A/N: I've had this in my inbox for a loooong time, but I had no idea what to do. Then this prompt came and I had a burst of inspiration. Disclaimer that I have no idea about pirate stuff and haven't read mermaid AUs. Thank you for your time.
Will breathed in deeply. He loved the smell of the ocean. He kind of had to, or else he'd go crazy sailing it with his annoying friends.
Will joined a band of pirates after some major family tragedies pushed him to the edge. The crew came to be his new family, after a lot of adjusting. Though he lost his brothers, Kayla and Austin were the first to accept Will into the crew and basically became his siblings. Then he started getting into trouble with Cecil and Lou Ellen. Once he began consistently fixing up Cecil when his pranks went awry, Will was assigned the title of ship doctor, with Kayla and Austin as his helpers. He's had to do some big surgeries over the years, reattaching someone's arm being the most recent and craziest one. No one knew how he did it, but somehow, he could heal anyone at any time, all the time. It was something Captain Percy always appreciated and never questioned. He believed it had something to do with his lineage, but Percy never pried those who came to his crew. He just took them in and gave them a purpose and a place – that's all he ever wanted.
"How's the crew looking, Will?" Percy asked as he and the doctor overlooked the ship.
"Pretty good shape. We haven't had too many bad run-ins, so any injuries recently have been our own doing." Will no longer fussed over making sure every single crewmember was healthy, but he did keep a sharp eye out for anything that would keep life from running smoothly. No one ever accused him of taking his job lightly.
Percy huffed. "Yeah, but we can usually hurt ourselves pretty good."
There was no denying that, so Will simply laughed. "What about the chase? Are we on course?"
Annabeth, the ship's navigator, jumped in. "Yup, we should be crossing paths with Octavian's ship any day now. Our source is solid and even if he knew we were coming, from what Will says, he's not one to back away from danger."
"Right you are," Percy affirmed as he slung an arm around her shoulders. "Whatever goods he's hauling will be ours in no time."
Will felt his irritation spike the moment that scumbag's name was mentioned. "Just give him a good sock in the face for me. That stuck up jerk deserves everything that's coming for him."
Percy could only shake his head and smile. It was amusing to hear the kind-hearted doctor speak so lowly of another person. This Octavian must have been a real asshole to piss off Will so much. Though, according to Will, he had only met the guy once. They were very distant cousins or something like that.
Percy's crew had caught wind of some valuable cargo crossing their ocean and decided to go after it. Once their source gave them a bit more information, they discovered whose ship was carrying that cargo, a name Will had recognized immediately. After that, he strongly pushed for the mission, saying something about how Octavian's hobbies often included collecting things he shouldn't be. He didn't say anything more specific, but just seeing the heat in Will's eyes told Percy enough to ensure they got to that ship.
—
"Everyone, finish up and get back to the ship! We're pushing off soon!" Percy yelled for his crew as they hauled the last of the loot onto the Argo II. They pillaged the entire ship, fending off Octavian's whole squad. Octavian himself was somewhere below deck, probably hoping that he wouldn't have to fight anyone himself. Percy wasn't about to let that happen.
Percy found Octavian cowering behind a covered cage. When he heard someone approaching, Octavian quickly stood up and raised his dagger. His lips twisted into a hideous grin. "Ah, Captain Perceus. I've heard of you and your roving band of rejects. Come to kill the head of the snake?"
Percy rolled his eyes. "No one cares about you, Octopus. You abandoned your crew out there, for what? To show what a coward you really are?" He sneered, sickened by his lack of honor. "Your quartermaster Michael surrendered before more were killed. He saved the lives of some of your people, and even offered up their services to us. Guess you set a good example of disloyalty."
Octavian scoffed, but his dagger hand visibly shook. "They were useless to me anyway. I'm here to kill my one piece of gold. If I can't have it, none of you can." Octavian yanked the cover off of the cage to reveal a magnificent creature. Percy could barely believe his eyes. What appeared to be a young merman sat in the cage, looking gaunt and terrified. His skin looked too pale, his eyes too hollow.
