Chapter three – Unwanted Visitors

Back on the ship of American Patriots, everything was calm. Steve found himself just nodding off as the sun rose – he'd been keeping watch of the wheel all night. Seagulls and numerous other nameless birds flew in the pale-orange sky as the light from the celestial body flooded in past the horizon, causing the captain to wince at its brightness, bringing a hand up to shield his eyes. Yawning loudly, Steve rubbed his eyes, resting his chin on the wheel.

It wasn't long before there was noise below deck – the others were waking up. Steve's peace was soon to be destroyed by his rowdy crew members. Tony was especially loud, even very early in the morning.

Speak of the devil – none other than that very sixteen year old swaggered up on the deck, flashing his canines. It was obvious he'd just woken up – he was wearing his oversized, dirt-covered shirt he wore for bed with loose cotton trousers covering his legs, and his hair was sticking up in every direction imaginable.

"'Mornin'," he said, nodding at Steve while taking a bite out of a biscuit, only to spit it back out again complaining about bugs.

"How many times have I told you? You need to tap it to get rid of all the maggots before you eat it! Don't waste food like that…" Steve lectured, rolling his eyes at Tony, who was frantically scratching at his tongue, attempting to get rid of any maggots that might be hanging out near his tonsils.

Tony ignored Steve's lectured, "Get them out for me?" he asked, his mouth wide open, so the words came out almost inaudible. Steve stared blankly at Tony, obviously clueless as to what he was to do. Tony rolled his eyes, and took Steve's hand, shoving it inside his own mouth. Steve recoiled at the sudden action, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"Can you get any maggots I missed?" Tony repeated around Steve's hand, the vibrations making Steve want to giggle in surprise. But, if he ever 'giggled' in front of Tony, or did anything that feminine for that matter, then the younger boy would never let his captain live it down.

"Fine, fine," Steve said, scowling, removing his hand so he could have a good look around Tony's mouth for bugs. Soon a little collection of about five of the squirming bus had been thrown overboard.

Steve clapped his hands together, rubbing them off on his legs, "You're clear."

"Thanks, Steve!" Tony grinned, and then stopped, smile fading, "Kiss it to make it better?" he batted his eyelashes, deliberately looking as young and innocent as he possibly could. He loved winding Steve, up, and this was generally on of the funniest and easiest ways.

Sure enough, Steve took a step back, turning bright red, "W-What!?"

"Please? Just a liiiittle kiss," Tony followed Steve, until he was backed up on the edge of the ship – the next step back being into the water, "Pretty please?"

"But why?" he said, bewildered.

"Because I wuv you!" Tony flung his arms around his captain, and soon couldn't help but burst into fits of giggles, returning to his usual obnoxious self, "Oh my God your face! I cannot believe you took me seriously! You looked about ready to jump overboard!"

Steve frowned, glaring down at the cackling teenager. The amount of times he'd fallen for this same trick was unreal – he just didn't learn! Every single time, he ended up getting all bashful and flustered, believing Tony was about to lean down and kiss him. However, when the moment arrived for the kiss to come, Tony would always crack the joke, and not stop rolling around on the deck for what felt like hours.

"Get up you good for nothing twerp…" Steve muttered half heartedly, pulling Tony roughly up by his arm, "It's your turn to navigate. Get us lost, I throw you overboard."

"Why, where're you going?" Tony tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.

"Sleeping. I'll need energy to keep up with you and your annoying ways. If Bruce gets up then get him to take over…" Steve said, already heading towards his cabin.

"Well sweet dreams then, my darling Steve!" Tony cackled, blowing kisses in the direction of the captain, who blankly ignored him, slamming his door loudly.

"Jeeze he's in a bad mood…" Tony muttered, yawning, ignoring the fact that it was his job to stand over the wheel. In stead, he decided to climb up the mast, a place where he often liked to sit and recite poetry at the top of his lungs, often confusing other ships passing by.

Just as Tony was mid-way through Sonnet 20 from Shakespeare's collection of one hundred and fifty four of the poems when he heard a voice from below telling him to shut up.

