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howrry · 5 years

Text

friendship bracelets, firecrackers, and far too much sunscreen

a/n: here it is! this was supposed to be a one shot but i got WAY too carried away with it so its a full blown fic now! i kept getting too immersed while writing it so if you’ve never been to summer camp... it’s gonna feel like you did after reading this. grab a snack kids cause this is a doozy

w/c: 13.1k holy sHIT

warnings: lotta smut, alcoholism

Your alarm jerked you awake at 7 am sharp, and when you shot up onto your elbows, the humidity of the morning air made your pillowcase stick to your cheek for a moment. Yuck. That's why you insisted on showering in the morning, since the sticky, hot air would make you sweat all night anyways. You popped your neck to release the tension that sleeping at a weird angle caused.

Mornings were so peaceful; if only you liked them. The air was a little thick, but the birds didn't seem to mind as they chirped and tweeted at the beautiful sun-shiny day.

"What craft are we doing this morning?" you grumbled to Kathia, another counselor who was getting up and stretching her arms. Of course you'd share a cabin with the biggest morning person you'd ever met.

"Leather crafts. Hammering designs into bracelets and luggage tags. Some of the older girls get to do belts since their hand eye coordination will help them finish quicker," Kathia explained, going into the sun salutation poses. The first morning you two had spent together, she claimed it's how she stayed flexible even after quitting cheer. You weren't sure how some yoga related to the strength to do flips, but she still impressed campers year after year with her refined tumbling skills.

"That doesn't seem too bad. You just have to make sure the little girls don't hammer their fingers into ground beef," you reasoned, getting out of bed and finding clothes to wear that day along with your shower caddy.

"Yeah, but it'll get boring after twenty minutes," Dani, your other cabinmate, complained. Dani hated mornings as much as Kathia loved them, and typically stayed in bed until the very last minute. It was quite common for her to show up to breakfast still in her pajamas, and sneak back into your cabin to change during the camp announcements.

"Not everything in life has to be wild and exciting, Dani," Kathia tsked while bent in half at the hips, with her head between her knees. "This camp is for the girls, not us."

"Kat is right," you agreed, pushing the screen door out to leave for the shower units. "Try to be in day clothes at breakfast, Dani, please?"

She barely made a noise before plopping back down into her pillow as the door swung behind you. You played some music on your phone, and the shuffle put on some old Arctic Monkeys. You tried to keep the volume low, since the camper cabins are not far from yours and you weren't exactly allowed to have phones around campers.

You hummed Knee Socks to yourself as you turned on the water, waiting for it to get warm. You'd gotten your shower routine down to a science, proving that the past few months of learning when to turn on the water and exactly which degree to turn the knob to for the ideal temperature had been worth it. Since you were the only person up and at 'em this morning you thought nothing of taking your musty t-shirt and shorts off, leaving you in your underwear in the shower units.

It wasn't the most exposed structure, since the whole thing was made of concrete. Concrete floor, concrete walls, concrete stalls between each shower and toilet. The only thing missing was a concrete ceiling, but it actually didn't have a ceiling at all; only a wire fence stretched over the top to keep out leaves and sticks from being blown into the showers. The toilets were covered by a tin roof, but if it rained during your shower, you were doubled soaked. And probably frozen.

Still waiting for the water heater to kick in, you danced along to the guitar solo in the song. You swayed your hips, banged your head, and spun around the concrete in your shower shoes until a big hand clasped over your mouth. You freaked the fuck out until the mystery person started shushing you and turned you around, revealing himself to be your boyfriend, Harry.

"Well, aren' you adorable. Dancin' around in your knickers to good ole Alex Turner. I quite like him m'self, but clearly not as much as you do," he teased, kissing your cheek and letting his hand fall off of your mouth.

"Shut up, you scared the hell out of me! What are you doing here anyways?" you asked, noticing how little he was actually dressed. He was only in red plaid boxers, looking honestly delicious with messy hair and still-tired puffy eyes.

His shoulders lifted to his cheeks and dropped. "Woke up a little earlier than my alarm and decided to surprise you."

You laughed hoarsely. "And surprise me you did. I nearly screamed."

"Well what 'm gonna do next is really gonna surprise you, then." Before you could ask when he meant by this, he grabbed you by the back of your head and yanked you into the shower you'd been warming up.

You gasped, choking on some shower water. "Harry! I'm in my underwear!" you sputtered stupidly, unsure of what to say.

"So what? Y'were gonna change into new ones anyways. We should make out," he decided, and frankly he was right. It was just water, and you should make out. It wasn't often that counselors had alone time, so you shrugged and tossed your arms around his neck and kissed his smiling mouth.

"Y/N? Are you up already?" a voice from outside the showers asked. You and Harry separated and you gasped softly when you realized the voice belonged to Cricket, the middle aged camp director who ruled with an iron fist.

"Uh, yeah!" you blurted, unsure of what to do. Harry awkwardly backed into the corner of the shower as you popped your head out of the curtain, trying to hide the fact that you still had a bra on. Cricket was brushing her teeth in the trough sink, orange hair pulled up out of her face into a bun.

"Morning, hon, I was heading back from getting the campers' mail and figured I'd brush my teeth real quick since I had my toiletries on me," she explained, wetting her toothbrush in the water.

You nodded and dove back into the shower to find Harry confusedly waving his arms around as if to ask what to do. There was no way to leave the shower units unnoticed until Cricket left, so Harry simply had to wait to make his escape.

You grinned. "Better finish this shower before I lose the hot water," you said aloud, as if you were talking to Cricket, but really you were playing a game with Harry. You popped the hooks on your bra open and shimmied your underwear down your legs, leaving you naked in front of your boyfriend.

"I know what you mean," Cricket responded around a toothbrush in her mouth. "You have to learn to love the cold water."

You seductively combed some shampoo through your hair before lathering yourself up with body wash, running your fingers over every square inch of your tanned body. Harry was watching in awe at this explicit dance you were performing for him, with the camp director not even fifteen feet away completely unaware of what was happening.

Soon you heard the sink shut off and Cricket spit out the toothpaste down the drain. "I'll see you at breakfast, Y/N dear!" she called before walking away.

When the crunch of the leaves under Cricket's footsteps subsided, Harry let out a breath. "You're a menace! How 'm I gonna walk back to m'cabin with a hard on like this?" he gestured to the obvious tent in his boxers.

You giggled, rinsing out the last of the shampoo in your hair and squeezing out the water. "Shame. You should've worn real pants. I think I can help you, though," you offered vaguely, making Harry perk up thinking about the possibility of a good morning handy. Instead, you twisted the shower knob all the way to the coldest setting and pointed it at the corner Harry was huddling into.

The shriek he unleashed when the freezing water touched his skin was unlike any other you had ever heard. You'd been a counselor at summer Camp Jalita for two years now and had heard the screams of girls who thought they were drowning, of girls who were actually drowning, girls who saw huge bugs and lizards and once an armadillo, girls who tripped and fell, and once a girl who thought her cabin was haunted because the wind was moving the canvas flaps that hung over the screens, but this one cry released by your grown ass boyfriend pierced your ears like a knife.

"Shhhh, quit it! We just avoided getting caught by Machiavelli herself and I don't want your sissy ass to get us busted now," you reprimanded, shutting off the water entirely so that the two of you could leave. You started to get dressed as he scampered away, with one less hard-on than he had five minutes ago.

Harry was one of two male counselors at your summer camp. The other male counselor was this nice, older gentleman named Paul, who was an expert at archery and taught classes to the campers. Harry was one of the lifeguards and taught swim lessons. The other counselors (all 15 or so), counselors-in-training, members of the general camp staff, and the director were women and had a certain responsibility, and it was expressly forbidden for a counselor to date other counselors, regardless of gender.

You were never clear on why this was a rule in the first place, but you couldn't have imagined it would be a problem when you applied to be a counselor a couple years ago. Until this summer, the camp had only hired Paul and female lifeguards, so the dating policy wasn't a problem for you. Then, one of the old lifeguards got engaged and then pregnant, they needed a replacement, and they hired Harry.

You met him at a meeting long before setting foot on the campgrounds that summer, in an air-conditioned office room in the city. It was almost as opposite from actual summer camp as one could get; the humidity controlled office, the hushed tones used, the blouses and slacks worn could never prepare a newcomer for what camp was like. Harry was the relaxed vibe in a building full of squares and you couldn't help but be attracted to him.

You were a little dazed the morning of that meeting, and accidentally followed Harry into a bathroom, not realizing that A) he wasn't a girl and B) that it was a solo bathroom that lacked stalls. When it dawned on you what you'd just done, you backed out of the room stammering out an apology, but Harry had thankfully found it much more amusing than embarrassing.

"I love the enthusiasm, darling, but I think I've got it from here m'self," he joked before closing the door. You were officially too mortified to pee and scampered back to the meeting room. Afterwards, he formally introduced himself as Harry and your relationship blossomed from there.

Except, again, dating was super duper not allowed. Cricket drilled it into your heads a million times during the meetings and during on-site orientation. But you and Harry persevered and had managed to sneak around the first five or six weeks of the summer without anyone catching on. It wasn't easy, but the two of you figured out ways to be subtly romantic and also found times to get busy.

As for being romantic, it was done in the fashion that anything you did for each other could be easily explained by normal events. Harry would leave you a beautiful wildflower on your pillow for you to find at the end of the day and you told your cabinmates you'd picked it yourself; you would slip a bag of his favorite kind of chip you'd swiped from the kitchen into his swim bag, and he acted like he'd known it was there the whole time. A few love letters here and there, some sneaking out at night to gaze at the beautiful stars, one too many joints shared at the riverbanks, and you had yourself a full-swinging summer romance.

As for getting it on... well, that took a bit more work. See, the cute little gifts and notes you leave for each other can be just in passing should one of you get caught. "Oh, did I drop that paper into Harry's bag? My mistake. No harm done, he's busy teaching little kids how to tread water." But sex, simply put, required both of you to be there. Two missing counselors to be accounted for rather than one.

Fortunately, there was one golden opportunity each week. New sets of campers and counselors-in-training cycled in week by week, arriving Sunday morning and departing the following Saturday evening, giving the counselors one night each week to themselves. The counselors were permitted to do whatever they wanted, so long as it wasn't dangerous or meant leaving the camp grounds.

So that gave you and Harry your time. You still weren't completely out of the woods, since the no-dating policy was still in effect even on counselor Saturdays, so the excuses for your locations basically got whackier and whackier throughout the summer. Once, you left the cabin at 10:30 pm, telling Dani and Kathia that you were going to find some glitter for an arts and crafts event you didn't have planned until Wednesday. By the time you got back with tangled hair and your underwear in your pocket, Kat was already asleep and Dani was too busy being high to even notice your return.

