"Well did you fix it?" The words came through a muffled tunnel in his mind. His mind was still stuck in that hallway with Melody and her dress up around her hips.
"Huh?"
"Did. You. Fix. The. Thrusters?" Thomas asked irritatedly and punctuating each word as if Jim had suddenly suffered a severe head injury. "You were down there long enough." He added with a tone obviousness and a hint of brotherly condescension.
"Yeah." He answers, trying to focus on anything but the memory of her hips swaying over him and the feel of her breath against his skin and just the general thought of her. He only barely succeeded. "We're good to go, I'll take over." Jim watched Thomas stalk away, clearly too irritated with his captain to argue.
Jim sunk into his spot behind the helm, easing the wheel as if it were a very extension of his own person. He belonged there, it was his true home- there among the skies and stars. He was completely content then, even if his ship was a belligerent old thing. He had Melody and for the most part he was his own captain, technically he had at least the option to kick Mr. Herms off at the next planet if he really wanted to. But he knew he wouldn't, after all these years Jim had finally learned to pick his battles. Beside the fact that it wouldn't be worth it to dispose of his squalid-souled temporary proprietor, he still had his mother to think of.
Jim's hands flexed around the wheel, its material softly worn so that it almost followed the shape of them. He thought of Melody again, her absence allowing the cold fingers of reality to flutter at his nape annoyingly and terrifyingly. Belatedly, Jim wondered if he was overreacting to it all. Maybe she wouldn't care... but deep down he knew that if she knew the full profundity of the truth he was keeping from her, she would definitely care. He pushed the thoughts away not for the for the first time, there was still a chance that she would never have to know and they could be happy for as long as fate would let them.
He looked up to the stars as they floated past, some swirling in brilliant clusters while others smoldered in solitude. It reminded him of Silver, the only father he'd ever really known. In fact Jim remembered the old cyborg more clearly than dim and distant face of his own real father. You've got the makings of greatness in you... The words floated through him like a lifeline. Jim would often wonder at those words, that faith pushing him in every endeavor he'd ever felt like quitting. Even now he wondered if Silver would be proud of him, what he might say to Jim's doubts and predicaments.
Suddenly he wondered if Silver would like Melody, and laughed just as quickly. Knowing that he would, Silver would trust her the way he himself trusted her.
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Melody made her way to her cabin easily. It wasn't until the door was shut behind her securely that she leaned back and let her body succumb to knee weakening feeling she would always get afterward. She closed her eyes and smiled to herself, blushing at the memory. She'd never say it aloud but she relished it when she could see everything she was feeling reflected in him, that desire so intense it nearly burned everything else away, and she would know he felt as intensely for her as she did for him.
For the first time she felt completely unburdened. His touch had pushed all the fears and obstacles that had been building up for weeks in the pit of her stomach so very far away that at that moment she could hardly recall them. Suddenly it all felt so simple and so incredibly stunning all at once. Whatever came they would figure it out.
A light popping sound had her instantly opening her eyes and searching the room. Relief flooded her as she saw on the dark wooden nightstand Sebastian and Morph, the lighting popping sound she realized was his rather adorable snore, slept slumped back to back. Her smile returned and she pulled aside one of the thick pillows atop the bed, scooped the two small creatures as gently as possible before setting them down on it. Aware of their change in comfort they both adjusted in their sleep, snuggling into the softness of the down filled pillow. Melody stood watching them for few minutes, making sure she had not disturbed their slumber.
At the foot of the modest bed her trunk of clothing had been set. She ran her fingers of the cool brown leather, tracing the line of the lid to the front and unlatching the gold hooks. The trunk was very large, reaching just below her outstretched fingertips, and the lid alone was a heavy structure now further burdened by her nightclothes from which she pulled one at random. A modest white slip with long sleeves and square neckline, its hem- like all the others- swept the floor in a flourish.
Melody hung it absentmindedly over the edge of the bed as she walked behind the screen that had previously occupied her room and began to undress. As she slid off her gown she became acutely aware again of her missing garment. Pausing only a moment to think on it she continued undressing, trying to keep her mind off Jim as she moved to the laces on her corset- the difficulty of doing this single-handedly immediately making her wish for the assistance of that stormy-eyed boy. It took a few tries but she eventually freed herself from the damned thing- the rest of her clothes following quickly enough so that soon she was respectably dressed in her nightgown and crawling under the warmth of the covers.
She fell asleep almost instantly.
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When she opened her eyes again, the view from her tiny round window was still darkness and brilliant stars. However she felt distinctly well rested. A glance around the room told her that she was now its solitary inhabitant. Melody decided that it must be morning and went ahead to get ready. Although that proved to be more difficult than she anticipated.
