Work Text:
One
“JJ! Get down from there!”
She’d been inside preparing for a trip down to the cove for an afternoon surf. The boys were outside, presumably not getting themselves into trouble as they loaded the Twinkie. But of course, Kiara spotted him through the window, quickly surveyed the bullshitery going on outside, and promptly stomped her way out of the chateau so she could yell at him from the porch steps.
John B and Pope both looked at her then, equal parts fear and amusement on their faces as they caught sight of her. The clipped tone, the tight jaw, the hands on her hips. It was a movie they’d all seen before.
Kiara paid them no mind, however, a little too focused on the antics of the blond boy standing twenty-five feet above them in a tree.
“OH, HEY KIE!” JJ yelled down to her, waving and smiling, a glint in his eyes that told her that he knew he was in trouble.
It wouldn’t be so unusual under normal circumstances- JJ is known for climbing trees, claims he’s part orangutan, rates the climbability of every tree they see. So it wouldn’t have been such a big deal if it weren’t for the fact that he was standing on a branch twenty-five feet in the air.
“Don’t ‘ hey Kie’ ME!” she yelled back, mocking his voice somewhat impeccably. “Get down right now!”
“Looks like Mama’s mad,” John B muttered indiscreetly. Pope nodded sheepishly as Kie flipped them off.
“Don’t y’all have some boards to load up?” Kiara dismissed them, knowing that their presence only served to egg JJ on and also knowing that they were scared of her when she was angry.
“Sir yes sir,” they saluted before scampering off. Kiara turned back to the idiot.
“I’m not gonna fall! See!” JJ proceeds to bounce on the branch. She watched it flex, the branch bowing under his weight in a way that made Kiara’s heart rate spike even further than before. She resisted the urge to climb up and pull him down with her bare hands.
“JAY!” She couldn’t help the wild panic that seized her voice and felt momentarily flustered by the outburst. Really, it was a knee-jerk sort of reaction, the kind that JJ brought out of her. Her instinct to protect him was strong, maybe stronger than necessary. But she wasn’t going to apologize for caring. And when you’ve got knuckleheads like Pope and John B for friends, you need someone looking out for you. (That’s all it is. Just looking out for a friend).
(Obviously).
She reeled in the panic as she spoke again, tried for stern, but it came out more desperate than she intended.
“JJ please.”
Even twenty plus feet in the air, Kie can see the moment JJ’s face softens, understanding blossoming on his features. He slowly began the descent from the tree, no doubt being more diligent than necessary to ease Kiara’s concern (something she duly appreciated).
When he finally dropped down to the ground, he raised his hands in mock surrender and grinned. “Unscathed, scouts honor.”
Kiara crossed her arms over her chest, making no move towards him.
“That was stupid.”
He dropped the arms to his side, going up to scratch the back of his neck as he moved towards her.
“I hate to break it to you but I’ve climbed higher trees, Kie,” JJ said, keeping a comfortable distance from his angry friend. “I’ve climbed higher in that tree before.”
“Well don’t,” Kie demanded petulantly. “It’s dangerous- you’re going to fall and break your neck. At the very least, don’t jump on the branches. You’re just testing your luck at this point.”
He chuckled, moved closer.
“Stupid is as stupid does.”
“Don’t quote Forrest Gump to me.”
“Dear god, make me a bird so I can fly far, far away-“
“Stop! Stop.” The anger was already fading. She smacked his chest lightly, realized how close they were and resisted the urge to back away. “You’re forgiven now. Just…”
“Stop being stupid? I told ya’ Kie, I don’t think I can-“
“No, just… give a shit sometimes? About your life? And your vital organs?”
JJ gave a long exaggerated sigh before throwing an arm over her shoulder and pulling them off towards the van. “Fine. I’ll try to give a shit sometimes. Whatever it takes to keep Mama Kie from comin’ out.”
“Thanks I guess.”
