Unseasoned Ties

“An’ for the record luv, ye’re right. It’s not like I haven’ thought ‘bout it.”

Staring back at Jack, you watch the change in his eyes. They go from the brightest brown, to the darkest shade you’ve ever seen. Not knowing what else to do, you decide to revert to playfulness. ‘It always seems to work,’ you tell yourself.

“Sooooo.... you think I’m a beautiful goddess. And you wanna kiss me,” you tease slowly with a knowing smirk planted on your face.

Jack’s smile grows larger at your change in attitude, he uses his arm around your shoulders to pull you in closer to him. You grunt in surprise in ending up lying half across him. You’re practically lying on him completely, your left leg is thrown across his legs and you use your right elbow to sit up slightly.

“Oops, sorry luv. Accident,” Jack says innocently.

Looking down on him, hair slipping from behind your ear, you lightly poke him in the chest, “Accident my ass Jack.”

Jack reaches up and tucks the hair back behind your ear, “Depends on yer definition of ‘accident’ luv.”

“Oh, so it’s kinda like your definition of ‘borrow’ right? Complete opposite of the actual definition?” you ask, although it’s not really a question since you already know the answer. You unknowingly leave your hand resting on his chest where you had poked him, covering the twin bullet scars almost completely.

Jack beams up at you, “Precisely luv, I’m so glad ye understan’.”

“So why is it exactly that you’ve never tried to kiss me?” you ask Jack curiously. You know that by asking Jack that question, it was just going to end up in making matters more difficult for you. However, your curiosity was just far too strong to ignore.

Jack purses his lips in thought and then says, “A form of self-torture luv, fer us both.”

“Little full of ourselves aren’t we?” you mock.

“Only when I know I’m right, an’ I’m always right.”

You raise your eyebrows and smile in challenge, “I highly doubt that Jack.”

“Oh really? I jus’ happen ta know what ye’re thinkin’ right now luv, an’ the second ye admit it, ye’ll get it,” Jack informs you honestly.

“I don’t want anything Jack. Well...besides the extreme urge for a real pillow...and maybe my socks,” you furrow your brow in a mockery of concentration. “Well as long as I’m listing things I want...I want my pants, my chapstick is in my pants. And I would like some pretzels, those would be nice...”

With a lazy smile, Jack cuts off your train of thought by strategically placing his index finger against your lips. You immediately stop talking, not just stop talking, but your brain seems to completely shut down. All you can think about is his finger against your lips, among a few other thoughts that spring up. ‘This would be the perfect time for him to kiss me. He really should kiss me,’ your inner monologue prattles on.

“Sshh luv...ye’re babbling. An’ not tha’ I don’ love yer random speeches, but this one is jus’ coverin’ fer what ye’re really thinkin’,” Jack softly tells you, before sliding his finger from your lips.

Snapping out of your trance the second his finger leaves your lips, you make a weak attempt to convince him, “That’s all I want Jack.”

“Not jus’ what ye want, what ye desire.”

Getting annoyed with his persistence you give in, “Fine then Jack, please, do tell me what I’m thinking. What do I desire?”

Jack pulls your left hand from his chest and entwines his fingers with yours, “Ye’re thinkin’ ‘bout me kissin’ ye. Admit it luv.”

‘How the hell did he know that?’ you demand of yourself. ‘What the hell am I supposed to say? What if I agree and he has a Jack laughing moment? No he wouldn’t do that. He looks too serious for that. Maybe he just wants me to agree so he can kiss me. Why would he wait until I said it out loud? He’s Captain Jack Sparrow. He doesn’t wait for anything. Now I’m just confusing myself.’ You end up deciding on just being honest and seeing where it takes you. You can always follow up with a sarcastic remark if it doesn’t go well.

You look down at your hand entwined with his and softly concede, “Yeah I admit it. So?”

Without looking up, you watch as Jack releases your hand and brings his hand up to your face. Cupping your cheek in his warm palm, he lifts your head up to meet his eyes. His face looks nothing short of enraptured, which causes you to smile a bit. Unsure of his intentions, you stay silent.

He trails the tip of his thumb across your bottom lip and whispers, “Thanks luv.”

You don’t respond, you’re too busy trying to remember to breathe. Once Jack starts bringing your face closer to his, you completely forget to even remember to breathe. With the smile still in place, Jack brings your face down to his and lightly kisses your bottom lip. You can feel the coarse hair on his upper lip brush against yours, which causes small tingles to spread out from beneath your skin. But the feeling of his mouth against yours causes you to feel an overwhelming dizziness. His hand moving to the back of your head, he rubs his lips against yours, coaxing a response out of you. Relaxing into his grasp, you slowly start to respond to his questioning mouth.

