Kiku was not enjoying this cruise so far. He constantly felt seasick and wanted to stay in his room. To make matters worse, he had to watch Yong Soo and Leon whenever his mother and father decided to do something on their own. His two younger brothers always got into arguments and would never decide on what they wanted to do. Granted, they were seven and five years old respectively, but at times he wanted to relax.
He knew it wasn't right to complain to his parents, as that would be rude of him. After all, this cruise was to celebrate their anniversary. There were three days left and then they would all be home.
He was lying on his bed, wondering when Lien and Mei would come in. He was sharing a room with them while the other two boys roomed with his parents. He considered Lien and Mei to be lucky; they could do whatever they wanted as long as they stayed together and checked in with his parents every now and then.
Kiku began to drift asleep until he heard the sound of seven loud rings, causing him to jump up in alert. From what he remembered, this was the sound that was meant for everyone to evacuate. He quickly strapped on his lifejacket and exited the room.
Many thoughts raced through his head such as the safety of his family and what happened to the ship. When he reached his designated station to board a lifeboat, he realized that none of his family was actually there. A station for if this ever happened was nearby, but a man, one of the crewmembers, grabbed his wrist.
"Where are you going?" he questioned, eyes digging into Kiku's. The man's grip was hard, causing Kiku to wince.
"I don't know where my parents or siblings are, don't I go—"
"That doesn't matter," he snarled, "they're all fine!"
Kiku's heart began to pound. He didn't understand what was going on; the man motioned for him to stay with his station and get on the lifeboat. He did as he was told but felt uneasy.
The lifeboat he was in was lowered. He didn't recognize any of the faces with him, but they all had the same expression: fear. Kiku could not tell how long he was in the boat, but he knew it was at least for a few hours. Kiku started to feel like something wasn't right. Some people in the boat didn't have a lifejacket on, and some brought stuff with them but it surprisingly wasn't a tight fit. It seemed obvious to him that more people could have gotten in the lifeboat.
It felt like another hour had passed by to Kiku and the boat started to get rowdier. People began to wonder if anyone would ever come to rescue them, and Kiku couldn't blame them. A baby started to wail and suddenly the boat began to rock until there were loud screams and the sound of gunshots.
day one: stranded
"Hey, you're waking up! Are you okay?"
Kiku's vision fuzzily came back to him when he saw another boy staring down at him, eyes concerned. He realized he was on the ground and slowly got up to his feet.
"Yes, I'm alright." Kiku finally managed to answer and got a glimpse of his surroundings. This wasn't the lifeboat or the cruise. There was sand underneath his feet and a lot of trees and rocks ahead of him. When he turned around, there was a body of water. A beach?
The boy smiled, "Then come on! I'm sure Ludwig and the others will be happy to know there's more people here!" he quickly ran ahead, causing Kiku to furrow his brows. He had no idea of what was happening, or where he was. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to follow a stranger, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice if he wanted to know what was going on.
"Lovino, I found someone else! Where'd Ludwig and Alfred go?" The boy led him to a person that looked similar to him—they both had curls sticking out of their heads (which made him wonder how that worked) and overall had similar features.
'Lovino'let out a sigh, "If you hadn't taken an hour and a half to go to the bathroom, they wouldn't be looking for you!"
"I couldn't have left him there…" his voice trailed off and the two got into an argument. Kiku awkwardly stood there, not knowing what to do. Soon after two more people showed up.
"Feliciano, there you are!" exclaimed another person who was way more brawny than him. He had blond hair that was slicked back. He noticed Kiku and turned to him, mentioning that he must be another survivor of the cruise sinking.
Kiku learned everyone's name (he learned Ludwig's and Alfred's well, but was afraid of mixing up Feliciano and Lovino), and they learned his.
Alfred compared their whole situation to a movie. They were simply shipwrecked, they would just have to survive a few days, beat any bad guys and then help would finally come and save them.
"Are we really going to be here for that long?" Feliciano frowned.
Alfred shrugged. "Who knows, maybe even longer! But no need to worry, we'll be fine!"
"We don't even have any damn shelter!" growled Lovino.
"Simple, we build or find one!"
"And then what about water?"
"We boil the seawater! Use your head, Lovi!"
Lovino only narrowed his eyes but continued on. "What are we supposed to put the water in? Some magical pot that will suddenly appear? We don't even have any tools to make something!"
Alfred did not respond.
"Oh my god we're going to fucking die!"
Feliciano began to cry and Lovino and Alfred started to bicker. Kiku tried thinking of ideas that they could possibly do, but nothing came to him.
"Enough!" Ludwig finally snapped. "It's already getting dark. I will go and try to find some wood to start a fire. Tomorrow we will try to find any other survivors and resources!" With that, Ludwig marched off.
When he came back, Ludwig was holding two sticks that seemed to be smoothed out with a sharp rock he was carrying. He also had a few coconut husks. Kiku was amazed with how fast he was able to start a fire, and soon everyone gathered near it.
Everybody shared their goodnights and soon went to bed. Kiku couldn't help but think about his family once again.
Boy, he couldn't wait until he would be home.
A/N: Woo, finally starting a multi-chapter story! I'm really excited to start this story and I hope you guys like it!