Harry was so passionate during sex. He was just naturally a really handsy guy and you chalked it up to him not being able to touch you at all during the day, but he was all over you when you were intimate. He kissed and bit and grabbed and stroked and pulled, anything to get a physical touch with you. It was always mind-blowing, and his giving-to-receiving ratio was unlike anyone else you'd met or had relations with.

He'd scampered out of your shower only minutes ago and you already missed him. You mozied your way back to your cabin where Kathia was also already dressed and Dani was practically dragging herself out of her bed.

"What was that scream from earlier? Did a camper see a snake or something?" Kat asked, sitting on her knees on your bed with two hair ties and a brush.

Dani plopped down on the bed in front of her, and you sat on the floor in front of Dani. The two girls behind you started braiding the hair of the girl in front of them, a system you three had been doing for weeks now. Kathia was too neurotic to wear her hair in any fashion other than a sleek ponytail and your fingers were too shaky and unskilled to properly French braid hair, thus the perfect set up was discovered.

You paused a little. Kat tended to be a bit of a rule-follower and you'd carefully kept the fact from even your cabin mates that you were dating Harry. "Nope, I just got in the shower a little too early and the cold water unlocked an ancestral scream from me." Not bad, you thought to yourself. You were never super great at holding a bluff... but you'd gotten better over the summer.

Kathia made a little noise. "Weird, you're usually pretty good at that." She breathed for a moment while braiding back Dani's wavy hair. "Oh, well. I guess it's a good way to wake up. What do you think they're gonna be serving for breakfast?"

***

After eating breakfast tacos, cleaning up the Great Hall where the camp eats every meal, and going over camp announcements, it was over to the art pavilion. You spent the day demonstrating wetting the leather, hammering in the designs, and chatting with your counselors-in-training about you were going to do later in the day.

Your group of girls this week consisted of ladies age 13-15, which was your personal favorite age group. They were too young to be edgy and mean, too old to be crybabies about everything that wasn't perfect or what they were used to, and they were really, really funny. And frankly, the more freedom you gave the girls, the more likely they were to listen to you. The camp understood this and gave the older girls the least strict schedule of all the campers. So long as you made it to each meal and were in bed at a godly hour, you were pretty much free to do whatever you wanted for the remaining time during the week.

"I was thinking of tubing," one of the CITs suggested. "When I put up the poles after fishing, I saw the storage unit was full of these industrial sized tubes. Wouldn't it be fun to float the river on our last day here?" she gushed.

"That's not a bad idea. I'd need to make sure no one is fishing today," you thought aloud, scratching your head and trying to avoid the braids becoming loose. It was finally Saturday and the campers were kind of bummed that they had to leave that evening anyways, so maybe this was just the thing to lift their spirits. "Oh, and I'd need a lifeguard." Your finger shot out towards the CIT who'd suggested it. "After crafts, you're excused to go find me a lifeguard to accompany us. We'll probably tube backwards since the river doesn't move super fast and we get less exercise if we just sit in a tube and float." The girls nodded together in agreement, excited that they now had an excuse to wear their cute bikinis they'd packed.

See, that's how you remained off the radar with Harry. If the CIT just happened to pick him for the tubing, that's nobody's fault except chance. If he'd been your first pick, some alarm bells were bound to go off in the heads of other counselors and CITs.

"Could we ask Kathia's group to join us?" another CIT asked. "They're the same age as us and I don't think they have any plans either."

"Great idea! Hand me the walkie so I can ring her up," you ordered, pointing to the walkie talkie on the table next to the first CIT. "Tubing party later today!" you announced to your campers, who also cheered at the fun final adventure.

When everyone was waiting down at the riverbanks later that day holding their big tubes, Harry strolled down wearing a tan fishing hat, bright orange swim trunks, and a ridiculous amount of white sunscreen slathered on his nose. Black sunglasses sat on the brim of his hat and a red whistle hung around his neck, resting daintily between his chest muscles. If the campers weren't so intimidated by his size and attractiveness, they probably would've laughed at him.

The group felt no need to waste time and immediately started their way up the river. Some girls sat in their tubes and paddled their way upstream, while some girls planned to drag another and switch off who got to sat in the tube. Kathia ran a timer on her watch to tell girls when to trade places. Harry carried one girl in his tube at a time and some campers were practically tripping over the river rocks to get to be the one H pulled. He played this game with some of the girls where he would yank the rope attached to the tube until it slipped out from under the camper and she dropped into the river. They would come up laughing and squealing until Kat reprimanded him.

"Aren't you supposed to be the lifeguard?" she prodded jokingly. "Some girl is gonna get a concussion from that."

Harry sighed. "All you do is nag, Kathia dear. That's why Y/N is my favorite counselor." He nodded his head over to the side where you were pulling a girl using a camp brochure as a fan. You stuck your tongue out.

Kat feigned being insulted. "Hey! You can't have a favorite counselor!"

"Relax," he waved a hand to deflect Kathia's words. "Watch this." Harry turned to the group of girls in tubes. "Raise your hand if Kathia is your favorite counselor." A majority of the hands shot up. "Raise your hand if Y/N is your favorite counselor." Another majority of hands lifted, and Harry winked to both of you. "Now... raise your hand if I'm your favorite counselor." Every single one of the hands raised, including yours, Kat's, and Harry's. He always was quite the narcissist. "See ladies? Favorite counselor isn't a person; it's a tier."

Your group finally reached the end of the tubing trip, since the point of the river furthest north was at the Great Hall and it was already in sight. Everyone started dragging their tubes out of the water to carry back to the storage unit. You put your tube in the unit last, and when you turned to go back to your group, Harry slapped your ass on the way out. He'd been holding the door and probably waited for the opportunity to do that. You tried to glare at him but he had such an excited grin you couldn't even pretend to stay mad at him.

By this point, the group was grouchy from either having to wash off the river water with a garden hose, excess sun exposure, or both, so Harry decided to cheer everyone up. "Hey, when everyone's changed and back from their cabins, how about we all have some ice cream?" he suggested when the group was huddled in their towels outside Great Hall, and their general mood instantly lifted. He leaned to you and whispered, "I bought a ton of weed from one of the cooks, so I get special food privileges. Gotta learn to network." He clicked his tongue and shot a finger gun at you, making you roll your eyes and laugh.

***

Saying goodbye to your campers each week was hard and didn't get easier no matter how long the summer went on. You got seven days of living with strangers and by the time they leave, they're like ten new sisters that you'll never see again. The campers would start to look up to you and they'd be just as bummed as you. If it weren't for their faces brightening when they saw their parents or older siblings arriving to pick them up, you'd think it wasn't worth it.

When the last girl was picked up, the sun was already setting. The lifeguards began slathering aloe vera on each other's shoulders, the cooks were lugging boxes of food for the week into the kitchen, and the remaining counselors were drawing broken toothpicks to see who got to use the washing machines first. You, however, were plotting your escape to Harry's cabin for that night.

When Dani and Kat weren't around to see, you kicked out a path leading up to your cabin so your feet wouldn't crunch the leaves. You sprayed a coat of sunscreen onto the spring that pulled the door shut so that it wouldn't creak. Some trial and error led you to learn that the humid air only allowed this to work for about 12 hours until the sunscreen melted off, so you did this as late as possible.

Harry also took some precautions. The frames that the mattresses sat on were super old and made a ton of noise when you two were, you know, on it, so he dragged it (with the sheets and blankets and pillows still on it) down to the ground. Concrete floors can't squeak when you're getting fucked into it. Fortunately, since he was a guy and the other lifeguards were girls, he got his own cabin to stay in, so cabin mates were one less factor to worry about on his end.

When you arrived at his cabin that night, you used your special knock that you two agreed on to eliminate Harry opening the door in his underwear when it was really Cricket or Paul or even worse, a lost camper. H opened the door wearing shorts that rode low on his hips and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt draped over his shoulders.

"Hey, princess," he murmured, pulling you into his cabin and kissing you.

"Morning, babe," you joked. "Has it been lonely waiting for me all by yourself?"

He took two steps backwards and sat back, landing with a thump on the mattress. His arms shot back and he balanced himself by leaning on his palms. "Terribly so. Almost thought you weren't comin'."

You followed him down onto the mattress. "As if I would skip out on this." Harry scooted back and you climbed over him, straddling his hips. You already could feel his semi pressing against your core-- only a few thin layers separated you two.

Even the slight pressure of him brushing up against your center had soft gasps slipping from your lips, and Harry's first two fingers slipped between them. "Haven't even done anything yet and 've already got you whimperin'. Don't think I'll ever get over how responsive yeh are."

You giggled, or at least as much as you could with two fingers in your mouth. Your eyes fluttered shut as your lips closed around him and you sucked gently, making him twitch beneath you.

"Oh, you're playing dirty tonigh'," he noted, pulling his hand from your lips and flipping you over so that you were below him. He pulled your shirt off and licked at your now-exposed nipples. A wandering hand of his discovered that you were soaking wet. "M'so glad you make it easy for me, pet." He flipped you onto your stomach and yanked your shorts down, giving him easy access to slip his cock into you.

Having sex only once a week made it difficult to stay accustomed to his size. He wasn't like, a monster or anything, but he was bigger than average and having cabin mates eliminated the option of touching yourself. So every week, when you and Harry got together, he had to re-fuck you open to handle his width.

Before the burn from the stretching had quite subsided, Harry let his carnal side out and started pounding into your mercilessly, assaulting your delicate and sensitive walls. His fingernails dug into the soft skin above your hips and his balls slapped your clit, stimulating you from the inside out.

"Someday, I'm gonna fuck yeh in private, and I won' have to cover y'mouth. I wanna hear every moan, whimper, and gasp I can get out of yeh," he punctuated his statement by bottoming out all the way, the head of his cock pressing against that spongy spot inside you, and your jaw dropped open. Harry, thankfully, was quick and had a hand smacked against your mouth before any noise slipped out. "Bet it sounds like heaven when you get fucked hard."

You were getting close to coming really fast. At this point, Harry had one arm snaked around the front of your body pulling you as close to his chest as he could, and the other hand was clasped around your mouth, forcing you to pant through your nose as he fucked you harder and faster. You clenched your walls around his pulsing cock and he moaned into your ear, and you finally hit your peak. Harry followed soon after, pulling out and painting your back with thick white ropes.

After you both came down from your highs, Harry got to work cleaning you off and helping you get redressed. As much as the two of you would love to spend the whole night talking and cuddling and, y'know, having more sex, it was imperative that you go back to your cabin before anyone could notice you were missing.

"Love the glow you've got," Harry mused, leaning against the cabin wall and looking down at you laying on the mattress. "You're the most beautiful woman I reckon 've ever seen."

You sat up, tucking your knees to your chest and covering your face with your fingers. "Making me blush. I love you, Harry, but I've gotta get back to my cabin." You checked your watch. "T minus eight hours until we get new campers, and I haven't slept a wink yet."

