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Author: Guede Mazaka
Rating: NC-17.
Pairing: Jack/James, Will/Jacques/Elizabeth.
Feedback: Please let me know what worked for you, and what didn't.
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except this version of Jacques.
Notes: Jacques looks like this. He occasionally drops a French phrase; translations upon request. Sequel to Fairytale. Dedicated to juniper200 and madam_h, as they're both having some roughness right now. Hope my poor comedy helps.
Summary: And Jack's human! Surprisingly, this does not uncomplicate matters.
***
Will was just beginning to crack open an eye when the little sliver of world suddenly flared into white fire. He immediately bolted up and lunged for the nearest jug of water, but the sheets caught his legs and he unceremoniously tumbled to the floor. "Damn it!"
"Ah…" A slightly singed Jacques blinked. Then he put down his chalk and crawled over to poke at Will. "Good morning?"
"Don't do that in here. Or next time Jack chains you to the bed, I won't slip you the key." Behind Will, Elizabeth murmured herself awake and flopped to the side of the mattress. She bent over just enough to kiss him on the cheek, then smushed back under the blankets. Snorting, Will nevertheless pulled the sheets over her before looking at Jacques' work.
The rugs that usually covered the floor had been pulled aside to expose a wide stretch of planking so worn it was silky to touch. On it, Jacques had drawn about half of an intricate design that spiraled and danced in Will's vision, the lines seeming to shift as he watched. Little crushed bits of dried herbs were stuck to various intersections, and in the center reposed a scrap of cloth that Will vaguely remembered being from Jack's previous coat, curled around some of Jack's old beads.
It wasn't metalworking and therefore not really in his line of work, but transformations were transformations, whether the stuffs involved were steel and fire or flesh and blood. Which meant Will had a hazy idea of what Jacques was trying to do. "It looks all right."
"It's not. The damned thing refuses to do what it should." Jacques morosely poked at the incomplete side. "And still after I've gotten this far, too. I am beginning to wonder if perhaps Jack wants to stay a bird."
"Doubtful. He can't drink nearly as much." When he received a reluctant smile, Will patted Jacques on the shoulder and got up to dress himself. One of the very, very few benefits of not having Jack aboard the Pearl was being able to "borrow" the captain's cabin, which was the largest furnished room on the ship. Damned if Will knew how, but Elizabeth somehow never had enough drawers and chests for her things, and they were forever managing to ruin their sheets. "You talk to Anamaria? She knows a lot more about this sort of thing than she likes to let on, but I think she's fed up enough with Jack's absence to speak about it."
A faint shadow of amusement passed over Jacques' face as he returned to his drawing. His hand sketched quickly, twisting the lines into their proper places. "Yes, I did. An interesting conversation…but ultimately unhelpful. I think we might have to retrieve Jack before we can do this."
At that, Will groaned, dropping his shirt. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to that."
"Why not?" Elizabeth asked, voice half-muffled in her tousle of hair but confusion coming through clearly enough.
"Because then we have to explain this to James. And somehow I have a feeling that Jack hasn't been an ideal guest." Dropping disconsolately to the floor, Will let his head slide against the wall. He wondered whether Norrington would wait until after Jack was human again, or just barbecue sparrow-Sparrow on a…a toothpick. Quite the delicacy, if Will remembered correctly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw Elizabeth and Jacques exchange a look. Then the other man hesitantly padded over and ducked so he could stare into Will's face. "Are you all right? Can…can you breathe while you're doing that?"
"'m fi-" Another torrent of laughter choked off Will's words, and he had to take a moment to forcibly calm himself. His lips were still twitching when he finally replied to Jacques' question. "I'm fine. It's just…oh, God. My captain's in a barrel of pigshit no matter what, so why not laugh?"
Jacques began to look alarmed, so Will hastily put out a hand. "No, no, I'm really fine. And sane. Just a little…"
"…tense," the other man drawled, gracefully settling his legs on either side of Will. He reached back and pushed at Will's knees so he could sink down into a straddle. On the bed, Elizabeth started to giggle.
