Safe

Favors

After what felt like an eternity, you finally finished mopping your side of the ship and had begun on the forecastle deck. Stygian flew around, sometimes helping by refilling your bucket with little water he could carry and dump it in the area you were to clean. Being secluded from Jim, you were left by yourself with your thoughts. You shuddered as you remembered seeing Jim so helpless and defenseless at Scroop's mercy. It forced something out of you that you haven't felt in a long while. Fear--mostly anger--boiling, raging anger that seemed to make its way to your bloodstream and take over you. The way Scroop was about to kill Jim without a moment's hesitation made you wonder if you were ever that merciless in your previous life. Now you're really glad you decided to join the expedition.

You sighed heavily and stretched your aching arms and looked at the sky. It was a nice dark blue and you continued to stare at the sky and you pointed a finger and connected the stars with an imaginary line to form constellations. You saw a fish, Scorpio, Aquila. But before you could form any more, you felt a prickling sensation on your neck and looked to your side with your finger still hovered midair.

Jim was walking upstairs towards you with a curious smile and you wondered for long he has been observing you and finally decided to inquire what you were doing. Morph hovered behind him and flew around playfully before flying over to your face and chirped. You pet him gently before turning to Jim.

"Hey," you said smiling uncontrollably. You felt a nauseating feeling in your stomach and it progressed as he approached. "What brings you here? How's your side of the ship?"

Jim sighed and paused a close distance to you, his blue eyes twinkled in the dark. He shrugged lazily. "Eh, the floorboards could be a little dirtier, but hey, beggars can't be choosers."

"I'm already done if you're wondering. Maybe you should stop ogling me and actually clean the deck." You placed your hands on your hips and raised an eyebrow.

Jim's eyes widened and he turned a beet red color. You laughed and playfully punched his arm. "Come on, let's get swabbin' the deck. If we take any longer, we're gonna smell worse than Scroop's breath."

You and Jim picked up your mops and began to mop the deck. Morph had turned into a miniature mop and mopped the floor and Jim's boot. He flew up and changed to his original form and hiccuped some bubbles from the water he had mistakably consumed as a mop.

heard Jim say to Morph, "Well, this has been a fun day, huh? Making new friends, you know, with that Spider psycho."

You looked over to see Morph had shifted into Scroop and repeated Jim's nickname for him. "A little uglier," You heard Jim say.

Morph covered his face and cackled evilly. You heard Jim chuckle and it sounded so genuine that you couldn't control as your beat thumped heavily in our chest. You looked back and admired how his brow was furrowed in concentration as he put in the effort to mop the floor for the thousandth time. You both were sharing the same pain of aching arms and numb fingers that won't open because they've been closed tightly around a mop for so long.

You sighed as you thought about what you said a few nights ago as you lay weeping in your bed in his arms for the first time. There was so much you wanted to say to him than just confessing you've fallen for him, but you didn't know how. It all jumbled in your head like water flowing out of a small hole--the small air bubbles that allow the liquid to escape was supposed to be the time you needed to express your feelings little by little.

Wasnt confessing your love for him enough? You often asked yourself. What was so different this time that you can't be comfortable around Jim like a girlfriend would be. You widened your eyes mentally as you repeated the word 'girlfriend' over in your head. Is that what you were?