***TW Sexual Assault***

"Oh, yer gonna need this back," Silver revealed William's navigation tool and dropped it into one of the smaller man's pockets. He'd put a tracker in after first taking it and completely forgot he had it still until he absently put his hand in his jacket pocket. He would have handed it to William, but his wrists were still shackled and he chuckled softly, "Lemme get those for ye."

The human glared at him, but he didn't complain about being freed. They walked in silence back toward the ship, Silver focusing on ignoring the bad feeling that was trying to affix itself in his lower gut. Maybe Timetra was right. Maybe he should just tell everyone. He was sure that would feel a hell of a lot better than whatever this was.

He hadn't noticed it before, but William gave him a bad vibe. Well...he had noticed it to a point, but he really couldn't pinpoint what it was. It just made him uneasy.

I'll call it off...just tell everyone. Timetra's right, I need to trust everyone more. What am I thinking trusting William over them- Silver looked up when he noticed a soft glimmer of light.

One of the sails on the ship was open. It fluttered gently in the breeze, completely loose as if someone had forgotten to tie it down. Except he knew it had been secured.

"Heyo, Sidon! The hell's the sail open fer?"

There was no response.

William was quiet at his side, but he could feel him seething. Silver scented the air and almost immediately regretted it. He never realized how strongly he never wanted to smell how Sidon - or Jim - smelled when aroused. His stomach flipped. He'd trusted Sidon not to do anything, and though he hadn't expressly made any command it should have been clear that this or whatever it was he was doing to Jim was not one of the things he was allowed to do.

He picked up the pace, effectively dragging William behind him, and he forced his tone to come out neutral as he called again, "Sidon? Ye there boyo?"

Again there was no response.

They were walking so quickly it probably couldn't be called a walk anymore. They were almost to the gangplank-

"SIDON! Dammit, where ye at?!"

The Zora appeared over the railing, casual as could be, and peered down at him with a bit of a smirk, "Can a man get a second to answer?"

Silver looked around quickly as he dragged William up on deck. Jim sat with his back against the mast, legs tucked up against his chest, face hot. Other than that, the young man looked calm, and Jim gazed back at him with a look of indifference on his face.

"What's the sail doin' open? We're ye plannin' on takin' off without us?" He looked between Jim and Sidon, his eyes finally settling on Jim. He was trying his hardest not to breathe through his nose, but he could smell their scents all over each other. Right in the middle of the deck, Jim? Seriously? "The hell were ye doin'?"

He could tell by the look in Jim's eyes that he knew that Silver knew exactly what they'd been trying to do. He only asked the question as a courtesy, to give him the chance to fess up. Maybe he'd even apologize.

"I can't get a moment of privacy?"

Silver's gaze shot over to look at the Zora. Sidon smiled after a moment, cocky and smug to the point Silver thought he might have to slap that stupid expression right off his face- "What, did you want to watch next time?"

"Lock tha' one back up," he turned away with a jerk, thrusting William toward Sidon.

He stalked to his cabin. The exhaustion was gone, replaced with anger. He'd known something was going on between them. He wouldn't have been mad either, Sidon was a good man and Jim deserved someone like that, but they were trying to be sneaky about it. The fact that Jim hadn't told him outright the last two times he'd asked frustrated him beyond belief. The only reason Jim would be secretive would be because he knew he was doing something he shouldn't. Navy fraternizing with pirates wasn't exactly highly praised in his line of work, not that Silver cared, but he knew that Jim did and the stupid kid was still doing whatever he wanted.

"Dammit, Jim! I'm trying to keep you out of trouble!" Silver hissed into the empty room.

It felt like he would wear a path in the floorboards from pacing by the time Timetra opened the door. She gazed at him with wide eyes, "Are...did something happen?"

"Gather the crew, we're gonna have 'nother meetin'."

It was far less casual an atmosphere in the galley once everyone had filed in, and they watched him with startled and slightly terrified gazes. He must look a sight, he was sure his eye was glowing red, and he was passing through the options on his mechanical arm on rapid fire while the rest of him stood like a statue in front of the kitchen space.

