A/N: Hey everyone, I haven't written in a long, long time. This is because to be honest, I've lost interest in writing and in Rocket Power in general. I just don't really have time to watch the show or to write. I'm a senior in high school and will soon be starting that lovely task of applying to colleges and getting things like that settled. So for now I'm going on a nearly permanent hiatus, I'm not going to even try to work on my other fics until atleast January, even though I really hate to leave my fics unfinished.

This fic is a birthday present to my lovely friend Izzy. (Prince Izzy X) It's also my first attempt at a slash fic. I am aware that this fic is similar to one of Izzy's own fics, I didn't notice this until after Scott helped me come up with the idea, and Izzy already knows, and is okay with this. Be a dear and make his birthday really special and go and read and review a fic or two of his, they might be kinda long but they're worth it, even if you aren't a big fan of slash, his fics are really good anyways, and they're funny. Happy birthday Izzy!

Thanks Scotteh for your help on this, and for your help on all of my other fics I appreciate it.

Oh and since this is going to be my last fic for a while.. I'd like to thank all my reviewers over the time I've been on even if some of you guys probably won't bother reading or reviewing this since it's a slash fic. You people really should give slash a chance, I did, and look at me, I'm writing a slash fic. :P

The Greatest Gift

Chapter 1

It was a calm, cool night in Ocean Shores. Most of the town was asleep, except for a seventeen year-old Twister Rodriguez. It was one O'clock in the morning of September 18th, later on in the day Twister would be joining his friends, Sam Dullard, Otto Rocket, who were both also seventeen, and his sister Reggie Rocket, who was eighteen on a cruise to Hawaii where they would be celebrating a close friend's, birthday on the 19th.

Twister lay wide awake in his bed, he had just spent the last three hours trying to think of the perfect gift for the guy of his dreams. Sure there was already the group present, a brand new jet ski that he and his friends had all chipped in for, but Twister wanted to get Keoni something a little bit more personal, something from his heart.

It had been evident to Twister that he had feelings for Keoni beyond friendship about a year ago. Keoni came to Ocean Shores for the first time in three years after a family feud kept him away. Keoni went surfing with the gang and Twister just couldn't get over how fabulous Keoni looked without his shirt on, he had a nice washboard stomach, broad shoulders, strong arms, and a smile that could make you melt. At first Twister had tried to reject the feelings he had been having, but when his older brother Lars, and his best friend Sam both came out of the closet about being gay, and started dating, Twister realized that he needed to just be himself. He once was in a relationship with this guy named Jeff, but things didn't really work out with him.

'We're leaving first thing tomorrow morning, why do I always wait 'till the last minute for everything!' Twister thought, 'This sucks, I've gotta find him the greatest gift, something to let him know how I feel'

Twister continued to toss and turn for a while, just before sunrise he finally fell asleep.

Just two short hours later he was awoken by a phone call.

"Hello?" Twister answered the phone sleepily.

"Hey you ready to go yet!" The voice on the other line said.

"Errr… almost Otto, gimme 15 minutes okay?"

"'Kay." Otto responded before hanging up the phone.

"Urrrrgh" Twister groaned before dragging himself out of bed and into the shower, after showering he got dressed and started walking across the street to the Rocket's.

"Twister! Could you speed it up a little? We're already going to be late!" Reggie yelled from her porch.

"Good morning to you too, Reg," he mumbled, "Yeah, sorry I'll be right there!"

"What time did you go to sleep last night Twist?" Reggie asked noticing the huge dark circles under his eyes.

"I didn't fall asleep until 5 this morning." he replied.

"All the excitement of you kids going to Hawaii on your own for the first time kept you up?" Ray asked, coming out of the house carrying the last of the luggage out to Reggie's car

"Eh... Something like that."

Luckily Twister had put his things in Reggie's car the day before, otherwise they'd definitely miss the ship.

"Looks like you guys are ready to go, god you guys grew up so fast…" Ray closed the door to the trunk.

"Yeah, dad, before you go off into one of your stories, we really need to go." Otto said, he and Sam had been inside talking.

The four teens piled inside Reggie's car and drove to the dock their ship was leaving from. They got there with just enough time to get on the ship. It would take three hours to get to Hawaii A/N: I assume it would actually take a lot longer than that but for the purposes of this fic, it's going to take three hours.

"What are we supposed to do for three hours?"

"Let's go get something to eat," Sam suggested.

"Yeah, I didn't have time to eat breakfast this morning." Twister said.

So the four of them went down to the dinning hall where they were serving breakfast. After picking whatever food they wanted they sat down at a table off in the corner or the room.

"I can't wait until we get to Hawaii," Sam said taking a bite of his scrambled eggs.

"Me either, I love it there. That's why I'm going to go to school there next year." Because of her good grades Reggie had already applied, and been accepted to Hawai'i Pacific University in Honolulu. A/N: Real school, not sure if they have journalism as a major there though, but again for the purposes of this fic…

"Do you know where you want to go to school yet, Sam?"

