Chapter 5

He was going to be late. He glanced at the time on his phone. He was so going to be late.

No, scratch that. He was not going to be late. He was not going to let himself be late, because Elizabeth was amazing, and he really, really liked her, and he wanted her to like him, and –

And who was he kidding? Of course he was going to be late. Because, thanks to Jack Sparrow, Will had almost never been on time for anything in his entire life. According to Will's father, nine-year-old Jack had made a bet with him that Will would be born late, and, lo-and-behold, Will was born ten days after his due date. And things had never changed.

He was going to kill Jack if he was late. Seriously. He could make it look like an accident.

His phone began to vibrate, emitting a series of irritating, high-pitched beeps. He glanced at the time again as he turned off the alarm. Shit. The alarm had been set for the latest possible time that he could leave his apartment and still meet Elizabeth on time.

There were going to be consequences for this, i.e., Jack would not live to see the morning. Or, at the very least, he would owe Will several free meals at the Pearl. One or the other.

Three minutes later, Will left the apartment at a dead sprint, came back for his wallet, then left again, jumping several flights of stairs on his way down. If he took a shortcut – and broke the speed limit by a semi-significant amount in several places – he might just make it on time.

Elizabeth stood on the street corner next to the garage where she had parked her car. She double-checked the street signs, making sure that this was, in fact, where she was supposed to meet Will. It was the right place. She glanced at her watch. It was also the right time: five-thirty, on the dot. If he didn't arrive in the next forty-four seconds, she could tease him for being late.

A motorcycle rumbled faintly on a nearby street, the sound becoming gradually louder. A few seconds later, it came into view at the end of the road, coming toward her. She watched it with interest. It looked rather old, as if it had been restored. She rather liked it. Then as it drew nearer it began to slow, and to her great surprise, as it turned into the parking garage, she saw that the rider was none other than Will. She grinned broadly at him, first because she loved the bike, and then because a part of her mind couldn't help imagining the look on her father's face if she brought home a boy with a motorcycle.

Will walked out of the garage just a few seconds later, his black helmet tucked under his arm. He smiled at her. She loved that smile. Really loved it.

"Well, did I make it on time?"

She glanced at her watch again. "I'm afraid you're seven seconds late."

Will laughed at her sincerity. "Sorry."

"I'll forgive you this time," Elizabeth grinned. "But only because I like your ride."

"Yeah? That's surprising. Most girls think it looks like junk."

"It's not junk, it's… vintage."

Will smiled appreciatively. "I restored it myself."

Elizabeth shook her head, still grinning. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

"Dunno," Will shrugged, "I might run out eventually. You'll have to stick around long enough to see." He blushed slightly as Elizabeth giggled. "So, uh… do you want to go, then?"

"Sure," Elizabeth said lightly. "But you know, you still haven't actually told me where we're going."

"I know. You'll see."

Elizabeth had judged by the direction and distance she'd driven that they were somewhere close to the Thames, but she hadn't realized just how close. Will led her down a side street until they came to a row of plain, redbrick storefronts.

"In here," Will said, nodding toward a small doorway. A simple plaque above it read, 'Riverview.' Will held the wooden door open for Elizabeth, then took the lead again, moving down a short, brick passageway with a an arched ceiling. Elizabeth gasped as they reached the end of it.

They had stepped into a long, brick room. The wall opposite them was made almost entirely of enormous windows that looked out over the Thames. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling along the center of the room, and each table was covered in navy blue and supplied with two or three flickering candles. The whole place was fantastically romantic.

Will was watching Elizabeth's reaction, a small smile on his face. "So what do you think?"

"This is… amazing. I mean, this is really amazing."

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth saw an unmistakable flash of relief cross Will's face, and only then did she realize just how nervous he was. She knew he had brought her here in the hopes of impressing her, and she was, indeed, impressed. She couldn't have dreamed up a better place for a first date.

She turned to Will with a warm, genuine smile. "This is perfect."

"How long have we been here?"

"Um… about two hours, I think. Maybe two and a half."

"I think they're getting annoyed with us."

"Maybe a little, yeah." Will all but held his breath. "We could, maybe, go for a walk – if you want…"

"That sounds nice," Elizabeth answered quickly.

Outside it was cool, but not uncomfortably so. They wandered slowly along the river's edge, occasionally passing other couples who had apparently had the same idea.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, until Elizabeth asked, "So how did you first find that place, anyway?"

"Probably the same way most people do," Will answered. "By accident."

Elizabeth laughed. "What on earth were you doing back here wandering into random buildings?"

Will looked slightly embarrassed. "All right, if you must know, my bike broke down. I had no idea where I was, but I saw a couple people go in there, so I followed them to look for help."

"Did you find any?"

"Yes, actually. There was a kid there who was working part-time as a mechanic."

"That's lucky."

"Mm-hm."

They lapsed into silence again, continued to walk at a leisurely pace. After a short while, Elizabeth was again the first to speak.

"When I first met you in your friend's bar, you said you two were roommates once."

"Yeah…"

Elizabeth was grinning. "You seem too… normal to have been his roommate."

"You're subtly trying to find out more about me. About my past, that is," Will said, smiling.

"Maybe."

"You want the abridged story of my life, then?"

Elizabeth laughed quietly. "Sure. But I suppose after that you'll be wanting mine?"

"Naturally. All right, here goes… I wasn't born here, first of all. I used to live in Glasgow."

"You're secretly Scottish, then?" Elizabeth asked, grinning.

He grinned back at her. "I guess you could say that."

"You don't have any accent," she pointed out.

