Work Text:
Jack propped his elbow on James’ desk, resting his cheek on his palm as he silently observed the Commodore sitting across from him, taking in his sharp features, the light pink that dusted his otherwise pale cheeks, and the way his adam’s apple bobbed as he took another swallow of his drink. They were both a bit drunk from the rum that Jack had brought with him, and he had the sudden urge to kiss James’ pretty lips. Instead, he redirected this urge by giving the other man a compliment.
“Tienes una cara bonita.” (You have a pretty face) He mumbled drunkenly, desperately wanting to tell James how he felt about him, but also hoping the other man didn’t understand Spanish. And thankfully, he didn’t. Unfortunately, he did understand Italian, so when he heard Jack mumble ‘Have a dear goodness’, he was understandably confused, his brows furrowing together as he tried to process that sentence.
“Capisci cosa significa…?” (Do you understand what that means?) He asked slowly, trying to gauge how much Italian Jack knew so he could understand if Jack didn’t know what he was saying, or if he really was just that drunk. But of course, since Jack didn’t actually understand Italian, what he heard was ‘What does Capisci mean?’ which was an odd response to being told you were pretty, leaving him just as confused as James.
“¿Capisci? ¿Por qué preguntas qué significa eso?” (Capisci? Why are you asking what that means?) He asked in reply, trying to understand James’ strange question in response to his mild flirting. But what James heard was ‘You understand?’ followed by a bunch of unintelligible gibberish. By that point it was clear that they weren’t speaking the same language. James sighed softly, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
“Jack, what language are you speaking?” He asked in English, wanting to get to the bottom of these misunderstandings.
“I’m speakin’ Spanish. What the hell are you speakin’?” Jack asked in reply, still confused about what was happening.
“Italian.” James replied in a slightly amused tone now that he had figured out why they weren’t understanding one another. Jack let out a soft little ‘ah’, nodding his head in response.
“That explains the mishap, then.” He mumbled, taking another drink of his rum as he looked down at James’ desk, studying the grooves in the wood. James tilted his head to the side in curiosity.
“So what did you originally say?” He asked curiously, wanting to know what Jack had actually meant to tell him. Jack’s sun kissed skin became even darker from embarrassment as he continued to avoid the Commodore’s gaze.
“I said that you have a pretty face…” He mumbled in reply, picking at the grooves in the wood of the desk to keep himself distracted. James’ already rosy cheeks turned an even darker shade of red as he also looked down at the desk in embarrassment, a small smile on his face.
“Ah. Thank you.” He muttered softly. Jack just hummed in reply, leaving it at that. James had been about to just let them fall back into a comfortable silence, when he had a funny idea. “Hai anche un bel viso.” (You also have a beautiful face) He added in Italian, just to mess with the pirate. Jack heard ‘There is also a beautiful look’ which obviously wasn’t what James had said, but it was close enough that Jack had a pretty good idea of what the Commodore meant.
“Thanks… I think.” He mumbled in reply, not really sure how else to respond.
“Of course.” James replied with a soft chuckle. And that was the end of that as the two of them fell back into a comfortable silence, slowly continuing to drain the bottle of rum that sat on the desk between them.