Dead Maiden's Rose [boyXboy]

Chapter I

Dead Maiden's Rose

Copyright © 2012 Samantha Rouse

All rights reserved.

A.N. Precursory warning - this IS a novel of the homoerotic nature. If you're not comfortable reading about sex, boyXboy love, or both squished together, then you're not in the best place right now :) Please no flames.

Chapter I

Nathaniel

I never knew why I had been close with James Kelley in the first place; he was uncultured and crude, a complete womanizer, and frankly, I quite believed we had nothing in common. By Christ, they called him Mother's Bane! But something had clicked in his head when he'd first caught my eye, and he'd never given me a choice.

And nearly a decade later, he's just about to do it again.

"Nate!" He bellows, finally noticing me, and I sigh. Usually I like crowds but this hot tavern suddenly seems way too small.

I down my drink, scatter the last of my pennies across the table, and stand. I make sure to keep my head low, in the hope that he will doubt his eyes, but I have never exactly been lucky. Actually, no, I'm unlucky; have been since the age of seven.

"James." I sigh a greeting, shuddering beneath the weight of his hand as it drops onto my shoulder.

"Thought you were trying to give me the slip for a second there, pal," he drawls drunkenly, steering me back toward my seat before throwing himself across the table. I'm quite relieved for the wood that separates us; normally he has this horrific habit of keeping way too close. Which is a problem for me; my preferences aren't exactly appropriate, and he's a good looking man.

Except for when he's been drinking.

"My mistake, I must have thought you were talking to someone else given that you neglected to use the name my mother gave me."

"Why so sour, Nathaniel?" He bellows, always too loud when he's drunk, "I thought you'd have missed me."

"Then you must have forgotten the circumstances under which we parted ways, James," I reply bitterly and attempt to escape.

But he has already gestured to some girl to bring us more drink, and she slams the beaker down before me just as I stand, her arm barring my exit. I raise an eyebrow at the man opposite me as I sit reluctantly back down; fate has always had this habit of bringing a lot of little things together in such a manner that they benefit James Kelley perfectly.

He smiles lopsidedly, and I realise I'm quite glad that he's so horrifically inebriated. His one eye always falls half closed with the alcohol's influence, and it's so much easier to hate a man who looks as thick as two short planks than it is to hate dashing young First Mate Kelley.

"I'm a captain now," he grins, as though he's reading my mind. "You still scrubbing decks?"

"I don't want to be a pirate, James. But unfortunately, I need some way to get home, and somebody made it impossible for me to find a legitimate job. I'd rather scrub decks than take lives, James, just as I told you last time, and the time before."

He laughs, bringing his mug to his lips.

"You don't even remember where your home is, Nate."

"It's Nathaniel. Why are you trying to upset me?"

"Because you get all posh and uppity when you're angry; I never heard a pirate say 'legitimate' before."

"Please, just leave me in peace."

James sighs, running his fingers up and down the side of his mug. I hate it when he does that but at least it looks as though he might be about to attempt seriousness.

"I wish you'd just stop trying to get home and start trying to be a real man. You make a good pirate, Nathaniel , a great pirate. You've got more of an eye for beautiful things than any man, and I seen you gut sailors from navel to ear afore they even knew what hit 'em."

"You don't even know where home is," he reiterates firmly when I choose not to reply.

"There are only so many coastal villages."

James sniggers as though my determination is somehow funny.

"You should focus that energy on pussy, my friend, so it doesn't go to waste."

"Don't worry," I smile at the irony, "you can have it. I wouldn't want to steal any 'pussy' from you; I don't like immorality, remember."

Besides, girls have never interested me.

James laughs uproariously, slamming a fist down onto the table. My eyebrow rises at the overreaction but I keep myself composed.

"That's more like it," he says, "there's the boy I remember. Come back to the Rose, Nathaniel, we're picking up crew."

So that's what he's doing here. It makes sense; you go to Arawak to sell goods, St. Richards to pick up crew.

I roll my eyes as the maid passes us again, running her fingers lightly over James' shoulders before placing another drink before him and whispering seductively.

James can find girls in either.

"You're disgusting," I say, glaring as she leaves, "why do they want you?"

"Because when I stick my cock in 'em, they scream," he says, "that's all girls want."

I roll my eyes.

"Come back to the Rose," he says.

"I've already got employment, thank you very much."

"No you damn well do not," he replies, "you've never been 'employed' in your entire life. You're a pirate. And when pirates come to St. Richards, they's looking for a ship to join. Come back to the Rose."

"No."

It's not that I don't want to. I liked that ship. The Dead Maiden's Rose was a good berth, had a good crew, and a damned near lethal reputation, if only in local waters. But nice as it would be to return to a crew that already tolerates my reluctance in anything, everything (girls, stealing, fighting), I'm going to say no for as long as I can, just because James is too used to getting his own way.

"Look at you, Nathaniel." He gestures to the scattering of coins that still litter the table from when I first tried to escape him. "Paying in copper coins. This is spare change and rubbish, this stuff. I remember when your boots were filled with so much gold they jingled."

"And my palms were coated in so much blood they dripped. You made me do terrible things for that bounty, James, and I paid the price. Almost died for it."

He looks angry.

"Saved you life, though, didn't I? That's not the pirate's way, but I did it anyway."

"And somehow that makes it ok to you?"

I shake my head and stand. I had planned to stay here for as long as possible; I haven't the money to sleep anywhere but the streets, and putting that discomfort off for as long as possible had been the best kind of plan. But, suddenly, the company of James Kelley is far more uncomfortable than grime and cobblestones.

"The fact that it almost got me killed too does, yes." He snarls. "I could have just walked away, and had your share to line my pockets too. But I didn't, because I'm a better person than you think I am."

"No you're not," I reply with a sigh, and turn away.

I can feeling him fuming as I force my way to the door, but I vow not to regret leaving. James Kelley never gave me a choice when it came to accepting his friendship, so I feel no guilt. And when I must turn to squeeze sideways through the crowded door, I catch him out the corner of my eye, still sitting there, a girl on his lap and a smile on his face.

He doesn't care.