You practically pass out when Jack takes your bottom lip and lightly bites it. Returning the favor, you do the same to him. After you bite, you softly suck his bottom lip into your mouth. The sound of his breath hitching in his throat makes the smile on your face grow. Jack’s assault on your senses speeds up as he lifts his head to gain more control. You begin to lose tract of time, and all thoughts flee your mind. All you can see is Jack. He tastes of the sea, salty and pristine, and you can detect a slight trace of rum on his lips. You feel Jack’s tongue lightly flick at the corner of your mouth, only then to place soft kisses. He kisses along your jaw line to end with a kiss on the nape of your neck.

Resting his head back on the hard surface, Jack looks up at you and smiles. You can’t help but return his smile happily.

“Ye know luv, now that ye opened the box, ye won’t be able ta close it,” Jack triumphantly informs you.

“What exactly does that mean?” you playfully ask him as you bring your hand up to lightly tug on the braids coming off his chin.

Jack holds your wrist in his hand but makes no move to stop you from pulling at his braids. “Meanin’ that ye’ll have no choice in when I kiss ye. I’m no longer gonna suppress the urge.”

“How nice of you to warn me. Now I’ll know to watch out, so I’ll know when to duck,” you laugh.

“Very funny luv,” Jack tells you as he brings your hand to his mouth and gently kisses each fingertip.

“Well I guess the same would go for you. I’m thinking that you don’t have a problem with that at all,” you say with sarcasm.

“It jus’ so ‘appens that I don’,” Jack answers against your fingers. He plants a kiss in the palm of your hand, then pulls you down to lay on his chest. He tucks your head underneath his and softly kisses your hair. Sighing you pull the rumpled blanket back up around you both then drape your left arm across his chest. You absentmindedly trace the twin scars with your index finger, and then recall how you did the same exact same thing the night before. ‘It’s completely different this time, I feel so at ease and comfortable,’ you think. ‘I can’t believe that in one day so much has happened.’

“I love it when ye do tha’,” Jack gruffly breathes into your hair. He uses his right hand to trace little patterns on the back of your occupied hand.

“Yeah I know,” you arrogantly reply.

Jack laughs and hugs you tight to his body while staring up at the dark sky.

“So...how long do you think we’re gonna be floating around?” you ask. You briefly wonder about what you saw on the ship earlier and wonder if maybe you’re now floating away from it.

“The Pearl is out looking for us luv, an’ if they don’ find us, we’ll find land. No worries,” Jack assures you while letting his eyes drift shut.

“I think I may have seen something. Earlier on Brig’s ship. I was pretty sure that I either saw land or another ship.”

“Don’ worry luv, ye’ll be fine,” Jack again assures you.

“I’m not worried, just curious,” you say simply. You cuddle up closer to Jack, feeling warm despite the cool breeze. The blanket helps a bit, but the vast majority is from the warmth emanating from Jack’s body. Your eyes drift shut in contentment and you feel as if you’re going to fall asleep.

‘I hope I wake up just like this,’ you think. Your eyes then spring open at the thought.

“Jack, promise that I’m going to wake up just like this. That you’ll still be here,” you hurriedly request. ‘The last time I fell asleep I woke up in a cellar,’ you think, ‘I don’t want to wake up by being thrown in the water or something.’

Jack slightly sighs and brings his left hand up to rest in your hair. “I promise ye luv, ye won’ wake up anywhere but with me. I won’ let anythin’ else happen,” he softly declares while kissing your hair once more. You lightly kiss his chest a few times and then rest back into his embrace. Despite his promise, you’re still slightly worried that this will be taken away somehow.

“Thanks Jack,” you whisper against his smooth chest.

“Fer what luv?”

“For everything.”

* * * * *

You're slowly rocked out of your deep slumber by the waves gently splashing against the side of the small boat. You slowly open your eyes, fully expecting the bright morning sunshine to blind you. Instead, you find yourself staring up at the same night sky you fell asleep to.

"Huh, that's odd," you softly murmur to yourself, having expected to sleep through the entire night.

You roll over onto your right side but instead of coming into contact with the warm body you assumed to be there, you just roll into the other side of the boat. Jerking up into a sitting position, you quickly look down at the vacated area Jack was once lying in and your eyes widen in surprised confusion. Swinging your head left from right, you scan the ocean's surface, looking for any sign of life. Gripping the side of the boat, you peer down into the black water, not even knowing what you are hoping to see. Nothing, not even the slightest ripple. The dark sea is eerily calm and all to be seen is black in every direction. The fact that the sea is so still and the water so black never even registers as out of the ordinary. Nor does the extreme silence that is hanging above you like a cloud, blocking out the stars that must still be up there even though there seems to be no trace of the bright lights. Starting to panic, you scream Jack's name a few times only to be met with your voice echoing back at you.