Percy felt rage flow through him. Nothing should ever be treated this way.
"Look at it. A beautiful but deadly creature. He'd bite your head off the moment you get too close. I was going to sell it, but keeping it from falling into the wrong hands seems like the better option."
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Percy stated before whipping his saber out and running like mad at the other captain.
Octavian yelped, pausing for a second before remembering what he had planned to do. He turned towards the creature in the cage, poising his arm to strike it. Percy got to him just in time and pushed him out of the way. Octavian regained his balance and readied his dagger, still intent on killing his cargo before anyone could take it from him.
Since he knew he'd probably die here, Octavian had no problem with throwing away his pride and fighting dirty. He immediately dived for Percy's knees instead of engaging in a sword fight he knew he'd lose. Percy swiped at him, slicing his arm, but Octavian still managed to knock him to the ground. He took advantage of the moment and cut Percy's leg. It wasn't deep, but it distracted Percy long enough for Octavian to lunge towards the cage.
Percy watched as Octavian threw his dagger and it slashed the merman's side. The creature let out a pained screech and instinctively put his had to the wound. By then, Percy had managed to right himself. Octavian was still standing back up when Percy spun him around and punched him right in the nose.
"That was from Will, you asshole." Percy readied his blade as Octavian stumbled back against the hull of the ship, his hand flying up to his nose.
"Will?!" Octavian exclaimed, the sound muffled by his hand and broken nose. "You can't mean that poor idiot who I unfortunately share ties with? He died along with his family, as all peasants should. They weren't worthy to be called—" Percy shut him up for good.
—
"Frank, help me with this!"
Will looked back as Frank ran over to help Percy bring the last of the haul. Everyone had been waiting for Percy to come back, assuming he had gone to hunt down Octavian. In the meantime, their quartermaster, Piper, took charge of their new prisoners. She seemed pretty pleased with bossing them around, and, oddly enough, she appeared to get along with the other quartermaster who had surrendered. Her assistant and boyfriend, Jason, accounted for every crew member back on the ship, sending anyone injured over to Will.
"How did the job go?" Will asked Cecil as he bandaged up his arm.
"It was pretty smooth! Luckily, we didn't have to do too much damage before their quartermaster surrendered. I feel kind of bad that their captain ditched them, though."
Will's blood was boiling just thinking about what a horrible captain Octavian must have been. The jerk never really cared about anyone he found as lesser than him, which was just about everyone. "Well, hopefully their crew hated the captain so much that they'll be good additions to our team until we can get them where they need to go."
"Yeah, that'd be—" Cecil abruptly cut off, causing Will to look up at him. He followed his line of sight to see Percy and Frank bringing over a cage with something inside.
Will's breath caught as he quickly stood up and made his way towards them. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. A boy with jet black hair and dark brown eyes looked up at him. His lower half consisted of a dull grey fish tail. The pallor of his skin and tail seemed to indicate that he was malnourished, though Will didn't have any proper training in assessing merpeople.
Percy pushed everyone back and made room for Will to come through. That's when Will noticed the blood. The boy was clutching his side, bright red blood oozing from between his fingers. That helped switch Will into doctor mode.
"I need everyone to clear this area, now. Kayla, bring me my medical kit and rip a lot of gauze." Will glanced towards Percy, who was already looking at him for direction. "Is it okay to open the cage?"
Percy shook his head. "I really don't know. Octavian had said that the creature was vicious. Sorry, Will, can you work around it? Just for now."
Will breathed out in frustration. It was really hard to work through the cage, and Will couldn't stand keeping the boy trapped in there, but he understood why that was the best course of action.
As Percy and Piper ordered everyone to leave, Will met the eyes of the merman. He could see the distrust in his eyes, his body in a defensive position. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm sorry you've had to live like this for so long. I want to help you out." Will reached out towards the bars, but the boy pushed back further, hissing and bearing his sharp teeth. Will needed to prove that he could be trusted. He didn't know if he could understand his words, but Will kept talking and moved right up to the cage. "Please, just let me see your injury. You're going to bleed out soon if I don't bandage that up." He reached his hand through the bars, close enough to where the merman could bite his hand off if he so desired.
