Chapter 3: Looking for Coconuts

Everything was very blurry, foggy and distant. Hiro saw K hovering over him like a saviour, the sun outlining his figure like some kind of angel. Maybe he was dead, Hiro thought. He was dead and on some celestial plane and for some strange reason K came by to say hi. Did that mean he was dead too? Was Shuichi and everyone here as well? Hiro went to sit up, but he hurt so much that he winced and fell back.

"Are you sure I'm not dead?" Hiro questioned, placing his hands over his eyes to block out the sun.

It took a long time to get an answer out of K; he sat down and placed his arms over his knees, threading his fingers together in front of himself absently. "I think we may be the only ones alive," he said finally and glanced over, he noticed Hiro luckily still had his shoes on. But the left arm of his black jean jacket was torn to shreds. He reached over to inspect and Hiro hissed painfully.

"A scratch," Hiro managed to say.

K moved closer to check it out. "Geez Hiro that's not just a scratch. It's gotta be wrapped up or it won't heal. I'm positive you need stitches," he explained and sighed. But there were no stitches, there were no doctors. "We need two bandages, one to…"

"K, really it's alright" Hiro interrupted, "I think the salt water really helped. In fact I might be lucky and I won't become septic, because then I would…die," he spoke morosely. How very lucky he was really alive at this moment. Even if he did become septic they would be rescued soon, right? Help would come and all would be well.

Both became silent, the whole situation still like a dream in their minds. They hadn't fully come to terms of what had just happened and it left a feeling of disarray. It was a surreal dream, that hopefully would end soon and they would wake up and find themselves in New Zealand going about their daily business. No plane crash, no deaths, no drowning, no abandonment. They sat for hours, Hiro finding the strength to finally sit up; both sat side by side watching the ocean before them. It seemed so beautiful and yet it was so unforgiving at the same time.

When the sun began to make its descent Hiro spoke up, "I'm thirsty."

K looked over quickly, "I completely forgot about the watering hole…can you walk? I don't have anything to carry water in."

Hiro nodded and went to stand, he groaned with ache. "Damn I don't ever remember feeling so beaten," he revealed. It was useless to act so tough when one was humbled before the face of death.

The blond stood and offered his hand without word.

Hiro took it silently and pulled himself up, immediately he felt his socks were still damp and made a face. "I should have dried out my shoes and socks." Then he looked down at K's bare feet. "What happened to your shoes?" he asked.

Sighing K said, "I had to get rid of them in order to swim."

"Oh"

They didn't get into more detail, because each man didn't want to talk about the crash quite yet. Bringing up the crash meant thinking about their friends' loss. Although the pain of that was clearly plaguing them both. Hiro felt the pain in his chest over the loss of his best friend. He could not cry, not yet. It just didn't seem real.

"Come this way, just watch out for snakes…and crabs," K explained and began to lead the way.

Hiro followed and he looked around, taking in the trees and green vegetation. It was like a story book remote island. He spotted coconuts in the palm trees and colourful birds floating in and out of the trees. Some crispy ocean leftovers crunched under his shoes, seaweed and small seashells. If he hadn't been placed here so direly he could've appreciated the bluest sky and the whitest sand, the freshest air and the most peaceful silence, it was a paradise.

Without any trouble they found the stream that K had established earlier and Hiro gratefully re-hydrated. Who knows how long he floated on the water, the sun baking him. He licked his burnt lips and stood up, but that's when he noticed K's face. "You look like that villain from Batman, Two-face," he offered with amusement.

K touched his face and grinned softly. "Yeah I'm preparing early for Halloween," he teased lightly.

Both chuckled but it quickly faded to silence again.

Making sure to fill up as much as possible before leaving, they returned to the beach. It seemed like the only sensible place to wait for help. Although by now the sun was almost gone and the air was becoming much cooler. The breeze that came off the ocean was calm at least and the sky was crystal clear. There was no moon tonight, only a few stars began to twinkle their announcement into the night.

K's lighter was still not working yet. But he still clung to that hope that they wouldn't need fire and that rescue would come soon. The smokes were dry and K decided there was no better time than any for a cigarette. But he couldn't light it; he tossed the pack on the sand and leaned back on his hands. He looked over at Hiro who sat right next to him. He was so silent and looked so dreary. "It's like a crazy dream hmm?" K said breaking the silence.

