For all intents and purposes, Charlie had been dead. Therefore, Elijah shouldn’t feel guilty about kissing Dom because he was, in a sense, single. He was grieving, sure, but the feelings he had for Dom were not just left over feelings for Charlie. At least that’s what he hoped.

When Elijah arrived in Australia to see Charlie (this was before everything went to shit) he’d been so blindly in love with Charlie that he couldn’t see straight. Or so it seemed.

Charlie, however, saw something different. He had no doubt that Elijah liked him, maybe loved him, but Charlie was nothing if not perceptive and he sensed things Elijah himself didn’t know were there.

For instance, they’d been lying in bed watching TV when Charlie decided enough was enough. He had to say something.

“Elijah?” Charlie asked, his voice soft; Elijah turned and smiled at him. “Are you in love with Dom?”

If Elijah had been eating anything, he would have choked on it; if he had been drinking, he would have spit it out in surprise. As it was, he just sat there, staring and blinking. It seemed that was the only thing his brain would allow.

After what seemed to be fifty years, Elijah finally cleared his throat. “W-what makes you say that?”

Charlie shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable with the whole situation. He didn’t want to have this conversation, he realized way too late. He wanted things to just be normal and okay and like they were before. Before Charlie had started analyzing everything Elijah said.

“You talk about him a lot, and when you do your eyes light up and you get this huge smile on your face,” Charlie said almost defensively. “You spend a lot of time with him…I don’t know. I just…Elijah,” he looked at him point-blank, “I’m not stupid.”

Elijah seemed taken aback by this, but recovered quickly. “I didn’t say you were.”

“What I mean is,” he paused, running a hand through his hair and sighing. “I read between the lines.”

This didn’t exactly make any sense to Elijah, but he nodded encouragingly. He wondered briefly if Charlie was drunk, but that went out the window when he realized Charlie was simply trying to get him to see what he couldn’t seem to see.

“You have to admit it to yourself,” Charlie said gently, placing a hand on Elijah’s arm; Elijah looked down at it like he’d never seen an arm before in his life. “You know in your heart it’s the truth.”

It took him a while to respond, mostly because he wasn’t sure what to say. What did you say in a situation like this? The only thing you could think of, I guess. And the only thing Elijah could think of to say was, “But…I love you.”

Charlie smiled and reached out to ruffle Elijah’s hair in a very sweet gesture. “I know you do, Lighe. But, can you honestly tell me you’re in love with me? I mean, I love you. I really do. But I couldn‘t say I’m in love with you, because to be honest, I‘m not sure what that feels like.”

Elijah seemed surprised by how totally sincere Charlie was being; he knew Charlie always told him the truth, but he never said it so openly and never so carefully, like he was afraid Elijah my break.

After a few minutes had passed, Elijah had found his footing and was able to respond. “I don’t know,” he told Charlie, his voice serious. “I really don’t know.”

*

Elijah didn’t remember any of that conversation. The day he’d found out Charlie’s plane had gone down, he’d forgotten pretty much everything he’d ever known. Like suddenly he had a blank slate and he needed to fill it up again. Memories came slowly, so slowly that it was like molasses being poured on a cold day; Elijah had always liked that metaphor…so had Charlie.

They’d had a lot in common, and gotten along straight off the bat but there was a nagging voice in Elijah’s mind saying this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Elijah ignored that voice for a long time, but suddenly, when he’d woken up sore and bleeding on a beach in the middle of nowhere, he couldn’t hide from it any longer. Everything was suddenly becoming clear to him, little by little, as if the island was opening him back up. Feelings that he’d thought were well hidden, were creeping back to the surface. You can deny things for only so long; eventually you have to be truthful with yourself. You can’t hide from your feelings forever, no matter how much they hurt you.

“Elijah.”

