"I, for one, think women are just as, if not more, capable than men to complete most tasks. Besides, I've been the damsel in distress far more than you have," Sora stated in agreement with a smirk on his face.

"How did you escape!?" Hook yelped.

"Well see, I have this thing called a keyblade, and what it does is…well a lot of stuff. But it can help me sort of legally pick locks and wouldn't you know it, I did just that."

Hook looked like he had steam coming out of his ears.

"I will not be foiled by some girl!" he shouted as he rushed forward.

Luckily, even with the extra help of his sword, Hook was still a silly fighter and it didn't take long for Sora and I to beat him together. Essentially, after a few parries and dodges, Hook lunged forward at me and I stepped out of the way as Sora jumped in the air, landing on Hook who fell forward. He dropped his sword, the chest he used to catch Tinkerbell, and his hat. Sora grabbed his sword as he stood up to stand beside me and I grabbed the hat and chest.

"Well look what the croc dragged in," I teased as I spun the chest in one hand, putting the hat on my head with the other.

"No fair, no fair, no faaaiiirr!" Hook wailed.

Sora and I exchanged a glance and then burst out laughing.

"For someone who caused so much trouble I'm surprised you didn't do more damage to the two of us," Sora joked.

"Sora, we are in a world of perma-children. I think if we were just some kids he might have been okay, but we are mature adults now and easily outwitted him."

"I suppose there is a bright side to growing up. But just to keep things light and not totally doom us to adulthood yet…"

Sora stuck his tongue out at Hook and I broke out into giggles. Hook was still laying on the ground flailing his arms and legs having a temper tantrum so he didn't even register what we were doing. I put a finger over my lips to signal Sora to be quiet as I calmed down my laughter to sneak up behind Hook. I opened the chest facing Hook and in the blink of an eye he disappeared. I then dropped the chest, grabbed the sword from Sora, and impaled the chest with the sword. A small puff of smoke burst out from the chest.

"Well that takes care of that one," I said.

"Yeah but won't Hook be up here any second?" Sora asked.

Tootles and Tinkerbell appeared out of the captain's quarters at that moment looking smug.

"We captured Captain Hook! I locked the door just like you said Yumi and he appeared right in jail," Tootles proclaimed.

"How brave of you. I bet he wasn't scary at all," I said as I smiled at the little boy.

"No, Yumi. It's just like you said: being brave doesn't mean you aren't scared. Being brave means that you do something even though you're scared."

I laughed and turned to Tinkerbell.

"Speaking of being brave, you ready to go see Peter?" I asked her.

She looked down towards the ground.

"She's a bit embarrassed about everything that happened today," Tootles told me.

"Hey we all do some silly things when we are trying to take care of the ones we love," Sora spoke.

A pang of guilt shot through my heart as I thought about Kairi and Riku again. I knew Sora was probably thinking the same as he walked to me and gave a small smile and a squeeze of the hand.

"You should see the amount of times Yumi has done stupid things for me," he teased.

I guffawed, genuinely surprised at his statement, and pulled my hand back.

"Yeah keep dreaming buddy. If we were gonna use the 'L' word, you would be 'loved' by me through transitivity: I love Riku, who loves you, who loves Kairi, so therefore I love you, Riku and Kairi."

I thought saying her name would bring Sora back to reality, but he just shrugged and moved back to the wheel of the ship. At some point during the fight with Hook we managed to shoot back up into the sky so Sora took it upon himself to steer us back to where Peter and the Lost Boys were.

"Tink, Tootles! You're okay!" Cubby called.

"We were worried about you," one of the twins said.

"Well, not that worried because we knew you were with Sora and Yumi, but worried enough that we were making a plan to come rescue you," the other one said.

"We're just happy you're all back and beat mean old Captain Hook," Nibs said.

"Speaking of," Slightly interjected, "Where is he?"

"Ah we locked him in jail," Tootles responded.

"That's right! What happened to Smee?" Sora asked.

"Oh he said he had to go get something from Skull Rock. We think he was after that treasure chest," Slightly told us.

