A/N: This contains a slash pairing, Will/Jack. Please don't read it if you find that idea offensive or 'gross'.
It's a very short ficlet, just over 500 words, and mainly introspective for Will and Elizabeth's relationship. It contains spoilers for Dead Man's Chest.
X
When Will looked up and saw Elizabeth and Jack joined at the lips, bodies duelling in a passionate kiss, he felt his carefully sculpted world end. As he watched the pair backing out of sight, his soul crushed and that last piece of naivety in him drowned.
He'd grown up on a fairytale. During the day, he'd tirelessly crafted swords or horseshoes, all the while dreaming of Miss Swann and her ivory skin, of the perfection contained in her smile.
Then Miss Swann had become Elizabeth and he'd loved her all the more for it, for her impulsive streak and her obsession with pirates, for her bravery and need to always be in charge. Elizabeth had been a finer creature in all way, even if she lacked the mystery and intrigue that had characterised Miss Swann, her counterpart.
As will had observed her change from Miss Swann to Elizabeth, he'd learned so many things about her. She hated corsets, she was too curious for her own good, but she was always noble and always brave.
But most of all, he'd learnt that she was a pirate in woman's clothing, so he was hurt but not wholly surprised when he witnessed her hands and her lips upon Jack.
However, he'd also known that Jack was a good man in pirate's clothing, so it broke his heart to see that kiss returned with so much passion and energy.
A lifetime ago, Jack had pressed again him, naked, and promised – in his roundabout way - that he would never even think about considering allowing his eyes to drift towards another person's form while considering acts of an unsavoury nature the likes of which he'd just introduced dear William to. He'd traced his hands over Will's skin and murmured words against his neck – so good, so sweet, so pure – while promising Will the world and everything in it if he would only join the Pearl's crew, when they recovered it.
"You deserve better, mate. You deserve…" Jack paused, hand flat on Will's stomach from where he was lying behind him. "Well, me, if you catch my drift."
Will had smiled lazily, eyes closing. "Elizabeth is a fine woman, Jack."
"And you love her?"
"Yes. With every breath." A strange comment, after the lewd acts that Will had just allowed Jack to perform upon his body, but it was true nonetheless.
Jack just made a 'mm' sound from behind him, before his lips pressed against the back of Will's neck. "Then that's that sorted, isn't it?'
A bizarre response, a bizarre conversation, a bizarre situation that Will still didn't fully understand. He supposed it didn't matter, not any more.
Jack's promises, however empty, of fidelity and stability, of the closest thing to love that a pirate can offer, were all gone. In their place was a traitor's kiss.
When Elizabeth reached the boat without Jack, Will didn't question her claim that Jack elected to stay behind. As Will knew well, Elizabeth's kisses were dangerous – they could cause a man's safety and happiness to be thrown to the wind without thought. It made him miss Miss Swann's imaginary kisses, which were always sweet and yearning and never toxic or poisonous.