Title: Dragonfly
Author: Muse a.k.a. Viorith
Rating: R for sexual situations and violence
Pairing: Will/OFC & Jack/Anna Marie
Feedback: Yes
Archive: Ask first please!
Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with PoTC, I'm just playing with them. I do own Sabine. So please ask if you want to play with her.
Summary: Sabine has loved Will since she was 16, but since his eyes were for Elizabeth only, she settled for his friendship. A year after the curse is lifted, Sabine now needs him to teach her the way of the blade so she can avenge her father's death on a man that once called himself his friend.
Note: "text" is spoken in Spanish
Chapter 10
Sabine read over the document for the second time, just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. Of all the things she expected to happen aboard a pirate's ship, 'going on account' as Jack had explained it, wasn't one of them. The document had vague hints of honor in it, something she never suspected a pirate would be guilt of, let alone put his name to.
She glanced over at Will, who had already gone over the nine simple rules, signed it, and slid it back across the desk to the ship's Captain. She wasn't sure why she was hesitating, perhaps it was because this was the first thing she had ever been asked to sign. Perhaps it was because she knew once she signed the parliament, she wasn't just going on account as being a member of The Pearl, but as being a pirate.
"It's just a formality, luv," Jack explained, "I doubt you'll be guilty of any offense suggested there, especially number nine," he added with a grin.
She tapped the quill against the paper in front of her, before dipping the writing end into the inkwell and scratching out her name.
"It would appear there is honor among thieves after all, eh Jack?" Will observed.
"Not honor, mate," he corrected, "Rules. Everybody's gotta have rules." Jack took both signed documents, rolled them neatly together and placed them in one of the drawers before taking to his feet. "Now, follow me, and I'll show you two where you'll be resting your heads."
Sparrow led the way deeper into the hull of the ship, followed closely by Sabine and Will. Will tried to catch her eye as she moved past him out of the ward room, but as on the pier, she didn't so much as look his way. He had expected her anger, but what she was showing now, what she had shown on the pier was akin to regret. Surely, she won't end our friendship of this. She must understand this was a mistake. What he needed was a chance to be alone with her and explain his actions, or try to.
"Here we are," Jack paused outside a door, before opening it to reveal a sleeping cabin. Inside was a small dresser where clothes could be stored, nailed to the floor of the room. A bed with a trunk at the foot, both held down in the same fashion as the dresser, and a table with two chairs that were fit into tiny grooves cut into the wood floor. "It's the last cabin to be had."
"Surely you don't expect us to share?" Sabine tried to keep the disdain from coloring her words. The last place she wanted to be for the duration of her schooling was in a cabin with Will. His nearness had her on the verge of forgiving him, before he even asked for it. If they had to again share a room– a bed for that matter– she wasn't sure if her sanity or resolve would prevail.
"That, my dear, is entirely up to dear William. This is, after all, his cabin," Jack answered casting a glance to the blacksmith. "Of course, I'm more than willing to share mine," he amended. He moved closer to Sabine, but kept the volume of his voice the same, and his eyes on Will.
"She stays with me," Will spoke up, the territorial challenge evident in the bass roll of his voice.
"There is another option, yes?" Sabine piped up, "A place where the rest of your crew sleeps?"
This time the looks that passed between Will and Jack weren't of territorial primping or challenge, but of surprise and confusion.
"I'm sorry, luv, did you say you'd rather sleep with the rest of the crew?" Jack repeated, "You do realize you and Anna-Maria are the only lasses on this ship."
"Did the rest of your crew go not go on account?" Sabine questioned.
"Aye, but–"
"Then they are bound by that document, which means 'if any of them meddles with me without my consent they shall suffer death'. I doubt your men would be willing to suffer such a fate, no matter how desperate they may be."
"Sabine," Will touched her arm, and finally got those dark brown eyes turned to him.
His chest tightened, along with other areas of his body. He could feel himself falling into those large brown depths. She could hack off all her gorgeous hair, and don the most unflattering clothes to be had, but she would still be beautiful to him. Even if she did look as if she wanted to hang him from the nearest yardarm.
"You can stay with me," he offered softly, then added when she gave no answer, "I want you to stay with me."
Sabine didn't even hold his gaze for the complete cycle of a heartbeat before turning to the infamous pirate and asking, "The rest of the crew sleeps where?"
Jack pondered. His hands, pressed together as if in prayer, touched his lips briefly before a smile spread him mouth. "See there's a bit of a barney there lass, I'm traveling with a full house. It's either this, my bed-- which I am more than happy to share-- or the stars as your blanket."
