"Sora."
He knew that voice. That voice was made up of warm concern and glasses of water every morning at Eton, when he didn't have enough presence of mind to remember that he had classes to go to.
"Sora, wake up."
"Quiet, Roxas," he moaned in complaint, turning on his side to feel for the warmth that was seeping through his skin. His wandering hands found a stretch of flesh that felt pleasant beneath his tingling fingertips, and he edged closer so that he could press his cheek to what felt suspiciously like a strong chest trapped beneath him. His head felt so muzzy and sore that it barely mattered that a part of him wondered why Roxas's voice was not buzzing through his ear as it should have been in such a position.
"Sora… why is there a boy in your bed?"
He puzzled over that sentence for several moments, eyes closed, and then comprehension clicked far back in the recesses of his mind; fighting past the hangover that clouded his thoughts. "It's just Riku," he mumbled, sighing. His throat felt cottony and dry as he swallowed. "It's alright. He's good."
"Who's Riku?" Roxas whispered, and it was only then that Sora finally peeled his gummy eyelids back to focus on that familiar face that was swimming somewhere above his head. He blinked several times, let his brain catch up to the rest of his body, and it was with a grunt of a sigh that he sat up to see that he was half-curled in the sleeping boy's arms. Riku was still fast asleep, it seemed, and his face was pressed into the pillows while Sora lay sidled up against his firm chest.
Roxas's bewildered gaze flicked down to where Sora's hand had been resting against Riku' stomach, dangerously close to touching the inch of skin that had been revealed by his skewed shirt, and the younger boy swiftly drew his fingers back.
For just a moment, he felt the strangest urge to simply shoo his friend out of the room in fear of waking the older boy up where he lay beside him. Riku' eyelashes were fluttering slightly with dreams, his mouth was just a little bit parted, and there was a side to Sora's fuzzy mind that just wanted to leave the other boy there. Not least, he feared what the light of day was going to do to their memories of the previous night. Already, the morning felt too harsh and ordinary, as if the strange connection he'd felt to the other boy would be broken the second that Riku woke up to find that he was in Sora's suite; trapped in the conventional hell that was his life rather than adventuring through the decks together. Irrationally, he felt that it would be too awkward for Riku to find himself there.
And Sora was afraid, more than he should have been, that the other boy would simply leave.
"Sora?" Roxas prodded quietly, still clearly confused about what he was seeing.
Sora nodded once and, as carefully as he could, he tried to edge himself off of the mattress without disturbing the other boy overly much. Riku inhaled once, a soft sound, but he only turned further into the covers as Sora took the moment to ease himself onto the deck as quickly as he could; glancing back at Riku several times as he did so.
The floors were cold beneath his bare feet, and he instantly staggered into Roxas's arms as soon as he stood up, momentarily forgetting that he was in fact on a ship that was still pitching and moving beneath them without pause. His stomach rolled sickly, as much with the hangover he felt as with seasickness, and he was more than happy to allow Roxas to escort him out into the sitting room beyond with two hands beneath his elbows.
He groaned quietly as he was lowered into one of the loveseats, curling into the cushions behind him, and he found that his initial waking thought had not been that far off – Roxas already had a fresh glass of water sitting on the coffee table, and he quickly leaned over to fetch it for the younger boy as soon as he was seated.
"What happened to you last night?" he asked incredulously, glancing back at Sora as he carefully closed the sliding doors to the bedroom beyond. "I went to find you after dinner, but you weren't there. Your parents said that you went back to your room afterward, but obviously I would have known that, being in here with you, so where did you go?" He was babbling in the way that he did when he hadn't spoken to anyone for several hours, as he used to when he always used to wake up earlier than the rest of the boys in the dormitory. "And who is that in there?" he tacked on, almost like an afterthought. "I've been your roommate for years now, and that's… new."
Sora would have laughed at the tone of his voice, had it not been for the scratchiness of his tongue. Instead, he nodded absently while he gulped down a few mouthfuls of blessedly cool water. "Yes," he said roughly, emerging from the glass. "Fairly new."
Roxas's patience was clearly running thin.
"Alright," Sora sighed, shifting back on the seat so that he could tip his head toward the other boy. "I met him yesterday – he was actually on the docks and he—" He let out a small laugh. "—he actually started calling Kairi out on her behaviour while we were there, and then when I saw him in the dining hall yesterday I knew that—" He broke off just in time, before he could spill out an explanation as to how he knew that Riku was a stowaway, and so owed him a night of apology to make up for his rudeness. While he loved and trusted Roxas above all others, Riku had not even met the boy and so no matter how highly he regarded Roxas; he did not feel comfortable handing over someone else's secrets without checking with the older boy first.
