A/N: Catch me juggling my ongoing adoration for James Norrington with my newfound fascination with Papa Emeritus IV like they're anything alike at all. Every time I catch myself swooning over the gothy anti-pope, I picture James looking at him and being appalled that he's been lumped into the same category.

Anyway, I'm sorely missing CTW rn so I wrote all of this as a fill for the SFW Alphabet template. This template is typically geared towards character/reader pairings, but I don't write that and I wanted to fill it for James and Theo instead, so here we are. NSFW alphabet template fill may or may not be in my drafts folder for a later date.


A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

They're both very affectionate - in their own way. In circumstances that aren't life-and-death, James isn't one for big public displays of PDA, even mild ones acceptable by the time's standards, because it feels too much like letting others into his and his wife's private business, and he prefers having that remain solely between himself and Theodora, rather than anybody who may feel inclined to act as the peanut gallery. Especially given the Port Royal snobbery towards his wife. Theo shares that sense, but it's also aided by the fact that even back home she found over the top PDA displays cringe-y past a certain point, and she's also a bit unsure as to what is actually appropriate in this time, because the rules are always so complex, unspoken, and changing based on the minutiae of circumstance.

That being said, it would be easy for those who don't know James well enough to see his tells, or simply don't want to believe he really loves Theo, to miss the very blatant love they have for one another in public. Only an idiot could miss how he smiles when she walks into a room, or the way she suddenly seems to become more girlish in the face of those smiles. The way they share looks across the room or murmur quiet dry remarks to each other when standing side-by-side, or how they check in with one another over the course of the day - bringing the other a drink if they're at a social occasion, or food and an excuse to take a break if they're working. The respect there is clear, but people who don't want to see it as affection, too, try desperately not to do so. And when they're stupid enough to let that belief slip through, they end up regretting it.

And in private? In private it's a complete 180 degree turn and they're nauseatingly loving with each other.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

James is a loyal friend. He might not be the sort you'd go to for a shoulder to cry on, but that doesn't mean he doesn't care. He's exceedingly practical - if you need help with a task, or advice on something, he's your guy. He might not know what to say if you come to him in a flood of tears, but he'll go to the ends of the earth to help you with whatever problem you face. Values are everything to him, so that's where the friendship begins. Usually with those he works with in some professional capacity or another, but only those who treat their work with as much respect as he does.

Theo also highly values loyalty, but - especially in the modern age - she's that friend who sometimes drops off the map for weeks on end, and then resurfaces and replies to texts like nothing ever happened. Again, not because she doesn't care, but because that's just who she is. She doesn't have a whole lot of time for people who can't respect that. Considering how much value she places on humour, that's how her friendships begin - lots of joking and teasing and general whimsy, which slowly gives way to vulnerability and those "3am at a sleepover, chatting in the dark" sort of conversations. She's also absolutely the type of friend who would help you bury a body at three am. As is James - so long as that body is Jack Sparrow's.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Theo loves it - she's a tactile person, but only with those she's close to. Of course, the time period and getting used to social norms here and now put a bit of a stopper on that, because she's never quite sure what's appropriate and what isn't - especially where interacting with men is concerned. That's part of the reason she feels freer in Tortuga, or on the Pearl. She can be a bit more herself without countless people whispering behind fans, determined to see the worst in her every mannerism. She's relieved once she and James can be together, but even then she never quite knows how much is appropriate - or allowed, even if their setting of Tortuga muddies the waters a bit as far as that's concerned. They do cuddle in that time period, but they're both tentative about it.

This subject is a bit trickier for James, because as he's not completely devoid of "worldly" experience, that hardly included cuddling, and relationships as Theo knows them are new to him. Because of that, he's a bit shy about it at first, but it doesn't last long, and soon curling up with his wife at the end of a long, taxing day eases at least a little of the weight upon his shoulders. By the end of their time in the Caribbean, the proximity becomes even more of a source of comfort for them - they can both hardly believe they were so lucky enough to both come out of the other end of all that happened, especially after more than one near-miss. They revel in that closeness, almost marvelling at it, even, barely daring to believe it's real.

