fic prompt: flintham + 70: “ This is why I fell in love with you. ” pretty please :)))
Joshua led the vanguard this time, Billy and Joji at his flanks, Singleton bringing up the rear of the quad. They liked to clear the area on hauls like these, when the crew of their target fought and then fled the decks because it was usually a sign of an easy fight, a sign that the captain wished to resist but the crew would rather surrender and walk away with their lives. It was easy, and the bloodshed was usually superficial.
As the smoke cleared from the gunpowder, Captain Flint and his shadow strode towards the small flurry of fighting. In one smooth motion his sword was unsheathed and steel sang against steel as it met Singleton’s blade.
“It’s done.” Captain Flint’s words echoed in the wooden chamber. Singleton’s lip curled but he did not resist, and around them, the men of the Walrus decisively ended their skirmishes. Flint pulled the black sash from his mouth and piercing eyes locked upon the merchant captain. Behind him, his shadow moved slightly closer. “Wouldn’t you agree?”
The Captain’s Shadow. That was the name some of the crew had given him. It began as a nickname way back when they first arrived in Nassau and James had met Mister Gates in a dingy tavern and Gates had taken a liking to him. There, James did the talking and Thomas did the listening and wherever one went, the other followed. Because Flint did the talking, it always looked like Thomas was nothing more than his shadow, going wherever the slighter man went, letting his feet lead the way. Thomas didn’t mind it much; he knew otherwise. Everything they did was a decision between the pair of them and more often than not it was Thomas who would take more of a lead despite how it seemed to the crew and to the rest of the world, for that matter. The Shadow looked as if he carried no sword and no pistol and there was little threatening about they way he presented himself but there were stories of the violence and carnage he could unleash should his captain be under threat.
One tale told of a crew member who had fallen on the wrong side of Captain Flint and came to owe him nearly five hundred Spanish dollars that he could not ever hope to pay back and so he thought he would sneak into the captain’s cabin and do away with him. The Shadow, it was rumoured, slept on the floor beside his cot like a loyal dog. The crew member instead found them wrapped in an embrace even in sleep atop the bed, the captain against the ship wall, meaning the crew member had to lean over the Shadow to reach Flint. He tried it, steady as could be, but the Shadow rolled over and woke to find the crew member reaching across him to press a blade to the captain’s neck. The Shadow grasped him by the neck without flinching, it was said, and threw him fully across the cabin so he hit the door and fell, his ribs cracked, to the floor. There, the Shadow came to him and pulled a short and sharp blade on him and began a long and slow cut across his throat, the blade so fine that the crew member hardly felt it open the veins in his neck. He let out only the faintest noise once the Shadow had cut him from ear to ear and pressed the knife through his windpipe. Members who had served on the Walrus for years said the Shadow insisted on a trial aboard the ship as he felt remorse for the loss of life but the crew almost unanimously voted him innocent of murder on account of the dead man’s plans, that he told many a person, to solve his debt with a swift stab. The Shadow was fined for bypassing the crew’s justice and choosing to execute the man on the spot, so the story went, and he supposedly apologised for it. But some people told the tale of the captain and the shadow bathing in the blood of the crew member, drinking it, fucking in it, offering him as a sacrifice to the old gods that kept them kings among pirates.
Thomas stood watching over the decks as the captured crew coward and wept below him, as the poor merchant captain stood tied to the mast across from him. Singleton’s rasping voice carried like an unpleasant stench up to him but he tried to hear every word. Our enemy, your enemy. The words echoed in Thomas’ ears and his mouth twitched slightly. It seemed that every loathsome phrase that left Singleton’s lips were not meant for the merchant captain but for Flint. It was no secret Singleton wanted the captaincy and the more and more poor prizes they got, the closer it seemed he was coming to meeting that end.
The sea breeze whipped around Thomas and he straightened his back slightly. The captain followed Mr Gates out onto the deck and Thomas met James’ gaze briefly before the other turned to speak quietly to the man tied to the mast. Glancing now and again at the scarred face of Singleton, Thomas felt deeply uneasy. He began the decent of the stairs to come to James’ side when the loud cry of sails! startled them all.
“Royal Navy,” Flint said, spyglass at his eye and Thomas on one side, Gates on the other. It had taken him a matter of seconds to cross the ship and search out the horizon. His Shadow was at his side in a heartbeat. “Scarborough.”
Gates sounded rattled. “Scarborough ports in Boston.”
On Flint’s other side, Thomas took the spyglass and looked for himself, his stomach dropping at the sight of the distant ship. “Not today she doesn’t.”
By the time they had sailed into Nassau’s bay, Gates had already given Flint a dressing down and, not for the first time, Thomas had aided him in doing so. The lack of trust Flint had in the crew was going to be his downfall, both Thomas and Hal agreed on that but James remained stubborn and difficult. Frankly, the only thing that stopped their discussion from heating up was the knock on the door and Billy’s youthful face coming to tell them they were home. Thomas sat in the window seat and smiled slightly, Hal winking at him as he left the cabin. Then, for what it felt like the first time in days, they were alone.
“He’s right,” Thomas said, watching the back of James’ head. “You need to trust the crew.”
“I’ll trust them as far as I can throw them.”
“You need to trust them.”
James was quiet for a moment and Thomas dared, for a split second, to believe that perhaps this time the other might have listened to him. Then the silence was broken.
Thomas couldn’t help but roll his eyes behind James’ back. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. He won’t help you, you know he won’t. Perhaps Eleanor is a better try.”
“She won’t know anything about this, it’s operations far beyond her control. She’d try to help but she would fail.”
Thomas made a small noise of agreement and stood up. “Alright. Do you think I ought to come with you?”
“No. Go home, see Miranda. If all goes well we’ll be gone again by noon tomorrow. I’ll come home when I’ve finished with the Guthries. I think it’s time I paid Eleanor a visit too.”
“Tomorrow?” Thomas repeated in surprise. “That’s quick, don’t you think?”
The chair scraped the floor as the captain stood up and he turned around to face Thomas, a twinkle in his eye. “We’re so close, Thomas. I can feel it, I can see it. We can’t slow now, not when we’ve come this far.”
There was a wildness in his smile, chaos in his eyes, but there was power, too, and goodness. Thomas leaned back against the wooden wall and returned the smile. “This is why I fell in love with you.”
The sudden declaration took James by surprise and he let out a short laugh. “Because I’m ignoring counsel and you and Gates?”
Chuckling, Thomas shook his head. “No. Because you care for people when you don’t even know their names. You want to help strangers build better lives for themselves. You love people even when they do not deserve it. This is what it’s all for; a better place in the world.”
Captain Flint looked down to shuffle the papers on his desk and felt his eyebrows rise. “I love you too,” he murmured, cheeks flushed. “Right. Let’s get off this ship and on with business-”
He was cut off when Thomas kissed his cheek an it made him blink rapidly for a short moment. Turning his head slightly, he met his partner’s soft gaze and returned the loving smile. “Go to Miranda. I’ll be home before nightfall. I promise.”
