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“So let me get this straight,” S.G. says suspiciously. “You want me to get Mercury off the ship and into a tavern so you can then steal the ship?”
“Yep,” Goodbid says with his most persuasive smile.
“And why would I do that?” S.G. asks, crossing her arms.
“Because you get to spend some alone time with Mercury.” Goodbid all but bats his eyelashes at her, trying to convince her to go along with his idea, just this once.
“Yes, but you’d be stealing Sky Skimmer!” S.G. snaps, being defensive and protective over a boat that doesn’t belong to her or even her (not-) boyfriend.
“Well, according to my contract, I’m also supposed to bring Mercury with me for extra pay,” Goodbid growls back, not backing down from S.G. “I’m doing him a solid by getting him away from that ship!”
“If you lay a hand on him,” S.G. hisses, raising her hand threateningly.
Goodbid holds her eye contact for several seconds. His smile becomes pinched at the edges. “S.G., I like you, and I like Mercury, so for all of our sakes just get him the hell away from that ship for two hours, okay?”
“I’m not going to let you steal from Mercury!” S.G. snaps, her accent becoming heavier and harder for Goodbid to understand.
“The ship isn’t even his!” That makes S.G. stop. She stares at him, waiting for him to continue. “I found some documents that prove that the ship is a generations old family vessel.”
“Are you saying that Mercury stole the ship?” S.G. growls.
“No, of course not! I like him just as much as you do, if only in a different way,” Goodbid says, his voice dropping, as he eyes the door. No one is around, but he has to remember to not start screaming again or it might draw attention. “I don’t believe he knowingly stole a ship. All I know is that there is a family who is willin’ to pay a hitman to go out and find this ship and bring it back to them.”
“Aren’t you going to have to kill Mercury?” S.G. asks, distrustfully.
“No, they didn’t care if I brought Mercury with me, they just want the ship.”
S.G. lowers her hands. “This still doesn’t feel right,” she says, in an almost mournful way.
“Okay, how about this,” Goodbid says, trying to relieve her guilt. “I give you a cut of the money that you then use to help Mercury buy a new ship with.” S.G. tilts her head to the side, giving Goodbid the distinct impression that she is considering it. Goodbid almost wishes she wouldn’t. He wants her to tell him to break the contract, that it’s not worth losing such a beautiful, loyal ship for a bit of money, but he has a contract to follow, so he continues, “you’ll look like the hero; besides, he’ll never know that it was me that stole it.”
S.G. grits her teeth, but she still slowly nods. “I swear if this goes south Goodbid, I’m selling you out,” she hisses, pushing past him and heading towards the door.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Goodbid says honestly. He waits an extra five minutes before leaving the room, no use in starting rumors about what they were doing in that small room with a locked door.
*
While S.G. is a master gaslighter, she cannot for the life of her flirt with Mercury. Goodbid, normally would find this utterly hilarious and would find Glib to make jokes about this with, but right now he really needs her to up her game.
Its prime time to go to a tavern, all S.G. needs to do is to ask.
After an actual hour of S.G. trying and failing to get Mercury off the ship, Glib finally decides to toss S.G. a bone and suggest that they go for drinks. Glib and Goodbid both have used this trick on Mercury. Glib will get to the bar and will use his vampirism as an excuse to dip and Goodbid (when he’s not trying to annoy S.G. by holding a better conversation with Mercury) will make up a random excuse about not wanting to be hungover the next day.
While he waits an extra ten minutes behind some boxes, he can’t help but admire the ship he stands on. The craftmanship is practically godly with the intricate designs that line her walls. The wood is dark and high quality, even to Goodbid’s untrained eye. The whole ship gives off a magical and majestic appearance even before you realize that the ship is indeed magical, which just adds to her perfection.
Its perfection, he means.
Because it’s a ship, not alive. Not capable of emotions.
After the ten minutes has past Goodbid gets up, stretching as he does, and walks to the wheel of the ship. He lays his hands gently on the rudder and Sky Skimmer flutters her sails in question.
“Easy, girl, we’re just gonna go for a little ride,” Goodbid says, gently stroking the wheel as he guides it towards Wainua. Sky Skimmer flies steadily for a few minutes before seemingly realizing where they are headed and slows to a stop.
Goodbid internally groans. This is gonna be a long trip, he thinks to himself before gently placing his hands back on Sky Skimmer’s wheel. “Come on, Sky, your family just wants you back,” he says, gently running his hand down her wheel, trying to soothe her.
Her sails relax for a moment before bristling again and flapping, but still not turning around.
“What?” he asks, genuinely confused. “Were they not good to you?”
The ship flutters her sails in a way that tells Goodbid that they weren’t cruel to her, but she’s still reluctant to return.
"You just want to stay with Mercury?" He asks, stepping away from her wheel and slowly walking to her mast.
Her sails move in a nodding manner.
Goodbid clicks his tongue and places his hand lightly on her mast, in a caring way. This ship is so beautiful and has a personality, Goodbid would even venture to say it has a mind, which makes him not want to take the ship where she would be unhappy. She likes Mercury better than her original family, so she should be allowed to stay with Mercury, but that sadly isn’t how the world works.
“You still have to go back.” His voice is light as it trails off, almost apologetic in sound. “If I take you back then Mercury won’t be hurt because I also like Mercury,” Goodbid says, tracing his hand up and down the beautifully worn wood of Sky Skimmer mast. “I won’t hurt him, but someone else will if they get another hitman on the job.”
The entire boat jolts at the implication that someone would hurt Mercury if Sky Skimmer isn’t returned to her old family.
“Shh, girl, I know,” Goodbid says soothingly, as he places his back against her mast and sinks to his knees. “I don’t like it either, but once you get there, you could probably run away.”
The ship almost perks up at that suggestion.
“Yeah, you could escape the boat yard and come back to Mercury,” he says with a soft smile. “You could come back to S.G., and Glib.” He stands up and slowly walks back to her rudder, gently running his fingers over the spokes. “Back to me.”
There’s a soft moment that they allow to hang in the air before Goodbid is forced to break it.
“But in order for you to run away, we have to get you there first.” With a gentle tap of his heel, Sky Skimmer is sulking forward.
“I know, it hurts to leave,” Goodbid says sympathetically as he brushes his fingers across the wood of her wheel. “But the faster you get there, the faster you can get back.”
With his gentle prodding, Sky Skimmer picks up speed and is racing toward Waniua. Goodbid full body laughs at the change in her mood as she rockets forward.
The ride takes barely an hour which Goodbid spends admiring the view -both of the landscape that they pass, and the gorgeous ship he finds himself on. When they near Waniua, Goodbid, nudges Sky Skimmer to float in the water, as to not draw too much attention. He calmly steers her to the meeting location that he had set up with the family. He looks over the edge of Sky Skimmer at the sea for a moment before leaning on her rudder.
“I have to go get one of them and bring them back here,” Goodbid tells her. “But once they are here, I won’t be allowed back on the ship, so this is goodbye for now.” He leans down at places a gentle kiss on the top of one of her spokes.
Her sails flutter mournfully as Goodbid gets off the ship and walks up the dock. He resolutely does not look back, nor does he think about the possibility that Sky Skimmer won’t return to him- Mercury, he means. Not himself, because why would he need to refer to himself.
Its not like he’s done something so stupid as fall in love with a sentient ship. Of course not, that would be foolish and entirely unprofessional of him.
He gets to the end of the dock and can’t help but throw one last look at the beautiful ship before squaring his shoulders and walking up the stairs.
She will come back to them. Back to him.
She has to.