Sabine clenched her jaw tightly together, wondering whom she had wronged so deeply in a pass life. The thought of sharing a room with Will was less than appetizing, however, the prospect of sharing anything with the rouge pirate was more than she could stomach. With her duffel clutched to her chest and her head held high, she pushed between the pair, into the room, and slammed the door.
Jack raised a single brow and glanced from the closed door to the young man standing to his right. The tiniest of smirks on his face.
"Exactly what did you do to put your lady in such a fine mood this morning?" he questioned, thought, then smiled harder, "Or is it a matter of what you didn't do?"
"I slept with someone I shouldn't have," he answered before whirling around and climbing to the top deck.
"Slept with someone you shouldn't have?" Jack repeated and pondered the statement, "I didn't know such a thing existed."
He followed Will's path, determined to find an answer to a question he couldn't quite get his brain wrapped around. Inside the cabin, Sabine pushed away from the door. Will's words had been soft, but the young African-Spaniard's acute hearing had picked them up.
The re-affirmation had arrived just in time. A battle had been raging in Sabine since the moment she saw Will on the dock. To forgive... or not to forgive. From his actions, the way he looked at her– as he had when she woke to find his lips on hers– she began to believe he didn't speak of the previous night because he didn't remember the previous night. For a moment, she struggled with herself, trying to find it in her to forgive his transgression, and put the events of the night out of her head as he had done. His words to Jack just proved she was more a fool than she originally thought.
Sabine bit down on her bottom lip. Determined not to cry, she pulled her half of the map from its hiding place, and scoured the room for a suitable place to hide it. Unfortunately, ever place she found that had potential, also had a fatal flaw: for someone who knew the ship, it would stick out like a sore thumb. Which meant any member of the crew would know something was hidden. In the end she tucked the slip of paper back into the band around her thigh.
She took a seat on the bed and pressed her hands to her face; slowly counting to ten, trying to find her center– or what was left of it. "I can do this," she repeated to herself several times. She took several deep breaths, stood, walked to the door, opened it... then closed it and leaned her body against it.
~~~
From the quarter deck, Jack got the ship underway. He kept his eyes on Will as he worked with his crew. To look at the young man, he never would have known he had spent the last year on land and not on a ship. He took to the sails, climbing the mast to help unfurl the upper sheets.
"Have you put them 'on account'?" Anna-Maria questioned, standing with Jack watching the rest of the crew ready the ship.
"Aye, you know I would."
"And where is she now?"
"Below deck still," Jack answered, "I think there maybe more to their relationship than mere friends," he added, then barked out a few more orders to those men that seemed to have lost their focus.
Anna-Maria was ready to put more questions to her lover, but stayed her tongue in favor of moving to the bow of the Pearl to make certain the anchor was secure. Will slid easily down from the highest sail to take a pause on the fighting deck. His eyes taking in the port of Tortuga as the ship slowly made its way to the mouth of the bay. He loved the vantage point being that high gave him, and allowed his mind to wander back to when he was a lad, sailing from London to the Caribbean.
It had been his first time on a ship, and a young Will Turner had scampered up the sailing rope to take root in the crow's nest. Being up that high had been the only thing that had saved him from Barbossa's attack on the ship. He would never forget that day, although he had tried many times. He had been the first to see the jolly rogers flag, but he hadn't realized what it meant, just as he hadn't understood the red flag that took its place.
He had always seen it as Elizabeth and her father that had saved his life, which for the practical part had been true. They had been there to pluck him from the sea, but it had only been his body that had been saved by them. Once they reached Port Royal, Governor Swann was quick to make sure Will was no longer his responsibility. Two days after being deposited into the orphanage, it had been Diego that had took him in and nurtured him.
It always comes back to her, Will mused ironically, before making his way back down to the deck below. He had always fancied it was Elizabeth that had saved his life, but in fact it was Sabine and her family. Somehow, it seemed everything in his life came back to Sabine.
He climbed up to the quarter deck, watching as Jack referred to his compass and the sails before stirring the ship to the course that would allow for the best winds. He gave a glance behind them at the land growing smaller to the stern of the ship, then turned back to the bow in time to see Sabine climbing onto the deck.
She turned, met his eyes for a brief moment before she headed to the bowsprit. The long black tresses that normal would have taken flight in the wind, completely secured in the two braids, and any loose tendrils were hidden under the kerchief. The distance between them gave him a new perspective on her attire. It did much to shroud the womanly curves of her breasts, but her hips would not be concealed completely, and her true identity was shouted out in her walk.
