Chapter Text
The big fishy creep puts a collar and leash on him before they leave the auction house. "It's temporary," he says to Karkat's scowl. "I don't wwanna use stuff like this to control you."
"Yeah," Karkat says. "Consider me reassured."
"It's true," Ampora says, and he meets Karkat's eyes solidly and oh there's the glittery psychotic fuck no that the seadwellers are so famous for. "Wwhat kinda master wwould I be if I had to keep a slavve in line with cheap shit like that?"
Karkat chews on his tongue so he won't say anything stupid. His mouth is going to be shredded into grubloaf by sunrise at this rate.
Ampora drags him out of the auction house and down to the docks—of course they're going to the docks, the asshole is a seadweller, he probably lives in some ridiculous undersea grotto or something oh fuck is this really better than culling. Karkat slows down a little without even meaning to, and Ampora jerks on his leash to make him keep following. He stumbles, getting his feet back under him just as they come up to the biggest, most overblown ship in the harbor.
"Impressivve, isn't it?" Ampora says smugly.
"I guess," Karkat says. It is, even if he doesn't want to admit it, this big black ship with cannons and shit, and Ampora's jagged caste sign on the main sail. Some fuckers just don't know how good they have it. He imagines what it would be like if Sollux were here. He's pretty sure Sollux would have something bitchy to say about the size of that ship and the lengths some trolls need to go to compensate for their natural inadequacies.
"Wwhat's so fuckin funny?" Ampora asks.
Karkat ducks his head, wiping the smirk off his face. "Nothing," he says. Don't fuck this up, Vantas. It only counts as not getting culled if you don't provoke the fishmonster into killing you himself.
"That's wwhat I thought," Ampora says. "Come on."
He brings Karkat on board and orders the ship out of the harbor—despite all the historical pirate trappings, the ship runs on a pretty modern system, a lot of its functions automated. Karkat revises his mental estimation of Ampora's power, and attendant doucheragness, up a few more notches.
Steering the ship out of the harbor still takes attention. Ampora drops Karkat's leash and more or less ignores him in favor of taking the ship's wheel. He probably thinks he cuts a dashing figure, standing there silhouetted against the black sky, cape billowing around him, hands flashing with jewelry as he spins the wheel. Maybe, Karkat admits grudgingly, it would be pretty effective on somebody who wasn't currently resentful of the fact that high and mighty Lord Ampora owns his mutant carcass.
Karkat takes a deep breath, tasting salt on the air as they push slowly out to sea. The forgotten leash dangles against his chest, swaying a little. Maybe he's not doing himself any favors, dwelling on it. He can't undo what's happened. He's not the only one it's happened to. He's really not even the worst off of them. All he can do now is learn to live with it.
They get far enough out that the harbor is just a little blotch of glowing lights on the horizon, far enough that all Karkat can see nearby is black sky, black water, and the distant lightning-flecked shapes of clouds. It's eerie. He might be shivering just a little bit by the time Ampora turns away from the wheel and comes swaggering over with his fancy-ass cape billowing behind him. Maybe the point of the cape is to point out how easily he keeps his balance on deck—Karkat's definitely in no shape to be prancing around, with the way the ship moves.
"Alright," Ampora says, "I wwon't havve to wworry about that again until wwe're almost there, so how about wwe get started?" Then he pins Karkat to the wall.
"Whoah, fucking hold on," Karkat protests, struggling instinctively. "You can't just—"
"Can't I?" Ampora demands. His claws dig into Karkat's arms. "You think you get to tell me that?"
Fuck fuck fuck. "No," Karkat says. He closes his eyes. "Sorry. I'm...not used to this yet."
"You wwill be," Ampora says. It sounds like a threat. Karkat nods without opening his eyes. If he fought out here, even if he won, he doesn't know how to sail. He'd be stranded until the ship crashed or somebody found him. Or until he starved to death. Catering to Ampora's demands sounds better than that.
"Okay," he says. "Right. Sorry."
Ampora takes Karkat's chin in his hand, and Karkat tries not to tense, and then it goes where he thinks it will: Ampora kisses him. It's rough, demanding, but somehow less blackrom than Karkat expected. Ampora kisses with more tongue than teeth, licking, tasting him. Maybe he's wondering if a mutant will taste different than an ordinary troll. Karkat holds still, shivering, letting it happen.
"You're not getting into it," Ampora complains against his mouth.
