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inkformyblood · 3 years

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belong to no undercurrent

Day 02 for @jc-au-week Age of Sail/Sailor/Pirate

Pairing: Codywan Warnings: None

There!

Something dark and formless breaks the water, sending the loose roll of the waves into trembling shards, shattering the moonlight that dances off of them. Cody’s grip tightens on the rope, the coarse weave biting into his palms, but it holds as he leans further over the edge.

The sea beneath the ship is dark and merciless, brushing against the hull like a caress and hissing against the growth of barnacles and salt that hold onto the lower planks. The wind weaves its fingers into his hair, pulling at his curls and tugging at his clothes, goosebumps erupting beneath the chill and the spray and he feels the first bite of worry in the pit of his stomach.

Had he been mistaken? Would this be the night when he wouldn’t show?

“Hello, my dear.”

Cody turns in an instant, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, still suspended over the empty sea as he stares back over the outstretched line of his arm to the opposing railing. The spray burns his eyes and kisses his cheeks as he gazes in mute amazement.

A pair of glowing eyes, their edges crinkling with amusement, look back at him before the man blinks, plunging them both back into darkness for a moment.

Straightening and pulling himself back onto the deck, Cody forces his hand to uncurl from the rope, and he steps forward. The deck rolls beneath him in a way it hadn’t for years as he hesitates, suddenly unsure.

“Obi-Wan?”

The other man laughs, the sound bubbling up from the hollow of his chest. Patches of light bloom over his neck and chest, convalescing down his back and highlighting the rippling edges of spines that flutter there. He is hauntingly beautiful despite the edge of monstrous otherness that clings to his features, his eyes too large and an unearthly sheen to his skin amongst the swirling light and darkness that rests there.

The gills along his neck flutter as he pulls in a breath and Cody aches to brush his fingers along their gentle edge, but Obi-Wan’s grin, sharp and sudden, makes him pause. The awareness of what Obi-Wan is presses against his mind as cold and sharp as a blade.

“Cody,” Obi-Wan croons and Cody can feel the power that the single word contains, an unwitting compulsion to step closer that is separate from his own desire. It is the whisper in the night that would draw men from their beds to search a treacherous fog, the low murmur that would make hands unsteady on a ship’s wheel and turn it towards treacherous rocks.

He folds his arms across his chest and sets his feet, unmoving, and raises a brow at Obi-Wan.

“Stop that.”

Obi-Wan doesn’t blush, but his grin only widens as he raises himself further, settling on the rail with the expanse of his tail brushing against the side of the ship. A thought flickers across Cody’s mind, a twist of apprehension pushing itself to the forefront, that one of his brothers could look at through a porthole at any moment and see the sway of a tail break through the darkness.

“Will you come closer, my love?” There’s no magic in his voice save for an earnest plea, one hand — webbing stretched between each splayed finger, topped with claws that gleam like pearls — reaching out for Cody.

“You will be the death of me.” Cody steps into Obi-Wan’s embrace, breathing in the thick scent of salt and seaweed that surrounds him, brushing his lips over the soft fluttering gills at his neck just to feel Obi-Wan shiver beneath him.

The other man is cold, a chill that reminds Cody of late nights watching the slow shift of stars above him, his breath fogging in the air and he hears himself ask. “Are we still on the right track?”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan doesn’t kiss him, the threat of his teeth too apparent, but he brushes his cheek against Cody’s. His scales catch and bite at Cody’s stubble and he hums, leaning into the flickers of pain to press their foreheads together. “Would I lead you wrong?”

Cody doesn’t answer him, tasting salt on his lips like lingering tears.

“Not if you value our deal.” It’s a cold reminder and it cuts them both, Obi-Wan’s tail striking the side of the ship once before he controls himself, the sound echoing like a hammer on a coffin.

What they had was carved from marble, endless and unchanging, but its foundation was sand and it was crumbling beneath them the closer they drew to the treasure.

“So cruel to me, my love.” Obi-Wan’s eyes shone behind his lids but his grin was soft, baring his teeth without fear. He bumps his nose against Cody’s and hums. It doesn’t sound natural, the sound reverberating through the empty spaces in Cody’s chest like a bell, too low and too much until it replaced the beating of his heart.

