AN: I guess it's sort of grim fluff, inspired by the fact that Barbossa was living with Tia Dalma... and there just had to be a history.
Honey
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"Yeh have no idear' how grateful I am to be here... To be livin'. And I 'ave you to thank, lovely," Hector Barbossa said honestly, casting the wild-haired woman holding open the door a sincere, sideways smile. Logic had failed. The Lady of the Bayou had defied it, as she often did. Those who did not believe in magic had obviously never met Miss Tia Dalma. She worked miracles and nightmares daily.
Magic and logic asside, Barbossa was thrilled. Not only was he not dead, he now had his feeling back. He had felt the spray of the sea on his voyage with Miss Tia Dalma, and he remembered the world once more. That said, his appetite was ravenous, having not truly eaten for nourishment in almost ten years.
Tia Dalma grinned at him in response. "I would not let you have such a fate, Captin Hecta. You know dat I always have special place for you," she drawled in her thick, musical accent. She closed the door as they both stepped inside, Barbossa surveying everything in the house with special interest although he had visited thrice before and knew it well.
"I... I feel so whole," he stated quietly, amazed at how much he had been missing. Nothing was dull anymore. Even simply touching the cool, yellow skin of Tia Dalma's snake sent eager chills through his body.
"You look it, too. I ain't seen you wit' true smile fo' years and years." She paused, studying the weatherbeaten features of the captain. He was an interesting looking man, a bit slight but with very strong, sharp features. His accent was a mixture of Irish rove and English banter, and he spoke with words unfamiliar to most pirates. He was of an unusual background for one of his lifestyle, and Tia Dalma had always remembered him for that.
"I t'ink you really gonna come in handy, Captin, you just wait and see," she said, her tone floating up from a deep, earthy sound into a flutey, high tone.
"A touch of destiny, per'aps?" Barbossa responded, sneering. She gave him a light shove. This was one of her classic phrases, often used to coax future customers into paying her for a fortune reading, a voodoo curse. Or sex.
"You cut da jokes, Hecta Barbossa, makin' fun o' your rescuer ain't duh intelligent t'ing to do, eh!" Tia Dalma declared, swatting him. "I 'ave some'ting for you," she sang out, smirking playfully, her gnarled dreadlocks bouncing with her movement.
Barbossa settled himself down at Tia's fortune table, cocking an eyebrow at her. "I hope yeh be offerin' something to eat. I'm half- starved!"
"Just you be patient!" she warned, slipping behind her curtain and then returning with her hands behind her back. She walked toward him, moving her hips and body in a sultry fashion, laughing all the way.
"Oh, come now, Miss Tia, don't make a pirate wait," he stated indifferently, trying to ignore the growing erection he was getting from simply watching her movements and recalling old memories.
"This some'ting you been waiting for?" she questioned saucily, and then stuck her hand in front of her. In her hand, she clasped a small, wooden bowl of bright crimson apples.
Eyes widening, the captain scrambled to his feet and grabbed the bowl, bringing it to the table with a clatter. "Yeh... have no idear'," he said again, this time in a rushed, exuberant tone, as he greedily selected the largest piece of fruit and raised it to his lips. He bit down slow, savoring every moment as the apple crunched blissfully, sending juices flowing through his mouth. He did not say another word until he had completely consumed the apple, and when he was finished, he sent Tia Dalma an ecstatic expression of appreciation.
"I knew you'd be likin' dat. Dey was always ya' favourite," she said softly, knowing how much this meant to the captain, who had not been able to enjoy his most cherished treat in ages.
Wiping his mouth on his sleeve, Barbossa chortled. "Now all I need to be doin' is my other favourite thing."
"You should be so lucky," she snapped, with a twisted smile. "I save yo' life, I bring you here wit' me, I offer you apples. What more you want of me, heh?"
"You know perfectly well, Miss... yeh can't give me my life back, my sense o' touch back, and expect me to forgit what experiences are associated with this place," he declared.
Tia Dalma studied Barbossa for a moment and then seated herself across from him, grabbing a handful of Runes and dealing them in a lazy manner. "Dem were dah old days. I don't work dat kind o' magic. I am not so young no more, and you..." She laughed melodiously. "You ain't young 'it all."
