Drowning

Written in response to cottoncandy_bingo prompt: sandcastles by request of Calacious for her birthday. This sort of spiraled out of control from there, but it does begin and end with them, so hopefully that's enough. Might have a sequel. Might edit this some more later. Characters not mine, please enjoy! Comments are awesome.

Happy Birthday to Calacious, who requested (something that turned into) this!

"No, come on!" Ethan frowns, sitting in the hot sun on the sandy beach.

He watches in helpless devastation as the sandcastle he'd spent the last hour building is dulled by the first wave of the rising tide. It had been a magnificent structure - complete with tall towers with carved out battlements, seashell windows, an impressively archway and even a sea monster made out of a knot of seaweed. He'd been digging out a moat in the hopes of prolonging its existence long enough to run back to the beach blanket and grab his phone so he could snap a picture to immortalize it's awesomeness, but he hadn't managed it in time.

A second wave caves in one of the support towers and the whole thing tilts alarmingly before it falls into a third, and a fourth flattens it all back out to nothing.

"It was a stupid sandcastle, anyway," he decides, staring out at the midday horizon, where the line that divides the sky from the sea is indistinguishable.

Benny stands in front of the snack aisle at the small grocery store just off the boardwalk, debating the pros and cons of various potential pool snacks for after they're done at the beach while he waits for his Grandma to finish comparing sunscreen products. The hotel they're all staying at has one of the only pools where diving is allowed and it also possesses what is quite possibly the most awesome waterslide he has ever seen.

He and Ethan will be having fun with that later, he's sure.

Such an awesome time will obviously require awesome snacks, so he weighs his options carefully.

"Benjamin!" His grandma shouts, growing impatient with his loitering, "If you're not ready in five seconds, I'm leaving you here!"

"Coming!" He shouts, and grabs both of his two final choices, rushing over to the register.

"Now, was that so hard?"

"Yes, actually, it was," he answers. His eyes are drawn to one of the magazines on display and he picks it up with an intrigued hum at the cover, and an awed "No way!" upon quickly flipping through it. He adds it to his pile and bounces impatiently as the line slowly moves forward. He can't wait to show Ethan.

"Ethan!" Benny shouts, racing from the boardwalk entrance and across the hot sand to meet his friend. "Ethan, look!"

He's holding, amongst a bag full of beach supplies that his grandma told him to carry, a magazine from one of the local shops. 'Sea Monster Attack!' the cover reads in bold print, with a blurry picture of a slimy green tentacle reaching out of the breakers.

"It's just like in Sea Escape II!"

"What!? Here?" Ethan asks, noting that the beach named in the subtitle is the same as the one they are presently vacationing at, he quickly flips to the mentioned page for the pull article. "No way."

"Totally! Look, there's even a picture of the dunes over there." Benny argues, quickly dropping his cargo by the blankets before rushing back to point out the picture on the next page. "It's probably nothing," he says, but he gets that mischievous look on his face, the one that always gets Ethan into trouble, and Ethan already knows what's coming when he leans in to whisper conspiratorially, "But we could always go check it out, you know, just to see..."

Ethan eyes their families, where his mom and dad are both relaxing, books in hand, under the umbrella. Jane is a ways off, collecting seashells. Benny's grandma is lounging in a beach chair that seems to have magically appeared under a second umbrella right beside his parents. They look sufficiently distracted and it's not like they can expect a couple of sixteen year olds not to wander off if given the opportunity.

"Okay," he agrees - ugh, why does he always agree? - and the two of them sneak off together, past the sign that warns that no lifeguards are on duty in that area.

Benny is the first over the sea-grassy hill that marks the start of the dunes, and Ethan notes the disappointed frown that crosses his face when he finds nothing on the other side. Ethan isn't sure what he expected to find - why would a sea monster be on land, after all? - but nothing was clearly not it.

They clear a couple more of the up and downs of the dunes, and they've come up unsurprisingly empty.

"Maybe no one saw it in the dunes," Ethan argues, "maybe that was just a nice picture of the beach?"

Benny sighs and mumbles an agreement. "I give," he says, offering Ethan a hand out of the pit they've climbed down into and back onto the high part of the dune. "Let's head back before we get exiled to the hotel room for wandering off."

"Sounds like a plan," Ethan says, more than happy to avoid getting in trouble on vacation, but something catches his eye out in the surf, something breaking the water in a way that is not very wave-like. "Was that-" he starts, walking toward the shoreline.

"What?"

"I thought I saw something," he moves to take a step out into the shallows, but there's a sharp, sudden drop off that has him up to his neck in water. He panics, flailing in the water at the unexpected depth, but then he's laughing at himself and Benny's offering him his hand again, hauling him back up. "That was dumb," he says, can still feel the rapid-fire beat of his heart after that bolt of adrenaline.

