Chocolate & Cigarettes
JimmyxEnglehorn with mentions of JackxAnn. There's a storm coming and Captain Englehorngets to know Jimmy a little better while they wait it out. Jimmy's too curious for his own good sometimes.
Rating: PG-13ish -One bad word and boykisses. :-3
A/N: Eh, a bit of a crack!pairing I know. (And a difficult one to write at that.) Well, here it is.
"Jimmy!"
The captain's voice called, reaching Jimmy through the racket of the wind and rousing him from his sleep. He braced himself for a scolding, knowing he shouldn't have let himself drift off when he was meant to be keeping a look-out for the coast.
"Yes skipper!" He replied, leaning over the side of the crow's nest to peer down at the man on the deck below. He saw a vague gesture for him to come down and muttered to himself as he banged his elbow on the rail in his hurry to get down. There wasn't anyone else on deck. Jimmy liked it at this time; deep in the evening, when everything was real quiet. He could let the ocean lull him without interruption from anyone. Well, until the skipper shouted him out of his daze of course.
"Cap-?"
He began to say as his feet hit the floor, turning to realise the older man had gone back inside. Jimmy sighed, wrapping his arms around himself and shuffling towards the bridge.
"Yes captain?" Jimmy enquired, sticking his head around the door.
"There's a storm. Come inside for a while, you can't see a thing anyway." Englehorn said with a sigh, waving him in. Jimmy kept his chin up as he entered, determined that he'd done all his grieving now and it was time to pull himself together.
It was all right to be upset in front of Mister Driscoll, he was real good about it. Jimmy got the feeling that if he got all upset in front of the captain he wouldn't think Jimmy good enough to be on his crew, and it'd probably make the skipper uncomfortable too. He didn't seem like the type to know what to do around folk that were crying, and besides that, Jimmy was a man - a man on his crew no less. He didn't want to lose any of the captain's respect, second to Mister Hayes, the captain was a man Jimmy looked up to.
"I can stay out a bit longer, I'm all right." Jimmy insisted. He didn't like the way people didn't know how to act around him now, as though anything done different might make him go back to being crazy and now that Mister Hayes wasn't around to help him- well, Jimmy supposed it'd just be too much trouble. He'd be too much trouble.
"I said no."
The captain replied dryly. The skipper was doing what everyone else was doing, then. Jimmy felt a bit disappointed, to say the least. He thought that of all people, the captain would know to just let him get on with it.
Jimmy remembered the times when Mister Hayes had had to almost punch the skipper in the mouth to get him to see reason and call Jimmy back inside during the bad weather. Jimmy wasn't sure why; he did his best to just not to get under the captain's feet. He didn't show much sympathy with Jimmy, and it had taken a long discussion with Mister Hayes for Jimmy to see how the captain had to care in his own detached way, otherwise he wouldn't have allowed Jimmy to stay on the boat. Or turned a blind eye to all that thieving Jimmy had done before he learned it was okay for him to just ask for something.
He hoped it was only Mister Hayes's words playing on the captain's conscience that meant he was being like this, because if one more person was to ask 'are you ok, kid?' Jimmy thought he might actually go crazy the way they were all worried about him doing. And it'd be all their miserable fault that he did.
"Do you want me to check the ropes, Captain?"
Englehorn shook out his match and took a drag of his cigarette, glancing back at the boy briefly.
"No, stay in here. I can still hear Mister Hayes kvetching about storms and my cruelty."
The captain tapped his temple and rolled his eyes, though it wasn't said without a fair amount of fondness - for the normally stoic man, anyhow.
"Yes sir." Jimmy replied quietly.
The captain gave him a second glance at the hushed tone and saw something in the boy's eyes that Jimmy thought he'd managed to hide before he turned away, clambering onto one of the crates and fiddling with the brim of his cap. At least he knew it was because of Mister Hayes, and not out of overbearing concern for his mental state that the captain was easing up on him without a fight.
It still hurt though, to be reminded that he was gone, and he expected it always would. Jimmy tried to push away the melancholy that crept back every time he heard Mister Hayes's name, he focused on the thunk his heels made as he swung his legs against the crate. It was bound to happen, he had a mighty role in the workings of things aboard the Venture and Jimmy didn't dare think for one second that he was the only one feeling the loss. Everybody had to pull together, and everybody was there for one another, that's what Mister Driscoll had said. Jimmy tried to put it into practice, though he really preferred hiding himself away up in the crow's nest.
"Carl Denham sends his best wishes,"
Captain Englehorn said, clearing his throat. Jimmy looked up, surprised at being drawn from his thoughts - he'd all but forgotten that he wasn't alone. He watched the captain search through his pockets before pulling out an object wrapped in paper, ripped at one end. He handed it to Jimmy unceremoniously, paying much more attention to the worsening weather outside.