"Knew what?" Roxas asked, looking more confused than before. He sat himself down on the footstool opposite Sora so that he could frown directly into the younger boy's face as he spoke. "And what was he doing in the dining hall?"
Sora chose to answer the second query only. "He was working. Waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
"Tables, Roxas. He was waiting tables."
At that, his wonderful friend's dark eyebrows climbed his forehead in surprise and he blinked several times in rapid succession. There was an odd mixture of acceptance and bewilderment playing across his features as he slowly said, "You brought a waiter back to your bed for the night after he was in the same room as your family? That's… bold."
Sora couldn't quite keep the blush from his face as he shook his head, waving his free hand at the same time to double the denials. "No, not like that," he muttered, feeling his cheeks redden. "I was playing cards, with these men, and then there was a lot of alcohol… and then we were running because Riku was cheating, and then there was this large Robert that came looking for us and I wanted to hide him for a while. But he's fine," he added, upon seeing Roxas's sceptical expression. "Really, he's more than fine."
A strange look flickered over Roxas's face then, momentarily pushing aside the concern that had clouded over his features. "More than fine?" he repeated, somewhat mischievously. "Is that why you were cuddling a few minutes ago?"
It was a testament to their friendship that he was able to make teasing comments about the situation rather than making it too uncomfortable. He could have been disgusted or appalled by the behaviour that he had witnessed – though Sora quickly reassured himself that there was absolutely, positively no way that there could be anything untoward about that scene – and yet he was fighting a smirk as he sat there and acknowledged the fact that he had just caught his best friend in bed with another man. More than that, an odd kind of delight was sweeping through his expression – although Sora was less than ecstatic about that fact.
"A lot of alcohol," the younger boy repeated pointedly. "We were just drunk, and… tired. Very tired."
Roxas flicked a glance over his shoulder, where they could not quite see the door that led through to the bedroom. His voice lowered. "You do realise that your father would have an aneurism if he knew that you had a waiter in your rooms – male or female. If he even knew that you had brought him up into the suite…"
"I know," Sora agreed emphatically, huffing out a small sigh. "But he won't know, so it's not any issue right now. We'll just have to make sure that he doesn't come out to my suite for a while, so he doesn't end up coming here at the wrong time. Do we still have that afternoon tea tomorrow?"
"That's today, actually," Roxas told him absently, but he held up two hands to forestall any further responses as his brow creased. "But I don't see how that's an issue unless you're planning to keep him in that bed for the next few days."
Sora brushed that aside immediately. "No, of course not," he assured his friend, watching Roxas relax slightly at those words. He chose to mention that the sentence was only true in the sense that he was not planning to force Riku to stay sleeping in his bed for the next few days; he would have been lying, however, if he had claimed that he was not at least planning an attempt to at least befriend the older boy. Despite the after-effects of the drunkenness, he hadn't felt so free and happy as he had last night in the midst of their disastrous evening.
"In any case," Roxas said, inhaling deeply and slapping his thighs, "you're supposed to be meeting Kairi at some point today, as per instruction, and since you've almost slept until noon you may want to try and wash the creases out of your face before you do." He ruffled the younger boy's hair in an affectionate, brotherly gesture as he stood to move over to the other table that held a plateful of fruits and breakfast. Sora groaned his protest, but dragged himself off of the seat nonetheless to polish off his water.
"Would you like me to wake your new friend up before I go?" Roxas offered, as Sora shuffled his way over to the room service cart to replace his glass. The younger boy's eyes widened in protest, and he nearly staggered over the pitching floors again as he whirled just in time to see Roxas sliding open the bedroom doors.
Sora hurried forward to stop him, wincing, but as he peeked over Roxas's shoulder he saw that there was only a rumpled bed where there had been a sleeping boy beforehand. Roxas glanced back and forth over the covers once or twice, and then turned back with a shrug for the fuzzy, spiky-haired boy that stood behind him, blinking absently.
"Perhaps he left while we were talking," Roxas suggested, canting his head, and then left the doors open before he retreated back and headed toward his own room. "If you like, I'll come with you so you'll have some company with Kairi, at the very least. You'll have to get changed, though."
