Written for the potcfest on Live Journal, prompt:"Some backstory for Lian and Park. Anything at all." Many thanks to Hereswith for editing!
o-o-o Cherry Blossoms o-o-o
Like a layer-cake of paradise, it was: warm, white sand in a secluded cove; a thick, well-used, deliciously comfortable (now slightly stained) red silk quilt; two mostly naked, beautiful, temporarily sated pirates drifting to sleep; clear, sweet sea air with just a hint of cool breeze; the lulling sound of the unseen surf; and the westering sun's benign warmth over all. Paradise.
"Jack?" Elizabeth was obviously less disposed to sleep than he. Ah, the vitality of the very young. Insatiable.
"Hmm?" he replied, not opening his eyes.
"What was it between you and Sao Feng?"
He groaned inwardly, wondering why the devil she'd thought of that at such a time. "Nothing," he murmured, hoping she would leave it.
She didn't. "Why did he hit you? And his handmaidens… why did they laugh when your name was mentioned?"
Jack opened one eye. "Lian and Park?"
"Yes, I think those were the names. Tai Huang told me they were killed in the attack on the bathhouse."
"Killed." Jack's sheen of happiness was rapidly evaporating. Elizabeth sat up, though, and he couldn't help but enjoy the slender beauty of her, the fall of her tousled antique gold hair not quite concealing the perfect, pert breasts. He let his eyes feast, and when she reached for her discarded shirt, was moved to protest, pulling her down beside him. "Belay that, love, you're better without."
"I'll burn. I haven't been in the habit of sunning myself unclothed, as you obviously have."
"Here." He reached behind him for the edge of the quilt and drew it over them both, cuddling up with her cozily. "Now, you settle and I'll tell you the story, all right?"
She smiled, pillowing her head against his shoulder, kissably close, and ran light, disturbing fingers up his side. "All right. I knew there was a story."
He snorted. "Course there's a story. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, am I not?"
"You are, indeed." She pressed her lips against his, lingeringly, distractingly. "Now tell me."
"Tell you what?" His mind and his free hand had wandered, but she caught the latter and pulled it up to her mouth, placing another kiss on his knuckles.
"After you tell me, pirate. Lian and Park."
"Oh. Right. As you wish, my liege." He nipped at her delicious lower lip. "I'll make it brief, shall I?"
o-o-o
"Mmm…" Elizabeth smiled. "Briefly, then. What did you do to pay Sao Feng great insult, as he claimed?"
Jack opened his mouth. Then shut it again.
She frowned. "The truth, now!"
"Don't I always tell you the truth? Or mostly? Just tryin' to choose me words. Frame it in the proper light, as it were."
She was tempted to laugh. "I suppose it was either money or women."
"Nearly everything is. Although in this case it was both. Or money and girls, at least. The two of 'em weren't yet sixteen."
"Jack! You took them…"
"Did not! They took me as it turns out. Though it ended up more of a mutual arrangement, in the end." He pouted. "Now don't go passing judgment without hearing the whole of it, missy. It weren't as bad as that."
The corner of her mouth twitched. "I suppose it couldn't have been, or he would've done more than hit you on the nose."
"True enough." He wrinkled said nose, in remembrance. "The lasses were quite intact when I returned 'em. And they were much the better for the experience, too. Really, he owed me thanks, when one considers how untutored—"
"Innocent?"
"Oh, aye. You could put it that way. Innocent." His eyes lost their focus for a moment. "Killed, you say?"
"Yes. Tai Huang told me before I was to go to his master, when I was first taken to the Empress. It seems they were both of them shot. Tai Huang thought Sao Feng might blame me, as one of those who'd led the Company to their lair, and that it might go ill for me if that were so. He loved them?"
"Aye, he did. They'd been his for a good many years, even when I met them. Came to him as little lasses, as alike as two peas in a pod, from the north, clear up around Macao. Their amah brought them, after their mother died. The lady didn't want their feet bound, as her own had been, as is the custom in those parts. But they'd never be able to marry well, there in the north, without it being done. So, when she was dying she told the old amah to take them away south, to Singapore, where she had an uncle who was in trade. Turns out the uncle was a pirate lord – and Sao Feng was as a son to him, and his heir."
"So they were given to Sao Feng? Like chattel!"
He smiled, crookedly. "Not every woman is as fortunate of fate as you, darlin' – or as determined. But they were well enough off with Sao Feng. By the time I met them, they were being educated in all manner of things, including that odd sort of armed combat Sao Feng's lot practice. Good at it, too. I never stood a chance!"
Elizabeth pursed her lips. "Jack! You can't tell me they attacked you!"
"They did! Give you me word! They loved Sao Feng, sure enough, but they were full of mischief, and just as curious as any other lasses of that age. Weren't my fault they found me irresistible."
"I don't suppose you raised any objection, however."
