Happy holidays, celandineb! - Christmas in many climates [PotC]
Title: Christmas in many climates
Author: torn_eledhwen
Recipient: celandineb
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Disclaimer: I'm paddling in the Mouse's pool for a brief and unprofitable period.
Character: James Norrington
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Summary: Several Christmases in James Norrington's life.
Notes: For Celandine, with thanks for organising the exchange again and with all the best for a wonderful holiday.
Christmas in many climates
When James Norrington was six, he was given a model ship for Christmas. She was not a large ship, nor did she sail especially well, but she was James's first-ever command and he loved her. He would spend many a happy hour in the shallows of the Portsmouth beaches, conducting battles against pirate ships of driftwood. His Holly always won, of course.
Seven years later, with the Holly long-since consigned to a dusty cupboard, James was presented with a new uniform of navy blue. Sitting eating plum pudding, the scent of holly and a roaring fire cocooning him with the familiar, he wondered where he would be next Christmas.
There was a grog ration, and the men sang carols, but Christmas at sea was much the same as every other day, he discovered. The weather did not care for festival, and that first Christmas the wind roared, ripping a foresail to shreds. James kept his grog down, but it was a close thing and the other two midshipmen aboard were less successful.
James did not get another Christmas at home until he had been commissioned, and it was pleasant, he found, to go to church on Christmas morning in a lieutenant's uniform and be smiled at by pretty girls. It was pleasant too to sit in a warm room and eat fresh food, surrounded by family, and not to have to think about navigation or discipline amongst the men. He knew, now, that he would miss this easy comfort.
But Christmas in the Caribbean, the next year, proved to be equally pleasant. There was society of a sort -- the jovial hospitality of Governor Swann in his new house, with plates piled high with fruit and roast pork. Carol-singing was strange in a hot climate, but they did it anyway, with gusto. Little Elizabeth Swann joined in, her voice piping high over the gruff tones of the men and the soft altos of the women. Over the years that followed the carol-singing and Christmas lunch at the Swanns' became a tradition, and over the years James watched and listened as Elizabeth's figure grew in beauty and her voice mellowed.
Though it was never quite the same as Christmas had been, back in the days when a toy ship was all he desired, he found it was good. He looked forward to the day when he could return from sea to present his son with a model ship that would ply the blue Caribbean waters even as the Holly had sailed Portsmouth's steel-grey seas, many years and half a world away.
Author: torn_eledhwen
Recipient: celandineb
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Disclaimer: I'm paddling in the Mouse's pool for a brief and unprofitable period.
Character: James Norrington
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Summary: Several Christmases in James Norrington's life.
Notes: For Celandine, with thanks for organising the exchange again and with all the best for a wonderful holiday.
Christmas in many climates
When James Norrington was six, he was given a model ship for Christmas. She was not a large ship, nor did she sail especially well, but she was James's first-ever command and he loved her. He would spend many a happy hour in the shallows of the Portsmouth beaches, conducting battles against pirate ships of driftwood. His Holly always won, of course.
Seven years later, with the Holly long-since consigned to a dusty cupboard, James was presented with a new uniform of navy blue. Sitting eating plum pudding, the scent of holly and a roaring fire cocooning him with the familiar, he wondered where he would be next Christmas.
There was a grog ration, and the men sang carols, but Christmas at sea was much the same as every other day, he discovered. The weather did not care for festival, and that first Christmas the wind roared, ripping a foresail to shreds. James kept his grog down, but it was a close thing and the other two midshipmen aboard were less successful.
James did not get another Christmas at home until he had been commissioned, and it was pleasant, he found, to go to church on Christmas morning in a lieutenant's uniform and be smiled at by pretty girls. It was pleasant too to sit in a warm room and eat fresh food, surrounded by family, and not to have to think about navigation or discipline amongst the men. He knew, now, that he would miss this easy comfort.
But Christmas in the Caribbean, the next year, proved to be equally pleasant. There was society of a sort -- the jovial hospitality of Governor Swann in his new house, with plates piled high with fruit and roast pork. Carol-singing was strange in a hot climate, but they did it anyway, with gusto. Little Elizabeth Swann joined in, her voice piping high over the gruff tones of the men and the soft altos of the women. Over the years that followed the carol-singing and Christmas lunch at the Swanns' became a tradition, and over the years James watched and listened as Elizabeth's figure grew in beauty and her voice mellowed.
Though it was never quite the same as Christmas had been, back in the days when a toy ship was all he desired, he found it was good. He looked forward to the day when he could return from sea to present his son with a model ship that would ply the blue Caribbean waters even as the Holly had sailed Portsmouth's steel-grey seas, many years and half a world away.