Whumptober 2021- day twenty-six
You will go down with this ship
Fallen, waterfall, trap door

Dick is still stuck on the Deathstroke, and all's well till the Tarantula makes an appearance.

A sequel to let me go down with my ship damnit, which now has a prequel they'll laugh about this someday (not today though), both of which are in this story.

cause y'all encouraged me with the pirate au lmao. 

Pirate life looked good on Dick.

(Was this Slade's way of admitting he liked the look of a baggy white shirt on him, the collar tied loosely enough that it exposed some of his chest and the sleeves ending with lace that they'd stolen from a rival three months prior? Quite possibly, but it's not like he was admitting it aloud)

He'd gotten quite tan. Slade had told him he had to earn his keep while on his ship, and Dick seemed all too happy to fly up the masts and clean the ropes and do busywork if it meant he could climb as high up as possible.

Slade had seen him fly between ropes before, when the Nightwing and the Deathstroke had been in combat (because Slade liked to tease) and Dick had proven to be the type of captain who actively helped his crew as opposed to just shouting orders and calling it a day. It's why he'd started calling him little bird, and watching him climb the ropes of the Deathstroke only cemented the pet name in Slade's mind.

Dick had abandoned the scent blockers after the first few weeks, with encouragement from Angelica, but Slade didn't need to smell him to see the joy on his face.

He got along well with his crew. He'd started training with them, even, and Slade had heard several complaints that he was beating them out of their silver. He wasn't about to make Dick give up his winnings so the crew had stopped betting on the friendly sparring matches.

And Slade tried not to approach too strongly. But after a while, Dick warmed up to him and the two could manage a conversation without Slade worrying Dick was going to close off and act professionally.

There was still about two weeks till they made land.

Dick didn't want to admit that he enjoyed his time on the Deathstroke. Not when he had a country to return to, a duty to uphold.

If he started admitting to himself that he wanted a different life he would leave the navy at the drop of a hat. Bludhaven hadn't been the same for a long while. it had always had issues with corruption, and Dick was happy to look past that in favour of working to better it, but the queen's court was full of corruption and not even she could remove it at this point.

And he had other bad memories in Bludhaven now. Memories that made him wish he hadn't stepped into the city to begin with.

But he couldn't just quit, couldn't just leave.

He had to keep reminding himself that this was temporary. No matter how much he loved sparring with the crew, how enjoyable Wintergreen's company was, how warm he felt inside when Slade shot him a rare smile.

The knot under his hands finally came undone and he pulled himself back to the task at hand as he undid a series of knots and pulled the rope free. The mast unfurled a bit more, billowing in the wind, and someone below called up a thanks. Dick sat on the rope net a moment longer, grabbing the rope with one hand so he could lean back. he closed his eyes, breathing in the smell of the ocean.

As an officer he got about as much time enjoying the ocean as he did filling in paperwork in his cabin. He missed being able to enjoy the sun, watch the light dance across the water.

He sighed and began to climb down the net back to the deck. He spied something in his periphery.

A ship was approaching them, and now that he paid attention to the way the sails were set it looked like they were also approaching the ship.

He headed down to the deck and spotted Wintergreen watching the ship come closer.

"What's going on?"

"it's another pirate ship. Not one I've seen before, but we've been flagged down. the captain probably has something they think Slade will be interested in buying. That, or they want something done that they don't have the means for."

Dick raised an eyebrow, "I wasn't aware pirates liked to hire pirates."

"they don't," Wintergreen huffed, "but Slade is especially good, so we get requests sometimes."

Dick hummed an acknowledgement, watching the boat come closer.

He didn't recognise it. it looked rather average. Smaller than the Deathstroke, but most ships were. The sails were black, and there didn't appear to be anything painted on it.

Once the boat got close enough for Dick to see the flag, his blood froze.

The flag was black and symmetrical, the centre a bright orange shape with eight lines radiating to the edges.

The Flores coat of arms.