"Yes. Yes, it was," Benny agrees, sounding a little startled himself.

Before Ethan can get his feet steady on the sand again, he feels something curl around his ankle, and suddenly he's being pulled back into the water with a force that knocks the wind from him. He hears Benny shout his name, feels Benny's grip on his hand falter and fall away as he's pulled further out, into deeper, colder water. Precious air bubbles from his mouth as he fights to get away, using all the strength he has. He can see the reflection of the sun overhead, but it's getting smaller and smaller - like his chances of getting out of this - and the more he fights the more he feels like he's losing. This is so not the time for a vision, but he can feel it coming, feels himself freeze as it hits him - snippets of something big and green and sneaky stealing unsuspecting people and dragging them down to a painful, watery death. Lots of people over a lot of years in lots of different places. When it's over, he comes back to himself feeling like his lungs are on fire. His eyes burn with the salt water, but he'd swear he can see a blurry figure coming toward him before he forces them closed and it's only a second later that he feels arms pulling at him, too.

Benny, he thinks, as his mind starts to go. It's Benny. Benny's gonna save him. Benny always saves him. It's okay. He'll be okay.

Benny holds on tight to him, even as they're both dragged deeper, while he struggles to free Ethan. He feels the pulse of something magical carry through the water and then the painful pressure on his ankle disappears and that's about when things go dark.

Benny doesn't even have time to wonder what the hell happened when Ethan just suddenly disappears. One second he's there, still holding onto Benny's hand as he regains his footing in the sand and the next, Ethan suddenly drops out of view, sideways and down, whisked below the surface by some unseen force. He tries to hold on, to keep from losing the grip he has on Ethan's hand, but it happens too fast and all he can do was shout out a desperate, "Ethan!" before he does the only thing he can possibly do - dives in after him, without a thought as to just what he might be jumping into.

The water here is rough and gets deep way too fast. He can, somehow, make out the rapidly descending form some ways ahead of him and he swims down and out as fast as he could manage. He has to save Ethan. He has to. There is no way he is going to lose his best friend.

It's getting darker and colder and he can't see Ethan anymore but somehow he knows that if he just keeps swimming, he'll find him. And he does. Just a few long seconds later - but still long after he should need air - and the relief when he gets his arms curled around Ethan's chest is short lived because he won't move. Something still has hold of him and it's then that he sees the green thing wrapped around Ethan's ankle. He pulls harder, even as it gets darker and colder and the surface gets farther away.

'Obstupefacio!' He thinks, the incantation for a spell he's only read over once sticking in his mind. It works, though, a wave of power ripples through the water around them and the thing on Ethan's ankle quickly recoils, spinning down into the dark depths.

Up and up and up he swims, as fast as he can - sure, as every second passes, that the thing will be back to have another go - and it's only when he breaks the surface with Ethan still safely held in his arms that he feels the dizzying effects of too long without air, gasping in breath after breath as he kicks them to shore.

"Ethan?" He chokes out, having heard no such noises from his friend. "Ethan!"

But Ethan is passed out, slumped in Benny's arms in a useless heap of not-dead weight. He swims faster.

He curses the dunes and their stupid hills and valleys when he has to face the drop off that started this whole mess, forcing Ethan up first before he dares to scale the sandy side himself. He's quick to drag Ethan away from the edge, pulls him down into one of the pits where he thinks they might be a little bit safer from any more attacks and drops immediately to the other boy's side.

"Ethan, come on," he begs, looking him over.

He wishes he knew a spell for this. A start-breathing spell or a water-displacement spell or a please-don't-die spell, but he doesn't know any of those things. He does, however, have some inkling of how to do CPR, thanks to the First Aid class Ethan's parents had forced both of them to take before they'd been allowed to go on a school camping trip in seventh grade.

"Okay, okay," he tells himself, trying to remember the details of something he learned five years ago. "I can do this," he leans over Ethan's still body, tilting his head back and pinching his nose shut and he breathes, forces air into Ethan's lungs. "Come on, Ethan, don't do this. Come on," he mumbles, before he breathes again, a few more times. He shifts his hands to Ethan's bare chest, hopes he's got them in the right place and pushes again and again and again. "Damn it, E. You can't do this to me. Wake up!" More breaths and this is so not what he'd had in mind whenever he let himself think about kissing Ethan.

There's no time to go get help, no time to do anything except this. He switches back to the chest compressions, counting them out in his head and hoping something changes.

"E, please. You have to wake up," he pleads, pressing his lips to Ethan's again.

Finally, finally, after what seems like an eternity has passed since Ethan vanished into the waves, he comes back.

He comes to on the beach - a good ways from the water's edge, with Benny's lips on his and a mouthful of saltwater. He pushes at Benny and coughs up even more, rolling to his side as he gasps for breath.

