The next few weeks were the best days of my life.
The pirates finally saw me as a person, and not just a toy to play with. They helped Jack teach me how to sail the ship, and even started teaching me the pirate lingo. I made a lot of friends, but I was never as close to them as I was to Jack.
At first, I made sure to stay very close to Jack, just like I used to. But, the more I got to know the others, the more I started to give Jack his space. However, I never left his side. Wherever he went, I followed him like a loyal dog. Even when they offered me a more comfortable bed, I stuck with the chair on the crow's nest.
He never seemed to care. Other than a couple times when he said I didn't need to stick by him, he always seemed happy to have me around.
I wasn't too sure why I was always sticking with him. I saw the other pirates as my closest friends since I was captured, yet I never wanted to leave Jack. Just being around him made me happy. On the rare occasion I wasn't around him, I felt like I was missing something. But then, the moment I'd see him, the feeling immediately went away, and was replaced by happiness.
It took a while for me to notice, but the feeling of emptiness I'd gotten from being a Huntress was gone. Every day was an adventure, and a fun one. I'd get to wake up every day, and look out at the beautiful ocean, which the pirates called the Caribbean, and I learned to call it that too.
Sometimes we'd go to a little island called Tortuga, where I met a lot of new pirates. I caught a lot of them giving the lustful stares I did not miss, and they usually tried to touch me the way the pirates from the Pearl would. Jack would always stop them, and I also had Ember Celica now, so I could fight back. Not only that, but even the pirates who used to try the same thing helped me out. And I could tell, they weren't doing it for my affection or anything. They were doing it out of respect, and to redeem themselves for the way they used to treat me.
Jack also taught me how to navigate the ocean, and though it took me a while to understand it at first, I eventually could figure out where we were just by looking at the position of the sun or the stars for a split second, just like Jack.
We went out looking for treasure many times, and Jack and I usually found where we were supposed to go. We'd go robbing people like criminals occasionally, and though I didn't like being a thief, it actually started to be fun. I made sure I never hurt anyone I attacked, and the other pirates learned to do the same.
The Black Pearl used to be a prison to me. I used to wake up every morning frightened of what would happen to me. Now it was like my home. I'd wake up excited for whatever adventure we were going to go on today, which was a feeling I hadn't felt in a while.
One night, we were all up on deck, singing my favorite shanty: A Pirate's Life For Me. Jack had taught me the song, and I couldn't get it out of my head.
We were celebrating our latest victory, drinking rum, eating some food we'd gotten, and dancing to the song. I didn't drink any of the rum. I mostly danced with Jack as we sang the shanty.
"Yo ho, yo ho!" Jack and I sang. "A pirate's life for meeee!"
We finished our dance, and we all cheered and laughed together.
"Let's do it again!" I shouted.
Jack took a huge drink of rum, and started to stumble.
"I think I've had too much," he said.
I helped him sit down, and I sat down next to him, laughing like crazy.
"Hey, Yang?"
I turned to Pintel and Ragetti.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I don't think we've apologized for how we used to treat you yet," Pintel said.
"Yeah. We're really sorry," Ragetti said.
I smiled. "No worries. You guys made up for it a while ago."
"You've proven yourself to be a fine pirate, Miss Xiao Long," Barbossa said.
I smiled at him. "Thanks. I've had more fun here than I've had in a while."
"Well it's hard not to have more fun than being a slave," Jack said.
I laughed. "That's not what I meant!"
Captain Elton walked up to me. "Do ye like it here with us?"
I looked up at him. "Of course! You guys are some of the best friends I've ever had!"
Elton smiled. "Good. We care about ye, and what ye want. If ye wanted to leave, we would let ye go, as long as it made ye happy."
My smile widened. "Thank you, Captain." I smirked, and decided to toy with him. "But are you sure you wouldn't miss these?" I pointed at my chest.
He blushed, and turned away, and everyone burst out laughing.
"Not me point!" Elton shouted.
I laughed even harder. "Sorry, o mighty one!"
He put his hands on the gold necklace on his neck, which we'd stolen on our last adventure.
"But we do care about ye," he said. "And we are happy to have ye on our crew."
He pulled off the gold necklace, walked over to Jack, and handed it to him.
"Give this to her," he said.
"Why me?" Jack asked, taking it.
"Because she clearly likes you the most," he said.
Jack turned to me. "I'll try not to mess up your hair."
I giggled. "If you do, I will turn your skull into dust!" I raised my fist, and Jack leaned back. I smirked. "Savvy?"
He smirked back. "You're a lot more confident than you used to be."
I turned away from him, and moved my hair out of the way so he could put the necklace on. He moved closer to me, and put it around my neck. I could feel my face heat up from how close he was behind me.
Barbossa caught it, and I could hear him whisper, "You fancy him."
I glared at him with red eyes, and he turned away, acting like nothing happened.
"There you are," Jack said, giving me my personal space back.
After my eyes went back to their usual lilac color, I turned back to him, and looked down at the necklace.
"It looks beautiful on ye," Elton said.
