He and Elio had gone to shore, but learned soon enough that venturing deeper into the island was more dangerous than either of them could handle. Instead, the goodwill, or maybe fearful and grudging respect, of the pirates was the only thing they had to fall back on, and as the beach was suddenly stormed by kids-- familiar faces, all of them friends, most of them terrified and breathless and streaked with dirt, Eddie knew they might all be in trouble again.

"Whoa, hey, everybody calm the fuck down!" Eddie shouted, and the only reason his voice didn't break was because he'd apparently left puberty behind like three decades ago. There was a sword at his hip, an actual sword, and he rested his hand on the hilt, already knowing that he'd hurt anyone who tried to touch Jamie.

"Holy shit, I thought we weren't going to be able to find you," he said, wobbly and breathless as he took a step towards him, forgetting about the growing crowd of pirates and all of their friends, and about the fact that he looked like some random forty-year-old man as he lurched forward to throw his arm around Jamie's neck.