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Jack slips through the trees. He's crouching, low to the ground, in a shambling pace that produces low knocks as sounds. Trees roll around, above, beside him. The trunks waver when he looks at them. Jack slows. He aches for water - today's hunt has been tiring, uninspiring and leaving him wanting to lie low for a spell. Sweat swivels down his sinewy back as he moves. Now, the trees begin to part for him and he is spat into the beach. Jack slows. He finally rises up and stretches to his full height, pulls his hands to the sky, then drops. Ralph walks alone in his peripheral (This side of the island seldom sees the little ones.). Jack calls a hullo to the chief and trots to him. Ralph turns immediately at the voice. "Jack," he says.
Tired Jack's words ripple out of his mouth and even as he speaks he recognizes the dull taste of his thirst. "Awful hunt today, all the others scattered-"
"You didn't catch any?-"
"- and I had to stalk it alone, and-"
"Oh, bollocks-"
"-just hot and bloody tiring."
Ralph and Jack look at each other, now in step.
"I'm off for a swim," Ralph says tentatively. Jack understands the silent invitation and nods. Mirages blur the horizon.
They amble towards the lagoon together. Often Ralph stops to laugh at something Jack has said, and vice versa. The raw dream of friendship grows more vivid, more livid, more live.
They reach the pool and are silent. Ralph begins to strip ceremoniously. His long matted hair drips onto his face and is swatted, falls back, and is swatted again. Jack watches the cycle in silence. Ralph stops and returns the stare, naked. "What is it?" he asks. Jack's idea blurbs out of his mouth before he thinks to stop it.
"Oughtn't we to cut our hair?"
Ralph isn't as opposed to the suggestion as Jack might've thought - he rolls the idea around his head then nods with the proud weight of decision. He comes to Jack easily and kneels at his feet, facing away. Jack, having pulled his knife, pauses a moment and looks down at Ralph's flaxen head with a rub of appreciation that astounds him. Smitten Jack blinks to ground himself and grabs a fistful of Ralph's long hair. He holds the knife to it, then awkwardly saws the hair away. It falls onto Ralph's tanned shoulders and back. Jack swallows and continues. Eventually he is done with the job. Ralph's hair is now longer on the top and roughly close shaven on the sides and back. Jack brushes the hair off his work's back, satisfied with his labor. "Look," he crows.
Ralph obediently leans forward onto his belly to look to the pool. His reflection winks back at him. He runs his hair through the uneven cut and beams at himself. His head feels almost floating with the absence of weight. He tries on a few different faces - it's a rare time that he sees himself nowadays. Proud, he rolls onto his back and smiles at Jack, who's sat down with legs sprawled out. He's stripped, himself. They beam at each other in mutual pride and liking.
Ralph's eyes drift down unwittingly, over Jack's puffed chest and taut stomach. He looks at what lies lower and red surfaces on his cheeks. A pleasant feeling dark in color drips from his throat and settles in the lowest point of his stomach. Ralph looks back up at Jack's face. Only a moment has passed; Jack's smile still shines at him.
"Your turn?"
Jack hands him the knife blade first in answer. Ralph takes it and maneuvers himself so he can reach Jack's sunbleached red hair. His hair is even dirtier and more matted than Ralph's was, and he finds himself struggling to work the knife through the knots. he grasps Jack's shoulder and presses himself more firmly against him for leverage. (He doesn't miss the way Jack tenses up at first, then pushes back into him.) By the time he's finished, Jack's head is as close to a buzz cut as it will get.
Jack impatiently crawls to his waiting reflection and grins. He playfully barks and growls and whoops at his mirror, satisfied. The cut suits him, messy as it may be. He slips into the water easy as a dream and is liquid.
Ralph doesn't hesitate a moment. He hops in after, water spills over the crags of the rocks, and they are united in their locale.
They swim and splash for minutes on end. Ralph sighs in contented feeling and drifts to the edge, where he props himself against the rock and stretches out. Jack comes to his side and kicks in the aqua blue. He is silent for more minutes on end.
"What do you miss the most? Besides food and all that," Jack asks.
Ralph answers with no hesitation. "Girls."
"Why?"
"Well, have you had your first kiss?"
Jack flushes, hard pressed to admit this new embarrassment. "...No."
"I have," Ralph closes his eyes proudly. He waits for the inevitable questions .... and is left disappointed when Jack doesn't ask them. He turns to look at the redhead with indignance. "Aren't you going to ask what it was like?"
Jack says nothing. All he does is return Ralph's gaze. Both boys flush.
After a long moment he says, "I want you to show me what it was like."
Ralph swallows hard and feels that slow rush again. "Come here," he says, and Jack slips to him easy through the water. He doesn't pause, and goes right to Ralph's mouth. A small peck, then he draws back. Jack looks extremely underwhelmed.
"That's not how it really is," Ralph offers. "That's just -" He cuts off. He has no name for it.
Jack looks extremely unimpressed.
"Here - let me show you-" Ralph grabs Jack's jaw and guides him back, and kisses him again. This time neither draw away. After a moment, Ralph pulls back: "Follow what I do."
He goes back in and kisses Jack with a rolling motion- wavy and easy.
Eventually Jack brings his hands to Ralph's cheeks, then sucks his bottom lip between his teeth with a motion that somehow takes all the marrow out of Ralph's bones. He drips out of Jack's grip, keeping their line of connection, and Jack follows. The mirror's surface quivers in their absence.
It parts for them when they separate for oxygen and climb back upon the rocks. Silence reigns supreme, and they lay prone.
Ralph rolls onto his side to look at Jack in profile. Presently, Jack mirrors his blonde and reaches out to touch his hair.
They lay in repose for a space of time. Calm, content and quiet.
Piggy is the one who startles the reverie awake with a shout, searching fruitlessly for Ralph nearby.
Ralph starts, and snatches for his clothes. He's dressing when Jack grabs his ankle, and LOOKS at him. Ralph half smiles - he understands. He drops down and kisses Jack slowly - and mirrors the lip-teeth-drag motion that swept him earlier. He feels Jack shudder, and when he stands he sees that Jack has angled his hips invitingly towards him. Jack blinks at him, flushed, then plops back to the welcome bed of the sunny rock. "Be seeing you," he calls knowingly, as Ralph leaves (the warm feeling has yet to leave his stomach, and every movement is some type of agony). He stops and looks back at his boy once. Jack has returned to the liquid bed of the water. Piggy calls Ralph, once more, and then finally stumbles into chief himself as he goes.
"Ralph - was just looking for you! Where've you been, ah?"
"Don't get your knickers in a rut, Piggy," Ralph's mouth stretches into a smile despite his annoyance. "I was just swimming."