I smirked. "Everything looks beautiful on me."
"Unless it messes up your hair," Jack added.
I rolled my eyes. "True."
"What were you like?" Jack asked.
I looked at him, and slightly tilted my head. "What?"
"Before this," Jack said. "Before you were captured. Before you met us. What were you like?"
"Yes! Please tell us!" Ragetti said.
Elton sat down, and all the pirates looked at me, waiting to hear who I was before I was captured.
"Well," I started, "I'm sure you all know I was a Huntress-in-training. I was training at Beacon Academy. I was doing pretty good. Straight A's and everything. I had a lot of friends. There was Team JNPR. They were pretty cool. There was Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. Nora was crazy, but pretty funny. Ren was really cool. Pyrrha was one of the nicest people on their team. Very chill. Jaune was really nice, but... let's just say he needed some work."
They chuckled.
"And then there was my team," I continued. "They were the best. We were Team RWBY. Which was pretty confusing since our team leader's name was Ruby."
More chuckles.
"There was Weiss," I said. "She wasn't always the nicest, but she got better every day. She went from a constant nuisance to one of my closest friends. Then there was Blake. She was awesome! She was my best friend. She was the coolest person to hang out with."
I started to tear up as I remembered the next person I was going to talk about.
"And then there's Ruby," she continued. "She was my little sister. Well, half-sister. I loved her so much! She was going so far so fast. Went into Beacon two years early, and became my team leader. I was so proud of her! And I'm still proud of her. I just wish I could see how far she's gone now."
The pirates looked at me with sympathetic looks, filled with regret that they tore me from someone I cared for that much. Jack had the most heartbroken look as I talked about her.
"Sometimes I wonder if she misses me," I said. "I mean, I know she loved me, but I wonder how she reacted to my... disappearance. From what I heard, she doesn't even know I'm alive, let alone with you guys. A part of me hopes she wasn't hurt too much by my disappearance. I don't want her to live her life heartbroken because she thinks I'm dead. But another part of me hopes she does miss me, because it would really hurt to know she doesn't love me as much as I love her."
At this point, the tears were streaming out, and I was crying. The pirates looked at me, wishing they knew how to handle this kind of situation.
Then, I felt someone's arms around me, and I was pulled close to him. When I opened my mouth, I realized Jack was hugging me. I'd never seen Jack hug anyone, and he'd never hugged me either. My face was burning up like crazy.
"I'm sorry, love," Jack said. "You didn't deserve that."
I smiled at him, and hugged him back. "It's okay. I have you guys now. That's all I need."
I rested my head on his chest, and there was nothing but silence.
Then, Jack let go of me, and stood up.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"I need a minute," he said.
I didn't hesitate to stand up and follow, just like I always did.
"You can stay with the others," Jack said.
"No," I said. "I stick with you."
We walked to the front of the boat, and looked out into the Caribbean before us.
"I'm sorry," Jack said.
"Yeah," I said. "I know."
"But I am," he said. "Words can't describe how sorry I am. You lost... everything. And all because of our perverted intentions."
"Their perverted intentions," I corrected. "You didn't think like they did."
"You don't know that," Jack said.
"Apparently you don't," I said. "I never caught you looking at me the way they did. They were looking at my body, and they looked... greedy as they did it. You... You looked at my eyes... and you looked at me like you really cared..."
He stayed silent.
"If it weren't for you, I'd be living a life of torture and fear," I continued. "Now... I live a life of excitement. A pirate's life for me."
He smiled.
"Hey," I said, shifting my view from the ocean to Jack, "what do you want to be?"
He looked to me. "Me?"
"Yeah," I said. "You asked me about me, it's only fair I ask you about you."
He smiled. "I want to be the greatest pirate of all time."
I smiled. "Really?"
"Aye," he said, turning back to the ocean. "Sailing the seas, taking what I can, giving nothing back, and being the captain of the Pearl."
I smiled. "Very ambitious. I can see it now..."
We raised our arms out to the sea, and said in sync, "Captain Jack Sparrow."
We chuckled.
Jack turned to me, pulled out his compass, and handed it to me. I'd seen him holding it many times. It seemed very important to him.
"Take it," Jack said.
I took the compass. "You said it doesn't point North, right?"
"Aye," he said. "It points to what you want most in the world."
I was very curious where it would point. I opened it up, and watched the arrow spin for a moment. It started to slow down, and I thought it was about to point at Jack.
Then, I felt his hand on my shoulder, as he got a closer look at the compass, and the arrow turned from him to the ocean. I looked out in the direction the compass was pointing. I looked up at the stars, and immediately knew where it was pointing.
"It's pointing at--"
"Vale," Jack said.
I turned to him, and his hand slipped off my shoulder. He seemed much more upset, and heartbroken.
"Jack?" I said. "Are you--"
"I just--" Jack started, before walking away. "Give me a second."
My eyes widened as I realized what was happening. He wanted it to point at him. I looked back down to the compass, and I grew confused as I saw it had changed its position.
It was pointing at Jack.