Riptide (PirateJunkratXFem.Reader)

#9=Malady

What woke you up in the middle of that dastardly squally night? You couldn't quite tell, to this day it is still a mystery to you. All you could know with full certainty was that you were not the one to blame for your sudden, crude awakening in the pitch black of the cabin.

No, it was probably the captain who had disrupted your tranquil catnap. The blond pirate had by now (somehow) found a way to end up at the foot of the bed, his lanky form curled up so tightly it was baffling. Which, by itself, wouldn't have been cause to wake you from your dreams, but his near violent, frantic trembling certainly was.

You were first and foremost confused, blankly gawking down at his form with tired eyes, and it took your sleepdrunk mind a moment to snap out of it's pre-deep-sleep haze and actually react. Unsure what to do, or even if it was wise to do anything in the current situation and shaky climate of your relationship, so you just kept silent for a moment; trying to make heads or tails of the situation.

It was more than strange to see your tall friend this miserably, curled up into a tight ball that shook, writhed and wimmered like it was in great distress, it was so unlike anything you knew from him. However, your curiosity overtook that fear with a spectacular victory, making you sheepishly craw over to the blond man until you were within an arm's length.

At first you simply observed his quivering form, eyes still half-lidded and sluggish in the darkness of the still stormy night. But from what you could feel and see in the rough outlines was definitely, and almost comically, susceptible.

Not that you found it especially humorous that he was clearly in some visible, vivid form of anguish; but more that Jamie, from all people, was clearly in a powerless state. It was the kind of scornful, malicious joy one found in seeing a perpetrator get their rightful punishment. And the sweet comedy of irony made you smirk, too.

To you anyway, seeing someone who had been nothing but haughty, self important and recklessly violent being a shaking mess was just too sardonic not to be entertained by the display of his humanity. And you almost caught yourself thoroughly enjoying the vulnerable, chaotic wreck he was at the moment. It was a testament to intuition in a monster.

But yet, you couldn't completely set aside that feeling of sentiment, and the human instinct of wanting to help others in despair. After all, Rat wasn't a stranger or mere scum anymore, no matter how much you sometimes wished he was. So you gingerly let your hand reach out for his shoulder, timidly nudging the sweat drenched, trembling skin in a weak attempt to wake your blond friend.

However, the moment your fingertips even brushed past his shoulder, the immediate response of him instantly darting up with a suppressed growl caught you so off guard that it made you jerk your hand back as you flinched together on the spot in a instinctive fit of fright.

The captain's breath seemed painfully strained as he woke, sharp, and hitched in it's irregularity and vigor, the same rate of breath one got when being startled; but so much more repetitive, shaky and deep. He frantically glanced around the room for a second, as if looking for someone, something, anything; or he was just unsure where he even was all together.

And you instantly began to wonder if it had just been a nightmare or something much more distressing. Because, you just couldn't possibly fathom how a night terror alone could have caused such a vigorous reaction from someone that hard-bitten and crude.

When Jamie caught glimpse of you, he let out a relieved, pleased sigh, staring at you blankly for a few moment; his hands cringed into the sheets like they were a liferaft, skin still shuddering vehemently. He seemed sorely rigid, like some cornered animal that awaited its demise to commence, that had caught the scent of death, of fear.