(Takes place in the in between period of COTBP and DMC. Let's say a few days after they lose Norrington in the hurricane.)
There was a celebration aboard the Pearl. The rum and food was all abound as the crew celebrated yet another smooth raid on the unsuspecting Spanish. This time it was a Spanish fleet just off the coast of northern Hispaniola the ships had been heavy with silver and doubloons intended for the shores of Spain. The attack was but a matter of lying in wait for the opportune moment to pounce and overwhelm the well-guarded ships. The battle itself had been fierce but short-lived as the captain of both ships were singled out and overwhelmed.
All of the crew except for one Anamaria and including the captain all flurried about deck, currently in a rum drinking circle at which the center stood Captain Jack Sparrow playing the part of the alluring storyteller holding his audience helplessly captive. It was clear to Ana as she glared at Jack as he spoke with more than his usual amount of exaggerated, flapping gestures as he told what was sure to be another Jack Sparrow folktale.
"So there I was mates, with not a single shot in my flintlock and 'eld captive by some ancient tribe people and the curse of Quezelaque bearing down on me 'ead and-" Jack's voice carrying over to her only confirmed her suspicions and Anamaria rolled her eyes pulling her knees closer to her chests and scowling. At that moment Jack looked up, meeting her eyes and the grin on his face matched the frown on her own before he turned back around to finish his story.
The next time she looked up he was standing, bottle of rum in hand and making his unsteady way in her direction his arms held wide in greeting. There was no time to run.
He plopped down next to her in his careless manner one arm raised as to not spill the rum and the other slipping around her shoulders. "Now luv," he began with that rougish Captain Jack Sparrow smirk. How she wished she could hate him. "Hows about ye tell Uncle Jack why you're sitting round with a long face when there are festivities to be had, plunder to be indulged in and more importantly rum to drink?"
Anamaria smirked knowing she should probably shove his paws off of her and send him off with no doubts as to what he wasn't going to get from her anytime soon. But she didn't want to. Even if his leg was pressed against hers and he was leaning much more closely into her than he really needed to.
"Your lady and I were having a very interesting talk as it were Jack." She patted the deck of the Pearl and his brow furrowed in a way that she begrudgingly found becoming. Jack grunted and tossed back the bottle, running his sleeve over his chin before he responded "Don't know how I feel about tha' luv. Can't be a good thing for a man when the two lasses in his life get together to talk behind his back."
She could tell by the light in his dark eyes that he meant it in jest. The next time he lifted the bottle she snatched it before it could reach his lips and took a swig. She liked the way the rum was warm as it ran down her throat and instantly heated the rest of her up. "Maybe not if the man is Jack Sparrow."
Jack leaned back and propped himself up on his arms, watching her quietly although that strange little closed-lipped smile was on his face. "Ye forgot the 'Captain' darling."
Anamaria nestled the bottle on her lap, grinning at the way Jack squirmed as he noticed the fact that she and his rum were getting comfortable and she was not handing it back to him as he no doubt expected. "No, I don't think I did" she quipped, tilting her head and undoing the thick braid that had been binding her hair all day. The wavier than usual hair fell down about her shoulders, ends waving in the miniature breeze that licked the Pearl.
Jack's lips had parted slightly, he found the simple scene very sensual. "It hasn't escaped me notice that ye still 'aven't answered the question." He was unable to resist reaching over to touch Ana's midnight dark hair, running it through his fingers.
Anamaria sighed lightly, tilting her head to look at him as well as allow him more of her hair to pet. "Have you thought that's because I don't want to, Sparrow."
Jack never paused at the sarcasm that touched her words, his fingers still toying through her hair "Might 'ave crossed my mind" he murmured "But hearing ye say it puts it all in a brand new perspective."
A quiet fell between them then, not an uncomfortable one. Anamaria leaning unconsciously into Jack and his fingers massaging her scalp, twirling her hair and platting some strands into braids not unlike the ones in his own hair before deftly undoing them. She was growing more relaxed, sleepy under his ministrations.
"Jack" She said at last quietly "Do ye think the horizon will always be the life for you?" She didn't know why she expected him to say anything other than what she already knew.
"Till my dying day luv." Jack's voice had dropped a few octaves and she couldn't help a small shiver as his breath brushed her skin. Anamaria grabbed the bottle and took a swallow so long that instead of a pleasant heat the liquor burned her throat and when she next spoke her voice was hoarse and barely audible "I don't think it is, for me."
That stilled Jack for a moment although his next words scorned her heart. "To each his own…or her own as they say."
Ana scoffed and straightened, widening the distance between them and causing her hair to slip from his hands. "Aye, to each his own." She all but shoved the rum into his chest.
Her annoyance only increased when he mimicked her movements, following her and they ended up even closer than before. Anamaria shot Jack a dark look which he met with an innocent one of his own. He was frowning again. Stupid git.
"I'm having a thought here." He began and that only furthered the warning in Anamaria's expression, at her side her hand twitched. Jack held up a finger and placed it to his chin in a mockery of contemplation. "And that thought is- why is one of the best members of me crew and damn near one of the most fearsome pirates, an' lass fer that matter I've ever met; suddenly having second thoughts on her career choice? Which is most fruitful right now, may I add."
