"Good night, Will."

--

A few hours into the night, Will turned in his sleep, over onto his side and away from Jack.

Somehow feeling the loss of contact with the warm body, Jack woke in a frenzied state. "Will! Will, don't leave!"

The younger man, startled awake by the noise, quickly sat up and lit a candle. He saw Jack with his head bowed and in his hands, quietly muttering something to himself.

"Jack?" Will touched the other man's shoulder. "What happened?"

Jack looked up. "Please don't leave," he whispered again. His face was streaked with tears.

"I'll never leave you, Jack. Never," Will said quickly, instinct taking over and making him hug the pirate close to his body.

"But… you left the bed… and I couldn't feel you anymore," Jack said quietly, looking ashamed.

"I'm right here, and I'm not leaving."

He maneuvered Jack and himself back down to the pillow, all the while keeping one arm wrapped around the older man's waist. He felt Jack grip the front of his shirt tightly, as if trying to ensure himself he wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm staying with you, Jack," Will reassured him.

"Thank you."

"Morning, Captain," Gibbs said carefully, remembering not to say or do anything that seemed suspicious in Jack's mind.

"Good morning," Jack replied quietly. He looked round at Will, who nodded, silently telling him this man was trustworthy.

For the whole day, Jack stayed at the helm, steering the Black Pearl and somewhat nervously exchanging words with his crew, always a bit reluctant to engage in any activity that involved physically doing something and coming into accidental contact with anybody else.

-

"You okay?" Will asked him that evening, bringing him a tray of food.

"Yes," the pirate said, accepting the tray and sitting down on an empty barrel and taking a bite out of a chicken leg. "I haven't eaten properly in days."

Will sighed and said, "Well, eat up then, we can't have the Captain getting ill now, can we?"

Jack smiled a bit and said, "Right." Then a troubled expression crossed his features for a moment as he looked into the other man's eyes.

"What is it?" Will asked.

Jack only put the tray down and leaned toward the younger man. He planted his lips on Will's and drew back quickly, eyes wide and shocked. A few moments passed in silence.

"I – sorry, just wanted to…" Jack stammered, not being like his usual self, "Sorry."

He then went below deck, leaving Will to sit there looking confused but feeling as if he was floating.

He kissed me… he thought happily, slowly making his way below deck to ask Jack what it had been for.

"Jack?"

He knocked on the Captain's cabin door. After hearing no answer, he opened it and entered. Jack had his back turned away from Will and he was rummaging through one of his cabinets, apparently looking for something.

"Ah, there you are," Jack muttered to himself, pulling out a bottle of dark red Jamaican rum and opening it, taking a long swallow and swishing it around his mouth before turning around and looking at Will.

"William."

"Erm… what – why did you kiss me just then?" Will tried not to look to eager to know, so he spoke to the floor instead of looking at Jack.

However, he was forced to look up when Jack didn't answer once again, so he raised his head and searched the pirate's face intently. Jack took another swallow from the bottle and sat down on his bed, looking confused and scared at the same time. Will silently sat down next to him and whispered, "You okay, Jack? Maybe you should rest for a bit."

Jack shook his head and said, "If I offended you, mate, I'm sorry, but –"

"No… no, you didn't offend me, I only –"

"I just wanted to…" Jack ploughed on awkwardly, now doing what Will had done a moment ago, and looking at the floor.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to… alright," he took a deep breath and started, "Will, you're the most important person in the world to me, and after the month-long experience in that prison, I wanted to… to see if the most important person to me… wanted to love me back."

Before Will could process what this meant, Jack sadly added, "And I'm sorry, Will, I'm sorry. Just please don't stop being my friend…"

Will's answer was a sudden lunge for the man's mouth, trapping it with his own. Jack was so surprised he didn't respond, and Will drew back, looking in the pirate's eyes expectantly.

"I've loved you from the moment I first set eyes on you, Jack," Will said, smiling and tracing the pirate's jawline with his thumb. "Remember? We had that duel in the Blacksmith's Shoppe… I couldn't sleep that night."

Jack smiled and leant forward to kiss him again. Will met him halfway and put one hand on the back of Jack's head as they kissed thoroughly, tongues entwining and battling for dominance, hands roaming new bodies for the first time…

When they broke apart, they rested their foreheads together, breathing slightly raggedly, as Jack whispered, "Thank you for not leaving me."

Will only smiled and said, "I'd never abandon my Captain. And you're my Captain. Always and forever."