She moved to the side of the ship quickly; it didn't take a genius to figure out what she was doing.
"I like her," Jack spoke, his eyes on the same thing as Will's. "She's got spunk."
"You like her breasts," Will corrected, "She would mean nothing to you after you bedded her, like all the rest."
"True, but I can't even see her breasts anymore since she..." Jack made a gesture with his hands that resembled material being wrapped around his body. "As far as the other bit... it looks as if that won't be happening."
Will glanced over at the pirate who was partial focusing his attention the task of guiding the ship, but mostly focused on Anna-Maria who was now talking to Sabine.
"I get the distinct feeling there is something more to your relationship with the young lass," Jack stated as ideally as possible.
Will glanced at her before returning his gaze to the open sea. "I suppose," the blacksmith answered, then added, "I honestly don't know what exists between us. I don't even know how to read her."
"Here's a hint, mate. When a woman slams the door in your face, that's never a good sign."
"She hates prostitutes... or at least the whole business of paying for sex," that brought another memory to the surface of Will's mind. "How much do I owe you?"
"I was under the impression the lady's buried treasure was financing this little expedition."
"Not this, I meant for the strumpet from last night," Will corrected, but a slow frown settled on over his features as it became apparent Jack hadn't the foggiest idea what he was talking about. "You did pay for her services?"
"Don't look at me, mate. The last person I saw you with was the lady over there."
~~~
"Feeling better?" Anna-Maria questioned taking the canteen back from Sabine. Her answer was a weak nod. "You want to be a pirate, yet your stomach rejects the motion of the sea," she mused.
"I did not chose this path," the young lady answered weakly, "I was supposed to be an artist." She paused, parting her lips as if she was going to add more, but thought better and changed her mind.
Anna-Maria debated. Her head continued to tell her the woman was a foe, and not to be trusted, but the knotted feeling in the pit of her stomach that normally accompanied her danger warnings was absent.
"You see that land," the female pirate began, pointing back to Tortuga. "Focus on that, it will help with the dizzy and nausea until the tonic takes affect."
"Thank you," she offered
Sabine turned to gaze at the land behind them that was rapidly shrinking in the distance, but like a magnet, her eyes were drawn to the man standing just off of Jack's right shoulder. Never in her entire life had she felt so conflicted. Never in her life had she seen a man that looked as handsome as Will did standing there on the quarter deck. In his haste to leave, Will had abandoned the ponytail he usually wore, and so the wind that was pushing against the sails, was also combing its fingers in Will's hair.
But just as her eyes were trying to convince her heart to soften to the beautiful man, her head reminded her why she couldn't. It recalled how his gentle caresses became selfish, and of his words from last night, and from behind the door. It had all been a mistake in his eyes.
"He must care for you a great deal," Anna-Maria began seeing where it was Sabine's eyes had moved to.
"What makes you say that?"
"Because he is here," she stated as if it were obvious. When she saw recognition still hadn't settled over her companion she continued. "A few months after Jack saw Will and Elizabeth safely back to Port Royal he returned, secretly of course. He wanted Will to sail with him, but he refused; said he would never be truly happy living his life as a pirate. I figure for him to change his mind... he must truly care for you."
Sabine stared at Will for several more moments before turning to Anna-Maria. "Your words are kind, but I believe your trust has been misplaced. Will would not turn pirate because at that time he still had hopes of marrying Elizabeth."
"And now?"
"And now she is to be married to another in a fortnight."
"Sabine?" both women turned to see the blacksmith had crossed the deck to stand before them. "Are you ready for your first lesson?"
The young woman looked over at her childhood friend and gave a brief, curt nod, then followed him below deck.
~~~
Three hours later, found Will and Sabine still below deck in a part of the stores that had been converted to a practice area. Despite Will bringing the sword he constructed specifically for Sabine, she insisted on using the one she purchased. It felt odd in her hand, but she assumed that was because never in her life had she held that sort of weapon. Her untrained grip, combined with the duration of the session raised a line of blisters across the ridge of her palm.
He had shown her the basic stance, the basic footwork, and the basic attacks and defenses. His movements had been slow to make sure she picked up on every finite detail, but the training had been grueling. A fine sheen of sweat took residence over both of their bodies, and Will Turner had all but removed his shirt in an effort to stay the warmth that spread his body. A warmth that wasn't solely from his own physical exertion, but from watching Sabine.
