Chapter Text
Agatha froze, and so did Rio, and the whole world seemed to stop around them.
“Mama?” Rio whispered again.
Agatha, meanwhile, had looked down at the little boy, then slowly bent down to her knees so she was at his eye level. “Hello there,” she said, gently stroking the child’s hair.
Rio took a step back and watched the scene, his eyes darting from the child to Agatha, then back to the child. “You… You had a child with him?” Rio asked, his voice breaking. “With Ralph?”
Rio’s question made Agatha look straight up at him, and she met his deeply saddened gaze. She immediately widened her eyes and shook her head, realizing what the scene must have looked like. “Rio, no! It’s not what you think!”
“And here I was, stupid enough to believe what you told me,” he continued. “That you wanted me to come back for you… And while I was going crazy trying to find you… You-””
“Rio, please stop,” Agatha replied, standing up and taking a step toward the captain, all the while holding the little boy’s hand in hers. “Rio, listen to me, please…”
But Rio wasn’t really listening to her anymore, he was looking at the little boy clinging to Agatha’s leg, and all he saw was proof that Agatha had moved on with her life without him.
“Rio, please,” Agatha continued, trying not to draw any more attention to them.
“Nicolaï! Oh my God, Nicolaï, my darling,” cried a young woman who came running toward them, clearly out of breath. “How many times have I told you not to wander off!” The woman took the child in her arms and turned to Agatha with a grateful smile. “Thank you so much… Miss?”
“Agnes,” Agatha lied naturally.
“Thank you, Miss Agnes,” the woman replied with a smile. “I took my eyes off him for two seconds to pay, and he took the opportunity to wander off… I’m truly grateful you found him. Have a nice day, and thank you again.”
The woman walked away with her child in her arms, and Agatha mumbled something to her, wishing her a nice day or something like that, nothing really more important than Rio, whom she was staring at, trying to analyze his expression. Rio was looking at her too, torn between shock, relief, and immense confusion about what had just happened.
“See? It wasn’t my child…” Agatha added, taking a step toward him.
“I… Agatha, I’m sorry, I thought that-” Rio said, but Agatha took his hand and asked him to follow her so they could continue their conversation somewhere a little less crowded.
Agatha led him through the crowd, weaving between the stalls until they reached a small alleyway, completely deserted and out of sight.
She then turned to face Rio, without letting go of his hand. “I’ll say it one last time, even though I think you’ve seen it clearly enough, but that’s not my child,” she repeated. “I swear to you, Rio, I never slept with Ralph, or anyone else for that matter, not even a simple kiss. “I thought of you every day, and I knew you’d come. Every day, I woke up hoping that would be the day you’d finally be here. I never gave up hope, Rio. Never.”
“I thought I’d lost you forever,” he replied, looking down at their clasped hands, then lifting his gaze back to Agatha. “I thought you’d moved on with your life without me, and that you didn’t want me anymore…”
“Never,” Agatha added, shaking her head and placing her other hand on Rio’s cheek.
Rio closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the feel of Agatha’s hand on his face, and placed his hand over hers. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” he murmured, turning his head slightly to place a kiss on her hand.
The young woman took a step toward the captain to get closer to him and placed the captain’s hand on her hip, and the captain instinctively squeezed it.
“Come to think of it,” he added after a moment. “You were here all this time? God knows I’ve scoured every island and every port in this world, and I’ve even been here to Port Royal several times, but I’ve never seen you here…”
The captain moved his other hand to wrap it around the young woman’s hips, while she brushed a strand of his hair that had escaped from his low ponytail back into place.
“Well, for that, you can thank my dear mother, who, after realizing I’d only come with her to spare you, decided not to stay in one place and to make sure we were constantly on the move,” Agatha explained. “She knew you’d be looking for me, and she did everything she could to make sure you’d never find me.”
“I’m going to kill that old crone!”
“You don’t need to anymore,” Agatha chuckled. “She’s dead. But I’m still married to Ralph, unfortunately. And when my mother died, he wanted to come back and live here because he was tired of moving around all the time and-”
“Agatha,” Rio cut her off. “I don’t care about your mother or Ralph. I just want you. Come with me, come back with me aboard the Lady Death.”
