ALL CREDITS GO TO "fullcollapse" on livejournal for this absolutely beautiful story. Mostly AU, high school age setting. With the help of his friends, Ryan has just learned how to like life. Brendon hasn't yet found such luck. This is a story about strong relationships, trust, not wanting to be alone, and holding hands. There's a river, and just like its never-ending path to the ocean, some things just go on forever. Sometimes you need someone more than you need yourself, and sometimes, that's okay. Rating: R. Word count: 200,000+

It's the lake in November, and the move closer to the ocean, and Gerard's fixation, and Gerard's compulsions like tidal waves dragging him down, and Mikey's more distant than ever: like they're drifting out into the middle of the ocean, whereas Gerard's just stuck there: water turning to quicksand around him, drowning. And it's the letter; Frank finds it on the floor of the boys' bathroom on the first floor. It's dropped in accident, perhaps from a pocket or something, and it's drenched in what Frank hopes is tap water, and the words: scrawled in blue ink are difficult to make out as the words join together in a fuzzy inky mess. The only paragraph legible is the final one, and even still, it barely is: 'I've been underwater for a long time now, but I'm not drowning, I'm beginning to think I can breathe like this, but I can't, I'm gasping for breath, and I have to do this, Mikey, I have to end this myself. I'm going to the lake on the 1st of November, don't wait for me... I'm not coming back.' And the name signed at the bottom is little more than a smudged mess of blue ink, and there's nothing Frank can do about it, but he knows for certain that the one thing he can't do is ignore this letter, and he reminds himself of that as he folds it into his pocket. It's a suicide note, Frank's stupid, but not stupid enough to brush over that fact, and whoever this person is, Frank knows that they most certainly don't deserve to die. And Frank isn't going to let them. Because he's going to find this person; he's got time now at least, and he can save them, he will save them - Frank promises himself that. But one person in a whole school, it's like a needle in a haystack, but he's got time, it's November 1st in thirty days, and he can only hope that it will be enough. He's got one month: the date is October 1st.

The story of how a rainy day and a startled ferret can change everything. Dan's a sixteen year old self-confessed art hoe who spends a lot of time in the trees off to the side of house. Phil's a seventeen year old ferret enthusiast with insanely bright blue eyes who happens to take his ferret, Susan, there for a walk. Vaguely (well perhaps more than vaguely) homosexual chaos ensues.

Phil is an orphan, bullied, and living alone with no friends in a home. He does his best not to let that fact that no one seems to care about him get to him, but it's getting harder. Then a nice couple start to take interest in him, and it turns out they have a son his age, Daniel, but the love they begin to share isn't of a brotherly nature...

Dan Howell is a timid boy, who always does as he is told. He was once friends with Phil Lester, the 'bad influence' who soon ditches Dan for the popular group in Year 7. After five years of not talking to each other, they're partnered in a project and Phil's wants to win Dan over just like he has with most of their year. But yet, Dan is determined to find out what Phil is hiding behind his arrogant mask.