In the sleepy town of Mäuseloch, situated high on a cliff overlooking the great Eastern Sea, the rain has been falling for the better part of a week. At times a light drizzle, at others a torrent punctuated by the great rolling grumble of thunder. Morgenthau's Minnows had arrived the previous evening, soaked through from flying amidst the low clouds, miserable and grey.
If the sun had been shining, Mäuseloch might have come across as quaint, even cheerful. But beneath the steady downpour, cheer was hard to come by. People only made their way through the streets if they had to, sticking to cover where they could to avoid the seemingly endless rain.
With the sea at the base of the cliff and rolling hills of green beyond the town's low walls, the town's lifeblood was trade. The surrounding farming settlements and fishing villages making their way by cargo plane, boat and occasional airship to spend the silver and copper coins that were the local scrip.
But this didn't explain why the Minnows were here: in one of the largest, most well to do inns in town. Mäuseloch hadn't even really been part of their route north until two days previous, when they'd heard that they'd be able to replenish their slowly dwindling supplies here, refuelling and rearming after their latest mission.
The rain hadn't helped matters, as it had grown worse the closer they'd gotten to Mäuseloch, thunder beginning to rumble around them as they made their way into land.
Unwilling to haggle over landing charges with the master of the airfield, Isa had paid the man as quickly as she could and lead the way to closest inn, The Diving Dove. Piling inside like a swarm of half-drowned rats, they'd booked room and board for as long as it took for the storm to finally die down and could barely wait for the privacy of their rooms before shedding their sodden clothes like ill-fitting second skins.
Warm and dry for what felt like the first time in days, the Minnows eventually met back up in the Inn's common room for drinks and a hot meal, finally slowing down enough to take in the building's ambiance.
Well and warmly lit by flicking gas-lamps, the room is packed with mismatched chairs clustered around well-worn, but clean tables of dark wood. A log fire periodically snaps within the large hearth set into one wall in accompaniment to the steady patter of rain on the windows and occasional rumble of thunder, now muted behind thick glass windows.
The murmur of conversation, rising and falling like the tide, fills the rest of the space with the noise of life. It is the grumbling of old men and the laughter of the young, the chatter of traders and travellers and farmers and fishermen, all taking shelter from the storm outside, and taking comfort in the friends they have nearby.
And into this, the Minnows step, an eclectic group, they are obviously a flying circus, adventurers very much for hire, and naturally, it isn't all that long before someone approaches them about a job…
---
Scattering to a couple of other tables as Isa spoke to their prospective employer, Arren and Wulf only had eyes for their pint-sized sweetheart. "She looks so cute when she's trying to be serious." Arren said, nudging his companion with an elbow.
Nudging Arren back, Wulf took a brief sip of her beer. "Guh, right? I just wanna, like, get my arms around her and squish her!"
"You two are ridiculous." Ronja deadpanned, sitting across from the star-struck pair as she nursed her own drink, one eyebrow slowly climbing towards her hairline.
"And probably a little drunk." Anny added, her stein already half empty. Sighing, a slight flush covered her cheeks, "Wish I had someone I could be ridiculous over…"
"You'll find someone, Anny." Arren said, attempting to reassure her.
Slumping onto the table, Anny groaned. "That's easy for you to say, Herr Two-Someones. Why can't Isa just hire some boys?"
"But she hired Heinrich?" Arren asked, punctuating his sentence by gesturing over at the blond student, who was currently at the bar, rapping his fingers on the countertop as he waited for the food they'd ordered.
"Heinrich doesn't count!" Anny cried as Ronja buried her face in one of her hands, "I can't mack on him! He's so gay I don't think he can even see women, he just has to, like, take people's word for it that we exist. I swear, Isa got hers-" She pointed to Arren, "-and to hell with the rest of us, I guess!"
"Anny," Ronja ground out, her voice still a monotone, "this is like, a squadron, not a mixer. If you're that desperate, got hit on one the guys over there, they look desperate enough."
"I don't just want-, guh, Ronja, I'm talking about a boyfriend here, not just some random hookup! I mean... I'll take what I can get, I guess, but it's not like, uuuhh-" Anny hunted through the crowd quickly, "-newsboy cap over there is going to uproot his life to follow me around!"
"You don't know until you try." Wulf said as a as she turned towards Arren, a grin spreading across her face. "We all know that guys can get pretty stupid."
"Hey! I... wish I could resent that more." Arren blushed as the others laughed, aware that's pretty much exactly what he'd done. "Gods, this place is loud. Is everyone in the village coming here?"
"Looks like, I swear the rain's been like, getting worse as well." Ronja said as Heinrich finally returned, bearing a tray stacked high with plates of food as he wove through the crowd.
"Barkeep said that it's like this every year." He said as he passed the plates around, "When the rains come, basically everything gets put on hold for a few days, so they make bank off the bored townsfolk and all the travellers who show up."
