Pirates! RP for ambitious_woman

[rude_not_ginger]

Italy is the most beautiful country in Europe as well as the weakest. France is invincible when attacked on its own territory. My country doesn’t like the sea so the fleet won’t be powerful.

Reinette had said that, or she would say that in one of her letters, historically. France's Navy was far from powerful, and that was well known. They weren't an attacking nation, not since Napoleon. A navy wasn't necessary.

Which was, of course, why this small but very direct pirate ship decided to attack the wealthy-looking French vessel sailing from England back to France. The captain and sailors were more concerned for the large chunks of ice and the falling snow than the possibility of pirates in English waters. And then, there they were.

The commotion caused by the attack woke the Doctor, who had been snoozing over the captain's logs, and by the time he had his senses about him, he was huddled on deck in a fur coat that was two sizes too big with the rest of the male crewmembers. He didn't know where the females were, and therefore didn't know where Reinette was.

He remembered studying pirates in his youth. He was terrified for her safety. Even if they believed her ransomable, they might not be so delicate with her in the voyage back to France.

Snow fell in his lengthening hair, and he bundled himself tighter against the spray of the icy sea water. The pirates appeared to be searching for treasure and staying warm below, while the crew they kept alive froze on deck.

Comments

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I suppose I should. After all, I wouldn't want their delicate egos to crumble beneath the might of my words. Well, they wouldn't really. I'm sure they've got a suitable man to help them lift it all up. With his money."

He rolled his eyes. They didn't impress him in the slightest.

"You, Madame, must be positively shocked and alarmed by your attire. To dress like a man and rescue a ship. It's downright heroic. Whatever will you do back at court?"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"It is all they know," Reinette defended them, for reasons that she was completely unsure of. They were precisely the sort that angered at court -- pastel bits of fluff and lace with no real weight at all to them. But she had been down in that room with them when the attack began, she she had a full understanding of what they had been through.

"If I had never been taken to Madame Lebon's, if my future had not held such promise? I might not have been allowed the lessons, to see and do what I did. I might be what they are now."

Reinette did not believe that, but it was a fair point.

But yes. Her current style of dress. Reinette actually laughed briefly.

"Take a long, hot bath," she mused, teasing. "And return to my corseted ways?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No, I don't think you'd ever be one to cry as they do. Not when you were a child and not now."

The Doctor pulled her a little closer. Without her skirts and corset blocking them, he could feel more of her against him, and it felt...intimate. Wonderful. And being outside, staring out at the icy water and still being so intimate was...it was fantastic.

"You are aware of what will happen to your internal organs over time?" Of course she was, he'd only told her half a dozen or more times. "And your ribs can't be sitting properly anymore, either.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"No," she agreed quietly after a moment. "I do not cry."

While the horizon was fascinating, and the lines of the waves compelling, Reinette felt as if she knew them. There was little there that might surprise her. She could even predict how the shore of England would eventually appear.

The man behind her? She did not know quite so well. Parts of him remained a mystery. And all of Reinette relished that challenge.

"Perhaps sometime I will allow you to inspect my ribs then, to assure yourself that they remain fine, and in there proper place." She turned slightly to fully face him, their coats twisting and mating.

"Besides, if there is damage, it is already done. And I have an image I must uphold."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I should do that," the Doctor replied, nodding, "Best way to make sure you're healthy, and that's what a Doctor does. And things might happen later that haven't happened yet. Just because you haven't tripped off a cliff yet doesn't mean you should continue walking along the edge."

As for the tears she rarely shed, he could understand her desire to keep them inside. Crying for fear or grief gave the emotions validiation, and he would never want to allow those emotions to remain alive within him, to admit that they hurt.

There wasn't anyone on board that would care about her image now, nor that of a physician holding her. He raised his hand, to trace a thumb across her cheek, very like how she touched him the first time he saw her as an adult.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

His argument about the cliff had merit, and so Reinette remained silent. That was often the way with them, each rarely capable of informing the other is right? Silence was often chosen instead. With both possessing a fondness for words, they often wore the quiet oddly.

