Hey guys! So I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean and this thought came to me, so. Also I have an unjustified love of Captain Jack Sparrow. Well, enjoy! I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 1
Jellal scanned the entirety of the pub his crew were currently occupying. They had just docked the Black Pearl in Tortuga some two hours before, most of the men eager to stretch their sea legs and have a few jugs of Bacchus' rum. Said bar owner was currently wiping the dented wood of his bar clean while swigging from a bottle hung at his hip and avoiding contact with the few pirates throwing drunken punches around him. Jellal's boatswain, Cobra, had stayed behind at the Pearl with a group of around five men watching the deck with him. His ship had been taken from him one too many times for his liking. Jellal tipped the feathered hat forward on his head, shielding his forehead and sending a do-not-disturb vibe to those about him. He watched as his first mate, Gray Fullbuster, was challenged to a drinking contest by the pink haired Salamander. It looked as though Natsu had already had one drink to many. Originally, they had come to Quattro Cerberus to pick up information, strategically placing themselves amongst the pub's occupants and doing subtle digging as to where and what their enemies could be doing. Coming up blank, Jellal had dismissed his men to spend the night with drink and pleasurable company if they so wished. As he did another thorough sweep, his eyes caught something that he was sure hadn't been there before. A scarlet haired harlot made her way through the ranks, giving trashed men her attention before swirling away mysteriously to another target. He studied the way her brown orbs moved around the building, following the same pattern over and over again. She was watching for something, or more likely someone, in the depths of the small tavern. His gaze wandered over her body, picking up on the way she'd dressed to blend in, and noticing a ragged cloth wrapped around her right wrist. Eyes narrowing, the blue-haired pirate chugged the mug of rum sitting before him before standing and trodding over to where Bacchus sat hiccuping and laughing at the joke of some man who's speech was garbled with a drop too much liquor. The dark-haired pub owner turned his attention to Jellal, who was now leaning his elbows atop the bar.
"Captain Fernandes," he drawled in recognition, "How ya been? It's been a while since you've anchored in Tortuga."
"That it has, Bacchus. Heard about my skirmish with the Captain Laxus did you?" he replied, purposely slurring his words together so as to appear drunk and uncaring. "Tell me. That blood-haired beauty down starboard side," he asked, nodding his head in her direction, "She a regular?"
Bacchus' gaze slimmed in the direction he'd indicated, squinting at the redhead in question.
Turning back to Jellal, he shook his head slowly, "Never seen 'er before tonight. Pretty thing ain't she." Looking the blue-haired captain up and down, as though really seeing him for the first time, a smile turned the corners Bacchus' lips, "Somethin' caught your eye, Capn'?"
Jellal offered him a crooked grin and a sideways glance. "We'll see."
"Just don't kidnap her or nothin', this is neutral ground," Bacchus called after him as he made his way towards the girl.
When he caught her hand, she jolted, immediately moving to knock him back. His grip held strong, however, and he watched the way her eyes turned not sly and flirty, as a woman here in Tortuga's would, but wary and calculated. He caught Gray's eye from across the pub, the darker haired subtly shaking his head. Don't make a scene. Giving no form of answer to his first mate's warning, his eyes turned back to the redhead in tow, giving her a once over.
"Why so squeamish, love?"
She smiled, though it was tight and challenging as she answered, "Oh, nothing. Just wondering why Captain Jellal Fernandes would be interested in a petty old thing like me."
She knew who he was. Jellal smirked. Good.
His eyes flickered to the arm he had in his hold, wrist still wrapped neatly in the rag. The woman followed his eyes, immediately tensing when the fingers of his other hand trailed gently over the cloth.
"Don't touch that."
She sounded agitated.
"You hurt, sweetheart?" his fingers slipped under the top fold of the covering, her other hand reaching to pull his away.
Before she could make another move he'd twisted his digits and tugged the cloth off, grip tightening as she tried to pull away. His suspicions confirmed, he grinned devilishly, a single word leaving his lips like her damning sentence.
"Pirate."
Erza twisted in his grip as the blue haired man in front of her's eyes roamed over the pirate crest burned into the flesh of her right wrist. If he found out what ship she was from it could all be over for her. He held her in place with ease, stronger than he looked. That was why people respected Captain Fernandes. The dangerous aura that surrounded him. He would leave you alone if you didn't bother him, save for when bothering you benefitted him and his crew greatly. But if you were dumb enough to cross him, your bones would end up rotting deep in Davy Jones' locker.
"Tartaros?" he asked, his voice both amused and curious, "Now what's the Balam Alliance doing down in Tortuga. Aren't they busy plotting revenge on me for the fort I pillaged before they could get to it?"
