[ his fingers brush rafa's chin after the kiss is laid on his palm, a quick catch and release before he pulls away. it's easy to imagine the kisses being laid elsewhere, rafa ducking his head to another part of his body. desire flows lazily through his veins, not yet urgent, just a pleasant, all-over warmth. he feels young. or rather, he feels his age, all twenty-one years of it, rather than the way people here normally make him feel. three-hundred years. a thousand. ancient.

it's easier to feel young with someone who actually carries the weight of a couple hundred years. those years have been incredibly kind to rafa, however, or maybe it's the vampirism. he grins, lifting the scar on his cheek- a thin, white line that follows the bone beneath the skin. ]

I gained a few stations along the way. Nobody goes straight from cabin boy to captain, no matter how strong, or brave, or devilishly handsome they be.

[ he winks and takes another drink. several more drinks and higher concentrations of liquor will be required to get him drunk, but to not get drunk at all still seems reprehensible to him.

at the question, he leans into his elbow and looks into his glass, swirling the contents so they slosh at the rim like a tiny sea. ]

Have you ever been to the Caribbean? [ he raises his eyes and glass together, sipping the rum concoction, chasing it off his lips with his tongue. ] Did you see it, you'd understand how hard it be to choose but one place. Every shore and cove has beauty to behold. [ his glass clacks on the bar. ] However, I've a special fondness for the island of New Providence, I grant it. The people of Port Nassau're free to live in the manner of their choosing, rather than under the yoke of a tyrant king.

[ he says, to a king. ]