Sora didn't bother to hide his sullen frown as he jerked a shoulder in a shrug and nodded. "Alright," he mumbled, and then proceeded to drag his body back over to his stunningly vacated bedroom. He hadn't even heard Riku leave, and he wondered how the boy could still be so spry when he had consumed at least the same amount of vodka that Sora had last night. He could barely make his muddled mind work quickly enough for him to fumble the doors closed behind him as he fought the urge to hide in his rooms for the rest of the day.
"I told you I should have left last night."
Sora nearly leapt out of his skin at the voice that sounded to his right, and he very quickly sat himself down on the bed so that he wouldn't suffer through the embarrassment of falling over completely. Riku was still there, leaning wearily on the wall beside the door with his hand resting back against the plaster. His arm was resting on the wardrobe beside him, bracing his body completely against the small movements of the ship, and Sora had to smother the small wisp of happiness that leapt in his stomach at the sight of the strange boy – even though he looked somewhat haggard at that very moment.
"No," Sora told him without hesitation, fighting a yawn. "Roxas understands what happened, it's alright. You didn't have to hide." His voice lilted with amusement, and his mind seemed to clear slightly as a grin stretched his lips. "But I'm glad you're still here."
Riku blinked quickly, looking as though he wasn't entirely sure what to make of that rather impulsive admission, but then he smiled in return. "Your bed is way more comfortable than mine," he laughed, mouth stretching shamelessly in a wide yawn, "I can admit to that much. It might actually be bigger than my entire room down there, so that's nice, too." Then, the older boy winced just a little bit. "Oh, Axel, I'm so sorry," he murmured under his breath, scrubbing both hands over his face in a weary gesture. "I hope he's alright."
"Your friend?"
Riku nodded once. "Yes. He's not very comfortable there, and I was going to go find him." He paused for a brief moment, chewing on the end of his thumb absently for several seconds, and his blue eyes went afar. Sora waited quietly, watching in fascination at the concern that played over his features, but then he abruptly snapped out of the daze with a tiny flinch that had him standing up from the wall. "So I should probably… get back. You know, before they start thinking that I've fallen overboard, or something."
"That's understandable," Sora said mildly, and he kept his smile in place as he nodded his approval.
"Besides, you've got that… tea thing later," Riku added, gesturing vaguely back toward the sitting room. There was a strangely defensive tone in his voice then; it was not hostile, but it sounded as though he were trying to find reasons that he should be leaving. "I don't want to pull you away, or anything, either, and I don't whether or not you'll even be allowed where I'm going to be, so…"
Sora just waved one long-fingered hand, brushing aside the other boy's concerns. "No, I completely understand," he repeated, even summoning a smile to help ease the concern out of the older boy's features. "I don't expect you to stay in here the entire boat trip, after all, and I'm sure you've things you'd rather be doing than waiting for me to finish that… tea."
He had never realised just how ridiculous the practice of an afternoon tea sitting was until that very moment, with those eyebrows tilting up just a little bit, and Sora actually felt his cheeks redden with a blush as he sat and shamefacedly considered the absurd façade that was his daily routine. He wondered how he had never thought of it before; how he had never seen how terribly dull his life was until right then.
"We'll most likely run into each other somewhere anyway," Sora added, shaking himself out of his sudden reverie in an attempt to lighten the mood again. His words were too cheerful, hiding the improbability of any meeting between someone who slept in silk and a boy who, in any normal circumstance, would have been refused at the first-class entrance to the dining hall. On the off chance that Sora was released from his obligation, it was doubtful that he would be able to discretely slip over to the other side of the deck without someone calling him on his behaviour; putting him in the awkward position of trying to explain why he wanted to sneak over to meet with a stowaway – something he wasn't entirely sure about, himself.
"Right," Riku said again, shortly. He flashed a bright grin as he slipped out of those sleek doors, leaving Sora with the strangest feeling that they had somehow left an unspoken question hanging in the air with that sudden departure. It was as if the conversation had not yet ended, and he found himself slumping back into an undignified slouch as he leant back on his hands and sighed.
He shot back upright as the doors opened again.
"Or," Riku mused, stepping back into the room without preamble, "you could just come with me, and leave the tea and biscuits for later. That is, if you actually—"
Sora was already on his feet as he hastily replied, "Yes."
"—want to," Riku finished belatedly, and then paused. A small smile was tugging at the corner of his mouth, just barely out of sight, but when Sora suddenly beamed at him that smirk became a full-blown grin that had his eyes crinkling slightly at the corners. He smothered it quickly, but he couldn't quite hide the pleased look that was dancing in his eyes as he nodded. "Well, alright then. Although, I do have to go back to the rooms to get out of this first," he said, plucking at his rumpled waiter's uniform, "which means you will have to risk your pretty face in the lower sections of the staff quarters again."
