It had started as a ordinary day. Naomi and Elena had gone for a stroll down to the harbour to see how the dock work was coming along. Gabe was with them, like an obnoxious shadow, Gabe was always there.

Everything seemed to be bustling along as usual when there was a shout- "Stop! Thief!"

A man burst through the crowd.

Naomi grabbed the nearest rope and made a quick knot. She wound up and tossed- As Gabe said "I got this!" And charged forward, managing to get himself tangled in the rope. He fell hard on his face with a sickening crunch. Elena ran right past him without stopping.

"What the hell Naomi!" He was holding his nose, blood streaking down his face.

"You got in the way!"

There was a cheer from down the street as Elena managed to tackle the miscreant.

"Are you ok, Gabe?" The Queen asked as she came back, marching the thief in front of her like a disobedient child.

"I think Naomi broke my nose." He said, his voice did sound different...

"I would have had him if you hadn't of charged ahead."

"Enough, both of you, let's put our friend here behind bars and get some medical attention for Gabe." Elena commanded. So much for going to see the docks, the workers would be disappointed, they'd been expecting a royal visit all week.

That night Naomi and Mateo were supposed to meet at the tavern. She'd finally convinced him to go out for drinks by promising they would go somewhere tamer than the sailors favorite haunt.

She couldn't wait to talk about how annoying Gabe was being… She was treated to an unwelcome surprise.

"I invited Gabe, hope you don't mind." Mateo said. Gabe had a freshly bandaged nose but it didn't seem to be affecting is good spirits.

"Not at all." Naomi lied through gritted teeth as she sat across from them.

"I was just telling Mateo how Elena got the guy even after you tripped me." Gabe said snarkily.

"You mean how you got in the way even though I would have caught him." Naomi snarled back.

"Heeeeyyyy, drinks, everyone?" Mateo interjected awkwardly.

Gabe kept up a running commentary, completely hoarding Mateo's attention. He was a touchy feel-y drunk too, putting his arm over Mateo's shoulders, ruffling his hair or lightly punching his arm... Naomi sulked, her mood worsening the longer the night went on.

"We should get the cards out, eh Nom's?" Gabe suggested jovially.

"It's Naomi to you." She snapped.

"Cards sounds good." Mateo said, he made a show of his empty hands and with a flurried circle motion 'magically' appearing a pack.

"Wow, literally the oldest trick in the book." Gabe said sarcastically, taking the deck and shuffling.

"A classic," Mateo agreed, ignoring Gabe's tone.

"I'm impressed how much you can drink. For a girl." Gabe said as Naomi finished another cerveza.

"Naomi could drink you under the table." Mateo informed him before she had time to get mad.

"Oh yeah?"

"Try me." Naomi dared with a confident grin.

"Alright, you're on. I should warn you, I've been drinking with the guys from the guard for awhile."

"You say that like it's impressive." Naomi scoffed, ordering something a little stronger for them.

"You don't look so good Gabe." Naomi slurred triumphantly.

"I'm fine." He said, but he was turning green and his eyes were completely unfocused.

"But can you do... this!" Naomi stood, knocking over several empty glasses as she very carefully did a complete handstand on the table.

"Wow." Mateo said, still sober despite his friends intense drinking games.

With a careful grace Naomi sat back down, smoothing out her dress and glad she was wearing pants underneath.

"Yeah, sure!" He didn't even make it to standing before he collapsed. "My legs don't seem to be working right…"

"I think it's time for you to go home." Mateo said gently, helping Gabe to his feet.

"But first, yield!" Naomi demanded, brandishing a small umbrella at him.

"You drink, really good." He said grudgingly.

"Who do I drink better than?"

Gabe sighed. "You drink better than me."

"Ok let's get you home while you're still conscious. I don't think I can carry you without magic." Mateo said, getting Gabe into a position where he could use be used as a crutch.

