True Bonding- when you almost blow a mission together

[Arabella Porter]

"Lower my bounty," moonlight
streamed in through Buckingham palace, silently illuminating the metal barrel of Ara's revolver as she aimed it at the Queen's chest with a click. Queen Victoria sat up slowly and stared with patient dark eyes.
"Shoot me, wonderful idea." The woman said dryly, "killing me will help your cause,"
"I didn't come here to kill you, I came here to threaten you unless you don't do as I ask in which case then," Ara pressed the gun barrel into the Queen's chest, "I will kill you." The royal shot a piercing glare.
"We'll see," she said and Ara's eyes flash open.... No Queen.... No moonlight.... Not even Buckingham palace; just the squeak of Dominique's hammock as she moves in her sleep. Ara yawned and stretched.
"If only," she thought as she climbed down the ladder next to her hammock in her bra and knickers. She dragged herself to a drawer across the room and pulled on trousers before picking up her father's pocket watch off her desk. "5 am" it said and she put it in her pocket before rubbing her eye with a balled hand and putting on a shirt. She grabbed her goggles, gun, and knife before sliding on her boots. Once dressed she brushed her hair and braided it and made her way to the toilet to brush her teeth and wash her face.
Still groggy at 5:30, Ara returned to her room and kicked Dominique's hammock. "Levez," she demanded as Dominique grumbled. Ara then went to knock on Roderick and Raphael's door. They were already up though due to a planned early morning poetry reading with Mercurian. She then opened Michelle and Natalie's door. "Get up! We have an early schedule." Ara demanded in an aggressive tone and as the girls began to stir, she moved to the big room, opening the door and kicking each crew mate. "Get up sleeping beauties, Prince Charming isn't coming." She snickered.
"Fuck off," Emerald groaned and turned over in her bed. Ara pressed her boot on Emerald's arm, "All right! All right! The shit I put up with," she mumbled, sitting up. Ben, passing Ara on his way to the toilet, gave Ara a kiss on the forehead as he dragged Marlow and Joseph like dolls behind him, one in each hand. Ara smiled and patted Ben on the head before walking to Ezra's bed.
"Up, now," she kicked him in the arm. He sat up and grumbled something. "Want to say that to my face?" Ara raised her voice. Ezra ignored her and pulled on trousers. Everyone grabbed a piece of fruit from the galley and went to work at 6:30, all but Natalie and Raphael. She shoved a mop and bucket into Natalie's hands, "you'll swab the deck, then the galley. Take a lemon and work the foggy metal in the showers. You'll also be cleaning the galley after lunch. Then I want you in the toilets. Bring some bleach down there, there's something sticky on the floor. Wash the stairwells, the windows, and get down to the boiler room where you'll be scrubbing the mildew off the ceiling. Then start on the laundry loads. And then," Ara made a circle around the woman, scanning her, "yeah," she confirmed to herself, "you're going on a little adventure tonight. Make yourself pretty and dress smart for eight o'clock tonight." She smiled. Natalie raised an eyebrow,
"Why do you need me to dress smart?" She asked,
"Don't worry about that for now. Just get to work and then you'll have the rest of the morning and afternoon off to sleep so you have energy for tonight." Ara responded. Natalie gave her a confused look. "I said get to work." Ara ordered and like clockwork Natalie turned to fill the bucket up in the Galley. The first mate then turned to Raph who gazed groggily in the distance. Ara circled him for a good few moments wondering what to do with him. "Let's see your cooking skills," she said,"lunch is at 11 so you have time but make lunch for the crew that will be ready 11 on the dot. An trust me," Ara leaned in, "you don't want to keep a pirate crew waiting." Raphael nodded, sleepy, and dragged himself to the galley.
"Ara," Thomas Dunning walked up behind her. She whirled around to face him. "I don't have a job." She looked at him for a moment,
"Do you know how to get to the top of the balloon? Climb up and keep a look out for good loot," she said. There was a long silence between them.
"What?"
"Thomas I just gave you a job."
"You mean look out for... Victims."
"Well.... Yeah,"
"Innocent people to loot?" Ara sighed, knowing where this was going,
"Thomas, listen," she started he began to interrupt her put she pressed her pointer finger to his lips, "The Queen has thrown you away, your family is dead to you. You have no more honest money to earn because as much as I hate to be the bringer of bad news, aroma therapy won't get you anywhere and you'd be a shit private investigator. You have no other skills." She grabbed his shoulders when he looked away, "you came here looking for help. We're giving it. Welcome to the world of rejects.We land in Japan in a few hours." She walked away leaving Thomas to ponder to himself as he climbed up the nets that draped over the new balloon.