Hiro didn't answer; he only lay back on the sand and stared up at the stars, which grew in numbers in the darkening sky. A moment later he felt K lay down too, joining him in star gazing. There was nothing to say, or that's how he felt. He didn't want to close his eyes either, each time only brought the plane crash back to life. So Hiro lay there staring at the stars. He felt the twitch of K's shoulder next to his and then heard a flick, flick. Hiro looked over to see his manager testing his lighter again. Only the next flick produced a flame.

Somehow that little achievement was enough to lighten the mood for only a short while. "Finally it works," K murmured and reached over for the tossed pack of smokes. "Want one?" he asked Hiro.

"Fuck yeah."

K handed him a cigarette and lit it for him, he lit one for himself and both lay back and exhaled. "I'm sure we won't be here for long," K said assuredly.

"Yeah," Hiro sighed. But going home meant facing Shuichi's parents, telling the world of the accident.

Long after finishing that smoke both Hiro and K couldn't fight the fatigue. They eventually fell asleep, trying to ignore the weird sounds behind them in the brush and listening to the hypnotic song of the ocean instead.

Morning came with the sun warming things up, the sea birds crying over breakfast. Stirring, Hiro didn't open his eyes and only snuggled into the warm body next to him. Wait body! He bolted awake and eyes registered white and gold, the white shirt on K's back. Something tickled his nose and realizing it was K's golden hair, Hiro backed away quickly and brushed at his face to ease the itch. He'd never in his life been so close to the man before, that heat filled his cheeks.

But what was he getting so worked up over? They were stranded! It was cold! It was only a human instinct to stay warm. Surely he wasn't attracted to the man, good grief Hiro thought. Waving off his thoughts and searching the water for any signs of rescue, Hiro stood up to go to the washroom. He inspected his wound, which was still bleeding a little but drying up and scabbing; a really good sign. But it only brought back the feeling of dread, the emptiness that took over his heart.

He pounded a fist into the sharp trunk of a palm tree in anguish. Ignoring the pain in his hand or the shredded knuckle, Hiro choked on an angry cry but the tears still refused to come forth. His best friend was gone, along with Suguru and Sakano, and even Yuki. It all happened so fast!

K woke up shortly after, feeling chilled. The sand overnight had lost its warmth and was now hard and cool. He vaguely remembered Hiro curling up to him last night for warmth, but he knew that he was much warmer after he did. It allowed him to sleep a little more at least, but now it was gone. K turned over to see the guitarist gone, he felt a little bit of worry. But K told himself the man probably went to look around, or get water or something. Still though, he worried something bad happened. It had to be the after effects of losing everyone, wasn't it?

He sat up and warmed his feet up with his hands. K felt like a native, all he had to do was strip off his shirt and turn his pants into shorts and he'd be all set. Then he'd could pound on his chest like an ape and learn to swing from the vines in the jungle. He'd be the new age Tarzan he thought with a guffaw. But his silly thoughts fled, he was hungry.

Getting up he thought of the one thing that everyone connected with deserted islands, coconuts. So he hunted for some that might've fallen from the trees, only he spotted Hiro. The man punched the tree and hung his head dejectedly. K sighed, but he left him alone and went in another direction before Hiro saw him. The pain was very raw, K wondered if the others might have survived. But it was highly unlikely. He knew that it was a miracle that Hiro and he survived at all. Besides he wasn't in the body of the plane when it went down, he had no idea what the others experienced on the other side of the cockpit door.

But after a rest K decided he wasn't going to give up and die. It simply wasn't in his nature; he would move on, he had to. And Hiro would too, after the pain eased and the nightmare of the crash loosened its grip on his mind. Time would heal wounds and when they got rescued, they'd have their families to turn to. K wondered if Judy would come back to him with open arms. Allow them to be a family again with Michael, but he somehow doubted that. Michael…

His boy had already missed him so much, with his time consuming job. K regretted now not spending more quality time with his son; he squeezed his eyes shut with guilt. If he got off this island, he promised he would do just that, maybe even forget about Japan and move back home. He could work near his son and visit him a whole lot more. Yes, that's what he'd do, K decided determinedly. But he worried about the "if" that just crossed his mind. He couldn't think like that or he'd only get depressed, someone would come and find them. They had to!