"John?" Timetra ventured softly.

"We're lettin' 'em go."

Eyebrows shot up around the room. No one spoke, but they seemed almost...relieved.

"We're lettin' 'em 'escape', te be clear," his voice was low, so quiet that he was sure a few of the crew in the back of the room could barely hear him, if they could hear him at all. He could smell the unease emanating from everyone.

"Sir?" Someone spoke in a timid voice.

"They've got a mission te finish," He finally landed on his mechanical hand and very slowly flexed the fingers from a fist to fully outstretched over and over. "Nobody's put on Morning watch. I'll keep an eye out. Need two volunteers te help me track 'em."

Timetra and Sidon instantly stepped forward. Both looked grim, though he was sure for wildly different reasons. Silver almost told Sidon to fuck right off, but no one else looked like they were willing to volunteer to be near him right now, "A'right. Now get te work."

Everyone jumped to get out of his way as he started toward the stairs save Sidon and Timetra, who both looked at him with hard stares. Sidon didn't budge even an inch and Silver went around him. Timetra followed closely at his side, "John, I don't think this is the right move-"

"I ain't askin' ye."

Her eyebrows rose and she stopped following him, voice hard, "I see."

Jim jerked awake. He hadn't really been asleep anyway, just sort of dozing, so the soft voice right next to his ear was just enough to send his nerves into overdrive. He hoped whatever it was William had said didn't matter because he hadn't heard it. He looked over his shoulder at William, giving him as sour a look as he could.

Before he could ask 'do you mind?' the other man's hand clamped over his mouth. Jim pulled back instantly. Something about that touch just made him more uncomfortable than he'd been in a long time. William jerked his head toward the railing.

The fuck does that mean?

And then William moved to a crouch and slunk away from the mast. It took Jim a moment to realize that he wasn't stopped by a chain and he sat up quickly to look at his own free ankle. He stared for a second and then his training kicked in and he was looking around to make sure he wasn't going to be spotted as he snuck after William.

Part of him knew it was a bad idea to leave the ship. Silver was here and that meant they'd be safe. But William was already tying a rope off to slip over the side of the ship and Jim wasn't going to let him just go alone. Try to explain that shit when Silver's crew ultimately caught him up and rechained him next to Jim. Something told him that 'oh yeah, so the captain's pretty much my dad. Sorry I didn't tell you' wasn't going to cut it.

Jim hesitated at the rope William had slipped down. He looked back toward the crew's quarters. Sidon was in there…and if Silver being on the ship wasn't enough of a drive for him to stay here, Sidon definitely was. His heart felt like it would literally rip in half as he took the rope in his hands and slid down after William.

I'm sorry…

As soon as his feet hit solid ground William grabbed his hand and ran, practically dragging him into the trees and away from the ship. Jim's heart sank further and further until he was sure it would fall right out the bottom of one of his feet as he was running. But it didn't, and it continued to ache in his chest. By the time he dug his heels into the ground and told William to stop they were far enough from the ship he figured that even if they made a huge noisy scene the crew wouldn't hear them. Will continued to drag him along even as he tried to pull free, and he pushed at the hand on his wrist, "Will, stop-"

"What are you doing?! We need to GO!"

"Go where?" Jim finally wrenched his arm out of William's grasp, "We have no clue how close Raith is, we don't even really know where we are! We were at least safe back on that ship-"

"WHAT?!" He could barely see William in the low light, and if he hadn't known his friend as well as he did he probably wouldn't have been able to perfectly picture that he'd be making a wide-eyed and incredulous expression. "Are you suggesting we go back to where the pirates are?!"

"What other options do we have?" Jim motioned at the quiet forest all around them.

William threw his arms up in exasperation, "I cannot fucking believe you! Jim, we're safer here than with them!"

The sunrise was starting to light all around them and with it came a nagging fear in the back of Jim's mind. It was too perfectly timed that they were able to get free and sneak away after Silver had pulled the crew from the ship and taken William off alone to talk to him.