"Alright everyone, all aboard so we can get that slimy sailor and get this day over with," I groaned.

Since the ship was capable of flying we made it to Skull Rock in no time flat. Sora and I flew up to the eye socket cave with the chest to see Smee trying to drag it towards the entrance. He was muttering to himself about hiding the chest as we approached him.

"Alright Smee I don't have time for this," I stated. "This place is really dragging down the feminist movement. Even though I have such a comfortable outfit here, I, for one, am tired of being talked down to because of my gender."

Smee jumped up, startled by my proclamation.

"Where's the Captain?" he asked.

"Tell you what, you give me the combination for that chest and we will be happy to bring you to him," I said as nicely as possible.

"2, 5, 1," Smee said quietly.

Sora walked over to Smee and ordered him to open the chest. Sora stood off to one side of the chest while I stood on the other. Only Smee was in front of the opening.

"I'll be watching to make sure the numbers are correct," he said as Smee leaned over.

Smee entered the number and there was a loud CLICK sound throughout the cave. The lock fell off the chest, and Smee turned to Sora expectantly.

"Great," Sora said. "Per our agreement, we will take you to the Captain."

With a quick look to each other, Sora and I lifted the lid of the chest and just as quickly snapped it shut. When we looked around Smee was nowhere to be seen. I walked up to the chest and mimicked my earlier actions by stabbing the large chest and a poof appearing. This time, however, the sword disappeared in the smoke.

"I'm thinking it's safe to say those were the only two if the sword is gone," Sora said hopefully.

I nodded and started walking back to the exit with Sora.

"So after all of that," I said as we walked, "we still haven't found the keyhole. Where else do we need to check?"

"Last time it was on this big clock, but I have no idea how to get there," Sora admitted.

"Well before we try and find that, maybe we should ask Peter if there's anywhere we missed on the island. Minimize the backtracking if we can."

Sora agreed and we flew out of the rock and back to the ship. We landed and worked our way back to the beach a final time. Sora was asking Peter about the clock tower, but Peter seemed upset by it.

"Listen Sora, when we dock this ship I don't want to leave Neverland for a while," Peter explained. "That clock is in London, and I don't want to get stuck there. Besides, I think I need to stay here with Tink and the boys for a bit. Show them that I won't leave. So I can't take you."

"Wow Peter. I'm impressed. That's very mature of you," I told him.

"Who else is going to be able to keep Hook here in jail and run the Jolly Roger anyway? It's my job to make sure that old codfish knows he won't be getting out," he tacked on.

"And there goes the maturity…"

As we docked the ship on the shore, Peter was instructing the boys on their schedule to watch over Hook and Smee. I walked over to Sora and crossed my arms.

"Well Peter was no help and I, for one, want to get to chasing after Vexen and Luxord. I also, admittedly, feel like we failed your goal of having a fun time flying here. Think there's any way to do both?" I teased.

Sora's face lit up and he nodded, saying "Flying would be a faster way to cover the parts of the island we missed."

Tinkerbell flew over to Sora and I and spun around us, clearly trying to get our attention.

"Whoa Tinkerbell, did we miss something in Peter's speech?" I asked.

She shook her head and pointed towards the island.

"Is there something you want to show us?"

She nodded and flew up into the air a little.

"Okay, let's go. Hey Peter? We'll meet you back at Mermaid Lagoon. Tink wants to show us something!" Sora shouted to him.

Peter just gave a thumbs up. Sora grabbed my hand and jumped in the air, causing us both to levitate. Before I could comment Tinkerbell took off and we were trailing behind her. Now that we weren't in imminent danger and could enjoy the flight, I took in all the sights around us. We were flying above the trees so below us looked like an emerald ocean. The sky was a stunning shade of blue, there were little beaches and clearings we could see through breaks in the greenery, and birds and forest animals were everywhere you looked. I turned to say something to Sora but my breath caught in my throat. His smile was so big and his eyes were shining like diamonds. It was a look of sheer elation over something so pure that I felt wrong tainting the moment for him with my words. It made me think back to before Sora and I were on this adventure together: I always thought there wasn't much substance to him, as if he fit the lazy beach bum lifestyle, but seeing how affected he was by the beauty of nature really reminded me that there is more to him than meets the eye.

