Chapter 21:
Tala sank into the satin and silks that adorned Hook's bed. They felt so smooth against her skin, more than anything else ever had before. She could have lied there all night, if it weren't for the fact that it was Hook's bed. Her own was at the foot of his bed, a messy pile of blankets and furs. Although she knew she should have moved to her own resting place, she chose to linger in Hook's.
"Where did you get fabrics like this?" She asked, taking a piece of his silk sheet between her fingers. "This doesn't come from Neverland."
"No. It came from my real home. Another world. Another time. Most of my treasures come from there."
He shrugged off his coat and dropped it onto the coat hook nailed into the wall behind the door. As he moved to step out of his boots, he snuck a glance at her.
She was laying on her back in the center of his bed, knees raised a little off the sheets and bent slightly inwards. Her hands ran over the sheets, admiring the fabrics, while she hummed her approval softly. The rum had flushed her cheeks just a little bit, enough to give her a look of bashful innocence. Tala had become quite the site, sprawled out on his bed in such a way.
He had to try to bury his own temptations, so he turned away from her to continue removing his boots.
"I wonder what it was like...," she thought aloud. "I've only ever known this world. Hard to imagine that there are others."
"To our people, this place is paradise," Hook explained. "My world was riddled with disease, murder, and petulant kings. We were glad to escape it."
"A king...?"
"Yes. A king ruled over all lands and seas. He could do whatever he wanted, mostly without repercussions. He hated me and my crew. He tried to hunt us down, the spoiled child."
"You left one enemy and found another," Tala observed. "Another spoiled child, but one who never grows old."
"Pan wasn't my enemy initially," Hook explained, venturing closer to his bed. He sat on the very edge of it at the very end, keeping as much distance between Tala and himself as possible. "In the beginning, I traded him treasures from my world in exchange for years of life. As my people grew older, had families, reproduced and populates the Isle, I remained young."
"What changed?"
"The fairies began to disappear. Pan grew frightened and captured the last one. He's just a boy. He became stingy. I began to age, and he kept the fairy to himself."
"Tinkerbell..."
"No amount of treasures I offered would convince him to give me more years, more youth. I became a bitter old man, afraid of death and decay. I guess you could say I became his enemy first. I wanted that fairy, at any cost. So we began to battle quite frequently over it, but he always seemed to get away with her until... he didn't. And here we are."
Hook let out a deep sigh once his story was complete. It wasn't something he spoke of often, since he hated to admit that perhaps Pan was just as much of a villain as Hook himself. They were fighting for the same thing: immortality. To stay young forever.
"Will you stay young forever even if I don't?" Tala asked suddenly. Her question caught Hook off guard. He looked over at her to be sure that it wasn't something he imagined.
"It would be nice to stay young forever together, wouldn't it?"
"Forever is a long time," Tala shrugged her shoulders, running her fingers over his satin pillows. "It seems nice to grow old with someone. My people believe that our ancestors wait for us in the next life. When lovers die, they're meant to meet there. If only one dies, then they linger and wait, unable to meet their ancestors, until their lover joins them."
"I see. Why would that matter to you, little wolf?"
"It sounds painful, waiting forever for my lover to join me, never able to move on and be with those who passed before me. That's what would happen if I waited forever for you," she sighed, closing her eyes for a moment.
"I'm not your lover."
"What else should I call you then?" Tala huffed. "What you are has no other name that fits aside from lover."
"You have to love someone for them to become your lover."
"I know."
Hook raised a brow at that. Was she drunkenly confessing her love to him? Was she finally opening up and speaking about her feelings without also feeling the need to tear his down? He wanted to press the issue, but she was still only mostly coherent. Maybe it was better not to take it too seriously in case she didn't mean a single word of it.
"Can I sleep here tonight?" She asked after a moment of tense silence. "These fabrics feel nice against my skin."
"Where do you expect me to sleep?"
"Beside me."
"As tempting at that is," Hook fought his baser instincts, "I really don't think it wise for me to be close to you in my bed tonight. Who knows what devious things I may be tempted to do."
"What's stopping you now?" Tala scoffed. "You've been devious towards me before."
"You've had your fill of rum. It would be indecent of me. Downright villainous."
"I understand it more now."
"What's that?" Hook questioned curiously. She had been rather forthcoming with information so far, and he was selfishly prodding for more.
"The way you feel when you've had too much rum. When you want to touch me so badly. It's the rum."
"No, love. It's you."
Tala sat up slightly to look at him, surprised to see more sincerity in his gaze than she had ever seen before. A warm feeling spread over her, a feeling that she had been teetering on the edge of, but now she was falling into it.
Even in the dark, he was handsome. His tan skin and dark curls seemed especially youthful under the dim moonlight seeping through the porthole across the room. Maybe it was the rum. Maybe it was the early bloom of love in her heart. Tala couldn't be sure, but she was certain that she wanted to touch him.
Her hand reached out just far enough for her fingertips to brush along the bottom of his jaw, feeling the stubble of newly grown hair there. He leaned into her touch, closing his eyes slowly as he tried to savor the moment as long as he could.
"You've been with so many women... You can have any woman... Why do you still pursue me?" Tala asked. "Even though I've hated you. Even though I've resisted and rejected you."
"Perhaps it's because you've resisted and rejected me. You were never afraid of me and never sought to use me for personal gain. You're a beautiful, wild woman, and I've desired nothing more than you every since I laid my eyes on you."
Hook laid his hand over hers on his cheek, curling his fingers around it gently. He carefully pried her hand away from his face and lowered it back onto the bed.
"But not tonight. Not when you've been drinking. Even if you're not sick with rum, you're still intoxicated."
"I'm not lost in it."
"Maybe not, but I would never forgive myself if you woke up tomorrow beside me with regret," Hook sighed, rising to his feet. "Sleep here tonight, in my bed. I'll sleep below with Smee."
"You don't have to go."
"I do," Hook groaned in frustration, hating the disappointment on her face. For once, he wanted to act like the hero, not the villain. He wanted to do right by her, even if every fiber of his being screamed for him to give into his baser instincts.
"James..."
Hearing her say his name in such a desperate way struck a nerve, and he quickly moved to the door. If he didn't leave soon, he wouldn't leave at all.
"Sleep well, little wolf."
Without waiting for a response, Hook shuffled out of his cabin door, into the cool night air, then turned around to lock it behind him. Not only to keep her from leaving, but to keep anyone else from going in there with her.
He felt a pain in his chest as he forced his feet to move away from the cabin. Hook had no way to know just how far she would have been willing to go, but he knew that she wasn't in the right mind to make that decision. She was tipsy. She needed to sleep it off.
Hook hurried below deck, locating Smee as quickly as possible.
"Cap'n," Smee greeted him once he found him. Smee was surprised when Hook shoved his cabin door key into his hand rather suddenly.
"Keep this until the morning. Even if I ask or beg for it."
"Is everything okay, Cap'n?"
"Yes. No. I just need some rest."
Smee watched in confusion as Hook walked to the nearest hammock and climbed into it. It wasn't like him to sleep among the crew, in the damp, dirty darkness of the Jolly Roger. He had his fancy silks and feather blankets. Why would he stay in the cold dark bunks below deck?
Yet, he crawled into that hammock, shivering slightly, and forced himself to sleep.