It was true. Jellal was high on the Balam's hit list, having robbed them of their loot more than a few times. But as long as he had the protection of the Alliance of the Seven Seas, there was nothing they could do to reach him. That and he sailed the fastest ship ever to touch the water of the seas.
"Of course," she replied smartly, yanking at his death grip on her arm once more, "They were ever so surprised when you joined the Alliance of the Seven Seas. Thought you were a lone wolf, Captain."
Jellal laughed at her snarky attitude, "Why, whoever said I wasn't. I think you've forgotten, Red, Captain Fernandes does what Captain Fernandes wants."
Erza narrowed her eyes at the nickname he'd so graciously provided, ready to full on fight the man if that's what she had to do to get away. As he'd deciphered, Erza was a pirate, and not so folly as to give her name to one of the most manipulative wanks on the sea. She pulled her foot back underneath the rags she'd donned to camouflage her appearance, about to quite literally sweep the captain off his feet when a whistle sounded at the doorway, a signal to alert the entrance of members affiliated with the Balam Alliance. In a panic, Erza tried once more to pull away, they could not find her now, not after everything she'd done to get off that wretched ship-
The hand on her arm dragged her forwards, to where his crew was, she realized, and shoved her under the table as Jellal collapsed unceremoniously in his chair, conveniently located in front of where she was crouched. She heard an audible sigh and shifted slightly to see a black haired man pulling a chair on her other side, tossing a what did I tell you? look at his captain before stretching his legs to block her other side from view. The sound of a significant number of footsteps cut through the chaos of the pub, sailors, harlots, and drunkards alike sparing glances at the figures standing in formation by the door, before returning to what they were previously doing, albeit more alert. Erza stayed hidden where she was. She was unsure of the famed captain's motives, but this was her best chance at staying out of the Balam's sight for now. She was hoping for one of the lesser crews in the alliance, the Grimmoire Heart, maybe, anyone but the band of pirates responsible for burning the logo she ever so despised into her skin. Her heart sank as the dreaded voice of the Tartaros' first mate Kyouka rang out in the thickening air of the bar.
"I shall be blunt. We are looking for a woman that goes by the name Erza Scarlet. You may better know her as the secretive Titania of Tartaros. No one has known the face of our notorious pirate save for the members of this crew." Erza heard the rustling of paper and swore under her breath. A wanted poster, no doubt. They were using her location against her. Feeling the legs in front of her shift ever so slightly, the redhead peered up at the face of the captain currently shielding her. He gave away nothing, but the hard set in his eyes told Erza all she needed to know. Her identity was no longer a secret.
She could tell people recognized her face on the poster from the small amount of the bar she could see between the legs of the two members belonging to the Pearl. No one seemed to be giving her up. Not yet.
She could almost feel Kyouka's eyes piercing into the crowd of rejects and outcasts.
"Well we were hoping you wouldn't be so difficult, but I believe bribery is in order with a gang like you lot."
Damn. Damn. Pirates were attracted to treasure as moths were to light. If the price was high enough, she'd be ratted out in seconds.
"Two billion jewel."
The bar exploded with voices instantaneously, people claiming to have seen the scarlet haired left and right. It was only a matter of time before-
"Captain Fernandes," Kyouka's voice seeped like poison into the air.
"Kyouka," Jellal nodded. He wasn't selling her out. Why? Two billion jewel, what did he not have to gain?
"Aren't we forgetting someone," the dark-eyed man next to Fernandes said, eyebrows raising and arms folding over his chest. It was only then that Erza noticed that both him and the captain wore only coats over their bare chests. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Men and their pride. That was something you found no matter if you were in Tortuga or the islands off the coast of Somalia. Although she would admit their want to flaunt was justified, they were both certainly good looking and aware of it. As who she now assumed to be Jellal's first mate bore his eyes into Kyouka, he slid his feet higher up the table's base, creating a small space for Erza to fit through. A head appeared in the gap, a man with startling pink locks silently gesturing for her to follow. She crawled after him obediently, hiding behind the well placed bodies of the Black Pearl's crew. Reaching the wall, Erza watched anxiously as a black-haired man with a strange white braid sticking out on one side, tipped his head back so it noiselessly tapped a bottle of rum on the shelf behind him. When the bottle moved, so did a plank of smoothened wood, giving way to a trapdoor in the floor that had been very well concealed. Taking a quick glance backwards, Erza saw Kyouka exchanging a tight nod with the opposing first mate, eyes focused on him. The last thing she saw before disappearing down the hole was Kyouka's gaze flitting in her direction.
