all the more satisfying for you.
"Kssessesse Francis! You just got r-rejected!" Gilbert said as best as he could through his laughter. Francis was still standing there, dumbfounded and unsure of what to do. Arthur was enjoying seeing Francis like this.
"A-Amigo! You got shot down!" Antonio said, almost falling over from laughter, he was holding onto his knees, doubled over in laughter, tears in his emerald eyes. Arthur laughed a little more.
"Seems he's no match for (name) I'd say." Arthur said, giving you a look that said he was proud of you. You turned around and smiled at him.
"Well I'd love to stay and chat but I have work I need to do. Gilbert, Antonio, it was nice meeting you. Francis, stay away from me and Captain I will see you later." You said, giving him a two fingered salute before opening his cabin door and closing it on your way out. You stuck your ear to the door to listen in just a little bit more. Now, eaves dropping isn't nice, but there are certain occasions when it is appropriate. This could be considered one of those cases. The again I'm not your mother and can't tell you what to do…oh wait! Yes I can! Because you in my story!
"Oh! Oh Francis! You should see the look on your face right now!" Antonio said, laughing some more. You couldn't see anything, being that you were behind a door and couldn't see through solid objects like superman. But if you were superman, er, superwoman, you were sure Francis would be pouting like a four year old.
"Oh shut up Antonio! Its not funny!" Francis said, not amused by his ship mates teasing. You heard some more laughter and decided to leave them be, besides, you had work to do.
~~~~~~~~
"A-Amigo." Antonio said, wiping a tear from his emerald eyes "Shall we talk business now?" he said, turning his attention to Arthur who was actually grinning, despite having Antonio and Gilbert in his presence, let alone in his personal quarters.
"I suppose we should." he said, making his way over to his desk and sitting in it, pulling out some maps. Antonio and Gilbert followed suite while Francis was sulking on the couch with his arms crossed. Arthur couldn't help but laugh at him. 'He looks so pathetic.' he thought. His thoughts were interrupted by Gilbert being his normal obnoxious self.
"So Arthur! Ve have a proposition for you!" he said, sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
Antonio sat down in the chair next to Gilbert and nodded.
"Si. We don't usually do these sort of things so listen up. We have heard rumors of Senior Cruz being spotted heading toward Normandy, as Francis may have already told you…" Antonio said, trailing off at the end to glance at the still pouting Francis. He chuckled a bit before directing his attention back to Arthur again.
"Yes, yes. I am fully aware of those details" Arthur said, leaning forward in his chair "But how do I know your telling the truth to me? We have never been on the…friendliest of terms." Arthur finished, choosing his words carefully. Antonio chuckled and shook his head a bit.
"Amigo, I know this, si. But you see" Antonio said, leaning forward in his chair himself "I am after Cruz myself. I want something from him." He leaned back in his chair again. "Now why would I lie about someone I too am searching for?" He asked. Arthur thought about it and knew Antonio had a point. He couldn't deny that. Gilbert scoffed, interrupting Arthur from his thoughts.
"You just don't get it do you? Ve are giving you an opportunity here!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air for emphasis. Arthur looked at Gilbert.
"Opportunity?" He asked.
"Si." Antonio replied, grabbing Arthur's attention. Arthur looked at Antonio skeptically.
"What sort of 'opportunity'?" Arthur asked, slightly suspicious.
"A deal." Gilbert said, causing Arthur to look at him.
"A deal?" Arthur said, getting pretty tired of their non descriptive way of going about this.
"Si." Antonio said, once again causing Arthur to look at him "We will make you a deal." he said. Arthur sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"And that would be?" he said, closing his eyes.
"It is simple amigo. We will work together. Your crew and mine, to capture Cruz. That way we both get what we want." Antonio said. Arthur released his nose and looked at Antonio in slight disbelief.
"Working together? All of us?" Arthur asked.
"Ja!" Gilbert interrupted "Und neizher of us vill attack eachozher in zhe mean time. Consider it a peace treaty." Arthur was unsure of what to make of all this. On one hand he could finally capture Cruz and avenge his parents. On the other hand it would be while working with his enemies. Could he really trust them?
"Look amigo" Antonio interjected, sensing Arthur's distrust. "I know you don't trust us. The same goes for us. But we give you our word we will honor our promise to not attack any of your crew as long as you do the same." he said, giving Arthur a serious look, which was unusual for the happy Spaniard.  Arthur looked from him to Gilbert, who also had a serious look on his face, simply nodding to Arthur. Arthur then looked to Francis who was still sulking on the couch.
"Oh just agree to it you stubborn Englishman!" Francis said, adding his piece to the conversation. Arthur sighed and looked at Antonio once more.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." he muttered before standing up, Antonio and Gilbert doing the same. Arthur sighed heavily and extended his hand, with much force on his part.
