Marcus is just heading out into the open waters for the day, deciding perhaps a morning away from Esca might clear up his head, give him some room to think, but at the absence of the boy's presence he finds the idea of a day fishing in complete and utter silence… daunting. He doesn't do so well when he's alone, gets to thinking. Thinking about his absentee father, his dead mother, his own darkness. So he kills the engine, lowers the rescue boat, climbs in, and drops it into the water. The motor on this boat is much smaller and so it takes longer than usual to get back to the edge of the cove. He slows as he approaches the diving platform, Esca sunning on top of it, hair plastered across his forehead and clothes damp. "Do you want to come again? Fishing I mean?" There's no denying the hopefulness in his voice, and the two of them both recognize it, so Marcus ducks his head, and clears his throat. "Only if you want to though."
"You promise I'll see nobody but you?" Esca starts to stand even before he gets an answer, following Marcus with his eyes as the boat circles the wooden platform.
"I promise you'll see nobody but me." There's a conviction and a bit of possessiveness there that has Esca smiling. "You went swimming in those clothes?" Marcus can't help but notice the way that the fabrics stick to Esca's lithe frame and how the color and shine of the pants almost make it seem as though he's got a tail. He blushes at the low pit of heat that it makes form in his stomach.
"They were a gift." Esca brushes his hair away with the tips of his fingers and has the decency to look a little bashful. "They were given to me by a surly fisherman. All beauty, little brains." There's a twinkle of mischief in his eyes at that and Marcus' throat has suddenly gone dry. He extends his hand to steady Esca as the small boy steps into his boat. They share a comfortable silence on the ride back to The Eagle, exchanging occasional glances. Once the main boat has made it out to open waters, Esca is once again eager to learn more, do more. "Can I help? What can I do?" It makes Marcus chuckle at his eagerness.
Marcus steps away from manning the net and towards the captain's booth where Esca is leaning over the edge, arm outstretched to catch the stray splashes of water that come high up the sides. "You can man the tiller." He wraps and arm around Esca's shoulders and ushers him into the booth, showing him the wheel. "Just-ah stay true, right out to sea." He smiles when Esca nods, quaking a bit with excitement. Just then, the whir of a motor rises up over the sound of the waves and the pulleys bringing in the net. A bright orange inflatable raft whizzes by with a handful of men in uniforms, watching the waters intensely and Esca drops to the floor the second the sound hits his ears. "Keep 'er steady would you? That's a fisheries boat. Wouldn't want to draw their attention." Marcus doesn't notice that Esca is no longer standing yet, and so Esca stretches out a leg, feet still bare from swimming, and starts to steer The Eagle with his toes instead. But as the boat passes by, Marcus follows it with is eyes and eventually his gaze comes to rest on Esca, crumpled in the space beside the wheel, trying to keep the bashful smile off his face. Marcus steps away from the nets again and stands in the doorway of the cabin, "You… can't really guide a boat with your foot."
"I'm not doing well?" Esca's tone is teasing, a wry smirk fighting its way onto his lips, that mischievous glint in his eyes again. Marcus just shakes his head and wipes at the goofy grin on his face. They share a moment of silence before Esca starts to sing again, his voice filling up the small space and sending shivers down Marcus's spine. The way the words float out of his mouth, brushing up against his skin as though they are just this side of tangible, it has this ethereal quality to it that Marcus has never experienced before.
He clears his throat a little too loudly when he realizes that he's been staring and accidentally cuts Esca off. He blushes when he realizes this, but has nothing in mind to actually say. "So… uh. Did you ever take lessons? I mean- do you think you used to be a singer?" Marcus winces at the fact that he brought up Esca's memory loss again, but figures at least it seemed like a half-way valid question.
"I-I don't think so. I guess I could have, but it doesn't… feel like it." Esca shrugs at that and turn his attention to the wheel, brows furrowed and looking deep in thought. "That's all I get- these impressions that don't mean much now, but they could I think." He frowns a little and pulls his sleeves down over his hands, something Marcus has noticed he does whenever he's feeling vulnerable. "What about you though? Somehow I don't imagine you always wanted to be a fisherman your whole life?"
Marcus knew this would come up eventually, and he knows that he can't exactly deny Esca such an innocent question, but he'd been hoping this just wouldn't ever arise in conversation, or when it did that he'd be more prepared. "Well-ah… This wasn't exactly… the plan, y'know?" Marcus takes a sudden interest in the floor, wanting to get away from Esca's bright, inquisitive stare. "I had wanted to open my own restaurant…. Grow my own vegetables, serve the fish I had caught just that morning- places like that were really big where I came from. I would be my own boss, make my own way." He wrings his hands and takes a moment to arrange exactly what he wants to say next, it could be very important just how he gives out this information.
