Author's Note: here's where we hit the griddy/serious part (please don't mind me, I'm writing this at 12am in the morning bc I can't sleep and thinking about my fave fictional characters holding hands brings me to peace)

Anyways, enjoy! Please R&R, it helps me to write thnx! 3 :))))

(Stan's POV)

Kyle fucking sucked at all of the arcade games we played. And when I mean sucked, like he fucking sucked. Dick.

And this is coming from me, who usually plays a lot of sports and is more on the athletic side. On the other hand, Kyle was skinny and had little to no fat/muscle on his bones. If I could give him a label, he looked like a skinny nerd type of guy.

"Kyle, has anyone ever told you that you sucked at games?" I was met with a glare from the other as he feebly attempted to slide the hockey puck into my goal.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try to have a little bit of fun," He rolled his eyes and I took this as a distraction - fiercely aiming the hockey puck into his goal. It made a loud KA-CHING noise as it slid into the deep black slit near his groin. "...Aaaaaand you were trying to distract me," I gave him a sly grin. "You asshole."

"Y'know, this isn't much fun when my competition isn't even trying." I put my hands on my hips, thinking about getting another margarita. I was sobering up by this point, and I wish I could've stayed drunk into the night with this type of company.

"Yeah? Well, try to name the first 5 presidents of the United States," Kyle jabbed back at me, pointing a finger in my direction. "You think you're all tough shit but all of the protein went to your muscles and not your brain."

"Excuuuuse me?" I felt a vein pop on the right side of my forehead. "Ugh, you know what? You're the lamest guy I've ever been around. I'm gonna go grab another margarita."

"Yeah? Well, I'm gonna pretend I never freaking met you, you asshole." He crossed his arms across his chest and walked in the other direction.

God, what a lame-ass dude.

—

After that little incident, the day went by much quicker. Night fell again, and it was time to grab some dinner from the banquet hall. This time, they were serving seafood platters. Shrimp was laid out into a circular pattern on plates, with ice and lemons surrounding them. Honestly, the content wasn't very appealing but the way they presented the platters was enticing enough for me to down everything - and so I did.

Soon, the stars were twinkling above in the night sky and it was time for me to head back to my room again. But before I did, I wanted to grab one last breath of fresh air before I turned in for the night.

I made my way up the swirling double staircase to the deck of the ship, exposing myself to the cold nighttime air. It was mighty cold outside, but the stuffiness of the banquet hall and the alcohol in my belly kept me warm. I dazedly walked around, my flip-flops echoing across the wooden boards.

"Hey man, you shouldn't be out here. Curfew's coming up soon and the waves are going to get nasty in a bit." An attendant was walking around with his flashlight pointing to darkened corners of the deck.

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yeah, didn't you hear the announcement? We might be running into a bit of wave turbulence soon," He flashed his light around to point at the doors from which I came. "Go on, get."

I sighed and stared at the dark ocean below the railings. I couldn't even see the waves overlapping each other, slapping against the cruise ship. It was as if the ocean turned into the sky without stars. A black, constant hole.

I turned on my heel and headed back inside, then went back to my room. If there was going to be a bout of waves and stormy weather, I needed to steel myself and make sure I had something to puke in…

As soon as I thought about it, a huge wave smacked against the side of the cruise ship, causing me to lose my balance. I fell over harshly onto my side, forcing a guttural moan to come out from my chest.

"Ugh–!" Oh no. My stomach felt like it was doing cartwheels and my throat felt tight.

I was going to vomit.

Another smack hit the opposite side of the cruise ship again, sending me whirling against the wall of the hallway. It was then, that I released my seafood platter onto the floor and not the ocean from where it came from.

"Blegghhh!" Oh God, what a night.

I heard screams come from the end of the hallway, presumably from people who were already asleep and were woken up by the violent shaking.

"Mooom!" I heard a little girl yell out in the middle of the hallway. My head felt woozy from being knocked into the wall of the hallway, but I turned my head to the right to see a little girl - about 7 - bawling her eyes out. She was sitting crooked on the floor, trying to hold onto the wall of the hallway. My chest tightened.

