Washed Up

A/N: enter Hazue!

Authors: Celianna (Momo, Hazue) & Happiestwhen (Kaidoh)

Rating: K+

Events leading up to this log:
- Momo, Kaidoh and Ryoma continue to live in the same shack, awkwardly (Momo tries to spend less time with Ryoma alone)
- Kaidoh gets better at fishing and Momo asks him to prepare dinner for them
- Kaidoh makes dumbbells for training, fashioned out of a stick with coconuts. Momo dubs these 'dumbnuts', and therefore names the island Dumbnuts as well
- Kaidoh and Momo find seeds on the ship (which is a wreck, but still accessible), and turn it into a small garden that they both take care of
- Momo is excited to have strawberries, and keeps asking Kaidoh to prepare him a chocolate cake with strawberries when they're done growing
- Momo also keeps whining about wanting a medal (he likes shiny things)
- Momo lets it slip out that Ryoma loves Momo in front of Kaidoh
- Kaidoh starts working on his own hut in secret, wanting to not live with Momo and Ryoma because it's awkward
- Momo finds out that Kaidoh's building a hut, and secretly helps him finish it without Kaidoh's knowledge
- Through a conversation with Sanada, Momo gets the idea of wanting a rainbow rose. He asks Kaidoh if he's able to make some, and he agrees to growing rainbow roses for Momo (he can't resist Momo after all)
- Kaidoh finishes his hut, and moves out, leaving Momo and Ryoma alone, and gives Momo a farewell present; a better fishing spear
- Momo gives Kaidoh a late birthday present, which is a blue pillow, which he doodled on some cat faces. Kaidoh secretly really likes it
- Meanwhile back in civilization, Hazue is preparing to go find his missing brother, as Kaidoh's been missing for months now
- Hazue manages to fly to America without his parents knowing, and goes to Florida and searches around. He's eventually gotten onto a small tourist plane that crashes into the ocean, and he manages to escape and wash up onto an island

Date: July 12, 2012

How long has it been? Hazue thinks maybe one, two—no, even three days, since he crashed from his small airplane. The pilot had mysteriously vanished (he should definitely investigate that when he gets the chance), and Hazue was left with no choice: jump the plane and into the ocean. He drifted for a while until he washed up ashore on a beach.

It's deserted though. Hazue has been walking around for what seems like forever, and he's been grabbing fruits from the trees of the jungle to survive. He swears at one point he sees someone else, but before he could get a good look at it, it disappeared. Maybe it was an animal. Perhaps a bunny. Hazue likes bunnies, he doesn't think he could kill any for food. He probably wouldn't be able to catch fish either, but that's starting to look like his only option.

Hazue sits down underneath a large tree for shade from the sun. He's tired, he's exhausted, he's lonely and he wants to go back home. He's also disappointed he crashed while trying to find his own disappearing brother; he's such a failure. He rests his face onto his arms, and he watches the big green leaves tussle around in the wind. He's so damn lost.

Back on the beach, Momoshiro is tugging Kaidoh to come along.

"Come on, I'm going to prove to you that I wasn't hallucinating a couple of days ago," he says confidently. Momoshiro pulls Kaidoh by his arm and drags him out of his newly built hut.

Kaidoh tries to shrug Momoshiro off of him. "I can walk by myself, you know!" he says with a scowl. Of course, Momoshiro would still be thinking about this. He gets fixated on things so easily. And of course, Kaidoh can't seem to say no, especially lately, which is how he's found himself agreeing to do completely idiotic things like grow rainbow roses or dance with fire in hula skirts. It's like he just can't control himself, like Momoshiro makes his brain fizzle up.

"Where are we going?" he asks, once he's successfully jerked himself out of Momoshiro's grip.

"To, uhh," Momoshiro trails off. To his secret spot no one should know about? Yeah, he can't exactly word it like that. And he especially won't ever tell anyone what he does there. That would be mortifying. "To the jungle," he says, being vague enough. He'll find a new secret spot.

