Work Text:
“God, I messed up so bad,” Nat groaned loudly enough for the entire group to hear. Well, except Travis, he went alone deep into the woods to cool off and sulk alone after the failed hunt.
The two of them ventured into the woods and after about an hour of searching they found one lonely deer. Nat attempted to shoot it, and managed to get in a hit, but the bullet missed the key organs and the deer started to run away. Nat shot again, but the second bullet missed completely. So, she started to run after the deer, in a desperate attempt to tire it out, hoping that it would eventually die from blood loss if her first hit was good enough. Travis started running behind her and maybe started yelling something, but she wasn't aware of it, she completely lost track of her surroundings, internally mad at herself for making a stupid mistake, missing when the animal was practically still while they were so close. After not even a minute of running in this state she tripped on some above ground root, and fell face first into the ground, feeling sharp pain in her right ankle.
After this the two gave up on the hunt. Travis helped Nat get up and walk. It took them twice as long to get back to the cabin.
After coming back Nat was checked for any injuries by Misty, who announced that Nat had nothing too serious to worry about, except a couple of cuts, which were disinfected, bruises, and most glaringly, her right ankle. It was sprained and swollen quite badly. Misty wrapped it up with a piece of fabric for light compression, but she said that the only way for it to heal here was rest, which means no walking, and definitely no hunting. Plus, there was no ice to help with the pain.
Now Nat was sitting in front of the cabin, drowning in self-pity, while the rest of the group was slowly going back to working on their tasks. Except for Mari who was standing still, thinking.
“Do we even have enough meat left for all of us today, tomorrow? We’ve no deer left.”
“Great observation, bitch. As if we (I) didn’t know that,” Nat bit back, but her voice lacked the necessary emotions.
“Just saying,” Mari mumbled back, while slowly walking away from Nat as if she would bite her.
“Alright guys, no fighting, okay? We’ll figure something out.” Tai walked up to them, taking on her usual leader role.
“Like what? Unless Travis comes back and goes hunting alone or with someone else and comes back with a deer, or the traps magically conjure something up, we’ve got nothing,” Mari kept going, and maybe what she was saying was the truth, but no one wanted to hear it right now, certainly not Nat.
Tai sighed and rubbed her temples, “I don’t know, okay? If worst comes to worst, we’ve still got those scraps saved up for today, at least.”
“Ugh, not the scraps!” A couple of the Yellowjackets yelled out.
The quarrel was starting to make Nat’s head hurt, but although she wanted to walk away, she couldn’t find the strength to do so. But Van noticed her, hunched over in the middle of it all. She walked up to Nat, her figure casting a shadow onto her face, and announced. “I’ve got an idea.”
Tai turned to look at her, the others followed. “What is it?”
“Me and Nat are going to go fishing.”
“Fishing?” Nat, Tai, Mari, and a couple others asked, dumbfounded by Van’s proposition. The rest of the group all looked at each other, a similar look on their faces.
Van smiled. “Sure. Why not? We’ve got all the equipment we need, plus Nat can sit, and rest, she’ll just have to get to the river, that’s all.” She looks around, carefully analyzing her teammates, who seemed unconvinced. “And here's the catch. We’ll catch plenty of fish, the lake is practically overflowing with them in some spots.”
Tai nods, slowly, “I guess that's not a bad idea at all.”
Van looks over at Nat, “What do you say?”
“Sure. Fuck it, why not? Let’s go fucking fishing,” Nat agreed and hoped this trip would quench the anger and disappointment inside her.
With this Van disappeared off into the cabin. Nat assumed it was to gather all the equipment. The rest of the group stood still, also waiting for Van to come back with God knows what. After a while they heard a loud thud. “Sorry! Don't worry, nothing happened!” Van yelled out from the inside. And a couple minutes later she finally came out. In one of her hands, she held two fairly tall and clean branches that Nat remembers Van working on a while back, she didn't know what it was for back then. In the other she held some vines that she also must’ve collected in the woods, and two small rusted barbed hooks “Found these laying around inside, but I could never find the rest of the proper tackle. Good enough for us though,” she explained.