Later that day, the Widow landed in Japan and Michelle, now head of under cover jobs, left the ship as fast as possible only to return an hour later with a damask paper package. She opened the door of her room where Natalie waited patiently in a towel.
"Remember, you must be yourself from before you stepped on this ship. You will know nothing of pirates before these." Natalie opened the package as Michelle spoke and slipped on the dress inside, a sapphire blue gown with a black leather corset and a jade hairpin. "The hairpin breaks in half to be a poison storage. You'll spread it on the cushion of the pillow but underneathe the pillow sheet. That direct orders by the captain and Mercurian."Michelle said. Natalie let out a short laugh.
"I don't get it, why the pillow?"
"Because the captain needs to die in his sleep so we don't get found out immed-"
"But why do we need to kill him?"
"Because he never paid off a de-"
"But I still don't-"

"Listen," Ara interrupted as Natalie sprayed herself with a fragrance. Michelle snapped her head to the doorway as the first mate entered, "just do what you're ordered for now. You'll be included in the plans when you gain more expirience." Natalie stood in front of Ara.
"Yes ma'am," long silence....
"Don't say that to me again," Ara said with a look of disgust as turned to leave the room. As night fell over Tokyo, Natalie and Dominique flew into the streets of the city.

Ara watched them leave and turned to Michelle. "How'd you find all that stuff?" She asked as Michelle smirked into the distance like a queen looking over her people. She laughed,
"You taught me how to turtle dove." She said, "so I turtle doved." Arabella patted the Spanish woman on the back.
"I could just cry," she giggled an they laughed together.

Meanwhile (back at the refet) Natalie and Dominique sat patiently in a shiny wooden waiting room with marble floors and padded brass benches. Muffled jazz streamed slowly from behind a metal door with the words "Zayuka" engraved on the front. Dominique wore the same dark green dress she wore to Wil and Ana's wedding and in her boot underneathe the gown, the knife Alex gave her waited alert and ready. When he door made a sudden shifting sound, the two women jumped a bit, and stood, smoothing out their attire. Natalie looked to Dominique,

"Don't break character," she whispered and winked. Dominique smiled,
"Fuck off," she whispered back and Natalie, who had just been trying to nice turned her gaze back to the door, a bit hurt. The door slid open to reveal a tall, curvy Japanese woman in a black leather suit who scanned the two gals up and down with a clicking mechanical right eye. As the woman stood to the side, Dominique and Natalie entered, the door thumping shut behind them.