"Sounds like we came at the perfect time then." Wulf said, "though I dunno how negotiations are gonna go if Isa and the client have to shout at each other just to hear themselves speak."
"I'm sure she'll be fine, and we'll all be taking off to go and have a grand old time getting ourselves shot at before the rain has even stopped." Heinrich grinned, and gestured to his tray, which still had a couple of plates and a glass of wine on top. "Now if you'll all excuse me, I'd best be going to find our absent beauty."
"Minna said she'd be over in the corner," Arren said, waving in the general direction of the far wall, "the noise was getting too much for her, and I'm starting to agree."
"Danke schön, Herr Morganthau, I'll be back when I feel like it. Have fun, my darlings, don't do anything I would do!"
---
Minna was not having a terribly good evening. The rain had soaked into her clothes before she'd had a chance to get into cover, turning into a chill which clung to her skin. Thankfully, she'd been able to change once they had booked rooms, but as more and more of the townsfolk entered the room, the more noise there was.
It was almost an assault to her senses, the stink and heat of so many bodies soaked through from the rains outside battering her nostrils, her skin. The roar of what felt like a hundred conversations cruelly mixed with the screech of chairs against the floor and the clatter of plates and mugs on the tables, ebbing and flowing around her like a miserable tide.
She could feel herself slipping, the sounds and smells and feel of the room growing too much to bear. Closing her eyes, Minna tried to force herself to relax, to ignore the disorganised mess all around her. Placing a hand flat on the table, she focused on the feel of the wood, running her fingertips across its surface, over scars left by use and age. The other gripped the handle of her tankard tight, the cool metal doing something to ground her even as the noise grew again-
And was interrupted by the sound of someone sitting themselves at her table, and the carefully muted clatter of porcelain on wood. "Hey there darling, doing alright?"
"Not… Especially." Minna opened her eyes to find that a plate stacked high with food had been placed before her. "This place is much too loud. I am having difficulty staying focused."
"Fortunately for you, I am here for you to focus on, and I thrive on people's attention." Heinrich replied, setting his own plate down, before remembering the glass of wine still precariously balanced atop the tray. "Ah yes, and this," he said, delicately placing the glass before Minna, "is from one of your many admirers at the bar."
Minna stared at the glass, confused by its presence. "…Why?"
"Why indeed? I must admit, you are rather pretty, for a girl, that is. But why not ply me with wine? After all, I am much more willing to put out."
"I don't know what you mean by that."
"Have sex with, darling. The man who sent this probably wants to have sex with you."
"… I do not want that."
"I guessed. You don't really strike me as the sexual type, my dear."
Minna felt her face grow hot, "Is that a problem? Everyone else seems almost obsessed with it."
"Not at all!" Heinrich held up his hands in surrender, "there's nothing wrong with you, nothing at all. In fact, I knew a couple of similar folks at the university."
"You… Did?"
"Indeed! I believe they called themselves asexuals, as in not attracted to any gender."
"I'm… asexual? There's a name for it? But… I like how Arren looks… How can I be-" Before she could follow that line of thought, Heinrich interrupted her.
"Everyone likes how Arren looks, my dear. Frankly, that boy is stupidly pretty. Do you have any actual fantasies about him?"
Blushing, Minna's voice became soft, barely audible over the background noise of the bar. "I think about cuddling with him a lot…"
"Any fantasies where the clothes come off?"
"I... no. Perhaps just his shirt? I imagine he is quite warm."
"He's not, hon. He's a fish, they're freezing fucking cold. Nevermind... anything more than that?"
Minna shook her head. She tried to imagine her fantasy going further but it just got foggy and clinical, detached. She could imagine acts, but it was like she was an outside observer rather than an active participant. They ceased to be fantasies.
"Not really, no."
"Well there we go. You, darling, are asexual. Or ace, if you want to use shorthand or whatever." Heinrich waved one hand, as if to say, 'You're welcome'. "Now, shall we eat the food I've so gracious delivered? Also, I'll have that wine if you don't want it."
Taking a bite of her food, a spiced mutton pie, Minna slid the glass across the table towards him. With a grateful nod, Heinrich brought it to his lips and took a sip, and while they ate, the only sounds that came from there table was the quiet clinking of cutlery.
Eventually, however, the food was gone, and while Minna delicately wiped her mouth with a kerchief, Heinrich sat back in his chair with a sigh. "You know," he began, "This place isn't all that bad."
"It's been raining for almost a week straight."
"Nowhere's perfect, but the food here's good, the buildings are delightfully quaint, and I can see more than a few young men who I would be quite pleased to spend the night with, if you know what I mean."
"Is that all you think about?"
"Not at all, my dear. I also like to meddle, and very occasionally, I even do some work on my thesis."
