Chase the Stars

Charlie didn’t sleep much the night they returned after seeing his father. He wasn’t sure what he had expected. When he was a kid, he imagined that his father would come looking for him and he’d go live with the actors again. He grew up still believing this, and only after seeing them, did he realized how absolutely stupid it was to think they’d just take him back. He was a grown man, for crying out loud. He didn’t need people to take care of him anymore. Twenty years of waiting, and all for nothing.

He had only just started to doze off when the sun came back up and woke him again, much to his disappointment. Mila came back up not long later, looking from him to the box of chocolates beside him. He only took one. He felt bad taking any more than that. She hesitated, but sat down by him, taking the box back.

“You didn’t sleep much, did you?” she asked.

“I got enough sleep,” he lied.

“You look like shit,” she pointed out. “It’s unsettling, really. I never thought I’d say this, but you were easier to be around when you were annoying as hell.”

Charlie chuckled at that, sitting up and running a hand through his hair to smooth it back. Mila watched him for a few moments, unsure of what to say, so he spoke first.

“I apologize for putting you through that,” he said. “Meeting my father and his friends, I mean. It must have been awful.”

“Have they always been like that?” she asked.

“Well, I never really knew the difference between good and bad parenting when I was a kid,” he shrugged. “That was all I knew, so I assumed that it was how everyone had it. And after I got lost, I thought they cared enough to come back for me. For twenty years. Obviously, I was wrong. I should have known better than to believe they would have changed and become more responsible. Or that the only reason I remembered them like that was because I was a kid and I didn’t know what I was looking at. I guess what bothers me most is that I listened to him and didn’t turn myself in as a lost child. Maybe if I got sent to an orphanage or something I would have actually gone to school, and there was a chance I could have become something other than a thief. The stealing was supposed to be a temporary thing until I found them again, but now it’s all I know.”

“Well, it’s not too late, you know,” she said. “We can figure out a way to clear your name, maybe even change it. And you can go on and do whatever you want to do to change your life.”

“We?” Charlie questioned, raising a brow.

“You,” she said quickly. “I said you.”

She picked up her chocolates and stood, popping one into her mouth.

“Well, since we’re stuck here, we might as well do something,” she said. “Maybe in the nicer part of town, where drunk actors don’t loiter. Don’t you think?”

“Do something?” Charlie asked. “Like what? Wander aimlessly?”

“Fine, I’ll go on my own, then,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You can sit here and wallow in misery.”

Charlie watched as she started to disembark the ship, then sighed and followed after her, smoothing out his rumpled clothes. She cracked a slight smile, but didn’t look at him as he jogged to catch up with her. Charlie found himself looking around more than usual as they walked through the port town. He was afraid to run into his father again, even though he knew his father would still be passed out at this hour.

He followed after Mila as she walked along, peering into shop windows. She glanced back at Charlie every now and again, sighing or rolling her eyes at him. He was tense, and it was most definitely showing.

“Will you relax?” she huffed. “It used to bother me when you were too relaxed about anything. I didn’t think that your paranoia would annoy me even more.”

“You’re learning a lot about me, are you?” Charlie smirked.

“More than I intended on knowing,” she said. “You might as well get used to adventuring. I doubt you want to go back to Etherport now.”

“Yeah,” he grimaced. “All my things are there, but I don’t think I can stomach going back.”

“You don’t have anything there but a target on your back,” she told him. “The best thing you can do is look forward and consider getting screwed over a blessing.”

“You’re one to talk,” he said accusingly. “You’re the one who has been ‘vengeful’ since this whole thing happened. I’m surprised you didn’t strangle me in my sleep just to get a little bit of your anger out.”

“Trust me, I thought about it,” she said with a light laugh. “But if I killed you, then who would steal the dinosaurs? No one on the planet is that dumb.”

“This is true,” he agreed. “I’m a national treasure. No, a universal treasure.”

“Glad to see you’re back to your normal, conceited self again,” Mila said sarcastically, though she was grinning.

“I wouldn’t want you to miss me too much,” Charlie told her.

She punched his arm and he lightly pushed her away. The two of them spent most of the afternoon poking into various shops and snacking on foods from different vendors, trying all the different things Maryport had to offer. They continued wandering until they found themselves on a cliff with a nice view of the ocean. They took a minute to appreciate the view, and Charlie felt himself get a little sad again. He had no idea where he was going to go. He absentmindedly toyed with his pocketwatch, and Mila noticed this time.

“What’s the story behind that thing?” she asked him.

“The watch?” Charlie frowned. “I got it from my- well, from him. Lewis. I’ve had it for all these years, but…”

His voice trailed off, so he just clicked it open. 9:32. The watch was stuck on the same time as the clock tower. Mila looked a little intimidated at first, seemingly remembering how often he checked it as if checking the time and was only seeing the same time over and over, but the look didn’t stay long. She thought for a moment, then spoke.

“You need to get rid of it.”

Charlie was startled by the suggestion, and she went back into thought. He couldn’t tell if she was trying to figure out how to argue her point or if she was wondering why she cared in the first place. Possibly both.

“Do you keep the watch because you like the style?” she questioned. “Because clearly, it’s not so you can tell the time. The only other reason would be that you’re holding on to it just because your father gave it to you.”

Charlie didn’t say anything, just looking down at the watch.

“It’s up to you,” Mila shrugged. “If you so desperately need a watch, we can spare another 500 crescents to get you a new one. You just need to decide if you still need to attach yourself to that one.”

Charlie thought for a moment, then unclipped the chain of the watch and held it all in his hand.

“You’d really buy me a watch?” he asked skeptically.

“I said I would, didn’t I?”

He smiled, then took the watch and chucked it off the side of the cliff. They watched it land somewhere in the water ahead of them, gone forever. Charlie felt like he’d just gotten rid of a part of himself, but at the same time, he was probably better off without it.

“You don’t have to buy me a watch,” he told Mila, still staring out at sea.

“I said I would,” she repeated.

Charlie gave her an odd look, but she seemed pretty firm on the subject. He supposed it was a matter of pride, too. He didn’t argue anymore, sitting down on the edge of the cliff for the time being. She hesitated, but quietly sat down beside him. Neither of them said anything for a long time. It was a great view, and nothing more had to be said.