A/N: This is a oneshot that I popped out in an hour and dunno where it exactly came from...oh wait, I was looking at silicon fish tails you can actually swim with and was thinking "dear me how wonderful would it be to swim around in one of those" and thus sprung up this. I hope you enjoy it, I own nothing. Happy reading!

To love a Mermaid, To love a Pirate

The clear water of the Caribbean sloshed around as the tides rose and fell. Each crest pulled something along and underneath its span was a wondrous life only known to few creatures. There were sea urchins, crabs, fish of many colors and kinds and of course there were the mermaids. Beautiful creatures mermaids were, with their beautiful long silken hair tied back and knotted, treasures and shells hanging off of them as they tended to like pretty things. They lived in herds…not quite what you would expect to call a cluster of these deep sea beauties. But they did. They lived in herds and though generally nomadic half the year, the other half, when the waters were cooler they lived in one place.

Mermaids Cove in White Cap Bay was known for being the most renown. Even sailors knew about this cove of half fish half woman creatures. And even though death befell most men who traveled there, there was at least one mermaid, and one man that would fall in love. He would take her on land and there the magic of her kind would be undone and she would grow legs and learn to speak the language. It wasn't a dream and most mermaids didn't aspire to be like the land walkers…but there were some that imagined what it would be like.

Drisana was one of those quirky mermaids who imagined what it was like to walk on land but never braved it. She was different from her sisters, and not in the sense of looks but in how she thought. Where they were vain and cruel she was kind and simple. She did not decorate herself with jewels but shells of her home, and she did not twist and knot her hair elegantly like her kin, but braided a few strands and knotted it so it would keep out of her face as she swam. She also did not kill human men as a form of sustenance. She had done so once, and did not enjoy the look of fear in his eyes as her teeth sank into his flesh. She had been young, and she knew better now.

Now when her sisters went salvaging wreckages and scavenging overboard sailors in storms, she would sit on the rocks at Mermaid Cove and wait for them to come back. She was then naturally set with the task of watching over the Cove as it emptied. She swam back and forth from one end of the bay to the other, over and over again before settling on the rocks near the human lighthouse and looking out at the sunset. It was beautiful this eve, which shone bright orange. Sighing she dipped her bluish and silver fins into the water and leant back humming to herself. All her kin, including Drisana were blessed by the ocean with beautiful voices. Voices humans wished they had.

"My heart is pierced by cupid, I disdain all glittering gold, but no one can console me, like my jolly sailor bold. Come all ye pretty fair maids, wherever ye may be. Who loves a jolly sailor bold who ploughs the raging seas. My heart is pierced by cupid, I disdain all glittering gold, but there's not one who can console me like my jolly sailor bold." Drisana sang out and when it ended she heard cannon fire in the distance and a slight rumble on the waves.

Her heart skipped a few beats as she looked around wildly and saw that there was a ship docking on the far side of the cove. They were blasting apart wreckage of old ships and soon she could see it was a large ship…one of the largest she had ever seen.

Fearing her life she dove into the water and made way to an underground cave where she hastily did what she had been taught to do as a young maid. She pushed the levers made from old ships and with all her might and powerful flicks of her tail she managed to turn it a full three sixty and suddenly a large stone cylinder plunged into the shallow floor sending out a distress signal.

Mermaid Cove was inhabited by humans and for none of her sisters to come home.

But of course as night fell she slipped out of the cavern and swam her way across the bay, back to her spot up against the rocks of the lighthouse. The humans were calling her kin, using the light to attract them. She gazed up and caught the sight if a man standing nears the edge atop the lighthouse and looking down. His eyes widened slightly and she sank a little lower so only her head was poking gout of the water. Only skilled eyes would be able to see her now but he kept staring straight at her like he still could. Her heart thrummed as she looked into his kohl rimmed eyes and his tan weathered skin. His hair was sun streaked and looked about as long as hers with shimmering trinkets of gold and silver. Oh he was a glorious looking man and handsome too. If she didn't know any better she would have thought he was one of her kind.

