#lifeguarding was so fun sometimes
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I miss keeping a sketchbook actually
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Steve Harrington x fem!reader[4.3K] loosely based on the movie float, lifeguard!steve, a summer full of swim lessons. mentions of drowning, eventual smut 18+
SWIM LESSON SCHEDULE
LESSON #2
[Six Months Before]
Steve Harrington was standing in Tammy Thompson’s backyard, bumping his knuckles against Eddie’s as the boy approached with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in his hand.
Eddie had dragged you out, brown eyes pleading as per, promising he’d score big at this party and he’d definitely buy you a burger and shake with his takings on the way home. Midnight, he’d said, swear it, he’d said. But the clock in Tammy’s moms kitchen was ticking towards one o’clock and when Eddie spotted Steve - and Jonathan Byers - out by the pool, you’d made the decision to hang back.
They were too close to the water, the lagoon shaped pool lit up in the night by an underwater glow, yellow-white spotlights that made sure you could see just how deep it was. There were some girls hanging close by, dresses and skirts rucked up their thighs and their shoes long lost as they dipped their legs into the bright blue water, pink lips around cherry vodka bottles and their eyes on the boys - a potential ride home in more ways than one.
“M’not gonna let you just fall into the pool,” Eddie had frowned when you’d told him you’d wait inside. “Who even does that anyway? You’re not wasted enough for that sweetheart.”
And you weren’t. Barely tipsy, actually.
But the pool took up most of the patio space and other people were drunk, stumbling around the yard and trying to dance to the music that came from the open kitchen door. The water was too much, too deep, too blue, too dark.
And Steve Harrington was too pretty and intimidating - but you didn’t tell Eddie that part.
Jonathan spotted you over Eddie’s shoulder and waved, smiling kindly before he said something that made Eddie’s eyes light up with excitement. And that was okay because Jonathan was quiet and sweet and always polite to you, commenting on the books he’d see you reading when he passed you in town and sometimes he’d bump into you during Eddie’s hellfire meetings, passing as he picked up his little brother.
Steve, you didn’t see as much. Only from afar, usually. He was quieter than he’d been in high school, crownless and a little softer around the edges than when you sat two rows behind him in Mrs Click’s class. But Robin had a lot of things to say about him, gentle ribbing that was always wrapped in a fondness anyone with eyes could see and for a while, you thought that maybe they were a thing until Robin had vehemently told you that they were everything but.
Platonic with a capital P, she’d told you, popping the last letter and hiding the burn in her cheeks.
But still, you knew he gave her rides to work before he drove himself to the pool, acting oblivious and almost uncomfortable when the hoards of freshman girls made a point to pick the loungers closest to the lifeguard tower.
Not that you’d ever seen such a thing. But Robin liked to poke fun and Eddie was a bigger gossip than the cheerleader he used to date during his sophomore year.
So really, you had once mused, there wasn’t really any reason to be so avoidant of Steve Harrington now. Except, once you finally admitted to yourself you had an awfully bad crush on him, that was excuse enough. He would nod and smile politely at you when he ran into you and Eddie around town, at the mall, in the crowds at parties. And on good days, you’d smile back, lips thin and tight in an overly polite grimace of some sort but neither of you attempted to make conversation with each other. Any awkward silences were filled by your mutual friend, Eddie talking loudly and animatedly about whatever topic came to mind, his curls and his laugh both big enough to patch over any uncomfortable silences.
So when a few minutes passed with you staring into your drink, watching the ice cubes melt into whatever concoction Eddie had handed you, you didn’t expect Steve to appear beside you. He was busying himself with the stack of beers on the kitchen counter beside you, but he cleared his throat all the same, unsure about it as he gained your attention. But he was looking at you, purposeful, as if his elbow softly knocking yours wasn’t an accident.
His gaze was still holding yours as he popped the cap off of a bottle of bud light lime, the cap hitting the floor. You blinked at him, eyes only straying for a second to see that Eddie was still out by the pool talking to Johnathan and some other guy you didn’t know. Brows furrowed, you turned back, lips parting to ask if everything was okay, because why else would Steve Harrington be looking at you.
But then he was talking, smiling sweet and kind and holding a little of that confidence you knew back in school. It was still there, that self assurance that he had years ago, but it was muted, a boldness that wasn’t quite dimmed but definitely softened. It made him seem even more intimidating, prettier with his messier hair and scruff along his jaw, his clothes less tight and pressed.
“You doin’ okay?”
You blinked again, wondering if he really was talking to you. But there was no one else around and you gripped your cup a little tighter, nodding before you could make a fool of yourself. “Me? Yeah. Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
Steve shrugged, smiling as he took a sip from his beer and he gestured out to the patio, to the pool and to Eddie who was grinning at you. “Just wondered why you weren’t coming out, that’s all. You’re normally glued to Munson.”
You scrunched your nose, cheeks warming because he wasn’t wrong, but the reminder of how close you usually stuck to Eddie made you feel younger, childlike.
“It’s not like… that,” you explained, although you weren’t sure why you were bothering. “Us. Eddie and I- it’s not like we’re together, or anything.” You immediately regretted your words, the explanation feeling thick and clumsy on your tongue and your neck was burning, heat creeping up along your jaw.
Steve was still smiling, grin hid behind his beer and his brows were raised. He looked amused, nodding as you stumbled around each word and when you frowned, gulping down your watery cranberry and vodka, he grinned wider. “Yeah, no-- I know,” Steve assured you. He shrugged, “still, thanks for the clarification. S’good to know.”
You never found out what he meant by that, if he was being funny or just friendly, if he was flirting and genuinely interested. A neighbour called the cops and Eddie grabbed you before they could come through the front door, boosting you up by the foot so you could both scramble over the back fence. Steve had left with Jonathan and his girlfriend Nancy, the three of them running to Steve’s car just as Chief Hopper started yelling at the drunk kids left behind and you hadn’t so much as glanced back at each other for fear of being dragged home in the back of a cop car.
The next time you’d spent any real time with Steve Harrington, well. You’d been sinking to the bottom of the lake.
You were standing by the closed gate of the community pool at seven am sharp, the obnoxiously large lock stopping you from entering - despite the rip in the chain link fence to your right.
You weren’t waiting long, even though you would’ve happily stayed on the other side of the lot for as long as required. The air was already warming, the scent of chlorine and leftover sunscreen surrounding you, mixing with the sound of the cicadas, the early morning sprinklers from the houses across the road. Then Steve was jogging towards you, one big hand clutching a rolled up towel and a set of keys and his cheeks were pink from his efforts, his sliders slapping on the concrete and he looked apologetic as he approached.
“M’really sorry, car had a flat,” he huffed. “Would’ve left earlier if I knew I was walking.”
It was harder to look him in the eye after last week. Once the initial fear that had a vice grip on you loosened - if only slightly - it was easier to become so aware of how close you’d been to Steve. A whole morning spent half clothed and wet, his hands on you at all times, gentle and guiding as he coaxed you to walk around the shallow end of the pool. He’d been nothing but a gentleman about it, professional at all times with his hands either in yours or bracing your arms, never straying anywhere they shouldn’t, even if you’d caught his eyes going just that, maybe once or twice.
You pulled at the collar of your t-shirt as Steve busied himself with the padlock, the air so much stickier now that he was close by. “It’s okay,” you told him. “I’m not in a rush.”
Steve snorted and it shouldn’t have been an attractive sound as it was. His eyes crinkled in amusement, mirth in them as he glanced down at you from under his lashes. He still looked soft from bed, hair mussed and a five o’clock shadow across his jaw that suited him too well. His lifeguard shirt was sunbleached and threadbare, the red shorts he wore smaller than his last pair, the material well above his knees. He was more sunkissed than last weekend, freckles on the bridge of his nose, cheeks stained a permanent blush.
“Was your first lesson that bad?” He asked.
You burned, not knowing what to say, not wanting to offend him, not when he was looking at you like that.
“No,” you squirmed. The lock was open now but neither of you moved. “I mean, yeah, but not— not as bad as I thought. It was okay.”
Steve grinned like he knew something you didn’t, nodding slowly as he held the gate for you. “It was okay,” he repeated back, “I’ll take it.”
The pool was as blue and as intimidating as the first week, the generator humming and the filter trickling softly as you walked around it, giving the edge a wide berth. If Steve saw you frown and the dark blue depths, he didn’t say anything. Instead, you both dropped your towels and bags on a lounger and the boy didn’t so much as blush as he stripped off his shirt, throwing it alongside everything else.
“You wanna get changed?” He asked, already busying himself with pulling some floats out of a shelving unit. “I’ll get everything sorted and you can—”
You were stripping off your own shirt before Steve could finish his sentence, the words getting stuck in his throat as you revealed the same old black swimsuit underneath your clothes. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen already, but you couldn’t help but feel flustered as you popped the button of your shorts, the denim dragging down your hips. You didn’t look at him as they slid off your legs, your feet clumsy as you tried to toe off your sneakers and step out of your shorts all at once.
