"There is no way in hell I am sleeping with you."
I must have already said it at least five or six times, but still I felt compelled to keep repeating myself.
"And I'm telling you that you don' have a bloody choice! It's either we both sleep in 'ere or one of us sleeps with the crew. Now, as it's my ship, I don't believe I'll be leavin' this cabin. So, where'll you be staying?"
"A real gentleman would leave the room to the lady," I snapped back, infuriated beyond belief.
"Pirate," he said bluntly, flopping down on the bed in front of me.
Grabbing my hair in my hands and pulling just hard enough to hurt a little, I dropped down into the chair in front of the large desk, cluttered with maps and old bottles of rum. What I wouldn't give for one of those to be full right now.
"Does that mean that you'll be staying, then?"
A groan escaped my throat as I let my head thump to the desk.
"Apparently it does," I muttered with resentment.
"Well then, I believe I'll just be gettin' all comfy. Care to join me?"
"You promise me there's really no other alternative?"
"Luv, it's really me or Mr. Gibbs, an' trust me, you don' want to go there."
With a sigh I stood up and turned to the man lounging on the bed.
"Can I borrow one of your shirts?"
"Can I ask why?"
"I need something to sleep in."
"You didn' bring anything?"
"I don't usually wear anything."
"Well, don' let me stop you!"
"Jack, please. Just give me a shirt."
I turned around to start rummaging for something to wear in my bag when a wadded up shirt hit me in the back of my head. Turning around, I saw that it was the one he had been wearing, leaving him shirtless before my eyes.
'Thank God I don't blush,' I thought before stepping into the bathroom to change.
When I emerged from the actually rather spacious bathroom, Jack had the lamps turned off and was in bed, blankets pooled around his waist. Walking around to the other side, I slipped under the covers and proceeded to get comfortable.
"I think it's time for my next question, luv," a deep voice rumbled next to me.
"Are we really doing that ridiculous game?"
"Yes! You agreed, remember?"
"So I did… well, what do you want to know?"
"What's with yer eyes?
"Oh, the gold? Well, it's sort of a long story, but the short answer is a shaman I met in Ecuador."
"Excuse me? A shaman? In Ecuador? I think I'm gonna need the long answer,"
"Oh, alright, if you insist. A few years back, when I was really just getting started on my 'career', I had this client who'd gone down to the Spanish settlements in the new Americas and, because he was an idiot, royally pissed off a powerful shaman. Rumor has it he refused to bed her, but that's just what his friends said. Her story was a little different."
"It always is, isn't it?" a soft chuckle interrupted.
"Do you want to hear the rest or not?"
"Yes, please," he answered meekly.
"Anyway, he wants me to go down there and convince her to take this curse off that she put on him. Made certain activities absolutely unbearable, if you get my drift."
A wince from beside me let me know that he indeed got it.
"Well, I go down there, talk to the woman, amazing sense of humor by the way, you should meet her pet goat, and realize that the man deserves that curse and even more! So, I go tell him he's going to have to find somebody else to do his dirty work, and spend a month with Teana and Chu, the goat, learning everything she's willing to teach me. Finally I decide I have to leave because Teana's tribe is starting to look at me a little funny, they're cannibals, bless them, but before I go she tells me that I can't leave without a gift. Turns out in their culture when a new shaman (she was insistent that someday I would take her place, even though she was only two years older than me) sets out on her first quest, the elder gives them a magical gift. So she gave me night vision."
"She gave you what?"
"Night vision. I can see you right now just as plainly as if it were day. The gold somehow produces its own light, just for my eyes. It's really quite useful, especially in my line of work."
"You don't think this Teana would give me night vision, do you?"
"Not a chance, Jack. Teana hates men. Well, not really, she just likes to play with them more than actually interact with them. I'm afraid she would curse you if you even asked."
"Oh… I can't believe you've been to Ecuador."
"You didn't think I was going to stay on that beach forever, did you? I've been probably as many if not more places than you have. Africa, the Americas, Europe, Arabia… the weather was beautiful there, hot and dry with lovely cool nights…"
"Why didn' you stay?"
"I've asked myself that a hundred times. I'm still not sure of the answer."
"Hmm…"
For a few minutes, the room was quiet and the sound of the breathing of the man next to me seemed to even out and slow. Then an arm sneaked across my side, attempting to wrap around me.
"Don't even think about it, Sparrow."
With a disgruntled noise, he flipped over onto his other side, and I closed my eyes, sinking into the softness of the mattress and letting sleep work away the tensions of the day that was finally behind me.
"The Child is Gone"
Fiona Apple
Darling, give me your absence tonight
Take the shade from the canvas and leave me the white
Let me sink in the silence that echoes inside
And don't bother leaving the light on
'Cause I suddenly feel like a different person
From the roots of my soul come a gentle coercion
And I ran my hand o'er a strange inversion
A vacancy that just did not belong
The child is gone
Honey, help me out of this mess
I'm a stranger to myself
But don't reach for me, I'm too far away
I don't wanna talk 'cause there's nothing left to say
So my darling, give me your absence tonight
Take all of your sympathy and leave it outside
'Cause there's no kind of loving that can make this alright
I'm trying to find a place I belong
And I suddenly feel like a different person
From the roots of my soul come a gentle coercion
And I ran my hand o'er a strange inversion
As the darkness turns into the dawn
The child is gone
The child is gone
Sorry about the long wait and short update guys. I'm just finishing up my senior year and this last week was the last week of classes, so I've been busying studying and partying (partying more than studying!) and haven't really felt too inspired to write. I did, however, write a later chapter after this past weekend, which you will notice as being the one that prominently features vodka and a random hookup. Ahh, school trips and alcohol… Anyways, I hope to have the next chapter out sooner and to give it a little more substance. This is really just a filler while the plot bunnies in my brain get pulled back from chapter 20 or whatever… Hope you didn't hate it too much.
A/N Teana is loosely based off my friend Suzanne, my companion in mischief, who doesn't really enjoy the sort of fanfic I do, but enjoys any opportunity to get attention, and will be featured in later chapters. I borrowed the name Chu for her pet goat from a story we read in Spanish called "Bernardino". I don't know who the author was, and I have no internet right now, but I'll try and have that for you later.