Emil woke like someone surfacing from the bottom of a lake.
Everything hurt.
The ceiling was unfamiliar.
The porthole showed daylight.
Too bright.
“…Luna?” he croaked.
Silence.
He sat up so fast his vision blurred in order to check the wristband.
Empty fasteners, empty room…
“No. No no no—LUNA?”
He stumbled into the hall in yesterday’s clothes, hair doing things that shouldn’t be possible without magic. He grabbed the first crew member he saw.
“My companion, little floating cylinder, shiny, where?!” he blurted, voice cracking hard enough to splinter wood.
The deckhand blinked.
“Oh! Wonderfully nice girl. She went to the lunch show.”
“Thank you!”
Emil ran down the corridor, up the stairs, across the deck and through a cluster of startled passengers in a blind frantic sprint.
He burst into the lunch pavilion before stopping dead as he spotted Luna floating at a table.
Chatting with a cloaked, and visibly armed woman.
Chatting with the rooftop spy assassin like they were old friends.
The woman sat with elbows on the table, hood pushed back to expose her wavy black hair. Judging by the empty glasses and her outburst of laughter at something Luna must have said, she was more than halfway to having fun.
A waiter deftly dropped off another drink while collecting the empties along with a couple copper that manifested themselves in front of Luna.
Emil’s heart tried to claw its way out of his chest.
“Luna?” he squeaked.
Both women aligned themselves in his direction.
Luna brightened.
“Emil! You’re awake! Come sit!”
The assassin half choked on her drink.
Emil pointed at her like she was a venomous snake.
“WHY are you sitting with the assassin spy lady?!”
The woman raised a slightly unsteady finger. “I was not on that rooftop as an assassin,” she said with a hiccup. “I was only spying.”
“I am, however,” she added, “currently on this lovely river cruise as an assassin.”
She offered him a very small, very doomed smile.
Emil proceeded to experience a panic alarm in his mind that built in force until escaping out of his mouth in a fearful yelp.
Before he could flee, a massive hand clapped down on his shoulder with the force of a casually thrown log.
“Calm yourself lad!” Captain Sunny boomed. “I felt your mortal peril from across the ship! Fear that strong usually only proceeds excessive fun or meeting one’s maker.”
Emil snapped his mouth shut under the weight of the magical and physical force pressed upon him. Thankfully it felt less like drowning and more like the ocean was hugging though.
Sunny studied Sica, then Luna, then Emil calculating the entire scene.
His grin widened.
“Well now!” he said. “My passengers are making friends. That warms my river soaked heart.”
“No…no no no captain, she’s…she’s an assassin!” Emil protested.
Sunny waved that away.
“Not possible. Not on my ship,” he said. “I don’t allow assassins.”
The woman opened her mouth, thought better, then closed it.
Luna chimed in, “She’s off the clock! We’re best friends now.”
Stolen story; please report.
Sunny clasped his hands, delighted.
“Bless the river, I love to see passengers bonding,” he said. “Makes for smoother sailing.”
Emil looked between the three of them, utterly defeated.
“So you’re all insane,” he decided.
Sunny threw his head back and laughed.
“Maybe,” he agreed. “But you’re safe on the Riverboat of Love and Happiness. Now…who wants dessert?”
“I do!” Luna chirped.
The not assassin raised her hand slowly.
Emil dropped his face into his palms.
Sunny patted all three of them in turn like they were one big family before wandering off to congratulate the performers on a spectacular showing.
…
The chaos of the lunch show eventually ebbed.
Emil’s breathing crept back toward normal.
The assassin, Sica, as Luna had introduced her, had finally stopped hiccupping.
And Luna finished interrogating a juggler on if he was really juggling or if he was just some kind of ball mage illusionist.
By late afternoon, somehow, the three of them had fallen into a kind of rhythm.
They wandered the upper deck together, drifting between souvenir stalls and snack carts, following the smell of caramelized nuts and grilled skewers.
Sica walked without her hood up, hair pulled back, expression softer than usual. The buzz of sugar, alcohol, and reluctant company had sanded her down from “immediate threat” to “armed coworker on a break.”
Emil stayed close to Luna, shoulders still tense, but no longer vibrating with panic. Every few steps, his elbow nudged her casing like he needed to reassure himself she was still there.