On the way out Van also grabbed a bucket to hold the fish. Not the one they used for water, she reassured. No one wanted the water to taste like fish, à la fish-flavored coffee from Twin Peaks.
She gave Nat one of the branches and told her she could use it for balance if she wanted to.
“Well, we’re all set then. Ready to go?”
“Ready.” Nat stood up and started walking slowly into the forest, her limp very noticeable.
It’s a route they knew pretty well at this point, and after so many trips to and from the lake a small path was forming because of their steps, the plants trampled by their feet, showed them the way. The two of them walked in silence, slowly, due to Nat’s injured ankle.
Suddenly, Van stopped and turned to Nat. “Wait a minute here, I’m gonna try and find some bait.” She walked over to a nearby tree that seems to have fallen forever ago and has now begun rotting.
“Bait? You mean like maggots and stuff?”
“Yup.” Van crouched down. She was looking underneath the tree, her hand feeling around the rotting bark. She seems to have found something, the look on her face giving it away. She proceeded to rip some of the bark off, and even from the distance Nat could see the pile white maggots, practically spilling out of the inside of the tree.
She grabbed a fistful of them, her face twisting as she did it, and put them down on a piece of fabric. Then she did it again. Finally, she let out a sigh of relief “Well, that’s it, I think. Thank God because this was disgusting.”
“Your idea.” Nat reminded her, still standing in the spot Van left her at.
“I know. Still, it was pretty disgusting.”
“Off to a great start on our fisherman journey.”
“Ha ha,” she stood up, maggot-full fabric in one hand, everything else in the other, and walked back to Nat “Come on, let’s go! The fish are getting impatient!” She smiled and skipped towards the lake.
Nat rolled her eyes but followed her anyway. And soon enough the lake was already visible from the distance, they could see the calm waters shimmering from in between the leaves. Once the two of them made their way onto the rocky beach Van began assembling their fishing rods.
“I’ll go find a place for us to sit,” Nat announced.
“Great idea,” Van mumbled out in agreement, busy with creating a line out of the tangled vines. It all looked a little chaotic, but she hoped there was some order within the chaos.
Nat scanned their immediate surroundings in search of a suitable location, quickly finding a perfect fallen tree near the water, which must have washed ashore ages ago, for them to sit on.
She limped her way towards it, sat down, and waited for Van.
Once she came back, finished fishing rods in her hands, she sat down next to her and gave her one of them. “How much do you know about the art of fishing?” She asked after settling down.
“Nothing, nada. I’ve no idea about it.”
“Well, I suppose none of us have been outdoorsy people before all this. So, I expected this much. It’s really easy to get though.”
“I admire your optimism in me.”
Van smiled and continued, “First things first, I’m no craftsman, obviously.”
“Obviously, you're a movie nerd.”
Van cleared her throat, “Anyways, because of that, there’s no reel on these bad boys,” she points to the rod Nat’s holding. “If you catch a fish, you’ll have to angle without the help of cranking.”
“If.”
“Come on, we’ll catch plenty, I know it. All we’ll do is put bait on the hook, cast, wait, and hope that the fish won’t break the line.”
Nat nodded; it did seem simple enough. But where the hell did Van learn all this, she never seemed like someone that had a secret passion for fucking fishing. "Since when were you a fishing guru?" Nat jokingly asked, although she was genuinely curious, when Van finished her lecture.
"Since never. I went fishing once with my uncle when I was eight, you remember that camping trip when I was being chased by all those Canadian geese?"
"Oh, that one, yeah I remember. I thought it hilarious back then."
"Yeah, looking back it kinda was, not so much back then." Van smiled quietly to herself. They each grabbed one maggot and stabbed the hook through its body. Then both of them cast their makeshift fishing rods.
"Alright, I guess we both know jack shit about fishing after all then. Good to know."