Steve was pink, even if you didn’t see it, his whole body turning from you abruptly as he decided what else he might need to take from storage. A pool noodle fell to the floor as you bundled up your clothes and chucked them onto the chair, both of you decidedly not looking at each.
“Uh, right.” Steve dragged a hand through his hair, the soft ends immediately falling back across his forehead. He looked like he’d already caught most of the morning’s sun as he finally glanced at you, the tips of his ears a little pink. “Let's get started.”
—————
Your arms were crossed over your chest as you stood waist deep in the pool, partly for a little cleavage cover, mostly because you were cold. Your skin had prickled as you entered the water the same way as last time, step by step into the shallows, with Steve by your side. He didn’t hold your hands, but one of his hovered by your elbow the whole way down, ready to catch you if you stumbled, if you felt less than brave.
He murmured soft encouragement the whole way down, a new praise falling from his lips at each stair and when you made it onto the pool floor, he’d grinned.
“Look at you go, we’ll have you swimming lengths in no time.”
You couldn’t work out if he was joking or not, and the idea of going to the other end of the pool was enough to make your stomach churn, the lucky charms you’d shovelled into your mouth before leaving turning acidic. Still, you grinned - grimaced, maybe - and made a strange noise at the back of your throat. Steve thought it was supposed to be a laugh.
“Ha— yeah, sure, maybe in a while.”
So Steve just smiled and left it at that. Then he was wading a little deeper, the water moving from his upper thighs and soaking his shorts, the cherry red turning scarlet, a deeper colour that you couldn’t help but stare at and then the pool swallowed his lower body, the ripples catching around his hip bones.
He was facing you as he moved, arms out and hands coaxing, encouraging you to follow and when he saw the look of panic in your face, he stopped walking. “Hey, hey,” his voice was soft, just like the morning. It was all hazy skies, a blue-lavender fuzz and the trickle of water, the smell of chlorine and sunscreen and Steve Harrington’s wide, brown eyes. “Look, yeah? We’re not going any deeper than this, I promise. ‘N I’m right here.”
You remembered how you told him you trusted him, just seven days ago. How he’d told you in return that he’d come get you, just like he had before. It felt rude to question the man who’d once saved your life but still, you hesitated, arms still curled around your chest like you could anchor yourself to that spot.
But then Steve held out his hand, palm up and resting on top of the surface. The blue of the pool made his skin look even more tanned, sunkissed and glittering with droplets of water, beads of it sliding off of his forearm, pooling in the middle of his hand. He wiggled his fingers at you.
You didn’t even know you were reaching out to him until his hand curled around yours, bigger and wider and warmer despite the way you were still adjusting to the colder temperature. The sticky heat of the morning air didn’t do much for the large pool, the water still nipping at your skin as you moved through it.
“There you go,” Steve praised, smiling wide and earnest as you took a step. “There she is, ladies and gents, Hawkins next high diver—”
You scoffed, eyes rolling and cheeks sore when you grinned, unable to help it. But you were still moving, baby steps towards Steve and the gasp that left your lips as the water crept up towards the line of your belly button was due more to the cold than the depth.
Steve held your hand tightly, a solid grip, your own kind of anchor.
“Alright, see?” He was beaming, eyes squinting through the rays of the sun that bounced off the surface and he was too pretty with it, painted in the reflections of the ripples and stripes of rainbow. “You did it, you’re killing this.”
You didn’t point out that you hadn’t technically done any real swimming yet, but the fact you were standing further into the pool than you were seven days ago felt momentous. Eddie had spent countless summers trying to even coax you inside the property line, sunscreen smeared on his nose and pleading in his eyes.
“You still trust me?” Steve asked, eyes bright and earnest and god, it was impossible to say no. So you nodded, throat feeling a little thick and the words lost behind your teeth but you did and you meant it. And that only made Steve smile wider. “Good. We’re gonna practice floating, okay?”
The idea of it made your chest feel heavy, a sure fire sign that it wasn’t going to go as well as Steve had planned. Letting the water take control of your weight seemed impossible and the task of taking your feet off of the solid tiles at the bottom of the pool was nightmare inducing. But Steve was moving closer, his hand still in yours and his free one grazing your spine. His fingertips skimmed over your back, guiding you in front of him and turning you to the side as he spoke the whole time.
“It’s easy, right?” He explained, your shoulder brushing his bare chest and you tried not to think about it all too much, tried not to panic despite the way your heart was thundering so hard it was a wonder Steve couldn’t hear your ribs rattle and crack. “M’gonna help, I won’t let you go, I promise. You just gotta let yourself lie back, just a little. I’ll help you do the rest.”
You laughed at him, his words, his positivity that was brighter and warmer than the whole of June and July. It was a gasping, mocking thing, a laugh that got stuck in your throat and the mere suggestion of letting your body fall backwards into the pool was enough to make your eyes dart for the safety of the stairs.
“I— I can’t. I can’t do that,” you told him, eyes wide and head shaking furiously. “That’s just— no. I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Maybe you tried to move away, to take a step towards the shallow edge of the pool, or maybe you only imagined you did. Because Steve’s hand was flat against the curve of your back and his palm nearly took up the whole god damn space there. His fingers curled around your own, his thumb running over the bumps of your knuckles. Steve bent a little, knees folding under the water to bring his face down level with your own and he looked so serious when he said:
“Hey, listen, alright? I know it’s scary. But I promise you, I won’t let you go. You’re not going to go under.” He licked his lips, eyes searching yours for signs of panic, fear, flight. “I won’t let you go under the water, I swear.”
So you stayed, rooted to the spot but there nonetheless. And with a jerky nod, Steve’s hand squeezed your own and he moved into you. You felt his knees bump under your thighs, rough with coarse hair and lined with more muscle than you had, his hips bumping against the side of you. Suddenly the water didn’t feel as cold as before, the sharp chill of it gone.
“I just want your to bend your legs, okay? Just a little and then let your feet come up. M’gonna support your back. And remember, you can stand here, yeah? S’not deep, you can stand right back up.”
You mumbled something, confirmation maybe, a curse perhaps, aimed at Steve or Eddie, you weren’t sure. You about your friend who was probably still in his bed, face down and oblivious to the situation he’d once again coaxed you into. But you also remembered how he’d been knee deep in the lake as Steve pulled you out, eyes wide and terrified as he prepared to throw himself into the black water to find you too.
You lifted one foot, a mere stretch onto your toes, really, but Steve hummed in approval and his hand pressed into your back a little more, a silent promise that he was still there to catch you.
One foot came off of the pool floor.
“Thatta’ girl,” Steve whispered and he was close. So close, close enough for the words to feel warm against your temple and you could feel his gaze on the side of your face, watching, waiting. “I’ve got you.”
Another foot came off the tiles.
You dipped, just a little, just for a second, your shoulders submerging and a shocked gasp ripping from the back of your throat before Steve’s hand on your back was pushing you upwards. You tried to fight it, legs kicking awkwardly until Steve was pushing you again, upupup, and your body broke out of the water, shoulders and back and butt flat against the top of the surface.
“Keep your legs out straight,” Steve instructed, “let me take your weight, breathe in and out, keep calm.”
It all seemed too much to do at once.
Your hand was a vice grip around Steve’s, but he didn’t seem to mind. He was watching you, gaze studious and gentle, nodding almost to himself as you tried to do as he told you. Your legs straightened out and stopped kicking, the warm air kissing your shins above the water, your chest shuddering as you sucked in a breath.
“Uhuh, that’s it. Now just lie back for me, s’alright, I’ve got all of you.”
You choked out a laugh, a cynical sound and Steve’s eyes found yours. You were shaking slightly as you tried to relax, trying to drop your shoulders back into the water. “All of me? You been hitting the gym, Harrington?”
The joke was weak sounding, especially when your lip wobbled too but Steve grinned all the same. The hand on your back moved down a little, settling in the curve there, just above your ass.
“Thanks for noticing,” he replied softly, a teasing lilt to his voice, a smirk in his smile. “Eddie never compliments me.”
You laughed again, louder this time but just as harsh sounding as before. The water was filling your ears as you lay back, a cold rush to the back of your head and neck as you finally flattened yourself out.
“What a shit friend,” you managed to choke back.
Steve let go of your hand with a soft murmur of assurance, quickly placing it beside his other one, both palms supporting your frame. His touch was a delicate thing, the width of each hand encasing your back, keeping you afloat. He was the warmest thing in the water.
“Right?” Steve whispered, afraid to break the quiet, the spell that you were under. Your eyes were wide and on the sky as you lay there, watching the blue and the pink coloured clouds that were making their way over town. “You’re gonna have to have words with him.”
You nodded before realising the movement made your chin dip, your balance wavering. Your arms that had been floating at your sides tried to claw at something, anything, for purchase but found none and fear seized at your chest again.
“You’re okay,” Steve told you. “Another deep breath in— there you go. Now, keep your chest and tummy pushed out, okay? Keep it all above the surface, chin up, legs straight, you got it.”