"Will…" Kayla said uncertainly behind him.
Will tried to look as unthreatening as possible. "Please, let me help you."
Like lightning, the merman lashed out, his clawed fingers ripping down Will's forearm. Will screamed out, retracting instinctively. "Will!" Kayla made to rush forward, but Will put his other arm out to stop her.
The boy in the cage snarled, but Will could tell the blood loss and pain was getting to him. He was panting and sweating a lot, his hand trembling where he held his wound.
Will put the same hand back in the cage, blood dripping from his arm. "My name is Will. I'm the doctor around here. I can help you." He reached back for the gauze and lifted it up. "See? Here," Will held the gauze in the cage. The merman eyed it suspiciously, eventually snatching it up and pressing it to his injury with a yelp. He watched as it soaked up the blood. He looked back up at Will, seemingly coming to a decision.
He scooted closer to Will's side of the cage and lifted his arm away from the slice. Will sighed in relief and muttered a small thank you as he bent down to examine the wound more closely. He carefully pulled off the now soaked gauze. The gash wasn't too deep, but there was a lot of blood flowing from it.
He reached for a damp cloth and looked the boy in the eye. "I'm going to touch you, okay? I need to wipe away the blood." The merman somehow seemed to understand and nodded, so Will got to work. Once he could see the slice clearly, it was simply a matter of cleaning and wrapping it up.
Will brought up a tube of antiseptic ointment and held it for the boy to see. "I'm going to rub this on it to keep it from getting infected. It might sting a little, okay?" With his consent, Will leaned over and gently ran the ointment over the wound. The merman hissed in pain, but didn't move away. He appeared to understand what it took to heal an injury, causing Will to wonder what his past was like, or what a mermaid's life was like in general. He never really thought they didn't exist, but he didn't expect to meet one in real life. Will counted himself lucky to have met such a handsome one.
When Will tried to hold the gauze and tape it up, he found it hard to maneuver through the cage bars.
"You can open. I will not hurt." Will was surprised to hear the boy speak his language, albeit with a thick accent of sorts. Though Will couldn't say why, he felt that the boy was sincere and that he could trust him.
"Okay." Will waved over Austin and asked him to get something to cut the lock off.
Once it was off, Will swung the door open. He was ready for the merman to spring from the cage, though he didn't really think it would happen. When the boy just looked up at him expectantly, Will kneeled in front of him. With no bars separating them, Will could really see how awful the boy looked. He could see his ribs popping out, and his skin seemed stretched over his skull. Dark bags under his eyes and a few bruises were prominent on his face, his hair hanging limp across his forehead. This magnificent creature was marred by Octavian's mistreatment, and it made Will unspeakably angry.
"I am so sorry for what he did to you. No one should ever suffer like this, especially someone as beautiful as you." Will focused back on the wound, unable to look the boy in the eye. He probably hated all humans now and was only allowing Will to touch him because he needed medical assistance.
As Will began to wrap up the wound, the merman spoke again. "Nico."
"Hm?" Will glanced up at the boy's face in confusion.
"My name," the boy weakly gestured to himself, "is Nico."
Will's eyes widened slightly—he wasn't expecting this at all. "Oh," he stumbled over his words for a moment. "Um, nice to meet you. That's a lovely name."
The merman—Nico—didn't continue. Will smiled and carried on with his work. He had no idea what he'd do once he finished dressing the wound, but he felt like there was something between them. He felt Nico's watchful eyes on him, but they didn't feel skeptical. Will wasn't sure why, but he felt himself blush at the attention.
He wondered where'd they'd go from here.
A/N: I actually love how this turned out. Though I won't be continuing this, I can see how certain things from the books could totally carry over into this AU! Like how Nico being trapped was like the bronze jar, and how Will's probably going to keep him in the sick bay or something so he can monitor him. Anyways, just a thought :)