His attention was brought back to earth at the sound of Charlie’s voice. A voice that had haunted his nightmares for weeks; he’d always be far, far away from Elijah and calling to him, but Elijah would be stuck somewhere and unable to get to him. Sometimes Charlie’s voice melted into Dom’s, and when he had dreams like that, Elijah woke up in a cold sweat, trying to remember if his dream had been about Charlie, or if it had been about Dom.

Truth be told, Dom and Charlie were very much alike. Why Elijah hadn’t seen this earlier, he didn’t know. Sometimes you only see what you want to see. But as he sat in the shade with Charlie while Dom bathed in the sea, he realized what he’d been trying to deny. Aside from some obvious differences (Charlie was in a band; Dom was not) they were close to being the same person.

Elijah tore his eyes away from the water and looked at Charlie, pushing hair out of his eyes as the wind blew it around his face. “Yeah?”

“Tell him.”

He blinked, trying to make some sense of this cryptic sentence. Or perhaps it wasn’t so cryptic at all; maybe he knew exactly what Charlie was saying, but didn’t want to know it.

“Tell who what?” Elijah asked after a minute, biting on his thumbnail and avoiding the penetrating gaze of Charlie’s gray eyes (also like Dom’s).

Charlie laughed hoarsely and sat back, relaxing against the warm sand. “Tell Dom how you feel.” He paused, watching a bird fly overhead and disappear into the horizon. “You know, the plane crash was sort of good in a way. It really taught me how short life can be. It could just…end.” He turned his head so he could look at Elijah, who was staring at him as if he’d never seen him before. Who was this new philosophical Charlie? “You can’t let it end, not without telling the people you love that you care about them.”

Elijah, as per usual, felt tears building beneath his eyes, but he wouldn’t let them fall. He was done crying. He felt sure he was dried up inside.

“He loves you too, you know,” Charlie commented softly, looking at Elijah out of the corner of his eye.

“How do you know?” He questioned quietly, finally looking Charlie in the eye. “How do you know all of this, even when I don’t?”

He laughed again, this time a fond sort of chuckle. “Sometimes we’re the last people to see what we feel. If that makes sense.”

For some reason, it did.

Elijah looked out at the ocean, his eyes trained on Dom; he saw him wiping his eyes and exhaled sharply when Dom came fully out of the water.

“He’s shirtless!….Er, I mean crying.”

Charlie chuckled quietly to himself and watched curiously as Dom bent over to retrieve something in the water. “Looks like he’s more than just shirtless.”

Dom seemed to be completely and totally naked, and then Elijah remembered that he’d seen a pile of clothes on the edge of the shore, but hadn’t thought anything of it.

Elijah didn’t know why but suddenly he found it extremely hard to breathe. His breathing became labored and Charlie sat up, a hand on his knee. After several seconds of worried surveying, Charlie decided it wasn’t anything to be concerned about, and gave Elijah a bit of a push toward the water.

“Go on,” Charlie urged, laughing. “Go tell him you’ve fancied for him for years.”

Elijah stood up and then paused, turning back to look at Charlie. “Hey Charlie?”

Charlie looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun. “Yeah?”

Elijah bent down and pecked Charlie on the cheek, in a sweet and friendly gesture. “Thanks.”

*

Dom was in the ocean, trying with every fiber in his body to ignore Elijah and Charlie. It was hard; one part of him wanted desperately to see if they’d get back together, but the other part told him not too look because he’d inevitably just get hurt.

He couldn’t have a shower, but this was the next best thing. Sort of. The cool water of the ocean felt wonderful when he splashed himself; he went under water to savor the feeling and came back to the surface, wiping his eyes so he could see. His back was turned to the beach, and he wouldn’t allow himself to even sneak a peek to see what was going on. He had a good idea what he’d see, anyway. After all, he was anything but dense.

On the pretense of picking up some water in his cupped hands and splashing his face, he cast a cursory glance at the beach, only to have his breath catch in his throat. Elijah was kissing Charlie. Dom felt sure he would collapse into the water and just float around for ages, not wanting to move. It would be a better alternative than being near them when they were together. Dom didn’t think he could handle that.

