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If Techno wanted to lose his birthright to one day inherit the crown, helping a pirate escape his execution was probably a good way to do so.
In his defence, he didn’t know the kid with golden curls in the cell was an actual pirate. Techno only found out about that while the two of them were walking through the halls of the dungeons when the guy asked him why the prince, of all people, had chosen to rescue a pirate.
Techno’s only reaction had been a loud “heh?”, which he personally thought was justified.
The boy didn’t quite dress how Techno had expected a pirate to dress. Plenty of kids working at the docks dressed in a similar way, with white, ragged, linen shirts, baggy pants that reached just past their knees and woollen stockings underneath. And maybe Techno wasn’t one to talk— as a prince who rarely wore his royal cape or crown—, but the kid sleeping in the cell hadn’t even worn a tricorne or a scarf on his head. That was supposed to be, like, the one thing you could recognize a pirate by when they had been stripped of their weapons.
The kid had burst out laughing when Techno complained to him about that.
“A tricorne hat?!” he managed between laughs. “What, you were also expecting me to have a hook instead of a hand?”
“I mean,” Techno muttered, “it wouldn’t be that weird to think...”
“Oh my god!” the kid exclaimed. “You’re so fuckin’ sheltered, holy shit. Learned about pirates from the horror stories one of your servants told you before bedtime, didn’t you? We’re gonna eat you raw with our gold teeth if you don’t eat your veggies, yeah?”
“Shut up,” Techno said as he dragged a hand across his face. “You’re talkin’ an awful lot for someone that I can put back in a cell at any second.”
The pirate gasped in fake hurt. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I most definitely would.”
“Come on! New best friend Prince Technoblade!” he cried out as he moved his arms apart, as well as the cuffs he was still wearing would allow. Techno hadn’t found the key for them yet and he had to admit that right now it was very tempting to not try to remove them at all. “You rescued me from my cell, my execution! That must mean something, right? I think we are bonding right now, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I could be bringin’ you to your execution right now, actually,” Techno deadpanned.
“Woooow,” the kid dragged out the vowel, “luring me into a false sense of security, are you? Maybe I should’ve expected that from the rotten King’s son,” he contemplated to himself, “but I really thought this could’ve been a great start to our friendship.”
Don’t talk about my father like that, is what Techno probably should have told the pirate. Though, he couldn’t find himself fully disagreeing. After all, if he truly had thought of his father as a person that did no wrong, Techno wouldn’t have helped the kid get out of his cell.
Something in him hoped that he would be able to somewhat fix the country when he’d get crowned king. A voice in the back of his mind told him that his hopes couldn’t have been further from the truth. The governmental system was too far gone, but he could at least try, he supposed. Maybe. He'd figure all that out later.
“Where are we even going?” the boy spoke up again.
“Be quiet, you’re gonna alert the guards or somethin’,” Techno shut him down. In all honesty, he had no idea where they were going. He would admit that he hadn’t really thought his escape plan through. The keys to the kid’s cell had been easy enough to get, all he had to tell the guard was that he was going to interrogate one of their prisoners and that he wasn’t sure which key he needed. If the guard had been suspicious of this supposed top-secret interrogation Techno was conducting, he hadn’t dared to tell the prince so.
“If I would have alerted the guards by talking,” the kid mocked, “I’m pretty sure one of them would’ve caught us already.”
Techno hummed dismissively. “You've got a pretty smart mouth for a cabin boy, huh?"
“Excuse you, bitch. I’ll have you know that I am far from a cabin boy!”
“Maybe tune down the insults when talking to your prince. You could get charged with treason for that.” Techno didn’t care about respect that much, though he would never say that publically, but if threatening the pirate with a larger sentence would get him to be quiet for even ten seconds, it would have been worth it.
“You, the prince,” he stressed, “have basically just let me get away with my piracy charges. I think treason’s one of my lesser worries. Insulting a prince isn't even treason, learn your own laws!”
“I haven’t let you get away with your charges,” Techno denied.