"Don't you ever," Benny demands, "ever do that to me again!" He looks just as out of breath as Ethan feels, though the way his eyes are blown wide with panic suggests it's for different reasons. Ethan watches as he drags his dripping hair out of his face and sits back, "When that thing grabbed you, I just..."

"How'd you," he coughs, trying to sit up himself. His chest hurts like hell, and while he suspects that it's mostly a result of nearly drowning (talking doesn't help this feeling at all, and his voice is rough and hoarse), it is also partly related to the bruises forming on his chest. CPR, he guesses, which explains why Benny was kissing him and some of the panic on Benny's face. "How'd you get to me? So far out."

"I don't even know," Benny admits, head in his hands. "I dove in after you, just swam as hard as I could. Shouldn't have been able to hold my breath that long, but I did. I used a stunning spell to get it to let you go."

Ethan sighs, glad that Benny's magic always comes through when it's really needed. "Well, thanks."

"Don't mention it," Benny answers, and Ethan notes with alarm the unnamable look on his face. "My fault we were out here in the first place."

"Don't," Ethan shifts, trying to move closer to Benny, but that is about when he discovers that his ankle hurts almost as much as his chest from where he'd been pulled under. That, too, is bruising, a ring of dark purples and blues circling his rapidly swelling ankle. He manages the move, though, not stopping until his side is pressed to Benny's and they're both staring warily out at the ocean. "It wasn't your fault. You are not responsible for the centuries old sea monster, okay? If I'd seen that article first, I would probably have dragged you over here, too." He gets a small nod of agreement from his friend and adds, "Besides, if it had grabbed you, I never would have been able to get you back."

"That doesn't mean that I have to like that it took you... you could have died. I didn't even know if that spell would work underwater, I didn't know if I could get you out of the water before it snapped out of it. Didn't know if I could get you breathing again or..."

He settles a hand on Benny's shoulder, pulls him in for a hug that they both definitely needed. "It's over. The sea monster is out there, we're here and I'm mostly okay," he assures the other boy. "So, relax. Our sea monster hunting days are over."

But Benny's not in a joking mood just yet, apparently, given the dead serious expression on his face. "I can't do this without you, you know. All the crazy stuff back home. There wasn't supposed to be any of that here."

"Says the guy who wanted to go looking for the sea monster," Ethan argues, confused.

"I didn't think we'd find anything, not really," he throws his hands up in exasperation, "But, then again, I didn't think vampires or werewolves or zombies were things that existed either, so I guess I can't be that surprised by sea monsters. Jeez. I guess I just kinda hoped that things were still normal outside of White Chapel. That we could get out of there someday, if we needed to."

Ethan doesn't really know what to say to that. He's given up on normal, himself, knows that there are vampires other places from what Jesse's said about other covens. And if there are vampires other places, then chances are good that everything else is out there, too.

"I couldn't do it without you, either," he finally says, because that is undeniably true. Benny might get them into most of the situations they find themselves dealing with, but he's always there to help get them back out, too.

That gets a small smile out of Benny, at least.

"We should get back," Ethan says, knowing that if they're gone much longer, his parents might come looking and he doesn't want them finding him like this. They'll have enough questions just based on how he looks, he's betting 'drowned rat' would about cover it. "Can I have your shirt?"

Benny looks down at his soaked t-shirt. He always wears it at the beach; he burns ridiculously easy and he never remembers to put on enough sunblock to avoid turning red. Apparently, he's willing to risk it for this, though, to hide the bruises he put there himself, desperately trying to get Ethan back. He pulls the shirt over his head and offers it up, and Ethan is quick to pull it on.

"What about your ankle?"

"We'll say I got caught on a piece of seaweed or something."

Benny looks as skeptical of that plan as his parents will likely be of the lie. Still, it's better than 'I was nearly killed by a sea monster' and slightly more believable.

"You're gonna have to help me here," Ethan says, when trying to put enough weight on his ankle to stand up proves impossible. Benny stands himself and leverages Ethan to his feet, keeping one arm around Ethan's shoulders to keep him upright.

Benny looks up at the embankment of the deep dune they're in. "You know, this seemed like a good idea when I was trying to keep us away from the grabby tentacles," he says. "Didn't really think this far ahead."

"We'll manage," Ethan insists. They have to, not like they can stay here forever. "Come on," he says, daring to try a step without the support of Benny's arm. This fails and he stumbles back into Benny, knocking them both back to the ground.

He lands on Benny, who lets out a pained, "Oof!" with the impact.

"Sorry," Ethan says, moving to get off of the other boy. Something stops him, though, and it's not the hands that settle on his back that keep him in place. Those come a beat after he decides to stay still, merely cementing his decision. "I, ugh," he starts, and makes the move before he can talk himself out of it. He leans down and kisses Benny quickly, pulling away before he can even react. "Thanks," he finishes, not sure what made him finally act on the feelings he might have been harboring for his best friend.

