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The raid had been too easy, it almost seemed like a trap; Stede effortlessly lured in by talk of beautiful jewels and silky textures (fine fabrics?!).
It turned out the raid was so easy because the ship wasn't carrying any jewels or silks at all, not even a single bolt of nice fabric.
This merchant ship was carrying exotic pets.
Buttons and Olivia apparently spoke with the colorful parrots (with silky feathers the colors of jewels) and determined a nearby island where they would like to be dropped off.
Apparently they were locals.
Blackbeard still had his no pets policy, but all it took was one look from Stede for him to agree to at least get the animals to safety rather than dumping them in the middle of the ocean.
He still wasn’t comfortable with the snakes and other reptiles, but they resolved to do something similar with that group. Maybe find out who the merchants were planning to meet? At least find the things proper homes rather than releasing them all on an unsuspecting ecosystem.
There’s just one animal left.
Soft, round, timid, and soft, so fucking soft.
Lucius is in love.
———
When they’d first stumbled upon the room full of rodents, the absent minded Stede Bonnet had been confused.
”Well the parrots are beautiful and even the reptiles have a certain exotic, dangerous charm I suppose, but ugh why rats? Cages and cages of rats?!”
”Uh boss?” Lucius pipes up from his position at Stede's elbow where he'd been cataloging the animals' species and quantities.
”Yes Lucius?” Stede said looking in disgust at one of the tragically tiny cages containing rats of all shapes and sizes.
”The uh…the snakes sir?” Lucius himself gulped, suddenly a little nauseous but nonetheless knowledgeable on the subject.
“They’re for the snakes. To uh...feed the snakes. I’ve seen…well… they need to be live…”
”Oh…” Stede had turned a distinct shade of green and excused himself ordering Lucius to finish up in the rodent room.
Lucius, not totally thrilled himself, rolls his eyes and sets to the task. Despite his normally sensitive stomach, it’s actually surprisingly clean in the room, no worse than any barn Lucius had ever been in.
He himself had grown up uh…well not on a farm, but there were chickens and livestock anyway…that men sometimes paid the ladies with in lieu of proper coin.
Point was he knows what it was to slaughter a chicken at the very least. He didn’t like it, not one bit. But apparently it wasn’t dire enough to turn him in to a vegetarian.
Lucius also unfortunately learned very young shock of finding a big rat in a hen house, and the the subsequent larger shock of finding an even bigger snake as well.
Live rats, meant live snakes.
So yeah he knew what the rats were for and was likely going to need to be done with them before they reach a proper port.
Since Stede has left him no specific instructions, Lucius decides the details of the job are up to him. So he simplifies and decides to just count the number of cages total while getting them all placed as neatly as possible in a couple rows so they’d be easier to see. And at least the poor things a wouldn’t be stacked in piles shitting all over each other anymore.
Lucius shudders, yeah he was definitely going to have to wash his hands after this.
He’s only fifteen minutes into his task when Lucius spies something different.
It’s the same small cage as the rest, but it holds only a single animal.
And it looks like no rat Lucius has ever seen.
He has no idea what it is or what to do with it, but then the animal’s terrified little eyes meet his as it attempts to mold itself into a perfect ball. It’s long fluffy, distinctly not rat-like, tail encircling it’s body making it appear to be no more than a large cotton-ball with eyes.
Lucius watches it tremble in fear at him, and for the first time since he was a stupid, naive teenager lusting after older men, his heart breaks.
So Lucius makes a decision.
———
Lucius and his new friend make it back over to their ship easily enough. He bullshits the rest of the rat inventory then passes the task of actually moving them to the first able bodied person he sees (Wee-John).
All the while Lucius simply just has the cage in his hands covered with a bit of burlap, on a deck full of people moving cages and crates of all types back and forth, no one even blinks twice at the object in his hands.
Still he moves quickly as he skips across the gangplank and nonchalantly as possibly makes his way below decks and then finally into an isolated store room.
