Upon A Painted Ocean - 16
Author: Daisy Sparrow
Pairing: Jack/Will, Will/Elizabeth
Rating: PG-13 and rising
Summary:
When a mysterious plague hits Port Royal Will and Elizabeth go with Captain Jack Sparrow to find a cure. But when Will is captured by the man who unleashed the plague and infected with a strange new disease that feeds on love things start to get complicated. Slashiness!
Archive:
As long as you ask me first.
Disclaimer:
Pirates of the Caribbean and all its characters are not mine. I am making no money off this. Don't sue the colleage kid who are already broke.
Credit for the title goes to Coleridge's poem and P.Speare who wrote the most wonderful Weiss Kreuz fic. Also special thanks to Darkdancer for the betaing.
Warning:
Same as always, first fic ever and English not my first language.
This chapter feel so weird, and I don't know how to fix it, it's like some kind of filler episode or something. The next chapter should start to pick up the pace a little, and I'll be introducing Vann. Kept on mention his name, but he hasn't appeared yet. He's the head of the rival pirate gang, and the *him* inside Jack's dream.
Zeke: Let me kill him.
Me: You are still bitter about it? Well, I guess he did do a better job than you.
I've actually got emails telling me that people have figured out who the *real* villain of the story is. And they were right, I am so impressed, but I guessed I did drop a lot of hints.
I am so happy with all the reviews, you guys have no idea how much this means to me.
Zeke: Pathetic.
Me: Be nice, remember I am the author, therefore, makes me almighty.
Please continue to R&R, and I'll continue to do my best. *bows*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will was tossing and turning. His forehead was damp and his night shirt was soaked through. His pale face lacked the usual relaxation from the abandonment brought by sleep, instead it was troubled as if chased by some ghostly shadows.
Jack stared at the boy worriedly. He had been trying to sleep for the last three hours, but the sandman had rejected him over and over. He propped his upper body up with one elbow, and looked down on the boy's steadily moving chest, as it rose and fell with each breath.
*** I am cold. Stay with me? ***
The brunette had simply turned those liquid brown eyes at him, red from crying and deadlier than any weapon. He had melted and climbed inside the covers obediently.
The youth had burrowed himself into Jack's chest and slipped into slumber soon afterward, while Jack was wide awake, was still wide awake.
He could not sleep with Will beside him...especially not with Will beside him and on the same bed. His admittedly perverted mind was stocked with possibilities of what else he could be doing with the boy, the bed and several exotic and creative positions.
//Think something else, something not arousing.//
Predictably his efforts had the exact opposite effect. His train of thoughts was beginning to sidetrack. He cursed at himself and scrambled through his brain for the most disgusting images that he could conjured up.
Barbossa in that oversized hat and nothing else. Elizabeth and Anemarie making out. Although that was...strangly hot. Norrington and that pretty lieutenant sucking faces. He wouldn't be surprised if they did; he had seen the way the commodore glanced at Will.
Will, beautiful Will, beautiful Will who was lying beside hi..... The more he tried to stop thinking about the boy, the more he thought about him.
//Damn ye, William Turner.//
The boy groaned softly in sleep and his breathing sped up. Will turned slightly to face him, and the red marks around his shoulder became visible in the moonlight.
Jack's heart skipped.
*** Her touch hurt me. ****
*That* memory had quenched the boiling inside his groin. He fell back to his side of the bed and covered his eyes with the back of his hands.
Had his hypothesis been wrong? Or was he on the wrong path to start with?
*** Why? Why did her touch hurt me? ****
He did not know what to say at the time. He still would not know what to say if Will should ask him the same question.
He shuffled through the disarrayed evident as the explanation hanged just at the edge of his thoughts. All the clues were getting more and more tangled. This parry of inscrutability was like a Russian doll, one mystery inside another.
Or perhaps, the answer was in plain sight, and he was the one who was too blinded and distracted by the supposed reaction to focus on the actual reaction.
He had a feeling that Will was trying to tell him something early that evening. He also had a feeling that whatever it was, it had the potential to alter his life forever. He had wanted to know, but the torment in those expressive eyes had alarmed him. If it had pained Will to such extend to just think about it, then it couldn't have been something good. At the same time his survival instinct had been screaming at him to let the matter pass and divert the boy's attention to elsewhere, there was the strangest sense of anticipation lurking at the pit of his stomach.
