Pirate Love (kataang story)

The Fight

Aang could only stand there, blinking rapidly in surprise as he took in this new piece of information. Sure, he had figured that he would eventually run into the other most infamous pirate in the world, but he hadn't expected them to be so… gorgeous.

In fact, he hadn't expected the captain to be a girl at all. Not that he was a sexist or anything, as his mother and his father had co-captained their ship together, but for some reason he had always imagined his competitor as an older, far less attractive man. But now he could see that that was the furthest thing from the truth. She was young and absolutely stunning, making him wonder if she used her beauty to her advantage during her raids.

Though he also couldn't help but wonder how she knew who he was. They had never met before, he knew, as he would certainly have remembered coming across a creature as beautiful as her. And though he found that he could continue staring at her all day, he decided to finally voice his thoughts. "How do you know who I am?" he asked with a raised brow, his hand never leaving the hilt of his sword in case someone started a fight with him.

He watched as the young woman grinned, reaching into the pocket on the side of her corset dress and produced a scroll which she pulled out for him to see, taking him by surprise as she rolled it open to reveal a picture of him with his title in big letters at the top of the scroll.

"Oh, I'm well acquainted with your wanted posters," she said simply with that same dangerously playful look in her eyes.

"Now, why do you have that?" Aang couldn't help but wonder, but a smirk crossed onto his face as an idea came to mind as to why she would keep it with her. "You liked what you saw, huh?"

To his surprise, her caramel colored cheeks actually became stained with a rosy red as her eyes widened, but she simply crossed her arms over her chest and looked away, though he could see that her cheeks were still burning.

The crew around her could only watch in surprise as they looked between the two legendary captains to see what would happen, though the raven-haired girl couldn't hold back a smug smirk as she saw her captain do this. She was always in need of more teasing material, and captain or not, her friend was definitely about to get teased for this.

After the young woman took a few settling breaths and forced the blush off her cheeks, she looked back to the young airbender with an unamused look on her face. "The reason I have your poster is purely professional," she attempted to put on a convincing tone, but he could hear a trace of the embarrassment that had lit her face up like a fire on a dark night in her voice. She then resumed her confident stature and smirked back at him. "Besides, I wasn't the one gawking like a lily-liver."

Although he felt a blush creeping up on his cheeks from being so obviously caught, he knew that she was in the same boat he was. But, knowing that it wouldn't do him any good to anger her further, he decided to play his odds and be honest with her. "Well, I'll admit, you had me surprised, mate," he chuckled as he took his hand off his sword, watching as the crew around him did the same. "I never expected 'The Tide' to be so… young. Or pretty," he added, almost as an afterthought.

Another blush stained the young captain's face, but after she used all of her willpower to force it away, she resumed her usual smirk. "An honest pirate? Your kind is rare these days," she began as she walked around him, making him stand perfectly still as she did so, though he wasn't sure why. "You're definitely in great shape for a pirate captain who probably didn't do much fighting himself."

"I did more than you'd think, mate," he decided to oblige. "The best captains don't just send their crew into danger without facing the dangers themselves."

"Aye," she nodded as she finally made her way back to his front and stopped, tapping her foot on the ground as she appeared to be studying him very closely, making him blush a little. "On that we can agree. So, your ship sank?" He nodded. "And if I remember correctly, you were contemplating whether you could take this ship for yourself," she noted, making him smile sheepishly as he rubbed his neck.