((i really wanted to write another royal AU then i thought of this))

Recommended Song(s) For This Imagine:
Forget Me Not - Marianas Trench

Mark Fischbach, son of the esteemed governor, was sitting out on his father's ship watching as the crew navigated through the rubble of a sunken ship.

"Pirates." One of the crew members grumbled. The man was a middle-aged fellow who always seemed to have a stench of alcohol coming off him, even though drinking on duty was forbidden. Gibbs always made him feel uneasy, in the ten years of Mark's life and now his incessant grumbling about pirates was making the boy nervous.

"You don't know that, Gibbs. It could have been an accident." Mark's father spoke up, guiding Mark way from the bearded man.

"It was a merchant ship, relatively unarmed." A different man spoke up. He was a Captain in the Royal Army and helped to protect the East Indian Trading Company from pirates. "Bloody pirates."

"Captain Norrington, please, I don't want all this talk of pirates to upset my son." Governor Fischbach pleaded.

"He will grow up and have to deal with this one day."

Mark shook his head, walking over to the side of the ship to watch the floating rubble. He saw something startling though, it seemed as though there was a young kid laying on a piece of driftwood. "There's a kid, there's a kid!" He yelled out, pointing in the water. "A boy!"

The crewmen lifted the kid up and out of the water, laying him on the deck. Mark leaned down to roll him over, and brushed the short hair out of his face. To his surprise, the petite features of a little girl showed through. "It's a girl!" He leaned down to press his ear to her chest, and to his relief he heard a heartbeat. "She's still alive!"

Mark followed as a crew member carried the girl into the captain's room. He lit the fireplace and wrapped cloth around the girl in an attempt to warm her up. Suddenly, she shot up, coughing and panicked. "Calm down, you're okay!" Mark assured her, and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "My name's Mark, you're on a boat belonging to the Royal Navy. We're going to protect you."

She relaxed a bit, laying back on the couch. "My name's Y/N Y/L/N."

"That's a very pretty name."

"Thanks Mark." Y/N mumbled as she drifted off to sleep.

Messing around further with her hair, he couldn't imagine why her parents would cut her hair so short, it definitely wasn't how he'd seen any other girls his age have their hair. Then, he saw something golden shine from underneath her damp shirt.

Turning the pendent in his hand, he saw a skull with ornate designs around it. "You're... a pirate!" He gasped.

He began panicking, what was he supposed to do? He didn't want to turn this little girl in as a pirate and have her sent to the gallows, that was for sure. As Mark kept looking at the pendent, the squeak of the cabin door opening caused him to roughly rip it off Y/N's neck and stuff it in his back pocket after he turned around. The person that had enter was Captain Norrington, accompanied by Mr. Gibbs.

"Mark, how is she?" Did you get any information from her?" The captain asked, clearly wanting to know about the pirate attack on the merchant vessel.

"She's getting warmed up, and she told me her name is Y/N Y/L/N before she passed out again." Mark informed him quickly, and Gibbs narrowed his eyes at the two children.

"Mighty bad luck to have a woman on a boat, even if it is a little one."

"Mr. Giibbs, enough with your superstition!" Norrington reprimanded him, and the older gentleman walked out grumbling. "Please tell me if she wakes again, I'd like to ask her some questions."

"Yes sir." The young boy nodded, and Norrington left the room.

Immediately after the door had closed behind him, Y/N sat up again, trying to get out of the blankets. "Woah, Y/N, what's wrong?"

"I don't want him to ask me questions, I'm looking for an escape!" She hissed, brushing a wet Y/C/H strand out of her eyes, to no avail because of the length.

"We're on a boat, I'm not sure how you think you can escape."

"My dad said there's always an escape if you use your brain."

"Brain?"

"The thing inside your head, dummy." She scoffed, grabbing a candlestick to use as a weapon.

Mark cautiously approached her. "You really don't need that, Y/N. Captain Norrington doesn't want to hurt you, he's just looking for answers."

"Mark." She sighed. "Men like that Captain Norrington are the kind of men to do anything to get answers."

"You don't even know him!"

"My dad knew men like him, said they're all the same, don't treat people like me very well."

"What do you mean, people like you?" Mark's eyes widened, was she about to admit to being a pirate in front of a governor's son?

