All These Storms That I've Seen

By the time Watkins returned to his quarters, angry and drunk, he had forgotten about the beautiful blond boy tied to his bed. His wrists had been rubbed raw and red with painful straining, trying to escape.

“Oh, you. Not enjoying the preferential treatment, Smith?” he smirked, shrugging off his overcoat and raising a bottle of whiskey to his lips.

“It’s not that… it’s more that I kind of need to get something to eat,” he replied, the inside of his brain pounding and fuzzy. “Why did the ship tilt earlier?”

Watkins laughed, putting down the emptied bottle and moving onto the bed, a predator. He crawled over the silk sheets, his face mere millimetres from Sean’s.

“A pretty boy like you,” he said, running his eyes down over the blond man’s chest and hips, “why would you need to worry about such trivial things?”

Sean swallowed.

He didn’t know what to say, so he kept quiet. Instead he squirmed needily up at the captain, making the older man grin and purr drunkenly.

“Exactly.”

Gustav managed to light an old oil lamp, making sure it was kept well away from anything explosive just in case it smashed or something. The young lady was perched on an old barrel in the far corner of an open cell of the brig, she didn’t look too happy about the situation.

“Look,” the cabin boy sighed. “I’m sorry about this, really, but if you’re going to stowaway on a ship, you’ve gotta expect some rough nights.”

In the dull orange light he could just make out one side of her face, it made her skin look even softer as it glowed with the flicker of the flame inside the lamp. He smiled to himself, even though she continued to be unimpressed.

“I know. I didn’t expect to end up in what’s effectively a cage in a puddle,” she mused, stamping her foot against the sodden wood to prove her point.

“What did you think being a pirate would be like then? Why would someone related to royalty wanna be here? Especially a girl!”

She laughed and shook her head. “You think I can’t do this because I’m a girl?”

“Well…you are moanin’ about water, when you snuck out to see. Just sayin’.”

The pair laughed and stared right into each others eyes before turning their attention in different directions, smiling to themselves.

“Shut up,” Gaze hissed, glaring venomously at Richardson who couldn’t help but grin at the first mates misfortune.

“That was a pretty fuckin’ silly thing to do though, Lee. I mean…rookie, or what?” Stuart laughed, watching as Gaze stared angrily out to sea. “At least Watkins bums you so much he won’t bother being angry after you’re done in the brig.”

“He doesn’t bum me, you inelegant toad.”

“Oh, oh, sorry. I’m inelegant? Deary me!” He sloshed back the last mouthful of beer and chucked the bottle overboard. He looked over at Oliver who seemed as lost in his thoughts as ever, this wouldn’t have been a problem if something was gravely wrong with the image. He wasn’t drinking. He didn’t even have a drink!

“What’s wrong with you?” Richardson pried
.
“Nothin’, nothin’. I think I know why Watkins is so pissed though.”

“He found the ale we made?”

“No,” James replied, rolling his eyes with a small smile. “He was pulled away from that new
mate, the blond one…Smith, to come up here.”

“So?”

“So! It’s been a day and he’s already all over him! That’s never happened.”

“So?”

“So! It means…I don’t know. How should I know, Ian’s crazy!”

There was a gasp that echoed all around the upper deck of the ship. Every eye turned to James Oliver and stared as if he had just cracked a dead baby joke in the paediatrics ward.

“Oh man,” the skinny Rhys hiccupped from where he was slumped in the floor. “You are gonna be in some deep shit…”

Sean could remember the last time he’d been naked around a man. It was last week, washing off the mud from a particularly hard day’s labour on the farm with some of the other workers, throwing pails of water over each other. It’d been fine, and nothing he’d ever been self-conscious about.

Of course, that time, none of the other men had been stripping him slowly, savouring each new sight like it was some exquisitely rare delicacy, and running their fingers over his flesh lightly enough to make his skin tingle.

And none of them had sat teasingly on his hips, pinning him down even if he’d been wanting to run away.

None of them had ever licked his chest either. Yeah, Smith was pretty sure that this was different to all the other times he’d been naked around people. He longed for his hands to be free of their binds so he could undo the buttons on Watkins’ frilly white shirt. He strained; the captain laughed, and started to undo his own buttons one at a time.

“Patience, young one… There’s no fun unless you have to earn it…” he said, slotting his thumbs under his waistband and rocking his hips forward playfully.

Sean groaned.

“What are we gonna do with him?” Richardson asked, looking at Mr Johnson and Mr Lewis for support. The three of them crossed their arms and looked down at Rhys, who was slumped against the deck and giggling drunkenly.

“Throw him overboard?” suggested Mr Lewis.

Mr Johnson picked up the slumped body over one shoulder and rolled his eyes.

“I’d say the bigger problem is Mr Oliver,” he said. “Or Mr Gaze…”

“Well, it’s late,” Gus said. “Goodnight, uh…”

“No, you don’t get to find out my name,” she said, an amused smile playing across her face for just her second. Then her features grew sad. “Do you have to go? It’s pretty lonely here.”

“Well, my bunk-mate might get suspicious if I’m not there,” he said slowly.

“So? Make something up,” she said, standing up. She was a good seven inches or so shorter than Gus, and had to crane her neck to look up at him. She took another step towards him, closing the gap between them, her eyes large and curious. “It’s cold here…”

Gus looked down into her eyes, a remarkably similar colour to his. She looked so sweet and innocent, but there was something gritty there too.

“Okay, I’ll stay,” he said, “or try. For as long as I can risk it.”

“Thanks,” she said. The ship rocked on a wave and she took a step into him, ending up in his arms with her head against his bare chest.

Smith watched as Watkins slowly shed all of his clean clothes to the floor so that their naked bodies were pressed together, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The captains body was coated in scars and dark ink tattoos which he had obviously gained through his travels. He even had pistol guns stained into the skin of his lower abdomen, pointing downwards to the weapon below. Cutlass, that seemed a good way to describe the way his weapon reached up between the two guns.

Watkins smirk was painted on his lips as he saw the boys large, eager eyes take in every inch of him.

“Have you ever done this before, Smith?”

Sean chewed his lip and shrugged lightly. He had kissed a boy before, many years ago…but no clothes were removed, no touches exchanged…nothing this intimate.

“Answer me properly,” Watkins growled, leaning forward and grasping a handful of the blond’s hair, making him seethe.

“No…no, Cap’n,” his words were slurred slightly from his spiked state.

Hips rocketed skyward once he let go of his locks, pushing his pelvis up towards Watkins and rubbing feverishly against him. Watkins grinned.

“This will be a very important lesson then. I have lots to teach you.”

The captain's expression was so hungry, so lustful that it was a wonder he wasn’t the one begging for contact.