It's late, like, really late, the moon pretty much gone, leaving the night pretty much pitch black, the hot summer air coming from more than just Leo's powerful mantle. Frogs and insects chirrup around the edges of the river, though the boat is currently anchored in the middle, sitting still for the time being. It's empty too, save the lonely figure of Leo, seated on the prow of the boat, staring up at the sky. The small illuminated cherry of a joint can be seen in his left hand, and the lazy rippling sparkle of his constellation is flickering lazily around in color and intensity. Etsy might be hanging out enough to know that it's how it looks when Leo daydreams, his eyes aimed up at the sky, the constellation bobbling around as the wind kicks his hair about. In the hand opposite the joint is a bottle of beer, and behind him are a couple of full ones. There are also 4 caps neatly arrayed beside him on the edge of the boat, where Leo is saving them for Maddox.
The mermaid comes wandering in from the junkyard, her hair dripping water behind her; she's wearing only two of her shifts layered absently, and her sash, which she always wears unless she's totally naked or sleeping in one of Maddox's shirts, and those little silk slippers that always look like they're just about to fall off of her feet. Wherever Etsy just was, she was just soaked, and has only halfway bothered to dry off. Humming to herself, she wanders up onto the deck of the Go Away, a bottle trailing from her right hand. Mead, of course, which she takes a swallow of. Wordlessly, the mermaid comes up and sits down next to Leo, drops her head onto his shoulder. Friend Leo is friend.
He looks back when she shows up, offering a small nod - the bob visible as a rustling of stars above his head in the near darkness. He tilts his head to lean it atop hers lightly, settling into her. "Hey." he says quietly, lifting his beer up to polish it off. He chucks the bottle out into the Hedge river without seeming to care, then he shifts, leaning more into Etsy. He doesn't say anything at all, he just sort of leans into the comfort of her friendly presence. His stars calm down though, settling into a sort of brownish yellow, hovering dully over his head in the silence.
A little frown plays across Etsy's face, possibly felt against his shoulder but not seen in the darkness. "Is not for to throw a bottles into a waters, Leos. Sometimes I can has a cut on hands and feets from a broken bottles. Hard to sees in the waters. And I go for the hedge fruits that are underwaters. If wanting the cheeroots, no bottles please." After that little bit of winding speech, she sighs contentedly, and takes another swallow of her mead. Falls back into silence. "Is a goodness, to be a friend of Leo." That breaks the quiet after a little while, as if it needed to be said for some reason. He was a little awkward earlier, after all.
"Oh." Leo says, his stars flickering through blue and purple for a second, before they revert to that dirty yellow. "No more bottles in the water. Promise. Sorry." he says quietly. He has the grace to look sheepish, even in the dark. Because he does feel bad - he hadn't thought about it. But the silence comes back and he sits in it, staring up once more. When she speaks up again, he smiles, his stars edging back up toward lemony yellow. "It's a goodness, to be a friend of Etsy." he says, his arm moving, now that his hand is empty, to companionably hook around Etsy's waist. There's no move being made, at all, just a light hug. There's another couple of minutes, and Leo says, "I'm gonna take a trip for a bit." His eyes cutting down toward her. "Like, nowhere far, nowhere dangerous. Just.. you know. I gotta do some stuff. It's a weird year for me." he explains, "I turn thirty soon. And this is.. not where I imagined I'd be." admitting it quietly.
One of her webbed hands pats Leo's knee familiarly, and she stays leaning against him. "Is okays. I am not a swims near here much anyways, but is a habits not so good to be in, because some places of the boat going, I am does a swims." When his arm hooks around her waist, she leans in gently against him. There is zero mojo on either side, just... comfort. She leans on him the same way she'd lean on her brother, for comfort and companionship. Listening to all of it, Etsy lets out a soft breath, nods her head. "Okays. But you will calls, or send a message of text, so is knowing that you are okays? I am have a cellphones. Count gets me one befores, and when he is no longer payings, then I get a prepays, but it is with a phone of smartness, to do the things and tell me when I need to do a thing, in case of not having a mrbls around. So my phone of smartness will have a telling of me that you are okays if you are sending a texts."
A little bit later, she adds, "Am not knowing how old I am."
"Yeah, of course dude." Leo says in a warm tone. "I'm gonna keep in touch. I'll be back too, like I'm not -leaving-. I just.. you know." He says, with a shrug, "I'm gonna go decide what to do about my Fetch. And figure out like.. I dunno. Just whatever." he says with a small shrug that gently shakes her, due to the slung arm. There's another second, and he says, "You gonna still be around when I get back? If it's like a month?" His question sort of casual. Then, answering her last bit, he says, "It's just a number. Doesn't mean anything." Though, apparently, it's enough to make Leo kinda maudlin.