"Yeah, just follow me." Then Momoshiro starts to walk away in a quick pace, leaving the beach. Leaving behind Kaidoh's newly built hut. It'll be weird now that Kaidoh has moved out, since he sort of started getting used to it. It had been like what, a month now? Yeah, something like that.

And now Momoshiro is alone with Echizen in his shack, and that's actually sort of awkward, so Momoshiro doesn't want to be left alone in a small cramped room with his best friend, and goes and bothers Kaidoh instead. To find his imposter, of course. Or his good twin. Either way works.

They trek through the jungle based on Momoshiro's horrible sense of direction (not really, he's just trying to avoid going to his secret spot on purpose).

It's an hour or so later, when Hazue notices he has dozed off. He's been drooling on his arm, and when it finally pools up so much that he can't ignore it, he wakes up. With a jolt, he sits back up straight and awkwardly wipes off his mouth. He looks around himself a bit; the jungle still looks the same. Still green, still lush, still lonely and depressing. Hazue sighs and finally gets up; he should probably look for food or something to drink before he really perishes.

But then he hears something. Something …that sounds like a voice.

"I'm telling you I wasn't imagining the thing! I seriously saw him!" Momoshiro barks at Kaidoh as he pushes away a really big fern leaf out of his way.

"Whatever," Kaidoh replies flatly, obviously not really believing any of Momoshiro's ranting.

He takes another step and the fern rebounds and slaps him cleanly in the face. What the hell? He growls and punches Momoshiro in the shoulder. "Idiot."

Momoshiro kicks him in the shin in return. "Asshole."

And then they all three meet. Momoshiro is the first to spot Kaidoh's evil twin, standing there with a blank gaze on his face. Shorter, younger, cuter too, but it's not Kaidoh. Momoshiro lets out a girly shriek and he stumbles back, crashing against Kaidoh's chest and making the both of them tumble down in all the fern leaves. Momoshiro ends up in between Kaidoh's legs and resting against his chest.

"What the hell," says Momoshiro. He tries to struggle out of Kaidoh's weird position.

"Uhm," stumbles Hazue as he approaches the fallen duo.

Kaidoh flails his arms, trying to shove Momoshiro off of him and out of his lap, and then he freezes as he looks up and sees who's standing in front of them. This isn't right... How the hell could his brother be here? Is Kaidoh hallucinating too now?!

But the hallucination just spoke. And it... didn't sound imagined. Kaidoh blinks and the hallucination is looking less and less like a hallucination and more and more like his brother. His brother who should be home in Japan.

Kaidoh gives Momoshiro a hard shove to the side so that they're no longer an awkward tangle of limbs with Momoshiro's hands in even more awkward places, and he sits up.

"Hazue...?" he asks carefully.

"K-kaoru-niichan?" asks Hazue. He looks dazed, as if he's in some kind of dream, and he's finally found his brother. But that can't be true, he crashed on this island, he couldn't suddenly have found his brother by sheer accident. Or could he?

But the man in front of him was definitely the brother Hazue remembered—though he didn't recognize the other one who was currently spitting out some fern leaves—and he was starting to look real. Less like a dream.

"Nii-chan!" Hazue chokes out. He then runs towards Kaidoh and flings his arms around his chest, giving him an awkward hug. He starts sobbing into his brother's tank top.

Kaidoh pats him on the back and lets his hand rest there. It's as much of a hug as Kaidoh knows how to give. He feels kind of stunned. This is so weird. When? Why? How? What is he doing here?

"What are you doing here?" he asks out loud. He sort of wants to tell him to stop crying, too, but he doesn't, so he just stands there.

"I-I!" Hazue pulls his face away from Kaidoh's tank top and looks up at him, with sparkling eyes (too much crying). "I came to find you! A-after you disappeared you … no one could find you! And the police weren't doing much to try and find you … everyone was too busy with that cruise ship disaster. But I went out myself to find you! And … I did! I found you!" He squeezes tighter. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Momoshiro finally stands up and marches over to the two awkward hugging males. "Hold up a second—you're his brother? Kaidoh, what the hell is your brother doing here?"