She rolled her eyes, reached up to hold the hand slung over shoulder. It felt weirdly intimate but he didn’t push her away so Kiara just held on tighter.
“Have I ever mentioned that we goes together like peas and carrots?”
It earns him another smack.
___
Two
It was a Friday night and they were at the boneyard, along with half the island, it seemed. It was the first weekend of summer and the first party of the summer season is of the utmost importance in OBX. Which is why the beach was packed from shore to dunes with pogues, tourons, and kooks alike.
It’s also why Kiara hadn’t been able to find her friends for the last twenty minutes. It was sometime within these twenty minutes that she gave up looking and started dancing with the vaguely hot touron. He was tall and muscular and not that attractive but he’d been eyeing her all night and that was enough encouragement as she needed. This part, she will admit, was her own mistake.
It started innocent enough- some light grinding, a few roaming hands, a light ass squeeze or two. They were drunk and the music was drowned out by swathes of people so it was less dancing and more mating ritual. Nonetheless, Kiara was enjoying herself.
Until, of course, her beer ran out and the guy’s touches started to feel a little too groping and she got bored and annoyed. So she tried to casually excuse herself, but then there was a tight hand gripping her wrist and tugging her back.
(And this part she can’t be blamed for).
“Hey!” Kiara shouted instinctively, voice sounding shrill.
“C’mon, we were having a good time,” he slurred, getting closer and wrapping another large hand around her arm. She was growing suddenly aware of the size of this man- she could hold her own in most situations but this guy was towering over her and probably double her weight.
She was drunk and a little panicked and couldn't seem to figure out how to get out of this. God, where were her friends?
“Let go,” she said loudly, trying to sound intimidating but her voice was shaking and her feet were stuck in the sand.
He was quickly moving closer, chest nearly pressed to hers, his mouth forming a sloppy grin as he went to respond. But then, a rogue figure appeared, shoving the guy hard enough that he fell to the ground and let go of Kiara.
It didn’t take long for Kiara to realize it was JJ- even without the distinctive messy blond hair, who else would hurtle themselves at some giant drunk touron without a second thought?
The two guys were taking swings within seconds, Kiara protesting all the while. JJ’s movements were skillful and deliberate despite his obvious buzz, giving him an advantage over the bumbling idiot through sloppy punches at him. But the touron had the advantage of brute strength and size. And Kie was scared.
“Knock it off! Jay, stop! JJ-“
The touron landed a particularly nasty punch on JJ and Kiara had to force herself not to cry out in protest.
She considered throwing herself between them, taking on the slimy beefcake herself. But while Kiara may be tough, she’s not an idiot. She knows which fights she’ll win and which she’ll lose. One of those losing fights is this one. (The other is trying to keep JJ out of trouble).
John B and Pope were soon budging through the newly formed crowd, coming to Kiara’s side.
“You good?” Pope asked and Kiara only nodded dismissively, giving them a look that very clearly said get JJ.
And so the first party of the summer ended in a brawl on the beach.
Not ideal.
John B and Pope were semi-successful in pulling JJ off the guy, but mostly because the touron scampered away and JJ got distracted yelling profanities at him.
“Yeah, walk away you piece of shit!” JJ yelled, swiping a hand at his bloody lip as John B attempted to pull him back by the shoulder. “Pervert! Pussy!”
John B and Pope finally get a good grip on him and tug him away from the scene. JJ’s gaze met Kiara’s then and there was something about his blossoming bruises and earnest eyes that filled Kiara with undue amounts of rage. Before he could get a word out, she was turning on her heel, suddenly unfrozen, and stomping off towards the Twinkie. And she must have looked mad because the crowd practically parted for her. Someone called her name but she didn’t care to know who, too caught up in the mess of her thoughts to hear much of anything anyways.
She finally stopped once she’d reached the van, once the sounds of the party had faded into white noise and the ringing in her ears started to fade. She leaned back against the side of the van, knees pulled to her chest, and tried to steady the anxiety pulsing through her before one of the pogues inevitably came to find her.