"Well, it should be understandable, all considering," was Will's mild reply. Then he fisted a hand in Jacques' hair and yanked the man down for a hard, punishing kiss.
Elizabeth stopped giggling.
Will loved her. Absolute and always. But in order to survive life aboard the Pearl--actually, in order to just survive breakfast with Jack-one had to be open-minded and welcome to new experiences. And Jacques tasted rather good. Felt nice as well, though different. Lean and hard and angular where Will was used to giving softness, but there were new curves and dips to chart. He bent his wrist and stroked it down Jacques' side, then curled his hand around to see how a man's hip would fill it. In response, the tongue in his mouth whipped sideways like seaweed thrown onto the shore. Fingers crept into Will's trousers and undid what he'd done only moments before.
Elizabeth squeaked.
Which reminded Will. He worked his mouth free, then glided it along Jacques' neck when the other man made as if to get off. Moaning, Jacques subsided.
"Don't tell me you've gotten shy," Will whispered at his wife.
"Oh, you-" Irked, she flounced off the bed and scrambled up behind Jacques. "If you two didn't look so appealing, I'd brain you with the pillow."
Chuckles filtered through kisses as Jacques buried his face in Will's throat, lipping at it. "Enfants, enfants. Worse than village scamps."
Ignoring him, Will started tugging at Jacques' shirt and trousers. Elizabeth was doing the same, and in consequence, their fingers constantly tangled and twisted and petted. It wasn't exactly the most efficient way to undress a man, but Jacques certainly seemed to enjoy it. As his fingers inched further down Will's trousers, he gasped and whined, turning in Will's grasp like a silver-quick fish suddenly caught.
"Pretty," Elizabeth purred, nuzzling up Jacques' back. In the blink of an eye, she'd gone from gaping innocent with rose blush to golden seductress. Will had to snicker for a moment at the difference between the wife and the childhood playmate. Yes, he was a very happy man.
Even more so when Jacques gathered enough of himself to participate in a more substantial manner than mindless grinding. Namely, his hands deftly maneuvered off Will's trousers to where Elizabeth could take over, touches lingering and teasing. Damn. They weren't going to make it to the bed.
Come to think of it, Will wasn't sure if he could remember the last time he and Elizabeth had used their mattress for anything besides collapsing. Usually it was the wall, or-"Hey!"
Unrepentant, Elizabeth leaned forward again and bit sharply on his other ear. "You have a beautiful man in your lap. Pay attention, or I might be tempted to swipe him from you."
"Who says he'd want to go?" Will shot back, letting his hands delve into the delicate skin behind Jacques' balls. The other man bucked and blew a stream of garbled curses into Will's ear. "He looks rather content here."
"Well, we'll ask, then," she sniffed, tugging off the last part of Jacques' shirt, which promptly got tossed aside with their breeches. Her tongue flicked up and down the slope of Jacques' shoulders, leaving shining streaks that Will couldn't help rewetting.
He pressed his teeth down when Jacques gave up on English and switched entirely to French, feeling a hot pulse against his tongue. Followed that up to tender spots behind ears, beneath corners of jaws, and then bumped into a familiar nose. Nipping at it, Will groped around until he could twist his fingers in the sheets that Elizabeth had twisted around herself. "Off."
"Aren't we supposed to be asking something?" Grinning, she laved her tongue across his mouth, hard and slow so his lip started to throb.
In reply, Jacques flailed an arm toward a bottle of oil on a nearby shelf and hissed something that seemed to be an affirmative. Will raised an eyebrow, while his hands moved back and forth between Jacques and Elizabeth. "I think we've been pre-empted."
"You two-putain de merde-been playing too long with Jack, gotten his bad habits." Empathetic shove of reddened, risen cock into Will's belly. A dangerous light in his eye, Jacques abruptly shoved down so his ass rubbed pointedly over Will's own considerable erection. A tempting dip of heat momentarily caught the tip of Will's cock, and then, frustratingly, it slipped away.