He backed away, eyeing the flag as it grew closer. Wintergreen frowned at him.

"You okay?"

"I- fine," Dick said, "I- I'm an officer. They can't-uh- they shouldn't see me. I'm gonna... go."

Wintergreen looked concerned but nodded and Dick barely stopped himself from running as he headed for the trapdoor to the hull.

Dick could smell her.

It turned out Catalina had set up shop as a pirate, with her own ship that she'd called the Tarantula. Slade did his business with her and then she and her crew returned to their ship for the night, so Dick thought it was safe to venture out for dinner.

It wasn't.

She sat down in front of him, the table the only thing between them and it wasn't enough. He froze as he stared at her. She looked about the same, but last he'd seen her was when she'd been in training to join the Bludhaven army.

(that wasn't quite true. She flunked out the day before the citadel was overrun by followers of the corrupt Lord Desmond. He'd be in jail now for the crimes he committed as the notorious Blockbuster, but Catalina killed him before the authorities could get to the building and Dick preferred not to think about what happened after that)

Now she was wearing a bright orange top with leather straps across her chest that allowed her to sheathe her daggers over he shoulders. heavy boots were pulled over tight leather pants, an orange scarf around her waist with black ribbons that mimicked the spider-legs of her house crest in a way that made Dick want to shudder.

"I thought I smelled you," she said with a smirk as she leaned her elbows on the table, "good evening, mi amor."

The words out of her mouth were enough to send him hurling back to that night and he couldn't stop himself from freezing.

Her scent was shoving itself up his nose, that familiar lemony smell that Dick once found comforting and now made him sick.

When he finally managed to come crashing back to reality Catalina was looking at him like she knew exactly what was going on in his head. He was caught between the sudden need to bolt and the urge to carve the self-satisfaction from her face.

"I see you've missed me," she said.

"Not one bit," Dick said, and he wished he could bite the words out, snap them at her with all the venom she deserved, but all he heard in them was an empty edge that had been grated away till it was raw.

Catalina laughed lightly, "I must say, I'm surprised to see you here. The great Dick Grayson, working for Slade Wilson-"

"I'm not working for him."

"well, you're on his ship," she said, leaning forward. Dick froze, unable to move away, "so what are you doing for him?"

"I- He pulled me out of some trouble, he's taking me shoreside."

"is he now?" she said with a gleam in her eye, "aw, mi amor, you don't need to lie to me. I understand. The military is too much, life on the sea is meant to be free. We always understood each other's need for freedom," she reached out and pulled Dick's hand into her own, "It's so good to see you again."

Dick tried to pull his hand away but she held it tight, and fixed her eyes on his with a heated look, "would you like to see my ship?"

"I-"

A hand slammed onto the table and Dick jumped out of his skin.

The scent of woodsmoke and steel immediately overpowered Catalina's and Dick looked up to find Slade glaring down at the woman who'd taken his hand captive.

Dick took the moment to pull his hand back and take in his surroundings. He'd zeroed in on the conversation, and he hadn't noticed that half the people on the deck were now looking at the two of them. Several of those people were levelling very heated glares at Catalina.

Angelica appeared behind her, settling her hands on the back of Catalina's chair. She pulled it back so the chair rocked on its back two feet and Catalina scrambled for purchase as she glared up at Angelica.

"Now, now," Catalina laughed, "Dick and I were just getting reacquainted."

Slade looked down at him, and the anger in his eye disappeared, "you good?"

Dick swallowed, looking up into Slade's eye and breathing in his scent and-

Oh shit. He'd just realised something very important.

"I'm fine," Dick said, and he almost patted himself on the back for how believable it sounded, "I'm..." he stood from his chair, "gonna go."

"Have a good sleep," Angelica said, and Dick offered her a half-hearted acknowledgement before he retreated to the hull while attempting to make it look like he definitely wasn't retreating to the hull.

Slade caught him just before he could open the trap door.

"You look like you need a drink."