“Rio… I can’t do this right now,” she whispered. “I came to the market with Ralph, who’s probably already wondering where I am, and if he sees you, things will go badly… I can’t just leave like this in broad daylight. But come pick me up tonight, I’ll be waiting for you behind the big white house with the black gates. That’s where I live.”
Rio remained silent for a long moment, studying Agatha’s face as if to find some sign of hesitation, but he found none. “Are you sure about this?” He asked. “If I come to pick you up tonight, you won’t change your mind? Are you really coming with me?”
Agatha nodded without the slightest hesitation. “Yes, Rio, I’ll be there, I promise. I just want to be with you.”
“If you’re not there, I’ll come get you myself, even if I have to set this damn house on fire.”
The remark made Agatha laugh, and she stepped forward to kiss Rio, but when distant voices could be heard and grew closer to them, they realized the danger and quickly pulled apart. Rio squeezed Agatha’s hand tightly one last time, then reluctantly let go, keeping his gaze fixed on her, as if he still couldn’t believe she was really there in front of him after all these months, and watched her walk away again toward the market.
When Agatha joined Ralph at the market, he asked her where she’d been, and she simply replied that she’d run into an old friend of hers. Ralph told her not to wander off from him again, but if he knew her well, Ralph should have realized that Agatha had no old friends here in Port Royal. The only people she had ever considered her friends were aboard a pirate ship she would finally be reunited with tonight, and that thought made her smile and gave her the strength to face the rest of her day in the company of her ‘dear husband’.
Once they arrived at their house, Agatha quietly packed her things to leave. She had put on dark clothes and taken a small bag with her, into which she had packed her three favorite books, a few of her clothes, and money she had stolen from the secret chest that Ralph thought he had hidden well.
She waited in the shadows, glancing around regularly whenever she heard noises to make sure she wasn’t spotted, and she could feel her heart pounding so hard with stress that she almost didn’t notice the presence behind her. Then she felt hands gently running through her hair, but she didn’t flinch because she would have recognized them anywhere. A shiver ran through her entire body, and she let herself give in to the sensation before turning around and seeing, unsurprisingly, that it was Rio.
Agatha stepped forward to take him in her arms and hold him tight. She let out a sigh she hadn’t realized she’d been holding back, and Rio pulled her even closer, closing his eyes as if to focus on the feeling of finally being able to hold Agatha in his arms after so long. But the captain was the first to break away from their embrace. Agatha then cupped Rio’s face in her hands and looked at his lips before leaning in to kiss him, but the captain, who had placed his hands around the young woman’s wrists, had to summon all the willpower he possessed to pull his face back slightly and not kiss her.
“Agatha,” Rio murmured, gently caressing her wrists. “I really want to kiss you more than anything, but we have to get back to the boat now before we get spotted. If that’s still what you want, of course…”
Agatha pouted because she hadn’t been able to kiss Rio the way she wanted to, but she told herself they’d have plenty of time to do so once she was far away from here, and nodded in understanding. “Okay, let’s go.”
Rio picked up Agatha’s bag, which was lying on the ground, in one hand and firmly took Agatha’s hand with the other. They ran together through the dark streets of Port Royal, taking care to avoid areas that were too brightly lit or too crowded.
After running for several minutes, they arrived at a much more unfrequented part, where the Lady Death was waiting for them, discreetly hidden in the shadows.
Rio turned to make sure no one was following them before pulling Agatha toward the ramp and climbing aboard. As soon as they were on board, the captain ordered his crew to weigh anchor and hoist the sails so they could leave as quickly as possible.
The crew on deck obeyed, and Rio turned back to Agatha and pulled her close. “So, where were we?” He asked, leaning toward her.
“If I remember correctly, Captain, you were dying to kiss me,” Agatha replied, biting her lower lip.
“Me? If I remember correctly, it was you who wanted to-”
“For God’s sake, Rio, kiss her!” Alice yelled from the helm.
Rio turned to glare at Alice while Agatha burst out laughing. The captain turned back to the young woman and leaned toward her again. “Just so we’re clear, I’m not kissing you just because someone told me to, I’m doing it because-”
“Please, shut up,” Agatha cut him off before grabbing the captain’s jacket, closing the gap between them, and kissing him.