“Oh, I’m Prince Technoblade,” the kid mocked in a high-pitched voice, “I’m still gonna lead you to your execution mimimimimi. I’ve already threatened to do it multiple times but now, I’m really gonna do it—”
“—I don’t think I sound like that.”
“Cut the act, man, we both know you’re lying.” A grin appeared on the pirate’s face. “In fact, I think you’ve grown attached to me.”
“I think you’re lyin’,” Techno shot back. “Once we find a way out of here and I remove your cuffs, we can just continue with our lives and I’ll be glad to never see you again.”
“My life of piracy,” the younger laughed. “I’m willing to bet you don’t even feel bad about rescuing a pirate. My dad has always said I’m very easy to get attached to,” he mused, “I don’t think you’re immune.”
“Prime, please tell me where your father is so this can be over,” Techno sighed with relief. This kid wasn’t an orphan, he probably just ran away and joined a pirate crew to rebel. At least that way the consequences he’d face would be extra chores instead of the literal death sentence. “I don’t think he’d be too pleased about you joinin’ a crew.”
The kid looked at him for a couple of seconds before laughing at Techno as though he had just told him the funniest joke in the world. “You really have no idea who you saved from that cell, do you?”
“Uh, some child pirate sentenced to death?”
“The Angel of Death’s son,” the boy corrected with a grin.
✧
In hindsight, Techno should have seen the similarities. As the two of them walked through town to the docks, the Angel of Death’s piercing eyes on the pirate’s wanted posters stared right through his soul. They did indeed look like Tommy’s, as Techno had now learned the kid’s name was. Or he supposed that Tommy’s eyes looked like the Angel of Death’s. They had the same golden hair, too.
The same cocky smile.
Something in Techno felt... regret when he looked at Tommy’s hands, which were no longer bound in silver. However, Angel of Death’s son or not, Techno had the opinion that no kid should be thrown into a cell without a second chance, much less be executed.
Maybe bringing Tommy back to his father, one of the most feared pirates that plagued the seas surrounding Techno’s land, wasn’t the “second chance” he thought Tommy deserved, but it felt like the right thing to do. At least he didn’t have to spend too much time thinking about what else to do with the kid.
Tommy came to a standstill when the two of them reached the city’s merchant square. He started scanning the crowd with slightly narrowed eyes.
“They’re not here,” he said after a few moments.
“You came to that conclusion already?” Techno asked in disbelief. As far as he could tell, there were hundreds of people here. Not that he would complain about leaving to search for Tommy’s father somewhere else, a merchant’s square probably wasn’t the place a prince and the pirate he just rescued from execution wanted to be seen together. Techno'd imagine that there would be plenty of guards in such a busy spot like this one.
“Yup,” Tommy confirmed.
“Not wantin' to spill your secrets to the prince, I’m guessin’?” Techno asked.
“Nope,” the younger confirmed again, with a smirk. “You could still be leading me to my execution, remember?”
“Oh, so now is when you start listenin' to me,” the prince deadpanned. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re the one leadin’ me along now. I only agreed to go here because you told me your father or someone from his crew would be here.”
“I mean, they could’ve been. This is as close to the town as we’d normally go.”
Techno hesitated for a few moments. “You’re tellin’ me we walked all the way out here for nothing?”
“Well,” Tommy scoffed, “not nothing! Like I said, they could’ve been here—”
“They’re not.”
“Yeah, I can fuckin’ see that, can’t I, asshole?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m the worst and all that,” Techno waved him off. “Any idea where your father actually is so I can deliver you back to him and make sure you don’t immediately get yourself arrested again?”
“It was an accident, I’ll have you know—”
“That’s great,” Techno cut him off. “Now answer the question.”
The prince saw the pirate visibly hesitate before speaking again. “I mean, there’s this one spot…” Techno raised his eyebrow, signalling Tommy to continue. “I’m not supposed to tell anyone about it. Much less the prince who could have me and my family arrested within moments—”
“Why would I break you out if I’d wanna arrest you again?”
