Chapter 9

Month: September

Last night had cleared the air. With the hell of the crash now out in the open, Hiro and K found themselves talking endlessly, even laughing. As they continued their journey they discussed things about each other that they'd never knew before. Without realizing it they were becoming each other's best friend, only friend.

Now they were walking along the beach in the afternoon, still talking.

"Man I can't picture you with short hair," Hiro commented on K's tales of his youth.

K knelt to pick up a pretty shell and put it in his pocket, "It's true but of course I was only in highschool. I let it grow after I got into the music business."

"I bet your mother hates it right? My mother complains everytime I see her," Hiro explained with a groan.

The blond chuckled. "Yeah my parents don't like my hair either; they say I look like one of those California surfing hippies from the seventies."

Hiro grinned at that, "But you were an eighties teenager right? Rocker era, I bet you had a leather jacket and ripped jeans and listened to ACDC right?"

"ACDC, Billy Squire, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Aha, Orange Juice Jones..."

"Orange Juice Jones…?"

"Oh yeah he was an eighties one hit wonder," K said as his face light up. With a gleam in his eye he dropped the rope and used his spear as a microphone. He began to sing…

"I saw you and him…and him, walking in the rain…
You were holding hands and I'll…never be the same…

Hiro simply stood and gaped for a second. K was singing, pointing to an invisible audience and bent at the knees. But when he added the echo in the tune Hiro began to laugh. Surprisingly he was singing the ballad pretty well; K had a nice deep voice. But then he stopped.

He paused laughing. "Is that it?" Hiro questioned

"I forget the rest." K shrugged his face flushed with play.

"And it was just getting good."

K laughed.

At ease both men shared different songs and sang their way down the beach. Sometimes the other remembered part of the song and they'd sing it together. On a rock song, Hiro paused to play a solo with his air guitar and both headbanged like fools. Completely unabashed they played and laughed. What did they care, there wasn't a soul around.

At the end of the beach, they had to walk around some rocky shoreline, but it proved useless. The water only got deeper and they looked up the wall of a large rocky cliff.

"Seems like this is where we stop," Hiro confirmed.

They stood in the water up to their knees, walking over jagged rocks on the bottom. "Yea seems like its all hill and stone on this end of the island. It's not very big eh?" said K.

Wading out of the water, K lost his footing and sliced his foot open on a sharp rock. Gritting his teeth he groaned but continued on. Once out of the water he dropped to the sand on his rear and inspected his injured foot. There on his foot was an angry cut, which bled steadily.

Hiro hovered nearby, "Are you ok?"

"Just another of the many cuts on my feet," K sighed.

The redhead stole the knife from K's pocket and began to take off his trousers.

"Hey," K muttered when he felt Hiro slip something out of his pocket. "What are you doing?"

Without looking up, "Something to wrap around your feet," he replied, crouching in his underwear.

Before K could protest, Hiro began to cut his pants into knee length shorts. "It's too hot anyways," he said. It didn't take long to make shorts and once finished Hiro knelt in front of K. "Let me see it."

"No"

"Don't be a suck K."

K sighed, but he stretched his legs out, "You really shouldn't have. I could have used my own pants."

"Stop trying to be such a tough guy, just shut up and let me ok?" Hiro spoke firmly and settled his grey eyes on K's.

K saw the look that told him not to press it. Hiro was being kind and he should just accept it. He leaned back; hands pressed into the hot sand behind him and watched Hiro tending to his feet. While he did that, K observed how wild Hiro looked out here, his olive skin all tanned, his cheeks flushed from the ocean breeze. His eyes found that wound that had long healed but left an awful scar along Hiro's forearm. Hiro told him how he got that, on the plane during the crash. Looking up again, K watched how the wind was blowing his hair, which was sorta mangy and already lightening under the sun. He spotted a few golden strands, hanging in front of Hiro's face. Before he could stop himself, K reached over to touch one of those blond strands.

"This should get us home…" Hiro started to say when he felt K's fingers in his hair. He startled and looked up quickly, freeing his hair from K's touch. A blush came to his cheeks.

"You're hair is going blond," K said and plucked a golden strand from Hiro's head.

"Ouch," Hiro whined and rubbed his head and grabbed the strand of blond hair from K's mitt. He inspected it with a frown; geez the sun was bleaching his hair.

That blush hadn't passed over K's head. He saw it but decided not to comment. Instead he knocked his feet together and stood, he winced a little on his injured foot but there was relief under his feet. "Thank you," K said and grinned at his makeshift shoes.

Hiro picked up his stuff and said, "You're welcome."

As they headed back, K thought more about that blush. He thought about it because it stirred something inside him. It was just like that kiss, something felt so good about it, so right. Could it be something more? Would they have ever kissed if they had not been stranded together? Since K was someone that had manipulation down to an art, he knew better than anyone that sometimes to get certain results, you had to create a situation for the deal to play through. Of course neither of them was put here on purpose. And what if this "tension" only ended up ruining the friendship they'd built with each other?

"K!"

K forgot about his thoughts as Hiro beckoned to him. He hadn't even noticed that Hiro had run off and was now inspecting something washed up on the shore. Hmm, there were a few things washed up on the shore. Intrigued K hurried to see what it was.

"My guitar!" shouted Hiro excitedly.

What? K ran the rest of the way and stood next to Hiro as he picked up his guitar case. K scanned the other things that were floating on the surf. One looked like a suitcase and the other a parachute pack.

"The sea has brought things in from the crash," Hiro said, taking his guitar with him and taking a seat on the sand. Gingerly he opened the case but the image he had in his mind was different from what existed in the case. The guitar wasn't gleaming and ready to play, instead the varnish on his acoustic was bubbled and peeling. It was completely destroyed by the salt water. The strings were still intact but Hiro imagined that they'd snap at very little pressure.