Kiara had just managed to slow her heart rate to a respectable level when she heard footsteps approaching. She didn’t need to look up to know who it was. Staring at the ground, she watched a familiar pair of boots stop in front of her
“Look, I’m sorry I reacted violently-“
“Did Pope tell you to say that?” Her gaze traveled upwards, examining his skinned knuckles before moving up to his bloody lip and bruised cheekbone. His chest still moved up and down a little too heavily, his stance was a little too rigid.
“Yep. He also said to be careful because Mama’s mad. But I don’t think you’re supposed to know that.” JJ moved to sit stiffly at her side, just close enough that she could reach out a hand and touch him.
She rolled her eyes at the comment. “You can’t just do that.”
JJ scoffed. “What? I did you a favor- the guy was a total creep-“
“I don’t need you starting fights on my behalf, not with guys with biceps the size of your head.”
“Ouch, you wound me Kie,” his delivery was flat and Kiara could tell that, despite his sarcasm, he was hearing her.
She turned to look at him, finding his eyes already on her. The bruises and blood marring his stoic face made Kiara wince.
“It’s not fun to watch you get beat up, JJ.”
“I wasn’t getting beat up- I did win after all-“
“Jay.”
He sighed. Scooted closer.
“I just- when I saw him grab you, I just.. shit, I couldn’t help it.”
His eyes were glued to something in her lap and Kiara followed his gaze to find a large red handprint circling her left wrist. She swallowed hard.
“I know and… I’m glad you were there but… I didn’t need you to start a fight, I needed you.”
JJ softened then, the last of the tension leaving his body as he moved closer yet again, an arm circling her shoulders and his head coming to rest on hers. “I’m sorry, Kie. You’d probably be better off seein’ Pope about all the feelings stuff. All I’m good for is a fight.”
It made her heart clench in her chest, because she knew why he thought that, and she also knew it wasn’t true.
“You’re good for plenty of things, JJ,” she told him quietly, head still against his shoulder. “You’re my best friend.”
And she could’ve sworn he pressed a kiss fo the top of her head when he said, “And you’re mine, Kie.”
And Kie supposed she was.
___
Three
She got the call midway through a family dinner, the first one she’d bothered to show up to all week. In the aftermath of John B and Sarah’s disappearance (disappearance, nothing else- not yet), Kiara was spending every spare moment at the chateau with Pope and JJ, trying to keep the three from falling apart.
As she was learning, it wasn’t going well.
So she finally came home for the night and was in the midst of mindless chatter about the latest happenings at the Island Club (and anything but John B or the Camerons) when her phone started ringing.
“Kiara,” her mother scolded. “Phones off during dinner.”
Kiara ignored her, pulling the phone onto her lap and reading the name on the screen.
“Sorry, I have to,” was the only reply she gave before leaving the dinner table and accepting the call.
Which led her to the current predicament- sitting in her truck outside a shady looking house on the far side of the island as JJ stumbled out the door towards her.
She rolled down the window, hoping he could see her pissed expression in the dark, but he just grinned up at her like she wasn’t picking his drunk-ass up from some random person’s house on a Tuesday evening.
He opened the door and fumbled his way into the passenger seat. “Kie!” JJ exclaimed, going in for a fist bump. She reluctantly obliged and he made an explosion noise as their fists touched, waggling his fingers as he pulled away.
“Are you gonna tell me who the hell’s house this is?” She didn’t bother hiding any of her frustration, knowing he wouldn’t remember any of it the next day anyways.
“It’s Landry’s,” he chuckled as if it was obvious.
The name sounded familiar. Dealer , Kiara’s brain supplied. Landry sold stuff to JJ sometimes, the hard stuff.
“Awesome,” she mumbled as she pulled away from the rundown house. “That's awesome, JJ.”