"So… I took what I had in savings, got the shack in the cove and this boat. It took all I had, but I figured I'd live on fishing for a while, put away what I could, I'd get there eventually. It didn't matter how long- just that I got there. I convinced myself that if I could make it happen, that everything would be good again, that I'd be happy and everything else would fall into place. But the people here- they didn't care much for my ideas, the little dream I had for myself. They didn't care much for me, my… kind." He rubs at the back of his neck then and turns his back on the boy, looking out over the waves.
He can hear Esca stand and pad over behind him, but is still surprised by his proximity when he speaks. "Your… kind?"
Marcus crosses his arms and takes a deep breath, but decides to just get on with it. "This town… it's just like any small community you'd imagine. They're all very tight-knit, fond of and dependent on one another- so they can be inclusive. They're very religious and… old-fashioned. And I-uh… I'm gay. And they don't like that, picture me as some kind of blight or something, a weed in their righteous garden." He makes a point of walking away from Esca, brave enough to say the words, but not to turn and see the kid's reaction. "So they made sure to make it damn near impossible to rent out a space, get things cleared by all the right boards and organizations, and now here I am. The foreign fool who refuses to go, but has no place to stay. A circus of clowns."
"I guess they wouldn't think much of me either then." Esca's voice is quiet, quavering just a little, but completely open. It makes a lump form in Marcus' throat and he doesn't know what to say or do. But Esca just starts to sing again as he goes back to the booth and starts to steer, this time with his hands. Marcus is thankful for his quiet understanding and is content to just spend the rest of the day lost in his siren song until the pulleys start to grind and click angrily.
"Oh shit!" He goes to bring the nets up and smiles a little at the soft sniggering he can hear coming from Esca. When they start to breach the water he can't hold back the exclamations that he breathes out, seeing the ropes filled with an undulating throng of fish, still writhing with the water that is pouring out the sides. "Would you look at that! Salmon, that's weird. You don't catch salmon trawling, only with a gill net." He hurries over to untie the net when he looks back over at Esca, shaking his head at that declaration, and just then remembers all that probably sounds like gibberish to him.
Esca steps closer to get a look at the fish as the bottom of the net finally comes undone and they all spill out onto the floor. "Hmm, how strange…" He grins at Marcus, looking like the bird that caught the worm. He stoops over to watch as some of the fish flounder violently, still trying valiantly to win back their lives.
"Yes… how funny. It's as though something drew them into my nets… " Marcus' voice is lightly suspicious, but only playfully so. He keeps a wary eye on Esca, making the other boy laugh when he makes a show of giving him a wide berth and obviously questioning glances as he goes about putting the fish in crates and on ice. Seagulls are crying above them, a whole flock circling to see if they can pick off the haul that just came in. Their moment of peace is broken though when the familiar sound of the fisheries' raft comes back into earshot, drawn by the sight of the large group of birds. "Ah! Fuck." Marcus swears with a hint of venom that Esca hasn't seen before and it takes him by surprise. "They're going to come on board."
Esca's eyes go wide, the lively attitude gone in an instant. Trying to think up something, Marcus starts to chew his lip and searches out the boat, gauging how much time they have before the officials arrive. But when he turns back to try and form a plan with the boy, he is gone. This sends a sharp jolt of panic through Marcus' stomach and though he feels like running around the boat searching Esca out, he knows that would only be counterproductive.
Instead he just continues on, trying to look nonchalant as the fisheries draw closer and closer, until they pull up next to him and offer out their hands for help boarding. Marcus obliges with the friendliest smile he can manage at this point and once they're in, stands off to the side with his arms crossed. "I see you've caught yerself some salmon." The two men on board have picked up a fish and are examining it with a dark eye turned towards Marcus. "How'd you catch them?"
Marcus leans back against the rails and tries his best not to sound indignant when he answers. "Trawling." He thinks for now it's best if he keeps things short and simple, give himself less rope to hang himself with.
"You really expect us to believe that?" The two of them scoff and share a look, amused with his 'antics'.
"No, but it's true."
"Oh sure, sure." One of them nods while the other gives him a patronizing smile. "And where's your gill nets?"
Marcus clenches his jaw, but manages to keep the snarl out of his voice. "Under the hull."