He was just beginning to think he should go back to shore and grab his clothes so he could retreat to a jungle hideout when he heard his name being called from a great distance.

Dom spun around, straightening up and trying to find his footing on the sandy bottom of the ocean. Elijah was waving frantically from the shore, and yelling his name; he motioned for Dom to come out, but Dom shook his head. He couldn’t take hearing it right now. He didn’t want to be told they were together. He wanted to pretend they weren’t. If he stayed there, alone in the ocean, he’d never have to face the truth.

“DOM!” Elijah cried, a grin lighting up his entire face. “Get over here! I’ve got something important to tell you!”

Dom swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes shut. He’d have to face Elijah at some point, but not right now. He wasn’t ready yet. He took a slow step forward and cupped his hands around his mouth. “I’m just going for a swim! Be right in!” He turned around and started slowly and laboriously, going deeper into the ocean.

Elijah let his arms drop to his side, clearly unhappy about the turn of events. Why was Dom wanting a swim right when Elijah was ready to finally pour his heart out? Well, he decided, tearing his shirt off and throwing it off to the side, he wouldn’t let him get away. Not now.

He dove into the water, but Dom was too busy trying to quietly coax himself that everything was okay, so he didn’t hear. Dom paused, biting on his bottom lip and wondering if maybe he should just face them. He had to eventually. They were on a deserted island, for God’s sake. They were bound to run into each other at some point.

Dom turned around, sighing heavily and trying to give himself a pep talk; his eyes widened halfway through the “Okay, Dom, buck up” speech. Elijah was several feet from him, swimming very humorously towards him. If the situation hadn’t been so dire, Dom felt sure he would have laughed at Elijah’s very juvenile strokes; Elijah was a pretty good swimmer under normal circumstances, but apparently he was in such a hurry to get to Dom, he didn’t putting his skills to use.

“What are you doing?” Dom choked out; he was trying hard to keep his tone light and airy, but he failed.

Elijah stopped swimming and stood up, breathing heavily and wiping water off his face. “Swimming,” he said easily, tipping his head to the side and peering at Dom as closely as he could from ten feet away. “I need to tell you something,” he yelled over the sound of the waves. The water, which had been calm, was now beginning to get choppy.

“You don’t have to,” Dom said in resignation. “I already know. You and Charlie are back together. Brilliant, mate. I’m happy for you.” He tried to sound happy, he really did. But it was too hard to pretend he wasn’t dying inside.

Elijah shook his head, a smile spreading across his lips. “No,” he said loudly. “You’ve been misinformed.”

Dom blinked, hardly daring to believe his ears. “What?” He yelled, looking confused.

A moment passed in silence as they stared at each other; something was different now. Dom couldn’t put his finger on it, but Elijah seemed…changed.

“I love you!” Elijah shouted, his grin getting even wider. He watched cautiously as Dom reacted to this news.

The reaction was not really what Elijah had expected; rather than frown and look sad, Dom’s features brightened up considerably and he started wading through the water to Elijah, his smile so wide that his cheeks hurt.

When he got within a distance that didn’t require yelling, he stopped. “I love you,” Dom stated evenly, his eyes on Elijah’s bright blue ones.

Then, with absolutely no thought to anything other than Dom, Elijah jumped up and threw himself at Dom, knocking them both down underwater, where they shared an amazing and fierce kiss (one that would go down in the record books as being one of the hottest kisses ever to take place) before resurfacing and hugging each other tightly. Charlie laughed and clapped from the shore, yelling things like “Go Elijah!” and “It’s about damn time!”

Dom and Elijah pulled away a bit and looked at each other; they were both soaked to the skin, but laughing. Water droplets cascaded from their hair, down their faces, but neither cared. They only cared about each other, and the fact that they’d finally pulled through.

Sometimes, Elijah thought to himself, it takes getting lost to finally find what you were looking for.