When he saw the first few rays of the sun permeate through the night sky, Axel knew they had to haste things up a notch. The townsfolk only gave them a day, and while it did not exactly make him fear for his life, it made him fear for his brother's who had a knack for stupidity.

Both of them may have been born with the craftiness of a fox, but Reno being Reno, Axel himself knew that he was a tad craftier than the older red head.

Or was it the other way around?

Finding his brother wouldn't be a problem, Axel saw the older redhead knock out after his sixteenth pint right before he left the saloon, which he had to note was quite a record. Axel was as much of a drinker as his brother was, but one of them had to be alert at least for a while longer which explained his loitering around the docks on such an early morning. And as he made his way back to the saloon, he hoped on the possibility of not running into the crazy blonde kid from yesterday. He was a pirate, not a baby sitter.

Axel wasn't sure what drove him to offer the blonde a helping hand, but he supposed he could blame it on the beer and on those pleading sapphire orbs from yesterday. What could he say? He was a sucker for pretty things.

When he saw the object of his current thoughts some meters away, the redhead cursed at whatever deity had decided to make things more difficult for him. Discreetly he turned around, and started walking the opposite direction at a brisk pace, uncaring of the thought that it would only elongate the distance between him and the saloon.

He felt his pride puff up when he saw that he remained undetected, but when he heard it…

"Axel!"

The red head quickened his pace, intent on losing the lad.

"Pirate!"

Oh, okay, now the kid was getting kind of annoying but he supposed he'd rather hear the blonde's voice rather than the constant nagging from each of his many lassies.

"You! Stop!"

His voice grew faint per each second that passed, much to Axel's relief. He kept walking to the point where he couldn't hear the kid at all, which in itself proved to him that he hadn't lost his 'touch.'

After all, he was an escape artist.

"I thoughts ah 'eard the skip'eh say, leeve 'er Johnny, leeve 'er" slurred out a familiar voice from a few feet away. The familiar out of tone voice, as well as the similar shock of red hair that appeared in his line of sight was enough to make Axel feel a sense of dread and just a tiny hint of amusement.

It seemed his drunken brother still had not caught sight of him; the older pirate continued singing to his heart's content. "work 'as 'ard, voyage long, leave 'er Johnny, leeve 'er!"

'it's time to leave her', silently finished the spiky haired pirate, fully aware of the fact that he just inserted a random line from their famously acclaimed shanty.

He knew it by heart, there was no doubt about that, mostly because it was theirs; it was both Reno's and Axel's famous piece of shanty.

Both redhead brothers had to leave Her.

He had the nagging suspicion they were being watched, so he supposed it was justified for him to clock his older brother on the back of his head, which proved effective when the red head shut up and let his shorter frame slump onto the younger sibling. The taller, but younger man drug his sibling over to a crate and sat him down. He scanned the area for Rude, but the wiser man was probably already snoozing away.

Axel sighed at the thought of having to take his brother to a room to get some sleep, but before he could lift the man, he found himself with a dagger pressed against his neck

~0~0~oo~0~0~oo~0~0

"So, are you guys ever gonna tell me what you kidnapped me for? I mean, I know I shouldn't complain. I'm being treated like royalty here!"

Sora was sitting in the captain's chair inside Captain Seifer's quarters and was eating out of the giant bowl of fruits that sat at the center of a large wooden table, fit for ten men or more. He had his feet propped up on the table and was leaning back with his head comfortably resting against the cushions. Riku on the other hand was searching through a cabinet filled with spare clothes.

Earlier that morning, Sora and Riku had began playing another game of cat and mouse. The silver haired pirate chased Sora to the side of the boat and the crew was preparing to land in the water. As the brunette was leaning back, chuckling insanely at the out of breath pirate, the boat rocked as it hit the water. Sora flipped over the edge and screamed the whole way down until he hit the water with a large splash.

Almost instantly, Riku regained his breath grabbed a rope that was tied to ship and leaped over the edge to go after Sora. The boy had already resurfaced by the time Riku hit the water and the pirate looked all to relieved. Sora's head popped out of the water and he looked at Riku with a wide smirk. Needless to say, Riku regretted jumping into the water.

Sora spit a mouth full of water in the pirates direction and Riku reached out for his head to shove him under the water.

"Damn you Sora!" Riku shouted as he dunked his head again.

The brunette just laughed at Riku's misfortune. The pirate grabbed his arm and started tugging onto the rope, pulling them back onto the ship. When they reached the top Riku pushed him again and glared.

"You're so lucky you can swim. I was NOT looking forward to performing mouth to mouth." Riku was glaring daggers at Sora who was still chuckling.

"No Riku, you're lucky I can swim, cause you know Seifer would have made you."

That's what lead them into Seifer's quarters. The ship docked at a small island to do some things that Riku wasn't willing to discuss with Sora. No one was on the ship besides the two of them.

"Are you ever going to answer me Riku?" Sora questioned.

The pirate threw a shirt and a pair of trousers at the boy's face and ignored his question further. Riku went outside and leaned against the rail and stared out into the distance. Sora emerged from the room a few moments later to see Riku with the sun making his skin glow. He looked so serene. It was then at Sora realized that Riku's eyes looked just like the ocean. The blues and greens mixed in beautifully and his silver hair only complimented them even more.

Sora stepped to Riku's side and watched the sun fall beneath the horizon.

"Why did you become a pirate Riku?"

This caught the pirates attention. He looked down at Sora and he actually smiled. This made Sora's heart flutter for just a moment and he melted when he heard Riku chuckle.

Riku sighed, "You sure do ask a lot of questions, don't ya?"

They stood in silence and watched the sun finally fade beneath the horizon and the stars were beginning to peak out.

Riku saw the brunette yawn deeply from the corner of his eyes and knew it was time to get the imbecile to bed.

~0~0~oo~0~0~oo~0~0~