ELIOT WAUGH + PETER KAVINSKY
PG-13 (language) | COMPLETE
It would’ve been great if Peter was the kind of ex-boy scout who remembered literally anything about scouting that was even slightly useful once it was actually needed, but waking up in a jungle didn’t kick him into I Got This mode at all. At first, he was too busy climbing to his feet and brushing dirt and leaves from his clothes. Then he was slowly wrapping his head around the chance that he was in another world all over again. But spotting Eliot nearby had at least made him think he could still be near Atlantis.
He stepped over a fallen log and crouched down next to Eliot, gently shaking his shoulder. “Hey, buddy, are you alive?” He paused and frowned. “Please don’t be dead. I’m really not equipped for waking up with a dead body in the woods level of weird.”
Eliot was slow to come to consciousness, the effects of the bonfire still in his body from the night before. Not to mention he was just the grumpy sort that was terrible about waking up.
And apparently it was even worse when one was waking up in the middle of a jungle. He squinted his eyes open a bit, looking bleary. “You aren’t who I went to bed with last night.” Obviously. Eliot sat up slowly, hand over both of his eyes. “Ugh. Does it count if I want to be dead?”
Peter raised an eyebrow and gave an awkward smile. “I’m not who you woke up in bed with either. We’re in some sort of jungle?” He gave Eliot a look, checking for any obvious injuries. Nothing stood out, but he wasn’t exactly a doctor. He was pretty sure he’d seen Eliot at the bonfire though. Not that they had anything close to a similar crowd. “Are you hurt? Or just hungover?”
“Mmm, a little down and to the right.” Okay, so, Eliot might’ve felt a little dirty for that one, and his eyes snapped open at the same time just to see who was really feeling him up. Hm. Young. Attractive, but he couldn’t be sure if it was an appropriate age attraction, so Eliot sighed and rubbed a hand over his face instead of continuing the flirt. “Hungover.” Ugh, with that answer came the realization that he still couldn’t lie, either.
“Well, that’s…good? Better than hurt.” Peter patted Eliot on the shoulder and stood up. His boy scout days weren’t flooding back, but he could at least figure out by sun position that it was about eight in the morning. There weren’t any obvious paths or trampled areas to guess at an exit. He did have his tablet with him, thankfully. It just looked a little banged up as he lifted it up out of grass. “I’m Peter. I have no idea where we are, but maybe we can help each other get out of here.”
Eliot finally sat up fully, pushing his hair back off of his face and squinting around at their location as if that would instantly tell him where they were at. Spoilers, it did not.. “Eliot.”
He got up, and patted an absent hand on Peter’s shoulder, “I don’t remember signing a waiver where there was the potential of dying in a jungle. Are there big cats here? Tigers that might eat us?” He patted his silk pajama pants for cigarettes. “Well, Smokey, you win today, you fucker. No cigarettes to help me think.”
“Uh…since I don’t know where here is, I can’t…Oh.” Peter was fooling around on his tablet and the GPS thankfully did let him know they were still on the island. It was zero help about specifically where they were and how to get back to the city, but even without magic, that might’ve been difficult. “Okay, we’re in the jungle on the island. Soo…maybe? Talking tigers that give directions would be great, though.”
Shrugging, Peter held his tablet out with the map open and walked a few feet away to see if the marker changed. It didn’t. He sighed and glanced up at the sky. “I…think based on the way the sun is heading and where I’m pretty sure the jungle is at compared to my house, we should head…” He hummed, looked behind him, looked back up at the sky, and then pointed. “…That way?”
Eliot paused, looking around with squinted eyes. Ugh, this was terrible. But Eliot knew a chance to show off when he had one, and with all the confidence of a man that clearly knew what he was doing - but didn’t, in actual practice, Eliot stepped forward with his head held high. “I’m a Magician, let me see what I can do without pesky electronics.”
A wave of his hands, and a spark of power, then what Eliot assumed would be a directional spell, turned out to be an explosion of butterflies that went in a hundred different directions.
His face fell slightly. “Okay, no, I don’t remember that spell. Lead the way.”
