by Poppets of the Pearl
a.k.a. Cherry-Alanna and LittleBlackStarz
Disclaimer: You know what we own. Adelia. Odessa. The plot. No stealing. And please no flames--be kind. Don't spoil the movie for us. But, Constructive criticism is accepted, with thanks.
~Chapter 6: Drink up me hearties, yo ho
Will reboarded the Pearl sometime later, ignoring the silver mists gathering along the shore.
He entered the passage where he remembered her room being, and gently rapped on the door when he came upon the right one.
"Who is it?" came a voice from inside. Hers.
"Will...Turner," he answered. "Adelia, let me in. I need to talk to you."
"Go away! I don't want to talk to ye! Not now or ever!"
"Open the door," he requested calmly.
"Apologizing to women's doors?" a voice asked from behind Will. Will glanced up; it was, of course, Jack.
"Yes...it's not inputting much, either," Will responded, rolling his eyes.
"Good times, good times," Jack mumbled more to himself than Will. When Will gave him a confused look, Jack waved it away. "Maybe a good talk to the bottom of a glass will console ye, savvy?" Jack replied with a grin. Will grinned in return and left with Jack to get a drink.
~
"I just don't understand it, Jack," Will began, rubbing his face in his hand, a full mug of rum sitting in front of him.
Jack took a sip out of his own mug. "Well, lad, Adelia's not an easy lass to understand...unless you have her down to a tee, ye see..."
Will laughed quietly, his mind wandering. "She's hot one minute, and then cold the next...I just don't get it."
"Not many do," Jack replied, feeling a sudden jolt of anxiety. He had his own issues, and although he had repeatedly pushed aside his problems, so as to aid in Will's, his newest dilemma couldn't be pushed aside.
Will's sister had a mystery about her; she was very interesting, as Jack was known to say. There was something intriguing about her, and Jack intended to find out exactly what it was.
Turning back to his younger friend, Jack noticed Will slowly crept his mug of rum closer to his lips. Jack pretended to be interested in his own everlasting glass, but all the while taking notice of Will's first drink of rum.
Will's initial reaction to the alcohol was a burning sensation down his throat, followed by a shockingly comforting, yet tangy, aftertaste.
Will turned wide eyes to a grinning Sparrow. "How do you drink this stuff as if it were water?" he asked his pirate friend, clearly confused.
"Lad," Jack began, "Rum is oddly comforting and reassuring in times of excitement and crisis. Especially those involving women."
"Well, you must be drinking it all the time then," Will blurt out, remembering how the women in Tortuga had reacted to Jack.
Jack's grin turned into a smile as he clanged the two cups together in an act of cheers. "Aye," he replied, then savorily devoured more Caribbean rum.
~Sometime later...
While Jack and Will were happily drinking to drunkenness in the silent abyss that was the Pearl's galley, Adelia tossed and turned about in her bed. She desperately wanted sleep to claim her in order to be rid of the most trying day, but the growl and emptiness in her stomach was overpowering.
Adelia had realized sometime ago that she hadn't eaten, but feared leaving the sanctuary of her room. She had silently hoped that Will Turner had left his guard at her door and rejoined Jack and their new friend, but deep down, Adelia had a sinking feeling that he was about the Pearl.
Knowing that sleep would never come until her uneasiness and hunger were gone, Adelia sat straight up in her bed, and wrapped one of the spare blankets around herself. She rethought about her embarrassing day as she lit the nearest candle for light. She would never forget the way Will had rushed to her side or the look of madness in his eyes as she pulled him off the man. Secretly, she was a little touched by Will's actions, but she would never admit that to him, or Jack, for fear of more embarrassment and inviting thoughts about feelings that were not present.
As Adelia hesitantly made her to the kitchen in the lower deck, she occasionally checked the passages and corners for any sight of Will Turner.
It was when she was down the hall leading to the kitchen that she heard them, joyfully singing and talking.
Adelia didn't recognize either voice due to the slur of the drink, so she crept up to the door and looked in the crack.
She then stifled a giggle with her hand as none other than Jack Sparrow and Will Turner came into view. At the moment, both were the last people Adelia longed to see, but their state of drunkenness kept her where she was.
Jack was trying, unsuccessfully, to teach Will a song that the pirate captain lately wouldn't stop humming.
"No,no, laddy," Jack slurred, "it's 'we kidnap and ravage, and don't give a hoot.' Yo ho, Yo ho, A pirate's life for me!"
Will held up his now-refilled mug of rum, happily. "Drink up me hearties, yo ho!"
Together, each holding out their own mug, they sang, "Yo ho, Yo ho, A pirate's life for me!" Both took long swigs of rum, finishing off that drink; then Jack topped off the flagon with fresh, new rum, creating their 3rd shots.
"And really bad eggs!!" Jack exclaimed, yet drunk just as Will was.
Adelia couldn't contain her laughter any longer. She backed up against the side wall and covered her mouth with both her hands, but a laugh still escaped her, most likely reaching the men's drunken ears.
Jack set his mug down so abruptly, so suddenly, that Will tore his away, too.
"What is it, Jack?" Will asked, even though it came out as a mumble.
"Did ye hear something, Will?" Jack questioned his new fellow drinker. His speech was also slurred.
"No," Will told him, already lifting his drink back to his lips.
