The incessant beeping of his watch woke Connor up from his dreamless sleep. For a second, he was confused as to why he had set his alarm, before he remembered.

Kevin's back was facing Connor, his thin blanket lying in a heap on the floor. Connor picked it up, gave it a good shake, and laid it over Kevin. He fished out the small paper bag containing Kevin's medicine, and studied the labels intently. At least two of them were required to be taken with food. How could he have forgotten to get food? He had not even realised how ravenous he was. Fortunately for them, the hotel had a small restaurant.

Connor was about to exit the room for the restaurant when he remembered that he was not wearing clothes.

"Oh crap," he muttered to himself, realising that his shirts were still not dried yet, "Hmmm.."

He could probably just put on his slightly damp shirt, but his pants were still dripping wet.

Or maybe he could wear one of Kevin's?

"What are you thinking so hard about?"

Kevin's sudden input startled Connor, "Geesh, you scared me. How long have you been awake?"

"The alarm woke me up," Kevin rubbed at his eyes sleepily.

"Oh. Uhh..." Connor stood at the foot of Kevin's bed awkwardly, very aware of the fact that he was not wearing any clothes. And Kevin had been awake the whole time?!

"What?" Kevin frowned.

"I was just gonna go get some food for us," Connor rubbed at his neck self-consciously.

"You're acting weird, McKinley."

"No?" Connor thanked Heavenly Father that he was not blushing right now, "since you're awake. Do you wanna come with? The restaurant is just down the hall, I think?"

"I'm not moving an inch until I get my opioids."

Connor pulled his damp shirt over his head. It felt as gross as he had expected.

"Well, you gotta eat before you can have them. What do you want to eat? I was told that they serve continental food."

"Which continent do they even mean?" Kevin sighed, "you know what, I'm not all that hungry right now."

"I don't know, Europe? You haven't eaten in what? More than twenty-four hours? I'll just get you a sandwich," Connor wondered if he could just pop by the restaurant in his boxers. Was that legal in Uganda?

"I don't want shitty European food. Can you get me some Posho instead?"

"Remind me again what that is?" Unlike Kevin, Connor never really got used to the taste of Ugandan food. He had to admit that they were tasty sometimes. But if he was given a choice between whatever Kevin just said, and a sandwich, Connor would pick the sandwich any day.

"Corn flavoured Playdoh, as Arnold calls it," Kevin prompted, "it's Kimbay's favourite dish to cook, remember?"

Connor did remember. Kimbay would sometimes invite the Elders to her house for lunch, and the dish had been served several times, each time with a different gravy or side.

"Okay then, Pooshoo it is," Connor nodded, and unlocked the door.

"Wait, you aren't wearing any pants," Kevin commented.

Connor could feel his face heating up, "Uh I've run out of clean ones. Can I borrow one of yours? And your shirt too?"

Kevin nodded, staring at Connor lazily.

—

"I've gotten us the Pooshoo with some kind of vegetable stew on the side," Connor announced as he pushed open the door.

Kevin was still in the same position as Connor left him.

"It's Posho," Kevin corrected.

"On the bed or at the table?" Connor asked.

Kevin held out his arm for the food, "Give it here."

"You gotta sit up first. Need my help with that?"

"Maybe," Kevin's arm remained in the air.

Connor took Kevin's arm with one hand, and slipped his other hand behind Kevin's back. Even though Connor did most of the work, he could still feel Kevin tremble with the effort. He got Kevin seated against the wall, and handed him his plate of food. Kevin picked up the fork and took an experimental bite of the Posho.

"How is it?"

"Edible. Not as good as Kimbay's, of course," Kevin shrugged and poked at the wilted vegetables.

Connor didn't think it would be. But he had not eaten since last night and everything tasted heavenly to him right now.

"So, all the Elders are coming over to visit tomorrow. Should be fun," Connor munched on a piece of sweet potato, "They were all very worried about you, especially your companion."

Kevin did not look convinced, "Yeah."

"Why? You don't think that Elder Cunningham cares about you?" Connor was genuinely shocked.

Any human being with functioning eyes could see that Arnold treated Kevin like he was the most important person in his life. It was especially so, after their fight and Kevin's incident with Butt-effing-naked. There wasn't much in this world that Arnold takes seriously, he is just the happy-go-lucky type of guy, but god forbid if someone hurts his precious Kevin.

Elder Church learnt that the hard way. It had started off as a normal night, but against their better judgement, the Elders decided to play a game of spin-the-bottle. That somehow led to Church saying some awful things to Kevin, and Kevin tearing up and locking himself in his room, and Arnold almost punching Church in the face. Connor had to step in and stop Arnold, of course, even though he thought that Church might have deserved it that time. Not that Connor condones physical violence, but what Church said to Kevin that night was mean and totally uncalled for. After that incident, they never played spin-the-bottle ever again.

Kevin sighed, "Of course I do. I'm not talking about Arnold."

"Who are you talking about, then? Elder Church? You know he doesn't mean half the things he says."

Kevin ignored Connor's probing and ate sullenly. At least he was eating, but Connor was determined to get to the bottom of this.

"If you haven't noticed already, all we have is one another now, thousands of miles away from home. We don't even have the hurch to rely on anymore. I know some of us don't get along as well as we'd like to, but we're kinda like a family, don't you think? Of course everyone cares about you."

Kevin shook his head and looked out of the window, "I don't think anyone likes me that much to be honest. Except for Arnold, but he has a screw loose."

Connor was about to rebut when Kevin stopped him, "And don't tell me that it's not true. I'm not an idiot, I can see for myself. Nobody really likes me, not in school, not back home, not at church, certainly not here."

"But that really is not true, Kevin. All the bishops at church liked you a lot. They've spoken so highly of you, I've heard of your name before I even met you."

"No, they liked the model Mormon boy who followed every rule and did everything the church asked. They don't even know me."

"Okay, what about me then? Would I bother doing all this if I hated you?" Connor gestured to the room.

"I know you, Connor. You're too kind. You'll sacrifice yourself for a random stranger on the street," Kevin smiled slightly, "and I'm not saying that everyone hates me. I'm just saying that people spend time with me only because they have to, and not because they want to. You should know, I don't exactly make friends easily. But it's all fine by me, I don't care."

Connor could tell that Kevin was lying. He did care, and was deeply affected by it. Connor had no idea that Kevin was troubled. He had always appeared so confident and sociable on the outside.

"I know you won't believe it when I say, but you are wrong Kevin," Connor knew all too well that this issue that Kevin had was not something that could be easily resolved with just a few words.

"And you are right, I don't believe you," Kevin smirked.

Connor started planning and thinking of ways he could show Kevin Price that he was well-loved, by the Elders, by the villagers, and by Connor. Very well-loved.