Gifted
Soooo, here’s my entry to round 3 of the Last Author Standing challenge on cutler_beckett. I’m not particularly pleased with it, it started off being quite a different beast in my own head, but frankly I ran out of both time and inspiration. Please excuse the meandering and the roughness round the edges.
On the plus side I was aiming for drabbles of exactly 100 words, and managed 5 out of 7 (71 and a bit percent folks, that’s my kind of odds). Sloth and avarice got away from me somewhat, but I’m still quite pleased.
Anyhoo, my take on the perennial favourite of Norrington getting gifts (a set-up I’ve always loved) based around the 7 deadly sins. They are not in the order suggested by Dante or Se7en, they're not even alphabetical. I'm just throwing sins randomly into a hat - go me!
Title: Gifted
Author: lilfluffykitten
Rating: G
Prompt: Seven Deadly Sins - Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Wrath, Envy, Avarice.
Word count: 771 words
Characters: Norrington and Sparrow
Disclaimer: Disney owns all these characters, I own nothing of any worth… I'm just doing it for fun not profit!
Summary: James appears to have a secret admirer - who, over the course of seven weeks, is sending him gifts.
Author's notes: Written for the last author standing challenge on cutler_beckett.
The arrival of the package caused James no little consternation. Just a small wooden box, beautifully carved and polished, with a rich silk lining. The wood was heavy and dark though there was nothing in the box, and no note or indication as to who could have sent such an expensive gift. Even more mysteriously it had been left by the front door of his house.
He stroked the wood, smooth and still warm from the sun, and wondered who would have sent something so exquisite? An admirer? He couldn’t think who it could possibly be, but still felt absurdly pleased.
*
He’d spent a couple of days mulling over the mystery box but, with no further gifts or clues as to the sender’s identity, he soon put it out of his mind. Which was why, the following week, he was surprised to return home to find another box sitting on his kitchen table, already more than half unpacked by his housekeeper. This box was not special, but its contents were quite a different matter. Exotic fruit, rare spices and an array of fine liquors and tinctures. James liberated the brandy and retreated to his study. Mrs Thompson could deal with this particular mystery.
*
James sat at his window listening to his housekeeper bustle about downstairs. He knew his unexpected presence flustered her, after all he was rarely home at this hour, so had been careful to stay out of her way. Whilst ostensibly reading through the latest dispatches, he’d actually spent the greater part of the morning watching the path. The dispatches were even more unpalatable after lunch, the afternoon heat making him heavy and drowsy, so when he caught himself nodding over the papers again he decided the façade had gone on long enough. Obviously there was to be no package today, so he readied himself to leave, unsure if he was relieved or disappointed.
*
A series of dockside skirmishes meant it was dusk before he returned home, tired and bad-tempered, so at first he didn’t see the figure standing in the shadows and was startled when she stepped forward. However, he couldn’t help noticing her pale face or how her dress hung upon her slim form.
“Commodore Norrington?”
When he nodded she pushed a small bundle into his hand, holding his gaze for a second more than was necessary, before melting back into the shadows.
Once indoors he unfolded the length of silk, thrilled when the faintest trace of expensive perfume filled the room.
*
He’d felt a surge of excitement when he saw the letter waiting for him, and found himself smiling as he ripped open the seal. However, by the time he’d read it a second time his giddy anticipation had been replaced by slow, cold rage. The pirate. Of course, how could he have been so foolish?
He tamped down his anger while Mrs Thompson clattered around him, wrestling the room into submission before hurrying off to terrorise some other part of the house. Once she’d gone, James read the letter one final time before slowly, methodically, tearing it into tiny pieces.
*
The following week’s delivery was a puzzle, a single feather wrapped in a piece of heavy parchment. Other than his own name in that now familiar hand there were no markings on the parchment, no clue as to the meaning behind it. Surely a mistake he thought, turning his attention to the feather. He studied it carefully, just a normal feather, small, brown, altogether unremarkable.
Further inspection was cut short by the distant chiming of the hour. He smiled to himself, not everyone could be as free as a...
Smile turning cold he dropped the feather. A mistake? Perhaps not.
*
It wasn’t that James wasn’t expecting Sparrow to make an appearance, but finding him loitering in an alley near Turner’s forge seemed a trifle anticlimactic. James half drew his sword, and was horrified to realise he felt a slight twinge of shame when Sparrow actually managed to look hurt, “You didn’t like the gifts?”
Falling back to a safe distance James merely folded his arms and waited.
Sparrow shrugged, “I just thought you deserved a taste of the finer things in life.”
James almost laughed at that, “Finer things?”
Sparrow ticked them off on his fingers, “Silk, fine perfume, finer brandy, spices..,”
“A feather? A letter mocking me.”
Sparrow pressed forward, suddenly serious, “Not mocking, I meant every word. Anyway,“ he continued, good humour restored, “Sometimes it’s important to remember the simple things.”
