The Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club stretched in a lazily ritzy way along a bit of the California coast. In the lack of breeze, palm fronds sank toward the moored boats as though already tired of the sun in April. Two figures--a man and a woman--strolled down the freshly minted dock, their sandals making soft flopping sounds on the wood. Their heads were bent toward one another in what could easily be mistaken as an intimate conversation, and in many ways their conversation was quite intimate. The woman's eyes were carefully studying each of the boats as she spoke.

"Yes, I'm sure he said it was the St. Catherine."

The man's brow furrowed above a rather bubbly beard. "All right, then. Now be yee sure that yee told 'em that I'll be comin' too?" His female companion rolled her eyes and rolled a dark curl of hair absently around one of her fingers.

"Yes, of course. I told him that my seafaring brother would very much like to take a look at his ship. In a strictly professional way, of course."

He raised an eyebrow and cracked a smile. Throwing an arm around her shoulders, he leered into her face, studying her gently present crow's-feet and laugh lines.

"Oh, aye, yer brother, am I? An' what age did me - 'scuse me, our mum have me, then? Sixty or something like that lass?" Luna scowled at him, unintentionally deepening the lines on her face.

"There's no need for you to point out my age, BubbleBeard. As far as he knows, you're the youngest of twelve children, and a laze about who ran off to sea at that." She turned away, once more carefully studying the names on the boats that they walked past. She suddenly stopped, broke into a convincing grin, and waved to a figure aboard one of the largest yachts in the marina. Through her teeth, she muttered to her companion. "That's the mark, Bubbles. We've just gotta act natural, okay?"

BubbleBeard growled softly, knowing full and well how to pull off the heist they were about to attempt. Act natural she said, BubbleBeard thought as he chuckled. As if he needed that advice. There wasn't a boat in the sea that could stop him from raiding it if he so chose. Shrugging, BubbleBeard followed Luna down the dock and onto the ship. Turning to Luna, BubbleBeard murmured,

"Yarrr, yee be wantin' ter get the cap'n down here, maybe lower the front of yer shirt a wee bit as to distract him."

BubbleBeard blushed momentarily before shaking his head and ridding it of the image he'd imagined. No need to distract himself in the process. Though they'd never done a job together, he could tell that the duo of her wit and looks, combined with his blatant disregard for the law, and knowledge of all seaworthy vessels, would prove to be formidable.

Luna scowled again at BubbleBeard before smoothing out her face into a pleasant, waspish smile for the man standing on deck in a Fair Isle sweater vest and loafers.

"Well hello there John! It's so good to see you again!" She wrapped her arms around the man in a tight hug, lingering for just long enough that John would start to read into it. As she looked back up into his face, the man chuckled.

"Well, hello Luna! I'm glad to see you made it! I hope you didn't have any trouble finding me." John glanced up, looking at the other, slightly scruffy man behind her. "And this must be your brother." John's voice carried a mixture of disappointment and suspicion behind its normal patrician tones. Luna stepped back, extending a friendly hand toward BubbleBeard.

"Yes, this is...Steven. Steven, this is John. He's the owner of this fine vessel and has been gracious enough to let us spend the day here."

After the two men warily shook hands, she linked an arm through John's and steered him toward the prow of the ship, beginning to jabber about what great views he must get. As she walked away, she subtly undid the top button of her dress, letting a little cleavage hang out. Hey, it couldn't hurt to follow a pirate's advice...right? BubbleBeard smiled and nodded to the man, who was seemingly unconvinced of his "brother" status with Luna. Chuckling, he followed the pair of them, taking mental notes of the ships structure. It shouldn't be too hard to get the jewels they were after. Nine times out of ten the Captain of a ship kept the treasure with highest value in his quarters, which were always locked. Shouldn't be a problem BubbleBeard thought. Tapping John on the shoulder BubbleBeard smiled broadly and made a suggestion

"Perhaps we should toast to this enormously beautiful vessel?"

John grinned and nodded, immediately reaching for an available bucket of ice from which a beautiful champagne bottle protruded. After pouring it into three chilled glasses and handing two to his guests, John held up his own glass and gave a perfunctory nod to BubbleBeard. As he spoke, though, he looked right at Luna and snuck an arm around her waist.

"To the St. Catherine! May she keep her beauty as well as Miss Luna will."

Luna laughed in a somewhat embarrassed way, but held onto John's gaze for quite some time. After a moment, she pulled away to take a long sip of champagne. John started casually talking about the ship's design with Bubblebeard, nonchalantly throwing out her measurements and speed. After a bit, he suddenly brightened.

"Hey, I've just got a miniature model of her made. It's in my cabin--wanna see?"

