A/N: Look! I updated! And this chapter has fluff, plot points and lenght! Yay me! Read and Review!
peace, love and lipgloss,
Mlle.Fox
"Concentrate Minnie!" Will barked at Mignonette with frustration.
"I am!" Mignonette insisted shaking the hair out of her face. For the last hour, Minnie gained four new cuts, six new bruises, and she was sure she cracked a rib. How any woman learned to fight was beyond her. Had she missed some secret, some...trick that made the task any easier? She must have, for Will kept yelling at her.
He leaned on his sword, rubbing his neck,
"Then why have we been having these lessons for three days now and it's almost like you just picked up a sword?"
"Well I've tried to practice but I've been busy with chores." Mignonette said huffing and puffing.
"Besides William..." piped up a familiar Cockney voice as Mignonette's eyes widened in fear. Jack came down the ladder to the main deck, walking up to Mignonette and saying as he passed Will,
"Let us not forget you practiced three hours a day to become the accomplished swordsman you are today." Then Jack whispered aside to Mignonette,
"Partly out of being frustrated over his love life if you know what I mean..."
Mignonette blushed at his innuendo, and Will asked dryly,
"Is there a reason you've butted in on our lesson Jack or are you just shooting the breeze?"
"Actually, I thought the fair lady could use some pointers. After all the rules of engagement are fine for dealing with naval officers and wealthy merchants, but the girl could be going up against vicious, cheating, blood thirsty cutthroats and riff rafts!" Jack pointed out. Thoroughly pale now, Mignonette squeaked out,
"Well that's comforting..."
Jack stepped behind Mignonette, his hand wrapped around her hand that held the sword, the other placed around her waist. Mignonette tried not to shiver as his hot breath whispered across her neck,
"Now, I'll move the sword, you follow me step for step, because footwork is half the battle. Rather like a dance really. You do know how to dance don't you Luv?"
"Yes, but um...I don't recall a dance that was anything like this." Mignonette replied with a quirked brow at their compromising position. Jack grinned knowingly,
"You've been at the wrong parties!"
"Jack..." groaned Will. Jack looked up at him, as if remembering he was there,
"Yes?"
"Could we?" Will asked raising his sword.
"Certainly. Now slow at first...You have to watch your opponents eyes, because the slightest flicker can tell you where they're going to step. Now bring the sword up...like that..."Jack instructed moving the sword with her and meeting Will's. Will moved his sword to the right, and Jack met it, "...now move it down. That's parry. That's defense. You see?"
"Yes." nodded Mignonette beginning to concentrate.
"Good...now move your right foot, left foot crosses right...that's it...now back...forwards...right...right...left...back...left...forward...right..." Jack said as they began to move faster, her steps matching Jacks, the sword clashing with Will's, her eyes focused on Will's eyes, her eyes listening to Jack's voice. That voice. Where had she heard it? It sounded like something out of her dreams. She was so focused on the rhythm of the fight and the rhythm of her thoughts, she barely heard Jack say,
"Now...it's all you Luv!"
And with that his warmth and presence were gone, Mignonette barely crying out,
"Jack!"
And to everyone's surprise, Mignonette kept up the fight, thrusting and parrying with Will, her footwork causing her to circle around with him on the deck until finally with one last swipe, Mignonette actually knocked the sword out of Will's hand! There was a stunned silence all around, the crew's jaws dropped in shock. All except Jack who had his arms folded and smiled smugly out of pride. Mignonette gasped, lowering her sword, looking at it in wonder as she exclaimed happily,
"I...I did it..."
Picking up his sword, Will admitted with a laugh,
"You certainly did Minnie."
"Jack! I did it!" Mignonette cried out going to Jack and hugging his neck.
"I'll take that as a thank you." Jack said smiling smugly over at Will over her shoulder. Then Mignonette remembered who she was hugging and backed up, picking up her sword again,
"I'm going to go practice in the hull."
"Just mind the cargo falling on ya Luv. That's how you got that nasty bump on your head remember?" Jack told her as she smiled and went below. Jack was still watching where she had been, when Will asked him,
"Jack? May I have a word?"
