Remembering more of what she learned, Meriel curled up and looked at Kiwi. "Thank you." she said with a soft smile, feeling cozy under the blankets.

Kiwi nodded contently, relaxing himself. "You're welcome..." He hoped he would get a good amount of sleep...today had been a long day...

It didn't take long at all for him to fall asleep.

((Are we gonna time-skip the sleeping?))

((sure ^^ ))

((Okay, then...lemme improvise.))

There was no other way to put it--the alarm scared the crap out of Kiwi in the morning, and he jumped a bit. He sat there blearily for a moment, blinking his eyes open, and then wearily reached over and turned the alarm off. He yawned, glancing over at Meriel to see if she was still comfortable.

He tried to be as quiet as possible as he slid out of bed to his dresser, going to find proper work clothes.

Meriel slept on, albeit somewhat lighter than before. Rolling to find the warm body she had been hugging, she fell off the bed and landed with a thud on the ground.

Gavin, always a late sleeper and hater of alarm clocks, snoozed on, a small line of drool leading to his pillow as he lay sprawled out on his back. "Sure I'll go skinny dippin with you...." he mimbled in his sleep.

Kiwi noticed--he had just finished gathering up some clothes for work.

"Uh-oh." He strolled over and helped her to her feet politely. "You okay?"

"Y-yes.....hurt." Meriel winced, rubbing her head gingerly and eyes watery for a second at the initial pain. Smiling as Kiwi helped her, she hugged him.

Gavin slept on, thuroughly enjoying his dream. He'd continue to do so until he was startled awake or Kiwi roused him irritably.

A bit surprised, he hugged her back, patting her head and yawning. "Good morning...uhh...I'm going to go wake Gavin up. If he's late again, it won't be good...I'll be back in a minute..."

With that, Kiwi headed out into the hall, still clutching his new pile of clothes. He banged on Gavin's door ten times in a row--this was his signal that he needed to get himself in gear. He then returned to his room, scratching his head.

Gavin:

Gavin flailed in his sheets at the knocks, yelping as he caught sight of the time. "Dammit!!! The hell I gotta get up so early for anyway?!" he cursed, his foul mouth coming out in the morning. Scrambling to get ready, Gavin ignored his perfectly made bed head.

Meriel let go, watching him leave and smiling joyfully as he returned. "Kiwi! Meriel likes Kiwi." she exclaimed, smiling as she sat in the bed.

Kiwi smiled at her, then showed her the clothes. "I've got to go to work, now," he reminded her. "As soon as I put these on, I have to go. You can do whatever you want, but remember...it's kinda dangerous for you to go up on the ship's deck, so it'd be safer for you to stay in here or go out for a swim. Okay?"

"Okay!" she said with a smile, waving at him. As he walked out the door, she looked at him sadly, but waited in the room and looked out the window.

Kiwi knew that Gavin would be grumpy as all hell and would complain the whole way up--plus, he probably wasn't even halfway ready yet--so, as always, he went ahead without him.

He was behind the buffet today, replacing food when it ran low.

He made his way up to the deck and headed into the dining hall, which was just beginning to open.

A few minutes later, merely 3 seconds before the bell chimed, Gavin stumbled in behind Kiwi, grumbling and trying to fix his ever unruly hair. "How do you look so damn calm and ready all the time huh?" Gavin whined irritably.

Kiwi patted him on the shoulder, amused. "I use an alarm clock, instead of a friend's half-asleep fist banging on the door," he teased, going to fetch an apron for the day.

"Oh screw you Kiwi!" Gavin retorted, whacking his best friend with an apron before putting it on. "At least I'm not scared of alarm clocks!"

Kiwi chuckled. "Only when I'm in a deep sleep," he admitted, grinning. "They jolt me out of sleep so quickly. To change the subject, are you gonna go find Deckle again today?"

He knew they always had about three or so minutes to chat before people would start piling in. Any minute he didn't have to spend working was a minute he was going to take.

Looking at him as if he'd sprouted a second head, Gavin replied as if it were obvious. "Um...duhhhh! Kinda question is that. Damn right I'm going down to visit her, Wouldn't you visit a girl like that?" he reasoned, fooling around with his tie strings that held his apron on.

Kiwi raised an eyebrow. "If you're thinking about going down to the boiler rooms and such where she works, might wanna pick up one of those funky-looking haz-mat-ish suits. Cancer risk down there."

He caught sight of the boss glancing over this way, annoyed, and poked Gavin. "Better get to your post. The dinosaur's looking this way."

With that, Kiwi scuttled away behind the breakfast bar.

"Well, too bad he ain't going extinct. But, yes, I'd better go before he brops the meteor on me!." Gavin snickered as he wandered off to clear tables today.

Kiwi rather enjoyed working behind the breakfast bar. Since people were so groggy, he could sneak a few pieces of toast and maybe even some scrambled eggs without attracting too much attention to himself.

Breakfast was the longest meal of the day, ironically. It was mostly because people weren't fully awake yet and spent so much time just sitting there, poking at their food.

It was almost ten by the time the dining hall was empty. Kiwi happily got rid of his apron, and then stretched, approaching Gavin. "You see those ditzy twins around anywhere? Made a promise to them for today..."

Gavin didn't have much to do until later on in the morning, since people took so long, he had time to wait before collecting dirty dishes.
Finally being able to chuck his apron into the laundry hamper, Gavin cheered as he made the shot from 7 feet away.

"Oh? the girls from yesterday? Just left for the decks. Have fun buddy." Gavin clapped him on the back.
"In the meantime, I'm gonna enjoy pleasant company, unlike you poor sap." he snickered.

Pausing, he turned around, grinning deviously. "Y'know, you are gonna love this idea. Bring your new friend with you, say she's your girlfriend or fiance or something, make those ditzy girl go crazy. The looks on their faces will be priceless!"

Kiwi nodded idly and then waved him off. "Nah, I'm not in the mood for drama," he amended, somewhat wearily. "I'll just do it. If I use your idea, I'll have to deal with shrieking, prissy rich girls. And their wrath turns into the wrath of their father." He shuddered.

"Eh...you got a point I guess. If it weren't for the father, I'd say go for it and at least get a laugh out of the eperience. Well, sucks to be you mate." Patting his shoulder, Gavin darted off a few feet before snickering. "Meanwhile, if you need me, I'll be enjoying the company of a classy, attractive, quality maiden." he boasted, ducking out of sight before he could be persued or have something chucked at his head.

Meriel looked at another lesson before becoming restless. It was more fun to learn when Kiwi was around. Feeling left out, the young woman put on the clothes, which took a few minutes, before wandering out of the cabin to look for Kiwi.

Kiwi felt like chucking something at his head, for sure. He wandered out of the dining hall, looking around for the twins. However, he ran into Meriel first, and a smile broke out across his face.

"Hey. You doing okay?" he asked brightly, glancing around for the twins. It was almost ten, after all. Hopefully, they would find him first...he didn't see them anywhere.

"I'm ok. How are you?" she snswered with a smile, waving a bit. "Hi."

They didn't need to wait long. The twins passed by, ignoring Meriel as if she weren't there. "There you are. time to go." said the first while her sister smoked a ciggerette. The foul smelling cancer stick let out fumes that caused Meriel to cough, looking away and murmuring to Kiwi. "Don't like..."

"Hey, send your little sister or whoever away." said the first twin with a snort.