InsaneJournal

Who: Soren Skwigelf and Ageless Bill Turner.
What: Seeing the house Bill built for Soren and Cassidy.
When: This evening.
Where: Tortuga (the Caribbean).
Warnings: NSFW boy/boy.



Soren had checked to make sure that Cass was still sleeping. Sure enough, there was a familiar brown head unmoving on the pillow. After shutting the door to let his friend remain asleep, he went to the foyer and pulled on his boots. From there, it was locking up the cabin behind him, and a simple portkey over to Tortuga. He blinked as his boots settled into sand, then gave a whoop of glee.

There was a house. Not just a house, a huge house, one that wouldn't feel quite so awkward to be in. His father's cabin had too many ghosts of memories yet to be born, and he was looking forward to making some new ones in a place that was really his. Soren all but ran up toward it, looking for Bill.

The pirate was relaxing outside on the deck which wrapped around the entire first floor of the home, smoking a pipe as he watched the ocean. Hearing the sound that Soren made, he turned and straightened up, smiling a bit too broadly.

"I take that as a sign that you like th'place, then?" He said, taking long, evenly paced strides towards the stairs. "I didn't know what you'd want in terms of technology, so I left that up to you. Did get you a dishwasher an' trash compactor, however." He offered as he approached the young man.

He was in a rather good mood, all things said. The house was finished, and they were starting construction on another, on the other side of the island. The island itself was fairly large, about three miles long, so there would be plenty of privacy for both the sets of men.


"Like it would be a huge understatement." Soren beamed and ran over to run up the stairs and wrap an arm around Bill in a loose hug. "Man, you really... you really are too generous. Can we go inside?" He felt like a kid at Christmas, opening the biggest gift ever.

"The kitchen things aren't really that big a deal," he mumbled, almost to himself. He was busy looking over Bill's shoulder inside the huge windows. "We're right by the ocean, too. It smells different here than in Sweden, but I like it."


Returning the hug was no issue, and soon, Bill walked inside with his arm over the other man's shoulders, grinning up a storm, "Aye, th'Baltic an' th'Caribbean have different scents to 'em. I prefer it here, doesn't smell like ice. Smells like summer." He offered, before nodding, "S'the kitchen an' dinin' room here, though if you'd like to change that, feel free. Th'livin' room's over here." He said, wandering past the stairs to the left and to the room which had a couch in it, a large area rug, and a phone hooked onto the wall. "bare essentials, at least. Very few walls here, on this floor. Figured it would just detract from bein' able to see th'ocean."



Soren, a cuddler by nature, let his arm drop to Bill's waist and grinned. "Don't know. I'm used to the ocean up there - smelled it a lot of my life. But I remember the ocean in California smelling differently too. Dunno." He grinned, looking around the room and sighing. "I don't know what it is with my family and water, but we've got a weird connection." His father liked how it looked well enough to get a cabin by the sea, and his mother's whole world had been islands.

Moving into the rooms, he blinked and stood in almost awe. "It's perfect," he grinned. "Seriously, you're good at this. If you ever decide on a career change, you could be an architect, or an interior designer or something." He tugged off his boots and went to roll around on the area rug.

He chuckled, "I dabble, s'all. Though this is hardly what I'd call a practical home. It's simply a place to be when everywhere else has gotten dull. Would you..."

He looked down at Soren and raised a brow, "Would you like to see the upstairs now?"


"Yup, in a second, have to make sure this is good to lay on." He rolled around, letting his arms and back rub on the carpet to test to see if it was too scratchy. But no, Bill seemed to have good taste in everything and the fibers were soft against his skin.

After a moment he rose to his feet, chuckling. "Okay, all set. I'm sort of a floor dweller by nature. Carpet's a big deal for me." He shrugged and waited for Bill to lead the way up the stairs.


Bill simply nodded and quirked a brow as his head tilted to one side. He was rather like a puppy at times. But then he smiled and started up the stairs, soon arriving into another similarly large, open room. Straight behind the staircase was a small reading nook with a stereo, loveseat, and several shelves with books, and then a door which opened into the bathroom. To the right, there was a door which led to a patio, and another two doors which were obviously the bedrooms. "Got new beds, haven't gotten much else. One's got a fireplace, that'll be up to you an' Cassidy to fight over." He started towards the patio, since it had a good view of the rest of the grounds, and a beautiful view of the ocean.

He motioned vaguely to the stairs outside that led down the side of a hill. "That goes to a small beach, an' if you come 'round this direction, you can see th' space in th'trees where th'freshwater pool is, if your faucets decide not to work." He was quite proud of all of this, and it showed.


Everything was taken in and regarded with curiosity. He knew he'd get a lot of use out of the reading area. The loveseat looked plush and inviting, and he'd already bought a lot of books the other day with Torii to put on the bookshelves. When they got to the bedrooms, Soren smirked. "I'll get the fireplace, just because I can use it way more easily. And I pout better." He was about to test the bed to see how comfortable it was when Bill moved toward the patio to show him the view.

The stairs made him gawk, and he grinned broadly. "Wanna go swimming? Nighttime swims are the best ones."


