It wasn’t like it hadn’t happened. It had. It was just that Dom knew Elijah was feeling miserable about Charlie. He knew that Elijah didn’t really like him like that. Or at least he assumed that was the truth. He hadn’t asked.

Dom was there, and Charlie wasn’t, and that was all there was to it. It pained Dom to admit it, but Elijah was sad and in need of companionship…and, well, as much as it hurt, Dom knew it had happened only because they were scared and alone. Not because of some deep feelings buried within Elijah. Dom was quite sure Elijah didn’t have feelings for him. If he had, wouldn’t he have said something before now?

Of course, Dom had had feelings for Elijah for years, and had never told him. So there was always that chance, albeit a small one, that Elijah wasn’t just searching for a replacement Charlie.

Dom was comforted by that fact.

Naturally, he felt a bit bad for taking advantage of Elijah when he was so obviously in a fragile state, but if Dom was not mistaken, it had been Elijah who made the first move. So that had to mean something, right?

Maybe he should have stopped it. Dom’s heart broke a little bit each day, watching Elijah being so happy and in love with Charlie…but now…well, Charlie was out of the picture, and it was just Dom and Elijah. So maybe his heart would piece itself back together and Dom wouldn’t have to hurt anymore. Maybe things, for once, would turn out right.

Elijah lowered himself into a sitting position next to Dom, handing him a cup of water. They’d found a stream of fresh water earlier on their trek through the jungle. That had been before…everything had happened.

Dom thanked him and downed the cool water in one huge gulp; he was suddenly ravenous with thirst.

“We should probably get a move on,” Elijah commented lightly, tucking his legs beneath him and glancing around the clearing with alert eyes. “In case it comes back. Whatever IT was.”

Nodding, Dom stood up and brushed off the seat of his jeans; he was sweaty and wanted desperately to take a shower but so far they hadn’t found any luxury hotels.

Elijah started walking toward where he hoped the beach was located; unlike Dom, Elijah got lost in his own house as he had a terrible sense of direction. He had to write down where he parked in huge lots like Disney World because otherwise he’d be wandering around forever looking for his car. Sometimes he even lost the paper he wrote the information down on; Charlie had always found that amusing.

“Hey, Lighe?” Dom asked gently a few minutes later as they trudged through the jungle, sustaining injuries every few seconds from errant branches.

Elijah looked over his shoulder, but didn’t stop walking. “Yeah?” He looked ahead of him, trying to decide which branch ahead of him looked more lethal.

Dom bit his bottom lip, trying to gather up all the courage he could muster. He inhaled slowly, and then blurted it out. “Why did you kiss me?”

The man ahead of him stopped short, but didn’t turn around. After several seconds of silence (other than a very loud bird wailing a sad song up in a tree) he slowly turned around completely to face Dom. “Why did you kiss me?” He shot back evenly, his expression very stoic.

Sighing, Dom brushed some wet hair out of his face and placed a hand on his hips. “You know I hate when you answer my question with a question. It’s infuriating.”

Elijah had to bite his lip to keep from grinning; he did, in fact, know how much it annoyed Dom when he answered with a question. They’d had small fist fights over the years when Elijah was being too annoying for his own good, or at least that’s how Dom saw it. Elijah had a completely different view and that was that he never deserved the girlish slap fights he got himself into.

Dom was watching him placidly, waiting for him to answer properly. He had a way about him that aggravated Elijah because Dom could wait for hours and hours in silence, if that’s what it took to get something out of you. And that’s often all it took to get things out of Elijah, since he wasn’t too fond of silences. Unless they were peaceful ones, in which case he was all for them.

Elijah’s eye started twitching, and he squeezed both eyes shut tight in an attempt to stop it. When he opened his eyes and peered at Dom through slightly blurry vision, he saw the older man watching him anxiously; his eye had not stopped twitching.

He mumbled something incoherent and Dom took a step closer, his head turned slightly so his ear was facing Elijah. “What?” Dom asked, both eyebrows raised.

Elijah mumbled again, his eye twitching some more and he began biting harshly at his fingernails, his eyes darting away from Dom’s concerned face.

“Lighe?” Dom’s voice was bereft of any emotion other than fear; he took another step closer to Elijah, dropping what he’d been carrying and putting a hand on either side of Elijah’s face. Elijah wouldn’t look at him for more than ten seconds, but when he did he saw that Dom’s eyes were full of compassion and unease.

“Let’s get to the beach,” Elijah said, avoiding the issue altogether and stepping out of Dom’s reach. “We have enough food for a couple of days? And some water?”

Dom looked down at the makeshift bag the two of them had made earlier out of palm fronds; in it were a couple coconuts, some things that looked like berries, and some bottles of water they’d had on the boat with them (that, luckily, had survived the crash). “Yeah,” he stated, looking back up at Elijah in concern. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Elijah nodded, still chewing on a fingernail; he spun around and started for the beach again, mumbling to himself.

