/ Wow. Long-ass break, huh? There's... so much that's happened, I mean hell, it's been nearly a year. But the main thing is that over the year I. Have. Grown. So I apologize if my writing has grown and it's not as enjoyable, but I just can't bring myself to write the way I had before. In some ways, yeah, it's similar. But expect changes in personality and... hopefully they're for the better, as I believe them to be.

/-Oh! One physical change - Kiera's eyes are green, not brown. Long story.

/I must also warn you, this is my senior year in high school. Not only that, but I have a new puppy at home and a boyfriend who, because of his job and my school, our schedules will both be out of whack. Please be patient.

/... Also. I really apologize if there's a lot of grammar mistakes or things in here that just plain don't make sense. I slammed my middle finger in a door a few days ago, and I now have a huge-ass splint on it.

/On my dominant hand and writing hand.

/And they didn't give me painkillers.

/So... Yeah. Ouch. ... I know usually the characters talk in this part before every chapter, and yes, I'm still gonna do that. Just because I've matured doesn't mean I'm a stick in the mud - I'm just trying to get back in the swing of things. That'll pick back up within the next few chapters.

/ I just wanna go ahead and thank those of you that have waited patiently for this long-awaited update and I just hope it doesn't disappoint. I really do. Expect more, I p-r-o-m-i-s-e. 3

The deck was, as one could expect aboard a pirate vessel, organized chaos. Kiera could hear Sora's grunts and occasional sighs of exasperation; it seemed he wasn't quite as good when it came to ducking and weaving. After a bit of effort, he finally managed to catch up to her, extending a hand to grip her by the shoulder.

"Jeez, Kiera! You act like you know exactly where you're going."

"It's not so hard to figure out," she replied with an almost giddy laugh, one elbow at the ready as men continued to dodge the two left and right, practically scrambling to get their orders completed. "But I wonder where they took Jack off to..."

"Why was he passed out in the first place?"

"Even better question. My bet's on rum."

"Rum?"

"... Y'know. Like the drink." Sora only shook his head in confusion, and Kiera's eyes were wide with excitement all over again. "Aaah, Sora. Still so much you don't know," she commented smugly, standing up on her tiptoes a bit to pat his head in a superior sort of way; she knew it irritated him to no end when she knew more than he did.

"Yeah yeah, I'll figure it out myself," he replied in a sort of kidlike grumble, and his auburn-haired companion couldn't help but smile a bit fondly. It seemed like things hadn't changed so much after all.

Before much else could be done, Avira and Riku came running down the steps to catch up with them, almost like parents on their way to scold their unruly children for running ahead. This, of course, resulted in Avira stopping briefly to look around, finding her surroundings growing stranger with every step she took with these Users - causing a domino effect in the process, Goofy being the last to take a tumble.

Kiera and Sora gawked as they all fell one by one on top of each other, the quarters below deck finally growing silent - it seemed they were the only ones still below for now. The silence only lasted for a few moments, however, as they all burst out with laughter soon after while helping each other back to their feet.

Avira politely refused Kairi's help, brushing her clothing off as her normally pale skin began to flush profusely.

"... Any luck?" Riku asked, folding his arms under his chest as their eyes slowly adjusted to the dim lighting. Kiera and Sora shook their heads slowly in reply, and everyone's shoulders slumped somewhat with soft sighs of disappointment.

… Well, all but Avira's, of course. Her straight posture hadn't suffered in the slightest since Kiera had first encountered her. The latter scratched thoughtfully at her chin, glancing around the close quarters as well. A collective cringe ran through the group of travelers as the cracking of a whip resounded up above, the groaning of men working to their fullest serving as their ambiance.

"Well, since we can't find Jack, what're we gonna do?" Donald asked, basically vocalizing the question all of them were thinking. Kiera lowered her hand to rest on her hip, glancing up at the head of the rickety steps.

"Guess we'll have to work like the rest."

"Wha- Why?"

"Well, I mean, think about it. Wouldn't it be kiiiinda suspicious if we were all standing around here not really doing anything? They might start asking questions and realize we're not supposed to be here," Kairi pointed out, and Kiera quickly followed that up with a nod and hushed whisper:

"- And then, they could make us walk the plank."

The others made their own respective noises of surprise, eyes widening - all but Avira, who didn't quite understand what kind of nautical terminology the second-shortest User could possibly be using.

"... Jump off the ship and drown or get eaten by sharks, or some other bad shit," Kiera added for her sake, in which the program-out-of-programming responded accordingly.

"... It pains me to say it every time, but Kiera's right," Sora commented with a sigh of defeat, prompting Kiera to stick her tongue out at him in an extremely mature manner.

"That, or we just make it look like we're doing something."

"-Hey, Riku, we can finally put all that reading up on sailing to use, right?" Sora pointed out, folding his arms behind his head with a wide grin as he completely ignored his Gatekeeper's immaturity - that jackass.

That got both Riku and Kairi in much brighter moods, the former nodding in agreement as he chuckled under his breath.

"Yeah, good thinking."

Once the ship was free to set sail, the crew was temporarily relieved of duty. After all, it'd be kinda hard for them to do more back-breaking work at dawn without sleep and some rum on their bellies. Like most of the crewmen, Kiera's companions had found beds or extra comfy bits of floor and passed right out – she, however, found herself wandering the ship's deck up above.