Bill smirked and patted Soren on the back. "P'raps later. Well... Maybe. Convince me." He hadn't been swimming in a long while... At least not recreationally.

He looked over at Soren with a sly, almost hazardous-and-warning grin. He wanted to see how well the young man could change his mind. And what his tactics were.

Soren blinked. "Convince you? Well, swimming's fun. It's also pretty healthsome. And skinny dipping just feels better, you know? It's how swimming was intended to be."

Just in case his argument wasn't very strong, he threw in a poutylip for good measure. It couldn't hurt.


Bill simply looked unimpressed. "Because somehow, swimmin' is good for a dead man's health?" He commented, tapping his chin in thought. "Hm."

Yes, it took a lot of concentration and diligence to come up with an answer.

"Any other reasons why I ought to consider swimming nude?"

If Soren knew him half as well as Cassidy seemed to, he'd know that Bill had already made up his mind and was just stringing Soren along.

Soren blinked and grinned, trying to think of an answer to tease right back. He tossed his hair and folded his arms. "I'd be naked too, obviously, and I'm very, very pretty." He was half-smiling as he spoke, so it was fairly obvious he was teasing.


"That you are." He agreed. "You did luck out, as far as your parents are concerned, as they're both outstandingly attractive." added Bill, before shrugging one shoulder. "Though I truly don't see what that's got to do with anything. I've seen many naked people in my day, young Soren." His smile spread. "Though I suppose luring me out into th'water isn't all that bad a thing at all." With that, Bill shed his shirt and set it on the rail of the patio, and started back down the stairs.

That was as good as an answer.

He chuckled in reply, taking off his shirt and folding it carefully before leaving it on the patio. His parents were attractive, and that was a fairly impartial opinion due to the timehopping.

He walked down the stairs too, trotting a little bit to catch up to Bill. He wriggled his toes in contentment for a bit, grinning when they finally reached the little freshwater pool. It occured to him for a minute that it should've felt odder stripping in front of one of Cass' relatives, but it was Bill. Somehow, that made everything different.

He let his jeans drop to his feet, folding them and setting them aside. Naked, he started to wade into the water, sighing when he found it warm.


The pool itself was a natural occurrence, created from a long-since-sunk sinkhole. It was only about fifteen feet across, but it was crystal clear, and if it weren't night, one could see down into it about fourty feet before it got too dark to see. Bill had no qualms about being nude -- he'd spent a great deal of his existence that way.

His own pants were slung over the branch of a tree, and he did the same to Soren's folded jeans, before he dived in, surfacing directly in front of the blond a little over a minute later.

"How long can y'hold y'breath, Soren?" Was the only question the pirate had to ask.

Soren sighed contentedly as he dipped his head underwater to get his hair wet. Freshwater was even better to swim in than anything else. It didn't sting the eyes like chlorine or salt, and it felt clean against his skin. His eyes were closed when Bill appeared in front of him.

One of his eyebrows raised at Bill's question, and he couldn't help smirking. "For diving or just general purposes?"


"Divin'." Bill said, his smile gone lopsided as he dipped his head back to get the hair out of his face. "S'a great series of underground caves below th'island, an' this is th'only on-land inlet what doesn't lead straight off into th'sea. S'actually where I keep quite a bit of th'shine, back home. Here, m'fairly certain it's empty, though I've not gone an' checked."

He hoisted himself slightly out of the water and leaned back on the ground.

"How adventurous do y'feel right now, mate?"


He wasn't the best swimmer in the world, as he estimated smoking probably reduced his lung capacity somewhat and he hadn't been visited lately by the healerchick. But he wasn't terrible, either, and he did always like a challenge. And it sounded like Bill was offering one.

"I'm always up for an adventure. Well. Not so much as Cass, but you get the idea. What did you have in mind?"


"It gets rather dark down there," Bill said with a quiet tone, looking over at Soren, "So I'll go get a torch. I don't need it, but if you'd like, we can do some exploring. There's plenty of air down there, though, and plenty of places to catch your breath. S'completely safe."

He smiled one of the more assuring smiles one could have.

"Knowin' that this place has a similar history, we might find some things which haven't seen th'light of day since I was as young as you."

"That sounds amazing." Soren grinned and paddled over to where Bill was, leaning against the side of the pool as well. "If it's safe, then let's go. How often does a guy get to explore and discover stuff?"

He moved to float on his back while Bill went to go get the torch, a smile on his face. He looked at the moon, content. He could get used to swimming there every day.

Once Bill returned with the flashlights, he had also grabbed a couple towels, slinging them over the branch along with the trousers, before he dipped back into the pool. Handing over one of the flashlights, he turned the other on and nodded, "Right. Take a deep breath, an' follow me." He said, before diving down. He didn't need to breathe, himself, but that didn't mean the other man didn't. The entrance was a wide mouth below the surface at about fifteen feet down, and it wasn't entirely too long before they came to the first 'room', really more of a six foot hole which had a ceiling of air. Bill surfaced, and waited for Soren to do the same. The air was a bit stale, but it was still good for breathing. One could stand on the rough, volcanic stone floor of the cave, and their head would only have about a foot's clearance from the ceiling.
"Whenever you're ready."


