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Hurley and Y/N were in charge of finding fruit that day, most of the team had split up to investigate and hunt and as usual, the two of them were left with what was considered “the easier task”. Everything went well at first, they were picking the exotic — not so exotic anymore — fruits in the middle of the forest.
“I used to think that eating guava was some kind of delicacy when you think about how expensive it is.” Y/N sighed. “If we get rescued from here, I swear that I won’t dream of eating one ever again.”
Hurley laughed. “Not ‘if’, we’re going to get rescued.” He was trying to reassure them. “I have faith.”
“Maybe you have too much faith there, Hurley.”
“I just want to believe.” He added as he was adding more fruits to his backpack.
They talked about nothing and everything like that for an hour as they walked deeper in the forest. The group had decided prior to that to try to get resources from other areas just to be sure they did not empty it all out.
“I was wondering uh— is what Charlie is saying about you true?” They asked, curious and yet a bit sheepish.
“What do you mean?” Hurley feigned not understanding, hoping he was mistaken.
“That you’re a millionaire out there. I mean— I know Charlie says it like some kind of a joke but— I don’t really see you as the joking kind about that, so I wanted to ask you directly.”
“You wouldn’t believe me anyways.” He sighed as he continued looking for potential food for the group.
“Try me.”
“Sorry Y/N, but they all always say that.”
Although they really wanted to know the truth, they stopped asking. They wanted to respect Hurley’s boundaries more than anything. They quickly went back to their fruit picking activity. Y/N did not know if it would make it awkward if they were to talk again, they had decided to remain quiet. After a while, it started to rain.
“Oh come on, that’s not nice, man.” Hurley sighed as if he were talking to the sky.
“We should head back to camp.” Y/N groaned as they grabbed their overfilled bag.
“Yeah, I think so too.”
As they looked around, they both had the same confused facial expressions. Uh oh. They both thought.
“Please tell me you know where we are.” They both said in unison. “Shit.” They kept going.
“It should be easy finding out where we are right?” Y/N asked in the hopes to be reassured.
They started to get stressed out when Hurley’s answer was only silence.
“We only have to follow tracks just like what Kate and Locke have taught us… Right?” They kept asking.
“I guess so…” Hurley did not even seem convinced by his own answer.
As the rain was now pouring over their heads like some diluvian apocalyptic episode, they had to be honest with themselves: there were no tracks left because of the rain. Moreover, it was more dangerous to keep on searching their way back to camp than finding a shelter for the night. It was getting darker and darker. They were walking fast through the forest in desperate need to find somewhere to stay.
“Hey look over here!” Y/N exclaimed.
They were ecstatic, as they finally had in front of them a makeshift shelter, an alcove. It was not much as they were soaked and they had nothing either to light up a fire, but they rushed to get protected.
“I guess we should stay here for the night.” Hurley sighed.
“Yeah…”
“Even if it stops raining tonight, I mean, I don’t know about you but I don’t want to face polar bears.”
“Uh– Come again?”
“Oh. I shouldn’t have said that.” Hurley realised his mistake.
“You said polar bears? Here? In the jungle?” Y/N was dumbfounded.
“No worries, Sawyer killed one.”
“Very reassuring, huh.” They added sarcastically.
“Hey, if we die, we die together at least.”
Hurley was trying his best to be comforting but truth be told, he was as terrified as they were. Fortunately though, this made Y/N chuckle. He was glad that they shared the same kind of humour as it was the one thing they still had in that alcove – and guavas. They proceeded to snack on some of the fruits they had as they had not eaten since noon, at least picking them up all afternoon had been worth it.
However, they did not feel relaxed. They were suspicious of every single noise they could hear although under heavy rain, all sounds were kind of muffled. They both hoped that if a polar bear were to be on its way, they would be able to hear it. And Hurley was even more hyperaware of their surroundings, he feared the black smoke. He was feeling the urge to mention it to Y/N, but he did not want to make them more scared than they already were, so he decided to keep his mouth shut no matter how much of a struggle that was. After all, at least you could try to run away from a polar bear, but from a mysterious deadly black smoke that could be anything? Not so much.