The kiss was light at first and quickly grew more intense, as if everything they hadn’t been able to say to each other during all those months they’d spent apart could be expressed in that kiss. Agatha ran her tongue over his lower lip, and Rio got the message and parted his lips slightly so Agatha could slip her tongue inside, and he couldn’t help but let out a little moan. The young woman tilted her head to better devour her captain’s mouth, all while grabbing his short hair at the nape of his neck.
“Find a cabin, for God’s sake,” Jen barked, stepping in front of them and interrupting them.
“Shut up, Jen, you’re just jealous,” Agatha snapped, reluctantly pulling away from the captain’s lips.
“Not at all, it’s just really gross,” Jen replied, crossing her arms.
“I’m happy to see you again too, Jeny,” Agatha taunted.
“Yes, Jen?” Rio asked, finally letting go of Agatha’s hips, and she pouted when he let her go. “Did you want to tell me something?”
“Actually, yes. I wanted to know if I should go get it now that she’s back?”
Rio nodded, and Jen replied that she would go get it then. When Rio turned back to Agatha, he saw that she was frowning, trying to figure out what they were talking about.
“Come on,” he said, placing a light kiss on Agatha’s lips before taking her hand. “Let’s go put your things in our cabin.”
Rio headed toward the quarters, then opened the door to the cabin and let Agatha enter before him. When she stepped inside, she saw that the room was a complete mess, and Agatha obviously couldn’t help but make a comment.
“Did you weather a storm in your cabin all by yourself?” She sneered.
Rio set Agatha’s bag on the bed and tried to gather some of his belongings, which were scattered haphazardly everywhere. “Well, I didn’t expect to find you here, and I, um… I didn’t know-” The captain stammered before coming to his senses and realizing how he must have sounded. “Anyway, yes, sort of. I weathered a storm named Agatha.”
Agatha burst out laughing. “RIo, you might as well admit that you missed me,” she said, then lowered her voice. “Because I missed you too-”
Agatha couldn’t finish her sentence because the captain had moved closer to her, grabbed her chin to lift her face, and fixed his gaze on hers. He kept moving forward, forcing Agatha to back up until she bumped into the table in the middle of the room.
“Did you really miss me?” Rio asked, as if he still couldn’t believe that Agatha had deliberately chosen to return with him to this ship to be with him.
Agatha simply blinked slowly and bit her lip in response.
The captain’s gaze darkened, and he placed his hands on the young woman’s hips, lifting her effortlessly and setting her down on the table. The gesture surprised Agatha, who instinctively placed her hands on his shoulders to keep her balance, before moving them behind his neck.
Rio positioned himself between Agatha’s legs, his hands resting on her thighs and gently caressing them with his thumbs. The two looked into each other’s eyes and resumed the silent conversation they had begun much earlier, trying as best they could to make the other understand just how much their entire story went beyond sex.
But after months of not even being able to see, let alone touch, her captain; Agatha began to grow impatient, and after being interrupted several times, she kept lowering her gaze to look at his lips. Rio could clearly tell that she wanted to kiss him, but the captain had to be honest with her. He could no longer be content with just sleeping with her; he had to reveal his true feelings to her.
“Agatha, I… I need to tell you something,” the captain said, capturing Agatha’s full attention as she lifted her eyes from his mouth and fixed her blue eyes on his, trying to figure out what he wanted to say. “I think I- No, I’m sure I have feelings for you.”
The words made Agatha gasp, she hadn’t expected him to reveal this to her just like that, but she said nothing and simply let him speak to finish what he was telling her.
“You are absolutely everything I look for in a person. Aside from the fact that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and will ever see in my life, you’re also intelligent, quick-witted, and you know how to adapt to any situation,” he continued without taking his eyes off Agatha. “I think it was fate that put you on this boat so I could meet you.. And I’m fine with us just sleeping together if that’s all you want from me, but I just had to be honest with you before you come aboard this ship with us again, of your own free will this time.”
Agatha looked at him for a long time, before wrapping her legs around the captain’s waist and clasping her hands behind his neck to pull him forcefully toward her to kiss him. Rio braced himself with one hand on the table, while the other held Agatha tightly, and he returned her kiss before pulling back and cutting it short, causing Agatha to whine.
