Nerdy and the Beast

“Will we even see any sharks?”

“If we do, you’d best hope it’s way down there in the water and you’re way up here on the ship.”

“What about dolphins?”

“It’s possible.”

“A giant squid?”

“Less likely.” Liam turned around and nearly fell over Duncan, who had been stuck to him like a shadow all day. The boy was a never-ending well of questions. Liam gently lifted him up and set him out of his way before resuming his inventory of the supplies.

“Are you and Miss Emma courting?”

Liam almost fell into a barrel of oranges. “I beg your pardon?”

“It’s just, you two look at each other like my neighbor looked at this girl, Alice Stroud, before he asked her to marry him.”

“We most certainly do not.” Liam frowned. “Miss Cunningham is only here for scientific purposes and I…am just here.”

Duncan looked unconvinced. “But isn’t she the one you said gave you indigestion? And then in the galley I saw you two talking, and-“

“Duncan.” Liam pinched the bridge of his nose, a headache forming behind his eyeballs. “First of all, I’m not sure this is an appropriate topic of conversation. Second of all, you’d best not go around saying such things to Emma. I’ve already upset her and if you tell her you think we’re courting you’ll just embarrass her.”

Duncan sighed. He perked up slightly when the port of Sun Isle came into sight. He ran to the railing and peered over excitedly. Emma joined him a while later and Liam stayed intently focused on the barrels of fish and fruit in front of him. He knew Kamon wanted Liam to keep her preoccupied, but she had more or less told him to leave her be and he decided he respected that over Kamon’s instructions. Plus, with Duncan now on board she occupied much of her time with him and her translations. Liam figured she wasn’t particularly worried about what the crew was doing, especially since Natasha and Kamon were clearly getting under her skin by refusing to listen to her.

Liam believed her when she said this island wasn’t the final destination they were looking for, but he knew arguing with the two of them was pointless. They’d figure out that they were wrong soon enough, and Liam was preparing himself to deal with their wrath. He’d have to make sure he got the brunt of it; for all Kamon’s talk of not wanting Emma to know they were a bunch of criminals and not at all respectable explorers, he didn’t do a good job of seeming professional. If he lost his head at Emma she was bound to think he was a madman. Which he was.

“Are you going to come exploring with us?” Duncan asked eagerly as they made port. He was practically bouncing as Emma donned a pair of gloves and a hat. Liam coughed faintly.

“Ah, no, Duncan. I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” The boy pouted and Liam felt his lips twitch. Duncan was almost inexhaustible but Liam found that he enjoyed his company. His gaze flicked up to Emma almost involuntarily, but he quickly looked away again.

“I need to help get the supplies,” Liam said.

“That sounds boring.”

“Yes, yes it is. But you go and have fun, and behave yourself for Miss Cunningham, yes?”

He thought he saw Emma frown from the corner of his eye but Duncan was tugging on his sleeve.

“It won’t take you all day to get supplies,” he insisted. Liam sighed, relenting.

“It’s a small port, and we’ll be here for a couple of days. If I run into you once I’m finished with my errands, I’ll explore with you a bit. Fair?”

“Okay,” Duncan said, finally racing down the ramp to the dock, pulling Emma with him. Liam spent the latter half of the morning helping to purchase and haul supplies back to the ship. With some proper haggling, he managed to get several barrels of pickled fish for far less than he’d budgeted for them. This left him in a rather rare position of having a few coins in his pocket. Kamon would no doubt consider it stealing from him, but then Kamon wasn’t the one who handled the ship’s accounting. He didn’t like such work and had thus passed it off to Liam.

Supply run complete, Liam took the opportunity to explore the port, after all. Adventure just like this had been his dream as a child; a dream he’d stuffed away and tried desperately to bury after years of hardship and the steady creep of self-loathing. But being here in this brightly colored place, it occurred to him that, even if the circumstances were less than ideal, he was essentially living out a fantasy his younger self had had countless times. He decided to try and enjoy it for a while, even with his jumbled feelings where Emma was concerned. He wandered the market, popping into a candy shop on a whim. He bought a box of caramels for Duncan, figuring the kid had probably never had candy that wasn’t pilfered.

On a more impulsive and probably stupid whim, he also purchased some fancier tea for Emma. He figured he could always just leave it in the kitchen for Duncan to find; she didn’t need to know it was from Liam. He was winding along through the open air market, getting a little dizzy from all the colors and sounds and smells of cooking that he almost tripped over Duncan again when he came bounding up to him out of nowhere.

“I found you!” he said triumphantly. His cheeks were a bit sunburnt and his hair tousled but he was grinning from ear to ear.

