The Pirate's Treasure Ch.12

The Pirate's Treasure

Chapter Twelve: The Captain's past
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Antonio introduced Marcello to the two crews, who warmly welcomed him; especially Arthur since now he technically has his own mermaid thanks to Peter. They have returned to the ship, a machine that fascinates Marcello. He constantly pesters anyone he can about how it works, quickly writing their answers down. Lovino doesn't have the heart to tell him wood will not float underwater.
Every night Marcello sleeps with Peter; it's the only way Lovino can keep his room without complaint from the boy. Francis has been meeting with Marcello a lot as well, which makes Lovino highly uneasy. When the two get together they both have a strange look in their eyes that Lovino can't pinpoint. A sort of scheming look.

With every day they are coming closer to Feliciano, and with every day Lovino is growing closer to both crews. He loves spending time with Matthew the most, although Adrian is interesting as well, and when nowhere near Antonio, Abel is pretty kind to him. Benjamin is an interesting man too, although his lover Jacob is a rather strange man.

Lovino is now well versed in sword fighting thanks to Antonio, along with cooking thanks to Joan and Francis. He enjoys the ship so much now, sometimes he wonders if he ever wants to truly leave. The feeling of the ship is so different than that he gets underwater. This ship embodies freedom to Lovino, which is a strange thought seeing as how he was originally blackmailed into staying onboard. Sometimes waking up next to Antonio, Lovino wonders if he will grow lonely when he returns to waking alone.

"Lovi, what are you staring at?" Antonio asks, standing behind the boy and leaning forward to look over him into the water.

"D-don't get so close! I'm not staring at anything!" Lovino stutters, sidestepping away from the man. "I was just thinking about something."

"Like how your brother is plotting something horrible with Francis?" Antonio teases, leaning against the railing.

"Hm? Plotting?" Lovino looks at him confused. "Plotting what?"

"I would assume they are plotting how to separate us." The Spaniard answers, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Hah! That's…I mean…why would they need to do that? It makes no sense."

"Tell me…Lovi…do you have any more siblings?" Antonio asks and Lovino nods.

"I have some sisters. Three of them."

"Can women rule?"

The merman rolls his eyes. "Of course they can rule. We aren't as foolish as you humans when it comes to women."

"I'm going to ignore that…" Antonio grumbles, glaring at the boy. "But nonetheless…I think Marcello wants you to return to be there in case something happens to your father and you need to take over. The women could rule…but I'm assuming since you are the oldest you would probably be stronger than any of your siblings?"

"It's true, I am…but they are not far behind." Lovino sighs. "Why is power so important to all of you?"

Antonio smiles at the boy. "You can ask that because you are powerful. You don't know what it's like to be below everyone. Take it from me, it isn't fun."

"Huh? Weren't you raised….?" Lovino falters, realizing he has no idea how Antonio grew up. He has answered every question Antonio asked about his childhood and homeland, but never asked any follow-ups for Antonio. "How were you raised?"

Antonio sighs. "Does that truly matter?"

"Well, I mean…you know all about me…so isn't it only fair?"

"Fairness doesn't always incorporate true importance."

Lovino glares. "Well it's important to me, so stop being a brat!"

Moving from the railing, Antonio holds his hand out to Lovino. "Let's go somewhere else."

"Why?"

Antonio shrugs. "I have to get some things done and must go to my office. Of course if you do not want to come…"

"No! I'm coming!" Lovino grabs his hand and begins to lead them to the office. Once inside Antonio locks the door and sits at his desk, Lovino following suit and sitting in a chair beside the Spaniard's.

"See that?" Antonio motions towards a small box that's falling apart. "It's the only thing I have left from my family."

Lovino picks it up, looking the object over before opening it and unrolling a family portrait of a young Antonio in front of two sickly looking adults. "I thought in portraits they could made people look better." He comments before gasping. "Ah, no, I mean-!"

"It's alright. Making them look healthy would have cost much more, which we didn't have. In fact, the one who painted that was actually Francis." Antonio says, looking to Lovino. "We could not afford anything. Our home was a shed Francis' family no longer used. We paid them back by growing their crops. Francis started as my landlord's son and turned into my best friend, with Gilbert of course. It wasn't ideal in anyway, as children Francis could be cruel sometimes when I angered him by threatening to kick us out."

