oOoOo
"Come on, Kaoru," Haruhi encouraged, trying to get him off the cabin roof so that Tamaki and Mori could carry it farther away from the water. Kaoru stood and allowed Haruhi to lead him away from the raft. She sat him down on a rock and went back to the raft. She collected the three towels. Two of them were just wet. She draped them over a bush so they would dry out. The blood soaked towel she submerged in the water, hoping to rinse away the stains. The water turned pink as she swished the towel around. She could not get it completely clean, but it was better than it was.
Tamaki and Mori set the cabin roof section down under the edge of the trees that lined the beach. As soon as the sun reached its apex, it would be hot, and the shade would be welcome. The piece of debris could now serve as a platform to keep them from having to sit on the hot sand.
"We should probably take a look around," suggested Tamaki. "This island might be inhabited."
"I don't think Kaoru is in any condition to go anywhere." Haruhi looked over at the boy who still sat where she had left him.
"We'll go!" Honey volunteered, and Mori nodded his consent.
"Okay," agreed Tamaki. "Why don't you two go in that direction," he said, pointing down the beach, "and I'll see what I can find this way. Haruhi, you stay here and look after Kaoru." As the boys headed off down the beach in opposite directions, Haruhi went over to Kaoru.
"How are you feeling?" she asked. He did not respond. "Kaoru?" He finally looked in her direction, but not at her; more like through her. "Kaoru?" she asked again, "Are you okay?" He just blinked slowly and looked away again. "It's getting hot," she said. "Let's go sit in the shade." She took him by the hand and he stood up. They walked over to the shaded platform and sat down. She helped him out of his life jacket, having already removed her own. "Let me see your head." She carefully brushed the hair away from his forehead. It wasn't easy. His hair was stuck to his forehead, both covered with dried blood. The wound itself was no longer bleeding, but it didn't look good. It was red and swollen, and the area around it felt hot to the touch. She felt she ought to clean it, but they had so little fresh water. She didn't know what she should do. Before she could decide, Kaoru turned away from her. He lie down on the platform. She gently stroked the back of his head to comfort him. "It'll be okay, everything will be okay," she said soothingly. She wished she was telling the truth.
oOoOo
Kaoru's head felt like it was filled with cotton. Everything seemed like it was moving in slow motion; somehow surreal. This was just some bizarre dream, and nothing made sense. He wished that Hikaru would just wake him up, and it would end. Hikaru, he thought. Something about Hikaru. He tried to focus on what it was, but his mind wouldn't let him. It drifted off in another direction. Someone was talking to him; a girl. She wanted him to go somewhere. He did. He sat back down. The girl was still with him. She touched his head. It hurt. Why did his head hurt? He felt tired. Maybe he should lie down. Yes, that would be good. He lay down where he sat and curled up. Someone ran fingers through his hair. 'Ah, that feels good, Hikaru,' he thought as he slipped into a merciful sleep.
oOoOo
Haruhi watched the sleeping twin for awhile. She was worried about him. He was acting so strangely, and he needed medical attention. His cut looked like it was becoming infected, which was no surprise. She glanced up to see Tamaki returning down the beach. "That was fast," she commented as he got nearer. "Did you find anything?"
"There were rocky cliffs at the end of the beach in that direction. I couldn't go any further," he explained. "I found some more junk though." He held up a length of nylon rope and an empty plastic container that had once held part of their lunch from the day before. Haruhi wished it was still full. She was hungry, but water was far more important right now.
"We need to find more fresh water," she said. "These few bottles won't last long, and I'd like to use some to clean out Kaoru's wound. It appears to be getting infected."
"How is he doing?" asked Tamaki with concern.
"I think he is in shock. He acts like he doesn't know where he is or what's going on. It's like his body is on auto-pilot."
"We'd better keep a close eye on him. There's no telling what he might do. You keep watching him. I'll go see if I can find any water. There might be a stream or spring or something." He dropped the rope next to the platform and, taking the plastic container with him, headed off into the trees.
"Be careful," Haruhi called after him. "We don't know what might be in there." After he had disappeared from view, Haruhi looked around. Kaoru was still sleeping soundly. She wanted to make herself useful, so she decided to take an inventory of their resources. All together they had: three beach towels, one girl's swimsuit, a knapsack, two full bottles of water, one nearly empty bottle of water, two ropes, one flotation ring with another rope attached to it, a large piece of nylon sail cloth, a few wooden planks, two seat cushions, five life jackets, the clothes that they wore, the cabin roof, and the plastic container that Tamaki had taken. It wasn't much to work with, but it would have to do.
