Finally, it was the day we had all been anticipating—the day of the sailaway.

Most of the passengers awoke early in hopes of heading to the sundeck and being the first ones there to see the ship leave the port, but of course, most of them were met with disappointment. Some of the earliest risers had arrived before we did.

Fukase was alright with the early start this morning, since it wasn't in vain. We quickly gathered with the others and headed to the sundeck after eating breakfast. The ship would set sail mid-morning, but Rana, Miki, and I wanted to see what was left of the sunrise.

Yohio was nowhere to be seen until 9:00, when he appeared on the balcony of the bridge above us.

"Look, it's the man!" Miki said excitedly when she noticed him. "What's he gonna do?"

"Probably make some weird speech or something," I replied, unamused.

"Don't laugh at the poor man too much," Piko piped up unexpectedly.

Once most of the passengers on the sundeck noticed the captain standing above them, they turned to see what he had to say with curious, oblivious expressions.

"Good morning and welcome, everyone! For those of you who boarded yesterday, I hope you enjoyed your first day aboard the ship. For those of you who boarded this morning, well, I hope you don't mind the early start. Cruises are for relaxing, you shouldn't have to be up this early." Some of the passengers let out a soft chuckle at that. "Anyway, thank you all so much for joining us on Hime Cruises. I hope you all enjoy your stay for the following few weeks!"

The passengers all clapped politely, and I reluctantly played along. Bogus, I thought, talking as if he's worked for Hime since the dawn of time.

He disappeared into the bridge, and after some time, the foghorn blew and the ship began to move. Rana and Flower rushed to the edge of the deck to peer out at the shore, and the rest of us followed suit. The water was a pure, clear blue as it reflected the bright sky.

After around half an hour, the passengers began to disperse. People went back inside to eat, sleep, unpack, and kill time however possible on the first day of the cruise.

"Alright, to the pool!" Flower decided with boisterous finality. "We didn't go the day before yesterday, we didn't go yesterday like you promised, so we are going right now."

"Whatever you say," Piko sighed.

"Yes, I agree with Flower! To the pool!" Miki exclaimed.

"Are you two coming?" Rana asked Fukase and I.

"Sure, I guess...?" I turned to Fukase but his expression was unreadable.

"Alright, to the big, pretty pool then! How does fifteen minutes sound?" Flower asked.

"Make that twenty," Rana replied.

"Alright, twenty, whatever. See ya then!" With that, Flower left us, dragging Piko closely behind her.

"See you guys then!" Miki said, tugging along Rana in a similar fashion.

"Shall we go?" I asked once the others were out of earshot.

Fukase only smiled and nodded awkwardly.

"So... what are our thoughts on swimming?"

"For one, I haven't done it in forever," Fukase chuckled lowly, "and for two, I have no intention to do it again."

I looked at him in surprise. "So you're not coming with us?"

"Oh no, I'll come along. But I'm not getting wet. I'll just hang out on one of the lounge chairs or something."

"If you say so," I murmured quietly as I unlocked our room door.

I took a few minutes to change into my swim shorts and a thin Hawaiian shirt, and when I emerged from the bedroom into the living room, Fukase had taken off his beige coat and was now in only his off-white tunic, a red skirt, and gray leggings. I found myself thinking that even just a few years ago, his feminine style would never be easily passed by.

At least he could pull it off, though.

A few minutes later, we were at the entrance of the pool. We entered just in time to see Flower cannonballing into the pool off of the diving board on the deep end.

"Heeeeey, Olikase!" she cried once she emerged from the water.

"Olikase?" I questioned.

"Oliver and Fukase. Together, it's Olikase! I invented it. Don't you like it?"

"Sure, I guess...?"

"Oh and by the way, redhead, you are looking fine in that miniskirt!"

Fukase just rolled his eyes and turned away to the lounge chairs, but not before I noticed his ears burning red. Piko shot him a glare of annoyance, and was that—jealousy?

"Oliver, look over here!" I heard Rana's voice calling from the diving board. "I'm gonna jump, watch this."

"Yeah right, you've been saying that for the past ten minutes," Miki retorted.

"I know, but this is for real!"

"Bogus."

"I'm serious."

"Phonyyyyyy."

"I'm not!"

"Just jump or I'm coming up there to push you!" Flower boomed.

"Okay, I'm jumping!" She mentally counted to three and jumped.

The splash was big enough to send droplets everywhere, racking the whole pool with waves. Fukase looked up from his travel magazine and glared at Rana, his entire left shoulder dripping wet.

"See? Wasn't so bad, was it?" Flower said, clapping a hand on Rana's shoulder. The frills of her swimsuit still waved and fluttered in the disturbed turquoise water around her.

"That was sick, I'm going again!"

Flower looked up as Rana dashed out of the pool. "Oi, what's your deal?" she asked, noticing Fukase still glaring daggers at a blissfully ignorant Rana. "Hey hey, come over here."

