polyfacetious asked: it’s nothing. it’s just a bruise.
But she knows Jack, and knows that won’t be enough for him. And Rose had been a fool to think that curling her hair down over her cheek would hide the bruise blossoming on the skin.
She had worked the streets of Tortuga for years now, years before she knew the name given to her at birth was a name for another soul. Before the girls took her in and taught her how to curl her lashes and paint her lips.
The men were crueler then, when she was only a boy.
But she’d worked her way up. Through shrewd negotiation and skilled hands (and mouth, and other bits) until she had her own little room at the corner of the tavern, where when the night was over and the men were gone, she could open up the shutters and listen to the sounds of the sea washing up against the shore.
Rose’s fee was so exorbitant that she’d gained the nickname of a “captain’s whore”. Only they could afford her. But that wasn’t entirely true. She had a few old favorites, like sweet Atticus who would read from his book of animals to her while the sweat cooled on their skin. And she’d even seen to the blacksmith a time or two.
Her favorite, of course, was the man who’d laid her down on newly washed sheets and brushed the hair from her face to kiss her before he fucked her. Jack was a romantic like that.
And she’s almost certain he’s the one who started the rumors about her fees being so high that most of the deck scrubbers and errand boys didn’t even bother to talk to her in the tavern.
If love was a real thing, Rose would have thought she loved Captain Sparrow. But the world wasn’t fairy tales and sweet Spanish songs. And even if she did find light in her heart, she knew Jack’s belonged to the sea.
(And the long, lingering looks at the blacksmith Anthony, any time he came through the port. But Rose was a kind girl, she didn’t bring up the things that would make shadows come to Jack’s eyes.)
“It’s nothing. He’s already sailed. No reason to worry your head about it, pretty Sparrow.”
She brushes a thumb against his cheekbone, down along the stubbled line of his jaw.
“All that matters now is that I make the most of the time I have with you, Captain.”
A kiss would be just the thing to spin his rudders, and get the winds in his sails, just like she wanted.