His morning began like it usually did, to the bellow of the first mate, rousing the rest of the ship into action. He shifted in his hammock, eyes opening slowly to survey the hulking beam of wood that ran the width of the ship. It was from this that his hammock was suspended on two hooks. Several beams like this one went from stem to stern, housing the sailors of Captain Sophos’s ship; the ship that would one day belong to Lukos. He sat up, rubbing his hand over his mop of hair and sat for a few seconds like that, his body still complaining from the hard day of rowing yesterday.

Captain Sophos set a grueling pace across the Aegean and Lukos had been one of the unlucky ones to have rowed most of the day with only an hour’s break to inhale as much food as he could get down his throat and then it was back on the bench to row some more. Their cargo was to be unloaded this morning and he could already hear their little wails rising up through the floorboards.

Mothers and their children, taken from some shore that Lukos didn’t even know the name of. There was nothing left of the village these people had come from and his pants were still stained with blood. He’d have to find a wash woman while he was here. He didn’t think slaves like this would sell particularly well in Judea but he didn’t make that sentiment known. Captain Sophos didn’t like opinions and he especially didn’t like them unsolicited. Besides, Lukos didn’t actually care. So long as he got his food, water, and coin, he didn’t give a shit where they went or what they did.

Sliding out of the hammock, he hit the ground barefoot but immediately sat down to pull on his boots. Then he was moving with the rest of the crew down into the inky depths where the powerful stench of human rolled up, intense and forcing its way into his nose. He didn’t stop to gag, too used to the fetid odor to do more than wrinkle his nose. These slaves weren’t given much in the way of being able to relieve themselves. They were simply stored down here. He and other crew members took down buckets of sea water twice a day and hurled them through the cages prior to meal times, but that was about all in terms of cleanliness. Now it would be time to scrub these vermin down so that they were marginally sellable.

The children whimpered and their mothers clung to them. Not one among this lot would look him in the eye. He liked when they were dumb and terrified. Made them easier to handle. “Move your ass,” he snapped at one woman who was cowering at the back of her cage. She might have been the one Sophos had made an example of the other night. It was hard to be sure but she shrieked when he reached in and took hold of the tangle of greasy black hair on her head. He jerked her out using that hold. She tumbled past him, sprawling onto the floor, knocking into one of the other crew members who kicked her.

Like a moron, she curled into a ball and cried. Lukos rolled his eyes. For Poseidon’s sake. This one wasn’t going to make it. She’d die, he was sure. That or live like some kind of ghost, which was just as useless. Lukos bent down and tugged her up by her hair again, smirking this time as he flung her towards the stairs. It was the same thing all over again. She smacked into those and curled up.

”Just carry her,” Catos said wryly, trudging past him.

Lukos bent down and scooped her up over his shoulder. Her body went rigid with fear and then he remembered that, yes, this was the one Sophos had made sport of with the crew the other night. She’d been pretty before. Now he wasn’t sure they’d be able to sell her even to a brothel. As soon as he came topside and dumped the woman onto the deck, his name barked out over the deck and he looked towards the first mate, who was holding out a bag of gold to him.

“Go get our supplies,” the man said. “And be quick about it.”

Thank the gods. He wasn’t going to have to bathe these worthless souls and then accompany them to the slave pits. It was so fucking boring. At least now he could do pretty much what he wanted. “Aye, sir,” he said and tied the coin purse to his belt. Striding down the gangplank, he breathed in the smell of Judea. It was fishy and stank of sailors, but it was port. Port meant bath houses, it meant women, it meant fresh food instead of that pickled shit and tasteless dried meat. Lukos loved port. Any port. It didn’t matter.

Lukos stretched his arms above his head, spine bending like a cat’s, and then he looked around at the ships docked with them. Most of them were familiar in some form or fashion, but a smirk spread across his face as he spied one that always promised amusement. As he neared, he heard singing, which meant that Akila was definitely onboard. And, there, yes, she’d spotted him. Cupping a hand next to his mouth, he whistled at her.

“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!” he trilled, grinning and dropping his hand. Stepping back just a little, he stood on tiptoe so that he could see over the railing of her ship. Or at least through it, looking for that fine ass of hers. If she didn’t come down, he’d drag her down. With that thought formed, he moved towards the gangway of her ship, putting his hands on the ropes to either side of the plank. “Akila…”

That bitch had better not be hiding.

Akila did not appear immediately like he’d wanted. He stood for a few seconds in the middle of the gangway, nearly unaware of the slow, rocking way it rose up and down as the ship bobbed on the water. Behind him, he heard the day’s commerce beginning in earnest. Someone groaned under the heavy weight of the crate they carried. He could hear something clatter within, as though the items were too small for a container so large. Something plopped in the water below him - a fish, likely as not, and then, of course, there was the scuttling of light footfalls. Lukos smiled a dog’s grin. His kitty was most definitely here.

He took another step forward, the gangway creaking under his weight. From here he could see the entire deck of her ship. It was mostly clean except for the natural odds and ends kept on most ships - buckets, coils of rope, nets, a few crates. It was from behind the crates and she finally sprang up, like a daisy out of snow. “Oh. Lukos.” This was said with perfect nonchalance, as though hiding behind crates was her usual behavior. Maybe it was, he didn’t know what her hobbies were. “Lookin’ good, as always. The master let his dog off the leash, I see. I’m happy for you. I was afraid that the collar was starting to chafe.”