Harry smirked. "I'd apologize but I know yeh enjoyed it." You stood up to leave, leaving a fat smacking kiss on your boyfriend's cheek. "I love y'too, babe, get back t'bed safely."

And off into the night you went.

***

The departure of your campers was obviously immediately followed by a new set of bright young faces ready to have the most fun week of their summer. When new girls checked in, they were separated by which counselor would be responsible for them during the week, all of which waited on the courtyard right outside Great Hall. As each camper joined your group, they sat in a circle with you talking about themselves.

"Y/N? Do you mind speaking with me for a moment?" a voice behind you called. It was Sydney, a girl your age who was essentially Cricket's right hand man.

Sydney had blonde hair with a thick dark chunk of roots on her whole head. Her jaw was unnaturally square and nose turned up, looking like one of the wicked stepsisters. She stood with her arms crossed above her camp shirt, pinning her lanyard to her body.

You wobbled to stand up and bounced over to her. "What's up?"

Her eyes dropped to your shoes, a pair of light blue Chacos strapped over your feet. "You're not supposed to be wearing those. The camp rulebook says close-toed shoes only on campgrounds."

Your hands found your hips and you narrowed your eyes. "Really? You mean, the rulebook that pretty clearly states that only campers have to wear close-toed shoes." God, this was such a stupid thing to be arguing over. Didn't Sydney have better things to be worrying about?

"You should at least try to set a good example for your girls," Sydney seethed.

"Just like you're doing with that beer breath before it's even noon?" you bit, not in the mood for such a petty argument. If she wanted smoke, she'd get smoke. Her face contorted a little, but you shut her up before she could retaliate. "Yeah, I thought so. Let me deal with my girls as I see fit, and I'll leave you to yours. Oh wait! You were deemed not responsible enough so now you're a jealous lapdog. Mind your own, Syd."

You trudged away from her and rejoined your group where they were all chatting about new movies they were gonna see when camp ended. "Hey girls!" you started, sitting back down. "So, who would play you in a movie about your life?"

***

The week rolled along without making much of an impression until smack halfway in the middle of it, when the day was so violent it demanded it left an impact on you.

That Wednesday, the sun was over-the-top vicious. The members and attendees of your camp were no strangers to hot and humid weather, but when the first sunburn was reported at the modest hour of 10 am, nobody complained when Cricket ordered for minimal sun exposure and forbade swimming until the temperature cooled back down.

The lifeguards were bored silly since their number one purpose became obsolete. Two of the lifeguards opted out of taking up any new responsibility, and spent the day washing their laundry in the counselor's quarters, playing Super Smash Bros in the office building, and enjoying indoor weather wherever they could find it.

Harry was much too in love with the campers to shut himself in, however. He floated around the camp from group to group, joining in with the kids making crafts, cleaning up the campgrounds, and playing games. In fact, you didn't even see your wanderer boyfriend for most of the day anyways.

After lunch, everyone has a mandatory thirty minute "resting" time after eating. They claimed that it was to prevent campers getting stomach cramps while swimming or running around, but even as years went on and that myth was debunked, nobody really suggested the rule get thrown out since it was a half hour of just chilling and not having to work. (Plus today, one of the most sweltering of days, nobody was exactly itching to go run laps immediately after consuming tons of lasagna and garlic bread).

You were laying in bed during your rest hour, and most of your girls were in their cabins doing fuck-all. You chose to read, and picked one of your favorite books, The Duff.

Dani's girls were always really young, so she spent her rest hour getting her girls in bed for a nap. They were allowed a longer resting time since this was the time of day was the hottest (even on regular days when records weren't being broken), and them napping was better than them being out in the sun. Today, Kathia's group had the chore of cleaning up Great Hall after lunch, so you were in your cabin alone when someone knocked at the door.

"Come in," you called, and placed your book down holding your finger in the spot you left off at.

The door swung open to reveal one of your campers, a 13-year-old girl named Paige. "Hey, Y/N. I had a question." She stepped in and sat on one of the empty beds, pulling her Chaco-adorned feet up with her.

"Shoot."

"How mad would you be if we were out a little later than lights out tonight? We're older, so we're more responsible than the young girls, and we'll all be together so it's like ultra buddy system."

One of your eyebrows shot up. "Is that really what you're asking me?"

Suddenly the cabin door swung open, and Kathia entered. She yanked her ponytail out of its tie and immediately brushed it out with a comb, waving to Paige.

The camper sighed and dropped a dark piece of hair she'd been playing with. "Okay. I'll level with you. One of the girls in my cabin brought an iPad and never turned it in, and we wanna see if we can find the office's WiFi password to watch a music video that just came out."

You couldn't help but let out a laugh. "I have so much faith in the youth of today. When I was a camper here, I missed out on watching the music video for 5SOS's Amnesia."

Kathia chimed in. "I missed a Hoodie Allen concert with my friends. Not that I could've done anything about that."

"You liked Hoodie Allen?" you balked, making the blonde girl laugh and nod. "Anyways," you continued, turning back to Paige. "I'm proud of you guys solving problems together. What music video are you gonna watch, anyways?"

She looked down, almost embarrassedly. "Have you heard of Billie Eilish? It's one of hers."

"God, how old do you think I am?" you rolled your eyes. "But listen to me extremely carefully." Paige leaned in, gripping her ankle. "If you get caught, I'm 100% throwing you under the bus. Cricket will unleash hell upon you and your cabin, and I won't lose a blink of sleep over it. Am I clear? Do. Not. Get. Caught."

The camper nodded vigorously, jumped off the bed, saluted, and took off out of the cabin. Huh. You liked her style.

"I can't believe you let that slide," Kathia spoke up, plopping down onto her bed to enjoy what was left of her rest hour.

"Are you criticizing my parenting skills?" you asked, picking your book back up as Kat chuckled to herself and shook her head.

One problem with the camp was its lack of cell service. Even if you and Harry managed to check your phones without getting in trouble with camp staff, there isn't enough service for miles to communicate. So even now that you had an opportunity to see Harry tonight without disturbing your campers, the info would have to be relayed to him in person.

When your rest time finished up, you popped over to your girls' cabin and poked your head in.

"Hey ladies! I don't feel like planning out more stuff to do inside for the rest of the day. Does anyone object to just chilling in our cabins for an hour or so?" When this was met with silence, you continued, "Great! Will anyone back me up when I say one of my campers didn't feel well so we didn't plan any afternoon activities together?" Two girls raised their hands. "Our cup runneth over! Rock, paper, scissors for who gets to be my scapegoat and I'll catch y'all later!"

You practically skipped to Harry's cabin, but when you got close you slowed your roll to be conspicuous. You opened the door to find that he wasn't in there, so you made yourself at home on his bed, kicking your feet up on the bedpost and sniffing his pillow.

Your timing was golden, since H came back shortly after you got comfortable. "Well, I see you have no intention of moving," he noted, wiping sweat off his face with a white rag.

You sat up. "I'm not staying forever. Just wanted to let you know we should meet up tonight. Maybe... the abandoned cabins?"

Harry's head reared back a bit. The abandoned cabins were a grouping near the riverbanks that got destroyed in a flood. Fortunately, the flood happened when there were no camps in session, so no one was hurt. Some were rickety and damaged, some only had walls left, and some were nothing more than concrete slabs jutting out of the dirt. The bathroom structure was still standing but gutted, missing a roof and donning big padlocks on the toilet stall doors.

"Tha's a new spot. What made you think of it?" he questioned, grabbing a water bottle and taking a few drinks from it.

"Overheard a group at lunch talk about hiking near there and how eerie it was. I think sneaking around there would be exciting and... I don't know. Kind of sexy," you admitted, rolling your head to the side almost to hide your face.

"Now yeh're speaking my language," he chuckled, pointing a ringed finger at you. "I'll meet you tonight, then?"

"Yessir," you affirmed, jumping up to wrap your arms around his neck. "Did you have a fun day doing nothing?"

"Nothing?!" he cried, almost choking on his water. "I spent the whole day givin' girls piggy back rides. Being charming and fun and popular isn' always easy, Y/N." He kissed your forehead to show he was kidding, but you still rolled your eyes.

"You joke, but that kinda talk is in your nature, Styles," you poked, heading towards the door.

"'f tha's true, then you really can't be mad at me for it, huh?" A little dimple popped out at the corner of his smile and he held his arms out in a lazy shrug.

"Watch me," you winked, and shut the door behind you.

God, the rest of the day crawled on painfully. The indoor rule which stretched until just before dinner, and after dinner the whole rest of the day is automatically planned out through Taps, camp announcements, evening games, and lights-out. Your options when it came to activities were pretty limited, so you spent the remaining hours before the last meal letting the girls check out the library that was adjacent to the Great Hall. Of course, the books hadn't been updated since 1996 and the 14 inch TV didn't have any cables to plug into the walls, so that day honestly kinda sucked.

Your girls had good spirit, though, and honestly seemed kind of excited for their own risky night they planned ahead. You wondered which out of the set you got that week were going to sneak out and which ones were gonna stay back and hold down the fort. Paige seemed like exactly the type to stage this kind of rebellion. Whatever.

So that evening, you waited on your bed, wringing your hands in anticipation. Dani was exhausted from her long day wrangling kiddies, and Kathia was always in bed early anyways. Before you knew it, you were the only awake person left in your cabin and had to patiently wait to leave so that you wouldn't be waiting on Harry.

Even with your worrying, you still overshot your departure and were left to kill time before he got there. Which cabin would you two go in? Only two had a roof left, and one of them literally shifted in place when you pulled on the door handle. The alternative was totally missing screens over the windows, and they appeared to have been cut out with a knife. Weird.

You heard the crunch of the leaves Harry was stepping on before he had any opportunity to scare you, so you quietly called him over to your cabin of choice.

"Well, hello there, beautiful," H flirted when he got to you, pulling you into his arms and spinning the two of you around. "You come 'ere often?"

You squealed a little before he steadied you again. "No, actually, this is my first time. Care to show me around?"

"Nope," he responded. "Was a hike getting here. Let's sit." He plopped down to the concrete floor and pulled you onto his lap, lazily tossing an arm around your waist and pressing kisses to the spot where your neck met your shoulders.

That was a sensitive spot for you, and you let your head roll to expose more skin for Harry to kiss and your jaw hung open. His free hand snaked down into your shorts, petting around to get inside your underwear and feel your folds.

"Fuck," he groaned, "You're always ready for me. Are you always this ready to get fucked?" His fingers just barely dipped inside you, not even past the second knuckle.

You nodded, one hand flying back to grab his hair and pull on it. H always loved when you got a little rough with him despite your meek nature, and he moaned breathily as you tugged at his curls. He also shoved his fingers all the way inside you and hooked them to brush against your G spot. His calloused palm grinded against your clit and he bit at your jawline, ear, and neck.

The pumping motion of his fingers created this delicious wet noise, and that combined with the moans and gasps of you coming on his fingers did a great job of covering the footsteps of someone approaching the abandoned cabin.

