[Wild Roses] before the wars
Title: laughter in the wind
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Ulysse, Giovanni
Prompt: 05C "slack"
Word Count: 441
Notes: long before the wars, before the technical founding of the Navy.
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The dawn was fair, if still, the sails hanging limp for want of wind, and after due consideration Ulysse went back to bed, leaving word for him to be woken if there was a change in the weather.
Several hours later, having exhausted both sleep and the entertainments of his cabin, he came back up on deck, and found everyone staring aloft with something with hope and something like worry on their faces.
Echoing the gesture, he blinked, frowned, then conversationally yelled "Son of mine, if lightning strikes that mast, I'm blaming you."
Giovanni half turned on the yardarm to look down at him, one hand automatically tangling in the rigging to keep his balance. Ulysse didn't even have to have a layer of intent over his eyes to see the grin on his son's face, the beginnings of laughter.
"Surely you'd welcome a breeze on such a slack day?" he called, still grinning, and Ulysse crossed his arms over his chest, mock-scowled upwards.
"A breeze would be wonderfully welcome," he agreed, "but you never seem to stop there."
Which was truth, for a certain value of truth. Giovanni's air was very, very good--better than Ulysse's own--but his first love was storms, and it showed. Ulysse couldn't actually count the numbers of time he'd crawled home against winds that meant to drive him back out to sea only to find his son on a bluff facing the water laughing uproariously at every lightning flash, every crackling roll of thunder.
Unfortunately pitching the bastard into the ocean didn't have any sort of slowing effect on the tendency--he'd talked Ruadhan's kid into helping with that when he was away, long before Jared'd gained a reputation of his own--though it'd netted a few decent maps of the caves and tunnels in the area.
A light puff of wind from starboard jolted him out of scowl and train of thought, and as the sailmaster scrambled to take advantage of it and he himself scrambled out of the way of the people springing for the rigging, he heard his son's laughter again, chased by the sound of a freshening breeze.
"Thank you," he said, credit where credit was due, when Gio's boots hit the deck and the younger man came over to join him at the base of the mainmast.
Giovanni grinned. "De rien, da'. Aunt Arianhrod's been in a mood again lately and I figured I'd see what I could make of her patterns, as long as we were calmed anyway. Not sure if she's planning a winter's gift or a way to banish her husband, though."
Ulysse snorted. "Both, knowing her. And knowing him."
'Verse/characters: Wild Roses; Ulysse, Giovanni
Prompt: 05C "slack"
Word Count: 441
Notes: long before the wars, before the technical founding of the Navy.
---------
The dawn was fair, if still, the sails hanging limp for want of wind, and after due consideration Ulysse went back to bed, leaving word for him to be woken if there was a change in the weather.
Several hours later, having exhausted both sleep and the entertainments of his cabin, he came back up on deck, and found everyone staring aloft with something with hope and something like worry on their faces.
Echoing the gesture, he blinked, frowned, then conversationally yelled "Son of mine, if lightning strikes that mast, I'm blaming you."
Giovanni half turned on the yardarm to look down at him, one hand automatically tangling in the rigging to keep his balance. Ulysse didn't even have to have a layer of intent over his eyes to see the grin on his son's face, the beginnings of laughter.
"Surely you'd welcome a breeze on such a slack day?" he called, still grinning, and Ulysse crossed his arms over his chest, mock-scowled upwards.
"A breeze would be wonderfully welcome," he agreed, "but you never seem to stop there."
Which was truth, for a certain value of truth. Giovanni's air was very, very good--better than Ulysse's own--but his first love was storms, and it showed. Ulysse couldn't actually count the numbers of time he'd crawled home against winds that meant to drive him back out to sea only to find his son on a bluff facing the water laughing uproariously at every lightning flash, every crackling roll of thunder.
Unfortunately pitching the bastard into the ocean didn't have any sort of slowing effect on the tendency--he'd talked Ruadhan's kid into helping with that when he was away, long before Jared'd gained a reputation of his own--though it'd netted a few decent maps of the caves and tunnels in the area.
A light puff of wind from starboard jolted him out of scowl and train of thought, and as the sailmaster scrambled to take advantage of it and he himself scrambled out of the way of the people springing for the rigging, he heard his son's laughter again, chased by the sound of a freshening breeze.
"Thank you," he said, credit where credit was due, when Gio's boots hit the deck and the younger man came over to join him at the base of the mainmast.
Giovanni grinned. "De rien, da'. Aunt Arianhrod's been in a mood again lately and I figured I'd see what I could make of her patterns, as long as we were calmed anyway. Not sure if she's planning a winter's gift or a way to banish her husband, though."
Ulysse snorted. "Both, knowing her. And knowing him."