He turned to look at me and his smile softened, as if he were asking me if I was seeing what he was seeing. I blushed and smiled back, causing his grin to intensify once more, that sparkle back in his eye.

"I'm so glad I got to do this with you," he said. "This will definitely be a moment I will treasure forever."

My blush deepened and I nodded. Words were escaping me and I didn't want to say the wrong thing and mess up this moment for him.

The moment did however come to an abrupt end when Tinkerbell took a nosedive towards the ground. We were quick to follow, and we weaved through a few trees before coming to the entrance of a cave. She went right in and we blindly followed. The cave was dark and we would have struggled to see where we were going if Tinkerbell hadn't been glowing so brightly. We zigzagged left and right through the winding cave, and as we got further in we heard a hissing sound that was getting louder the further we went. I exchanged a glance with Sora, but before we could question it too much, the cave started to lighten. As the noise got louder, we could make out an entrance to the cave, but it wasn't a clear shot out to the forest.

"Is that a -" I asked.

"A waterfall!" Sora shouted.

Tinkerbell shot right through. I tried to slow down but Sora pulled my arm as he sped up. His speed shot up so fast that I couldn't have stopped him if I had tried. All I could do was hold on to my hat as Sora pulled me through the waterfall. We emerged on the other side soaking wet with Sora laughing and me scowling.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE ME TO DRY THIS?!" I shrieked, shaking my legs out.

This just caused Sora to laugh harder. I had every intention of speaking my mind and shouting at him but our keyblades appeared at that moment. With a glow, clink, and a shot of light the keyhole appeared in the middle of the waterfall. Sora and I locked the world and turned to Tinkerbell.

"Thank you for taking us here," I said to her.

"And thank you for one of the best moments of my life," Sora said.

Tinkerbell smiled. She pointed to the left, flew up, and darted away.

"I'm guessing that was her way of saying she'll meet us at the ship," I stated.

"Yeah, but let's just take a minute to rest here," he replied.

"You okay?" I asked. "I saw Hook get a few good shots in at you. Is there something wrong?"

We floated down to the ground and I looked at Sora. His clothes had mended themselves and there were no scratches on any exposed skin, but I wasn't sure what his chest looked like. I was not, however, going to ask him to show it to me.

Call it the bond, call it mind reading, call it sheer dumb luck, but Sora chose that moment to lift his shirt and look at his chest.

"Uh I think so?" he asked more than stated. "Does it look like I'm in need of healing?"

'Sweet Jebus…'

I stared. I know I did. There was no excuse. I was full on ogling his chest. Which, for the record, I had seen before so I don't know what had gotten into me. Maybe it was because I never really knew Sora and now putting the body with the mind was messing with me but like, how was this fair? He was tanned, fit, and clearly confident in his own skin. All pluses on the attractive scale.

"Yumi? Are you okay?"

I shook my head. Not metaphorically: I literally shook my head and felt my mouth snap shut.

"What? Oh yeah, totally. Uhm, looks like you have a cut there, but if it feels fine then I'm sure you're okay. Obviously it's not that deep if you barely registered it," I rambled.

"You sure? I'm worried I'm still running on adrenaline and I just can't feel how bad it hurts. Think you are okay to take a closer look?"

"S-sure!" I squeaked.

I slowly lifted my hand and leaned forward. I closed my eyes and focussed on my breathing until I felt my hand make contact with his chest. Opening my eyes, I let my hand trail across the cut.

"L-looks like just a flesh wound. I can give you a potion back on the ship just to be safe though," I said quietly.

"I'm going to have to thank Tinkerbell again," he said as I pulled my hand back and dropped his shirt.

"Why's that?"

"Looks like she gave me a great moment."

I looked at him confused.

"You already thanked her though."