Harry slipped his hand out of your shorts and brought his fingers up to your lips to suck them clean. You were just getting ready to hop off his lap and give him a quick blowie when you heard the unmistakeable crack of someone stepping on and breaking a branch.

You and Harry's heads snapped towards the outdoors and then back to each other, wordlessly deciding that it was time to get out of there and it was every man for himself.

Jumping up from the floor, you two simultaneously realize that the door was not an option and the only way out was through where the windows used to be. You scrambled over gracelessly (while Harry leaped, rolled on the ground, and took off like a bullet) due to your jelly legs and landed on your back in the leaves. Adrenaline made you shoot back standing, and you darted towards the faint sound of the running river.

In the dark, you struggled to find the path that ran alongside the river for the whole stretch of camp since you didn't have a phone or a flashlight to help you see. Eventually, the caliche-lined footway was under you and you slowly walked back to your cabin.

You were terrified, of course, but you didn't have any other choice. You'd never had a call that close before; how could this happen? Could someone else have known about your plan? If it were Cricket, she would've stopped the two of you, right?

Your legs were still pumping with adrenaline and carried you back to main camp in no time. You crept back into your cabin to find both of your roommates sleeping soundly.

Well. Guess there's nothing left to do but sleep and see what the next day would bring. You sure hoped Harry made it back safely as well.

The next morning, nobody acted weird. Kat did her stretches, Dani complained about having to teach elementary aged girls to tie-dye shirts later that day, the cooks barely paid attention to the girls they were giving food to, Harry merely shrugged to you when your eyes widened at him during breakfast, and the staff was just as boring and predictable as always. Nobody acted as if you or H were busted.

You decided to let yourself relax. Maybe it was one of the campers who went hiking near there the day before. Maybe they were looking for something and got lost. No harm, no foul. To ease your stressed mind, you told your group they were going to weave friendship bracelets that day. You hoped the repetitive and soothing motion would loosen the knot in your stomach.

Things were actually going quite great, until your walkie-talkie hissed alive. "Cricket to Y/N. Please come to my office A-S-A-P." Fuuuck.

You simply nodded to your CIT, who understood you had to go. The walk to the office was like heading to a slaughterhouse and you could barely even feel your legs. You imagined how badly this meeting could possibly go (which really wasn't a great idea. You were practically sweating buckets) and pushed the door to go inside.

The office building was a modest shack, with loud air conditioning and painted concrete floors and doors with that arm that shuts them behind you to keep the cool air from escaping. One half of the building was individual offices, while the other half was an open area with chairs, tables, and spare storage for decorations. Sydney sat at one of these tables and her nose wrinkled when she saw you.

Syd gestured to the hallway leading to the offices and you quietly opened the door to Cricket's office. The older redheaded woman glanced up from her computer and nodded at a chair, not saying anything for several moments after you sat down.

She finally took off her glasses and folded her hands on the desk. "Y/N, I needed to talk to you about something quite important that's come to my attention," Cricket began. Here it goes. Your stomach was already twisted up in fear.

Be cool, you thought to yourself. "Uh, what's going on?" you asked, just barely avoiding your voice cracking. You were sure your hands were still trembling, so you sat on them.

"We, at Jalita, greatly value our rules and regulations we've set in place for our counselors, as they directly reflect on the safety of our campers. A direct violation of these rules shows you just don't care about that safety." Man, Cricket was really laying into you. "This is, however, your first time breaking the rules..."

You couldn't keep it in anymore. "And I promise it'll be the last!" You weren't sure if saying that would do you any good at this point, but it had to be worth something to get that across.

"... I should hope so. I mean, letting your campers run around the grounds after lights out and take twenty-so cartons of orange juice?! Were they raised by wolves?" Wait. What? This is about the stupid orange juice cartons? You and Harry hadn't been caught? "You're quite lucky we accidentally over-ordered juice this month, and now our numbers even out, or you'd have some thirsty campers by the end of the summer."

So... Cricket was mad because your campers had stolen a bunch of OJ for their Billie Eilish watch party. You couldn't help but feel like Paige was behind this tomfoolery and were again intrigued by her style. You sucked a big breath in through your nose before speaking again. "I'm so sorry, Cricket. You're right. I-I should've kept a better eye on my campers and I won't let this happen again." Your hands folded in your lap, suddenly not shaking anymore.

"I'm very glad to hear that. And since, like I said, this is your first time getting in trouble, all's well that ends well. You're free to go, Miss Y/N. Don't let me see you in here again, but I will see you at the fireworks show tonight." Oh fuck, right, it was the Fourth of July and time for the annual fireworks show. Cricket slid her glasses back on her nose, pushed the sleeves of her cardigan up her forearms, and turned back to her laptop.

Thankful for your easy out and the opportunity to leave, you nodded curtly and bolted out the door and down the hallway, back in the office's main room. Sydney sat at a big table sorting sparklers into cups that would go on the tables during dinner before the fireworks show, and merely turned her nose up at you. The blast of the A/C unit felt like it was getting louder so you ran out the doors to the familiar heat and humidity.

The pressure was starting to crush you. Sneaking around, making out in closets, flirty notes, brief touches that left you wanting more, wanting more in general and not being able to have it, it was maddening! You wanted Harry, and you wanted all of him, and the summer wasn't over yet.

You knew that you probably should've gone back to your campers, but your CIT could handle them and you needed to see H. Where could he be? It was just before three o'clock, his last class of the day was the advanced class at 1:30, and it lasted an hour. Knowing Harry, he'd probably left immediately after to go take a shower and would be out by now, probably getting dressed in his room, so you went there first.

You threw open the door to his cabin without thinking to knock or otherwise announce yourself. Harry was in the middle of the room facing away from the door, one towel wrapped around his body riding dangerously low on his hips and another on his head to dry his hair. He spun around, shocked at the sudden intruder but quickly relaxed when he realized it was just you. "Hey, pet. I heard the radio, what did Cricket w--" he was cut off by you marching up and pulling him down to you for a kiss.

The chlorine smell lingered on his skin even after the shower, creeping up and burning your nose a little bit. The towel on his head fell to the floor as he grabbed your waist with damp hands. You popped off his mouth as quickly as you'd started, creating a juicy noise when you separated.

"We didn't get caught. Yet. She was chewing me out for something else I'd done." You plopped down onto his bed as he dropped the towel on his waist to put on boxers and shorts.

"Tha's good," he mumbled to himself as he pulled up his black shorts and tossed a hole-y t-shirt on. His hair was still dripping wet, but he just pushed it back out of his face before joining you on the bed.

"Yeah," you said emotionlessly and began picking at the threads of your white braided anklet.

Harry's eyebrows furrowed. "Wha's wrong? Figured yeh'd be leaping for joy at th'news." He grabbed the hand doing the picking and lifted it, softly kissing the knuckles.

"The pressure is killing me," you blurted all at once. "I'm so scared of getting in trouble, and I don't want to get kicked out of camp for this, but I really like you and I want to keep seeing you but holy shit I'm not used to this whole forbidden romance thing."

There was a moment of silence between the two of you before Harry let out an adorable giggle. "Oh, my God, tha' had to have been the cutest thing 've ever seen. You're such a doll." He leaned back on the palms of his hands amusedly, dimples popping out of his tanned cheeks.

"Not even you will take me seriously!" you cried, jumping up and heading to the door. Harry quickly followed you and grabbed your arm before you could leave his cabin.

"Whoa, there, kitten. Yeh can't leave right now, Paul's going back to his room after his 2:30 class. Can't have 'im seeing you leave m'cabin. " Sure enough, through a sliver of the window not covered by the canvas flaps, you saw Paul trudging back to his room with a bow strapped to his back. "N'I'm sorry I laughed. What would make you feel better about this? A second opinion? Just telling someone here what's going on? Have yeh even told anyone else about us?"

"No!" Your eyes narrowed to slits. "Why? Have you?"

He snorted. "Yeah, the only male counselor under 25 is dating another counselor, it'd be a great idea to tell a girl counselor, 'cause she certainly won't tell anyone el--"

"Okay, okay, damn, you've made your point," you interrupted, holding a hand to his chest. "What should I do then?"

He shrugged. "Do yeh think telling a trusted friend counselor about us would make yeh feel better?" His big hands rubbed up and down the sides of your arms, oddly enough calming you down. You nodded gently, looking up at him. He responded by kissing you again. "'m sorry we can't be more open, baby, yeh know I want t'be."

You rolled your shoulders back, making his hands drop back down to his sides. "I know, love. We gotta do what we can. I'll see you at the fireworks show." He could barely even wave to you before you fluttered out of his room back into campgrounds.

Who to talk to? You honestly couldn't even think of someone really worthy to tell this big secret to. Your mind went at a million miles an hour, but fortunately your legs did the thinking for you and took you in the direction of the art pavilion.

It had a giant sign over the main entrance with the words Dabbler's Den in yellow paint. As a camper, you once asked why it was named that, and allegedly it was to reference how many art forms you would dabble in while there. Today, apparently, was tie-dye t-shirts, since you found Kathia and a CIT demonstrating to her campers how to squeeze the bottles of runny dye onto their twisted-up and rubber banded t-shirts. While you were lucky enough to snag another older set of girls this week, this time Kat was stuck with 10-year-olds.

"Remember ladies," Kathia cheerfully announced to the group, not noticing your arrival. "When it comes to tie-dye, more is more when it comes to pigmentation, but be realistic about our dye budget!" The campers giggled at her joke and immediately started lunging for ketchup and mustard bottles filled with various colors.

"Kat? Can I talk to you in private for a sec?" you tapped the bubbly girl on the shoulder, making her whip around to face you.

"Sure," she agreed, taking the paint-smeared apron off and hanging it on a brass hook on the wall. "Sierra, make sure no one tries to drink the dye while I'm gone!"

Her CIT flashed a thumbs up, but one of the campers yelled, "We're not four years old, Miss Kathia!"

The Dabbler's Den was divided in half by a craft room in the middle, with a hallway leading to the back of the pavilion. There were steps to this section, and it was only used when the Den was double booked. It looked off into the river and was considerably more quiet than the other half.

"What's going on? What did Crick say?" Kat asked, already hopping onto the battered craft table with wide eyes.

"She got on my ass about letting my campers steal orange juice from the Great Hall. But... there's something else I have to tell you." Your lower belly suddenly filled with nervous energy, and your hands fiddled with each other.

Kathia's head lulled to one side. "What's up?"

"Harry and I are dating. We have been for months now, and I know it's not allowed, but I'm so scared of getting caught and keeping it to myself is absolutely killing me. I've never kept a secret of this magnitude before. I'm so scared Cricket is gonna find out, is my hair going gray? I think I'm barely twenty and already getting gray hairs." You punctuated your wild ramble with your fingers threading through your hair and tilting your whole head forward so Kat could see the strands and check for actual graying hairs.

