To Sail the High Seas: Pirate England x Reader #Wattys2017

Chapter Forty~Three

You bolted.
As soon as those gorgeous green eyes had locked with yours, everything you'd thought, everything you'd felt, as you'd watched his ship sail out towards the horizon, all came crashing back down. You tore through the dense undergrowth, the vines and branches scratching at your skin as you forced them aside, scrambling over the uneven terrain in a frenzied attempt to flee. All your burning anger, your scorching fury at having been abandoned as you were, had been so easily extinguished in that one fleeting moment. It was as simple as blowing out a candle. Now you were left with that god-awful churning sensation in the pit of your stomach, trapped somewhere between feeling like you were going to throw up and break down in tears.
Antonio's words rang loud and clear in your mind, and you were unable to drown them out.
Because you love him.
Swearing loudly succeeded only in causing the Englishman's voice to call your name as he drew ever closer, chasing after you through the thicket. In a desperate attempt to lose him you darted left and right, but he drew closer still, steadily gaining on you.

Just as you felt his fingertips brush your arm in an effort to grab you, your foot caught on something and caused the both of you to go tumbling forward. One moment you were falling, and the next both you and Arthur were suspended several feet above the forest floor in a crudely-made net, a tangle of limbs and curses.
You were momentarily disorientated from the sudden jolt of being hoisted into the air, but upon recovering you instantly struggled against your confines. The situation would have been bad enough had you merely stumbled into the trap of your own accord, but being pressed up against the very man you had been trying to escape as his ragged breaths mingled with your own was just cruel.
If this was the Fates' idea of a joke, it wasn't funny.
Your flailing achieved nothing but a swaying net and a winded Captain as your knee was thrust roughly into his stomach causing a grunt of pain, something which - after an almost automatic moment of concern - you decided he thoroughly deserved.
When his hot breath rolled over your neck, leaving goosebumps in its wake, you realized how incredibly close he was. This net had been designed to hold several smaller mammals, or perhaps a small deer (if this island even accommodated such wildlife that was, which considering its tropical climate you highly doubted). What it was not designed for was two fully-grown people, one of whom most certainly did not want to be anywhere in the immediate vicinity of the other.
You resigned your bruised body to relaxing, having no other choice until you'd thought of a suitable plan of escape. You studied the knots of the thick rope intently, forcing your mind to focus on anything but your companion's proximity. For a moment, the whole island seemed to fall into a deathly silence, broken only by the sound of his voice as he murmured an all too familiar phrase.
"Eyes up here, love."
Had you not felt so very vulnerable at that moment, you would have noticed how solemn he sounded. Had you not forced your eyes to remain glued to the twine which ensnared you, you would have seen how broken the man who stood before you had become.
The silence stretched on.

You didn't know what to say, or think, or even feel. He had left you. After everything you'd written - bearing your heart to him like a lovesick fool - he'd just gone, sailing off and leaving your tattered remains for the starving dogs that roamed the harbor. It had been hurtful to say the least, but even more so it was damn confusing. Even now, after five days of ruminating upon his actions, you were still no closer to finding a satisfactory answer.
"(Y/n)-"
"Don't you dare." Your words were a barely audible hiss.
Without looking at him, for fear that you'd crumble if you so much as glanced into those emerald orbs, you tried and failed to unsheathe your sword so that you could cut yourself free. Due to your restricted maneuverability, this, of course, failed.
He continued with his attempts to break through your stony demeanor, and when you realized that trying to drown out his voice wasn't working you discarded logic and let your pent up emotion take over. Abruptly turning to face him, you struck the blond across the cheek sharply.
His shock at your having slapped him soon turned to anger.
Good. Angry, I can handle.
"Bloody hell!"
You refused to admit that you'd missed the sound of that curse on his tongue, but that didn't make it any less true.
"You intolerable creature! Do you really believe that you can turn up out of nowhere, save my brother's life, and then sock me one for no good reason?"
"No good reason? You absolute bastard!"
He looked somewhat affronted by the edge to your tone, but you were too infuriated to care. It was probably a good thing that your current situation prevented you from arming yourself against him, as fists were much less deadly than your blade would have been.
You swung at him, catching him across the jaw with the heel of your palm.
"You insufferable arse!"
Your next swipe ended in defeat as Arthur, who would not be caught unawares again, caught your wrist and twisted. You gave a yelp of pain as the motion very nearly caused your shoulder to be wrenched from its socket, and almost instantly he released you. Cradling your sore arm, you returned your gaze to his with a snarl. You were prepared to unleash hell upon the man before you, but what you were not prepared for was the guilt which swam behind his gaze.
You almost melted right then and there.
"I'm sorry." He paused, his brow furrowed as he reached for your injury. "It wasn't my intention to harm you."
Those words hurt far worse than your arm.
Trying to ignore the bite which accompanied his claim, you forced yourself back into the net, putting as much distance between yourself and the pirate as possible - though this admittedly wasn't much.
"You've done worse." The frown he wore deepened, but when he opened his mouth to retort, you beat him to it. "Why did you leave me like that?"
"Why did I leave you?"

