Feeling the warm body against his back, he turned over and was assaulted with his favourite scent; the scent of Brian. Snuggling closer to get warmth and comfort, he was pleased when an arm wound around his torso.
Justin nuzzled his lips against the sweet smelling neck and tried to burrow deeper.
He heard Brian sigh and remembered, with a sharp sting of bitterness, that he was with Ethan.
"Shit," He mumbled and began to draw away from the other man, when the hand tightened and pulled him in the opposite direction in which he wished to go.
~:~
Brian was awoken when the blonde tried to get out of his arms. He was drowsy when he was being cuddled against, but he snapped awake when the slight bundle tried to leave.
~:~
Justin pulled his head away and looked into a pair of hazel eyes. The tension he had lost when he slept returned forcefully. "Um...hi," Justin said tentatively. Justin rapidly averted his eyes. No eye contact. He repeated over and over in his mind.
The events of the day before came crashing down on him so quickly that he could hardly breathe.
"Justin...Justin!" Brian jerked Justin out of his morbid thoughts.
"Are you okay?" Brian's voice was careful. Almost imperceptibly, he began to draw Justin farther into his hold.
"Sunshine?" Jerking out of the other man's clasp, Justin looked over at the people behind him, huddled together.
Brian cursed them inside his mind when Justin answered with an, "I'm fine," and detached words.
Debbie looked like she wanted to say something, but Michael whispered in her ear and she nodded.
"Do you...do you guys think we should find something to eat?" Emmett's soft words seemed to carry and echo into the otherwise hushed wind.
"There should be some food on the plane. I'll check," Ben stood up and walked to the abandoned airplane.
Nobody said a word while he was gone. Ten minutes later, when Ben returned, they each opened their single bag of peanuts, and the silence wrapped around them as a harsh reminder of what had happened.
~:~:~:~:~
"Maybe we should go look around?" Emmett asked tentatively.
Brian opened his mouth to pronounce his discord, but Justin was already speaking.
"Sounds good. I'll go," Slightly confused at how he had come to cuddle Brian, Justin frowned. Shaking it off, he began to stand up from where he had nestled, but arms wrapped around his midsection to keep him from moving.
"You're not going anywhere," His voice was firm.
"You can't tell me what I can or can't do. You're not my mother, or my boyfriend,"
"So if I was your boyfriend, I could?"
Justin jolted, startled. Then he frowned.
After a couple seconds of Justin's troubled face staring at him, he turned his head to face the others.
"I'll go,"
Justin's eyes swam with anger. "Don't fucking tell me I can't go, and then you yourself leave. No!"
"I don't have a God damn hole in my head!"
Silence as thick as molasses.
At once, Brian realized the implications of his words.
"Jus--"
"Don't," Justin's voice was so soft, Brian would have thought he had imagined it if he hadn't seen his lips move.
Justin's ashen face and murky blue eyes made his heart clench. Shit.
"I didn't mean--"
"You're right, I do have a hole in my head. Thanks for reminding me," Justin's eyes which had sustained some emotion were back to being hollow.
"I--"
"You go, I'm too brain damaged to do anything but sit here and do what I'm told. Stupid me to think anything different!"
"Don't fucking put words in my mouth I didn't say!" Anger coloured his words.
"So you didn't say I was brain damaged?" Justin looked incredulously at Brian, who just looked pissed. "No, you tw--"
"Oh, right, you just told me I have a fucking hole in my head; that makes all the difference,"
Justin struggled to stand up, and Brian let his arms fall limply to his sides.
"Fuck you, Brian. Fuck you," Justin stood up hurriedly, but before he could took a step, the dull throbbing in his head reared it's head and pain exploded in shards of colour.
"Fuck," Passed through his lips before he started falling.
Brian, having stood up since Justin had gotten out of his grasp, jerked his arms toward the blonde.
Holding tightly to Justin, Brian took all the pressure on his left leg, the right one still sore. He gradually sat down and craddled the shaking blonde.
Burrying his head in Brian's neck, his eyelids fluttered helplessly as he fought the pain dipping in and out of his flesh as if hot oil seared into his pores.
"Justin?" Neither Brian nor Justin glanced in the direction of Debbie's question.
"I'm fine," Was barely heard through tightly clenched teeth.
Brian chose to say nothing, just shook his head.
~:~:~:~:~
"It's getting dark," Michael told everyone unnecessarily.
"I'm hungry," Ted's moderate voice told no one in particular.
Justin decided to add his two cents. "Me, too,"
"Hey Deb, how about those sandwiches?" Brian looked at Debbie for a moment before his gaze meandered to the sky; a thin blueness graced the usually vibrant skies. The sun was half-hidden by the horizen where slashes of lilac swirled around the luminescent sun with tiny pinches of light pink meshing with the different hues of purple.
"I only packed one for each person," Debbie's voice interrupted his musings.
"Shouldn't we save them for later?"
Brian's thoughts echoed Vic's words.
"Why should we? The coast guard will come soon and rescue us,"
Looking over at Lindsay, Brian had a thought. She didn't think.... He couldn't complete his thoughts, and he didn't want to. He had to try to remain optimistic. He couldn't start thinking about what would happen if nobody came. If somebody, years later, came across this very island and saw their dead, skeletal rem--
No.
He was going to retain a positive attitude...
Debbie reappeared with the sandwiches. He hadn't heard her leave.
Debbie began to pass out the sandwiches, a black sharpie penciled initial on the front of the saran wrap labeled whos was whos. Putting his down on the sand in front of him, Brian carefully unfoiled the wrap from around Justin's sandwich. He held it out for the blonde to take, yet kept a firm left arm around his torso. Watching the white teeth sink into the bread, he distanced himself from everything except the feel of Justin's soft hair craddled against his neck, chest moving against his during each breath, tensing slightly when he swallowed his sustenance.
...No matter what.
~:~