Chained
July 15th 2016
by Esile the Raven, Characters by Yuusei Matsui

In this world, it didn't matter if humans had brought up 'civilized things'. Because amongst humans themselves, in the end, it was all about the law of the jungle. The strong conquers, the weak obliges. There was no such thing as wrong or right. There was only power.

As Yuuma cried on his feet, a chain binded to his neck, he realized those things. The pirates dragged him off by such a force he could've gotten his head plucked off. His mother's tragic cry became his farewell aria.

He just wanted to live. He had never thought about 'wanting to live', he had only thought that it's been there, he'd lived, worked hard for his family. He had never thought, that a day will come, where he had to 'ask' for his life. He thought it had been his all along.

"Be gentle with this rough diamond now," Yuuma didn't lift his face as the painful chain had stopped pulling him by force. A rough hand on his back pushed him onto the deck.

The same hand collected a fistful of his hair to get him to kneel down on the drenched wooden plank. The rest of the crews were dismissed, leaving only two persons surrounding him. One, was the man holding him behind. The other one, was whoever this man, standing before him, wearing expensive-looking leather boots with meticulously done knots.

A cold, sharp object was set below his chin. The object, a pirate dagger, forced him to look up and bestow his eyes upon the man of the ship. The man that ruined his life in exchange of his family's safety. The man, with cold wine eyes and such a sneer that taught Yuuma one thing:

What this man wants, he gets. Whatever. Whenever.

"Hello there beautiful." The man greeted, such a surprisingly gentle and deep voice. He knelt to reach Yuuma's eyes, a smirk adorning the perfectly chiseled jawline. "I require your name."

Yuuma was conflicted. He had never faced this kind of situation before. This man said 'require' commandingly without polite interlude like 'may I' or 'can I'. He was being treated like a slave; a future awaits ahead of him.

He made up his mind.

The anchor was pulled. The sail was set. He knew he would never go home.

He had nothing to lose.

So he smiled brightly. May his death free his soul. And if he were to live, may he always be brave to face adversaries awaits in his path.

For Yuuma decided that he would be a free man. That he was no slave to anyone.

"I would rather not answer your requirements, but I have an inkling that you'd gave me horrible nicknames that I wouldn't stand. Please carve it clearly into your thick skull; it is Yuuma, you wretched, uncivilized mongrel."

Those wine eyes gleamed. Yuuma held his gaze still, unable to determine the emotions behind those intoxicating eyes.

"Hang him above the deck by his ankle, son." The man chuckled and stood up.

Yuuma's eyes widened when the hand behind his head dragged him to stand and roughly pushed him along the deck.

"What a bloody idiot." The person behind him gruffly mumbled.

Yuuma took a glance and finally saw his temporary beholder; a boy his age! The captain had addressed the boy as his son, despite this boy had nothing that looked like that man;except perhaps those strikingly intense eyes.

"You could just answer your name instead of giving me more chores," the boy muttered angrily whilst cuffing Yuuma's right ankle. "Enjoy your ride upside down, you nitwit. Up he goes!"

The deck was filled with laugh as Yuuma yelped and was hung upside-down. The raven-haired boy gulped, but then, time momentarily stopped when his eyes crossed with the captain, who was grinning evilly at his direction.

"Please remember this wretched, uncivilized mongrel's name, Yuuma," said the man, sitting dandily in a hammock, feet crossed. "Gakuhou. Your new master."

~.X.~

Eventually, Yuuma realized that the captain didn't want him as a slave nor a servant.

They dropped the anchor in the middle of shallow water. The wind was kind; they had been sailing for so long, perhaps a month. Yuuma had no idea whatsoever where these pirates were heading, nor he could have cared less. However, it was time for supper, and the crews were making their own circles. A firepit was built in several spots of the deck, except the captain's balcon where the heat source came from two big torches at each sides of the balcony.

And there, Yuuma realized that Captain Gakuhou wanted him as a pet.

"Yuuma come here, sit on my lap."

"Eh…?"

"Come here, come here, good boy, I will feed you. You haven't eaten anything decent, haven't you, dear? Shuu's cooking is certainly inhumane."

Gakushuu Asano, his son, scoffed and looked away in embarrassment. Yuuma sat on his spot, confused as hell whilst the captain was all smile and waving a chicken drumstick towards him, as if luring a puppy to eat.