"Well that certainly made our night," Gray supplied as the two walked out of the bar. Kyouka had interrogated them for a little over five minutes, finally giving them an acid smirk before taking her burly looking crew along with her to inspect the rest of the inhabitants of the pub, much to Bacchus' protest.
Jellal replied with a quiet, "Mm," lost in a land of thought.
The carefree smile suddenly dropped off Gray's face and he put a hand out to stop his captain in his tracks.
"Jellal, whatever you're planning to do," he warned, but then closed his eyes, seeming to take a deep breath, and sighed, "Whatever you're planning to do, please don't hurt yourself."
It was a simple request, and one Jellal had never had trouble with before. As he registered the knowing look in his friend's eyes, he wondered what made this time different.
Erza tailed behind the pink-haired pirate through what seemed to be the longest and most cramped dirt tunnel in her life.
"Sorry it's taking so long. Pre cautious methods, you know? Bacchus insisted that if he have a trap door he better have the damn best."
Erza nodded, sizing up her bright-eyed companion. He was certainly friendly, and she could feel that he was trying to put her at ease.
"I'm Natsu by the way. You, ah, well, we all know who you are now."
Again she shook her head in reply, sifting through her brain for where she'd heard his name before. Natsu…Natsu… As they reached what seemed to be a wooden panel lodged in the ceiling, her thoughts clicked. Natsu. Natsu Dragneel, a.k.a the Salamander. He was rumored to have once set a whole port on fire to rescue a group of mermaids. Erza highly doubted it. Mermaids were known as the charmers of the sea, for the reason that they did exactly that. Showed their angelic faces for a despairing pirate, before dragging him underwater to drown and devour. Natsu twisted onto his knees, back fitting against the curve of the tunnel wall as he pressed his palms flat against their wooden escape. The makeshift door dislodged, the man pushing it to the side before gripping both sides of the hole left in it's wake and hoisting himself out. Brushing his dusty hands against his pants and adjusting the band in his hair, he turned to help Erza out, only to find her already planting her feet on the ground and dusting herself off.
Erza looked up as footsteps echoed around the corner. She made to run into a dark alley a few feet to her left, but Natsu put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Two men appeared in the darkness and she recognized them as Jellal and his first mate. The captain grinned as he caught sight of her, Natsu walking over to join the first mate as Jellal stopped in front of her.
"Well, I hadn't been planning to leave Tortuga so soon, but Cobra should have had enough time to grab the supplies we needed, so off to the sea we go."
Natsu gave a hoot behind her and the first mate slapped him up the backside of the head. Taking a last look at their faces, Erza steeled herself and stepped forward.
"Thanks for the help, gentlemen, I'll be going then."
She moved to walk past him put the captain blocked her path.
"Now, where do you think you're going, Red? Or should I say Scarlet."
Ignoring his choice of name, Erza tried to get past him once more, only to find him stepping in her way again. Holding her irritation at bay and wishing she had one of her trusty swords at hand, the redhead met his eyes defiantly, "To find a safe place to sleep for the night. I'll be out of the port by nightfall tomorrow."
Jellal stared at her incredulously, "Safe?" he chuckled, "In a city filled with pirates where there's a two million jewel bounty on your head? Did you hit that pretty little noggin' of yours on the tunnel ceiling?"
Erza glared at him, not very appreciating of the condescending tone he was using.
"I can take care of myself."
"Oh, I'm not doubting you. I've heard stories about what the Titania can do, and quite frankly, I believe them. But you're outnumbered one to a million here and besides," he pronounced the next three words with a sort of joy that made Erza's skin prickle, "you owe me."
Curse pirates and the fact that everything had a price with them.
"Look. I'll get out of Tortuga and head for the closest port out of here, find me there once I've been given enough time to figure out how to make some money. I'll pay you the two billion you so deserve in full," she replied as calmly as possible, stressing a fair amount of sarcasm on the 'deserve'.
"Pardon me, but I find that hard to believe. A pirate's word isn't worth much after all," as he spoke he flicked the front of his hat, allowing it to slide a little farther back on his brilliant blue hair. "You know, they say it's the honest ones you have to watch out for."
Too late, Erza realized the tap on the hat was a signal. She started to turn, the green glass of a bottle as it swung towards her catching her eye. Before the glass shattered on the back of her head, she heard the smooth lilt of Captain Jellal's voice.
"At least with liars, you can count on them not to tell the truth."
Aha, end. I'm going to try and get the next few chapters out soon. This chapter wasn't very long, but it's a bit of an introduction. We'll see a bit more of their past soon. And Erza will learn Gray's name so she won't keep calling 'the first mate' haha. And yes the last line was a reference from the first movie :) Thanks for reading!