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meridian_roseThe Other Side of the Door (1233 words) by meridian_rose
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Black Sails
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: John Silver, "Calico" Jack Rackham
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Background Relationships, background Max/Anne/Jack, Mentions of Taylor Swift, Community: allbingo, Meet-Ugly, Pre-Slash
Series: Part 7 of Meet-Ugly allbingo fics
Summary:
At AO3 and under the cut
Silver let out an irritated groan as yet another Taylor Swift song began blasting from the flat below. He could swear the floor was vibrating. He wouldn't mind so much if this were 8pm Friday night but it was 8am on Monday. He'd wanted to sleep in on his day off but his neighbour had other ideas.
One shower (the music was muffled but not drowned out by the water) and a large mug of coffee later and the music was still playing. Silver didn't give a shit if Taylor was never ever going back to her ex, or what her ex had made her do, or if she wore sneakers, or if she wanted what was on the other side of the door, or missed kissing in the rain. She was welcome to her fucked up love life, so long as he didn't have to hear about it.
He went downstairs and knocked on the door. There was no response, possibly because Taylor was singing about how it used to be mad love at an unacceptable volume.
Silver hammered on the door until finally the door opened. He'd been expecting a twenty-something woman, not the dishevelled thirty-something man who frowned at Silver. Perhaps the neighbour had also been expecting someone else.
"Yes?" the man asked.
"Can you please turn down your music?" Silver asked.
"What?"
"The music," Silver repeated, raising his voice.
"Just a minute." The man went inside and a moment later the music stopped. He came back to the door. "What were you saying?"
"I could hear Taylor Swift's every word from my bedroom," Silver said. "It's my day off but she wouldn't let me sleep in."
The man's eyes widened. "Oh. Sorry. Got a little carried away. Um. I do apologise."
A smoke alarm sounded, and the man dashed back inside. Silver winced at the piercing tones and edged his way inside.
"Fuck!" The man was waving a tea towel at the alarm in an attempt to clear the smoke from the frying pan nearby. Silver turned the gas off before the bacon that was to blame for the alarm could become any more burnt before he nudged the man.
"There's a temporary off switch, you have to hold it in. There!" Silver had to shout over the noise and jabbed one finger at the alarm casing. He couldn't reach, not without a chair to stand on, but the taller man leaned up and depressed the red button for two seconds.
There was silence broken only by the hissing of the bacon fat.
"Well, I guess that's woken anyone else in the building up," the man said, tossing the tea towel aside and Silver grinned despite himself. "I'm Jack. Jack Rackham. Sorry about all this."
"John Silver."
Jack gazed despondently around the kitchen and brushed back a strand of his hair. It wasn't as long as Silver' shoulder-length curls but there was still rather a lot of it and Silver had always had a thing for long hair in general and tall men alike.
"Would you like some breakfast?" Jack asked abruptly. "I don't know if the bacon's salvageable but I've got sausages and hash browns in the oven, toast ready buttered, and I was about to fry up some eggs and tomatoes.
Silver hesitated only for a moment. The smell of food was making him hungry and it would be a pity to pass up free food. "If the sausages are better than the bacon, I'd love to join you."
They worked well together, to Silver's surprise. The front door was shut, the table laid, the kettle boiled, all with efficiency. Jack fried up eggs while Silver dissected the bacon to salvage the most edible bits. Silver took over frying the tomatoes while the tea brewed and Jack dished up the rest of the breakfast.
"Do you always make this much food?" Silver asked, once he'd eaten one sausage and half a slice of toast.
"Well I ran out of beans yesterday and the mushrooms went mouldy," Jack said before he took Silver's meaning. "Oh, you mean the amount not the number of items? Before everything went to hell I was going to send Anne a message saying I'd made breakfast and see if she'd come over."
"Anne," Silver repeated. Girlfriend?
"My girlfriend," Jack said, unaware of Silver's disappointment at guessing correctly. He took a sip of tea, shook his head. "She doesn't like the word though and honestly it's incredibly complicated."
That might mean Jack and Anne were non-exclusive. Silver perked up again, though it could mean many things – and didn't mean Jack was bisexual. "She won't be angry I ate her share of breakfast?"
"No. It was a long shot she'd have come at all. And she'd only have lectured me about setting off the smoke alarm again." Jack took a bite of toast.
