Captain Blackheart’s treasure

Category: Real Person Fic

Characters: Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding

Pairing: Noel Fielding/Julian Barratt

Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, AU (Alternate Universe), Drama, Romance

Rating: NC-17

Warning: BDSM, Character Death, Smut (graphic sex scenes), Violence - Heavy, Unspecified Warning

Status: Complete

Length: 30-40k words

Chapter 1 – A sailor’s life for me!

Chapter 1 – A sailor’s life for me!

Author’s Notes: Young master Fielding was in grave danger, and didn’t even know it…

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Young master Fielding was in grave danger, and didn’t even know it.

The elder child of a respectable and well to do family, Noel (for that was his name), was always a hand full. He was 25 years of age yet showed no signs of settling down, raising a family or even getting a job.

He was a constant embarrassment to his family, and nowadays it seemed his father was so frustrated with him he was only able to communicate with his son via an intricate system of sighs and frowns.

You see, the handsome young man was blessed with many a noble attributes, but was never too inclined to use any of them. Instead, he would sleep all day and drink and flirt all night. The combined sound of loud girlish giggles and rustling leaves that emerged every night from the Fielding back gardens, earned it the dubious nickname “Early fall manor”.

Noel was, in a word, spoiled.

He was also very, very bored. The boy knew all the maids employed in his household biblically well, and endlessly explored all the pubs, taverns and brothels in town.

So when the governor asked his father to store some of the cargo confiscated from yet another navy raid, he decided that was the adventure he was looking for!

It wasn’t the first time Early fall manor hosted bounty of mild importance and wealth, and it wasn’t the first time Noel stole from it.

But this time he knew he stumbled across something different. Between the statues and carpets and chests, he found something of real interest.

Costumes had always been alluring to the young master Fielding so he couldn’t resist going through the pile of clothes lying on the floor. Amongst the rich, intricately embroidered dresses, the kind that he was usually tempted to try on, laid a jacket Noel was absolutely fascinated by. A black frock coat made from a thick and heavy garment, with an elaborate gold trim running though it. It was all worn out, torn at just about every seam and terribly, stinkily, dirty…

By looking at it you could feel its rich past, and just a hint of the future.

It was as though the jacket held inside it all the promise of excitement and adventure Noel’s life seemed to be so lacking.

He put it on and was drowned by it. It was huge and heavy, its owner obviously a big man, and it instantly made Noel feel powerful and commanding. He continued to examine it, mesmerized, and set on to check the content of its many, many pockets: They were all emptied out.

All but one, that is.

In an inside pocket, innocently tucked away, was a small piece of parchment. The boy unfold it with shaky hands. It had a humble drawing of what looked like an archipelago, some miles off the coast of “Singapore“ in the “South China sea“. A small island named “Bulan“ had a drawing of a cave on its eastern coastline with a simple X marking.

It didn’t have any distinguishing elements to it, except the initials T.M.B written at the top right corner, and it really didn’t seem like much. But young Fielding instinctually knew there was no sense in decorating and needlessly drawing attention to a TREASURE MAP.

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Noel was kept awake all night, his mind racing. He spent the good part of the evening before picking out his outfit. He thought a lot was riding on him getting just the right look. Normally quite the dandy and a flamboyant dresser, Noel felt that for this occasion he must pick an ensemble that said “simple” and “manly” with a hint of “street savvy”. He chose a brown woolen collarless jacket, un-matching light green breeches (!), a simple white shirt with no ruffles, a black leather belt, black boots and no vest (!!).

In the morning, the boy dressed up and examined himself in the mirror.

He really wished his clothes weren’t in such good condition. He tied his soft brown hair into a pony tale, then decided the unkempt look was better and let it fall down to his shoulders. Then, excitement and curiosity almost too hard to contain, he hastily headed down to the docks.

Noel used to hang around there on occasions, when he was feeling especially bored or brave, and knew the pubs owners and some of the regular customers. He was looking for a man he once met briefly called Doherty, who was well known for dealing with stolen goods and doing business with most ships: merchant, navy and pirate.

In spite of his admirable attempt at a more humble attire, the boy still stood out in the dirty old pub, amongst its earthy population.

“I’m looking for James Doherty”.

The bartender raised an eyebrow, “Oh, is that so?”

“Aye, I may have a business proposition for him”, Noel tried to look as unruffled as possible.

