Jewels

[intheheart]

Title: Jewels
Rating: PG
Summary: "We are closed!"
AU: EPIC PIRATE AU.
Notes: A glimpse at Jake and Olivia in the EPIC PIRATE AU. May get rewritten later.


The shop door rang open and banged shut with an emphatic report. Jake, who was sitting in the back tallying up the accounts for the day, rolled his eyes and got up, grabbed his candle, and shoved the curtains that guarded the door behind the counter aside with his free arm. "I'm sorry, we're closed... oh, it's you."

'You' was the redheaded and impishly grinning Captain Ivy Hirschfeld-Kendall, current bane of his existence. "Hello, Jakie," she said, leaning insouciantly on the broad wooden counter. "Got some things for you. You're not closed for me, are you?"

"Don't call me that. For you," he informed her, "we are more than closed. We are out of business."

"Oh, you like me," she said. "And you will like me even more when you see what I've brought you."

Jake scowled at her as she upended a bag onto the counter. "I sincerely doubt th-- ooh." He bent down to the little scattering of rubies and sapphires lying on the scarred wood, running his fingers over their slick, faceted surfaces, then glanced up at her and glared. "Damn you, why are you always right?"

"Because I know you, Jakie," she replied, leaning even farther forward so her loose shirt fell open and displayed a lot more of her chest than he was willing to see. Jake put up a hand to shield his eyes, and she laughed. "Shy?"

"Don't call me that," he said. "And no. I just have absolutely no interest in you."

She grinned, but straightened up. "Glad to hear it, since I have absolutely no interest in you either."

"Splendid," he muttered, already turning over the jewels. "I can give you a decent price for these, but you'll have to leave them overnight for examination, since we are as I previously mentioned closed."

Ivy shrugged. "Keep them, then. You're the one who has to sell them anyway."

"You know," he commented, absently, as the candlelight struck red and blue sparks in the jewels, "not many people would trust a Jew like that."

She snorted. "Not many people have the brains the good Lord gave an ass. I judge people on their own merits. So do you, incidentally, which is why I like you."

"I'm thrilled," he said, dryly.

"Damn right you are," she replied, and turned to survey the shop. "Love what you've done with the place. The dust really gives it character."

He rolled his eyes, and scooped the jewels up into the palm of his hand. "You can't talk. I've seen your ship. All right, come back tomorrow and I'll pay you. Now go away."

Ivy turned slowly to face him, one red eyebrow arched. "Wait a minute, I'm not done shopping."

Jake gritted his teeth. "We are closed." He filtered the jewels into a small leather pouch and tied the thong off tight, then tucked it securely beneath the counter. Ivy wouldn't be in before noon at the earliest. He could look them over in the morning by sunlight and spare his eyes.

"The door was open," she pointed out, not unreasonably, and he sighed. "You're rushing me out, Jakie. You got a girl coming over or something?"

He gave her his best glare from lowered brows. "Ivy, I swear to all I hold dear that if you call me Jakie one more time I am going to do something we will both regret. No, I do not have a girl coming over, and we are closed."

"Oh!" exclaimed a voice from the door. "I'm sorry. I'll just go, then."

Jake jumped, then hurried out from behind the counter and held out his hand. "Oh, no, mistress, not for you. Ivy, go away."

The girl at the door paused, one pale hand on the rough wood of the frame. Her dress, of rough brown cloth and too big at the collar, gapped just enough to show a frail, delicate collarbone; her loose brown curls were pulled back and tied with just a bit of yarn. "If you need to help her, I can wait," she said, her eyes flicking back and forth between Jake and Ivy.

"Oh, no, I'm done," Ivy assured her. "Hey, Jake, you going to introduce me?"

With great reluctance, but she hadn't called him Jakie, so he probably ought to reward that. Encourage good behavior and everything. Besides, if he did, maybe she'd leave. "Ivy, this is Mistress Olivia Marhenke," he said, through his teeth. "Mistress, Captain Ivy Hirschfeld-Kendall, who was just leaving."
Olivia remained on the threshhold. "I only came for my mother's ring," she said. "I really should get back quickly."

He was going to kill Ivy. "I'll get it," he said. "It's just behind the counter."

She smiled at him, and his heart jumped. "Thank you," she said. "How much?"

Jake shook his head as he rounded the counter. "Don't bother," he said. "It didn't take any time at all."

She'd brought the ring the week before with a broken setting, and asked him to fix it. It had actually taken considerable effort to do so, but he'd seen the bruise on her face, and he knew how little money she had. The bruise had faded to a mere shadow in the intervening week, but he'd be willing to bet that the monetary situation hadn't.

Besides, Ivy had just handed him enough to keep him for a solid month. Possibly more, if he sold to the right person. He could afford a little time to help a friend.

Olivia's eyes and mouth rounded, and a look of such gratitude passed across her face that all the effort was instantly worthwhile. "Thank you," she breathed, and when he brought out the ring, she caught his hand and kissed it. "Thank you so much!"

That kiss rooted his feet to the floor and stole his tongue, and before he managed to stammer out "it's nothing," she was gone, the door swinging shut in her wake, leaving the whole room dark.

Ivy sidled up beside him, grinning like a fiend. "Well, well, well," she said. "Isn't that something."

Jake rounded on her. "Don't you say a word," he hissed. "Not one single word."

Her eyebrows went up again, and she raised her hands. "Wasn't gonna," she said. "Except for this... Jacob Foster, when are you going to ask that nice young lady to marry you?"

He threw his hands in the air and managed not to scream. He did, however, snap his next few words. "Never, because that nice young lady isn't interested in marrying a Jew, or hadn't you noticed that I'm a social pariah around these parts? Now get out!"

Ivy, apparantly startled by his outburst, beat a hasty retreat to the heavy oak door, and dragged it open. Halfway out, though, she paused and turned back to him. "I'd bet you the entire worth of those gems," she said, "that if you were to ask, you'd get a surprise. I'll be back tomorrow." And with that, she whisked out and shut the door.

Jake closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment, before going back around the counter. What Ivy said was plainly ridiculous-- for heaven's sake, she'd only seen Olivia for less than five minutes-- and he shouldn't get his hopes up. Wasn't going to get his hopes up. Olivia-- Mistress Marhenke liked him, he was sure, but she was a Christian and there was the end of it. Even if he was to ask her and she did by some miracle say yes, it would be for escape, no other reason, and he didn't think he could bear that. Not even to rescue her.

No matter how he wanted to.

He picked up the leather pouch and weighed it in one palm. Quite a lot of money Ivy had risked on a truly idiotic thing, though.

Well, she was a pirate. They did stupid things like that.

He went around the counter and locked the front door.