*Cross-matching - to swap one's signifiant others
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I.
Elizabeth circled a mug of ale, pulling a face at the rippling drink as the sound of the tavern grew too loud for her liking. Her gaze fell upon Will who looked jovial, carrying a conversation with Gibbs and a few other men of the Black Pearl crew. Elizabeth glanced away from her usual crutch from feeling out of place, allowing Will a moment of bonding with the crew, with other men. He deserved as much. He deserved moments to nurture his newfound friendships. However, that often left her alone for the time being and all other moments like these, separate from the men, the only woman of the crew.
"All they say he is?" a woman prompted another with a grin, offering a mug across the table. The younger woman sunk into the chair across from the older one and raised the drink to her mouth in an unsuccessful attempt to conceal a wistful smile of her own.
"Greatest shag of my entire life," she said, twisting a long braid, one of many neat plaits, around her finger. She downed her glass and wiped her mouth with her sleeve, schooling her expression then pushed braids out of her face and shoved a wide brim straw hat atop her head.
"Not even a bit of exaggeration to make an expired woman jealous?"
"Not one bit. What they say is true. And you're hardly 'expired,'" The woman kicked her feet up on the table and raised her eyebrows. "Sparrow knows his way around a woman's body as well as he knows his way around a ship. Hell, maybe more than."
Elizabeth sharply turned toward the close of a door and saw her Captain shaking a hand through his hair before donning his tricorn hat and adjusting his belt. Elizabeth found herself studying the cut of his jaw and his self-assured stance, absentmindedly tracing her index finger around the rim of the mug in her hands.
Greatest shag of her life, the woman said. Elizabeth flushed at the thought of her Captain's dreadlocks tangling together with the woman's braids from above her. Elizabeth sucked in a deep breath at the thought of how it all might have felt—the way his rings might have tickled the sensitive skin of the woman's back or the way his laugh might have sashayed feather-light across her neck followed soon after by a rushed trail of kisses then bites then a gliding tongue—
Jack met Elizabeth's eyes and she felt her face grow hot once again when he raised a bottle to his lips to drink followed by his tongue briefly meeting the corner of his mouth, not wasting a drop. He winked at her then exited the tavern without a word to anyone in the Black Pearl crew. Elizabeth made to down the drink in her hands, it suddenly more inviting, the prospect of dulled emotions and momentary escapism. After all, she needed a new crutch. Elizabeth swallowed down a mouthful of ale then coughed, still getting accustomed to the taste of alcohol and the sting it left behind.
For the next week or so, Elizabeth couldn't shake the woman's appraisal of Jack from her mind. The woman, all full lips and shapely form and sun-kissed skin. Of course Jack went for a woman like her.
Elizabeth turned over an even further memory in her mind of finding an abandoned journal as a child in the street after sneaking away to the market as she would. She was about twelve or so and recalled distinctly the feeling of flashes of heat blossoming on the skin over her cheekbones that spread like wildfire to other places when reading a recounted union unlike any she ever heard people speak freely about. At that age, Elizabeth had a hazy understanding of sex in her mind, but there were so many words and sensations that were elusive to her to imagine it properly. She read at a fast pace, hoping to read the fully detailed encounter but immediately shut the book and cast it to the ground when she heard footsteps nearing. Her father would be mortified if he knew she read words he would consider "filth," even if she was still wrapping her mind around some of them, and she wasn't about to let herself get caught reading it.
She hid herself away, peering over the edge of a stone building just in time to find a woman retrieving the journal and tucking it under the arm of her cloak.
Elizabeth never forgot those words, penned in passion and haste, and she never forgot the surname of the man who inspired them—a smattering of "Sparrow" across the pages.
"Are you the pirate I've read about or not?" Elizabeth asked Jack on a little nowhere island, just the two of them. Her face flushed after but she swallowed it down, sure Jack would only read the reaction as frustration instead of the underlying unconcealed interest. He had no reason to know that her true introduction to his name was not one of his infamy but of all the ways he could make a woman feel wanted.
"Beautiful morning."
Elizabeth started, turning to face Will. She hummed in agreement then rushed to speak.
"Yes. Beautiful."
"Onto a new rotation," Will said, meeting her eyes with a weighted look as he tended to when their shift was over, day or night.
Elizabeth gave Will a close-mouthed smile and took his offered hand.
.
"Elizabeth," Will spoke her name with all of the admiration that was humanly possible in four syllables, his hand drawing past her waistband.
She stared at the ceiling, counting wooden slats as Will mouthed at a shoulder and dipped fumbling fingers inside her. It was the third time that week, and she wasn't sure she had it in her to fake sighs and moans today. However, she couldn't think her way around the interaction. After all, a handful of months ago, Elizabeth was the one coaxing Will—a curious hand reaching out in the night and his name uttered in just the right way all it took.
She would simply let her mind wonder and wander, she decided.
