"Are you crazy?!" Jafar demanded when he saw the minuscule drawings on Yamuraiha and Sharrkan's red wrists. "What possessed you do convince Yamuraiha to do something like this- I mean I know you don't care about what happens, but she-"

Yamuraiha covered her wrist back up with the tiny bandage. "Actually I was the one that suggested it," she sheepishly admitted. Her cheeks were tinged red from embarrassment.

Jafar darted his eyes away from Sharrkan's to avoid feeling guiltier than he was already.

"Thanks so much for believing that everything remotely troublesome that happens to you is caused by me." Sharrkan huffed.

They all met back up in the van quite later than planned. Yamuraiha and Sharrkan's tattoos surprisingly took less time than everyone else's dinner at a restaurant.

"When you said you wanted a look around town instead of dinner I thought you guys just wanted to eat alone." Spartos said. "I'm glad I was wrong, your tattoos look nice."

"They were really cheap too! We didn't get them coloured in or anything and because they're so tiny they didn't take long at all!" Yamuraiha chirped. She was glad that she decided on the minimalistic look.

"You do know that you can't go swimming now right?" Jafar scolded.

Sharrkan's face dropped. "What?! They didn't tell me that!"

"The artist probably assumed you knew." Spartos said.

"Maybe me and you should get one," Sinbad put an arm around Jafar. "Be all risky and young."

"What do you mean young? You're pushing thirty old man," Jafar brushed him off, much to his discontent. He sighed, took another look at Yamuraiha and Sharrkan's anxious faces and said: "They are pretty," softly.

"So you approve?" Sharrkan nudged him. "I finally have your blessing?"

"Yeah, yeah, if you get in infected I will seriously cancel everything. And I mean everything in your life, I will call your aunt and your brother and-"

"I'll get a ouija board so you can talk to my mom too." he joked.

Jafar tightly closed his mouth. "Don't joke like that." he said in an almost whisper. He then proceeded to pull Sinbad by his sleeve towards the steering wheel. "Come on, we still have a few hours of driving,"

"If Pisti was awake she would definitely fight you or laugh- or both." Spartos said.

Spartos had to carry her halfway from the restaurant since she had latched into him and refused to walk another step. He didn't mind carrying her, she was about the same weight as his backpack with a few bulky textbooks inside.

"It's a good thing she's asleep then huh?" Yamuraiha put her hand on Sharrkan's shoulder hoping to brighten the mood.

But then again what was there to brighten? He had made a joke- a bit of a dark one, but it was a joke. Shock humour, for whatever reason didn't really sit well with Jafar. And maybe it was something to do with Jafar's clouded past. And maybe it did make her feel uncomfortable with it also, but she didn't know how to respond. How could she empathize or react when she's never had a mother?

"I think I'm going to go to sleep also," Spartos yawned as he took a seat beside Pisti. "If anyone wakes me up I will wake up my girlfriend and tell her that one of you did it."

Sharrkan shuddered at thought. A sleep deprived Pisti was on his list of top fears, right in between Jafar's wrath and those weird shoes with toes.

"Don't worry about us, we'll be quiet," Yamuraiha locked her arm onto Sharrkan's. "Now I hope you don't mind us making some grilled cheese."

"Just don't burn the R.V. down," Spartos said.

"Great, let's get cooking Sharrkan," Yamuraiha attempted to pull a stubborn Sharrkan into the kitchen. "You're not coming with me, why aren't you coming with me?" she questioned.

"You told me that you would cook something, well I was promised whatever I wanted to eat and also never did you say that I would have to help you make it."

Yamuraiha rolled her eyes. "Fine." She unlinked her arm from his.

x-x-x-x-x

"So how is it?" Yamuraiha asked him.

"Not terrible." he answered as he finished chewing.

They sat side by side, with almost no space between their elbows. They didn't even realize it, but somehow they would probably have sat farther from one another if the others were awake.

"Not terrible? That's all you give me? Sharrkan I had to spend about ten minutes preparing this delicately crafted meal for you and that's all you have to say? I'm so hurt." She played up an act. She did need to practise.

