(no subject)
Fic #3: Bargaining
Request: Following Seas, Tam, prompt: enjoying one’s work
Requested by: alikcin
Length: 586
Rated: PG
Notes: Oh, the humanity!
Tam’s moment of enjoyable silence as he looked over the rail at the dock below was broken when Scrap bounced over. “Cap’n! I gots a question.”
“Do ye now,” Tam said, grinning at the man who was walking towards their ship.
“Aye,” Scrap said. “I don’ see how this’ halfway smart, e’en fer us. I mean, lemme make sure I got me facts straight. Three days ago we were here at this port an’ there were that pretty li’l sloop o’er there an’ we made off with some of her cargo an’ all her sails all quick and stealthy like. Aye?”
“Aye,” Tam agreed.
“An’ now, here we are, three days later, back at this port an’ there’s that li’l sloop an’ ain’t they gonna, y’ know, take ‘ception t’ this?”
“Watch an’ learn, Scrap,” Tam said sagely, as he started down the gangplank. “Watch an’ learn.”
The captain of the sloop was a pale-skinned man with a long moustache that did not look particularly clean. He gave Tam a hard stare as he approached.
“Heard ye’r lookin’ fer some sailcloth,” Tam said. “Somethin’ ‘bout how ye can’t set sail ‘til ye’ve got it?”
The captain glared at him. “And?”
“An’ it so happens that I’ve got me just ‘bout a sloop’s worth of sailcloth gatherin’ dust on me ship here,” Tam said. “Not bein’ particularly attached to it, figgered I’d come outta me way an’ sell it t’ yer poor stranded self fer the low, low price of fifty gold pieces.”
“Fifty!” The captain was outraged. “It isn’t worth more than twenty!”
“Think of it as me commission fer comin’ all this way,” Tam said. “Ye kin always wait ‘til the next ship comes ‘round who happens to have ‘nough spare sailcloth an’ is willin’ to sell it t’ye . . . but that may be a fair while, an’ I doubt they’d be inclined to sell it fer much cheaper than I, given the barrel ye’r o’er an’ all.”
The captain’s jaw clenched. “Thirty,” he said.
“Fifty, mate, an’ not a coin less. ‘ve got mouths t’ feed, y’know.”
“Forty!”
Tam shrugged and looked at Scrap. “Guess he don’ wan’ it. Start packin’ it up, then.”
“Aye, sir!” Scrap said enthusiastically, trying not to burst out into laughter.
“Forty-five!” the captain said desperately.
A grin tugged at Tam’s mouth. “C’mon, now, mate, if ye’r gonna go all the way up t’ forty-five, ye know ye’r gonna end up payin’ fifty anyway. Let’s have it.”
The captain slumped, defeated. “All right, fifty. Anything to get off this godforsaken rock; we’ve been here three days already . . .”
“Agreed!” Tam waved to Scrap and the other crew members who were lingering. “Take ‘em o’er, boys,” he said, and his men started carrying the boxes of sailcloth back up onto the ship they had stolen it from. Tam accepted the man’s coin and tucked it away into a pouch on his belt. “Ever’thin’ in order?” he asked.
The captain wasn’t listening; he was staring down at the sailcloth they had brought on board. “That looks like - ”
Tam jingled the coins. “Pleasure doin’ business with ye, mate,” he said, and walked up the gangplank at a rather leisurely pace. After all, it wasn’t like the other ship could chase them - they still needed to rerig their entire ship.
“You - I - I’ll get you for this! I’ll - ”
Scrap was chortling as they set sail. “Gonna r’member that one, I am.”
Tam smirked. “I love me work.”