Uncertainly, Jimmy took it. He read the front, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration.
"Chocolate." He said, peeling back the wrapper to expose a bit of what was beneath. The captain corrected his pronunciation absently, flicking ash into the dish amidst the scrolls of map and acting as though he was re-checking the co-ordinates.
Mister Hayes had explained all about awkward silences after Jimmy had unwittingly interrupted a blazing argument between he and the captain, one that Jimmy suspected was over him - probably something being missing presumed stolen. Jimmy suspected this was just one of them awkward silences setting in right there between the captain and him, but he couldn't for the life of him decide why as he hadn't said anything outright rude. Jimmy felt a bit like apologizing anyway, itching his neck as he glanced up at the captain,
"Thank you, sir." he replied, having no idea what he was meant to do with the stuff. He scratched at the substance in his hand, frowning and licking his finger tentatively. He was pretty sure it was meant for eating, but it certainly didn't look like anything Lumpy had ever presented him with. It smelled mighty nicer too.
"Christ." Englehorn grumbled, crossing the room to stand before Jimmy. "Chocolate; look."
The captain took the bar from him, snapped a piece off and bit it to demonstrate. Jimmy didn't think there was really any need,
"You could have just asked if you wanted some." he said with a smile, echoing words similar to ones he'd been told himself by Mister Hayes. It sure had been a long time ago, but he didn't forget one thing of what Mister Hayes had taught him. Mister Hayes had told him about teasing the captain too, but that one had just slipped out, and at least it would work on getting rid of that silence that was creeping in.
Englehorn glared, but after a second his mouth curled upwards at the corners. Jimmy missed it, concentrating on the paper once more as he tried to make out the other letters, halves of words ripped away rendering them indecipherable to him.
"I don't remember eatin' anything like that. It sure don't look nice," Jimmy mused, reaching to take the bar back from the captain but finding it just out of reach. The skipper made an ordeal of snapping a chunk off himself and pressing it to Jimmy's lips, gesturing impatiently for him to open his mouth.
"Try it, and try shutting up for two minutes while you're at it, hn?" the captain urged. Jimmy blushed a little, though he knew the skipper was just taunting him.
It was hard, after all, to stay out from under a man's feet when he had the kind of presence Captain Englehorn did, though Jimmy did his best not to pester. He had an inkling that he still managed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time most of the time just the same.
Jimmy stopped thinking as the chocolate began to melt, the sweet taste so surprising and so pleasant. He let his eyes flutter closed so he could concentrate, sure he'd tasted it somewhere before. Never on the Venture though, somewhere much further away. Must have been when he was a boy, but he couldn't quite finger it. Either way, chocolate was delightful. Jimmy was sure Mister Hayes would have liked it too, though he shied away from those thoughts still. He swallowed, already hungering for a second bite.
"S'really good!" Jimmy declared, licking his lips. He smiled at the captain as he opened his eyes, missing that the skipper had looked away almost immediately, his expression a shade guilty.
"Here, you want some more? Wow," Jimmy laughed, snapping the bar in two and offering the larger half to the captain.
"No, no. You eat it," the skipper muttered, nowhere near as enthusiastic as Jimmy; not that the young man noticed. He took a hearty bite and let the chocolate sit on his tongue until it melted, entirely unmoving while he savoured the taste.
"What are you doing?" Captain Englehorn asked him bemusedly. Jimmy went to reply but hesitated, remembering not to talk with his mouth full. He blinked at the captain meaningfully instead. He got the beginnings of a smile in response, and decided he liked the captain letting him stay here while the storms passed, liked it better than proving himself out in the pitch black. Captain Englehorn was someone to talk to, even if he didn't take to conversation too willingly.
"You sure you don't want any?" Jimmy asked, offering the confectionary one last time. The captain took a drag from his cigarette and shook his head, his eyes deliberately averted from the young man and his chocolate-stained lips. It wouldn't do to dwell on thoughts like that; Jimmy who'd never eaten chocolate before didn't need a man like the captain developing an unhealthy interest in him.
"Storm's going to be trouble, you think?" Jimmy asked, contemplatively sucking a sugary thumb.
"Maybe," Englehorn replied. The ship was still worse for wear from the damage caused by the rocks jutting out of the seabed all around Skull Island, not to mention how under-manned she was - a bad storm was the last thing they needed. It wasn't anything Jimmy needed to concern himself with though.
"Miss Darrow isn't teaching you to dance this evening?" the captain asked as Jimmy hopped down from his seat and walked over to the desk littered with papers, standing on his tip-toes to see over Englehorn's shoulder.
