I've been having some more inspiration troubles again, so I haven't been putting as much stuff out as I've been wanting to. Oh well.

Neal, being the more athletic and younger of the two, had little trouble with the lush overgrowth surrounding them. Mozzie, on the other hand, struggled to find his footing on the uneven and wet ground below them. Fortunately, Neal stayed by his side for the most part to help him over some of the more difficult obstacles, like the friend Mozzie knew he was.

Mozzie opted to turn off his flashlight to conserve its battery life while Neal just used his. The small amount of light that made it past the thick clouds above was quickly fading and soon they'd be shrouded in a darkness that could hide any form of creature.

The dense green canopy of trees above them kept some of the rain from falling on them, but there wasn't a moment they weren't soaked. "You know, this is all your fault," Mozzie said about twenty minutes into their drenched walk. The rain was still coming down hard and he nearly had to shout for Neal to be able to hear him.

Neal, who was walking a few feet ahead of Mozzie at the moment, turned briefly to shoot Mozzie a confused glance. The blood on Neal's face from his head wound had long been washed away from the never ending rain. At least one good thing came from this bothersome precipitation, Mozzie supposed. "How is it my fault? I don't remember summoning this rain," he said, obviously not remembering his small but crucial error.

"You were the one that bought the plane that crashed," Mozzie accused with a point of his finger that Neal didn't see.

"You were flying the plane!" Neal shot back, being completely unfair.

"Okay, so maybe it wasn't completely your fault," Mozzie allowed.

"Let's go with not at all my fault," Neal countered.

"Let's not get carried away..."

Since Neal had self-elected himself as the leader, he held the flashlight so he could shine it on the terrain under them. The beam of light fell upon a fallen tree that was in their path. Neal stepped over it, then reached out to help Mozzie over the obstacle, but stopped and winced, then tried to hide it.

Mozzie, always the observant one, easily saw it and became concerned. "What's wrong? Were you bit by a snake? Am I going to have to suck the venom out of the wound?" Mozzie asked in a slight panic, almost shuttering at the thought. The things that he'd do for Neal...

"No, I wasn't bit by a snake," Neal said, clearly exasperated by Mozzie's concern. He hesitated before continuing. "I think I may have hurt my ribs from the crash."

"And you've known this whole time?" Mozzie asked, though he wasn't too surprised. Neal, for some inane reason, had always tried to conceal his injuries, no matter how severe. Once after they narrowly escaped a heist gone wrong, Neal failed to inform Mozzie about the 'minor' stab wound he had gotten from a nasty knife that the man that owned quite the impressive art collection had used to fend off the intruders until they were back at their safe house. It turned out to be more of a deep cut that just bled way too much than a life-threatening wound, but the kid should have told him sooner! He had nearly given him a heart attack when he started dripping blood all over the floor.

"There isn't much we can do in the middle of this jungle," Neal told Mozzie as he helped him over the log.

"Can I at least see it so I know for sure that you're not going to drop dead on me?" Mozzie asked, not letting Neal just brush it off as nothing just in case it was something. Sometimes the kid didn't have the best judgment, especially when it concerned his own health.

Neal sighed, but relented by lifting his soaked shirt to reveal an angry red seatbelt-shaped bruise that started on his left shoulder, continued over his muscular chest and stopped on the right side of his washboard abs. Water rained down on the two them and ran in rivulets down the smooth planes of Neal's Adonis-esque body. If Mozzie was a woman or swung that way, he'd be drooling at the sight.

"Ouch," Mozzie said in sympathy as he examined the contusion. The seatbelt that Mozzie had had on didn't do that much damage, but Mozzie had the controls to hold onto as they crashed. It must have helped to brace himself instead of letting the seatbelt take all of his weight like Neal's had.

"Yeah, that's about how it feels," Neal muttered as he put his shirt back into place.

"Is anything broken?" Mozzie asked. Though he never liked using his abilities, Mozzie was quite adept at cleaning and patching up wounds. Having Neal in his life had furthered his skills to the point that he could easily pass as a doctor if the need should arise for a con. Though possessing the same grace of a feline or gazelle, Neal had over his fair share of accidents and close calls. Mozzie would have blamed his young friend's stress-inducing injuries for his hair loss if he hadn't been already quite follicly challenged when they'd met.

Neal shook his head. "No, just hurts when I move my shoulder."

"Good. I mean, not good, just not as bad as it could have been," Mozzie said, trying not to sound like he was happy about Neal being hurt.

Neal, being one of the few that truly understood his less than typical ways, nodded in understanding, then led the way towards their far-off destination. Mozzie proceeded to tell Neal that it was his fault a couple more times over the next few hours of traversing, with Neal responding with less heat each time, and quite possibly more annoyance. Eventually they became too tired to talk, so their walk turned quiet while they focused on the mud and foliage-covered path ahead of them.