Sometimes it's more casual - neither of them are particularly clingy people, they don't have to be completely wrapped up in the other to feel that closeness. Sometimes they'll read while they're curled up together, or look over reports for their company, and once James procures those promised dogs for Theo, sometimes they insist on joining in. Theo entertains that particular behaviour much more than James does.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

James absolutely wants to settle down. There's no question about it - it's another box to tick for him so he can consider himself successful. Plus he wants children, so you can't really have one without the other as far as he's concerned. He's surprisingly good at cleaning - keeping things orderly is part of being a soldier, and he had to swab his fair share of decks as he climbed the ranks in his career. Of course, there's a difference between a ship and a house, so some nuances of housekeeping might be unfamiliar, but he picks up after himself and he's not the type to make a mess and expect others to deal with it. As far as cooking is concerned, he could hardly cater to a dinner party or a banquet, but he knows his way around a campfire well enough.

For Theo, settling down was much less of a given. Marriage was always something she was a bit iffy on before she came to this century - not much seeing the point of it, and certainly not wanting to drop thousands on a dress and flower arrangements for it. She always figures that if it happens it happens, but it's not something she's actively seeking out. Until she meets James. He's the first man she's ever even thought about marrying.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

I maintain that they'd die before they broke up, but if we're speaking hypothetically –

It would be difficult. For both of them. If it was James initiating it, he would sit her down and try to get it all out as coherently and matter of factly as possible (without being cruel), and then he'd force himself to remain and take any upset head-on, refusing to run from the consequences of his choice. He'd try to comfort her, too, when she got upset. Whether she'd let him comfort her is another matter entirely.

Theo has a bit more of an avoidant personality - if she found herself in a position where she had to break up with James, she'd deal with the fall out in the moment, sure, but she'd avoid him like the plague afterwards in an attempt to give them both time to heal.

I think with partners other than each other, they'd be a whole lot more blunt and straight to the point when it came to breakups, though.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Commitment isn't a scary thing to James. Nor is loyalty. Both come naturally to him - when he falls in love, something like wondering if somebody better might come along doesn't even cross his mind as a shadow of a concern. That being said, he's caught off guard by the impatience he finds himself mired in when it comes to wishing to be married to Theo. Yes, back in the days when he'd envisaged himself marrying Elizabeth, he suspected he'd find himself eagerly awaiting the wedding day, but he's a patient man and he never stopped to wonder if the betrothal period might be a nuisance. He learns otherwise when he's reunited with Theodora, though, and they tentatively use the label of betrothed - and he means it when he tells her he'd have happily spirited her away to Tortuga's chapel to marry her there, had he not thought such a venue beneath them…and had he not worried that she'd deem it too soon, or feel pressured by such a proposal.

Like James, Theo is fiercely loyal, but her attitude to marriage was pretty different back home. She always figured if she found somebody worth spending her life with, she'd stay with them, and maybe get married just for the legal perks of it, but other than that she always deemed marriage as a bit outdated and iffy. She's a free spirit, she doesn't like the idea of "I love you so much, let's get the law involved so leaving will be a nightmare", and she never thought she'd be much good at being a wife. It just seemed a word that didn't suit her. Even if it weren't for the constraints of the time period, though, James makes her reconsider that stance, because she likes the idea of being married to him, and even though their hands are forced in terms of timing, she finds herself with absolutely no regrets about it in the end.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Physically, James would sooner die than raise a hand to strike Theo. The time when he has to - when she all but begs him to do it in order to trick Beckett - he feels majorly, majorly guilty about it, and she feels terrible for asking it. It's not something they discuss after the fact, wanting to forget all about it entirely. For Theo's part, she's not the sort of idiot who buys into the idea that raising your hands to your spouse is okay if it's a woman doing it to a man. They spar, sure, and they practise with swords, and they even get a bit - ahem - spirited in the bedroom (although neither of them are interested in straying into BDSM territory where that's concerned), but they'd never willingly raise hands to one another unless the circumstances were extraordinary, and truly life-and-death.