Drisana's curiosity got the better of her. She stayed. And she gazed up at her pirate.

Suddenly there were outcries and she turned out to the cove to see boats had been sent out and her sisters were surrounding them and one by one they went down into the murky depths taking men with them. Drisana didn't know what to do…she had never been so close to a fight. But when she heard a splash next to her she shrieked and dove under water and was about to swim away when she noticed her pirate, and he had surface gasping for air. Turning in the water she then rose back up poking her head out and he failed his arms as if trying to swim and then spotted her. He too froze and then grinned.

"I suppose if I asked ye nice enough pretty lass ye wouldn't eat me now?"

Drisana blinked a few times before she heard one of her sisters swimming straight for him and she frowned as she darted for her pirate and with a swift pull hoisted him out of harm's way and behind her. Her sister surfaced and hissed and readied to attack with a powerful swipe of her hands but Drisana lunged up, making herself taller than Astrid who she now recognized.

"He's mine!" she hissed snapping her own fangs at Astrid whom had to shrink back a bit. Astrid said nothing but made a few guttural sounds and turned diving back into the water and towards the mayhem. Drisana turned and her expression was back to being kind as she examined her pirate. Funny how she had become so possessive of him so quickly and she didn't even know his name.

"Uh…I suppose thanks are in order?" he said though unsure of himself.

Drisana reached out and placed her hand on his face as she neared closer and the man allowed her. Her fingers ran across his cheek bones and the along his scraggly beard. Running her finger down his nose and then falling back in the water she grabbed hold of his hand.

"I will not hurt you." She said hoping her English was good enough. After all mermaids spoke in a different language and they only reason they knew human speak was listening to sailors talk above water. "Come with me, I take you to safe land."

"I can't. I have to get back to the beach. They're trying to catch one of ye for your tears lass."

Drisana's eyes widened at this revelation.

"You look for the fountain of youth yes?"

"Aye."

"Ye will not find it. We will not give it to ye. I take you back…go and never return."

"Why aren't you eating me?" he asking enunciating it and Drisana didn't quite know how to answer it.

"I no eat men. Men are cruel, but not all men." Drisana then took ahold of him and then helped him swim and when they reached near the shore, by the wooden docks she hoisted him up with a powerful pull and he landed with a thud. Standing up he looked down at her and suddenly a net was tossed over her head. Drisana screeched and hissed and the three men whom thought they had a mermaid were suddenly faced with an oar to the jaw and Drisana fighting for her life. She freed herself and looked up at her pirate.

"Go lass before you get caught. We're square; you saved my life I saved yours."

Drisana nodded and turned to bolt but before she did he called out to her again.

"What be ye name?"

Drisana turned and stared back at him and she called out splashing her fins as she did so.

"Drisana." She said and he grinned.

"Call me Jack love. Captain Jack Sparrow."

She then realized she had fallen in love with this pirate as he gave her a glittering golden smile and in more ways than one. She then darted back into the black water and hurled herself out to sea, hoping that one day she would see her pirate named Jack Sparrow again.

This wish didn't take long as she had swam back to Mermaid Cove and lived there for weeks. Her fellow mermaids had taken a large blow and numbers dwindled so not many resided in the Cove any longer. Maybe thirty at most but other than that the Cove was bare. Then she heard some of her sisters talking about a ship that was spotted making its way for their waters again. This time they opted to leave. But Drisana hoped, and she did not flee like her sisters. Six days later a ship docked and she watched from the lighthouse as little boats went into the water and rowed themselves to shore. She however did not go out to greet them and did not stick around to find out if this ship was her Captain Jack's.