The build up to Eliot’s spell, and the ultimate result, left Peter squinting one eye at Eliot and blinking. On the one hand, the guy had just produced something living out of thin air and Peter wasn’t cynical enough to not be impressed. On the other hand, it was zero help whatsoever and pointed to this being a very long day. Peter mustered up a smile that was mildly patronizing for an eighteen year old and tucked his tablet under his arm to start walking.
“On the plus side, that was neat,” he shrugged. “I couldn’t do it, obviously. The best I’ve got in return is that I’ve got a decent sense of direction.” He stepped around a hole in the ground, likely made my some kind of animal, and pointed it out for Eliot’s sake. “And if that doesn’t pan out, we can send out a message for some professional…rescuer types.”
Eliot stuck his nose up in the air and smoothed a hand over his stomach, trying not to let his pride get him down, even if he was still hungover, miserable and tired. He followed behind the teenager with little verbal complaints, just some noises and a few grunts or whines when he bumped into tree branches and holes in the ground.
He had to clamp his mouth shut, and not just ask for professional rescuers. Finally, after several minutes, Eliot sat down on a nearby tree stump. “I’m taking a break. Also, what if they won’t send rescuers. What if this is a test? What if we die here because of that?”
They’d need water eventually, Peter thought as he pushed through undergrowth and stepped over logs. He’d have to remember how to find some or he supposed he could look it up on his-- Eliot’s voice sounding more distant after a few steps made Peter stop musing and turn to look at him. They hadn’t gotten very far, but he just gave a little sigh.
“We’re not going to die. I’d put out a message right now if I thought we were in that kind of danger.” He squinted up at the sun, hand over his eyes. “The island isn’t even that big. By the time they found us, we could be already out on our own. But if you just want to stay here and wait…” Gesturing at Eliot, Peter raised both eyebrows in an unspoken question-slash-challenge.
Ugh. Boy scout was adorable and annoying all at once, and Eliot heaved out a heavy sigh at him. He just wanted to be dramatic but instead he was stuck with someone practical. “Fine.” It was his worst nightmare. Eliot lolled around before finally standing again, and starting forward. He let himself lag behind, sighing at nearly everything, watching the view as they continued on.
He paused, as a rustling sound came from next to him. “Do you hear-” Another rustling sound, and Eliot was moving a little faster to Peter. “Um- That.”
Peter would later blame his own distraction for what happened next. He was looking ahead at their “path”, and judging the thickness of the brush, so the surprising rustling and then even more intense rustling, had him spinning in circles in confusion. Then something dark moved in the bushes and made a chittering noise that scared the crap out of him. He leapt backwards, slamming into Eliot and suddenly multiple dark shapes skittered through the brush.
“Oh god. Run? I don’t know, run.” Peter’s bravery was that of an eighteen year old who’d never really been in any danger, so it took very little hesitation for him to run straight for the nearest climbable tree.
“Uh-” Eliot could be slow on the uptake, but he was quick to scramble up his own tree, just seconds after Peter did. If the buff 18 year old couldn’t handle it, Eliot sure as fuck couldn’t. And he didn’t have his sword.
He did have magic, but even then, the fight or flight instinct was strong in him.
High up in the tree, Eliot peered across at Peter, and then down at the bushes. Within seconds, a squirrel burst out of the leaves, and Eliot patiently waited for something large and predatory to follow it. … When it didn’t, he grimaced, realizing they had just run from a rodent with a squirrel. Once he was sure it was clear, Eliot jumped down, and the squirrel ran off.
Looking at Peter, Eliot brushed off his clothes dramatically. “I won’t tell anyone about this if you don’t.”
By the time Peter scuttled down from his tree, he was a not entirely subtle shade of red. He huffed out an uncomfortable laugh. To be fair, he’d already seen enough here to make him feel like climbing up a tree was a perfectly reasonable response to noises in the bushes, but he had some pride.
“Ha. Ha. Yeeeah. Deal.” Brushing off his jeans, he took a deep breath and started walking. “Break time is over. Let’s get back to civilization before I die of embarrassment and you have to bury me out here.”
Eliot clapped a hand on Peter’s shoulder as they continued their trek through wilderness. “We can’t have that, I just got a manicure yesterday. Digging a whole would completely ruin my nails.”