Silver watched Jack more intently than was polite as he chewed and swallowed, before returning to his own food.
"We had an argument," Jack said. "My relationship with Anne is hard to explain. It's long-standing but not without, er, tumult. And when there are other people involved that makes everything so much more difficult."
"She's got a boyfriend?"
"Girlfriend," Jack said. "More tea?"
Silver nodded and Jack took the mugs to refill them from the teapot, adding milk to both and sugar to his own.
"I'm not averse to – to – polyamory I suppose is the word," Jack said, handing over Silver's mug. "And Anne would be fine with it if I had another partner too. But sometimes she asks more than I want to give. And we argue. And then I play Taylor Swift at an unreasonable volume. Her songs just speak to me, It's as if she understands how I feel, you know?"
Silver shrugged. "Not really. But if you can relate to the music then I get it. We find our own ways to deal with heartbreak. I'm more Jack Daniels than Taylor Swift."
Jack gave a small laugh. "I drank half a bottle of Captain Morgan last night," he said. "Helped a bit but then I was up early and starving, which is when it seemed like a great idea to fill the kitchen with fat and smoke."
"Well it's a nice breakfast," Silver said and he meant it. He finished the last few bites and pushed the plate away. "Thank you."
"Least I could do." Jack looked around at the kitchen and sighed. "I'll deal with this later. I need to empty the dishwasher before I can reload it."
Silver finished his second mug of tea. "Need a hand?"
"No, no, I couldn't ask you to help. Anyway, I have some errands to run. Post office first, I think, supermarket later. Maybe I'll walk, cut through the park. It's a nice morning."
Silver got to his feet, took a gamble. "I wouldn't mind a walk," he offered. "And I need to go to the supermarket myself. If you wouldn't mind the company."
Jack gave him a genuine smile. "I'd like that. I just need a few minutes to get ready."
"I'll need to at least grab my coat," Silver said. "I'll meet you outside in five minutes?"
Jack agreed and Silver kept calm until he reached the hallway, after which he whistled a reasonable approximation of "You Belong To Me" all the way back to his own flat.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Black Sails
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: John Silver, "Calico" Jack Rackham
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, Background Relationships, background Max/Anne/Jack, Mentions of Taylor Swift, Community: allbingo, Meet-Ugly, Pre-Slash
Series: Part 7 of Meet-Ugly allbingo fics
Summary:
Modern AU. Silver would have liked a lie-in but his neighbour's Taylor Swift obsession was making that impossible so he decides to confront them.
For the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
allbingo meet-ugly prompt i live in the apartment above yours. will you stop blasting taylor swift on repeat?
At AO3 and under the cut
Silver let out an irritated groan as yet another Taylor Swift song began blasting from the flat below. He could swear the floor was vibrating. He wouldn't mind so much if this were 8pm Friday night but it was 8am on Monday. He'd wanted to sleep in on his day off but his neighbour had other ideas.
One shower (the music was muffled but not drowned out by the water) and a large mug of coffee later and the music was still playing. Silver didn't give a shit if Taylor was never ever going back to her ex, or what her ex had made her do, or if she wore sneakers, or if she wanted what was on the other side of the door, or missed kissing in the rain. She was welcome to her fucked up love life, so long as he didn't have to hear about it.
He went downstairs and knocked on the door. There was no response, possibly because Taylor was singing about how it used to be mad love at an unacceptable volume.
Silver hammered on the door until finally the door opened. He'd been expecting a twenty-something woman, not the dishevelled thirty-something man who frowned at Silver. Perhaps the neighbour had also been expecting someone else.
"Yes?" the man asked.
"Can you please turn down your music?" Silver asked.
"What?"
"The music," Silver repeated, raising his voice.
"Just a minute." The man went inside and a moment later the music stopped. He came back to the door. "What were you saying?"
"I could hear Taylor Swift's every word from my bedroom," Silver said. "It's my day off but she wouldn't let me sleep in."
The man's eyes widened. "Oh. Sorry. Got a little carried away. Um. I do apologise."
A smoke alarm sounded, and the man dashed back inside. Silver winced at the piercing tones and edged his way inside.
"Fuck!" The man was waving a tea towel at the alarm in an attempt to clear the smoke from the frying pan nearby. Silver turned the gas off before the bacon that was to blame for the alarm could become any more burnt before he nudged the man.
