There was a ship-wide announcement that night calling the crew to their first dinner in the galley, on the second floor. Tiana and Cookie got everything served up just in time, because the whole crew was getting pretty hungry. The entire galley was filled with starving sailors within minutes, and both cooks bustled to serve everyone. Jim and his brothers helped out too, because they were used to serving in their aunt's inn back home. Jim tried to get Peter to help, but Tiana made him sit back down pretty quick because Tink was stuck to Peter like glue, and Tiana didn't want Tink's alien pixie dust getting in her food.

Tiana assured everyone that there was enough for them all to have another serving if they wanted, and she and Cookie served themselves and sat with their group. As the crew scarfed down their meal, Jim took a look around to size up the people he hadn't met today. There were surprisingly few aliens aboard, and all the ones that Jim could see were animal-based. Except for Tink; Jim still didn't know exactly what the hell Tink was. And, unlike the other aliens, Merlin's owl wasn't a humanoid hybrid. He was basically just a talking owl. An abnormally large one, but nonetheless...

About an hour later, the galley was still filled with people, relaxing as they ate and drank and chattered and joked around. It was a pretty relaxed first night. Jim figured it was because the successful launch put everyone in a good mood. It was a step in the right direction to a victorious voyage.

"I'm gonna get another glass." Adam said kind of loudly, gesturing to his emptied mug. "You guys want anything?"

Tarzan shook his head. "Nah, I've had enough. I think I'll just go get a water." He hadn't even finished his second mug yet.

Adam scoffed. "Right. Be right back." He started to stand up and pick up his mug.

"You should take it easy, Adam." Tarzan warned him. "You don't want a hangover tomorrow."

Adam rolled his eyes and walked away. Once he was out of earshot, Peter began to laugh. Tink made her usual tinkling noise as she sat on his shoulder. Jim smirked and shook his head, then rested his eyes on Tarzan's mug, which was still 2/3 of the way full.

"Hey, Tarzan?"

"Yeah?"

"Can, I, uh..." He gestured vaguely to the mug. "You know..."

Tarzan chuckled. "Yeah, I don't see why not. Don't ever tell Aunt Sarah though. And take it slow... In fact, split it with Peter, and both of you take it slow." He gave each teenager a pointed look.

Peter's face lit up while Jim grinned and nodded, taking the mug.

"Thanks, bro." Jim said.

Tarzan playfully rolled his eyes and stood up to leave. "I'm gonna go get some water. Be right back. And, Jim, that cute girl from engineering is smiling at you. Don't make an ass of yourself."

As Tarzan walked away and Peter and Tink began to laugh at him, Jim blushed and looked over to see Audrey smiling and sending him a small wave from where she was piling more food onto her plate. He grinned like an idiot and waved back, making her laugh and bite her lip. Now both of them were blushing.

Adam had refilled his cup, but didn't want to go sit down just yet. He leaned against the wall by the drink table and slurped from his mug, looking over the crew in a haze. Then, he saw a strikingly familiar head of red hair coming toward the drinks and grinned evilly to himself.

Of course, Merida had seen Adam standing there- the guy was so damn tall, she'd have to be blind not to notice him- but she wasn't going to let his presence keep her from the ale. She ignored his stormy eyes resting on her as she poured herself a stout, and started to walk away, as if she had no idea he was there. At first, it seemed like he was going to let her go unscathed. But then, of course, he began to follow her to her table.

"Well, if it isn't the little psycho!" Adam laughed from behind her.

Merida rolled her eyes, supressing a groan. She turned to smile at him defiantly, but didn't stop walking ahead of him. "Funny. Ya' tell me to stay away from ya', and then ya' come looking for a fight. Not really that smart, are ya'?" She turned smugly away while he rolled his eyes.

"Well I'm definitely not as stupid as you are crazy." He retorted sloppily.

Merida almost laughed aloud as she realized how drunk he was. "That's probably true. But how d'ya' figure?" She looked at him with feigned curiosity as she sat back in her seat and took a nonchalant sip of her ale.

Adam leaned heavily on her table. "At least I know how to pick my battles. You're lucky I'm such a nice guy, 'cause any other opponent my size would probably whup you for your attitude." He took another slurp of his drink.

She scoffed. "Right, you're such a gentleman. I suppose I should be glad I ran into ya' today!"

He shrugged. "I suppose."

She snorted, sipping from her ale again. Then she remembered something and clapped her mug down on the table, glaring up at him. "By the way: I am not little!"

Adam's eyebrows popped up and he sarcastically drawled, "Right..."

"I'm not! I am average sized for my age!" She insisted.

He suspiciously eyed her already half-emptied mug. "Speaking of which... Are you allowed to be drinking that?"

She seethed. "I'm 22, you buffoon!"

Adam scoffed. "Right. Why hang around Audrey, then?"

"She might be the youngest member of this crew, but she's also one of the smartest." Merida answered honestly. Then she looked Adam up and down in disgust. "A helluva lot smarter than you. And by the way, she's coming back here right now, so you should probably scram, ya' dumb brute." She drank from her mug again.

