“The kid tried to jump overboard during a storm to get away from us and now you’re taking him on shore?” Fletch squinted at Drift who was pulling his boots on and lacing them up tightly.

“I am here you know,” Cove announced grumpily. The younger boy was sitting cross legged in the dipped hammock. Drift’s old sweater had been stretched down over his knees.

“He needs new clothes,” Drift replied, “plus boots or he won’t be able to work.”

“I’m all for him working,” Fletch replied, “but you’re taking a big risk letting him run loose in Glosko Town.”

“He won’t be loose,” Drift replied, “I’ll be there, you too. But Shin says he’s to go onshore to help us set up for market. Besides, I’ve been given this-“ Drift held up the leather collar with attached lead. They had used it for prisoners a few times in the past.

“You have got to be joking,” Cove snapped, jumping up and almost tripping out of the hammock in his haste to yank the contraption from Drift’s hand and throw it against the wall in protest. “There’s no fucking way you’re putting that thing on me.”

“Captain’s orders,” Drift shrugged.

“I don’t care,” Cove hissed. “You’re not getting that disgusting thing anywhere near me.”

“Fine,” Drift felt his temper start to rise, Cove had been rubbing him the wrong way all morning. The brat was just so entitled about everything. “Stay onboard then, go scrub the rest of the bathrooms in your dress and let your feet freeze come the cold weather. We are heading north after this port.”

“You-“ Cove snapped his mouth shut, his cheeks had flared red as usual and Drift could sense one of the boy’s anger tantrums coming on.

“Just wear the damn collar Cove,” Drift growled, “you’ll get to go ashore and buy some new clothes with the captain’s money. Plus there’ll be better food there, fresh seafood in Glosko at this time of year.”

Cove’s stomach betrayed his resolute expression with a loud, responding gurgle.

“Besides,” Drift sighed, bending down to pick up the collar and fasten it securely around the delicate column of Cove’s throat, tucking the key into his pocket, “it’s sunny today, be a real shame to spend it under deck cleaning up shit.”

Cove’s answering glare was sharper than nails but the other boy made no move to get away.

Drift made sure to give Cove a long ankle-length rain coat to wrap over the sweater before they actually disembarked the ship. He was shameless but not quite thick faced enough to walk through the main dockyard with a half naked boy on a leash.

Drift was grateful for his decision when they finally stepped off the gangplank and saw how busy the dock was today. Apparently every other junk ship in this part of the continent had taken the opportunity allowed by good weather to stop over at Glosko and flog their wares whilst stocking up on vital supplies.

"Isn't that the Akarino?" Fletch pointed across the dock to a larger vessel with navy blue sails and a bust of a Tengu hammered against the hull.

"Yeah," Drift felt his skin grow tight and his jaw clench.

"Didn't you use to work on the Akarino?" Fletch asked, shielding his eyes from the morning sun with his hand.

"Briefly," Drift replied, "The captain's a sadist though and it filters down the ranks."

"Yeah, I've heard some stories," Fletch replied thoughtfully, scratching at his chin. They watched as a group of shaven headed men disembarked from the other ship, each one bore a facial tattoo of a black stripe across one eye.

"Bunch of creeping looking sods aren't they?" Fletch chuckled as Drift nodded in agreement.

The Akarino crew were looking around when one of them locked eyes with Drift.

"Stop staring, Drift snapped at Fletch, reaching up to bat his friend round the back of the head. Unfortunately, he had forgotten about the leather cuff on his wrist attached to Cove's lead. Cove squawked as he was jerked forwards and crashed into Drift's side.

"Sorry," Drift said instinctively, reaching out to steady the other boy.

"This is ridiculous," Cove spat bitterly, clawing at the collar with his fingers. "How are we meant to get anything done like this?"

"Well maybe if you'd been a little better behaved from the start..." Fletch began when Cove took a menacing step forwards, despite being half a foot shorter than the other boy.