At the castle, if she wanted to take a bath a large copper basin would be brought into her bedroom and filled with pots of heated water by the servants. In the corner of the cozy room was a porcelain basin similar to the kind she knew. It was very obviously bolted to the floor, understandably so since they were on a ship that could perhaps move unpredictably. But what wasn't so explicit to her were the thin copper tubes snaking under the basin stretching up behind it like the stem of a very tall flower. It made her think nostalgically of the curiously tall yellow flowers she used to see in the garden house, its seeds scavenged from some far off place she'd never been.
She shook the thoughts from her mind and set to focusing on the task at hand. Jim had mentioned to her once the concept of something she thought he might have called 'plumbing' in passing while she'd been packing. Melody had been so fascinated by all the things different between, there always seemed to be something new to learn about, that she'd eagerly persisted with questions. Jim hadn't answered any of them of course, he'd snaked his arms around her waist from behind and distracted her with his touch.
Melody would not be distracted by that memory now. She was about to fiddle with the little perforated bulb-like end that hung over the basin when she noticed a handle along the side of the longest copper tube. She lifted it experimentally. For a moment nothing happened, and then suddenly cold water splashed from above over her outstretched arm and half of her face. She gasped and snapped the handle back down on instinct, trying to undo what she'd done. The water stopped and her brief shock turned to light laughter. She was beaming as the water gathered at one end of the basin and disappeared through another perforated circle of copper.
Melody decided then that it wasn't just Jim she wanted to know more about. Every second and his world was really like a hundred little adventures. She stripped off all her clothes and went to stand inside the basin. Almost instantly after she stepped completely inside a thin wall of light appeared around the porcelain edge and stretched upward. Still smiling she turned on the water back on.
It wasn't until afterward that she realized what the wall of light had been. When she'd stepped out she noticed everything was dry around her, it had prevented the water from splattered the floor and her nearby change of clothes. Smiling still, she braided her hair and donned a simple dress the color of sun-bleached red coral that had capped sleeves, a newer fashion, and square neck.
Melody quickly slid on a pair of day slippers and hurried out the door.
They spend the next two weeks like that. She explores and he listens as she tells him her discoveries with wide eyes. Although she liked it best when he would explain things she didn't entirely understand, like how the thrusters made fire or how things called 'lasers' and 'holograms' worked. Melody would watch Jim with utter fascination as he explained them to her.
The two weeks seemed to fly by faster than either of them anticipated. Especially since it was so hard for them to be alone together after the first few days. Melody had pressed a kiss to Jim's lips without thinking, forgetting that they were out in the open. Sebastian had smiled and told the story for the thousandth time about how hard it had been to get her father to kiss her mother when they were young. Commenting on how much easier it would have been if she'd just thought to kiss him herself, Eric had been a very shy young lad when it came right down to it. Sebastian had laughed about it but kept wearily on her heels from then on out.
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The day came when they were to arrive at the Montressor Spaceport where they would return Mr. Herms and then depart again for the small planet on which Jim's mother ran her inn and where he had grown up. Melody had lain wide awake in her cabin from the moment she plopped down. She was so excited and nervous and somewhere internally terrified.
What if his mother didn't like her? She'd heard of other girls from fine families who'd been dropped from promising marriage agreements simply because their possible-mother-in-law hadn't taken to them kindly. Marriage wasn't even on the table, and her situation was hardly like any of those girls' situations. Still, Melody wanted desperately for Jim's mother to like her. Who could be a better judge of whether or not what she and Jim had stood even the slightest chance of surviving than the woman who had raised him and knew him and was essentially a part of him. The nervousness fluttered in the pit of her stomach.
"What if she hates me?" She asked to the emptiness around her.
It took a few hours, but eventually she succumbed to her exhaustion. Her mind still clattering noisily with questions and doubts.
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Jim had stood at the helm for the last vestiges of their journey. He argued to himself that his crew could hardly treat him as their captain if he didn't act like one. He knew how much loyalty and camaraderie was a factor in being a captain, in being a leader. Deep down he knew he was avoiding Melody. The closer they got to Montressor the more pointed his anxiety became.
For the past two weeks he'd shown her bits and pieces of himself, of his life, of his world.
Her curiosity never ebbed.
Jim unconsciously reached into his pocket, almost immediately his finger grazed a small metal loop- cold as ice from neglect. He did not pull it free from the confines of his jacket, he never did anymore- in fact for sometime he'd managed to forget about it completely. It worried him, that he could forget the promise he'd so fervently embedded in that object and to the carefree person for whom it had been intended.
His heart told him what he had with Melody was no fluke, but his mind couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong with him. If he could trade one for the other so easily.
The nausea seemed to roll in his stomach.
He wanted to rip the small object free from himself, fling it into the nothingness and never feel its weight on him again. However his hand remained in his pocket, stroking that cold little loop of metal, and he wondered.
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