On board

Morning after the night before

Stretching her arms above her head, feeling the flexing and twisting of her muscles after hours of them being held still in the night, Dianne allowed her eyes to gently flutter open. A bright stream of yellow sunlight bursting through the two round windows on the wall to her right, illuminating the entire room - with its white walls and dark wooden furniture - to be thrown into a ball of bright light which bounced into her eyes off of the smooth white fabric she felt underneath her skin.

Yet as she came too, it was something else other than the bright sheen of light and the softness of fabric underneath her skin that caught her attention. Yet rather the absence of another bed to her side which seemed to utterly confuse the redhead, prompting her to gently lift her head off of the pillow to take in her surroundings with no more than a sleep filled, dreary eyed glance around the room. A sleep filled, dreary eyed glance which was suddenly revoked into a wide look of fear as her movement was responded with an incoherent mumble coming from behind her. A soft, sleepy voice which could only have come from one person. The one person who also happened to be weighing her down on the bed with his tanned arm draped over her middle.

Turning her head to the left, shuffling her body slowly so as not to disturb him, Dianne took in the sleeping brunette on the other side of the bed. The duvet cover rolled half way down his chest, with both his arms placed out of its cocoon. His brunette locks which were always styled so perfectly now laid out sporadically on the white pillow case he rested his head upon. His soft lips rested in a small frown as his nostrils flared ever so slightly with each breath he took in, then let out. His eyelids now resting firmly over his bright blue eyes, showing how blank and uninteresting his features really were. A blank, almost childlike canvas which was only recognisably his due to the three moles increasing in size balanced along the clean cut of his jaw leading in a line from his ear towards his mouth.

Continuing to scan over his face Dianne took in how the remarkable unremarkabillity of the younger man seemed to occupy her for a few moments. Her pupils dilating further as she took in every square centimetre of his features, until her gaze fell on a single black eyelash which had fallen onto his cheek.

Slowly edging a finger towards the softness of his skin, Dianne felt herself become startled by the same deep mumble she had heard before turn into a fully fledged sentence.

"You know it's rude to stare at someone whilst they sleep." He mused sarcastically, his mouth twitching into a soft smile as he kept his eyes closed. His face showing every other sign of sleep so much so that the redhead nearly became convinced she had imagined his words. Only to know that the cheekiness of his smile was unmistakably his, and he was without a doubt beginning to rise from his slumber.

"I wasn't staring." Dianne hit back a little harshly as she threw her head back onto the pillow with a gentle bounce.

"You were, but I can't blame you." Joe continued as he subconsciously shuffled closer towards the redhead. "I mean I obviously look incredible right now." He remarked with a chuckle edged behind his tired voice, whilst that same smugness she had experienced at the start seemed to creep back in as he had suggested it might have done last night.

Last night.

The adverbial phrase seemed to stick in the redheads mind like gum stuck to the bottom of her shoe. What had happened last night which would warrant her waking up in the younger mans room, and more prominently in his bed wearing nothing more than her underwear. A state of undress she was now very aware of as the wire to her bra stuck into her ribs and as the brunettes hand which draped across her middle slowly brushed a light finger back and forth across her forearm.

She knew that she wouldn't have slept with him after only their first night. And she was certain she wasn't nearly drunk enough to forget what had happened. She remembered the restaurant... Remembered the feeling of not belonging on the ship until she was alone with the singer... Remembered the subtle shadows of her body on the empty decking outside as the moon and the stars cast down on the pair... And remembers the kiss that the pair shared after a simple heart to heart which neither of them had fully expected to have after a night of laughter and of conversation which would have deemed them to be nothing more than friends.