"Yeah, but I'm talking about seeing you blush so hard and rendering you speechless."

He smiled and squeezed my hand.

WE WERE STILL HOLDING HANDS?!

Ripping my hand out of his he laughed and started to float upwards.

"Come on Yumi. Don't want to get lost!" he hollered as he got higher in the air.

I was mortified, but doing my best to regain my composure I shook my shoulders and jumped up after Sora. I'll be damned if I cave into the gooey feeling. The ship wasn't too far away and our flight back was quick. I retreated into my own brain though and forced myself to think about Riku and Kairi as we made our way back. How would Riku feel if he had just witnessed that scene? How would Kairi? How was Sora so unphased? Does he realize how mad I would have been if I was Kairi in this situation and saw what he was doing? Did he even understand that it wasn't okay?! With that thought, we descended to the beach and it seemed like my pixie dust just gave out as I basically fell for the last few feet of our landing. I stumbled a bit but managed to keep myself mostly upright.

"You okay?" Sora asked.

I refused to answer him as the group of boys came over to us.

"Looks like everything is in order here," I said sharply as the group gathered.

"Yeah we have it all figured out Yumi! Looks like we don't need a mother after all," Cubby said.

"Maybe not, but you do need to remember that it's not all fun and games here," I scolded.

"That's true. Without following the rules we got in a lot of trouble," one of the twins said.

"Good thing you guys were here!" the other said.

"But they're leaving," Nibs responded.

The boys looked crestfallen.

"What are we supposed to do without you guys to help us out?" Slightly asked.

I walked over to Tootles and smiled. Placing Captain Hook's hat on his head, I said to the group, "You need to listen to your conscience and remember that sometimes the right choice is hard, but that's why we need to be brave."

Tootles smiled.

"And you always have me!" Peter interrupted, ruining the moment Tootles and I were having.

"YEAH!" the rest of the boys cheered.

I rolled my eyes and stood up. Sora and I said our goodbyes and headed back to the ship. I shouted a reminder to make good choices as we walked into the Gummi ship. As the door shut, I stretched my shoulders out, cracked my neck, and turned to Sora.

"So how about that potion?" I snipped.

Sora's POV

I messed up. She's pissed. I pushed it too far with my attempted flirting, she didn't like it, and now she's going to swap out my potion for some poison. I just know it.

'Talk to her.'

But she's mad.

'And don't you wanna fix it?'

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, fully in agreement with my conscience.

"Peachy, why?" she snapped.

"You're really going to ask that when you just snapped at me?" I tested. "We promised no more secrets."

This was uncharted waters for us. We had fights before when we weren't communicating but we did not press back about attitudes. I was trying to figure out what I did wrong so I could fix it, but I was scared this tactic might make it worse.

Yumi huffed. To my surprise, she responded.

"You know what? No, I'm not okay. I'm soggy, I'm tired of being in these misogynist places where I am undermined all the time even though I am a contributing member of this team, and I'm embarrassed. Then all that's running through my mind is Riku and Kairi and how disappointed they would be in us and I…I just need a minute. I want to shower and change. Can I do that? Why am I even asking, this is my ship. I'm going to do that."

Unsure of what to say, I just nodded and let her go. I walked into the cockpit and sat in the pilot's chair, charting our course for Halloween Town. Taking her points apart piece by piece, I tried to figure out what was the big issue that set her off. Was she really that mad about the waterfall? It was just some water and we were islanders: we loved water. I don't think that's what would have upset her this bad, especially since it was necessary to get out of the cave. I can understand why she's sick of being in these places that don't appreciate women, but there's not much I can do about that besides support her, which I thought I did, so it couldn't be that either. Good thing we are going somewhere that is recognizing how women and men should be equals. Or at least they were getting there the last time we were there. I think my teasing/flirting may have been misconstrued so I'll have to address that with her. All I wanted to do was hint that I liked that I knew I had an effect on her like she had on me to see how she felt about that but maybe I went too far with the jokes. That would have to take a backseat to the last thing she said about Riku and Kairi. Why would they be disappointed in us? Was it because we still hadn't seen any hints of them? It took me a while to find them my first time adventuring, and I know she had a different kind of journey with the King where she didn't have to find anyone so we were still working it out. Besides, we were making progress! Just like she said to me we have to have faith that they will be okay. Channelling my inner "perma-prep" attitude as I heard the shower shut off, I got ready for a positive outlook conversation.

