Chapter Text
Jackson Overland, firstborn prince to the Kingdom of Burgess, son of Queen Sarah Genevieve Overland and King Frederick Overland the Second. Big brother of Princess Mary Sarah Overland. Arranged to marry the secondborn princess of Arendelle, Anna. How unfortunate it is, then, that Jackson disappears a year before the wedding.
…thus reads the morning paper.
A paperboy swings the papers in people’s faces as he calls out the news: “Prince Jack disappears overnight! A kidnapping or a runaway?! One copper per paper!”
A young man snickers as he passes the boy, a brown cloak hiding his face. He tosses a silver coin to the boy and grabs a paper from the stack.
“Thank you, sir!” the boy’s quick with his gratitude, not yet processing that it’s silver. He does a double take and gapes as he catches a glimpse of the young man’s face. “You’re-”
The young man winks and puts a finger to his mouth- the universal sign for “shh!”
The boy clicks his mouth shut and nods. He turns back to the passing crowds, advertising his papers once more. He has a quota to meet, after all.
And so the young man makes haste as he walks away, reading the papers of a missing prince and a worried family and a heartbroken princess. He scoffs at the inaccurate writings. Anna is no delicate maiden- and she’d be very offended to be written as such. He holds back laughter at the description of the king. Worried? Him? For his receding hairline, maybe. He’s about to read the description of his mother, but runs into a burly man instead. He falls to the ground with a soft grunt, hood falling.
The man makes a questioning grunt before turning around, eyebrows rising at the sight of the young man in the dirt. “Aye, lad, careful- best be lookin’ as yer walking!” he chuckles. He leans down to lend the brunette a hand with the only hand he has.
The young man, face now unhidden, blinks at the bigger man. He grins brightly as he takes the hand- only to yelp at how fast he’s pulled into the air. The foreigner chuckles as he lets go, leaving the young man to drop slightly onto his bare feet. The smaller man laughs as well. “Oh, thank you, sir- I’ll keep your words in mind.”
Amber eyes take the chance to study the foreigner. It was obvious he wasn’t from Arendelle, as no citizens of that country wore furs and pelts like this man did. They certainly didn’t have the interesting prosthetics that he did- his left hand an angular hook and his right foot a simple peg leg. His blonde mustache was long, even braided in knots. There was a funny tan line on the man’s head, showing he usually wore some sort of cap or helmet rather than keeping his bald head bare to the sun. Unknown to the young man, he was also being studied.
Bright blue eyes took in the soft hands, unburdened by work. The simple yet expensive attire, even with the shoddy brown cloak covering most of the young man. Hardly any muscle, tousled brown hair, clear amber eyes seeking adventure but not knowing of the dangers… Clearly a runaway noble. The only thing off was the lack of shoes?? Instead, the boy (cause this was a boy to the foreigner) wore some sort of wraps that went from his ankles to his soles. Strange.
Both the young man and the burly foreigner came to the conclusion: This person is Not My Problem because I don’t want to deal with it.
“Well, best be off, lad- careful not to get too lost, aye?”
“Ah, right, thank you again. Have a good day!”
And they went their separate ways. The young man continued his journey through the docks and the foreigner continued his task of trading metals for fish with the locals. It was only after the foreigner was done that he noticed the papers on the ground. Curiosity got the better of him as he picked them up, reading the front page. He nearly dropped said papers as the young man’s likeness was underneath the bold print. …Well. Like he thought before. This wasn’t his problem.
After all, they totally won’t see each other ever again, let alone in the next four hours. That would be ridiculous!
So it was with quite a shock that Gobber, current quartermaster for the Captain of the Deadly NightFury, found First Prince Jackson Overland of Burgess, sleeping peacefully in his dinghy under two very heavy baskets of fish.
..No wonder the boat was going slower than usual, even with the fish and Gobber’s own weight. Oh, why’d Gobber have to just find the boy and not when he was still docked at the pier?! He gulps as ropes descend the side of the NightFury.