By Kitty =.=
A/N: Oh wow, chapter 17! I'm so proud. Sorry again for the messed-up chapter 14. But we have fixed it we has!!! And it looks as though people are coming back to our story, so we is happy. Out Stats right now...
Reviews: 108!!!
Favourite Story or Favourite Author of: 11 readers
On Author Alert for: 18 readers
Many thanks to my dear reviewers who have remained faithful, we wuv you all vewwee much. One thing we have been thinking about. Many of the people who have ICELY on their Favourite Story, Favourite Author, or Author Alert do not actually review. We ask that you do, please! It would mean a lot to us. Also, we believes we shall only be inclined to update when we has 10 reviews at least for each previous chapter... But we mean nofthing of offence luvs, nofthing of offence!
ERIC: You might not, Kitty, but I do!!
Eric, dear, don't be mean to the readers.
ERIC: If you don't review, then I shall come and hunt you all down like dogs!!!
Eric, calm down!! It was just a suggestion really. I just want 10 reviews at least for each chapter for I am in sore need an ego boost.
ERIC: snuggle But you have ME! What more of an ego boost do you need??
Hmm, good point. Still I want reviews. Now enough of this banter. Onto the story!!! Oh, and, uh, I know I said we were moving on from the lovey-dovey-cutesy-romantic J/L bits, but, uh...
ERIC: We go back to those for a chapter, yay!!!
Eric, stop interrupting you silly twit!
ERIC: dances away Eeehehehehehe...!
--; Let's...just...move on then, shall we??
"Uh," Jack weakly chuckled, "do I 'ave any other choices then?" Jack silently prayed that she'd suggest the galley or some remote room in a part of the ship where these people couldn't get to him...
"Well, you could stay in my cabin."
...but that was good too.
"Your cabin, luv?" Jack asked, almost not believing he'd actually heard correctly.
"Yes, I'm sure I can find you a cot or somefthing to sleep on," Lela replied, reflectively placing her index finger on her bottom lip.
"Oh, come now, luv," Jack whimpered, his lips trembling and his eyes looking up at her with big, bubbly cuteness (A/N: AAGH!! The Chibi Eyes!!!!!). "Surely ye wouldn't mind 'aving lit'ul me sleep beside ya."
"I may be many things, Jack, darling," Lela said knowingly, her eyelids lowering along with her voice which had taken on an enticing seductiveness, "but I am neither stupid nor suicidal." Lela tapped Jack on the nose and walked around him to the gangplank that led to her other ship. Jack's mouth dropped open and he turned, running after her.
"My dear girl," he protested, shakily crossing the makeshift bridge behind her, "you cannot think that I would do anyfthing to harm you or try to take advantage of you?" Lela gave a good-natured laugh.
"Oh no, Jack, I never gave that a thought. I was simply saying that if you and I slept in the same bed, I would be crushed as soon as you rolled over on top of me in one of your fitful slumberings."
"Oy! Hold on now," Jack called offended. "Are you saying that I'm fat?!"
"Absolutely not Jack!" Lela innocently cried and held her hands towards herself. "I'm in-sulted that you would even think that of me!" She suddenly looked downwards and playfully poked Jack in the stomach. "Though, now that you mention it, you have put on a few pounds since we was lit'uler, luv." Lela laughed loudly and clutched her sides while Jack followed he into her cabin, sulking and upset and all out of good comebacks.
"Ye know, you're truly wicked sometimes, luv," Jack morosely said to Lela as they walked into her cabin. "Truly and utterly wicked." Lela smiled with a devious little smirk.
"Oh, I know," she simpered proudly, "but ye know ye love me for it!"
"Oh, do I now?" Jack laughed and began to sneak up behind her. All of a sudden, shrieks of giggles filled his pleased ears. "Are you quite sure about that statement, pet?"
"Ack!! Jack, stop it!!" Fits of laughter. "Why is it, that--" Peals of laughter. "That ev'ey time Oi make fun of ye, you--" Seizures of laughter. "You ALWAYS end up tickling me?!?!?!"
"A'cause it's terribly fun, Elley, it's criminally fun!" The poor female captain kept trying to walk away from Jack but he just continued relentlessly grating his fingers against her ribs and following her wherever she tried to stumble. "Ah-ah-ah!" he shouted, knowing his victory was imminent. "Surrender!"
