Summary: Uma hates parties, Harry has been forbidden to participate, CJ finds them too loud, and Harriet gapped it from the celebrations. With the night not going to plan, see how they come together to create their own fun.
Author's Note: I've made CJ around 6 years old in this – Harry 17 and Harriet 19, for reference. I know that is considerably younger than CJ should be, but for storyline purposes I needed it that way. I also have really no idea what their ages are in relation to each other – if someone could let me know, that would be helpful.
Lights from the Jolly Rodger lit up the wharf with their glow. On board was alive with music and sea shanties, pirates dancing about the deck with bottles of rum in hand. Loud, out of sync singing echoed across the sea as the biggest festivity of the year took place, not that many would remember it by morning.
Though below deck, through the empty corridors and down a staircase or two, it's considerably quieter where Uma and Harry reside in his room.
"Why are you even down here with me?" Harry looks over to her from where he sits in his bed.
"I hate parties" Uma reminds him, leaning back causally in a chair. "Even if you weren't sick, I'd probably have found a place to hide down here."
"Can I trade places with you?" Harry asks. He'd been fundamentally locked in the confines of his room, his father thinking it would be a disgrace for anyone to see his son in his weakened state. Not that Harry felt like celebrating much, but one drink couldn't hurt.
"As much as I like you Harry, you've been looking dreadful all week and I don't want to catch this."
"Then why are you with me?" he points out. "You're just increasing your chances."
Uma is silent because it's kind of a fair point.
"Go up and dance for a bit. The rest of the crew are here" he encourages her.
It's true, most of the crew's parents had been invited and their children tagged along with them. But even with them there Uma doesn't feel particularly social, most of her dealings with them are strictly business.
"Gil's not here" she uses as her excuse. Gaston not being a pirate, hadn't been invited, so neither had his children.
"Just one dance" Harry urges her, seeing her look of scepticism.
She fixes him with an unamused look.
He smirks at her. "If you won't do it for yourself, at least do it for me, because I'm clearly in a debilitated state and can't have any fun."
At this Uma does smile. She knows how upset Harry is over missing out on the events of that night. Especially because it's at his home and there is no way for him to escape the sound of the festivities above them.
"Alright" Uma gives in with a heavy sigh, pushing herself out of her chair. "Just for you."
Harry rolls over in his bed as he hears the sound of footsteps approaching from behind his door. "You have a visitor" Uma's voice sounds from behind the wood before she pushes it open with her foot revealing her and CJ, whose shoulders she has her hands placed upon.
"Hey little croc" Harry says with a smile, pushing himself up to sit against the headboard so CJ can climb on the bed next to him. "Get too loud for ya?"
The younger girl nods as she curls herself into Harry's side and Uma smiles at the child under his arm as she continues into the room.
"You don't seem pissed off at me, so I'm guessing it was fun" Harry smiles mischievously.
"Wasn't bad" Uma admits, refusing to look at him.
"Why don't you go back up? I'm not going to be lonely down here anymore" he tells her, looking down at his younger sister fondly.
But before Uma can get a word in Harry's breath catches and he shields a couple coughs into his fist. CJ raises her head from his chest as he shifts. "Sorry, sweetheart" he chokes out before curling into his elbow away from her. The coughs sounding more painful as he tries to repress them.
"This is why I won't leave you" Uma says as she sits back on the chair by his bed.
"Come on, what are you going to do for me? Save me from choking?" he scoffs at her.
"Well if you don't want to be around me, just tell me" Uma starts to tease him. "But I'm going to need a letter of resignation from the crew, and for you to find a replacement as first mate."
"Why is he being replaced as first mate?" Harriet steps into the room before addressing Harry. "I thought you were adamant that you weren't dying."
"That's changed now, I'm dying of boredom" Harry doesn't miss a beat with his sister joining in with the teasing. "What are you doing down here?"
"I came to check on you" she says.
"Must be a pretty shit party if everyone's leaving to come down here" Harry says with a sceptical look in his eye.
Harriet sighs knowing that she's been caught. "Anthony was getting too handsy so I gapped it when he wasn't looking."
A low growl in Harry's throat morphs into a string of curses as he pushes himself around CJ to the edge of his bed. "I'll sort 'im out."
"S'alright, he's drunk, Harry. He doesn't mean anything by it" Harriet dismisses.
Harry still looks sceptical but doesn't make an effort to move any further.
"How's your fever?" she distracts him, placing her hand on his forehead.
Uma finds it strange that he doesn't try and bat her hand away. He's fully capable of doing so, but she figures that maybe he's learned the hard way not to.
"Not bad but could be better" Harriet purses her lips.
"Cool. Can I go up and have fun now?"
"If you want dad to have your neck" Harriet says casually like it's an everyday thing to speak about.
"Rather like my neck, thanks" Harry backs down.
"We can have fun here" CJ pipes up, her young voice filled with optimism.
"Like what?" Harriet says, addressing her sister for the first time since she entered the room.
"Harry do you have the dice from the shop?" Uma asks him, an idea sparking into her head.
"On the desk" Harry nods, looking slightly distracted before he sneezes. "Hiiih… EDSCHUHH!"
CJ yelps slightly in fright and Harry chuckles before grabbing playfully at her ankle near his hip, sniffling into his elbow.
Uma smiles as she goes and grabs the dice from the desk before they all settle in a circle on the floor.
The great thing they find about CJ in her young age is that she finds great joy in Uma and Harry always guessing the right numbers before the dice stops. Not yet realising that the dice are weighted. Of course, Harriet knows and she's managed to convince CJ that Uma can tell what the dice will roll on because she's magic. CJ doesn't know how Harry knows, though he claims it's because he's really smart.
Still, even after many rolls of the dice she hasn't connected that: the blue dice always lands on six, the yellow dice always lands on four, the green on three, and the black on one.
"What one should we roll next?" Uma asks her.
"Yellow" CJ says as she picks it up from the floor.
"What's it gonna roll on?"
"Hmmm… four!" she decides after some consideration.
"Sure, it's not going to be a three?" Harry looks down at her from where she sits on his lap, his legs crossed beneath her.
"Could be a seven" Harriet tries to trick her.
"There's no seven on dice!" CJ giggles before she lets it go rolling across the floor, landing on the four.
Cheers go up from around the room. CJ happily bouncing on the spot as Harry lifts her arms up in celebration, burring his face in her hair.
The night hadn't gone to plan for many of them, but even with the biggest party of the year taking place on the deck above them, they were able to make their own fun.