Roger crept through the foliage, almost glad that he didn't have a jacket. Though the cold wind raised goosebumps on his arms, it kept him alert, and he sure as hell didn't want to be caught unawares if a pig charged him.

There was one they could handle - it wasn't as big as the one that had knocked Bill into a tree the other day, causing him to miss today's hunt, but it was small, either. Roger signaled to Maurice, who sent him a grin and focused on the pig.

They'd finally convinced Jack and Ralph to join them on pig hunts. After all, there were other people working on getting them off of the island. There were grownups on this island, and besides - they weren't little kids anymore. The youngest of them was Maurice at fourteen. Yeah, they'd be fine.

Maurice chased the pig into Roger, and Samneric. Roger leaped at it, bringing down the spear on its back. The pig was fast and muscled, however, turning on Roger and knocking him to the ground. His spear flew out of his hands and rolled away. The twins jabbed at the pig while Roger twisted and looked for a way out, just barely rolling out of the way of tusks. Weirdly enough, Maurice didn't come to his rescue. This time it was Jack. With a savage scream that made Roger think of The Island more than necessary, the redhead leaped at the pig, stabbing his knife - it was always Jack with the knife, wasn't it?

Come to think of it, where had Roger's own knife gone? He hadn't had it since... since Maurice tackled him in that dark alley.

Oh yeah. It had fallen out then.

Roger shook himself free of his thoughts and slipped away from the pig, grabbing his spear and charging the pig once more, helping Jack with the killing blow.

The two stood over the dead pig, just looking at each other. Roger was breathing hard. Every single one of his senses seemed to be... enhanced somehow. He could hear the blood dripping from his spear onto his foot, he could see Jack's breath - of course, that could just be the cold.

"Oh just kiss already!" Maurice called. Both Jack and Roger turned to glare at him. He smirked. "As well as Affection Man, I'm Cupid."

One of the adults from the ship stumbled through the trees to gape at their dead pig. "Wha- did you boys kill this all on your own?"

"Yep!" Maurice said cheerfully. "Actually it was Jack. And Roger. The pig almost killed Roger like it nearly killed Bill yesterday. And-"

"Shut up Maurice," Jack said, wiping his knife off on his shirt. He swallowed and looked at the pig. "So. What are we going to do with this?"

"Well, I came to find you because there's a ship here to take us the rest of the way to America," the man said, scratching his head. "I guess we'll be having pig tonight for supper, right?"

Maurice grinned. "Of course! You know, I haven't had pig for years. Not since-" he broke off, grin fading. "Not since..."

"Not since what? And how did you manage to kill this thing, anyway-" the man stared at them, wide-eyed. "You're not the boys that got trapped on that island, are you?"

The six looked at each other, unsure of what to say. "Well," Ralph said. "Yes."

Maurice put his grin back on his face, but it seemed strained, somehow. "That doesn't matter, now, does it? We can just take the pig back, right? Yeah. Roger, help me!"

"I don't understand why I always have to do all manual labor," Roger complained. "After all, I'm the smallest here."

"It's because you're totally minion-like," Maurice said, nodding. "Yep. Roger the minion."

"Maurice the minion."

"I know! I've accepted being a minion as part of my life. Now help me, minion!"

"Minions can't boss other minions around!"

"Shut up and help me carry this thing."

Thankfully, the twins helped them out as well, and between the four of them, they got the pig back to the new ship.

Bill sat up too fast and winced. Damn. That pig had really hit him hard, hadn't it? Almost felt like a car. Not that Bill knew what getting hit by a car felt like.

He was just injury-prone all right? If someone was going to get hurt, it was going to be him, guaranteed.

Bill was shocked out of self-pity by the gigantic boar that Roger, Maurice, and the twins dragged out of the forest. "Holy shit," he hissed, standing up and running over to them, ignoring his aching ribs. "How the hell did you manage that one?"

"Jack and Roger pulled out their inner savage - too soon? Sorry," Maurice said, noting Jack's glare. "Uh, they killed it with spears and Jack's knife?"

Maurice grinned at Roger through a mouthful of pork, who made a face like he was going to be sick and turned away. Maurice shrugged and swallowed. Some people just had weak stomachs.

Like Ralph, for example. He hadn't touched his pig. Maurice was about to point that out when Bill spoke up.

"Hey, uh, I thought of a joke when I was lying in pain on the rocky beach," he said, turning almost as red as Jack's hair. Maurice looked at him.

"Are you challenging my position as the funny guy?" he asked.

"Aren't you Affection Man?"

"I'm that too. And also Cupid," Maurice said. "But, anyway. Let's hear it."

"Well, uh, there's this guy. And he walks into a bar. And he says 'ouch,'" Bill said.

You could practically hear the crickets chirp.

"You know, he walks into an actual bar... like, a horizontal bar of... metal..." Bill trailed off. Maurice just looked at him.

"That's not even going to get a 'you tried' laugh," he said. Bill was suddenly very interested in his meal.

Roger had pretty much given up on kicking Maurice out of his bed. And, honestly, it was really cold at the moment, so he didn't mind a little extra warmth, even though it was really, really weird. So, he let Maurice sneak into his bed, and he let Maurice 'cuddle.'

Because it was freezing, dammit!

"You should grab your blanket, too," Roger murmured, half-asleep. Maurice shifted.

"What? You're accepting me in your bed?" Maurice said, sitting up. Roger's head slipped off of Maurice's arm. "Cool. That Affection Man thing seriously is a superpower, isn't it? I'll be right back."

Roger didn't remember anything after that. He must have fallen asleep when Maurice was getting his blanket.

But when he woke up the next morning his head was on Maurice's chest. And that was not okay.

What was also not okay was the fact that Bill saw that. And burst out laughing. "Affection Man has tamed the beast - oh shit, uh, demon's better. Yeah."

Maurice woke up then, yawning and stretching. Roger's head was (thankfully) off of the other boy's chest by then. "What? What happened? I'm confused."

"Are you guys queer for each other?" Bill asked.

Roger blinked. Maurice looked shocked.

"I'm pretty sure I like girls," he said. "Fairly certain. Not sure about demon-boy over here, but I'm into girls."

It had taken much too long to get to America. Ralph clutched his bag tighter and glanced around at the others. Roger was still blushing from the Maurice incident earlier. It probably didn't help that he was wearing some of Maurice's clothes, either, considering that Roger had only one change of clothes.

And Maurice's pants were far too big for him, so he pretty much had to hold them up.

"So, where do we go now, fearless leader?" Bill asked. Jack looked at him, and Ralph fidgeted under all of these stares. He didn't used to be like this. He used to be a /good/ leader, and now he was cracking under something simple like this. It was insanely stupid.

"We'll see what's in this city, first," Jack decided, taking the reins from Ralph. "Maurice, Bill, Roger, come with me? Ralph and Samneric can go a different way, and we can find each other... around five? Yeah, come back here at five."

And with that, Jack Merridew took the three former savages and headed off.

These keep getting shorter. xP I don't know whether to be amused or sad that this is happening. Probably sad.

Now, I kind of have a plot scribbled out... for a few more chapters at least, and I think there will be a crossover with one of my favorite books for a few chapters, and, well, it'll be all fun. :)

Bill's lame joke isn't mine, by the way. I stole it from the internet. Hooray!

On a weirder note, I think I'm falling away from Jack x Roger and more into Rogice (Roger x Maurice.)

And to J. Merridew - I just grabbed the first thing that popped into mind for the title. But I did check out that song. And it's pretty good.

And, well... see you in a few days, perhaps?