//Perhaps Will wanted to tell me that he loves someone else.//
It was entirely possible, since Elizabeth apparently did not have any observable positive effect on the boy's condition. Furthermore, the burns on Will and the lass's early reaction were not too encouraging neither.
But he had already established the fact that Will's illness was nothing natural. Both Will and Zeke had hinted on the involvement of magic and whatever spell must had something to do with emotion..... maybe love, or at the very least lust.
He himself could vouched for that.
Lust, he thought bitterly, since when did Captain Jack Sparrow become so selective about his bed partner and stopped being satiated by just lust? And the turn of event had opened the door to endless possibilities, he mused.
//Will might love someone else....someone like...me?//
No, he told himself sternly. Perish the thought. Nip the bud before it blossoms. There was no point in building up false hope. He knew himself well, perhaps too well. When the pent up emotion reached its pivot point, there would be no where else to go but down.
He knew that if he allowed this fantasizing to continue, he would tell the boy, most likely in the worst place at the worst time. People had always said that he had as many lives as a cat, but Will's hatred and disgust could, and would kill him.
He had tried to comfort the boy to the best of his abilities. He had wrapped the blankets around Will like a cocoon. The gesture was a poor substitute for a shield, perhaps it was only the imitation of a shield or the mere promise of it. But it was one built with all the silent yearning and tenderness he could gushed out from his heart without bleeding himself dry.
//The only logical thing to do right now would be to go after the priest. And I can guess where they would be going, to where *he* is.//
By his calculation, it would take another two days before they reach Isla de Las Aves. It was one of the most forgotten island in the West Indies and situated almost right in the middle of the Caribbean. It was said that the island was getting smaller every year because it was being swallowed slowly by the sea. The water surrounded the island was nearly impossible to navigate through and had entombed many ships from long ago.
The island of Las Aves was also rumored to be cursed. Although Jack knew better. He grew up there.
He had not returned in over twenty five years. There was nothing there now. Nothing, but the coven for the most notorious pirate gang on all seven seas and the wreckage remain of a broken past. A past which had recurred in and terrorized his dreams for so long.
The island held some of his most precious memories, but it was also the burial ground for the ones who gave him those memories.
Sometimes he wondered what his life would have been like if he had not saved that stranger from the beach. Would he have eventually ceded his childhood dream of exploring the sea until his back bent from the responsibilities that would eventually be weighted upon him? Would he have stayed with the others in self-exile until old age wore him down and all chances of sailing were past him? Would he have been happy living in the blissful simplicity of the ignorant?
Lately those thoughts had beginning to scare him. Not for the loss of freedom they symbolized, that he could learn to bear.... given enough time. Imprisonment of body did not mean imprisonment of heart. The fear was for the fact that if he had stayed in Isle de Aves, he would never have met Will.
That thought scared him even more, and brought forth an emotion which he had disregarded when he chose the path of piracy.
Guilt.
Jack sighed and settled himself deeper into the nest made of mattress and blankets. A flare of tremor ran through the body beside him. He tightened his arms around the boy and nuzzled into chestnut hair.
He did not notice the small gap between the door and the wall, and the hitched breathing from the other side.
~~~*~~~
The Black Pearl was sailing at full speed. It's magnificent fans unfolded to full size and took the
strains of the blowing wind with ease. Great oars reached out from both side of the ship like giant arms. Their circular motion unleashed massive force with each downward push and cut through the waves like knife through butter. The fluid design of the body allowed the Black Pearl to part through the water like a needle, separate the waves at the prow and reunited them at the rear.
Zeke looked out through the window of his kitchen at the first blush of the morning.
The red and gold glows of the eastern sky painted an layer of pink over the ocean. All was quiet, except the splashing of water against wood and the faint chattering of the night shift crews.
It was still too early to cook breakfast, and he allowed himself to immerse in the quietness of the moment. He was usually the first one awake since he did not need as much sleep as regular humans did. Even though he had always thought sunrise to be terribly cheerful and exhilarating, it was the only time that the ship could attain anything even resembling sincerity and peace.
He poked his head out of the window and smelled the freshness of morning air mingled with the briny scent lingered from last night.
The kitchen was located at the rear of the ship just below the deck which heldthe captain's quarter. The white foams produced by the constant clasping between the ship and the ocean tides were spread out like snow flakes.