"All yakuza?" Natalie whispered to Dominique, not looking at her,
"Yes. The air captain you're looking for is a paid smuggler for them. He should be in one of the VIP rooms." Informed Dominique.
"Isn't this the VIP room?" Natalie asked.
"No. Just because it's hidden doesn't make it a,"
"Welcome to the VIP room ladies!" A portly old man came with open arms to greet them as people moved out of his way.
"I told you this was the VIP room," mentioned Natalie. She then slyly slid her hand through the portly man's arm.
"I am Watanabe, the man who hired you." He gave a blushing tipsy grin through his cigar. Here, lie us assign you a room right away.any particular kinds of men you've worked with before?" He asked chuckling.
" I've been with a lot of sea captains and sailors, aeronauts and the like but business men too." Natalie said flat out. "Dominique,"no, "ara" what? ..... "Dominikara has worked with men of this occupation as well. In fact, we're actually a double act so we wouldn't like to be split up if you don't mind." Dominique shot Natalie the strangest most confused, broken look the girl had ever received as Watanabe led them to a brown curtained area. He opened the curtain to reveal a big vase shaped glass table encircled by a black leather booth. Inside, the table was a quarter filled with water that bubbled out of a metal piece when the two men sitting around it sucked away at mouth hoses attached to somewhere underneath the table top where in the center, a big coal the size of Watanabe's hand glowed orange beneath a black tinge.
"Men this is....." He gestured to Natalie who stood there silent until he realized she was being adressed. Dominique nudged her.
"Oh me? I'm... Nat.... Nata...." The men all stared, "Natame," Natalie smiled and the men laughed. "This is Dominikara,"
"Dominique for short," the French woman interrupted impatiently.
"Well, why don't you two cats settle down with Captain Graham and Captain Gralen here." The two women exchanged glances which made it clear to both that the other had forgotten what their target's name was. "It started with a GR" Natalie thought.
"Ohhh," Natalie interjected, "captain of what I wonder?" She asked as she crawled into the booth and rested an arm on Captain Gralen's chest. Dominique then flashed a fake smiled and slid ino the arms of the other captain.
"Well, aren't you just eager to find out?" Captain Gralen bantered. Wasn't the answer I was looking for, thought Natalie as she tucked a loose hair out of her eyes and behind her ear. After thirty minutes of table conversation, the two both went up to go to the Lou, leavin the two men to chatter amongst themselves. Dominique grabbed Natalie's shoulders.
"It must be yours," Said Natalie. "Mine captains his boss' air yacht."
"Well he's not exactly going to openly tell some call girl that he's a smuggler." Dominique argued.
"So how do we know it's not yours." Natalie asked.
"There's no way to tell."
"So should we kill them both?" Natalie asked.
"You're the only one with the poison." Hissed Dominique.
"You have a knife."
"Don't be stupid. That'll get us both caught!"
"Can't you just scream and pretend he was assassinated and the assassin came in and left. Tie yourself up and gag yourself to make it more realistic so they don't suspect you." Natalie suggested. Dominique rolled her eyes.
"Listen, let's just keep actin interested. We'll ask about pirates. Whoever brags about pirates, we kill him. Ok?"
"What if they've both dealt with pirates?"
"Just trust me."

30 minutes later-----/

"I have to say, the worst pirates I've ever had to deal with was this one crew. Each had his own blaster and one was an expert knife thrower. Almost got my throat pinned to a wall." Laughed Captain Gralen, now drunk with sake stinging his breath.
"Yeah, the knife throwers are pretty bad. Had to deal with a whole crew of knife throwing pirates." Sighed Captain Graham. Dominique looked sheepishly to Natalie as she took a sip of wine.
"Any female pirates?" Natalie threw in,

"Yup." The two men answered in perfect synchronization. The two frusterated women slumped in their seats. Dominique refilled her glass with sake. "That's a lot of alcohol, miss. Aren't you going to be too drunk to party a little later?"

"I can take a good loosening up." Dominique said still staring at Natalie who stared back with gears turning in her head. That's when it hit her. Male pirates, sure. Female pirates, common enough.
"Have you read Jack.... Jack Union's recent article of child pirates?"

"Child pirates? Not captains."

"No, yes. Child pirate captains. They're not very common. But according to Jack Union, they're out there and usually quite good at what they do surprisingly." Natalie continued through the hazy air of cherry hookah. Captain Gralen scoffed.
"Can't be long before they get caught by sky patrol surely."
"Why would anyone expect a child to be a pirate captain? Usually tey disguise themselves as high class dukes or duchesses being transferred to visit family overseas. It's quite interesting." Dominique stared at Natalie with a gleam of hope in her eye.

"You know," Captain Graham started, Natalie and Dominique both flashed their gazes towards him as he began to speak, hands crossed under the table and hearts beat loudly with, "I think you're looking a bit tired my dear," he said to Dominique, taking a puff of the hookah table. This mission was impossible. "Maybe I should escort you to your room? Hm?" Dominique's body tensed suddenly from across the table and Natalie could tell what was being pinched under the table. If only they could read each other's minds. It would have to be a risk. Natalie stretched her arms up.
"Yes, I'm quite tired as well," she winked at Captain Gralen. He smirked slightly and The four folks slipped out of the booth. Both parties said their goodbyes and split.

