Time and Tide

Taxes!

Y/N was with the Captain as they scouted out one of the collection boxes. Jack watched the two guards talking with the locals and started thinking of a plan.

"Right lad, make yourself useful, cause a distraction." Jack said as Y/N smirked before his face turned to one of worry, he approached the two guards and looked at them.

"Excuse me? Excuse me? Sirs, have either of you seen my father around here somewhere?" Y/N asked as the men both looked at him.

"What does he look like little lad?" A guard asked as Y/N looked at them both.

"Very tall, a big beard." Y/N lied as he looked at them.

"I remember a bloke looked a bit like that, he went up that way, Charles, stay with the box, I'll take the lad to his father." One soldier said while Y/N gave the signal for Jack to sneak around the back of a nearby building as he was lead away.

"Clever lad." Jack muttered to himself as he snuck around the back of the neighbouring building and crept up on the lone guard, taking out his pistol and using the handle to knock the guard out from behind, Jack grabbed the chest with the tax collections and carried it away, sneaking through the back door of the tavern and hiding the chest in a nearby bush.

As Y/N returned, having ran off like he had seen his father, he found Jack who chuckled.

"That wouldn't be your first time pulling that trick would it?" Jack asked with a grin.

"No Captain." Y/N said with a smirk.

"Good, because we've got two more chests to get." Jack said with a cocky grin.

Y/N followed him to their next mark. They scouted it out and saw four guards.

"I don't think the same tricks going to work here Captain." Y/N said as they both peeked from around a corner. 

"We won't need it to." Jack said with his signature smirk as he looked to Y/N. "Look at the crate above them."

"Shoot it down?"

"No. You cut it down, untie it." Jack suggested as Y/N nodded.

Jack watched the guards from a distance, blending in at the town market, he could see Y/N climb up the side of a building and onto a roof, creeping across the rooftop before looking at the crane above the guards, he took one jump and just managed to catch the ledge of the roof with the crane, climbing up he walked to the crane and untied the knot suspending the crate, however he wasn't expecting it to be so heavy, the box crashed to the floor, knocking out two of the guards and knocking the other two to the floor for Jack to easily knock out while Y/N was catapulted through the air, he went crashing through a window and into a bedroom.

"Should have expected that." Y/N remarked to himself as he sat up and looked around, there was someone coming up the stairs, immediately Y/N stood up and crept up to behind the door, grabbing a purse of money on the way, the door opened and in walked a man who immediately ran to the broken window, Y/N moved quickly but quietly through the house and out the front door, rushing to a nearby alleyway to find Jack carrying the chest to the Tavern, hiding it in another bush.

"Were you seen?"

"No, oh, and I relieved a man of this." Y/N said as he held up the purse of coins.

"Good." Jack said with a chuckle. "Come on, one more and we should have enough to get started on finding the Pearl."

They soon found their third and final mark, seeing eight guards on the chest, however, the chest was the largest chest yet.

"Captain? Any ideas." Y/N asked as Jack looked at their mark.

"Follow my lead." Jack said as he drew his pistol and grabbed Y/N holding the gun to his temple and walking out to meet the guards. "Evenin' gents, hand over the chest right now. Or the boy dies."

Y/N had a panicked look on his face as the guards all stood immediately on the defensive.

"Let him go."

"Give me the chest with the money in it, I'll let the boy go!" Jack said as he pressed the gun against Y/N's head.

The guards all looked to their officer before grabbing the chest and bringing it forward.

"Boy, kick it open check it." Jack said as Y/N kicked the chest open to see the glittering sight of the coins within. "Grab one handle of it and drag it with us, none of you follow, or the boy dies."

The guards all stood still as they saw Y/N struggling to drag the chest backwards while Jack kept the pistol on him before they rounded the corner, the pair of them picking up the chest and rushing off, heading back to the tavern where they made sure they weren't followed. They presented all three chests to the tavern owner and split the money between them.

"Rum for me, Ale for the lad." Jack said as he looked to Y/N. "This ones on me, consider it my apology for the gun to your head."

"Gracefully accepted." Y/N said with a chuckle, the pair raising a tankard together. "To your good health Captain."

The pair drank their tankards and celebrated a job well done.

[For anyone concerned with Y/N consuming ale at a young age, Pirates of the Caribbean is set some time during the 1700s, a period of history where consuming water was more risky than consuming the light alcohol, resulting in many people including children, drinking light alcohol such as "Low Beer", Ale, and other low alcoholic drinks.]