"ARRR!!! Avast ye scurvy mates!" Jimmy growled, waving a cardboard cutlass, as he jumped up and down on the bed. "Heave to and prepare to be boarded!" Beside him, Hank, sporting an eye patch and another cutout cutlass jumped about as well.

The two of them and their babysitters were in the brothers' bedroom. Their two beds, parallel to each other, with a three foot gap between them, had been made into imaginary sailing ships. Hank and Jimmy's sported a flag, made of paper taped to a stick, with a skull and crossbones drawn one it in crayon.

Nicole and Rachel knelt on the other bed, which was also sporting a similarly makeshift Union Jack, waving their own cardboard swords in defiance. "Come on, you dogs!" Rachel shouted back at them. "We'll send the lot of ya straight to Davy Jones' locker!"

"Shiver me timbers!" Hank cried. "Prepare a broadside!" While Nicole and Rachel had been occupied cutting out the swords and coloring the flags, the two boys had ransacked the house, for every pillow they could find and piled them on both beds. Whooping in excitement, they seized a pair of pillows and hurled them over at the girls.

"We'll show them!" Rachel said, peering through a cardboard tube spyglass. She turned to give the order: "Prepare to return fire, Miss Green!"

"Aye Aye, Ma'am!" Nicole nodded, quickly saluting. For the next few minutes, the barrage of pillows continued, fast and fierce. Jimmy found himself buried under a sharp volley of aptly named throw pillows. Nicole giggled as Hank hit her in return with one of the couch cushions. She scooped it up and hurled it right back at him.

"Do you give up?" Jimmy cried, as he dug his way out of the pile.

"I have not yet begun to fi-OOOFF!" Rachel was cut off as a pillow smacked her in the face, eliciting peals of laughter from the two pirates. Inspire by their success, the two moved in to finish the battle. Toy swords clenched between their teeth, they jumped the gap between the two beds.

"Prepare to repel boarders!" Rachel cried. The babysitters drew their own cutlasses and began trading cuts with the boys. After a few minutes of fierce combat, the pirates prevailed. Rachel threw down her sword and raised her hands. "Alright, I yield-ow! That means I surrender, you twerp!" Nicole dropped her own sword and raised her hands.

"I give up!" She said in mock terror. "You've won. We're your prisoners now."   

"ARRR!!!" Jimmy shouted in triumph. "The ship be ours!" He pointed the tip of his sword at Rachel. "You what I tell ye, wench or you'll walk the plank! First mate Hank, tie up the prisoners!" Grinning, Hank ran back over to the other bed and grabbed several shoelaces. Returning, he and Jimmy quickly lashed the girl's hands and feet together.

"Now, show us your booty!" Jimmy ordered.

"I'm not sure that's an appropriate question for a boy your age…" Rachel replied, sheepishly.

Undeterred, the young boy added, "We want your treasure! Gold Doubloons, and Rubies and Diamonds!"

"Ooohhh…that…" Rachel thought for a moment. "I'll never tell you! No matter how much you torture my first mate, I'll never talk!"

"…wait, what?" Nicole said. "Hold on a minute!"

"Very well!" Jimmy growled in his best pirate voice. "If that be the way you want it! First Mate Hank, prepare the prisoners for the tickle torture! ARRR!!"

"Hey, wai-mmmppphhh!!!" Nicole's protests were suddenly cut off as Hank quickly gagged her with a bandana. Rachel glanced over at her friend, shrugging apologetically as she too was gagged. While Hank blindfolded the girls, Jimmy grabbed some more lengths of cord. Quickly, the two boys lashed the two girls' hands and feet to either end of the bed, leaving them stretched out for the tickling.

The two young women had already kicked off their shoes before getting on the bed, so Jimmy quickly pulled off their socks, exposing their bare feet. He crouched at the foot of the bed, while Hank took up position on the bed, seated between their two helpless prisoners.

Nicole squirmed in her bonds, in dreadful anticipation for what was about to come. She clenched her toes as Jimmy began brushing the tips of his fingers across her bare feet. Unable to help herself, Nicole giggled, softly into her gag. Beside her, Rachel gave a muffled laugh.

Then, Hank began tickling them as well, tickling under their arms, and their stomachs. Within moments, both girls were squirming wildly in their bonds, trying to escape the fingers tickling them all over, laughing wildly into their gags. After a minute or two, the two boys began to mix things up. They would concentrate on one girl, until she was screaming with laughter, letting the other catch her breath for a moment, before turning all their attention to her.

Blindfolded, the two young women had no way of knowing where the next attack would come from. They pulled against the ropes holding them to the bed, trying to get out from under the constant tickling, but there was no escape…

Finally, after a long fifteen minutes, they came to a stop. Nicole and Rachel slumped on the bed, gasping for breath, as Hank and Jimmy slowed their tickling. Nicole felt the bed creak as Hank reached over and untied Rachel's gag. "Alright!" Rachel cried out, "I'll talk! I stuffed the treasure map in one of the pillow cases! It's-mmmppphhh!!!" She was cut off as Hank put her gag back in.

Lying on the bed, the two girls heard their captors searching through the room, trying to find which pillow Rachel had put the map in, and where it had ended up during the fierce pillow fight the girls had been captured in. Finally, after a couple minutes, Hank shouted out, "Got it!"

"Let me see!" Nicole heard Jimmy run over and for a moment, the two boys pored over the hand drawn map of the house Rachel had made. Then, she felt them untying her and Rachel from the bed. Her hands were retied, behind her back now, and her blindfold was removed.

"It's a treasure hunt then!" Jimmy said, with a grin. He ran over and picked up his toy cutlass. "Alright, wenches! Start moving!" Quickly, the two captive girls were marched out of the bedroom by their pirate captors, and down the stairs. After a lengthy search, the procession wound up in the kitchen. Taped to one of the cabinets was a sheet of paper with a large "X" drawn on it.

Excitedly, the two boys ran forward, leaving their bound and gagged captives behind and pulled open the cabinet doors. After some searching, Jimmy pulled out another sheet of paper. "I…O…U?" He slowly read. Turning, he pulled Rachel's gag off. "What's that mean?" He asked.

She shrugged, grinning sheepishly. "Well…I didn't really have time to put together anything for the treasure…" As the two boys glared at her she hurriedly added, "Look, untie me and Nicole and we'll take you out for ice cream or something."

The two pirates thought it over for a moment before shouting, "Aye!"