"What did the two of you talk about yesterday. Be honest with me."

"You're on that again? I told you, he tried to get the coordinates from me," he could see the annoyance on William's face. If he didn't know him better he'd let it go.

Jim's frown deepened, "Give me your navigation tool."

"Wha-"

"You fucking heard me!" Anger was starting to seep in and replace the anxiety, and Jim held out his hand expectantly. William's hesitation only made him angrier, "Hand it over, dammit!"

The blond pulled the navigation tool out of his pocket and held it up, shame going across his face, "I don't have it."

Jim knew instantly what he was talking about. Silver had taken Will's cheat sheet. He had zero doubt in his mind now that Silver had made it possible for them to escape. And where was Morph? How'd they even get unlocked from their shackles? He'd fucking known Silver was up to something! DAMMIT! Why didn't he just fucking TALK to me?!

It hurt. It hurt like hell. And more, it scared him. He was sure Silver had spent a lot of time on this stupid fucking plan considering how he'd holed himself up for three day, but apparently he hadn't thought about it that hard, because now Jim was in a shitty spot. He groaned, "Well, this is just fucking awesome."

William chased after him as he stormed through the forest now and caught his wrist, "It's not that bad. We're at least both alive. And now we're free-"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Jim snapped his arm away with a glare.

"It makes me feel better."

Jim rolled his eyes, "Good for you."

William again reached to take his hand but he pulled back and William sighed, "Jim-"

"We should have just gone down with the Eclipse," Jim ignored him and paced. William watched him as he ranted and interjected, "They just have my half of the coordinates! It's not that bad!"

"HAH! You're hilarious."

He threw up his arms in frustration, "Fine! Be mad! Let's just finish the mission and get this over with."

"You're not being serious right now, are you?" Jim turned to William and sneered. His friend stared blankly back. "That's the worst idea you've ever had. And I'm not even exaggerating. It's literal shit."

"It's our duty-"

"No! Fuck that! Just think about our situation for a second, would you?!" Jim rubbed his temples. "Right now would be the worst time to continue the mission!"

He ran a hand through his bangs, "We have no weapons, no supplies, and now we have two pirate crews after us! We're probably being tracked too!"

And what the fuck do you think we're going to do after all of this, huh? We've got a longboat but absolutely nothing to survive off of until we get to a port. Jim pinched the bridge of his nose. What a fucking mess.

William looked shocked, "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'?" Jim met his gaze with a raised eyebrow. "They took your navigation device at some point, right? Do you know how small trackers get now? They could have stuck one in the tool itself and you'd never even see it."

"I didn't see him put anything in it-"

"Dammit, Will, he's a pirate! Of course you didn't see him put anything in it!" Jim shouted. He spun around and kicked a tree as hard as he could. It hurt like hell, but he didn't make any indication of it. He'd gotten pretty damn good at hiding pain after all the shit he'd had to live through.

Jim gripped his hands into fists and tried to calm down. The air around them was tense, thick, and he struggled to breathe normally without gasping like a fish out of water. They stood like this for a while. Jim wasn't sure how long, but long enough that his heart rate was going down.

"I have to tell you something…" William's voice was soft.

He did his best not to sound sarcastic, but Jim couldn't stop the bite in his tone no matter how hard he tried, "If you're going to confess your undying love for me, it's not a good fucking time."

"We have to finish the mission."

Jim flinched and turned his head slightly to peer over his shoulder at William. He didn't like the sheepish look on his face and immediately demanded, "What do you mean, 'we have to'?"

"I told them we'd give them the coordinates if they saved you. He didn't take my half. I gave them to him. And I originally promised to give yours to him too."

It was deadly silent between them. Jim turned to face William achingly slowly, eyes wide, "You what?"