You start searching the bottom of the boat for any sign of where he may have disappeared to. Not noticing anything different, until you suddenly realized that there is one thing missing besides Jack.

"The rum's gone! Why is the rum gone?!" you shout, "He made sure to take his god damn rum with him, but he left me? Bastard!"

'Maybe he didn't leave me. Maybe Brigs found us and pirate-napped him,' you think. Frowning, you babble to yourself, "If someone had taken him against his will, he would have made a fuss about it. I wouldn't have been able to stay sleeping. And why would they take him and not me? The only way I wouldn't wake up is if he didn't want me to wake up, meaning he left me of his own free will."

Coming to that conclusion brings tears to your eyes, while feelings of abandonment race through your mind. The feeling begins to seep into your bare flesh and you suddenly feel very cold. Curling up into a small ball, you huddle underneath the blanket you had just previously shared with Jack. Inhaling deeply, you can't catch even the slightest trace of his scent. The thought of not knowing how to get home never crosses your mind, all you can think about is Jack. Moments in time flash through your mind like a slideshow. The second you lifted your head to lock eyes with him for the first time, all the way to falling asleep comfortable in his arms right after finding out exactly what it was like to be kissed by him.

You can't stop the tears from spilling down your cheeks and you don't even make an attempt to wipe them away. You start slowly rocking your body back and forth while making no effort to halt the sobs from wracking your body. Muttering "he promised" under your breath like a mantra, you slowly find yourself drifting into a troubled sleep.

*****

You are brought awake a second time by the feeling of warmth seeping through your cool skin and the feeling of your body being gently rocked awake. Not wanting to open your eyes, you clench them tightly shut and ignore the rocking.

"Wake up luv. Ye were wrigglin' in yer sleep, an' not that I didn' enjoy yer wrigglin' form but ye started cryin' an' that kinda ruined it fer me. Ye okay?"

Your eyes snap wide open at the familiar voice and you try to adjust to the bright sun as quickly as possible. Your mind is fuzzy with sleep, but you do determine that Jack was the cause of the rocking, using the arm that he has firmly wrapped around your shoulders. Once your eyes have adjusted enough where you don't need to squint, you quickly sit up and turn your body around to face Jack.

He looks like he never moved from his spot. He's splayed out with his right leg hooked over the side of the boat. With the blanket having been tossed to the other end of the boat and his pants slung low on his hips, his bare upper body is completely open to your gaze. His hair is sticking out all over the place with a ruffled bed-head look. You noticed the concern marring his face and you're flooded with anger.

All you can think about it how he left you all alone, 'And now he dares to look worried about me?' Without thinking, you strike out with your fist and catch him square in his side. Ignoring his grunt of pain you start spouting off any and all obscenities you have acquired through the years. Anger and hurt are the only two feelings that seem to be able to get through your hazy mind.

"You fucking bastard!" you yell angrily. "How dare you fucking ask me if I'm okay? You fucking left me all alone you stupid wanker! You better have a good explanation? Do you only ever think about yourself? Oh and of course your rum! Have to have the god damn rum! Daft fucking cunt, bastardized asshole! You promised me Jack. You fucking told me that you were gonna be here! You god damn lying bloody pirate! I trusted you!" You slowly taper off once you realize that your insults aren't making a whole lot of sense any longer.

Through your entire tirade Jack never uttered a sound after his initial grunt of pain when you punched him. Jack stares up at you with his eyebrows scrunched up. After a few seconds of only your labored breathing to be heard, he pulls himself up into a sitting position mirroring yours so you are facing him directly.

Jack heaves an exasperated sigh and mutters to himself under his breath. You strain to catch what he says and you're pretty certain that he said, "Damn you woman."
Still very angry and hurt, you demand an explanation in a tone that leaves no room for argument, "Well?"

"Never 'appened luv. I never left ye. It was just a bad dream. I woke ye up cause ye were crying," he quietly informs you.

Staring blankly at him, you try to sort through your foggy mind. You make no move to push his hand away when he reaches up with a steady arm to slide the pad of his thumb across your cheek, effectively wiping away the last trace of tears.

"But...I remember everything. I woke up and you were gone..." you trail off.

"Never happened nymph. Does it look like I went fer a lil swim? I could never hope ta bring meself to leave this boat without ye," Jack assures you, a small smile tugging up the corner of his mouth.

Your mind starts to clear out all of the foggy sleep and you begin remembering all of the things that didn't make sense. The stars, the water, the echo, how Jack could get away without waking you and you start separating what you dreamed from reality. You realize how nothing made sense and it never occurred to you that something was a little off. As your mind clears completely from the haze of sleep, you start beginning to feel overwhelmingly foolish for the way you acted. Next the embarrassment comes in full force.

