Land, Coffee, and Disastrous Drinks

The next day, I woke up feeling much better than the day before. Though my arm still ached, it wasn't throbbing nearly as bad as it had yesterday and I could walk without getting dizzy and falling all over the place...or all over someone. No, I refused to think about what had happened yesterday between Mello and me. That's what he wanted, to confuse me so that I wouldn't be ready for his next way to torture me! I had decided that it was best to just forget what had happened and move on by just saying that I wasn't thinking straight after my fall. After taking a shower, getting dressed in my usual Gothic ensemble, and applying my black make-up, I realized that we were anchored outside a port in the Caribbean! Without thinking, I raced up stairs bare-foot (paying the consequences when I stubbed my toe on the stairs) and ran smack into the annoying assistant from the day before. "We're here!" I said gleefully, forgetting my annoyance from the day before. My feeling of general love towards everyone and everything quickly disappeared when the assistant proceeded to stare me up and down and then look at me as if I were crazy.

"Yes, I suppose we have…" she said slowly. "Do you mind me asking what you're wearing?"

I looked down at my tattered jean shorts and black t-shirt emblazoned with the My Chemical Romance logo and a black-clad girl staring morosely back at me with combat boots, a black dress and striped socks. "Oh, My Chemical Romance; it's my favorite band," I exclaimed seeing the girls eyebrows shoot up in amazement, "and that's Regret. She's one of their logos from The Black Parade!"

"She looks just like you."

"Thanks!" I said cheerfully, making sure to bump into the girl as I skipped by. I bounded into the dining hall, expecting to see my friends, but no one was around. Skidding to a halt so that I wouldn't crash into the pastry table, I pivoted and raced up to the main deck, once again slamming my toe into the stairs (I really needed to watch those things!) and spotted Matt facing away from me on the other side of the deck. Picking up as much speed as I could, I sprinted towards Matty, leaped into the air, and landed piggy-back style on his back. Except, Matt seemed to have blonde hair this morning, was eating a chocolate bar, and was wearing a black vest and leather pants…whoops. We both flew backwards and crashed to the deck with me landing on top of a very shocked Mello's chest.

"What the HELL," yelled Mello, (his shock seemed to wearing off and was being replaced by anger) "has gotten into you?! First you go free-falling off the boat, and now you tackle me and send us both crashing down to the ground!!! Are you trying to kill yourself, because let me tell you, if your last stunts didn't work out I'd be happy to help you!!!"

Normally I'd have snarled right back in his face and spit some nasty come-back at him, but this was just too hilarious. I had knocked Mello clean off his feet and he was now threatening to kill me, while I was the one sitting on top of his chest, rather shocked to be staring at cold blue eyes and blonde hair instead of warm green eyes and red hair. I swear I really did try to hold it in for Mello's sake (I mean my the poor guy must have been pissed that I'd managed to get the better of him…again) but I couldn't help it; I burst out laughing! Ignoring the shocked look on the blonde's face, I continued to laugh until I couldn't sit up straight anymore and was forced to roll off of Mello's chest, clutching my sides and wheezing for breath, while tears of mirth streamed down my face. This went on for about five minutes, until an ice-cold bucket of water was dumped over my head. Sputtering and choking, I sat bolt-upright, staring at the enormous smirk spreading across Mello's face.

"You-you-" I said, attempting to shake my wet hair out of my eyes, "what was that for?!"

"Well, it looked like you were about to pass out from lack of oxygen," he said his smirk growing even wider as he took in my disheveled form, "I had to do something or your death would be on my consciousness for a very long time knowing how you never shut-up!"

Deciding that it would be a good idea to get off of the deck floor, I jumped up and promptly slipped in the puddle of water I'd been sitting in and fell down. "Ow!" I cried as I slammed back into the deck floor. At this, Mello burst out laughing. Eventually, he slumped down next to me, wheezing for breath and staring at me with lively blue eyes.

"The…look on...your face! You should have seen it!" he gasped, sitting up and shaking his head.

"Humph!" I sat stood up and marched over to the table behind us. Grabbing someone's coffee mug (probably L's since there seemed to be a large pile of sugar at the bottom) and upturned it over the laughing blonde's head. Without waiting to see his reaction, I turned on my heel and stomped downstairs, trailing water as I went.

"Meet me back up here when you're done drying off!" Mello called after me as I continued to stomp downstairs towards my cabin. "We're meeting everyone in town and we have to take a boat to get to shore!"

Twenty minutes later, I returned back to the main deck, clad in new jean shorts, an Emily the Strange T-shirt, and black flip-flops. Mello had also changed into a new black vest and black pants. "When did everyone leave?" I asked, trying to sound like I was still mad at him.

"About fifteen minutes before you tried to glomp me to death, we're meeting them at noon at a coffee shack."

"How do we know which coffee shack to meet them at?"

"They said they'll be outside looking for us, so we're bound to run into them eventually." Mello said shrugging.

"Wait a second," I said staring at him as if he had lost a few marbles when I knocked him down, "it's only ten! What are we supposed to do for two hours, play hop-scotch?!"

At this, Mello laughed, his blue eyes dancing in a way I'd never known was possible. "Well, Matt suggested that we spend some time together and work on 'getting to know each other better.' He seemed to be under the impression that all our years of cat-and-dog fighting at Wammy's never gave us a chance to get to know a lot about each other."

I groaned. "Sounds exactly like Matt," I said rolling my eyes, " bet he didn't even consider the possibility that only knowing that pasta sauce clashes horribly with your hair is enough 'getting to know each other' for me!"

"Well," Mello said looking down at me with an amused expression (it suddenly struck me how freaking tall he'd gotten since I'd last seen him), "Matt also mentioned that you'd promised to be nice to me, and that he was holding you to that promise!"

"I said I'd try" I explained hotly, crossing my arms and glaring, "I never said that I would definitely be nicer to you!"

"Hmmm…well I suppose I'm just going to have to live with that for now!" Mello said cheerfully, flipping one of my blonde pigtails as he spoke. Without waiting for a response, he scooped me up into his arms and proceeded to jump over the boat's railing towards a tiny motorboat below; with me screaming the whole way down.