Hazue presses his face into Kaidoh's chest. "Kaoru-niichan, who is that man?" He looks a bit familiar though …

Kaidoh hisses. "That's Momoshiro. We, uh, played tennis together in middle school." It's a pretty inadequate introduction, all things considered, but Kaidoh isn't really sure what else to say. He can't really call Momoshiro the guy he gets into fights with, and he definitely can't call him the guy he likes getting into fights with. He doesn't want Hazue to know that.

The name rings a bell though. "Oh! The Momoshiro!" Hazue cracks a smile at Momoshiro, who simply raises his eyebrows back in return.

"The?" Momoshiro looks over at Kaidoh with a smug look.

"What?!" Kaidoh sputters, his whole face flushing red. "No... No! He just means that you're the Momoshiro who was on Seigaku's team!" Kaidoh gives Hazue a very meaningful glare that seems to say, What the hell are you doing?!"Right, Hazue...?"

Hazue, as bright as ever, simply nods his head at Momoshiro. "Of course! I know all about you!" That was most likely an understatement. "Kaoru-nii-chan was a huge fan of you!" Hazue feels almost silly that he didn't recognize the man simply because his hair wasn't spiked up.

Momoshiro blinks once, twice, then grins the widest smug smile that he's ever achieved with his jaw. He looks at Kaidoh—who is completely red—and wiggles his eyebrows at him. "Was he now? Should I give him an autograph? From Awesome Momo, with love?"

Kaidoh kind of wants to die.

"Shut up..." he says, both to Momoshiro, who is looking at him with all the smug self-satisfaction of someone who's just discovered buried treasure, and to his brother, who, well, How could his own brother betray him like this?!

His brother isn't even supposed to be here!

"Uhh..." Kaidoh starts, and clears his throat a little too loudly, painfully aware of how red his face still is. "How did you get here anyway?"

Momoshiro is giving Kaidoh winks and kisses behind his back as Hazue starts to talk again. "I came to find you! I flew all the way to Florida, and then I met up with this man that I met on the internet, and he said he'd fly me over to where you were last spotted if I gave him something … I don't know what that something was though, he was speaking in English, and I don't really understand English that much." Hazue clings on Kaidoh's tank top. "Oh, and then! Then he disappeared from the plane! I had to jump out of it wearing a parachute—I've never been so terrified before in my life!"

Hazue looks up at Kaidoh with a quivering lip. "I thought I was going to die before seeing you again, Kaoru-nii-chan."

Momoshiro stops blowing air kisses at Kaidoh, and puts on his serious face. He pats his hand on Hazue's shoulder. "It's okay squirt, you're here now. You're safe and sound on this island where your brother and I have been stranded at for a while."

"Oh ... both? Is that what you were doing Kaoru-nii-chan? Were you looking for Momoshiro-san?"

Momoshiro snorts.

"No!" Kaidoh scrunches his face up. "No... I wasn't looking for him," he says, narrowing his eyes at Momoshiro.

Then he looks back at Hazue, who is still clinging to him much more tightly than he is really comfortable with. "I didn't mean to end up here. I didn't even know what had happened to the ship until after I got on the island."

"Ship?" asks Hazue. He's not quite sure what Kaidoh is talking about. "Did Momoshiro-san get into a ship crash?"

Kaidoh nods. "There's a big cruise liner sunk just off the beach. Most of the people here were on it when it crashed."

A cruise ship? No … it can't be the one that was all over the news, right? "Is it from Atobe Cruiseliners?"

"Is that what he calls his stupid boat? Then yes. Me and several other people were on a cruise ship many months ago, until we crashed here," explains Momoshiro.

"Oh! That was on the news!"

