Other People's Sandboxes

Title: H is for Headsails
Fandom/Characters: Pirates, Jack
Rating: G
Words: 200

--

There were those who said (sometimes with admiration, sometimes with derision) that Jack Sparrow could sail a washtub.

He had never actually tested that claim, although given his current circumstances, he would be tempted to try. He hated sailing under someone else. But Barbossa had cheated his way - erm, make that won fair and square - the right to wear the captain's hat (metaphorical, of course. No one touched his hat.) until the next port.

So Jack sighed and went back to resetting the rigging on the headsails, even though he knew (and had told Barbossa) that he'd just be up here re-resetting them as soon as the storm on the horizon blew in. But Barbossa was captain and therefore, by definition, knew best. Right.

Several hours later, the washtub was sounding better and better, if only because it would be his very own washtub. He was, as predicted, re-resetting the headsails, soaked to the bone, and utterly miserable. Even the promise of warm rum in a dry cabin did little to improve his mood.

"And I could sail the damned tub too," he growled at Barbossa as he dropped to the deck and stalked off to the cabin.

Fandom: PotC/Bridge of Birds crossover
Characters: Jack, Master Li, Number Ten Ox
A/N: Number Ten Ox is narrating, of course
--

The adventure started, as they usually did, with a knock on the door. As Master Li was deeply into his sixth jug of wine for the evening, I rose and answered the door to our little house on the Street of Eyes.

You might think that years of working with Master Li would have inured me to whatever might be thrown at me in this world or the next. And you would largely be correct. But every now and then the August Personage of Jade likes to remind me that I can still be surprised.

The man on the other side of the door was foreign. There is no other possible way to describe him. The form and fabrics of his clothing, the shape of his face, even the smells that clung to him, were other.

Before I could say anything, he bowed to me, a proper bow of a supplicant seeking aid, and greeted me.

"My surname is Sparrow, my personal name is Jack, and I come most humbly to entreat the help of Master Li Kao."

At least, I think that is what he said. His seaman's dialect was as thick as Bao Ki's plum wine, and he might have said that his surname was "Bottom-wiper." I chose to believe my initial interpretation.

"My name is Lu and my personal name is Yu," I replied, "but you can call me Number Ten Ox. Please come in and I will fetch Master Li."

I turned to do as I had said, only to find Master Li standing behind me already, speculatively assessing the stranger.

"And just what is it you need my help with, salty dog?"

Sparrow grimaced. "I'm afraid, Master Li, that I have misplaced the Pearl, and all of China knows that you are unparalleled when it comes to finding the unfindable."

"Misplaced it, eh?"

"Well, no. Not exactly. I know precisely where she was when I left her. I suspect that Ching Shih stole her."

Master Li laughed heartily and slapped his thigh. Then he and the stranger switched to rapid conversation in a barbarian tongue, leaving me even more bewildered than before. Finally Master Li straightened up and switched back to a real language.

"My surname is Li and my personal name is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character," he said with a bow, "and I will help you find your Pearl." He then turned to me. "Come, Ox, we have some shopping to do."

Fandom: PotC
Characters: Elizabeth, James, Will, Jack
Warning: highly AU because I wanted all 4 of them at once :)
Written for penknife 's 2009 fandom_stocking

"D'you ever miss it?"

James's voice floated across the rooftop. He was stretched out in a hammock, while Elizabeth and Will lounged on a pile of pillows they had brought up from the parlor, to the horror of the housekeeper. Jack flitted between the two and was in charge of replenishing the drinks from the liquor cabinet below.

The usual rivalries and fighting had been suspended in deference to the spirit of the season and the four had decided to spend Christmas at James's large house, because when you got right down to it, they were all bonded closer than family and really, who else would they want to spend a day of good cheer with?

"Miss what?" Elizabeth asked sleepily. The day was fine and they had retired to the roof after a large luncheon.

"Christmas in jolly ol' England, snow everywhere, the smell of pine trees and a crackling fire."

"Mm, not any more. I did the first few years after we came here, but I think I was missing mother more than anything."

"I don't," Will said definitively. "The snow was pretty at first, but mum wouldn't ever let me go out and play in it, especially not at Christmas."

"Well, I don't know about England, but I remember one Christmas in Philadelphia. . ." Jack began.

James rolled his eyes at the amusing-but-certainly-embellished tale that the pirate told, but then he lay back in the hammock and smiled. This, certainly, was what Christmas was supposed to be about.