"There's a temporary off switch, you have to hold it in. There!" Silver had to shout over the noise and jabbed one finger at the alarm casing. He couldn't reach, not without a chair to stand on, but the taller man leaned up and depressed the red button for two seconds.
There was silence broken only by the hissing of the bacon fat.
"Well, I guess that's woken anyone else in the building up," the man said, tossing the tea towel aside and Silver grinned despite himself. "I'm Jack. Jack Rackham. Sorry about all this."
"John Silver."
Jack gazed despondently around the kitchen and brushed back a strand of his hair. It wasn't as long as Silver' shoulder-length curls but there was still rather a lot of it and Silver had always had a thing for long hair in general and tall men alike.
"Would you like some breakfast?" Jack asked abruptly. "I don't know if the bacon's salvageable but I've got sausages and hash browns in the oven, toast ready buttered, and I was about to fry up some eggs and tomatoes.
Silver hesitated only for a moment. The smell of food was making him hungry and it would be a pity to pass up free food. "If the sausages are better than the bacon, I'd love to join you."
They worked well together, to Silver's surprise. The front door was shut, the table laid, the kettle boiled, all with efficiency. Jack fried up eggs while Silver dissected the bacon to salvage the most edible bits. Silver took over frying the tomatoes while the tea brewed and Jack dished up the rest of the breakfast.
"Do you always make this much food?" Silver asked, once he'd eaten one sausage and half a slice of toast.
"Well I ran out of beans yesterday and the mushrooms went mouldy," Jack said before he took Silver's meaning. "Oh, you mean the amount not the number of items? Before everything went to hell I was going to send Anne a message saying I'd made breakfast and see if she'd come over."
"Anne," Silver repeated. Girlfriend?
"My girlfriend," Jack said, unaware of Silver's disappointment at guessing correctly. He took a sip of tea, shook his head. "She doesn't like the word though and honestly it's incredibly complicated."
That might mean Jack and Anne were non-exclusive. Silver perked up again, though it could mean many things – and didn't mean Jack was bisexual. "She won't be angry I ate her share of breakfast?"
"No. It was a long shot she'd have come at all. And she'd only have lectured me about setting off the smoke alarm again." Jack took a bite of toast.
Silver watched Jack more intently than was polite as he chewed and swallowed, before returning to his own food.
"We had an argument," Jack said. "My relationship with Anne is hard to explain. It's long-standing but not without, er, tumult. And when there are other people involved that makes everything so much more difficult."
"She's got a boyfriend?"
"Girlfriend," Jack said. "More tea?"
Silver nodded and Jack took the mugs to refill them from the teapot, adding milk to both and sugar to his own.
"I'm not averse to – to – polyamory I suppose is the word," Jack said, handing over Silver's mug. "And Anne would be fine with it if I had another partner too. But sometimes she asks more than I want to give. And we argue. And then I play Taylor Swift at an unreasonable volume. Her songs just speak to me, It's as if she understands how I feel, you know?"
Silver shrugged. "Not really. But if you can relate to the music then I get it. We find our own ways to deal with heartbreak. I'm more Jack Daniels than Taylor Swift."
Jack gave a small laugh. "I drank half a bottle of Captain Morgan last night," he said. "Helped a bit but then I was up early and starving, which is when it seemed like a great idea to fill the kitchen with fat and smoke."
"Well it's a nice breakfast," Silver said and he meant it. He finished the last few bites and pushed the plate away. "Thank you."
"Least I could do." Jack looked around at the kitchen and sighed. "I'll deal with this later. I need to empty the dishwasher before I can reload it."
Silver finished his second mug of tea. "Need a hand?"
"No, no, I couldn't ask you to help. Anyway, I have some errands to run. Post office first, I think, supermarket later. Maybe I'll walk, cut through the park. It's a nice morning."
Silver got to his feet, took a gamble. "I wouldn't mind a walk," he offered. "And I need to go to the supermarket myself. If you wouldn't mind the company."
Jack gave him a genuine smile. "I'd like that. I just need a few minutes to get ready."
"I'll need to at least grab my coat," Silver said. "I'll meet you outside in five minutes?"
Jack agreed and Silver kept calm until he reached the hallway, after which he whistled a reasonable approximation of "You Belong To Me" all the way back to his own flat.