Emotionally speaking, things are slightly different. They're still never cruel to each other, not purposely, but they're just blunt people, and they both prefer it that way. They'd rather have a difficult conversation and become stronger for it than dance around the truth with the idea of temporarily saving feelings, if it means a problem will fester. But it's always done with love, and nine times out of ten it's the two of them against a problem rather than the both of them against one another.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Theo is more of a hugger than James - but that's like saying Jack is more of a pirate than James, because it's not exactly hard. It's not so much that James doesn't like them, but only with a very select few people (primarily his wife and their children, really), he's never going to walk into a dinner party and start doling out hugs left right and centre. Which is a good thing, really, because half the guests would die of shock. But it's not like he was raised to be one, and with most people they'd be pretty awkward affairs, mostly comprising of a firm back-pat while he wishes the other person would release him. That being said, when it's a hug he's actually enthusiastic about giving, he gives damn good ones.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

James thinks it long before he says it - in part because that's just his mode of operating with most things, but also because in this particular case, with the word "love", and with Theo, he can't say it when he first thinks it. By then he's already betrothed to Elizabeth, and they're all miserable. Voicing his love to Theodora in the midst of all that would just be cruel, would it not? Admittedly, his actions still give him away, but somehow voicing - to the extent of explicitly saying those three words - it seems a step too far.

Even when they're reunited and together, truly together in Tortuga, he hesitates to say it. Everything has been such a mess that he doesn't want to pressure her while they adjust. She's the first to say it in the end, in a manner of speaking - referring to him as the man she loves so casually, like she's referring to a very obvious fact. He has dark hair, green eyes, and he's the man she loves. He falls even more in love with her then.

Much like James, though, Theo thinks it long before she says it…and she thought it for the first time long before she was actually aware of it. It's almost funny, because while she knows it was a gradual process, sometimes she feels like she blinked and went from "huh, maybe this guy's pretty nice after all" to "I would risk everything for you".

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they're jealous?)

Generally speaking, they're not jealous people. They trust one another enough to know there's no real need for it. That being said, there are exceptions - sore spots, both in the form of one person where each is concerned. For James, he's always going to be bristly as far as Jack and Theo are concerned. He knows he can trust Theo, that isn't his concern, but Jack loves to wind him up - slinging an arm around Theo's shoulders, getting much closer than he needs to in order to say something simple, and fixing her with those grins that usually have corsets magically unlacing themselves. It doesn't help much that it takes him right back to the moment after their marooning - when he rescued them and had to watch as they displayed hints of a bond he absolutely loathed the idea of. Especially when he had no idea of how deep it might run.

It still annoys him even once he knows he has no reason to be jealous - not on Theodora's part anyway - and he takes a petty sort of joy in watching as she endures Sparrow's attempts at annoying him with a bored sort of exasperation. Although none of that stops his own annoyance from showing, which is the worst thing you can do around Jack because it just encourages him. But no, all in all, James knows he has no reason to be jealous. Any foolish enough to try and flirt with Theodora in any meaningful way are soon disabused of whatever misguided notions they have by her before he can even think to get angry, anyway.

And while he doesn't need to be told it, that sense of security he has is compounded one night, years after their adventure, where he found himself making a throwaway comment while he was busy contemplating his luck. 'To think I once told you that I'd do my best to handle it with grace if you married another,' he'd said, knowing damn well grace would've been the most difficult thing to handle it with. And in response, Theodora had breathed a laugh, saying simply that it never would have happened, and then she continued - so matter of factly that he knew at the time that she had no idea of how the words she spoke would impact him. 'Once I fell for you, that was it. Every other man was done for - in this time, my time, any time. Nobody else would ever stand a chance, even if you wouldn't have me. I'd have been that pathetic.'

And how can he feel jealous when he's married to a woman who says such things with the utmost sincerity?

With Theo, it's decidedly trickier. Because Elizabeth. Oh, she knows she has nothing to worry about - loyalty is everything to James, and she knows damn well how much he loves her. By the time they leave the Caribbean, Elizabeth isn't even a sore subject for her anymore, despite what happened on the Dutchman. But in the early days? That hurts, not least because she's a hell of a woman to try and weigh herself up against, even without the standards of the time making her a much more appealing option.

