Looking back on it later, Tsubaki would marvel at the sheer normality of the day he met the Selkie, how average it was. He had taken stock of some new inventory, sold a couple of small things, and caught up on the books as of last month’s sales. It was all so peaceful, so normal.
And then the bell didn’t so much chime as emit a shattered-glass tinkle, and one very travel-worn, very bothered young woman entered. Her hair was impressively long and auburn, down past her hips in dusty mats and knots, and her dress looked like something from a Renaissance Faire. When she spoke, it took a moment for him to understand the thick brogue.
“Doan ye play a fool with me, girl. The con artist and thief running this establishment.” The sad part was, he couldn’t dispute her last claims, based on lack of knowledge. “I’ve been lookin’ fer the bastard who took me pelt an’ finally I got him. Now go get him.” It wasn’t a request, it was an imperial command the likes of which Elaheh would have taken pride in.
“…please have a seat, I’ll go get him.” Tsubaki had cleared the room before the girl even knew what was going on, and in a trice he had gotten back to the overlarge closet that served, in part, as the Shopkeeper’s workroom. “I’ve got a pissed off woman in the front of the shop, what did you do?”
“Run that by me again, with less hysterics, please?” the Shopkeeper asked, carefully keeping his voice neutral and corking the vial in his hand.
“There is a lady in the shop,” Tsubaki said slowly, “who is really pissed at you. What did you do to her?”
The Shopkeeper looked over at him in alarm. “Lady? What does she look like?”
“Auburn hair down to her hips, old-fashioned clothes… she’s got a strong accent…”
“Scottish?” Tsubaki nodded and watched the man’s face drain of color. “That’s a Selkie, wanting her skin back. Nearly two hundred years and she’s found me…”
“Then give her back her skin, you fucking thief! Why’d you need a Selkie’s skin anyway? And what…”
“Selkies are seals that shed their pelt to become human, typically great beauties. And it was an accident, I was travelling, it was cold, I saw what looked like a good fur blanket on the beach and I couldn’t pass it up! Then bam, naked woman and I just ran! Didn’t know what I’d gotten until I escaped.”
“You utter moron!” the ghost hissed. “So give it back to her!”
“Yeah, about that… I may or may not have lost it.” At least the Shopkeeper seemed ashamed- though it was no consolation.
“We talking ‘lost’ as in ‘I lost in a poker game’ or—“
“’Lost’ as in ‘I misplaced the thing like forty years ago’- you try having homes on five continents that you have to consolidate in a hurry, I’d like to see you keep up with it all.”
Tsubaki could have throttled the man if he knew what would happen to himself. “You. Fucking. Idiot.” And with that he whirled out of there in a fury.
The woman was still in the shop, in the blue velvet wingback chair that got great light in the afternoon. “I’m sorry, miss. I’m employed by an idiot.” The ghost sighed. “The stupid ass has misplaced your skin.”
“An idiot, or a shrewd arse-headed man. Ye can tell him I’m not marryin’ a thief, nor am I leavin’ ‘til I get me skin back.”
“Marry? Miss, hold up and let me close shop. I need a primer in Selkie, I think.” The sign flipped, the door locked, and the shades partly drawn in less than three minutes, and he looked at her in expectant wonder. She, for her part, seemed confused.
“Ye’ve never heard of a Selkie?”
“…we’re seals, in essence. Seals who become human when we shed our skins. He probably told ye that. Apparently, though, there are some men who can’t get a woman of their own kind, think us beautiful, and steal our skins to keep us with them. In essence. Very boiled down essence.”
“That’s awful…” Tsubaki murmured.
“Aye, ‘tis. Ye steal a Selkie’s skin, so she’s forced ta marry ye so it doesn’t look like ye have no honor- though ye don’t, frankly- and all she can do is pray she finds it one day. Can make a Selkie ill ta think on it, much less be separated from her skin. But I’ll kill him a’fore I wed him, the lousy…”
“I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want to marry you. You should have seen how pale he went when I told him you were here, miss.”
“Tsubaki.” The boy smiled. “And I don’t do too much around here, just the books and sales and some of the housekeeping. I don’t usually go into his room or anything, but I’ll keep an eye out for your pelt.”
“Ye are a treasure, I swear. And ye have my gratitude.”
Tsubaki grinned even wider, and leaned in. “And, here’s the thing- we have more room than we really know what to do with here. And I’m sure hotels around here are more expensive than you have cash for…”
“Hotels? I can kip out on the benches outside. Done it for years.”
“That’s… illegal…” he murmured. “And no offense, but you look like you could use a shower…”
The woman almost looked offended, then she gingerly touched her hair, and sniffed her shirtsleeve. The grimace that crossed her face was answer enough. Before she could say anything, the door slammed open and the Shopkeeper stormed in with a scowl.
“No, no, no, no, NO. She can’t stay, not going to happen.” Before Cay could even get up, Tsubaki had risen into the air to look eye to eye with the man, fury etched into his very features.
“You stole her skin. How long did you say you’d been hiding from her?”
“About one hundred and seventy years.” Cay piped up, calm as anything now that she knew someone was in her corner.
