The Merman and the Prince

Chapter 6

Kuroko's Pov

When I made my way down the stairs and into the galley I saw a young man chopping potatoes at the table. He looked up, dark hair flopping over one of his eyes when I entered and I shyly nodded my head.

"Um hey, I'm Kuroko. Akash- I mean captain Akashi sent me down to see if I could help."

A smile brightened his face and he moved forward to shake my hand and I could see he had a mole under one eye.

"Well met! I'm Himuro I help Murasakibara in the kitchen. With all these new mouths to feed we have been pretty busy. Could I get you to start scrubbing the dishes from this morning?"

I nodded and got started right away. Himuro was a cheerful person and chatted away while we worked and I found myself relaxing beside him. I was starting to see there were more to these pirates then I thought.

I had finished the last dish and wiped my red and sweaty face when a voice behind me said, "good work Kurochin."

I spun in shock to see a chest in front of me. I moved back a few steps and craned my neck up to meet they eyes of the purple haired Murasakibara. He had to be almost seven feet tall and he looked down at me as I swallowed a lump in my throat. He reached out a hand and I jumped in shock but he simply handed me a candy. I took it with a mumbled thanks as he pulled out another one and jammed it into his mouth. I did the same and hummed with pleasure at the taste.

"This is really good!"

He smiled down at me, his violet eyes sparkling in his face.

"Isn't it? Here you have to try this one, and this one oh and this too!"

He began to reach into his many pockets to pull out different sweets and piled them into my hands. Himuro giggled from his spot by the stove.

"He loves sweets but no one here has the same tastes as he does. You have made yourself a life time friend."

I smiled at the dark haired man and began to put the dishes away when I saw movement in the corner of my eyes. Did they just kiss? I felt my face flush at the thought that I had seen a secret moment between the two of them so I continued to work at my task, giving them some privacy.

"Would you two love birds stop making out? Can't you see your embarrassing the little one?"

I turned to view the newcomers and saw it was the dark skinned man and the blonde who had held the weapons on the slavers ship. I felt my shame and guilt well up and turned back to placing down the plates for lunch when a comforting hand grabbed my shoulder. I looked up into a pair of sunflower eyes smiling down at me.

"You did the right thing."

"And what a strike it was!"

The dark haired man came up on my other side, putting his arm around me. Kise and Aomine, I remembered were their names. They always seemed to be near each other, working together or training. I had been transfixed with their swordsmanship when they had sparred one day on the deck. They were equally matched in skill from what I could see but the darker skinned Aomine pulled unnaturally fast and unpredictable moves that threw Kise off.

"You slipped it right under the ribs and into the heart! That's a hard move to pull off. Had some practice?"

I shook my head, not wanting to remember the feeling of the slavers life leaving his body or his blood sticky on my hands.

"I've never held a dagger before then."

"Hmm a natural then! You should get some training. You would make a great swordsman, or even better," he said with a wink. "An awesome pirate."