Chapter 6

Month: June

A whole month had gone by and the two castaways had built their shelter, it was painstaking and involved a lot of bickering. But it got done. The vines held tightly, the saplings provided support and together they discovered they could make decent rope from the young trees' bark. It proved to be strong when braided and pulled and they'd used it to tie down the big leaves. Neither ever having roofed before realized after one rainfall that they'd placed the shingles the wrong way. The water leaked through their roof and drenched them both. Together they had to cut all the lashings and make new ones and shingle the leaves starting at the bottom and work their way up.

It had worked, the roof didn't leak any more and it was a gleeful moment of success at the next rainfall. But as more time passed without any sign that rescue was coming, the more Hiro and K stopped concentrating on the skies. They also began to investigate their island a little more. With every trip they found something new to add to their shelter, soft grasses, and leaves to use as bedding. Many times they found bushes providing berries or fruit, but they didn't touch those. Once they even spotted a wild boar, which snorted and chased them both back to the beach. Ornery suckers, these pig-like creatures were not friendly. But the most prized discovery was a banana tree. Only the bananas were still very green and not ready to be eaten. Hiro and K practically salivated at the site of them. Almost everyday they went to check as if by some miracle the bananas would be ripened. Still they made use of the banana leaves, which were huge and also proved to be great for the roof and for wrapping up food. They also discovered the seaweed could be eaten and it was rich in calcium and minerals.

"You know if I have to eat anymore coconut, I think that I would rather be dead," Hiro moaned and lay back against the soft bed of leaves under the shelter, using the lifejacket as a pillow.

"What do you mean, I think we've eaten more sand than fucking coconuts," K griped poking at the fire with a stick.

Both men groaned at that. Yes sand was in everything, between their teeth, in their hair, in their food and water, even in their underwear!

"Ugh, let's go farther this time. I want to see what else is on this island," Hiro offered and sat up.

K looked at Hiro and then at his arm which was completely scabbed over and airing without the bandages. It seemed as though with the scent of blood in the air, he attracted a lot of mosquitoes, not that there weren't loads of them anyways. But thanks to having the fire next to their shelter the smoke kept most of the bugs at bay. It was only when they ventured into the forest that they got swarmed by the beasts. "You know it's really dangerous to go that far, what if…" K trailed off before he could say what if someone came looking for them.

Hiro knew what he was going to say and cut K a sharp look, pounding the ground with a fist. "There are no what ifs! No one is coming for us man! We're gonna fucking rot out here!" he cried in despair. With that outburst the redhead stormed out of the shelter and walked off cursing.

As easy as it was to occupy one's mind from thinking of reality, the sheer mention of it sent emotions flying. K watched him go; there was no need to follow. Hiro had to cool off first. K sighed and rubbed his face in frustration. He looked at the bottom pole in the framework closest to the ground; on it were markings, one for each day they'd been here. It'd been one month, and they were lucky that Hiro's watch was still working and telling them the time. But it wasn't like they needed time out here; still it was nice to know what day it was. K hadn't even considered having to know what month it was yet, and the thought of rescue came back to him. How long would they be here before help came? Could it be months?

It was now May, soon to be summer for Japan. But here it was always summer, the heat was relentless, the humidity thick. K couldn't remember the last time he'd sweat his balls off so much. The only relief was dipping in the ocean, to wash up and to clean their clothes. Both being men, they had no qualms about nakedness. After all when clothes got washed it included underwear. Neither wanted to suffer from heat rash or smell each other's filthy bodies.

K looked up to see the fixture Hiro invented. He'd used a long stick and propped it across the opening of the lean-to. It worked like a clothes line to dry their stuff by the heat of the fire. Right now a pair of socks hung from there. K frowned; he wished Hiro wouldn't take off without his shoes and socks on.

Since the day was ruined for travelling, K began to think about fishing or catching some of those crabs. They needed something more than just coconuts for fuck sake! He wished they had a net or a fishing rod. Maybe he could look around the rocks and places crabs might run to hide. Pulling his hair behind his back he put it into a high ponytail with his only hair tie, K got up and went in the opposite direction than Hiro had gone.

There was a bunch of seashore rocks near that dead tree he'd discovered the first day here. It could be a haven for wildlife that might hide here from the sun or to look for food. K made sure to find a strong stick first. He hadn't thought of making a weapon or a hunting tool before, his weapons usually came in the form of metal with bullets and cool names. It took at least an hour to find a suitable branch and carve the tip. It had to be strong enough to stab through a fish, K thought as he inspected his carving job.

Satisfied he held the stick between his knees and removed his shirt. He wrapped it around the crown of his head for protection from the sun. All set K set out for the rocks, not the ones he and Hiro had used to hide from the rain but a different set. These were not built up like a small mountain; it was more like a cluster of rock that had tons of pools and small caverns throughout the shelf of boulders. Here the ocean surf came in and out, continuously bringing fresh water onto the rocky shore.

K skipped across the rocks and kept his eyes open for moving creatures. He walked out as far to the edge as he could and looked down into the ocean waters. It was knee deep here; it could be a good place to try fishing too. K decided to lay down on the rock and watch the surface for any life. To his amazement it didn't take very long before he spotted a few large fish swimming along. But how to catch them? He wasn't that confident using a spear, but he had to try.

He watched for what seemed like forever, just noticing their patterns and dipping the tip of the spear in the water. Immediately he noticed the fish did not move at that, K felt confident. He held his breath and stabbed…but he missed by miles and the fish all high tailed it out there.

"Damn," K muttered and pushed himself up.