*

Dom was silent as he followed Elijah through the jungle and to the beach; his thoughts were whirling around, making him kind of dizzy. Why had Elijah kissed him? No idea. Did he like it? Yes. Did he want to do it again? Hell, yes. Did Elijah have feelings for him? Probably not. Was he transferring his feelings for Charlie onto Dom? Dom thought this was quite plausible, and it made his stomach churn in anguish.

It was his thoughts that kept him from paying attention to Elijah; so he didn’t realize that Elijah had stopped short on the beach, which is why Dom plowed right into him, causing them both to fall to the ground.

After several seconds, Elijah stood up. “Ow,” he said blandly to Dom, who was still laying on the ground.

“Why’d you stop like that?” Dom requested, allowing Elijah to help him to his feet.

This seemed to jog Elijah’s memory, and suddenly he pointed a shaky finger down the beach, where a figure was lying, asleep, on the sand.

Dom squinted against the sunlight. “Oh, my God,” he breathed, starting to run toward the person, unaware of who it actually was.

Elijah followed him slowly, obviously in complete and utter shock.

“Dom,” he said, once he’d appeared beside his friend; Dom was checking to see if the man was breathing (he was). “That’s…Charlie.”

Dom looked at Elijah, his eyes wide. “What? This is Charlie? How….why?….HOW!?”

Elijah didn’t answer him, he was too busy staring at the man laying below them. He figured his eyes were deceiving him. There was no way that Charlie could be here, on this island. But it sure looked like Charlie.

His hair was lighter than Elijah remembered; there were blond streaks throughout the light chocolate brown that Charlie used to have. His skin was no longer pale, but tanned as if he’d been in the sun for days, and his nose was burnt just a bit and peeling. He looked peaceful, sleeping there with his head against a bag; he was wearing jeans and a maroon shirt that Elijah remembered buying him in Australia. Charlie’s hair had gotten much longer; it was tapering off and curling against his neck and against his ears. Elijah thought it suited him.

Tears were prickling at Elijah’s eyelids, and he didn’t bother trying to stop them. He dropped to his knees beside Charlie, allowing the tears to fall down his cheeks. Dom sat beside him, rubbing his back silently, watching his friend release all the pain and grief he’d held in for so long. There was relief mixed in there somewhere, Dom could tell.

Elijah bent down, his head on Charlie’s back as tears soaked Charlie’s shirt; Charlie suddenly shifted, groaned and rolled over, blinking against the sun.

The silent tears were no longer silent, and now Elijah was hiccupping and sobbing, leaning his head against Dom’s shoulder, while Dom tried to comfort him the best he could.

Charlie rubbed his eyes and turned to look at the two men beside him. He sat up immediately, his eyes wide with confusion and fear.

“Elijah?” Charlie breathed, his voice choked. He reached a hand out, wanting to see if Elijah was really sitting there. If he was real.

Elijah nodded, tears pooling on the sand below him. He reached his own hand out and pressed his palm against Charlie’s. “I can’t believe you’re alive,” he stated evenly, wiping his eyes with his knuckles.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Charlie replied, a smile quirking his lips. “Are you here?”

He nodded again, his tears subsiding slightly; Dom sat by, watching them with a blank expression on his face, but his eyes betrayed him. In his eyes, if Elijah had bothered to look, he would have seen pain and sorrow and regret. But when Elijah did look at him finally, a smile on his wet lips, Dom could do nothing but smile tensely back. There would be no point in trying to change the fact that Elijah loved Charlie. It just was. No matter what Dom told himself, it always came back to that. Which is why a tear rolled down his cheek; he brushed it away aggressively and got to his feet. He intended to go and gather up their food and water, giving Charlie and Elijah time alone.

“That’s Dom,” Elijah said eventually, wiping the remainder of his tears away. He really wasn’t sure what to say, and the only thing that came out was an explanation of Dom.

“Dom?” Charlie repeated, looking back to where Dom was standing. His eyes widened slightly as he looked back at Elijah. “Isn’t he the one who….?” His voice trailed off and Elijah nodded.

“He’s a good friend,” Elijah stated, looking back at Dom and feeling his heart constrict painfully. He forced a smile onto his lips as he turned back to Charlie. “It’s good to see you.”

Charlie looked at him strangely for a moment and then shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. “What are you doing here? The plane went down and…no one knew where we were and….” He trailed off again; it seemed hard for him to put words into coherent sentences, but Elijah didn’t care.

“I wouldn’t believe that you were gone,” Elijah stated, shrugging nonchalantly. “So Dom and I came to find you…but the boat crashed against the shore, on the other side of the island, and here we are. I can’t believe you’re HERE! And you’re alive!”

Elijah looked back to Dom, who had been watching them with a frown on his face; when he saw Elijah look at him, Dom forced a smile and waved happily to him from the edge of the beach. Elijah waved back and turned to Charlie, a frown on his face.

He wasn’t sure what to do now. Now that he’d gotten what he thought he wanted…he didn’t think he wanted it anymore.

There was something better, maybe. Something that was real. And he was standing by watching them with tears in his eyes. Elijah had never been so conflicted in his entire life. And never so lost.