Haruhi wished that they had a knife, and maybe some matches or a lighter. They could build a signal fire, and if they ended up being here overnight, it would get cold. Maybe they could figure out how to get one started. Haruhi set about gathering up fallen sticks, twigs, and branches to use as firewood, just in case. She didn't dare wander too far away from Kaoru. He hadn't moved at all, but she wanted to keep him in her line of sight.
Haruhi was not sure how much time had passed before Tamaki emerged from the undergrowth. "Any luck?" she asked hopefully. He held up the container. It had about an inch of water in the bottom.
"There were no springs or anything, that I could find anyway. This I managed to gather from some large leaves where it must have collected during the rain yesterday. It was evaporating quickly though, and I didn't get much. I drank some. It tastes a bit funny, but at least it's not salt water. You should drink some too." He handed her the bucket, and she took a sip. It did taste odd, but it was wet and she was thankful for it. It was not a surprise that there was no fresh water source. Many of the tiny islands in Fiji had no fresh water, especially the uninhabited ones. Even the island with the resort relied upon a water purification system.
"Any sign of Honey or Mori?" Tamaki asked.
"No," answered Haruhi, shaking her head. She was not sure how long they had been gone, but the sun was nearly overhead, so several hours must have passed. "I hope they are okay."
"Oh, and I found these!" Tamaki said excitedly as he pulled two bananas out of his back pockets. "There were more, but I couldn't carry them. I saw coconuts too, but they were too high up." He peeled one banana, broke it in half and gave half to Haruhi. It was not quite ripe, but being the first thing she had eaten in 24 hours, it tasted like heaven.
"Maybe we can go back later with the knapsack and collect more bananas." Haruhi suggested. "First, can you help me with this," she said, indicating the sail cloth. "I thought maybe we could use the rope and tie it up like a tarp for shelter." Working together, they spread the cloth out on the sand. Unfolded, it was much bigger than they originally thought. In fact, it was an entire sail. It was large and triangular, made with bright red, orange, and yellow nylon fabric. It was very lightweight, like a parachute.
"It's the spinnaker," Tamaki revealed. "It's the large sail that billows out in the front of the sailboat. They are only used at certain times during a sail, and are hoisted while underway. That's why it wasn't attached to the mast. Lucky for us, or it would have been swimming with the fishes like everything else from the boat." He was really only referring to the boat itself sinking, but he couldn't help but think of their two missing friends. His matter of fact comment must have sounded very callous, because Haruhi was looking at him oddly. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "I didn't mean that the way it sounded."
"I know," she said, "It's okay."
They looked around to find some likely looking trees to tie the spinnaker to. Tamaki found three palm trees that were spaced far enough apart, but they were farther down the beach.
"Do you think it will be okay to leave Kaoru?" Haruhi asked. He was still sleeping for the moment, but he had been out for awhile and might wake up at any time. "Maybe we should wait for Honey and Mori to get back."
Tamaki looked up at the sky. Clouds were beginning to form. "It looks like we might get some rain this afternoon. We'll want to get the spinnaker up before that so we can catch the rain."
"I guess you're right," she agreed reluctantly. She checked on Kaoru once more before she and Tamaki headed down the beach with the spinnaker and ropes. They laced a rope through the grommet on each corner of the sail and tied each rope around a tree trunk as tightly as they could, stretching the sail between the three trees. It hung down pretty low. Maybe when Mori got there he could tie the ropes higher up on the trees. They had just finished tightening the last rope when the first big wet raindrops began to fall from the sky. Haruhi had never been so happy to see the rain. This was no storm; just a nice, drenching, tropical shower. Haruhi looked up at the sky feeling the drops on her face, and smiled for the first time since the day before.
"We should probably go get our stuff and bring it over here out of the rain," said Tamaki. "The cabin roof is probably too heavy for just the two of us, but we can get the other things."
"Good idea," said Haruhi, refreshed by her brief moment of happiness.
When they got back to the platform, something was missing. "Kaoru! Where's Kaoru?" shouted Haruhi, looking around in panic. Finally, she spotted him. He was standing knee deep in the surf, and looked to be walking farther out into the ocean. Haruhi and Tamaki bolted across the sand and into the water after him. He was moving slowly, and they managed to catch up to him before he got too far.
