Phoebe

It was way too cold on the promenade. The streetlamps were hard shafts of light in the dark, and the wind up the gravelly beach stung raw on Phoebe's face. She leaned on the railing, back to the city, watching the night through streaming eyes. The moon felt very distant above the cloud cover.

If she was completely honest with herself, she already knew what she was going to say to Mr Castelloro. She thought she had a pretty good read on the man, and there were ways to sell him on having other sponsors from the get-go. But he probably wouldn't be happy to get a call from her this late, especially with anything like a modification of plans, and she kind of resented that she was going to have to call him anyway.

Why couldn't Petunia have checked with her first? Well, Phoebe knew that too; she'd thought of it as a gift, a nice surprise. It was a nice surprise. Petunia was her boss's favourite, but it was still good and brave of her to step up and ask. The least Phoebe could do was match her drive and get on with calling Angelo.

Instead, she stayed leaning on the railing, glaring at the black sea as if it was a mirror. Behind her, the city sounds were muted by a wall of fancy apartment buildings. In summer, the promenade would be full of skaters, dog walkers and tourists, but now only a few hunched figures hurried between the lights. Residual tension from Soot's rescue, and all the infiltration training she'd done, made it hard to ignore the other pedestrians, but she forced herself not to turn and watch them.

Despite that, someone walked up out of the corner of her eye and leaned on the next section of railing, just close enough to make clear that it was a deliberate choice. Green hair wisped out from the narrow gap between her scarf and heavy ushanka-style hat. The ear-flaps of the hat were tied up, and the hat looked like it was sitting awkwardly over her turquoise merfolk ear-fins. The scarf pulled up over her chin but not her nose and mouth was sea colours, too, but her coat – too long for her - was plain black.

The eyes she turned with obviously-feigned nonchalance towards Phoebe were purple, cutting in a very different way to the wind. Phoebe's breath caught as she waited for the girl to speak.

"You must be having a rough night." Her voice was quiet, and she had a hint of a lisp, kind of cutesy. That might also be a put-on, but it carried well in the night air and the wind.

"Same to you," Phoebe said, chuckling to take any sting out of her tone.

"Yeah." She shrugged. "I needed to get some air."

Phoebe waited, trying to think of something to say. There was plenty of air to go around, at least. Suddenly self-conscious, she rubbed her eyes, trying to dry them a bit.

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"Are you ok?" The mermaid's head tilted to one side, her concern apparently genuine.

"Yeah, this is just the wind." Phoebe waved a hand indistinctly. Inside her glove, her fingers felt like sticks of ice. "Uh, are you?"

"What's up?" The mermaid ignored Phoebe's question, cutting across it with her own.

"Oh, nothing, honestly, a friend did me a favour I wasn't expecting and it caught me off-guard." Phoebe laughed, "It's kinda dumb, it just made things a bit awkward, that's all."

"Did you say thank-you?" the purple eyes prodded. They were a shade or two paler than Phoebe's own.

Phoebe frowned at her, amused. "I probably should, honestly, yeah, I probably should. I need to sort some things out first, though."

"I think you should, yeah. It's gotta be better than staying out here, right?"

Was she fishing for compliments? Hah, fishing. "She goes to bed early, I'll talk to her tomorrow."

"What about not letting the sun set on an argument?"

Phoebe rolled her eyes, taking in the night around them. "The sun was already down when she told me about it, it was a bit too late for me to do anything about that."

"Still, though…" the mermaid looked out to sea.

"What about you, anyway, what are you doing out here?"

"Oh, I should be getting back, probably. My manager will be mad if she finds out I borrowed her coat and hat."

"You work somewhere nearby?" Where would she work around here that she'd be taking a break at this time, and working close enough to her manager that she could pinch her outerwear? This whole stretch of the shore was residential, there were only corner shops and the odd laundrette anywhere close.

"Not exactly. I kind of work in a lot of places. My manager lives here though."

"You were… visiting her at home? Like for dinner or something?"

"Yeah… let's say that." She was clearly lying, or at least not telling the whole truth. "I should get back. It was nice meeting you!"

"Wait, what's your name?" Phoebe half-turned as the mermaid straightened up.

"Thessaly." She looked down at her hands, then to the side, then back up at Phoebe.

"Nice to meet you, Thessaly," Phoebe let out a little bit of a laugh, surprised at how forced it felt. "I'm Phoebe." She almost reached over to shake Thessaly's hand. That would have been embarrassing.

"You, uh, come here often?"

Phoebe narrowed her eyes. "Sometimes. I like the seaside."

"Even in winter?"

This time laughing came easier. "It's refreshing, isn't it? The cold doesn't bother me much." Compared to riding a dragon, the sea wind wasn't even that cold.

Thessaly gave her a funny look. She couldn't have guessed what Phoebe was thinking, right? It was too much of a risk to tell her she was a dragon rider. And the mermaid was keeping secrets of her own, anyway.

After a moment, Thessaly glanced jerkily over her shoulder. "I should get going."

"Wanna meet up again sometime?" The words were out of Phoebe's mouth before she'd finished thinking them. They drew another strange look from the mermaid, but more eager this time, almost like a puppy looking at a treat. Feeling like the middle of a risky mid-air manoeuvre, where the only thing to do was commit and trust your drake to carry you through, Phoebe said, "Give me your number."

"Okay." Thessaly smiled shyly.

After they'd exchanged numbers, Phoebe watched the mermaid walk away, outsize coat and hat making her figure almost a perfect rectangle as the night wrapped around her. Then she turned back to watching the shore, and didn't move for a long time.