My hands began to sweat nervously as the tension made itself apparent.

Fukase placed the damp magazine next to him and silently stalked over to the pool. He crouched down at the edge next to Flower so their eyes were level.

"Listen, redhead, you're cute and all but quit being such a killjoy," Flower said authoritatively. "No need to plot Rana's murder over it, it's just a bit of water and chlorine."

The cavernous room was silent as Fukase stared back at her challengingly.

"I'm sure he has a reason—" I started, ready to defend him.

"Let's find out." With a flick of her wrist, Flower sent pool water splashing over his face. Fukase gasped softly and stood up, stumbling backwards and clutching at his face.

"Are you ok?!" I asked, alarmed at his sudden panic. I handed him the first clean towel I could find and he immediately buried his face in it.

"I—I'm allergic," he muttered, just barely loud enough for me to hear. "I'm going back to the room. You stay here."

I did as I was told, shocked into stillness as he hurriedly left the pool room.

Allergic?

Great.

"Oh my gosh, I hope he's ok," Rana said softly. "I wouldn't have jumped if I knew it would upset him so much, I swear."

"It's not your fault." It's Flower's, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue.

It was only then that I realized that Piko had been silent the whole time. He just stood in the corner of the pool, quietly watching and observing. He seemed almost invisible compared to his previous charismatic personality.

Something about the two was certainly wrong. Their actions just didn't add up. Flower could be a bit much to handle at times, but she didn't seem like the type of person to directly be so inconsiderate.

Miki seemed to feel the same way as she boldly told off Flower for what she had done. At least Fukase had two more on his side—Miki and Rana—and I hoped he knew that.

Now that the mood in the room was tense and sour, we all decided to go our separate ways. I, of course, decided to check up on Fukase first. I was worried about him, but also very curious to know why his reaction had been so sudden and panicked.

When I entered the room, he was sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea, staring idly into space. He looked up when I closed the door behind me, and I noticed that his left eye was significantly redder than his right.

"Are you ok?"

No response. He turned away, resting his chin on his fist.

"Hey, Fukase." I crouched down between him and the coffee table, forcing our eyes to meet. "Is your eye gonna be ok? Do you want me to get eye drops or something?" I rambled.

"It'll be fine in a few days."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

I stayed with him for another hour or so, sometimes making small conversation and other times just sitting beside him in comfortable silence.

Soon, we heard the door click open, and in strode Yohio.

"Oh, you two are here," he mentioned in surprise. "I thought you all were at the pool."

"We were, for a while."

"Well, the lunch buffet is open whenever you're hungry. Oh, and try to stick together when possible, 'kay?"

"Hio, we're not toddlers."

"Ok, ok! See you around then." With that, he was gone.

I stood up, but Fukase didn't move. "Are you coming?"

"Nah. I'm not hungry."

Liar, I thought. He had hardly eaten anything at breakfast, and there was no way he wasn't hungry at this hour.

"Alright, then I'll see you in a little while."

~~~

Only fifteen minutes later, I was back at our room with two plates in my hands piled high—one for me and one for Fukase.

All throughout the meal he was silent, and insisted on staying in our room for the remainder of the day as I wandered around the ship, occasionally dropping back in to check on him. By eight o'clock he was already fast asleep—or so I thought.

"How do you put up with them?" he asked as I settled down into bed.

"Rana and Miki are ok, it's just Flower and Piko who are kind of weird."

"I don't know, they all make me unsettled. Then again, most people do, I suppose..."

"What about me?"

He was quiet for some time before he whispered, "I don't know." He sighed. "You're different. Everyone who finds me always instantly interrogates me, and adults feel the need to drag me somewhere else to shelter or whatever. But you didn't do any of that, you sat down and started telling me about yourself. I guess... I really needed that contrast in my life. So thank you."

I stared at him bug-eyed with shock. "I didn't think I had made that much of a difference to you, but you're welcome, I suppose. A-although there's no need to thank me, I hardly did anything anyway..." I could feel my cheeks burning and hoped he wouldn't notice in the pale moonlight filtering through our window.

"Regardless, you helped me and I'm very grateful to you for that."

"Well then, I'm glad you're doing better! Besides the whole pool-water-in-your-eye thing..."

He chuckled softly. "It'll be fine soon. I'll just stay away from the pool for a little while. It's only turquoise chlorine water, nothing fancy about it."

I smiled. "Whatever you say."

A/N: Ok so, a bit of a longer chapter... I hope it was worth it though! It was fun to write at least and I think it came out pretty well.

Anyway I really want to draw Oliver in a Hawaiian shirt now so that's a thing maybe—

I'm still working on maintaining a relatively stable uploading schedule so please be patient with me! I have new classes this semester and I'm currently adjusting to the new workload lol

That's all for today, catch ya on the flipside~

~Stargazer