Thank you, @ihni , for the baton! Without further ado, here's my contribution to the Harringrove Relay Race!
It's a little fic (that I'll post on ao3 later, when I'm awake and cosplaying as a functioning human) and that is very cleverly (not really) titled...
A Pirate's Life For Me
Billy's always known he wasn't lucky in life and this, right here, is the culmination of it all.
Not even two months at sea, working his ass off for a meager pay in the hopes of earning enough to exstinguish the debts his father and Chrissy's father put on their shoulders before dying, and his ship gets captured by pirates.
Worse: captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts, who has a reputation as a great swordman and a ruthless bastard who doesn't leave survivors.
Billy did his best in the fight, but he's just a farm boy turned deck swabber, his swordmanship goes very little further than "the handle goes into your hand, the pointy part goes inside the enemy". So now he's kneeling, hands raised, on the deck of the Panthaira, along with the rest of the surviving crew and passengers.
Well, with all the survivors except Captain Loman, who's huddled against the main mast. The Dread Pirate Roberts is crouched in front of the captain and talking to him in a low voice while the captain clearly draws his last breaths, shirt painted a vivid red with the blood gushing from the puncture wounds in his chest. Loman was a petty tyrant, so Billy is not exactly bawling his eyes out at the prospect of the captain being gone soon. It's just the principle of the thing that counts. The Panthaira has been captured, and, to put it mildly, Billy is fucked.
There are too many pirates keeping them under threat of more stabbing, and also no damn place to go even if he were able to escape the ship. They're in the middle of the ocean, nothing but water in every direction for hundred if not thousands of miles.
So Billy stays where he is.
And looks either at the back of the Dread Pirate Roberts or at the slow rising and falling of Loman's chest.
He waits and hates how his arms are getting heavier and heavier by the second. Soon, he'll be dead and, back home, Chrissy will have to mourn her best friend too, not just her parents.
Captain Loman's chest at last goes still and Roberts extends a careful, gloved hand to close the man's unseeing eyes, before turning towards his prisoners in one swift, elegant movement.
Robert's dressed all in black and wearing a mask, just like the stories say. He has long brown hair tied in a low pony tail, and dark eyes that sweep the crew and passengers of the Panthaira like he can weigh the wort of each of them with just one look.
Billy lets his hands fall down, tired of this charade. If he's gonna die anyway, what good comes from obeying? Might as well die with some feeling left in his arms.
Someone shouts at Billy to raise his hands again and he just ignores him. Roberts is walking their way, his steps slow and his attention pointedly fixed on cleaning blood off the blade of his sword.
Somewhere behind Billy, a woman starts weeping. One of the crew members pleads for his life. Another offers all the money he's got to be spared.
Bunch of cowards.
Roberts stops in front of Billy, ignores everyone else.
"You're not pleading," he says in such a voice and cold tone that the people around them fall silent, too scared of what's happening.
"I don't plead."
"Aren't you scared, boy?"
"To death."
Roberts grins. It makes the moles on his cheek dance.
"Should I bestow on you the sweet mercy of death, then, or not?"
Billy licks his lips and grins back.
"You should let me live, sir."
"And why should I make an exception?"
That's the true problem. Both Billy and Roberts know it, judging by the predatory look in his eyes.
Why, indeed.
"True love?" Billy tries.
Roberts laughs.
"She must be an exceptional lay, to make you believe someone will let you live only so that you'll be able to bed her again!"
"Wouldn't know, I've never wanted to fuck my best friend. Is there truest, purest love than the one that's never been tainted by lust or carnal needs?"
The Dread Pirate Roberts laughs even more and then shakes his head.
"Unbelievable," he says in a stage whisper. "What's your name, boy?"
"Billy."
"Well, Billy, I find myself in sudden need of a personal attendant." Roberts pauses for a beat, cocks his head to the side. Predatory is now an understatement for the look in those dark eyes. "Do a good job and one day you'll be able to return home to your best friend. Do a bad job, and your friend will never see you again. Are you interested in the position?"
Billy grits his teeth and never lets his gaze waver from Roberts.
The decision is so simple he doesn't even need to think about it. He nods and Roberts smiles.
Billy doesn't know what's in his future, but he'll do all he can to survive whatever Roberts throws his way and then return home. His best friend is waiting for him.
And with this, my installment of the race is done and it's time to head over to @liverditty in an hour for his contribution! I can't wait to see what he created for this beautiful event! In the mean time, thank you for reading, fair tumblr users, and thanks for organizing this, @harringrove-relay-race ! ❤️
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