“One hundred and seventy years you’ve been hiding from her like the cowardly shit you are, and now that you’ve lost her skin, you can’t even let her stay here until you find it? I. Think. NOT. No one wants to marry anyone in this room, all right? So we’re safe on the matrimony front. But you do have an obligation to let her stay her until you find her skin, at least. Now shut up and put up. I’m going to clean up one of the spare rooms. There’s a bathroom on the first floor, look for the open door, towels should be in the cabinet by the shower. The hot tap takes a few minutes to warm up, according to His Idiocy there, but be patient, it does heat up. Just leave your dress on the floor, I’ll wash it later. In the meantime, there’s a rack of clothes over there, I do wash them before they’re hung up, just have a look through and find something you like.” And with that he had left the room, practically thrumming with energy and not even bothering to act like he was walking. Cay, meanwhile, stared after him in considerably more shock than the Shopkeeper.
“…I’ve been sittin’ here talkin’ ta a ghost all this time? She seems so… alive…”
“He’s a he. Long story, ask him to tell you. Not my place to say. Enjoy his hospitality, because if he didn’t know how to make my life a living hell, I’d kick you straight out.” The Shopkeeper huffed. “Haven’t got your skin anymore as far as I know. No reason for you to stay.”
“…the damn thing’s here somewhere. I feel less sick than I have in years.” Cay growled, pushing past him and turning a sparking citrine glare on him as she reached the door. “I advise ye ta find it sooner rather than later. Sooner ye find it, sooner I leave.” And with that she left the room. The Shopkeeper could have screamed; he was surrounded by people taking advantage of his hospitality that were all too willing to tell him what to do. Wasn’t he master of this house anymore?
…well, Tsubaki did do most of the financial upkeep, and the cleaning, and the general upkeep. Hell.
Days passed in a new routine- Cay would wake up around the same time as Tsubaki did, help him get things ready for the day, make a light breakfast for herself and the Shopkeeper (who, she reminded him daily, should consider himself lucky she didn’t just let him starve), and help Tsubaki move things around or tend the shop. In return, she got first pick of the clothes as he laundered the new arrivals and mended any small tears. Her room shaped together with some of the stashed-away furniture from other rooms, and she kept to the blues and dark wood furniture she could find. When Tsubaki found a small box of shells and sea glass, she gladly took it off his hands to set on her dresser. Meanwhile, the Shopkeeper tried to stay out of their way as much as possible- he didn’t feel much like getting shouted at by Tsubaki for being an idiot again, and Cay just made him fundamentally uncomfortable anyway.
It almost made him wish Elaheh were back from… wherever it was that she went, just to have conversation that wouldn’t call him foolish every other sentence. And as the days turned to weeks, Tsubaki gradually went back to normal speaking terms while Cay got, while not friendly, at least a little less combative. Almost a month passed like this, as they settled into routine.
Storms weren’t the Shopkeeper’s idea of a good time, and especially not when they came up in the middle of the night. The night had been pretty when he went to sleep, but the cold air coming in through his open window was making his legs hurt. In a bleary daze, he rolled out of the mass of pillows and thin blankets covering him, and he wobbled over to push the window mostly closed against the rain he could smell on the air. He flopped back down into his blankets, burrowed in- and shivered; they weren’t thick enough to help tonight it seemed. Still in a half-asleep daze, he rolled down to the foot of the bed and opened the trunk he kept there. Blankets were the only thing on his mind, blankets and sleep, and he pulled the softest one he could find out to curl into. And so, objective achieved, he was out like a light in no time flat.
It wasn’t until the next morning that he realized two things: first, he had found Cay’s pelt, and second, Tsubaki (who had come to wake him up for breakfast) realized it too. The Shopkeeper was out of the bed and had his hand over the ghost’s mouth in moments, Tsubaki too stunned to escape. “Don’t you tell her that you saw this. Don’t even dare.”
“And why shouldn’t I? She deserves to know where her skin is!” Tsubaki hissed, a glare on his pretty face.
“Because! Do you know how much a Selkie pelt could go for if we needed the money?” The ghost just sat there staring at him in disbelief.
“…you greedy son of a bitch… CAY!” And like a flash he was gone, and the Shopkeeper knew he had to work fast. Hey, he hadn’t lied, not really; and Tsubaki had some help around the shop, surely he’d think about it and want Cay to stick around. Especially now that she was a little less hostile to the Shopkeeper. Footsteps thundered to the door, and the Selkie threw it open as if it were nothing, screaming as she saw the state the man was in- clad only in loose white pants and a thin cotton shirt, looking as if he was the one who had the most to be offended over at their entrance to his room.
“WHERE IS ME SKIN, YE CHARLATAN!”
“And why would I even know that?” the man huffed, shooting Tsubaki a glare. Traitor. The ghost, for his part, glared right back. He could probably expect dye in his shampoo in the relatively near future. “Told you I have no idea where it is.”
“Tsubaki told me ye were usin’ it as a blanket when he came in to wake ye this morning.” Cay glared.
“No I wasn’t.” It was flimsy at best and he knew it. Cay shot him another look, then looked at Tsubaki, and whirled out of the room grumbling. Tsubaki didn’t move from his spot, still focusing a venomous look on the man. “Look, she’d leave if I told her. Do you want her to leave?”
“I want her to have the choice that I don’t.” And with that he left.