"Right, right." he laughed to himself. "I saw you throw a crudely cut piece of cheese onto some frozen bread and call it a day. I also saw you kind of sneeze on it from the corner of my eye."

"I tried not to!" she exclaimed, a little embarrassed. "And you're still eating it, which makes you the gross one."

Sharrkan shrugged. "Sneeze bread is cheese bread," he smiled widely when he saw her hiding her grin from him.

"I'm so glad you're an articulate poet." She sighed. "I think I realized why we get along despite our differences though."

"I don't really care to know, but I'm sure your big head will want to explain, so to save my breath, take it away,"

"Well, this is going to sound weird, but I think it's because we both run away from everything." she whispered the second half of the sentence. And then she looked at how he went from happy to puzzled.

He was expecting her to say: sense of humour, stubbornness, love for spontaneous actions, but not running away.

He cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"When I first saw you I thought; wow this guy is really confident. Until I figured out that you're really not." She watched as his face turned sour. "I don't mean that in a rude way," she explained. "It's just that I see the way you act, and you can deflect anything with humour-"

"Yeah that's called being positive,"

"No, no, but I think that sometimes instead of facing your problems you distract yourself any way you can; humour, girls, parties. I know because I distract myself by drinking and complaining about, well, anything and everything."

"So we're both weak and use unhealthy coping mechanisms, you do realize that's about 80% of our peers, right?" He crossed his arms. "The only difference is we take it to the extreme. You can drink until you're about two sips from death and I smoked in the school bathroom because I wanted to take my mind off of a problem. We're both awful and we can admit it." He winked at her surprised face. "A womanizer that's not evil and uptight alcoholic, I think we're a pretty good team."

She loved that he agreed with her. She loved that she could actually talk to him about her feelings more than anything. She would hide what she was thinking with her Matal because she didn't want to disappoint her father. She couldn't talk to a lot of her friends because she felt that if they knew her- really knew her, they wouldn't like her that much anymore. But with him it was different. It didn't matter what it was he would always listen. Even if he teased or joked he would still take her seriously.

Yamuraiha put her head on his shoulder. "Yeah," she said wistfully. "I'm glad you think so too."

"You know most friends don't get this close." he whispered.

"What's your point?" she said bluntly.

His heart jolted. Did she really say that? "What do you mean by that?" His cheeks got hot.

"Think of it what you must." She was done with playing around and decided that she was tired of sitting on the sidelines of life. If he wanted to accept her feelings then great- if not- what was there to lose? She was certain he would still continue being her friend. This was her second spontaneous decision of the day.

He felt himself sweating, an action he was pretty sure no other person had ever made him do before. "I uh-"

"If you want me to move back you can."

"No, it's just that- are you drunk?"

"No. Also you're acting like this is my first time being this close to you."

"Yeah, but you usually don't act like this." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't mind it, but it's different."

"Good different?"

"I mean, I'm not sure, but I'm not exactly complaining." His hand hovered above hers, unsure whether to hold it or not.

She was definitely the most complicated girl he's ever been interested in. He didn't know if this was some weird acting exercise or if she was just being friendly. Usually this meant she liked him. But this was Yamuraiha. The same girl that cuddled and flirted with him when she was drunk and kicked him out the morning after. The girl that would whine and whine to him about the most useless stuff and then give him an articulate speech on how their friendship made sense. She would drive him crazy in one minute with and plead him to get a tattoo the next.

Yamuraiha looked down at his hand floating over hers then she looked up at him and smiled. "Thinking of something?"

"Yeah, a lot of things."

The number one thing on his mind? The thing he wanted to say most?

"Yamuraiha do you like me?"

Writer: things are heating up kind of. I know they had a talk similar to this one in earlier chapters but this time instead of deflecting it they are more mature (at least I hope I made it seem that way, I'm trying to show growth? Haha) ANYWAYS PLEASE REVIEW AND STUFF EVEN IF ITS LIKE AN LOL IT MEANS A LOT! THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT!