Kara

“Kara,” the young woman’s cheeks turned a little red and she looked slightly annoyed at her uncle for handing her over to a drunk, “and it’ll do I guess.”

“Alright then,” Tir smiled at Kara for a moment before meeting the barman’s gaze again, “I’ll give you half her cut once we get back.”

“Half?” The bartender didn’t look too happy with that offer.

“She’s out of your way and you’ll still make a nice profit, can’t see what you’ve got to complain about.” Tir explained.

The bartender remained silent for a moment, but then gave Tir a curt little nod and wheezed out a grumpy “Fine.”

“Kara, I’m Tir,” Tir introduced himself, still not noticing that he had stopped slurring as soon as Kara had told him her name, “would you go get your things?”

Tir was doing his best to appear as friendly and inviting as possible to Kara, guessing that it would be better for everyone if he could convince her that he didn’t view her as a **** or something. From her uncle’s eagerness to get rid off her, it seemed to Tir that he was doing Kara a favour by bringing her aboard the Peregrine.

“Okay,” Kara eyed the floor, and Tir suspected that she was silently berating herself about her flushed cheeks as she turned around and headed out the back.

“Bartender, pour me another drink,” Tir ordered the barman, and was soon applauded by his crewmates when he downed another shot of the strong booze.

“Why’d you want to get rid of her anyway?” Tir asked the bartender, referring of course to Kara.

“She’s workshy and bad with the customers,” the bartender began to explain, “and there’s something unsettling about how quiet she is all the time ever since her parents died.”

“Huh,” Tir nodded and resisted the urge to start verbally abusing the bartender, choosing instead to go over to where Carmine was slumped into a padded seat to check on her. She was still **** after her one too many drinks and Tir suspected that he would have to carry her back aboard the ship.

He wondered how Carmine’s father would take the news that she’d gone to sea, but decided that he could worry about that the next day.

“Bartender,” Tir cried out as he picked up Carmine and stretched one of her arms out across his shoulders, “tell Kara that I’ll be waiting for her outside.”

“Later guys,” Tir shot his crewmates a smile, to which they responded with one last round of applauds as he led Carmine outside.

Propping Carmine up on a pair of empty crates that littered the other side of the street from the bar, Tir began to wait for Kara.

When she finally did walk out onto the street she was carrying along a duffel bag and had gotten rid of the leather jerkin and was instead wearing a simple white blouse which did nothing to hide the impressive swell of her ample chest.

Taking in Kara’s build and her facial features, Tir remembered how shy she had seemed earlier and how her uncle had described her behaviour, and was fuelled by his weakened inhibitions into deciding that he should do something about it.

“Wait…” Kara’s voice sounded weak and very nervous as Tir marched up to her, but he ignored it and instead opted for sweeping her up into his arms and planting a kiss on her full lips.

At first, Kara did nothing as Tir kissed her, then she spent a few seconds offering him some weak resistance by smacking her hand against his arm and then she gave in and started to return his kiss, her hand now caressing his arm while her tongue wrestled his.