Work Text:
It begins with a touch.
It’s just a fleeting touch over the low of his backside, nothing Koby should mind about. Like when you accidentally brush over strangers on streets!
Except, Koby is a chore boy on a pirate ship.
The touch is too close to a place he is comfortable of. Not that their touch is comfortable in any way, or gentle. It’s always with the intention to hurt.
This time, it’s... something. There is something behind the touch that makes his skin shivered. It stays there too long for his liking. His hair stands at it ends. It makes him feel like there’s thousand bugs crawling under his skin. It’s weird.
Koby peers over to the pirate, hunching over like he always did when he’s swabbing the deck.
The pirate noticed his gaze and sneers. Koby flinched hard and went back to his work but not before he saw the laze grin that curled on the man’s face.
Koby hopes it wasn’t anything bad. Not bad than it already is.
Besides, what’s the worse it can get from now?
Koby let out a shuddering sigh, trying to put his mind onto his work. Alvida will kill him if she even saw even a speck of dust on the deck.
Koby hopes he imagines the eyes that following the entire time. Maybe he’s just being paranoid like always and nothing is different than like other days! Right?
---
The hand that’s holding his shoulder is too warm for his liking.
Koby keep his head bowed. Wide, cautious eyes trained on the pirate’s chest. Never meet their eyes. Never. The last time it happened he ended up with a bleeding nose.
His bangs fall to his eyes. It tickles. It’s gotten too long, he thought. He needs to cut them off before it got him in trouble. He bites his tongue, a sense of lost he found stupid curled under his chest. The hair had give him a sense of safety, even if it’s false. It hidden his sight away from the pirates around him. At least, if he didn’t see them, he can pretend his life is fine.
The hand moves to his neck.
He stiffened, preparing for the pain but it never comes. It’s more daunting than anything he felt. Koby feel sick, his stomach cramp from something that isn’t hunger or pain.He found the pirate’s touch icky, as they caress his neck. Their fingers gently ran over the pale skin, like a treasure to be carefully explored.
“How cute.”
And Koby, Koby feels sick. He wants to get away. Koby would prefer pain than whatever this is. A punch, a kick, a slap. Not… not this. It’s unfamiliar and unfamiliar things is always dangerous at the Miss Love Duck ship.
The pirate tilt his jaw. Up, up, until Koby meet his eyes. Blue, shaken ones to the pirate’s leering eyes. The sight dried his throat, a foreboding shiver ran down his spine. The man licked his teeth, smile twitched at the Koby’s face.
“So cute.” The man crooned, another hand taking his glasses off his face, blurring his vision.
A thumb goes in between his lips, hooking on his teeth, prying Koby’s mouth open.
The man drop his glasses.
Koby cries out as his mouth forcibly opened. A harsh hand keep his jaw in a bruising hold. The man laughed at his pain, He leaned down and takes.
---
Koby heaved over the side of the ship.
The wooden railing digs into his stomach, but the pain is good. It helps him stay grounded as he forced himself to empty his stomach, washing over the feeling of slimy, tough flesh worming inside his mouth. It touched his, feeling his, takes his.
His, his, his. The man takes something of his.
Koby breakdown into a heap of a mess. A broken porcelain, pushed down to it’s end. He feels himself crumbling, hanging down on a thread of sanity. His figure shook to each sobs, curling up into a ball of humiliation. The ship lulled him in a mockery of comfort. Koby lets himself fall, fall deep, deep into the deep end. His nails digs into his face.
He needs to stop. Needs to calm down before someone found him but he doesn’t. He doesn’t. Koby cries not only because of his lost, but he knows it will get worse. It won’t stop there. Not until he’s gone or run away.
Please, oh seas.
Please.
---
It happened again. The after, then the day after. If he’s lucky he’ll get away for a few days but it seems that, after it had happened once.The man wants more.
---
Koby gagged, bruised cheek digging into the wooden floor. A hand fist his hair, holding his head down in place, back arched painfully. His breath stuttered, his eyes flicker desperately willing for his mind to fly away from the reality he really, really didn’t want to face.
It hurts, it hurts.
‘ Koby. ’
‘ Have you ever felt dirty? ’
Koby remembers the mutterings of the quiet girl from his hometown. Pigtails and fluttering fingers. Flickering eyes and too small presence. Hide from the eyes yet too odd to disappear. Moving unsure like clipped butterflies, aimlessly and always itching away from her own skin.
The bright sky shone brightly from the circular window, dulled and yellowed with age. It blinds his eyes. Too bright, too beautiful for that day. It'll be perfect for a picnic under a green shade. Accompanied with warm foods and a companion. How nice.
Koby hates it. He hates it. He hates that someone makes him hate of the things he loved.
The fingers around his hip in a bruising grip. His naked skin exposed to the cold air, it quickly seeping into his skin and bones. He hissed at the ache. A broken sob breaks out from his throat, croaked and thick. Koby digs his fingers into the floor, clawing desperately to get away until his skin bleeds and his nails broke.
‘ Koby. ’
‘ Why? The marines had been helping us for years! Why do you hate them so much? How could you said that?!'
Naïve words rang from the too young child, too inexperienced, too innocent. Not yet face the truth of the world. A hero is a hero, a villain is a villain. Nothing more than black and white that is written on papers and spoken on the tongues.
Even so, the young girl didn’t say anything. Simply walking away because she knows Koby didn’t know. Still young and pure. Matured too early for the too young girl. He didn’t know, he didn’t by that. She is glad. She’s glad Koby didn’t know.
Her fingers flutters on her body, absentmindedly tracing the feeling of bruising, tainting phantom touches on her skin.
“Koby.”
The girl looked down; her fringes cover the eyes reminiscing memories, covering the shame she shouldn’t feel on something that wasn’t her fault.
The sky is warm, bright and blue. Too beautiful for a day to taint a little girl.
“Have you ever felt dirty?”
Too young Koby who didn’t know and didn’t understand.
Older, Koby who feel and understands.
With bruised cheeks, bruising grips and bleeding fingers. Blurry eyes and stuttering lungs. Koby sees above the clouds, flying on the blue, blue sky. He sees the burning sun; he hears the deep laughter echoing of freedom. He sees, he hears, he feels. Months to year being on the ship. It makes his daydreams into something more, something he depends on. For his life, his mind, his sanity,
For a moment he did.
Then, the pain jolted inside his body. Ruthlessly, mercilessly, takes, takes, takes, bring him back to the locked room of dulled windows and too bright skies.
"I have."