Disclaimer: Obviously, I don’t own Kingdom Hearts.

Author’s notes: Onwards! I promise more characters are coming soon. :D

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“Are you okay?” Tidus asked later as he offered Sora a mug of poorly-ground coffee. Sora eyed it doubtfully even as he accepted the drink, smiling crookedly to hide his mistrust in the coffee’s quality, not to mention the lingering pain.

With a shrug, the brunet said, “About as okay as I can be after getting shot in the leg and falling up the stairs.”

“We should just kick him off the boat,” Tidus muttered, and by him Sora knew he meant Riku, and the determined set of the blond’s jaw told Sora that he was serious about this. Flexing his hands on the sword at his belt, Sora’s first mate looked at him with grim eyes and said, “He’s going to gut us the minute our backs are turned, you know.”

“No, I don’t know,” Sora mumbled and took a sip of his coffee, burning his tongue in the process. Damn coffee. With a wince, he cradled the cup with both hands and settled it between his knees and waited for it to cool. “He’s a bounty hunter,” he continued. “Don’t you know what that means?”

Tidus raised both eyebrows with a look that clearly questioned Sora’s sanity. “Uh, that he’s gonna kill you?”

“No,” Sora said, and almost laughed. “It means that he was paid to kill me, and we can buy him off. Easily.”

“With what money?” Tidus snapped. Taking one hand off the hilt of his sword, he gestured violently around the cabin –old orange crates, a lantern, and dirty bed sheets. In the corner, there was a bucket of pitch next to some ripped sails.

“Er.” The brunet hit a mental stumble and he nearly spilled his coffee as he fidgeted, thinking hard.

“Careful not to break anything,” Tidus commented dryly.

“Be quiet,” Sora mumbled, followed immediately by a passionate, “And anyway, you guys are pirates. Why don’t you just go steal something to bribe him with?”

Suddenly, Tidus broke into an unfriendly smirk – all pointy teeth contained within one hard curve of his mouth. “I don’t like him, that’s why.”

“God, tell me you’re not still upset because he bit you while you were moving him.”

“He drew blood,” the blond exploded angrily. “What the hell, man, is he a vampire? And he was smiling the whole time, I could tell.” Quickly, he yanked up one of his sleeves, messily rolling it into a cuff at his elbow, and thrust his forearm under Sora’s nose. The brunet had to cross his eyes to inspect it.

“Ah,” he murmured, squinting. “How exactly can you tell?”

“It’s shaped like a grin,” Tidus snapped.

Sora blinked twice before looking upwards at Tidus. Narrowed eyes, jutted chin, stern frown – yep, he looked serious, all right. Sora almost hated to break it to him, but… “Tidus,” he explained somewhat meekly, “all bite marks look like that. That’s just the way teeth are shaped.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” the blond asked, even as his indignant look was slowly replaced by one of fuming embarrassment, and he shoved his sleeve down even faster than he’d rolled it up. “You don’t know anything. It’s all curvy – it’s definitely a smile.”

“Okay, fine. So he was smiling,” Sora allowed with a roll of his eyes. “So what?”

“So, he’s creepy,” Tidus snapped, pacing the short distance between Sora and the doorway. “I wouldn’t trust him, Sora. If I were captain, I would just throw him overboard.”

Smiling, Sora took a sip of considerably cooler coffee and said, “Well, then it’s a good thing you’re not captain, isn’t it?”

Tidus merely snorted something quiet and supposedly noncommittal before leaving the room.

-

When Sora hobbled into Riku’s room with the aid of Kairi and Wakka, the bounty hunter wasn’t any more agreeable than the last time they met.

“What do you want?” the silver-haired man snapped as Sora plopped on the only decent sitting surface in the room – the mattress.

“You shouldn’t be talkin’ to the captain like that, man,” Wakka said with a harsh look at Riku, then at the ball in the corner of the room, which Wakka had heaved at Riku’s head mere hours ago. The bounty hunter jutted his chin angrily and looked away, but did not say anything further.

“Guys, I can handle it,” Sora said, waving them out with one hand. Before Wakka could even protest, he added, “If he tries to kill me, I’ll yell, and you can run in and beat him up, okay?”

