-1Disclaimer: Characters… Disney… Don't own… Whatever

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home" - Goethe

…

Will Turner's eyes involuntarily snapped open as the first sliver of sunlight stretched across the horizon, like they did every morning when he was on land. It was a leftover habit from his years as a blacksmith apprentice, but Will was a morning person by routine only, and his mind was still leaden with sleep. Still, he mused while staring at the ceiling, he was awake, so he might as well get up and make breakfast.

The first thing Will noticed as he tried to sit up was a familiar weight on his chest, pinning him to the mattress. He managed the strength to lift his head long enough to see Elizabeth tucked against his side, her head on his chest and her hand resting over his scar, before he dropped back into the pillow. His body slowly became aware of her presence; his own arm wrapped loosely but protectively around her, his hand resting on her shoulder, her leg draped languidly over his, her heart beating flush against his side, the matched rise and fall their breathing. Every trial was worth this, this blissful feeling of his wife asleep next to him. Will let his eyes drift closed, focusing on the steady pulse of her heartbeat, and pulled her a little closer to him, a serene smile slipping across his features as he drifted back into a light sleep.

The sun rose a little higher and a thin thread of golden light hit his closed eyes. Will squinted his eyes shut tighter and uncharacteristically threw his free arm haphazardly over his brow, but it was no use. He was awake. Again. As he lay there, trying to trick himself into thinking that he was still dreaming, something resembling a hazy thought prodded at the back of his mind. What was he going to do again? Breakfast. Right.

The second thing Will noticed as he managed to slide his chest free, though his arm was still captured, without waking Elizabeth was the chilly morning air that hit his bare chest. He glanced at the window to find it propped open as it always was, the echo of the ocean's waves filling the room like a soft lullaby. Neither of them could sleep without the sound of the ocean in the background, or its soft, familiar scent in the air, and Will knew, as he gently clasped his wife's fingers in his own and tenderly kissed them before guiding her hand back to the bed, that he would never again be able to sleep without her.

A chilled breeze tickled his skin as he watched Elizabeth sleep, and Will suddenly remembered that he was shirtless, and cold. Shirt first, then breakfast. Will propped himself onto his free elbow and tore his eyes away from Elizabeth's face to look around their bedroom for the missing garment in question. The blankets and comforter were piled on the floor at the foot of the bed, as they had been kicked off last night. Again. Damn things always got in the way. The door was closed, but his shirt was not hanging off of the doorknob, a common spot for it. A winding trail of clothing started near the door and led to the foot of the bed; shoes, vest, belt, cotton dress, but no shirt, and no pants. Where were his pants? Will glanced down to find the missing trousers on him and was really beginning to question the wisdom of getting up after only three hours of sleep. As he stared at the trousers that, until a moment ago, he did not know he was wearing he admitted that he could not seem focus on anything… except for Elizabeth's leg over his. Elizabeth's long, bare leg. He followed the smooth skin with his eyes when he realized…

Elizabeth was wearing his shirt. Only his shirt. It was his favorite, a simple white cotton that was a little too short for his torso and had a plunging neck line. It looked better on her, anyway, scarcely covering the top of her thighs and revealing an inch or two of skin from her neck to just above her navel. Definitely better on her. He could live with that.

Well, he definitely was not getting his shirt back. Will reached over and delicately began to trace lazy patterns along her thigh with his fingers, her skin still as smooth as it was ten years ago, his mind wandering, his eyes slowly filling with their usual intensity.

Something flashed in the corner of his vision and Will looked up to find the sun's rays reflected off of Elizabeth's wedding band. The golden wedding band that he had made for her during his captaincy of the Flying Dutchman, when eternity was defined as ten years. He lifted his hand in front of his face and rubbed his own wedding band with his thumb, a subconscious habit he had formed soon after he had begun wearing it that always calmed him. Will let his hand drop and placed a soft kiss on Elizabeth's temple, whispering an 'I love you' against her skin that held as much intensity and meaning, if not more, as the first time he had said it before letting his head fall back onto the pillow. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and Elizabeth's hand found his chest again in her sleep as she closed the few inches between them and pressed against his side again. Will covered her hand with his own and let his eyes drift shut. Breakfast could wait.