

Lola (f) and Demeter (m)
The wood under my feet quaked violently and began to tilt, and I looked up in horror to see the front of the boat sliding into the churning sea. I was dead as I far as I knew; if I stayed on the ship I would get crushed by the rest of the vessel collapsing on itself and if I dove into the ocean I would freeze and then drown due to the 30-degree Arctic water.
"God, please save my soul," I murmured, then sat down on the deck and hoped for my death to come quickly.
My head was hurting an awful lot for me to be dead. Blearily I opened my eyes to find myself staring up at an unfamiliar face. As my vision became clearer I realized that it was a man with an eyepatch and a hat emblazoned with the Jolly Roger.
"Who are you?" I asked warily, pushing myself into a sitting position and away from the stranger.
"The most honorable and noble Demeter, privateer, ma'am." His voice was gruff and mocking; I could already tell I didn't like its owner. "And how about you?"
"I have no intention of telling a
pirate who I am!" I spat, glaring up at him.
“Ooh, a feisty one, aren’t you?” He extended a hand out to me that I bit, and he drew back, cursing under his breath.
“Maybe I should have let you drown,” he muttered darkly, fixing me with a look of distaste.
“Well why didn’t you then?” I didn’t trust Demeter for anything, and I was sure his motives for keeping me alive were less than honorable.
“Because I need a serving girl. You are pretty and young, so I decided to have the mercy to save you from Davy Jones’ locker.” His lips quirked into a smirk at the look of horror upon my face.
“I will, never ever serve you!” I scooted myself as far away from him as possible and drew my knees up to my chin to protect myself.
“Well I’m afraid you don’t have much choice in the matter, dearie. It’s either serve me or swim with the sharks, and I’m almost positive you don’t want to become fishbait.” His eyes met mine for a few long seconds, and finally he extended another hand out to me, this one meant to help. “So what do you say? It would be a shame to have to make you walk the plank.”
“You have yourself a deal, Mr. Demeter. My safety in return for my servitude.” I took his hand and shook it to formally seal the contract.
“Aye. On my honor that I won’t break it.” He gave me a genuine smile and pulled me off the bed on which I had been sitting. “What is your name, lass?” he asked as I steadied myself on my feet.
“Lola. Just Lola.” His golden gaze met mine and a small grin creased my face in spite of my dislike for him. I knew that he was a trustworthy man, despite his profession.
“Lola!” Demeter bellowed, his voice so loud it could be heard by the sunken ships at the bottom of the ocean.
“Lord, you don’t need to holler so loud as to make me deaf!” Lola exclaimed irritably as she sidled into the room. “What it is you need?” She fixed him with a flat, bored stare but waited for his answer.
“A little more water if you would, dearie.” He gave her his most charming smile, but it did nothing to soften the look of dissatisfaction on her face.
“I’ll be back,” she muttered, then trudged back out of the room.
“I know you will!” he called after her, admiring the view of her backside. Just because she was less than cheerful didn’t stop him from finding her attractive. After she was out of sight, he murmured to himself, “Best not think about that, Demeter. You swore on your honor that she would be safe, and you’d better not tempt yourself to break that promise.” Still, Demeter couldn’t help but think about how nice a front view he might have when Lola came back.
“Is there anything else you’ll be needing?” I inquired, as Demeter took a long gulp from the goblet of water I had brought him.
When his thirst had been slaked, he looked up at me and shook his head. “No, I’m satisfied now dearie; thank you though.” His gaze flickered down to my chest for a brief moment, and I instinctively crossed my arms, all of a sudden self-conscious.
An awkward silence draped the air around us, and I turned to leave, more than happy to be out of Demeter’s company. I heard a low whistle behind me just as I was through the doorframe, and whirled back around to ask, “Did something come to mind that you need?”
“No. Well, um…” A red flush of embarrassment was slowly creeping up Demeter’s cheeks as he looked at me, and a small smirk crossed my face at his discomfort. “Well, you just have… a very nice backside.”
I burst out into a fit of hysterical laughter and finally stopped and looked up, with tears streaming from my eyes, to see him glaring at me with all of the dignity he could manage.
“It’s just an observation!” he shot out defensively, the color in his cheeks only deepening as I continued to giggle.
“Well, seeing as you couldn’t keep your eyes of me earlier, tell me, is the view in front as good as the view in back?” I asked him jokingly after I had gained enough control to speak rationally.
“To be honest,” he replied mischievously, his flush gone and a smirk across his face, “it’s even better.”

Pet's name: Madeline (f) and
Pet's name: Quinton (m)
"Oh my gosh sir, I'm so sorry!" The waitress stuttered with fright of me and her boss, and for an instant her gaze left the floor and met mine.
I felt like I was being sucked into her shimmering brown eyes, their depths so perfect and pure and sparked with life; I hadn't ever seen that much vitality contained in a single object.
"It's quite all right," I heard myself saying as I gently grabbed her wrist to stop her from attempting to clean me up. Looking down at my front, I saw that my white shirt was now the brilliant crimson of the tomato soup she had spilled on me and I grudgingly admired how spectacularly it had splattered. "Well, it will be all right as long as you let me change and then take you out for coffee." I didn't know what possessed me to say that, but I couldn't retract my words; all I could do was hope that I wouldn't get slapped.