His face must have done something, because the next thing he knew, Elizabeth was scrambling for the bottle. "Wait a moment, wait, wait-got it." She came back, dodging his outstretched hand. "Can I do it? I've always wondered…there's such interesting reactions…"
Jacques buried his laugh in Will's chest. "Merde. Your wife is a pearl beyond price, Will."
"And don't I know it." It only took a moment to consider, and then Will figured it was worth a try. Lazily, he relaxed against the wall. Waited for Jacques to drop his guard as well, and then grabbed the other man's wrists, twisting them around to the front so they were trapped between them. He let his knees sprawl out in between Jacques' own, which had the effect of nicely spreading the man for Elizabeth.
She looked rather faint. Will hoped it wasn't serious, as he didn't have the hands to catch her. Jacques, on the other hand, clearly liked this manner of treatment, for his cock twitched rather smartly against Will's stomach, and his groaning dwindled to a thin whimper. The tattoos that swept around his curves flexed and rippled as he strove to hold still.
"So…" Still a bit breathless, Elizabeth tentatively poured oil into the hollow of her palm, then briskly rubbed it over her fingers. "Ah…"
"You've seen Jack do it often enough. Just do it slowly," Will advised. When Jacques rose to throw an odd look his way, he shrugged and beamed at Elizabeth. "Before you came, when we'd just been married and joined Jack, we…spent a lot of time getting to know each other. It was nice, but mostly friendship."
"Oh--oh." Jacques' head went down, and in its place was a fiercely concentrating Elizabeth. Her tongue-tip peeked out of the corner of her mouth, and her forehead was adorably furrowed. The English went back to French, and Jacques panted into Will's breastbone as his fingers clutched at Will's hands.
His cock shifted down to slide roughly, sweetly, along Will's own, and Will had to admit that his breathing wasn't quite regular, either. Elizabeth, meanwhile, was fast becoming at ease with her current occupation, and to judge by the little jerks Jacques made, she was starting to branch out into more adventurous explorations. As much as Will wanted to indulge her, certain things were approaching acutely uncomfortable. "'lizabeth. Think that's enough."
She pouted, but her hands soon appeared on Jacques' waist. "Well, if you insist. But I'll be trying that again."
Will rolled his eyes. Which suffered a sudden, almost painful shift in direction when she pushed Jacques all the way down onto him. The other man's face seized up in some strange mixture of ecstasy and agony that would've been perfectly ridiculous anywhere, anytime else. Here, however-well, Will had a sneaking suspicion that his expression was identical to it. Not that he was thinking, actually. More like clamping his hands atop Elizabeth's and rolling Jacques' hips, while the other man scrabbled and keened and madly kissed at Will's face. They drank air in long draughts from each other as their bodies knotted into and around each other, tightening and tightening and then…falling loose and languid.
Jacques' eyelids fluttered, butterflies on his face, and his lips spilled fragments of Latin. Old, old prayers, the tiny part of Will that was still functioning whispered.
"Suppose I'll be waiting a bit for my turn," murmured Elizabeth's amused voice. She snuggled into Will's side, sharing a light kiss with a very, very tired Jacques, who fit himself under Will's chin and immediately began to doze off.
Then he bolted upright and twisted about to face the chalking on the floor. "Merde!"
"What-" Will stared. "Oh. Oh, damn. Is it supposed to glow like that-wait, it stopped."
"Oh, dear. I hope Jack isn't in the cage right now." Elizabeth pressed her fingers to her lips, anxiety wrinkling her brow.
Jacques uttered a noise that just seemed to sum up all exasperation. "Damn it. Magic is not supposed to work like that."
"Maybe we're simply that good?" Will offered. They all winced. "Ah, hell. Sorry, but off, Jacques. I've got to turn the ship around."
***
Jack stretched.
And then he stretched. It hurt. Like someone had taken away his bones and laid down molten iron in their place. But afterward, he had to admit that being able to twiddle his fingers again was a good feeling. Highly underrated action, it was. Wings weren't much for manipulation and prestidigitation.