Their gazes met and Jim suddenly found himself tackling him and throwing them both to the ground. He straddled William, trying to land a punch on his face, but each attempt was blocked. Jim managed to punch him in the ribs, "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?! We made a pact and you just went and just let them have your coordinates like a fucking idiot and now you think I'm just going to happily give mine over?!"

"You were dying Jim! What was I supposed to do?!" William caught his wrists and pushed him onto his back. Jim fought like a wild animal, twisting and biting and snarling, "You should have let me die! Then no one could get the-"

"What about Sarah, huh? How would she have felt when she got the letter from the Navy that you'd died?" William pushed down with his entire weight and practically pinned Jim on the ground, his expression grim and cold.

Jim's eyes blazed with fury, "Don't you fucking bring my mother into this-"

"And what about your big crimson boyfriend? The two of you have been drooling over each other since we were brought on that fucking ship- OOF!"

Jim managed to pull his leg back and kick William square in the stomach. The grip loosened on his wrists enough that he could twist his arms free. He dove again at William and grabbed a fistful of his hair in one hand and the front of his shirt in the other and they tumbled backward. The blond shoved at Jim's chest, anger flashing across his face.

"You know what else?" William's eyes held an almost evil glint in them, like he was going to relish what he said next, "I said we would lead them to what the Navy is after if they kept that Sidon guy away from you."

"Wha-" Jim's mouth fell open. He was frozen for only a moment before overwhelming heat rushed through his body and he yanked on his handful of William's hair, "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"LET GO!" William took Jim's left wrist in his right hand, wrenched Jim off himself, and used the momentum to get Jim flipped around so he was facing away from him. Jim felt a jolt of pain shoot up from both knees as he fell heavily onto them. The air rushed out of his lungs when he was forced to the ground to lay on his stomach. William still had his wrist in his hand, and he clenched down harder and managed to pull his arm behind his back. Then William pressed down with his full weight. Jim struggled to get his free hand underneath himself to get leverage enough to roll William off his back, and he jerked his head away when the bigger man leaned next to his ear and hissed, "You think I haven't seen you two making fucking eyes at each other? I'm not blind, Jim!"

"What does it matter to you?!" Jim grunted and panted under the weight. His shirt had come untucked from his pants and a sharp stone dug into his stomach with every attempt he made to wiggle out of William's grasp. William leaned on his hand, right next to his face, and Jim bit down on the closest thing he could reach. Which just so happened to be a knuckle.

"OW!" William shoved his finger into Jim's mouth and down his throat so far he gagged. "WHAT DOES IT MATTER TO ME?! You know how I feel about you! You know I want you!"

"Get off-" Jim tried to say around the fingers in his mouth. He struggled to get a grip around William's wrist and pull his hand away, but the man pushed down on him harder. He could feel his breath on his ear, the heat of his body, something hard shoved against his ass.

"Damnit Jim…I want you so bad…" he whispered.

A shiver shot up Jim's spine. He strained to look at William over his shoulder, but the man gripped his jaw and pushed his face against the ground roughly.

"Ngh!"

William released his arm and snaked his hand between them to undo his pants. Now that he had both hands, he tried again to get them under his chest and push up, but William shoved down again so hard that Jim felt the stone cut his skin. William's fingers snuck underneath him and fumbled with the button on his pants now and Jim squirmed as he panickily mumbled "No!" around William's hand. But his pants were slipped down over his hips and he gasped as William's cock smacked against his lower back. A strong hand gripped around his wrist again and yanked his arm back and pinned it to the ground.

And then William started to rock his hips. Cold fear washed over Jim like a bucket of ice water getting dumped on him and a terrified whimper slipped out.

Lips brushed over his ear and William panted, "Jim…I want to fuck you…let me fuck you…"

"No!"

He felt William shudder against him and Jim clamped his teeth down around those fingers. Maybe if he bit hard enough William would get off of him- Jim felt his terror rising as the fingers were instead shoved further down his throat far enough that he gagged again and William pressed down on him harder.