A few minutes later Yumi walked in with a coffee in one hand. Not even bothering to look at me as she began talking, she rummaged around the cabin for I don't even know what. Apparently my turn to stare, I was only half listening to what she was saying as I watched her get up on her tiptoes to look for something in an overhead cabinet. She was wearing very tight clothing, which I wasn't used to. Not that I hadn't seen her in her bathing suit or shorts even, but something about the yoga inspired outfit made the male presence in my brain override my thinking process. She had on form fitting pants that cut off just past the knees and a curve hugging light blue thick strapped tank top. Nothing trashy, but something about it just seemed to enhance her femininity.

"...and I just think, if I were Kairi and saw that, maybe I would think you were thinking about something else, and I'd be upset. You know?"

At that she turned around, placing her free hand on her hip and taking a sip out of her coffee mug. It was my turn to shake my head and blink to get caught up to speed.

"I'm sorry, run that by me again? It was hard to hear you when you were talking into the cabinets," I lied.

She rolled her eyes and reiterated, "Cliff notes version: I'm sorry for snapping. I think I was letting the immature child brain atmosphere of the world mess with me and I was overthinking the moment at the waterfall. Like, if someone saw it they might be thinking we were…getting off track. You understand?"

"Oh. Yeah, totally. I just want you to know though, they would understand," I said with a smile.

"How do you figure?" she asked skeptically.

"Well it took me a long time last time, so they would be totally understanding that this doesn't happen overnight. It takes a lot more than stumbling our way through this and getting lucky once or twice before we get together with everyone."

She blushed.

"Uh, that's quite bold of you to assume any of that. Obviously these…things…take time and effort, but I'm saying to other people, it doesn't matter how it happened. I, for one, would not care about the 'how' of it all, just that it did," she stated.

"I agree! So who cares if Riku and Kairi aren't here yet? We'll rescue them in no time," I smiled.

"Rescue? Sora I don't think we are talking about - "

"Nope! You're right. We don't need to talk about it. I don't want you overthinking anything," I cut her off. "No need to feel bad about anything. Riku and Kairi will understand why we took the time we took and hopefully not only will we save them but we will have some answers for them too about what's going on with the Organization."

"Well, yeah. Sora that's not -"

"Not a problem? I agree! We won't dwell on this any longer. I'm going to go drink that potion, you're going to take us to a world where you don't feel like my gender is bringing you down, and we will carry on without worrying what Kairi or Riku are thinking."

"I don't think I'm explaining my concerns to you as well as I'd like here. It seems like we are getting lost in translation. Riku is my best friend and Kairi and I were just starting to get along. I'd hate to ruin that by having them think something that isn't true," she confessed.

I stood up and walked over to her, grabbing her free hand.

"Look I don't want you to be uncomfortable, okay? We can talk to Riku and Kairi together about everything that has happened if it makes you feel better." Another thought came to me, so I tacked on, "And I'm sorry about the stuff at the waterfall. If it made you uncomfortable, that wasn't my intention. Just a silly little boy thing I did. Guess the child mindset got me too."

I was trying to let her know I was acting like a little boy with a crush and was teasing the girl I liked without outright saying it and making things uncomfortable for either of us. She blinked and nodded, so I squeezed her hand, released it, and left to go grab a potion before take off.

Yumi's POV

What the hell just happened? Clearly we started with a bit of miscommunication there, but we had to have been talking about the same thing by the end, right? He admitted to me that he was acting childish and should not have been flirting with me when he had a girlfriend. Or at least...I think he did. Ugh.