Though flight was something else. Remembering that made him ache for his Pearl.
Beside him, James yawned and slowly cracked open an eye. Blink.
Then the man did a remarkable impression of a jackrabbit leaping across a rivulet. He landed in an undignified sprawl on the floor, eyes bigger than peacock eggs. "Jack! What the devil are you-"
The realization audibly clicked. Or maybe that was Jack's beads; he normally didn't notice, but then again, he wasn't used to them being gone and then back. And his eyesight was taking its sweet time adjusting as well. Which was his excuse for not immediately grabbing for James.
Well, if he couldn't yet jump about like a grasshopper, he'd just go the opposite way and go slow. Clear enough that James was bouncy enough for the both of them.
So Jack leisurely picked up a sheet and wrapped it about his naked form-damn it, Will had better kept an eye on his effects-strolled over to the door, and knocked. "James."
"You-I'll be having a few words with your first mate," was the muffled, angry answer. "He let me think-and you heard all my ramblings. Jack, you utter bastard."
Jack made his snort of disbelief silent and took a seat on the floor. He carefully raised his right arm behind his head, tugging until his muscles uncoiled, and then repeated the motion for his other arm. Funny…birds were such frail-looking things, and yet his arms felt as if they'd lost strength. Though his legs were as if filled with metal springs, wanting to twitch all over the place. "Now, be fair. I could hardly tell you, considerin' my position. An' I can't be held responsible for Will. Well, not for something like that."
Sulky silence.
"You might've headed for the hallway door. Then you'd resemble a little less some pouting bratling, denied a treat," Jack observed as he started to work the complaints out of his legs. "So-"
"I've been extremely oblivious for the past week, and now I feel quite the fool." It didn't sound like James' grumpiness was going to be dealt with very quickly. Unless…Jack reckoned up days in his head…no, it was Sunday. And while it'd be rather odd for the commodore not to show up to service, it wasn't as if James couldn't come up with a reasonable excuse. So the man could, in fact, stay in there all day if he wanted.
Not if Jack could help it. First day in almost two weeks that he was able to drink rum, and he had a lot of missed opportunities to make up for. "Well, I'm not feelin' too brilliant about talkin' to a man in a closet."
"If you weren't such an infuriating-" James broke off with a funny sound. Concerned, Jack stood up and got ready to assault the door.
Fortunate change in position, because the next moment, James came hurtling out, a wild look on his face. He whirled around and jabbed a finger at the closet. "What did you do to me?"
Wary now, Jack squinted into the darkness, keeping his distance. "Er…you do look rather dashing in that color."
James' hands came up as if to clutch at his hair, then swept down into fists. "Jack. I do not keep five identical green velvet coats. I have exactly one."
And as he spoke, the coats shifted, smoothed and dyed and sprouted stiff gold braid or buttons or what-have-you until there was, indeed, only one green velvet coat. Jack suppressed the urge to smile fondly at the memories woven into it, as he had a feeling that that wouldn't help James' mood.
"And there's-these dreams," the other man went on in a harried, tight voice. He made gestures in the air, and things started to ripple. James immediately snapped his arms around himself, glaring until everything settled back into place. "It used to be only when I was asleep. But now they happen when I'm awake, and-and that happens."
"Interestin'." Jack pulled thoughtfully at his beard.
"No, it's worrisome. And quite probably dangerous." If James kept his jaw like that, he was going to snap some teeth. "They kill witches, Jack. And besides that, what if I accidentally hurt someone? For that matter, what am I doing? What is this?"
The sheet began to unravel itself, so Jack busied himself with refastening it, out of courtesy to an already-flustered James and so he could think without having to look as if he were thinking. Or really, just trying to word his complicated explanation in words that James would understand. Didn't seem as if the commodore's reason was capable of much flexibility at the moment.
Then something occurred to him. "All that, and you don't want to be knowin' why I was a bird?"