Anamaria found that she couldn't meet Jacks eyes, those eyes that were passing over her with a questioning made all the more intense by the kohl outlining them. She was surprised by the unexpected praise although her greater emotion won out.
"Jack- I'm a woman."
"Something I've always liked about you darlin'"
That earned him another glare. Jack pressed his palms together prayer style and held them to his lips, gesturing for her to go on.
"Point being that it's not the same for me as it is you. I want-" here Anamaria paused, finding it difficult to put her thoughts and feelings into words. And to Jack especially. "I want a life someday Jack, and facing the facts it might not be one on the seas. Or at least not here on the Pearl."
Gods, when exactly did she decide to say all this? Clearly she hadn't had enough rum to addle her brain. Anamaria reached out for the bottle held now loosely in Jack's hand but he evaded her grab. He was looking at her as though he thought his drunkenness was playing tricks on him.
"Life out 'ere is freedom, Anamaria. Aboard the Pearl you have more than you ever would 'ave on land. Or are you just not happy here anymore and it just failed to come to me notice?"
Anamaria sighed choosing to stare longingly at the rum that offered comfort that Jack was denying her. "I have to make me own way, Sparrow. While I still know that I can." Her attention fell down to Jack's wrist where she knew his brand to be, hidden beneath a billowy sleeve and she knew he saw her do it.
"The Black Pearl is a beautiful ship, crewed by fine men but she belongs to her captain. I need me own ship." Anamaria looked squarely at Jack as she brought up the old argument, a bit of stubbornness crossing her features.
A touch of a smirk crossed Jack's face "Luv, if you're telling me that getting your own ship will see you lost from the Pearl…ye'll never get that bloody ship."
He might sound amused but Anamaria knew he meant it.
"Jack Sparrow!" She screeched, pointing her finger in his face and earning them a look from the crew who were still making jolly not far down the deck. "Ye promised me that ye would get me a ship!"
Jack grinned, gold teeth aglitter. "Aye I did promise. If there's one thing Captain Jack Sparrow doesn't go back on it's a promise. And as I recall, I did give ye a new ship. A fine navy vessel, as it were."
"The Interceptor was sunk by the Pearl!" Anamaria snarled, narrowing her eyes at Jack who was looking more amused by the second.
"Mighty unfortunate that." Jack drawled, leaning back and his hands narrating through the air lazily "I'd say t'was the fault of her captain that she was sent to the depths"
Anamaria stared at him, slack jawed with disbelief. "Ye still owe me a ship!"
"Maybe. But I'm not seeing 'ow that is profitable to me. You see, if I do commandeer a ship for ye I'd be losing a valuable member of me crew and walking away from that deal none the richer."
"Furthermore-" Jack added suddenly, sitting up so that he and Anamaria were nearly nose to nose "Seeing as ye have no intention of remaining pirate I don't see why ye'll need a ship anyway."
Jacks eyes were bright with challenge, boring into her own. Anamaria tilted her chin ready to debate her cause when Jack moved even closer to her, his lower body proportionate over her own and arms on the ground on either side of her waist. She never got out a word because Jack's lips were over hers in a kiss, their softness contrasting with the scratch of his whiskers.
He tasted of rum and Anamaria imagined that she did too. She was unable to help herself and traced his bottom lip with her tongue before common sense caught up with her, along with the catcalls from the crew and she pulled away.
Anamaria, her face hot with embarrassment flipped off the crew a flurry of curses in her native Spanish flowing from her tongue and when she turned back to Jack he was as cool as ever, the corner of his mouth twitching in mirth. He had the nerve to wink at her. Her hand ached to slap him.
"Why in the bloody hell would ye do a thing like that in front of them!" Anamaria ranted at him her fury increasing when he actually laughed at her.
"Can't understand a single thing you're saying, Ana."
Ana realized that she had still been speaking in Spanish without realizing it and she flushed again before reverting back to English.
"Sparrow…what-"
"Something I just had to do, considering you're set on leaving the Pearl."
Jack began to slur his words together, hands gesturing with their usual mania "No regrets, take what ya can, give nothing back and all that."
Quick as a cat Jack was on his feet and he took of his hat, pressing it to his chest with a flourish as he bowed to her "And now m'lady I must go. I'm all out of rum!"
To emphasize his point Jack shook the bottle upside down and a single drop of the amber liquid spilled onto the deck. "And that's Captain Sparrow to you, my dear." And with that he was off, sashaying across the deck as quickly as he'd come.
Anamaria was left sitting there trying to keep up with all that had been said, and unsaid between them if one was to be really honest. She could still feel the phantom brush of his mouth over hers, the idiotic, infuriating git! Anamaria decided to retire to her hammock for the rest of the afternoon, after she swiped a bottle from Jack's rum stash in his cabin of course.
She wished with all her soul that she could hate him.
…But her heart was starting to believe that she loved him.
(Did you like? As this is my very first POTC fic and my very first try at Jack/Ana a fairly underrated coupling that owns my heart feedback would make me happy. But if you just decide to silently and anonymously like this story that works too, I guess. Should I continue?)