“Okay,” Wakka said, and turned to leave after giving Riku one last glare for good measure. Kairi merely hid a smile behind one hand and waved at Riku with the other.

“Behave, you two,” she joked and closed the door behind her.

“How the hell did you get so famous?” Riku demanded the moment the door shut. Sora, blinking in surprise, turned to give the bounty hunter an inquisitive look.

“What do you mean?”

“Your crew is composed of a bunch of idiots, and you can’t even walk up the stairs properly,” Riku said coldly. “How have you become one of the most infamous pirate crews on the sea?”

“No clue,” admitted Sora casually, grinning as he stretched out his uninjured leg. “But here’s a better question. How would you like to join one of the most infamous pirate crews on the sea?”

“I wouldn’t,” Riku spat.

“And make more money?” Sora added, raising his eyebrows.

Riku paused, seeming to think this over, and glanced over with a mix of suspicion and interest. “How much more?”

“Um, a lot more?”

At that, Riku’s interested expression seemed to implode, and his mouth hardened back into one firm, thin line. “You don’t even know how much you’re worth, do you.”

“No,” Sora said and valiantly refrained from pouting. “But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t pay you more eventually.”

Shaking his head, Riku argued, “By the time you paid me off what you’re worth, I could have already tripled it by capturing your companions, among others.”

“So you’re going to make me kill you?” asked Sora with a decidedly sulky expression.

“I guess so.”

Sighing gustily, Sora slowly began pushing himself onto his feet, wincing at the pain in his leg. “I’d much rather you just became our navigator.”

“And I’d much rather turn you in and get rich,” countered Riku.

Sora rolled his eyes and turned to knock on the door, hoping Kairi or Wakka was close enough nearby to hear him and come help him out of the cabin. “At least you’d be alive,” he mumbled.

“Come on,” Riku laughed. “You’re no pirate. We both know you won’t kill me.”

Sora shrugged. “No, probably not. But Tidus would be happy to.”

Riku’s laughter fell abruptly silent, and Sora turned to find him biting his lip and looking thoughtfully at the floor.

“Reconsidering my offer?” Sora asked, beginning to smirk.

“I’ll think about it,” Riku snapped. “You’ll have to untie me.”

“I’ll untie your legs,” Sora compromised.

Frowning, Riku lifted his bound hands, useless beneath the tight loops of rope. “What am I supposed to do without my hands?”

Sora just smiled and shrugged.

-

Sora elbowed Tidus the second he caught him glaring (more like snarling, really) at Riku, who was rather enjoying his time outside, standing in the center of the deck with his face turned towards the sun. Tidus momentarily broke away from his glowering to rub his side where Sora had jabbed him, turning to frown at the brunet.

“What was that for?” he snapped.

Sora snorted and pointed at Riku with his thumb. “Stop trying to kill him with your mind,” he said. “He hasn’t done anything wrong yet.”

“Except for shooting you in the leg,” Tidus corrected.

From the middle of the ship, Riku heard them and looked over, smirking. Tidus scowled.

“Look at him,” he said, pointing at Riku with his sword. “He’s going to do something any second. I can see it in his eyes.”

“What could he possibly do without any hands?” laughed Sora.

“Anything,” Tidus quipped, observing with squinty eyes as Kairi walked over and struck up a conversation with the bounty hunter. “Just look at him. For all we know, he could be convincing Kairi to join his side.”

“That’s ridiculous,” the brunet said. “You’re obsessing over this. We need to get your mind off of things.”

Bristling, the blond said, “I am not obsessing. I’m just concerned for the welfare of the ship!”

“Well, why not be concerned for the welfare of my stomach, instead?” Smiling, Sora placed an arm around Tidus’ shoulder and said, “Come on, help me to the kitchen and let’s see if Selphie’s making anything good.”

“She’s probably making a disaster,” Tidus mumbled, accepting the arm around his shoulder, and began helping Sora to the kitchen.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on her,” said the captain as he slowly hobbled down the stairs with Tidus’ aid.

“I wouldn’t be if she actually made some decent food once in her life. Why can’t we just let Kairi cook?”

“Because Kairi’s the nurse,” Sora said matter-of-factly as they reached the bottom of the steps and began shuffling towards the kitchen, where they could already hear Selphie singing energetically to herself as she (supposedly) cooked.