"Never!" Lela cried out, finally pulling away from Jack. Quick as lightning, she pulled out her dagger from its scabbard. "Ah-ha! I believe that I have the upper hand now!"
"Do you really think so?" Jack reached for his own sword...and his hand touched nothing by air. He had forgotten that Conleth had taken his sword. Jack rapidly reached to the other side of his belt for his pistol...but that wasn't there either. Conleth had taken that as well. Lela smiled again, obviously delighted.
"Aye," she called to him raising the tip of her dagger to his chin. "I do." Jack eyed the flattened metal that was so near him.
"Ye shouldn't play wiv knives, luv," he whispered and reached over impossibly quickly and snatched Lela's wrist. "Ye moight hurt someone." Lela simply tossed off his hand and spun him around so that she held him in almost the same position of capture he had had her in earlier.
"Yeah," she whispered with just as alluring a whisper. She leisurely raised and lowered the blade treacherously close to Jack's neck as the dying rays of the sun were caught on it, gleaming and warning of its power.
"If ye kill me now," Jack quietly protested with a nervous chuckle, "ye won't evuh foind out."
"Find out about what?" Lela replied, keeping her tone silky but not letting her curiosity leak through.
"If what you said a bit ago is true." Lela's eyes were directed towards the wall but she didn't see it, or anything else. What did he mean...something that she had said...and if it was true...
"Uh, could ye be a bit more cryptic?" she asked sheepishly.
"All roight," Jack answered thoughtfully. "Hmm...'Ow about...pudding 'as no bones? Ouch!" Lela pulled her back away from Jack's ear.
"You're still as enigmatic as ever." Jack shrugged.
"Perhaps."
"So I suppose you're not going to tell me then?" Lela tried to get a clear answer one last time.
"No, no, I shall," Jack said and Lela's ears pricked up like a cat's waiting for the reply. "But perhaps later." If she had been a cat, Lela's poor little ears would have drooped right back down.
"Drat," she pouted, "and you say I'm wicked."
"You are." Lela scoffed.
"Then what are you?"
"Ex-ceeding-ly evil."
"Hold on here," Lela objected, "you believe yourself to be more wicked than me?"
"Oh, yes, by a long shot." Jack smiled but behind him Lela looked down, almost...sad.
"And yet earlier you were acting as though I was the most vile, malicious thing on Earth." Jack stopped smiling when he heard the forlorn tone in Lela's voice.
"Oh, well..." Jack would have been fidgeting had his hands been free. "About all that fuss I made, I was jest...um...y'see, i'sloike this..."
"It's ok, Jack," Lela whispered, some of the cheer returning to her voice, "don't fthink nofthing of it. Please." And like that, she released him. Jack didn't move from where he was but Lela stepped carefully away from him. He felt her fingers linger on his skin and then slowly drift away. "Right then, uh..." Lela looked around her, as though trying to find something to do, "I need to, um, to, uh...hmm...I need to..." Finally, she sighed and gave up trying to find an excuse. "I'll be back in a tick." She turned away and walked quickly to the door, biting her lip and hoping Jack wouldn't see.
Before he had a chance to say one word, Jack was watching Lela all but sprint to the door. His outstretched hand that had been ready to grab her fell to his side. Sighing, he tried to remember what he had said before, but so much of that heated conversation was a hazy blur.
Flashes of the scene played over in his mind.
"Why don't you want to talk about the past?"
"Why did you want to find me, Lela?"
She'd told him she loved him. But then she had asked him about his abrupt departure.
"Why did you leave Sleego, Jack?" she'd said. "Why did you leave me?"
And what had been his stupid answer?
"I felt I had to leave. I didn't want to have to face you."
The memories of earlier that day began to come at him, flooding his mind at a terrifying rate.
"You deceived me, belittled my trust!"
She had denied his accusation, said that she had never lied to him, but he paid her no heed.
"Maybe not to my face you didn't, but ye certainly did a good job of it when I wasn't around!"
Shouting and screaming and insults ensued and came to the inevitable...
Slap!
