ugh cris this thing is 1,720 words what have you done (btw 18 ended up being a sequel to 14 and it’s all set during awe bc i’m in the mood for angst)
send me a number and I’ll write you a sparrabeth ficlet
14. “Tell me she’s lying.”
The rumcellar, the most sacred place of any ship, his sanctuary in trying times, feelsnow like the smallest of cages ever made as he paces the length of it. 20steps, that’s how small it is.
But likehell is he going back on deck where he might come across her.
It might beeasier to bear, the imprisonment, if he were alone — which he is, except forthe two specters of himself, discussing back and forth the meaning of what hejust witnessed, when all he wants is to forget the incident.
Ofcourse he had to stumble into the two lovebirds, alone in the dark, Elizabethtrapped between the wall and the whelp, faces close as they whispered hurriedly.Jack held back a gagging noise as he turned back the way he came, only to bestopped by Will’s voice:
“I justdidn’t know what it was, I thought-”
“Youthought I loved him.”
“Doyou?”
“What ifI did?”
“What ifshe does?”
“But shedoesn’t.”
“How canyou be so sure, Jackie?”
Jackgroans, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, aching head cradled in hishands. He’s too sober to deal with this.
“Tell meshe’s lying,” he pleads to the other Jacks around him.
“But whywould she lie about that?” One of them replies, smugness pouring out of him inwaves and Jack thinks, am I really thisannoying?
“If shewere to lie, the logical thing would be to denysuch a thing, not accept it.” The other one adds, infuriatingly calm and Jackhas to agree he’s making a lot of sense.
Withanother groan, he tips his head back and chugs down a hearty gulp of rum. It’sone of the very few precious bottles left, and if they don’t get out of thelocker soon and find more, Jack may very well just throw himself overboard. Hewouldn’t drown, he can’t because he’s still (already?) dead and whose goddamnedfault is that?
Speak ofthe devil. The door opens and she enters his sanctuary, looking aroundhelplessly until she spots him and startles, eyes suddenly wide and shoulderstensed as if for a fight.
He doesn’thold her gaze, but he doesn’t go back to his bottle.
“I justcame looking for some rum,” she explains, somewhat tentative, as if asking forpermission.
“Be myguest,” he’s too troubled to bother with sarcasm so he points her to theirdwindling supply, not once considering denying her anything.
“Thankyou,” the corners of her mouth tremble just a little, like she’s trying tosmile but can’t remember how.
He nodsstiffly and turns his gaze to the wall; her retreating back is not a sight he’sfond of.
When hehears the door shut behind her, he lifts the bottle back to his lips… Only tofind it is empty.
“Why is thebloody rum always gone?”
The soundof the bottle crashing against the wall is the only answer he gets.
——-
18. “You’re a terrible liar”
It has been an eventful night, if there ever was one, and tomorrow promises tobe quite the event too, yet Elizabeth can’t sleep.
She pacesthe length of her room — Sao Feng’s room, that is now hers, as is his ship andhis title — like a caged beast. All 20 steps of it, from the glowing hearth tothe window looking out to the ocean.
“Whydid he do it?” she mutters to herself, again and again.
I killedhim. He hates me. Why did he do it?
That’s theendless mantra. The moon was high in the night sky when she started pacing, andnow it is halfway to the water, going back down so the sun can rise on theother side. She will not sleep anyway, she knows this, and if she’s going todie tomorrow then she might as well make the most of what’s left of the night.
She neverchanged for bed, so she exits her room before she can convince herself notto.
The windingcorridors of Shipwreck Cove are deserted, no one around to help her find herway, but this is a pirate palace all the same, and in the distance she canstill hear the celebration going strong (bloody pirates will be tired andhungover tomorrow and how do they expect to win a war like that?) so shefollows the sound of music and drunken laughter until she reaches the mainhall.
She makesher way around the crowd but never once spots the man he’s come in search of. Eventually,she comes to a stop beside one that looks a lot like him.
“CaptainTeague.” She doesn’t know how to address him, she barely knows the man, andthough he is a pirate and she has met dozens of them by now, this particularpirate is, well, important, if people’s respect for him is anything to go by.
“Seconddoor to the left, Your Majesty.” He smirks a very familiar, very golden smirk,his black eyes endlessly amused. Elizabeth would insist she doesn’t know whathe’s talking about, but he goes back to his guitar and is therefore lost to theworld again.
The seconddoor to the left opens with a squeak, and she realizes she should’ve knockedfirst, but oh well. No going back now. The room is dark except for themoonlight, streaming silver from the open window. She almost regrets coming,thinking he might be asleep — of course he isn’t, though, she can just barelymake out his silhouette, sitting by the desk with a bottle glued to his lips.
“Why didyou do it?”
He doesn’tstartle, the squeak from the door was warning enough.
A sigh,then he sets the bottle down. “Not come to apologize, then?”
