A/N For those of you who read my other story, Hi, I'm back already! It's been what two hours? I just had to get it up. For those of you who are new, let me know what you think! Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing!
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin! Or pirates, all my knowledge of pirates comes from a book called Pirates by Celia Ross and from watching Pirates of the Caribbean too many times.
Gwaine tapped the lid of another barrel, "Nope, too solid sounding." He murmured to himself as he walked around the hold of the ship. "Wrong shape. Too small." He carefully dismissed any of the many crates. "Oh, come on. We've only been out a day; we can't have drank the lot yet." He finally found the proper barrel, one that sloshed a bit that meant it was liquid and far enough in the hold that Arthur must have hoped that Gwaine would overlook it.
Gwaine was pulling it from its designated spot on the floor when he heard a sound. He spun around, a dagger dropping from its arm sheath and into his hand. It was probably just a rat, but even then it was helpful to have a dagger when you were fighting the blighters off, particularly when you were getting into the ale stash. Another shifting sound of cloth on wood and then a thud reached Gwaine, to loud and big sounding to be a rat. He carefully lifted the oil lamp from its precarious position on one of the barrels and walked farther into the hold towards the darker corners and larger crates.
"Who's there? If it's you Percy, I warn you I don't care what Arthur will do to me if I kill you." Steady silence met Gwaine, he stayed there for a moment more, the instinct that had kept him alive in so many fights telling him to wait longer. He strained his ears for any sound and was rewarded by the panicked breaths of someone trying very hard to not breathe. "Alright, come out. I know you're there, I can hear you."
Gwaine almost laughed when the boy emerged from behind the shadow behind the crate. Almost. He was young, probably not past seventeen and looked terrified.
"Please don't hurt me." Gwaine was pretty impressed when the boy's voice didn't waiver, probably scared for his life but calm.
"You do realize that stowing away on a pirate ship and then asking for them to not do anything, is a very stupid idea." Gwaine let out a huff of breath at the reaction his sentence seemed to cause.
"A pirate ship?" This time his voice waiver, it went up about a half an octave and suddenly the boy's hands were shaking. "I thought I was getting on the ship, The Camelot."
"The Camelot? You wanted to stow away on that one? If you had, I guarantee you would be dead by now, boy. As it is though, I'm going to take you to the captain and he gets to decide what happens." Gwaine decided it would be too much of a hassle to tie the boy's hands up, not to mention he didn't have any rope. "Lock your hands behind your head and we'll head out of here." He grinned his most feral grin- the one that Percy said would scare a shark off. Then sighing he put his dagger between the boy's shoulder blades, and with one last longing look at the barrel he had come down to the hold for, marched the boy up the stairs into the open deck.
Arthur looked down at the boy kneeling in front of him. He rubbed his forehead, frustrated at the turn of events.
"A stow-away? On MY ship?" He glared at Gwaine, "How exactly did he get on?" Arthur directed his question to the errant member of his crew, rather than the boy that was getting paler by the minute.
"Dunno. I was down in the hold taking inventory-"
Arthur snorted at that, "Taking inventory—you were looking for ale."
Gwaine continued as if Arthur hadn't interrupted him. "This young fella was down there hiding. So if you want to find out, you better ask him."
"Okay, boy, how did you get on my ship? Actually, a more important question would be, Why did you get on my ship?" Arthur had to consciously stop himself from showing his anger at the boy in front of him, he realized it must not have worked at the panicked look on the man's face.
"I wanted to get on The Camelot, Will went and joined the navy. I wanted to as well but I'm a year younger and they wouldn't accept me, plus mother didn't want me to go. I snuck on at night when everyone was asleep at the last port. Didn't take me long to get past the rotation—they are really predictable and then down to the hold." The boy's hands were fidgeting in his lap.
Arthur sighed, he understood a young boy wanting to prove himself to the world. That had been one of his reasons for stealing his father's best ship and sailing off to be a pirate, the other reason, well he couldn't think about that now. "You got on my ship because you thought it was the navies?"
He got a quick nod as an answer and he sighed again. What do you do with a stow-away? In the five years I've been a captain, no-one has ever done something this stupid. An inspired thought struck him and he knew it would solve the problem temporarily.
"I'll deal with this later." He waved Gwaine forward, "Put him in with that navy man we caught in the raid a few days ago."
Gwaine raised an eyebrow at the idea but didn't dispute the statement, for which Arthur was grateful. Arthur watched the boy as Gwaine pulled him to his feet and out the door, picking up the keys to the cage as he went.
Gwaine gave the boy a pointed look, warning him to not run, when he stopped at the cells above deck. They had two sets of cells; the brig that was set deep in the hold and was used for unruly crew members, and the set of cages on the main deck that allowed for any unfortunate soul to be ridiculed by any passing by.
Gwaine glanced down at the man lazing in the corner of the closest cell, they had raided a navy ship the day before they had reached the port. Arthur had been in a mood and decided that along with goods they would take along one of the men, probably hoping to convert him to piracy.
"Alright boy, you get this cell here." He unlocked it and gestured for the boy to go in. "I'll work something out with the captain so you will get food and water."
Gwaine studiously ignored the glare he got from the boy, along with his fellow cell mate and left them there. As Gwaine walked off he heard the man's quiet voice, "My name's Lancelot." Gwaine slowed down long enough to hear the boy's quiet whisper, "I'm Merlin."