That took James back a step or few. He stammered a bit before finally collecting himself. "Well, I do, but…honestly, Jack, it's you. I've learned to expect that sort of thing. And if past patterns hold, you'll fob me off with some patently false story and I'll have to wait until Elizabeth's tipsy to get the truth."
Ouch. Jack winced so hard he nearly lost his balance. "Hurts, James. Really. The lack of belief you've in me is astoundin'." He put a finger to his lips. "And I don't remember 'lizabeth gettin' soused that often. Will's usually watchin'-unless you've been sneakin' sips to good Mrs. Turner behind everyone's back?"
Glare. Almost pouting, James slumped into the nearest chair and gazed moodily at the clock. "Wonderful. Too late to run to service. Just as well, seeing as I most likely would've disturbed by turning the alter into a seashell, or something of that nature."
For such a man of action, he sounded quite listless. Very out of character, which worried Jack enough to step light as he made his way over to the other man. As in careful of feelings, and not careful of guards and booby-traps and the like. Times and places, after all.
So he ignored the exclamation of surprise and half-raised hands of protest when James realized that Jack was actually climbing into his lap, but did keep himself clear of the lowering glint in the other man's eyes. By all that was holy, James was remarkably un-giving for a man with a mostly-naked pirate snuggling up against him. It would've offended Jack, except right, he was a bit busy reassuring James. Payment-er, compensation-could wait a little.
"Jack…" James' head went back against the chair, face full of resigned exasperation. He lifted a hand and limply whirled it through the air. "Please, just tell me what this is."
Salt and spray and sun rushed into Jack's nose, sudden and bracing, and he couldn't immediately answer because he was too preoccupied with reacquainting himself. He thought he saw green-blue-purple, liquid in the air, and velvet black depths. "Doesn't seem that bad to me."
"Easy for you to say." There was an odd tremble in James' voice, causing Jack to look closer.
He stared. "Frightened?"
"As you wouldn't believe. I-I can't-I don't know how to control this, damn it," James hissed, chin dropping so the flare of his eyes was fully visible. "And-and it feels so much larger than me-I think I might lose myself."
***
"Think we'll be in time?" Elizabeth crept up behind her husband and put her arms around his waist, careful not to interfere with his hands, which were making adjustments to the wheel.
"Probably." Will briefly leaned back, just long enough for her to know it was deliberate and not the result of the ship's rocking, and then threw himself into a hard turn. Seemingly in tandem, Anamaria barked at the sailors in the rigging, and the sails billowed with wind. "Jacques has a nice hand with the weather, doesn't he?"
She hmm'ed and rested her chin on his shoulder. "Speaking of…"
"After this, Jack's going to owe us that bigger bed. Though he swears they don't make ones like that outside the Mediterranean, so we'll still have to wait a bit," he replied. "That please you?"
Relieved, Elizabeth kissed him lightly on the neck. "Very much. You know, I think it scares people how well you know me now. We don't even need whole conversations anymore."
Will snorted, one hand dropping behind to rumple pleasantly in her skirts. "Well, Jack's proven he can communicate in chirps and flutters, so I don't know why we'd seem any more strange."
***
James watched very closely for several seconds, but in the end, he was forced to concede defeat. "Jack, what on earth are you doing?"
The other man kept on twisting his fingers before him in odd shapes and peering through the gaps. His one visible eye squinted. "No, goes the other way…damn it…can't remember when I've no rum in me…ah!"
He beamed over a knot of serpents, which a moment before had been his fingers. Revolted, James jerked back and reflexively tried to knock Jack away. "My God!"
"Hey! Fine way to treat someone that's just gotten his hands back." Flailing, Jack cursed and groped and clawed his balance back. Some of his snakes landed on James' face-
--and were fingers once again. James' violent flinch suffered an equally violent reversal. Luckily, he had furnished his house with some very sturdy furniture. "What the-"
"They weren't real. You just thought they were," was Jack's helpful explanation.