Natalie took Captain Gralen's arm. As he led her to a special clockwork lift hidden underneath the stairwell of the building. Natalie took note as the man inserted a brass key into the doors of the lift that set off a stream of loud clicking noises before the golden doors opened with a "ding!". Meanwhile, Captain Graham and Dominique had already made it to the room where he had her pinned against the wall.
"I know that accent," he whispered in her ear. "Where are you from in France?"
"Paris," she gasped as he kissed her neck. And then he gasped, cold, and painful to the bone with a blade in his back. She smiled wickedly and pushed his corpse to he ground, positioning it to look like he'd fallen on his stomach from the doorway. She knelt down in front of him and put his hand I'm her lap. Then, without hesitating, Dominique screamed.

Natalie strutted herself into her room with Captain Gralen following behind and locking the door. There was no time to lose. The girl unpinned her hair and placed the jade hairpin on the bedside as Gralen undid her corset. It fell to the ground and she lifted her dress over her head and threw that to the ground as well. Gralen then kissed her. Disgusting. And she grabbed the hairpin off the bedside before resting her arms around him, letting her forearms dangle off the back of his shoulders so she could fiddle with the hairpin as they kissed. She then backed away and sat on the bed, shaking her hair out.

"You wouldn't mind grabbing me a drink before we go to bed, would you?" She asked. Gralen looked at her confused.
"Uh... Right... Alright..." He said, turning to go to the mini bar on the corner of the room. Natalie quickly sprinkled the poison all over
the pillows.
"Oh captain!" She called over to which Gralen turned to find her grabbing his collar and pushing him over to the bed. The glass shattered on the floor and his head hit the pillow. Here it was. She straddled him and began fiddling with his trousers as he began to feel a burning in the back of his head.
"Wait," he struggled, "my head," and she sat up off of him, shaking with adrenaline. He jolted and shook as the poison seeped into his sku and burned through. Natalie, pulled on her dress, laced up her corset, reassembled her hairpin, and walked out.

"I don't know! I don't what happened!! All I know is the first thing he was making love to me, et puis il est mort et je ne sais pas!!" She cried into her hands, squeaking a little to make herself appear more helpless and defenseless. Watanabe stroked her leg as she pretended to cry.
"There there, you'll be paid extra tonight." He said, she sniffled for a moment and then looked innocently up at him, leaning down and resting her head in his lap like a daughter, "how much?"

Natalie sat for a long time at he bar downstairs in the VIP room, sipping nervously on Sauvignon Blanc. Once the job was done, as long as they didn't get caught, she and Dominique were supposed to meet up. It was taking what felt like a lifetime though when suddenly Mr. Watanabe and Dominique appeared next to Natalie.
"Dominique!" Natalie interjected before making eye contact with Watanabe.
"My my, where is Captain Gralen?" He asked her. Natalie's heart skipped a beat.
"He's..."
"Our client, where is he?" Asked Watanabe again as she and Dominique exchanged nervous glances.
"I'm not sure," she answered. Dominique's face seemed to freeze in time upon hearing this. "He just sent me downstairs. A woman came in wearing a red dress... With blonde hair... And a fake arm? He demanded me to leave and come downstairs." She lied. Watanabe looked towards the stairwell door.
"Well, I should go an see what the ruckus is about then."
"Yes! Please do!" Natalie called after h as he walked away. When he disappeared into the stairwell, Dominique grabbed the short girl's hand and they ran out, shoving the security woman to the side.

"Took you long enough," Captain Charlotte tsked with the two young women sitting in front of her.

"We know. So, we brought some free booze." Natalie opened a bag she had taken with her on the job a set out each bottle one by one....

Sauvignon Blanc. Green Goddess Absinthe, Southern Comfort (Dominiqie winked at Ara on that one, a nice Merlot, and Abner Rum.

"You learn quick girl." Charlotte smiled,

"You have no idea." Sighed Domininque.