Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harvest Moon or any of its characters- go ahead and credit them to Natsume. What I do own is the Golden Crest and the plot. So there you have it.

Its rated T for a reason- expect some mild violence and some implied material. Nothing gross, though.

Captains of Our Lives

The Golden Crest was a quality vessel. It was far from the size of the largest ships on the ocean, but it was popular for its vast selection of dining options. By this hour, most of these had already been closed and cleaned. However, one small private room was still occupied.

A hearty laugh echoed throughout the air of the room. Owen reached for the bottle at the center of the table and poured some more of the fluid into each of the glasses at the table. He spilled some on the table, and he apologized as he helped clean up the mess.

"Well," said Kathy loudly between sips, trying to ignore the distraction. "I guess we are all grown up now, aren't we!"

A few others nodded. Gill shook his head approvingly as he observed his glass. "And we celebrate with nothing less than the best."

Toby patted Gill's back, who sat to Toby's right. "Thanks for picking up the tab, Gill. There's no way I could ever pay for this stuff on my own." Gill smiled thinly in acknowledgement.

"This isn't my first experience, you know," said Luke, eager to say something. "I had some once when I was a kid. My father had left it out on the porch. It made me kinda dizzy and I fell off into the bushes. He figured out what I must have done, but he just laughed a little and helped lift me back up."

Selena shook her head. "Lucky," she muttered. "My parents were obnoxiously strict. They still are, to be honest. I don't think they realized how much harm they were doing me by not letting me experience new things. I know that when I have kids, I won't be so unbending. Children have the right to have their opinion voiced, too."

Luna opened her mouth to speak, but Gill shook his head. She reconsidered her words. "I know, right! We are adults now… free! I can't wait to have children."

Renee did not have a glass in front of her- the only one of the travelers who could say that. She grimaced slightly at Luna's statement. "Children are nice, I guess... yes, of course they are! But we are quite young to be talking about that kind of thing."

Luke smiled brightly. "Let's have a toast to that!" Everyone with a glass drank. "There is no better time in life than that which we are in right now," he declared firmly.

"Thank goodness we are finally on our own. No stupid parenting to deal with… or doing the parenting, for that matter!" Luna giggled, and she whispered something into Gill's ear.

"Well," finally began Toby, who had said little that evening. "Anybody have job plans? How about you, Selena?"

Selena rolled her eyes. "Job plans? Who cares? We still have our parents for money." She and a couple others took another drink. Toby winced a little, and his attention shifted from across the table to the lady sitting next to him.

"And you, Renee? Are you getting any employment?"

Renee tossed her hair gently. "Well, I'll probably work more at the ranch. My parents might pay me some if I do good. Does that count?"

"Of course it does," Toby confirmed.

Gill shook his head. "My father doesn't give me any more than one hundred dollars a week. Says I need a job. I plan on working at the town hall when I get back home. He says that if I do that, he'll buy me my own house."

"Jealous," muttered Luna. As much as she disliked living with her grandmother, she didn't expect to be moving out any time soon.

Kathy laughed. "Why do you let your dad boss you around like that, Gill? Do you not have any backbone? You are an adult now, you have the right to tell him that you don't want and you don't need a job."

Gill waved her off. "That doesn't even make any sense."

A cool breeze coursed through the room, and everyone accordingly drew their coats closer around them. Luna leaned on Gill, while Selena murmured that it was always too cold.

"Perhaps," said Owen, "we should have a smoke. That should help warm things up."

Luke and Kathy nodded, but Toby shook his head calmly. "The room's too small. Maybe you should do that outside."

Owen laid his glass down rather hard and rubbed his forehead. "How did you ever graduate, Toby? You couldn't tell the difference between… a pot and a kettle, for example."

He generally wasn't so rude, but Owen's mind was dull that night. Toby shrugged. "School isn't that hard these days. Maya made it through, didn't she?"

Owen pointed at him, ready to continue the argument, but he settled with only laughing uncontrollably. "You're right there, Toby… you're right there!"

Luke was becoming restless. "I'm getting bored. Any good stories?"

Renee smiled. "My father took me to Toucan Island last week. We bought som-."

Selena snorted loudly, causing Renee to pause. "Enthralling. Seriously, girl… it's nothing special. I've lived there my whole life. It's too hot most of the time, anyway."

"Well, I haven't," Renee frowned at Selena's interruption. "Sorry to have offended you."

A deep chasm seemed to be spreading out across the room. Renee moved her chair slightly closer to Toby. Indeed, he did have a glass in front of him like everyone else, but he only drank from it periodically.

Gill shook his head. "We are all friends here," he said finally. "We don't need to be immature like this." Owen tried to make some response, but it came out only as an incoherent mess as he laid his head down on the table.

"Well," said Luna, "I have a few fine stories to tell!" Gill once again shook his head, and Luna shut her mouth once more.

"I caught a large snapper the other day," remarked Toby, almost to himself in an attempt to keep any conversation alive. Renee cried out, "How delightful!", but no one else appeared to have listened. Selena did mention that she found fish to be both slimy and nasty, but Owen was slouched over, while Kathy simply didn't say anything as she wasn't interested in the conversation. Around this time, Luna and Gill began to finally voice their obvious contention.

