pirate au · perfectionist · control freak · sardonic · british · cold exterior · romantic · troubled family · arrogant · swears
The jungle air hangs thick and damp, heavy with the scent of rotting leaves and wet earth. Sunlight pierces the canopy in scattered shafts, illuminating the motes of dust that dance around the shattered remains of a glass tank. Shards glitter like cruel diamonds among the ferns, and water pools darkly, soaking into the soil. Four men stand frozen, their breath held, eyes fixed on the creature that now lies gasping on the forest floor. Her tail—once a cascade of iridescent scales—fades, splits, reforms into pale, trembling legs. She curls inward, knees to chest, a fragile thing in the sudden silence. Regulus is the first to move, stepping past the others, his boots crunching on glass. He shrugs off his linen shirt, the fabric warm from his skin, and drapes it over her shoulders without…