Leaning against the railing, she inhaled deeply to commit the salty air to her memory. The thumping of well-worn sneakers soon caught her ears; it seemed she wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. Kairi gave her a polite smile, ruffling the back of her own hair as she moved to lean against the railing next to her.

A somewhat-awkward silence followed, and Kiera was determined not to break it. It was fine to say stupid things around Sora, because he was used to it; when it came to Kairi, it was times like these that - despite the stupid things she'd said the first time she got dragged along Sora's adventures - she became very aware that there was a lot she didn't know about his best friend. … About either of his best friends, really.

There was something wrong with that.

"... I guess it always smells like this where you live, huh?" she finally asked with a clear of the throat, keeping her eyes focused on the bobbing waves she could only faintly see in the darkness.

Kairi seemed thankful for the break in silence, her voice rushing out in a relieved sigh. "Yeah, the Islands always smell like this... Kinda salty?" she suggested before laughing a little under her breath. "I don't pay much attention to the smell - since I used to smell it almost every day."

"That makes sense." Another pause, before Kiera found herself saying, "My dad took me to see the ocean once. It smelled just like this... I mean, duh, of course it did, but... I never forgot the smell."

The mention of her father only made her cringe, but it was too late to avoid the still-stinging wound of a topic; Kairi's interest was piqued. Which, it should have been - Kiera doubted Sora had told her much about herself, either.

"Your dad, huh? Was it fun?" she asked with all the interest and cheerfulness that the Princess of Heart was normally associated with.

The fellow redhead felt a smile tug at her lips, even if the topic was still such a bitter one. "Heh... Actually? Yeah, it was. See- as a scientist, he was about as curious as I was. And... I love the sea, always have. So one year, a week before my birthday, he gave me an early birthday present: a trip to the sea. We drove down to the Gulf, spent a whole day there... Just me and him. It... It was a good day," she murmured with a small nod of confirmation, managing to keep that infernal quiver of emotion out of her voice that so often gave her away.

There was no need to ruin what small potential friendship was growing between her and Kairi with her own sob story.

"Wow, that sounds so nice...! I still have the best present my dad's ever given me," Kairi replied in an excited hurry, reaching into a zipper-pocket of her light pink dress to pull out a tiny star-shaped charm. Kiera turned away from the railing to lean forward a bit, inspecting the charm with genuine interest.

"It's... shiny," she offered, somewhat reminded of the Paopu fruit Sora had offered her that last day.

"I've always had this fascination with stars... Kinda like how you feel about the sea," she explained with a smile, blue eyes crinkling warmly as she glanced over at Kiera. "Because just like the sea, the stars seem to stretch on forever... And no matter where you are, we're all looking at the same stars."

Kiera couldn't help but return the smile - after all, that was probably some of the most meaningful shit she'd ever heard. Now she felt like laughing at her stupidity, for feeling so determined to outdo Kairi's writing in the letter Sora had received.

"Guess we... Have a bit more in common than we thought, huh?"

"Kiera. Kieeee-ra. a. Ki-er-aaaaa- Kiera, wake U-"

"- HI-YAH!"

"-OW-!"

The sounds of a tussle promptly ensued, the only thing able to drown out Kiera's thoroughly displeased shouting being the man seemingly in charge of the crewmen barking orders and dealing with those who didn't comply.

"... She sounds as if she's being derezzed," Avira noted in hushed tones to Donald, seemingly one of the less beat-around-the-bush sort of Users. He nodded sagely, pretending to liberally scrub the deck with a brush.

"Sounds to me like Sora got stuck with waking her up again."

"We drew straws."

"By straws, Riku means our Keyblades."

"Sora's happened to be shorter."

"I still think mine was shorter, but... Sora said he didn't mind," Kairi concluded meekly, doing her best to stifle a smile – she was doing similar to Donald, while Riku sat nearby on a barrel and attempted to peel potatoes. Avira was watching intently, hair tucked underneath a hat she had found abandoned below deck - she wasn't used to all this sunlight, after all, and her nearly comical attempts to block the sun with her hands would have definitely drawn more attention to the travelers than they needed. They had already noticed the difference in atmospheres compared to Jack's ship, the Black Pearl... This one was much more intimidating, dangerous even...

A few moments later, the not-quite-so-dynamic duo ascended the stairs from below deck, Sora rubbing his cheek as an extremely groggy and displeased Kiera tried to untangle a large knot in her hair.

It was pretty obvious he had to go to great lengths to get her fully conscious, and it was likely her fist that had made contact with his cheek.

Kiera was usually quite the morning person, at least not quite this homicidal, but two unfortunate factors had collided the previous night: a messed-up schedule compared to the one her new job had provided her with, and the constant rocking of the ocean.

Everyone found it to be a very good idea to go about their business with no questions asked, Riku whistling some random tune under his breath. The "silence" - used lightly since they were, in fact, on a ship having orders barked around them- was broken by Goofy as he came slipping and sliding by; he had gotten his feet stuck in two buckets of water, one of which having been in use by Donald.

This resulted in Donald running after Goofy to obtain his bucket, Kairi running after Donald to try and mediate, and Sora running after Kairi due to overall personality on his part. Avira had been so focused on the potato-peeling process that she hadn't even noticed, so Kiera was left to gawk groggily and Riku to shake his head with a deadpan expression.

"Blending in on a pirate ship. Like that was gonna happen."

"I did my best, Potato Boy."

This, however, ended up working to their advantage - Goofy happened to crash into one of the most confused pirates in the Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow himself.