"See ya Naomi." He waved and almost dropped Gabe, who's feet were having a hard time orienting themselves to the floor.

"Right, bye." She sat down hard. Not like it was you I wanted to spend time with or anything.

"Anything else, Naomi?" The waiter asked his new favorite customer.

"A glass of water and the bill." She said with a sigh. Gabe was sooo paying her back for this.

The next day Gabe looked pretty ragged. He had dark circles under his eyes and his cloths were less than their usual pristine crispness.

Mateo told her he'd spent half the night in the bathroom refilling glasses of water and offering support to their less alcohol tolerant friend.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her.

"Great!" She said, making sure every step exuded confidence and wellbeing as she walked by Gabe.

The council meeting was mundane until Elena asked her to stay behind for A Word.

"What is going on with you and Gabe?" The Queen asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Mateo told me what happened last night. You're at each other's throats constantly!"

"Not more than usual…"

"Definitely more than usual. You have a lot in common you know."

Naomi rolled her eyes "Tell me my ego isn't that big."

Elena smirked. "I think you should take Gabe sailing tomorrow."

"What!"

"It'll be fun! I already gave him the day off… Well, I told him to report to the harbour in the morning. You'll have a lunch packed and everything."

Naomi groaned. An entire day of having to deal with Gabe? Alone? Ugh... Maybe she'd maroon him for a few hours. "Fine. But if he gets sick I'm not taking care of him."

"Deal."

The next morning Gabe was already by the little sailing ship Elena had prepared for them.

"Ok, let's go." She said, indicating that he should board.

"Where's Elena?"

"It's just you and me, tough guy." She jumped into the ship. When she went into the cabin there was a basket of food packed with a little note.

"What? Where are we going?" Gabe asked as he followed her.

"Apparently we're going on a treasure hunt." She said, handing him the paper. "Need me to read it to you?"

He ignored her.

"We're gathering herbs for Mateo? Shouldn't he be here then?"

"Elena thought it would be good for us to spend some time together." Naomi explained distastefully. Gabe made a face that mirrored her feelings on the matter.

"Ok, let's get going then." He took the wheel.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Sailing."

"Ha! I'll be the the captain on this ship."

Gabe grumpily took position behind her.

"You do know how to sail, right?" He would be in charge of tightening the lines to the jib sail to get maximum airflow around the ship's sails as well as switching the main mast when tacking. She didn't want to have to explain how to do all that.

"I did basic."

"Perfect, you can row us out of the harbour."

The sea was surprisingly rough. They managed to come to a grudging teamwork in order to tackle the waves bow on. Gabe started to look a little green but he didn't complain.

"Ready to tack!" She ordered. She saw the mainmast swinging in her peripheral vision and had time to duck.

"Dammit Gabe, wait for my signal!" Naomi said as she ducked under the swinging mainmast.

"You said to switch, I switched." He said with a shrug. "That's what I'm here for, right? Following orders?"

"Well at least follow them right!"

He made a face which she returned.

"Tighten the starboard side before we get into any accidents." She growled at him.

"Yes, your majesty." He said sarcastically.

It took twenty more minutes to get to the island.

Twenty minutes of brooding silence broken only by sharp ordered from Naomi.

"Let's drop anchor here and row ashore." She said when they reached a likely spot. They took the tiny dinghy to reach land.

The shore was a sandy beach with jungle not far away. Elena's note indicated they would walk up until they came to a gorge where the island had long ago split in half. The herbs they were looking for grew there.

Naomi read the little map as she walked.

"Woa, Naomi, watch it!" Gabe said, grabbing her arm. She ripped it out of his grasp and glared.

"What!?" She demanded.

"Giant pile of poop..." He gestured to where she was about to step… she had no idea what animal could have left that but it wouldn't not have been fun to step in.

"Oh… Thanks." She stepped around it carefully. She probably would have let him step in it-

Gabe grabbed the tree branch above it and vaulted over.