After they peeled clothes off of each other, Will met Elizabeth's lips with his own, and wonder and wander her mind did. Elizabeth thought on what provisions they had on board for lunch, what kind of creatures were at the bottom of the sea, what Jack was doing right now—
Will exhaled sharply, fully inside, and Elizabeth tensed. Jack. She hadn't intended to think of him now of all times.
"Are you alright?" Will asked, framing Elizabeth's face.
"Yes," she whispered, her voice distant. Elizabeth forced herself to fully focus on Will for a moment to come off as truly assuring. "Yes," she repeated then fluttered her eyes shut.
Elizabeth wrapped an arm around Will's neck, threading fingers through his hair absentmindedly. She imagined her hand in Jack's hair instead, as twisted as his morals and sense of humor. Elizabeth let herself slip away under Will's touch, coloring reality in her mind, replacing him with Jack as the one kissing the underside of her jaw, Jack's hands gripping at her waist. She bit down on a smile and dug her heels into heated skin, needing to hear his breath catch in the back of his throat followed by a barely there, "Lizzie."
But when it was her full name, "Elizabeth," spoken into her neck by Will, she was jarred out of her thoughts. Her back wasn't resting against sand by a crackling fire under a sky full of stars but on the familiar bed in a cramped space on the Black Pearl under a ceiling of wooden slats.
Elizabeth took up counting the slats again, always starting with the same one.
.
A few days later, Elizabeth felt uneasiness swallow her whole when Will took her by the shoulders and asked her to be fully honest with him, not divulging the topic. She sat on the edge of their shared bed and toyed with her hands, the silence before Will's impending questioning near-unbearable.
"As of late when we share a bed in," Will paused, color rising under his fair skin, "in passion, you are less responsive."
"Oh." Elizabeth tore her gaze from Will's and looked down at her lap instead. "I can work on that," she offered. Her face grew hot, embarrassed that Will noticed her unconnected, searching mind.
Of course Will noticed, she reasoned. They used to be so connected.
"You shouldn't have to work on it. It should be instinctive. Natural." Will stilled her worrying hands. "It's not your fault, Elizabeth. We got on well before." Will's brow furrowed. "I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong."
"Nothing," Elizabeth promised in a rush, resting a hand at the side of Will's face. "My mind just runs on without me lately and, well," she trailed off. She couldn't rightfully tell him she was thinking of another man the last time they laid together, let alone Jack. "I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong either."
Will looked thoughtful for a moment then took Elizabeth's hand, offering a small smile. "I have an idea."
Elizabeth didn't have any expectations for what Will had in mind, but she certainly didn't expect him to lead them to Jack's cabin and throw the door open without so much as a knock. Her mouth dropped open in the beginnings of protest but she was too late. They stood dawdling in the doorway and eventually Jack, legs crossed sitting on his writing desk, lowered the book he was reading from his face to reveal a frown.
"What do you want?" Jack asked flatly, the question nearly one word with how quickly he muttered it.
"Just some advice from our Captain—"
"Yes, you should swap the put-upon brooding expression for your dopey smile. Furthermore, lose the bandana. Doesn't suit you one bit, Turner." Jack waved the pair away. "There. Run along."
"Not that," Will replied, managing to look only slightly offended before whispering an aside to Elizabeth, a question on if his smile was truly all that dopey.
Jack heaved a sigh and forcefully shut the book and placed it upon his desk. He looked up to Will and Elizabeth expectantly, his eyes dancing back and forth between the two then shrugged his shoulders in irritation when they remained silent.
"Well, what then?"
"Will came here for advice in, well, in terms of…"
"Trysts."
"Ah, trysts." Jack hummed then grinned widely enough to show all of his gold teeth. "Should have started with that bit, William. In, in, in, grab the door." Jack gestured them forward then his fingertips rested at his chin thoughtfully. "Alright, what exactly is the problem at hand?"
"Elizabeth is less responsive."
Elizabeth hastily turned to Will, an affronted noise falling from her lips.
"The events of a tryst must be worth responding to." Jack raised an eyebrow at Will whose mouth dropped open, gaping, now the affronted one.
"It's worth—"
"No need to get defensive, William. I only mean to say, you two have gone at it for—What?" Jack counted on his fingers briefly, muttering to himself. "Nearly thirty moon cycles now? I don't blame you. Only natural to grow weary of the same old thing."
Elizabeth didn't correct Jack although it was only twenty moon cycles, her and Will remaining shy and virginal the first few cycles as crew members aboard the Black Pearl.
Jack's fingertips drummed against his mouth thoughtfully then suggested, "Ever heard of cross-matching?"
"Cross-matching?" Elizabeth echoed, barely allowing Jack to finish uttering the word before her voice mirrored his, breathless.