"Yes, I understand that," James muttered, trying to will away the embarrassment heating his cheeks. "And now that you've had your fun, may we proceed to the serious discussion?"
Jack quizzically tilted his head, legs doing something that appeared to be steadying himself but seemed to require a suspicious amount of rubbing. His sheet had slipped down to pool around his waist.
James took a moment to list all the reasons he was angry at Jack. Then he was fine.
"We are havin' the serious discussion. That was my point, there. You saw snakes. I saw fingers-and as you're not me, you'll have to trust me on that. Think you can manage?" Insufferably smug, Jack poked at James' nose.
"Jack-"
In less than the wink of an eye, Jack went from clown to…to something dangerously solemn. Once, one of the trading ships had brought back an idol from South America. It'd been small and dark and simply carved, but nonetheless it had been strangely, strongly affecting, almost seeming to brood darkly over the room no matter how much sunlight was around. Right now, the shade in Jack's eyes reminded James of that statue.
"You've got it, and you'll have to use it. Like sailing, James-you force it away from you for too long, and you start to lose pieces. They don't go nicely, either. They'll take chunks from you." Fingertips danced along James' cheekbones, nervously petting, while Jack suddenly looked regretful. "I'll not say I put it in you, because I didn't. But-all right. I don't know as it would've wakened without my doing. It might have just slept."
"And I might have risen one morning to find myself strolling through Atlantis. No…I don't think I can really blame you for that. Much." Even as James spoke, he felt himself softening. Absolutely impossible, Jack was. And that was how it went. If it wasn't, then Captain Jack Sparrow wouldn't be Captain Jack Sparrow, and James wouldn't love him. "But this is still Port Royal, not the Pearl. I have a feeling it'd be rather noticeable if I suddenly started wearing velvet coats and trapped people in dreams. Why dreams, by the way?"
Jack laughed, not mockingly so, and dotted a kiss between James' eyebrows. "Dreams, water-not much difference, is there? And I told you, ocean's what you are."
"You're not addressing the important question." James didn't rise to the hint. Well, he tried not to. Jack's ability to irritate him beyond measure went hand-in-hand with the ability to distract him, which occasionally had the curious result of making James relax when nothing else would. And he'd also found that once Jack had gotten an inch, then the rest was sure to come quietly into the pirate's deft hands.
Which were currently plucking at James' night-shirt, and dipping into the front, which James had left undone because it had been an uncommonly warm night.
"Am I?" Jack chirped, eyes bright. Once again, James wondered how he could have possibly not seen the resemblance. Feathers did nothing to disguise Jack's personality. For that matter, an entire sea most likely would not have been enough to hide the man, if he was in the mood to be seen.
James narrowed his eyes, considering. Then he moved his hand up Jack's thigh, smiled back at the grin, and yanked the sheet away.
"Ow!" Jack screeched. "James! Nearly ripped off the goods as well as the…actually, it's all goods, isn't it?"
"Sparrow. May I remind you that I've seen you shitting on Gillette's shoulder." It was nice to have the upper hand, especially as James hadn't had that in so long that he'd almost forgotten the feeling. "He was very unhappy."
"You wouldn't dare." Like a disgruntled cat, Jack rocked back and slitted his eyes. When James met his stare, the other man slouched into a sigh and nodded. "All right, all right. 's easy. You do little things while you're here in Port Royal-I can show you a few tricks-and make it so's you're the only one that sees them. And then you stop missin' our meetings and join in when Jacques and I are havin' fun with the sea serpents. Savvy?"
That was…ridiculously simple. Consequently, James spent a long time mentally examining the proposition from all angles, and then double-checking himself. Clearly bored, Jack started playing with…
"Would you stop that? I'm trying to-Jack!" James seemed to spend a great deal of his time simply yelling the other man's name. It was rather annoying to suddenly realize that, but a little less embarrassing than the other revelation he'd just had. "I've been rather blind lately."