He rolled his eyes at her. "When did matters of age stop yeh? What were yeh? Sixteen and I was in me thirties? "
"Dat was some time, I say to you," she laughed deeply, her voice the consistency of warm, sweet honey, so thick you could eat it without bread. "Dat was da beginning o' mah road den... I always liked a pirate man. And you was really some'ting."
"And so? Yeh change the rules since I last seen yeh?"
"I don't fuck men who was once skeleton men. It bad luck, real bad luck," she winked, and ignoring his furrowed brow, she gestured to the runes which were pearly in the candlelight, sitting in the shape of a cross. "See? You 'ave strength, power, ambition, lust-- da usual, I recall? But dis time, 'stead o' surroundin' some otha selfish emotion, dey be surroundin' dis." Her long nail probed the middle rune, her smile glowing.
The captain leaned forward to inspect. He looked back up at Tia Dalma. "It's blank."
"Yeah, it blank righ' now, cause you ain't ready to see."
"It's blank."
Her eyes flashed. "The pure white rune is da most important o' all, and you should be lucky to have it. Too long I been givin' you fortunes, selfish fortunes because you be too blind too see just how filled wit' greed ye are. But now, see, yeh got white in da center, dat mean your big decision gonna be based on what you really wanna use. You could use ambition, lust, greed, hate-- any o' dose." She paused. "But maybe you use love. Maybe hope, fear or fait'h. Ye have it in you, Captain Barbossa. It time to act with more den just rash, selfish judgment. Heh?"
"All may decisions are driven by a need, a knowing that I could do better-- get better! And I don't see the wrong in that!" he barked.
"So where did it get you, eh?" She swiped the runes off the table, mouth melting into a dangerous frown. "Ye skipped out on school, didn't wanna take orders? Where'd it get you? You a wealthy schoolboy turn runaway pirate ! Dey don't know what to make o' you sometime, but is dat really enough? You talk real fancy sometime, but you still as bad as de rest! And what about bein' Cap'tin, heh? You 'ad to steal it!"
"I knew Jack Sparrow would come into this somewheres," Barbossa spat. "He wasn't up to par! I ran the Pearl with drive, class--"
"Ah, but you 'ad to prove you could, no?" She smiled, half- closing her painted eyes. "Jack Sparrow was fust pick, Hecta.. You know dat!"
"Jack Sparrow," he snarled again. "I know the relations betwixt the two of yeh. Always comes out first, does he?"
"I ain't said dat. He a good lover-- different. He always make me laugh. But I ain't said he first at all, no. If he was first, he wouldn'ta been mutinied."
"He was always looking out for his best interest!"
"And look at what you done! Grabbed cursed gold even after my reading! You don't trust nobody but youself! And if you gonna keep your mortal self, you gotta start learning dat you ain't de only one alive! If you gonna thrive, you gotta do some'ting fo' somebody else sometime, no?"
"You do have your point, Madame. As usual."
"Ah, yes. Hecta, you come to you senses? You gonna start listenin' to some'ting else beside greed?"
The captain paused. "I suppose it would be wise, seeing as I now need every chance I can get."
"You suppose? Ha! You betta believe dat!" Tia chortled. "Now, enough o' dis. I ain't ta lecture ya no mo'. I'll say yo' task some otha time. But now, you must be tired. And so you can rest," she said, sitting back in her chair and knowing very well that Hector Barbossa was not tired.
"Mmm, rest, eh? Instead, I think I'll opt for another of them apples." He grasped one, felt it, and tossed it once in the air. "Bite?" he inquired, and ripped the flesh of the fruit with his teeth. But he did not swallow. He kept the piece sticking out of his lips, a small morsel of temptation.
She knew his plan exactly, and she leaned her head back in amusement. She let out a low, sing-song laugh, and shook her head. "Dere should 'ave been one mo' rune," Tia Dalma declared, rising up slowly and coming around to the other side of the table where she then wrapped both arms around the captain's neck.
"Puh-suh-verance," she finished, and with a twisted smile, she filled her mouth with the fruit and joined lips with Hector Barbossa.