"Kaoru! Stop! Kaoru, what are you doing?" gasped Haruhi grabbing him by the arm.
He stopped and looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face. "Something's missing," he said. "I think it's out here. I have to find it."
"No Kaoru, it's this way. You'll find it this way," she said trying to convince the confused twin to turn around. She and Tamaki managed to get him headed back toward the beach. As they walked to the platform, Tamaki noticed two figures far away down the beach. As the pair approached, it became clear from their height difference that it was Honey and Mori.
"Hello," called Honey, "we're back! We didn't find any people, but we found these!" He pointed to a lumpy bundle that Mori was carrying. Mori had taken off his shirt and the two of them had filled it with coconuts.
"Good," answered Haruhi. "We rigged up some shelter over that way," she said pointing toward where they had tied up the spinnaker. "Can you help us bring our stuff over there?" They gathered their meager belongings and brought them over to the shelter to get them out of the rain. Haruhi made sure that Kaoru came with them. Tamaki and Mori went back to retrieve the cabin roof.
"Sorry it hangs so low," Haruhi said to Honey. "We couldn't reach to tie it any higher. We thought maybe Mori could help fix it."
"I'll take care of it," offered Honey and he easily shimmied up one of the palm trees and pushed the rope up higher. He did the same with the remaining two. "How's that?" he asked proudly.
"That's perfect! Thank you Honey-Senpai!" she praised. The others returned with the platform, and they settled it beneath the hanging sail. All of them, with the exception of Mori, could stand upright on the platform beneath the spinnaker without touching it. It hung lowest in the middle, where they could see water beginning to collect. There was not much yet, but more than they had before.
"Since it looks like we will be getting some more water, does anyone object if I use the rest of this bottle to clean Kaoru's wound?" She held up the almost empty bottle, and they all approved of the idea. She picked up the already stained towel. It was wet again from being out in the rain, but at least that might have rinsed out some of the salt water. She got Kaoru to lie down again, with his head propped up on one of the life jackets. First she tried to clean the dried blood out of his hair with the damp towel, then she poured a bit of the water over the festering wound and blotted it with the towel. The silent twin did not even flinch, even though the pain must have been intense.
"I collected some firewood," said Haruhi, trying to distract herself from the pain she was causing as she tended to Kaoru, "I thought we might try building a signal fire, but now the wood is all wet anyway."
"It should dry out quickly enough once the rain stops," Tamaki assured her. "Does anyone know how to start a fire without matches?" They all shook their heads.
"I've heard you can rub two sticks together," offered Honey.
"It's probably not as easy as it sounds," cautioned Mori.
"Well, we can always give it a try later," said Tamaki optimistically.
Tamaki shared the rest of the water he had collected from the leaves with Honey and Mori, then they set to work trying to crack the coconuts open with a rock. While they worked, Honey and Mori described how they had walked nearly all the way around the island, but were stopped by towering cliffs on the southern end, so they turned around and headed back. They had seen no signs of life during their trek. They decided that the cliffs must have been the same ones that Tamaki had seen, only they saw them from the other side.
The rain eventually let up. Tamaki took the knapsack and went off to retrieve more bananas. Mori finally managed to get one of the coconuts opened, and they shared the milk inside before peeling out the meat to chew on. They filled the plastic container with water from the spinnaker, and they all took a long drink. Haruhi filled the empty bottle with water and tried to get Kaoru to drink some, but he wouldn't. She couldn't get him to eat any coconut or banana either. Honey spent about an hour trying to rub two sticks together, and only ended up with a pair of warm sticks.
Soon the afternoon passed to evening, and another painfully beautiful sunset spread itself across the sky. Once it became too dark to see, they all lay down on the platform, using the life jackets and seat cushions as pillows and the beach towels as blankets. They made sure Kaoru was in the middle, with Haruhi on one side and Mori on the other. If he decided to get up and wander in the middle of the night, they wanted to know about it. They all huddled close together for warmth, and eventually fell asleep.
oOoOo
A/N: For those of you concerned about Kyoya and Hikaru, their story will eventually be told. Be patient. Keep reading and reviewing. I really do appreciate it.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Host Club characters. I am only borrowing them, again. I promise to put them back when I'm done. I did last time.