"Y/N, calm down!" Kathia reassured, grabbing your shoulders and standing you back up. "I already knew."

"And I've been sneaking around for weeks trying to keep it on the down low but it's stressful! I've-- wait." You stopped for a good few seconds, reading Kat's face. It was like she was holding back a laugh. "You already knew," you deadpanned, unsure if it was a question or not.

"Yes, I did!" she affirmed, finally letting out that laugh. "I've been onto you for like two and a half weeks now. Do you think you're secretive? You always get the right shower temperature, Y/N." Kat shrugged and dropped her eyes to the ground for a moment. "When you just let Paige go off at night, I kinda got the idea that it was so you could have some fun of your own but I wasn't sure who with. I severely doubted it being Paul so unless you were gay this whole time, it had to be Harry. Before you snuck out, I pretended to be asleep and followed you to see if I was right and I may have seen something I shouldn't have."

Your eyes widened. "You were the one who caught us?!" Your hands flew up to cover your mouth before you could even stop them.

"Yes! I was as embarrassed as you were afraid, so I bolted to get back to the cabin before you did, but I think I woke up Cricket. I couldn't see super well so I knocked over a box that was by her window. Tell your campers I'm sorry about getting them busted."

You sighed in relief, placing a hand over your heart. "Wow. That's a huge weight off my chest. You're not gonna tell anyone, right? About Harry and me?"

Kathia shook her head. "I don't necessarily approve of it, but I like you. I won't rat you out to Cricket or anyone else here. That doesn't mean someone else won't find out though," she warned, wagging a finger at you. "So be careful. Speaking of your campers, what did you do about them sneaking out and getting caught by Crick?"

You picked at a cuticle. "I kinda... took the fall for it. Promised not to let it happen again."

Kathia shook her head, walking towards the stairs back up to the other side of Dabbler's. "You said you weren't gonna do that. Stand by your own word. Take control of your life, Y/N!" she called after you, grabbing her apron and tossing it back on. You wouldn't have admitted it then, but she was right. You remained speechless for a few moments before turning and going back to your bracelet-weaving campers.

As the evening approached, the weather cooled down, and the sky went a bright pink before darkening altogether, camp went into a frenzy to prepare for the show. Counselors wrangled up their girls and ensured they had towels to sit on and Cricket was occupying all walkie talkie traffic getting staff to move their cars off the field where the fireworks would be launched.

You were minding your own business once you got your more competent girls settled in, and just so happened to be caught in Crick's line of sight when you were looking for Harry just before the show was due to start.

"Y/N!" Cricket snapped, pointing at you.

"Ma'am?" you replied, halting in your tracks and turning to her.

"The show is supposed to begin soon and I haven't seen Sydney anywhere. She's the one who's in charge of the fireworks. Can you go find her? If you need me I'll be in my usual fireworks spot," she tapped the folding chair slung over her shoulder for good measure and went on her way.

Part of you wanted to let Sydney fail, to pretend to have looked for her and just let her be late and take the blame for herself, but you couldn't. Syd had never done anything specifically bad to you other than get on your ass about rules, so you went looking for her.

The first place you thought to try was her cabin, which was empty. Then you went to the office building where Cricket had reprimanded you just hours before. Thanks to the evening weather, when you opened the door, the air inside was actually cool enough to give you shivers and goosebumps.

There was a clattering from one of the storage closets (one you and H hadn't consummated in yet, for the record) and you terrifiedly approached the door. It could be a raccoon, or a small deer, or a huge conglomeration of evolved rats, or a sexual predator. Or... maybe not.

You turned the knob before jumping back, and Sydney bursted out from the closet, dropping to the ground and catching herself on her hands. The infectious reek that followed her out of the room and the clinking of obvious bottles behind her revealed that she was off-her-ass drunk. Sydney looked up through fluttered lashes, clearly amused at herself.

"Oops! How did I end up in the closet, I'm not even gay!" she slurred, giggling and hiccuping around her words.

"Sydney... what the fuck?" you blurted, unsure of what to do in this situation. Sure, you and Harry smoked a little on weekends. And maybe you weren't even supposed to be together in the first place... but you didn't get blackout drunk when you're supposed to be around campers! "You're supposed to be on firework duty in five minutes!" Yeah, as if that's still a viable option at this point. Real Mensa member over here.

"S'no big deal," Sydney countered, wobbling back up onto her feet, only to casually lean on a table. "Just point the lighter, put your right hand in, keep your shoulders straight, HEY MACARENA!" she yelled, echoing in the office building.

"Sydney! Pipe down! I've got to get you to bed, now," you decided while reaching for her, but she jerked away, suddenly angry.

"Don't *hic* touch me!" she coughed. "I don't have to *hic* do what you *hic* say! What are you gonna do? Tell on me? I'm sure once you do that, Cricket will love to know you've been fucking the lifeguard the whole time." She stamped her feet and crossed her arms like a child... like a child with a detrimental secret.

Your breath almost caught. "I don't know what you're talking about." You continued to try to sorta carry Sydney back to her cabin, and she was too drunk and angry to stop you this time.

You managed to guide the intoxicated girl back to her cabin and get her set up in her own bed. You placed a trashcan next to where her head was, poured a glass of water for her to drink when she woke up, and settled her body into the "recovery" position you'd learned in high school. Push them on their side, pull the top knee over to support the position, extend the bottom arm to keep from rolling over, and place the top arm under the chin to prevent choking on vomit. Before you knew it, Sydney was snoozing peacefully. You double checked that she was still breathing through at least one of her orifices (she was, all of them actually) and flipped off the light to her cabin.

What were you going to do about Sydney? She clearly knew about you and Harry and probably had been waiting for a good enough reason to let you know she was onto you. Was she just talking out of her ass, or would she really be willing to take you down with her unless you kept quiet about her drinking problem? You'd never been blackmailed before and frankly you thought that those gray hairs were starting to come in full swing.

No time to worry about that. You, obviously, were going to be late to the fireworks show, but then again, the girl who was in charge of it wasn't even going to be attending. All you had to do was find someone willing to cover for Sydney who wouldn't ask a bunch of questions about her whereabouts.

Paul was the obvious first choice-- you searched around for him and found him smoking a cigarette behind the nurse's office. He saw no problem in working the fireworks stand and didn't really care much about why Syd wasn't available anymore, so all you had to do now was find H and enjoy the light show.

When you finally found him, he was standing on the edge of the field between the campers and the pool holding what appeared to be a quilt. He was scanning around for you, and when he saw you his face lit up and you jogged over.

"What's with the blanket?" you asked breathlessly, pointing at the big red quilt folded up into his arms.

"Was thinkin' we could share it." Harry's hands weren't free to gesture, but he motioned with his chin towards the ground.

You smiled a tiny bit. "Okay. That's cute." You helped Harry unfold the blanket until it was fully opened and laid on the ground to his left.

The fireworks show was now officially overdue, but fortunately nobody had a watch or a phone that could tell them the difference between eight and eight oh five. The camp had a murmur of mild conversation and excited whispers draped over everyone, and it was completely silenced when the first rocket shot into the air.

As soon as the first firework popped and every head of every camper, counselor, and director was pointed up at the sky, Harry reached over to his right and grabbed the edge of the blanket, pulling it over both of your bodies, making a small cocoon of just the two of you. You were out in the open, and nobody was looking.

He gazed down at you like you were the most beautiful artwork he had ever seen, like you were the moon, like you were a fireworks show. He fluttered his eyes shut and so did you, and his lips were on yours.

Sparks were flying through your whole being at this intimate yet critically risky move. Making no noise was the hardest part, because even though the explosions and crowd were loud, there were moments of silence as the fireworks shot up... Silence that would shamelessly reveal the gasps and moans and kissing noises the two of you elicited from the other.

Finally, when the oxygen level got just low enough under the blanket that both of you tapped out, he lifted the quilt up and the two of you sat up and enjoyed the rest of the show, breathless and a little sweatier than everyone else there.

Harry looked at you instead of the sky. He was smiling at you, and when you looked down from the show to meet his gaze, his smile did that subtle change when a normal, closed-mouth smile gets bigger, as if he was too happy to keep his teeth hidden. It was like when you were around, there wasn't a face he could physically make to show how happy he was with you.

After the show, when all the campers were tucked away in their cabins, the counselors (except for Sydney, of course) gathered around the massive fire pit by the riverbanks. Harry brought his guitar and some of the cooks brought s'mores ingredients. The fire was lit up and some of y'all roasted marshmallows while the rest enjoyed the music.

One of the girls suggested singing Country Roads and at first everyone laughed, but when Harry started strumming it out softly, nobody could bring themselves to not sing along. Everyone swayed with full hearts as the fire danced up into the night sky.

"I wanna make a toast," Dani announced, standing up from the log she'd been sitting on. "I've been dealing with seemingly infinite young children for almost two months now in addition to one of the most uptight bosses I've ever had, and I once worked for someone who make you clock out to pee." The counselors laughed a little but died down as she continued. "But you know what keeps me going, week after week? You guys. Getting to have moments like this is what really makes summer memorable. That, and the really good garlic bread the kitchen has. Shoutout to Hannah." More laughter erupted as one of the cooks flipped her hair pridefully. "So yeah. I toast to my fellow counselors. May we all make it out without hurting a fellow counselor, a CIT, camper, or Cricket!"

Not everyone had a whole s'more or a water bottle, so the rest of us had to toast with a dry graham cracker. The resources were lackluster, but it was the words that counted and Dani nailed them.

The next day, when you were walking back from Dabbler's with your group, you got an unfortunate message from your hip.

Your walkie talkie crackled to life. "Cricket to Sydney and Y/N. My office, now."

You froze in place. "Ten-four," you muttered to yourself, not even reaching for the talkie. You barely nodded to your CIT before taking off in the direction of the office.

Sydney was already in Crick's office by the time you got there. The three of you stood in the room together in a triangle formation, and the air in the room was palpably tense with the sound of blood rushing in your ears getting louder and louder. Finally, Cricket spoke up with a simple question.

"Can someone explain to my why Paul was in charge of the fireworks yesterday?"

It was silent, and neither you nor Sydney were quite sure what to say. Not only did either of you want to tell the truth, but you also hated each other too much to construct a safe backup story to cover your asses.

Cricket continued. "Yesterday, I gave Sydney the job of setting off the fireworks, and Y/N the job of finding her before the show started. So... pray tell. Why did Paul ask me this morning where the leftover matches and sparklers go? I would've assumed that since I gave Sydney that job that she would've been the one asking me that." Her tone was condescending and drawn out, as if you were stupid.

"I guess I fell asleep," Sydney finally cooed. Oh my God. She was trying to pin this on you! "When I woke up it wasn't until after the show had ended! I must not have been woken up in time." Her eyes drifted over to you, as if you should be ashamed for letting this happen.

