The arm around Norrington's waist reluctantly slips from his back, slides to his hip near his scabbard where just the tips of Jack's fingers remain. One last point of contact. His gaze stays on Norrington's face, trying to read his eyes, even though he won't look at him.
Not the answer he'd been expecting at all. Maybe something about honour and morality. Something about good, honest people and the duty of upholding the law. Something Jack can stretch and twist, and insert his own logic into. Something to use as a way to make Norrington see the world as Jack sees it.
An icy tone and a flat out refusal are not profittable to either of those goals.
Briefly Jack puzzles it in his mind, running through deductions lightning quick. Must've been something painful obviously. Shaming, maybe, either to Norrington's personal self or his career or his so-called position in society. Unresolved still, too, by the sound of things. Possibly now guided by a want for vengence, or a want to pay a debt to a purported mistake made long ago.
And all those qualities strike a cord in Jack as qualities of betrayal. Oh yes, very piratical, he thinks to himself with still long ago dregs of bitterness. Whatever happened -- it is something Jack wants to know but he can respect a man's right to privacy. Particularly when it is something as big as to change the course of one's entire look on life.
"As you wish," Jack grants in one of the few serious tones he has, still trying to catch Norrington's eye with his. "Not one for asking a man to bear his soul with wounds not yet scarred over. But one day, mate" -- the finger at Norrington's hip rises to tap him knowingly on his chest -- "You'll give me that answer one day. Not one to leave an accord go unfullfilled either."
Jack pauses for a moment, stills for the briefest of times, hand lightly resting over Norrington's heart and looking at him with something akin to understanding.
no subject
Not the answer he'd been expecting at all. Maybe something about honour and morality. Something about good, honest people and the duty of upholding the law. Something Jack can stretch and twist, and insert his own logic into. Something to use as a way to make Norrington see the world as Jack sees it.
An icy tone and a flat out refusal are not profittable to either of those goals.
Briefly Jack puzzles it in his mind, running through deductions lightning quick. Must've been something painful obviously. Shaming, maybe, either to Norrington's personal self or his career or his so-called position in society. Unresolved still, too, by the sound of things. Possibly now guided by a want for vengence, or a want to pay a debt to a purported mistake made long ago.
And all those qualities strike a cord in Jack as qualities of betrayal. Oh yes, very piratical, he thinks to himself with still long ago dregs of bitterness. Whatever happened -- it is something Jack wants to know but he can respect a man's right to privacy. Particularly when it is something as big as to change the course of one's entire look on life.
"As you wish," Jack grants in one of the few serious tones he has, still trying to catch Norrington's eye with his. "Not one for asking a man to bear his soul with wounds not yet scarred over. But one day, mate" -- the finger at Norrington's hip rises to tap him knowingly on his chest -- "You'll give me that answer one day. Not one to leave an accord go unfullfilled either."
Jack pauses for a moment, stills for the briefest of times, hand lightly resting over Norrington's heart and looking at him with something akin to understanding.