Luna floated between the two humans like an enthusiastic lantern spirit, highlighting the world around them.
“Look! Fruit skewers! Tiny umbrellas! Seaweed chips! Emil, you should try seaweed chips!”
“I have…” he said recalling the disappointing memory. “They taste like old fish and sadness,”.
Sica crunched one thoughtfully, having swiped a free sample.
“These taste great,” she said as flakes floated downward through the air emulating a goldfish’s dinner.
Emil took in the scene with disgust. “Maybe your taste is broken.”
Sica shrugged. “Or maybe you should be more open to new things.”
Emil shook his head. “Got plenty of that already…”
He opted for a fruit skewer, thoroughly enjoying the overly sweet snack.
Luna was happy that her friends were enjoying themselves, but… “I’d throw myself down a cow shit slip n’ slide tongue first if it meant getting my sense of taste back…” she thought aloud to the human’s minds.
“How descriptive” Sica mused while nodding.
“Eeuughh” Emil gagged on his fruit at the image that he had conjured in his mind. “Luna….” He said as he recovered. “That’s absolutely revolting.”
…
As the sun dipped lower, lanterns along the railings flickered to life, bathing the deck in warm gold.
Dinner smelled incredible. Roasted riverfish, buttery rolls, spiced rice, and something unidentifiable but would surely be seconds worthy.
They found a table by the railing. The river breeze cooled their faces, the sky blushed orange and pink over the water.
Luna hovered between the pair like a glowing centerpiece, faintly humming.
Conversation came in fits and starts.
Silences weren’t uncomfortable.
Even Emil’s wary glances at Sica had softened into something more like confused caution rather than outright fear.
Near the end of the meal, the captain’s voice boomed over the speaking tubes.
“FOLKS! As part of your lovely evening aboard the Riverboat of Love and Happiness… prepare for our nightly MAGICAL FIREWORKS SPECTACULAR!”
Luna gasped so hard, her casing whistled.
“FIRE. WORK. SHOW!”
Emil chuckled despite himself. “Luna, have you ever even seen fireworks?”
“I grew up in the midwest Emil, I fucking love fireworks!”
Emil was not super familiar with this fantastical “midwest” that Luna sometimes referenced, but he noted it with the other information she had offered about her life before her lives as a Nothing.
Sica snorted into her drink at Luna's outburst.
The trio squeezed in along the bow rail as the passengers gathered, pressing in with soft murmurs and the rustle of coats.
A hush settled over the deck.
Then—
BOOM.
A burst of bright blue light blossomed overhead, scattering shimmering star motes over the river.
Another followed, a spiraling flower of glowing violet light.
Sica tilted her head back. Firework and lanternight caught the sharp lines of her face. Instead of looking like a brooding villain though, the shadows made her out to look like a friendly neighbor sharing a tailgate at a bonfire.
“I’ve never gotten to sit and watch fireworks with anyone before,” she said quietly.
Emil blinked, pulling his gaze from out of the sky.
“Oh.”
Sica kept her gaze upward.
“I’ve only ever used them as cover,” she said. “Distraction for a kill. Noise for an escape. Never just… watched.”
She exhaled.
“Never took the time to…enjoy anything.”
Emil looked down at his hands on the rail.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I get that.”
He swallowed.
“My dad never made time for this stuff. And I never made… close friends. Or had close family. Or anything.” He huffed out a humorless laugh. “This might be the first time I’ve done something just to do it.”
Sica glanced at him sidelong.
Luna vibrated like she might explode from joy.
“OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT ONE! EMIL. SICA. LOOK. THAT ONE LOOKS LIKE A BIG SPARKLY SHRIMP. HOW DID THEY EVEN DO THAT?!”
Emil shook his head, smiling despite himself.
Sica huffed a real laugh.
Another firework burst overhead, gold and brilliant and loud and warm.
The pair, distracted by the display, allowed their hands to brush against each other on the railing.
Just a brush.
Emil jerked back like he’d touched a hot stove. “Sorry!”
Sica snorted. “What a day for the history books, Braxtown.”
Luna spun lazy circles in the air, leaving small arcs of light in her wake, enthralled by the experience.
And for what seemed like the first time in the human pair's lives, they just stood there and let themselves enjoy the moment.