"Enough," Drift barked, grabbing both of them by the shoulder and marching towards the nearest street with clothes stores on it.

Finally, they managed to find one with reasonable prices that stocked the kind of wear they needed. Drift handed over the captain’s coin purse as Cove changed into a brand new pair of grey pants with sturdy brown boots. Drift was surprised the other boy hadn't demanded a new sweater as well, seeing as he had been so loathed at the thought of wearing anything belonging to Drift.

Instead, they purchased a thick, blue woolen overcoat. Drift knew the extra layers would be needed once they hit the skies of the northern continent.

They also bought some spare underwear and socks. Although, Drift had looked away when Cove had changed into the former. He couldn't explain why but it irked him when he turned back round and found that Fletch had been staring and smirking at Cove the whole time.

"We've got some time to kill before market opens," Fletch announced, checking the clothes store's clock and looking excited. "Let's do a bit of exploring yeah?"

"Okay," Drift nodded, it had been a while since they'd been allowed any free time and Glosko was an interesting place with new curiosities down every alleyway.

Plus it had been payday a week ago and Drift and Fletch still had some spare coin to burn. It wasn't like they had anything to save for so they ended up just living month to month for the most part. Although Drift had more savings than Fletch, fewer things seemed to catch his eye.

They ambled down the paved streets, occasionally dipping into the odd shop to scout for bargains.

"What's that?" Cove asked, pointing to a colourful shop window, the wood of which was painted a bubblegum pink.

"That's a sweet shop!" Fletch replied.

"Didn't you ever go to one back in Rilantru?" Drift asked, eyeing the younger boy curiously. He had been uncharacteristically quiet since leaving the clothes store.

"Didn't really ever go to the shopping areas," Cove shook his head. "We were always struggling for money and Aunt Mary tended to buy everything off the neighbours."

"Do you..." Drift paused, "want to go in?"

"No!" Cove flushed an angry red and folded his arms. "It's not like I've even got any coin, why the hell would I waste my time?"

"Well I want to go in!" Fletch cackled, leaning across to snag his fingers on Cove's leash and pulling both Cove and Drift along with him and over the threshold of the store.

"Welcome to my tastebud emporium!" The plump shopkeeper announced proudly from over the ledge of an unnecessarily high till. "There's free samples on the - oh you've already found them."

Drift glanced over to where Fletch was sheepishly brushing crumbs away from his mouth.

"Didn't realise they were free," Fletch muttered, his mouth still full of something sweet and fudgy smelling. "Would've taken my bloody time."

Drift walked slowly through the store, peering into the glass jars of boiled multi-coloured sweets. Cove followed behind him, careful to keep up just enough so as not to get yanked by the leash.

Drift noticed with some amusement that the other boy's eyes had gone as wide as saucers as he looked around the store, taking everything in.

"Why are they selling shit along with sweets?" Cove asked in a harsh, low whisper, jabbing his finger towards a pile of brown chunks.

"That's chocolate," Drift explained in surprise, turning to Cove. "Have you never tried it?"

"Looks like what I scrubbed from the toilets yesterday," Cove sniffed dismissively, turning away to inspect the other shelves.

Drift rolled his eyes and grabbed a bar to put into his paper ‘pick and mix’ bag.

The sweets ended up being nearly as expensive as Cove's pants had been. But Drift didn't feel much regret as he handed the coins over and saw Cove watching the paper bag like a hawk.

"Promise to behave at market and I'll give you one," Drift offered.

"Fuck off," Cove snapped. "Like I'd want your candied shit."

Drift bit the inside of his cheek angrily so as to stop himself shouting at the younger boy. He had never met someone more intolerably stuck up.

"Suit yourself," Drift huffed, ramming the bag into his coat pocket and striding towards where Fletch was waiting outside. If he felt a smug satisfaction at Cove's yelp of surprise as the jerk of the leash, well that was Drift's business.