Obi-Wan had asked for items in payment before: a dark patched coat that was too narrow in the shoulders for Cody, or pale silver rings topped with sapphires as blue as the sky that couldn’t fit past his first knuckle, but this was different.

“Three drops of blood for you, my sweetheart,” Cody murmurs into the fraction of space between them, a grin pulling at the corner of his mouth despite everything else. It was a helpful half-truth to distract his brothers from looking too closely at his actions while they were out at sea if they thought he was pining for his mysterious love back onshore.

All of Jango’s children had the sea in their breath and their bones, flowing into ports like estuaries, but magic, but Obi-wan was something else.

“Are you sure?”

The patches of light on Obi-Wan’s skin pulse and spin, a thousand constellations held captive in their embrace, he opens his eyes to peer into Cody’s, bright and beautiful. “I am sure.”

⁂

“Did you lose something?” Rex lightly taps Cody with his shoulder — his only warning — before he presses his head in front of Cody’s, obscuring his vision with a halo of blonde hair made lighter by the sun. He ignores Cody’s frustrated hiss with the ease of a younger sibling and peers out over the same stretch of fragmented waves made rough by the movement of other ships into the port.

“I hope not.” Cody’s voice is too tight, too bitter and he can taste the sourness that envelops his words in the back of his throat. He turns away, draws his cloak over his shoulders and disappears below deck. Hands brush against his shoulders in silent comfort as he passes, his brothers not understanding the change in him but reaching out regardless.

The press of Obi-Wan’s hands feels like they are burnt into his bones from their last meeting, the gentle chill as the man cupped Cody’s face and drew him close.

“I’ll see you soon,” Obi-Wan had whispered, his eyes crinkling at the corners from the stretch of his grin. The only thing keeping him tethered was his hold on Cody, and when that was released, he fell away, back into the ocean’s clutches.

The treasure shone when they had pulled it from the wreck, fine gold coins and delicate jewels spilling from the gutted chest, but Cody’s thoughts strayed to three drops of blood dropped onto a scrap of sailcloth and pressed into a merman’s hands.

Then he waited.

And he waited.

Rex had found him on the morning after the third sleepless night, curled at the foot of the stairs with the rope coiled around his arm, his skin pale from salt and exhaustion.

Obi-Wan had abandoned him.

It is a bitter thought, his heart twisting in his chest in desperate protest, and Cody can’t stop himself from searching the waves for the telltale flicker of movement or swirl of lights. He draws his bag from his cabin, barely registering the creak of leather or the weight cutting into his shoulder above the low pulse of his heart in his head. Moving without feeling it, Cody returns to the deck, watching the port draw closer, feeling the heavy echoes of footsteps through the boards.

A flicker of blue catches his eye, alike to the shimmer of fins beneath the waves, and he turns before he can catch himself.

Standing on the pier, there is a man in a patched, saltworn leather coat. He is leaning on a carved staff for balance, his brow furrowed in concentration as his gaze slips over Cody’s crew before it lands on Cody and one hand, each finger christened with a ring the same colour as the sky, raises in greeting. His eyes crinkle at the corners as he grins.

The world stops.

Cody knows him.

He is moving before he can think, dropping his back to the deck and running towards the gangplank and jumps. For a moment, he is suspended, clear and confused, but Obi-Wan is here and—

Landing is harder, a rough roll on the packed dirt to stand back onto his feet, feeling the shock echo through his knees but he doesn’t let it settle.

“Hello, my love.”

Obi-Wan’s hands are warm, washing away the chill that seemed to have settled into Cody’s bones as he pulls him close, pressing their foreheads together.

“You’re here.”

There are patches of freckles covering the exposed skin of Obi-Wan’s neck and arms, mimicking the swirl of lights, and the scent of salt clings to him, but he yields beneath Cody’s touch in a way scales couldn’t. Obi-Wan gasps when Cody’s hands fall to his waist, presses against the bone and muscle there and feels the memory of scales against his palms.

“I’m here,” Obi-Wan confirms, lightly bumping their noses together and Cody can’t do anything but draw him down into a kiss and taste the salt on his lips.

#codywan #star wars #commander cody #obi wan kenobi #codywan au week #my writing

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