The Pirate & The Princess [KaneTou]

1

It had been a lovely evening, with a glamorous ball held at night to celebrate King Arata's birthday. After a whole night of smiling and chatting with the guests, Princess Touka was exhausted and decided to retire to her room to rest. A few hours have passed since then and from her balcony, she could see the guests slowly leaving the castle in their carriages. She headed back to her bed, threw herself onto it and fell into a deep slumber fast.

Around the middle of the night, to which she assumed it was by the brightness of the full moon, she was awoken to guards shouting and the loud thumping of footsteps as they ran on the corridor just outside her room. Walking to the balcony again, she peered over it and saw a fight between her castle's guards and men who she didn't recognize. The clothing they wore resembled almost like a...pirate's!

Her parents immediately came to her mind. Father and Mother! She had to make sure that they were safe..! Quickly turning around, she gasped when a pirate pointed a long knife at her with a frown. "You're not going anywhere."

From the darkness of the room, she couldn't make out how he looked like. As she slowly stepped backward, and he, forward, the brightness of the moon illuminated his face and she could see the whiteness of his hair, his almost lifeless grey eyes, a slim nose, and lips that pressed tightly onto one another's. He seemed quite young, at the age of around 24..?

His gaze flickered away from her, to the rope that dropped down outside the balcony behind her. Charging forward, he grabbed her by the waist with one hand, threw the bag of jewelry he had been holding into her hands, and grabbed the rope with his other hand. "Hold on tight," he whispered into her ear and he slid down the rope three levels down with her in his arms.

Touka couldn't remember if she screamed or not, as she felt the wind against her back and soon, they reached the floor and he started running towards the castle's entrance with her in his arms.

Dashing through the countless men and soldiers who fought each other, he shouted, "We've got the treasure! Retreat!"

As soon as the pirates heard that, they stopped their fight and ran behind their captain.

Touka's head was swirling from all of the madness, and though she could hear her parents' shouting her name, she couldn't respond as she fainted from the shock.

The moment she woke up, she found herself lying sideways on a bed with her arms bound to her back with a rope. Feeling the shaky environment, she could tell that she was on some ship or boat and that she was at sea, judging from the salty smell that was in the air. She then tested her strength against the ropes that bound her wrists, but to no avail and sighed. Well, she expected that much. "Hey! Is anyone there? Can you at least untie the ropes? They hurt!"

The door flung open, startling her as it banged against the wall. The same pirate that kidnapped her stepped in, stared at her with cold eyes and then proceeded to slowly unravel the ropes from her wrist. He was muttering, but she could hear 'I told them not to tie it so tightly' from his lips. Tossing the ropes to one side, Kaneki watched her touch her wrists and frowned at the red marks left behind. "Aren't you going to thank me for helping you?"

At his question, Touka's eyes hardened and she glared up at his intimidating body, into his eyes. "Why should I thank someone who kidnapped me? What do you want with me and why did you break into the castle?"

Digging one knee into the bed, he climbed on and pressed a hand to the wall beside her head. His other hand moved to tangle his fingers into her short violet hair and pulled some of it to his lips to inhale her lavender scent. He never took his eyes off of her as he did that, and was amused, to say the least, to find that she wasn't shivering or terrified of his action, but rather, she looked repulsed by it. Ignoring her first and second question, he answered the third with a smile. "I can't have a witness tell others what she saw, can I?"

Swatting his hand away, she scowled at him and he pulled back with a smirk. "I'll see how you can survive with that attitude of yours. Mark my words when I say I'll make you mine. Only mine."

With that, he turned away and slammed the door behind him, leaving Touka all alone in his cabin.

She dreaded the days that were to come aboard his ship.