"H-hey..! Did you lose your mom?" The rocking and swaying did not make my stomach feel any better, but if it was something, I wanted to make sure that this little girl was safe.

"Mooom!" She was screaming at this point and I don't think she could hear me.

With my vomit still on the hallway floor, my pants, and my clothes, I crawled over to her using my forearms and steadying myself against the rocking of the ship. Once I made it over to her, I leaned myself against the wall. "Hey, you're looking for your mom, right? Let me help you."

She had tears in her eyes, but she was now looking at me. I took her hand and stood up, looking around. It didn't seem like her mom was anywhere.

"Do you know what your mom looks like? What is she wearing?" It was a little hard to walk step by step, but taking it slow was better than nothing.

"S-she's wearing a bright p-pink….dress…" The girl responded, sniffling but dripping salty tears everywhere she walked.

For a moment, the waves rocking subsided and an announcement was made over the intercom: Good evening everyone, this is the captain speaking. We have run into some turbulent waves going through the Caribbean, so please hold on tight. Stay on flat ground and hold onto railings wherever you may see them as much as possible. If you need to contact someone, please let a nearby attendant know or dial 0 on your devices. Again, please hold on–

Plick. Hhhhhrrrrrmmm.

Suddenly, it was completely pitch black. My blood froze and my chest tightened even more.

I'm never booking with this fucking cruise ship again.

The grip on my hand tightened, and I heard her yell for her mom again. "Mooooom!"

I wasn't sure what was going on, but I heard footsteps and screaming. A lot of them. And they were heading our way.

As soon as the lights turned off, chaos ensued. My guess is as good as any - we had lost power to the ship. The backup power was turned on, but it was still not as great as having the actual lights on. Now, everything in sight was plastered a bright, neon red.

There was still screaming and chaos around me. People were pushing past me, heading to their rooms, and trying to fend for themselves. There was no stopping it.

I didn't know when, but the little hand that I was once holding had already let go. I dissociated for a moment and now, I wasn't sure where that little girl went. I whipped around to look behind me, to see a wreckage of items, clothing, and people splayed out on the hallway floor.

As the sirens on the cruise ship turned on, the bright red lights only got brighter.

Like clockwork, a fierce wave like no other slammed into the side of the ship and I lost all balance. My head met contact with the hallway wall and soon, my red vision dimmed into black.

—

The next couple of seconds felt like I was phasing in and out of reality. I would wake up for a few seconds to a sight where someone was trying to wake me up, or there would just be haunting red flashing lights reflecting off the wall, it just…

The nightmare didn't seem to end.

Every second or so, I would knock back out into pitch blackness.

It was hard to know if anything was real.

That was until I heard a big creaking noise and a huge explosion. My body felt light like I was floating on air or water.

"Ugh, you fucking asshole, why are you making this so hard? Just hold on…!" I couldn't make out the voice, but it sounded like someone was trying to help me. I couldn't even feel my own body. It just felt…light. "Hold on!"

—-

Cough cough. Hack. Cough.

My body was involuntarily coughing of its own accord. Cough cough.

My eyes lazily blinked open slowly, my vision blurry. I could see the starry night sky. But because my eyes were filled with water, the stars looked more like blurry lines elongated out to the deepest reaches of my vision. They looked magical, unearthly, even.

Cough cough. Hack.

Cough.

Then, darkness again.

—

A rhythmic pressure was on my chest. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…

Oh, I lost count.

Was it 15?

My eyes were still blurry, but it was still nighttime. The stars were dancing around in my eyes, waving back to me.

—

Splurt.

A big volcano of water erupted from my throat as I breathed life again.

"Ugh!" I turned over to my side to get ready to vomit. Unfortunately, after the water left my body and the air came in - my stomach decided to let go of all that was left. I vomited, once again.

Using the back of my hand to wipe my mouth, I then cleaned it off onto the sand.

….onto the sand?

"Huh?" I looked around hurriedly, noticing that I was on some kind of beach. "What the fuck, where am I–?"

Then, I saw the black clouds of smoke in the distance framed by red and orange.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. No god, no.