All her guilt evaporated instantly.

"Why are you always such a damn show off?" She asked irritably.

"I don't know, why are you always so bossy?"

"Last I checked it was literally your job to be told what to do."

"Not by you."

"Pretty sure Grand Council Member outranks soldier."

He sighed and his antagonism seemed to melt a little.

"I thought we were friends Naomi. What happened?"

He actually had the gall to look hurt!

"What do you mean? You're the one being insufferable!" She countered.

"You've been mad at me for weeks now and I don't know what I did."

"Everything! Your stupid smile, how you're such a suck up when Elena is around, how you're always there, your massive ego, how you're such a jerk to Mateo all the time!"

He didn't seem to process any but the last accusation.

"Mateo… I'm not a jerk to Mateo, you are!"

"Well, I'm the only one who's allowed!"

A lightbulb seemed to go off in Gabe's head.

"Wait… This isn't about me at all, is it?"

Naomi stared at him. Her eyes flickered about. What was that supposed to mean?

"Oh, oh oh! You! You like Mateo!" He said triumphantly.

Naomi looked away from him but her fair skin betrayed the blush. Of course she liked Mateo: as a friend! He was much less annoying than Gabe.

"Naomi and Mateo, sittin' in a tree-" he began to sing but stopped when she glared at him. "Ok, ok, sorry."

Naomi continued to glare.

"Have you… Told him?"

"I do not have a crush on Mateo and if you tell him I do, I will make sure every morning you wake up with a different reptile in your bed!"

"A bold threat but I believe you, I swear I will not tell Mateo that you totally have a crush on him." Gabe said with a hand on his heart.

"You won't tell anyone."

"Right, I won't tell anyone. Oh man, I totally crashed your date the other day didn't I."

"It wasn't a date…" Naomi said

"No wonder you were mad!" He laughed, relieved. "Oh and Mateo was the one to invite me, ouch…That can't feel good." It was like he was thinking the whole situation through out loud and it was driving Naomi's blood pressure to new heights.

"It wasn't a date!" She said, louder this time. Gabe gave her a pitying look, which made everything that much worse.

"Let's just get the plants and get back to Avalor." She said.

"What I still don't get…" Gabe continued speaking despite her clearly wanting the conversation to be over. "Is why you're taking it out on me? Seems… Unfair."

She didn't say anything, just continued to trudge in the direction she was sure the cliff lay.

"I kinda miss our friendlier card games…" He said wistfully. "Heh and you remember that time you and I stopped that con artist from ripping off all the snotty nobles? That was good."

"What's your point, Gabe?" Naomi asked sharply.

"Just that us non-magic, non-royal types have to stick together."

"Maybe that's what Elena meant by us having a lot in common. Neither of us belongs in Royal business." Naomi said sarcastically.

"Naomi, shh…"

"Hey, you just talked my ear off! Don't tell me to sush!" But the look of panic on Gabe's face have her pause. Slowly, she looked behind herself. A huge Jaguars was crouching in the grass, eyeing them. This wasn't a friendly Avaloran Jaquin, this creature looked hungry.

Her mind raced for all the advice she'd heard as a child about dealing with wild animals.

Was it run away, fight or play dead?

Gabe made the choice for them. He pulled out his sword and moved in front of her, right as the animal lept.

It sent him sprawling, knocking the sword from his hand and into the gorge. Gabe poked its eye before the jaws could close around his neck. It slashed at his face. Without thinking Naomi tackled it with her full weight. It went sprawling a short distance and she grabbed Gabe's hand, pulling him to his feet as she ran.

The jaguar was in pursuit.

Naomi looked back and felt her feet swept out from beneath her. Her chest heaved as she tried to get a breath. The ground thundered. Then arms were around her middle, lifting her. She managed to take a breath and let herself be pulled along through the dense jungle, branches whipping her as she ran.