Jack then slowly, and stealthily, journeyed towards the door, trusty sword already unsheathed. The pirate practically pulled the door out of it's hinges as he yanked it back, making the light fall on Adelia's astonished face. Jack only grinned at her confused look.
"Care to join us, love?" Jack inquired as he held out an offered hand, which Adelia gladly took. Without waiting for an answer, he pulled her in the room, making Will's eyes go wide with shock and his face fill with guilt for previous actions and embarrassment at his current state.
Yet, she couldn't wipe the smile off her face from their song, so when Will finally found the courage to meet her stormy gray eyes, he was rewarded with a dashing and sweet smile that only filled his confidence.
However, when the smile upon Will's face began to form, Adelia realized he was smiling because she was smiling, and he probably thought...
Disgusted, Adelia quickly wiped the beam from her face and turned to the staggering Jack Sparrow to acknowledge his prior question.
"No," she simply stated, "I wouldn't like to join you drunkards. I came here to find something edible due to the fact that I haven't eaten. But once I came upon yer quite amusing singing, I became distracted. However, since you and Mr. Turner are here, mate, I'll leave, and wait until the smell of yer rum 'as cleared." With that, Adelia turned on her heel to exit.
As she did, Jack made direct eye contact with Will and nodded his head after her retreating form, telling his young friend to follow her, despite her irregular mood.
After taking one last swig of rum, Will did as he was told.
~
Will eventually caught up to Adelia's brisk pace when she was halfway to the bow of the Pearl, on the open decks, outside in the refresh, healthy sea air.
He grabbed her right elbow to stop her short, but since Adelia hadn't been expecting it she whirled about. When she caught sight of Will, she immediately grabbed hold of the nearest thing to keep from falling due to the shock. Well, the nearest thing happened to be Will.
Once she quickly regained her balance, she realized that her hands were upon his shoulders and her body was rather too close for comfort to his. She started to look up into his face to apologize for her current position, since it was rude to grab someone as she did, and then to break away slowly.
But that's where she made a mistake: looking into his eyes. Adelia wasn't ready for the hope she saw in them.
As their eyes met and held, Will felt a sort of jolt of excitement, joy, confidence, yet weakness, almost immediately. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't care to question it.
Shyly, yet almost daringly, he reached up to brush back a stray strand of auburn hair from her face that repeatedly was lifted by the salty-air breeze. As Will pushed the single hair back, he let his fingertips slowly caress the tiny scar above her left brow. Reacting to his soft and gentle touch, Adelia, without thinking, closed her eyes, falling into the feeling.
But when Will braced his right hand supportively and possessively on her lower back, drawing her closer to him, Adelia opened her eyes, startled. She traveled her hands down to his chest in order to push him away from her, but his hold on her was too tight.
"Mr. Turner, please take your hands off me," Adelia commanded, refraining herself from giving Will a solid smack.
"No," he simply stated, calm as all hell. The moonlight played with his handsome features, revealing that he was indeed serious.
That was when Adelia realized how drunk Will truly was.
Usually drunks were harmless, but not when they were as angry, hurt, and tired as Will currently was.
She knew he didn't have the backbone to harm her, but with the encouragement of the drunk, he indeed could. That was when Adelia somewhat began to panic.
Adelia looked around for any sign of life about the moonlit deck, already knowing it was useless. She knew the only other soul awake upon the ship was Jack, and he was just as drunk as Will. He would have probably been on Will's side of it too, being a man with desires also.
Breaking from her thoughts, Adelia turned to face Will once again, only to catch a short glimpse of a mischievous grin before he firmly placed his lips upon hers. She completely froze up, not knowing how to react. She desperately wanted to push him away (after all, she didn't want to be kissed by this lying, silly little boy), but found, somehow, that his kiss was slightly comforting. His lips were chapped from the travel by sea, his breath heavy from rum, but his touch was gentle and unsure, revealing his innocence to her. An innocence as true as her own.
Adelia wasn't in love, and didn't want to be in love; love was for foolish dreamers. Her mother had been helplessly in love with her father, and all love had gotten her was a broken heart and a growing womb.
Yet, despite all of this spinning around in her head, Adelia found herself kissing Will Turner back.
Deep in the shadows of the open upper deck, Jack Sparrow smiled, satisfied with himself, at the display of Adelia and Will kissing. He knew Will was attracted to the girl, as much as the boy tried to deny it; the kiss had only proved that. Drunken haze or no drunken haze Will was in. Plus, it only helped that Will wouldn't remember any of it tomorrow morning. Jack knew, that with his help, Will could be well on his way to falling in love with Adelia.
Adelia, on the other hand, was hard to decipher, but Jack had known the lass since she was only a child, so he felt he was up to the challenge. Adelia was definitely temperamental, he had known that for years; she seemed to hate Will with a passion, but at certain times that day, Jack had begun to notice a small connection of understanding, maybe even friendship, grow between his two comrades. Yet, only to have it be broken by the end of the day.
He knew Adelia hated the concept of love, for she had seen the downsides to it's consequences. He couldn't blame her for that. But he knew that Adelia needed a man by her side, despite her personal opinion on the matter; she needed the right kind of man.
And maybe, just maybe, with Jack's help, Will Turner could be that man.
One thing is for sure, Jack pondered as he continued to watch the young couple, it definitely is going to be interesting.
~*~