And you did, kinda. The panic that made your chest tight loosened its grip as you let out the breath you’d been holding onto so fiercely. Your legs felt lighter once you stopped fighting the drag of them, your arms floating out to your sides, the back of your right hand brushing Steve’s stomach and you felt the muscles in his abdomen tense. But your eyes were fluttering, lashes blinking against your cheeks as you just let yourself be, your body floating, the cool water lapping at your neck, your face.
Steve’s hands were sure and steady on your back, never leaving or faltering. In fact they steered you away from the wall and kept you pushed to the surface, gently guiding and encouraging. They made your body feel warmer than the water did, the sun on your front, a dry heat that shone over your face and chest, rainbow spots in your vision and his palms were just as hot under the water.
He murmured nonsense as he let you balance on his fingertips, always encouraging and soft, pretty praises that made your toes curl into the pool and when he saw the way you trusted him, the way you let him hold you, he stopped talking altogether.
It was just you and Steve and the water under the sun.
Fingers danced a line along your spine, one set between your shoulder blades, the other holding you up from the small of your back and it was a shockingly intimate touch, especially when his skin found your own between the straps of your bathing suit.
Something told you that it would be a bad idea to open your eyes, but Eddie told you bad ideas had good outcomes all of the time. So you did just that, blinking against the sun that was rising as the morning moved on, the sky turning bluer and brighter, but not nearly as warm as Steve’s gaze.
He was looking down at you, his knees still bent and the water lapping at his chest, his face much closer than you realised. He was smiling, a soft thing that made your heart thunder loud enough to travel through the water, a steady drumbeat in your ears. And when the boy realised you were looking too, his cheeks turned that pretty pink colour, a cotton candy blush that you couldn’t help but stare at and he nodded, clearing his throat before he spoke.
“You’re doin’ great.”
The water filter trickled somewhere in the background, the sound of someone’s car door slamming in the distance. Apart from that, it was just Steve’s voice over your drum kit of a heart. It took a while for you to nod, water slipping over your chin and lips, tongue licking away chlorine.
“I’ve got a really good teacher,” you replied.
#steve harrington#steve harrington x reader#steve harrington x you#steve harrington x y/n#steve harrington fic#steve harrington fluff#steve harrington imagine#steve harrington fanfic#steve harrington fanfiction#steve harrington oneshot#steve harrington blurb#steve harrington smut
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Hey.
Look at me.
I've been a lifeguard for four years now. And when we see someone drowning, or having a seizure, or bleeding on the ground, we don't say things like: "That's hardly any water!"
or: "But they were swimming so fast yesterday!"
or: "I wouldn't be drowning in that situation."
We get them out of the water, whether it's two inches or twenty feet. And we try to help, because that is our job. Maybe they're just learning how to swim. Maybe they're a wonderful swimmer and got sick or hurt. Maybe they're just having a bad day, and that's okay.
Swimmers, literal and metaphorical: please take care of yourselves. Don't tell yourself you aren't drowning because you aren't in the Mariana Trench. You're allowed to need help sometimes. You're allowed to ask for help.
And if a lifeguard ever makes fun of you for needing their help... that's not your fault. They're just not doing the job right.
Good luck and happy swimming!
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you write rafe so good and like you get me like sometimes i’m reading and i’m like “how’d they know😦” so HEAR ME OUT lifeguard!reader (bc i’m a lifeguard at a few country clubs) and i think rafe would be drooling and kelce and top would make fun of him and they’d like break all the rules like back flipping off the diving board just to get readers attention
oh my god first of all i completely adore you!! im so glad yess we must be little brain twins <3 i would love to know which parts made you think that! but here is the best i could come up with for a lifeguard au which is soooo cute but imagine.. its a pogue reader...
rafe knows every pretty girl who frequents the country club, he's made a point of making sure he does. so a fresh face in the crowd stands out pretty easily, especially one like yours.
you're pretty without trying, hair tugged behind you in a ponytail and a simple red one piece, the bottoms covered with denim shorts. it's not the usual kind of outfit for the club, but maybe you're headed out by the pool or something.
he can only see you from the back, though when you turn around, he sees the white cross on the front of your swimsuit. then he sees the boy in matching red trunks next to you, the whistle around your necks and a little first-aid box in your hands. a hot life guard, it doesn't get much more stereotypical than that.
you look around the club, following the boy who can only be giving you a tour of the facilty, with curious eyes like you've never been here before. it's only then a comment from top snaps him into a frankly startling realization.
"can't believe they hire pogues for this shit. wouldn't be surprised if shit started going missing by the pool deck."
rafe thinks normally he'd throw another line in, laugh at what top's saying, but he can't find it in him today. so he keeps watching, the sweet way you smile at a little girl who stopped you to ask for a bandaid, the way you nod while taking in something else in your training.
"alright. you've been staring at that pogue girl for twenty minutes. what gives?" kelce asks finally, after rafe ignores what they've been saying to him for the third time.
"huh?" he snaps back, tearing eyes away from you to look at his idiot friends.
"don't tell me you got hots for the lifeguard. what're you, thirteen?" they laugh, but rafe doesn't.
"shut up." he stands, downing the rest of his drink. "m'goin' to the pool. you loser can come and shut up or stay here and yap."
when he finally gets out there, you've shed the shorts, looking over the kiddie section of the pool with a watchful eye, taking the responsibility of watching brats seriously. he doesn't hesitate, jumping into the deep end with a huge splash, one that gets your attention.
you walk over, making sure whoever that was didn't just fall in, when two boys yell over.
"hey! lifeguard! our friend needs help!" you turn to look back at the boy who's been training you, wondering if you should dive in or wait since you're still in training, when you hear them again.
"not him! you! in the red. hurry!" you don't hesitate, though you're confused, jumping straight in and swimming over to the boy. he doesn't look like he needs help, in fact, he looks like he's floating.
"um, excuse me-" that's all you get out when you get close to him, because he scoops you up like he's rescuing you, carrying you out of the pool like a bride. you kick your feet, yelling out. "hey! put me down! you're not even drowning!"
he sets you down, and you wipe your face, staring up at pretty blue eyes and an arrogant face, once you recognize, one that your best friends hate.
"oh. you. i should have known."
"me? yeah, heard about me, have you? only good things, i hope."
"yeah, no. what the fuck was all that? i thought you were drowning."
"yeah, i was. thanks for the help." confused, soaking wet, and not appreciating his two little sidekicks snickering behind you, you try to get away, when rafe follows.
"so, uh, how long you been working here?"
"it's my first day."
"yeah, i thought so. i never forget a pretty face, so-"
"are you serious?"
"dead serious. and yours is definitely pretty."
"rafe," you say, leaning in closer so he can hear you clearly. "stop hitting on me. i have to work. some of us actually have to work."
"know my name already, huh? what else have you heard-" you roll your eyes, he laughs.
"i heard you're a good swimmer," you say, taking another step closer.
"yeah. from who?"
"i don't know. i'm about to find out." with one hand, you push his chest, and he falls backwards into the pool, the water splashing around your feet. you laugh, watching him bob in the pool, his friends laughing too. "good talk. hope we never speak again."
rafe gets out of the pool, pushing his wet hair back. he calls out after you.
"yeah we'll see about that."
#oooo she a snippy girly#its bc she spends all her time with jayjjjjjj#if you wanted something more cutie i can make her the lifeguard in the kids section & rafe brings toddler wheeize#lmk bae#this is actually garbage lmfao itwas a fun exercise tho
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Eren Boyfriend Headcanons pt 2
Modern Eren headcanons for GNreader, a continuation of pt 1
*** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ***
Texts you goodnight and good morning without fail, but sometimes the good morning texts come at like 12am bruh
He will buckle your seat belt for you
He will open the door for you and if you forget to buckle right away he'll just tell you to scoot over and do it for you before buckling his own
Thinks it's funny to tighten your hood around your face randomly
Absent-mindingly tracing hearts and shapes on you while cuddling
Will call you brat, which he started as a joke to make fun of Levi and now it is unironically a part of his vocabulary much to his dismay
He thinks you being hangry is the adorable even if you're a total demon because of it, in fact, the meaner you get the cuter because he can just poke all the more fun at you when he buys you food and you immediately switch up all sheepishly (which he also loves)
An extra careful driver with you in the car which can then lead to some road rage towards others who aren't, but it never goes past a mean look, the bird, and a couple insults in the privacy of the car. He also deffo does that hot arm hold to you when he brakes too hard and he'll give a little cheeky smile and apology after
Will play Pokemon Go with you and go on Pokemon Go dates where you guys walk the routes and go on hikes or walks around the city to catch pokemon and he always buys you snacks and lunch/dinner during srry but im still in my pokemon go phase
His favorite pokemon is Psyduck
yknow that video where some womans boyfriend/husband was covering the sharp edge of a table while she was on the verge of bumping into it all distracted?? Yeah, that's him. He will cover corners for you and always makes sure you won't clumsily hurt yourself and will watch your step for you depending on how clumsy you are
but at the same time he is constantly trying to trip you and shoves into you with his whole body while walking and tries to push you into puddles like a child
He is fiercely loyal of all of his loved ones and has/will fight anyone on sight for them, as we all know, but he is also very protective of their dreams
He keeps tracks of all his friends and familys most treasured goals/dreams and behind the scenes he is also helping make them come true if he can and/or congratulating them on their progress that no one else may notice and he even will send related things to them like articles or posts
so naturally, things you're really passionate about he will look into and maybe even get into it too
I feel like his mom would have enrolled Eren and Mikasa as junior life guards, she did amazing and really liked it and Eren had fun and was good but didn't care to do it again. Armin went to the wave/beach every day just to hang out with them still, and sometimes Eren abandoned duty or snuck away during a lesson to pick seashells with him
Speaking of, Eren has a mini seashell collection from him and Armin picking them together. He dates each seashell and has given you a couple that he thought you'd like
Because of the whole lifeguard thing, he knows CPR and some basic first aid and the friend group always goes to him if they need extra medical help and he goes straight into his rare mom mode
Him and Mikasa kissed once in a 7 minutes of heaven game in freshmen year of high school, and afterwards decided they were better as friends and never even told Armin until a drunken night of confessions between the three senior year, the night before graduation
He will and has sacrificed himself in little ways for his friends and family, and would do so in bigger ways if the situation ever called for it
He LOVES kissing you
Kisses every morning, before leaving, coming home, when he's bored, when he's excited, when he's sad, all of it. He could be leaving from the dinner table to go to the bathroom and would still kiss you goodbye
He loves making out with you and puts on a romantic playlist he made when you guys hang out and make out in his car he's so cheesy but in a cool way
He thinks you don't realize it's the same playlist but it only has like six songs that just repeat and you have to wrestle him to make you a partner on the playlist so you could add more
When a song you added comes up he'll stop whatever yall are doing just to tell you it was a good choice lmao
He likes flavored Chapstick, but his favorite is vanilla
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed!!