A muffled snort made its way out of Sora's lips, and his voice was amused as he muttered, "I'll managed."
Riku shared his grin in that moment, leaving a small, happy flush of warmth singing though Sora's veins to chase away his weariness, and he waited for Sora to join his side once more before they moved out into the room beyond – where Roxas was waiting for them, looking vaguely puzzled by the situation in which he found himself.
Sora and Riku both stopped short, as if they'd somehow run into Sora's parents themselves; waiting to reprimand their son with dark scowls and sparking gazes, rather than the slightly bewildered boy that stood in front of them now. Roxas's lips were pouted just a little in a confused frown as he looked from one to the other, but Riku quickly skipped forward before he could get a word out.
"Hullo," he said cheerfully, extending a hand with a large, irresistibly friendly grin. "I'm Riku, and it is lovely to meet you, Roxas. Sora's already spewed out everything there is to know about you," he added, reaching back to wrap his fingers around the younger boy's shoulder in an affectionate squeeze, "and since I spent a good hour hearing about what a great person you are; I really do mean that."
"Did he really?" Roxas asked blankly, just as Sora muttered, "I did?"
Riku' smile didn't falter. "You did," he confirmed, addressing Sora, and then shared a surprisingly conspiratorial smile with Roxas as he added, "He seemed to think that you'd be quite upset with the both of us if we came stumbling into your bedroom late last night with some celebratory drinks, so you've got him to thank for that one."
Sora wasn't sure what was more surprising; the easy-going, familiar manner with which his newest friend was addressing his oldest, or how quickly Roxas was disarmed by it. Within the space of just a few seconds of bright smiles and wide eyes, his concerned expression relaxed into a loose returning smile as he laughed once. "He was right about that," Roxas returned in a rueful tone, but there was actual warmth in his eyes as he glanced at his friend once more, shaking his head.
Sora's mouth nearly fell open. His total surprise almost let him trip into a teasing comment about how Roxas had been so easily derailed from his usual straight-laced professionalism – until he realised that he had only met the older boy a day ago, himself, and since that moment he had willingly enabled a drinking competition, a cheating gambler and had slept with a boy; all without uttering a single complaint. Riku' hand was still resting on his shoulder as they spoke, and somehow Sora had trouble with pointing the judgemental finger at Roxas for being charmed when he was practically pressed against the hip of the older boy, himself.
Instead of bothering him overly much, as it should have, that thought only brought a tiny smile to his lips.
"I'd love to stay," Riku said suddenly, breaking the bubbly atmosphere of the room with a deep breath and a gesture toward the door, "but actually we've got to get going for a little while." He slipped into the plural faultlessly, so that Sora barely noticed that he was included in the departure until he felt himself being tugged away gently. "You're welcome to come with us, of course…?"
Roxas paused, and Sora immediately knew why. On the one hand, they had been best friends since absurdly early ages, so it seemed unnatural for either of them to see the other leaving with someone else – Sora knew this from personal experience, having felt the strange mixture of jealousy and embarrassment for feeling resentful toward anyone that momentarily monopolised his closest friend. However, it was also clear that Roxas could see how much Sora was itching to leave; it was nothing personal, but he was eager to escape to spend whatever time he could with this new, rather exciting person that was going to take him out of their mind-numbing social scene.
So, while he may have been slightly put-out by the enthusiasm on his best friend's face, Roxas was too tactful to try and join them as he waved the other boys along. "No, you go ahead," he smiled. "I'll see you later this afternoon, Sora, and it was a pleasure to meet you."
Riku grinned in response, and Sora's shoulder tingled strangely as the older boy released it to reach for the door. Just as he moved to follow on, Roxas's hand gently reached out to catch at Sora's arm to bring him to a stop as he murmured, "Remind me again how you met him?"
Sora just shrugged. "He broke the law and I tried to blackmail him into slavery?" he replied archly, not quite a question, and a broad grin lifted his features as he hastened out through the door before Roxas could move past the initial stages of the blank shock just beginning to form on his face. He only snagged a light coat where it hung near the doorway and shut the door on the stuttering questions that followed after him.
Sora was surprised to find that the narrow, warm hallways of the staff quarters didn't bother him as much the second time as they had the first. His stomach was still slightly uneasy within him, but on the whole his hangover all but vanished in the brief blast of sea air he received upon exiting his suite and it made it far easier to brave those corridors as he trotted along with Riku until they came to the right room again.