“You wouldn’t just arrest me, you’d arrest my dad. You’d arrest our whole crew. I get it, I know how governing works. You’re supposed to nip piracy in the bud where you can and I know how much arresting the literal Angel of Death would mean. Piracy would lessen after his execution, we both know that,” Tommy ranted. Somewhere in between his story he’d started fidgeting.
“That sounds like a lot of work, not gonna lie.”
Tommy stared at him with narrowed eyes. Even if he willingly came with Techno, had told him about his ties to the Angel of Death, and hadn’t yet attacked him for not leaving Tommy alone until he was reunited with his father, the pirate most likely didn’t trust Techno. Fair enough. Techno wasn’t sure he’d trust himself, either.
“What’s your deal?” Tommy asked, bluntly.
Techno shrugged in response. “Didn’t think a kid should be locked away in a cell awaitin’ his execution.”
“Sure,” Tommy accepted. “But then why do you insist on walking me back to my crew? If I should believe you don’t want to arrest them. What are you playing at, Blade?”
“Wow, skippin’ straight to the nickname phase of our friendship?" he diverted. "It’s disrespectful to not call someone of royalty by their title, y’know—”
“Yeah, you’ve told me. Treason and all that, blah blah blah. Answer the question.”
Techno hummed. “I will when we get to this secret location of yours,” he smirked.
“You’re insufferable and I hate you,” Tommy responded. “But okay, that sounds fair. I guess.”
✧
Slowly the duo walked along the docks and the two ended up on the beach. Tommy made Techno promise to never tell anyone about this spot, or he’d face “The West Wind’s Wrath”, whatever that meant. Techno wasn’t keen on finding out, he decided.
Techno had never walked along the beach on his own. Well— without guards, at least. Tommy’s almost constant talking made it hard to pretend Techno was on his own, not that he minded that too much.
Then, Techno slowly started to understand where Tommy was leading him.
Standing before them was a large rock, that'd be how Techno would describe it. The entrance was, assumingly, overgrown. There wasn't a clear opening they could go through, but Tommy stopped right before the rock, so they must've been at the right place.
"You're not gonna tell anyone about this or arrest us, right?" Tommy asked one last time.
"Not plannin' on it." Tommy didn't look away yet. "I won't." Tommy took that as his sign to enter the cave through the foliage covering the entrance.
Techno quickly saw that cave maybe wasn't the right word. All the caves he'd been in, even if there were few of those, were very dark and small. This was the exact opposite of that.
There was a large hole where the ceiling of the cave was supposed to be, which made it so you could probably see the moon from here at certain moments. There was another opening in the cave’s walls that let in the sea, and along with it, the smell of fresh, salty water. The cave also wasn't small at all.
In fact, it was large enough to set up camp, which was exactly what the Angel of Death's crew had done.
Techno recognized most of them from their wanted posters that hung around the city, even though not all posters had been as accurate. Seeing them just sitting here, relaxing with each other, it seemed oddly domestic. Techno almost forgot that he was among some of the biggest criminals in the country.
He briefly did forget. Until all of them looked his way when Tommy loudly proclaimed their presence.
“Guess who didn’t get executed!” he cried, looking proud.
Instead of the warm welcome Techno— and seemingly Tommy— had expected, the crew’s eyes fell on the prince. Most pirates slowly unsheathed their swords or grabbed their guns out of their holsters.
“Who’s your friend?” the Angel of Death asked his son. A smile was plastered on his face; Techno was pretty sure it was a fake one.
“Wow, not even a “welcome back”, I see how it is,” Tommy complained lightheartedly as his father walked past him, beelining towards Techno.
See, now would have been a great time to start running, if Techno hadn't been convinced that running would result in a pirate planting a bullet straight into his back.
“Nice hair,” the pirate captain told Techno.
Yeah, the guy was totally onto him. He probably wasn’t the only person with pink hair in the kingdom but Techno couldn’t blame the man for immediately drawing conclusions when his son, who was supposed to be on death row, suddenly returned with a random guy. If anything, it was the most logical conclusion he could make.