#a girl can dream#even if these dreams are crippling to my mental health because he isn't real#lmao#eren jaeger x reader#eren x reader#eren yaeger x reader#eren headcanons#eren headcannons#modern au#modern eren#aot fic#eren fluff#boyfriend eren#aot headcanons#eren x you
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On-the-Job Training (A Store Manager Verse Story - Steve Harrington/Reader)
Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader
Summary: Steve has a crush on the Dippin' Dots cashier.
Warnings/Themes: AU where the Upside Down doesn't terrorize Hawkins. Late Summer of 1985, Steve and Robin work at Scoops, Reader works at Dippin' Dots, Mutual Pining, Flirting, Enemies to Lovers(sort of?), Tie in with the Store Manager Verse
Note: Ok what started off as a silly little conversation about what flavor chapstick each ST character would use turned into this and I typically don't write Steve...but I had to give him some love.
Tagging my loves who were integral to that convo to thank them for inspiration especially Drac who started it all. This is for you bb. @dr-aculaaa @mopeymopeymouse @chestylarouxx @somnambulic-thing @fracturedarkness @br0ck-eddie
Technically slightly anachronistic because Dippin' Dots didn't open until 1988 but I'm a stickler for accuracy in the regular series. This is just a fun little do-dad.
You can find my masterlist here for more fics featuring pretty much exclusively Eddie Munson content but also a little Steve.
Please do not interact if you are not 18+.
Largely unedited; I didn't even re-read it. It's might suck. Enjoy!
---
"Ahoy! One U.S.S. Butterscotch!"
Steve never thought that this would be his future after graduation.
This summer he should have been living it up before he went away to college and made something of himself. Lifeguarding at the pool, going to all the parties, hanging out with his friends.
Instead, his life went to shit, Nancy Wheeler had broken up with him, he had gotten rejection letter after rejection letter from the schools he had applied to...and instead of working at the pool like he had every summer since he turned 16, he had a crappy job slinging ice cream at Scoops Ahoy of all places at the new StarCourt Mall.
"Thanks so much," the sweet lady who had placed the order smiled at him and handed the sundae to her son. "Look at that Frankie, your favorite." The little boy shot Steve a grin complete with his two front teeth missing and Steve melted a little bit.
Alright, it wasn't so bad. He got to make people smile, he got some spending money--which was nice since his dad had pretty much cut him off, although his mom was sneaking him some cash on the side.
"Look alive dingus," Robin called from the window separating the front of the ice cream parlor from the backroom. "Your schmoopsie poo is here."
"Shut up Rob!" Steve groaned through gritted teeth.
One of the perks of working at the mall was that he got to interact with people of all shapes and sizes and yeah...Steve had tried to use it as a means to get over Nancy. He'd had little hours-long crushes on fellow mall employees, customers, Robin--although working with her made that difficult--hell there was even a manager that had caught his eye towards the beginning of summer except he'd seen Eddie "The Freak" Munson of all people hanging around her.
Although after a few months of seeing Eddie around StarCourt not being a wastoid menace, Steve had to admit...well he wasn't that bad either.
The one who'd caught his eye the most though was you, and yeah...he'd developed an actual big little long-lasting crush.
You, who came around for a root-beer float most afternoons.
You, whose smile made his heart skip a little.
You in your pink polo, teal apron, and white visor with the words Dippin' Dots emblazoned on the front.
The enemy.
And you never let him forget it either.
Steve had been heart eyes over you the first time you had entered into Scoops territory to order your float. Undercover in casual summer clothes a week after the mall had opened. There was just something about you, your smile, your laugh.
Robin teased that he said that about everyone; Steve ignored her.
Then you opened your mouth and said the float was good but the service could have been better. That Steve should stop by Dippin' Dots sometime and see how it was really done.
Shots fired.
It really hurt at first. This was his first real job outside of the community pool, one he had been excited to get. He was really nice, tried his best; why didn't you think so?
"It's called flirting," Robin insisted. "God, you really suck, you know that? How can you ask people out willy nilly and then miss someone flirting with you right in front of your face? Flirt back next time."
So he did.
Every so often he'd mosey across the mall to your kiosk, order a small vanilla cup, and throw a little insult of his own your way. Usually something about how tiny balls of ice cream could never beat an actual scoop. Or about how you didn't count his change the right way, or that your visor was on crooked.
You wouldn't hesitate to get your own comment in. Especially about his choice in flavor.
"You work at an ice cream parlor and you order vanilla?" you questioned. "A hundred flavors to choose from at scoops; do you only get vanilla there too? Vanilla...is good but when you have variety? Order something exciting one day, and then we can talk business, Stevie."
Oof, it steamed him.
But not enough to stop playing the game.
And it left you both grinning so who was he to end the fun.
So when you showed up at Scoops today after not being around for a few days and your smile didn't reach your eyes like it usually did...Steve was suddenly overcome with...well he didn't really know.
"Ahoy, uh, sailor," he greeted and tried to put on his biggest award-winning, tip-earning smile.
"Ahoy," you replied weakly.
"Root beer float?" he asked, already heading over to the case to start scooping ice cream into a cup.
"Uh," you hesitated. "No, just...just a small vanilla cup today."
Steve froze and looked at you. Your shoulders were slumped, you had your visor in your hand, and you were pointedly avoiding eye contact with him.
What was...what was wrong with you?
Where was your fight? Where was your fire? Why, all of a sudden, was your game over?
"Hey, uhm," he coughed awkwardly. "Is everything ok?"
"Yeah, Steve," you nodded absently.
"You always get root beer."
"I just want vanilla today."
"The special is salted caramel? I can give you a sample if you're--"
"No, I just want vanilla," you cut him off and rolled your eyes. "You always get vanilla. Why is it a problem if I suddenly do? Vanilla is good too. Maybe vanilla is just...what we both want ok? Nothing else."
He was shocked. That wasn't playful annoyance in your voice; you were just...annoyed.
"Sure," he agreed. "Sure. One small vanilla coming right up."
He got your ice cream and rang you out, and as you were about to leave, he called after you.
"See you in a little while?" he asked.
"If you want." You waved goodbye and headed out of the ice cream parlor.
Steve turned and looked at Robin who simply rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"What just happened?" he asked.
"You're hopeless," she sighed and slammed the shutters on the window closed.
---
Steve roamed around the mall on his break.
Typically, he'd make his way to Dippin' Dots but...that just seemed like a waste of time today.
He'd fixated on your visit for the rest of his shift until his break, analyzing everything he said, everything he did. Everything that could have made you mad at him.
Once he got Robin out of her hiding spot in the back room, he monologued all of his thoughts to her.
She watched him pace back and forth, called him a dingus a few times, a loser a few other times, and then finally sent him on his break with some last words.
"I know you're hearing everything they're saying Steve," she began. "But are you really listening? You just keep...ordering vanilla."
"Uh. Yeah. That's the game."
"It's not a game you...ughhhhh! GO!" She pointed to the exit. "Before I throttle you."
Why couldn't she just tell him? What had he done?
In his rumination, he'd been chewing at his lips. A habit he had pretty much done his entire life when he got nervous.
Shit, and he'd left his chapstick in the car; it was hot, it probably melted by now.
That was one of the little ways you made his life a little better...through your teasing. You had told him, once, that his lips looked dry.
"Maybe invest in some chapstick or something."