Sora might have felt too rude simply barging in, but Riku only opened the door up wide the second he arrived; bursting into the tiny space without a single warning for the people beyond, and so he simply hovered on the threshold as Riku moved toward the left side of the narrow room. To Sora, it only looked like a lump of pillows and a tuft of hair that protruded from the covers, but Riku' expression gentled with a profound amount of fondness as he looked upon that bed.
"Axel," he whispered, nearly singing the words, and he reached up to pull aside a layer of cloth to reveal the boy beneath.
He received only a quiet moan in response.
"You alright, mate?" Riku murmured as he approached the edge of the bunk, peering into the bleary face of the red hair boy that lay there. Sora recognised him as the other lad that had been with Riku upon their arrival, thus undoubtedly making him another stowaway, and his mind helpfully supplied the name 'Axel' to the boy that groaned under his breath and swatted absently at Riku' face. His fingers slid lazily down Riku' features, dragging at his eyebrow and smashing his palm against the older boy's cheek in an effort to turn him away.
"'M fine," he mumbled, and Sora noted that his words were lilted in a light – albeit very tired – Irish accent. "You're late. You were supposed to be back last night."
"I know."
Axel inhaled deeply, emerging from the bedding with a tiny bit more liveliness than before as he asked, "So, who've you been sleeping with, then? I thought we were supposed to be keeping a low profile here, not fuck everything that comes across your path."
A choked laugh escaped Sora's lips, before he could smother it completely, and it was only then that Axel's vivid blue eyes slipped open so that he could turn a hazy look onto the boy that was standing in the threshold. He quite clearly surveyed Sora once, making the younger boy straighten slightly beneath the scrutiny, and Axel then lifted up onto one elbow so that he could look between them both. "Have you got something you want to tell me, Ri?" he asked pointedly, yet mildly, and rubbed sleepily at his eyes as he dragged himself into a seated position. "I always thought you were a handsy drunk, but…"
Riku' eyes slid to their corners as he flicked a very quick glance in Sora's direction, but his grin was calm as he flashed across his face. "Only with you, Axel," he said coyly, and lifted himself up on the edge of the bed so that he could peck a swift kiss somewhere on the other boy's eyelid, making him cringe. "And this is Sora; he was hiding me out after I pissed those blokes off last night."
"The poker blokes? I thought you were going to play fair this time."
"I never said that," Riku replied innocently, tongue-in-cheek, and without warning; he suddenly turned and stripped the shirt from his back to toss it on the bed. The material slid straight off of his torso, revealing a smooth expanse of skin that was somehow just as tanned as the rest of him, and he spared not a glance for the extremely startled boy that stood behind him, wondering if he was supposed to leave. Already, Riku' fingers were tugging at the pins that kept his overly large trousers in place, too, and Sora felt his cheeks inexplicably begin to heat up as he caught sight of the different muscles arching in the older boy's shoulders and back.
Sora's vision sparkled just a little bit, and it was only then that he realised that he'd begun holding his breath as he stood there, shifting his gaze to a far more innocuous spot on the wall to his right.
He wasn't entirely sure what has happening to him. He had never had a problem with nakedness before, especially not with other males, because having his childhood hosted in an all-boys college had done plenty in making comfortable with other people. He had seen plenty of strangers in far more compromising positions throughout his adolescence without a single reaction. While the rest of his upbringing might have explained the ridiculous propriety that was causing him to avert his eyes, there was no reason that he could find for why his hands were fidgeting at his sides or the strange flashes of heat that prickled over his skin and made his ears go hot. He could feel his flush creeping down his neck as the conversation continued, undisturbed.
"If you lost more of my money," Axel warned, "then you're gonna be working the kitchen shift on your own for the rest of this boat trip while I hang out on top and relax."
The Irish boy was shirtless, yet Sora hadn't felt any embarrassment as being introduced to him in that state.
"I didn't lose anything! I didn't even put anything down, if you can believe that – it was all Sora that made that possible, too, so be nice to him." He flicked what he could reach of Axel's knee and shot Sora a small smile over his shoulder before he bent down to rummage through the trunk at the foot of the bed. His trousers were riding very low on his slim frame, even with the hand that he kept clutching at the waistband so they wouldn't fall off completely, and Sora could just see the hint of a small scar poking up from his left side, above the hipbone. It was how he knew that his gaze had wandered again, before he resolutely yanked his eyes safely away.
