Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean
He was not a whole man.
He hadn't been one for years.
Ragetti gritted his teeth and bore down with all his weight on the rope that was currently burning his hands. The Pearl had just set off from resupplying and it was full canvas sailing. Or it would be as soon as he and the other deck hands finished pulling on the lines and tying them off.
It never stopped bothering him, the lack of his right eye. But he adapted as best he could with the help of Pintel.
Regetti finished making a knot to secure the lines and then went to sit on the stairs leading to the upper deck where the helm was.
He eye no longer hurt due to the wooden eyeball he wore for over a decade and he actually looked more like what people thought a pirate ought to look like; with an eye patch and all. However as he turned his head and watched the other man on board he felt the black eye patch cover his eye and the strings around his head and felt self-conscious.
With the wooden eye, although it hurt something fierce sometimes, he could actually pretend that it was his real eye, and from a distance no one would notice anything different about it.
With the eye patch everybody would know his physical lacking.
Ragetti bounced up and started walking towards the side of the ship. Pintel had a night watch tonight and was trying to get some sleep below and so Ragetti was strangely alone with nothing but his thoughts.
No matter what anyone said he was still thankfully not to have been killed during the fight where a knife took his eye. Even if the knife didn't actually stab an organ he knew of a lot of people who dead from blood loss, blood poisoning, and infections from small wounds or cuts. The fact the he survived the complete loss of his eye no less than a miracle.
His survival didn't mean that the words didn't get to him or make him upset. Jack Sparrow even said that he scared him, he wooden eye kept popping out with every little hit, and that God-damn stupid monkey seemed to think that taking it and biting it was the funniest game ever. People wouldn't think he was so clumsy or stupid if he didn't have to crawl along on his knees, with his face to the ground, trying to catch a rolling wooden eye ball.
Although it caused him terrible and frustration Ragetti was eternal gratefully to Barbossa for giving him his eye. Not only did it scare people he was attcking, make him look somewhat normal from a distance, and made him sometimes forget about not having an eye since it didn't leave an empty socket in his head for him to feel; it made him believe that he still had value and importance. Captain Barbossa trusted him to keep his own piece of eight safe, and for over ten years he did just that.
Now what was he? Just another eye-patch wearing pirate. Just another one of the many deck hands that could be killed and replaced for a cheap price.
"Why are you here all be yourself?", a voice asked. Ragetti turned and Elizabeth moved to stand beside him. She gazed out to sea, the wind blowing her hair, the sun highlighting the light in her eyes.
Although they had been on many long adventures together they never really spoke much until just a few months ago when she arrived in Tortuga in search of the Pearl.
Captain Barbossa welcomed her and told her about the parting of the ways between themselves and Captain Jack, at Barbossa's doing of course.
They were all surprised when she asked to become part of the crew but because she was King, and because a lot of the crew, and Barbossa himself, had developed a fondness for her, she was welcomed aboard and even made first mate. A title she had to defend at sword point against one of the newer crew members who did not know her. Once her opponent dropped into the water with a sword slice through his arm no one else questioned her place and the Pearl sailed on. Without the unfortunately opponent.
For the past couple of months, without Jack, Will, or Gibbs, the people she normally associated with, she mostly spent her time with Barbossa, Pintel, and Ragetti. She remained friends with Cotton and Marty, and the two newly self-made pirates, formal members of the British navy, but she was most open and friendly with the first three.
"Pintel's napin' ", he replied to her spoken question. His one good eye focusing on her although it was hard to keep from looking down. Only recently had he started looking her in the eye, and only after she complained about him never doing it. Oh he was fine when it was more than them or they weren't so close, but standing so that their arms brushed made him acutely away of the life that he lived was mainly composed of men.
She tuned and smiled at him. Everyone was surprised when she started to seek him out. She had previous dealings with Barbossa and a level of respect, even companionship developed, before they where Captain and First Mate. Pintel was able to talk more openly with her and still called her Poppet. The one time he called her "Elizabeth", she, without breaking her stride, called out, "it's 'Poppet' to you Master Pintel and that's an order". Ragetti remembered Pintel laughing and practically dancing away after that.
"Aye, she be a fine lass", he had shouted.
"So", Elizabeth started, bringing Ragetti back to the present. "anything else about your life that you would like to tell me?". She smiled warmly up at him.
He couldn't stop the little smile that tugged at his lips. For the past couple of months during their talks they had begun to tell each other about their lives, their likes, pretty much whatever they wanted.
"Yer know me better then an'one else", he replied.
Elizabeth smiled and tuned so that her back was against the side of the ship. "Well that is not true for myself. There is actually something very important about me that you have yet to find out Master Ragetti", she said coyly.
Ragetti scratched his head. What could that be? he wondered. She was looking up at him as if she thought the answer was obvious and that his ignorance was amusing.
Now he may not be smart like Barbossa or Sparrow but he was a pretty clever man compared to most of the other pirates around them, but he was stumped.
"Well", he began. "I do't know an'thing unless ye tell me", tipping his head to the side in confusion.
Elizabeth smiled and turned her head to look around. None of the other pirates were paying them any attention. They had all gotten used to seeing them together like this and so went about their own business.
She took a few steps until she was brushing up against him.
Ragetti gulped, looked around, and took a step back. He certainly didn't need Barbossa thinking he was doing anything he ought not to do with his first mate.
Elizabeth followed him, step for step.
After two or three times she just reached forward, gripped his worn out coat, and brought his body flushed against hers, his face down towards her.
"And here I thought you were a clever pirate", she whispered.
And with that she brought her face up and pressed her lips onto his own chapped ones.
Ragetti froze. After a few moments Elizabeth broke away and smiled. "Perhaps next time you'll join me", she said and walked towards to the stairs leading to the helm.
Ragetti remained frozen for a few more minutes. Slowly, without thinking, he started to walk towards the stairs to go below deck. Alone in the dark he touched his lips. They felt no different than usual.
He remembered she parting words, "perhaps next time you'll join me". Next time. Next time! She wanted a next time! He couldn't stop the stupid grin that appeared next to his face, not unlike his usual stupid grin he often had, only this one had a bit more happiness and a little less crazy.
As he climbed up onto the desk and gazed out onto the sea that stretched on all sides for miles he no longer felt his empty eye socket nor was he aware of his eye patch or the fact that he was not a whole man. He suddenly felt sad for all the pirates around him. They may have had two eyes but that didn't make them whole.
He walked towards the bow and glanced up at the helm. Elizabeth was standing besides Barbossa and Cotton. She looked towards him and smiled and waved. He grinned and waved back. Yup, he thought as he skipped ahead, who needs two eyes when they got the taste of the person they loved on their lips.
For the first time in his life, Ragetti felt not only whole, but complete.
No fames please.