"I am not always remembers to make a text messages or to phone calls," explains Etsy, "So I am asking you. But you remembers better than me, even without a mrbl." She wraps one of her arms over the arm around her waist, and sighs, a big long sound. "I am not having a Fetch, I am thinking. Probably I am very old, from the little bits of remembering." Her free hand is used to absently scratch her nose. "Oh. I am stayings, now. Unless a Maddox is gets tired of me, or is finds a better mermaids, I am stayings." A slightly uncomfortable shift of her shoulders, there. "Is a numbers, yes. You has a numbers."
"I will remember." he says with a nod, as he figures out what she was meaning. Sometimes Leo gets it wrong. He smiles at the gentle wrapping of her arm, looking back up at the sky. "Sometime I wanna hear what you remember." he says quietly. Then there's a blink, and Leo chuckles, "There's not gonna be any other mermaids." He says, confidently, giving her waist a little squeeze. "So I'll see you in like a month. Take care of him for me? Like, keep him from being on fire and stuff?" He says in a quiet tone. "That's one you gotta watch out for a lot." confiding in her. He goes quiet at her shift though, looking down at her and nodding, "That's fair." he admits quietly. "Sorry about your number."
Tilting her head up toward him, Etsy admits, "As long as best mermaid is me, it doesn't matter so much if only, or even only mermaids. Even though... " her voice trails off. "I do not know what it is. I do not need to know, reallys. I do not think we either know. But am not the best lucks or histories with ... a feelings." A small sniff. "Yes, I am knowing he is on fires so much. Am having to check hims when he is come from a workshops to be sures is not hurted too much." A little shrug of her shoulders, once more against his side. "Should make me up a birthdays."
There's a small nod, "Don't have to know what it is. Just both of you be honest about it and it'll work out however its supposed to." Leo says quietly. He looks down at her when she talks about the fire, a faint smile on his lips. "Good, keep checking him. He's bad at realizing it when its on the metal bits, or near them, and sometimes the metal bits get hot enough to burn the not-metal bits. Or the fire grows. Or.. whatever." he says, quietly. Then he blinks, and he nods. "Ok. Do you have a favorite month? A favorite number?" there's a pause, as he considers, "You're a Spring, want it in the Spring?"
"Don't know. Sometimes honesties is not always enough. Sometimes -- " And then Etsy breaks off, shakes her head against his shoulder. "Maddox is not ... " And her voice drifts off again. Whatever the mermaid was going to say? She doesn't. "I will. Mostly am a sleeps in the trailer now. I guess should be telling an Angelicas basically am moving to the junkyards. But he is saying is buying a farms. To keep all the flowers at, and have a tank and all of thats." Etsy swings one of her feet absently. "Am like a Mays. Middle of Springs, I think."
There's a long pause when Etsy breaks off, Leo's attention shifting smoothly. Then she drifts off a second time and Leo looks over to the water once more. "Yeah. You should probably tell her." he says, quietly. Then a pause, "A farm? Hm." not commenting further. His eyes move back to her as she says May, giving a small nod, "Well I'm July 30th. You should be May.. hm.. seventeenth?" asking it as he plucks it out of thin air, head tilting aside some. "It's one of my lucky numbers."
"Probablys," Etsy says quietly, leaning her cheek against Leo's shoulder, "but maybes a Maddox is getting tired of a mermaids, and then where to sleeps?" Never mind that she owns a tent and was sleeping in that tent on her own literally the first day that Leo met her. Going back to sleeping alone again so soon would wreck her entirely. There's a sort of odd skittishness there, as if she both wants to talk about something and wants to not talk about it at all. Push and pull. "Yes, is a goodness," she shifts gears to talking about the birthday solely. "May seventeeth." And then she huffs, "But that means no birthdays presents for ten months! Is seventeenth July right nows." SIGH.
And then she shifts gears again. "Do you want to talk about Fetch, and feelings about it?"
"I doubt it. You'd know if he was tired of you, or if he was getting tired. Just relax." he says quietly, leaning into her a little more once again. "If you do get kicked out though, you can sleep at my place, my roommate won't mind." Leo seems to be aware of the skittishness, he just doesn't seem to know how to broach it right then. So he lets her distract him with the birthday chat, "Yeah but in ten months, it's gonna be awesome." he says, with a grin.
The next question makes him pause, and shift gears on her this time, "Is something wrong? You seem.. you know. Stressed out a little." avoiding the Fetch chat.
She tugs her lower lip with her teeth. "Am not knowing how is to relax. Except is he is here? And is a rests? Then, is a relax, sometimes." Etsy absently twists a bit of her long wet hair around her finger as they talk. She turns her face into his shoulder when he says her birthday's gonna be awesome in ten months, and laughs softly. There's a little sadness, a little bitterness to the edge of the siren's laughter, but she laughs all the same.
"Is not a wrongs? Is... an... is an afraids?" And if it's difficult to be afraid, admitting to being afraid is even worse.
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