*** 1 Year and 10 Months ago (Brandon POV)***

"BOO YA! I FINALLY DID IT!" Cameron jumps in jubilation.

"What did you do?" I ask

"BEHOLD A BENCH!" Cameron exclaims, gesturing toward the plain-looking slab of stone in the dirt made from the cave wall.

"Oh- wow that's nice," I fake enthusiasm

"You see Brandon that's the problem with you," Cameron shakes his finger, "You can\'t see the potential in things"

"For now this is a but a mere... thing! However, in a month or two it shall become a throne fit for kings!"

"Uh-huh," I say skeptically

“Cameron come and help me out here you piece of shit!” Oliver yells as he throws our clothes into the bin. “You were supposed to do laundry today! NOT ME!” Oliver yells as he starts doing something to Cameron’s only T-shirt.

“AY AY AY, STOP I’M A DEMOLITIONIST, NOT A CLEANER!” Cameron runs over to stop Oliver

“LIKE I GIVE A FUCK!” Oliver yells back

Cameron grabs his shirt, bringing him into a tug-a-war with Oliver, who was rocks and dirt into Cameron’s shirt.

“Hey listen Oli, you're the water bender, so doing laundry is like kinda your job,” Cameron says with a charming smile, which seemed to only fuel Oliver’s determination to vandalize Cameron’s clothes.

“Are they doing it again?” Emila asks

“Hey, what are you doing you should be resting” I gently put a hand on her stomach

“They’re being kinda loud” She plays with my hands

“Hold on, I-”

“Are you going to let go of my hand?” she says with a grin

God, I love her

“Listen, you can tell them to stop but control yourself,” she warns.

Sometimes I can’t tell if she’s flirting, or if she’s lecturing me; now that I think about it, maybe it’s both.

“Ok, I’ll be right back, so please go back and rest” I kiss her head

“Alright, remember inner nen,” she pretends to breathe in and out.

“Alright alright,” I say as I run off toward Cameron and Oliver

“Cameron, Oliver” I speak calmly

“Oliver mate I don’t want to be half naked the entire time I'm on this planet please forgive me this one time” Cameron struggles a smile

“I gave you that last time, no more chances,” Oliver says bluntly

“Cameron, Oliver” I speak slightly louder

“Listen, Oliver, you're just better at doing laundry than me do you want to see the unholy things I’ll be doing to your laundry” Cameron says with a scary voice

“Go ahead, I’ll do the same to your laundry, y’know what, I’ll do it right now, SO GIVE ME YOUR DAMN SHIRT!”

“GOD DAMNIT OLIVER I SAID I’M SORRY!”

I look back to see my wife holding her head as she tries to sleep

I could tell that their screaming was making her more sick

Their childish squabble was hurting my wife, and that thought made my head turn cloudy and red.

“CAMERON! OLIVER!” I scream as I grab the shirt from both of them tearing it.

“BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! EMILA CAN’T SLEEP BECAUSE OF YOU!”

“CAMERON CAN YOU JUST DO WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WITHOUT WORKING ON SOME SHITTY BENCH, AND OLIVER CA-”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Wait, Bran-” Cameron tries tries to speak

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, I’M SPEAKING!” I swing my hand hitting Cameron across the face

I start breathing after that smack

Oh shit I did it again

“Cameron listen I'm so-”

“Damn dude you got a mean right hook.” Cameron laughs as he rubs his jaw

“Are you okay?”

“Motherfucker I deal with explosives I could tank nukes if I try” He laughs

“Are you sure you're okay?” I say, increasingly guilty.

“I mean if it means that much to you I won’t say no to a beer once we get back home,” he says with a grin.

“Yeah okay I gotcha,” I say

“Sooo, who's going to do the laundry?” Cameron whistles, as if it wasn’t obvious. This caused Oliver to glare at him.

“I’ll do it” I volunteer.

I did want to do it. I typically deal with stress by hitting a punching bag or by working out. However, since there was no gym or punching bag in the desert I’ll just have to make do with doing laundry. I honestly just want to get my mind off of how I just smacked Cameron a second ago.