"Ah, I would want to eat it, but can I get it on a plate, sir?"

"No." Gakuhou suddenly became stoic and ate his chicken. "Bad boy, Yuuma. You bad boy. Pet doesn't eat on a plate, and they shouldn't call me 'sir', they call me 'master'. You get no dinner tonight."

Yuuma smiled, but he was twitching with anger, as he looked at Gakushuu.

"Gakushuu, I actually find your cooking very neat. Do you mind?"

"No." Gakuhou said again, cutting off any possible response from his son. "Gakushuu, you can't feed this bad pet. He'll sleep without dinner."

"Oh come on, captain!" Yuuma huffed, feeling his stomach grumbling. Seeing that Gakushuu didn't event want to join the conversation, he sighed, walked towards the captain, and straddle the man.

Gakuhou raised his eyebrows, smirking. Yuuma smiled towards him, took the chicken drumstick, and got off the captain's lap. Then, he proceeded to take sit beside Gakushuu and eat.

"Why are you eating here!?" the junior pirate protested.

"Because I'm hungry."

Gakuhou chuckled, clearly amused. And for some reason, Yuuma felt this strange warmth within him, upon seeing that honest smile.

Yeah, he was very hungry.

~.X.~

"Why do I have to go through this…" Yuuma nervously muttered as the large arms around him were only squeezing him tighter.

After the feast, Yuuma was dragged into the captain's cabin and before he could even assess the situation, he was thrown into the bed.

"You have quite a strong build, and yet so cozy to squeeze," the older man said, humming into the boy's hair.

"Sir, but—"

"Ahem."

"Master," Yuuma blushed madly as he angrily gritted his teeth, "What do you want from me!? I am no pet!"

"Well," the arms loosen, and Yuuma sensed the warmth fading away from here.

Then it was replaced by a cold, sharp sensation on the back of his neck.

"I do not see any other fitting reason to have you aboard, Yuuma. We could just turn this ship back to your island and burn your nest."

Fear was striking in his gut as he listened to those cold words. Yuuma was tense and began to be filled with fear.

"Wasn't it you, who begged me as to not to take your mother?"

"Wasn't it you, who pleaded to volunteer in the place of that woman?"

Yuuma stopped breathing when he felt the man's chin was rested on his shoulder.

"Then be a good pet."

~.X.~

He was clearly shaken. Yuuma couldn't sleep for the entire night. He was then returned to the prison when the ship sailed.

"Understood your position, I suppose," Gakushuu leered, tangling the chains connected to Yuuma's neck onto the prison's bars. "Let me tell you something," he said, taking a seat on the bench across the prison.

"My father had four pets before you. All of them died. One died from suicide. The next one died from being murdered. The rest died from illness. The thing is, as long as you live, he wouldn't want any other pets. Even if you run away, he would come and find you. If you die, only then he would get a new one. He's laid his eyes on you, but he wanted you to surrender yourself. That's why he threatened to take your mother. He knew you would come around."

Yuuma touched the metal collar on his neck, gritting his teeth.

"So…if I die, someone else will be taken?"

"Yes."

"Why is your father doing this?"

Gakushuu sighed, crossing his arms. "We're pirates. We're not known for loyalty. Not even from his own son," he snorted with a menacing smirk upon saying this. "…But that man craved absolute loyalty. He enjoyed being the center of someone's world. He despised my mother for her disloyalty, took me away and raised me into one of him."

"Oh, I see…" Yuuma nodded, feeling a bit symphaty for the teen, but then frowned and shook his head.

"No, no, I mean, why did your father insisted that we sleep together?"

"That's what annoyed you?" Gakushuu deadpanned.

~.X.~

"I've decided that I do not want to be your pet, Master." Yuuma announced in the next day he was allowed to leave the prison.

The crew who was taking list of their weaponries gaped at him. Another one who was wiping the canon balls dropped it onto his own foot. The ship was dead silent. The captain, sitting in his hammock, stared at Yuuma with his brows raised.

"And you think you have the power to decide so?"

"I think I don't, Master."

Gakuhou sat up and looked straight at the boy with a wry smile. "What is this game you're playing?"

"I am not playing games, master. I just think that it's inappropriate for strangers to sleep together in the same bed. Even if you consider me as a pet."