"Not sore cause I helped a girl beat you are you Whelp?" Jack asked turning to go to his cabin.
"No, but I don't think you should be taking advantage of that girl like you are beginning to do." Will said following Jack into the room covered in shadows of the late day.
"I am not taking advantage of her." Jack said picking up a chart.
"Oh? So...putting your arms around her from behind or trying to get her to seduce you in your cabin don't count as taking advantage?" Will asked.
"I see you've been talking with your wife." Jack said.
"And I see you lusting after a sweet and innocent girl." Will said.
"Trust me William, after the other night in my cabin I can tell you she ain't that innocent. And as of now I have yet to learned how sweet she truly is!" Jack said with a grin.
"Jack, why is she still on the Pearl in the first place? What happened to leaving her to find a ship in Tortuga?" Will asked.
"And leave her defenseless and alone where she could get hurt or worst or..." Jack blurted out before pausing and clamping his mouth shut, turning to his bookcase instead. Will cocked a suspicious brow,
"Wait just a minute...Did the famously selfish Captain Jack Sparrow just care about the welfare of someone else?"
"Now you're imagining things, Mr. Turner." Jack said going through book after book. Will came round the desk,
"You know Jack...come to think of it...we haven't had a steady course for weeks now. Not since we picked up Minnie."
"Coincidence, I assure you." Jack said tightlipped.
"Jack...what has your compass been pointing to lately?" Will asked knowingly as he leaned on the desk.
"What it always points to. The horizon line and the freedom that comes with it." Jack insisted.
"Or...perhaps the reason we've been sailing around aimlessly is because your compass has been pointing to what you want most in the world. A beautiful young lady to call your own." Will said matching the tone Jack had used with him when they first met.
"Ha! Rubbish." Jack said.
"You're not a eunuch are you?" Will asked narrowing his eyes at Jack. Jack spun on his heel and hissed,
"Alright! Maybe I have noticed she's beautiful! Maybe I know she's not a common strumpet like I can find in Tortuga. What evidence leads you to believe that I desire something deeper than the challenge of getting to bunk her?"
"Because every year around my anniversary with Elizabeth, I notice you looking at your compass. Then I see you looking at us. Then we sail around aimlessly. Now I notice you looking at your compass, then you look at us...and then you look at Mignonette, AND THEN we sail around aimlessly. And it's nowhere near my anniversary." Will pointed out to him. Jack shifted his feet and mumbled,
"Don't you have something metal to hammer?"
Will laughed and clapped his friend on the shoulder,
"A wobbly legged, rum soaked pirate once pointed out to me that I missed the opportune moment. If I were you Jack, I wouldn't make the same mistake. You may not get as lucky as I did."
Will turned to walk out, when Jack's voice caused him to pause,
"Why should a woman like her want anything to do with me anyway?"
Will turned to his captain, now leaning back on the round desk with his hands, and he said,
"That's how I use to think whenever I saw Elizabeth."
And with that, Will walked out of the captain's quarters, leaving his captain to think.
Later that night, Mignonette tossed and turned in her hammock. She saw visions of the strange brown eyed boy again. Now she saw him take two beads from a voodoo queen, later those beads where in his hair as he got hit in the face with an amulet, some of his once white teeth turning to bronze. A flash of him screaming and getting a tattoo of a bird in flight changed to a campfire scene where natives of some tribe were weaving his hair with dreadlocks and braids, and presenting him with a red and white striped sash. Another flash of fire and she started to whimper as a ship went up in flames, a hot fire poker appearing out of nowhere and being pressed into the boy's flesh as he scream. The last thing she saw before waking up was a red letter 'p' burned in his forearm.
