Pairing: W/E, W/J
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: This story is not true and not mine.
Notes: inspired by hija_paloma's Relinquish (probably might make more sense if you read it first), and was written in thanks for the rareslash recs my friendslist made me...
Leave-takings
By Kanzeyori
It started, perhaps when he first said goodbye with "I love you." When he'd first made the choice to die, honorably, at the side of a pirate and if that wasn't some sort of a vow, Elizabeth doesn't know what is.
It started, perhaps when he'd said "I love you" with his silence. When the battle was won in a golden cave, and Will could have lined his pockets with enough to make himself Governor twenty times over and Will still. He still held his toungue. Darling, impetuous Will who snuck Mr. Brown extra ale to free up three needed hours to himself; and for all his practice, Will didn't need her enough to bring himself to fight.
It started, perhaps when he named himself the son of Bootstrap Bill Turner. With the pistol pressed sharp to his chin accepted like the noose which lingers near a pirate's neck, and he will do this for her, he will. Blacksmith-boy swaying on the edge of the boat and the sea and the salt air like something fey and deathdark. The pirates mutter.
It started, perhaps when she couldn't keep silent with his touch. When she asked him 'don't stop', when they'd left Jack for dead, when the round of the medallion gold shone like wretched truth.
It started, perhaps when she'd first lifted the coin from Will's chest as if she could somehow keep his heart that way. She named him 'pirate'.
And it fit, feathered hat and all and she named him 'pirate' and he welds to her still, shaky, and loose and she named him 'pirate' and she thinks. She thinks of how she'd looked to Will when he'd only kept a bare handful of coins from that cave, he'd said to her, "Not all treasure is silver and gold." He said it like rote, like a repeat, like a revelation, and Elizabeth knows that Will doesn't have it in him to be so poetic.
She, herself, named him 'pirate'.
A cursed crew frittered away their treasure, and Elizabeth wonders if she has been cursed herself because, even as they close and embrace on the parapet, the kiss turns to ash in her mouth.
endnotes:...and yet another attempt to reconcile Pirate!Will...