"I did! But not for long, I have to admit. They were most… persuasive. You'll be knowing all about that, of course."
He gave her a pointed look, and she groaned. "All right. I'm willing to believe it wasn't entirely your doing. But how did it happen you were alone with them? Sao Feng can't have been that trusting!"
"Sao Feng wasn't there, though, was he? 'Twas just me and a handful of crew, takin' some valuable but unfortunately very illegal goods up the coast to Panang for 'im, and the lasses, imps that they were, stowed away on me ship!"
o-o-o
"Stowed away!" Elizabeth smiled. "I often wished to do so when I was that age – and with the very pirate they imposed upon! How wise of them to seize the day."
Jack, predictably, preened a bit, but said, "I doubt it would've been quite the same with little miss Governor's daughter, though. The Chinese have some rather different ideas about sport than we barbarians. All to do with a woman havin' unlimited yin and a man only so much yang. It's a man's duty to acquire all the yin essence he can before… er…expending his yang essence. If you get me drift."
Elizabeth displayed an arched brow. "Am I correct in thinking the woman has the advantage with this arrangement?"
"Aye. In spades." He shook his head. "Ten days it took, sailin' to Panang and back. And ten nights. About did me in. Maybe if there hadn't been two of 'em…"
"But you had no hesitation, using them in such a way?"
"Of course I did! Bloody hell, when I think of some of the punishments the Chinese've invented. They've got us beat in that game, hands down. And Sao Feng was already suspicious of me – the lasses hadn't been as discreet as they might have been, back in Singapore. That's mainly why I was picked for that little run to Panang – I was working as a navigator and diplomatic liaison on the Fairlie at the time, a favor for the captain who was an old friend. We were due to head west again in a fortnight, but the way things were going that wouldn't be soon enough, so they sent me off in this pretty little junk, with a small fortune in quality arms in the forward hold and Sao Feng's bits of cherry blossom in the aft cabin. I didn't discover the two lasses until close to the end of the first day. They'd dressed as boys and hid straightaway on boarding. I was hopping mad when I found 'em, gave 'em a right good tongue-lashing, said we'd have to head back the next morning. And there they stood, lookin' all humble and contrite. Never seen better actresses in any theater."
"They weren't sorry, then?"
Jack snorted. "Hardly. Had me fooled, at first, though. I told 'em to get their backsides into the cabin and stay there, and I'd sleep on deck, with the rest of the crew. I told 'em they'd have no supper as well, but then got to thinkin' Sao Feng wouldn't want 'em to starve. So I'm bringin' 'em a bowl of rice and some fresh fish we'd caught, and here they've got these little lamps lit, and they're prettily disposed on the cot, not a stitch of clothing between 'em."
"Naked?" Elizabeth exclaimed, round-eyed.
"Aye. But veryartfully so. I should've turned right around and locked 'em in, but somehow I couldn't stop starin'. And then, before I knew it, they'd locked me in, and taken the bowls of grub and set 'em aside -- seems it weren't fish and rice they was hungry for."
Elizabeth couldn't help chuckling at the picture thus conjured. "Jack! You seized the day, too?"
"The day seized me!" he protested. "Oh, they were innocent in some ways, but much more knowledgeable than the average western girl. And that eager to learn, short of what they knew was rightfully Sao Feng's to teach. As I said, they about did me in over the next ten days."
"So you didn't take them back."
"Not much use after that first night – there's no secrets on a boat that size. I figured I'd as soon be hung for a sheep as for a lamb. So by day I taught them seamanship -- Sao Feng had been a bit remiss in that department -- and by night my yang was fairly overwhelmed with yin. It was a memorable voyage."
"And the money? You said it was both?"
"Fella that bought the arms paid in bullion and jewels. Then we met the Fairlie on our way into Singapore harbor and they hustled me off the junk, tout d'suite – the girls had told Sao Feng they'd gone to visit their old amah, but he'd discovered the truth by the time we got back. A hasty departure was called for—"
"As is so often the case," Elizabeth observed.
"Precisely. Barely had time to give 'em a last kiss, and completely forgot the packet of jewels in me coat! I later considered that it was just recompense for keepin' the lasses entertained all that time, but I doubt Sao Feng saw it in quite that light."
Chuckling, Elizabeth pushed Jack over, onto his back, and rolled on top of him. "You are dreadful!"
"Am not!"
"You are! And I find that I am filled with envy of those girls' maiden voyage."
Jack smirked. "Is that right?"
"Yes. And I also find this theory of yin and yang most intriguing. Are you prepared to elucidate, Captain Sparrow?"
"A hands-on demonstration, as it were?" Elizabeth shivered in delight at Jack's wandering touch, and his eyes held a distinct glint as he murmured, "My yang is entirely at your yin's disposal, love."
o-o-o-o-o