"Exactly as it sounds, Lizzie." Jack swept both index fingers past the other outwards from himself, drawing an "x" in the air. "Swapping one's significant other. You know, reawaken the body's desires with a new one." Jack paused, a near-humorous expression coloring his features as he formulated an idea. "I volunteer my services. Should this interest you."
"I didn't know you were so eager for a go with Will," Elizabeth said. She smiled as if confident, however, her heart was racing in her throat. If Will agreed to the proposition, it was as if absolving her untamable thoughts.
"Ha ha," Jack replied humorlessly.
Elizabeth eyed the book on Jack's desk with piqued curiosity knowing that a carried book revealed much about a person. Jack pulled the book into his lap when he noticed then gestured with his hand as if trying to shoo an answer out of them.
"Well? Thoughts?"
"Swapping one's significant other," Will echoed slowly. "There's only one problem, Jack. You haven't got one."
Jack shot Will a sour look. "Not on board, however, it would behoove you to know the women who experienced the pleasure of sharing a right and honest shag with me would color a map entirely. I wouldn't expect you to know such passionate, fleeting love," he sighed patronizingly.
Elizabeth noticed Jack often put upon that condescending tone when Will was around. Their banter was so unlike hers and Jack's, she realized, as both men did not behave as playful equals but were always trying to one-up the other instead.
"Then who would you swap?" Will challenged then paused, his brow furrowing. "It sounds awful to say, as if trading property."
"'Trading property?' Hogwash. Lizzie has a say in the matter. I'm scandalized you would think otherwise. So improper, William." Jack tutted at him. He crossed in front of the writing desk then perched upon it, clasping his hands above his knee and swinging his hanging leg. "Will. William. Mister Turner…" His finger tapped against his mouth in thought. "You would get…" Jack's eyes searched the room, landing on the cage in the corner. "The monkey."
"Jack!" Will exclaimed, exasperated. Elizabeth swallowed down a laugh.
"Perfect! You even remember the beast's name. You're sure to get on swimmingly."
"We agreed to nothing. Elizabeth would never…" Will turned to her with wide eyes. "Would you?"
"Well," Elizabeth started, her voice coming out higher than she had hoped. She cleared her throat then continued on. "It's an interesting notion to," Elizabeth noticed both men leaning forward slightly, hanging on her every word, "consider."
"Consider?" Jack and Will said in time, both sounding offended for entirely different reasons. They respectively regained composure in their own ways: Will sweeping a hand over his hair and crossing his arms and Jack inspecting his nails before straightening his vest.
"Fine," Jack said bitterly.
"Fine," Will echoed.
"Fine!" Elizabeth clasped her hands together and laughed to fill dead air. "Well then, now that Jack enlightened us with such," she stilled, "interesting probabilities, shall we lunch?"
Will scoffed. "I'm not sharing a table with him."
"The pleasure is all not mine, thank you." Jack matched Will's narrowed eyes then looked to Elizabeth, softening and leaning in close. "The next table we share, Darling, will come just before we share a bed." Jack made the words sound every bit like an oath, speaking quietly enough to sound seductive but loud enough for Will to hear.
Jack brushed Elizabeth's hair behind her shoulder and locked his eyes on her mouth. Elizabeth flushed and her mouth worked around words that evaded her.
"You,"—Will glared at Jack—"impish tempter," he finished weakly.
Jack drew his hand away from toying with Elizabeth's hair, returning it to his side. He raised an eyebrow at Will. "Out of all the things you could say, you chose that?"
Will narrowed his eyes at both Jack and Elizabeth before leaving with a scoff. Elizabeth rushed from Jack's study in such haste that she didn't notice him following behind in a lazy gait. Jack found a spot on the stairs near the top of the deck, the best seat in the house for the show.
"I thought your love for me was unwavering."
"It is!"
Jack leaned forward, hearing Elizabeth's rushed footsteps. He peeked over the top step, just catching Elizabeth taking her beloved blacksmith by the arm.
"It was a hypothetical thought," she said soothingly, resting her hand against the side of Will's face. "A possibility."
"I don't want it to be possible at all! What, Elizabeth, his smell is just too alluring?"
Jack lifted an arm and gave a good whiff then shrugged. Honestly, he smelled worse pirates.
"You can't deny Jack's unbelievably charming," Elizabeth countered, and Jack's mouth pulled into a smile at that. "If not a walking joke at times." Jack pulled a face, offended.
"I can't believe you're actually considering—"
"Will, you took us to Jack. So, we asked Jack for his thoughts on the matter. That is all this is, consideration. We give it three days to think it over, and if we find it's not something we want to try out? All forgotten."
Will sighed and took Elizabeth's hands in his own. He met her eyes and, after a beat, nodded in acceptance. "We will consider it."
Elizabeth smiled and wrapped her arms around Will, nestling her head into his chest.
Three days? Oh, Jack was going to have right fun with this. He vowed to himself to momentarily rid Elizabeth of the boyfriend, just for one night.