Seeing the change in your demeanor, Jack's smile grows larger and he pulls you in for a tight hug. You relax into his embrace, thankful for his affection. With all the emotions you just endured, you really needed the hug.

"Don' worry 'bout it luv. It's nice ta know that you'd be so terribly upset if your good ol' Jack were ta leave ya. Fills me lyin' pirate heart with pride," he jokingly tells you using your rant as material.

"Shut up Jack," you try to laugh but it comes out sounding like a pathetic attempt. Everything you yelled at him that he didn't deserve hits you hard and you start feeling terribly ashamed for your hasty actions. Remembering that you had actually punched him and how he had grunted in pain, you push back away from his chest and look down at his bare torso. You immediately see that you had punched on his side where he had gotten cut.

"Oh my god, I punched your side!" you shout. "I'm sooo sorry. Are you okay? Does it hurt?" you fire off questions as you gently prod the surrounding area of his previous injury, looking for any tender areas that weren't there before.

"It's fine pet," his voice is gruff but gentle at the same time and you pause to wonder how he manages to pull both sounds off at once. Fixing a smug smirk on his perfect lips and twirling his right hand in the air as if to music only he can hear, he adds, "It was well worth it ta find out how ye love me so. Now ye can be me nurse again if ye so wish."

"Leave it to you to make the fact that I viciously punched your open wound a laughing matter," you mutter under your breath. Although you're relieved that he did. 'The day that he stops turning everything into a joke is when I should get worried,' you think to yourself.

You pull your hand away from his stomach, realizing that you had stopped poking at him and had just left your hand there. You use your arms to slide your butt to the opposite end of the boat and sit with your legs crossed, making sure that you are sufficiently covered by dragging the end of the blanket up and over your lap.
You watch as Jack leans against the side of the boat and stretches out as much as he can in the small area he has to work with. With his arms hanging off the sides and his right leg hooked over one side, he makes a rather perfect picture.

"Comfortable?" you sarcastically ask.

"Quite. 'owever, I can think of some things that would increase me comfort level," he suggestively replies.

"You have a dirty...," before you can finish your sentence, Jack quickly brings his right hand out of the water, effectively splashing you with water.

"Aye, that raised it a rather considerable amount," he snickers, rather pleased with his actions.

With the salty water dripping off your face, you scowl at him and then a smile quickly replaces it. Dipping both hands into the water at either side of you, you quickly bring them back up splashing a rather good sized amount in Jack's direction.

"Oi!"

You start laughing hysterically and even the sight of Jack preparing to repay you doesn't stop the laughter. The next few minutes are spent splashing water on each other with loud laughter and shrieks.

Seeing his bottle of rum, you grab it from your feet and hold it out above the water. Jack eyes you sharply waiting for your next move.

"I won't drop this if you promise that there will be no more splashing," you say.

Jack's eyes narrow and too quickly for you to retaliate, he lunges towards you. With one hand he grabs the bottle from your hand and tosses it behind him. Giggling, you start to struggle and pretend to make a move for the rum once again. 'God I love this,' you think as you try to crawl underneath his arm. He uses his body to stop your attempt and presses you up against the side of the boat behind you. With one of your arms trapped between the two of you and the other rendered helpless in his grasp, you stop struggling accepting the fact that he has bested you.

"Okay okay you win," you give in. You try to pull free of his hold only to realize that he apparently has no plans on letting you escape.

Jack laughs at your attempts and lowers his head down to your right shoulder, breathing deeply. He turns his face towards your neck and nuzzles against the soft skin. Any struggle that may have been left in you quickly vanishes as you move your head to the left to give him more access.

Jack murmurs something against your neck that you aren't sure were full words. Placing soft kisses down the nape, he plants a few more kisses along the skin exposed on your shoulder.

As much as you love the feeling of his mouth on your exposed flesh, the arm trapped between you two is starting to hurt.

"Jack," you softly say, "As much as I love this, my arm is slowly losing circulation and it may be in danger of falling off completely. I like having two arms Jack."

You can feel Jack laugh softly against your shoulder before he pulls away from you a few feet. You sigh in pleasure when you begin to regain the feeling back in your arm and bend it at the elbow a few times to help speed the process. Jack takes your arm and runs his hand up and down the length, massaging along the muscles.

"Aye, it's gonna 'ave ta come off luv," Jack matter-of-factly informs you. You giggle in response, stick your tongue out at him, and playfully push at his chest.

Jack lowers his head and eyes your hand set upon his chest, his hair falling down around his lowered head. Lifting his head just enough to look you in the eyes, Jack warns you gruffly, "Ye're playin' with fire luv."

****

AN: Keep reading and reviewing. I love them. This may be the quickest I have ever updated.