“Not really. He had some shrooms but I didn’t wanna because last time I took shrooms Landry gave me, I woke up ass-naked in the marsh with a cattail up my-“
“I don’t need to know,” Kiara interrupted, her phone buzzing in her back pocket with no doubt a new phone call from her parents. God, they were going to kill her.
“Fine. But that’s why I left so early- didn’t even stick around for the girls,” JJ slurred, smushing his cheek against the window.
“Girls?” Kiara ground out.
“Landry’s lovely lady friends. They’re doing shrooms but I’m not.”
“Yep. ‘Cause you’re the picture of sobriety.”
“You're mad,” JJ observed, genuine surprise in his tone.
Kiara gave a mirthless chuckle. “Yeah JJ, I’m a little mad.”
“Because I made you pick me up?”
“Because you’re disappearing and getting drunk with weird people instead of talking to your friends and now my parents are pissed at me because I had to come pick up your sorry ass!” Kiara exploded, grip on the wheel tightening. She purposefully braked hard at a stop sign and watched JJ flop forward and then back in his seat.
He at least had the decency to stare down at his lap in shame. “I just can’t stay in the chateau all the time. Not with him gone.”
It came out as a whisper, raspy and raw, made a lump form in Kiara’s throat.
“And I can’t go home,” JJ continued, the cracks in his voice like razor blades, cutting directly into Kiara’s heart. “So I’m sorry if I fuck off and get drunk sometimes but I don’t know where else to go.”
Kiara battled off the tightness in her chest, silently wishing she were drunk too. “You can come to me.”
JJ chuckled, the sound wet and broken into a half sob. They were sitting in her car in front of the chateau but neither was planning on getting out just yet.
“Kie…”
“I’m serious. I might complain but I’m always gonna come when you ask, you know that. If you’ve got nowhere else to be, you’ve got me. And Pope.” The addition came as more of an afterthought and she regretted it instantly. “Always.”
JJ gave a weak laugh, finally meeting her eyes with his own tear-soaked ones. “Mama Kie to the rescue.”
She shoved his shoulder playfully, finally cracking a smile. “You good to stay here tonight?”
He nodded, unbuckling with some drunken difficulty.
“I could stay.”
Truly, she was worried he’s going to disappear again, get even more drunk or high, fall asleep and choke on his own vomit. She was worried that he was going to wake up alone tomorrow, forget what she told him tonight, and do it all again the next day. She was just worried about him.
So she’s relieved when he smiles and says, “I’d like that a lot.”
___
Four
As it turns out, there isn’t much to do on an uninhabited island.
They work out the basics- food, water, shelter, fire. From there, it’s just a waiting game until they catch the attention of the next wayward boat that passes. So in the meantime, JJ takes it upon himself to entertain everyone with his dumbassery.
And in light of recent events, Kiara is not pleased.
JJ’s head hadn’t even stopped bleeding before he was back in the water and climbing palm trees and wrestling John B and Pope and just generally being a menace. And Kiara winced away from every second of it.
Because he’d been lying unconscious in her arms not two days ago, both of them close to drowning as they floated helplessly in the middle of the ocean. Not two days ago, he’d fallen over that railing and Kiara had prepared herself to go down with him, whatever that meant.
So Kiara was having trouble watching him return to his usual self when she was busy trying not to see his limp, bleeding body every time she looked at him.
Her breaking point came two days into their escapades on the island when JJ decided they should do some body-surfing. Kiara had stayed back on the shore with Sarah, sulking under the guise of sunbathing, and trying not to let her displeasure show. It wasn’t working.
“So what are you moping about?” Sarah asked, arms folded behind her head and eyes closed.
Kiara scowled as she stared out at her friends in the water. “I’m not moping.”
“But there is something?”
Kiara sighed, flopped over to face her friend. “Maybe I’m just pissed about being stuck on a deserted island.”
Sarah turned to face her and smirked. “Or maybe you’re having boy trouble.”