A small twinkle of emerald would appear there and then between surges of swaying waves. Zeke looked down with amusement at the mermaid who had been tagging the ship since last night. He watched the small green dot began gaining speed, until it was right below his window.
With a powerful sway of grassy scaled tail, she jumped high above the water and latched onto the net hanged at the rear of the ship.
He supported both elbows against the window sill and rested his chin on upturned palms. Tisha was struggling with the coarse entanglement of thin ropes.
She raised her head and immediately spotted him.
He flashed her a bright smile and gave her a little wave with two fingers, but retained from commenting on the her ridiculous position. However, his mockery must had been apparent in his _expression, because she balled her fists and shook them angrily at him.
One instant of stillness passed between them with deceptive slowness, before her eyes widened, finally realized that her hands were no longer gripping the net.
Zeke almost fell over when he caught the uproarious funny _expression on her face. She flailed her arms wildly around her to little avail before gravity pulled her down, and she fell into the sea with a less than graceful stance.
The door of the kitchen creaked open.
He turned his head as Elizabeth walked in. She was still wearing the nightgown from when Zeke last saw her. Her shoulders were slugged in defeat and her eyes were swollen from crying. Zeke blinked at the shabbiness of both clothes and spirit from the usual tidy and energetic girl.
"Good morning, Miss. Elizabeth."
Her head snapped up. She smiled guilty at him like a child whose hand had just been caught in the cookie jar.
"G...good morning, Zeke. I didn't know anyone was up this early."
"I am usually the first one to wake up."
"Oh, I...I like early morning, too. The air is so refreshing."
"Exactly, morning is also the only time the ship is quiet."
"Yes it is."
"......."
"......."
Zeke stared at her vacuously. After all the usual pleasantries were exchanged, there was no more topics they could talk about, that was even remotely disassociated with a certain blacksmith. In other words, nothing that was harmless for idle chat.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Miss. Elizabeth?"
"N...no, I... I am fine."
She scrubbed her face with the back of her hands, but Zeke could still see the clear trails left by tears. A few crew members had witness her distress as she ran out from Will's cabin last night, and all kind of rumors have undoubtedly plagued the entire ship by now.
"Would you like some tea?"
She nodded in gratitude. He set out to boil some water using the iron stove. They both waited patiently for the wailing sound of stream. When the water was ready, he put out two clay mugs on the table and dug out a tin can of tea leaves from the cupboard. He sprinkled some leaves into the mugs and carefully poured the water inside. He put one mug in front of Elizabeth, who smiled shyly up at him.
"Those are herbs I got from the east, suppose to smooth your nerves."
"Thank you."
They sipped their teas in companionable silence for a few minutes, before Elizabeth asked abruptly.
"Zeke, have you ever loved someone?"
He blinked owlishly at the unexpected question. Her face flushed and she dipped her head.
"It's....none of my business. I am sorry if I was too forward."
"....it's quite all right, Miss.Elizabeth."
"......"
"......"
"....well, have you?"
He sighed. Why did he always end up playing love counselor to teenage girls? Just which part of him said experienced in relationships. Sure he was over five thousand years old, but age did not equal wisdom and he had spend ninety nine percent of that time either sleeping or plotting revenge.
"I am afraid not, Miss. Elizabeth."
Contrast to popular belief, demons can love. One could not truly understand hatred without having something to compare it to. Love was, however, something of a myth and was extremely rare among his kind.
"Oh. Have you ever wanted to?"
"Love someone? No.....someone I knew told me once that, love makes all four seasons feel like winter."
"Ah."
"I don't like the cold."
She giggled slightly at that and the rigid lines around her mouth melted. He swallowed down the nauseating feeling issued by the fact that he had involuntarily lightened her mood.
"Let's say... hypothetically, if the person you love wanted someone else. What would you do?"
//Other than chain one to the bed and blast the other into oblivion. Damn... what would be the human thing to say..... oh, yeah.//
"I would... eh... want that person to be happy."
"Then you would let him go?"
"I... would."
The whole picture of the situation was gradually becoming clear to him now. It was not that complicated to fathom. Elizabeth knew, or at least suspected something.
"I couldn't."
"Couldn't, Miss. Elizabeth?"