"Um, ok." Looking desperately back and forth between me and the tall, intimidating man glowering in a suit by the entrance to the kitchen, she clearly decided that I was the lesser of the two evils.
"May I ask what your name is, my dear lady?" I amplified my usually light English accent and gave her the most charming smile I could muster with tomato soup all down my front.
"Madeline." She gave a small smile in return, and I saw that her teeth were perfectly straight and brilliantly white; I liked this Madeline better every moment. "And yours?" Her voice was melodic and beautiful when it wasn't hushed to a terrified whisper, and I found hearing her speak very soothing.
"My name is Quinton, and I do hope I will prove an acceptable companion." I kissed the hand I still held lightly on the knuckles and she jerked back slightly, as though she had been burned. I ignored it, however, and continued my gentlemanly rouse. "Now, about that coffee... if you would come back to my apartment with me and let me get changed so I don't look like I've just murdered someone?"
"Sure." Looking fearfully back at the owner of the restaurant, who was giving her a glare that would have knocked her dead if looks could kill, she seemed very grateful at the opportunity to leave but also very apprehensive about leaving with a complete stranger, and rightfully so; she only knew my first name and had met me a minute before when she had dumped tomato soup down my front and here I was attempting to take her to my home. Oh well. Some situations just couldn't be helped.
As fast as I could I pulled another shirt on, ran a comb through my messed-up hair and then decided it wasn't worth the trouble, and sprayed on some cologne, hoping to erase the current image of a jerk just hoping to get lucky from Madeline's mind. I had never cared that much about what a stranger thought of me before, but I hadn't met someone like Madeline before either.
I opened the door of my bedroom to find her sitting elegantly on my sofa, one leg crossed over the other. She gazed at me, almost scared, almost defiant, then rose to her feet and gave me an unsure grin.
"Why'd you put on cologne?" she asked me, her brown eyes looking up at me from her height of about five foot six.
"Well I didn't really intend to go around smelling like a big tomato; that might attracted some unwanted attention." I returned her smile with a very sincere one of my own, trying to ignore the urge to wrap my arms around her waist.
"It certainly would get my eye - or my nose, I should say." Madeline was visibly starting to relax, her grins coming easier and her eyes sparkling even more.
"I said
unwanted attention. Yours I wouldn't mind at all." I wasn't able to stop myself from embracing her and yet didn't regret it when I did; she was amazingly warm, and I liked the way she felt in my arms.
She pulled away quickly and turned her face away from me. "We should go," she suggested, almost inaudibly, and I could see the fright and tension return to her face.
Wordlessly I opened the door for her and then closed it behind her, locking it in one fluid motion.
"After you." I gestured with my hand towards the stairs and gave her a small grin for encouragement, but her face remained like stone. Maybe I really had ruined my chances of her thinking me anything except for a promiscuous jerk.
It was a relief to dash into the comforting warmth and cozyness of the coffee shop out of the near blizzard that was happening outside; I felt my appendages immediately begin to warm up as we stepped through the door. Pulling my hood off, I shook a fair amount of snow off of it and removed my gloves.
"Get any frostbite along the way?" I asked Madeline jokingly, flashing her my most charming grin.
However, even that only amounted to a shaky smile and a quiet, "No, I think I'm good," in reply.
My date with Madeline
really wasn't off to a very auspicious start.
"Is your coffee good?" I asked her, trying to start a conversation.
"Yes, very, thank you." The words came mechanically, with no emtion; clearly her mind wasn't with me in the coffee shop. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she asked abruptly, startling me out of my trance of admiration, "What is that?"
I followed her gaze to a beam above us, where some kind of green plant adorned with red berries was hung. "I do believe it's mistletoe."
"Why in the heck is there mistletoe in October?" she muttered, glaring up at the innocent sprig as though it had wronged her personally and there was vengeance due.
"Perhaps because one would believe it's December based off the conditions outside." I kept my voice and my facial expression in check, but inwardly I was rejoicing, because I knew exactly what you were supposed to do under mistletoe and I had wanted to do that with Madeline ever since I had met her. However, I said nothing and we both sipped our coffee in silence for a long minute. At last she stood up, her cup empty, and threw the thing away, then settled back down at our table, her gaze going anywhere except on me. In haste I drained my own coffee, nearly choking in the process due to drinking too quickly, but, dignity intact, I threw my own cup away and came back to where Madeline was waiting.
She rose from her seat and gave him an extremely shy smile. "Well, thank you for coffee and for giving my boss some time to cool down. I'm sorry I made it look like you killed someone earlier and that I ruined one of your shirts, so I guess I'll be going now, since work is just a block from here."
"Madeline, you're forgetting something," I told her, seizing my chance, and she whirled around, alarmed.
"What? Did I leave my phone on the table or something?"
"No. It's just... that." I gestured to the mistletoe, which was currently directly above us and making my heart pound at an extremely fast rate.
"Oh." She looked warily between the plant and I, then finally decided there was no escaping the eminent situation. "Well, um..."
I silenced her by drawing her up in my arms and planting a firm, passionate kiss directly on her lips. When I released her I thought for sure I was going to get slapped, but all Madeline did was say, "Fair enough," with a small smile on her lips, and then return my kiss with one of her own, her arms thrown around the back of my neck like the happy couple I had always hoped to be a part of.