"I've got a couple schools in mind. I'm going somewhere local so that I'll be close to Lars." he replied.

"Oh please," Otto rolled his eyes.

"What about you guys?" Sam asked Otto and Twister.

"No Idea." Twister answered."

"Me either. We still have a whole year to think about that." Otto said.

"You shouldn't put it off. Better to figure it out early, you'll be less stressed next year." Reggie warned.

"I'm not worried about it."

"This is so awesome, that we're going to Hawaii on our own I mean."

"Yeah I know, Squid, I never thought we'd be trusted alone after what happened last year." Twister laughed.

Sam started laughing as well, "What were we thinking? We were so dumb back then."

The gang thought back to the summer before last when Twister's parents left town for a week and they threw a wild party. The whole house was nearly destroyed.

"I'm surprised that we're not still grounded for that." Otto added.

"Hey guys lets go back up on deck." Reggie suggested, they had all finished their breakfast.

They went back up to the deck and sat in some chairs up there looking out over the ocean. It was taking Twister everything he had just to stay awake. He didn't want to sleep because they only had two hours before they got to Hawaii. Whenever Twister fell asleep he was always really groggy when he woke up. He didn't want to look like an idiot in front of Keoni. So Twister just sat there looking at the water, he wondered how deep the ocean was where they were at at that moment, and he wondered about how many fish there were in the ocean, and lots of other things you'd wonder about if you were really, really sleepy. All this wondering was making him even more tired, and Otto who was snoring away on the chair beside him wasn't helping anything. On his right Sam was reading a book, or was trying to atleast. Every now and then these little kids came running by yelling, and playing tag, and would disturb his concentration. Next to Sam Reggie was playing some little travel game.

"Wanna play tic-tac-toe?" he asked Sam.

Those annoying kids ran by once more, "Sure," Sam put down his book and took out a piece of paper and a pen.

Twister and Sam played tic-tac-toe for what seemed like hours. Twister needed to sleep. Now.

"Hey, if I take a little nap you'll wake me up before we get there right?" he asked, "You know how I am when I first wake up."

"Sure." Sam went back to reading his book and Twister dozed off.

-----

"Hey Twister.. Wake up we're here…" Reggie shook him lightly.

"Huh… what?" Twister said sleepily.

"We're in Hawaii, let's go."

"Sam I thought you were going to wake me up!"

Sam shrugged, "I forgot?"

Twister got up and they got off the ship, they were greeted by Keoni and a couple of his family members, after picking up their luggage they headed back to Keoni's house where they'd be staying for the next couple days. The guest room was made up all nicely, in it was one queen sized bed, and three cots.

"If two of you wanted, two could fit in the bed, but we figured that'd create some awkwardness." Keoni's father said.

Reggie nodded, "Well I call the bed!" she said putting her stuff on it.

After they all got settled they wanted to go out and do some thing.

"Where do you guys wanna go?" Keoni asked.

Let's go surfing!" Otto yelled.

"Is that cool with you guys?"

"Yeah the others replied almost simultaneously.

"Okay great, lets go!"

After packing a few things they left for the beach. Otto was the first one out in the ocean, showing off as usual. The waves were always much bigger in Hawaii than in Ocean Shores. Reggie and Sam soon joined him, leaving Twister and Keoni alone on the beach. Twister was playing with the sand, and Keoni was just sitting there next to him.

"So… how are things going?" Twister asked nervously.

Oh… uh fine…. You?" Keoni replied.

"I'm alright… how's school going?"

"Pretty good… you got a girlfriend…?" Keoni slid a little closer to Twister.

There was an awkward pause, "Uh… no…" another pause, "You?"

"Nope, how 'bout a boyfriend?" Keoni asked, trying to sound like he was joking.

'this is my chance to tell him how I feel…' Twister thought, but all that would come out of his mouth was "Heh… nope."

"Oh… cool…"

"Yeah… do anything fun lately?"

"Well, I won first place in a state surfing contest."

"Congratulations."

"Thanks, what about you?"

"Not much, this summer was kinda dull, coming to Hawaii is always fun though."

"You should come down here more often, I miss you, I mean, all of you… you'd probably be having more fun out there surfing then sitting up here talking to me though."

"Actually I like talking to you."

"Really"

"Yeah but I guess If you wanna we can go surf."

"It's up to you."

"Let's go for a little while… it's getting kind of hot, it'd be cooler in the water."

The five of them surfed together well into the evening. Afterwards Keoni took the gang go the annual end of summer luau. They ate lots of Hawaiian food, like Char Sui and Lau Lau, A/N: Okay, so I'm not 100 sure what those are, but I looked up luau foods, and they sounded interesting. and just sat around and talked with people they hadn't seen in a long time. At around 9pm they went back to Keoni's to watch all of their favorite scary movie, Jurassic Park. Keoni sat down right in between Otto and Twister, every time a scary part came up, even though they'd already seen the movie a thousand times, Keoni would squeeze Twister's hand. Twister would look over at him, smile and then squeeze back before they both let go. After the movie they were all tired after their long day. They all went to bed, Twister fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.