"You'll wake up the neighbours!" Bruce called jokingly from below, "You managed to wake me up. If you have time to recite all one hundred and fifty four of those damn poems then you definitely have time to come down here and man this boat! Get down here!"

"'But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.'" Tony finished, climbing down the mast as he went, bowing when he jumped down beside Bruce, who was shaking his head.

"I wish you'd put more effort into learning how to navigate than learning those poems – what's Shakespeare going to do for you out in the middle of the ocean?" Bruce said, but then lightened his sentence with a laugh, "Come on, I'll even hold the compass for you."

Tony beamed up at Bruce, "Thanks, Bruce!" the teen throw his arms around Bruce, shocking the man a little. Just as Bruce was about to hug Tony back, he yelped with surprise, jumping back. Tony had jabbed him in the side very hard, obviously making a notion that he was in the mood for a tickling war.

"You two, I'd appreciate it if you actually tried steering this ship for once rather than flirting on my decks!" the voice of the captain met the ears of Bruce and Tony, both of them flinching and tensing up, turning to see Steve glaring at them from the door of his cabin, "You know, Tony I could understand – but Bruce, really? You're meant to control him, not encourage him!"

Bruce frowned, "I assure you, captain, I wasn't flirting."

"Aww, Bruce, you break my heart!" Tony sighed dramatically, though he made no action to hide his mischievous grin.

"Time and place, Tony. Right now you should be navigating!" Steve sighed, shaking his head, "Do I have to do everything around here?"

"Ehh… Captain…" Bruce interrupted, leaning over the side of the ship to get a good look at something he seemed to be watching intently.

"Not now Bruce, go and make me some breakfast, will you?"

"No but really, I think you should come and see this." Bruce pointed out to sea. Steve and Tony walked over – well, Tony ran – to the side of the ship, leaning out to look. Tony let out a whoop of excitement, nearing falling overboard, but was steadied by a hand from both Bruce and Steve, who glared at one another.

"What am I looking at?" Steve asked.

"That blindingly obvious ship that's casually floating past us? The only other thing we've seen for hours?" Tony cried, exasperated, and pointed to the indeed very obvious, almost out-of-place-looking ship that was, as Tony had said, 'causally floating past them'.

"Oh, that." Steve nodded, "And what about it?"

"You promised," Tony began childishly, before being interrupted by Bruce.

"Didn't you say that the next ship we saw, we should raid it?" Bruce smiled all-too-sweetly, Tony nodding along.

"I told you not to tell Tony about that!" Steve sighed, rubbing his temples.

"It just slipped out," Bruce shrugged, and then felt genuinely bad for feeding Tony information, "Sorry, captain, it won't happen again."

"But you said-!" Tony began.

"I said nothing of the sort." Bruce cut across.

Steve looked over at the deserted looking ship, "Well… it definitely doesn't look too dangerous…"

"So we can go!?" Tony's eyes widened in anticipation.

After pausing to think, Steve exchanged glances with Bruce, and then nodded, "Yes, we can go."

Tony leaped up, punching the air in victory, whooping aloud and doing a funny little dance, "Yes!" he cried, "We Finally get to raid a ship! Finally!"

Rolling their eyes, both Bruce and Steve smiled, patting Tony's head patronisingly, though the teen shoved their hands off roughly. "I'll go and wake everyone else up. Bruce, can I trust you to steer the boat up along side that one?"

"Of course, Captain." Bruce nodded, not meeting Steve's eyes, "You should probably get dressed, Tony."

Flashing a jubilant smile, Tony, for once in his life, didn't answer back and ran off below deck, overjoyed that he was finally going to get a chance to show off some of his fancy sword work. Steve nodded to Bruce, heading down after the overexcited teenager.

"I have a feeling this isn't going to end as we plan…" Bruce muttered to himself, gently shifting the ship's coarse. Well, only time would tell.