I must be dreaming, right?

My hands sifted through the sand blindly with my heart caught in my chest. The wreckage from afar gave off black clouds of smoke and fire, before hitting the waters like hard concrete. Each explosion made my soul cringe, thinking of the countless people still inside the craft.

…Why am I the only one who survived?

I grasped onto the sand in front of me, leaning my head down to meet the ground. The first thing that came to my mind was the sobbing little girl in the hallway that I lost track of. Did she get to find her mom?

I grit my teeth, clenching hard until my knuckles are white. Tears came spilling out of my eyes at the thought of the utter mass destruction. What was worse was that I was blacked out for most of it. I kept waking up to something, trying to keep me awake or alive. But inevitably my body was too weak to deal with any of it.

I felt sick to my stomach. There was nothing else that I could throw up. Leaking out from my eyes were bittersweet tears.

—

It took me a while to calm down initially. The sun eventually rose in the sky, turning the once-black clouds of smoke into a light gray. The whole while I lay on the beach, contemplating what I should do with my life. The only other objects on the beach were dirt and debris washed up from the wreckage. There were no bodies except for mine.

Seagulls cawed from overhead in the sky, sounding like laughter from children. I put a hand over my head to block my vision from the overwhelming sun, now in the middle of the sky. My stomach was rumbling by now but I had nothing to eat.

I'm either going to die here or survive.

I sighed into my cupped hands and decided to get up, brushing myself off free of sand. Beyond the beach was a forested area, enclosed with palm trees and shrubbery. But beyond that, I could see no more.

"I guess I should look around and see what's here…" As I stumbled unevenly through the dunes of sand, I saw something red in the corner of my vision. Immediately, I thought of the red-haired man I encountered on the cruise ship. From afar, I could see blurry red from the dancing heat waves on the horizon. "Fuck me, did he make it?"

I made my way over to realize closer and closer that it was in fact, Kyle. He was turned over, unconscious, with his clothes beaten and almost ripped to shreds. I could see his smooth pale skin from in between the patches of clothing.

I gulped hard in my chest. Is it gay to do CPR with a guy like this?

I shook the thought from my head and turned Kyle over onto his back gently. Hesitantly, I placed my lips over his and began the CPR process while counting in between.

It took ages until his body began to stir. His eyes first flinched open and his muscles spasmed as he came back to life.

"Guuh!" Water erupted from his mouth and dripped down the side of his cheek after I stumbled back onto the sand. Hopefully, he didn't catch that we had our mouths touching. "...gnnnh…"

Kyle put his hands to his sides and sat up, but immediately yelped out. "OH FUCK!"

"WHAT!?" I yelled back in response, horror in my eyes. I think he'd gone senile.

"Oh God, I think I broke my leg," Kyle responded normally and I peered over at the bottom of his leg. It was in fact, twisted in a way that normal humans would not even begin to walk on.

I put a hand to my face, trying to take deep breaths and steadying my rapid heart. "God, you fucking scared me. What the hell, dude."

"Stan?" Kyle looked over at me curiously with his green eyes. "What the fuck happened? What are we doing here?"

I bit my lip, noting that the wreckage was away from view and the ocean waves had extinguished the ship's fires.

"Fuck if I know. I was unconscious for most of it…" He looked worried and upset at the same time. I took a deep sigh and looked away from his eyes, at the sand. "The cruise ship ran into some trouble, and here we are…"

"...Are you saying that we're stranded?" Kyle was trying to contain his feelings but despite all of that, his voice was still shaking.

I looked him in the eye, but almost immediately regretted my decision. His eyes became green pools of reflected water, his expression looking like broken glass. Kyle's face scrunched up into an ugly sob, his cheeks tinged as red as his hair.

"Fuck…! My….my mom…was on that ship…" Kyle whispered out in between sobs, clenching at his curly locks with his hands.

I felt defeated. Earlier I had let go of my initial reaction and became indifferent since then due to the absurdity of the situation. It still felt like I was in a dream; that I needed to pinch myself to come back to reality.

"...I'm sorry, Kyle."

