"Soooo, what were you two doing?" Kairi asked slyly. She imagined a fair amount of kissing.

"Nothing much," Riku answered immediately.

"Liar."

"Flirting probably." Sora said.

Bryan didn't say anything. He just gave Riku an 'I'm warning you' glare. He'd hate to have to cut their friendship off at the knees if there had been any monkey business going on with his sister. He knew his sister well enough to know she wouldn't put up with that sort of thing. Still, the defensive brother part of him sat stubbornly on his mountain of wary distrust and wasn't going to be pushed off easily.

"Sooooo, have you guys got cutesy nicknames for each other yet?" Sora teased. Kairi laughed. "Either of you a 'shnickel' something? Snuggle bunny?"

"Sora, knock it off."

"Buttercup? Love bug? Ouch!"

Riku silenced him by stepping hard on his foot.

"That hurt!"

"How could that have possibly hurt? Bigfoot doesn't even wear shoes that size."

"That's completely untrue." Rachel said. "Bigfoot's only a size 10 wide."

"Are you serious?" Kairi asked, completely oblivious to how perfectly Rachel had redirected the conversation.

"Kinda've a jerk really. We haven't been on speaking terms for over two years."

"You're making that up."

"Well…unless you count his cousins wedding. But then it was more me like going 'Yo, B!' and him like 'Glllrrrbgh!'."

"Is she serious?" Sora asked Bryan. But Bryan's shrug had more of a 'maybe she is, maybe she isn't' sort of feel so it got them nowhere. The friends would find that to happen a lot. As both a creative person and a storyteller at heart, Rachel had the gift to weave a yarn so ridiculous and still make it sound believable. Of course that made it hard to tell sometimes if she was kidding. A gift they would also find she'd often use to her advantage to mess with them.

There would have been a bit more teasing but it was getting late and the next day they would have to say goodbye again. That was until Bryan suggested they all spend the night on the deck of the King. The next time they met they could come back and explore the main island. Sora continued to try and guess what Rachel and Riku would start calling each other. But it usually ended with something getting thrown at him. Down in the galley for a before-bedtime snack, Rachel had enough and hit him up with a huge handful of pixie dust. It was at least three times the necessary amount to make something fly so he did a fair amount of bobbing about uncontrollably and bumped the ceiling more than a few times. Riku didn't say anything but his you-got-what-you-deserve smirk did the talking for him.

"Wait for me!" Sora cried a short time later when they went back up top. The kitchen had rapidly prepared a nice basket full of mini chocolate chip banana muffins. "When is this stuff gonna wear off?" He was still bouncing off the ceiling like an out of control helium balloon.

"Guess you'll have to stay down below." Rachel said overly casually.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked, clinging to a beam. Needless to say he'd learned his lesson.

"Out in the open you'll just float away."

"But what about the muffins!"

"I'm not saving any." Bryan said, taking one from the basket then going up the stairs to the deck. "I love these."

"No! Share! Somebody get a rope and a rock, or something that could be used as a weight!"

"That's what you get for suggesting I'd let anybody address me as 'Cuddle Bear'." Riku said snidely and with a great amount of satisfaction at his friends predicament.

"Ok! Ok! I admit it, maybe I went a bit far. I was just having-stop laughing!"

Kairi had been giggling with increased hysteria.

So eventually Bryan had tied (he'd once read a book containing the exact steps for making various knots and had mastered every one of them in his spare time) a long rope to where the pirate crew would have tied their lifelines in the event of a solar storm. The other end Sora had tied around his waist. But that still left him looking like some kind of funny parade balloon and he was having trouble keeping himself upright. Pixie dust can have a mind of its own when used in large quantities. Lowering himself was the hardest part. The muffin basket was left on the deck, he just had to reach it. And all of his so-called friends were getting too much enjoyment out of watching him struggle. Sora tried everything. Frog paddles, rapid kicks but it was still like trying to swim downward with a noodle floaty under your arms.

"Alright! I give up! I'm sorry! No more teasing about pet names! And I promise I won't say a word about whatever you end up deciding on even if it is really funny."

"That's all I needed to hear." Rachel lifted the basket over her head so Sora could reach it.

"Waih," Sora froze mid-chew of his fifth muffin. "Whenths ith suff sthpose to weahr offth?"

"Might take a while, why?"

"You understood that?" Kairi asked.

Sora swallowed. "How am I supposed to sleep?"

Bryan's snort-gasp was so sharp and violent he accidentally inhaled a crumb and started coughing. It is a very odd and painful feeling to try and force yourself to breathe as your choking as well as stop laughing. Riku slapped him hard on the back in an attempt to dislodge the crumb. The rest of them didn't start laughing at Sora's situation until after Bryan's coughing fit subsided.

"Maybe," Bryan cleared his throat. "Now would be a good time to tell him how this is an easy fix."

"Yes! Yes! Tell me!"

"Like this."

Bryan called a Keyblade with red feathers as the teeth. With a swish the rope snapped. But before Sora could make any exclamations he found himself inside an orb of swirling wind. Bryan had Sign of Spring raised high and straight over his head.

"So it can be blown off? This will get rid of the extra dust?"

"No. This will."

Bryan dropped his arm from an upright position to angling it sharply by ninety degrees. The position of his Keyblade was holding the orb of Wind. When it dropped, so did Sora…right over the side of the ship.

"Whoa! Hey! Wait! Stop! Aaah!" Shortly followed by a splash.

Immediately Kairi was at the railing, looking over into the dark water to see if he was all right.

"What was that for!" Sora demanded from the water below.

Bryan helped himself to another muffin, chewing slowly and deliberately for full enjoyment, not at all concerned with getting anywhere in a hurry. After a long, deliberate swallow he got up and looked over the rail.

"Didn't you know? The only way to quickly remove Pixie Dust is to wash it off." He said in an I-thought-everybody-knew-that kind of voice.

Once Sora had dried off and the muffins were gone (Bryan and Sora had a bit of a scuffle to get the last one) they laid back on the deck with cushions and looked up at the clear sky. The comfortable silence fell over them again. Kairi smiled when she noticed Rachel and Riku holding hands. It didn't take long before the gentle swaying of the King in the night island breeze sent them all into a calm sleep.