Prompt# 291- Fabric – Two Kings - Tekia – Original/Exalted

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Two Kings
Fandom: Original/Exalted
Prompt: Fabric
Warnings: None
Rating: PG
Summary: Captain Thunder meets with another who claims to be the king of pirates.
Thunder glared down at the dingy slowly creeping closer to her ship. She folded her arms over her chest and propped one booted foot on the casing of a cannon. At her side, Stone Throw glowered with her, his heavy beard twitching with his lips.
“I still say we blow ‘em outta the water, Capt’in.”
“I want to speak with them,” she said, “Who do they think they are?”
“They think we’re surrendering to them.”
She felt her lips stretch into her father’s smirk. “We’ll learn them otherwise soon enough.”
Stone Throw nodded and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword at his hip. He turned to look over the men scurrying about the deck around them. “Yeah,” he said in his deep voice. “They’ll soon recant their claim to your throne.”
She laughed and spun on her heel, stalking toward the wheel. She snagged the hat off a passing sailor and plopped it on her head, the wide brim low over her brow. As she leaned over the rail to look down into the approaching dingy once more, her face hidden from view, she motioned to **** to approach.
He was suddenly at her side, head dipped politely. “What can I do?”
“Make yourself scarce until I need you. We may need your brawn to impress them.”
He nodded and slunk away.
Thunder turned to watch him descend down into the bowels of the ship. Men were scrambling about, hurrying to preparing the ship to be boarded, a controlled chaos. She let her eyes roam over the crew and once more felt her father’s smirk curve her lips.
Her crew was amazing. Some she had gained from her father, and some she had hired on during her own stay as captain of the ****. All of them were men of the sea and had served well under her. Was that why Luna had come to them?
She shook her head, knocking that thought out of her head and returned her focus to the men now being helped onto her deck. She refolded her arms over her chest and spread her legs out to shoulder width, cocking her hip to once side. The long tails of her coat flapped in the wind and her cobalt hair struggled to break the ties holding it back.
The man that stepped on the deck paused a moment and Thunder took the moment to take him in.
He was younger than her, by perhaps a few years, but his skin was weathered by years on the sea. He wore his own blue hair short, a gold hoop in his ear, and sharp eyes taking in her just as much as she was him.
He wore the flamboyant coat of a captain and a gilded sword belt. His boots were highly polished, and his hands clean of dirt. He set his eyes on her and strolled toward her, easily rolling with the gait of the ship moving under him.
Thunder stepped toward the stairs and stood firm, blocking his way. “Captain,” she greeted.
“Actually, I’m usually called Commodore.”
She arched a brow. “Commodore? That’s grand, isn’t it? Then both those ships are yours.” She turned toward the two ships off the portside. “Not quite an armada, now is it?”
He grinned. “Not at all, but that’s what the other ship’s crew calls me. I suppose I got used to it.”
She returned his grin, all teeth. “Spoilt little brat aren’t you?” She burst into motion then, descending the stairs quickly until she stood near nose to nose with him. “Do you know who I am, Commodore?” She added sneer to that last word.
His smile slipped away and his shoulders tightened under the fabric of his expensive coat. “I’ve heard of your ship, but not of its captain. Last I heard, Captain Thunder had taken to a life on land with the blessings of island gods.”
“Yeah, he did.”
“Nearly ten years ago,” he continued. His eyes slid to one side, noting the crew gathered around them, unabashedly watching. “So who are you?”
“I’m Captain Thunder.”
His eyes returned to her face, searching for something. Her father’s smirk was back. She clasped her hands behind her back and began pacing a circle around him. “Tell me, Commodore, what do you really know about the Sea? What do you really know?”
“I’ve sailed these waters since I was a child, woman. Do not question my knowledge.”
She chuckled, tipping her head back and letting the sun touch her face under the brim of her stolen hat. “Commodore, I mock you because you don’t know me. You think that because I’ve let you sail my seas that you can just assume my title?”
She turned suddenly, standing behind him. She wished she were taller, able to glower down at him. As it was, she stood far enough back that she didn’t have to tilt her head up to look into his face.
“I’ve seen Captain Thunder,” the man said from between clenched teeth. “You are not him. Now who is assuming titles?”
A laugh went through her crew and they all began to drift away back to their assigned jobs. The man’s face tightened in irritation, taking the insult for just what it was. Her men didn’t see him as a threat at all.
Thunder propped her hip against the gunwale and refolded her arms. “Little Commodore, you’ve seen Captain Thunder? You’ve met him?” From the frown twisting his lips, she took that as a no. Her own grin grew. “Ah, I see. So you don’t know that his father before him was also Captain Thunder.”
He shifted his weight on his feet, one hand drifting down to his sword. Thunder didn’t move.
“Ah, but he was the first Captain Thunder, wasn’t he,” she said, almost wonderingly. “Then his son was Thunder Lord.” She shrugged. “I am Thunder Princess. Heir to the pirate king and his ships.”
The men he had brought with him all stiffened, but something seemed to click in his mind, for his hand dropped from the hilt of his sword and he smiled. His smile was so open and honest, it made her frown in response.
“You’re the king’s daughter,” he said, something like laughter in his voice.
“That’s what I said.”
“We had thought- but no, it has to be you.” He grinned. “We’ve been looking for you. Luna told us to find you.”
Thunder’s eyes narrowed and she shoved away from the gunwale. “What had Luna called upon you to do?”
He shrugged, holding out his hands, palms up. “Save Creation.”