Chapter Text
Ciel could feel harsh sand against his skin, there was something warm was trickling over the right side of his face and a pain throbbed uncomfortably across his limbs. The teen furrowed his brows at a harsh sound; someone screaming, and there was a high pitched ringing in the air like a bomb had gone off.
“Ciel...”
A familiar voice, the boy furrowed his brows and groan escaped his lips. He felt someone softly shake his shoulder as if to rouse him.
“Ciel, please wake up....”
He began to open his eyes only to be blinded by the bright sunlight, Ciel tried to speak but found his throat to be drier than expected. The boy swallowed before trying again. “L-Lizzy?...”
“Oh thank god, you’re okay,” the girl breathed out and smiled, Ciel could see now there were tears running down her face accompanied by black smudges of makeup.
He was confused, he couldn’t remember where they were, the atmosphere was smothering and people were running madly amongst the two of them, kicking up sand, screaming yelling and crying for loved ones. Ciel felt like he was going to be sick.
“Where are we?...” He eventually asked, blue eyes glancing around for the first time as he slowly sat up.
“I don’t know where we are, the plane- it crashed. I don’t know what’s happening, Ciel.” Lizzy’s voice wavered as if she was going to cry again.
“Oh god,” Ciel choked, It was then that he noticed what he could see was nothing short of a nightmare. They were on a beach which was bordered by a dense forest, bodies were scattered across the ground and wreckage from the plane was everywhere. An enormous turbine from the aircraft stood tall amongst everything, the large fans were still spinning; sucking in anything in any debris and creating deafening shrieking that only continued to worsen.
At this thought he felt his chest getting tight and then shakily took out his inhaler, the trigger was pushed a few times before a short blast of air shot fluid into his throat—he had been asthmatic for as long as he could remember. Slowly, the constricting feeling in his chest reduced until he could breathe properly again.
“We... we have to help somehow,” Ciel quickly decided, stumbling against the sand as he stood, dizziness blurred his vision momentarily before he righted himself.
Lizzy nodded, standing up beside him. “Be careful...” she warned, placing a hand on his shoulder as she glanced up towards the dripping wound on Ciel’s forehead. It was still bleeding and seemed to be painful, so she lifted her hand up to wipe the blood from her cousin’s cheek.
Ciel quickly withdrew from her touch and Lizzy pulled a hurt expression. Feeling guilty, Ciel smiled to her in reassurance. “I’m fine... Just, don’t worry about me."
Reluctantly she pulled away. Lizzy wanted to disagree, she wanted him to listen to her for once, but they had already had this argument many times before. They were both stubborn and this was neither the time nor the place to argue over such matters.
So, following Ciel to the wreckage, she simply said nothing.
...
“Aren’t you excited?”
Ciel looked over to his cousin, taking out his headphones and sending her a doubtful look. “Why should I be? Yes I’m so excited to see my father married to another woman. Hip hip hooray.”
The girl sighed; rolling her eyes, “Ciel... can’t you try and be glad? For me, at least? You know this is something that will make your father happy.”
The boy furrowed his eyebrows and looked down, Lizzy knew he wouldn’t be able to say no if she worded it like that. The two were technically cousins but practically siblings; a tight-knit family relationship meant they had both been raised in the same household.
“I’ll try. But... no promises,” the girl grinned happily at his response.
Just as the two finished talking the plane started to shake. The chairs rattled and Ciel held against his seat tightly—turbulence, he had always hated flying. The trembling continued until suddenly another male came stumbling into Ciel’s seat; knocking the small teen sideways into his chair.
“Watch it!” The boy yelped.
The man quickly stood back up, fixing his hair that had been brushed aside. Ciel would have almost laughed at the action had he been in a better mood.
“Sorry about that,” the man spoke and looked down, he was significantly taller than Ciel with dark hair and a long fringe. His eyes were a strange shade of brown with orange-ish flecks that made them seem almost red.
“It’s fine...” the boy sighed, he wasn’t stupid enough to believe the stranger had fallen into him on purpose.
The man smiled politely, handing something towards him. Ciel felt skeptical and took it, quickly noticing it to be his inhaler; when had he lost this?
“It was on the floor,” the man smiled.
“Oh.” Was all Ciel could say, taking the inhaler and shoving it into his hoodie's pocket.”Thank y-”
CRASH
Suddenly the turbulence returned, the plane began to shake violently making the stranger stumble forwards once more, he tightly gripped onto the seat and Ciel did the same.
The shaking continued until a sickening feeling filled both of their stomachs once the sensation of falling began, a whistling noise filled the air and the plane started to tilt forwards at an alarming rate. Ciel hastily tried to buckle his seat belt as he felt himself falling from his chair, concerns for the stranger were forgotten as he shakily struggled with the belt. A whine almost escaped his throat when the device wouldn’t click into place.
“Lizzie!... Put your seat belt on!” he blindly instructed, eyes staying down as he still tried to attach his own.