"Understandable. You've been a bit busy tryin' to ignore this." And Jack drew a whisper of wind from the still air, which blew orangeblossom and anise into James' nose. "Really, it's not that hard. Just have to know the difference 'tween asking the difficult part of yourself to politely wait outside, and just dumping it out on its arse."
Despite himself, James had to chuckle at that. "Sounds like a story."
"Oh, now you want to hear my stories-"
Thankfully, the way to stop Jack's mouth was quite simple, once James had made up his mind to do it.
***
With a feeling of great relief, Jacques finished tidying up the cabin and collapsed on the floor. He willed each muscle to completely unravel, starting with his toes and working his way up.
His pectorals were just beginning to give way when Will walked in, startling him into jerking around.
"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to surprise you." The other man began to leave, but Jacques hastily gestured him to come back.
"Wait, wait. It's all right." Jacques put out a hand and pushed himself up. "Did you want something?"
Will shrugged, taking a seat by Jacques. "Not really. I was just going to see if you were done, and if you needed a break or anything. Elizabeth shoved me off deck-something about sleepy men and slippery planks-and Anamaria says she'll hold the weather for a few hours."
Actually, Jacques did feel rather exhausted; he wasn't used to working so many spells without Jack around to help support him. So he gratefully subsided onto Will's ready shoulder, and picked up where he'd left off in convincing his body to relax faster. They sat in peaceful silence for several minutes like that, until Jacques' mind reluctantly prodded him about a few matters.
He tried to pay no attention, but in the end, it was too insistent. "Will?"
"Hmm?"
"You-are you humoring Elizabeth with…" A vague gesture, Jacques had found, both expressed much that words could not, and prevented much nastiness. When done properly, and he'd made certain to learn well that lesson.
The other man had a half-smile on his face as he shook his head. "No. We're married, not fused. And you-so how is this going to change when Jack comes back?"
That was a subject that Jacques had considered many times in private before broaching it rather diffidently with Jack a few weeks ago. As was to be expected, Jack immediately saw through the ruse and cut to the heart in that roundabout way of his.
Not that that meant Jacques was very clear on the matter, but he did feel fairly secure. "You've seen him and the commodore."
"Yes," Will slowly said, obviously wary of the topic.
"So it is quite enjoyable to watch, but sight doesn't cover everything." Jacques closed his eyes, absently cradling his head in the curve of Will's neck. "Though I'll probably continue to keep most of my things here. Yours and Elizabeth's room is…petite."
Will snorted. "Polite of you. I swear, I've tried to speak to Jack about that several times, and I always end up-well, it appears he doesn't like the idea of modifying the Pearl in that way."
"He changes things when he's certain they'll be improvements. I'll speak to him," Jacques answered, yawning. "Thank you, Will."
"For what?" The other man sounded rather confused. Jacques hid his smile and pretended to be already asleep.
***
Well, if James was going to behave like that, Jack supposed he could forgo the storytelling just this once and-oh. That was…interesting. "I do like this color on you."
"I still have no idea how I do that," James muttered, sounding faintly amused. He picked at the ragged-edge lapels of his coat, previously his night-shirt, so even more of his truly lovely chest was open to Jack's happy fingers. "Little things…"
"Think you could do something about this?" Jack ran his hands over James' head, then curved them so his thumbs pressed lightly into the hollows behind James' ears. "Never do understand why you keep cuttin' it."
Wryness tugged the corners of James' mouth up as his hair suddenly fell loose to his shoulders, thick dark silk for Jack to gleefully tangle. "Because it doesn't fit under the wig."
"Stupid white fluffy things, you know. Don't even shred properly." Jack leaned forward and matched the shape of his smile to James'. And God, he had missed this. Even the feeling of real flight couldn't compare.
Anyhow, he had the Pearl to see to that.
"You-I give up. In fact, I don't even know why I bother trying, considering what a lost cause it is." James was mumbling against Jack's mouth-bad form. With his rank and position, he should really enunciate correctly, like a good little gentleman.
