Chapter Text
The Queen was dead, and Agatha had time to admire her utilitarian and yet, somehow, lovely ring, so she wasn’t paying much attention when Gilgamesh moved on to something else. At first, she was barely listening as he talked about his father being busy with the bugs, but she looked up as he mentioned smaller airships, confused. And then she heard “We should be able to get married before he catches us!” and she was left feeling like she’d missed more of the conversation than she was aware of. Perhaps several conversations.
“Um— what?”
“Don’t worry, he won’t be mad when he finds out you’re a spark!” Gil reassured her, which did not target the heart of her concern, or really any of its vital organs. “He’s talking about marrying me off anyway, serve him right if I run off and do it on my own!”
He looked so extremely sincere. He looked adorable, honestly, but that was a passing thought beside how ludicrous it was that he was so serious about this, when he hadn’t even hinted at it until now. She was laughing before she even considered what the right reaction was, and it was probably partly leftover glee at victory, but there it was. This laughter was harder than she ever remembered laughing before, hard enough that last week she would’ve broken down in a headache immediately. Now, she could laugh her fill and come out of it smiling to tell him “That was the worst proposal I’ve ever heard!”
“You get a lot of them?” he asked, in a very small voice, which she mostly ignored, lest she start laughing again.
“You want to marry me to annoy your father? How romantic.” And quite a lifetime commitment to rush into for such a petty reason, she almost added. But it seemed too weighty to even bring up, now. Besides, she was sure he had other reasons for proposing. Even if he hadn’t actually said any of them yet.
“No, no, no,” he said, looking incredibly serious again. “I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I think we’d be very well suited.”
Still not quite a passionate declaration of love, but then again… He could actually support this statement. She’d be inclined to doubt any commitments to eternal love, after less than a week. “And I really want you to stay safe,” he continued. “Without any connections of your own, being tied to my father is about as good as you can get, now you’ve got the Spark.”
She’d intended to keep this light, but— “Really? Are you sure about that? Everywhere I turn I see a new reason to doubt his intentions! Why should I believe I’d survive any longer here than just… walking into the Wastelands, after Beetle, Othar, and Dr. Vapnoople.”
Gil had the nerve to look hurt. “Those were exceptions!” he said. “Like I said, there are perfectly good reasons for all of those, if you’d just trust me!”
“Well, I don’t have a lot of reason to do that, if you just keep telling me everything’s fine when it clearly isn’t!”
He turned away and paced a little bit, coming back looking nervous and rubbing his head. “Would you listen, if I tried to explain?” he asked.
“Oh, you had better try, if you expect me to stick around at all.”
“Okay. Yeah. I— Technically, I’m not supposed to talk about any of this, but I mean, you just saved my life, and…” He trailed off, eyeing her for a moment. She wondered if he was going to say something sentimental, but he picked up again on a logical thread. “I mean, I met you at TPU, you were an assistant there. You must know how dangerous Sparks can be, if they’re inclined towards it. I don’t know what you’ve heard about Vapnoople, or how, but honestly, the fact that he’s still alive, in any state at all, is a mercy he didn’t deserve after his experiments.”
Agatha squinted at that. Krosp wasn’t dangerous, except insofar as any thinking being could choose to be dangerous. And the stuffed bears weren’t dangerous, just pathetic. “I’ll want verification on that. And Othar? He’s a hero.”
“He’s dangerous. He believes all Sparks should be hunted down and killed.”
“That sounds highly implausible and overwrought. Are you sure you didn’t mix it up with some bad fiction?” She was teasing now, a bit. It was still easier than trying to take this all seriously. She didn’t know how he was doing it.
Gil put his hand on his forehead, wearily. “You would be surprised at how often my life could be mixed up with bad fiction. It is exhausting.”
“Ah, so that’s why you get your terrible ideas about romance. It all makes sense now.”
“Um—“ He stared at her for a second. “Are you interrogating me or teasing me? It’s very disorienting when you switch back and forth that quickly.”