"What?!" you shrieked. "You were piss drunk when I found you! You couldn't open a door let alone handle fireworks! You're lucky I didn't leave your ass in the closet to puke all over yourself, and now you're turning me in as if I got you wasted and I didn't cover for you?!" By now you'd reached the breaking point and decided to really seal Sydney's fate. You marched over to the closet you'd discovered Sydney in and yanked the door open. Sure enough, the smell hadn't gone away and neither had the bottles that noisily rolled out. "How do you explain that? 'Cause I don't drink and I don't think Cricket's sauce of choice is a fucking Four Loko! Are you still drunk now? Can you even defend yourself?" you hissed. Earlier in the summer you probably would’ve let Sydney make whatever accusation she wanted and taken it in stride, but you were done. No more making excuses for other people and being a doormat.

Sydney's face flickered, devastated over her blown cover, but pushed on anyways. "At least I'm not a slut! You've been fooling around with Harry this whole summer!"

It's a pretty good thing your anger totally overwhelmed how bad you were at acting. "You fucking liar! You're making that up so you won't get busted even though you already have been. I don't even like Harry! He's loud and arrogant and narcissistic and irrespon--"

"Y/N, that's enough." Cricket finally chimed in, overwhelmed by what was going on. "Nobody likes being accused of things they didn't do, but it's not an excuse to insult Harry. If you have such a problem with him, take it up with him some other time," Cricket reprimanded, and it took so much in you not to burst out laughing. "And you, Sydney, should be embarrassed. Creating a rumor to deflect off your own alcoholism? At least use something believable next time." Crick rolled her eyes as she talked and Syd's jaw was practically on the floor. "I believe your time at Camp Jalita is over. Get your things packed by tonight or the camp board will hear about this and charges will be pressed."

Unable to do anything else, Sydney complied. When she'd left the room and slammed the door behind her, Cricket stepped forward and placed a hand on your shoulder. "I'm sorry I had to call you in here for that. I figured something was up with Sydney and I knew she would lie to me. But you... you're the most trustworthy counselor here, and I thought you'd give me the truth. So thank you. You're free to go back to your girls and enjoy the rest of your week."

"Any time, Cricket," you replied with a smile. So maybe you were lying to her the whole summer and everything she knew about you was a swindle, but Crick's words still made your heart swell.

"Oh, and Y/N?" she called just before you made it outside. "You should really give Harry a chance. He's actually quite a nice boy if you get to know him!" Cricket offered, sitting down at her desk and slipping her glasses on.

You giggled. "Of course, ma'am, I'll try."

Since your campers were busy getting ready to go swimming, the only place you could think to go was back to your cabin. Dani and Kat were on the brunette's bed, poring over a tabloid Dani's mom sent to her through camp mail.

"Y/N? What's wrong? Why are you out of breath?" the girls asked, concerned over your distraught appearance.

You sat on your bed and sighed. "I just got Sydney fired."

Your cabin mates gasped, demanding to know the whole story. You went over every detail, from her chastising you since the beginning of the summer, to her drinking problem, to her blackmailing you, to the meeting you had only moments before.

"Wait, wait, what was she blackmailing you over?" Dani asked, brows furrowed. Oh, right-- she didn't know about you and H. You explained you and Harry's story including any detail you could remember, and by the end of it Dani was practically squealing in delight. "Oh my God! Y'all are so cute together! I should've known. You always get the right temperature in the shower, there had to have been someone else!" You and the other girls laughed together, and you finally felt something that you hadn't felt since before the summer started. You couldn't quite pin what it was, but it was the feeling of not having to hide anymore.

Acceptance? Safety? Freedom? Whatever it was, you wanted to bathe in that feeling forever.

***

With Sydney out of the picture and your two friends offering to cover up for you whenever they could, the remainder of your summer with Harry blew by without you even realizing it. Something else that happened without you realizing it was the two of you falling deeper and deeper in love than either could have fathomed.

Every year, at the end of the summer, the camp staff makes a huge banner to hang up in the Great Hall that every counselor that worked that year signed. There are banners dating back to the 80's, and every year had a certain theme. One was fall-themed and all the felt pieces signed by the counselors were orange and yellow and red leaves. One was rain-themed and the signed pieces were raindrops.

This summer it was art-themed. Each counselor was given a splat-shaped piece of felt to sign their name on. You, of course, demanded your favorite color, annoying the girl passing them out.

You took your time to write your name, carefully writing it in pencil first. You poured yourself a second cup of coffee that day in secret and painstakingly traced it out with a Sharpie. That evening, with caffeine still in your veins, you proudly showed it to Harry at the end of the day before Taps.

"'S beautiful, Y/N," he beamed. "Yeh've got magic hands."

You could feel your cheeks heat up even in the slightly chilly dusk weather. "Thanks, love."

"I was wondering if yeh'd want to... I don' know. Add something small? To commemorate our summer together?" he suggested, voice low.

Your eyes flickered up from the felt piece. "What did you have in mind?" you asked warily, not wanting to be completely obvious.

"A small seashell in one of the arms goin' off th'splat. It's an ancient symbol of love, and also was the symbol of Venus, the Roman goddess of love," he explained, his voice still low.

Your heart swelled at this sweet side of Harry. "Oh, my God, H," you said, matching his volume.

"Let's begin Taps, ladies and Harry and Paul!" Rachel, the camper leader, called. Everyone crossed their arms right over left and clasped hands with the person next to them, creating a giant intimate chain while everyone sung.

"I would love that," you whispered to Harry, dropping your head into the crook of his shoulder before singing, "Day is done..."

"Gone the sun..."

"From the lake, from the hills, from the sky..."

#Harry Styles #harry styles writing #harry styles fan fiction #harry styles smut #majorharry #harryforvogue #haroldloverboy #jawllines #i hope you all enjoyed!! this is my pride and joy and baby so be nice to her #i'll make a master list eventually but I'm out i have an 8 am tomorrow PEACE

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theinkquiry · 7 years

Text

Popular | Chapter 5

Pairing: Bucky Barnes X Avenger!Reader

Prompt: Tony has made a bet to see who could end up with the most fans, out of the Avengers, by the end of the month. Bucky takes it just to piss Sam off and Reader really wants to prove that she isn’t the least popular. Bucky and Reader team up to be a fake couple in order to beat the other Avengers, agreeing to split the prize at the end. Will it all work out?

A/N: I really don’t know why I picked Clint, but I swear I don’t have him. He’s just very…fitting for the following scenarios. Enjoy that Serious Bucky™ gif.

Warnings: It’s fluffy until it’s suddenly not. Clint gets the short end of the stick.

Series Masterlist

Clint’s Bad Day

Trouble brewing in Avengers Tower? Our undercover team caught never before seen exclusive shots from the photoshoot the team had just a week back. What the cameras didn’t show was the drama that was happening between superstar couple Bucky Barnes and Y/N L/N behind the scenes! Our photographers first caught Bucky making eyes at another girl on set. Experts and theorists both agree that this could mean signs of an affair.

Either way, this did not sit well with his girlfriend. Y/N was quick to see that her boyfriend was not paying her the fullest of attention. Jealous much? Not soon after, the two quickly started arguing. As seen in the photos, arguing began not long after the end of Bucky’s shoot. He seems to be going on the defense but quickly takes the offense after Y/N pushed a few wrong buttons. It looks like these two are just a few stops away from Splitsville…

“That’s enough. I don’t want to hear any more.” You slouch down into the sofa and cover your face with your hands. How could this happen?

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. Those stupid gossip columnists don’t know what they’re talking about.” Wanda carefully patted your back.

Everyone had gathered once more for the score reveal. It was almost halfway through the competition, and you were already losing what you had gained. This time around, you were at the number four spot before, but now it had fallen. Bucky wasn’t faring much better. It was actually kind of hard to tell which one of you was on top. Your two scores kept alternating between the seventh and eighth spot

When everyone looked to Tony, the man only shrugged. “You two are being tweeted about so much, I think the machine is having a hard time keeping up and seeing which ones are actually positive. Bottom line is, you both have a lot of supporters and a lot of haters.”

“I can’t believe they did this without our permission!” Bucky slammed his fist down on the table. Everyone jumped a bit when the wood looked like it was about to give. Your heart sank at his realization of what he could have done. “I-I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s not your fault, Buck. Those reporters are taking all of this way out of context. There wasn’t any audio, video, or even eye-witnesses!” You point out.

“Who even let this anonymous camera guy onto set anyway?” Nat glared at Tony. “You said you knew everyone there.”

Tony held a finger up. “I said I knew the people from the company. I am not responsible for these two lovebirds getting caught at a bad time.” Tony scooped up the article and briefly scanned it. “This sure is a pickle..”

“Yeah, we got that part already,” Steve snapped. He sighed and went back to consoling you and Bucky. “It’s not your fault, guys. We’ll just..hold a conference or whatever to clear it all up.”

Nat grimaced. “Not a good call. Addressing this kind of gossip only makes it worse. You need to be clear, short, but not act totally heartless.”

“So you except for the last part,” Clint snorted. Nat threw a glare his way, along with a copy of the magazine. “Hey, I was just joking!”

You looked over the article again. It was the same four to five pictures on every single website, blog, and paper. Bucky being flirty with the camera woman, and then you looking upset. You exhaled and tried to think of ways to salvage what was left of the relationship. You didn’t even realize you were squeezing Bucky’s hand whilst reading until he gave a squeeze back.

“Hm?” You lifted your head up, momentarily distracted from the incriminating paragraphs.

Bucky gave you a weak smile. “I may be strong, but I think I’d prefer if you didn’t break my last real hand.” You looked down and saw that you gripped his hand to the point where it was turning a bit red.

“Oh dear, I’m so sorry Bucky. It’s just-” You let go and sigh deeply. “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand how a few out of context pictures could blow up into such a big scandal. A phony one too. The one day where the Kardashians decided to stop being for once.”

It was draining, hearing badmouthing and lies from almost every outlet imaginable. You were all over TV, newspapers, the internet, even trending number two on Twitter. You were only beat out because a rumor spread that Guy Fieri had died from flavor poisoning (#flavordrowned). You and the other Avengers spent the last hour talking about the romance rumors. You and Bucky have even made a little nest on the couch to cope- complete with comfort blankets, ice cream, and Steve.

“I just want this to go away,” you mumbled into Bucky’s shoulder. You frustratedly threw a magazine, aiming it at nowhere. Unfortunately for Clint, he got hit again.

“Guys, I was just joking!” He rubbed his head. “Why were you two arguing in the first place?”

Uh oh. You and Bucky froze up, looking at each other with frightened eyes. The team was staring intently now. Why was it that you were always being cornered at the exact same place? The universe clearly was not in favor of you getting your new penthouse sweet penthouse.

“Yeah, why were you arguing in this picture? It’s probably not what the papers say it is, but Y/N does really look upset in this one,” Nat observed.

