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[turnthebadinme]

Losing Beat was devastating, losing Chuck another painful reminder of the frequency with which it seemed that Serena could count on her friends vanishing. She'd seen enough people leave in her life, been walked out on without reason or explanation, and no amount of knowing this was the nature of the island made it any easier. Maybe people didn't

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[throw_it_off]

It was kind of luck that he hadn't even hit the steps of the Compound when Serena came out the front door, all but barreling through. Literally running into people always hurt, and this way he could catch her, an arm snaking around her waist, and pull her to the side instead of making a painful mess of themselves. Something was clearly wrong, and he needed to help.

"Serena, hey, whoa," he said, trying to calm her. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

[turnthebadinme]

"I'm fine," Serena said, nodding, bracing her hands on his arms. It was a relief just to see him. Even if he didn't know anything about it, even if he couldn't tell her where Eric was, at least he was still here and she needed to be sure of that right now. "Just... I can't find Eric. He's not in there, he wasn't at breakfast. Nate, have you seen him?"

[throw_it_off]

His eyes widened at the question, his mind leaping to the immediate conclusion. Eric wasn't the type to go wandering off, not for long without letting people know. They were all city kids; they adapted well enough but none of them except Nate had an interest in the jungle.

Shaking his head, he answered, "No, I haven't. Was he staying with anyone, maybe crashed at someone's hut?" Once there would have been an easy answer, but ever since Roxas had disappeared from the island, Nate hadn't noticed Eric spending a lot of time with anyone in particular.

[turnthebadinme]

Serena shook her head, shrugging. "I mean, there's Cassie," she said, "but she lives way out in the middle of nowhere. I can't imagine him heading all the way out there for a sleepover." Maybe if he'd been seeing someone, it would have been a different story, but she felt sure she would have known if that had been the case. She'd been so much better about spending time with him here.

[throw_it_off]

"Think it's worth checking out?" Maybe it was grasping at straws. (It was definitely grasping at straws, judging from the sinking feeling in his stomach, but Nate couldn't admit that.) But they had to give it a shot, didn't they? "Or... where else does he hang out? I can go run out and check."

[turnthebadinme]

Pushing a hand up into her hair, Serena bit her lip, trying to think of something. "He doesn't really go out there," she said. "I checked inside, there aren't any classes... The beach?" Even that seemed like kind of a stretch, but she'd take whatever she could.

[throw_it_off]

"North, south, west?" Nate asked. There was a lot of beach to cover if he didn't have a favorite spot. But he'd do it for Eric, and Serena.

Even if he knew that, out of all of them, Eric would be the fucking last person to take off and worry him like this. He was the most responsible.

[turnthebadinme]

"West," Serena answered, nodding. "Sometimes south, but mostly west." It was a lot of space, but Eric hadn't spent nearly as much time up in the northern corner, so far as Serena knew, since Roxas' disappearance. She just had to hope he hadn't follows in Roxas' footsteps and gone home.

[throw_it_off]

His hand slid down to find hers, squeezing tightly once and then remaining entwined with hers as he started towards the path to the beach. "Let's go look," he said, then summoned up a tight smile that didn't look nearly so worried as he felt only because of years of practice. "And then give him hell for worrying us this much, okay?"

[turnthebadinme]

The smile Serena gave him as she nodded was grateful. It helped, having him say things would be alright, even when she couldn't shake the worry, and she held on to his hand as she followed alongside him. "I guess he had to start being the one to make trouble eventually," she said lightly. She just had to hold out hope a little longer.

[throw_it_off]

"Yeah, it's not fair to him, right?" he joked, keeping his voice falsely light. It was an easy thing for them, most of the time, but there was still strain there. "Besides, he's had years to learn from the best."

[turnthebadinme]

"And he shared a room with Chuck," Serena added wryly. "That's basically advanced placement." She just had to remind herself she meant it in the past tense only because Chuck was gone, not her brother.

[throw_it_off]

"Seriously, he should have been doing this ages ago." Although mention of Chuck and disappearing in the same sentence, if it didn't make him think of Chuck disappearing from the island, reminded Nate of that night they'd had to hunt him down and find him in some old hut, drunk to hell and wallowing in grief for his father. What if Eric had found something like that and was hiding out? They might never find him in one day.

"You don't think anything happened? Like he got something from home or the bookshelf gave him something and he's trying not to be found?"

[turnthebadinme]

That hadn't even occurred to Serena, and though she couldn't imagine what would make Eric run off like that, she seized on the idea at once. "Maybe," she said, nodding, thinking back to Chuck missing his party. "I mean, with this place, it could be anything. He's... I can't imagine what it would've been, but it's not like we don't have our secrets. So... maybe we should be looking where he usually wouldn't be."

[throw_it_off]

Suddenly it seemed like too much. Too much ground to cover or too much of a lie to hold onto, Nate wasn't sure which, but he stopped in his tracks.

"Serena, are we..." His throat tightened and he shook his head. "What are we doing? If we really think he's out there, we need to make a real search party out of this."

[turnthebadinme]

"Then let's make a real search party," Serena said, drawing back as she turned to face him. "He's out there, he has to be." She wrapped her arms around herself, hunching her shoulders. There was no way she was giving up on Eric this easily, not when he'd never given up on her.