They continued for a while longer until Mozzie stopped and sat heavily against a nearby fallen tree. Darkness had completely fallen upon them by now, the only existing light coming from the flashlight Neal held and the meager amount of moonlight that made it past the thick clouds above them. "Let's stop...for a minute," Mozzie suggested breathlessly, too tired to carry on even if Neal said no.

Thankfully, the younger man stopped as well, though he just leaned against a neighboring tree instead of sitting. "We're going to have to stop for the rest of the night," Neal said, panting almost as much as Mozzie. They had been walking for hours and there wasn't much of a point in traveling in the darkness and using up the flashlights battery anymore than they already had. They had many days of walking ahead of them, so it was best for them to conserve both their energy as well as the meager resources at their disposal as best as they could.

Mozzie just nodded, too exhausted to jump for joy or show his delight in any other way. It had to have been the best idea Neal had had all day.

They rested for a few minutes, letting the heavens refill their bottles the natural way, then Neal, never one to stand still for long, pushed off of the tree and started wandering towards a large rock wall to their right. Mozzie let him go, knowing that he couldn't get in too much trouble in the middle of nowhere, at least he hoped.

"Hey, there's a cave over here," Neal called after a minute, his voice nearly drowned out by the constant downpour.

Reluctantly, Mozzie left his resting spot and walked over to where Neal was standing and peered into the cavernous hole that Neal had, quite proudly, found. Neal took a step forward, but Mozzie held his arm in front of the impulsive young man to stop him. "Do you really think that going in there would be a good idea, Neal?" Mozzie asked doubtfully as he looked for possible cave dwellers within the cavernous opening.

"It's probably a lot dryer in there," Neal pointed out, scowling at the wetness around them.

"Yes, but it's probably the home of some ravenous creature that could eat you it one bite, then come after me," Mozzie said as he moved his hands about.

"Won't know 'til you try," Neal said, being far too impulsive again. The kid would really have to get that under control if he wanted to last much longer.

"Famous last words," Mozzie told Neal, who took a step toward the dark entrance.

"Yeah, be sure to put that on my headstone," Neal shot over his shoulder.

"That's not funny," Mozzie said, then reluctantly followed Neal when he realized that he'd be out here alone. "Wait, don't leave me out here."

Neal turned his head and laughed a little, far too amused. "Now you want to come?"

"Well, I'm not staying out there alone," Mozzie said, though it was obvious.

Neal shined the beam of his flashlight around to light the dark corners of the cave up. Just as Neal had predicted, the cave seemed quite a bit dryer than outside, though it wasn't much of a competition since the Pacific Ocean was almost dryer.

To their right, stalactites hung from the ceiling of the cave like ice sickles while stalagmites grew from the ground just below them. There were no creatures lurking in the shadows as far as Mozzie could tell, but one could never be too careful.

Now that they were out of the rain, Neal chose to take off his shirt to wring out the excess water, then put it back on after he deemed enough water had been squeezed out. Mozzie thought of doing the same, but his jacket had actually kept the shirt underneath it pretty dry.

Mozzie had to admit, it was nice to be out of the chilly rain for the first time in hours. It was much quieter as well, neither of them needing to nearly shout to be able to be heard by the other.

"This should work," Neal said, then sat down on the hard, rocky ground. He then patted the ground next to him, inviting Mozzie to sit with him.

Mozzie, with some reluctance, sat down as well. He then looked around the space a little more. It wasn't a very large cave, more like an alcove, and probably only twenty square feet by Mozzie's estimate, but it was enough for the both of them to lie down and be able to be completely inside the natural shelter.

Neal then proved so by dropping the backpack next to him and carelessly laying down on the hard surface of the cave, putting his arm under his head to cushion it. He then turned off the flashlight, plunging the small cave into near darkness that was only interrupted by the moonlight that barely made its way past the thick clouds and dense treetops outside. His eyes closed almost immediately, but Mozzie did not feel safe enough to do so as well.

"Shouldn't someone keep watch?" Mozzie asked as he glanced worryingly around the darkness.

"For what?" Neal mumbled without opening his eyes, acting like the naïve man that he sometimes was.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe man-eating jungle cats, or whatever inhabits this cave. And you can't forget about the cannibalistic jungle dwellers," Mozzie said as he shifted nervously.

Neal opened his eyes to stare up at Mozzie, his startlingly blue orbs almost glowing in the darkness. "Oh, I'd never," he said in mock-seriousness.

"Fine, but don't blame me when we wake up to our death," Mozzie said in a fake-careless voice.

"I'll be sure not to," Neal said as he closed his eyes again.

After watching for creatures of the night for a few minutes, Mozzie realized that he was too tired to keep watch. He warily laid down next to Neal and closed his eyes. Despite the uncomfortable surface in which they were laying on, Mozzie succumb to his need for rest quickly.

I know this was on the shorter side, but what I have in store for the partners in crime needs its own chapter! ;-p

Reviews make me smile!