We sat there in silence, in between sharp sobs and seagull caws echoing around the lonely beach.

It took a while for Kyle's sobs to quiet down, but I stayed for the remainder of it. He lost his mom in the wreckage, of course, he was distraught. I peered over at his contorted leg, knowing that he needed some medical attention soon.

"Hey Kyle, your leg looks pretty beaten up. I'm gonna find you something." Kyle nodded silently and sat rigid on the beach, distantly looking at the waves on the horizon.

I bit my lip, worried about his mental and physical state. If it was just us 2 on this island, I would have to take care of him. And seeing as we don't have any medical supplies…

He could potentially slow me down in surviving.

I got up on one knee and made my way over to the forested area, looking for palm leaves and branches to support his broken ankle. I was going to make him a splint temporarily so he could at least move around a bit. The next steps were to create shelter, make a fire, and find a food source.

—

By the time I had collected my materials, Kyle was still dissociating on the beach. His skin was tinged a slight pink and red color, his eyes glazed over and glassy. It looked about midday since the sun was smack dab in the middle of the blue sky.

"You look like shit," I threw the splint materials over onto his right side and stood next to him. No response. "I'm gonna make you a splint so you can walk and get out of the sun."

Kyle was still not speaking, so I grabbed his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, I'm trying to help you here."

I got on my knees and looked at him in the eyes. It was true, he did look like shit. But he looked sick. His sitting in the sun most likely made him dehydrated and his skin had signs of being sunburnt. At this rate, he was going to get toasted and die in the sun's heat.

"Shit. Kyle, I'm gonna move you out of the sun," I put one hand under his knee and the other on his back to support him. He slightly cringed at the gesture, due to the pain in his broken ankle; however, his expression soon went back to numbness. To be honest, I felt rushed and panicked seeing his condition. If he died at my hands, I don't know if my mind could take responsibility for someone else's death under my supervision. I moved him into a shaded area of the forest, into a clearing under a palm tree. Immediately his eyes closed, due to the relief that was provided. "..Fuck."

There was still a way to go until the sunset, and there was a lot of work that had to be done. The shelter had to be built, then water, then food. I remember there was a survival show that said you die of thirst before hunger. Honestly, I didn't care what the shelter looked like, as long as we had a roof to cover ourselves with if it rained. I quickly threw together fallen palm leaves and ripped the stems off some to use as twine to tie them together. Crosshatching the palm leaves to make fewer holes in the roof, I then used the palm leaf stems to tie them to thinner shrubbery in the area. For the rest of the palm leaves, I created a pile to make a bed - it would have to do for now. There was no time. Kyle was going to suffer if I slacked off.

Next, water. I was lucky enough to find fallen coconuts in the shade of the trees, with their husks stripped away. I took a couple in hand and smacked them against the tree, emitting a loud crack noise. I hurriedly rushed over and gave one to Kyle, tipping the crack over to meet his lips. He silently sipped the coconut water until he grasped it away from me fully and inhaled all of its liquid.

There, that would do for now. For the time being, we could snack on coconut meat for the next couple of days until we could find something else. But…

I looked over at Kyle's twisted ankle, which looked particularly purple and swollen at the moment.

Hesitantly, I got down on my knees and got together the splint materials, organizing them into a pile. "Kyle, I'm going to splint your ankle…" He flinched as I touched the sore area gently with my hand. "I'm a sports therapist. You can trust me."

Looking up to meet eyes with Kyle again, I could see the life and glimmer come back into his green irises. The water helped stave off the symptoms of dehydration, but I can bet that he was feeling really tired. He needed a nap after all of the mental turmoil he was going through. Even though things between us were pretty rocky, I felt…terrible that he lost his mom. Me and my dad are estranged but, if I lost my mom, I would feel pretty crappy too. My mom does so much for me and Shelley that I couldn't imagine it if she was gone. If I think about the rest of the people on that cruise ship and their families…

I quickly shook the thought away and got to work on Kyle's leg.

There are things I can control, and there are things that I cannot control. Right now… I looked at Kyle's face to see if there were any silent winces or signs of struggle. …This is what I can control.