Kiara scoffed and flipped back onto her back. “What boy? Pope? That’s over, you know that-“
“No. JJ,” Sarah insisted. Kiara didn’t know whether to laugh or hit herself over the head with a rock.
“What about JJ?” She went for nonchalant but Sarah saw through it easily.
“Come on,” Sarah laughed. “There’s been a vibe forever- and it’s been even worse since me and John B got back… and after what happened on the boat the other day-“
“Nothing happened. And there’s not a vibe.” Correction, she wanted to hit Sarah over the head with that rock.
“Whatever you say, Kie.”
The sound of a large crashing wave drew Kiara’s attention back to the water. She surveyed the heads bobbing back up- Pope then Cleo then John B….
But no JJ.
Kiara stood immediately, walking towards the shoreline and pointedly ignoring Sarah’s protests, not daring to speak as she waited for her friend to resurface.
A few too many seconds passed, her heartbeat started pounding in her ears.
“Where’s JJ!?” Kiara called to her friends in the water, trying to hide the tremor in her voice. Their worried faces told her enough. She took a few more steps towards the ocean, feet now submerged, watched as John B dived under to look.
“JJ!” Still nothing. Sarah was standing behind her now, resting a hand on Kiara’s arm, but Kie was already taking long strides out into the water. Soon she was sloshing through water up to waist, ears ringing and chest pounding, calling out his name with a painful sense of deja vu. The phantom weight of JJ in her arms as she struggled to keep their heads above water, the sound of a hilt connecting sharply with JJ’s skull.
But just as she was about to be swallowed up and sucked under, a blond head popped up a few feet away, panting and laughing and smiling and Kiara had never wanted to slap someone more in her life. “And you said I couldn’t hold my breath for three minutes! Suck my ass, Rutledge.”
She treaded over to him, fear replaced by anger of equal intensity, and pushed roughly at his chest.
“Hey!” JJ protested, holding his hands up in surrender.
She pushed him again harder, raised her arms to go again but he caught her hands. She ripped them away from his gentle grip, conceding to ball her hands into fists at her side.
“Don’t do that,” she ground out fiercely.
“What’d I do?” There was genuine offense in his tone. Was he that stupid? Couldn’t he see what he was doing to her?
She resisted the urge to shove him again. “You’re an idiot.”
Kiara turned and slogged through the water, back onto shore, JJ following all the while.
“I don’t even know what I did!”
She didn’t know where she planned to go, but she just kept walking until she was nearing the tree line, finally spun around when she realized JJ’s footsteps weren’t going to stop following her.
“I thought you drowned.”
It ripped from her chest with an intensity she didn’t even know she had. As if she’d pulled the lid off of a jar that had been filling up ever since JJ fell off of that ship. It was an admission that went past the confines of this one event- it was years of worrying about this boy who couldn’t accept help to save his life and got into more trouble than he knew what to do with.
JJ balked, mouth parted, salty droplets of water still dripping from his hair.
“You went under and you didn’t come back up and I- I just can’t stop seeing you face down in the water on the stupid boat and…”
Her voice cracked and Kiara ducked her head so he wouldn’t see the tears gathering in her eyes.
“Kie…”
She blinked a few times, scrubbed roughly at her eyes. And then JJ’s hand was under her chin, pulling her gaze to his. His eyes were baby blue, the usual storminess replaced by something softer, and he was searching her eyes for something she didn’t know how to give him.
“You can’t scare me like that,” Kiara scolded. She’d meant for her tone to be accusatory but it comes out hushed and desperate and she couldn’t even feel sorry for it.
“I’m sorry,” JJ murmured earnestly. They were close now, his hand still lingering under her chin, thumb grazing her bottom lip. “But I’m okay now, Kie, I promise.”
“You didn’t see yourself, Jage, I mean you looked…”
She let it linger, couldn’t touch the word. JJ dropped his gaze and shook his head.
“I’m sorry I make you so mad all the time.”
“You don’t make me mad, you make me crazy.”