”Alright little buddy lets see what we can do for you.” Lucius speaks softly as he lifts a corner of the canvas.
It still looks scared but it’s now sniffing around it’s enclosure rather than cowering. Lucius is delighted to find it’s still charmingly round shaped even when it’s not curled up, it’s little feet barely visible through the thick gray and white fur.
Lucius cautiously pokes his real index finger in through the wooden bars and lightly boops the top of the animal’s head.
He has to physically restrain himself from squealing. Lucius has never felt anything softer in his entire life.
Suddenly the creature is pushing it’s head into Lucius’ fingers and rubbing it's chubby little cheeks against the cage.
I’ve only had you for an hour and if anything happens to you I will kill everyone on this ship and then myself.
———
Pete was getting worried.
It was typical of his boyfriend to make himself scarce during a raid; as soon as Stede is properly distracted enough he slips away unnoticed only to reappear when the time comes to tally the booty into a ledger.
But the raid hadn't been violent, the ship barely had any defenses. Even Pete was distracted by the colorful birds, like a real pirate would have, and the bad ass looking snakes.
But they'd long since boarded and returned, and he hadn't seen Lucius anywhere.
He tried to play it casual, he and Lucius had apparently been becoming too "codependent" Lucius called it, and they were practicing being apart when there was no imminent danger. But right before the gangplanks were to be removed, Pete just couldn't stop himself.
He had to be sure Lucius was safely on board with them before the now empty vessel drifted away from them.
So still totally playing it cool he begins to check all of Lucius' little hidey holes (he has so many these days, Pete is not even sure if he knows them all), as well as some of their little make out spots. All places his sweet scared boyfriend liked to hide.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) he's done this so many times, it doesn't take long. He inhales a huge breath of relief when he finally opens a door to see that familiar red coat and shiny brown hair. He takes a second to school his expression into something calmer so he doesn’t scare upset Lucius.
Pete is so relieved that he hadn't even noticed what Lucius was doing here in the small closest of emergency rations.
"Hey babe! I didn't see you and- uh...babe?"
Pete finally notices.
Lucius is crouched on the floor attempting to hide something cradled in his arm under his cropped jacket. Cupped in his other hand was an assortment of fruit bits.
Lucius freezes at Pete's inquiry, but doesn't turn to him.
"Yeah babe whats up?"
"What uh...what ya got there babe?"
Lucius slowly turns his torso around so he's facing Pete, his expression one of a little kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. Pete still can't quite tell what he's up to, but the object under his coat is most definitely moving and alive.
"Um..." Lucius gestures to the fruit in his opposite hand. "A snack?"
Yeah Pete isn't fooled.
———
"You sure you have no idea what it is?"
Pete is awkwardly sitting next to Lucius on the ground now, his boyfriend totally enamored and distracted with petting the little ball of fluff in his arms. Pete is totally not jealous.
"I've never seen anything like it before, it's little nose kinda reminds me of a rabbit? And it was stored on that ship with all those rats? So I guess it's a rodent of some kind. But it's so friendly, and soft, and even pretty clean? Did I mention how soft he is? Come on babe you gotta touch!"
Lucius is rambling, absolutely gushing over the thing; the thing that he even admitted is basically a rat.
"Nah, nah that's okay I get the idea..."
Pete's not too keen on the idea of scratching the plague ridden thing behind it's ears. Lucius looks genuinely hurt at the dismissal, but goes right back to cradling the little creature. Though Lucius is normally the squeamish one, he even called the thing clean? Jesus did this creature posses some sort of hypnosis?
"Wait how do you know it's a boy?"
"Eh I don't, it's just the vibes. He's just a little guy." Lucius then turns back to address the animal in a silly voice. “Yes you’re just a little guy, yes you are.”
Pete was a little concerned now that the smartest person he knows is now speaking absolute nonsense.
