I knew from the moment I fished him out of that net that he was trouble. Wet dark hair gone to tangles, lashes like soot framing too-wide eyes, legs that didn't quit sprawled inelegantly on the deck, and a tension in every line of his body that spelt secrets. Dangerous ones.

Oh, and he was a troll. Miles out to sea off the coast of territory that was decidedly troll unfriendly. This was a mystery I could have done without.

"Captain?" my first mate asked. "Uh, Jade? What do we ... do with him? We can't –"

I slapped a hand over John's mouth before he could let any more idiot out. I loved my brother, but the Dogsprite had secrets of her own, and accidentally spilling them in front of pretty half-drowned trolls whose threat level had yet to be determined was – well, not something I would put past him!

"Oh, great," the troll said, his voice husky and wrecked. He coughed, hocking up some more seawater and bile onto the Dogsprite's deck. "I've been picked up by bilgerat-eating morons who can't ..." he coughed, "work out that the appropriate fucking ... fucking course of action in this situation is to give the drowned kid a fucking blanket."

My mouth quirked into a grin at his bravado. He was shaking, and not just from the cold, but he was doing his best to distract attention away from that by insulting us. Interesting strategy! Kind of dumb, but interesting, and I was weak for things that interested me.

I stepped forward and dropped down in front of him, reaching forward to take his chin. He jerked, his wide eyes widening further as his gaze met mine. His eye colour was just starting to come in, a striking greyish-scarlet. I didn't meet many trolls, and I couldn't remember what that meant in terms of their heirarchy. Not that any of that mattered on a pirate ship.

"What's your name, sailor?"

He set his jaw for a moment, finally gritting out, "Karkat."

I bit my lip. "You got a home to go to?" I asked, stalling.

Karkat swallowed. "Not ... one that would take me in, no." Then his eyes narrowed. "Why, were you fuckasses hoping to ransom me? Sorry to disappoint." He coughed again, shivering.

My fingers tightened and I shook his chin a little. "The enemies looking for you ..." The little jerk he gave was all I needed to verify that guess. "How dangerous are they?"

He hesitated an achingly long moment. He wanted to survive, wanted to tell me that taking him in wouldn't lead to a fuckload of trouble for the rest of us, but ... "Dangerous enough," he said eventually.

But he wasn't going to lie.

I grinned, pulling him forward to kiss him on the mouth in congratulation. I felt him lose his breath against my mouth, and he was still staring and dazed as I jumped to my feet. "You heard the troll," I said, louder over my shoulder. "Give the drowned kid a fucking blanket! Then find him a cot somewhere, and food if he can keep it down."

"You ... what?" Karkat said. "Wait!"

I turned back, and he scrambled awkwardly to his feet, supporting himself on the railing as he coughed again. "The fuck is wrong with you?" he managed. He was touching his mouth; it looked like an unconscious gesture. I tried not to think about how soft his mouth had been, and what on the ocean had prompted me to kiss him. Enthusiasm, I decided. It got away from me sometimes!

I doffed my hat to him. "Welcome to the Dogsprite," I said. "I'm Captain Harley. You can tell me all about the fuckasses on your tail later on, and how fast we're going to need to sail to outrun them." I grinned, wide as a dog. "But I'll bet you we've run from worse!"

He swallowed, letting John put a blanket around his shoulders. "You're fucking crazy," he muttered, and John laughed. Karkat shot him a look, and then looked at me again, colour stealing into his cold cheeks. "But, um. Okay."