"And how is that going?"
Heinrich groaned, his head tipping forward to thump against the table. "Not well." He said, voice partially muffled. "It's all well and good going to new places and sleeping with new people, but then I actually have to write about it, which is less fun than it sounds."
"Surely that is the easiest part? If you already have all the information you need, do you not?"
"Yeah but it's effort."
"That sounds like an excuse, Heinrich."
"Oh, it absolutely is, darling, but it's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. It'll be done when I manage to get it done." The sound of approaching footsteps, heavy with confidence, made Heinrich look about, "Don't look now, love, but here comes your admirer."
Minna looked up from her drink, which was sadly almost empty, to see a man, heavily musclebound, wearing a scandalously cut shirt of bright red silk, with his dark hair tied back into a short tail, approaching with what could easily be described as a swagger.
"Why hello, my dear, I could not help but see your dark and lustrous beauty from where I sat with my compatriots, and I thought so send a delicate flower such as yourself a drink as a declaration of my intent. I hope you enjoyed it, for it was no cheap swill, though your enjoyment and conversation would be fair recompense for my purchase." Without waiting for a reply, the man sat down, his bulk taking up near an entire side of the small table. "Ah, but where are my manners? I am Johann von Gemüse. Might I learn your name, o wonderous beauty? I promise to treasure it always."
Several times, Minna opened and closed her mouth, stunned and appalled beyond words by the newcomer's approach. Unfortunately, Johann saw this as an opening to continue, taking one of Minna's hands and bringing it to his lips to kiss. "Now, now, my beauteous starflower, are you so taken by my affections that you have no words with which to express them?"
Utterly confused by this point, it was all Minna could do to tear her hand free from Johann's grip. Before she could bring back a fist to strike him, however, she caught sight of Heinrich, who had carefully manoeuvred himself out of Johann's field of view, and was miming something using the rudimentary sign-language they used while in flight:
First, a small wave to attract attention, followed by his pointing, "Look here" at Johann. Once she'd noticed, Heinrich quickly changed signs to one of the Minnow's more niche ones, and she couldn't contain her sudden giggles as she watched Heinrich silently call Johann an idiot from behind his back.
---
Having devoured her food faster than the others at their table, Anny sat back, her hands on her belly as she breathed a sigh of contentment. "That was delicious. We should come back here after the next job."
"If it's still raining like this, we probably won't, like, have much of a choice." Ronja replied, placing her own cutlery down on an empty plate. "The Pioneer handles like a flying brick in shit weather. If it gets any worse, I don't care like, how much you people pay me, I'm not flying her."
"Let Isa know. We're probably gonna to have to hole up here til the rain lets up anyway, so it might not even matter." Wulf said, picking at her teeth with her knife, her eyes half-closed with concentration. When Ronja didn't reply, however, she gave her a quizzical look. "Ronja?"
"We might have trouble." Was all she said in reply, her hand slipping below the table to her belt as she kept her gaze fixed over Wulf's shoulder, towards where Heinrich and Minna were sitting.
---
"I'm sorry, Fraulein Morganthau, but the price you are asking for your services is simply too high." Isa struggled to avoid rubbing her temples in the middle of a negotiation. This idiot, obviously rich by the way he dressed and acted, had been trying to haggle down the price for the Minnow's services for near twenty minutes now.
First, he had tried to tell her that the risks involved in going after whale-poachers were less than what they were, so he didn't have to pay them as much as they were owed. Then, he'd tried to tell her that he couldn't afford it, which was obviously false, considering the sheer amount jewellery the man was wearing. For the last five, he'd been 'underestimating' the operating costs for their planes severely, insinuating that Isa had been trying to cheat him until she had outlined what she needed to spend for maintenance in enough detail to make her head swim.
At least now they seemed to be getting somewhere. "If you are unwilling to pay for our services, Herr Glück, Morganthau's Minnows will be happy to look for work elsewhere. I have been patient, and more than reasonable with you, and there are others who would be more than willing to pay our asking price."
Glück's face took on a strange puce colour as it seemed like his patience had finally vanished as well. "I don't believe children like you and your 'minnows' are worth your asking price, Fraulein Morganthau." The contempt in his voice almost made Isa stand and walk away right there, but some small, curious part of her made her stay, just to see how far into this hole he would dig himself. "You are barely worth the offer I have so graciously given you, only for you to ungratefully throw it back in my face! Children such as you should gratefully accept the work you are given, but no! You and your compatriots show your inexperience by so stupidly refusing my frankly extravagant offer for your services.
"I was even considering offering you, and whichever members of your scruffy little band survive, further work once this job had been complete! Much better paying work, I might add, considering that by then, you would actually have some of the experience you claim!"
Whatever Glück had been about to say next, however, was drowned out by a roar of anger from across the bar, towards where Minna had gone just before negotiations had started. Without thinking, Isa's hand flew to her pistol, and standing, she turned and drew.