Everything around Jim faded away until it was just him on the ground and William pinning him down and the stifling forest closing in and threatening to suffocate him. All he could hear were William's gasps and soft moans in his ear. Tears from gagging twice blurred his vision and turned the forest to watercolor. His heart was beating so fast that it felt like it would crash through his ribs. He was numb and oversensitive at the same time, burning hot and freezing cold. Panic had his breath coming as desperate, shallow gasps. Oh my God!

Fear clutched at his gut and chest. Jim tried to fight in any way he could. He dug his toes into the ground and kicked. His free hand he used to grab at William's shirt or pants - he didn't care which - and he yanked in a weak attempt to get space between them. He choked on the fingers in his mouth a third time, coughing and gagging as bile rose in the back of his throat.

"NO!"

William was getting closer to pushing inside him with each uneven thrust and he tried to twist his hips away. He leaned against Jim's ear and groaned, "I love you...I've loved you for so long...let me make love with you..."

"Stop!"

Each breath was coming as a broken sob.

The hand moved away from his mouth and Jim started to beg the instant he could, "Will, please- stop- please-"

"You like it? Haven't even gone in you yet-" William grabbed his free hand and pinned it down. Now both his arms were trapped at his sides. All he could do was feebly kick his feet and gasp desperately for air as William put his full weight on his back.

"No! NO! Get off! Please Will, just get off me! Please!"

There was a stinging pain on the side of his neck as William bit him and Jim cried out again. He struggled to get a deep enough breath to scream. He didn't even know if he called anyone's name, he just screamed and begged and kicked weakly.

He flinched as William growled in his ear and his thrusting became more desperate. Each moment felt like an eternity before Jim felt hot spatter across his back. Almost immediately after he'd finished William jerked away as if he just now realizing what he was doing. The heaviness was back in the air all around them and the only things Jim could hear were his own gasping breaths and the pounding of his heart.

Jim moved agonizingly slowly as he drew his arms up and braced them underneath himself. He was terrified to look back at William and actually see his face. He could feel the tear streaks on his cheeks, his breath was ragged in his chest, he shook uncontrollably all over. It's not real...that didn't really happen...William wouldn't...no, it's just a nightmare...but the quickly cooling splattered mess on his back argued otherwise, and Jim turned his head just enough to look over his shoulder at William's white-faced expression of horror. Their gazes met and he flinched.

William paled even more. He shuffled backward, staring at Jim with dread and shame flashing over his face, "Oh my God... Jim I'm- I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to- I- I- oh my God..."

Jim shoved himself up with all the force he could muster so he rammed into William, knocking the man back even more, and Jim whirled around to face him with a fist raised. William yelped as that fist collided with his jaw and Jim screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK WILLIAM?!"

His shock and fear had him shaking all over, but now he was PISSED on top of the other emotions. He felt his breathing still coming as sobs and he was even angrier that he was crying, "How could you do that?! We're FRIENDS! You don't- you don't do that to a friend!"

A deep rumbling snarl from off to their right drew his attention and he looked up toward the noise. Sidon charged out from the trees, his pupils so big they blocked out all the gold in his eyes, and he hunched aggressively as he glared. Sidon's arm went around Jim's waist and pulled him away from William. The Zora growled again, clutching Jim to his chest.

Silver stormed out of the tree cover next, mechanical eye glowing red, fists shaking visibly at his sides. Jim felt his whole body go lax and he rocked his head back to lean it against Sidon's chest. He was safe now.

Thank fucking God...

Jim didn't care anymore that Silver had plotted with William to get him to lead his crew to what they were after. He didn't care that Silver had technically lied to him. He was just so fucking happy to see him when he thought for sure he was going to get raped that he almost started crying again. Their gazes met and the red glow was gone for an instant, replaced with the comforting yellow hue as Silver's expression turned to one of concern and pain, and then the piercing red glow was back.

Silver placed himself in a way that all Jim could see was his back as he loomed over William. He felt an overwhelming sense of relief when he heard the Ursid's voice come out as a snarl, "Yer gonna have te give me one damn good reason not te kill ye righ' now."