“Hold on, I was just joking man, I’ll do it.” Cameron volunteers, gesturing for me to hand him the shirt

“No, it's fine I wanna do it” I insist, causing Cameron to raise a brow.

“Well alright if you say so,” he concedes, “I’ll work on my throne then,” he shrugs.

“You already made a bench, why do you need a throne?” Oliver asks

“Cause, I deserve it.” Cameron pompously states, “Plus, they don't make king-size benches, I need a king-sized throne for a king-sized man” Cameron jiggles his beer belly and laughs.

“Whatever,” Oliver rolls his eyes, “I’m going to grab some water,” Oliver says.

“Y’know Oli, that water-detecting ability of yours is a lifesaver,” Cameron says, causing Oliver to narrow his eyes at him.

“Whatcha want?” Oliver asks suspiciously.

“Nothing man just being honest, it’s just I think I might have a similar ability,” Cameron says, making both our brows raise.

“Are you like a literal metal detector?” I ask

“Nah, you know how sharks can smell blood from a mile away?” he asks“Yeah,” we both say

“Well, I can smell a good bud light from several miles away,” he says

“Fucking jackass!” Oliver kicks him in the ass, causing Cameron to rub his ass, as he laughed. “I thought you actually had something important to say!”

“I was only half joking though, I can really smell some alcohol,” Cameron says.

“I’m going to turn your ass into ground pork you piece o-”

“I’m being honest!” Cameron pledges innocence.

I start sniffing the air. However, I detect no alcohol fumes.

“You sure you're not imagining it?” I ask

“No”

“No as in you do think it's real, or no as in, you're not sure?”

“Nah I have no idea if I'm right” he shrugs

“Ok, buddy” I take a deep breath

“We’ll check it tomorrow” I sigh

“Brandon, are you serious?” Oliver asks dumbfounded

“I mean you said you could just sense where water was, and that worked out… Maybe finding alcohol will lead us to people or something,” I shake my head at how stupid of a decision this felt.

“Great choice Brandon,” Cameron smiles.

Is it? Is it really?

“Anyways go back to your chair,” I end the conversation, “I gotta do laundry”

“Roger, sir”

After that, we all went to our assigned tasks. I did the laundry, Oliver brought water, and Cameron forgot he was building a chair and built a bad-looking sandcastle instead.

Before we knew it night had fallen upon us, so we built a fire and Cameron told us ghost stories through his belly button. It was honestly more amusing than it should've been. By midnight the only ones awake had been me and Emilia. We were laying side by side and had to talk in hushed voices, to not wake the others.

“So, you weren’t able to keep your cool?” Emilia says, causing me to groan.

“Sorry, my head went red again,” I say shamefaced.

“It’s fine as long as you're trying; these things take time” my wife reassures me

“Emilia, why did you marry me? I’ll be honest, I’m a mess. I’m scared I’ll go into a burst of rage and I’ll hurt you- I might hurt our kid… I’m scared I’ll do something. Something I can’t take back,” I say with a shaky voice.

“Y’know when I first saw you in college, you were making a scene telling your groupmate off because you had gotten a bad grade since they plagiarised something on a group project, eventually you grabbed their backpack and threw it out the window,” she says with a chuckle, to my flushed face.“Y’know honey I wouldn’t call that a particularly charming first encounter, so why did you get interested in me?” I ask

“Well you see, when I saw that, my first thought was, “I can fix him”” She says with a muffled laugh, causing me to lightly shove her.

“No, seriously, what about me got your attention?” I ask

She finishes her giggling and calms herself. She looks into my eyes with her almond eyes and her pearl-white smile, “Well, I don’t remember exactly what you said. However, I do remember that, through all your rage-filled comments you only mentioned how you were angry on behalf of your other groupmates.”

“Is that really it?” I ask

“Well…” she purses her lips

“What is it tell me” I push

“No, well,” she tries to hold back

“C’mon just tell me” I insist harder

“Well I’m sorry, but I saw you practicing your apologies that night on campus alone. It was the cutest shit,” she says with a gushing voice.

I could swear that my face was flushed red enough that I had illuminated the room.

Or the room had been becoming more illuminated…