Will had been an early riser for as long as he could remember. He wasn’t sure if it was a natural tendency or a deeply ingrained pattern by which he had lived his life for too long. Lately though, he was beginning to believe that waking before dawn was indeed an acquired habit he’d picked up during his many years in Port Royal. He’d come to this conclusion because ever since joining the crew of The Black Pearl he was sleeping later and later into the morning.

Will knew nothing of the normal times that men on ships rose for the day but he suspected that the late hour at which the day started on the Black Pearl was probably not the norm. He’d asked Gibbs about this once and his suspicions had been mostly confirmed though he still wasn’t clear if this was exclusive to the Pearl or general to all pirate ships.

Whatever the case, he had quickly fallen into the pattern of staying up well into the early hours of the morning and rising closer to noon than dawn. Staying up late had never had such appeal as it did these days. Will and Jack always had plenty to amuse themselves with at all hours of the night. It had started out with rum and Jack’s tales and rather quickly became something entirely different. Even a month ago when Will had arrived on the ship he would never have believed that he could possibly grow to be so attached to the Captain. Snuggled up in the warm bed and tight embrace of Jack, Will found he could hardly imagine what another life would have been like.

But there were still many things he didn’t know and sailing and pirating were just part of his lacking. He’d caught on easily enough when taught aspects of how to sail. Being a pirate was taking somewhat longer for him to figure out but he was relieved to see that Jack wasn’t a murderer. Will had seen him kill no one other than Barbossa and he’d seriously harmed very few and even those were mostly unavoidable circumstances. While it was true Will still had many reservations about stealing and looting and pillaging, he knew he could overcome those given time since it was clear that the Black Pearl was in the business of pirating to make money not to cause unnecessary damage and violence.

He’d asked Jack one night how it was that the Pearl could have such a fearsome reputation yet be the cause of very few actual deaths and so little actual destruction. Jack had given him a toothy grin and explained that the reputation was WHY so little damage was necessary. Sure they could pick a ship clean like vultures but the crew of the Black Pearl wasn’t about to start random killing and raping. Jack had admitted that he had very specific guidelines about what the crew was not to do. Threatening however was another matter entirely.

Jack seemed to get a perverse thrill out of scaring the living crap out of anyone who challenged him during a raid. Will had been not pleased by this personality quark and didn’t find it attractive in the least but he thought it was a lot better than Jack killing the people.

“Putting the fear of pirates into them, luv,” Jack had explained to him. He’d made it sound as though he was doing them a service by making anyone foolhardy enough to challenge CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow think twice about trying it again. “Next pirate they come up against might not be so forgiving, savvy?” he said to Will and effectively ended the conversation by heading out on deck.

Will curled up just a little bit closer to Jack, as though trying to keep him from leaving. But Will knew he would and soon enough he’d be in bed alone, if only for awhile.

So, Will knew a fair amount about sailing now and was still working on being a “good” pirate (so to speak) but what he didn’t know was why every morning without fail Jack would get out of their bed and leave the cabin only to return a half an hour or so later. Will had slept too soundly at first to notice this little departure ritual. But after sharing the captain’s bed for several nights he had finally become aware that Jack was getting up. One morning he had made to accompany Jack, grumbling all the while that Jack shouldn’t rise so early if he insisted on being “up” so late at night. But Jack had waved him off and told him to go back to bed. Assuming Jack was just headed out to relieve himself; Will had done just that. When he’d woken later Jack was back in bed with him so he’d thought nothing of it. But Will had started to notice that every morning before dawn his rest was interrupted by his warm human pillow carefully and quietly leaving and returning some time later.

Will had asked Jack why he did this and Jack had said something about “morning watch” which Will had taken to mean something about the changing of the night crew (usually only one man) for the morning crew (again, usually only one man until much later in the morning). So Will had thought little of it until yesterday morning when he’d woken up when Jack was returning to bed.

But something in Jack’s expression caught his attention. Through sleep blurred eyes he watched his lover take off his boots, sigh deeply and finally crawl back into bed. Nothing about the actions themselves seemed out of place but there was a look in Jack’s eyes that he just couldn’t place.

“Jack,” he asked softly when the captain was again lying at his side. “Is everything alright?”

“ ‘s fine, Will. Go back to sleep,” Jack had answered. His tone was even but there was something there that Will still could not place. Much like the expression, Jack’s voice held something, some clue and Will found himself totally unable to place it. It wasn’t regret or sadness or finality yet it seemed he saw a touch of all of these in Jack’s face, heard a trace of them in his voice.

Pulling Jack close to him, twining their legs together, Will vowed that tomorrow he would follow Jack and see just what happened every morning while he slept.

*******************************

Will felt Jack carefully and slowly untangling himself from the sleeping embrace they shared. He nearly rolled over automatically into the warm spot Jack had left before remembering that this morning he was to follow Jack. He laid waiting as Jack pulled on his clothes and boots and left the cabin before he rose to go after him.

Opening the door to outside slowly Will looked around. The sky was just starting to lighten and he could make out the main deck eerily empty, ropes slowly swaying the light breeze. Taking a few steps out of the entrance way he looked around for any sign of Jack.

“Come over ‘er, Will,” Jack called. He was leaning against the hatchway facing out to sea. As Will approached Jack continued talking, looking out over the water, “Beautiful isn’t it?”

Barely able to make out anything but the slightly lightened sky and the dark water that seemingly went on forever Will responded, “It’s rather intimidating … foreboding.”

