On board

Heaven knows its high tide

"Sorry sir!" Joe yelled as he continued to run down the corridor. The action and the exclamation seeming to anyone else as if he had been transported back to his school days, sprinting down the corridor as he became later and later for his history or for his maths lessons, prompting him to accidentally run into a teacher who had never met before. Yet this time, he was no longer late for a lesson, and was instead running into surprised holiday makers who hadn't expected a fully grown man to run down a dimly lit corridor at full pelt.

Yet despite his clumsiness, Joe carried on running. His freshly polished shoes skidding slightly across the polished wooden floors as he slid round corner after corner, until eventually he made it to his room. His fingers frantically fumbling through the pockets in his trousers, and in his trusty blue jacket in search for the key card which let him into the room he needed to be in as quickly as possible. Eventually finding it, then dropping it onto the floor, Joe fumbled with it some more, banging the card against the scanner several times, noting with frustration how the handle wouldn't budge an inch.

"Come on you bastard." He whispered to himself softly, his voice breathless from his performance on stage and the run he had endured after it, as he continued to scan the card against the door and press down on the handle, with no satisfactory results. The law of sod coming into play with such vigour it was almost comedic - with the simple card having worked a million times over as he wondered into and out of his room, and for it to not work now, during the one time he needed to get in there as quickly as possible, was infuriating beyond belief.

"Fucks sake." He mumbled to himself once again, taking in a breath as a moment of composure, before raising the card to the scanner and watching as a little green light flickered on the small black box, the door handle coming down with ease allowing the light wooden panels of the door to move as he pressed his weight against them, bursting into his room with an undignified trip as he landed on the corner of his bed, bouncing off of the mattress and onto the clean floor with a thud, a second thud following as the door clicked to a shut, leaving the brunette in the one place he needed to be.

"Right twenty five minutes." He muttered to himself breathlessly as he jumped to his feet and checked his watch, before taking off his jacket and throwing it uncaringly onto his pristinely made bed, followed by his shoes which he peeled off his feet, rather than taking the time to deal with laces, his shirt, trousers, socks and underwear all falling in a messy heap on the bed as he ran into his shower. Turning it on and jumping in with a second undignified squeal as the cold water hit his back, before heating up a few unbearably cold seconds later.

Twenty five minutes. That's all he had to shower, get dressed, do his hair, and make his way to the restaurant up on the top deck of the ship where he was to have dinner with the redhead who he had just shared a stage with, and who was likely to be in an equally frantic rush to get herself ready. Nothing but sheer excitement propelling them forwards

Joe knew time would be short after he had booked the table in the poshest of restaurants held on the ship, the one which was usually kept separate for the top paying customers, business meetings and the odd engagement party which was held out at sea. A place where refinement and presentation where key, and most crucially a place where a showman's blue jacket and a dancers sparkly, gold, thigh-high dress would not have been appreciated. And so, when he explained to the redhead about the situation via a text message sent late last night, the two of them realised how a quick change would be necessary. A conversation which continued well into the early hours of the morning, only now for them to realise just how quick of a change it would have to be.

So, once he had slathered soap across his skin, and coated his hair in shampoo, getting most of it in his eyes as he washed it all off, Joe found himself bounding out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist and beginning the process of getting himself from the slightly puffed out, drowned rat of a figure he saw in the mirror stood before him, into a young man who was presentable and looked good enough to impress the woman who had been on his mind for the past few days.