Maren de Fay opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling above her. She turned carefully onto her side to look at the sleeping pirate next to her. Jack was snoring softly, his arm draped over her side and muttering between snores. Something about "bloody pirates" and "treasure is best stolen." She smirked and watched him sleep for a few more moments, waiting for the right one to slip out of bed and put her plan into action.
That moment came fairly quickly, when Jack rolled over onto his back, dragging his arm off her waist and resting it over his own chest. While he was moving, Maren slipped off the side of the bed and stepped lightly across the floor. In the months that she had spent sharing the cabin with Captain Sparrow, she learned which floor boards creaked loud enough to wake the captain.
During their last stop in Tortuga, Maren had bought a trunk full of things to decorate the cabin with on that specific morning. She let Jack and the crew believe that the trunk was full of clothing and various other nick-knacks that only a woman would purchase with her share of the previous month's spoils. She endured several days of teasing from not only the Pearl's Captain, but her crew as well, that she was wasting her money on buying such feminine things. Maren didn't see any reason to let the crew any wiser as to what actually was in the box.
Cringing as the heavy trunk scraped across the floor when she pulled it out of it's hiding place, she would pause every couple steps to make sure that Jack was still asleep. Having kept the hinges well oiled while the trunk was exposed to the sea air, she didn't need to worry about any creaking when she opened the lid and grinned down at the contents inside.
Housed in the trunk, waiting for it's grand entrance, was a pile of Yule decorations waiting for their time to shine. There was pine branches and garland, candles of white and red, as well as decorative trinkets that were also made of gold and silver. The trunk full of items cost her everything she had earned up, but she was proud of every item.
As she pulled out the items, sitting at the very bottom of the trunk was her favorite part of the holiday: the Yule log. Maren paused and sighed softly, remembering that she wouldn't be able to partake in this part of the tradition since the burning of a log on the ship was a less than favorable decision. Next to the log was a wrapped package that she planned to give to Jack at sun-up.
The sight of the package brightened her up a bit, enough to push the Yule log tradition to the back of her mind and get started on the rest of Sparrow's surprise. She glanced out the window at the sky. It was still dark out, but sunrise would be coming soon, and dawn starts early on a ship.
There were only a few decorations for her to put up, just enough to give the cabin that Yule time feel. Candles dotted the captain's desk and garland went over the window and draped over various other bits of furniture. The hang-able trinkets went on the garland with thin velvet ribbons and Maren spread the few remaining shining gold coins she had to her name near the candles on the desk. A single small wreath hung off the head board of the bed with tiny pine cones embedded in it's branches. She stepped back and admired her work, less holiday feeling than she was used to but impressive with the limited resources she had available to her.
Maren climbed back into bed just as the sky was turning pink with the coming morning. Her eyes had just closed, somewhere between asleep and awake, as Jack stirred next to her and yawned. She felt him stretch and suddenly stop as his hand hit the wreath over his head.
"Wuh?"
Jack sat up in bed and looked around, confused at the sudden change to his cabin. "Maren?" He turned to face her, laying half asleep in the bed next to him. "Maren, are ye awake, luv?"
"Mmm?" She opened one eye sleepily and looked at Jack.
"What happened to my cabin?"
Maren opened her eyes a little and looked around, smiling a bit. "Seems Kris Kringle visited in the night and decided th' place needed work."
Just as she was about to roll over and try to get another candle-mark of sleep, Jack placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Did ye do this?"
"I already told you," she mumbled, "Kris Kringle must've thought y'needed to get into the holiday spirit."
Unable to get back to sleep, Maren sat up in bed next to Jack and grinned at his half-awed, half-annoyed expression at all the Yule decorations that hung in his cabin. "You know, it's usually customary for ol' Kringle to leave a gift for good girls and boys on this day."
With a smirk, Maren gave a nod toward Jack's desk where, in the middle of the coins, candles, and decor, on a bed of pine branches sat the gift that she had gotten for Jack. When Jack turned to face Maren, her smirk morphed into a full on grin, unable to contain her excitement anymore.
Her grin caused one to appear on Jack's face. "Well, I suppose I should open it, as is customary."
Maren laughed softly as Jack threw the blanket off of him and strode across the room to his desk. He picked up the package and held it to his ear, shaking it, frowning when it didn't make a sound. He wasted no time after that tearing off the dull brown wrapping from the gift, throwing the strips the the floor and throwing the top of the box off.
