Roger was tired.

He'd been trekking through the burning trees, trying to find Ralph, trying to do well for Jack and trying to make himself happy. But it hadn't happened. He'd had Maurice with him, but Maurice had disappeared somewhere and he wasn't on the boat, that stupid boat that had rescued them, Roger was sort of worried but…

He was more worried about Jack.

He was as close to Jack as he dared – when Jack was in a mood like this one, it wasn't the best idea to get too close to him, plus, he was crying, and Roger found that similarly disgusting and terrifying. So, he stayed a few feet away, sitting crosslegged, just watching him.

Jack met his eyes. "What?" he asked. Roger didn't say anything. He didn't really know what to say. "Stop watching me. I… I…" he dissolved into a fresh wave of tears.

You were supposed to comfort people when they cried, weren't you? Roger had never cared about someone enough to want to comfort them when they cried. He scooted a little closer and awkwardly patted Jack on the head.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked, glaring at him. Roger met his gaze evenly, drawing back his hand. "I asked what you were doing!"

"Comforting you," Roger said, speaking for the first time since they'd been rescued. "I'm not very good at it."

Jack snorted. "Obviously," he said. He wiped at his eyes and nose, trying to shrink into himself, it looked like. Roger stayed sitting there, watching him. "Stop looking at me. It's creepy."

"I'm creepy," Roger said. Still, he looked away. He tried to pick out Maurice from the other boys, but he couldn't see him. Maybe he really had been left on the island to burn. "Have you seen Maurice?"

"Oh, so you just came over here to look for your boyfriend?" Jack asked. Roger shook his head.

"You told me not to look at you," he said. "So I tried to look at something else."

"You're still following my orders. Even though I'm not chief anymore," Jack said. Roger blinked. Jack was most definitely still chief. He was the only one worth following, worth listening to, worth being around. Jack was superior in every way that Roger could think of. Maurice may have been a friend, but Jack was his chief.

"You're chief," Roger said. "Who else is?"

"Roger, we're going back. There isn't a chief. There's a… there's a queen and stuff!" Jack said. Roger chewed on his lower lip. "And we're probably all going to be sent to asylums."

"No," Roger said. "Not all of us. Just me. You'll all blame me, because I'm the only one not bawling my eyes out. Samneric will blame me, and they'll get Ralph to shift the blame from you to me. You'll start to think that everything was my idea, killing Simon, the Ralph hunt, everything. And then you'll go home."

Jack was staring at him. "That's the most I've ever heard you talk at one time," he said. Roger nodded.

"It was important."

Jack looked conflicted for a moment, then lunged for Roger. Roger prepared for a fight – he wasn't sure why, exactly, Jack was attacking him but that was certainly what he was doing – and was completely taken aback when Jack hugged him tightly. He could feel himself turning bright red as Jack clutched him, burying his face in Roger's shoulder and nearly knocking him over.

When Jack looked up again, Roger could see that he'd been crying again. "You're not going anywhere," he said. Roger just watched him. "If they… if they try to lock you up you can live with me!"

Roger was fairly certain that he was still bright red. He swallowed. His chief was hugging him, and Roger was fairly certain he'd never been hugged apart from Maurice's occasional affection attacks. He'd certainly never been hugged by someone this important.

"Well? What do you say?" Jack asked. Roger, not trusting himself to speak, nodded. He knew that he was going to be locked up, one way or another, but if he said that he would stay with Jack, his chief would be happy.

And that's all that Roger really wanted.

oh my god it's been forever since i wrote lotf wow hey how've you been last time i wrote lotf it was that rogice oneshot wasn't it and before that it was finishing up healing which i'm still thinking about the sequel but i'm not totally sure but anyway kc12344352 on tumblr suggested this so hey here you go