"I don't take orders from you, Gill! I'm a woman! I can do what I-."

"Oh, just shut up! You are far from being a woman… I think you've proven that quite well."

"How so, Mr. Perfect?"

Gill smirked. "Really? I don't think I even answer that question."

Luna's anger intensified with every comment. "That was as much your fault as mi-."

"The problem with it is that you don't even care! In fact, you won't stop talking about it! You are nothing more than a-."

Luna punched him in the nose, and Gill fell to the ground.

All the while, Kathy had started some unnecessary story. "So the other day, a couple days before we got on the boat, I managed to slip some sugar into this chicken dish Chase was cooking for Calvin. Calvin was so surprised about it tasting so bad that he thought Maya must have made it! Calvin yelled at Maya, and then she in turn yelled at Chase as she knew someone else had to have done it! They never did figure out it was me."

Renee's mouth had turned dry, but she managed to respond. "That wasn't very nice."

"Oh, it's not a big deal. Really."

Toby pushed away his glass and came to Renee's side. "I'm pretty sure Chase planned on proposing to her pretty soon. You may have messed that up."

"Oh, it was funny, Toby! What would we do without a little drama?" Kathy justified.

Toby rolled his head sarcastically. "I don't know… grow up, maybe?"

This remark was elicited at the same time as the collapse of Gill. The young person appeared more upset that he had gotten blood all over his nice jacket than the fact that the girl next to him had just punched him. Luna let Gill cover his nose with her sleeve.

"I'm sorry, Gill, I'm sorry! It… it just came out. I guess it happens, though. I think all of us here are sort of emotional. It's only natural, right? Right?"

Luke was incurably wild, but he disliked arguments. "Why don't we just go up on the deck? We can have a smoke up there." Owen managed to pull himself out of his stupor just long enough to say that it was a good idea. Kathy nodded and helped lift Owen from his chair. Selena didn't want to move, but she eventually decided that she didn't want to be left alone. Luna and Gill made an embarrassing sight when they stirred, as both looked like they had to rely on the other for survival. They finally managed to stand up. As the party began to exit, Owen appeared to have regained his manners at last.

"Toby… Renee… are you two coming?" The two remaining friends looked at each other before answering.

"It's late. We should be landing tomorrow. We need our sleep," finally responded Toby. The two remained glued to their seats, half wanting to follow the rest of the group as their giggling voices proceeded down the hall. As the noise died out, though, Toby and Renee slowly began to unthaw.

"I don't really like them," said Toby definitively.

Renee shrugged. "We still have to put up with them. People mature at different rates."

"That's far from an excuse."

"Yeah… I guess. But there is an allure to this lifestyle. It's an easy trap to fall into."

"Of course there is an appeal to it. Everyone likes getting what they want and getting nothing else."

The two stood up and leisurely returned to their cabins. "I'm not sure how we are supposed to enjoy being young if this is what we are expected to be like," Toby continued.

Renee finally nodded to this. "I stopped growing when I was fourteen."

The rest of the walk was in silence. Once they reached their destination, Toby allowed Renee to give him a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?" questioned Renee anxiously.

Toby smiled. "Of course you will." He even went so far as to lift the woman's hand to his lips. She blushed slightly in return before opening the door to her room. As she was about to enter, though, she abruptly turned around.

"…Toby?"

"Yes?"

"Are we missing out on something?" Toby looked at her with curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Renee was visibly nervous. "You know… are we really enjoying life?"

"Well… I guess only you can answer that."

Renee looked at him disapprovingly. "You know what I mean."

After a moment, Toby nodded his head slowly. "Of course we are. It's just that we aren't living like this life never ends. Do you understand what I mean?"

Renee contemplated Toby's words and responded only with a wave of her hand as she closed the door behind her.

Reports came in invariably and inconclusively at first. By the end of the day, though, the events of the morning were clear. A couple passengers had complained that there were loud voices followed by legitimate screaming around two in the morning. One of the crewmembers on the Golden Crest reported that some sort of damage had occurred on the top deck, but it wasn't confirmed until seven o'clock that a whole segment of railing on the stern of the ship had been torn off. With the exception of Toby and Renee, none of the eight celebrators returned to their cabins. The two remaining were informed of what was believed to have happened. With none of the six found anywhere on the ship, it was assumed that when they left for the deck, they must have either have been leaning on the rail, playing on it, or deliberately dislodged it for some illogical reason before plunging over into the dark abyss.

Finally, shortly past noon, the search was called off, and the missing were presumed gone. Other vessels continued the search, but the water was simply too cold for the lost to have survived. Toby and Renee received the news of their friends' deaths solemnly but without great emotion.

A small service was held on board for the deceased. However, once it concluded, the Golden Crest pressed on as it had prior to the events that had transpired. It had a journey to complete and a destination to reach.

So the ship and its passengers continued the course, undaunted and undeterred.

Author's Note: So, what did you think? Yeah, its pretty strange- even I know that. Not to spoil the fun, but I'm obviously criticizing something (it shouldn't be that hard to figure out!). All of the characters more or less embody a different characteristic by their words and actions.

Feel free to review- things you noticed, things you liked, things you didn't like, and simple grammar mistakes you spotted are all welcome.