Oh, shenever did apologize, did she? She wasn’t planning to, didn’t think he’d believeit anyway, didn’t think he wanted anapology. But she’s here, and chances are tomorrow she’ll die, so there’s nopoint in holding back anymore.
“I’m notsorry I did it, but I am sorry itcaused you pain.” She keeps her voice a whisper, the darkness around them toosacred to disturb. He makes a crossbreed between a laugh and a snarl, and shecan see him standing up from his chair.
“So why didyou do it?” She insists, now that she’s given him what he wanted.
“Why did Ido what?”
“Why didyou vote for me?” I thought you hated me,she wants to add, but it feels too intimate, to acknowledge that such strongfeelings run between them.
“Served mypurpose, darling. How else was I going to convince them to leave the Cove ifnot by the King’s command?”
“So youused me?”
“When haveI not?”
It feelslike a slap across the face, stings worse and the bruise settles to continueaching till the end of her days. She turns to go, because evidently there’snothing left for her here, but his hand on her wrist stops her.
“My turn,”he snarls, pulling her back into the room and pushing the door shut behind him.“Why did you come to the locker?”
“Let me go,”she shoves at his chest, trying to push him aside but he won’t budge.
“Not untilyou answer, Lizzie.”
It’s a feelingshe’s gotten used to by now, after almost two years dealing with pirates, thisknowing that she should be scared but feeling only exhilaration. She turns thequestion over in her head, not because she doesn’t know the answer, but becauseshe can’t think of a good enough lie.
Still, theroom is so dark she can’t see his face, he can’t see hers, she could sayanything and he won’t have any reason not to believe her.
“Because itwas my duty. Because I owed you.” It still feels too intimate, too much like aconfession, and her heart thunders in her chest and her cheeks must be red andshe’s sure she’s trembling, but she tells herself he can’t see this in thedark.
“And isthat the only reason?”
“What otherreason could there be?” Her voice doesn’t come out half as biting and sheintended, but it doesn’t matter, she has answered and should now be able toleave.
She makesto push him aside again, but this time he grabs both of her wrists, voice lacedwith urgency as he continues his interrogation. “Something I heard on The Pearl makes me think duty may nothave been your foremost motivator.”
Her bloodruns cold in her veins, her pulse picking up double fast and she’s sure he canfeel it, with the way his thumbs caress the insides of her wrists, too tenderfor a man technically holding her hostage.
“You’re aneavesdropper now, Jack?” She tugs halfheartedly, but she’s too overwhelmed toreally fight back.
“A captaindoesn’t eavesdrop in his own ship, love. He makes his way back on deckregardless of who is in the way, or whatever conversations are being held near.”His voice has gone deeper, raspy from the rum and rough like his hands on herflesh. She closes her eyes, tries to imagine she can see his face, can readwhat it is he wants from her.
“What conversationwas that, then?” it comes out so low that for a moment she thinks he didn’t hearher, but then she can feel his face coming closer, until his breath is ghostingover her ear, and there he whispers:
“Your dearWilliam seems to have thought you loved me.”
Her handsclench into fists, which he must be able to feel from his hold on her wrists. “Ridiculous,isn’t it?” she tries to make it a laugh, but it comes out breathless even toher own ears.
“So you don’t?”
She thinksabout it a second too long, and not even she believes it when she says “Ofcourse I don’t.”
She can feelthe rumble of his laugh where he has her hands pressed to his chest.
“You’re aterrible liar.”
And whenshe parts her lips to deny it, he covers them with his.
in light of current events this is just gorgeous, look at all this beauty, this is the jack i'm keeping - MY EXACT THOUGHTS AS I REBLOGGED IT???? I WAS LIKE CONTEMPLATING HIM IN TRUE WONDER BC HE LOOKED SO FINE??? SO BEAUTIFUL SO FLAWLESS??? LOOK AT HIS PERFECT CLOTHES HIS PERFECT HAIR I FEEL LIKE A GRANDMA REMEMBERING THE GOLD OLD DAYS I'M FEELING SUUPER NOSTALGIC ALREADY?? BUT ALSO ROBBED?? WHY DID THEY TAKE THAT IMAGE OF HIM FROM US?????
SUCH A FINE SPECIMEN OF THE MALE SEX, SUCH A GALLANT YOUNG FELLOW, SUCH A MASTERPIECE OF HUMANKIND???? HOW CAN THEY SOIL SOMETHING SO PRECIOUS, SO PURE??
YOU TRULY DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE UNTIL IT IS LOST.
MARIEL YOUR ANSWER IS E V E R Y T H I N G????????? CAN I PLEASE COPY-PASTE IT IN A TEXT POST AND PUBLISH FOR THE WORLD TO SEE??????? WHAT A FLAWLESS META *________*
OF COURSE YOU CAN BABY YOU CAN PUBLISH ANYTHING YOU WANT