Half an hour later, Tony was first to climb on to the deserted ship. It was a lot more awkward than he'd anticipated – he very nearly didn't make it across. As soon as he was safely on the foreign deck, he felt the weight shift below his feet, and looked around to see Steve and Bruce, accompanied by Jane, Pepper and one or two of the other crew members. Simon, the oldest member of Steve's crew had been left back on their own ship to make sure it didn't float away in the strong winds.

The sun was now getting a little higher in the sky – to make a random guess, Steve could only assume it was nearing ten o'clock in the morning or so. Surely anyone on this ship should be up and about right now, ordering people around and generally getting along with their hectic lives.

"Maybe they had a rough night?" Bruce muttered aloud, almost in answer to Steve's thoughts.

"Well if they can't recover from a little rum then they're nothing worth stealing from," Pepper spat on the floor, glaring at Tony when he winked at her.

"That's my point – maybe their 'rough night' wasn't just a little alcohol and some card games. Maybe someone beat us to the stealing part…" Bruce strode around the deck, running his fingers across surfaces of wood.

"He has a point…" Steve muttered, "This place is deserted. Not only that, but there's not even any sign of life – it's like they've just moved out and left an empty ship behind them, but you can't just move out of a ship, can you?"

"Then what happened…?" Bruce narrowed his eyes, checking inside crates and barrels, only to find every single one of them empty.

"Typical! My first raid in months, and there's nothing to raid." Tony threw up his arms in frustration, and seemed to forget that he was holding his sword in one hand, and very nearly sliced Jane's arm off, which was a notion the girl didn't appreciate.

"Oi, Stark, watch what you're doing with your sword, and stop complaining! If you think you're so fuc-"

"That's quite enough of that, thank you," Bruce cut across, "A young lady of your age should not be using foul language like that."

"Oh for fucks sake" Bruce glared at her, so she corrected herself, "For God's sake – we're pirates! Or we're meant to be, but you and Steve seem more cut out for the navy than a life of crime, bloodshed, alcohol and sex!" Jane said, exasperated, but with a glare from both Steve and Bruce, she shut up.

"Anyway, if we could return to the matter at hand, please…" Steve muttered, copying Bruce by looking in barrels and crates for anything that could be of any value. There wasn't even anything that could hold no value at all, in fact. The ship, as previously stated, was completely empty.

"I'll check through here, Pepper if you'd like to accompany me." Steve jolted a finger towards what they could only assume to be the captain's cabin, "You check below deck. And try to keep it down – you never know, there could be some people on this boat ready to jump out and slit our throats."

"Well at least that'd be a little more exciting than no one at all…" Tony grumbled, but grudgingly followed the rest down the little rope ladder that led to the inner corridors of the boat.

Half an hour later, the boat had been searched thoroughly. Steve called everyone up to the top deck to discuss what they'd found.

Tony had found a single rotting potato, Bruce had two scrolls both with different sketches on, Steve and Pepper had found an earring in the captain's cabin they'd searched, and Jane had a little handful of ripped up maps.

"I think we can safely assume that this place is empty," Tony sighed dramatically, throwing the rotting potato as far as he could, landing with a satisfying little 'splash' in the ocean a little way off the boat.

"Hate to say it, but Stark's right," Jane shrugged, throwing away her little scraps of map, so the parchment fluttered around the group like confetti.

"Well that was a productive morning…" Steve muttered, pocketing the single earring, "Brilliant. Let's go."

Just as everyone was making their way back on to their own ship, Bruce paused, tensing like a rabbit that'd heard a fox. He held up his hand, signalling for everyone to wait, and holding a finger to his mouth, he listened.

"What, Bruce?" Steve asked, "Hurry up, will you?"

"I heard something, though…" Bruce muttered, listening again, "Can't you hear that? Footsteps."

Sure enough, when they all shut up, there was a very slight sound of someone walking around below deck.

"So much for deserted!" Tony whooped, punching the air, "A ghost ship!"

"Oh shut up, will you? Ghosts don't exist – you should know that… there must be someone here… But who?" Bruce narrowed his eyes, "Wait here, I'm going to look."