"Couldn't let him go...."
"Will?"
"Y...yes." She was blushing furiously now.
"Then you should chain him to the bed and kill the competition."
Zeke deadpanned, then realized with dismay that said competition was his target. He wondered whether it was too late to rescind that advice.
"I can't do that!"
She looked horrified and stood up suddenly. Her chair fell backward on the floor with a loud impact. Then her _expression darkened, "but I can't just give him up neither... I have to do something..... even... even if it meant that Jack will be hurt in the process."
Zeke watched as guilt and determination traveled through her face at the same time. There was nothing shameful in fighting for what one wanted, he wanted to tell her, it was a good thing, it meant that she was not completely hopeless after all.
Then he remembered that comforting her further would go against everything that he was taught and his very nature, so he clamped down on his unruly tongue.
"I...I have to go now." Elizabeth glanced up at him hesitantly, "Can you.... not mention our conversation to anyone?"
"....what conversation?"
He grinned to reassure her. Behind his back, his fingers were crossed. She smiled up at him unguardedly, turned and walked toward the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This message is for Icy Flame.
To answer your question, Will is dying because of both the potion and his desire for Jack. The original purpose of the potion was to corrupt the love between him and Elizabeth by having him...well, eh...hurt her. But because of that wonder rock of Ram...
Zeke: DON'T say his name, it's bad luck!
Me: You are afraid of the strangest things.
Anyway, the purpose of the ruby wasn't to repel evil, it was actually designed specifically for Zeke...
Zeke: Excuse me if I don't jump up and down with joy.
Me: Be quite, you are just pissed that someone managed to outwitted you.... not like that would have been difficult.
...which is why it effect the demon so much. However, one of its main function is to contain black magic, but it's only a piece and wasn't powerful enough to completely cancelled out the potion. Just alternated it a little, which was why Will almost, but didn't rape Jack.
The potion, like most magic, can be broke by either fulfilling its objective (what that is, I think you guys can all guess *wink, wink*) or by killing the one who casted it. I hope that answered your question. ^_^
If there are anything else that are not clear, I'll be glad to explain it. This story confuse myself sometimes, there are way too many things going on. I actually have a notebook keep track of everything. _
Author: Daisy Sparrow
Pairing: Jack/Will, Will/Elizabeth
Rating: PG-13 and rising
Summary:
When a mysterious plague hits Port Royal Will and Elizabeth go with Captain Jack Sparrow to find a cure. But when Will is captured by the man who unleashed the plague and infected with a strange new disease that feeds on love things start to get complicated. Slashiness!
Archive:
As long as you ask me first.
Disclaimer:
Pirates of the Caribbean and all its characters are not mine. I am making no money off this. Don't sue the colleage kid who are already broke.
Credit for the title goes to Coleridge's poem and P.Speare who wrote the most wonderful Weiss Kreuz fic. Also special thanks to Darkdancer for the betaing.
Warning:
Same as always, first fic ever and English not my first language.
This chapter feel so weird, and I don't know how to fix it, it's like some kind of filler episode or something. The next chapter should start to pick up the pace a little, and I'll be introducing Vann. Kept on mention his name, but he hasn't appeared yet. He's the head of the rival pirate gang, and the *him* inside Jack's dream.
Zeke: Let me kill him.
Me: You are still bitter about it? Well, I guess he did do a better job than you.
I've actually got emails telling me that people have figured out who the *real* villain of the story is. And they were right, I am so impressed, but I guessed I did drop a lot of hints.
I am so happy with all the reviews, you guys have no idea how much this means to me.
Zeke: Pathetic.
Me: Be nice, remember I am the author, therefore, makes me almighty.
Please continue to R&R, and I'll continue to do my best. *bows*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will was tossing and turning. His forehead was damp and his night shirt was soaked through. His pale face lacked the usual relaxation from the abandonment brought by sleep, instead it was troubled as if chased by some ghostly shadows.
Jack stared at the boy worriedly. He had been trying to sleep for the last three hours, but the sandman had rejected him over and over. He propped his upper body up with one elbow, and looked down on the boy's steadily moving chest, as it rose and fell with each breath.
*** I am cold. Stay with me? ***
The brunette had simply turned those liquid brown eyes at him, red from crying and deadlier than any weapon. He had melted and climbed inside the covers obediently.
