LOTF oneshots

Five

Content warning: mild language, strong sexual depictions

It was well into the middle of the night when Ralph awoke to a shivering sensation crawling up his back like an insect. For a moment, he thought it really was an insect crawling over him. But before he could move to slap it away, the ticklish sensation spread across his back all at once in a way that no bug on the island was big enough to do.

Ralph turned abruptly, shifting his weight from one side of his body to the other. He found himself face to face with the boy he shared his shelter with; none other than his island-ally and best friend back at the academy; Jack Merridew.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up" Jack whispered to him softly. It wasn't until then that Ralph realized the older boy wasn't touching him anymore.

"S'okay, it's not like we have alarms to wake up to anymore" Ralph whispered back. He played the distantly familiar sound of his old alarm clock in his head, the memory bringing him momentarily back in time a few short weeks to before the plane crash.

"I know, I still didn't mean to wake you" Jack shrugged dismissively.

"I thought you might've meant to. Why were you touching me if you weren't trying to wake me up?" Ralph's voice rose just slightly above a whisper now.

"I dunno" Jack, again, shrugged him off dismissively. "I guess I'm just starting to miss people."

"Miss who?" Ralph wondered curiously.

"Nobody in particular" Jack answered honestly. "I just miss not sleeping alone, I guess."

"You sleep in the same bed as your parents?" Ralph questioned, "or your siblings?"

"No" Jack chuckled with amusement, "that'd be weird. Back home, I hardly ever slept in my own house when we were off from the academy on holidays. I was at parties, usually. A bunch of us would fall asleep there all the time. I kinda liked waking up in the night and not being alone, feeling someone beside me, touching me, doing things with me. You know what I mean?" he asked nonchalantly, as if Ralph really should know what he meant.

"No" the younger boy answered truthfully. "I've never been to a party before. My parents would never let me stay over at someone's house if they didn't know their parents too. Why were you always doing that? Why didn't you sleep at home?"

"Oh" Jack said, a hint of judgement toward Ralph's innocence coming through his voice. "I liked the parties, they were fun. Most of the kids were older than me, a few of their siblings are my age and would go to the parties too. Mostly kids from my old school before the academy. None of them wanted to be at home either."

"Why not?" Ralph asked gently, so gently it made Jack's heart flutter, ache, or maybe both.

"Cause parties are fun, way more fun than whatever boring shit our families were doing. And like I said, I'd rather not have to sleep alone if I can help it" Jack responded, his voice softer and more vulnerable than it usually sounded to Ralph.

"You just let random kids at a party touch you like that? When you're not even awake?" Ralph questioned with worry.

"They weren't all random" Jack answered, missing the overall point of Ralph's question.

"That doesn't sound comforting at all" Ralph guessed based on his own premature judgments.

Jack reached a hand over to Ralph and began gently stroking his arm with his fingernails, like he'd been mindlessly doing to Ralph's back earlier. "You don't find that comforting?" the elder boy questioned doubtfully.

"I-I do" Ralph found himself answering before he even thought about it, "but I know you. We're friends. I'm not worried about you messing with me while I'm unconscious or something."