Norrington's Darling

Barbossa and Will and Elizabeth

POV: James Norrington

As I predicted, Zuri's sorrow faded quickly, leaving her with anger. She screamed and yelled and wailed (mostly in a different language) at night in the cabin we shared. She took her anger out on me most of the time and occasionally used me as a punching bag.

I didn't mind. I knew pain. I knew that Zuri was struggling. I let her scream and wail and cry and pummel me. And every night, I held her as she cried. And every morning, I convinced her to wake up and get up instead of staying in bed and letting life slip away.

All the while, Theodore and Anamaria were on my case. They relentlessly antagonized me, begging me to propose. Every time they said something, I fumbled with the ring in my pocket, never quite having the courage to bring it out.

The wind brushed against my face. I rolled up my shirtsleeves, glad I had let Zuri convince me to get out of my heavy attire and into something much lighter—shirtsleeves and simple breeches. She'd even convinced me to leave the top half of my shirt unlaced. It didn't help the heat was so oppressive, sinking in on every side, the sun beating down on me.

"I'm going to have a burn by the end of this," I sighed.

A purring laugh escaped Zuri. "At least I tan."

I playfully scowled at her. "Why is it that you get so deliciously tan while I turn into a lobster?"

She giggled. "Well, if you'd take off all those layers, maybe you wouldn't be so pale!"

"Hey!" I protested, smiling all the while, nuzzling into her and play-fighting in the sand. I pinned her down and she grinned up at me, my hands trapping her wrists beside her head. I kissed her forehead softly and she sighed into me.

"Hey, James?"

"Yeah?"

"How many?"

I stared at her. "How many what?"

Zuri stared back at me for a good while before she said quietly, "Children."

My heart spasmed in my chest. "How many I want?"

Silent as the grave, Zuri nodded.

I looked to the side, out at the ocean, and slowly slipped into a position laying beside her. "One," I said finally, my voice soft. "Maybe two. Not a large brood. Just one little one to love and watch grow up." I smiled weakly at her. "If it was a boy, I'd name him Cedric. If it was a girl, Briar."

"Those are rare," Zuri commented.

"Just like Mama," I told her. Then I realized I was actually imagining her as a mother. I could see it perfectly, in all stages—Zuri reading, a hand over her pregnant belly; Zuri holding a newborn, I standing by her shoulder; Zuri smiling at me as I beheld the precious little thing we had created together; Zuri teaching the little one to read and write. I brushed a curl of hair from her eyes, which stared up at me in awe. "You'd make a lovely mother, Naut."

Her face flushed. "James." She didn't really seem to know what else to say but my name with a loving intonation around it.

"I love you," I breathed, my breath tickling her lips. She closed the gap between us and my lips met her lush, soft ones. I held her close. 

Right at that moment, I never wanted it to end. The sun was slowly warming our bodies as the waves lapped at the sand beside us, the sand cushioning us, getting in our clothes and Zuri's hair and her lips telling me everything I needed to know.

I had just mustered up the courage to get the ring out and propose right then and there—it would have been the perfect moment, and my hand was creeping toward my pocket—when Anamaria and Theodore appeared. They stopped dead when they saw us lying in the sand, kissing like it was the end of the world, my form on top of her own. (It was only then that I realized how little Zuri was wearing.)