Hurley quickly noticed how much Y/N was shivering. They were on a tropical island for sure, but all the weather changes were not helping. He moved closer so they could both benefit from the other’s warmth in an embrace. As the two of them had always gotten along well, this was not an issue for a single second. If anything – that only made them feel closer, both physically and spiritually.
“Okay so… Charlie isn’t lying. I won the lottery and became hella rich.” Hurley confessed. “But it’s not as nice as you’d think it is. I feel like ever since I won, I’ve been cursed.”
“What do you mean, cursed?”
“Eveything I’ve been doing has gone bad. My best friend stopped talking to me, my grandpa died, I bought a house for my mom and it burnt, I bought my favourite restaurant and it didn't end well.”
“Didn’t end well as in you went bankrupt, or as in, a meteorite crashed the building?” Y/N joked to alleviate the atmosphere.
“What– wait. How did you know about the meteorite?” Hurley looked shocked.
“Holy shit. A meteorite did crash.” They could not believe what they were hearing.
“And to finish, we all crashed here.”
“Hey, Hurley. You might be unlucky but it’s not your fault okay? You don’t have to feel bad about the plane crash.”
“You don’t get it.”
“Explain it to me then.”
“I used specific numbers for the lottery and… I’ve seen them here. On the island. The same numbers, the same order. Everything. I know how it sounds, but I think they’re kinda…. Evil.”
As Hurley sounded extremely serious, they knew it was not supposed to be a joke. And the coincidence was too big to not be potentially interpreted as being connected to the island. He waited for Y/N’s answer with all the apprehension in the world.
“I believe you, Hurley.” They replied softly, Hurley felt already less tense.
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah. I mean we’re stuck on a tropical island with polar bears and weird shits that usually want to kill us, evil numbers don’t sound too crazy.” They paused as they proceeded to hold Hurley tighter. “If anything, I want to help. We’ll find out the truth about these numbers.”
“Thanks, Y/N. That means a lot.”
Hurley felt happy. For once, someone was believing him without being doubtful – if they were, he could not tell at least – and he was moved by that. If only he were more confident, he would kiss them. But he feared misunderstanding the situation.
On Y/N’s side, they were feeling the exact same way. Hurley was making them feel things that they had not felt in years. Maybe the specific setting did help, for sure, but they wanted to stand up for him and be there more than in a simple friendly way.
They needed to stay awake just in case of something bad attacking them so they started to tell more about themselves. Where they had grown up, how they had grown up, what they were doing prior to the crash, why they were on Oceanic 815 to begin with. They did not even know they could chat for that long until then, but thanks to that, the day was already starting to dawn. It was not long after the sun had risen that the rain stopped. They did not even have the time to get ready to head back to camp when they heard footsteps coming their way. Thankfully, the voices they heard were familiar ones. Y/N and Hurley went out of the alcove to meet Kate and Jack.
“Good to see you here guys.” The doctor said seemingly relieved.
“When we were back to camp they told us you never came back. Sayid and Locke are in another area to look out for you both, we were scared something bad happened.” Kate added.
“You are okay?” Jack then asked.
“We are, just a bit sleep deprived, that's all.” Hurley shrugged.
“It doesn’t change from the usual here.” Y/N sighed.
“Let’s go back, you’ll get some rest.”
As usual, Kate and Jack took the lead to track their way back to camp. Meanwhile, the other duo was a bit sheepish, embarrassed that the group had to do search parties to find them. Nonetheless, at some point during the long walk, Y/N and Hurley got closer again, and slowly their respective hands brushed past the other’s. It was only after a few minutes that Y/N had the courage to hold his hand. What surprised them was that Hurley did not let go and held theirs back. They only stared at each other for a fraction of second, too shy to acknowledge the gesture properly and both blushing as if they were back to being teenagers.
Kate happened to turn herself at that exact moment, it made her smile before looking in front of them again to give the two some privacy. Maybe them being lost wasn’t such a bad thing, she thought to herself, with the need to tell Jack about it later.