---
"Just what is so funny, my delightful northern flower?" Johann's confusion only intensified Minna's giggles, causing her to partially curl up as she tried, and failed, to suppress her sudden mirth.
"Probably you, darling." Heinrich cut in, waiting til Johann was facing him, face showing surprise, before noisily slurping the wine he had sent Minna. "I can't blame her, really. You're cute, in a silly, overly musclebound sort of way. And yeah, I can see the appeal, but I probably wouldn't be able to stop laughing either."
It took a moment for both Heinrich's words, and his actions, to register for Johann, but it was easy to tell when they did. First, he went red at the obvious insult, but on seeing Heinrich drinking the wine he had bought for Minna, and his follow-up comments, the colour seemed to drain from his face and he lurched to his feet. "How dare you!" he cried, the noise around them beginning to fade as people looked about for the sudden exclamation. "I bought that wine for this beautiful young woman! At considerable expense! Not for some… some faggot to defile!"
Heinrich's smile only widened as he took another sip, "I'm afraid you might have been ripped off then, my love. It wasn't that great."
With a roar of rage, Johann swung at Heinrich. To Minna, it was a sloppy punch, slow and heavily telegraphed, but still, Heinrich lurched backward in an attempt to dodge, his chair falling over backwards and taking him with it with a loud thump and a cry. At that same moment, several other young men rose to their feet, prepared to fight alongside their apparent leader.
Giggles gone and forgotten in the wake of action, Minna found herself on her feet as well. Her sword swept from her scabbard with a singing hiss, its edge stopping just before Johann's throat. A series of clicks and snaps echoed through the now silent bar, and from behind Johann's goons, Minna could see the rest of the Minnows on their feet, various pistols, Arren's rifle, and Ronja's… flare gun? Pointed at the offending parties.
Wordlessly, she gestured to the door with her free hand, her glare boring into Johann's eyes as he blanched, his fear obvious. At first, he seemed reluctant to move, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water as he struggled for the words which had come so easily before. However, with only the slightest application of pressure from her blade, he gave in, and began to shuffle backwards, away from Heinrich and out of the building.
Seeing Johann cowed into submission, his friends, very much aware of the various firearms trained on them, followed their leader out into the night. As the door behind them closed with a bang, Minna let out a ragged sigh, and as the various conversations throughout the common room began to resume, she went over to where Heinrich still lay.
"Are you alright?" She asked, the concern in her voice obvious.
"I'm fine, darling." Came the reply, as Heinrich slowly clambered to his feet. "And much more importantly, I saved the wine!"
"I thought you didn't like it?" Minna said as she began to lead the way towards where the rest of the minnows were sat once more.
"Wine is wine, my dearest Minna. Wine is wine."
---
Turning back from where things had calmed down as quickly as they had escalated, Isa sat, making sure the safety of her pistol was on before carefully placing it on the table in front of her. "So, Herr Glück, where were we?"
His eyes jumping between Isa's face, and her gun, she could see the colour slowly draining from his face. "After some careful consideration, Frau Morganthau, I would be… Delighted, to pay you the amount your originally pitched for your services."
Isa smiled as sweetly as she could, and Glück audibly gulped as his eyes were drawn to her teeth, numerous and razor sharp. "Wonderful, Herr Glück, I am glad we have finally been able to come to an arrangement. The Minnows and I will head out as soon as the weather is clear, and you will hear from us as soon as we are successful in our mission."
Isa stood, and giving Glück a nod, began to turn away. "It has been a pleasure, Herr Glück. Until we meet again."
---
"So that was absolutely a thing." Heinrich said, idly swirling the last of the wine in his glass. The minnows were now gathered around the same table, the various patrons leaving alone or in groups as the evening dragged on.
For Minna, this was a very real blessing, as the background noise faded to a murmur punctuated by the continued rain on the windows, and the gentle crackle of the fire slowly dying in the hearth. She was surrounded by friends, and she was being allowed to remain a passive participant as Arren and Isa tried in vain to get Anny to drink some water.
"I shoulda… shoulda kicked that butthead in the ballsh. What a… a butt." Lazily, she turned to Ronja, "whys you gotta flare gun anyways? Leasht, I hopes it's a flare gun…"
"Cos I like, don't want to have to like, shoot someone with something that might kill them?" As she too, had continued to drink, emotions had started to show through her cool façade. "It's a big scary gun, and I dunno if any of you have been like, had a flare shot at you? It's not a great time."
Minna smiled at her companions, her friends. For the time being, she felt like she was firmly, comfortably, on the ground.
---
A belated happy birthday to the wonderful @open_sketchbook ! I hope you enjoy this present as it's perhaps one of the longest single pieces of writing I have ever done.
