"This is stupid"

Ben didn't look up from the task at hand; he knew that whine well enough to know exactly who the voice belonged too.

"What's stupid?"

"This whole idea of yours, it's dumb"

"I believe this was your idea actually" Ben smirked, still not meeting the young man's gaze. He knew exactly the look that would be on his friends' face, the 'woe is me' expression that he sported every time he wanted to get out of doing something. He was fairly certain that he'd developed an immunity to the puppy dog eyes years before, but he didn't particularly want to risk it.

Riley had been trying to get out of their deal for weeks now, even attempting to fake an illness. Although Abigail's threat of bed rest, chicken soup and no contact with the outside world quickly put an end to that idea. That didn't mean he was going to give up without a good whine though.

"No, this was not my idea… I believe my exact words were 'let's do something fun', this is not fun! Just look at me!" Ben couldn't help but look up at the desperation he heard in the young man's voice and he immediately regretted not looking sooner.

"You-you look good" he choked out before losing all semblance of self control and bursting into the kind of laughter that was only ever caused by his best friend.

Riley was glaring at him, looking extremely uncomfortable in a skin tight wetsuit and flippers. Ben had been diving for years, but he'd never before seen anyone look so ridiculous in their suits.

"Liar" Riley stomped off, struggling to walk (and maintain his dignity) in his flippers, which sent Ben into another fit of laughter. Riley turned back and shot him a look of pure venom before dodging past Abigail and heading to the dark underbelly of the boat to sulk.

"He does not look happy…" Abi stated the obvious as she walked out into the sunshine of the dock. She too had changed into her wet suit. But unlike Riley's, Ben noticed that her suit seemed to complement her perfectly, although his judgment my have been slightly biased. "He's still trying to get out of it?" she asked sitting down next to him.

"He's being as stubborn as ever." Ben leaned over and kissed his wife, smirking

"It doesn't matter" Abi reclined, thoroughly enjoying the fresh air and sunlight, "this week wouldn't be nearly as fun if he didn't whine every minute of it"

……………….

This was stupid...Ben had to be completely insane if he thought that Riley was getting into that water. He'd seen enough movies to see what happened when you went diving; it would inevitably end with death by shark. Plus, this suit looked ridiculous on him.

This was the sort of dumb hobby that people like Ben and Abi had. They were the sort of people who actually wanted to learn new things…crazy people. Not Riley, he was perfectly content right were he was. There was no need to tempt fate to learn about marine life, especially when he could learn all he needed to know online if he was really interested.

Of course, technically it was his fault he was here…it had been him who suggested that they try actually doing something other then attending museum openings and fancy boring parties. He never expected this though, he was talking more like…going to a movie or something.

It was Ben who made the game out of it. The man really had too much time on his hands nowadays, his whole life had been about finding the treasure, and now that it had been found, he'd become extremely bored.

Riley had tried to do his best to keep him occupied, he came over just about everyday and frequently spent the night (no matter what Abi said he was NOT freeloading, he was just trying to help Ben cope with his life's sudden lack of meaning) but still, Ben kept looking for something to add a bit of excitement to his life. So when Riley suggested they do something fun, Ben decided to distort the true meaning of the statement to fit his needs.

He'd come up with the brilliant plan that they take a vacation, not just one, but three. They'd all get to choose, and the others had to come along no matter how stupid the idea was (okay so that was Riley's interpretation…not Ben's). And fool that Riley was, he'd agreed. The end result: he was sitting in a smelly old boat in a tiny room without cable, battling sea-sickness for a week. Trying desperately to think of another way out of going diving.

He'd tried everything he could think of, feigning illness had backfired on him and Abi had caught him when he tried to SOS a nearby ship for help. Ever since then the woman had been watching him carefully as though she expected him to do something stupid. She'd even confiscated his computer, saying that they were on 'vacation' and that he could go online all he wanted when they got home. And people said these things were supposed to be fun…

Sighing he got up from his creaking, salty bed…the ship they were on was just like everything else that Ben owned, it was old. Riley knew there was some 'fascinating' story behind it that only Ben and a handful of other historians (nerds) cared about, he just couldn't remember what. All he knew was that he wasn't going to sulk in the dark awaiting his doom.

No, he was going to face his fears head on—not, y'know, like he was afraid of diving or anything like that. It was just that…it was so deep and you couldn't see the bottom. Every time Riley went in the Jaw's theme would play on a loop as his mind went into flashback mode, you never knew what was down there. There could be a shark swimming directly below the ship just waiting for its chance to attack the next idiot to jump in. Riley wasn't going to take the chance that he might be that idiot.

Regardless of his reasoning, he wasn't going to sit here and accept his fate, he going to go up to the deck to give Ben and Abi a piece of his mind! And if that didn't work…he was going to beg and plead and milk his looks for all they were worth. He'd learned at a young age how to make his looks work in his favour and it was about time he saw if he still had the skills he'd honed then.

His mind firmly made up, Riley marched out of the small room and up the ladder, playing the conversation he was about to have over in his head. He made it almost to the top of the ladder when he suddenly remembered he was wearing flippers and he promptly tripped over his elongated feet and went sprawling onto the wooden deck. He groaned, suddenly realizing at two things at once.

1. The only reason he had fallen was because he'd suddenly realized that he was in danger of falling.

2. Ben and Abi were sitting roughly three feet away staring at him…so much for his dignity.

He could feel his face turning red as he raised his aching head to look at Ben and Abi, sitting near the edge of the boat with identical looks of mixed hilarity and concern on their faces.

"Hi…um—this isn't exactly how I pictured this going…is there any way I can get out of diving due to the concussion?" to Riley's chagrin, they both burst out laughing.

Fine, let them laugh…next week it was his turn.

Dedicated to save changes to normal...so if you don't like it it's her fault. hehehe...got out of that one!