Theo isn't the type to chase a man, though. Had James not made his feelings for her known, and had he remained interested in Elizabeth and only Elizabeth, she would've still done everything she could to save him, but she wouldn't have chased him romantically speaking. She's just not that sort of person. Maybe at most she'd have tried to convince him to "settle" for her just so that she'd be in a position where she could save his life, but even if he accepted (highly unlikely) she'd have left afterwards - either to make a new life for herself elsewhere, perhaps aboard Jack's crew, or to go back home. She respects herself too much to be in a marriage with a man who would rather have another woman.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Because voicing his emotions doesn't come easily to James (he's far too English for that, thank you very much), he prefers to let his actions speak for him - and his kisses do that in spades. It rarely matters what she's doing, or what she's preoccupied with, because when James pulls Theo aside in private and gives her one of those soft, achingly intimate kisses, it makes her stop and reckon with just how much love he has for her every damn time. Not least because back "home", she'd known so many lads who considered kissing to just be a gateway to more exciting "worthwhile" things, so being in love with a man who kisses her for the joy of kissing her alone is everything. He likes kissing her lips, of course, but also her neck, her shoulders, her chest - often after a dinner party or a ball, after spending a whole night witnessing how her dress and hair have put them to their best advantage.

More salaciously, her legs - joking that he had to spend far too long pretending not to notice how she paraded around in the breeches she stole from him, and just how tightly they clung to her thighs. However forward-thinking she insists her time is, she always flushes pink when he strays down that path, and he delights in it all the more for that very reason. If he's the only man in this world with the power to make Theodora Byrne blush, he's going to enjoy that privilege.

And then there's her scar. The one which changes over the years from an angry, shiny pink blotch to a slightly raised silvery-white spectre sitting just below her navel. He knows she hates it - and while he's not fond of the fact that she has it, or the memories it brings forth, he doesn't view it as the great ugly blight that she does. And so he kisses that, too, until doing so no longer makes her grow tense and quiet. But by the time that day comes, it's damn near tradition, and so he doesn't stop, because he's a man who honours tradition.

Theo shares in his treasuring action above words, and funnels just as much of the wealth of love she has for her husband into her kisses. She revels in them all the more once they're reunited in Tortuga, and they're no longer tinged with sadness. When he first starts finding grey hairs in his beard (which he allows to grow into a very short, neat fashion every now and then just because he knows it drives her wild), she kisses every patch she can find just in case he's tempted to view it negatively. She suspects he keeps up the act longer than he actually feels it just so he has an excuse to end up at the mercy of those kisses - like he even needs an excuse. That usually naturally progresses to her kissing her way down his neck, so she can feel the rumble of the murmur he gives in response to it.

She loves kissing his chest, too, on the patch exposed by his shirts after he removes his cravat. One day, she finds herself explaining the concept of heavage to him. He isn't as amused by the modern turn of phrase as she is, but it does earn one very exasperated puff of laughter.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

James is surprisingly good with children - well, it's only surprising to the people who see him as a whole lot sterner and more humourless than he actually is. He doesn't talk down to them, he just talks to them like they're people, without condescension or annoyance - albeit with more patience than he might afford an adult - and they respond well to that. They see how respected he is in the community, too, and delight in having him teach them things. He's also fairly decent at pretending he doesn't take pleasure in how downright broody such displays make Theodora if she witnesses them - although that smugness is tinged with a bit of guilt until she does first conceive.

Theo is also very good with kids, but because they gravitate towards her particular brand of silliness and warmth. Most times she's more at ease around the kids in her community than the adults - not least because they don't hold her strangeness against her, nor do they notice it so much as their parents might.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

James is much more of a morning person than Theo, thanks in part to a lifetime of having little choice in that matter. He's used to getting up, getting dressed, forcing down breakfast whether he's hungry or not, and then setting about his duties. Theo's presence changes that - breakfast becomes less something to just get through in order to see through his day, and more something to, dare he say it, enjoy. At least once they grow comfortable around one another, and especially once they start growing close.

Theo is less of a morning person. She's fully capable of getting up when she needs to, and she's not the childish sort who treats everybody like crap until she gets a bit of coffee in her, but she just needs a bit more time to adjust to being awake than James does. That being said, she makes the effort to get up early every morning in Port Royal - in the beginning to keep up appearances, later because she found she enjoyed his company and opportunities to be in it were limited given his workload, and once they're married just because she treasures those moments and doesn't know how many more there'll be, given the danger they both face.