“Wait, what does that mean?”
The question annoyed Agatha a little. She wasn’t very good at speeches where you had to voice your feelings out loud, and she thought it was pretty clear, but since the captain didn’t seem to consider that Agatha might feel the same way he did, she had to explain it to him verbally. “It means I love you too.”
“Wait, you love me… But I haven’t told you yet that I love-”
“Yes, Rio, I love you,” she cut him off before letting her legs drop and asking him in an uncertain voice. “Wait… Didn’t what you just said mean that you love me?”
“Of course it did! Of course I love you Agatha! I’m madly in love with you, but I didn’t think you’d-”
“Rio,” said Agatha, placing her hands on the captain’s cheeks. “I’m really terrible at expressing my feelings, but of course I love you too, you idiot. You’re engraved in the palm of my hand. I came back on this ship to be with you. I missed you more than I could ever admit, and now I don’t want to spend a single day without you by my side.”
“Me neither,” replied Rio, tears welling up in his eyes.
“Perfect,” Agatha added, sliding her hands from the captain’s cheeks to the back of his neck again. “Now, can we get back to what we were doing? Because I’ve been thinking about your mouth for months, and I’d love to feel it all over my body again, but for now, first and foremost on my lips.” And since old habits die hard, she added. “So can you please keep kissing me?”
“Fuck, yes.”
Rio wrapped his arms around Agatha’s waist once more and leaned in to kiss her. Agatha wrapped her legs around the captain once more, trying to close the gap between them as much as possible. She pulled the captain so close to her that Rio felt them getting closer and closer to the table, and he took one of his hands off her hips to place it on the table beside her head so as not to fall completely onto Agatha, who was now lying flat on the table.
She took advantage of the moment to slip her arm under the one holding him, and tried to scratch his back through his jacket. But seeing that she had no grip through all those layers of clothing, she decided to slide her hand further down and grab Rio’s ass, pulling him even closer to her. The movement took Rio by surprise, and he thrust his hips, making Agatha gasp.
“Fuck, Rio,” she moaned, arching her back. “I- I need you to fuck me now.”
“Patience, my love,” replied Rio as he worked his way down Agatha’s neck. “And where have your manners gone? Don’t you say ‘please’ anymore?”
“To hell with good manners,” Agatha exclaimed, holding Rio’s head tightly against her chest, while one of his hands had slid down to her thigh, caressing it gently, and slowly moving upward toward the place where she needed him the most. “I haven’t been able to feel you for months. I- fuck, I need to feel you inside me now…”
“Well, I think you’re going to have to wait a little longer for that,” said a voice coming from the door.
They both froze when they realized neither of them had closed the door when they entered the cabin.
“Oh come ooooon,” Agatha groaned, releasing Rio’s head, which was still between her breasts, to run her hands over her face, clearly frustrated.
The captain leaned on the table to get up and ran his hands over his jacket and shirt, pretending to smooth them out to put them back in place, even though it was clearly unnecessary. He wanted to maintain some composure in front of Lilia, even though, at this point, she’d already seen far too much for it to make any difference. “What… um, what’s going on?”
Lilia, with her arms crossed as she leaned against the doorframe, watched Agatha, who had gotten up from lying down and was now sitting on the table struggling to button up her shirt, and then she looked the captain up and down, shaking her head.
“Well, the ‘surprise’ you had planned for Agatha’s return; welcome back, by the way, I couldn’t have imagined a better place to see you again,” Lilia replied, trying to ignore the situation she’d found them in, after all, she’d seen worse. “Jen went to get it from the chest where it was stored, and it’s ready. If that’s still what you had planned, because otherwise-”
“No, no, it’s fine! We’re coming,” said Rio, holding out his hand to help Agatha down from the table.
“Speak for yourself… I didn’t come,” muttered Agatha.
“Okay, I’ve seen and heard enough. I’ll wait for you on the deck,” said Lilia, throwing her arms up and walking out.
The two watched her leave, then Rio headed for the door to follow her, but Agatha ran toward the door, getting there before him, and closed it, then pressed herself against it.
“Can’t my ‘surprise’ wait a little?”