The longer the Englishman gaped at you in dismay, the less sense the entire situation made. Why was he sitting there so utterly gob smacked when it was he who had trusted you with the ghosts of his past, only to disappear into the sunrise without so much as a farewell?
"You left me, yes."
"What in heaven's name are you on about? You're the one who sailed off with that Spanish bastard in order to exact your stupid revenge."
"Now I know you're crazy." You shook your head in dismay, your tone bitter. "Perhaps, if you pull your head out your pompous arse long enough to recall the situation correctly, you'd realize that it was you, sir, who sailed off without me."
"I did no such thing! You-"
Having heard quite enough you turned your eyes to the side, finding it far too painful to look at the man who had broken your heart.
"Now see here! You're the one who eloped with that Spaniard! Your letter even said-"
"Oh my letter, so you did receive it!" You abruptly snapped your head back towards him, finding this conversion more maddening by the second. "You know I was beginning to wonder, especially seeing how heavily mistaken you are on the topic of my departure, but if you properly received my letter then clearly we are on the same page after all."
You could feel hot tears welling up in your eyes, and judging by Arthur's expression he was a little taken aback by this display of raw emotion.
"Well it's nice to know where you stand on the subject. After everything that happened between us, after everything you said to me, and I you..." Your voice cracked slightly, but you were too upset to care. "Tell me,dear Captain, what exactly did you make of my letter? Did it amuse you?"

"Amuse me? There was nothing amusing about it." His tone had softened, your silent sobbing having quelled his anger, leaving only the pain he had felt upon learning of your departure.
When he made to wipe your tears, you flinched away from his hand, but he ignored your reaction and did so anyway, calloused fingers caressing your cheek gently. Arthur was at a loss as to why you would be brought to tears over your own decision to leave his side, was it possible you regretted it? A part of him hoped so, but that same part so hated to see you cry that his own heart clenched in response.
"I never wanted you to leave."
The frown of confusion which graced your features only strengthened his own puzzlement.
"However, your letter made it perfectly clear that you had no intention of returning to the ship, and it was apparent from reading it that the only thing on your mind was exacting your revenge. I believe your exact words were 'An extremely unadvisable, incredibly unwise, and entirely unregrettable thing' were they not? I could have gone on to find you, to track Carriedo down and bring you back by force, but I didn't want to deprive you of the justice you so craved."
Now you were looking at him, really looking at him, and the blond found himself suddenly unsure.
"I've regretted it every moment since. I must have gone over it in my head a thousand times, wondering what I could have done differently to make you stay and wishing that I'd stolen you away even if you'd hated me for it, but I didn't want to hurt you." He gave a dry chuckle as the last of your tears fell. "Though it seems that even in that I have failed."
There was a moment of silence in which you blinked up at him with wide eyes.
"You absolute halfwit."
Your insult was said with such wonder, and so quietly that Arthur almost missed it. Before he could take offense, you burst into disbelief-induced giggles.
"Arthur Kirkland, you are quite literally the most idiotic man to have ever made my acquaintance."
Your laughter persisted over his indignance, which only served to puzzle him further. Despite his bewilderment, your mirth continued.
The situation was absolutely ludicrous, a misunderstanding of such magnitude had only ever existed inside of leather-bound tomes, and yet here the two of you stood; he right at the crux of the confusion, and you too struck by its absurdity to explain. Finally recovering from your miniature fit of hysterics, you looked up to see an utterly affronted Captain wearing the most insulted expression he could muster. You were lost to laughter once more.
"I'm afraid," He growled. "I appear to have missed the joke."
You smiled warmly at the man before you, baffling him further.
"You truly are an idiot."
Without wasting a moment, you grabbed the thin cotton of his shirt and tugged him towards you, sealing his lips against yours. He responded almost instantaneously, and when you made to break the kiss you found you were unable as Arthur had captured your face with his hands; lips, teeth and tongue clashed together as he pulled you against him, kissing you with a hunger incomparable to any you had experienced before.
Upon finally being allowed a moment's oxygen, you repeated the letter's words through ragged breaths.
"An extremely unadvisable, incredibly unwise, and entirely unregrettable thing indeed, though at that point I wasn't referring to my revenge."
You let that sink in before pressing a light kiss against his temple.
"I was actually alluding to the fact that I, being the foolish woman that I am, fell in love with a pirate." You drew back slightly, lips trembling as you whispered those precious words once more, reaffirming them in both his mind and your own.
"I fell in love with you, Arthur."