He'd gone to Melvald's that same night that you told him and got a 3-pack of strawberry chapstick. All the while wondering if it meant you had been looking at his lips for a while or...
But it was...just another little jab right? Another little flirt? Another part of your game?
Still, he never knew when you might show up so the chapstick became a constant--something that soothed him even, gave him courage--and he always had a tube tucked into the pocket of his shorts, or on the register, or in the cupholder of his car. To swipe on if he knew he was about to see you...or hoped he was.
And now...he desperately needed it, needed his strawberry chapstick--needed you--and it was nowhere to be found.
Steve stopped in his tracks and looked at the stores around him.
WaldenBooks, Regis Salon, JH Camera Repair.
Claires.
Bingo.
He'd seen little kids with their play makeup and sparkly plastic jewelry post up in one of the booths at Scoops after they spent their allowance money at Claire's. He had to find strawberry chapstick there. He'd even take cherry. Something.
Anything.
Steve crossed into the pink-and-purple-and-pop-music-filled oasis to a melodic "Welcome In" from the employee helping a little girl by the ear piercing booth. And as out of place as he felt, he was immediately relieved to see a wall full of eyeshadow palettes and glitter hairspray.
He closed the distance and frantically searched the wall, but it was all novelty makeup. There was one package of Dr. Pepper lip smackers, but the package was half-ripped and the cap was missing; he was a little worried but he figured it was better than nothing.
He was about to snatch it off the hook when that voice sounded behind him.
"Did you need help finding anything?" He immediately turned on his heel to find the employee--the manager, Eddie Munson's girlfriend--standing there in a flourish of tulle and fluorescent colors. "Oh! That's a customer favorite...looks like it's damaged though, let me just..."
She reached out to take the package but Steve reacted instinctually. He quickly grabbed it and clutched it to his chest.
"I don't mind," he tried to reason. "I don't care if it's missing the cap."
"Listen, I can't sell it to you if it's damaged," the manager explained. "It's just not safe. Is there anything else I can help you find though?"
She reached for the package again but he held it back.
"I need this," Steve tried again.
"Oh...kay."
"Because I messed up and this...you know the cashier down at the Dippin' Dots kiosk? Well...I don't know...I pissed them off or something and I just need to...go down and talk to them and I can't."
"So the lip balm is a gift for them? To make amends?"
"No...it's for me because my lips are dry." Steve sighed. "I...ok I know it sounds crazy, but I swear. It's...they got me to start using chapstick because they said my lips were dry and it's this thing we do. We go back and forth and we tease each other.
"But they're mad at me now, and they didn't...I mean they ordered vanilla. They never order vanilla. They hate it when I order vanilla."
"Uh huh." The manager's eyes went a little soft. "I'm not...really following the logic...but I get it."
"You do?"
"You like each other. But you're just...going back and forth. And no one has really...admitted it," she observed. She suddenly burst into laughter and Steve cocked his head to one side in confusion. "Sorry, sorry...it's just...whatafuckincoincidence.
"So are you the one who's afraid of being rejected? Or...are they...or..."
Cue the record scratch in Steve's head.
Rejection.
All summer...all year actually...Steve had been faced with one rejection after another. First Nancy, then all of the college applications, his dad and now...all of the little fleeting mall crushes that he'd asked out that had said no.
Robin had even made a scoreboard that sat in the back whenever someone turned him down.
He thought all this time...he'd become immune to it. But with you...it was easier to think it was just a game than to possibly face the reality that if he asked you out...you'd say no and then the little game would be ruined. And his hopes would be dashed.
He didn't realize that all of his waffling could potentially be hurting you too.
"Why don't you," the manager continued when Steve hesitated to answer, "go down there and talk to them? Even if they're mad at you. Communication is very important. I'm sure if you explain everything, or even...just show that you're willing to bridge the gap, they'd be willing to listen. The worst they could say is no, but if they're already mad, you have nothing to lose. See if they'll give you a chance."
"So I...shouldn't order vanilla this time?" He looked up at her and asked, recalling your words.
Order something exciting, and then we can talk business.
The door had been open for him to ask you out this whole time.
And that's why you ordered vanilla earlier. Because Vanilla meant...meant that this...flirtation...this game...wasn't going anywhere. He hadn't made a move, so you didn't want to wait anymore.
God, he was so stupid.
"Uh, no...don't do that," the manager smiled kindly. She reached out for the broken lip balm and took it from him. "I'll just...damage this out."
"Wait...but my lips are still dry," Steve floundered. "I still need chapstick."
"Do you think there's gonna be some kissing happening?" the manager's eyes narrowed. "I said talk to them, not...plant one on them."
"I just need...something," he begged. "Strawberry...if you have it."
"I think we have strawberry flavored lip gloss by the register."
"I'll take it."
---
So there Steve was, in the concourse by JCPenney, patiently waiting in the line for Dippin' Dots with sticky, strawberry-flavored lips tinted a very nice shade of pink.
As soon as he had swiped the gloss on...as silly as he had felt...he had been reminded of you.
"Next!" your voice sounded every so often and the line got shorter and shorter, and Steve's courage got weaker and weaker. The Claire's manager had been right though...communication...the worst you could tell Steve was "no."
"Next!" You'd be just another tally on Robin's scoreboard. And she could call him a dingus again. She really enjoyed doing that. So some good would at least come from his failure.
"Next!" He'd also get...a cup of Dippin' Dots which...if he had to admit, he kinda enjoyed. He got all the Scoops ice cream he wanted for free but this was different. Ice Cream of the Future and all that. He sort of expected Henderson to come up with something like this, the little nerd; well, if he could never show his face here again, he'd ask the kids if they could figure out how to make some kind of futuristic ice cream for him.
"Ne--oh!" Steve finally got to the front of the line and saw your shocked face. He smiled and waved as he approached the register.
"Hey," he greeted. "I told you I'd see you around."
"You did," you said flatly and scrunched your nose. "So...the usual? Small vanilla cup?"
"Uh no..." Steve said hesitantly. You raised an eyebrow in question. "I uh...can I get a large..."
"Large vanilla?" You sniffed.
"Large Rainbow Ice," he recited after squinting at the menu board. "It's time for something new."
You stared at him silently and Steve couldn't help but doubt himself.
What if Rainbow Ice was the wrong answer? Should he have gone with Banana Split? Shit he should have just stuck with Strawberry. It was his favorite. Strawberry chapstick, strawberry gloss, strawberry ice cream. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"Yeah," you finally answered with a beaming smile and Steve's heart soared. "Yeah it is time for something new, isn't it?"
Next Part: Incremental Planning
#stranger things fic#Steve harrington x reader#Steve harrington fic#store manager verse#Steve harrington fluff#scoops steve
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cal’s siblings headcanons (ft. andre) ★
when eric was born, cal was obsessed with him. it was constantly; “mom, can i hold him?”, “i want to play with him!”, “hi eric, i’m your big brother calvin”
eric thinks that cal is not only the best big brother, but also his bestfriend.
he really wanted to bring in cal himself for show and tell, but because his parents did not let him + cal also had school that day, he brought in a picture of him and cal together instead and talked about all the fun things they do together.
when maddy was 3, she cried when cal cut his hair short one time. he refused to get more than a trim after that
maddy and eric love andre and he has no idea why, but he is just as fond of them
eric learned how to ride a bike before cal. he spent the whole afternoon trying to teach cal, but to no avail
when andre got a job as a lifeguard for the summer, cal took his siblings to the pool as an excuse to see andre
andre helps cal watch over his siblings sometimes. he has absolutely used some of his paychecks to buy them ice cream numerous times
cal banned andre from helping watch his siblings with him when one time cal was in the bathroom, andre told them a list of swear words and then told them to say their favorite ones when cal gets back
eric and maddy did not like the lack of andre, so they acted out and wouldn’t listen to cal. they demanded andre and stood near cal as he called andre to get him over.
they ran to andre as soon as he arrived. cal was salty about it for about 3 minutes until eric invited him to go to the park with them
maddy makes cal watch her play with her dolls. cal was dreading it the first time just because the idea of it sounded lame, but really it was the most entertainment he has gotten from anything in a while
one time for valentine’s day, maddy did not get as many candy grams as the rest of her friends which made her very sad. the next day, andre bought a heart box of chocolate for her, and in return she drew a picture of her and andre
cal had a jacket with a bunch of patches on it, which eric thought was theee coolest thing ever. so, for eric’s birthday, cal bought a jacket, made a patch, and sewed it onto the jacket. it immediately became eric’s favorite jacket and he always wore it and told everyone that his big brother made it for him
#zero day#andre kriegman#cal gabriel#headcanon#i could come up with more but idk if anyone gaf#igaf though
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seijoh 4 as summer camp employees
hanamaki takahiro is BUILT for this he has fun hair he’s weird he’s engaging his he’s colorful his water bottle is covered in stickers he has sandals on toes Out he is shameless he’s kinda unhinged it so works. he’s a counselor but almost never has a cabin to himself he’s more like a sub if someone else has gets sick or whatever but when he shows up it’s like a celebrity sighting a monumentous occasion. if he’s not needed anywhere else he’s helping out with arts and crafts his favorite artworks are the ones where you can’t tell what the fuck it’s supposed to be. he has lots of string friendship bracelets he knows how to make them but lies whenever someone asks he just gives them one he gatekeeps cuz he thinks it’s funny and teaching is too much work. he tells the most Outrageous ghost stories and is the reason only half of the kids will go in the lake he talks about bigfoot and campers who went missing and the town’s curse he is carrying on legacies he is SO fun.