The fisheries move to the raised platform in the center of the boat and bend down to lift the door to the compartment, grunting in unison as it sticks before coming up. One bends down and starts to withdraw the green netting that's been wadded up and stored down below. "That's-uh…." They pause for a moment and look at the netting in their hands with disbelief. "That's not wet."
"I know!" This time there is a thread of impatience that comes through, but right now the men are too flabbergasted to take notice. "I told you I didn't use it."
They continue to pull at the nets, probably hoping to find a wet bunch he'd hidden at the bottom, but suddenly they stop and share an even more shocked look than before. "There's…. there's a boy here Circus! There's a boy. In your net." An awkward silence follows, Esca staring up into the faces of the men who are staring right back, looking for all the world like he just might be some creature from the sea.
"I-ah… is that illegal?" Marcus pulls at his ear and tries to act normal as the two of them continue to analyze Esca.
"No… but it's unusual."
"You can see him?" Marcus is a little embarrassed at the incredulous tone of his voice, and is momentarily thankful that Esca can't see him standing off to the side. He hadn't been kidding when he said he'd thought Esca might be a dream. It wouldn't have surprised him anyway. "Well-uh… Ask him how I caught the salmon then." Marcus nods sharply in Esca's direction.
They simply arch their eyebrows in question at Esca, sitting at the bottom of the compartment, arms raised just above his head as though to defend himself, and eyes squinting at the harsh light. "Trawling."
"And you expect us to believe in these fairy tales?"
Esca licks his lips before nodding eagerly. "Yes."
"Well then…" Marcus leaves it open, the meaning clearly implied. The men take one last look at Esca before they decide it's not worth the effort to argue and place the door back down, moving to get back on their boat and ignoring the blatantly smug smile on Marcus' face. Marcus can't help but chuckle and put a little bit of a skip in his step at they drive off and he heads over to the hull door. When he lifts it, Esca is staring into space, eyes trained on the nets that are tangled around his legs. "So… they saw you. Is that alright?"
"No." Esca's eyes are watery, but he's holding back the tears with everything he's got, which leaves little strength for anything else. He just continues to stare and look forlorn.
"Well, it's a relief in a way, a load off of my mind." Marcus feels sympathetic for the boy, chest tightening at the sudden onset of fear that is clear in his eyes. He tries to keep the relief out of his voice, but it's difficult. For the first time in a long time, he's not going to be alone and he'll no longer have to worry that Esca's nothing but a fever-dream, an illusion created by his mind to keep him from going insane.
"It means they'll talk."
"… of course they will, they've got nothing else to talk about." Marcus tries for a joke, anything to put that easy smile back on Esca's face.
Esca swallows heavily before he finally looks up, startled by the raucous of Marcus fetching the ladder for him to climb out. "What will they say?"
"Take your pick. Circus, clowns, salmon, a boy from the water… I'm going to the harbor. Do you want me to drop you off?" Now that Esca has finally been seen, Marcus can't help but want to share the town with someone, finally feel as though he's not swimming against the current, but in Esca's fragile state he wouldn't force the boy on any unwanted company. He offers his hand, but has to shake it in front of Esca's eyes a few times before the boy twitches back to life and starts to move.
"It's done isn't it? I've been seen." The declaration comes out breathy and frightened, but he takes Marcus' hand and starts to pull himself out and up regardless. Esca sits on the rails for the rest of the ride in, watching with wary eyes, equal parts fascinated and scared as buildings start to dot the hills and more and more boats start to populate the waters. Eventually they make it to the public docks, slowing down considerably, and the boy visibly withers under the stares of all the other fishermen watching from the much larger ships.
They all stop what they're doing the second Marcus' ship comes into view, and walk up to the bow, staring over the railing without any sense of shame. "It's a small town, everybody stares." Marcus grimaces back at Esca and tries to give a consoling look.
"You can say that again." Esca seems to have shrunk into himself, looking more like a boy than ever before and it has Marcus worrying despite the way things have turned towards the better for him, and this still seems like a win in his mind, seeing as how he was never quite sure why Esca didn't want to be seen in the first place.
"What's wrong with being seen, exactly?"
"Nothing!" Esca's answer is clipped and sharp as a knife, but Marcus thinks the boy sensed his own harshness because of the attempt at a soft smile that follows. His lips quiver, but the effort is still appreciated. "-when you look good." He seems to add this as an afterthought before turning away again.
"Well you look… you'll be just dandy." Marcus flushes at his inability to pay even the smallest compliment, but Esca seems to catch on anyway and spends the rest of the ride in kicking at the floor with a small smile on his lips.