He twisted his mouth into a smirking grimace. “Yes,” he said blandly, perfectly willing to accept the snarky praise. He thought he looked good, too. “I’m off to market and…” he trailed off, seeing she was feigning not listening. Her profile was to him and he watched her fingers trailing lightly along the railing. She had that haughty sort of air that he liked to shove into the dirt sometimes. Other times he liked to bite it out of her while she panted in his ear.

“No time to play, I’m afraid,” she was saying. ”You’re going to have to find someone else to throw rocks at. Or get your rocks off on. Any slaves left on your ship?”

“None that are interesting anymore,” he answered, watching her without turning his head. His eyes tracked her every movement, the way a cat hunted a mouse. Perfectly still until the right time to pounce. He didn’t believe for a second her disinclination to play.

“It was nice seeing you, though. Try to get some meat while you’re at port, Lukos. You’re lookin’ a little thin.”

He let out a single, humorless chuckle. Fuck her. He’d not realized his lack of food was showing so quickly. Instead, he practically leaped across the deck, bounding at her to back her against the railing with the crates on her left, and him between her and the gangway. “Akila…” he gave her the puppyish look he sometimes tried to woo people with - the one with the big, pleading brown eyes, but the wolfish smile underneath undid some of the charm it might have had. “Come with me.” He reached out to put hands on her hips in order to drag her towards the gangway with him. “Let’s play.”

The puppy look didn’t work all of the time but it had enough success that he wasn’t surprised when she finally gave in. He grinned at her reasoning for doing so, too. ”Fine. So long as you don’t look at me like that again. It’s weird.” Having gotten what he wanted, he didn’t gloat just yet. To do so now meant she could be spiteful and refuse just for refusal’s sake. Taking that tentative yes, he took her by the hand across the deck and down the gangway.

They were about to step onto the docks when Akila chose to give a little bunny hop onto them. He’d never tell her but that was adorable. She turned to him then, eyes wide and nearly innocent looking. He knew better. “You weren’t really thinking the market, were you? If so you got the wrong…”

“You have me wrong,” he said at once, a little surprised. Did she honestly think that he was going to disobey one of his captain’s orders like that? Especially one like this that should have tangible evidence of having been followed? It would be his back that would bear the whip marks by tonight if he slacked off. He didn’t know if Akila ever got lashed until her back resembled slashed meat, but Lukos had. Several times. It was not an experience he cared to repeat. Ever. Sometimes he didn’t have a choice in that but when he did, on days like today, he was a very good dog and did as told.

He stepped off the gangway after her, his boots making hollow thuds across the dock. A gull flew overhead and he looked up as its shadow slid over his shoulders. Squinting against the blazing sun, he missed the initial wide eyed pleading of his companion but looked down as she spoke and found himself confronted with it. Unlike her, he didn’t find it strange at all. Lukos put no manipulation tactic past a woman. In response, he folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes. ”Lukos. I know what we can play.”

“Oh?” his tone did not encourage her to continue and did not convey proper curiosity.

She bit her lip. ”I wanna play house, Lukos.”

The narrow-eyed expression didn’t change but the smirk returned. “I’ll play all the house you want once I get this done,” he said. “I don’t want my back laid open.” He felt absolutely no compunction or weakness about admitting that he didn’t like to be whipped until bloody. People who were completely stoic all the time about everything were foolish. And people who did like being reduced to bloody pulps didn’t last long anyway.

With Akila’s eyeroll, Lukos shook his head slowly. The sass on this girl that hadn’t been slapped out of her by now...If he was her owner, he wouldn’t be so kind. “Right,” she said and he quirked his brows at her. ”Like I said- you looking for me to follow you around shopping you got the wrong girl. You want a shopping buddy- you know what I charge Lukos. I’ll take my money upfront. Otherwise just get me off the ship when you actually want to play.”

He rolled his eyes now. “Are you serious? You’d rather be up there hiding behind crates? Or whatever the fuck it was you were doing?”

“Sorry, Lukos. But following you around buying shit isn’t worth pissing my captain off if I get nothin’ out of it. Go get your shit done, you know where to find me.”

Well then.

“Fine.” He swatted her ass and danced away out of retaliation’s distance. Then he was gone, disappeared inside the swirling crowd at the edge of the dock and off to market. Why Akila thought such trips were boring, he had no idea. Lukos liked to haggle and no one did that more fiercely than the Judeans. It was like a fight every time except that sometimes, at the end, the shopkeeper might clap him on the shoulder and give him a piece of the leftover day’s bread. These rare bits of hospitality were only with the merchants who knew him by name. Judeans, on the whole, weren’t terribly friendly.

Despite the temptation to finish up early so that he could go play, Lukos didn’t dare. Akila was right to think his collar was too tight but then she didn’t live his life. She didn’t know why it was that he was so quick to obey. He doubted she’d want to trade places. Course he didn’t want to be a captain’s whore, either…

Lukos showed back up a few hours later with a couple of sacks slung over each shoulder. The rest of the things he’d been tasked to get would be delivered by the merchants themselves. He passed Akila’s ship without a word, going back to his own to stash the supplies he was carrying but then he returned. “Kitty, kiiiiiiiiitty?” he called from the docks. It was time to play house.