“I can do both at once,” Agatha said, with great dignity. “But you’re serious about Othar wanting to kill Sparks? How does the public never hear about that part!”
“He has such good press! It would be easier to deal with him if he didn’t cast us as the villain all the time. Just because my father would rather Sparks be useful than dead!”
“Are you saying you aren’t a villain, then? The stage will be so disappointed.”
He flashed a grin at that, then sobered up again. “I.. I don’t know if I’ve been persuasive at all, yet. But… You haven’t gotten a chance to see my father’s merciful side yet, and for that matter I’ve been having a bad week as well. But he does have one! Even studying sparks is a form of mercy.”
“Not exactly comforting to someone who would be the subject.”
He looked distressed at that, and reached out to take her arms. “Miss Clay,” he said. “Agatha. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but… You’ll be studied one way or another, now. Female Sparks are rare, and more rare recently, and nobody quite knows why. You’ll be watched, you’ll be taken if someone gets the chance.” He hesitated. “I… don’t want to make it sound like you have no choice. It’s possible I could talk to the Master of Paris, or Albia, maybe… I don’t know if I have the influence, but I could try. But I’m not sure you’d like life there better. Their protection can be somewhat… conditional.”
And whatever she could say about the offer of marriage, it didn’t get much more unconditional than that. Especially considering that Gil could easily marry someone far more important than an insignificant secretary from Beetleburg. If he was asking anyway, something about her outweighed any desire for political advantage or great beauty or anything else she would’ve thought would be important. “What’s your offer, then?”
He looked taken off guard at that. “Ah… What?”
“What’s your offer? If I do marry you, what’s the plan? Logistics-wise?”
He floundered. Perhaps he didn’t expect to get this far. “Uh, well, we’d be… married. I don’t… The symbolism is the important thing, that everybody knows you’re protected, but I… Uh… I sort of don’t hate the idea of… Um… Obviously I wouldn’t want to press you into anything! Just because you kissed me earlier doesn’t mean you have to do it again, or…” He stopped. His face was about the color of the safety cautions littered all around.
“So sleeping with you isn’t a condition of the offer?” she asked, baldly. She would have been mortified by even thinking of referring to this, a week ago. Now she’d spent this long with everyone convinced she was Moloch’s lover and this felt much easier to say. Even so, she was pretty sure she was blushing almost as brightly as him. At least her voice was steady.
“No! No, certainly not— I wasn’t— I don’t even know if— We could sort that out later. Much, much later. I just wanted to say…” He took a breath, and visibly calmed down. “You wouldn’t be absolutely tied to my side, is I guess what I’m getting at. As long as you’re protected, physically and symbolically, you would have freedom to roam, more so than you have now, even. I can’t speak to what role you’d have politically, not without consulting my father. Presumably status as my… Uh, consort, I guess, at minimum.”
“I want a lab,” Agatha said. “Fully equipped. With my own assistants.”
Gil blinked. “Does that mean… Does that mean you’ll do it?”
“I still want hard proof that your father had good reason for what he did to Dr. Dim. But… I’m willing to read it in the airship.”
Gil kept gaping at her. “Are you… Really?”
Agatha paused. She felt like she was floating, a little bit. Like she had just taken a running jump out of the window behind them, and it was the moment before she fell. And Gil was looking so pleased, and that shouldn’t matter to her choice but it did, it did, and looking at him this felt like the best idea in the world.
“Right,” Gil said. If I tell you where the nearest short-distance dirigible hanger is, can you scout it out and get ready to steal one when I meet you there with the data?”
She grinned. “Sounds like a plan, dear.” She put a little bit of an emphasis on the last word, just to tease him, and watched as his blush bloomed crimson again across his cheeks. It was far more adorable than she'd ever be willing to admit to.
She was knee-deep in trouble, she thought, and still wading deeper. At least it was likely to be entertaining the whole way down.