Rio chuckled and slowly stepped toward the young woman before placing both hands on either side of Agatha’s head, completely encircling it. “Theoretically, yes, but the crew is waiting for us, and I don’t really feel like keeping them waiting.”
“Rio, please,” Agatha whined, slipping her fingers into the captain’s belt. “You’ve had plenty of time to see your crew over the past few months… You didn’t miss me that much?”
“Mmm, I see you only know how to use your manners when it suits you,” Rio whispered in Agatha’s ear before moving dangerously close to the young woman’s mouth. “Agatha, I missed you terribly,” he continued, planting a single kiss on Agatha’s lips before pulling away from her, placing his hand on the doorknob, and opening the door, pulling Agatha away from it. “But they’re waiting for us on deck.”
“Okay, so you hate me,” Agatha grumbled, crossing her arms.
“Never, ever in my entire life would I ever hate you,” Rio added, taking one of Agatha’s hands and kissing the back of it. “But first we’re going to take care of this surprise, and then we’ll come back here, and we’ll pick up where we left off, but this time I won’t let anything interrupt us.”
“Well, your surprise better be worth it, because you already owe me an orgasm.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I think you’ll like it. And to make it up to you, I plan to spend the rest of the evening on my knees in front of you,” Rio teased, opening the door wider for Agatha to pass and feigning a bow. “In the meantime, ladies first.”
“You’re a lost cause,” Agatha added, shaking her head. “And that’s not a compliment.”
“I wouldn’t dare think otherwise, my love.”
Agatha rolled her eyes and walked past Rio to leave the cabin. Agatha left the quarters and headed for the deck, followed by Rio walking behind her.
The young woman walked across the deck until she saw that the crew was waiting for her and smiling at her. She stopped and turned her head toward Rio to ask him what was going on, and she saw Jen walk behind the captain to hand him something behind his back, which he kept hidden behind him. Agatha didn’t see what it was and furrowed her brow, clearly more than confused.
Rio then slowly stepped toward her to stand beside her, the crew forming a semicircle around them. The captain took a deep breath before launching into his speech.
“Agatha, when you first came aboard this ship, you were just a prisoner, a young woman who had everything to learn about our world…” He said with a smile. “ And yet you didn’t hesitate to try to kill the captain, more than once…”
The remark made a few crew members laugh, and Agatha turned to look at them, almost frustrated that they all remembered those failed exploits from her beginning; before turning back again and locking eyes with Rio, who hadn’t taken his eyes off her.
“Then the days went by, and I watched you start to adapt to this life, and despite your stubborn nature that refused to admit it to yourself, I could clearly see that you were beginning to enjoy this life,” he continued. “You weren’t just surviving here anymore. You ended up finding your place and becoming a real pirate…”
“Rio, what are you-”
“Let me finish, please,” Rio cut her off, pausing before continuing. “You’ve been part of this family for a long time now, but I’d still like to ask you officially…”
Agatha’s face went through a whole range of expressions as she struggled to figure out what the captain was getting at.
“...Will you agree to join the crew of the Lady Death, and officially become one of us?” The captain asked her with a big smile, simultaneously pulling his hand from behind his back to reveal a black tricorn, almost identical to his own, but smaller and clearly new. “Surprise, My Lady.”
Agatha’s eyes widened in disbelief. She looked at Rio, then at the tricorn, then back at Rio, who was waiting for her answer. “Yes! Yes, of course I accept.”
The crew erupted in joy, and Agatha jumped into Rio’s arms, who lifted her slightly off the ground. Her captain held her tight before setting her back down, and Agatha turned to face the rest of the crew.
Lilia was the first to step forward and take Agatha in her arms, holding her close, just as a mother would. “Welcome to the family, sweetheart,” she whispered, her eyes brimming with tears. “I’m so proud of you.”
Agatha buried her face in Lilia’s shoulder. “Thank you… for everything.”
When Lilia let her go, she was overwhelmed by gestures and words of affection.
“The moment you jumped on that dagger on the first day, I knew you’d be one of us someday,” Natasha told her.
“Welcome to our family, Agatha,” Wanda added. “We didn’t really want to admit it, but we were starting to miss you…”
“Welcome back, try just not to get in my way too much, because I was starting to get used to not having you in my line of sight…” Jen sneered before hugging Agatha anyway.