He returned to being vertical, and he took the flashlight from Bill. "All right." He watched Bill dive, huffing a few times before taking as deep a breath as he could. He swam down in fast, fluid strokes (swimming was one of his favorite things). Soon he was surfacing and gasping for breath, inhaling the stale air greedily. He turned on the flashlight and saw the rocks. Pushing himself out of the water, he stood up and tested the rock against his feet. It wouldn't tear them up, and he grinned. "This is amazing. Cass is going to be so pissed he slept through this."


"Not like th'cave's goin' anywhere, you can claim you found it y'self if you'd like." Bill said with a smirk, before ducking down under the water again and swimming to the next area. If Soren had thought that one tiny wayside was impressive, the most impressive part was right around the bend. Literally.

He swam around a corner, and soon surfaced in a huge cavern, with stalactites dripping down from the ceiling, and large, arching, almost cathedral-like walls curling up into the ceiling. The whole place seemed to glow -- which it did on account of minor phosphorus deposits. The cave was black and shimmering and had an embankment over to one side which did indeed have some very interesting things set upon it, the least of which were several old... very old crates. Bill immediately smirked once he saw that.

"Now... Now I wonder who left those here. Wasn't me." He said, "Haven't used crates like that since... since well, they stopped makin' 'em like that." He swam over and surfaced, holding the light of his flashlight on one of them, toeing it before the wood crumbled, coins spilled out and he huffed a chuckle, "Which was quite a long time ago."

"That wouldn't be fair, now would it?" Soren grinned and jumped back into the water, taking a few more breaths before following Bill. When they swam around the corner, he was glad that Bill was swimming upward. At first, he was too busy breathing again to really notice the magnificence of the cave, but that only lasted as long as it took to fill his lungs again. He couldn't help but simply smile as his reaction, a tiny thing that was more genuinely joyful than any he'd smiled around Bill. It was beautiful. He didn't really notice the crates until Bill talked about them.

Paddling over, he grinned when Bill poked at one of them with his foot. When the gold coins spilled out, he leaned against the embankment with his arms. "You keep 'em. On account of the house and everything."

"Keep 'em nothin', they belong down here. S'Tortuga's, not yours or mine to keep." He smirked, and plucked up something else that had spilled out. It was a pearl. "But this... This I'll keep." He had quite a collection of them, as Soren was probably privy to know. He set it and the flashlight aside on a natural shelf of sorts before diving back into the water and tugging on Soren's foot before swimming back up. "Should," Bill said before blowing water off his lips, "really consider keepin' this place a little secret 'tween you an' Cass tho'. Wouldn't want anyone else gettin' a bright idea 'bout trashin' it, aye?"

"That's even better. Let people discover it long after Cass and I are gone." That made him smile. It was kind of like being part of history, being part of an infinite cycle of discovery. No matter when he died or what legacy he left behind, the next person who found the coins would have touched him somehow, and he them. He nodded contentment, but was soon laughing when Bill tugged his foot. They were close in the almost dark, and Soren swam to turn the flashlight off, rather enjoying the natural light in the cave.

He knew there was wisdom in Bill's words and nodded, knowing Bill could see it in the relative darkness. "It's safe with me, and I know he'll be the same way." He treaded water for a moment, sighing. "This was a great idea. Really, thank you."

He shook his head, treading water as well, and he chuckled, "This is only one of Tortuga's many secrets and mysteries, Soren. This island is th'mother of so many stories and histories, an' like every woman, she's got her secrets. Treat her well. An' make sure th'other boy does th'same. I'd be a fool if I didn't know what he's like already. Time works in odd ways no matter where y'from. Cassidy... in my world an' time... he's a bit more adventurous an' foolhardy than he likes to admit." His tone was good natured, but underlying it was worry and a grim tone that never really would bode well for anyone.

Soren listened to Bill and chuckled a little. He was pretty bang-on about Cass, and he smiled a little. Some people would have said it was wistful, but people who really knew Soren would have recognized that his lips were curling upward too far. It was fond.

"That's why he's got me, you see." He was looking around in the dim light for where he'd heard Bill speaking. "I tell him to slow down, and he tells me to speed up. We're complements." He splashed a little, feeling the water run through his fingers like silk. There was no saltwater grit or chlorine slipperiness, and he ducked down to wet his hair again before resurfacing.

Bill paused to think about what Soren had said, looking a bit between perplexed and bemused, before chuckling once more. "That, I believe, is how things are meant to be. Though I do feel rather badly for th'man who tries to tell a Turner to do anything but run with their instinct." He patted Soren's shoulder and slipped back up to the embankment, laying down on the small, smooth pebbles that made up the shoal. they were cooler than his skin, which was nice, and he looked up to the top of the cave. Bats wouldn't be able to come here and build their colonies, and with the exception of the sound of Soren's breath and the lapping of the water at the sides of the cave, it was silent.

"Peaceful down here, innit?"