Well, here I am trying my hand at fanfiction again. Hopefully this will be less of a failure than my last attempt, but I'm not optimistic.

This idea suddenly came to me just now while I was trying to sleep, and I figured that it was short enough for me to type without losing any significant amount of rest. Written in honor of the fact that SnakexLizzie needs more love as a pairing.

I don't own anything. I know this fic probably makes very little sense, and I'm sorry.

Snake had never felt so out of his element in his life. Here he was, on a small lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, with several people he barely knew, while his friends Smile and Black were still on the ship.

No. Their names were Ciel and Sebastian. He knew that. But the last few hours had been so scary that his thoughts weren't coming together the way they were supposed to. And his current situation wasn't helping much. He would feel better if Lizzie were awake. He knew Lizzie. She was friendly.

And she had been very brave. Braver than he had been. He had seen her, back on the ship, fighting those... things... like she had never done anything else. He had wondered, for a moment, why she was no longer afraid. Then he had wondered how he could manage not to be afraid. He had tried acting like he wasn't scared, so as not to seem like a burden, but now the act was falling apart. Stuck in a lifeboat with an unconscious Lizzie and her intimidating older brother, Snake was terrified. He huddled in on himself, crouching in a corner of the raft with his snakes and trying to block everything out.

It was a combination of nerves, cold, and the constant tossing of the small boat that, after several minutes, caused Snake to be violently ill over the side. Lizzie's brother thumped him on the back as he retched, telling him to 'buck up' while at the same time looking absolutely horrified. The gesture was awkward, but appreciated. When Snake finally managed to pull himself together, he found that Lizzie had woken up and was watching him.

He immediately shut his eyes, embarrassed. He was handling this situation horribly, while she had been so strong. "Pathetic," he told himself. "You're pathetic."

"Are you all right?"

The question made Snake's eyes snap open again. Lizzie was still watching him, with a concerned expression on her face.

Concerned... she was concerned about him. Maybe that meant she didn't think he was pathetic. The thought made him feel warm inside, and he smiled faintly at her and nodded. She smiled back and the warm sensation doubled, accompanied by an odd rush of dizziness. Snake quickly shut his eyes again, hoping that the dizziness didn't signal another bout of seasickness. He soon realized that was unlikely. His stomach felt fine now, and the dizziness had subsided as soon as he closed his eyes.

After that, he had caught himself glancing back over at Lizzie every few minutes. Once, she had seen him looking and smiled at him again, and the dizzy feeling had returned in a rush.

"So that's it, then." Snake sighed. This was all he needed. But then again, he supposed he didn't really mind. So long as she was still smiling at him.

Well, I tried. I'm certain I'll wake up tomorrow and be utterly disgusted by this. I'll try to quash the urge to delete it at once.