It never occurred to Will that fencing was a sensuous thing, but then never had he fenced with Sabine. Her body; the movement of it, the feel of it when he had to move close to show her correct movements. It stirred a longing that had only risen in passing for Sabine before. She had spoken little to him during the three hours they practiced, and looked upon him even less.
He watched her placing the sword back into its case noticing the ginger way she used her left hand.
"Are you hurt?" The question slipped from his lips just seconds before he was close to her and taking her injured hand into both of his. Instinct had her pull away, but the blacksmith held firm. "Let me see," he instructed softly.
She hesitated, her fist firmly closed within his grasp, slowly released until he could see the raised skin. The touch his thumb delivered to her palm, lightened when a soft hiss came from her lips. It didn't surprise him, the same patterns had appeared on his own hand when he first took to the blade. He was tempted to bring the inflicted hand to his lips for a soothing kiss, but as quickly as the moment came, it ended as she pulled her hand from his grip.
"You should have the surgeon look at that," he suggested.
"It'll be fine," she snapped, "You think I've never basted blisters before?"
Sabine turned her back to him, removing the kerchief from her head and dabbing at her face and neck with it. Will sighed softly, he knew this moment would eventually come, he had just hoped it would happen when she was a bit calmer.
"Sabine... Sabine I'm sorry," he spoke softly moving forward until he was standing right behind her. Neither of them saw Jack moving into the hold.
"What could you possibly have to apologize for, William?"
He cringed slightly at the full use of his name. From anyone else it just sounded like a name, from her it sounded like she was swearing at him.
"I– I know what happened last night offended you."
"Offended me?" she repeated turning to face her friend. "What would give you the impression that what you did last night offended me?"
"Well," he began clumsily, the erection that had grown for her, withering under her furious glare. "I know your views on whores, so I figured–"
Her hand flew, delivering a sound slap that had her shaking her hand out after the contact with his face.
"What was that for?" he demanded, his right hand cupping the offended flesh.
"Because you are a bastard, that's why," her voice was raised, and with it her accent more pronounced.
"I don't remember her name," he snapped, his own anger finally sneaking to the surface. "And what else should I call a woman who sleeps with a man for money."
That earned him another hit, but instead of the open handed slap, this one was a closed fisted, punch to the same area that was slapped only minutes before. She rambled quickly, angry Spanish words that were meaningless to his earns, but the message was quite clear. She stormed off from him, paused, turned, and came back. The muscles in his arm tensed, ready to defend himself against another physical punch. He had no way of knowing the punch of her words would bruise him deeper.
"The woman you slept with last night... the whore that was in your bed was me."
Will stood there, stunned completely into silence. He had no idea what to say, or even if he should say anything. Every word that came from his mouth only seemed to provoke her anger, at least now he understood where it stemmed from.
"Sabine, I–"
"–Don't," she interrupted moving back as he reached for her, a single tear finding a path down her cheek.
Once more she turned from him; he reached out, capturing her arm intent on turning her back around. He wouldn't let her go this time as he had in the Leda. They would talk, they would work through this. At least that had been the plan... until she slapped him again and stormed out.
"Damnit," Will swore once, DAMNIT!" he yelled again.
"Easy, mate," Jack soothed stepping out from his observation spot.
"What the..." Will turned an angry stare onto his friend, "What the devil are you doing here?"
"It's my ship," Jack pointed out.
"So exactly how long have you been hiding in the shadows of your ship?"
Jack gave a dramatic pause as if he had to contemplate his answer before saying simply, "Long enough to know that you deserved that," he pointed to Will's reddening cheek.
Will pushed his finger away and turned to collect his sword.
"So you dallied your best friend, and not only did you forget, you mistook her for a whore."
"Thanks for reminding me, but like you, I was there when the event of last night came sharply into focus."
"And what of fair Elizabeth?" Jack queried.
"What of her?" Will demanded.
"Need I remind you just over a year ago you were willing to die for her?"
"No," Will snapped, "You don't need to remind me of that. But seeing as Elizabeth is set to marry another that's hardly the issue."
Jack nodded, and watched as Will packed his own sword up. For a moment he thought better than to speak his mind, but in the end, good judgement was never Jack's strong point.
"So if you can't have the one you love, anyone will do, eh mate?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded turning back to Sparrow.
"You're a bright lad, you don't need me to spell it out for you. It just seems terribly suspicious."
For the second time that day, the young blacksmith was left speechless. He openly glared at Jack but could think of nothing to offset his words. Jack placed his hands together and gave a slight nod, before taking his leave. Alone, a very confused Will Turner remained, wondering when his life became so desperately complex.