Or at least he would be if it weren't for the radiant smile spreading across Lucius' face as he coos at his new fluffy companion.
Pete hates to be the one to bring him down.
"Love you know Blackbeard's rules about pets...I know Fang must have told you a hundred times over how fucked up it was, we can't..."
But Lucius isn't even listening.
God his boyfriend really is just beaming at the dust ball, Pete doesn't think he's ever seen Lucius look so happy except maybe when he gifted Lucius his finger. And definitely not since his second near death experience and subsequent ordeal, which he still refused to discuss at length.
So even if he didn't quite get it, Pete resolves to do whatever he can to keep that smile on Lucius' face. Even if it means disobeying Blackbeard himself.
Pete scoots closer and puts his arm around Lucius.
"Love?"
"Uh huh…” Lucius only darts his eyes to Pete's face for a moment to show that he's listening now. Well kinda.
"Do you know the next time the captains’ quarters will be...vacant?"
Lucius shrugs, "they're basically surgically attached at the face these days, the very next time one of them wants anything the room will be empty. Why?"
The fact that Lucius doesn’t even raise an eyebrow to suggest what kind of fun things they could do in the captain’s berth is proof that he is officially distracted.
"Well...you're the one that told me you can use books to learn new things, even without really seeing it?" Lucius nods slowly, finally looking at Pete fully, though still scratching the little animal's ears. "I'm sure the captain has some kind of animal books, I bet we can figure out what it is, what to feed it and stuff...right? They…they have books on those kinds of things?" Pete had started out confident with his idea but got a little nervous as the words actually came our of his mouth.
Except when he looks, Lucius' eyes are sparkling and he is grinning at Pete as hard as he had just been doing at the little creature.
Huh maybe this won't be so bad after all.
"Oh babe, maybe you are the brains of this operation! Let's go!"
Lucius loops the arm not cradling the animal with one of Pete’s and already starts to pull him away before they’ve even discussed a plan.
———
It turns out they don’t really need a plan. It’s laughably easy to get the captains out of their room.
After a brief talk of their fuckery plans, they decide it’s actually best to simply tell Bonnet that Blackbeard was looking for him at one location and to tell Blackbeard that Bonnet was looking for him in another.
The two could be remarkably stupid when it came to one another so they had hours to kill. Still they really should be careful, yet Lucius had refused to put the fluff ball back into the small cage.
”He doesn’t like it!”
There was no room for argument in the shrill tone and Pete didn’t ask again.
So Lucius was still carrying it around under his arm. All in all, not a subtle look.
The things I do for love, Pete sighs internally.
Against all odds, they make it to the empty captain's quarters safely.
Lucius takes over, scanning books on the shelves. Unsure of what to do with himself Pete decides to be a little nosey and poke around the cabin.
Lucius seems to have found something promising, he’s focused on a specific section and is clumsily trying to take a few books off the shelf one handed.
In his snooping Pete’s eyes come across what looks like a blanket nest on the floor with a large crate of marmalade jars.
”Here babe I got an idea!”
Lucius turns around curiously as Pete grabs the wide wooden crate and dumps the last few jars of marmalade out on the floor.
In another quick swoop he has one of the blankets from the floor nest/fort tucked inside of it.
Captains had ton of that shit, they wouldn't miss one blanket.
”Here! Uhh for him.” Pete nods awkwardly towards the animal in Lucius’ arms when he doesn’t seem to understand at first.
Lucius is quiet for so long Pete begins to think he’s done something wrong. Then suddenly Lucius is beaming at him, again, twice in one day.
Oh they are absolutely keeping this thing.
———
"So what are we looking at here?" Pete chirps from over Lucius' shoulder.
They're back in the jam room pouring over the books Lucius selected. The animal had rolled around in the blanket and burrowed in the mess it made of it. Now that it was snuggled safely in the crate Lucius had finally relented to set it down while he sorted through the stack of books.