“You did indeed,” Liam replied, amused. Emma caught up a moment later, looking a bit harried.

“Duncan, didn’t I ask you to slow down and wait for me?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Emma. But look, Mister Liam came into town like he said.”

Emma shook her head but she was smiling at his enthusiasm. She gave Liam a tentative hello and he nodded back.

“You two are acting very strange,” Duncan remarked and Liam gave him a warning look.

“I got you something,” he said quickly, hoping to distract the boy before he could say something to embarrass Liam and upset Emma. He pulled the caramels from his pocket. Duncan’s eyes lit up and he took the box almost reverently.

“Just when I hoped his energy might wind down,” Emma said. She was looking a bit flushed from chasing after him all day and Liam couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sorry,” he said. “I suppose I didn’t think that far ahead.”

They walked in silence for a while, trailing after Duncan as he zipped around the market. Liam procured some smoked meat and roasted fruit for them to snack on as they walked. Duncan finally sat down long enough to eat something, and Emma turned to Liam.

“Liam, I don’t mean to be rude. But I feel like perhaps you’ve been… avoiding me,” she said slowly.

“Avoiding you?” Liam frowned. “I wasn’t trying to avoid you, I was merely trying to give you space. I was under the impression that that’s what you wanted. To keep things strictly professional.”

“I didn’t mean for you to stop talking to me altogether.”

Liam took a moment to answer, and the words that came out of his mouth weren’t the ones he meant to say and he was alarmed at their truth. “To be honest with you, Emma, when I’m in your company, I don’t think that I can keep things strictly professional.”

“Oh,” she said faintly. Liam cleared his throat, feeling like an idiot and trying to ignore the voice in his head reminding him that he was lower than dirt and shouldn’t be so much as making eye contact with someone like her.

“But you asked me to keep it professional,” he went on quickly. “And I want to respect your wishes, and I don’t want to make you uncomfortable by being forward and overstepping my bounds. I think the best way for me to do that is to limit our interactions and proximity. Otherwise I fear that I’ll do something entirely unprofessional and then you’ll probably grow to despise me and I…” Deserve that, his head reminded him. “…wouldn’t want our relationship to become permanently damaged,” he finished.

Emma didn’t get a chance to respond, as a vicious growl and an odd sounding whimper sounded from the alley to their right. Liam quickly gestured at Emma to get back and then he moved toward the alley, peering around the corner to see what was wrong. A large stray dog had cornered some kind of animal, snapping at it with its powerful jaws.

“Hey now, quit that,” Liam said, approaching slowly. The dog whipped its head around to snarl at him and Liam could now see that there was a small black and white monkey cowering against the alley wall. Liam sighed.

“I get it, you’re hungry,” he told the dog. “Can’t blame you for that, I suppose. But that little thing is barely a mouthful for you. So, here.” He held up the remaining meat he had purchased and the dog’s nose quivered, though his teeth were still bared. Liam tossed the meat and edged out of the way as the dog lunged for it, snapping it up and running away. Liam knelt down by the frightened monkey, seeing that it was likely a baby and appeared to have hurt its ankle.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked softly. The monkey made a pitiful crying sound.

“The dog is gone now, you can scamper off back to your mom now.” Liam tried to coax the monkey into fleeing, but instead it leaped at him and burrowed into his shirt.

“Do I look like your mother?” Liam asked, trying to extricate the tiny primate. The monkey had other ideas though, and made an indignant noise, clinging tightly to his torso. Liam winced.

“Oh come now, don’t be so dramatic. You can’t possibly want to stay with me.”

It was no use. No matter what he tried the monkey clung to him and wouldn’t budge.

“Yeah, okay. This is fine. It’s fine.” Liam made his way back to Emma and Duncan, who both looked comically stunned to see a small monkey poking its head out of the collar of Liam’s shirt.

“I, ah, saved him from the dog, and apparently he’s adopted me.”

“A monkey!” Duncan exclaimed, like this was the greatest thing he’d ever seen. He and the monkey studied each other in fascination. Liam fed the monkey some fruit and it munched happily, climbing out of his shirt to perch on his shoulder. Liam ran a hand over his face. As if a girl who was beginning to appear in his thoughts with frustrating frequency, a stowaway cabin boy with too much energy and a big mouth, and the scourge that was Natasha and Kamon wasn’t enough.

“What are you going to call him?” Duncan asked, reaching up to feed the monkey some pineapple.

“Ivan.” His brother’s name left his mouth suddenly, startling him. He glanced down at the monkey, who stared back with big dark eyes, looking at once mischievous and innocent. “I’m going to call him Ivan.”