"...into the jungle to escape. It took another two days to get back to the village through the dense forest, neither of us knowing if we were even going in the right direction or whether we were still being followed. But the celebrations that followed Jamie, when we arrived back... The look in her father's eyes when he saw that I had returned her to him brought a tear to my eye. And then they made me their chief."

James snorted.

"You talk such utter rubbish."
"That's not nice James. Not nice at all," Jack said with a pout as he shifted forward on the bed moving away from his lover, who had been pleasantly employed in carefully plaiting the pirate's hair.
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that story?"
"Honestly? No."
"Then why do you...?"
"Because the truth isn't nearly as interesting."
James smirked. "And you are nothing if not interesting."
"Thank you."

The Commodore patted the bed next to him where Jack had been sitting and, after a moment's pause, the pirate slid backwards and slumped against James once again.
"Tell me a true story," Norrington urged, moving his hands back to his lover's hair.
"I don't remember any true stories."
"Jack," James sighed, trying to keep the growing annoyance out of his voice.

Sensing James' mood, Jack turned his head quickly and pressed a gentle kiss to the Commodore's lips. "I can tell you The Mysterious Tale of the Curse of the Black Pearl."
James felt his lips quirk against his will. "Oh really?"
Jack lowered his eyelids to conceal his amusement and began peppering kisses along James' jaw line. "Yes, really."
"And what kind of story is that?" James' eyes closed in contentment.
"The best kind. A love story."

"Don't remind me," Norrington muttered and Jack couldn't help grinning.
"It was terribly romantic, wasn't it?"
"Oh terribly," James agreed, his voice thick with sarcasm.
Jack ignored him.
"That two people should find one another and come together under those circumstances..."

"Yes, yes, very... What do you mean 'under those circumstances'? William and Elizabeth were bound to come together in such a sickeningly romantic way."
Jack laid his head on James' shoulder and raised a hand to cover his heart as though he had just been mortally wounded.
"Sickeningly romantic? You have no soul James."
The younger man grimaced. "If that were indeed the case, I wouldn't be here with you."
"That's very true," the pirate agreed with a sly smile and he began tracing patterns idly on his lover's chest. "Besides, I wasn't talking about the Turners."

James frowned in confusion. "Then who...?"
Jack looked innocently up at him.
The Commodore sighed. "How did The Curse of the Black Pearl manage to transform itself into The Wondrous Romance of the Redoubtable Commodore James L. Norrington and the Most Excellent Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow?"

"Wasn't it always?"
"Not the way I remember it."
"Then you're remembering it wrong."

"I tried to hang you."
"Only once," Jack insisted. "And not very enthusiastically as I recall. You let me escape."
"Jack..."
"Ah, the imperious tone makes it's first appearance of the evening. I hope its effects are rather less stimulating to your men than to me James. I should hate to have to fight anyone for you."
James stared at the man next to him feeling a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "How your mind jumps about. Never fear Captain Sparrow. My all does belong to you. As well you know."
"I'm beginning to."

The two men fell silent after Jack's softly spoken words, and the Commodore's hands moved slowly from the Pirate's hair to his back.
"I didn't mean to make things serious," James murmured a few moments later.
"No, but I did," Jack answered, raising his head and smiling fondly at his lover. "You wanted me to be serious and here I am, proving to you that I can be."
"There are things we don't talk about. Things easier left unsaid."
"Have you ever known me to do anything for the sake of ease James?"

The Commodore grinned in spite of himself. "Not at all."
"Then I think it's high time you proved the opposite to me. The Wondrous Romance of the Commodore and Pirate Captain. From the beginning."
"As though the very fact of our relationship didn't prove..." James stopped short at Jack's look of insufferable indifference. "Oh very well. Lie back down. I can't do it if you're staring at me."

Jack chuckled and arranged himself comfortably against James.

"The storm had started suddenly, but was growing furiously as newly appointed Commodore James Norrington raced to the docks of his finest vessel to rescue his intended wife from a watery grave. The relief he felt when first he saw that Miss Swann had been saved from the ocean, was quickly overtaken by another emotion upon seeing the man who had pulled her ashore. Kneeling before him, soaked to the skin was a carelessly dressed, almost savage looking scoundrel. Commodore Norrington wasted no time in placing the man under armed guard, to protect the honour of the fair Elizabeth from what he was sure were the wicked clutches of the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow."

"You didn't know who I was right away."
"Of course I did. You are, after all, a very well known man, Captain Sparrow. "
"And you immediately thought that my clutches would be wicked? That's hardly fair Jamie."
"Well, instead of mentioning that you held Elizabeth hostage while you made your escape and that therefore my opinion of you at that time was, in fact, rather lenient..."
"Trust an officer to concentrate so heavily on the details."
"Let me instead say that I noticed your eyes immediately."
"Tell me James, did you speak with such feeling to Miss Swann? For this may have been where the trouble between the two of you developed."
"Do you ever stop prattling? I'm trying to pay you a compliment you intolerable creature. I am trying to say that I think I might very well have fallen in love with your eyes that day."

Silence descended once again. Jack closed his eyes and held James a little tighter.

"I love you, too."
James smiled softly against Jack's hair. "Shhh. I'm just getting to the good part."