"Nope. She's with Mister Driscoll," Jimmy replied cheerfully. It was true enough, he'd passed them on his rounds earlier in the evening. He hadn't meant to pry, but the door had been open. The site of Mister Driscoll and Miss Darrow firmly attached at the lip had rapt Jimmy and for a short time he just stood there watching them kiss, not considering that his gaze might be unwelcome.
Miss Darrow's dainty white fingers twined through Jack's hair, his arms around her tight, well, he was surely curious about where the fun in it was but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
He shook his head, banishing the thoughts for another time as he focused the map that the captain had spread out on the surface. He rested his weight just a little against the captain's side. If it had been Mister Hayes than he'd probably have gotten an arm slung around his shoulder in a brief hug, and Jimmy missed that unspoken affection sorely. He went so far as to rest his chin on the captain's shoulder as he leaned over to tap at a part of the map, and though personal space didn't meaning much on a ship like the Venture, it was rather daring to think the same rule applied to the captain's space. Jimmy figured he could try to play it off with a down-cast glance and a pout if he got brushed off, as he was fully expecting.
"That's the island?" he asked, finger hovering over a cross inked on the map. He didn't recognize the printed letters around it in the captain's nearly illegible scrawl.
"Yes, about there. We're about here,"
The captain guided Jimmy's hand to a point in the blue, pressing his callused finger to the map.
Jimmy felt more relaxed the further away the ship sailed from the island, and in the first stages of the journey away Jimmy expected something to happen and cause them to go back to that wretched place. He'd checked on Miss Darrow subtly, keen on keeping her safe. It didn't seem so urgent anymore, though, now he knew how far they were.
"We're not going back there, not ever, right captain?" Jimmy asked, glancing sideways at Englehorn.
"No," he grunted, shaking his head, "I think not."
Jimmy leaned a little more on the captain, moving with the motions of the ship and acting as though he wasn't as steady on his feet as he really was in order to stay close to the older man.
Sometimes the captain reminded Jimmy of Mister Hayes, but only in the little ways; his footsteps on the deck heavy and sure; his hands rough from tying knots; his gaze on Jimmy when he thought it wasn't noticed, lingering a little too long. Though, Jimmy thought everything about the SS Venture reminded him of Mister Hayes, even just a little.
The difference with the captain was that it didn't seem such a bad thing to be reminded. The skipper had little quirks just like Mister Hayes, but in all the most important ways he was just his own self. He didn't go out of his way to make Jimmy feel welcome which instantly made Jimmy feel at ease around him. He never made small-talk that had Jimmy fumbling over his sentences. Sure, his demeanour was so blunt as to take some getting used to, but Jimmy paid no mind to that. The skipper kept them all in line and he kept them all fed, something Jimmy didn't take for granted one bit.
Captain Englehorn looked as though he was about to say something, and Jimmy sensed it was about Mister Hayes, and it'd probably finish up with him being set right on his feet, not with his chest pressed to the skipper's back while he pretended to be fascinated with the maps. Probably bring that awful ache right back to his chest, too. He didn't want that.
"You think Miss Darrow is gonna be Mrs Driscoll soon, captain?" Jimmy asked coyly, before the skipper could say a word about his first mate. Jimmy was comfy like this, and for whatever reasons of his own the captain hadn't thwacked him and sent him on his way - at least not yet. He didn't want to sour it by getting himself all worked up about Mister Hayes. All grouchiness aside, the captain was good company.
"I don't know." Englehorn replied, though it was more like 'I don't care' judging by the slightly glazed look he had in his eyes when he said it. "You might still have a chance with her yet."
Jimmy's eyes widened and he gaped at the captain, a pink tinge creeping across his cheeks,
"Captain Miss Darrow is just my friend, I don't think of her li-like that at all!" he stuttered earnestly. He swore when he saw the tell-tale twitch of the captain's lips as he tried not to smile.
"You're teasing me." Jimmy said loudly, not knowing whether he wanted to laugh or kick him in the shins.
"Yes," Englehorn laughed roughly, a guttural noise Jimmy could feel through his chest that sent his heart-beat racing. The captain hardly laughed at all, 'specially when times were tough, and tough was certainly the word Jimmy would have used to describe the state aboard the Venture right then. But Jimmy had made him laugh, maybe he was laughing at Jimmy - but it didn't really matter so long as he was laughing. Jimmy beamed proudly, already trying to think of how he could do it again. He nudged the captain in the small of his back playfully, his nose scrunched up in annoyance. The captain ignored him, barely even swaying as he placed a cigarette between his lips. Jimmy followed the action, his gaze lingering on the man's mouth as he thought back to Mister Driscoll and Miss Darrow. What was so great about a kiss anyway? Jimmy wondered.
