the Dalaverse

Am home, and Meg is home, and everybody's home, and I am so not looking forward to working until 9:00 tonight. Blahhhhh. IneedthemoneyIneedthemoneyIneedthemoney...

Anywho, fabu has the last claim on the old requests (FROM JULY): here is James/Will/(implied)Elizabeth, with this image and title.


Waiting (Bound to Meet You)


“The world has gone mad,” James whispered, clutching the note in his hand and shaking his head.

First Elizabeth, with her tendency to come upon him unawares and proceed to make utterly transparent advances. He was almost more shocked by her lack of subtlety than by the behavior itself. His skin burned for hours where she touched him – his arm, his knee, once his cheek (she had claimed to be brushing at a spot of ink). Elizabeth had always been bold, but seeing her preening beneath her husband’s arm around every corner in Port Royal, James had thought her somewhat bridled by marriage. As for why she was suddenly displaying such interest in him when she had entirely failed to do so at the appropriate time, James could divine the answer no more than he could curb his extant desire for her.

As for Will, he had been jittery and shifty whenever James had seen him, looking more like a man with his own side dish than an unsuspecting cuckold. James had been considering ways to broach the subject of his wife’s impropriety for weeks, but he found himself on ill footing with the man after the events of last year; Will avoided him at all costs, and was impossible to catch alone.

Though not, it appeared, for whomever had caught him and tied him up in James’s rooms.

Tearing his eyes from bound and gagged blacksmith, he smoothed out the paper and squinted at the neat, fine script.

My dearest James,

I have grown weary of my husband’s intractable stubbornness, as well as your impression of a block of wood. Please feel free to commiserate over my wilfulness, which opinion is, I daresay, far from all you have in common. I will come round for collection late this evening.


Yours (despite your reluctance to have it so),

Elizabeth Swann Turner

James dropped his gaze to Will, expecting fury and struggle at such a blow to his pride, but Will was quiescent within his bindings. When his eyes met James’s, he even smiled a bit sheepishly, awkward with the cloth cutting across his mouth.

Clearing his throat, James bent down to remove the gag. His fingertips touched something smooth, just the barest bit silkier than the brown hair. He leaned around to inspect the knot at the back of Will’s head, stilling at the sight of the black satin ribbon tying Will’s curls back.

Will rolled his shoulders, muscles flexing beneath James’s arms, and James hastily undid the knot and pulled the gag free. Will cracked his jaw wide and sighed with relief.

“Thank you,” he said, as if James had simply opened a door for him or allowed him to pass first on the street. “She does like to see that everything is pulled tight.”

Realizing his hands still rested on Will’s head, James snatched them away and sat back on his heels. “What the devil is she playing at?” he demanded, frowning when Will only smiled again.

“Oh, you know Elizabeth,” he said, affection warming his tone. It was no sort of answer at all, but as James did in fact know Elizabeth, he felt it prudent to let it go. As he circled the rug and knelt to release Will’s hands, Will craned his neck and offered, “I believe you’re meant to leave the rest.”

James froze, staring at Will with sudden understanding. Surely she didn’t expect –

“This shirt is ancient – it will tear quite easily,” Will pointed out, shuffling on his knees so that he could see James more clearly. Then he leaned back carefully, by degrees, until James had to clasp arms around him or let him fall. Will’s knuckles brushed quite deliberately against the arousal that had dawned along with comprehension. James drew in a sharp breath and dropped his face into Will’s hair.

“Madness,” he repeated, breath dampening the black ribbon.

Will’s laughter shook both their frames. “Or brilliance,” he murmured, twisting to kiss the side of James’ mouth. “With Elizabeth, one can never be certain. But you will know that soon enough, if you don’t already.”