Chapter Text
Kris is walking alongside his brother, both are heading to the docks today’s the day they finally set sail. Granted it’s a simple supply and delivery run, but it’s a chance for Coal to prove himself.
“I’m glad you’ll be one of the doctors on my ship Kris.” Coal claps his brother on the shoulder proudly, neither noticing the man in the green coat watching them and slowly slinking away to hide in the shadows.
“I would rather work with you, on your ship than with dad on his.” Kris replies as he hoists the bag higher on his shoulder. “And don’t say that it’s dad ship.” He warns as he sees that his brother is about to say something. “It’s yours. You earned that ship”
Coal holds up his hands. “I wasn’t going to say that.”
“Sure you weren’t.” Kris quickly steps away as Coal tries to punch him in the arm. “Getting slow.”
“How dare you be so rude to your captain.”
“I’m rude to my brother, who needs to be at his ship to give a final inspection.”
“How dare you be right.” Coal after a moment sighs and fixes his red coat. “I’ll see you in an hour.”
“Yep.” Kris waves his brother off before going to the small market.
Kris is wandering around, buying a few things that might be useful for him and then he sees a stall with various colored ascots. Going over there he begins looking over them, he’s stuck between an emerald green one and a dark red one.
“May I recommend the dark green one?” A hand with long fingers adorned with various rings taps on the dark green ascot hanging next to the dark red one.
Kris is startled and his eyes follow the hand up to the person talking to him. Looking up he saw a tall handsome man, with red hair, a neat beard and over his shoulders is a deep green coat. Kris’s nose twitched as he picked up the scent of a spicy kind of cologne and sea salt coming from the man. This man could very well be a wealthy merchant, he looks the part.
“I’m sorry?” Kris blinks clearly confused.
“The dark green one.” The man takes a small step closer. Kris’s nose twitches again, now he can smell a hint of leather on the man. Kris can’t tell if it’s from the cologne or something else.
The stranger’s lips twitch into a smile as he sees the nose twitch.
“It would look much better than the red one you've been eyeing.” He flashes a charming smile.
“I think good sir, you might be a bit biased, considering your coat.” Kris replies confidently as he looks the man over.
“Not at all.” The stranger says, “I’ve just got a good eye for…” The man pauses as he slowly looks over Kris. “for the finer things in this world.” Kris couldn’t help but blush a little as the handsome stranger looks him over. “Here, let me prove it to you.” Kris watches as the long fingers pluck the ascot from the stall and quickly wraps it around Kris’s neck and ties it in a simple knot. It all happens so fast that Kris isn’t even sure he blinked. “Looks like I was right. See.” Once again Kris’s eyes follow the strangers long fingers to the small mirror, and he has to agree.
“I conceded to you sir… just this once.” Kris’s tone is just slightly teasing.
“And I accept.” The man nods and just as quickly the man tosses some coins to the seller and walks away.
“Thank you!” Kris calls out and sees a hand waving to him. He wished that he could have gotten the stranger's name, but at least he had an interesting story to start his journey.
~~~
“Where did you get that?” Coal asks as he points to the ascot.
“Oh, a strange man bought it for me.” Kris gently touches the ascot with a smile and blush.
“Did you get a name?”
“No.” Kris shakes his head. “That’s what strange man means. A man who is strange. Ergo, I don’t know.”
“Such a shame. Your first courting gift and he didn’t give you his name.” Hex’s voice is a mix of calm and teasing.
“I’m sorry Hex, but this isn’t any sort of courting gift. He was just being nice. Besides, the chances of me meeting him again are so small that I’m not going to wrack my brain over it or him.” That last part was a lie, he was going to think about the tall handsome stranger.
“You never know. Fate works in mysterious ways. Look at your brother and I. Fate brought us together.”
Kris just nods, he won’t argue with Hex. It’s tempting because Hex is always fun to match wits with.
“Sorry Hex,” Coal steps in between the two before a battle of wits can begin. “I need to show my brother his room. You go to our room…I’ll see you soon, I promise.”