"uh," Dick faltered, glancing over to where angelica was roughly dragging Catalina from her seat and towards her ship.

"Angelica will take care of her," Slade said, "why don't you come to my cabin, I've got the expensive stuff there."

Dick sighed, 'I'm sorry if this'll get in the way of any business."

"it won't, she didn't seem worth the time anyway. now," he gestured to the captain's cabin, "drink?"

Dick shrugged, "yeah, okay. Thanks."

Slade's cabin was neat, well decorated but not extravagant. There were heavy curtains tied back to provide a view, and a desk sat in the middle of the room so when you walked in you looked right at it. to the right were two chairs set up with a low table between them and a bookshelf against the wall. Tucked into the corner was a bar. On the left side was a large bed with a carpet beneath it.

Slade made a beeline for the bar, and Dick sunk into the chair that was facing the windows.

Slade passed him the glass and sat across from him, back to the windows. Dick swirled the wine in the glass and took a sip.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" Slade asked.

Dick opened his mouth and closed it, then sighed, relaxing back into the chair and closing his eyes.

"you don't have to."

"thank you."

"Is there anything you do want to talk about?"

Dick took another sip of the wine. He looked up at Slade, "Why did you rescue me?"

"I thought we went over this."

"we didn't," Dick said, "I've been here six weeks and we still haven't, you avoid the conversation every time."

Slade worked his jaw, Dick drank his wine, and after some time Slade said, "if I didn't save you, you'd have died."

Dick pursed his lips and nodded. He'd been trying to come to terms with the fact that his crew had probably been sucked into the Boar's eye, and if not they'd have died of dehydration long before they found land. The emergency boats weren't made for long-distance travel, and no one had expected the Nightwing to go down. Dick still didn't know what caused it. some kind of supernatural entity, worthy of Greek mythology.

"And why did you care enough to save me?" Dick asked when Slade didn't fill that blank in himself.

Slade watched Dick, a kind of emotion his eye Dick couldn't understand.

Dick finished his wine.

"I've fallen in love with you."

Dick would say it again and again if it meant he could watch the look in Slade's eye. The shock, the surprise. It seemed Dick had managed to find something Slade didn't already know, didn't already have a way of controlling.

"And you telling me this," Slade said, eventually, after he'd managed to pull his walls back up, "has nothing to do with Flores?"

Dick swallowed, staring at his empty glass. There was some kind of numbness in his brain that had been creeping forward ever since he'd looked into Catalina's eyes.

He just wanted to forget that night. He wanted to move on. He'd told himself he had, but all he'd done was throw himself into his job as an officer, taking mission after mission, finding ways to distract himself.

Part of him wanted to go back to when Slade had rescued him from a trafficking ring and Dick had been too confused by his heat to stop himself from clinging onto him. that was before Catalina had screwed up so many things in his brain and crossed so many of his wires.

"It doesn't have anything to do with it," Dick said, and even he could hear the lie in his voice.

Slade put his glass on the table between them and held a hand out till Dick gave him his own glass and Slade put it next to his.

Slade got up and then sat down next to Dick, carding a hand through his hair and then tilting his head up. He pressed a kiss to his brow.

"I've wanted you to say that to me for a long while now," Slade said.

Dick wrapped his hands around his neck and shifted his weight so he could swing a leg over Slade's lap, but Slade stopped him.

"I'm not taking you to my bed."

"you don't have to."

"Dick," Slade said, cupping his cheeks, "I know there's something in your head right now, and I meant what I said- you don't have to talk about it. but it's obvious that you and Flores have a history, and I can't trust that you're not just trying to hurt yourself by using me."

"I..." Dick wanted to deny it, to say that's not what was happening, but he looked up into Slade's steel eye and breathed in that woodsmoke scent and he couldn't find it in him. he pressed his head forward so he could lean his head on Slade's shoulder, "can you hold me?"

Slade's exhale tickled Dick's ear, and he wrapped his arms around him and held him close.

"yes."