James did laugh then, maybe he had gotten a taste for the finer things after all.
On the plus side I was aiming for drabbles of exactly 100 words, and managed 5 out of 7 (71 and a bit percent folks, that’s my kind of odds). Sloth and avarice got away from me somewhat, but I’m still quite pleased.
Anyhoo, my take on the perennial favourite of Norrington getting gifts (a set-up I’ve always loved) based around the 7 deadly sins. They are not in the order suggested by Dante or Se7en, they're not even alphabetical. I'm just throwing sins randomly into a hat - go me!
Title: Gifted
Author: lilfluffykitten
Rating: G
Prompt: Seven Deadly Sins - Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Wrath, Envy, Avarice.
Word count: 771 words
Characters: Norrington and Sparrow
Disclaimer: Disney owns all these characters, I own nothing of any worth… I'm just doing it for fun not profit!
Summary: James appears to have a secret admirer - who, over the course of seven weeks, is sending him gifts.
Author's notes: Written for the last author standing challenge on cutler_beckett.
The arrival of the package caused James no little consternation. Just a small wooden box, beautifully carved and polished, with a rich silk lining. The wood was heavy and dark though there was nothing in the box, and no note or indication as to who could have sent such an expensive gift. Even more mysteriously it had been left by the front door of his house.
He stroked the wood, smooth and still warm from the sun, and wondered who would have sent something so exquisite? An admirer? He couldn’t think who it could possibly be, but still felt absurdly pleased.
*
He’d spent a couple of days mulling over the mystery box but, with no further gifts or clues as to the sender’s identity, he soon put it out of his mind. Which was why, the following week, he was surprised to return home to find another box sitting on his kitchen table, already more than half unpacked by his housekeeper. This box was not special, but its contents were quite a different matter. Exotic fruit, rare spices and an array of fine liquors and tinctures. James liberated the brandy and retreated to his study. Mrs Thompson could deal with this particular mystery.
*
James sat at his window listening to his housekeeper bustle about downstairs. He knew his unexpected presence flustered her, after all he was rarely home at this hour, so had been careful to stay out of her way. Whilst ostensibly reading through the latest dispatches, he’d actually spent the greater part of the morning watching the path. The dispatches were even more unpalatable after lunch, the afternoon heat making him heavy and drowsy, so when he caught himself nodding over the papers again he decided the façade had gone on long enough. Obviously there was to be no package today, so he readied himself to leave, unsure if he was relieved or disappointed.
*
A series of dockside skirmishes meant it was dusk before he returned home, tired and bad-tempered, so at first he didn’t see the figure standing in the shadows and was startled when she stepped forward. However, he couldn’t help noticing her pale face or how her dress hung upon her slim form.
“Commodore Norrington?”
When he nodded she pushed a small bundle into his hand, holding his gaze for a second more than was necessary, before melting back into the shadows.
Once indoors he unfolded the length of silk, thrilled when the faintest trace of expensive perfume filled the room.
*
He’d felt a surge of excitement when he saw the letter waiting for him, and found himself smiling as he ripped open the seal. However, by the time he’d read it a second time his giddy anticipation had been replaced by slow, cold rage. The pirate. Of course, how could he have been so foolish?
He tamped down his anger while Mrs Thompson clattered around him, wrestling the room into submission before hurrying off to terrorise some other part of the house. Once she’d gone, James read the letter one final time before slowly, methodically, tearing it into tiny pieces.
*
The following week’s delivery was a puzzle, a single feather wrapped in a piece of heavy parchment. Other than his own name in that now familiar hand there were no markings on the parchment, no clue as to the meaning behind it. Surely a mistake he thought, turning his attention to the feather. He studied it carefully, just a normal feather, small, brown, altogether unremarkable.
Further inspection was cut short by the distant chiming of the hour. He smiled to himself, not everyone could be as free as a...
Smile turning cold he dropped the feather. A mistake? Perhaps not.
*
It wasn’t that James wasn’t expecting Sparrow to make an appearance, but finding him loitering in an alley near Turner’s forge seemed a trifle anticlimactic. James half drew his sword, and was horrified to realise he felt a slight twinge of shame when Sparrow actually managed to look hurt, “You didn’t like the gifts?”
Falling back to a safe distance James merely folded his arms and waited.
Sparrow shrugged, “I just thought you deserved a taste of the finer things in life.”
James almost laughed at that, “Finer things?”
Sparrow ticked them off on his fingers, “Silk, fine perfume, finer brandy, spices..,”
“A feather? A letter mocking me.”
Sparrow pressed forward, suddenly serious, “Not mocking, I meant every word. Anyway,“ he continued, good humour restored, “Sometimes it’s important to remember the simple things.”
James did laugh then, maybe he had gotten a taste for the finer things after all.