Chapter Text
The terrifying discovery washed over Ralph like ice water. He staggered backwards, away from the edge with wide eyes and a pounding heart, catching Jack’s eyes as the boy turned to look at him.
They stared at each other, both boys equally as fearful, as he shakily began to understand the situation they were in.
Ralph was stuck. Stuck there, on that god forsaken mountain, with none other than the one person who wanted him dead the most. If there was no way to get Jack back home, then there was definitely no way Ralph could stay away from him - which had been his only goal since he was a scrawny 13 year old.
Seconds had passed and the two boys were still staring at each other, panic etched into their features. Ralph became acutely aware of the fact that he was panting quite heavily, and attempted to focus on steadying his breathing instead of the blood-stained ginger in front of him.
Jack was the first to regain control of himself. He frowned at the shaking in Ralph’s shoulders, and the frantic darting of his eyes.
Ralph was barely aware of the sudden shift of his expression, or the boy in front of him taking a careful, cautious step forward. In fact, he didn’t notice at all until a careful hand was placed on his shoulder, startling him out of his spiraling.
He jolted backwards as if he had been stung, stumbling over his injured foot until he was happy with the space between them.
Jack raised his hands quickly in surrender and opened his mouth to speak, but not before Ralph cut in, voice shaking erratically.
“No, no. I know what you’re going to say, and it’s not happening! You can’t… you can’t stay here.”
The blonde boy’s hands were quivering violently where he held them protectively in front of him, and his breath was coming in short, uneven gasps. Tears had begun to gather in the corners of his eyes, and Jack saw that he attempted to blink them back. He watched, unsure, as the other boy’s chest heaved like he had just run a hundred-mile race.
After a second, Jack tried again.
“I didn’t know I was that bad company.”
He laughed shakily, but it sounded hollow even to his own ears.
This, apparently, was very much the wrong thing to say, as it prompted a choked gasp from Ralph, a furious expression painting his disgustingly flawless features. There was a charged pause.
Ralph visibly steeled himself, straightening his back and exhaling steadily, before jabbing a quivering finger in the direction of the forest below them. When he spoke, his voice was quiet.
“You are leaving. If you don’t go now, while you have the chance, I’ll shove you off that cliff like I should have done in the first place.”
His tone left no room for argument. Jack searched Ralph’s face for any sign of insincerity, despite the fact that he knew he meant what he was saying. Ralph had never looked more serious in all the time Jack knew him.
Still, he waited for him to take it back. He had begun to foolishly hope that the wave had somehow changed things between them. A tentative truce had begun to form, and Jack felt stupid for thinking it would last.
Even if they were still the enemies they had always been, it was obvious to both Jack and Ralph that the trip back to Jack’s camp was probably not survivable. After risking another fearful, vertigo-inducing glance back over the edge, Jack turned his gaze back to the blonde, imploring.
Ralph continued to stare at him.
The ginger huffed incredulously, and took another hesitant step forward, should Ralph decide to keep his word. He was still shaking.
“Ralph.”
Jack said his name like a plea, and Ralph flinched as if he had slapped him. His hand dropped down uselessly to his side.
“Ralph, I won’t survive if I go down now. Come on, you’re not stupid, are you?”
“Yeah, well, I won’t survive if you stay up here near me! You want me dead, always have. That’s, like, our thing.”
Jack had no idea how to respond, other than an offended glare.
“If I was going to kill you, I would have done it already.” He fought the urge to sigh. “Why are you so hung up on that? We were kids! I’m not trying to kill you anymore, I swear it.”
Now it was Ralph’s turn to look incredulous, shaking his head slowly.
“Why am I so hung up on it?” He repeated, voice dangerously low. He took a step forward, until he was almost nose to nose with Jack. “You want to know why I’m hung up on it?”
Jack stayed silent.
“You exiled me. Kicked me out of the camp I built because I didn’t want to play along with your weird little fantasy of beasts and monsters.” Ralph lifted an accusatory finger, and pushed it, hard, into Jack’s chest. When he stumbled back, Ralph closed the space again instantly with a smooth step. Tears were now flowing openly through blonde lashes. “Two of my friends died. You set the island on fire and hunted me down like a pig. And you have kept hunting me.”
Jack opened his mouth to speak, but was immediately stopped as Ralph clamped his hand over his mouth. He leaned forward impossibly closer.
“I don’t care what excuses you have. If you can’t go down the mountain now, you will go down as soon as the water has drained enough. And you will never set foot on this mountain again.”
Ralph’s hand was warm where he held it against Jack’s face, and when Ralph leaned back Jack found that he missed the proximity. He felt sick at the thought.
Slowly, Ralph lowered his hand away from Jack’s mouth, gaze flickering to his palm momentarily. There was a long moment where nothing happened.
“Do you understand me?”
Jack felt the tips of his ears burning with shame as he nodded. He felt like a child again, being scolded by his father for not being attentive enough in Sunday mass. Although back then, he had blamed the Priest for being boring, and hard to listen to. Now he had no one to blame but himself.
When he raised his head again, Ralph had moved a couple of metres away, facing into the trees while holding his injured leg slightly up off of the ground. Jack didn’t know what to say.
“I’m not like that anymore.” He settled on, murmuring weakly. Ralph gave no indication that he heard him. The blonde was bracing himself against a tree with one arm, breathing heavily.
“Ralph?”
Jack picked his way through the foliage until he was a few feet behind the other boy, hovering awkwardly.
“Ralph?” He asked again, slightly louder. He looked down at his hurt foot and winced. The area was a bright, angry red that had spread away from the original gash. It was hard to see from where he was standing, but Jack could see that the wound was puffy and inflamed, as well as caked in dirt.
He was about to call Ralph’s name a third time when the boy began to sway on his feet alarmingly.
Jack didn’t have time to catch him before he promptly collapsed against the tree with a groan.
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When Ralph gained consciousness again, he opened his eyes to the treeline swaying back and forth, upside down. He frowned in confusion, but couldn’t seem to puzzle out where he was. His thoughts seemed to be sticky and slow, like honey. Damn, he would kill for some honey right now. He shut his eyes again.
His foot was warm and aching. Each beat of his heart sent waves of pain through the wound. He groaned at the insistent throbbing and the swaying motion stopped briefly, before starting up again. He wished it would stop. It was starting to make him feel sick.
Raising his head took a lot of effort. Why was his head so heavy?
He cracked his eyes open for the second time, this time to the sight of the underside of someone’s jaw. He realised then that he was being carried, one arm under his knees, the other under his shoulders. The person glanced down, and only then did Ralph work out that it was none other than Jack carrying him. Jack’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw Ralph looking back at him and he did a double take that would have been funny if Ralph didn’t feel his eyes slipping shut again already.
He felt the vibrations of Jack speaking in his own chest, but the words sounded muffled and unrecognisable to Ralph’s ears as he slipped back into unconsciousness.