Then again, Jack was quite fond of the slightly ruffled sides of James. Speaking of, his hands should've gotten their fill of the man's hair. Time to move them to other promising regions. Like neck, and ribs, where Jack always lost count at least once because James would wiggle like that and suddenly arches and slopes would fit together like heaven slotted into the sky. Then chest, both skin and velvet, which was like stroking a lazy jungle cat, what with the way James would start to rumble. Jack could trace the sound as it rose from gut up through throat, finally landing on Jack's tongue, which was busy relearning the taste of James.
Then the chair disappeared.
"Damn it." James rolled them over, glowering at the shifting around them. The room was long gone. "I hate this."
"Softer than your floor," Jack pointed out, wrapping his legs around James' bare nether half. "Reminds me a little of after we broke out of Barbossa's dreamland, actually."
At that, James blushed and hid his face in Jack's neck. Now, that Jack didn't quite comprehend, seeing that he always found that memory very warming. Too bad they didn't have rope. But-he remembered something. "James?"
"Hmm?" Bit muffled, since while the commodore was there, he'd apparently decided that he might as well sample Jack's throat and shoulder. Commendable thoughtfulness-thought-was Jack trying to think? Bad habit. He needed to stop. So he could devote all his attention to flicking at James' nipples, eliciting a hundred different qualities of moans, and sliding his foot along the backs of James' shapely calves, and paying especial attention to the curve of James' ear.
And bless all the insidious corruption that Jack had sowed within the man, but James was giving back plenty, what with the hands pushing between and stroking up heat, tickling down, and yes, Jack did remember right. Nothing needed. God--God. He knew there'd been a reason why he liked this place. Space. Whatever it was. "Never mind. Just-mind moving a little-ah. There. There."
"Bloody pirate. Love you." Long curve, from breast to neck to backflung head as James went up, rose and took Jack with him. Sank and pulled Jack again, as the moon held the tides to her bosom. Lift and fall, slow and sweet like fresh rain, and it almost seemed to have no end. Just gentle heat, swirling wherever Jack's fingers dipped, and sweat-salt-or was it ocean-salt-and the lazy slipping away and coming back and just rolling along with the ages while cities grew and collapsed, and man stayed ever constant to nothing but himself.
***
They eventually returned to the bedroom. James assumed that was Jack's doing, as frankly, he didn't have the mental capacity for anything beyond rumpling under the blankets and inhaling Jack's breath. It was dereliction of naval duties and a thousand other things, but most importantly, it was bringing James back to a place where he knew how he stood and why he stood and for what and whom he stood.
Though he admitted to being a little taken aback when he went in on Monday and discovered that everyone apparently had thought him at service the previous day. There were dangerous possibilities in that-but then again, the same could be said of everything. He would have to watch over any possible unscrupulousness in himself, as always.
And have a little enjoyment, as it was obviously necessary to the upkeep of his health.
***
"James, if you've spitted Jack or anything-" Elizabeth broke off a moment after she'd rushed in the window, staring at the two men.
A very alive and sprightly Jack saluted her with his glass, Will was dryly amused to note. "Turners, Jacques. Sit here, and you'll be seein' me beat the Navy not only on sea, but on chessboard as well."
"All's well that ends well?" Jacques suggested, lightly hopping down beside Will. "Besides Anamaria, that is. Vote leaves the explanations to her entirely up to you, Jack."
"After I get through with him," Elizabeth snapped, marching forward and smacking Jack on the head. Then she did it again while he cringed and protested. "We were worried. And you would not believe what we had to do to change you back."
Will hastily muffled his snickers. "Not that that was the low point," he muttered to Jacques.
"Elizabeth…" Jack's pleading-eye act was in fine form. Even Norrington visibly melted. "Anyway, that bird bit was for a good reason."
Dramatic pause, which Jack stretched out to an unbearable length.
"One way of gettin' unseen into Port Royal that I hadn't tried yet." Jack dropped the pout and looked rather annoyed. "Though I was aimin' more for albatross."
That time, they each got in a hit before relenting.
***