She sat up in her hammock, catching her breath and her racing heart. She peeked out from behind her curtain and saw the rest of the crew still fast asleep. Some even snoring. She carefully stepped out of the cloth bed, her bare feet barely making a sound on the wood floor. She mused to herself that she had gotten used to the darkness of the ship after eight. For that was the time according to the ship's article's for all lights to be doused. It was merely three ladders full of eight steps, and sixty paces between each deck before she felt the light spray of the ocean again. The sky was bright as day with that full Caribbean moon and those countless stars. The wind kissed her face, blowing her curls behind her as she enjoyed the quiet. Then she stopped at seeing a figure sitting with one leg up on the rail, the other leg dangling dangerously over the other side. A compass was in one hand, a bottle of rum in the other. It was Jack. And the moonlight made him glow and Mignonette sigh. Why out of all the pirates in the Caribbean, did she have to be rescued by the truly gorgeous and handsome one?
Jack saw his needle shift towards the deck and he looked up seeing Mignonette looking like a tempting siren calling him to his death. Jack smiled and gave a quiet sigh. Maybe she would be the death of him. The old freedom loving, rum chugging scallywag would drown in her sweet eyes to be replaced by a faithful and loyal dog just wanting her to pet him. As he snapped his compass shut, he contemplated that maybe change would be a good thing. He smiled and said,
"Evening Miss Chestivaldi. What brings you up and about?"
"Who? Oh! Me! Um...couldn't sleep." Mignonette said remembering her alias.
"Neither could I. My dreams wouldn't let me." Jack said standing to his feet. Mignonette joined him by the rail to look at the breaking whitecaps,
"Same here."
"Oh, so you dreamt of me ravishing you as well, ay?" Jack said making the truth come across like a joke. Mignonette shook her head with a rue smile,
"Hardly. My dreams have been very odd lately. I've been dreaming of this strange boy."
"Didn't know you like them young, Luv." Jack quipped as Mignonette rolled her eyes.
"Not like that! Its like I'm watching him grow up before my eyes. First I saw him as a small child drawing and his father was going out to sea, never to return home to his family." Mignonette explained as Jack furrowed his eyes together. She went on,
"Then I saw him as a teenager, getting all sorts of things and ornaments put into his hair, his teeth replaced by metallics..." At this Jack licked the top of his teeth, "...I ever saw him getting branded as a..." Then something clicked in Mignonette's brain as she looked at Jack and all his trappings.
"As a what? Minnie?" Jack asked casually. Arms folded, Mignonette turned to Jack and asked scrutinizing his face,
"Captain Sparrow...let me see your arm a moment."
"Now Minnie, we're both tired. I don't think we should be involved in any strenuous physical activity this late at..." Mignonette interrupted him by grabbing his arm and pushing up the sleeve. " ...night..." Jack finished defeated. Mignonette gasped at the tattoo and pirate brand and looked up at him with a smirk of triumph,
"It's you! You're the boy I've been dreaming about!"
"Oh, so you have been dreaming about me." Jack quipped.
"I don't understand. How can I know about your father leaving, your adventures in New Orleans and with the Yucatan? I've only known you a few weeks and no one aboard knows such things or they would speak of it." she asked confused. Rather than admit he had stared at and admired her figure for three nights in a row, Jack blurted out the first thing he could think of.
"You know what Luv? I've heard of such things happening. See I have this friend of mine, a voodoo witch if you will..." Jack started.
"Tia Dalma." nodded Mignonette following along.
'Bugger! How could she have remembered all that? She was out like a light!' Jack thought to himself with a wince. He continued,
"Right...anyways she told me, that after a traumatic experience and a blow to the head, such as your unfortunate happenstance that led you here, a person develops...psychic capabilities."
"Psychic? Captain Sparrow, honestly..." Mignonette sighed turning to return below. Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her back,
"No listen. It makes sense. How else could you know such...intimate details about my life I have yet to share with my close friends and shipmates?" Jack asked her.
"Then why do I only dream about you?" Mignonette asked smugly. Jack noticed she was still holding his hand. Or was he still holding her hand? Anyway, he grinned and said,
"Well Tia Dalma said the vision is dependant upon the feelings of the one visualizing, Savvy?"
Catching on to his meaning as she looked down at their joined hands but still didn't let go, she merely said,
"Oh?"