Jack sniffed at this. “Just wait then, you don’t see it yet. You will,” he said almost ominously.

Will sighed as he leaned back on the hatchway, standing beside Jack. “Is there a ship out there?”

“No, tha’s not what I meant. It’s the way it looks, in the first light of the sun. You’ve got to see it, Will. It’s like the sea stretches on forever,” Jack said sounding very sober for once.

Will shifted to take a better look at Jack. This was nothing like he’d ever heard Jack sound in the past. Until now he didn’t even know Jack COULD sound this way. Seeing Jack a little more clearly in the quickly brightening dawn, Will noticed that nearly all of the dark kohl was smudged off. Similarly he noted that Jack was without his normal plethora of accessories and even his bandana was off, wild hair hanging about his shoulders unchecked. Will couldn’t help but notice how much younger Jack looked like this. He’d seen Jack without his effects before but somehow seeing the man in the early hours of the morning by a single candle light paled in comparison to watching him in the weak first rays of the sun.

“Do you see it now? Tell me tha’s not worth travellin’ forever to never catch? Tell me it’s not one of the most amazin’ things you’ve ever seen,” Jack said, clearly enthralled with the early morning view of the water.

Looking right at Jack as he replied, “I’ve seen few things that come even close to matching it.”

Jack finally pulled his gaze away from the water to turn it on Will. “I was talking about the ocean, Luv,” he said with a crooked smirk and a vaguely motioning hand. Nodding his head towards to where the sun was just about to peek on the horizon Jack finished, “I could spend forever tryin’ to catch it and never know what lies beyond … and somehow I think that wouldn’t bother me in the least.”

“You’re surprisingly eloquent this time of morning,” Will remarked with a grin. “Usually the most I get out of you is ‘Go back to sleep, Will.’” Again noticing the far away look in Jack’s eyes Will continued, “Did you want me to leave? Is this something you’d rather do alone?” He didn’t want to intrude on what appeared to be a very deep and private moment for Jack.

“No, no stay here. You’re still not seeing it. Not the way I do.”

“But you always seem to want me to stay inside when you come out here.”

“Yes, well, you’re here now. I just didn’t see the point in draggin’ you out of bed if you didn’t come on yer own.” Seeing the confused look on Will’s face Jack, who figured that was explanation enough, continued before Will could interrupt him, “Now, as for me being ‘eloquent’ I’m going to blame that on two things.”

“Am I one of them?” Will asked half-jokingly. “You just can’t help but be smitten by my very appearance?”

“I’ve trained you well haven’t I?” Jack said grinning. “But no. Now …” holding up a finger, “thing number 1: you must understand that this time of day is when there is the lowest concentration of rum in me system. I can be held only so responsible for whatever stupid things I might say.”

Will smiled, amused by the reverse rules that Jack applied to his own behaviour.

“Thing number two,” Jack continued, now holding up two fingers. “Is that.” He pointed the two fingers out to the water.

Follow his motion Will saw that there was now enough weak dawn light to make the sky appear a stunning pale orange-pink blending into a light blue. “Wow, that is rather striking,” he admitted.

“Indeed,” Jack agreed. Rather suddenly, though surprisingly gracefully he dropped to his knees in front of Will. “Now, let’s see if I can’t come up with something more entertaining for my mouth to do than wax poetic about the new day,” he said sounding just slightly embarrassed talking about his noticeably different speech in the morning.

Unlacing Will’s breeches Jack finished, “Tell me how it looks. Tell me what you see.”

In nearly the same instant Jack’s hot mouth engulfed him Will saw the first rays of the sun finally poke out over the horizon. Like a thousand tiny diamonds they sparkled over the gently moving surf, reflecting the light on the sun.

“Ooooh, my God, Jack,” Will half groaned. Trying not to thrust he blinked rapidly looking out over the water. “It’s amazing. I mean I’ve seen in a hundred times before but never like this.” Turning his head to from side to side he continued, “There’s nothing but endless water and sky but it doesn’t look dark and unwelcoming as it did before. It’s everywhere. I’ve never seen the sunrise like this, so clear with nothing to block the view. It’s like you could go forever and never hit the end.”

After a short time Will sighed in relief as he came. Jack tucked him away and stood up beside him again.

“You see why I come out here, then?” Jack asked softly, looking at Will who appeared unable to tear his eyes from the brilliant sparkling ocean in front of him. “Why I have to watch this?”

“I do, Jack,” Will said, finally turning to face him. “I didn’t see it at first but you’re right, it really is beautiful.”

“Eh, about that … you’ll not be mentioning my … um, talk of it to the crew. Wouldn’t want to sully my good name when it came to common speech as it were.”

“I don’t know, Jack,” Will said smiling. “I think I might be induced to remain silent if say, I was permitted to accompany a certain Captain during his morning routine from now on.”

“I really have trained you well,” Jack remarked flashing a gold toothed smile. “We have an accord then.” Turning serious he added, “You’re always welcome wif me, Will.”

“Even when you keep telling me to go back to bed and sneaking out alone?”

“Yes, even then, Luv,” Jack said, putting an arm around Will’s waist, guiding them back to the cabin. “Now then, what do you say to an early start today, hmm? Some of us are in desperate need of rum and a little attention of the more private variety in the Captain’s quarters, savvy?”

Glancing back once more at the breathtaking sight of the sunrise over the ocean Will replied, “We certainly wouldn’t want to keep the Captain waiting.”

They ducked back into the cabin, closing the door behind them on the sight they would see together nearly every morning for the rest of their lives together.

End

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