The clatter of boots on the cobblestones faded as Jack Sparrow glanced around the corner of the smithy.
"You'd think it would get easier to visit, after all these years," Jack groused to himself, hitching his belts up as he turned to enter the shop. Just being here meant risking his life, but what a life it would have been had he not been here?
No life. For behind those unassuming walls beat his heart. His lifeblood. His love.
Said love nearly bumped Jack with the door in its eagerness to welcome the visitor.
"Oi, watch it, " Jack held his nose indignantly as if he'd actually been hit. The snirtle coming from Will direction melt Jack into a wide grin, which turned even wider once Will pulled him inside and shut the door while seeking Jack's lips into a long-awaited kiss.
"You took long enough," Will mumbled, running eager hands beneath Jack's shirt. "I was about to send a search party out after you."
"No need to." Jack said, shedding his baldric and coat in one deft movement. "Had to avoid one or two on the way here."
In the ever-looming presence of Will's Master, Will was quick to guide Jack to the rooms he had come to think of as 'theirs'. Sure enough, the closet and the drawer were equally packed with Jack's items as they were Will's. And it had all happened so gradually, neither Will, nor Jack, had even noticed they were sharing a household. Sometimes, when at sea, despite him being on the Pearl, he missed home right before catching himself and busying himself with something utterly important.
"Much more better," Jack crooned, shedding the rest of his clothing and tugging impatiently at Will's.
"Nothing like a brush with the law to bring the pirate out in you," Will said with a grin, wriggling out of his shirt.
"Nothing like the thought of you, The rest, mere trifles." He waved a dismissive hand.
Leading his shirtless lover to the cot with the entourage of passionate kissed on Will's neck, Jack let his hands do as they were wont. Searching Will's body for every single familiar crook, nick and cranny, the tiny burn marks on his arms, that long pale line on Will's chest from the time they hadn't been so lucky as to escape the patrol in New Orleans... Each detail welcomed Jack closer and closer, until they laid naked side by side on the bed, staring into each other's eyes, almost afraid to move so that the spell they had created would not burst into smoke and mirrors.
"Time..." Jack said, finally. Something in his voice stirred a corner of Will's mind, the hidden recess where he kept the fear of loss. Will was a realist – having dealt with the harshness of the world, he realized the threats that surrounded them, even at these moments of sanctuary.
"Time waits for no man," Jack said, raising himself up on one elbow so he could see his lover's eyes. "Time is of the essence, love."
"As if I don't know that... Am I right to assume I don't fit into your plans until the next time you decide to make berth?"
"You assume wrong." Jack ran his hands along Will's sides, pulling his closer to him, holding him as if to never let him go. "Time and tide, love. You and me." He stared into Will's eyes, searching for that answer he could not live without.
"This time, I was thinking for a longer cruise, say, the rest of our lives, if that happens to suit you..." Jack's crooning soothed Will's temper. He was savvy enough to know most sailors had a lay in each port, but had never dared to question Jack about the matter. In fear, in trepidation, that it might be true with Jack too.
"I would not impinge on your freedom?" Will finally asked, swallowing the fear of what he might hear.
Jack threw himself back onto the cot, arms wide and said with an exasperated sigh, "Will, Will. How many times have I told you... no, scratch that. You must know by now how I feel." He turned an inquiring face to Will.
With nary a whisper, he continued; "Here I am laid bare, in every sense, in your arms for you to do your worst, and you still doubt me? I can see it in your eyes, love, that not all is well in the Kingdom. And is there's even the slightest thread of uncertainty, you just say the word and I'm gone with my bleeding heart." Jack closed his eyes and swallowed hard, something that made a lump gather into Will throat, witnessing Jack in his insecurities for the first time in their acquaintance. Suddenly, everything Jack had said rang true, and Will could not bear it any longer.
Diving his arm under Jack's back, Will half lifted him to lay on him, as if to reassure that it truly was Jack who had spoken. In the flesh and spirit, and when their legs tangled with Jack's weight delightfully heavy on Will, he made his decision.
"What time do we sail?"
"We?"
"Us."