Jack winced at that reminiscence. "I fthink I did deserve that one," he said aloud to himself, and knocked himself on the head. "And that's for just a minute ago, luv," he whispered as though speaking to his beloved friend. It was then Jack decided to try and set things, mostly if not completely, right with Lela. "I fthink we've both admitted that we still...love each other to ourselves...and she's already admitted that she still loves me to me..." Jack still spoke aloud, almost practicing for what he would say to the fellow captain, but he finished his sentence only in his thoughts. But...I...need to tell her--tell her to her face, straight out--that I... Jack looked up as he heard the squeak of the double wooden doors opening. I love her.
As Lela walked in, Jack forced himself to look at her, even though her eyes looked slightly red and she wiped her eyes. She was looking down at the ground with a weary, faraway look on her face, even though outside she had just promised herself that she wasn't going to act mopey. Since she couldn't see Jack due to the masses of hair obstructing her vision, she didn't see him coming towards her at (what would've been) the fastest pace she'd ever seen him go. Lela let out a startled gasp as she found that all of a sudden she was in the tight embrace of one, Jack Sparrow. Her drooping eyes widened in confusion as Jack (for once, unintentionally) backed her into the wall.
"Jack..." she started to hoarsely whisper, but he cut her off...in a most surprising way.
He kissed her.
Lela's mind was reeling once more, but this time it was not because of a question or a statement. The cause was tangible, material and somehow it wasn't. When she her whole world seemed like it was about to shatter earlier, it was something Jack had said in spoken words. This time, her spiralling thoughts were also caused by something that came from Jack's mouth...a genuine, ardent kiss, but... But that's not what is really making me like this, she managed to think, though a vague, opaque thought it was. It's Jack.
After a few moments, Jack slowly, almost reluctantly, pulled away from Lela's lips, but barely an inch.
"It is true," he said softly, "what ye said before."
"Wha...what did I say?" Lela asked and still trying to catch her breath.
"I called ye truly wicked and you said you knew, but I..." Jack gently leaned his forehead to hers, "I loved ye for it." Lela tried to say something but her lips just moved, her mouth opening and closing, no sound issuing forth. "And I'm sorry f'ticklin' ya." Lela let out a small laugh that was mixed with sobbing. "So..." Jack reached up and brushed away her hair from her face and stroked her soft, pale cheek. "Just so we are perfectly, completely, totally, entirely, absolutely, wholly, and utterly clear on things wiv each other..." He leaned in once more, his slightly rough lips barely brushing hers as he slowly whispered with sheer sincerity a declaration: "I...love you."
A/N: WOW. Dis is all vee can say. WOW. SEVENTEEN chapters! Cuh-raaaaaaazy. We are most proud. Ex-ceeding-ly so. Sorry I didn't update last week. Stuff was goin' on and there was that whole 'me-randomly-deciding-to-have-10-reviews-before-I-update' thing... Oh well... Ooh, quick FYI: TOMORROW I WILL BE UPDATING ANOTHER CHAPTER (CHAPTER 18)because this one was kinda short. Ways of any... New things, um...
ERIC: Kitty was in a style show on Sunday!!!!!!
Eric, shush! tear I wanted to tell 'em.
ERIC: Oh. Uuuuuuuummmmm... oops??
GLARE
ERIC: covers nose Please, don't hit me on the nose with the rolled up newspaper!! gets an idea However, for future reference I do sometimes like it rough.
ERIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pulls out a rolled up phonebook
ERIC: YIPE!!!!! clings to Kitty's ankles and kisses feet Please, puh-leeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, don't leave me!!
sigh Oh well. The style show... It was for the Red Dress brunch for the American Heart Association (my mom works at the Creighton Cardiac Centre, don't ask...) T'was fun.
ERIC: Mostly because she got free cream puffs.
Eric!!!
ERIC: Eeeeeehehehehehe...
Okay, whatever. I'm leaving to go to geometry tutoring!! storms off
ERIC: Haha, just watch, she'll come back... waits for 10 minutes Yyyyyyyup. Aaaaaaaany minute now... waits another ½ hour Um, d-d-don't think that she's not comin' back, heh. C-c-cause sh-she is... another hour later Hmm. Well. looks around to see if you're still watching KITTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! runs away screaming and crying
peaks out from behind 1st A/N at the beginning of the chapter Remember to review my darlings!!! REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!!!!
Drink and be merry and be many-a-fair lad!! (or, ya know, 'lass', for the guys who're reading...)
Fare thee well, safe journeys, and I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye!!
Love,
Kitty
=.=