Benny blinks up at him in awed surprise, like this is something he'd waited forever for (later, he'll realize that's because it was; like he was waiting, too), and it only takes a second for one of his hands to slide up Ethan's neck, pulling him back down for a second kiss. This one is long and slow, would have been longer if not for Ethan's abused lungs. He reluctantly breaks the kiss, but he's not ready to stop just yet. He takes a few deep-as-he-dares breaths and steals another kiss. This time Benny rolls them, hovering over Ethan as hands start to wander over sandy, sun-warmed skin and under the cool, damp material of Ethan's borrowed shirt. Benny keeps the kisses shorter now, gives Ethan a chance to catch his breath before he starts another one, but tongues slide into the equation, and this is officially further than either of them have ever gotten with anyone.

It feels a lot like drowning, too, Ethan thinks, as lost as he is in it. Can't find his way back to the surface, but this time he doesn't really want to. But...

"Benny," Ethan finally mumbles out, even as Benny adds another inexplicable bruise to his neck. "We," he starts, and he hates to say this, "we need to get back."

"Yeah," Benny unenthusiastically agrees as he pulls away. "Yeah, I know."

He steals one more kiss when Benny pulls him to his feet again, a promise that there will be more of the same later, and together they start the hike back through the dunes and all of the crawling, sliding and stumbling it entails. They're careful, not only of the hazardous ups and downs the winds and the tides have carved into the sand, but also of the lingering potential for a second attack. Benny keeps a tighter hold than required on Ethan the whole way back and it's only when they finally, finally make it back to the blankets that mark their spots on the beach that they start to relax. No way can those tentacles make it through the shallows here.

"Ethan!" His mother cries out, when she spots him limping, leaning against Benny to stay upright. Benny drops him gently on the blanket and flops down next to him, waiting for the questions, the freak-outs, the punishments.

And, yeah. They both come out of it banished to the hotel room while the others head to the awesome hotel pool, but they're kind of okay with that. For one, nearly drowning is really exhausting and Ethan is perfectly content to pass out on the bed he's sharing with Benny. He stays upright long enough for a long, hot shower and then lets Benny wrap up his ankle and ply him with some pain medicine. Evidently, saving your more-than-best friend from drowning is also exhausting because it's not long before Benny lays down beside him. He's pressed back against Benny's chest, with protective arms curled around him like they'd been in the water, and a few more kisses are traded between them, along with promises to talk about this new thing between them later, before they both succumb to the need for rest.

"Why are you building... snowcastles?" Jane asks, bundled up in head to toe snow gear.

Ethan and Benny look down at the elaborate city of snow they've constructed together. If she were looking closer, she'd realize it's a replica of White Chapel, complete with pinecone trees and icicle streetlights and stick fences. It's so much better than any stupid sandcastle and as close as Ethan ever plans to get to one again. Benny's magical blast did more than stun the monster that grabbed Ethan - a huge unknown sea creature floated to the surface, dead, just two days after the attack. There had been scientists all over the beach, but the news eventually claimed that it didn't belong to any known species. Despite this, Ethan is a little wary of the ocean with the lingering doubt that it was the only one of its kind out there. So, he'd talked his family into a trip to the mountains for their vacation this year and he and Benny were steadfastly ignoring the stories going around about a Yeti, thank you very much.

"Because we can?" He shoots back at his little sister. He watches Benny grin maniacally as he quickly constructs and launches a battle-worthy snowball and Ethan resigns himself to an all out war.

"Come on!" Benny cries, pulling him away from their project and behind the beginnings of a fort that Ethan suspects he magic-ed into existence.

Jane shouts in protest at their unfair advantage and uses the sled she'd been carrying as a shield to get closer, forming weapons of her own to retaliate.

The battle drags on for a long while, ending when the adults call them in for dinner. Jane makes one last stand, though, hurling her last snowball at her brother. Benny selflessly dives in front of it and the both of the collapse to the ground, much as they had that day in the sand.

"Dude," Ethan grunts, with all of Benny on top of him, "if you're gonna stay like that, then at least get your elbow out of my ribs." Benny complies, which suggests he is planning on staying like that and that they are once again ignoring the fact that they should presently be somewhere else. "We should go," he tries, but there's that going-to-be-trouble look again and so he's not really surprised when his boyfriend leans down and kisses him again and again. He leaves marks this time, too, but at least they don't have to explain them to anyone now that everyone knows they're together (no one seemed particularly surprised). Benny slips his gloves off and slides snow cold fingers beneath the multitude of layers Ethan has on, and, yeah, that's enough for now.

"You'll pay for that later," Ethan promises, once he's escaped.

Benny gives chase when Ethan starts back toward the cabin. "I'm counting on it!"