Once the danger has gone by, they continue to treasure their mornings - even though their work for the day (be it for their company or for their home) is much more free to involve one another. It's just a nice moment of peace together before the day takes over, and a good chance to check in and organise who's going to do what over the course of the day.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

If mornings are spent preparing for the day ahead, nights are spent decompressing and thinking about anything but business - it's all but banned, and discussed only if it's particularly pressing. Considering how hard they both work at pretty much everything they do, they're usually exhausted, but they prioritise one another (and later, their family) to still make at least some time for one another, even if they end up falling asleep together in the sitting room.

Years later, when all of their children are born but still fairly young, they'll spend the evenings together - reading, playing music (in the case of the children, anyway), playing games, talking, so on, and every so often James will catch Theo - or vice versa - taking in the whole scene like she can't quite believe her eyes, and that they really got here in the end. Neither of them ever really dared to hope, it almost felt cheeky to do so, not to the extent where they were actively making plans for when this day came, but it doesn't really matter because they never could have imagined they'd end up here, and so content at that.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

It's a complicated issue - for both of them. In Theo's case ordinarily she's an open book ninety percent of the time, but here in this time, there's a lot she simply cannot share in the beginning, for obvious reasons. Even if she's careful about how she frames what she shares, she's painfully aware of how her story can easily fall apart under even the friendliest light questioning. Plus, she's not a historian, so she's also very aware of how she might make a mistake without even knowing it's a mistake - casually referring to the time she went hiking in a country that does not yet exist, or so on. So she defaults to only sharing things when explicitly asked, and sharing as little as possible at that.

Even after he knows the truth, it's not simple. A lot of stories require an explanation upon an explanation, wrapped in another explanation - a simple story from her childhood requires three detours, a segue or two, and then a vague analogy just to get to the point of the story in the end. She doesn't mind giving them, and he's interested in hearing them, too, but it's a lot to handle if they're tired and busy. Impromptu moments of opening up can only really happen if they have the whole day or night to themselves, and they know they won't be overheard. And there's a small part of her that worries about what he might think of her time, and her by extension. It's a baseless fear, she knows he wouldn't think less of her personally, but his opinion on the way morals are heading in the future based on what he knows is no secret, and it's just not the sort of conversation she often wants to have, and a lot of her stories about her life back home could very easily lead to that sort of topic.

James, it would surprise her to know, has more than a few of the same worries. There is much about this time that she deems 'absolutely bloody backwards', and while she makes it clear she doesn't think of him as such, he has no desire to change that. He also doesn't know how much she already knows, and he's the sort who doesn't really see the point in dwelling on the past by sitting back and whining about it, either. When he gets on the topic, it's usually by accident, but he doesn't lock up and refuse to delve deeper if Theo asks. Except for the time when they speak of his father, and she asks (half-teasingly) about whether he'd approve of her. James' silence speaks for itself on that score, and she smiles a little in response, but he means it when he adds that his mother would have loved her.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

James is far more patient than people give him credit for. He's more stern than he is angry much of the time - and even then, only those who can't recognise his dry sense of humour for when it shows think that he's half as bad-tempered as he actually is. Perhaps he's not brimming with whimsy, but he's not foul-tempered. That being said, when he does get angry, it's a hell of a sight to behold - enough to send lesser men running, and some of the better ones, too.

Theo's temper is much more befitting the stereotype about redheads being quick to anger - and by the standards for women of the time, she's even more fiery. She grew up with the mantra do no harm, take no shit, she's not going to change that now, even if she does her best to modify it with the century in mind, for the sake of not bringing hell down upon them just because she said the wrong thing to the wrong people. Happily, she's also in the habit of laughing people who try to anger her, just because she knows it annoys them more, so that works in her favour.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

James has an eerily good memory - it was part of his job as a soldier. He needs to be able to recall what he saw, where, and when, in detail. Oftentimes such an ability means the difference between living and dying in battle - losing count of how many enemies there are, and what sort of weapons they have, so on. That being said, the differences between his origins and Theodora's make remembering things decidedly tricky at times. He listens to her explanations of things meant to contextualise anecdotes, but some of them just do not make a lick of sense to him, no matter how he tries to wrap his head around them. The films are a good example of this - the 'plays', as she puts it. Even after she explained to him that they weren't truly plays in the sense that he knew them, but simply the nearest thing she could think to compare them to, and just how accurate they were to what they were living now (at least as far as appearances were concerned), he realised he couldn't truly comprehend half of what she said when Achtland showed him a portion of those plays and he was forced to contend with just how advanced her time was.