Momoshiro suddenly looks hopeful; at least people knew they disappeared. "Really? Are they looking for us?"

"Yes, they're trying, I think. Lots of ships and helicopters, but they can't find anything … I can't believe I happened to stumble upon you so easily." But most of all, Hazue can't believe he's found his brother after all this time.

"Kaoru-nii-chan, mom and dad are so worried about you. I was so worried about you!" But now they're going to be worried about the both of them … this was not a good situation.

Kaidoh had been trying not to think too much about his mother and father, because being apart from them is harder than he thought it would be, but Hazue's words make it really dawn on him: He's been gone for over a month now! He can't imagine what his parents have been thinking all this time, or how hard it must be for them. And all the while, Kaidoh has been alive and well and halfway around the world.

"I'm glad you're okay," he says simply. At least they have each other.

Hazue finally lets go of his brother and steps away from him. "I'm not the one that's been missing for over a month," says Hazue with a stern voice. "How have you been surviving on this island?"

Momoshiro props his elbow on top of Hazue's shoulder—it's the perfect height. "Well you see, Kaidoh arrived here, on the brink of death, and then I saved him by giving him water and food, and then a place to stay, and I gave him more food, and I cooked him food, and oh I did lots of stuff for him." Momoshiro couldn't be more arrogant.

And Hazue falls for it hook line and sinker. "Really!? That sounds amazing! Momoshiro-san, you're such a good person."

"He's not that great..." Kaidoh grumbles. He wishes he could punch Momoshiro in the face right about now. Stupid asshole.

Momoshiro simply puckers his lips at Kaidoh, and then he messes up Hazue's hair. He likes the kid already! Well, anyone is good in his book that strokes his ego. "Speaking of food and water, are you hungry? Thirsty? We've got lots back at our shack."

"Your shack."

Momoshiro rolls his eyes. "Right. Fine. My shack. Go cower away in your stupid beach hut. He can stay with me and Echizen. It's better built than yours anyway. So what do you say, uhh … what's your name again?"

"Hazue!"

"Hazue-chan then." It would be weird calling his brother Kaidoh as well. To Momoshiro, there was only one Kaidoh, and that was that grumpy snake standing right in front of him with that grumpy blushy look on his face. "Want to stay at my place?"

Hazue looks down, fumbling around with his fingers. "Oh … that's a very nice offer Momoshiro-san but I …"

"... can stay with me," Kaidoh finishes. There's no way he's letting his brother stay with Momoshiro. That would be way too weird.

Momoshiro simply gives him the same grumpy look Kaidoh is giving him. "Fine. Take care of your brother." Then he leans over to Hazue and whispers into his ears, "But you're welcome to escape to my shack if your brother is giving you a hard time."

He stands back up straight with a smile on his face. "I told you I wasn't imagining it! I told you I saw someone! And he's so cute too." Momoshiro pinches Hazue's cheek and the boy gives a tiny little protest.

Kaidoh grimaces at him. "Don't do that... That's my brother."

Momoshiro rolls his eyes. "He doesn't seem to mind."

Hazue blushes a tiny little bit and nods his head in agreement. "I'm a little bit thirsty?"

"Oh, Kaidoh, got some with you?" asks Momoshiro.

Kaidoh nods and pulls out a bottle of water from his shorts pocket and tosses it to his brother.

Gratefully, he accepts the bottle and starts drinking all of it. It was a lie; Hazue isn't just a little bit thirsty, he's really thirsty. But he sort of feels like he needs to act tough in front of his brother, like this is no big deal, and that he can manage on his own. He can't disappoint his brother—after all, he's the one that's been surviving on this island alone. Well, alone with Momoshiro. When he's done drinking the entire thing he wipes off his mouth with the back of his hand and returns the empty bottle to Kaidoh.

"So you two were together?" he asks, referring to living arrangements.

Kaidoh lets out a small hitched squeak. "We were what...? No! Nothing like that! What's wrong with you?!"

