Disclaimer: Don't own Pirates. Never will. Characters aren't mine, any movie quotes aren't mine.

Courting Elizabeth

Chapter 1: Pirate of the Ball

"Will!" She came yelling down the streets heading towards the smithy, screaming my name at the top of her lungs.

Something was wrong. There were few people in the world who could stop me from finishing my work by just the simple call of my name, in fact she may very well have been the only one. Elizabeth Swann was her name and I was madly in love with her.

"Will!" she called again, entering the smithy.

I gently laid down the sword I had been working on. "What is it, Elizabeth?" I asked, slightly worried.

"It's father!"

"What about him?"

"He's forbid me to see you anymore."

No. No! It couldn't be happening. I had nightmares of that day all the... wait... that was probably just another nightmare.

I woke to find myself in my bed as always. That nightmare was becoming more and more constant. Every night it was the same thing.

I was a humble blacksmith, and actually I had started out as even less than that. When I was still a young boy my mother had died of illness. I had never known my father. Sometimes he would ship me gifts or letters, but even that was a rare occasion. That was all I knew of him and my only communication with him. I had, at that time, thought that he was a merchant sailor. It wasn't until later that I learned he'd been a pirate. I didn't like that at the time, but I now realized that one can be a pirate and a good man. I, myself, may even be considered a pirate to some. Yes, that me, Will Turner, pirate who was courting the Governor's daughter.

After my mother died, I used all the money we had left to board a ship to try and find my father, which wasn't much as we had always been a poor family. That didn't work however, due to my ship being attacked by pirates. I survived the attack and was rescued by none other than my beloved Elizabeth Swann.

Elizabeth was my life. She was the reason I stayed in Port Royal all those years. As children, we'd often played together, but her father, the Governor, never really approved. I was the blacksmith's apprentice, nothing more, and Elizabeth was the Governor's daughter. As we grew older, Elizabeth had been forbidden from playing with me. Soon the only time we saw each other was when the smithy had an order to fulfill for the Governor's household and I was to bring it there. Even then our visits could hardly even be called visits.

Everything changed though the day Elizabeth was abducted by pirates—everything. After Captain Jack Sparrow and I rescued her, I finally got up enough courage to confess my true feelings for Elizabeth. I told her that I loved her. To my surprise, she loved me as well. The Governor had, somewhat reluctantly, given me permission to court his daughter.

You would think that courting someone you loved would be easy, but not if that someone was Elizabeth Swann. Elizabeth wasn't the problem at all though, it was her father.

Governor Swann wanted what was best for his daughter and as far as he was concerned what was best for his daughter was likely not a blacksmith's apprentice. She choose me. He did not. He likely never would have. I was not from their world.

I was poor. She was rich. She had always been well provided for. I would be able to provide for her if we were to marry, but it would not be in the same way. What was I saying, "if we were to marry?" There was no if. We would marry. I was certain of that. Elizabeth and I would be wed one day.

My heart was ready to marry her, but my financial standing was not. I wanted to be certain that I had enough money to provide for her before we married. I was also saving up of course, for the wedding and engagement ring. Those both would not be cheap. I was coming closer and closer to my goal everyday though and soon I would be ready.

I feared that day in all honesty. I would never fully be prepared to face Governor Swann to ask him for his daughter's hand in marriage. I imagined this sort of thing to not be easy even when one was asking such a thing from a man who liked his daughter's choice of suitor. I was definitely not Governor Swann's first, second, third, or even possibly twentieth choice.

I did not fit into his world, but I was willing to learn. I would have to fit into his world if I were to ask permission to marry his daughter otherwise there wasn't even a chance that he would say yes.

It would start with my first ball and that was less than a week away. It would be a lie to say that I had not been worrying about this day since the first day I started courting Elizabeth.

We had been courting for a month. The ball was to celebrate someone's birthday, I didn't even know whose. I cared very little to pay attention to those sorts of things. I didn't even know why Elizabeth and I were going to this ball. To the best of my knowledge she didn't even know the girl whose birthday we were celebrating either, although I'm sure she at least knew the girl's name. I didn't even know the girl's position or why she was so special that there was a ball being held at the Governor's house for her. Actually, it was quite the understatement to call the Governor's house a house, it was more so a mansion. My entire house was about the size of his bedroom.

It was time to stop worrying about such things though. I needed my sleep. The ball was coming upon us fast and I needed to have a good night's rest in order to be ready for whatever lessons the Governor had set up for me to endure the next day. I really did not look forward to ball lessons. I had never been to a ball in my life. I was after all just a blacksmith, or even worse a pirate.

I imagined Captain Jack Sparrow at a ball. There were some places pirates just didn't belong, but I would learn to be the one pirate who found a way to fit in there anyway. I had to, for Elizabeth. My hope was that after we married we would no longer have to attend to those balls, but for now I need to learn how to. It seemed silly a pirate going to a ball, but I would do it for Elizabeth. I had to. My heart wouldn't let me do anything less.

A/N:

Okay so here's chapter one of my newest fic. Let me know what you think please by reviewing. That'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks.