The splinters were starting to irritate his eye socket again.

With a wince Ragetti popped the eye out and he muttered softly to himself as he carefully tried to pull out some of the splinters it had left behind.

He looked up for a moment and he found Pintel looking at him and he blushed he stopped and went to put his eye back in.

The two of them were currently in the crow's nest, sharing lookout duty since Ragetti was unable to see as well with one eye. It sometimes felt to Pintel that Jack always assigning his friend to be lookout to make fun of him; knowing that Ragetti was too embarrassed about his own shortcomings to say them out loud.

"Splinters agin?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow as Ragetti winced as he put the eye back in. Ragetti was silent for a moment, looking down at the ground before he then nodded.

"Aye." He mumbled softly.

"Le' me take a look see." Pintel offered to him. Ragetti sighed and he turned his head towards him and he closed his eye as Pintel gently took out his eye, slipping it into his pocket as he then looked into the hole to check for splinters.

"Blimey." He muttered softly, fingers working gently despite his outward nature of being gruff and harsh all the time. "When was the las' toime ye took them splinters out, Rags?"

Ragetti couldn't help but shiver a little at the feeling of Pintel's gentle fingers working inside of his socket, easily taking out the splinters that had accumulated.

"Dunno." He muttered softly. He opened his eye slowly and he smiled a little as he saw the serious look on Pintel's face.

"Ye need ta take care o' yer eye betta." Pintel chastised him gently. "Ye migh' git et infected or somethin'!"

"Sorry, Pinters." He said, looking down at the ground as he blushed slightly. Pintel looked at his young friend calmly and he sighed as he shook his head, going back to trying to get out the splinters.

"Ye jus' need ta take care o' yerself betta', lad." He said. "I can' always take care o' ye naow kin I?" he asked.

A small smile came to Ragetti's lips slowly.

Pintel caught it and he frowned as he paused for a moment, flicking a group of thin pieces of wood over the side.

"Wot is et?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Ye said tha' afore." Ragetti pointed out. Pintel frowned, trying to remember when he had said this last.

"When I los' me eye." Ragetti reminded him gently.

Pintel stopped what he was doing then and he looked at the taller pirate. Ragetti merely smiled at him, and Pintel looked away as he held out his eye.

"S'clean fer naow." He said.

"Fanks."

Pintel gave him a weak smile and he nodded as he went back to looking out at the ocean all around them.

That night when it was time for them to go to sleep, Pintel was unable to sleep.

They shared the same hammock and Ragetti was curled up in Pintel's arms, his breathing even and slow as he slept, his ear resting over Pintel's heart. He had once told Pintel that he liked to listen to his heart beat before he went to sleep. Pintel had responded by telling him that he was a daft romantic fool; but it wasn't without a smile on his face followed by a friendly cuff of the ear.

Pintel found himself staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep because of the memories Ragetti had brought up.

His eye…The eye that had been lost to him years ago when they were still in the Navy.

Pintel narrowed his eyes for a moment in thought as the past slowly started to creep up on him again, and soon enough he was back on the HMS Hermes when Ragetti lost his eye.

Lost his eye…because of him.