Everyone nodded, watching as Bruce slowly began climbing down the little rope ladder. No one bothered to stop Tony who ran after him, and then Steve who followed worriedly after the two.

Once below deck, Bruce glared up two his followers, "I said I was going alone."

"D'ya really think we'd let you have all the action, Brucey?" Tony winked, "I just want a look!"

"And I followed because…" Steve said, shifting his eyes, "I was worried."

"Pirates aren't meant to worry…" Bruce muttered.

"I think by now we can safely say that we're not your average pirates…" Steve said in reply.

The three shut up immediately when they hear footsteps again, now a little louder, and with every step getting louder still. The mysterious person was getting closer.

Bruce made a signal with his hands, telling Tony to go through the door to their left, Steve the door to the right, and Bruce would go through the door right in front of them. He counted down with his fingers from three, and on one, they all lightly pushed down the handle of their designated doors, the hinges creaking threateningly in the silence.

In the rooms that Steve and Bruce opened, there was nothing other than empty crates that had already been checked, but from Tony's hilariously girly shriek of surprise, it seemed he'd found the owner of the footsteps.

Running over, Bruce and Steve looked through the door, and their eyes were met with a petrified-looking teenager, his hands outstretched as if to wade off an attack, eyes squeezed shut, and his legs tensed, ready to run away if needed.

Steve raised an eye at Tony, who was now coughing awkwardly, trying to forget about his scream, "He took me by surprise…" Tony muttered, blushing.

The boy in front of them inched open an eye, seeming to realise that he was in no immediate danger. He frowned at the people in front of him, not too pleased that they were on his ship.

"So, who're you, then?" Tony asked the boy, raising an eyebrow, "I like your interior. It's very… spacious."

Steve glared at Tony, "Don't be an ass. Where did you come from? We searched this place thoroughly and didn't find a soul. How did you get on here?"

"Don't be so arrogant! This is my ship!" the boy snapped, "Well. My brother's, but that's beside the point."

Bruce raised an eyebrow, "If you take so much pride in your ship, why were you hiding below deck and letting it float aimlessly, vulnerable to attack?"

"Because we've already been attacked – there's nothing else to loose," the boy sighed. Now he mentioned it, he did look pretty beat up, "There's nothing to take here, just go on your way and leave us alone."

"'Us'? There's more of you?" Steve said, "Where are they?"

The boy cursed under his breath, "I'm not going to tell you that! For all I know, you could be cannibals. I don't want to be eaten right after I've been stolen from and beat up."

Tony pointed to something in the corner of the room, "I bet you anything they're down that little trapdoor."

Steve and Bruce exchanged glances, grinning, "Is he right? Are your friends down there?"

The boy frowned, "Why should I tell you?"

"Because we're going to look anyway," Tony shrugged, yanking the trap door open, and poking his head down it, and then calling up, "Affirmative! There're about five people down here!"

Steve and Bruce smirked, "So, little boy, how about telling us what's been going on?" Steve asked not unkindly.

Bruce then had an idea, and brought out the two scrolls he'd found out of his coat, holding them up, "Do these sketches mean anything to you?"

The boy looked at the scrolls, cursing aloud, "Give those back!" he attempted to jump for them, only to end up wincing in pain – Bruce was too tall, anyway.

"We'll give you them, in return for information," Bruce bargained, knowing exactly what he was doing.

"Fine," the boy smirked wryly, "What do you want to know?"

"First of all, your name would be good."

He shrugged, "I'm Loki Laufeyson."

A/N

Hooray for infrequent updates? X'D I've been pretty busy just getting back into things with school and all X'D I can't promise anything frequent with this fic XD
I did intent to write a little more – but then I realised the time, and I just wanted to upload this before I went out XD so I hope you enjoyed! If you did, then feedback is the equivalent to love! Thank you if you've reviewed/faved/followed in the past, and if you haven't, I hope you do now XD
Thank you, guys ^^