“Thanks?”
The Angel rested his hand on the gun in his holster. That wasn’t threatening at all. “Care to explain why my son brought you here, mate? We don’t normally invite strangers and I don’t think I’ve heard him mention you before.” The worst part was that with his smile, the Angel of Death actually seemed friendly. Techno knew that that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Uh…” Techno trained his gaze on Tommy, hoping the pirate could help make sure he wasn’t gonna be killed right then and there. Maybe this would be Techno’s karma for insisting to come with Tommy.
“He helped me escape,” Tommy simply said. “He’s not gonna snitch.”
The Angel of Death hummed. “Prince Technoblade isn’t gonna immediately have the most wanted pirate crew in these lands arrested? You’ll have to forgive me for finding it hard to believe that.”
“Well,” Tommy said as he looked Techno in the eyes, “he did say he was gonna tell me what his deal was when we arrived here, so…”
All eyes were on Techno once again.
“I just didn’t think a kid should be sittin’ in a cell—”
“Yeah, you’ve already told me that,” Tommy interrupted. “Still doesn’t explain why you don’t wanna arrest the others. Most are adults.”
Most. And, oh, if the way Tommy spoke about that so easily wasn’t gonna haunt Techno for the upcoming years. He was talking to a kid, he had to remind himself. A kid that had grown up, with a life of piracy being all he knew. Sure, Tommy probably didn't have as rough of a childhood as other kids that were pirates— being the Angel of Death's son and all. That didn't stop the fact that most other kids joining pirate crews probably only did so out of complete necessity. To Tommy, it was probably normal that his friends had a bad life— it was probably normal to him that friends his age were traumatized.
Techno didn’t condone piracy. Well, he wouldn’t change the law to make it legal, probably. But the fact that kids like Tommy could be executed for just trying to survive without so much of a second thought just didn’t feel right.
Most pirates were people mistreated while working under the navy or people who had otherwise had rough lives and had thus turned to piracy as a last resort. Techno couldn’t find it in him to resent pirates to simply do what was best for them. Even if he probably should.
“I think you guys are just trying to provide for yourselves and your friends and family. Pretty sure my father has committed multiple war crimes durin’ his rule, so I can’t really fault you for doing illegal stuff.”
“So, what, you don’t care about us terrorizing your citizens?” the Angel asked sceptically.
“I didn’t say that.” Techno crossed his arms.
“You could leave right now. You could get your guards and come back before we’re able to leave with our ship." The Angel of Death started walking closer to him. "I know you’ve thought about it.”
“I think you and your son both overestimate how loyal I am to my father,” Techno defended.
“And to your kingdom?” Tommy spoke up.
Techo hesitated. Probably for a moment too long. “Eh, it’s not mine yet. I should be grateful if I ever will be. I don’t know if my father...” His voice faltered.
“But,” Tommy said carefully, “you are the crown prince, aren’t you?”
Techno hoped his silence said enough. He really wasn’t in the mood to have to explain himself to pirates he barely knew.
Finally, a girl from the Angel of Death’s crew spoke up. Her hair was dyed in a similar shade to Techno’s. “You don’t have to return to the castle,” she smiled. “I’m sure we’d be able to open up a spot.”
“Think I’m gonna have to pass on that one, actually,” Techno said.
“Technooo,” Tommy whined as he walked over to stand closer to the prince. “What about our friendship, huh? Blade would be such a cool name for a pirate, that’s all I’m gonna say. Nothing like the Angel of Death, of course, but—”
“Tommy,” the Angel shut him down. “Give the man some space, holy shit,” he teased. “Stop being so clingy. He might’ve helped you escape, but that doesn’t mean you can suddenly trust him. He’s the literal prince.”
Somehow this felt like a conversation Techno shouldn’t have been a part of. He couldn't quite place his finger on why.
“He’s fine, I’ve told you this.” Tommy briefly furrowed his brows before continuing. “Wait, I’m not clingy!” he denied.