iwaizumi hajime is the Coolest fucking counselor ever. bandana around his head sleeves cut off of the uniform tshirt (muscle tee now) he has friendship bracelets a beat up watch one anklet his water bottle is on its last leg he has a dinosaur keychain on his backpack he like epitomizes cool guy the kids idolize him. his cabin wins every single camp-wide competition every time like he’s peak athleticism and he’s just like so awesome or whatever it’s contagious. he picks kids up and throws them in the lake and pool if a frisbee gets stuck in a tree he gets it every time he caught a snake once and took it back to the woods everyone wants to sit next to him in the mess hall he can’t build a fire and is mad about it he sleeps like a fucking Rock and snores like a lawnmower and eats enough for 3 people at every meal.
oikawa tooru is a lifeguard. at the pool at the lake he’s always around the water somehow and Everyone has a crush on him. up on his lifeguard chair sunglasses on his skin is all golden whistle around his neck or spinning on his finger his hair somehow always looks good he wears a headband one day and someone literally faints. he teaches swimming and canoeing lessons and is really good at it he almost Never has to save anyone for someone who works by the water you’d think they’d swim a little more. he’s pretty quiet when he’s on duty he takes the job seriously but he’s a fucking motormouth when he’s off that chair he will Not shut up. he sits w the boys at meals running that fucking mouth pisses them off So Bad he blatantly flirts/fights with iwaizumi when the kids aren’t around and Refuses to get into a canoe with him bc it always ends up getting flipped. he’s really good with the younger kids they’re his favorite to work with but he is generally well liked throughout the camp he’s like everyone’s counselor crush and he always eats raisin bran for breakfast.
matsukawa issei is the camp cryptid he works with the older kids who like go backpacking and spend all their time in the woods he emerges looking like he’s been there all his life. he kinda just appears sometimes doing odd jobs taking things to the lost and found feeding the chickens fishing things out of the lake general camp maintenance he materializes out of the trees with a fire extinguisher a neon yellow backpack and a missing camper. he’s often accompanied by the camp dog so there are theories (encouraged by takahiro) that he’s actually a werewolf and that’s why he’s everywhere some people think he is the camp dog issei thinks this is very funny. the only place he’s consistently found is the mess hall at meals otherwise when not wandering or in the forest he can be found hanging out with hiro coming up with new ghost stories playing some sort of sport with hajime or pouring water on tooru’s head wherever he happens to be. issei is the best campfire builder on the property and some of the kids are scared of him he never has his phone can only be contacted by walkie-talkie he is the jack of all trades.
#iwaoi grew up going to camp together their dynamic has Not changed#anytime he’s asked a question issei answers very vaguely he’s not giving anything away like ‘where do you sleep?’ ‘the woods.’#oikawa lifeguard i Know you can picture it he reapplied sunscreen every 2 hours mr ‘walk please!’ like its him#hanamaki flirts with issei whenever he appears they make spooky noises outside cabins to scare the unruly kids#iwaizumi sports KING like you name it he can play it he can beat you at it he set the campwide record for the climbing wall on his first da#this may only hit with a very specific audience i hope it finds you if not just trust me#seijoh 4#haikyuu#summer camp au#hanamaki takahiro#matsukawa issei#oikawa tooru#iwaizumi hajime#matsuhana#iwaoi
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𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐙𝐄 (𝟏𝟖+)
𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐒 𝐃𝐍𝐈
[ PAIRING ] Zeke Yeager x f!reader
[ AUTHOR'S NOTE ] This is my submission for @bastardblvd's Wet Hot Slimeball Summer Collab. My prompt was ☀️lifeguard☀️. Special thanks to the love of my life, @strawberrystepmom, for beta reading this.
[ SYNOPSIS ] LOCAL LIFEGUARD LETS CUTE GIRL DROWN SO HE CAN PLAY THE HERO AND GET PUSSY
[ WORD COUNT ] 1.8k
[ CONTENT ] Modern AU, mostly written from Zeke's POV, no plot; no problem (jk there are problems), manipulation, dubcon, predator/prey vibes, lowkey somnophilia (y/n is barely conscious), oral sex (f receiving), public-ish sex, jerking off.
Zeke didn’t consider himself a bad guy. He was well-mannered, his politeness instilled in him by his late mother, and pretty nice if he put his mind to it. He was a hard worker and the first to jump into the water to save someone. His experience was unmatched, having been stationed at the same beach since he was a teenager, and his knowledge was unparalleled. His boss had even dubbed him the boy wonder…
No, Zeke wasn’t a bad guy…
He just did bad things…
Like letting pretty girls get themselves into trouble so he could rescue them from the big, bad ocean.
But who could blame him? Temptation was lurking around every corner. It was like a siren’s song, leading him astray and drowning him in inebriating waters. He simply couldn’t control himself sometimes. It’s not his fault he was bogged down by his carnal desires.
And it’s certainly not his fault that you came to the beach on a quiet Monday morning. He spotted you from the lifeguard tower, his eyes glued to you. You looked like an angel making your way across the sand, your white billowy cover up trailing behind you, caught in the gentle sea breeze. His cheeks grew warm as you unbuttoned it, revealing a matching white bikini underneath. It looked heavenly against your sun kissed skin.
Zeke knew he should tell you about the three rip currents plaguing the beach, but where was the fun in that? He opened the door to the tower and stepped down, watching you as you waded in the turbulent water. You looked so unaware of the danger surrounding you. All it would take would be one big wave to knock you down and then you’d be swept out to sea.
“Be careful,” he shouted through his megaphone. He needed to at least seem diligent.
You turned, your back facing the ocean, a rookie mistake.
“I will,” you hollered back.
He could barely hear you over the waves licking the shore. Thankfully he didn’t care. He was too caught up in the sneaker wave heading towards you. By the time you noticed it was too late, and the wave knocked you off your feet. You fell forward on your hands and knees, and tried to anchor yourself, but the water kept rushing in, gradually submerging you. As it began to recede the waves pulled you away from the shore and into the untamed ocean.
Zeke smirked. You didn’t seem too phased as you casually treaded water. He assumed you would have panicked and flailed around, wasting your precious energy. He couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. Your inconceivable skills decimated his plan. He exhaled deeply and debated pursuing you in a more socially acceptable manner. At this point it was the only way.
Contemplating such a thing made his mouth fill with saliva. He couldn’t bear the thought of attempting small talk or suggesting you two grab a drink. It was wholly against his nature.
And lucky for him he wouldn’t have to.
Another sneaker wave consumed you, leaving no trace of your existence. Grabbing his rescue board he made his way down the beach and into the water. When he pulled your limp body onto the board, you were sedated and calm. He always loved an easy rescue.
“So stupid,” you murmured.
He looked down at you, his eyes trained on your exposed breast. The chilled ocean water left your nipple erect. It practically demanded his attention.
“You’re fine,” he cooed. “The water’s deceptive today. Don’t beat yourself up.”
His tone was saccharine, terminal in its sweetness. He was amazed he was able to mask his hunger. Seeing you so defenseless made his cock throb. You weakly smiled and muttered a muted “thank you” before drifting away as Zeke took you back to shore.
“Let me take a look at you in the tower. I want to make sure you’re okay,” he said, lifting you up.
He didn’t give you a chance to protest, not that you would’ve been able to. You were hardly in a position to exercise your agency. All you could do was gaze up at him sleepily, worn out from your battle against the waves.
The inside of the lifeguard tower was cramped. Sand littered the floor. The hot air was thick with the smell of sunscreen and salt water. He sat you down in the lone chair and stared down at your exhausted body. He lifted your chin. Your dazed look made his heart race. He got down on his knees and extended one of your bent legs. His weathered hands were rough against the tender flesh of your thighs.
“Does anything hurt?” he asked even though he honestly didn’t care.
You shook your head.
“I’m going to check you for injuries anyway. Better to be safe than sorry,” he recited.
He caressed your limbs, taking in every inch of you. His hands wandered your body, his eyes consuming it. It was hard to believe such a stupendously lifeless angel was gracing his presence.
“How do you feel?”
“Like… I need to… sit down for… a while,” you mumbled.
Your eyelids were so heavy; you could barely keep them open. But overall you seemed in good enough shape. Zeke couldn’t have had better luck.
“I think I can manage that,” he said warmly as his cock continued to throb. “I need to keep an eye on you for a bit anyway.”
“No. Go and…. do—do your job. I’ll be okay here by”—you yawned—”myself.”
Zeke placed his hands on your hips, his grip tight and commanding.
