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The strong breeze waltzed along the deck, creating invisible lines and contours in the air with each surge. It rippled and curled its way through a petite woman's hair, the brown waves glimmering a brilliant gold in the gentle sunlight. It travelled its way up a young child's body, challenging the worn sleeves and well loved trouser legs before pushing its way up and around the youthful face.

It continued its way hastily along the new deck, travelling above the almost pristine pine boards and dodging its way around walls, around corners towards a smattering of young children gleefully playing with a ball, the toy drifting ever so slightly with the force of the breeze as it bounced and moved through the air. The sound of carefree laughter waxed and waned in the path of the gust.

Further down the deck, five young men pushed their way through a door, bursting into the open with smiles on their faces and laughter on their lips. The tall, lean one roughly scuffled the immaculate hair of the blond one, who in turn pushed his hands against the other boy's chest in an effort to stop him as the three others looked on and chuckled between themselves. As he futilely tried to fix his hair, the blond one glanced up, his gaze wandering until he met the hard stare of an aging man much further along the wooden floor. The young man stilled, the laughter dying on his lips as he returned the stare evenly, appearing almost as a challenge to the watching man, saying Here I am. Come and get me, I dare you.

The shorter brown haired boy, noticing the look on the blond's face, laid a hand on his arm silently, searching his face as he asked what was wrong. The gesture was tender, loving, and when no reply was received, the young man followed the gaze of the boy's who had stolen his heart, his eyes stilling upon the face of the angered man down the deck. His grip tightened ever so slightly on the blond's arm, and he moved a step closer, his chest coming into contact with the right side of the blond boy as they continued to both meet the gaze of the man. Without speaking, they had formed a united front, sending a message to the man that the blond boy was not alone.

The man realised this and narrowed his eyes. Staring for another long second, he ripped his eyes away, turned around and strode purposefully down the deck, his back eventually disappearing from sight.

The wind ripped wildly through the two boys' hair.

The sighting was no accident, Jeff knew that. He had seen the satisfaction on his father's face as they'd made eye contact, and that was when he knew that the man had come with an agenda. He wasn't standing on the deck enjoying the fresh sea breeze or soaking up the sun, he'd come with a purpose. Not so much as to scare Jeff, but more of a reminder that he was close by, that he was watching from the shadows. He wanted to make sure his son was on-edge and uncomfortable for the rest of the trip.

Well, it hadn't worked.

Sure, Jeff was surprised at first when he met his father's stare, but he had known that it would happen sometime. His father would first stay at a distance, watching and waiting, but would then gradually pop up here or there, a little bit closer each time.

That was how it was with business. His father would watch possible clients from a distance, commonly appearing in the same room, perhaps sometimes waving and saying hello in passing. This was his strategy. He was making an impression. Not necessarily a grand one, but a very subtle one, making sure he stayed in some corner of their minds. And one day, when he approached them, they would be surprised but not-so-surprised at the same time, of course eventually choosing such a company who they were familiar with.

Once a businessman, always a businessman.

Jeff was not a firm believer in the fact that a man could be a successful business man and a family man at the same time. His own father was living, breathing, walking, talking proof of that. As a child, Jeff was used to being treated like a worker or an employee, when all he wanted was to be treated like a son. He wanted his father to do things that he knew other men did for their children, like read the classic fairytales to him before he went to sleep at night. He wanted a tender clap of approval on the shoulder as his father passed by. He wanted to pretend to be annoyed when his father ruffled his hand through his hair, laughing as he did so.

John Sterling may have been Jeff's father, but he would never be his dad.

A nudge to his side bought Jeff back to the present. He looked to his side, taking in the concerned look on Nick's face. "You ok?"

Jeff smiled at him. "Yeah, I'm ok."

Nick took Jeff's hand in his and led him over to a table on deck where Sebastian was already sitting, along with Finn and Sam. The three had their faces tipped back and their eyes closed, soaking the warm sun into their systems.

"Ah," Sam hummed in contentment as Nick and Jeff took a seat. "Vitamin D, how I've missed you so."

Sebastian snorted, clapping Sam on the shoulder.

"Hey!" Sam protested. "I'll have you know that you're not looking too tan yourself, mate." He looked his friend up and down. "In fact I think you're looking a bit pasty."

Sebastian's head snapped up and he began examining his exposed arms. "Hmm. I think you may be right." He sighed dramatically. "The ladies won't appreciate that too much."

Nick shook his head at his hopeless cousin. He looked to his left, shielding his eyes from the sun and caught Jeff's gaze. The blond smiled and laced their fingers together in his lap.

"So," Finn looked around at his brother and their friends, "What should we do now?"

"You know, this ship is entirely overrated." Sam shook his head. "The whole time we've been aboard I think we've been bored for about half of it."

"That's because we're not in first class," Nick bumped shoulders with Jeff. "You should see it down there. Extravagant feasts all day long – "

Jeff raised his eyebrows. "Tea with the Captain."

"Rooms that take up half a level."

"Enough china to form a new continent."

"Enough ego to populate that continent." Nick laughed, leaning into Jeff.

Finn and Sam laughed, and Sebastian smirked at them. "Sounds like fun." He leant back with a lazy grin on his face and looked at his cousin and Jeff. "You guys should totally wreak havoc in first class today."

Nick looked sceptical. Well, as sceptical as he could with a grin still on his face. He glanced across at Jeff, who looked thoughtful and interested. Sebastian noted Nick's dubious look and continued. "No, nothing drastic, Nicky. Just for a bit of laughs."

Nick raised an eyebrow, thinking about what his cousin was implying. "I don't know, Sebastian – "

"No," Jeff cut in. "We should."

Nick looked at him suspiciously. Jeff nodded. "We should. We need to show my parents that we're not afraid of them."

Nick leaned back. "Right. Well, I don't know about you, Jeff, but I'm terrified of your parents."

Finn and Sam laughed.

Sebastian smirked at his cousin and his boyfriend, folding his arms across his chest to watch the scene unfold.

Jeff placed his hand on Nick's leg and turned in his seat to face him. "Think about it, Nicky. We have to show them that they don't scare us. That we aren't just not going to be together because they disapprove."

Nick smiled fondly at the ease in which the nickname slipped from Jeff's lips. He was looking straight at him, his eyes shining with the prospect of what they were perhaps about to do. Jeff was so sure that he wanted to spend his life with Nick. Nick couldn't even comprehend the amount of love he had for this blond boy.

He placed his hand over the one of Jeff's that was resting on his leg. He looked into his eyes for a long moment. He really knew there was no question about it; he would follow Jeff to the end of the world and back.

He nodded slowly. "Ok. Let's do it."

"Alright!" Sam swung a fist through the air, breaking the seriousness of the moment.

Jeff laughed. He leaned forward and kissed Nick softly, looking into his eyes. "Thank you."

Nick smiled at him. "Anything for you."

Jeff squeezed his hand for a moment and flashed him a smile. He stood up, pulling Nick's arm up with him and revealing their clasped hands to the others. "Right. We should get started then."

Nick rolled his eyes fondly before pushing himself up from his seat, properly entwining his fingers with Jeff's.

This was going to be an interesting day.

But he had no idea how much.