But what he can comprehend, he remembers.

Theo is of a similar mind - her memory isn't as eerily accurate as James', and she still has the, uh, "cultural" difference that might make certain things go over her head, but she remembers what she can - and she has the advantage of living in that time, so the longer she's there, the more certain things about James' youth and his life before they met begin to make sense to her, because she's able to contextualise them.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

For James, his favourite moment is in a place he never thought it could be - Tortuga. After their reunion, when she insists on seeing that he's fed, bathed, and clothed in clean garments. The fact that it's not so much for her own comfort (because he knew he mustn't have smelled particularly pleasant upon their reunion embrace), but because she knows he won't be comfortable with her at least until the latter two aspects are taken care of. Most specifically, though, the moment where she sat him down, admonished his griping, and insisted on combing his hair herself. It's such a small gesture, or at least he knows she likely thinks it is, and he'll never admit to wanting to be fussed over, but the fact that she does means more than he can say - especially because of when she does it, when he knows how he has fallen in life likely makes him one of the least tempting marriage prospects in that entire hemisphere, even if she knows he's destined to get it all back. He suspects she doesn't care about that fact - and he knows that she does not when he learns of his destined fate and realises she still did it all in spite of that.

He's just so accustomed to being the one who cares for others, who serves others (as he told Sparrow) that when another willingly, lovingly, turns the tables and cares for him, because they want to and because they care for him rather than because they want something out of the deal, it's enough to stop him in his tracks. Not least because it's one of the first gestures of intimacy between himself and Theodora that they've no need to feel shame or guilt for.

For Theo, it's when they're reunited after her brief stint aboard the Dutchman. The way he embraces her after that is almost enough to physically wind her - she's not sure anybody has ever been so thrilled to have her in their arms. And sure, it's not like she's ever been reunited with somebody after facing even half the level of danger she faces on a weekly basis in the Caribbean, but she suspects James would be much the same way after a bit of separation during which he knew she was perfectly safe. Hell, once she's too heavily pregnant to make the journeys to Maryport, those suspicions are more or less confirmed upon his returns.

It's not just that, though, but the fact that he'd purposely stowed food and water on his person so that she could have it when they were reunited, despite the fact that he had no way of knowing when that would be. He'd gone without, on the off-chance that he could give it to her. There's nothing that more greatly sums up James Norrington and the love he has to give than that, and she's not lying when she says that's when she knows she has to marry him. She's used to looking out for herself, and having her own back (with the exception of family), which is only compounded by her selection of past boyfriends more or less being selfish and immature, and so somebody going out of their way to look after her means a hell of a lot.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

They're both fiercely protective over one another - if Beckett hadn't died at the end of his stand-off with the pirates, James would have made it his mission to track him down and rectify that, no matter where he ended up. The moment he gave the order to have Theo tortured was the moment he signed his own execution order, as far as James is concerned. There was just no way that he was ever going to do that and live to tell the tale, not while James draws breath. Until her nails grow back, and every time he sees the scar on her abdomen, he's reminded of that fact.

Of course, they also remind him of just how far she's willing to go to protect him. It's something that riddles him with guilt - when he remembers how he railed at her for not telling him her purpose, and because for a man of his time (and some modern men, too) it just never sits right with him that his wife was put in a position where she was hurt to protect him. Even if the time didn't play a role in it, he'd still feel guilty - despite how much he deeply loves her for doing it. Yes, he always hoped that he might find himself with a wife who would be protective of him in the way that wives were - sharply countering thinly veiled insults that may be levied towards him at brunches, that sort of thing, but never would he hope she'd put herself physically in harm's way so that he mightn't be. Theodora does both, though, and while he adores her for it (and the guilt is assuaged by the fact that they both survived, albeit increasing every time her pregnancies give her trouble), he hopes she'll never find herself in that position again.

