A/N: I've recently been dragged onto the Barbossabeth ship and now I find myself refusing to be dragged off it. Call me obsessed, but I've managed to read every fanfic of that pairing in the past two weeks. I loved every single one of them and now... I. Need. More. It was this deprivation that encouraged me take a stab at writing my own fanfiction.
Disclaimer: The only things I own here are the events of this short oneshot...everything else belongs to Disney.
Compensation
"Your choice, 'ector. Zee hat or zee wench," the French pirate wheezed as he kept a painful grip on Elizabeth's waist. A pistol was resting on her temple and Barbossa held up his hands in surrender, though doing so sent a painful blow to his ego. But he knew better than to try to placate or negotiate with Captain Chevalle, so he slowly raised his hands to the brim of his hat to remove it.
"Zee monkey," Chevalle demanded. Barbossa complied, motioning for the little primate to deliver his most prized possession to the greasy Frenchman. "Let us 'urry eet up a bit, oui?" Chevalle suggested as he dragged the pistol slowly and sensually downward, from Elizabeth's temple to the valley between her breasts and a small whimper escaped from her lips.
It was at that moment that Barbossa saw nothing but red. But once again, he kept his temper in check for the sake of the young woman he had become so fond of. He motioned for the capuchin to bring the hat to Elizabeth's captor.
The monkey scampered back to his master's shoulder once the hat was in Chevalle's possession. While keeping his arm tightly wrapped around the girl, the Frenchman examined the ostrich plume with a smug expression plastered on his overly-powdered face.
"The girl?" Barbossa's voice was laced with concern and a hint of impatience.
"As much as I want to keep zis beauty all to myself, I find zee hat to be of much greater value," Chevalle pondered aloud, stroking Elizabeth's cheek with a bony finger. Without warning, he shoved her forcefully in Barbossa's direction and returned to his ship.
Elizabeth began to sob into the captain's chest, soaking his lapels with her tears. With surprising tenderness, Barbossa wrapped both of his arms around her until her shuddering sobs were reduced to sniffles. Punctuating every other few words with sniffles and hiccups, Elizabeth had managed to croak out, "Your hat must have been worth a fortune...I'm terribly sorry that you had to part with it. I don't have much in terms of compen–"
"Just knowin' that yer safe and outta harm's way be more than enough compensation fer me," Barbossa murmured into her hair before releasing her from his embrace and walking towards the helm. He was a little more than halfway to the wheel, before he felt slender fingers timidly grab his forearm. The pirate lord stopped in his tracks and turned around to see pools of chocolate gazing shyly into his own azure ones.
"You never gave me the chance to thank you, captain," whispered Elizabeth as she leaned forward, bringing her face only centimeters from his. Hesitating for what seemed longer than a few seconds, she placed a hand on one side of his face and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
An unfamiliar, but not unpleasant feeling of warmth spread throughout the pirate lord. He let a small smile grace his weathered face as he watched her make her way back into his arms. "Ye know I'd never let anythin' happen to you, love," he mused aloud before leaning down to kiss her softly.