He laughed, dropped his hand. “It’s those mama instincts.”
She scoffed. “Yeah well they only come out when you’re around so what does that say?”
(She was pretty sure they both knew what it meant. But it wasn’t the time for it. She wasn’t really sure when it would be).
___
One
Later that night, when the rest of the pogues were asleep and Kiara was keeping watch by the fire, JJ wandered over and took a seat. He pulled his legs up and rested his arms over his knees, sitting only inches from Kiara.
“It’s not your turn yet,” Kiara reminded him, tracking an ember as it floated up and then settled by his feet.
“I know,” JJ shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”
She looked over at him then, taking note of the way his tanned skin glowed in the firelight, his bright blue eyes like beacons in a sea of orange. She examined the handsome slope of his nose, the turn of his lips as he stared at the fire. She looked away, feeling guilty of something- though she wasn’t not sure what.
“A joint would be nice right now.”
JJ groaned and threw his head back. “Don’t remind me, Carrera.”
She grinned, bumped his shoulder.
There was a beat of comfortable silence, filled only by the crackling of the fire and Pope’s distant snoring.
But then, JJ said, “It was pretty bad wasn’t it? The boat?”
Kiara knows what he’s talking about instantly and it makes her heart drop to her stomach. “Yeah, it was.”
“And you really jumped in after me?”
Kiara looked at him and scoffed. “What else was I supposed to do?”
“Not jump off the side of a boat?”
It hadn’t even been an option. She’d had no choice but to follow him all the way down, would’ve drowned with him if she had to. It wasn’t even a question.
“And leave you to drown?”
“Yes!”
JJ made it sound like she committed some heinous crime by saving him, like she betrayed him.
Kiara shook her head fervently. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”
JJ’s brow furrowed, his jaw tightened. “That’s different.”
“No , it’s not,” she scoffed.
“Yes it is! I’m the one between us who does the stupid stuff.”
The hushed tones they were yelling in would have been funny in any other scenario, but not this one.
“What’s so stupid about me saving your life?”
JJ turned his whole body towards her then, that fiery look in his eyes still burning a hole through her chest. “So you jump in after me- what then? You were just gonna tread water until someone found us or I got too heavy and you had to let go- and then you’re just floating in the middle of the fucking ocean-“
“I wouldn’t have let go,” Kiara interrupted, pure confusion written across her features. JJ’s face flickered between anger and bewilderment before settling on red hot betrayal.
“Yes , you would’ve Kie-“
“No.” It’s as simple as that. She wouldn’t have let go, she knows it for a fact.
“No,” JJ insisted through gritted teeth. “Don’t say that, Kiara. I’m not worth that.”
Now it’s Kiara’s turn to feel betrayed. “Yeah you are, Jay. To me you are, and if you get to take a machete to the head for me, I get to sink with you.”
He looked at her then, jaw grinding and eyes cloudy, and Kiara thought maybe he was going to get up and leave.
But then his gaze flicked to her lips in a silent question, a question Kiara answered with a soft nod of her head. And that was all it took for JJ’s hand to cup the back of her neck and pull her to him, for their lips to meet in a kiss that was just as frantic as it was deliberate. Somehow lighting her on fire and soothing her all at once. She let her hands cup the sides of his face, pulled him impossibly closer, deepened the kiss. Never would she have dreamed this moment would feel like this.
Because she’d never imagined it would feel so good.
They broke apart panting, foreheads pressed together and bodies still tightly entwined.
JJ chuckled, a goofy smile flitting nervously across his face and it made Kiara laugh as well.
“Thanks for saving me,” he whispered through a toothy grin.
And she knew it wouldn’t be the last time she saved him, knew he’d find trouble in other places, that she'd spend many moons scolding him for his bullshit and forgiving him soon after. But she also knew that it was a small price to pay for this. For getting to be his.
So she just smiled, pressed a kiss to his lips and whispered “Anytime.”