Theo maintains that if she had to, she'd do it again. He's not foolish enough to doubt her.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Theo puts a hell of a lot of effort in, albeit in a probably slightly unconventional sense. Her gestures tend to be sentimental, but in ways that are meaningful to them rather than generic gestures. Melting down part of her necklace into wedding rings, recreating their wedding "feast" on anniversaries, so on. She massively values time spent together, so she makes sure they have that time together (as does James), trying to put meaning into the everyday and "sweating the small stuff" so that days become a joy rather than something to just get through. They both know damn well how lucky they are to be here together, they're not about to start taking it for granted because of minor inconveniences, and if they're tempted to do so on particularly annoying days where they're in a foul mood, it's not long before the other manages to drag them out of it in some way or another.

James is a big fan of doing everything "right" - if he has to go to Maryport without her (for instance when she's pregnant), he'll return with flowers - even if they're ones he had to stop and pick himself on the return journey (much to the amusement of any men he might have with him - although they're never quite brave enough to show it). Anniversaries are always remembered and celebrated, and because he knows her sense of humour and who she is as a person, those little gifts and gestures soon become catered to her specific taste or what might make her laugh. One time, he takes great pains to instruct a seamstress as to how she might embroider what will one day be the Irish flag (without telling her that detail, of course) onto a handkerchief for her, and when he gives her it, she guards it with such zeal that it might as well have been a diamond necklace. He's a detail-oriented man, and it pays.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

When Theo is worried or stressed about something, she's very used to keeping it to herself. She jokes that it's a product of being raised by a single father, around so many macho men types - she never really consciously learned how to sit around and discuss her emotions and be unabashedly sentimental. It's why she blushes so damn much when she gives James those wedding rings. When something upsets her, she's used to mentally telling herself to toughen up and shake it off, and on those occasions James is left trying to tease it out of her and that frustrates him - not least because it brings him back to the days when she couldn't tell him anything, and he was left wondering what in God's name was going on with his new Irish "ward". She can tell him things now - and he's not going to scoff and denounce her as a woman if something upsets her, so he just wishes she would tell him it quickly rather than locking up and trying to puzzle through it herself without his help.

The same could be said for James, but he's surprisingly a little bit better than she is at forcing himself to speak his mind if he feels it's important. Other than that, though, he's damn stubborn. Maybe not with the big things - the things that absolutely need to be discussed calmly and rationally until they reach an accord in order for everything to work out in the grand scheme, because there's too much at stake in those instances - but if they're bickering over something small and stupid, he will double down and double down and then admit twelve hours down the line that she had a point. Theo can't judge him much for that, though, because even though she'll more readily admit that she was wrong in the moment, she's not particularly humble about it - usually she'll concede defeat with an 'okay, you're right, you smug bastard'. James takes no offence in those instances - responding with a smug smile, before they kiss so they both know it's not that serious.

On a slightly more serious note, the matter of England's sovereignty over other countries (particularly Ireland, but also Scotland when unrest begins to stir to the north) is something that they'll never agree upon to the extent where they simply do not discuss it. Theo has seen too much of war to get it in her head to try to change the future as far as that's concerned anyway (not that she thinks she could manage it if she tried) and James respects her culture, and the fact that it's a culture their children share in when they come along, even if he continues to respect his bloody King, as Theo refers to him…in private.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

They're not something James ever really put much thought into beyond making sure he looked orderly. He takes care of himself and his appearance, but he's hardly the sort to fuss over making sure his hair looks artfully tousled in the mirror. It's more about looking well put together. He never considered himself particularly handsome, nor did he think himself ugly, it was just never much of a priority. None of that, however, stops him from being stunned when he and Theo can finally be together and she makes absolutely no secret of just how painfully attractive she finds him. He'd almost be tempted to think she was mocking him, were it not for the fact that he knew her well enough to know when she was speaking truthfully. And the blush on her face when he turns the tables and teases her, lowering his voice to murmur something salacious in her ear before walking away like nothing happened, speaks for itself more often than not.