Adam rolled his eyes and turned to walk away. "Yeah, right, I'm going... Don't let the drinks go to your head, twerp."

Merida scoffed and set her mug down loudly. "I can assure you that I can hold my liquor way better than you can!" She pointed at him with a challenging expression on her face.

"Oh, yeah?" Adam demanded belligerently, setting his own glass on the table. "Let's see, then!"

Merida cackled ruefully. "Ya' really think ya' stand a chance, boy?"

Adam fell into the chair opposite her, just as Audrey was about to take a seat. Audrey rolled her eyes and took off to find another seat while Merida called to Tiana, "Get me a jug! We've got a drinking contest over here!"

While most of the crew crowded around Merida's table to watch, Audrey came along and stole Adam's seat so that she sat across from Jim and Peter.

"Hey, guys." She greeted with a friendly smile.

"Hey." Peter replied carelessly before running off to watch the contest. Tink quickly zipped after him.

Left alone with Audrey, Jim stared dumbly at her and stuttered, "H-hey, Audrey..."

Seeing Jim and Audrey together, Tarzan smirked and walked away to watch his other brother make a fool of himself. He stood behind Belle and Jane, who didn't seem to notice his arrival.

Jane shook her head. "Oh, this is just sad."

"I know." Belle agreed. "Don't they have any dignity?"

"Come on, let's get out of here." Jane said, leading Belle away.

Tarzan looked at Belle's retreating form, then at his drunken brother, and thought to himself, 'Oh, boy...'

Phoebus, meanwhile, wasn't really in the mood to watch two dumb kids get wasted. Captain Amelia, surprisingly, seemed to be finding the little dual extremely hilarious. Though, she was pretty tipsy herself. Phoebus smirked and shook his head as he navigated his way out of the jumble of sailors, intending to head up to his quarters.

But then he spotted a certain Greek girl sitting by herself in the corner, and he just couldn't help himself.

Meg raised an eyebrow as he approached her booth. "You again?"

Phoebus chuckled as he sat across from her. "Oh, ya' know. I always pop up when you least expect me."

Meg smirked and took a swig of her drink. "You are a cop, after all."

"Well, I'm not really a cop. I'm an army officer."

"You trying to get on my good side?" She drawled, her gaze flickering over him.

"Do you have a good side?" Phoebus grinned.

Meg chuckled. "Oh, the stiff makes jokes. I'm impressed."

"Stiff? Ouch." He smirked. "I'm glad I impress you, though."

"Oh, yeah?"

He nodded with a sincere expression. "Yeah."

"I mean, you try pretty hard."

Phoebus pulled a face. "Is it that obvious?"

She chuckled lowly and slightly nodded her head. "Yeah."

He looked at her for a moment with an amused glimmer in his brown eyes."Can I get you another drink?"

Meg squinted suspiciously at him. "I dunno..."

"Come on. Just one drink."

She raised an eyebrow. "It's never just one drink, is it?"

"You don't trust me?"

"Not at all." She smirked. "But that's not really the problem."

"Then what is?"

"It don't really trust myself."

Phoebus nodded, and they just stared evenly at each other for a few moments, the mutual attraction lingering in the air between them, but slowly being snuffed by Meg's self-inflicted solitude and mistrust.

They were distracted when the crowd roared. They both turned to see that Adam had been overtaken by the ale and slumped over, face-planting into the table- hard- and knocking over his mug. A few people gave Merida congratulatory pats on the back while she cackled and triumphantly pointed at Adam's fallen form. She made a few rude and incredibly loud remarks, despite seeming pretty sober. But pride had overtaken her, and she now relished in her victory over her sizeable rival.

"Wow." Jim commented, his eyebrows raised. "She really can hold her liquor."

"Yeah..." Audrey nodded. Then she gave Jim an apologetic look. "I think this is my cue to leave, though. You know, get Merida out of here before she gets in over her head."

"Yeah, me too..." Jim muttered as he watched Tarzan push through the boisterous crowd to get to Adam.

Both kids stood up from the table and headed toward the mayhem.

"See you tomorrow?" Audrey asked with a hopeful smile.

Jim smirked and nodded. "Yeah. Definitely."

"Good..." She giggled and gave him an adorable little salute. "Night, Jim."

"Good night, Audrey." Jim watched her pull Merida away before going in to assist Tarzan. Merida couldn't help snorting in her laughter as she watched the unconscious Adam get dragged out by his brothers.

Captain Amelia chuckled and addressed the crowd. "I suggest we all get some rest now. Eric's got the ship coasting toward Grannus, and we should be reaching it by morning. We've got a big first day ahead of us!"

As people slowly began to filter out, Meg looked across her secluded booth at the distracted Phoebus, deciding something. Finally, she sighed and said, "You know what?"

He looked at her curiously. "What?"

"I'm not ready to sleep yet. If you're willing to stay up..." She smirked, and her purple eyes gleamed. "I think I'd like to have that drink after all."