She stayed in a small cavern on the northern end of the island and checked only once in a while to see if the ship was still there. It remained docked for a week. Figuring she could take a chance, and during the night she ventured back to the lighthouse. Drisana came up to the broken down and ruined lighthouse to see fires on the beach and men camped about them. She stayed and watched and then went underwater as she got nearer and she listened to some of them as she ventured the shallows.

"Why are we here again?" one sailor drawled.

"The Cap'n got something to find ye see. A treasure left on this island." Another with a gruff voice said as his lips touched something and he took a hearty draft of rum.

"And what treasure would that be?" came a woman's voice as smooth as the calm Caribbean.

"A fine treasure lads and lass, a fine treasure indeed. We wait, and when he finds it we leave. Nothing more to it."

Drisana didn't understand the sailors, there was no treasure left on this island. Flitting away back to the lighthouse she surfaced only to see a man sitting there on the rocks. She stared up at him in shock and he grinned down at her.

"Been waiting here for ye every day for a week now lass. Where have ye been?"

"Ye waited?"

"Aye, I waited." He nodded and slipped down onto the lower rocks and then dug into his pocket as he then pulled out a long string of blue pearls. "And I come bearin' gifts."

Drisana wasn't one for trinkets of a lustrous nature but she rose out of the water a bit and extended her hand and accepted them. This seemed to please Jack very much and she twisted the chain a few times and put it around her neck. They glittered and she touched them with tender care as they fell past her navel.

"Do ye like them lass?"

"I do. I like them very much Jack." She smiled then and he descended down a few more rocks till he was practically in the water. He leant over a bit and she pushed herself up onto a rock so she was face to face with him. "And what would a sailor such as ye like in return for such a gift?"

"Anything a pretty maiden such as ye would like to give me. Anything from you Drisana dear is enough."

This seemed to be just what she wanted to hear and she lunged up, her beautiful lean body curving to extend and she grabbed both sides of his handsome face and pressed her lips to his. A kiss from a mermaid would allow the breath of the seas to pass into the recipient and allow them to breath under the water. It was temporary and used to save lives of good sailors, but this kiss was far more. She was sharing it all with him.

He fell forward and she pulled him under the water as they continued to kiss, his hands winding into her hair and her long tail curving around him keeping him afloat. They parted and Jack opened his eyes to see his beautiful mermaid grinning at him as she kept him from sinking too far in the water.

The first breath was awkward but he soon found it a cooling and pleasant feeling as the water rushed in and out of him. He reached out running his hand down the curve of her waist, lightly touching scales along her hip. She then pushed them forward and they started swimming to shore. When they arrive she swam with him all the way to the beach and waded in the shallows as he stood, sopping wet, and his crew looking at him funnily.

"Found what I was looking for!" he said with an exclamation and everyone rose to their feet as they looked at Drisana who was settled by Jack's feet. Her hands clung to his boot and he looked down at her to see her discomfort. "Crew, meet the fairest mermaid of them all. This is Drisana."

"Jack…it be a mermaid."

"Aye Gibbs, I just said that." Jack said offhandedly. "She be no harm to ye scallywags. Perfectly cordial as merfolk come."

Jack then knelt down and looked at Drisana with such kindness as he reached his hand out to her and she placed hers in his.

"Now love, how would you like to come with me? You and I on the last great adventure of this lifetime. I can show you a new world, on a ship and on land. Say the word and we can leave."

"Go with ye?"

"Only if ye wish darling."

Drisana thought about it for a moment before she smiled and nodded.

"Yes, my love…take me with you."

And for Jack it was enough as he knelt and putting his arm under the curve of her fin and back and hoisted her up out of the water. He took her on land and up past the trees and into the lagoon as he walked and walked and then settled her down between the roots of a large tree. He then watched as the scales of her fins melted away and there were two beautiful long legs before him.

"Aye, I could love a mermaid." He said and she looked up at him and reached for him, and he came close to her beckoning embrace as her hands took his face and for a second time that night kissed him with such fervent need.

"Aye, and I think I could love a pirate." She whispered against his lips.