Merlin woke to a rattle of metal on metal; he had slept fitfully because he was not quite able to lay down in the small cage, and didn't appreciate the early call. He sent a glare at the large man who was running the keys across the bars. The day before he had been surprised when he realized that he had picked the wrong ship, but it seemed like something that would happen to him, after all it had been dark and he was had been dodging the dock guard.
"Come on navy boy, get up." Merlin glanced at Lancelot, they had managed to talk some the day before, then a passing pirate told them to be quiet. Lancelot had been a lieutenant in the navy, when the pirate ship Pendragon had raided the navy messenger ship he was on, Arthur had liked the look of him and brought him aboard-he had been on the ship for three days already.
"Get him out now, we should get started." Arthur's voice came from behind Merlin, and he craned his neck in an attempt to see the captain. "Has anyone told him what is going on?"
When no-one answered he sighed dramatically, "Oh, our navy boy, you will be fighting one of my crew. If I decide you have fought well, you'll get something to eat. Any funny business and we will slit the kid's neck; it seemed you enjoyed talking to him last night."
At this Merlin realized his cage was being opened and he was getting grabbed, for a brief second he considered fighting before he realized how stupid it was. He was on a ship in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by pirates.
Merlin let them pull him to the edge of the circle, held back by a giant of a man. Lancelot was pulled out of his own cage and handed a sword. As he hefted it to test its weight, a dagger was pressed to Merlin's throat.
"No funny business remember." Arthur sounded rather bored with the proceedings, and Merlin idly wondered how many times the pirate crew had played out this same scenario.
"Let's get this started then." Lancelot moved to the loose circle that was forming on the deck, and then a man moved in to face him. Merlin watched fascinated as the fight dragged on, it was clear that Lancelot was good. Within minutes his opponent was disarmed with Lancelot's sword at his throat. Merlin gasped as the dagger against his neck pressed hard enough to draw blood. Lancelot moved away and dropped the sword.
At a nod from Arthur, Lancelot was shoved roughly into the cell. "Well done. Someone get him his food. He earned it and I'm not one to go back on my word."
Lancelot grabbed the bars of the door, "What about Merlin?"
Merlin let himself shrink under Arthur's indifferent gaze, "We have something else in mind for him."
Merlin caught himself as the giant man holding him suddenly pushed him forward.
"Are you any good at cleaning, boy?"
"I have a name you know." Merlin flinched as Arthur leaned forward, expecting a blow for speaking out.
"Well then, what is it?" Merlin risked looking up and met the irritated look of the pirate.
"Merlin, my name is Merlin" He thought he saw Arthur smile but he squashed the thought after Arthur began again, the captain wouldn't care about him.
"I asked you boy, if you are good at cleaning?" He waved another man over and Merlin recognized him as the one who found him the day before, he glared at the man and got a grin in return. "Gwaine here will show you the supplies; I want the deck cleaned by noon today."
Merlin glowered at the man as he walked off, clearly pleased with his judgment. As Gwaine entered his line of sight he transferred his scowl to him.
"Well little man, I get to show you the ropes. So let's get started."
Merlin sent a desperate look back at Lancelot, who simply nodded; Merlin took it to mean he had no other choice. He squared his shoulders and got started.
Gwaine watched the boy struggle to clean a particularly difficult spot on the wood. He had been impressed by the lad, he hadn't complained or spoken out after the captain's decision, and had worked hard during the morning. He motioned Percival over with a wave of his dagger and noticed the flinch that Merlin valiantly tried to hide.
"Tell the captain that the boy earned it." He whispered, still watching as Merlin vigorously scrubbed the stubborn spot. The boy's hands were red from scrubbing nearly the whole deck. As Gwaine turned to watch Percival enter the captain's cabin; he saw Kayde, one of the more violent crew members, push the scrawny boy over.
"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" He rushed over to help the boy up, Merlin had crashed into his bucket and now was drenched in the filthy water that he had been using. "Capt'n wants him undamaged, Kayde." Gwaine kept his voice light but set a hand on his sword, to make his point clear—don't mess with the kid.
"He'll be fine, I'm just putting him in his place." Kayde sneered at the boy, and Gwaine felt him shift a little behind him.
"I think he knows his place. He is scrubbing our deck!"
"What is going on here?" Arthur's demanding tone stopped the argument from escalating further.
Gwaine didn't take his eyes of Kayde as he answered, "He was pushing the boy around."
Kayde growled and spat in Merlin's direction, "Why are protecting him anyways? He's just a stowaway."
"Ah yes, but he stowed away on my ship, so I decide how to treat him. Gwaine, take care of him will you? Kayde will be finishing the chore I gave the boy. Everyone else get to work!" Gwaine grinned and gently pulled the boy away from the group that had formed, and at Arthur's shout were now going different directions.
Lancelot was at the front of his cell trying to look past the mass of people to see Merlin. Gwaine used the nape of Merlin's shirt to pull him over to the cage.
"You'll be going back in here for the day."
"I could have handled him."
Gwaine snorted. "I'm sure you could. Scrawny thing like you would have no problem against the third best fighter on the ship. In fact I think you would make a great pirate, but I gotta listen to the capt'n." Gwaine unlocked the cage and Merlin crawled in. "Percival should be coming with some food and water. That's the deal for you, you'll work in the mornings-if Arthur thinks you deserve it, you'll be fed." Gwaine just got a nod as an answer, he turned to the navy man, "You are not to share the food you get with him." He walked off as Percival arrived with the food for Merlin, but not before he heard the boy thank the pirate.
A/N As always thanks for reading and favoriting and all that jazz. Hope everyone has a good weekend and I'll update next week (hopefully)!