“Of course.”
“Here it is.” Coal leads Kris to his own room, his name is on the door with the word second doctor under it and Kris doesn’t feel that excited. Still he puts on a forced smile for his brother.
“Thanks.” Kris says softly he doesn’t care that he’s not the first doctor, he’s still getting experience and for now, that’s all he needs…he hopes.
“Kris?”
“It doesn’t feel real.” Kris says with a laugh as he steps into the white room.
“No it doesn’t, but it will.” Coal says with such confidence that Kris finds himself believing it. “Oh before I forget.” Coal says eagerly and pushes past his brother to get to the bed, kneeling down and pulling out a box. “I got you a little something.”
Kris opens the box and in it, is a red vest, the red matches Coal’s jacket. “Thanks, Coal.”
~~~~
A few weeks into the journey is when all hell breaks loose and Coal’s ship is attacked by pirates.
“Oi lad, where’s your brother?” The tall pirate captain asks. “I’ve come to give him work.”
“My brother is none of your concern.” Coal snaps as he draws his sword. “Leave my ship and you might walk away.”
The pirate captain throws his head back in laughter. “You think you can match blades with Lucky Lochlann?”
“I do!”
“Well then lad,” Loch unsheathe’s his sword, ignoring the chaos of the ship being raided, “let's see if luck is on your side.”
~~~~
The door to his room is kicked open and Kris’s eyes widened in shock, the stranger from the market is a pirate. A pirate who’s raiding his brother’s ship.
“You?” Kris hisses.
“Me.” The pirate looks so smugly happy it’s annoying. “Still got the ascot I gave ya boyo? Not everyday that someone gets a gift from Captain Lucky Lochlann.” Loch is talking so casually as he’s standing in the doorway.
“If I knew you were a pirate, I wouldn’t have taken it.” Kris snaps.
“Aww that hurts.” Loch puts his hand to his chest, he’s clearly mocking him which causes Kris to growl. “I boughtca that with honest money.” That causes Kris to snort in disbelief. “ Now then, how about we make this nice and easy” He crooks one of his long fingers at Kris. “Come here. Cause if I have to come over there, it won’t be fun.”
Kris scowls at the pirate captain. He isn’t about to make this easier so as quick as he can Kris throws a heavy book at the pirate and by sheer luck he manages to nail the pirate in the head.
“Fuck!” Loch cries out and Kris takes the chance and dashes to the door hoping to slide through to the small space left, but it’s all in vain as an arm wraps around his waist and is holding onto him tightly. “I was try’n to be nice.”
“I wasn’t.” Kris snaps.
Then Kris is thrown against the desk, the breath knocked out of him and the pirate captain is right between his legs, and is pressing his hand against his back, holding him down. He’s trying his best to fight and get away, he needs to help his brother and the others on the ship. “Put your hands behind your back.”
“Go to hell!” Kris snaps, maybe if he could grab another book that’s on his desk he could smack the pirate again and get away.
“Stop fucking moving and put your hands behind your back!”
Kris is still thrashing around trying to grab a book that’s just an inch out of reach, he refuses to make this easy. “Fuck you!”
“Not on the first date Kris.” Loch purrs his name like their lovers and it pisses Kris off.
Kris manages to kick the pirate in leg and the grunt from the pirate is so satisfying.
“I said stop fucking moving.” The words are cold, but not as cold as the head of the pistol that is now pressed against Kris’s skull and that causes Kris to freeze. “I don’t wanna shoot ya or anyone else boyo and you shouldn’t be testing me. I’m in no mood for it. But if you don’t put your hands behind your back, I’ll do it. I’ll knock ya out and then I’ll finish what I started with your brother and he’s already lost to my blade.”
That causes Kris to freeze at the words. Coal lost a sword fight and he got injured. “No…please no.” Kris whispers.
“Then hands, put them behind your back and no moving.”