Perhaps the “Aye” was too much?

The bartender grunted and disappeared behind the kitchen door. Seven minutes later he reemerged followed by Doherty and two strange men. Noel was taken aback by the company: A huge youngish man the size and shape of an outhouse and an older fat and greasy man with mean eyes.

The bartender showed them to a seating area in a back room. The boy followed reluctantly and turned to Doherty whispering under his breath. “Erm, May I speak to you alone, sir?”

“No”

His heart sank.

“Oh, you can trust my colleagues. This is Mister Samson”, the big fellow nodded, “and this is master Merrit.” The second man didn’t so much as blink.

“You seem to know who I am, but who might you be?”

“Oh, right, excuse me. The name’s… Neil Farnaby”.

“Now, Neil Farnaby, how may we help you?”

Call him naïve, call him too trusting, or just call the child by his name—an idiot, but even if Noel had his doubts by now, it was too late to pull back.

“Well…” the boy sat down, took a deep breath and spoke. “I recently came into possession of a… a certain article that might be of value.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, it has the initials T.M.B on it. Ring any bells?”

At the mention of T.M.B Doherty’s left eye twitched and Noel’s heart sped in a blend of excitement and terror.

Walk away, walk away NOW.

“Um, Naturally I don’t have it with me, but if I find out the article is genuine and of interest, I might be willing to do business. Perhaps organize a crew to go fetch the rest of the items…

“Will you, now…?”

“With the right sort of people, of course.”

“Of course. And have you met the right sort of people yet?”

“Well, It all depends on what they have to tell me, now doesn’t it?”

Ha!

The boy felt a sudden rush of confidence.

“Well, those initials may belong to a certain man called Thomas Montgomery Black, But you might know him as Captain ‘Blackheart’.

They say he hid a treasure so rich in gold you must never look straight at it, or you’re likely to go blind!

It is rumored that he buried the loot somewhere off the shores of Singapore but was caught and hung before he managed to retrieve it.”

Noel gulped, his pupils wide, his head throbbing.

Singapore…!

He immediately regained his composure as he realized he was truly and completely out of his depth.

“Right, that’s really interesting…”

Finish this, fool, and go home.

“So, when can we meet here again, to further discuss our future business arrangement?… and for you to observe the… item?”

He had no intention of ever going back there.

Doherty smiled heartily. “That’s entirely up to you, my lad.”

“Is it?”

“Sure. Their ship, “The Prince Vince”, will be sailing in three days time. You are welcome to visit me on board anytime till then”.

The boy got up, noting to himself to not go anywhere near the harbour.

“Well, thank you, sirs, that’s… that’s what I’ll do. Soon. As soon as I consult with my crew and then I’ll be back, and… good day.”

He was never going to do anything like this again…

Well, maybe not NEVER.

The three men got up to escort him out. He nodded at them and forced a smile, then turned and hurried to the door with a sigh of relief.

He stretched his arm but couldn’t quite reach the door. He felt a hand, the size of his face, pressing forcefully against his mouth, and managed to sneak a quick realization before passing out from the harsh blow that had landed on the back of his neck.

This can’t be good.

Young master Fielding was right. Being beaten, kidnapped and sent aboard a pirate ship, was very rarely a good thing.

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The first thing that hit Noel as he regained consciousness was the smell. The sickening, sweet stench of a dank and moldy room.

Then came the sounds of waves crashing, squeaky wooden boards and a rattling chain…

After that the painful memory of the succession of events that lead him to where he was now.

Wherever that was.

How could he have been so stupid?!

He waited for his eyes to grow accustomed to the dark and pulled himself into a seating position.

AAAAAGHHHH!

… Last came the pain from the gash at the back of his head.

He gradually opened his eyes again and looked around him. He was alone, on a lower bunk bed in a small and very dark cabin, aboard the belly of a sailing ship and, just as he feared, he was shackled by his ankle to the wall.

He heard someone unlocking the door and quickly laid himself back down on the bed, closing his eyes.

The door opened and a tall man went in. Noel opened a crack in his eyes and peeked from behind his lashes. He saw the man place a tray of food on a stool in front of him. The man then approached the bed, bent over and stretched a long arm at the boy’s forehead.

Noel winced.

“Oh, so ye’r awake. Good.”. The man retracted his hand and straightened himself up. “Ye should eat”. He turned and started to leave when a small voice came from the bed.