She looked around nervously, apparently realizing what she was alluding to. "Common merchants. Dad didn't like the Navy, never did anything to help us other than hang pirates after they looted our ships."

"I understand how that can be frustrating, but Captain Norrington hurt you." He slowly took the heavy candlestick out of Y/N's grasp, and she willingly let it go.

She was still slightly suspicious. "Are you sure?"

"I promise, I won't let him."

"What if he does?"

"I'll fight him." Mark proclaimed.

She had to hold back her laughter. "With what weapon?"

The boy looked around the room, then saw a sheathed sword by the desk. "With this!" He pulled it out of the sheath, not expecting the weight, he had only practiced with swords made for kids.

"You can barely get it off the ground!" Now,Y/N didn't bother trying to cork the laughter. She let it roll out of her mouth, which only seemed to make Mark more determined to use the sword.

After his next failed attempt, she walked over to him. "Here, let me help you." They were the same size, so she was easily able to wrap her arms behind him and grip the handle of the sword with him.

Swinging their arms, she went through the motions of a swordfight, and Mark was having a hard time keeping up with the footwork. Eventually he had stepped on her foot for the sixth time and he dropped the sword in frustration. "How are you so good at that?" He huffed as she lifted the sword up and did a few more maneuvers, albeit a little slow partly from the weight of the sword and the ordeal she went through in the water.

"My dad taught me!" Y/N sheathed the sword and leaned it back against the doorframe. "Don't worry, you'll get better with practice. Practice makes permanent!"

Apparently their chatter had gotten the attention of the crew, because Captain Norrington swept in, looking at Y/N analytically. "Y/N Y/L/N, correct?"

"Yes." She nodded, then saw the offense in his eyes, and added as an afterthought, "Sir."

"What were you doing on that vessel?"

Y/N didn't miss the fact that he didn't specify the merchant boat or the pirate ship, and answered with as innocent an aura as she could. "My dad was a crew member on the merchant ship that was attacked. He was first mate, actually. I came along because he didn't have anyone else to take care of me."

"Your mother?"

"My mother left us when I was young. We don't know if she's dead or not, and I'm not sure if I care."

"Very well, heal up, Miss Y/L/N." Captain Norrington nodded curtly before leaving the cabin.

Mark spoke up from the other side of the room. "Your father sounds incredible."

"He is." She smiled inwardly and outwardly.

He suddenly had a solemn look on his face. "Y/N, about your dad... we uh, we didn't find any other survivors. Or bodies, for that matter."

Her loving, wide smile fell, and she sat back on the couch in disbelief. "No..." She whispered.

"Yes, I'm so sorry." Mark sat beside her, and saw the tears gliding down her face that had finally dried from the ocean minutes before. It was getting soaked all over again. He wasn't sure what to do, awkwardly fiddling his hands in his lap.

"My dad, he's dead." She wailed. "Dead!"

Before Mark could offer any comforting words, she realized something. "Where am I gonna go? Nobody would want to take me in!"

"You live at my house!" He blurted out, and she looked at him in wonder.

"Are you being serious?"

"Of course, I'd have to ask my dad, but-"

"Mark, thank you, but I can't accept that, we're too different. You're a governor's son, and I'm just a merchant's daughter. One day you or your dad will realize that, or you'll get tired of me. Either way, I'm gonna get kicked out."

"I'd never get tired of you! I want you to stay with me forever!"

"No, Mark!" She snapped, then sighed. "Sorry. Look, just set me up in a blacksmith's shop or something, I'll be fine."

Mark pouted, wanting to argue with her on this, but could see the determination to not live with him in her features. "Fine, I'll get you an apprenticeship with out best blacksmith! But can you still be my friend?"

With the sinking feeling of knowing she was going against her father's last word to her, Y/N smiled, giving in to the notion that she'll never be able to cut herself out of Mark's life completely. The boy was much too persistent. "Yes, I think I'd like that." Also, it'd be nice to have a friend wherever she was going, even if her dad told her to trust nobody on a Royal Navy ship. But surely he didn't mean an innocent, friendly boy. Although, the boy is a governor's son.

As the two kids shook on the promise, Y/N was overwhelmed with battling thoughts in her mind over loyalties while Mark dealt with what to do about his new secret pirate friend.