“Nah, you are,” Techno agreed.
“I changed my mind, actually. Leave, I never wanna see you again. I hate you.”
“Likewise,” Techno replied as he ruffled Tommy’s hair. He quickly stopped when he realised what he was doing. He couldn’t befriend pirates. Sure, he could turn a blind eye to them and not arrest them, but befriending them was a whole other thing. “I think I’m gonna have to go, actually. Sorry.”
“No you don’t,” Tommy said as he grabbed Techno’s wrist. The pirate turned to the rest of the crew. “If he fucks up while staying with us, I’ll take responsibility.” He turned to Techno. “Are you gonna stab us in the back or do anything of the sort?”
“Wasn’t plannin’ on it,” Techno answered truthfully.
“Sounds good to me!” Tommy exclaimed.
“We can’t just take in the prince, Tommy,” the Angel of Death spoke. “You can’t feign ignorance regarding being a pirate when the royal guard has good reason to be convinced we kidnapped a member of the royal family.”
“Prime, you’ve gotten old and boring,” the pirate accused his father. “You can just write a letter about going out to sea, right?” he asked Techno. “I heard going on trips overseas is very popular among the young rich men at the moment, ay?" Tommy softly elbowed Techno in his stomach. "It’d be perfect!”
All eyes were on Techno again. Most pirates were frowning at him, Tommy was smiling. The Angel of Death's expression was unreadable.
"I, uh, am not great under peer pressure," he nervously laughed. Though, Techno would admit that joining the pirates would seem like a good option, even if he wasn’t being “peer pressured” into it. Then, he finally said, "I guess I could go with you guys for a while? A couple of weeks, maybe— definitely not more than a couple of months."
"Let's go, Techno!" Tommy exclaimed happily while embracing the prince.
"Welcome," the Angel of Death told him while softly slapping his rough hand on Techno's shoulder. "As long as you sail the sea as my crew, you'll fall under my protection. But you'll also find that if you harm any of them in any way, I won't hesitate to throw you overboard." The smile on the Angel's lips remained. "Understood?"
"Uh. Yes, sir?"
The Angel of Death barked out a laugh as he put a friendly arm around Techno's neck. “Call me Phil, mate.”
✧
Techno didn’t know whether there had been any guards sent out to look for him, but, quite frankly, he didn’t care.
Staying with the pirates in their camp was nicer than he’d expected. The soft crackling of the fire at night and the cheerful banter weren’t unfamiliar; Techno had attended many parties as crown prince. Here, it felt different. As far as he knew, Tommy and Phil were the only two of the crew that were actually related. The pirates still looked like a happy family. One he felt himself reluctantly wanting to become a part of.
He’d never been able to talk with people like this at the castle.
A couple of days later, when the crew was done with running errands to be able to board the ship again, Techno followed the crew to the docks.
The docks were loud and busy, which made it so that the crew— that had multiple people with their hair dyed in unusual colours— was able to swiftly make their way to their ship without being stopped by anyone. In Techno’s mind, this almost made it more impressive that Tommy had somehow managed to get arrested days ago. But what could he say, the kid just had some special talents.
Techno hadn’t been on a ship in years. He’d stopped doing so when he had to focus on his studies to eventually become king. Maybe if he’d had an older sibling, he’d have joined the navy. He was glad he didn’t, though.
The Angel of Death’s ship, the West Wind, as Phil had called it, looked beautiful. It was lacking the flag it normally sailed under, namely the iconic black flag with a skull on it. At least that bit of pirate lore had actually been true. The Jolly Roger quickly got hoisted as soon as the ship was far enough from the mainland, though.
As he stood near the ship’s railing, Techno felt a cool breeze blow through his hair. The air was saltier here.
He heard someone’s footsteps coming up behind him. When Tommy’s golden curls came into view, he ruffled his hair. The two of them looked at the waves, side by side.
“Told you you’d get attached,” Tommy smiled proudly.