"If you promise to keep your end of the bargain then….I suppose….I agree." he said, almost sounding in pain while saying it. Antonio's smile crept back on his face. A sincere smile, taking Arthur's hand and shaking it.
"It's a deal then." he said, shaking Arthur's hand vigorously. "But once we capture Cruz your mine." he said, grinning ear to ear. Arthur just scoffed.
"Oh please. I'll blow you out of the water you git!" Arthur retorted, but in a joking way. Antonio chuckled and let go of Arthur's hand.
"Now, lets coordinate our plans…"
~~~~~~~~~~
The Captains had been in Arthur's Cabin for quite some time and you were starting to wonder what they were doing in there. You spent the morning doing your usual chores, talking with Ian and Gibbons when you got a chance and threatening anyone who so much as looked at your freshly mopped deck with your trusty wet towel. It was after lunch and you had finished your lunch quickly because you had remembered that you still needed to call Alfred. The sooner the better. 'I probably put him through no sleep! Poor guy' you thought as you made your way to your cabin. You made up some excuse to Ian why you were leaving lunch early. All you had to say was that it was "Female problems" and he didn't question you further. You opened your cabin door with a squeak. It was nice to be back here, being that it had been occupied but that creeper Francis for the past few days. You dearly hoped he didn't go sneaking through your stuff in your absence. And if so? Well, you would just have to introduce your foot to his pants. You grinned evilly at the thought of a hunched over pile of Francis on the floor. You shook your head of this thought and reached for your sweatshirt, retrieving the phone from your pocket, which was thankfully still there. 'Looks like Mr. Perv isn't a snoop after all' you thought. You skipped over to the bed and flopped down on it, turning it on and dialing Alfred's number.
"Please don't be mad at me, please don't be mad at me, please don't be mad at me!" you said quietly to yourself as you listened to the ringing on the other line. Soon enough…
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT'S BEEN??? YOU DON'T EVEN CALL ME FOR A SECOND TO LET ME KNOW YOUR ALIVE OR SAFE! YOU HAD ME WORRIED SICK!" Alfred shouted from the other end. You were sure you were holding the phone a good foot away from your ear 'Well so much for not being mad at me' you thought before putting the phone back to your ear.
"Look, I'm sorry Alfred. I really am. But honestly, this is the first chance I've been able to call you! You would not believe what happened over the past three days…" you said, explaining in detail what had happened. Seemed like you kept having quite the drama lately on this ship. It wasn't your fault, you were just stuck in the middle of this…whatever.
"WHAT!?!" Alfred shouted again "Who is this pervert! Francis you called him? I'll kill him!" he finished, sounding like an outraged father. You chuckled and shook your head.
"No, actually, you wont. Because you can't, so don't worry about it." you said, turning to face the window. You noticed it was overcast today. You heard Alfred mumble something on the other end, which you couldn't understand. You just shook your head and sighed.
"Alfred…I really miss home." you said, feeling a little sad. You had officially been away from home for a week now and were getting home sick
"You've only been gone a week." Alfred said. You groaned a little.
"I know….and I have three more weeks to go!" you said, closing your eyes in dismay. You heard Alfred sigh on the other line.
"Well…if it makes you feel any better. I miss you too. Things just aren't the same with out you here. There too….normal…and boring." He said. This brought a smile to your face. Somehow Alfred always knew just what to say to get you smiling again.
"Thanks Alfred…that actually does make me feel better." you said, turning away from the window.
"So what is go-" you started to ask. But you stopped and for good reason. Your breath hitched in your throat, your eyes went wide and you wished you would just drop off the face of the earth at that moment. For there, standing in the doorway looking confused and slightly scared was the Captain, staring at you with eyes just as wide. 'Oh no!' you thought. He caught you. Red handed. On a phone. Which weren't even in existence at the moment, talking to Alfred. Who just so happened to be a bit of a big mouth. Meaning that you could hear him over the phone from across the room. This was bad.
"(N-Name)?" Arthur managed to say. You didn't speak, how could you? You were paralyzed with fear. The one thing you didn't want to happen, happened. And it didn't help that Alfred was still talking on the other line.
"(Name)? (Name)?? (NAME)???" Alfred asked, getting louder and louder with each question. Arthur looked at the strange and foreign device in your hands.
"(N-Name)? Wh-What on earth is that???" He asked, pointing to your ear. You quickly hung up and hid the phone behind your back.
"Nothing!" you said quickly. You knew he wasn't buying it. You weren't even buying it! You were in trouble…and you weren't sure how to talk your way out of this one.