Lucas and Fuel stare at each other's soot covered bodies. They are completely black, except for the whites of their eyes and the colour of their pupils. Simultaneously, they burst out laughing. A stifled giggle at first, and then they are rolling on the floor, pounding the grass with their fists. It's been a while since either of them laughed in earnest.

"We should," Fuel says, between hiccups, "We should probably clean ourselves up."

"Yeah," Lucas says, wiping a tear from his eye. In doing so, he leaves a streak of clean skin on his temple. "There's a hot spring around here, I think."

The two of them walk west through sunshine forest, passing toppled trees, broken ground and a collapsed cabin: the aftermath of the seventh needle.

Finally, they reach a pool of hot water steaming on the ground. There is no one here except for a frog.

Fuel looks around awkwardly, unsure where to begin. Lucas, meanwhile, is already stripping out of his clothes, throwing them onto a pile on the floor.

"Lucas? Are you just gonna, you know…"

Lucas is completely naked now. There are clear lines where his soot-covered skin meets the pale, soft skin that was protected by his clothing. "Sure, why not?" he asks.

"Oh…" Not wanting to be awkward, Fuel also strips and slides into the hot spring.

"Ahhh…"

"This hot spring hasn't changed in forever, right?"

Fuel nods. "Still piping hot, as usual."

The soot floats away from their skin, turning the water gray and murky.

"I used to come here all the time," Lucas continues. "When my family went to visit Grandpa Alec, we'd always stop here for a break." A pause. "It was fun, with Mum, Dad and Claus."

Fuel doesn't know what to say. He feels that Lucas is reaching a sensitive topic. "That must've been nice."

"Yeah…" Lucas lowered his head so that the water was up to his lower lip. "Claus and I used to have breath holding contests. We'd put our heads into the water and see who could stay in the longest." Another pause. "One time we nearly passed out, and Dad had to pull us from the water. Claus would… Claus would always win."

And with that, Lucas breaks into a gentle sob. Amidst all the steam and water, it is hard to tell if there are tears in his eyes.

Fuel looks around desperately, unsure of how to handle the situation. All he could find was the green frog, staring blankly at him through tiny black eyes.

"Um… Lucas…"

No response. So Fuel wades over to Lucas and wraps a warm arm around his shoulders. "It's okay."

Lucas clutches Fuel tightly and cries silently into his shoulder. They are pressed right up against each other now, and it makes Fuel nervous. He doesn't dare to push Lucas away, however.

Eventually, Lucas calms down and simply rests his head against Fuel's, closing his eyes. Lucas whispers softly into Fuel's ear: "Dad's gone mad lately. He ran off into the mountains. I've always been his least favourite."

Fuel puts a hand into Lucas' hair and strokes it reassuringly. "Well, at least your Dad's alive."

Lucas shifts a bit to make himself comfortable. "Oh yeah… I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Lucas perks up all of a sudden surprising Fuel. "Hey! Why don't you become my dad?"

Fuel tilts his head. "What?"

"Well, we're both what's left of our families… It'd be nice to have someone to care for me."

"I can't be your dad. I'm not old enough."

"Brother, then. You can be my older brother!"

Fuel looked around, avoiding Lucas' gaze. "Um…"

Lucas can tell that Fuel clearly doesn't want to. He frowns and his shoulders slump, disheartened. Lucas says, "I just… It sucks to be alone. I want to have a family again. I mean, it's okay if you don't want to…"

Fuel looks intently into Lucas' teary eyes and worn-out expression. He deserves more, Fuel thinks, he deserves more than what he's been served his entire life…

"Fine," Fuel says, "I'll do it. I'll live with you."

It is hard to describe how brightly Lucas' face lights up at this moment. "YESS! Thank you!" And then he does the unexpected: he grabs Fuel by the shoudlers and kisses him on the cheek, so close to Fuel's mouth that he gets startled. Luckily, they are both already red as grapefruits from the heat of the hot spring, so no one can tell that Fuel is flushing.

Fuel smiles wryly, "You're welcome, brother?"

A/N: Fuel has such a big brother image :) By the way, tell me if writing in present tense is weird :\ I'm not used to it either, but my English teacher always told me to do so for certain stories. Reviews are nice xD