"That lowly son of a-!" Lovino gets cut off by a hand coming to his mouth.

"It wasn't him, it was his parents. They tried to tell him we were nothing, it's one of the reasons he left with me to become a pirate." Antonio explains.

"Why did you leave? Are you taking care of your parents with all of this treasure?" The merman asks, looking up at Antonio curiously. "Will you be visiting them after we see Feliciano?"

Antonio's expression darkens. "That would be impossible. The whole reason we left is because…"

"They died." Lovino mumbles and Antonio nods.

"They were murdered. By Francis' parents. They kept us there for chores, as if we were nothing more than work horses to them. As soon as mother and father grew ill…they were 'put down'. They set fire to our home to make it look like it was an accident. Of course none of the townspeople would have asked questions, they only did it to cover it up from Francis and I, but we knew. I salvaged that box from the fire, buried my parents, and left almost immediately." Antonio explains, leaning back in his chair. "Those without power can be murdered for something as little as a cold. I didn't want that to happen to me. I just-hm?" He looks over curiously, seeing Lovino stand up. "Ah, off to leave?"

Lovino wordlessly shakes his head no before he leans down and awkwardly wraps his arms around Antonio's shoulders.

"Wh…what are you…?"

"It's called a hug, idiot." Lovino mumbles into his hair. "This is how people comfort each other."

"What about mermaids?" Antonio asks, bringing his hands up to Lovino's back.

"We…we hug too, but not as often as humans seem to." Lovino answers. "We don't do a lot of the things the way humans do…"

Antonio laughs awkwardly. "I suppose not." He looks at Lovino and smiles lightly. "Thank you, Lovi."

Lovino stares at him silently for a moment before bringing a hand up and flicking his forehead. "Do not think too much of it. I will not offer you comfort all the time…" He says, looking to Antonio curiously. "I have a question."

"Hmm?" Antonio asks lazily, letting his hands fall from Lovino's back to rest on the arms of his chair.

"How could you be so trusting at the beginning of your piracy, when those whom you trusted most killed your parents?" Lovino asks and Antonio looks to him surprised.

"I..." He thinks for a moment, unsure himself. "I had Francis and Gilbert. They kept my faith in humanity intact…for as long as they could."

"It's a shame it has been ruined." Lovino mumbles, looking down at the painting. "I would have liked to meet an Antonio with this sort of smile." He says, tracing the small child's grin with his fingers.

"When you smile, I will smile." Antonio counters, patting him on the head. "Now I would appreciate it if you left so I can work."

"Pirates don't have paperwork. What are you actually doing?" Lovino accuses, looking around the table until his eyes fall on something. "…Gilbert is the man who has Feliciano, right?" He asks, reaching out for a letter with the man's name on it. "How did you get a message from him so quickly?"

Antonio quickly snatches it up. "I did not. This is from earlier this year. I'm trying to find their location based on any hints I can find in these. I miss Gilbert as much as you miss Feliciano." He answers, opening it and showing Lovino the letter. "See the date?"

Lovino takes the letter and looks it over. "Ah…I see…" He mumbles disappointedly.

"I'm sorry. We really don't have a faster method of catching up to them. We are close, though." Antonio says, placing a hand on Lovino's shoulder. "It won't be much longer."

Lovino's grip tightens on the paper. "He's talking about Feliciano in here."

"Yes, a lot of our more recent letters included him bragging over Feliciano." Antonio groans. "I sent him a letter about you, I'm not sure if it has reached him yet."

"Hmm…" Lovino gets up from his seat and hands Antonio the letter. "I'm going to go see Marcello."

"Tell him that his plans with Francis are useless." Antonio says, flipping through pages of the letter.

"I will. Although you're probably just being paranoid." Lovino adds, leaving the room.

"Only a child would not take it seriously…" Antonio grumbles. "Francis should always be taken seriously."
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A/N: Sorry it took so long! I had a wicked sunburn on my shoulders and it hurt to write. lD ANYWAYS! Yeah.....here's....this...thing.