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Jim has spent many a night thinking of Olu ever since that day where Izzy had dropped him off along with the others to who knows where. They never even got to say goodbye. Jim thinks about the times they spent together, they don’t think about where he is now because that means they’d have to think about the possibility that he isn’t alive anymore.
The days all blur into one as they go back and forth between raids and restless nights, it’s hard to sleep when you don’t feel safe, they’d feel safer if Olu was there. They thought they’d be able to sleep better without Olu’s snoring, yet here they are staring at the ceiling whilst Archie snores in their ear, yet it’s oddly comforting.
The kraken’s gone now, things are safer, Olu’s still not here. But things feel lighter and they start to believe that maybe things will be okay. They spend the day in a cuddle pile with Fang, Archie, and Frenchie, they fall asleep peacefully for the first time in a long time.
The first time Jim sees Stede Bonnet again they think it’s some sort of weird hallucination after everything that’s happened, but as the rest of the crew see him too it’s safe to assume he’s real. He’s standing there alone but they still hold hope that he has the others with him, that they’re safe. But they can’t find it in themself to ask, not ready to hear the answer.
Maybe they really are hallucinating because soon the crew appear, even Lucius, and then at the back of the group, Olu. All they had wanted for so long was to see him again, for him to embrace them in his arms, but now they just feel glued to the floor. Maybe it’s shock, maybe they’re slightly worried about what things will be like now with this large gap of time between them.
But soon this unspoken force between them brings them closer until Jim finds themself in Olu’s arms being spun around the deck.
“Put me down you idiot.”
Eventually he does so, they stand there for what feels like an eternity just staring at each other as if neither of them can quite believe that this is real.
“You- you’re here.” Jim says, still in shock.
“Yeah I guess I am, I’m sure you’ll hear all about it later, but for now let’s just sit yeah?” Olu gestures to a couple of nearby barrels, Jim follows, keeping their eyes on him as if he’ll vanish again if they look away.
As they talk, Jim notices Olu subconsciously toying with some sort of wooden object.
“What’s that?” they ask, nodding towards the object between his fingers.
He passes it over for them to take a closer look, it’s a wooden carving of an anchor.
”Pete carved it for me, it’s probably stupid but it reminded me of you.”
Jim doesn’t quite know how to respond to that, their thumb stroking over the knots as they take in his words. Knowing that he feels the same way, that there’s still this connection between them when they’ve been apart so long.
“Sap.” Is what they settle on.
“Come on, you can’t say you didn’t miss me just a little bit.” Of course they did, but sometimes words are hard.
“I suppose.”
“Budge up.” Archie interrupts, joining Jim on one of the barrels. “Ah you must be Olu, Jim has told me a lot about you.”
“Oh they have, have they?” Olu asks, raising an eyebrow in Jim’s direction.
“Shut up.”
“Who knew our Jim was such a softie.” Archie says, wrapping her arm around them. “Oh I’m Arche by the way” extending her other arm to Olu.
As they continue to talk, everything else just fades away into the background, despite the teasing from Olu and Archie they wouldn’t have it anyway. They don’t know what’s next, but for now they feel content, safe.