With shaking arms Kris obeys and places his arms behind his back and Loch grabs the ascot from his desk and uses it to quickly tie his hands. He’s tossed onto the bed face first and before he can even think of moving his ankles are tied together. He hears some rummaging and is then thrown over the pirate’s shoulder with the arm holding him in an iron grip. “Now then let’s be on our way.”
As the two head onto the deck Kris can see that the ship is in absolute chaos.
“KRIS!” Coal shouts as Hex holds Coal close with his gun raised in hopes of keeping the pirates away from them, but they've stopped attacking the people on the ship. “GET YOUR SCUMMY HANDS OFF MY BROTHER!” He’s desperate to stand and finish the fight but with the injury he ends up falling against Hex. He can barely hold his sword up, but he has to save his brother.
“COAL!” Kris can see that his brother is badly hurt and now he’s even more desperate to get away, but his wrists and ankles being tied up and being thrown over Loch’s shoulder, he's as useful as a sack of potatoes right now.
Hex is trying to find an opening to shoot the pirate who has Kris thrown over his shoulder, but the way the pirate captain is moving, and with Coal leaning heavily on him, he’ll more likely than not shoot Kris. “If it’s money you want, we’ve got it. You don’t need to take him.” Hex pleads.
“Nhaaa,” Loch laughs, “I think I’ll be keep’n him, your lordships” The word ‘lordship’ is said with such venom and bitterness that it causes Coal, Hex and Kris to flinch. “Besides if ya wanted him safe. Ya should have kept a better eye on him. Or maybe kept him under lock and key. Which is what I’ll be doing.” Loch turns his head slightly to look at Kris, “You’ll be much safer with me darl’n. I’ll actually protect ya, unlike him” Loch is clearly mocking Coal and Coal is getting more and more enraged. “Besides, he looks much better with me.”
Loch walks towards the plank that’s connecting the two ships and gives a mock salute to Coal, and once he’s on his own ship he kicks the board down to the ocean.
The crew, seeing that their captain is back set sail without having to be asked to do so.
“Welcome aboard your new ship, my new doctor.” Loch says grinning widely as Kris watches his brother’s ship get smaller and smaller as the ship he’s on is sailing away. He can only hope his brother gets some kind of medical attention before coming after him.
Loch walks past a woman who hands him a keyring while holding up a single key that has white paint on it.
Kris is brought down and Loch unlocks a door which leads into a room that looks like an under used medical office and is placed on the bed gently. He’s quick to hang the keyring on a hook outside the room before coming back in. “These’ll be your quarters. Ya tell me what ya need and I’ll get it for ya.” Loch’s tone isn't as harsh as it was before. Kris is in shock, Loch sounds almost serious.
“I want to go back to my brother's ship.”
“Anything but that, so don’t ask again.” Loch lets out a breath and pulls out a small knife from his boot and Kris is frozen with fear, his eyes are wide he’s got no idea what this man will do to him. “Since you’re a part of the crew now, you’ll wear our color for now on.” Carefully Loch cuts away the red vest.
“I’m not a part of your crew.” Kris snaps and watches as Loch cuts away at the vest his brother had gotten him and is casually thrown to the ground and kicked to the door. He can’t help but curse the man.
“Once you're nice an calm, you’ll meet your crew mates and start your work.” Loch says as if Kris hadn’t said anything.
A shackle is already on the leg of the bed and with surprising speed Loch turns Kris around, places the cuff the end of it to Kris’s ankles and then unties Kris’s wrists. Knowing what’s about to happen Loch jumps back.
Kris turns back around and lunges towards Loch full of anger and Loch quickly catches Kris’s wrists in each of his own hands, but Kris is able to land a few kicks to Loch’s long legs.
“Stop act’n like a hellcat!”
“Then let me go!” Kris tries his best to get out of Loch’s grip.
“As you wish boyo.” Loch pushes Kris down watching him land on the bed. “Welcome to The Barbaric Trinity.” Loch says before slamming and locking the door.