“So why can’t she be the nurse and the cook?” Tidus pressed.

“Um.” Paused in front of the entrance to the kitchen, Sora tongued his lip and craned his neck backwards to study the ceiling, deep in thought. “Because,” he eventually decided, “then Selphie would have nothing to do.”

Tidus nearly fell over. “What about our little navigator problem?” he hissed.

“Well, we have Riku now!” Sora beamed. “So don’t worry about it.”

“Riku?” Peering out of the kitchen curiously, Selphie asked, “Who’s that?”

Oh crap, Sora thought, feeling his stomach drop straight to his feet, we never told Selphie?

“That bitchy bounty hunter,” Tidus said, grimacing, although it pained him to even think about the silver-haired menace. “Don’t you remember?”

Staring, Selphie tilted her head obliviously to the side. “No.”

“You know, green eyes, silver hair, really tall,” Sora gestured with his hands, extending his arm to hold his fingers far above his head in imitation of Riku’s nearly mammoth height. Or at least it was mammoth in comparison to some vertically challenged men like the captain.

“Ohhh, right.” Brightly, the brunette bounced back into the kitchen and picked up the knife she’d been using to cut and peel a pile of stolen potatoes. “How’s that going, by the way? Have you killed him yet?”

“No, but we should,” Tidus snapped, just as Sora stomped on his foot with his good leg. The blond howled in a mixture of surprise and pain, shooting the captain a dirty look just before he remembered his place and amended grudgingly, “No, we haven’t, but we’re trying to talk him into becoming our navigator.”

“Really?” She beamed at a potato as she sliced it neatly in half, narrowly missing her fingers but not seeming to notice. By the doorway, Tidus blanched a little but didn’t say anything. “That’s so great! Can we pleeeease go to Wutai next? I’d love to pick up some tea or something so we don’t have to drink orange juice anymore.”

“Hey, I like the orange juice,” Sora pouted.

“Yeah, but it’s all we’ve had since we robbed that orange merchant last week, and I think I’m turning orange.”

“Um, Selphie,” Tidus said, looking meaningfully at her bright orange outfit, “you’re kind of already orange.”

“My skin, doofus,” she laughed and flicked a potato peel at his face. He dodged it with ease.

“Anyway,” Sora cut in. “What’cha cooking, Selphie? We’re hungry.”

“I dunno,” she admitted with a little sigh, brushing some potato peels onto the floor. Discreetly, Tidus shot Sora a withering glare that clearly said something along the lines of Can we please let Kairi cook next time!?

“You don’t know?” the captain echoed in surprise.

“I’m working with a very limited supply here,” Selphie said, pouting defensively. “If you’d just butter up Riku and get him to navigate for us, we could figure out some place to go and steal some real food, rather than attacking random ships along the way.”

Sora snorted, adjusting himself awkwardly on his one good foot. He was getting tired of standing. “Like I’m not already working on it. I’ll figure it out, okay?” At her sulky look, he added, “And I promise we’ll go to Wutai first thing.”

“Okay.” Looking down at the potatoes with a crinkly nose, Selphie thoughtfully tapped her chin with the flat side of the knife and said, “I guess I could make stew or something.”

“Again?” Tidus groaned. “But we just had that last night—“

Sora promptly stomped his foot again. This time, Tidus merely hissed through his teeth and shuffled two steps backwards. Blinking, Selphie turned to look at them, curious at the commotion, but Sora just smiled and waved his hands dismissively.

“Anyway, I’ll go tell everyone else dinner will be ready soon,” he beamed, subtly nudging Tidus towards the door before the blond could say anything potentially insulting to Selphie again. Offending the girl while she had a knife in her hand was definitely a bad idea.

“Okay,” the brunette chirped. She waved the knife cheerfully. “I’ll have it out in about twenty minutes, ‘kay?”

Sora nodded, already making his way back towards deck with Tidus’ help, and tried to think of a way for Riku to eat stew without removing the bounty hunter’s ropes.

- to be continued

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Ending notes: Hey, look at that! This chapter came out in half the time of the last one. All thanks to your reviews, of course. Couldn’t have done it without you guys to inspire me. So remember, if you liked this chapter even a little bit and would like to see chapter four faster, please leave a review:D