The Captain felt his heart race as John mentioned willingly letting them enter his quarters. Clearly he wasn't a real Captain or he'd have recognized BubbleBeard's tattoos and scruffiness, and identified him as a pirate. Shrugging it off, he glanced over at Luna and nodded slightly, indicating they should follow John. Doing so, BubbleBeard nonchalantly poured the rest of the champagne over the rail and took a sip of whiskey from his flask. What sort of Captain drinks champagne he thought? Lighting a cigar, the Captain holds the door to John's cabin open for them and smiles as he lifts the set of keys dangling from John's belt. Coughing twice, which was their pre-arranged signal for turning up the distraction, BubbleBeard closes the door behind him and enters the room, awaiting for the prime opportunity to make his move. Looking to the side, he catches a glimpse of Luna and bites his lip, using all of his self control not to look longer. The idea of lowering her shirt slightly was undoubtedly taking its toll on John, as BubbleBeard noted his constant seemingly innocent looks in Luna's direction Two coughs. Luna caught BubbleBeard's eye in one swift movement before coquettishly pressing herself into John, her dress now straining slightly around her bodice. She whispered something into his ear--something that caused him to look down in surprise, then wink to her and nod briefly. He pointed to a tiny version of the ship that the three were standing in, smiling proudly.

"Yep, there she is. Exquisite detail, don't you think, Steven? If you don't mind, I'll let you examine it while I...show Luna the Pacific." He grinned and winked at his lady friend before eagerly pulling her up the narrow stairs again. Luna glanced back at BubbleBeard, smiling secretly as she recognized the look of pure glee on his face. The animal inside BubbleBeard snarled at the thought of what surely was going through John's mind as they made their way up the stairs. Knowing it was for the good of the mission, BubbleBeard quickly thumbed around the cabin and smiled gleefully as he felt a metal box taped to the underside of John's bed. Rifling through the keys quickly, BubbleBeard decided there were too many and picked the lock instead, chuckling proudly to himself as he heard the TINK of the tumblers fall into place. His eyes lit up miraculously as the jewels sparkled, thoughts of finer liquor and a better car entering his mind instantly. Swiping them up from their perch, BubbleBeard slips them into a felt pouch inside his pocket and locks the box back up, returning it to its proper home. Moderately interested in the actual reason John allowed them in his cabin, BubbleBeard leaned over the model and studied it carefully. The detail was amazing, he thought, making a mental note on it in case he felt like building another ship to add to his fleet. Just as he'd begun to wonder what was taking Luna so long, he heard voices coming down the stairs

"He's fine down there! I don't know what you're so worried about!"

Luna was hastily re-buttoning a few buttons on her dress as she followed John down the stairs. In the middle of an empassioned kiss, he had suddenly stopped to glance at his watch and look around warily before setting off toward the cabin, saying that he wanted to check up on Steven. Luna was mentally praying that BubbleBeard had already finished his business, but wasn't at all sure. As John flung the door open, Luna closed her eyes, wincing. When, after several seconds, there was no yelling or throwing of objects or gunshots, she cracked open an eye to see BubbleBeard looking up from bending over the tiny ship, somewhat surprised. John was standing there in a somewhat embarrassed fluster, but quickly regained himself and gestured upstairs.

"Oh, um, sorry Steven. I just wanted to see you were getting along all right down here. If you want you can come on back up--we were about to crack open a bottle of whiskey."

BubbleBeard looked to Luna and nodded ever so slightly, unseen by John, but recognized by her as a "mission accomplished" nod. Lighting a new cigar, BubbleBeard checked his watch and pulled his eyebrows together.

"Actually John, it be time fer this mate to be getting along, I've got to see a man about a horse. I'd love ter come by some other time when there's more time to sip booze and smoke cigars though."

BubbleBeard casually walked out of the cabin and onto the deck, waiting to see if Luna would follow, or if the other Captain's "charm" had her wanting more. John seemed to be at something of a loss at the man's sudden departure, but shrugged and wrapped his arm around Luna. He pressed himself urgently against her, only too aware now of her chaperone's absence. Luna hesitated. The man really was rather nice--a bit of an asshole in the way that most, if not all, rich men are, but he was nice to look at and it certainly wouldn't be bad to spend a night with him. But she looked up into his eyes and saw a much colder leer than she was used to seeing. She stepped away, suddenly losing some of her bravado.

"I-I think I'd best leave, too. I'll come back some other time."

She walked quickly toward the ladder that lowered onto the dock, hurried down it, and jumped off the last few rungs before scurrying to catch up with her partner in crime. She grabbed the Captain's arm for protection, shivering slightly in the warm dusk of a Los Angeles afternoon.

Hanging his head sadly, BubbleBeard wipes a single tear from his eye as he remembered the last time he saw his dearest Luna. Oh, how he would miss her...

Too much methamphetamine can kill you, ya know...