Fuck, what a douche. Anger makes Karkat want to bite, hard, but he's watched enough tearjerkers to know how badly a black romance goes when all the power is on one side. He opens his mouth and lets Ampora in, trying to fight down the frustration, the helpless bitter feeling at how fucking unfair this is—fairness is make-believe shit for wrigglers, and he's too old for that now. Ampora's teeth cut his lip, just a little, not like either of them is really trying.
A minute later Ampora pulls back, licking that stinging cut as he goes. "I guess you don't havve much motivvation," he says, and the cool, bored tone in his voice makes Karkat's eyes snap back open. Shit. Yes. That's the holy shit danger look again. "Bet I can fix that."
"What—no," Karkat says immediately, but Ampora grabs him by the leash and yanks, dragging him off-balance. Karkat flails when they get closer to the deck rail, grabbing at Ampora's shoulders because shit shit shit he doesn't want to get thrown over—and it doesn't help, because Ampora just grins like the shark-faced douche he is and goes over the side with him.
Karkat gets about half a breath of good air and then they hit the water, cold and dark, swallowing them up. Karkat thrashes, trying to get back to the surface, but Ampora the nookbiting biledouche is dragging him deeper. He never learned to swim, can't even struggle for long because he just doesn't have the fucking air. His lungs burn and his head spins, and he claws at Ampora's arm helplessly. Ampora just watches him, eyes glowing in the dark water. Karkat claws at his throat—I need air, you worthless loadstain—but Ampora doesn't let him go. His lungs convulse and he can't help exhaling, a cascade of little bubbles rushing upward the way he can't, even though that's going to make the need for air even worse.
Ampora glides closer and kisses him again, of all fucking things, but then fuck he's breathing air into Karkat's mouth and Karkat sucks that up greedily. It feels thin and it tastes weird but it's air, and that puts him another couple of minutes away from dying. Karkat clings to Ampora despite himself, because fuck it's amazing how fast pride goes out the window when you're worrying about oxygen. Ampora smiles, snaking an arm around Karkat's waist and kicking, and they rise toward the surface.
The water parts above Karkat's head and he takes a huge, gasping breath, then a second one. Spots swim in front of his eyes. "You sick fuck!" he blurts. "You—"
"Try again," Ampora says, and drags him back under.
This time Karkat is sputtering and choking almost immediately, his mouth full of water. He can't get free of Ampora's grip to head for the surface, so instead he leans in closer—that's what Ampora wants, isn't it? Another desperate let-me-live kiss?
The douchebag makes him work for it, struggling and flailing until he's really almost sure he's about to die, until that secondhand breath is the thing he wants more than anything else in the fucking world. Then he finally gets it, and his grip on Ampora's shirt is weak but fuck, fuck, he can't make himself let go.
They surface, and Karkat can feel the tension in Ampora's body like he's going to move again, pleads, "Don't—"
And then they're diving again, back down into the water. Karkat claws at Ampora weakly, desperate, and he thinks maybe the show of weakness is actually working? Because Ampora kisses breath back into his lungs faster that time, and brings him up to the surface only a few miserable seconds after that.
This time Karkat makes sure the first word out of his mouth is, "Please." That keeps them afloat for a minute, and he gulps air, his lungs aching. "Please, no more, I'm sorry, I won't fight you anymore."
"That's a little better," Ampora says. They bob on the surface of the water, tangled together. "Keep goin, lemme hear it."
"Please let me back on the ship," Karkat says. "I'm sorry for pissing you off." Wait, fuck, he's pretty sure he knows where Ampora wants this to go. "Please let me make it up to you."
Predictably, Ampora makes a little pleased noise at that one. "I guess wwe could do that," he says. He strokes Karkat's stomach slowly. "Try that again wwith a little more respect."
None of this is going to go easily, is it? "Please let me make it up to you, sir," Karkat grits out. "...Please let your humble slave apologize to you properly."
"There wwe go," Ampora says smugly. "Hold still." He tightens his grip around Karkat's middle and kicks, entirely too comfortable in the water, bringing them back to the ship. There's a ladder there, and Ampora lets Karkat climb it, shaky-limbed and shivering, to collapse on the deck.
The ship rocks on the waves, and that still sucks, and now that Karkat is wet it's cold out here, but he can fucking breathe. It's amazing how much the little things matter once you stop taking them for granted.
Ampora looms over him, and Karkat doesn't look up. "Come on," Ampora says. "Let's get you outta those wwet things."
Fuck, what a douche. Karkat nods. "Yes, sir."