"So these are all sorted by location, but since we don't know where this little guy comes from I figured we should just start close by and work our way out. So this one is specifically about the Americas and the colonies." He points to a map that Pete does at least recognizes as their own part of the world. They flip through the books together in a comfortable calm. Lucius smiling as he reads little facts about different animals out loud to Pete, and scratches his new pet behind the ears as it snoozes in the box.
They have fun, and it’s a wonderful reprieve from from the dark stressful days they’ve been enduring lately.
Lucius knows he's not that smart, but Pete thinks he is, so he gladly takes the little bit of joy he gets from finding facts in the book that Pete will find cool. Pete ‘oooohs’ while Lucius almost vomits at a particularly detailed drawing of an alligator eating a man. All in all it’s a wonderful way to spend a day, even if they don't find what they're looking for. But they lose themselves in the peace of it all, safe in their own little world and loving every moment of it.
"Oh cool, where'd you guys get the chinchilla?"
———
So lost in their own world apparently that they failed to notice Wee John of all people settle down beside them looking curiously into the crate at the sleeping creature.
Lucius squeaks and grabs his chest, thoroughly startled. "Oh my god, fuck- wait what did you call it? You know what it is?"
"Yeah mate, it's a chinchilla," Wee John says with an eyebrow raised, like Lucius is stupid. That makes Pete bristle. Lucius isn't stupid.
"Why have I heard of that before? But never seen one of these?" Lucius counters.
The word even rings a bell with Pete, but it doesn't conjure up any mental pictures of an animal.
"Oi yeah, it's like for clothes. The fur? Rich fucks like making coats and lining dresses with ‘em, on account of how thick the fur is. It's waterproof too."
Lucius' eyebrows shoot up as he grabs the chinchilla out of the box and holds it close to his chest again.
"What!? NO!"
"Sorry laddie. I recognize it from the trim on the winter dresses me mum made sometimes, that kind of stuff always fetched a pretty penny."
"But he's so...little?" Lucius' eyes are tearing up.
"Uh yeah..." Wee John rubs the back of his neck. "I've heard it takes hundreds to make a coat, or a full dress."
Lucius looks properly gutted and heartbroken now. "...hundreds?" he squeaks.
Pete feels the peaceful time together they'd been enjoying rapidly slipping through his fingers, so he jumps in desperately.
"Hey hey now...this one is right here. Right?" Lucius nods through snot and tears. "We won't let anything happen to him. I promise. Right?" He throws a look to Wee John over his boyfriend's trembling shoulder that says Wee John needs to agree.
Wee John does his best. "Well I don’t believe they’re eaten as far as I know...fella's only in danger if someone around here fancies a fine…fabric. Oops.”
It's obviously the wrong thing to say as Lucius' eyes bug open with panic looking up at both John and Pete. Since John started it, not Pete, Pete feels safer in reminding Lucius.
“Or someone around who just doesn’t like pets.”
Lucius holds the chinchilla tighter.
“But…but…” He lets out a truly ugly sob that he hides behind his free hand, it’s not a cute look at all. He’s not putting on a show to get what he wants. He’s upset. Inconsolably upset.
“What do we do?” He groans into his hand between sniffles.
Both Pete and Wee John are at a loss, after an ‘I told you so’ look from Pete, the two of them desperately try to reassure the boy that it would be alright despite their previous admissions.
“Come on now babe, one thing at a time…Hey we know what it is now! Let’s find the right book and figure out what it eats.”
“They’re from South America, complete other side of the continent though. Different ocean.” Wee John offers.
The reminder about the books cheers Lucius up a little and Pete praises himself for a proper distraction.
The scribe wipes his tears away and gets back to the job of sorting through the books with only minimal sniffles. Pete watches him carefully pull out the one that must be about South America.
Now his boyfriend sits quietly and reads intently. No friendly chatter and smiles like before.
With Lucius totally absorbed into his new mission, Pete beckons Wee john to the far end of the room.