She had meant her suggestion of inspection to be teasing, and very nearly tart. But he had somehow managed to turn her own words against her, and inject them with a serious tone as well. Reinette was unaccustomed to not winning her arguments.

She reached up to remove the Doctor's hand from her cheek, and then to study him through the silence. There was only the sound of the wind in her ears, the occasional shout by the crew.

Since she was without words, Reinette reached herself up in an attempt to balance their warring heights, and offered a kiss instead.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

That was Reinette. Completely startling and almost jarring in her quick actions. She was patient and intelligent, but she never waited like the Time Ladies he was used to on Gallifrey. She would kiss if she wanted a kiss, she would move forward if it was what she desired.

There was something to be said for that.

She tasted like fine brandy, most likely left over from her trickery with the pirates. He kissed her back, her lips warm against his skin in sharp contrast to the cold of the air and the falling snow.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

While Reinette was rarely drunk, the truth was that after an afternoon luncheon interrupted by pirates, and an early evening spent with both them, and brandy? She was well aware of how the alcohol hummed through her.

He was not warm, but the Doctor was compelling -- both man and mouth. And in Reinette's mind that was a good thing. The occasional snowflake slipped between them, and their kiss, immediately melting between tongue and teeth. But the taste of him was never diluted.

It was a more than suitable way to pass her speechlessness. Against his mouth Reinette smiled.

"I was only teasing about inspecting my ribs, you know."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He slid his hands down her torso to rest against either side of her waist. Without the corsetry in the way, his hands could feel her form, even underneath the greatcoat and various layers of clothing.

"I wasn't." He gave her a quick, teasing tickle against her sides and smiled.

It was a strange sort of longing, but he wished, in that moment, that he were human. That way, he could hold her and their warmth could mingle and be shared. The cold might bite more at him, but it would be all right if it were a cold shared.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette gasped slightly, the sound sliding into startled laughter. As she stumbled back from the attack Reinette was not sure what truly caused her reaction. The Doctor's actions, or her reaction to them. It was truly the oddest sensation to be fully clothed, and still feel his hands -- hands she admired for their skill -- touching her. All the benefit of men's clothing.

And of course as she removed herself from further assault, she lacled her normal grace. Her weight as different, skirts not there, and the deck coated with ice.

She still smiled however. Then straightened, eyes narrowing as she considered retaliation.

"That was unexpected."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I like to imagine that I'm completely unpredictable," he replied with a smile, "Can't have you getting bored with me and makin' me walk the plank now, can I?"

He turned his gaze back to the ocean, to the edge of England slowly appearing on the horizon.

"We'll get back one day," he said, as a bit of a non-sequitor, "And I'll surprise you with everywhere we'll go. Anywhere we want to go, we'll just go. And nothing will be predictable again."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"I would never be so cruel."

Reinette's features remained in repose, perhaps even threaded with offense. Not a hint of smile was suggested.

"I would never make you walk it until at least June. The water is far to frigid at the moment."

And there is it. Her smile, rather pointed. And in his direction.

He saw much, and Reinette was often unsettled at just how much he knew. While she thrilved within the confines of court life? The truth was that even though she had carved a successful life out there, it was not that the palace itself that thrilled her, but her hard earned success there. It was a matter of person, not place. And the walls themselves, the people within them? Often left her cold, and bored. Unsatisfied.

Though she never spoke if it? Reinette could tell the Doctor was well aware of that fact.

"I would enjoy that," was all Reinette was willing to offer on the matter, though he smile remained.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He pressed a kiss to her hair, a final gesture before they had to return to a life where they could not even hold hands in public out of fear of what the court might say.

"Though, I'll have to warn you," he said with a grin, "Space pirates are significantly tougher!"