Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jesse looked at the pebble in his hand. He clutched it, throwing his arm back and then forwards, tossing the pebble across the water. It hit the water before sinking. “Damn it..” He huffed under his breath.

Suddenly, he heard a squeal next to him. “Huh?” He looked over. “Reuben!” He said. The small pig ran over to the boy, jumping on him and bringing him to the ground. Jesse laughed as Reuben happily nuzzled him. “Where have you been, boy?” He gently pet Reuben’s head. The pig snorted and jumped off of Jesse, looking over at the water and then back to the boy.

“Oh, I was just skipping stones. Wanna see?” Reuben nodded, his curly tail wagging happily like a dog’s. Jesse smiled and grabbed a pebble from the ground. “Alright, second time’s a charm. And one, and two..” He flung the rock away, and it hit the water with a thunk before sinking like the last.

“Fuck!” Jesse blurted out. He looked down at Reuben, who nudged another pebble towards Jesse with his nose. Jesse couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, alright.. I’ll try again.” Reuben snorted happily, and it looked as if he were smiling. Jesse chuckled. Reuben was great.

He took the pebble, and this time, used a side throw instead of using his upper-arm throw. The rock hopped atop the water a few times before sinking down, down, down, into the lake. Reuben jumped around, looking up at Jesse as if to congratulate him. Jesse crouched down next to him and gave him a gentle pat on the head. “Thanks, Reuben. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

- - - - -

Jesse sat by the edge of the water, humming to himself as he skipped stones. He looked up at the sky, admiring how the shades of orange, yellow, and red mixed together. “It’s quite beautiful, isn’t it?” A voice asked. Jesse simply nodded, looking down at the reflection below him. “It really is. It reminds me of someone..” He turned to his blonde-haired companion, whose hands were stuffed in the pockets of his signature leather jacket.

Lukas’ gaze fell upon Jesse’s face. “You know, this reminds me of the time me and Aiden found you down here with Reuben once.” “Oh, really? I thought this spot had been a secret between me and Reuben.” He chuckled after his sentence. “Aiden and I were playing tag in the woods with the others, and I happened to be it.” Lukas started, looking back up at the sunset.

Jesse propped himself up on his arms. “I chased Aiden, and he eventually popped out of the other side of the trees. Which, by the way, is right behind us.” The two looked back at the trees behind them. Jesse beamed. “I saw you and Reuben together, and I didn’t want to ruin it, you guys looked so happy.”

Jesse’s smile vanished for a moment as he remembered all the times he had visited this spot with Reuben. “Yeah.. This was one of Reuben’s favorite spots.” Lukas walked over to Jesse, sitting down next to him. “We would come here one day every month to skip stones together. Reuben loved it.” Jesse explained.

“I thought I wouldn’t ever be able to skip stones perfectly like how they would do it in the movies. But Reuben was there, he didn’t want me to give up. And he wouldn’t want me to waste my ‘little talent’. You know?” Lukas smiled. “Yeah.”

“And Lukas..”

“Thanks for coming here with me. It means a lot.”

Chapter Text

You had hated him for a very long time. He had been so intolerable. But ever since the.. Incident.. You had to stick with him to survive. He didn’t want to take you with him, but you insisted that you’d both be better of together than going out alone, especially since it was night time.

And here you two were, stuck in a little dirt hut together for the night. A fire was going, but it didn’t fix the fact you were freezing.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ AIDEN’S POV ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

I had finally managed to get a fire going, so I looked up at (Y/N), who smiled at me. I noticed they were shivering. “Are you okay?” I asked, looking out the make-shift windows of our dirt hut. “I’m fine.” They replied. “Just cold.”

“Get closer to the fire. Maybe it’ll help warm you up a bit.” I suggested, looking back at them. Their hair was still wet from diving in that river.

“..Thank you for the fish.” I said. They nodded, looking at the fish roasting on a stick above the fire. It wasn’t much, but we were grateful to have some food after going for days without it.

We waited a bit before we could eat, sitting in total silence.

“Aiden.. Do you think we’ll make it out alive? I mean.. You saw how big that thing was..” I frowned. “If I’m being completely honest, I think we’re going to die, (Y/N). There’s nowhere we can go to get away from it.”

(Y/N) sighed. “I was hoping for a different answer than that..”

I shook my head. “I was just stating the obvious.”

(Y/N) looked at me before getting up and going to the door of our hut. I looked back down at the fire, waiting for the door to open and shut, but it never came. (Y/N) was hesitating.

I brought me knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them and sighing to myself.

(Y/N)’s gaze felt as if they were trying to burn a hole through me. Finally, they opened the door and left. But where to?

I could only wait to find out when they came back. Or better yet, if they came back.