“Ok so obviously we can’t get rid of it, but what the fuck do we do?” He whispers conspiratorially.
“Quite frankly, captains are still so gooey eyed for each other, we can pro’ly pull it off for a while ‘fore they even notice.” Wee John contemplates.
“But not forever?” Pete checks.
“No I don’t think forever. It’d come out eventually. And he’ll just be hurt even more.” John gestures to Lucius who is still reading closely.
“John…fuck…I can’t believe I’m saying this but…please. Please help me come up with something. He needs this.” Pete has no problem debasing himself to begging if it’s for Lucius.
Wee John eyes him carefully and eventually sighs, “I think we all need this. Let me talk to Frenchie, he’s real good at trickin’ people an’ the like. Says you gotta make ‘em think it’s somehow their idea.”
Pete’s thanks are interrupted by the sound of Lucius finally scrambling up from his spot.
“I found it! Is there something to write with around here?” Pete is back at his side instantly to present him with some parchment they’d snagged earlier from the library.
“I’ll just leave ye to it then.” John waves and walks off, with a small smile on his face. The boy’s excitement was contagious.
Pete watches Lucius excitedly write with the book open to a page that might as well be in Chinese as far as Pete is concerned, except for the general shape of the map of South America.
But there it is in the corner. A tiny little sketch hardly bigger than his thumb, with a cluster of words beside it.
He lets the scribe diligently write for a few minutes, he’d been scolded before for talking while Lucius was trying to write something down. Apparently it was difficult to do both at the same time, Pete couldn’t even do one at a time so he let it slide and kept his mouth shut generally while his boyfriend was scribbling away.
But soon he can’t resist.
“So…what’s it say?” He tries.
Lucius’ head shoots up from the book, like he forgot Pete was there and was startled by him. The chinchilla seemed likewise startled. Once Lucius collects himself, he similarly soothes the shaking furball in his arms.
God can this get any fucking cuter?!
It’s so cute Pete can barely stand it and almost forgets his own question by the time Lucius answers.
“It’s from the mountains, says they hide in the caves and rocks,” Lucius says wisely as he points to a portion of the map. “Just like Wee John said. Completely on the other side of the map.”
“How did it get here?”
“Well also like he said, they’re generally traded for fur, so I imagine it came from a French or Spanish vessel shipping pelts. Not sure why this one is alive though.”
He crinkles his nose in that adorable way Pete loves that Lucius himself thinks is ugly.
“He was wrong about one thing though. People do eat them.”
Pete tries to change the subject and get back to their light-hearted fact sharing.
“So what do they eat?”
“It’s not very specific, it just says ‘grasses and seeds’ do you think there’s good hay or something in the non-humans room?”
“I’m sure there is! Let’s get this little guy loaded up!” Pete gets to his feet and offers Lucius a hand. But Lucius just stares dubiously at the offering.
“What’s happening here? You’re being so nice. So helpful. An hour ago you wouldn’t even touch him.” Lucius pouts a little. “What’s the catch?”
Fuck how could the love of his life be so insecure…after all this time.
“Babe.” Pete starts emphatically. “You’ve smiled more today than you have in months. I’ve said before I’d do anything for you, the…rat doesn’t even register.”
Lucius smiles with suspiciously wet eyes. “Well okay but we’ll have to think of a name, I don’t think I like ‘the rat.’”
There’s that nose crinkle again.
Yeah Lucius can call the thing whatever the fuck he wants.
And whatever it is, no matter how many letters Pete has to learn, he will carve a little name plate for the wooden crate. Huh maybe with some thought he could build it a larger enclosure that didn’t seem so confining. Something that wouldn’t distress Lucius as much when he had to inevitably leave him alone.
He’s already going over the plans in his head when he hears Lucius giggle, honest to god giggle, as he presses his own nose to the chinchilla’s soft one with a bright smile.
Fuck, once Lucius decided on a name he’d go out and buy a gold engraved collar too.