"What? You want to smoke?" Englehorn grunted, the question punctuated by the scratch and hiss of his match being lit. He held the flame beneath the end of his cigarette, fixing his gaze on Jimmy as he shook it out.
"No it's horrid, makes me cough." Jimmy said thoughtlessly, unsure how the captain would take to knowing Jimmy was thinking about what it might be like to kiss him. Probably wouldn't like it too much, Jimmy guessed.
"Oh it does? And how do you know this?" Englehorn asked him pushily, turning now so he was facing Jimmy, his eyebrows were drawn together in a frown.
Jimmy floundered for an excuse. The captain sure had been grouchy when his cigarettes had gone missing last month. Jimmy only had the intention of taking one - just to try it. When Lumpy had appeared to empty the dirty laundry-water it'd given him such a surprise he'd dropped the packet overboard and watched it disappear in the black-blue waters with a horror-struck expression on his face. He'd only been trying to work out what was so great about cigarettes. Of course, the captain had given him the knowing glare but Mister Hayes had always been there, adamant that Jimmy did no such thing.
"I, uh, well I..." Jimmy trailed off, not half as nervous as he should have been. His glance caught on the captain's mouth and he wetted his lips uncertainly, forcing himself to look up into the cold blue stare. To his surprise, Englehorn didn't look mad. In fact, if anything he looked moderately satisfied.
"I knew it. I fucking knew."
Jimmy scratched the back of his neck, grinning lop-sidedly.
"Hayes wouldn't listen to me, no. What did you do, smoke a whole pack?" the captain demanded, smoke spiralling up from his mouth as he spoke. It wasn't like Jimmy wasn't trying not to keep thinking about kissing, but the thought was stuck in his head. The same as when he took the cigarettes, same as when he took Mister Driscoll's pen. He tended to do something silly and learn from it the hard way, but it was his way and it didn't always end up worse off.
"I'm knew-" the skipper continued, and Jimmy just wondered how much worse off it would be if he satiated his curiosity and just kissed him. It'd be a decent way of shutting him up as well.
Jimmy didn't really take much more time for consideration. He leaned up, unthinking, eyes closed, and pressed his lips flat against the captain's. He just caught the corner of his mouth, stubble scratching at his cheek as heat rose to his face. It was remarkable how well that worked on making the captain quiet. Jimmy didn't move apart from to set his mouth better against the captain's, his lips warm and dry against Jimmy's own. His heart was beating so hard and he couldn't decide whether he was willing the captain to just do something or to let it be, because he didn't want to have spoiled their evening. Didn't particularly want a smack either, for that matter.
Just as he was about to give up, pull back and say he was awful sorry, the skipper's arms were around his waist yanking him close so they were flush against one another. Jimmy's eyes fluttered open, more than a little bewildered. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could Captain Englehorn's mouth was there, tasting like smoke and salt and life. It was a good job, really, because Jimmy didn't know what the heck he would have said to begin with. He let his eyes drift closed again, concentrating on the tongue pushing against his own, coaxing him to relax his jaw a little more. Jimmy wasn't pretending when he leaned into the captain for balance that time, so absorbed in the kisses. No wonder Mister Driscoll and Miss Darrow liked doing this so much.
Jimmy gave a sigh that could have been a whimper, if you listened for it. Not sure if he was doing it 'right' he became awful conscious of his hands at his sides not doing much of anything. Where was he supposed to be putting them? His head span, and clumsily he rested his hands on the taller man's shoulders, slender fingers winding their way through his hair. Somewhat reluctantly he pulled back to take a breath. His skin tingled where the captain's stubble had chafed it so. He blinked heavily, gazing up to see that the skipper had a similarly dazed expression on his face.
"I guess I should just ask next time, right?" Jimmy panted, already breaking into a grin.
"If that is an apology..." the captain's laughter was short and course again, but still made Jimmy beam. He rested his cheek against the captain's chest for a second before stepping back, still smiling though a little sheepish. He'd proved, at least, that things didn't always end up worse off when he acted on an impulse. In fact, Jimmy thought as he watched the captain righting his cap so the peak was facing forwards again, sometimes things were considerably more fun; captain Englehorn, for instance, when you just went with it.
"Go and check on Denham, make sure he isn't up to anything ridiculous down there. Let them know the weather is worsening." the captain instructed, gesturing towards the door. He coughed, crushing out the forgotten cigarette. Jimmy's grin widened,
"Yessir." he touched the peak of his cap in a mock salute and strolled towards the door, resisting the urge to scamper over and kiss the captain once more before he went. No, he decided there would be plenty of other opportunities for that.
FIN.