Folded tightly in the box was a red and white striped sash. Jack grinned as he took his gift, letting the box drop to the floor, and wrapped it around his waist, letting the remainder of the long sash hang strategically over the front of him. He turned to Maren and grinned, holding his arms wide. "A perfect fit! How do I look?"
Maren laughed louder this time. "I don't think that's exactly how it's meant to be worn, Jack."
Jack strutted across the room and slid back into bed with Maren, leaning over and kissing her deeply. "Thank you, luv," he whispered softly.
Maren woke to the sound of hissing in her ear and someone shaking her. With a quiet moan, she swatted at Jack's hand on her waist.
"St'p it, Jack... 's not even dawn yet..."
As she rolled over to go back to sleep, Maren heard Jack chuckling somewhere beyond the sleep induced fog of her brain. It took her a moment to realize that the light tickling she felt on her shoulder blade wasn't her own hair, but Jack's beard. Maren groaned louder, opened her eyes and rolled back over to face Jack, glaring at him.
Jack was grinning like a school boy. She hadn't seen that grin on him since a couple weeks before, when she gave him the Turkish sash that he now almost never took off. Maren rubbed her eyes, yawned, and made sure to accidentally fwap Jack in the forehead as she stretched. She blinked sleepily at the Pearl's captain a few times before she finally found the motor skills to speak.
"Wha's got y' in such a fine mood this morn'?" she mumbled softly.
"I need ye awake fer this, Maren, luv," Jack said softly. "Otherwise it's not as much fun."
"Jack! It's too early, an' ye already kept me up most of th' night with that!"
Just as Maren grabbed the comforter to hide under as she went back to sleep, Jack snatched it from her hand and threw it off of her completely. "As much fun as that would be as well, my dear, that is not what I'm talking about. Up and at 'em!"
Maren put up a token resistance as Jack sat her up and handed her the clothes from the night before to put on. "Th's better be good, or 'm gon' kick yer arse, Sparr'w."
Jack only grinned at her before he lead the way onto the deck of the Pearl. In the distance, obscured by the early morning mist and the pre-dawn light, was a small island. As Maren tried to blink away sleep, Jack nodded to Ragetti who started lowering a row boat.
"Your chariot awaits!" Ragetti yelled, gesturing to the rowboat with flourish.
Maren flinched at Ragetti's high pitched laugh as she carefully climbed down to the small boat. "Ragetti, one of these days yer gonna piss someone off with that joke..."
As Jack climbed down after her, Maren settled in and hugged herself against the ocean breeze. Jack rowed them toward the island.
"Where are we going, anyway?" Maren said quietly.
Jack grinned to her. "Pirates call it 'Rum Runner's Isle.'"
"Okay, why are we going there, then?"
"It's a surprise." Jack's grin broadened.
Maren glared at him through her eyelashes. "If you dragged me up this early to help you fetch rum, I swear to you, Jack Sparrow, I will strap yer clothes to a cannon ball and throw 'em into the sea...with you still in 'em!"
Jack only grinned at her before he jumped out of the boat and pulled it onto the sand of the beach. He held out his hand to assist her as she stepped from the boat into the soft sands of the beach. "No, I would think that you'll think this much more better than rum."
She furrowed her brow in confusion as she followed Jack up the sand dune.
"Tell me again, luv, about this tradition of the Yule log."
"It varies for every family. Some believe that you make a wish on th' log as it burns an' it'll come true before the next year's Yule celebration. But most, like my family, believed that every spark from the log meant the birth of a calf or pig. The more prosperous your livestock or farm, the more prosperous the land owner."
She smiled at the odd look Jack threw her over his shoulder.
"It meant that year the fam'ly would have...great...wealth...?"
As they crested the top of the dune and looked down on a little spot sheltered from the wind, Maren paused when she saw the yule log she had been keeping in the trunk sitting in a stone-ringed fire pit. There were blankets and bottles of rum sitting beside the pit, waiting patiently for someone to partake of the warmth of both.
Maren felt Jack lean in close, his breath warm against her ear. "I thought we'd combine the two this year. We'll wish for ships and towns ripe for the taking, an' each spark from the log means a successful pillage," he whispered as his arms wrapped around her waist.
"Happy Yule, luv."