"I see," Gakuhou nodded with a serious face. "Then you're my wife from now on, Yuuma!"

"…"

Now jaws were dropping along the deck, and Gakushuu spurted out his coconut juice. Captain Gakuhou was all smile, patting Yuuma on the shoulder.

"And since you're my wife, you should do all the chores." Gakuhou grabbed a mop and shoved it into Yuuma's hands. "And cook our dinner. Now you can sleep on my bed, can you?"

"HAHAHA!" the crews burst out laughing at Yuuma, who was glaring at the mop in his hand.

However, the boy then glared at the captain straight into his soul.

"Well if you want me to be your wife, I demand a wedding ceremony and a wedding ring!" he then used the mop to point at the captain. "I will bake the cake, so you better keep up your words."

Gakuhou's smile twitched.

"And if you don't, I'll go sleep with your crews. And you'll kill them. And you'll run out of crews."

Now the crews were completely still and quiet, they gulped in fear.

Yuuma then casually turned away, the mop on his shoulder. Gakuhou facepalmed in order to hold himself from laughing out loud.

Apparently he'd found himself a keeper, instead of a pet.

~.X.~

The ship, Hokuto, had never been so shiny before. Also, it didn't even seem like a pirate ship now that the sails were used to hang laundries. Because the crews couldn't stop dirtying the deck, Yuuma had wrathfully ordered them to take a bath in the ocean and dry themselves on a corner of the deck, as they waited for the laundry to dry.

The crews had complained, but the captain ordered them to do as Yuuma asked of them.

The sun was setting when Yuuma came out of the kitchen with Gakushuu, a big pot of dinner awaited them. The smell was heavenly.

"I just cleaned that pig-barn-excuse of a kitchen!" Yuuma announced, whilst Gakushuu set the plates, he looked thinner and paler after apparently some 'exorcism' in the kitchen. "I found a bloody human's foot inside the stack of pots and a mountain of rotten dead rats beneath the food sacks. How can you live with yourselves!?"

"I tried to find that human's foot but it got rotten anyway, we just had to deal with the smell for a few months, no problem!"

"Disgusting. Do you really enjoy eating with a rotten human foot in mind? I think not. Now, hold your pantaloons and line up like gentlemen or I will toss your dinner off the ship."

Pirates never line up to get things, so Yuuma's request was beyond imaginations. Despite the foot-stepping, elbowing, and cussing, they were too hungry, and decided to follow the order.

Yuuma had turned the Hokuto Pirates into a gentlemen cruise. Captain Gakuhou thought he would die from asthma if he had to hold himself from laughing for so long.

~.X.~

One night, Gakushuu returned from the land, and he brought a bad news.

"The navy's coming from North. Sonzai decides to block our path from around. Expect them coming in three days. They're still cross about that time in Sahara, I bet."

"Sonzai?" Yuuma frowned. As a good wife (although Yuuma insisted that he's just a fiance) he had been giving Gakuhou back massage. "Sonzai the One-eyed Pirate Yanagisawa?"

"I see you're informed of this man," Gakuhou glanced with a coldness in his eyes. "Something between you?"

Yuuma gripped a tendon, causing the captain to freeze in fear that the boy would knot his muscles sore.

"My mother spoke of that man often. He used to be her master. We weren't exactly a family that came from a fertile ground, you see. However, my mother fell in love with the crew of Sonzai, and had me. So they fled, and my father went missing during the escapade."

"Nasty people, Sonzais," Gakushuu grumbled. "We might need to hide our trunk."

"You heard my son," Gakuhou nodded to his navigator, who nodded and went to work. "As for you," he looked at Yuuma, "You're going to hide with our treasures."

"Nonsense," Yuuma scowled. "I want to learn swordfights! Our son has been teaching me tricks!" he pointed at Gakushuu, who deadpanned at his annoying nickname.

"Stop calling me your son!"

"Gakushuu, you shouldn't have taught your mother dangerous things."

"He's not my mother!"

"That's right, I am his father!"

"NEITHER!"

~.X.~

After a long argument, it was settled that Yuuma would go onto the land, a small merchant harbor nearby, whilst the treasure would be buried somewhere else. Yuuma only agreed because he was bored being on the ship for nearly a year, and he was relatively happy to see land; greenery, animals, houses.

