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11. surrogate: a substitute for another
“I just don’t know what I’m gonna do, y’know? She’s gone n’ left me up the creek with no padle…” The hyuran man behind the counter of the saloon was muttering, half to himself, half to Skrall. “I’m just plumb outta ideas!”
Skrall gave the man a sympathetic smile. “Um…do you have nopalitender tuna here…?”
“I might hafta close up early just to keep out the angry mob…but then I’ll lose the profits too…damn, if only someone could help…” The man seemed to lost in his own thoughts to have overheard Skrall’s question.
Skrall cleared his throat.
“Hm? Oh, sorry son, I didn’t see ya there!” The man directed his full attention to Skrall now “Y’see, I’m in a real pickle right now; my entertainment for the night twisted her ankle while practicing, and she had to call out!”
“Oh…um, sorry to hear…but I’d like to buy-“ Skrall attempted to try again, but the man either didn’t hear or at this point was purposefully ignoring him, as he just interrupted again.
“Where am I gonna find a brand new dancer for the show tonight? I promised the locals she’d be performin’! If no one dances, they’ll riot!” The man paused and glanced over Skrall. “Unless…”
Oh no.
Skrall knew that look. He’d seen it before many times.
It was the look someone gave him right before he was about to be forced to do something dumb and embarrassing.
“Say, son…you’ve got a nice figure; whadaya say to givin dancing a shot tonight for me?”
There it was.
“Uh, I-I don’t know…” Skrall stuttered a response. “I…I’m traveling around with others right now, I don’t really have time to help-“
“Please! The show’s supposed to start in 10 minutes and only be a short performance! Surely you can spare that much of your time?! It’d be helpin me an awful lot!” The man clasped his hands together in front of his chest, eyes begging Skrall to reconsider. “Most of my customer’s will be too drunk to judge if yer any good or not! Just stand up there and look pretty n’ they’ll love it!”
Skrall sighed in defeat, cheeks already coloring in embarrassment. “…Alright…what do you need me to do…”
…
Vallerin leaned against the wooden fence, holding Lulu out just a little from where she was slung against his chest so she could get a better look at the rroneek in the coral. The little baby seemed fascinated with the creatures, always staring wide-eyed at them when they got close enough for her to properly see.
Vall wasn’t sure how far a baby was supposed to be able to see at this age, but he felt like Lulu’s range of vision was larger than expected. Maybe she’d inherited his dragon sight? It’d be something to pay attention to as she got older. Right now, he was just glad a giant furry creature was holding her attention so he could relax a moment.
The trip through Shaaloani was proving to be more tiring than he thought it’d be; he was still recovering from the whole ordeal of Lulu’s birth, and the constant walking was starting to take its toll on him. Skrall was always willing to help him, take a turn with Lulu, check in and make sure he didn’t need to rest, but Vall also didn’t want to slow them down any. Erenville surely hadn’t wanted to take this long to get home.
At the moment, Erenville had hung behind to catch up with an old friend of his mother’s, leaving Skrall and Vall to wander the small village. Skrall had gotten hungry, and had entered the saloon to buy them some food while Vall waited out with Lulu.
And then, Skrall hadn’t come back.
At first, Vall had just assumed the saloon was busy, and Skrall had to wait a while for service, but it was starting to take suspiciously long. Maybe he’d been caught by a friendly drunk and was unable to tell them he had to go, that seemed like a Skrall problem to have. Vall would likely have to go rescue him.
Vall strapped Lulu back tightly against his chest, the baby making a soft grunt as she settled back into a comfy position. Pushing through the front saloon doors, Vallerin could hear some sort of commotion coming from upstairs, but the groundlevel appeared almost deserted. Figuring everyone, Skrall included, must be up and involved in whatever was happening, Vall climbed up the wooden steps to take a look.
The sight that met him…wasn’t what he’d been expecting.
Skrall was up on a small stage, wearing some sort of leather vest on his otherwise-naked torso. Studded straps crossed the front of his chest in a pathetic attempt to hold the garment closed, but all it really seemed to do was accentuate his well-endowed pecs. His pants were dark, and had cutouts along the sides to expose a good amount of skin. A wide-brimmed black hat adorned his head, and he seemed to be sort of awkwardly shuffling his feet around.
Was he…dancing? It wasn’t very good dancing, but that really didn’t matter when his body was on display so incredibly like that. The crowd around him was cheering him on like it was the best show they’d ever seen, clapping and hollering and swinging mugs of drink around happily.
Vall couldn’t help but stare for a moment. This was, after all, his husband, and the sight was a rather nice one to admire ( Especially the way his chest pushed against the leather strap. He would need to find something similar for Skrall to wear at night at some point) and part of him just wanted to join in the crowd.
But reason wore out, eventually, and Vallerin quickly switched to scanning the room for someone in charge, knowing Skrall would never do something like this of his own decision. That hyur in the corner counting money was probably a good place to start…
…
“I’m glad you’ve come to see reason, Mr. McCoy. If you want my client to do any more shows, he’s going to need a contract in writing promising the exact amount of money he’s due. This will need to be put together before the performance as well.”
Skrall had never seen Vall quite this…annoyed before. When he’d seen his husband talking to the hyur who’d roped him into this mess after his performance was over, he’d immediately felt guilty about leaving Vall alone with Lulu for so long when he was just supposed to be grabbing some food. He soon realized after hurrying over, though, that Vall’s bad mood wasn’t due to being hungry.
“Y-yes, understood sir!” The hyur, McCoy, bobbed his head up and down in an attempt to pacify Vall. “I-I’m sorry again about forcin’ your boy to be my surrogate performer! Ya’ll can have the payment, and I’ll even throw in some, what was it he was askin’ for earlier, tuna? Ya’ll can have whatever nopalitender tuna you want!”
“And the stage uniform.”
“The…uniform? But-“
“Surely, this isn’t a problem after you already tried to force him into free labor?”
The hyur paled. “N-no, you can have the costume too! It was too big for anyone else anyways!”
A few moments later, the husbands were back outside the saloon, Skrall still in his ridiculous-yet-flattering costume. “Vall…you didn’t have to step in like that…I would have made sure he paid me after…” Skrall tried to say, but Vall just gave him a look.
They both knew Skrall would have immediately just run out of the saloon in embarrassment and never spoken to the man again.
“I know it’s hard for you to say ‘no’ to people who need help, mon coeur, but especially if it’s something you don’t want to do, you need to get them to agree to pay you upfront…” Vall told him. “I don’t want anyone else to take advantage of your kindness…I told you that after coming back from the ends of the universe, and I still mean it.”
“…We don’t need the money…it’s alright…”
Vall sighed. “It isn’t about the money…it’s about you having a say in things. You can tell people no…and if you’re struggling to, you can at least make sure they understand you don’t like it and need something in return.”
“…You still seem…more upset about this than other times…” Skrall claimed, but Vall waved his comment away with a hand.
“Can you go back in and grab that tuna he promised us? I think Lulu’s starting to get hungry.” Vall effortlessly changed the subject by mentioning the number one thing most guaranteed to distract Skrall.
“Oh! Yeah, I’ll be right back! I promise this time!” Immediately desperate to provide his baby girl with any little thing she may need, Skrall quickly went back into the saloon for the tuna.
Vall nodded in satisfaction as Skrall hurried off. If they were going to treat his husband like a piece of meat to ogle at, they needed to pay him at the very least. The only one who got to look at him like that for free was Vallerin himself.