"What you doing?"

K started and looked back at Hiro. "Looking for coconuts," he said.

This brought a faint smile to Hiro's face, "I'll help."

Together they rounded up a few coconuts and dropped their collection in a pile on the sand. It didn't take long to find them but now they had to open them. K pulled out his knife and sat down next to the pile. Hiro sat down too and watched anxiously to see how K's tiny knife was going to open the hard green husk of the coconut. K stabbed at the shell, making only tiny cuts to the flesh of the coconut. But it was proving to be useless. After trying for at least twenty minutes to find a technique to rid the coconut of its outer shell, K lost his temper and chucked the thing onto the beach.

"Fucking thing!"

Hiro got up and retrieved the coconut, "Give me the knife, isn't there a saw like blade on that."

K handed him the knife happily, "By all means go for it," he grumbled.

Sitting down again with the knife in hand, Hiro searched the options on the knife. Hey it even had a tiny magnifying glass; he held it up to show K.

"Fire," K said and caught on right away. He hadn't thought of magnifying glass on the Swiss army knife. But he watched Hiro find a saw like blade and stab it into one of the openings he'd already made on the coconut. Ever so slowly Hiro sawed along the, making small but definite progress. "It's working," K exclaimed, "But it sure takes a long time." He saw Hiro gasp with pain. "What's wrong?" K asked.

Hiro stopped sawing, "My arm," he said painfully and noticed fresh blood running down his hand and all over the coconut. He took off his jacket and hissed as the material scraped over his wound. His entire forearm was covered in fresh blood; the wound had opened up while working on the coconut.

"You really need that wrapped up," K said and took the knife back. He took off his shirt and along the bottom; he used the knife to begin a tear. He tore a few long stripes of cloth. "We can't use anything else, you need white material. You know the dye," K mentioned while cutting up his shirt.

"Yea I know…" Hiro offered and watched the other man sacrifice is shirt for his sake. "I'm going to go clean this, be right back," he said and got up.

K watched Hiro head towards the water and hoped that his wound would heal. As long as it bled it kept infection from setting in, but then Hiro might lose too much blood. K kept working on making bandages out of his shirt. He needed a few so they could change the bandage often or the wound would dry and stick to the cloth. That would only keep tearing it open. If only they had a small sewing kit or something.

By the time Hiro returned, K put back on what shirt he had left, leaving it unbuttoned. Still fresh blood seeped from Hiro's wound but he let K wrap up his arm. Gently he placed a folded strip of cloth over the wound and then wrapped the white shirt firmly around his forearm.

"Thanks K…for rescuing me too," Hiro said gratefully and looked at his managers face. Blue eyes looked up at him. Hiro caught his breath as they looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Breaking the contact, he quickly looked elsewhere and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"No problem Hiro…I'm just glad I spotted you," K told him earnestly. "There all done. You just take it easy so that heals, got it?"

Hiro nodded, "Ok."

K took back the coconut and wiped the blood off. "Now lets fucking eat something before my stomach eats itself," he said and gave a groaning chuckle. He sawed at the damn coconut until finally the green husk was removed. Now he only had to break through the brown furry shell, that wasn't nearly as hard as the green shell. Instead of the knife, K used the screwdriver part of the knife. With one stab and a twist he cracked the coconut open.

But out came all the milk, which splashed onto the sand. "Aww crap," K muttered.

"No K you don't want to drink the milk from a coconut that has fallen to the ground," Hiro warned.

"Oh, how come?" K wondered.

"Did you know coconut milk is a natural laxative," the guitarist advised. "I read that you should only drink the milk from coconuts that are still in the tree, otherwise you know…"

K made a face, "Really…I never knew that. So what happens if we eat the meat part?"

"Nothing we can eat that," Hiro offered with a smile.

Smiling back K started to carve out chunks of coconut for himself and Hiro. Together they ate silently and waited.

A/N: I have most of this story written so I'll update soon. I'm building things slowly but things will come together.