“Please, sir, let me go.”

This was met with no answer, but the tall man stopped in his tracks and sighed.

“I KNOW you’re a good person at heart and this is probably a mistake, and I come from a rich family, so I can reward you and…”

“Hey, kid, ye be talkin’ to the wrong man. I be just the cook.”

“Oh… Then tell your captain or Doherty or… Please, I don’t belong in here. I can make it worth their while…”

“It seems ye already made it worth their while.”

By instinct, the boy’s hand reached for where his right inner pocket and map would have been, if he had still been wearing his jacket.

He slammed his head against the mattress, and immediately regretted the pain that followed.

Stupid!

“How did they know?”

“They took a chance. Ye not bein’ the first idiot they’ve ever encountered. If ye didn’t have the map on ye, ye would probably be at home right now, nursin’ a headache.”

Noel felt his body well up with hatred towards the man, resenting him for callously poking fun at his misfortune and detesting him for calling him an idiot. But it was nothing compared to how much he hated himself. He was an idiot…

“Well, maybe I can…”

“Ye be wastin’ yer time. Best just accept this”.

It suddenly occurred to him. “It’s not safe for you to keep me; my father is an important man. There’s probably an entire fleet out looking for me by now”.

“They smeared yer jacket with pig’s blood and left it lyin’ somewhere. I expect yer family thinks ye been murdered and dumped in the river.” The boy whimpered but managed to hold back the tears.

“What are you planning to do with me?”

The cook sighed, he hated being in the same category as the captain and the others. “The captain’s changed the course and we be headin’ further south. I imagine if he’ll succeed in retrievin’ the booty, he won’t be needin’ ye no more and will probably set ye free.”

“And if he won’t succeed?”

“Ye want the truth?”

“Please.”

“Luckily for ye, he’ll still be needin’ to sponsor this voyage somehow, so he won’t kill ye. He might hold ye for ransom or…” He lowered his head and continued under his moustache “or he might sell ye for slavery.”

The young man gasped in surprise, he didn’t expect that answer.

“I’m sorry.” The tall man made his way to the door in silence.

Though he told himself he mustn’t break down in the presence of his capturer, Noel finally gave in. He rolled on his right side to face the wall, curled up and broke into a loud and uncontrollable cry.

The cook froze for about a minute, then turned back again, cursing himself for what he was about to do.

“Look, kid, what I think ye should do, is make yerself as useful as possible, yeah?”

The boyl half-successfully calmed his sobbing and rolled back to face the man.

“We just lost a cabin boy and I’ll be needin’ the assistance. I’ll talk to the Captain, convince him to give ye the job, tell him it’s always valuable to have another Jack that can read and write. Ye’ll have to clean, cook and slave all hours of the day, but if ye behave, work hard and keep invisible, I reckon it be yer best chance at survivin’ this.”

Noel started sobbing again, hating himself for being so weak.

“Listen, it ain’t so bad. Ye get used to it in the end. And that way, when we reach dry la…”

A light from above the cabin came shining through the floor boards, followed by the sound of footsteps and muffled talking. The cook looked up and immediately put his finger to his lips. “Shhhh”. He then silently returned to look down at the bed.

For the first time, he could actually see the young man who was looking at him intently. He had huge bright eyes with long lashes glued together by tears.

He looked like a puppy.

The boy looked at the tall man’s face, now made more visible by the dim rays of light, as he awaited further instructions. He had ruffled hair and kind eyes. Small, but kind eyes.

After what must have been five minutes, the men above walked off, recasting darkness and silence into the cabin. Finally, the cook continued.

“When we reach dry land, then ye can try to escape or send a word to yer family or whatever ye like. Ye understand me?”

Noel nodded, not sure if his gesture was seen in the dark, but the tall man didn’t seem to care.

“Now, eat up. Ye be needin’ to gain yer strength back”.

The boy wiped his tears with the back of his hand, trying to control his sniffles.

“Thank you”.

“Yeah…”.

“I’m Noel” he said stretching his hand to shake the other man’s.

It was unreciprocated.

“I’ll go talk to the captain now”.

The boy looked at the man as he left the room shaking his head and grunting.

He felt his head might split open with all the thoughts and emotions pounding inside it. He didn’t know what was to become of him, or when and how this will all end, but right now he felt like his only hope was to trust this stranger.

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