Sora did not notice the quiet boy that was sitting in the bunk beside him as he stood there, determinedly staring at the grubby plaster, and so he was not aware of the amusement playing across Leon's features as he watched the mottled colour splashing across Sora's cheeks. He had consented to simply enjoy the other boy's reaction for several seconds, fascinated by the diverse colours forming on his skin, but he finally took mercy on him; distracting him from the rapidly undressing boy in the form of a extended hand.
"Hi, I'm Leon," he introduced himself with a friendly smile, and Sora felt a moment's relief as he leant forward to shake the other boy's hand. He tried to cover the fact that he had not even realised that someone was sitting there, half-hidden beneath the bunk above his head.
"Please to meet you," Sora murmured in an undertone, ignoring the rustling of material that sounded somewhere to his left. He stared too avidly at Leon's handsome face as he asked, "Did you come on board with them, too?"
Something like a snort escaped his lips, and his dark eyebrows flew up his forehead. "With these two?" he asked incredulously, laughing. "There's no way I wouldn't have made it through if I hadn't had the proper passes and tokens; I barely made it on even with my legitimate statement. No, I definitely don't belong with these two idiots."
That made Riku and Axel pause in their conversation briefly, and while Sora might have expected some response to the latter description of the boys, Riku only lifted one eyebrow to cast a glance at his red haired friend. "You told him that we snuck on board?" he asked.
Axel shrugged. "Yeah, basically. You told Sora, didn't you?"
"No, I didn't actually," Riku replied haughtily, and Axel scoffed out a laugh.
"Well, you have now, haven't you? Well done, Ri."
The older boy only rolled his eyes, before his head momentarily disappeared into the undershirt he pulled over his shoulders. He spoke into the material a moment before his tousled head reappeared. "Actually, I didn't. See out of the two of us, I have some sense of control and secrecy and I didn't start spilling records of our crimes out onto every lad that… alright, granted, he's living with us so he probably would've found out eventually, but that's not the point. Besides, Sora had already seen us so that doesn't count at all."
A frown briefly marred Axel's smooth, unlined forehead as he glanced over at the spiky-haired boy, but then his expression lit with comprehension as he finally caught onto why Sora had seemed strangely familiar upon his entrance. "Oh, right!" he exclaimed, cheerfully. "You were behind us in the line, weren't you? Christ, you were with that—" He was cut short by a swift, unsubtle punch from his friend, and then hastily blurted out, "That lovely girl."
Sora spoke before he meant to. "You mean that rude, irritating, self-obsessed debutante? You can say it."
All three of the boys there exchanged a surprised look at those words, looking somewhat impressed to hear them falling from the posh boy's lips, and Axel's face stretched into a wide grin that twisted cheekily and made his eyes sparkle. "That's not even close to what I was going to say, man," he drawled, "but yeah, that sounds about right."
Leon glanced between them. "Is she really that bad?"
"Yes," Sora answered immediately, before either of the others could even open their mouths. "She's really that bad." His emphatic tone brought a look of sympathy to Leon's features, and he received a small pat on the shoulder for the distaste that momentarily contorted his lips around the words.
The snapping of elastic brought Sora's attention back to the blue-eyed boy in the centre of the room, and he glanced up to find that Riku was smiling at him again as he adjusted the braces that sat stop his blessedly clothed shoulders.
"Are you ready?" he asked Sora brightly, and the younger boy nodded enthusiastically.
Axel, however, was less pleased; his eyebrows drew into a suspicious scowl as he looked between them both. "Where are you going? If you're planning on ditching me below deck for the second day in a row – your best mate – then you've got another—"
"We're skipping breakfast and exploring the rest of the boat," Riku explained quickly, lips upturned. "All the lower levels and that; the stuff we didn't get to see yesterday."
Axel's nose wrinkled. "Oh."
Whether it was by design or a simple acknowledgement of the uncomfortable look that crossed his friend's face, Sora noticed that Riku did not extend to Axel the same invitation that he had with Roxas earlier. "I'll come and enjoy the top deck with you later, though, alright?" he added, patting his friend's leg as he passed. "Make sure you don't stay down here too long, and I told the chefs to set you aside a plate in the kitchen before they set the rest out to get wolfed down. It'll be with a girl called Josie when you go, and make sure you give her the best Irish accent you've got mate." The last was said with a cheeky grin and a twitching of his eyebrows, and a different look graced Axel's features as his gaze became considering.
"Come on," Riku whispered to Sora, pausing only to give a brief wave to Leon on his way out of the room, and they both hurried out before they could be called back again.