In Theo's case, she doesn't consider herself to be a great beauty, but she's fairly happy with her looks. She likes her hair in particular, as well as her hard-won physique from years of testing her own mettle, and she knows what she considers to be her "strengths", and tends to wave off petty grievances some might have like "I wish my lips were fuller" or "I wish my nose was shaped differently" as a complete waste of energy. That being said, she's still human, and when she's stuck subconsciously measuring herself up against Elizabeth, and when she acquires that shiny new scar to her abdomen, she doesn't really feel great about either of those things. Although James is very quick to do what he can to dispel her worries about both of those things if and when he catches wind of them.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Absolutely - in both cases. Once they both fall for one another, there's no going back for either of them.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

Theo likes to sing songs from back home as a way of trying not to forget them - especially her favourites, or ones with sentimental value. When she tries to sing an old favourite but can't remember a certain line, it upsets her more than she lets on, because she feels ridiculous for being so upset by it in the first place. She's also a bit sheepish about people overhearing her because she doesn't consider herself much of a good singer - not in the way women in this time are often taught to be, anyway. The exception being when she sings to her children. Because of this, when James overhears her he often tries to stay quiet, in case she stops when she realises he's there. This comes in handy when she does forget lines, because sometimes he's heard them before and remembers it - or at least enough of it to jog her memory.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn't like, either in general or in a partner?)

This is a nuanced one, because the way the sign of their origins in terms of time period make them more attractive to one another, they're also very lucky because if they showed too much of those traits, they just wouldn't work at all.

James is fond of many aspects of Theo's modernity. How she's independent, how she refuses to be meek, and has a mind of her own and would absolutely give him a piece of her mind if he was boorish enough to consider himself her master. That being said, she does heed the times. She follows his lead at social functions, plays into the role of dutiful wife when it might benefit them, and observes what is or is not socially acceptable for the era when they're in public. While James wouldn't adore her so if she was meek and subservient to him, he'd also have little time for her if her response to any and every social norm that was inconvenient to her in this time was to stamp her feet, announce that it was unfair, and refuse to observe it.

If she tried to behave as some would in the modern world - with more overt signs of PDA, and what many folk in this time would call a general lack of decorum - he'd be mortified by that. But she's mature enough for that not to be a problem. She can think some rules are stupid while rolling her eyes and getting on with it, breaking the ones where it's important that she does (in which case, James understands nine times out of ten), and PDA has never really been her thing anyway. James admires her all the more for all of this.

The same is true as far as Theo's attraction to James goes, except in reverse. She likes the things about his time that contribute to who he is (even if she maintains he'd be very similar had he been born in the modern world) - how it makes him a gentleman, responsible, dependable, chivalrous. That being said, were he the worse sort of man this period has to offer - or even the more typical sort, for that matter - who viewed his wife as his property, expected her to know her place, while being overly possessive and an overall misogynistic asshole…well, then they'd have problems.

He is a man of his time - and sometimes it shows, his initial distaste towards the concept of birth control being one of those times - but they stop, and they discuss these things through, and they're only made all the stronger for it, in part because he's damn smart and is always willing to think things through, or at least offer the benefit of the doubt (at least in Theo's case). He learns over the course of their adventure that there's very little in life that's so black and white as he once thought, and James Norrington never has to learn the same lesson twice.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

James can more or less fall asleep on command. It comes from being a soldier, where it's important to get rest when it can be found, wherever that may be. His being a light sleeper, however, is also a product of that - he can be asleep one moment and on his feet with a weapon in his hand the very next second. There are also nightmares, especially after the turmoil of those first couple of years that he and Theo have together.

Theo shares in those nightmares. There's never much need between them to question it if they wake up and find the other sitting up, wide awake, or even across the room, sitting in a chair and reading by candlelight.

As another souvenir from those days, Theo sometimes wakes up in the early days poised and ready for action - half convinced that it's not over yet and she's still in Beckett's clutches, with Mercer about to "question" her. Those ease with time. The fact that she sleeps like a cat, taking up far more space than she actually needs, does not. James doesn't mind much, considering more often than not that means he wakes up with her wrapped around him in some way or another, which isn't a half bad way of starting his day.