[lowercase intended]
mythical au (mershark!kai) x pirate au (pirate!cole)
once there existed a powerful kingdom of mersharks, ruled by their beloved royal family. but when a fire elemental with royal blood is born, they try their best to keep his po...
in the dim lights of the lower deck, cole pondered about how he could make the mershark talk about his family. just the thought of manipulating their captive felt wrong, and tonight not even the soft swaying of his hammock could calm his restlessness.
light came crawling through the bullseyes sooner than the young pirate had thought. the night had seemed so long just moments ago. he yawned in exhaustion.
"didn't get much sleep huh?" darreth asked from the hammock next to him.
"no, not really" cole replied drowsily.
a few hours earlier, kai was staring at his human legs. for the first time since he was captured he was able to think about his sister. 'she must be terribly worried... I wonder how the coronation went' he speculated, before falling into an uneasy sleep.
after what seemed to be just a few minutes, kai was awoken by the door to the room loudly creaking as cole entered.
"rise and shine" cole sighed: "come on, we don't have all day" and removed a brown cloth on the wall, revealing a bullseye, promptly letting a bright ray of sunshine burst through.
"shit, can't you do that somewhere else? or at least move gills to another room and let me sleep" lloyd groaned from the other side of the room. the chains around kais' wrists clattered loudly as he rubbed his eyes.
"suck it up, lloyd" cole answered and started unlocking kais' shackles: "you better get used to it and stop complaining or I'm gonna tie you to the mast"
lloyd scoffed: "oh, please do. that's way better than being woken up at sunrise"
kai had listened to the two loudly bickering, carefully eyeing the ship's quartermaster as his bonds finally fell to the ground. there were faint red marks around his wrists where the metal had chafed.
"can you stand?" cole asked, watching the other support himself with the wall.
"...I don't know" he replied, tightly holding onto a barrel with water next to him.
"how fortunate! now he won't be able to run away" lloyd chimed in, a wicked smile on his face: "I am so excited to finally see your interrogation methods up close!"
the thick tension was practically visible in the dim light of the room, and kai was quite sure he could see cole clenching his jaw.
"I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you, lloyd, but we won't be able to bath in your presence any longer" he sneered as he lifted kai piggyback-style.
"how... how long has he... 'lived' here?" kai asked when lloyd couldn't hear them anymore.
"a few months. sometimes he's lucky and escapes but he'll be back here in a few weeks. the captain is pretty strict regarding him" cole responds.
"so it is possible to get away from them" kai thought.
cole swiftly opened a door leading to a room with a table and multiple chairs on its sides. kai was let down on one of them and continued to look around the room. it didn't have any windows, but the air still smelled like the sea.
"okay" cole began: "as you may have heard, my name is cole. I'm kind of the one... in charge of you"
"I'm... kai" the other replied hesitantly.
"so... do you have any siblings?" the other asked.
kai was surprised by the gentle way cole began the 'interrogation'. he had expected a more... aggressive approach.
"why... why would you ask me that?" kai said.
"because I'd like to get to know you better, that's why."
"do you really think I'm that dumb?" kai scoffed: "I will not be the one who leads my family into slavery"
cole clenched his jaw: "no one ever said anything about that!"
"I don't care! stories like these always end like that, especially if pirates play a part in it!"
"that may be the case, but I am trying to help you, and if you would just cooperate it might not end as bad as you expect it, " the pirate said.
kai paused for a moment: "even if you wanted to help me, it wouldn't make a difference. your captain wants to take advantage of this situation and there's almost nothing I can do about it. you can't expect me to sacrifice my kin just so you won't lose your job."
- 675 words
A/N: I drew some concept art for kai (≧◡≦)
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