Luggage started to fall from the overhead compartments and few passengers ducked from the debris. As the plane descended further towards the ocean a powerful gust of air was blown into the cabin; doors were flung from their hinges and seats located further back started to fall into the abyss as more parts of the airliner were physically ripped from the plane. Passengers held onto their seats, the stranger Ciel has spoken to earlier was nowhere to be seen.
He briefly heard the sound of the compartment above him clicking open before stars exploded in his head, a sharp pain clouded his senses and something warm trickled down his face.
Lizzy screamed as her cousin doubled over, Ciel barely had time to consider replying before descending into oblivion, falling slack against his seat.
...
It was now night-time.
Many hours had passed since the crash and as darkness fell the few survivors had created a makeshift campsite out of what they could find. Ciel sat in front of it’s warmth, his knees brought up towards his chest as Lizzy slept beside him. A few others were crowded around the site; a man with long grey hair, an Indian couple and a blonde boy around the same age as him. None of them had spoken much nor did Ciel care to speak to them.
There were also others who had decided to sit further from the group.
A lot had happened in the past hour and he couldn’t help but think about what people back home were thinking of all of this. Was his father worried? His mother? His thoughts then drifted to his beloved that dog he had temporarily left in England with Diederich, his uncle. The thought of it all only continued to upset him and Ciel pushed his face further into his knees, he could feel his lip quiver but he wouldn’t cry, he refused to cry because somebody had to come and save them. They had to.
As Ciel was lost in thought another person came and knelt down behind him, lightly tapping on his shoulder to get his attention. The boy jolted at the touch and glanced up through his fringe, unhappy to speak to a person who was disturbing him when the boy was so obviously not in the mood for talking.
“I brought you this, I noticed you haven’t drunk anything and we’ve found quite a lot of water on the plane. Keep it,” The person smiled and Ciel could tell even in the dark light that he recognised this face. Those red-brown eyes were unforgettable.
“It’s you, I know you,” Ciel blurted out in surprise. He knew the man hadn’t been strapped into a seat and it seemed impossible that he had survived the crash. In fact, how had any of them survived?
With a chuckle the man pressed the bottle into his hands. “Yes that was me, but you can call me Sebastian,”
Ciel was surprised by the name. "My dog is called Sebastian," he smiled briefly at the thought and took the bottle, unscrewing the cap before drinking some of the water. After the first sip the teen suddenly noticed how thirsty he truly was and ended up drinking a large portion of the water. It was only a cheap beverage, but Ciel was convinced that it was the best thing he had tasted in a long-time.
“Thank you,” he eventually said.
“It’s not a problem, although that wound of yours is a problem,” Sebastian frowned and leaned forwards, brushing Ciel’s blood encrusted hair back to reveal the nasty gash that lie against Ciel’s forehead. Thankfully, It had stopped bleeding a few hours ago.
Ciel frowned and slapped the hand away. “You’re not a doctor, I’m fine.”
Sebastian smirked, “I am a doctor, truthfully," well he was a veterinary surgeon, but the teen didn’t need to know that part. "And no you’re not 'fine',” The man took out a napkin from his back pocket (he could practically feel the boy scoffing at this, “seriously who carries napkins these days”) before pouring some of the water onto it and dabbing it against Ciel’s forehead.
Ciel winced, but didn’t push him away this time.
“If you don’t clean this off it could get horribly infected. Then you would get sick, and maybe die. Or if you're lucky I'll just amputate your head.”
"Ha ha very funny, doctor. But is this really the time for jokes?” Ciel frowned, obviously not amused by that end statement. But Sebastian just smiled, and Ciel's cheeks began to heat up as the handsome man stared over to him. Ciel couldn't help but notice the man's eyes were framed by long lashes that cast shadows onto his cheeks.
“Of course. In times like this especially,” Sebastian leaned back and put the dirty napkin back into his pocket. Ciel cringed, feeling slightly guilty for dirtying it even though it wasn’t his fault to begin with. “That should do it for now, I’m sorry I can’t help you any further.”
“You’ve helped me enough,” Ciel looked away, not in the mood to put up much of a fight. He could feel the man’s gaze on him still and it made him feel nervous. "Haven't you got something better to do?"
"I do, but first," Sebastian leaned back and grabbed two blankets he had brought here with him, placing them in Ciel's lap. "We found a lot of them in the wreckage, I'm sure your friend would appreciate one as well..." the man then realised he didn't know the boy's name.
"Ciel."
"Well then, Ciel, I hope you get some rest." Sebastian smiled one last time before standing up, glancing over to Ciel and eventually waking off to help some others who were further down the beach.
Ciel stayed frozen for a moment, toying with the soft blankets in his hand. Eventually he reached over to lay a blanket over his cousin, then brought the other back for himself. He paused, staring at the dwindling fire and sighed; eyes closing against the lulling warmth of the flame.