I didn't want to dwell on it. For now, I could say my conscience was clean. I was honest, shared my concerns, we talked, and it seemed like the air was clear. Sora was obviously thinking about saving Riku and Kairi which was inadvertently one of my goals of the conversation, so hopefully he would start to take things a little more seriously when we got to Halloween Town.

I checked over the course Sora charted as I waited for him to get back. He shot me a quick smile as he sat in the co-pilot chair. I took note that he looked a little less beat up - must have drank that potion - and was dressed in black jogging pants and a red t-shirt. I watched as he buckled up, and once I was sure he was good to go, we took off.

"So tell me, when was the last time you saw Jack and Sally?" Sora asked.

"Oh man. It had to have been when he was discovering that Halloween Town wasn't the only place he could go. We saw some crazy things in those trees," I joked. "Jack promised that he wasn't going to go back to any of those places without talking to Sally first, but obviously that didn't happen."

"Can you really blame him for wanting to be a part of Christmas so badly though?" Sora asked.

"No," I agreed. "But there's something to be said about saying one thing and doing another, especially when it involves deception."

Sora and I quickly made eye contact and then burst out laughing.

"Man, you'd think after seeing it blow up so many times we would be better at this whole communication thing," Sora teased.

"It just goes to show you that you can have all the worldly knowledge at your fingertips, but it doesn't change the fact that boys and girls think differently. You just have to hope you understand the person well enough that you're on the same page or at least be willing to get there. I think that's something we are still working on," I commented.

"You're right. It helps that we love each other too," Sora stated bluntly.

I swerved the ship as I choked on air.

"Wh-what?" I managed through a coughing fit.

"Don't think I forgot what you said in Neverland. I may not be great at math but I understand the theory of transitivity. In an indirect way, you love me, and I love you."

"Alright bladeboy, calm down." I felt my face heating and tried my best to make sure he couldn't see it.

"You're going to tell me I'm wrong?" he teased.

"I mean, no…yes? I don't know. I don't just go flinging that word around. In the span of our friendship, I think I've said it to Riku like five times and, if you recall, we were married," I tried to joke.

With a small laugh, Sora said, "Fair. So what makes love so hard to say?"

"I think it's just that the word is used too openly that it sometimes loses meaning, you know? Like, how people say they love ice cream, but then they use that same word to describe their spouse. It sounds like they feel the same way for two very different things. Like I'm sure you love Riku and Kairi differently. Or is there something you aren't telling me?"

It was Sora's turn to guffaw at my statement.

"Okay, you make a fair point about love being different for people and things," he admitted. "What do you define as that kind of love then? Like, how would you define your love for your boyfriend if it's so different from your love for your friends?"

"I mean…I don't know. How would you describe it? You're the one who has more experience than I do. How would you describe your love for Kairi"

"Well that's easy. I just want what's best for her, always. I want to support her and make sure that she gets everything amazing that she deserves. I'm happy when she's happy, I'm sad when she's sad, I would do anything to make sure she knows how special she is."

"Sounds to me like a serious devotion," I said softly. "But how is that any different than what you feel for Riku? Or me for that matter?"

"Well…I mean it's not, but it's also it is?" he questioned.

"See? Not so easy to put it into words," I teased. "It's all those things for me too, but then, just, more. I think if I were to really love someone in the way I think you're thinking, it's like everything I do is about them, but also about me. They want all those things for you and you want them for them. You get that little jump in your chest when you see them because they just complete you in a complementary way and you know you're finally whole with them there. Yes, you can be yourself without them, but you're just so much…more with them. You laugh together and the moment is that much sweeter. You cry together and the moment is so much more therapeutic. You would do anything for them to make sure they were the best version of themselves, and that would be enough for you, but it doesn't have to be because they would do the same for you. They become your world, and it's just so right. There's no other word for it in my mind: Love it just…right."

"Wow. Sounds like you're the expert," Sora said after a moment.

"Hey, I'm a girl. We are much more in touch with our emotions than boys. Besides, I've had a lot of time to think about this recently."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, Zac Efron deserves the truth and I better be able to articulate it to him."