Thinking he'd come back to try this again he ventured around looking for his initial victim, the crabs. A few yards away he came across one crawling along some wet sand between gaps in the rocks. He couldn't stab the crab through, crabs needed to be cooked alive, it was a rule with most crustaceans, K poked at it with the tip. The feisty crab snapped at the stick and for a moment held on. K lifted the spear up and noticed how the creature simply hung on. Cool! But how to get it off?

He had no choice but to handle the thing, and he also needed something to put it in so it wouldn't take off. Hmm…

With a crab in hand, K held it out like a rod of plutonium. As if by a tiny mistake he'd lose his arm or something. The crab snapped his big claws but it wasn't successful in pinching him. Then he had an idea…

K went back to the beach and found a shady spot and dropped the crab on the sand. It tried to run but he placed a heavy rock on it. It wasn't enough to crush the creature, just to keep it in one place. Quickly he began to dig a hole. It had to be big enough to put a few crabs so they wouldn't run away. Within a few minutes he had a nice deep hole, in the shade so the crab wouldn't spoil to quickly. He kicked the rock away and using the stick he swatted the crab into the holding.

"Sorry fella but you're dinner," K chimed happily and went off to continue finding more.

On the other side of the beach Hiro sat brooding on top of a hill that over looked the beach below and the ocean abroad for hours. He and K had found that if they walked past of the forest brush they came to an ascending bit of land. Following it he found a ledge overlooking a lot of the island. It was too bad they hadn't gotten up here when the planes where around. They saw it from the beach below but didn't have the energy or the will to discover it.

But now it seemed like a good place to be, the wind blowing his hair. Hiro placed his shirt over his head but the wind kept threatening to blow it off. He removed it and gripped it in his hands. When he first got here he wept, finally tears came and he cried out his anguish. He longed so much to see his best friend, to play his music, to be home…

This just wasn't fair, it wasn't fair!

Inside he worried he was becoming depressed and letting the sorrow feed on his heart. He feared he was losing his will to survive; it was so hard out here. There were so little comforts, no soft bed, warm food, friends, family…he longed for it all! One month felt like a year, it was as if he could hear the ticking of every second, even though time had no substance here.

And then there was K, with his happy go lucky 'We will survive' regime. It sparked Hiro up so fierce, didn't the man care? Wasn't he affected at all? But Hiro sighed; no K had his own way of dealing with things, ways that never made much sense to anyone else. And out here, K wasn't the crazy armed guy that he knew back home. Here he was just a man, not a manager, not a guy with guns, he was just K.

But lately he'd been pissing him off so much. Maybe it was being stuck with the man for a month! Being with someone constantly made one edgy and snappy. K snored at night, he always made those notches on the framework, he kept wiggling his toes in front of the fire and how he would undo his pants before sleeping. For comfort he said. Hiro didn't like how his own eyes travelled to the opened area of K's pants! What was he hoping to see? Why was he looking!

Hiro determined that he was just hard up and in need of some release. He resolved that K was the only body around and therefore, he couldn't control his urges. There was no harm, he wasn't attracted to K. God forbid, Hiro snorted. Nope, he was being human and seeing things that were triggering his depraved horny mind. There was nothing against two guys, Hiro was completely opened minded and even experimented in his time. But K wasn't, he was no fruit of loom…or was he?

NO! He did not care!

Lost in his strange thoughts, he didn't hear the footsteps behind him; Hiro startled and yelped when suddenly a crab was lowered over his vision. He backed away from the thing and bumped up against K's legs. Looking up the redhead saw K's smiling face.

"Dinner," K sang.

He was about to punch the man in retaliation to his rather unprecedented display of crab waving. But Hiro's angry frown softened when he realized K was holding a cooked crab. "Gimme," Hiro chorused happily, the urge to drool only a heartbeat away.

K laughed and handed Hiro the cooked crab, "I figured this would cheer you up. Come back down to the camp, I've got plenty more where that came from."

"Really, where'd you find them?" Hiro stood up immediately and began to follow K. Suddenly all the ill feelings he had about K vanished. Maybe he really could learn to live with the guy.

The blond told him of the area he'd gone hunting and told him about the spear and the fish too. "It's really tough to spear a fish; I have to try again…a lot." K was sure it was going to take some serious practice.

"Look I'm…" Hiro started to apologize but K cut him off.

"Forget it Hiro…I understand, no problem ok?"

"Yeah." What could Hiro say, things were crazy out here. He realized then that it wasn't K's fault for pissing him off, he was just angry inside.

But he wasn't changing his mind about the snoring!

"I think I'm going to try and build a basket of some kind, a cage to trap these suckers," K offered changing the subject.

Reaching the bottom of the hill they headed towards their camp. "I'll help; actually I'd like to go fishing next time," Hiro exclaimed.

"Tomorrow we'll try again bright and early. I saw clams and mussels down there to, we could have a feast," K said.

For the first time today Hiro smiled. Maybe things would be just fine.

A/N: I know its progressing slowly but with each chapter our guys will get closer and closer, scouts honour --winks--

Reviewers:

The2evils: huggles for Kiro fan YAY I know I honestly can't write about anyone else, this is like my 5th K/Hiro story ...geez lol --dies-- It's maddening but I love this pair so much as well :P Thankies for the review

GreenEyedFloozy: Waa! Thanks for all the reviews! Very happy your are enjoying the story. Its fun to see your reaction after each chappie, much love!

Dejichan4444: --glomps-- Very cool that you reviewed twice lol. Thankies hun for the support! So happy you are enjoying this fic, I hope you continue to do so.

Lances: Thank you kindly for the review!

vampire911: Thankies muchly for the comment --hugs--

Kimika: Ohh thanks about the comment about the surroundings and detail. Sometimes you just write and wonder "Am I describing everything well?" And you give me confidence that I am. Much love! Yes K and Hiro --fangirls wildly into the sunset-- lol!