“I’d be a pretty shitty lifeguard if I left you in here on your own,” he said.
His grey eyes were dark with ache. You let out a weak laugh and wiped away the sand that had dusted your cheek. You mumbled an apology. He shushed you and hooked his fingers under your bikini bottoms. You exhaled sharply and he paused.
“What?” he asked playfully. “C’mon.”
Your face was adorned with a pathetic, little frown. It hardly deterred him, but he decided to play nice. He cupped your face with a calloused hand. His cock was chafing against his board shorts.
“Don’t you want to properly thank me for my efforts?” he asked, running his finger along your bottom lip.
You hesitated.
“I’ll make you feel so good,” he purred, sounding more inelegant than he would’ve preferred. He slipped two of his fingers into your mouth. “If anything I’m doing you a favor on top of saving your life.”
Your mouth was soft and warm. He wanted to fuck it.
“You deserve some comfort after everything you’ve been through,” he said, pressing down on your tongue. His tone was slightly more urgent, more insistent. “Don’t deprive yourself.”
You did nothing in protest, entrusting him with your life once more. Seeing you surrender yourself did wonders for his ego and made his balls feel tight. Your steadfast silence was heavenly. He always preferred the quiet type.
He took his fingers out of your mouth, staring at your lips. He thought about kissing you, but that was too intimate. You were prey, nothing built to last. His eyes trailed down your body, lingering on your breasts. He untied your bikini top and watched as it fell unceremoniously to the floor.
He took your erect nipple between his lips and sucked. He wondered if you could feel his beard against your skin, and if you noticed how he kept his well-oiled and trim. You hummed as he swirled his tongue around your nipple.
You sighed heavily and made a feeble attempt at curling your toes. It was so cute. He couldn’t help but whimper a little.
Your skin was salty, still dappled with water. The ocean’s cruel touch left your skin clammy. But it did little to deter him. He didn’t care if you were warm, he just cared if you had a heartbeat or not.
He pulled away from your breast and peeled off the rest of your bikini. He positioned himself between your thighs and buried his face in your cunt, his nose brushing up against your clit. Your scent was ambrosial and dizzying. He spread apart your folds with his tongue, savoring the taste of your arousal.
Zeke looked up at you, meeting your sleepy gaze. He swept his tongue along your cunt before slipping the tip inside. A small whimper fell from your lips. He did it again, relishing the sound of your voice.
“Yes…” you mumbled as he lapped at your folds.
He felt like his cock was going to burst. He pulled his cock out of his board shorts and palmed its aching tip. It was dewy with precum. He gripped the length of it and stroked. Euphoria enveloped him.
He sucked on your clit as your soft moans filled the lifeguard tower. He felt insatiable and couldn’t stand the thought of this moment ending. In a perfect world you would be his little pet, one he could consume at any time. The sweet taste of your arousal would always be within reach.
“Fuck,” he groaned, his gruff voice muffled by your cunt.
More precum dribbled from his tip and he began to rut against his fist. He showed neither himself nor you any mercy. He was relentless as he feasted on your cunt. You writhed in your seat, your body falling victim to the debauchery Zeke unleashed.
He made eye contact with you, his lustful gaze unwavering.
“Are you going to be a good girl and come all over my tongue?” he asked as he furiously jerked himself off.
“Uh-huh,” you said, placing your hand on the back of his head.
Your touch sent him over the edge. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it together, but he refused to come before you. He grabbed onto your hips and rolled his tongue against your clit, trying to ignore his swollen cock. He continued to hold your gaze.
“Oh my god,” you murmured, pushing his head deeper into your cunt.
Zeke struggled to ignore how sweet you sounded as your orgasm washed over you. The relief he felt once you finally stopped was immense. He stood up and tried in vain to wipe away some of your arousal that had soaked his beard.
His cock was heavy in his hand as he pulled on its length. He was so close, he could taste it. He felt like he was going to burst at any second. He watched as you shut your eyes and seemed to doze off. He couldn’t help but be a little heartbroken. You were supposed to be marveling at him and his beautiful cock. He snapped his fingers by your ear while he fucked his fist.
“Look at me,” he growled.
Your eyes fluttered open and stared at him. His entire body was flooded with warmth as long, thick ropes of cum splattered against you. He couldn’t control his hearty moans as he watched it drip down your skin. You looked so confused, so lost, and it was exactly what he wanted.
#zeke yeager x reader#zeke jaeger x reader#aot x reader#snk x reader#aot smut#snk smut#attack on titan x reader#shingeki no kyojin x reader#zeke yeager smut#zeke jaeger smut#.fics#.aot#.zeke#x reader#reader insert
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Summary: You join TF141 after something happened on your last deployment. They take you in and while it takes some time, you find yourself warming up to them, and them to you. Perhaps especially to the Captain.
A/N: Yes, this is the last chapter, no, it is not the end of G and Price. It is the end of the regular updates. When I write fic, it's a break from my usual writing for my job. So, I can't do both. I'll definitely be posting more stuff though! :) I hope you all have enjoyed!
Warnings: Slight SA mentions if you squint, crass language.
Word Count: 3.2k
Feral Masterlist
It’s such a joy walking around London with Price on my arm as he shows me his favorite places. Each new place lets me see a new side of him, lets me peel back another layer that he doesn’t let everyone see. Not to mention he’s wearing a blue sweater that matches his eyes and I quickly decide that he should wear more sweaters. Especially when it begins to snow while we’re walking through a park and he gently pulls me into his arms with my back pressed against his chest. He’s so warm and fucking cuddly and all I can imagine for a few moments is curling into his lap in front of a crackling fire.
“This is a good look for you.” I say softly as I turn to face him, his arms still around me and my hands curled against his chest to light pat the sweater.
He smiles, raising a brow. “Yeah?”
“Mmhmm. Want to get you a little beanie to match.” I reach up and let my fingers scrape over his beard affectionately while he stares down at me with sparkling eyes.
He hums and leans down to press his lips gently to mine, his arms tightening around me. “I’ll keep that in mind. Think I have a beanie somewhere in my flat.”
I smile against his lips and let myself feel stupidly giddy for a little bit. “You’ll have to wear it for me sometime.”
He chuckles and pulls back, letting my hands fall back down against his chest. “I’ve had women ask me to wear a lot of things, but a beanie is new.”
Curiosity pulls my brows up. “You’re going to have to tell me what you’ve dressed up as now.” He sighs, but there’s a smile on his face as I lean into him to get an answer.
“Ah…well, there’s the uniform, obviously.”
“Obviously.” I repeat, smirking at his playfully scolding look.
“I’ve had requests for a policeman, fireman, real serviceman based, apparently.”
“Can’t say the roles don’t suit you.” I tease and enjoy the slight pink tint to his cheeks as we start walking again and he keeps my arm tucked into the crook of his elbow.
He shrugs a shoulder. “There are definitely worse things.” He states with a shake of his head and I have a sneaking suspicion that he hasn’t told me all the things he’s been asked. But I’ll wait for another day to find out. “What about you?” He asks gently, his voice soft as the snowfall around us in case I don’t want to answer.
I look away, pressing my lips together while I feel my cheeks get a little hot. “I’ve done the usual. Lifeguard, nurse, cat woman, but the most requested has to be Princess Leia and the gold bikini.” My eyes wander back to Price and I can’t help grinning when I catch him nodding. “That something you’ve requested, John?” He clears his throat and his gaze drops to the ground for a few moments.
“I…might not be exempt.” He admits and I can’t hold back a giggle as I lightly squeeze his arm.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” I say and feel his eyes on me as we keep walking through the gathering snow on the ground. Intimacy like that might be far off, but it’s nice to be able to talk about it so openly without feeling pressure or fear. It’s just fun.
* * *
The next day, I take him for breakfast in a favorite diner of mine. We meet there and there’s a wide grin on my face when I see him come in wearing another sweater and a beanie. I slide out of my booth to greet him while he holds his arms out to his sides slightly for appraisal. “I approve. You look very…cozy.” I tell him and give him a fond kiss to his cheek when he’s close enough.
“So do you.” His fingers lightly pull my jacket a little tighter around me and straightens my scarf.
“Think you might’ve realized by now that I run a little cold.” I say with a little tilt of my head and he nods, his eyes looking me over as if he didn’t just see me yesterday. He lets me guide him into the booth, giving me a cute little smile as I sit next to him instead of across from him. An older waitress named Dana comes by immediately.
“Hey, darlin’. What’ll it be for you and your fella?” She asks with her usual charm.
“Coffee for now, thank you.” I nod to her and she gives me a wink, looking Price over curiously before she walks away.
Price rests an elbow on the table and turns towards me slightly. “Come here often?”
I relax back into my seat with a quiet sigh, looking over the little diner and the people milling around it. “This is the place I come to after a hard mission. When I need to remind myself of the good things, when I need to remember what it’s like to not be a soldier.” A soft smile pulls at my lips at the sight of a small family across the diner; two parents trying to feed their toddler and laughing as he smears the food over his face.
