Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: Light R due to mature references
Summary: James reflects, and Smee teaches him a lesson without even knowing it.
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Slash, Odd Pairing, Anti-Pan
Challenge: None
Word Count (excluding heading): 843
Feedback: Yes, please!
Archive: WWOMB, -- Anybody else, ask, and I'll probably grant permission.
Disclaimer: Captain James T. Hook, Smee, Peter Pan, and Disney are & TM Disney, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Smee lay wrapped gently in his beloved Captain's arms, gazing up into his adoring eyes. The glow of their union wrapped around them, making them feel secure, warm, and loved, all things they had both felt too seldom in their lives. Smee wondered about the man he loved, as he often did, and asked softly, "What's the T stand for?"
James smiled down at Smee, his mustache giving a slight twitch. "Why don't you guess, love?"
"Terrific?"
"No, nothing quite that fancy."
"Tenth?"
"No," he answered again, running a hand tenderly over Smee's portly body and slowly stroking each inch he came across. "I'm neither a Junior nor a Senior." At least, as far as he could remember, he wasn't.
Smee frowned slightly as he thought of what his Captain might like his middle initial to stand for. "Terrible?" he guessed.
"No again, darling. 'Tis nothing grand."
"Tyrone? Terence? Thomas?"
"No, no, no," James' soft voice answered hesitantly each time, lulling Smee further down into the comfort zone that wrapped around them. It was far too rare that he got to hold his love like this, stroke him, and love him with his touches as much as he did with his mouth. James dismissed each guess Smee made, and Smee's voice grew ever quieter until he drifted off to sleep.
James remained quiet as he held his love close to his chest and gazed down into his handsome face. The years in Neverland had stolen much from him, but they had taken even more from his beloved. He reached out and tenderly stroked the face that had once seemed so young and full of life but was now turning old, though James loved it, and its wearer, none the less.
Smee should not be as old as this land had made him, but too often his memory failed him. James' did, as well, but though he could no longer remember his full name, he had never once forgotten the times he had shared with Smee before coming to Neverland. Smee, on the other hand, at times thought James was only his Captain and the man he loved and that they had never shared any other bond.
James leaned down and gently pressed a kiss to Smee's forehead. "Sleep well, dear teacher, and know I will be here to keep you safe when you wake." Smee had taught him so much more than his father had originally hired him to tutor him. Smee had taught him everything James had come to value in life, most of all love, and though Smee always persisted in calling him his Captain, James knew that without his Smee, he would have been lost a long time ago and that his life never would have had the rich meaning that Smee's presence gave it.
As he tried to close his own eyes, James thought yet again of the curse that had befallen them and of all the changes it had brought in their lives. There was only one thing that he was grateful for since they had sailed into Neverland, and that was that their adventures had brought them closer together. Yet, for all the pain and hardships he had put them through, James renewed his vow, Pan would pay. The boi would breathe his last upon his hook, unless, by some miracle, before that vengeful day came, he was able to find a way to take Smee home.
"Home," Smee murmured, and James' heart ached even more.
"I wish I could, baby," he murmured.
"Already am," Smee replied and snuggled closer into James' loving arms.
James' eyebrows rose in question, and he listened intently as Smee continued to talk in his sleep. "Home . . . wherever . . . my Capt'n is . . . love James . . . "
James smiled, his eyes glistening. A Pirate Captain could not cry, and therefore James refused to let the moisture drop from his eyes. Emotions swirled within him, though, and it was all he could do to keep the tears at bay. Smee was right: Wherever his beloved Smee was was his home.
But still Pan would pay for it was the adventures in his land, a land that they truthfully only wanted to escape but could only do so by defeating the boi and gaining enough pixie dust and knowledge to fly home, that had cost them so much: not only James' hand but Smee's youth and memories. Pan would pay, James promised silently as he finally began to doze off, for the loss of his beloved Smee's youth with his own.
He drifted off to, for the first time in years, have pleasant dreams, his lips and mustache still curved upward in a smile. He held Smee in his arms, and therefore he was home. He didn't know what would come next or how they would best the boi's next attempt to drive them insane and kill them all, but they would somehow. Somehow everything would come out all right in the end for he had Smee and Smee loved him.
The End