Gabe practically threw her into the dingy as they approached. He pushed it out to deeper water and lept in. She already had the oars in hand and was paddling out.

Only then did she notice the darkening skies.

"Are you ok?" She asked. He was holding a hand to his face, staring at the blood.

"I- I'll be fine."

"There's a first aid kit on the ship. We better get out of here fast, the a storm coming in." The wind was picking up.

Once aboard Naomi pulled out the kit and began cleaning Gabe's wound. There was a serious danger of infection in the jungle.

He cringed but didn't make a sound.

"Doesn't look too deep." She lied to him when she'd removed most of the blood. The ship was rocking harder now, the storm was coming in.

"When we get home you have to tell everyone the jaguar was twice that size."

She couldn't tell if he was joking or delirious.

"Ok."

She crudely bandaged his face and went out into the brewing storm.

They had to hurry back. She pulled up the anchor but left the main mast down, the wind was far too strong they would have to navigate exclusively with the storm jib and rudder.

Gabe came up on deck minus one blood soaked jacket.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked.

"Just… Stay below, I can handle this."

"Naomi, let me help."

"Ok ok. But if you start blacking out just… Yell peaches or something."

"Aie aie captain." He said as he took position with the jib lines.

"No, this time you steer. Remember, into the waves to break them." She didn't want him passing out while working the lines and this way she could keep an eye on him.

He nodded and took his position.

The wind blew at an extremely inconvenient angle. She knew they would have to zigzag their way home.

"See the hazard buoy yet?" She knew they should be getting close to an outcropping of rocks they needed to avoid.

"No, all I see is waves…"

She stood up to look.

"Shit. Steer left more, we've got to avoid the rocks and the wind is going to try to push us in and I don't feel like getting marooned today."

"We definitely have that in common." He said as he followed her orders. The rain was coming down hard now. Thunder and lightning crashed around them and Gabe was turning green...

"Ok, we're heaving to!" Naomi announced as he was sick over the side. they would set up the ship to stay in one spot by countering the storm gib, main mast and rudder. They could then safely go inside and wait out the storm. "Tack into the wind." She ordered as she set up the jib sheet. She got up onto the top of the ship and raised the mainsail a little. It tacked itself to the other side. She just needed to secure the rudder into place and the ship would stay turned into the waves.,

She took a step backwards and slipped on the wet hull. Her hands scrambled for purchase.

Gabe grabbed her arm and heaved her back to safety. She patted his back in thanks without a word and grabbed a rope, tying the rudder.

When she was sure the ship was slowing she motioned that they should go inside.

"Sweet stars that's an insane storm!" Naomi said as she tried to shake her hair dry. It was no use, everything was soaked through.

"You're hurt!" Gabe said, pointing to her arm. She must have grazed it on something when she slipped.

He grabbed the first aid kit.

He didn't look so good either. "I'm fine, sit." Naomi ordered.

"No, you sit, let me bandage that then you can do my face, deal?"

She nodded and rolled up up her sleeve, just a scrape but it burned to touch.

Gabe cleaned and wrapped it gently.

"You know Naomi… I just want everyone to be safe. Maybe that's why it feels like I'm always around."

He handed her the first aid kit so she could replaces his soaked bandages.

"I think Elena and I have proven we can take care of ourselves." She pointed out.

"But if anything happened to either of you because I wasn't there, I could never forgive myself. Look, I get it, Elena is your friend and you don't always want some guy hanging around…"

Naomi snorted her agreement.

"So I'll stay behind as often as I can but only if you swear to keep the Queen safe. I trust you."

"Of course I'll keep her safe! You're not the only competent one around here."

He smiled at her then remembered that his smile had been one of her complaints. "Ok I don't think I can stop the smiling but as for me being a suck up with a massive ego… I'm just trying to do a good job. I'm not magic or clever but I am a very good royal guard. I'm proud of that. Besides, you know that I had a bit of a crush on Elena-"

"Everyone always knew that, except maybe Elena, you were never very subtle." Naomi interrupted.