"Hey, I know more than you." Van playfully slapped her arm.
"Barely."
Afterwards the two sat in silence for a while, as if scared that talking would scare off the fish. Or maybe scared that they wouldn’t have that much to talk about anymore. Ever since Tai and all of Nat's friends came into the picture the two of them slowly drifted apart. They still talked of course, but usually when they were in a group, rarely one on one. Were all those things that got them close as kids not enough, they wondered.
Van broke the silence first.
“It’s nice hanging out like this again.”
Nat takes her eyes off the spot where the line meets water and looks far in front of her, observing the opposite shore. “It is.” she simply said, before deciding to add, “I wish we were out of this shit hole so we could smoke the fattest blunts together again.”
“Oh my God, yes! I miss weed so much right now, I miss getting high.”
“You and me both.”
“Smoking to some good music or movie…" Van daydreams, a moment later she changes topics. "What do you think guys that fish listen to? Probably country. Do you know any country songs?”
"Fuck no, what do you take me as?" Nat felt a little insulted that Van thought she listened to country.
"Sorry, sorry, I forgot about your elite music taste. Forgive me, Lord Natalie."
"Fuck you, I'm not that bad," she feigned offence while trying hard not to laugh.
"I mean you do act a little pretentious when someone brings up a musician you listen to."
"As if you don't do the same when it's about movies."
"I'm not pretentious about it though."
"Sure." Nat remains unconvinced. They go back to sitting in silence, but the quiet is not as scary anymore. They look into the distance, listen to the sound of the water. And any worries Nat had before about what happened today are gone from her mind.
They go back to talking after a while, flowing between different topics. Sometimes they reminisce about their childhood, which they often spent together. Or about their interests, rarely about their current lives though, their lives before the plane crash. Nat doesn't want to, Van doesn't push her, and in solidarity won't talk about hers. Except when Nat asks her first.
"How's it going with Tai, if you don't mind me asking? Haven't you had a crush on her for years?"
"Wait, how'd you know? I've never told anyone?" Van turned to her, surprised, but not scared, she'd come out to Nat a long time ago, before Tai.
"Come on, I could tell, you can tell when your childhood best friend is head over heels. Like grossly so."
Van turns red, "Stop, please, God this is so embarrassing. "
"It's just the truth, but you're not the only one in love-" Nat paused what she was saying, and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, "Wait. I think I caught something,” she felt something violently tug underneath the water on the line. She attempted to get it out of the water, using as much force as could muster up. The action felt completely different from hunting a deer, shooting from a gun required less force, enough to hold the gun, steady hands, and good aim. After what felt like hours, but in reality probably lasted minutes, the fish was out of the water, dangling in the air. She tried to bring it close, so she could take it off the hook.
"Shit, wait, it's so slippery. Fuck." Nat couldn't get a proper hold of the fish. It plopped down on the rocks, still kicking, desperately trying to get back into the water, without much success. Its failed escape attempts were soon cut short after Van picked it up and put it into the water-filled bucket for storage.
"The first fish of the day," Van excitedly announces. "You’re a proper fisherman now."
With a boost in morale after their first successful catch they continued fishing with hope. Soon after Van caught her first fish. It wasn't all smooth sailing from there, there are long stretches of waiting time in between, and sometimes one of them messes up when a fish strikes. But they continue talking and are having fun, so it doesn't quite matter.
It's nice, Nat thinks. On hunts with Travis the atmosphere is so much more tense, she never gets a chance to relax like this. Van won’t say anything if she messes up, she’ll just crack a joke to lighten the mood and forget it happened at all. It’s been a while since someone made her feel this way.
Time passed by fast like this, and soon the sun was already setting, and it was time to come back to the cabin. In total they caught ten well-sized fish, the bucket was barely able to contain all of them. It really wasn’t much for them all, but for today it would have to be enough. Van’s main goal for the trip weren’t the fish anyway, it was Nat. She considers the trip a success.