Tony rested his head in his hands, eagerly leaning forward to hear the story. Even Steve stopped to look you both in the eye. “Well?”

“I-it is really stupid,” you mutter.

Bucky nodded in agreement. “Not something we’re proud of.” That part was the truth. At this rate, neither one of you were too happy about the false relationship. If you were caught now, you might as well be stuck living in your overcrowded room forever. You looked at Bucky, who was equally nerve-wracked. Suddenly, the blankets over you felt way too hot.

“Come on. It can’t be that bad,” Wanda encouraged. Actually yeah, it can. You took a deep breath. Maybe if you just kept denying stuff, they’ll stop pressing on. Bucky seemed to be a better liar than you were.

“It was because we couldn’t agree on where to go out, okay?” Bucky finally admitted. “We were both craving something different and didn’t feel in the mood to compromise. That was it. It was stupid, we didn’t end up going out anyway, and we made up three seconds after the last photograph.”

Hah. You bet everyone felt stupid after asking that question. “Seriously? Over where to eat lunch?” Clint held in a laugh.

“I was on my period, okay?” You snapped. That shut the guys up pretty quickly. Nat raised her eyebrow, but didn’t press on any further. You quickly felt your cheeks heating up and buried your face under more blankets. “This. Sucks.”

You couldn’t see, but you did feel someone (namely Bucky) lift you up in their arms. You weren’t sure if it was because you really needed a hug or if it was just really really nice in general to be lifted like a paper bag by Bucky, but you sure did feel a whole lot better. Especially since you were apparently leaving the room.

“I think Y/N and I better go upstairs. We don’t want someone,” He sounded like he just gave the death eyes, “upsetting us further.”

Your best guess was Clint. Your suspicions were proved correct as a yelp of pain escaped his mouth. “Ow! Come on, I wasn’t being serious! Do you remember a time when I wasn’t the punching bag? Because I sure don’t! Why do we buy so many magazine copies anyway? They’re all online!”

The rest of his complaints were drowned out as the elevator whisked you away to a quieter- and hopefully less violent- place. You let out the fortieth sigh of today and settled for pressing yourself closer to Bucky. Even though it was probably a hundred and five degrees outside, snuggling up in blankets with air conditioning on full blast was the most comforting activity you could name.

You peeked out from where you were hiding to see that Bucky had opted to go to your floor instead of his. You were quite thankful since it meant you didn’t have to leave the pile of blankets currently surrounding your entire body.

“You look like a caterpillar that just refuses to come out,” Bucky commented.

“Why bother when I can stay in here forever. No bad press and no other Avengers. Besides, traveling via super-soldier express is very luxurious,” you state. It was safe here, unlike out there where a flying magazine could hit Clint in the head at any given moment.

“I just can’t believe what’s going on. You were right about the whole flirting thing. I-I’m so sorry. Now I’ve cost us both the win,” Bucky lamented. He gently placed you down on your bed. He laid next to you, arms folded behind his head. There was a crease that ran deep along his forehead, and the smile that you were starting to get used to was nowhere to be seen. You had definitely both seen better days.

“No, it was me. I’m the one who got all up in your face and upset.” You muster up the energy to roll over and onto Bucky so that both of you were covered by the blanket burrito.

“Are you trying to crush me so that you can steal the win?” Bucky’s playful nature started to peek out. You smirked to yourself.

“I still need you to win, remember? I’m trying to be nice and cover you. Do you want the blankets or not?” He shrugs and rearranges them to fit both of you.

“Now I won’t have to tell everyone you drowned via blanket tsunami.” Curse him and his stupidly charming jokes. You were ready to propose a night of hiding and watching old movies when a series of long vibrations started to shake the bedside table. “What is that?”

You look up and grab at your phone. You tug it underneath the layers and watch as your normally quiet screen is lit up with hundreds of Twitter notifications. “Uh oh.”

“What?” Bucky dipped his head in. “What are they doing?”

“Y/N is such a clingy shrew. Bucky is the classic example of unreliable men. Bucky should just dump her and move on, preferably with me. Don’t let anybody steal your man, go Y/N.” You continued to read out tweet after tweet. Sometimes, it was funny. Other times, it was downright uncomfortable. You received threats, degrading name-calling, and even jealous fans. Bucky seemed to be getting just as much hate.

“This is so stupid. I can’t believe they’re talking about us like that.” Bucky frowned, taking your phone from you. “They’re calling me a two-timer now?”

“Ugh. All because you were flirting prematurely,” you said. Apparently, this comment was quite alarming to your dearest fake lover.

“Excuse me?” He sat up, looking very stoic. “I was what?”

“What?” You frowned. “Am I wrong?” He even admitted it early. You didn’t get what his issue was.

“So now you’re blaming me for this?” He gasped. “I thought we agreed it was nobody’s fault.”

“I’m not saying it was. But I do recall that you were the one who started to get all up and friendly with Miss Gorgeous Photographer,” you accused.

“Jealousy is not a good look on you,” Bucky uttered. Your mouth hung wide open in shock. Frankly, you were a little offended. Maybe you were being overdramatic, but he did not just accuse you of being jealous.

You shrugged off the blankets, deciding to face him without the added padding. “Say that again?” It was more of a challenge than a question.

“Just admit that you were jealous. I didn’t go all bug-eyed when you were giggling like idiots with Sam,” Bucky asserted.

“Real mature bringing Sam into this. Remind me again how long your preschool feud has been going on? I don’t have to be jealous of anything. How dare you call me jealous when you were the one who had such a disregard for our agreement! I warned you to keep your eyes away from other women-”

“-which was exactly what gave the photographer enough dirty gossip and ruin our reputations,” he finished angrily. He got up, quite proud of himself for such a flimsy argument. In a rush of pent up rage, you gave him a shove. It probably felt like nothing to a man of that stature, but Bucky somehow stumbled back a bit anyway.

“Real mature,” he spat.

“Yeah? Like telling Sam to wear a giant ‘Loser’ shirt is so mature,” you sneered.

“Why do you keep bringing that guy up? Are you in love with him or something?” Bucky growled.

You felt really warm now, and not because of the blankets. It wasn’t a nice, fluffy warm. It was the hot chili pepper enraged kind. “I’m sick of you and your downright stupid attitude. If anything, you’re the one who has him on your mind twenty-four-seven.”

“You sound like a teenager!” Bucky roared.

“And you act like one!” You shouted back. All this yelling made your heart accelerate really fast. You heaved heavy breaths, trying to calm yourself down. Unrealized tears threatened to spill at any moment. You gaze didn’t waver from Bucky’s. He looked back at you with the same level of furious frustration.

It seemed like you two had nothing left to say to each other. Without another word, not even a sparing glance back at you, he left. The door slammed loudly, but you didn’t bother to check if he actually broke the hinges or not. As you listened to the elevator whir away to another floor, you finally laid back down. How did everything spiral to be so out of control? This was supposed to be fun, not another headache for you to be worrying about. How did Bucky become so mean? When did you become so nasty? All these thoughts began to make your head spin.

You pulled the blankets up higher. It didn’t feel so cozy without another body wrapped around you. It was warm but empty. You closed your eyes, knowing that tomorrow there would most likely be tear stains on your blanket.

Taglist: @agentsinstorybrooke @msiilpl @just—love@rimuslymoony@mackenziesgalaxy@4babez @max-tro @221bbands@satansknittingclub@cassandras-musings@undiscl0sed-desir3s@aqueenwithoutherkingx@jigglology @starkxpotts @teenwolflover28@debzybrazy @kindnesswins@soldierplum @greypineapple @winteroses@pickylittlebitch @ravenclaw-geek24 @quicksoldier @zesty-ballerina @writing-soldiers @imissyoualittlemoreeveryday @pastelbronagh @lust-for-pan @aya-fay @this-manis-playing-galaga @ria132love @chuckennuggets1213@crazybutconfidentaf @curlycals @sergeant-james-bbarnes @taylenas2 @therealsweetspawn @saulof-tarsus @sofiaskywalker30

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#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky series #bucky barnes imagine #marvel #the avengers #avengers #marvel imagine #avengers imagine #marvel oneshot #avengers oneshot #reader insert

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pieceoftopcrap · 7 years

Note

fic of female reader and tyler joseph's best friendship? strictly platonic, angsty then fluffy. au if u want

Tear in my Heart (Tyler Joseph x Reader)

Note: Okay I love this request on so many levels. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Word Count: 2800+ (It’s a big one lol)

Warnings: Um maybe some cursing.

—-

The little girl flattened out her pink shirt and tucked a wild strand of hair behind her ear as she wobbled over the the brown haired boy who sat alone in the playground. She stood in front of him and cleared her throat, catching the boy’s attention. “Excuse me, mister.”

“What?” The boy seemed confused as he looked up at the girl with a toothy grin.

“I saw you all alone so now you are going to be my best friend.” The girl stated plainly as taking his hand and shaking it.

“Is that how you make friends?” The boy asked and the sassy girl let out a dramatic sigh.

“Of course it is. Now, I am (Y/N). And you are?”

“Tyler Joseph.”

—-

23 YEARS LATER

(Y/N) POV

I stood nervously as I waited to see the brown haired boy that had been gone so long. Of course I was proud of Tyler. I always told him his music would help people but it was hard when Tyler was gone for long periods of time, performing with Josh. Part of me wanted to always pick up and go with him. He always offered but I never wanted to be a hassle so I refrained from doing so. But, he was finally back and for the next week, I was going to be with him as the boys wrapped up their Emotional Roadshow tour with Tour de Columbus.

As my eyes scanned the busy airport, I suddenly locked eyes with the brown eyed boy and I felt my body boil with joy as a huge smile painted my face. I pushed among the crowd until I was finally met with the boy that I had been friends with for so long. “(Y/N), get your butt over here.” Tyler exclaimed as he dropped his bags and I ran into his arms, feeling his arms envelop me and a soft sigh of relief escaped my lips. Tyler was like home to me and it just never felt the same when he was away. He had been my best friend for decades now and I confided in him, told him everything, and was closer to him than I was with anyone else.

“God damn, I missed you.” I whispered and felt Tyler’s body vibrate with laughter.

“You will never know how tough it is not having you with me to help me.” he replied and my heart burst with happiness as I heard his words. He finally pulled away from me and I examined the face that I had known for so long. His brown hair was wild and unhinged, probably from a nap on the plane. He looked slightly sleepy but a huge smile was on his face, bringing out his dimples and bright eyes.

“Well, I don’t mean to interrupt but long time, no see, (Y/N).” I heard a voice say and I turned to see Josh. I giggled slightly and he pulled me into a hug as whispering in my ear, “I finally don’t have to hear Tyler complain about missing you all the time.” He pulled away and we both laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Tyler said with a quirked eyebrow.

“Josh was just telling me how much you missed me.” I said with a cocky grin and Tyler rolled his eyes.

