Azure: 19

Penne: 17

Navy: 18

They both burst out laughing, and Navy's hope was restored.

"Oh my...oh my GOD!!!!" Azure cackled, slapping his knee while Penne laughed a very unlady-like laugh, snorting and wheezing and sounding like she was dying.

"I CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER THAN HIM!!!" Penne laughed, earning a smack to the head.

"Now that's just rude, Honey."

He somehow said that with a straight face, which just made them crack up even more, until they were devolving piles of giggles on the floor.

"What just happened." Navy said, his gaze blank and close to confusion.

Both Penne and Azure sat up at the sound of his voice, Penne poking him with her elbow and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively as he attempted to explain the situation.

"I grew up with Penne. But she's more of a little sister to me than anything. And she really is a little idiot. I don't understand how anyone could put up with her. She's probably scooped out poor Rav's eardrums by now, poor baby, you really should be more cognizant of your surroundings when you go screaming about a hot shirtless guy on tv~"

Staring at him blankly, Penne punched him in the shoulder, barely flinching as he started rolling around on the floor in mock pain.

"I see it now..." mumbled Navy, grinning a bit while trying to hide it.

"So. Care to tell me a story, Navy?"

Now this girl knew his name too. How? When? Where? Why? Technically he could ask all these questions, but his hand hurt and this girl was very loud, and he wanted to get this encounter over with so he could move on to more fun things.

"You got most of it. Azure ran into me. Got hauled away by some guys. We made some magic stuff happen and *poof* somehow he dragged me in here."

Penne simply nodded and flicked her gaze from one to the other before the pieces clicked and she gasped. "MAGIC!? Like MAGIC MAGIC!? DOES THAT MEAN YOU CAN SAVE THE COMPANIES!?!?"

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

She was so...enthusiastic...whoever Rav was, Navy felt sorry for them...

"Well...uh...I don't know. Navy doesn't seem all that...inclined towards wordly matters right now," Azure said, rubbing the back of his head and trying his best to keep Navy on good terms with Penne while also admitting that Navy basically didn't care that the world was destroying itself.

Grinning the grin that meant she was mad and wanted to look terrifying because of it, Penne stood up and started pushing Azure across the floor towards Navy, pushing Azure into Navy's legs and causing them to fall on top of each other. Then she ran out of the room, shouting, "Yeah, well, YOU SHOULD MAYBE FIX THAT!" before rounding a corner and disappearing from view. And though neither of them really wanted to, they quickly untangled themselves to sit side by side on the cool tile floor. Neither of them spoke, the tense silence as unbearable as sealing your head in a plastic bag for too long.

Looking over at Navy, Azure drank in all the details that he had failed to do three years earlier out of embarrassment. This wasn't a photo. Navy was really here, his navy hair rusting around his head, his silver gaze staring emptily into nothingness. And Azure took in the things that perhaps the photo hadn't shown...the way the end of his shirt was frayed, as though it had been taken on and off enough to start falling apart, and how if you looked close enough, there were faint freckles dotting the ridge of his nose, but disappearing as soon as they met the edge of his eyes. And how there was dried toothpaste on his lips, making them look extra shiny...

"Why do you care?" Navy asked abruptly, tearing Azure's gaze from his lips up to his eyes. "Why do you care so much about what happens to me?"

Springing to his feet, Azure shouted, "CRAP! Imma go get some burn stuff, be right-"

But a hand grabbed his wrist, and he basked in the warmth that Navy's touch brought him. "You can't go without me, silly. You'll get caught."

"Mhm. Yeah..." he mumbled, slipping his hand into Navy's and dunking into the cool ocean, melting himself into his surroundings by molding the magic around his body the way Navy had told him to.

So Azure led the way towards the bathroom, where he had his own medical kit in the cupboard. Shutting the door behind him, he sat Navy down on the lid of the toilet, rustling through the cabinet and pulling out the small white container filled with band-aids, anti-itch cream, stuff for sunburns, and "Aha!" There it was, the burn cream. Gently grabbing Navy's burnt hand, he turned on the tap and let the cool water splash over it as he squirted some cream onto a giant band-aid. Removing Navy's hand from the sink, he gently cleaned the palm so that the band-aid wouldn't immediately fall off, applying the oitment before standing back to admire his work.

"And lookey there! How's it feel?" he asked, looking down at the boy on the toilet.

"Mhm..." he mumbled, and Azure lifted up his chin to see an intense blush riding across his face. Navy jerked his chin away from the touch as soon as their gazes met, and Azure sighed. Giving his hand one more pat, Azure grabbed the other one and pulled Navy to his feet, who was still looking at the ground.

"C'mon," Azure said, smiling warmly. "Why don't we go do something fun?"