Sora just about came unglued when Riku told everyone Rachel had agreed to be his girlfriend. He had been waiting on it but it was still exciting. He and Kairi had completely forgotten the news they wanted to share about listening to their Heart Songs in the Hall of Gardens. They'd planned it all out too. Bryan would play their songs again for Rachel and Riku to hear and maybe Rachel could give their songs words. But that was pushed to the very back of the line of important things at the moment. Kairi was all laughter and hugs. By the way they acted, an onlooker would have thought something incredible had happened to them.
Riku looked to Bryan. The Master didn't look appalled. But he didn't look completely celebratory either. Bryan jerked his head back, an indication to follow. When they were alone, Riku got his first real guy-time talk with Bryan. Granted part of that talk was Bryan's version of the fatherly, you-better-not-hurt-her-anything-you-do-to-her-I-do-to-you-I-loved-her-first-you-break-her-heart-I-break-your-legs speech. Afterwards they shook hands like gentlemen and joined the others
The group took an early dinner and feasted on a sizable ham, sour cream and chive mashed potatoes, sweet corn, peas and fat fluffy honey rolls.
"Thith ish sutch an grea way to liff." Sora tried to say through a mouthful of bread. He'd rarely been able to partake of such feasting when he was on his quest to seal Keyholes. "So what's next?" He asked after he swallowed.
"Develop table manners?" Riku mumbled from across the table.
"Is it too much to ask to get cleaned up?" Kairi asked Rachel before Sora could respond to Riku's comment.
"Not at all. That's a great idea actually. You'll love the bathing rooms. It's like being at a spa only no one is waiting on you."
"No one human anyway." Bryan added.
"Bathing rooms?" Sora asked.
"Oh yeah," Bryan said. "There are a lot more options than just a tub or shower here. Most of them are meant more for relaxing than getting clean."
"Now I'm curious."
So, after eating their fill the friends went upstairs to the bathing hall. Sora had never thought much about taking a shower as a fun activity, per say but in the bathing hall was more like a water park. So many pools and tubs and showers to choose from. To save time Rachel and Bryan decided for everybody.
In a well-lit side room was a huge ovular tub not quite three feet deep. Spread across the narrowest part was a scallop shell fanned wide to serve as a divider. It looked to be made of some kind of opaque glass. Sora, Riku and Bryan took one side and the girls took the other. Metal mesh hampers scampered away to wash their clothes. The water was clear with billows of steam dancing across the surface. A soon as Sora stepped in, the surface also became coated with a mist-like something that obscured the clearness of the water, probably for modesty. Although the images of their feet were much less clear through the water, an interesting detail did not go unnoticed.
"You didn't transform." Sora commented to Bryan.
Bryan grinned, lifting his foot out of the water. "Nope. Master Yen Sid enchanted the water so we wouldn't. Rachel loves her bath time soaks too much. And you can't exactly scrub your feet when you don't have any."
The tub was incredible. Along the ledge were leaves and flowers carved into the marble. When activated, a flower would rear up from the ledge and open, becoming a showerhead. There were opened flowers carved into the side of the tub underwater that spewed forceful jets of water in just the right places to relieve maximum tension.
"Oh you gotta try this!" Sora exclaimed.
Riku watched curiously as Sora tried to keep himself from getting pushed away from the ledge by the jets. Then he spun the tile that activated the jets on his side. "OW!" Was the first thing he said when they turned on. "It's like getting shot in the back with a cannon!"
"But it feels good, doesn't it."
"Oh yeah."
"You spun the tile too fast." Bryan said, a smirk tugging at his lips.
"What?"
"The tile that turns the jets on. You spun it too fast." Bryan demonstrated by lightly turning the tile in question on his side slowly. The water around him slowly frothed. He continued turning the tile slowly, the water coming out faster as he did so until it was comfortable for him.
Sora and Riku stared him down with a you-could-have-said-something-before glare.
Little floating trays dog-paddled to each of them then returned to their inanimate states. Each carried a large sponge and bar of soap. For the most part, the bath commenced in silence. Only after the scrubbing was over and the relaxing resumed did they start talking.
"You know something I don't get?" Sora mused aloud.
"I'm sure the things you don't get could fill several books." Riku replied without skipping a beat. He could hear the girls snicker from across the room.
"I'll ignore that. This might interest you too."
"What is it?" Bryan asked.
"Ok, so, Riku's a year older than me."
"Yeah, so?" Riku said.
"And Bryan is only a few months older than me."
"I am."
"So we're all basically in the same age bracket right?"
"Yeah." Riku agreed. "So what's the question?"
"So why is he the only one with facial hair?"
Across the room they could hear Rachel and Kairi laughing. Bryan absentmindedly ran his thumb across his mustache and down his goatee. He too was smiling. Bryan told them how after their first adventure several years ago did he notice his first whiskers. A year later he had enough growing at the same time to get an actual beard going. Or at least a partial one. In the time since he'd never seen a single whisker anywhere else other than under his nose. His cheeks remained smooth and unobscured as a prepubescent child.
"You should have heard Master Yen Sid and Merlin when Bryan said he was going to try and grow a mustache." Rachel's voice came from across the divider. "They sounded so proud. Something about how a beard gave a man a dignified, masculine air and a look of wisdom and respect as he aged."
"I was so sure Merlin was going to turn her into a frog when she started laughing."
"That was just because I couldn't picture you in a beard! It had nothing to do with them."
Sora laughed. Knowing that both Master Yen Sid and Merlin had full beards he really wished he could have been there for that conversation.
"So what's going to happen now?" Sora heard Kairi ask after the giggling subsided. "If you wanted to keep us traveling all over the worlds a secret, this would mean good-bye soon."
"Soon, but not yet." Bryan reminded. "I was thinking you guys spend one more night here, we'll have breakfast and in the morning we'll head back to the Island. If Master Yen Sid asks us what we did while he was away, we can honestly answer that we spent time with friends on Destiny Island."
Deceptively honest. Sora thought.
"eh-chu!"
"What was that sound?" Riku asked, looking around.
"That was Rachel sneezing." Bryan answered.
"Yeah, right."
"No really, that's what she sounds like most of the time."
Riku looked at him, bewildered, then called to Rachel across the divider. "How is it possible for anyone to sneeze that quietly?"
"It's a perfected art." Rachel said seriously.
"How do you do that without hurting yourself?"
"Like I said, it's a perfected art."
By the time they were done talking the mesh hampers had come back with their clean and dry clothes. After the bath everyone went back upstairs to Rachel and Bryan's room. They sat in front of one of the fireplaces, talking about what they'd do back on the island. A tea tray invited itself in with a mountain of chewy chocolate chip cookies and a pitcher of milk.
As the fire log died they decided it was time for bed. Sora, Riku and Kairi went back to their guest rooms, but not before Sora saw Riku give Rachel a goodnight kiss on the cheek. Sora was tempted but he didn't say anything. It was a strange and great feeling to have Riku in a relationship. Still, thinking of 'Riku' and 'boyfriend' in the same sentence sounded so foreign. And yet now he was. Sora was glad it was with Rachel. She had a great heart and he knew that was exactly what Riku needed.
That was how the sixth day ended.