“Of course I did. You are my best friend.” Tyler put his arm around me and we walked towards the exit. “Come on, let’s go home. We have some shows to do.”

—-

JUNE 20 - THE BASEMENT

“Tyler!” I yelled out as I turned the corner into a small room and was met with a shirtless Tyler who had his back turned to me. He definitely has some muscle and was toned and tanned. My eyes wandered as I scanned him, feeling my cheeks become pink. What the hell? Tyler was my best friend for 23 years now. I had seen him shirtless plenty of times but everything had been strictly platonic. I pushed the thoughts away as Tyler finally turned around, meeting me with a smile. My hand extended a Red Bull to him.

“Thank you.” He said as grabbing the drink and opening it. “I am so excited for you to see tonight’s show. I feel like you haven’t been to one in forever.”

“Yeah. It has been awhile.” I hated not being able to be at every show for Tyler. But, I had a job here at Columbus and he had a life that I didn’t want to constantly interfere with. Tyler noticed my change in emotion and stepped a couple feet away from me.

“What’s wrong?” He said as he grabbed my hands, causing my heart to quicken.

“I just…I missed you. A lot.” I whispered and Tyler smiled at me softly before planting a soft kiss on my head, causing those thoughts to crash into my brain again.

“I missed you, too. But you and me are here, together. And I’m going to put on the best show of this tour for you. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Tyler, we got twenty minutes left.” I turned around to see Josh peeping his head from around the door. He was all suited up in his red tux and I turned to Tyler.

“Now, go kick some ass, Tyjo.” I said as Tyler shot me a beautiful smile.

—-

JUNE 21 - NEWPORT MUSIC HALL

I felt a pair of arms wrap around you as you stood in the middle of the Newport Music Hall stage. I turned my head to see Tyler’s on my shoulder, smiling brightly. That same feeling in my stomach returned and it was one that you had been feeling a lot as I have been around Tyler. It was gnawing at me completely and made me feel absolutely crazy. This man was my best friend and if my feelings continued to develop, it would completely derail our friendship which I would never allow to happen. “Hello there.” He whispered in my ear.

“Hey.”

“What are you thinking about?” Tyler asked.

“How proud I am of you.” Tyler pulled away from me and stood at my side, smiling brightly at the empty concert hall. “I always knew you could do it. But, seeing you last night at the Basement… I mean this is where it all began. And while that was years ago, it feels like just yesterday that I was watching you perform in front of less than a dozen people. And now you are performing in front of hundreds.”

“Thank you, (Y/N).” Tyler whispered and I raised an eyebrow, slightly confused.

“What do you mean?”

“I am only here because of you. You are the one who always pushed me with my music and told me I can do it. Without you, I wouldn’t be standing here, wrapping up a world tour in my hometown where all this started. You have been my rock this whole time.” Tyler said and I felt my heart swell and eyes water at his words. I pulled the brunette into a hug and I buried my face into his neck, feeling him wrap his arms around me and pull me into his body tightly. He kissed my cheek as whispering “I love you.”

“I love you too, Tyler.” I mumbled quietly. I felt Tyler pull his body away slightly, still holding me in his arms as he stared into my eyes. He smiled at me in a way he never had before and my body felt tingly as his lips moved closer and -

“Tyler, we need you.” I turned around to see Mark pop onto the stage and then his eyes widened as he saw Tyler and I. “I’m sorry…umm..I just needed-” He mumbled awkwardly as he stood a small step back.

Tyler pulled away quickly and smiled at Mark. “I’m coming.” He turned to me and said “See you later, bud.” before walking off.

I stood on the stage alone, completely shocked and stunned at what had happened. Was Tyler going to kiss me? Or was I imagining stuff due to my thoughts that have been clouding my mind lately? I wanted to scream as I buried my hand in my face, realizing that my newfound feelings for Tyler were blossoming into something that I wouldn’t be able to control.

—-

JUNE 22 - EXPRESS LIVE!

I sat on a couch in a empty room as I scrolled through my Twitter. Obviously, since I was best friends with Tyler, the clique knew who I was so a majority of my feed were tweets from the boys fans. I read comment after comment about the fans reactions towards the end of the Blurryface era and Tour de Columbus. As reading each individual tweet, I felt enormous pride and joy towards the boys success. But, as I was scrolling through, a photo of Tyler and I caught my eye. I smiled softly as seeing a photo of us in the airport, with Tyler’s arm wrapped around me and both of our faces had full grins on them. I read the caption and felt my smile fall upon doing so.

“I swear, if @(Y/T/H) and @tylerrjoseph don’t date one day, I might die #(Y/S/N)”

What did that mean? My mind wandered as I clicked the hashtag that featured Tyler and I’s name combined. I sat there completely shocked and dumbfounded as I read over tweet and tweet that seemed to endorse a relationship between the two of us.

“Okay if #(Y/S/N) isn’t love, what the hell is?”

“@(Y/T/H) and @tylerrjoseph are meant to be. Don’t tell me otherwise #(Y/S/N)”

What you were reading was surely ridiculous. Tyler and you had sleepovers, cuddled, facetimed constantly during tour, and told each other everything but that was because he is my best friend. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I then felt someone plop down on the couch next to me and I quickly closed Twitter before looking over at Josh. “Hey (Y/N).”

“Hey Jishwa.” I giggled and Josh rolled his eyes playfully, running his hands through his neon yellow hair.

Josh’s tone then changed from playful to serious as he said “Can I ask you a question?” I nervously nodded and Josh let out a sigh before continuing. “So, what the heck happened at Newport yesterday?”

I felt my throat close up as a blush overcame my cheeks. “What do you mean?” I stupidly mumbled, knowing what he was discussing but not wanting to face the truth.

“I’m not stupid, y’know. I saw what happened and Mark wouldn’t shut up about it.” Josh said with a smirk as I groaned, leaving my head back and closing my eyes.

“It wasn’t anything. He just hugged me and I talked about how proud I am.”

“Really?” I looked over at Josh who had a cocky smirk on his face, one eyebrow raised as he knowingly looked at me. I rolled my eyes and I sighed.

“Yes. Really.” I claimed and Josh shook his head, standing up with a chuckle.

“You two are too stubborn for your own good.” Josh said and I felt my cheeks darken even more.

“Josh, please. Don’t say anything.” I pleaded. If Tyler knew of any feelings that I was having, he would completely hate me. It would make everything unbearably awkward and I couldn’t live without Tyler.

“Okay. But, may I just say, you two would be simply adorable.” Josh let out a deep laugh and I hid my face in my hands, my whole face going red with shame and embarrassment.

“Who would be adorable?” My head flew up as I was met with Tyler walking into the doorway, an unreadable expression on his face as he grabbed a water bottle from a table.

“No one.” I quickly replied, shooting a glare at Josh as if to warn him to keep his mouth shut.

Tyler turned to me and raised an eyebrow. “Since when do we keep secrets?” He asked with a stern tone and I heard Josh clear his throat as I silently cursed him.

“I’ll see you two later.” He replied and ran off, giving me an apologetic smile.

“So, who is it?” Tyler continued and I stood up, grabbing a bottle and nervously opening it.

“Tyler, it is really nothing. Josh was just joking around.” I muttered and looked down at the bottle, too nervous to look into Tyler’s eyes.

“Fine. Guess this is how it will work.” Tyler huffed. I finally met eyes with him and was shocked to see an agitated expression riddle his features.

“Tyler-”

“We tell each other everything, (Y/N)! Why are you lying to me?” Tyler exclaimed.

“I’m not, Tyler. Just drop it.” I lied and seeing his betrayed face broke my heart.

“Fine.” The room stayed eerily silent as we both stared at the ground. “Maybe you shouldn’t watch the show tonight then.”

Tyler’s words cut the silence like a knife and I couldn’t help but to be hurt. I felt my eyes become watery as I still avoided his gaze. “Fine.” I muttered as grabbing my bag and leaving the arena.

—-

JUNE 24 - NATIONWIDE ARENA

I stood in my kitchen, sipping a cup of tea as scrolling through Twitter again. It broke my heart everything I saw something about the boys Express Live! performance. I had hurt Tyler because I didn’t tell him the truth, but telling him the truth would just ruin things further. It was 10:32 AM and by now, I would be in the arena with Tyler. There would be a twinkle in his eye as he talked to me about the previous night’s performance. But, it had been two days since their last performance and the two of us hadn’t sent even a single text to each other.

My train of thought broke as I heard my doorbell ring and I walked over to it slowly, pulling a sweater that I stole from Tyler onto me. I grasped the door handle and pulled it open slowly, met with the figure of my best friend. I couldn’t help but to smile softly as the brown haired boy that stole my heart stood in front of me, giving me a dopey smile. “Come on in.” I whispered and Tyler walked past me into my apartment.

“Listen, I am sorry. I was being a total dick and shouldn’t have-” I interrupted him as I wrapped my arms around him, feeling him pull me in tighter. It may had only been two days, but it had felt like forever since he held me. I leaned my head against his chest as he kissed my head. I closed my eyes and felt a smile come upon my face as he rocked me back and forth slowly. I heard him quietly start singing.

She’s the tear in my heart

I’m alive

She’s the tear in my heart

I’m on fire

She’s the tear in my heart

Take me higher

Than I’ve ever been.

—-

JUNE 25 - THE SCHOTT

You watched as Tyler and Josh stood on the stage, both of them getting ready to play Tear In My Heart. Tyler looked over at you on the side of the stage and winked quickly, causing you to blush slightly. “Okay, okay, before we start this next song, I want to thank someone who has now been by my side for 23 years. It’s been an incredible ride with her and without her, I wouldn’t be here. So, thank you (Y/N).” Tyler looked over at you and you smiled, feeling tears in your eyes.

“I am so grateful everyday that you went up to me on the first day of kindergarten and told me we were going to be best friends. Never did I think that I would still be your best friend or that I’d be in an arena like this, singing this song that I wrote about you.” You suddenly felt frozen in place as you heard Tyler’s words, hearing as the crowd screamed hysterically and Josh pumped his fist. Of course you understood what Tear In My Heart was about. Everybody did. But you never, ever imagined that he had written the song about you. You couldn’t move as your heard Tyler perform the song, continuously glancing over at you with a semi-nervous smile as the huge crowd of people sang his very own lyrics back to him.

You had spent these past few days (and years to be frank) scared to reveal feelings for Tyler due to your friendship. But, you now watch the same boy sing a song about you in front of hundreds and you realized he wasn’t only your best friend, but also the boy you were in love with. When the song came to a close and the fans cheered, you ran onto the stage without any doubt in your mind and crashed your lips onto Tylers. You heard the crowd roar wildly as Tyler’s arms wrapped around you and you linked your arms around his neck. You kissed each other like you had wanted to for years as you smiled into it. You pulled away from Tyler to hear him whisper “I love you.” so only you could hear.

“I love you too.”

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