Hazue looks at his brother, shocked at the outburst of the question. Momoshiro looks equally shocked.

"Eh, Kaidoh, I think he was referring to us living together," he says dryly. Hazue nods his head in agreement.

"Oh..." Kaidoh says slowly. "Yeah. That's what I meant too..."

"Sure … you were," says Momoshiro with a sideways glance. "But yeah, we were together, actually Kaidoh moved out just yesterday. Or today." He looks at Kaidoh. "When did you .. ? Right, yesterday, I wasn't sleeping next to you last night."

Now Hazue really does give Momoshiro a weird and questioning look. "You sleep together?" he asks dryly. He looks back at his brother; to have sunk so low. Is this what all fanboys do? Sleep with their idols? He'd rather not think of his brother like that.

"On the floor though," adds Momoshiro.

"On the floor …" Hazue repeats. "Right."

"Not together," Kaidoh emphasizes, feeling his face heat up again as he speaks. "Just... next to each other."

"... Oh, I get it. Is it because it's cold at night? And you sleep together for warmth?"

"NO," Kaidoh squawks, mortified. "We don't sleep that close! He just doesn't like the bed, okay?!"

Momoshiro starts making kissyfaces at him again, enjoying this to the max.

"Okay. You sleep on the floor. Away from each other. Got it. Where do I sleep then?" asks Hazue. "The floor too?" He doesn't really want to sleep on the floor. Though he guesses that's better than on some sand that he's been doing for the past two days.

"Well, I'm not sleeping there anymore," Kaidoh says. "You get to sleep in my hut. On blankets, I guess. Oh, and Akutagawa-san brought me a rug... So, yeah, the floor. But it's not bad. You get used to it."

"... So no one has made any hammocks yet?" asks Hazue curiously. Surely, a hammock wouldn't be hard to make, if what they were saying was true, and they had a shack and a hut—those were much more complex than a piece of cloth strung between two trees.

Momoshiro scratches his cheek. "Kid's got a point, Kaidoh."

Kaidoh's eyebrows knit together and he hisses. "Well... I could help you make one," he says to Hazue. "If you want that instead."

"Oh, you could? That would be really nice of you, Kaoru-niichan!" says Hazue happily. "You can actually make one inside your hut, or shack, or what it is that you made again?"

Momoshiro swings an arm across Hazue's shoulder. He's a little bit shorter then Echizen, it's cute. "Why don't you find out? Come on, let's take you back. Then we can go meet with the rest of the guys as well."

"How many are there of you?" asks Hazue curiously.

"I don't really keep count or something ... but around thirty?" He looks over at Kaidoh for some kind of confirmation.

Hell if I know, Kaidoh thinks, and shrugs, then nods. "Yeah, I guess."

"Well, you heard your brother. Now let's go get you back to our sha—fine, Kaidoh's stupid hut." Momoshiro starts dragging Hazue along, with his arm still around the boy's shoulders. "And call me Momo-chan!"

Hazue smiles slightly at him and nods. "Kaoru-nii-chan," Hazue calls out to his brother. "Are you actually okay?" he asks in a tiny, but serious voice. It still feels like this is a dream, and it's not reality at all, and he's been thirsty for so long he's starting to hallucinate, and this was an illusion. Hopefully, it wasn't at all, and his brother was safe and sound. And they were going to be okay.

"I'm fine," Kaidoh replies, grumpily trudging behind them. And he is! He'd be better if Momoshiro stopped making weird faces at him though.

Momoshiro's arm slips away from Hazue and he falls back a few paces until he's next to Kaidoh.

"So, Kaidoh, should I have written 'With Love, Momo' on the pillow instead?" he asks him.

Kaidoh doesn't bother to answer him, just punches Momoshiro in the arm. Hard.

Hazue is blissfully unaware, and starts humming over Momoshiro's groaning. He's happy he's found his brother again. And that he is alright. That's all that matters.