The youth had burrowed himself into Jack's chest and slipped into slumber soon afterward, while Jack was wide awake, was still wide awake.
He could not sleep with Will beside him...especially not with Will beside him and on the same bed. His admittedly perverted mind was stocked with possibilities of what else he could be doing with the boy, the bed and several exotic and creative positions.
//Think something else, something not arousing.//
Predictably his efforts had the exact opposite effect. His train of thoughts was beginning to sidetrack. He cursed at himself and scrambled through his brain for the most disgusting images that he could conjured up.
Barbossa in that oversized hat and nothing else. Elizabeth and Anemarie making out. Although that was...strangly hot. Norrington and that pretty lieutenant sucking faces. He wouldn't be surprised if they did; he had seen the way the commodore glanced at Will.
Will, beautiful Will, beautiful Will who was lying beside hi..... The more he tried to stop thinking about the boy, the more he thought about him.
//Damn ye, William Turner.//
The boy groaned softly in sleep and his breathing sped up. Will turned slightly to face him, and the red marks around his shoulder became visible in the moonlight.
Jack's heart skipped.
*** Her touch hurt me. ****
*That* memory had quenched the boiling inside his groin. He fell back to his side of the bed and covered his eyes with the back of his hands.
Had his hypothesis been wrong? Or was he on the wrong path to start with?
*** Why? Why did her touch hurt me? ****
He did not know what to say at the time. He still would not know what to say if Will should ask him the same question.
He shuffled through the disarrayed evident as the explanation hanged just at the edge of his thoughts. All the clues were getting more and more tangled. This parry of inscrutability was like a Russian doll, one mystery inside another.
Or perhaps, the answer was in plain sight, and he was the one who was too blinded and distracted by the supposed reaction to focus on the actual reaction.
He had a feeling that Will was trying to tell him something early that evening. He also had a feeling that whatever it was, it had the potential to alter his life forever. He had wanted to know, but the torment in those expressive eyes had alarmed him. If it had pained Will to such extend to just think about it, then it couldn't have been something good. At the same time his survival instinct had been screaming at him to let the matter pass and divert the boy's attention to elsewhere, there was the strangest sense of anticipation lurking at the pit of his stomach.
//Perhaps Will wanted to tell me that he loves someone else.//
It was entirely possible, since Elizabeth apparently did not have any observable positive effect on the boy's condition. Furthermore, the burns on Will and the lass's early reaction were not too encouraging neither.
But he had already established the fact that Will's illness was nothing natural. Both Will and Zeke had hinted on the involvement of magic and whatever spell must had something to do with emotion..... maybe love, or at the very least lust.
He himself could vouched for that.
Lust, he thought bitterly, since when did Captain Jack Sparrow become so selective about his bed partner and stopped being satiated by just lust? And the turn of event had opened the door to endless possibilities, he mused.
//Will might love someone else....someone like...me?//
No, he told himself sternly. Perish the thought. Nip the bud before it blossoms. There was no point in building up false hope. He knew himself well, perhaps too well. When the pent up emotion reached its pivot point, there would be no where else to go but down.
He knew that if he allowed this fantasizing to continue, he would tell the boy, most likely in the worst place at the worst time. People had always said that he had as many lives as a cat, but Will's hatred and disgust could, and would kill him.
He had tried to comfort the boy to the best of his abilities. He had wrapped the blankets around Will like a cocoon. The gesture was a poor substitute for a shield, perhaps it was only the imitation of a shield or the mere promise of it. But it was one built with all the silent yearning and tenderness he could gushed out from his heart without bleeding himself dry.
//The only logical thing to do right now would be to go after the priest. And I can guess where they would be going, to where *he* is.//
By his calculation, it would take another two days before they reach Isla de Las Aves. It was one of the most forgotten island in the West Indies and situated almost right in the middle of the Caribbean. It was said that the island was getting smaller every year because it was being swallowed slowly by the sea. The water surrounded the island was nearly impossible to navigate through and had entombed many ships from long ago.
The island of Las Aves was also rumored to be cursed. Although Jack knew better. He grew up there.
He had not returned in over twenty five years. There was nothing there now. Nothing, but the coven for the most notorious pirate gang on all seven seas and the wreckage remain of a broken past. A past which had recurred in and terrorized his dreams for so long.