He made a face like he was sucking on a lemon at the embarrassing memories of his puppy like behaviour. "We do stupid things when we're in love, I think you can sympathize."

Suddenly his body convulsed and Naomi grabbed a bucket, handing it to him just in time for him to be sick. She passed him a canteen of water as well.

He looked so wretched sitting there with his bucket she started to feel bad for him.

She sighed. "I suppose I've been unfair to you... I guess it just feel like everyone likes you better." She admitted.

Gabe's eyes went wide. "You're joking! Everyone likes you the best! Elena would much rather spend her free time with you than me, and Mateo… Well Mateo doesn't know what is going on. He doesn't show he likes you trough punches though, he'll just quietly sit back and be supportive. That's his thing."

Naomi considered this. "You know, you might be smarter than either of us credited."

"Not sure if I should thank you for that."

He was sick again. He was looking even worse, if that was possible, and he lay down with a groan.

"Naomi, if I die you have to ask Mateo out."

"You're not going to die."

"But if I do. Promise." He said seriously.

Naomi made a dismissive tch sound. "Why do you care?"

"Just looking out for Mateo. He's a good guy, he'd be lucky to have someone like you."

Naomi busied herself putting away the medical supplies so she didn't have to respond. She looked at the package Elena had sent with them. There was food, which Gabe would never be able to keep down, and a pack of cards. She smirked at Elena's foresight and held them up for Gabe to see.

"Perfect." He said.

Gabe was fast asleep by the time the storm stopped. He'd been ill several more times but he still didn't complain.

Naomi went above to see what the storm had wrought. They'd been lucky, avoiding the rocks and drifting closer to Avalor. She hoisted the mainsail completely and took them home.

When the reached land Gabe picked her up in a hug.

He put her down immediately and threw up bile into the ocean.

"I'd like to lie down now." He said weakly.

Naomi laughed and helped him to his feet. "You've been sick a lot these past few days." She said to distract him from the fact that they were soaked and still had a long way to go to the palace.

"I only deserved one of those time!"

"What happened!?" Elena asked as she opened the door to the infirmary. Naomi sat beside the bed, dealing cards to a Gabe who was having a hard time with depth perception due to one eye being covered.

"Jaguar." Gabe said, pointing to his freshly bandaged face.

"It was the size of a bear." Naomi said stoically, which earned her a smile from Gabe.

Mateo arrived next with a pile of books about healing.

"I don't know if I want you experimenting on me…" Gabe said.

"Mateo knows what he's doing." Naomi said confidently. Mateo himself didn't seem so sure.

"We could call a Carizan Mage to take a look? They have specialized healers…" He suggested.

"Do you know how much paper work you have to fill out to see a Mage for cosmetic purposes? Let alone get one to Avalor." Naomi had been to Carizia, she knew a bit about the Collegium and their famous waiting lists for healing. "Gabe will just have to get use to being ugly."

"Hey!"

Mateo sighed. "Ok, just… Let me do some more research." He sat down on the other side of the bed and cracked open a book.

"You should ask him properly." Gabe said to Naomi. She punched him in the arm.

"Hey, I'm injured!"

"I'll injure you some more if you're not careful."

"Are you guys still mad at each other?" Mateo asked as he glanced up from his book.

"See, he's not paying attention." Gabe said.

"We're not mad at each other." Naomi ignored Gabe.

"Oh?" Mateo looked at them both skeptically. "Did you figure out you were in love or something? You fight like an old married couple."

Naomi and Gabe both bust out laughing.

"Oh Mateo. You're really in for it." Gabe said.

Mateo have them both questioning looks.

"Don't listen to him, he's delirious." Naomi said, then she remembered "Oh, we never got your herbs!"

"My... herbs?"

"Yeah, you know, the ones we were supposed to get from the island?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."