With a wet heavy suitcase and a yellow parachute pack under his arm K sat across from Hiro on the sand. They looked at each other uneasily. Whose suitcase was this? As K flipped over the travelling tag on the case, Hiro leaned in to see.

Yuki Eiri.

"It's Yuki's suitcase," K said quietly.

For a long moment both just sat eyeing the suitcase but neither attempted to open it.

K looked over at Hiro's guitar and closed his eyes at the ruined instrument. That's too bad, he thought. But both they eyes landed back on the suitcase.

"We should open it right?" Hiro wondered.

"Yeah"

"He'd forgive us, don't you think?" Hiro questioned.

With a small grin K said, "Yeah, eventually."

Hiro smiled at that and parked himself in front of the suitcase. And as they held their breaths, Hiro unzipped the case, pushing open the flap. They spent another long moment staring at the contents. In many ways if felt like an invasion of privacy, like committing some kind of sin.

But K broke the silence. "Look its just stuff, maybe some of it will come in handy," he said.

Hiro nodded, "You're right." And he picked up a smaller case that was nestled on top of the clothes. As he opened it his eyes widened.

"Toothpaste…" both men murmured in complete awe.

"And with a toothbrush," Hiro claimed holding it up like a torch. It even came in a small plastic container.

"A hair brush"

"Deodorant"

"Ooooo" they went.

There was also a pair of scissors and a small complimentary hotel sewing kit. But two of the most prized items were a bottle of shower gel and a bottle of aspirin.

"I shouldn't be this happy but thank you Yuki," K offered his eyes shinning with pure joy.

"I never imagined I'd be almost close to tears at the sight of few hygiene products," muttered Hiro. "Can you believe us?"

"Nope I can't but after four months I really don't care," K said collectedly and decided to check out the clothing. He had to wring the water out of them but there were a few shirts that they could use at least. The pants were much too small in the waist for K but the material could be used. There were plenty of socks and with an amused face K held up a pair of sexy barely there underwear.

Hiro snorted, "No comment."

They snickered.

At the bottom of the suitcase K found two twelve ounce bottles of rye.

"I think I really am going to cry now," K gushed and opened one of the mickies. He took a swig and sighed at the wonderful burn coursing down his throat.

Hiro grabbed the bottle and took a swig himself. "Yuki is the man," he said over a languished sigh.

There wasn't much else except a bunch of waterlogged packs of cigarettes. They were destroyed and mushy and not even drying them out would save them. There was also one of Yuki's books, which was soaked but intact. All the stuff got put back into the suitcase.

"We better head back," Hiro suggested.

Stuffing their rope into the suitcase, they grabbed hold of the things they found and started back to their own camp. The journey back didn't take as long, since they weren't stopping much to explore. There was nothing more adrift on the shore all the way back. They stopped to pick some more mangos and check on the banana tree. Happily they noticed some of the banana's had finally ripened.

"We really have a handful to take back don't we?" Hiro said feeling the brunt of the weight they carried in the heat.

K stuffed a bunch of bananas into the suitcase as well, "Yeah but we better hurry before the sun sets."

By the time their beach came into view the sun was almost gone. Everything looked the same nothing had been touched. Using their spears to ward off any snakes or spiders, they set their treasures under the lean-to. They were tired and with the sun practically gone the air was a much cooler. The sweat on their bodies made them chilled. But after the tinder and kindling they had stored close by was set, K's lighter didn't work.

With a sore thumb from flicking for at least twenty minutes, K angrily threw the thing with a curse. "We have no fire," he huffed. He could barely see Hiro in the now pitch dark, but he could feel him close by.

Hiro sighed, "Well lets just sleep then, I'm exhausted."

K murmured something grumpily and laid back. They didn't have any water and he was thirsty from their travel. His foot hurt and funny noises came from all around them.

"What was that?" Hiro whispered at the snap of a branch nearby.

"Who knows, don't think about it," K advised. He felt Hiro lay back and listened to him sigh again. "What's wrong?"

"It's cold."

Indeed the breeze coming off the ocean was a little cooler. "You're just tired," K said and scooted closer, turning on his side and rubbed his hand over Hiro's arm. He felt the redhead stiffen. "Do you want me to stop?" K asked softly.

It seemed like forever before Hiro responded. "No," he said in a hushed voice, "It's nice." In fact K's hand was warm and comforting. Hiro lifted his head and reached behind him. Tonight he had gotten the lifejacket as a pillow. He adjusted it lengthwise, "Share it with me."

The hand stopped and for a minute Hiro didn't think K was going to share his pillow. But slowly he shuffled even closer, his body right up against him. Hiro felt every curve, every bump of K's long body next his. Hiro held his breath and looked up at the ceiling of their lean-to. Finally K placed his head on the lifejacket, the sound of his breathing next to his ear. Hiro struggled not to shiver at the sensation. And K's hand returned, smoothing over his abdomen this time, his palm so warm and rough.

"Close your eyes and sleep, I won't let anything hurt you," K told him in a whisper.

After all this time being together, Hiro really could feel relaxed being this close to K. His words made him comfortable; inside he cherished how it made him feel. Sometimes he was scared that he'd loose K and he'd be left alone on this island. The thought of losing him made the pit of Hiro's stomach knot. Yes, the situation was different out here and they could be no one but themselves. Hiro found he admired this K much more, the man that he'd never gotten the chance to get to know. Now with the warmth of his body, Hiro could feel his eyes getting heavy. But before he fell asleep, he turned to his side, back against the other man's chest and wrapped K's arm around himself. Hiro snuggled against his arm and in moments fell asleep.

A/N: Will update asap!