"I sort of grew out of it, I guess. It's been a long time since I lived there. It's been a long time since I've even visited there. Anyway – oh, my birthday is January 13, in case you were wondering. But, yeah, anyway, my dad used to travel a lot because of his work, so I guess he and my mom just sort of… grew apart, eventually. They divorced when I was three. Dad moved here to London, and I stayed in Scotland with Mum until she died when I was twelve."

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said quietly.

Will nodded, continued with his story. "That's sort of where Jack comes in, I guess. He's nine years older than me, and he was good friends with my dad. I've been friends with him pretty much my entire life. So after Mum died, I was sent here to London to live with Dad, and… I was scared. I mean, he left when I was three, so I barely knew him. But do you know what Jack did?"

"What?"

"He came with me. He moved to London at the same time I did, to help me through it."

"Wow," Elizabeth said, impressed.

Will continued. "So I might say I want to kill him sometimes – okay, a lot of the time – but I really couldn't asked for a better friend. I mean, how many people do you think would have done that? He was twenty-one, he had a job, a nice apartment, he'd just bought himself a car… and then at the drop of a hat, he packed up and moved to London, just so a twelve-year-old kid wouldn't feel so alone."

Elizabeth looked sideways at him, noticed a rather faraway look in his eyes.

"Do you miss Scotland?"

"Sometimes." He shrugged. "A lot of the time. We lived in the country; I liked it a lot better than the city. But still, my shop is here, and I wouldn't want to leave that for anything."

"You said your dad bought it for you?"

"When I was sixteen," Will said, nodding.

"Sixteen?"

He laughed. "Sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? He still had to travel a lot, and one summer he had to go down to the Caribbean for a could weeks, so he took me with him. I met this guy down there, and he started teaching me how to make swords and all kinds of other stuff. After we got back, I convinced Dad that I'd loved it and wanted to give it a shot. He bought me the shop and got me started, then signed it over to me when I turned eighteen. Within a year, I'd made enough both to pay him back and share an apartment with Jack."

"That's… impressive."

"Thanks," Will grinned. "It was easier than it sounds. I just… fell in love with it, in a way. I was doing something I loved, and I never wanted to stop, and before I knew it I had a customer base and an awful lot of sales. I'd even supplied the prop swords for a couple of movies." He laughed. "The first one was just about a year after I opened the shop. You should've seen the looks on their faces when they realized that the London blacksmith they'd heard so much about was seventeen years old."

"I can see how that might come as a bit of a shock," Elizabeth laughed.

Will turned to face her. "Well, Miss Swann… you now know the somewhat-abridged version of the History of Will Turner, and that's more than enough about me. I want to hear about you."

Elizabeth mock-groaned. "I'm afraid the History of Elizabeth Swann isn't nearly as exciting. I've lived in London all my life. My father owns a chain of bookstores, and my mum was sort of his second-in-command, I guess you could say. She died when I was seven." She shrugged. "I don't really know what else to say."

"There's got to be more than that," Will coaxed. "Where do you work?"

"Nowhere as exciting as you. I work in a coffee shop."

Will stopped walking, moved to stand in front of her. "I refuse to accept that. Know why?"

"No. Why?"

"Because no one dreams about working in a coffee shop. I know you certainly don't want to work there for your entire life."

"No…"

"Then tell me what you want to do. What's your dream? A girl like you, I know you've got a dream job. There's something you want to do, something you're going to do someday. You just haven't quite made it there yet."

"My dream job?" Elizabeth said pensively. "You know, no one's ever asked me that before."

"Well… I'm asking now. What is it that you want to do more than anything else?"

"My dream job…" Elizabeth said again. "All right… I – I want to be an architect."

Will grinned. "Now that's more like it."

Elizabeth couldn't help smiling back at him. "I love designing things. I want to be able to design them and see them actually built."

"So what's the problem?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean, Miss Elizabeth, is why haven't you done it yet?"

Elizabeth looked away from him. "I don't know. I guess mostly because of my father. He thinks that someday he's going to hand the company over to me, and then I'll spend the rest of my working life happily sitting in an office, making decisions about what sort of coffee we should serve in our stores, and whether or not we should open a new store at this or that location, and whatever else the owner of a bookstore chain does." She frowned. "I don't know how to tell him that that's not what I want."

"Very gently."

Elizabeth laughed. "Seriously, though. He has no idea what I want to do. I've always been afraid of disappointing him."

"Elizabeth," Will said softly, looking her in the eye, "if your father loves you half as much as a father should, he won't be disappointed. There is no doubt in my mind that you can be a great architect. Your father will be proud of you. I promise."

Elizabeth was standing so close he could smell her perfume. She was outstanding. There was no other word for it. And damn, was she beautiful.

"Elizabeth?" he said quietly.

"What?"

"Have you ever kissed someone on a first date before?"

"Honestly… no."

"Me neither." He wondered if she could hear his heart pounding. "Would you want to?"

She'd never kissed anyone on a first date before because she'd because she's never been fortunate enough to date anyone that she'd like enough to want to kiss them. But Will was different. Will was amazing.

"Yes."

So Will and Elizabeth have officially been on their first date! I absolutely loved writing this. They're just so darn cute :)

And, by the way, I decided that Will lived in Scotland because, according to Wikipedia, he was actually born in Glasgow, then he and his mother moved to England when he was young. I had them stay in Scotland because his dad was going to move to England, so there had to be some kind of big, unsettling move for Will after his mother died.

What you might take away from this is that I have actually read the entire (rather lengthy) Wikipedia article on Will Turner. Don't judge. I like him.