Captain Gakuhou went undercover to set his establishments, and on the meantime, Yuuma and Gakushuu went shopping.

Gakushuu had no idea why he had to put up with this. For some reason, his father became annoyingly fluffy around this raven-haired teen.

"Don't you eventually find it bland that you can only eat the same things for months even though I can cook it into twelve different dishes? I mean, sure, there's a lot to do with mackerel, but I got bored cooking it. Your cook…Takuya was crying when I pointed this out. He would be ecstatic if we brought him exotic ingredients, I bet."

"Would you stop that? It's freaking me out!" Gakushuu hissed through his teeth while Yuuma was busy choosing potatoes and shallots.

"What is it?"

"You! Acting like a middle-aged woman!"

"Well I am a wife now, I have to act the part, don't I?"

"You're clearly enjoying this!" Gakushuu then noticed the pink tint on Yuuma's face. "Bloody hell. You're in love with my father?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Look, pineapples. Pineapples fried rice—"

"Well, I would agree to be your son if that's the case, though," Gakushuu began to act nonchalantly, also pretending to be interested with papaya. "Not that I find it gross or anything. I've seen real gross things than teens crushing on my father. Or gay people. Or gay teens crushing on my father."

"You don't…mind?"

"I never cared," Gakushuu finally decided to take the boy on. "But he insisted to act all fatherly, honestly that is annoying. What pirates listen to their father? I do. There are things I'm not allowed to, being a pirate and his son. It's like the epitome of irony."

Yuuma stared at the blonde with a frown. "But he really loves you."

"I know that," Gakushuu blushed. "And that makes it harder for me. I'm a pirate, I'm supposed to be free doing what I want, but I'm also a son, so I have to listen?"

"Yeah, that's complicated, huh," Yuuma crossed his arms, thinking for a while. After taking a sack full of everything, they returned to the main town.

"Tell you what, if you really love my father, I won't judge. But since you're going to be my mother you have to make him to leave me alone no matter what I want to do."

Yuuma gawked at the blonde.

"YOU'RE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING ME BEING YOUR MOM!?"

~.X.~

A flat had been secured for Yuuma. It was a nice room, also a storage for Yuuma to wait and keep the food stock. Though, he stared at the bed with a wry smile; he would be sleeping alone for a while.

The door creaked open behind him, revealing the wine-eyed pirate.

"Fitting to your liking?"

"I like anything you give me, to be honest," Yuuma shrugged, and turned to face the older man. "Going now?"

"No, not yet. The trunk crew hasn't returned."

Gakuhou grabbed Yuuma by the shoulders and dragged him to the bed.

"Enjoy your stay. After that, I'll throw the wedding ceremony."

Yuuma laughed, even if he couldn't hide his embarrassment. "Yeah, but you'll have to survive the Sonzai first. You know, I could just escape from this town."

Tentatively, the man lowered his gaze onto Yuuma, that smirk on his face, possessiveness in his eyes.

"But you wouldn't."

"Always so sure, aren't you."

"Well," he chuckled. "I've got you chained, after all."

He could feel the man breathing hotly on his lips.

"There's no chain on me for the past nine months."

"Not on you,"

The rough, leather-coated hand was slipping under his shirt, and Yuuma could see the dark tints in those wine-colored eyes, and how long the lashes this man have.

"I've got you chained in your heart, don't I."

Yuuma gulped, but managed to smile.

"Then you'll know to come back to me, Captain Gakuhou."

"Obviously," a soft kiss on top of his lips, continued to trail down along his jawline. Yuuma began to breathe erratically, and bit his lips when he felt the pirate was marking his spot on his neck.

"Seeing as you've got mine chained as well."

I don't even—

I want a Gakuhou x Isogai Pirate AU. So I make one. AHH ISN'T THIS PERFECT. I have this headcanon that Isogai could still keep up with the man's OCD and still loosen up the man…in many ways, rrr…Also, I've been wanting to make another Gakuhou x Isogai since I saw that kakoikomi card! Bet you guys seen it too, aintcha? It was the masterpiece of editing! Also, that straddling part was somewhat inspired from that card.

THE LEMON WILL COME MUHAHAHAHA yes I was setting this for the lemon purposes. Sue me.

Kindly review if you have the time, land lubbers!