The island held some of his most precious memories, but it was also the burial ground for the ones who gave him those memories.
Sometimes he wondered what his life would have been like if he had not saved that stranger from the beach. Would he have eventually ceded his childhood dream of exploring the sea until his back bent from the responsibilities that would eventually be weighted upon him? Would he have stayed with the others in self-exile until old age wore him down and all chances of sailing were past him? Would he have been happy living in the blissful simplicity of the ignorant?
Lately those thoughts had beginning to scare him. Not for the loss of freedom they symbolized, that he could learn to bear.... given enough time. Imprisonment of body did not mean imprisonment of heart. The fear was for the fact that if he had stayed in Isle de Aves, he would never have met Will.
That thought scared him even more, and brought forth an emotion which he had disregarded when he chose the path of piracy.
Guilt.
Jack sighed and settled himself deeper into the nest made of mattress and blankets. A flare of tremor ran through the body beside him. He tightened his arms around the boy and nuzzled into chestnut hair.
He did not notice the small gap between the door and the wall, and the hitched breathing from the other side.
~~~*~~~
The Black Pearl was sailing at full speed. It's magnificent fans unfolded to full size and took the
strains of the blowing wind with ease. Great oars reached out from both side of the ship like giant arms. Their circular motion unleashed massive force with each downward push and cut through the waves like knife through butter. The fluid design of the body allowed the Black Pearl to part through the water like a needle, separate the waves at the prow and reunited them at the rear.
Zeke looked out through the window of his kitchen at the first blush of the morning.
The red and gold glows of the eastern sky painted an layer of pink over the ocean. All was quiet, except the splashing of water against wood and the faint chattering of the night shift crews.
It was still too early to cook breakfast, and he allowed himself to immerse in the quietness of the moment. He was usually the first one awake since he did not need as much sleep as regular humans did. Even though he had always thought sunrise to be terribly cheerful and exhilarating, it was the only time that the ship could attain anything even resembling sincerity and peace.
He poked his head out of the window and smelled the freshness of morning air mingled with the briny scent lingered from last night.
The kitchen was located at the rear of the ship just below the deck which heldthe captain's quarter. The white foams produced by the constant clasping between the ship and the ocean tides were spread out like snow flakes.
A small twinkle of emerald would appear there and then between surges of swaying waves. Zeke looked down with amusement at the mermaid who had been tagging the ship since last night. He watched the small green dot began gaining speed, until it was right below his window.
With a powerful sway of grassy scaled tail, she jumped high above the water and latched onto the net hanged at the rear of the ship.
He supported both elbows against the window sill and rested his chin on upturned palms. Tisha was struggling with the coarse entanglement of thin ropes.
She raised her head and immediately spotted him.
He flashed her a bright smile and gave her a little wave with two fingers, but retained from commenting on the her ridiculous position. However, his mockery must had been apparent in his _expression, because she balled her fists and shook them angrily at him.
One instant of stillness passed between them with deceptive slowness, before her eyes widened, finally realized that her hands were no longer gripping the net.
Zeke almost fell over when he caught the uproarious funny _expression on her face. She flailed her arms wildly around her to little avail before gravity pulled her down, and she fell into the sea with a less than graceful stance.
The door of the kitchen creaked open.
He turned his head as Elizabeth walked in. She was still wearing the nightgown from when Zeke last saw her. Her shoulders were slugged in defeat and her eyes were swollen from crying. Zeke blinked at the shabbiness of both clothes and spirit from the usual tidy and energetic girl.
"Good morning, Miss. Elizabeth."
Her head snapped up. She smiled guilty at him like a child whose hand had just been caught in the cookie jar.
"G...good morning, Zeke. I didn't know anyone was up this early."
"I am usually the first one to wake up."
"Oh, I...I like early morning, too. The air is so refreshing."
"Exactly, morning is also the only time the ship is quiet."
"Yes it is."
"......."
"......."
Zeke stared at her vacuously. After all the usual pleasantries were exchanged, there was no more topics they could talk about, that was even remotely disassociated with a certain blacksmith. In other words, nothing that was harmless for idle chat.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Miss. Elizabeth?"
"N...no, I... I am fine."
She scrubbed her face with the back of her hands, but Zeke could still see the clear trails left by tears. A few crew members had witness her distress as she ran out from Will's cabin last night, and all kind of rumors have undoubtedly plagued the entire ship by now.
