The Pirate Code // Karlnap Fanfic

chapter twelve

The sky was filled with thick, cotton like storm clouds. The waves mercilessly crashing against the ships as they sailed right into the storm front.
"Are you sure captain?", someone at the helm yelled and Sapnap shouted a loud: "Aye!", through the wind and heavy rain.

He was tied to the mast, hanging on a rope ladder, looking out into the distance.
He got back down onto the deck, approached Bad and Niki who checked wind and direction to stay on course.
"How much longer will it be?" "Two days through this storm and we should hit land at night before the third day breaks", Bad said and Sapnap nodded. "Good", he replied and went under deck.

He was drenched to the bones and just planned on a short break from the storm, before half of his crew would take their rest for the day. All when he suddenly heard a quiet sobbing from one of the quarters.
He carefully opened the door and saw how Tallulah quickly wiped her tears.

Will wasn't around, currently helped on deck and so he decided to step inside.
He closed the door and got on a knee in front of the little girl. "What's wrong, little one?" "It's very scary when the thunder is loud", she mumbled and he saw her eyes brimming with tears again.
Sapnap smiled a little and opened his arms, for her to quickly hug him.
He sat down with her on his arm and said: "When I was your age I was scared of it too, but you know what? I overcame that fear, because I learned how brave I was"
"I'm not brave", she sobbed and he patted her head. "You are the bravest of us, little Tallulah", he said, "I mean look at you, you're so small and still you adventure with us. You sail around the world and know how to straighten sails, even though you are still so little"

She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and looked at him. "Really?"
"Yes!", he said enthusiastically, "You are brave and even the scary storm outside won't change that. You have the heart of a pirate and a pirate is brave"
With that he took off his captains hat and took a leather band off of it.
He tied it into a little adjustable bracelet and put it around her wrist. "You will grow up to do brave things, Tallulah. I believe in you and your bravery.", he said and for a moment she looked at the bracelet, before she hugged him. "But I can still be scared now?", she asked sheepishly and he chuckled. "Of course you can be scared now, storms are scary like that. But as soon as you find that bravery in yourself, you can go up there and tell the storm that it doesn't scare you anymore. Okay? And even if it's not this storm, but the next one or even the one after that, but that bravery, I see it in you and some day you'll find it yourself", he said and she nodded. Then he smiled and held his hand up for a high five and she gave him one, before reaching over for a book.

"Papí gave that to me so I could distract myself from the storm until he was back, can you read it with me?", she asked and he took it. "Sure can, kid", he said and opened it up. Together they read it and eventually he felt her head falling against his chest.
He chuckled when he saw that she fell asleep and carefully tugged her in.
Then he walked out and sent Wilbur down to take his rest and allowed him to stay with her until the storm was over.

Up on deck the storm was reaching it's peak, rough winds pulling on the sails, dragging them forward, cutting through the waves.
He took his place at the helm for now, steering the ship into the direction Bad gave him every few minutes.
Eventually Sapnap decided it had no use to continue sailing when the storm would throw them back over and over.
"Lower the anchor, close the sails. We should rest and continue the travels tomorrow morning, with full energy", he said to Bad and then he whistled loudly, giving a few hand signals to his crew.

Karl on the other ship noticed, realized it was actual sign language and gave his crew the same directions before Sapnap could even come over to him and ask him to do so.

"I didn't know you were fluent in sign language", Sapnap said when Karl told him he was already done giving directions cause he had seen him.
"Well, there are lots of things you don't know about me", Karl said and after a quick look around Sapnap kissed his cheek and replied: "I'll slowly uncover them"

Karl blushed and smiled, before he nodded. "I hope you will", he mumbled and gently felt Sapnaps hand around his waist, just for a bit while it seemed like they talked closely to each other due to the loud noises of the raging storm. "Is anyone looking?", Sapnap whispered to him and after another look around Karl shook his head.
Gently Sapnap reached for the back of his head and pulled him in for a kiss.

The rain drenched them both and the wind tugged on their clothes, while the kiss tugged on their hearts.
Karl smiled at him as they parted and gave him another quick kiss, before letting go.
"You're beautiful", Sapnap whispered in his ear, before saying his goodbye for now and returning to his own ship.

Most of the crews had gone under deck to rest, only very few staying to keep watch.
So eventually it was Sapnap, Dream, George and Bad on the deck, making sure the rest of the crew would get their rest.
Bad and George were closing the last few sails and Dream and Sapnap stood at the helm, talking and eventually Dream turned more serious. "Why are we going to a fictional island?" "It's not fictional", Sapnap said and then he said, "We will retrieve a certain treasure and cement our names in the history books for being the first people to prove the islands existence"

Dream looked at him, almost searching for anything else that might have hidden in his gaze, before he said: "There is another reason" "I'll be honest, there is." "If you're honest with that, I'll trust you not to get us killed", Dream said and Sapnap nodded firmly. "Good"