Dark Waters Rising

Song

Several days later, Valentine entered the room carrying the usual serving of hardtack and gruel. Wesley stood leaning against the bedpost, his eyes fixed upon the shuddering flame of the oil lamp on the table. The pirate captain watched him curiously as he placed the meal in the spot Wesley usually ate at.

"You should eat," Valentine said when he noticed his captive had no intentions of having his dinner.

Wesley did not respond. He kept his gaze stubbornly fixed upon the flame.

"I said you should eat," Valentine tried again, stepping closer to the man. His frustration only grew when Wesley once again failed to respond. "Don't ignore me!"

"I'm not hungry," Wesley finally spoke.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not hungry," he said again, shifting his blue eyes to the lavender ones that weren't far away, "for gruel."

"Then enlighten me. What are you hungry for?"

Wesley hesitated, unsure if his plan would actually work or not. Figuring it was worth a shot either way, he decided to go for it.

"You," he breathed. Valentine's face turned skeptical for a moment, but Wesley didn't give him time to dwell on it as he closed the distance between them and pressed their lips together.

Wesley felt queasy for his actions, but Valentine seemed all too eager to accept his affections, regardless of the intent behind them. He reciprocated the kiss, deepening it until jolts of lightning whizzed down the back of Wesley's legs, causing them to turn gelatinous and buckle at the knee.

Valentine seized the opportunity to maneuver Wesley onto the bed, using his weight to pin the shorter man in place. All Wesley could feel in that moment was an intense heat spreading throughout his whole body. It made the layers of fabric he currently wore feel tight and uncomfortable. It also blurred his mind like an ale. So much so that he nearly gave in to the feeling.

However, through the fog that the pirate captain seemed to conjure in his head, Wesley remembered his purpose for initiating the contact. The only place Valentine kept weapons that Wesley could access was on his person. Playing his sick game was the only way Wesley could think of to get that close.

Wesley's hands roamed over Valentine's toned torso, disguising his hunt for weapons as an act of passion. He tried his best not to get pulled under the pirate's spell again. It proved difficult though, and he blamed that on the fact that it had been too long since he had last lain with a woman.

Valentine broke away from Wesley's lips, giving the merchant captain a moment to catch his breath as he instead descended the crook of his neck with a ravenous hunger. A small noise escaped Wesley's lips and he chastised himself for his moment of weakness. He needed to stay focused.

Just as Wesley brushed the hilt of a dagger at the pirate's hip, Valentine pulled away slightly and froze him with his lavender gaze. Wesley's heart stuttered, thinking he had been caught, but Valentine just looked down at him with a soft expression on his face, one that the merchant captain hadn't yet seen from him. For a moment, Wesley almost believed that he wasn't a monster. Almost. As the pirate leaned down to reclaim his lips, Wesley closed his fingers around the dagger, wrenched it from the pirate's belt, and quickly drove it into the man's thigh. It was the only place he could reach with how the pirate hovered above him.

An enraged growl left the pirate as he registered the pain, but Wesley didn't stick around to face the consequences. He pushed Valentine off of him and quickly scrambled for the door. Despite the injury, the pirate captain was close on his heels, and that terrified Wesley. If a dagger to the thigh didn't stop him, nothing short of killing him would.

Once on deck, Wesley hightailed it toward the nearest taffrail and used the rigging to hoist himself up onto it. He was fully ready to toss himself into the frigid water below. The mantra that he'd rather die churned over and over again in his mind, yet some unseen force kept his feet in place and even prompted him to turn around to face the pirate as he limped closer.

"And what do you plan on doing now?" Valentine asked, some mixture of anger and curiosity in his tone as he stopped a short distance away. He gave the man a bit of girth as to not give him any more reason to jump.

"I would rather drown than stay here with you."

"Is that so?" Valentine cocked his head to the side. "Well it's too bad you don't get to make that decision."

"Watch me," Wesley said defiantly as he let go of the rigging and started to lean back.

He expected the pirate to threaten him, or maybe even try to grab him before he could fall. What he didn't expect was an impossibly enchanting voice to caress him like a warm fire on a cold winter's night. It was a low, haunting melody in a language he didn't understand, but he did understand that it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. His fingers found their way back to the rigging as his eyes lazily sought out the source. He couldn't remember what he was trying to do, but he figured it could wait a moment longer. The sound was just too ethereal to ignore.

The fog returned to Wesley's head, numbing his previous intentions. Somewhere in his addled brain, he registered that the mesmerizing sound was coming from Valentine. Lavender eyes flooded his vision until all he could think about was the beautiful man standing before him.

He wanted to get closer, but his feet were glued in place. Wesley felt drunk as Valentine extended his hand and slowly stepped closer to where he stood on the taffrail. However, when the man put pressure on his injured leg, the song was briefly replaced by a grunt of pain. The moment provided enough clarity for Wesley to remember that he was trying to fall, and before he could lose the thought, he pushed himself off the edge of the ship.

"No!" Valentine yelled as he rushed to the taffrail and watched Wesley hit the water. Cursing under his breath when the merchant did not show signs of resurfacing, Valentine discarded his heavy waistcoat and dove in after him. He didn't care about the consequences. All that mattered was getting the man back in his arms.

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A/N

If you could be any supernatural/mythological creature, what would you be?

I would probably want to be a witch or a shapeshifter. Maybe a skin changer since those are technically both.

Hope you all are doing well! Stay safe out there!

I'll see you on Thursday!
-Mora Montgomery