"Would you like some tea?"
She nodded in gratitude. He set out to boil some water using the iron stove. They both waited patiently for the wailing sound of stream. When the water was ready, he put out two clay mugs on the table and dug out a tin can of tea leaves from the cupboard. He sprinkled some leaves into the mugs and carefully poured the water inside. He put one mug in front of Elizabeth, who smiled shyly up at him.
"Those are herbs I got from the east, suppose to smooth your nerves."
"Thank you."
They sipped their teas in companionable silence for a few minutes, before Elizabeth asked abruptly.
"Zeke, have you ever loved someone?"
He blinked owlishly at the unexpected question. Her face flushed and she dipped her head.
"It's....none of my business. I am sorry if I was too forward."
"....it's quite all right, Miss.Elizabeth."
"......"
"......"
"....well, have you?"
He sighed. Why did he always end up playing love counselor to teenage girls? Just which part of him said experienced in relationships. Sure he was over five thousand years old, but age did not equal wisdom and he had spend ninety nine percent of that time either sleeping or plotting revenge.
"I am afraid not, Miss. Elizabeth."
Contrast to popular belief, demons can love. One could not truly understand hatred without having something to compare it to. Love was, however, something of a myth and was extremely rare among his kind.
"Oh. Have you ever wanted to?"
"Love someone? No.....someone I knew told me once that, love makes all four seasons feel like winter."
"Ah."
"I don't like the cold."
She giggled slightly at that and the rigid lines around her mouth melted. He swallowed down the nauseating feeling issued by the fact that he had involuntarily lightened her mood.
"Let's say... hypothetically, if the person you love wanted someone else. What would you do?"
//Other than chain one to the bed and blast the other into oblivion. Damn... what would be the human thing to say..... oh, yeah.//
"I would... eh... want that person to be happy."
"Then you would let him go?"
"I... would."
The whole picture of the situation was gradually becoming clear to him now. It was not that complicated to fathom. Elizabeth knew, or at least suspected something.
"I couldn't."
"Couldn't, Miss. Elizabeth?"
"Couldn't let him go...."
"Will?"
"Y...yes." She was blushing furiously now.
"Then you should chain him to the bed and kill the competition."
Zeke deadpanned, then realized with dismay that said competition was his target. He wondered whether it was too late to rescind that advice.
"I can't do that!"
She looked horrified and stood up suddenly. Her chair fell backward on the floor with a loud impact. Then her _expression darkened, "but I can't just give him up neither... I have to do something..... even... even if it meant that Jack will be hurt in the process."
Zeke watched as guilt and determination traveled through her face at the same time. There was nothing shameful in fighting for what one wanted, he wanted to tell her, it was a good thing, it meant that she was not completely hopeless after all.
Then he remembered that comforting her further would go against everything that he was taught and his very nature, so he clamped down on his unruly tongue.
"I...I have to go now." Elizabeth glanced up at him hesitantly, "Can you.... not mention our conversation to anyone?"
"....what conversation?"
He grinned to reassure her. Behind his back, his fingers were crossed. She smiled up at him unguardedly, turned and walked toward the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This message is for Icy Flame.
To answer your question, Will is dying because of both the potion and his desire for Jack. The original purpose of the potion was to corrupt the love between him and Elizabeth by having him...well, eh...hurt her. But because of that wonder rock of Ram...
Zeke: DON'T say his name, it's bad luck!
Me: You are afraid of the strangest things.
Anyway, the purpose of the ruby wasn't to repel evil, it was actually designed specifically for Zeke...
Zeke: Excuse me if I don't jump up and down with joy.
Me: Be quite, you are just pissed that someone managed to outwitted you.... not like that would have been difficult.
...which is why it effect the demon so much. However, one of its main function is to contain black magic, but it's only a piece and wasn't powerful enough to completely cancelled out the potion. Just alternated it a little, which was why Will almost, but didn't rape Jack.
The potion, like most magic, can be broke by either fulfilling its objective (what that is, I think you guys can all guess *wink, wink*) or by killing the one who casted it. I hope that answered your question. ^_^
If there are anything else that are not clear, I'll be glad to explain it. This story confuse myself sometimes, there are way too many things going on. I actually have a notebook keep track of everything. _