Jack pushed some of her massive hair over her shoulder, satisfied to feel her quiver and flutter her eyes with pleasure,
"Question now would be...how does the lovely psychic feel about me, ay?"
"One could ask the same of the subject of her dreams." Mignonette asked as Jack took a step closer.
"Well the subject certainly has never felt this way before, that's for certain." Jack admitted tucking some hair behind her ear.
"Then perhaps...the alleged psychic feels the same way." Mignonette said licking her lips nervously.
"Tia Dalma also said physical contact helps strengthen the psychic bond." Jack said.
"I suppose an experiment is in order...just...to see what happens." Mignonette said as Jack looked at her poised lips. He placed a hand on her hip and pulled her closer saying,
"No harm in experimenting."
And with that their lips met. Mignonette sighed and tilted her head, wrapping her arms up around his neck and standing on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss. Jack had barely touched his rum in the last half hour. So why were his knees about to give? Why was his head light and dizzy? Why was his heart pounding in his chest? Why did she have to grip his hair like that? Didn't she know it was driving him wild? Mignonette had dreamt of kissing a man a thousand times as a girl. But no one had told her how the man would feel pressed against her, her body molding into his, something distinctively pressing into her abdomen. Finally they pulled apart for air, gulping and gasping their chests heaving, their hearts still pounding. Not touching for a moment, but missing the other's presence already, Jack shakily leaned on the rail and merely said,
"Wow..."
"I see you had an orange earlier Captain Sparrow. And that was no vision." Mignonette said her fingers touching her swollen lips. Jack grinned devilishly at her brash comment and her mischievous smile. He came around and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing her against him again. She sighed in delight as she leaned into him. Queen or not, Mignonette just felt like a woman. She mused to herself it was the first time ever she ever felt like a woman. Jack kissed her neck and asked with a smile as he nuzzled into her hair,
"Now where did a proper maid learn such improper remarks like that?"
Mignonette searched the sea a moment for her answer and then said,
"Well...my mistress spent a lot of time in the royal courts. You would be surprised what those of blue blood and pedigrees and royal titles do and say for fun."
"Hmm...never disguised myself as a nobleman before. Now I'm curious." Jack said leaning his head on top of hers.
"Well, Genovian royalty aren't too different from commoners. I've certainly met some royals who've acted like pirates." Mignonette said thinking of herself at the moment.
"See that's what I've always believed. Every man is equal see, cause we're all human. It's just some humans take advantage of the opportunities given to them, some don't, and other's don't get the opportunities to take advantage of." Jack told her.
"Like Genovia?" Mignonette thought aloud.
"Precisely. For instance if the Genovian people could afford an education for their children like the royals could, there would be better business, less poverty, more people to decide what the laws are, thus ensuring the best for all the people than the best for a select few." Jack told her.
"Like the Greeks...and their democracy system?" Mignonette asked. Jack furrowed his brow,
"How does a maid know of the Greeks?"
Meeting his questioning gaze a moment, then looking at the sea, Mignonette then asked looking Jack straight in the eye,
"Well how does a pirate?"
Jack shrugged,
"Although ill-gained, my father did use his 'profits' to fund enough of an education for me to choose a respectable path in life. Even to the point where I was in the employ of the East India Trading Company."
"You worked for the EIC? What happened?" Mignonette asked. Jack straightened, though he still had his hands on her hips,
"They asked me to run slaves to the Caribbean."
"Slaves?" Mignonette asked. Jack laughed and then said to her,
"Oh that's right. Genovia is one of the few countries in the world that has done the right thing and outlawed slavery."
"Before you think it was purely noble, if memory serves it was just because our country is so small there wasn't a need for slaves." Mignonette admitted.
"Hmm well...One of the things I hold near and dear is freedom Luv. And if I have to risk my freedom to help another man get his...so be it." Jack said.
"You are an extraordinary man Jack Sparrow." Mignonette said in awe. Jack met her gaze and leaned in for another kiss,
"You haven't seen anything yet!"
Mignonette lifted her hand up to caress his jaw as she tilted her head to deepen the kiss. She couldn't believe it. She had fallen in love.