Drabble: Ad Initium

[concertigrossi]

Title:  Ad Initium
Author: concertigrossi
Rating: G
Word count: 100
Characters/pairings: Norrington, sort-of Norribeth
Challenge: First Time

He'd known her for ages, if not very well.  The few, unmemorable times they'd met, he'd treated her with a fraternal indulgence; kind, but slightly patronizing.  She'd interrogate him about his ships and the battles he'd fought, and he'd give her the sanitized details.

He returned to Jamaica after a year-long absence, and there she stood, greeting her father's guests with upswept hair and the long, trailing skirts of a newly-debuted Society lady.  The pestering little girl had vanished, and this unfamiliar, poised creature in her place left him breathless.

He found himself barely able to stutter out a greeting.