It turned out Morris the old skydog had been right after all. After trailing up the northern most part of the continent, Shin decided to turn the ship east and head for the tropics. It had been two weeks since the card game in the doctor’s quarters and Cove had moved to bunk with Elgar and Caden.

The other boys were quieter than his previous bunkmates. They didn’t smoke like Fletch or tell dirty jokes like Robbo and Cove no longer had to share a hammock like he used to with Drift.

The worst part was, after months and months of practice, hating Drift should really have come naturally to Cove by now. But nearly every second of the day Cove found himself missing the other boy.

He had negotiated with the captain to swap his duties around, coordinating his schedule meticulously so that he never shared any with Drift and rarely met him in the corridors. In fact it almost felt like they could have been on two different ships.

Cove didn’t even have to go to the communal meal times given his friendship with Gordy meant he could go snack on food whenever he wanted.

“It’s nice the weather’s getting warmer isn’t it?” Gordy commented on one such evening when Cove had come to visit him after the rest of the shipmates had gone either to bed or their various duties.

“Mm,” Cove nodded, slurping down his onion soup and reaching out to tear a hunk of bread.

“I’m quite excited for the tropics,” Gordy said cheerfully, “can you imagine all the cuisines I haven’t tried? All the new ingredients we’re going to buy?”

“Yeah,” Cove replied, fishing a hair out of his soup and flicking it away.

“I can’t wait to poison the captain and everybody else on board tomorrow night with a big ol’ bottle of rat killer in the casserole,” Gordy added.

“Mm yeah,” Cove nodded.

“I knew you wasn’t bloody listening!” Gordon shouted making Cove jump and almost ram his spoon down his throat.

“What the hell Gordy?” Cove gasped, clutching at his chest and checking he hadn’t wet himself.

“You’ve had your head in the clouds all week lad,” Gordy shook his own large head and went to go dump his bowl in the sink. “Why don’t you just go and talk to-“

“No,” Cove snapped quickly. He knew what Gordy was going to say and he didn’t want to hear it.

“Drift’s an idiot,” Gordy sighed, coming to sit back down next to Cove and offering him more bread, it had been extra seeded, just how Cove liked it. He wondered if the cook had made it specially to try and cheer him up?

“Preaching to the choir,” Cove coughed, jamming more crust into his mouth.

“He’s an idiot and he’s arrogant and hostile and careless with other people’s feelings,” Gordy continued as Cove nodded along enthusiastically.

“He’s vain and –“

“He’s got stupid hair,” Cove interjected.

“Yes,” Gordy laughed, “very stupid hair.”

“He thinks he’s better than everybody else,” Cove carried on, starting to enjoy himself. “He never says what he means, he flirts with anything with a pulse, he snores, he’s big and sweaty, he-“

“Adores you,” Gordy interrupted.

“No,” Cove frowned, pushing his soup away and suddenly losing his appetite. “No, Gordy that’s not how this game works.”

“I’m sorry laddie,” Gordy smiled indulgently, “he’s an immature arrogant dick who adores you.”

“He doesn’t,” Cove shook his head miserably. “He just wanted to embarrass me in front of everyone, like he always does.”

“You know he came to see me earlier,” Gordy stated.

“Traitor,” Cove muttered bitterly, flashing his friend a hurt look.

“Oh don’t worry,” Gordy grinned, “I hit him over the head a few times with a saucepan before doing what he wanted.”

“What was that?” Cove frowned.

“Teaching him how to make your favourite seeded bread,” Gordy nodded, looking pleased with himself.

Cove choked and immediately spat out his mouthful of chewed bread onto the metal work surface of the kitchen.

“Hey!” Gordy protested. “I just bloody cleaned that.”

“Drift made this?” Cove prodded at the rest of the bread like it was a bomb.

“Along with dessert,” Gordy nodded.

Cove frowned as the cook got up and walked over to the pantry, reappearing with something wrapped up in greaseproof paper and string.

“He bartered with Captain Shin for some cocoa powder and took on other shipmates’ duties to earn enough to buy the sugar and milk,” Gordy explained as he undid the packaging to reveal a small chunk of what Cove recognized was chocolate. Only the chunk had been melted and molded into what Cove assumed was meant to be a heart.

“It looks bad,” Cove said dismissively, “and I’m not hungry.”

“Oh can I have it then?” Gordy asked, lifting the malformed brown lump to his lips.

“No!” Cove exclaimed, batting the sweet out of the other man’s hands and causing it to land on the floor and roll under the table. “Now look what you’ve done,” Cove snapped, dropping down to his hands and knees and fishing the chocolate out. It was a bit dusty and Cove shuddered as he extricated a cobweb from its surface.

“Surely you’re not going to –“ Gordy began, but before he could finish, Cove had shoved the entire thing in his mouth with a defiant look.

“How’s it taste?” Gordy asked, looking somewhat amused.

“Disgusting,” Cove lied, as the familiar taste of creamy sweetness flooded his mouth. “like a piece of shit.”

“Chow down on many of those do you?” Gordy laughed as the clock struck eleven and he started to shoo Cove on out of the kitchen. “Go on, to bed with yer.”

Cove grinned and left the galley. His face fell, however, when he saw Fletch waiting for him outside his new bunkroom. The other boy had his eyes closed and was chewing on an unlit cigarette.

“Oh you’re back,” Fletch smiled widely but awkwardly as he opened his eyes and noticed Cove. “I’ve been waiting for an hour.”

“Why?” Cove asked bluntly, moving to push past Fletch.

“Hey lil’ shit,” Fletch murmured, reaching out to gently tug at Cove’s sleeve. “Just give me five minutes will you? That’s all I’m asking for.”

“Fine,” Cove huffed crossing his arms and standing in front of Fletch expectantly.

“It’s about what happened with Drift and the Doc,” Fletch began, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish expression. “It was my idea.”

“I see,” Cove swallowed, the remnants of the chocolate were clogging up his throat.

“To be honest,” Fletch sighed, “I was just trying to give you a little nudge into realizing you liked Drift. I didn’t mean for it to hurt you like it did.”

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Cove rolled his eyes.

“Seems like it was,” Fletch narrowed his gaze at Cove and looked thoughtful. “At first I was gonna flirt with Drift to try and make you jealous but we figured that was just too ridiculous so I asked my…I mean, I asked Benny.”

Cove frowned, for some reason Fletch had gone very red and was no longer meeting his eyes.

“Drift isn’t good at talking about feelings,” Fletch huffed. “He can come across as cold, sometimes I guess a bit cruel.”

Cove blinked at Fletch, but didn’t respond.

“I suppose what I’m trying to say,” Fletch shifted awkwardly, “is we really miss you kid. Not just Drift, but me too. I miss having you around and I miss my best friend being happy because you’re around.”

Cove nodded curtly, his chest felt tight and his tongue dry. “Okay, thank you for talking to me Fletch. Good night.”

“Oh,” Fletch looked crestfallen as Cove walked past him into his bunkroom. “Yeah, sure, goodnight Cove.”