“Not only did you survive the captain, but you also managed to win him over, and for that I can only congratulate you,” Alice laughed.
Agatha laughed through her tears, clearly very moved by the fact that these pirates had missed her, and that they had grown attached to her just as much as she had grown attached to them. Rio looked at her with obvious pride, a tender smile on his lips, stepping toward her again and wrapping his arm around her waist before kissing the top of her head.
“Come on, the party's over,” Rio ordered in his captain’s voice. “Back to your tasks for those on watch, and for the rest of you, head back to your quarters and get some rest.”
The pirates complied, wishing each other good night or grumbling as they returned to their tasks. And as they all dispersed, Lilia could be heard complaining in the distance. “Would anyone be so kind as to let an old woman like me sleep in your cabin tonight? There’s no way I’m sleeping in mine…”
“Sleep on the deck,” a pirate replied with a laugh.
The voices grew fainter and fainter, and after that, only Rio and Agatha were left alone on the deck once more. Silence fell between them, and Agatha held her tricorn, turning it over in her hands as she examined it.
“Can I?” Rio asked, placing his hand on Agatha’s tricorn. She looked up and nodded, and the captain placed it on her head, tilting it slightly to the side so it sat a bit askew, just like his own. He then took Agatha’s hand and spun her around to get a full view of her. “It really suits you.”
“Everything suits me,” she retorted, wrapping her arms around Rio’s neck and running a hand through his short hair. “I really like it a lot… But I still prefer yours.”
Agatha yanked Rio’s hair, catching him off guard, and took the opportunity to snatch his tricorn with her other hand before running toward the helm.
“Agathaaa,” Rio said, rolling his eyes before running after her. “You can’t get very far, I remind you.”
Rio took the stairs two at a time and caught up to the young woman in mere seconds, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her off the ground as she let out a cry of surprise. The captain then set her down and spun her around without letting go of her waist, so that she was facing him, and Agatha wrapped her hands around his neck again while holding her tricorn.
“Come on, Rio, you know yourself that it suits me better,” joked Agatha, who had had time to swap her tricorn for her captain’s and was now wearing his.
“It’s true that it looks good on you,” he replied with a smile, taking a moment to savor the sight of Agatha wearing his tricorn again. “But it looks even better on you when you’re not wearing anything else…”
“Pervert,” added Agatha before stepping forward to kiss Rio again.
The kiss quickly intensified again, and Rio took the opportunity to retrieve his tricorn and place it back on his head, causing Agatha to growl. Rio broke the kiss by gently pulling his face away from Agatha’s, who continued to lean in for more.
“I could always lend you mine sometimes if you want, in situations that take place behind closed and locked doors, for example,” Rio chuckled, watching Agatha bite her lower lip, before adding in a more serious tone. “But for now, you’ll keep the one that represents the role it grants you.”
“And what role does this tricorn grant me?” Agatha asked. “What am I?”
“Well, first of all,” He replied, taking the tricorn from Agatha’s hand and placing it back on her head. “You are mine.”
“Rio....” Agatha grumbled. “I was being serious.”
“I’m serious, Agatha,” he added, shifting it slightly to the side once more so it wouldn’t touch his when he leaned in to kiss her again. “You are My Lady-Captain.”
_______________________________________________________________
The famous pirate ship Lady Death continued to sail the seas for many years to come. And as time went on, the famous legends no longer spoke of a fearsome pirate captain, but rather of a pirate couple. The renowned captain and co-captain, Rio and Agatha Vidal, had become the most famous pirate couple in the Caribbean. It was said that Agatha Vidal had fled her former life, renouncing her privileges, and that when the captain saw her for the first time, he had fallen for her right away. It was also said that she had managed to tame the captain’s solitary nature and had managed to bring color back to his black heart.
It was also said that the crew now included quite a few women, and that you shouldn’t judge by appearances, because among them were some of the deadliest women you’d ever encounter in your life. And that if your name was on a list, you had no chance of surviving an encounter with them.
And as the years went by and the Lady Death’s appearances grew increasingly rare, and the very existence of the ship became nothing more than a legend, it was still said that the pirates had settled on an island far from the shipping lanes, and that they were finally enjoying, as they had planned, a well-deserved rest after so many years at sea.