“I understand.” John says quietly beside me and I feel his arm slide on top of the booth behind me, letting me settle a bit more into his side. “The park is that place for me. I’ve spent hours sitting on a bench watching people pass by, getting used to the sights and smells of civilian life. Sometimes it takes a few days to decompress.”
My shoulders lax as I shift closer and rest my hand on his knee. “After the worst of it, I spent a week here. I only went home to sleep and even then, only a few hours before I was back here. All I could do was try to be around people and try to remember what life was supposed to be.” I sigh, shifting a bit in place before I feel John’s gentle touch on my arm, his fingers lightly skimming up and down. My head rests back against his shoulder while my thumb draws little circles on his knee. “That’s when the people here really got to know me. Like Dana. Her kindness and tendency to gossip kept me sane.”
“Didn’t take you for a gossip, sugar.” John teases and I smile, turning my head to look at him.
“Hm, I’m not a perpetrator, but I’ll listen.” He chuckles and I love being able to feel the rumble in his chest.
“Thank you for sharing with me.” He says a touch quieter and my hand reaches up to lightly scratch his beard.
“Gladly.” I bathe in his steady attention and the only thing that drags us away is the clink of cups and plates on the table. We both look over as Dana sets our requested coffees in front of us along with three plates of food.
“Coffee, your usual, something for your man, and some extra protein for the both of you. Fill up.” She looks at me pointedly and I give her an easy smile.
“Thank you, Dana.” I say with humor tainting my every word before I gesture to John. “This is John Price.” He offers his hand to her immediately and she takes it, holding on tight with her penetrating gaze trained on him.
“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am.” John says sweetly and Dana raises a brow, then smiles before pulling back and putting a hand on her hip.
“About time you brought a man around, sweetie. And he seems like a good one.” She nods to me while my head ducks, my cheeks hot as she walks away.
Price taps lightly on my arm. “I like her.” He says and I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Mm, well, the feeling is clearly mutual.” My head shakes, but I can’t help but smiling in return as he chuckles. “Hope you don’t mind her just bringing food. It’s happened every time I’ve come here.” Our eyes meet again and the only thing I find in his is amusement and affection.
“Don’t mind a bit. Glad you’ve had someone looking out for you before.” He keeps an arm around me as he looks over the piles of food Dana gave us and I watch him for a moment, taking in the insinuation that he and the boys are here to look after me now.
I lean in and press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Good. Now, Dana will expect us to eat all of this, so I hope you’re prepared.” I slide silverware toward him and look away from his fond expression before I melt in my seat.
* * *
It feels stupid that I’m fucking nervous.
I’ve hung around the boys like this before, watched the game and laughed as they argued, but never in someone’s home. And this is the first time we’re all together after the dynamic with Price has changed. I just hope I haven’t…messed anything up somehow.
That’s why I’m standing in front of his door after knocking, my knuckles white from how tightly I’m clinging to the bag over my shoulder. Muffled voices come through the door before it swings open to reveal a grinning Gaz. “Don’t have to knock on days like this, G. Get in here.” He pulls me in and divests me of my bag, setting it on the counter before turning back to me with a grin. My nerves vanish.
“Why are you the one dragging people in when you don’t even live here?” I ask with a small laugh, leaning into him to give him a brief hug. He seems surprised, but quickly embraces me in return.
“Don’t trust Price to step away from the kitchen to answer the door. Barely trust him in the kitchen at all.” He mutters as he leans into me conspiratorially while we glance to John stirring a large pot on the stove.
“But you certainly fucking eat my food.” He returns, glancing over at us while I try to hide my soft smile. He’s in jeans and a navy Henley with the sleeves rolled up. He looks very domestic like this and it suits him. “Welcome, G.”
“Captain.” I greet him before breaking eye contact as I pull my dip from the bag. Gaz instantly peeks over my shoulder and I swat his hand off the bowl. “Dessert is for after you all have stuffed your faces with everything else. Besides, it needs to chill.” He pouts and reaches for it again before I rebuff him with a bump to his hip.
“Come on, G. Let me try it.”
“No.” I slide it into Price’s fridge and shoo Gaz back with a smirk, pressing my back against the doors to keep him from going after it. “Whatever happened to complaining I was bringing a dessert dip in the first place, huh?”
Gaz huffs. “I said I’d try it after that.”
“And I’ll let you. When we’re halfway through the game.” I give him a pointed look so he knows I mean it and the corner of my mouth twitches when I hear Price chuckle. There’s a knock at the door and my head tilts for Gaz to go get it. His eyes roll and he walks away with slumped shoulders. My head shakes as I slide over to Price and he immediately stretches out an arm to make space for me to fold myself into him.
“I like this.” I tug slightly on his shirt, my hand resting on his sternum as I peek into the pot he’s stirring. Chili, by the looks of it. “Looks good on you.”
He stoops and quickly presses a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “Yeah? Well, I like this.” He holds me a little tighter and I let myself grin up at him. “Gonna be hard not reaching for you today.”
“Want to just send the boys home and snuggle on the couch?” I tease, pulling away as I hear the others coming in.
Price chuckles and sighs as I move out of reach. “Don’t tempt me.” He keeps his voice low and I smirk as I pull out the other things I brought while Gaz leads the others inside. It’s easy having everyone together again and I’m glad there’s no strain despite being out of work and having no goal. The new goal is to relax and have fun and we actually do.
I try settle in the chair off to the side while the boys take the couch, but this immediately starts an argument. “G, sit here. Want you to try my dip.” Gaz beckons while Soap frowns.
“Not gonna want yours when she tries mine.” He flick’s Gaz’s ear before Gaz elbows him in the stomach.
“It’s not going to matter if you both get into a brawl and knock the table over.” Simon scolds and tugs both men back by their belts to sit on the couch, sighing heavily as they continue jabbing at each other with grins on their faces. I shake my head and walk back into the kitchen as John spoons chili into bowls.
“The kids are rowdy today.” I comment and grin when he chuckles.
“And this is when they’re on their best behavior.” He returns in the same low tone while I watch him add different toppings to each bowl. Seems like he already knows what each person likes.
I raise a brow. “This is good behavior?”
Price nods with a secret smile. “This effort is for you. Usually they come in with prepackaged everything and one person makes something homemade. This time, they all insisted on making something.” Surprise flits through me as I look over at the boys, softening at the thought that they went through the trouble of making things for me.
“Does that include you?” I peek up at him and try to hide my smirk as he swallows and shrugs a shoulder.
“A little.” He admits and I sway into him while the boys are distracted by getting the tv to the right channel.
“I appreciate that.” It’s actually fucking adorable, but I don’t think those words would be as appreciated. John simply slides a bowl of chili towards me and watches all the little things I add to it, his gaze turning all soft and sweet in the way that makes me melt.
“You may not appreciate it so much when they’re all pushing food on you.” He nudges another bowl towards me. “That’s Simon’s. Good luck.” He winks at me before heading over and I follow with a shake of my head.
I instantly have their attention as I walk over and hand Simon his bowl. “Tell us where you’d like to sit and we’ll move.” He says while Price retreats to the lone chair off to the side with a barely hidden smirk on his face.
“I’ll just sit on the floor—” I blink as each man immediately objects, but Johnny is the one who gets up and gently tugs on my arm to sit me down in his place.
“My mam would have my fuckin’ ears if I let a lady sit on the floor.” He mutters, sitting in the floor beside the arm of the couch while I fold my legs under me to give him space.
“I’ve literally slept in the dirt along with all of you. Sitting on the floor isn’t a big deal.” I remind them, amused and a bit confused at their reactions.
Gaz clicks his tongue. “Not the same. You’re not in uniform.”
“Oh, so I’m a lady when I’m not in uniform?” I tease, happily stirring my chili and holding the warm bowl close in my lap.
Simon reaches over and flicks my ear. “Clearly not.” I show him my middle finger and he smirks. “Just let us try and treat you nice every once and a while, alright? It’s good for us.”
I relax into the couch and relent, nodding. “Nice to see you all can act like gentlemen once and a while anyway.” That’s answered with scoffs and I look at Price who still has that little smirk on his face. Though it’s a little softer than before. The dip argument is eventually settled when I let them make me a plate and they pile it high. All are actually good, though apparently Simon underestimated the amount of spice he added and none of the men can handle it. Which makes it all the more hilarious when I eat a quarter of the bowl while Soap tries to keep up and ends up almost crying.
Honestly, watching them is more fun than watching the game. They groan in unison when there’s a bad play, they shout when the ref makes a bad call, and I can’t help but cheer along with them when their team makes a goal. Gaz eagerly reminds me of my dessert the second halftime hits and I retrieve it, putting it in the middle of the table. It’s basically chocolate whipped cream and I serve it with graham crackers and strawberries. I make Price a small plate and hand it to him in his chair while I wait beside him for the others to try it.
Gaz makes sure he’s first and he dips a strawberry, then shoves the whole thing into his mouth. His eyes go wide and my hand squeezes Price’s shoulder. “Holy shit, that’s good.” My hand laxes even as I swat Price for his silent laugh.
“You’re a good cook. You had nothing to worry about.” He assures me and risks sliding his hand over mine while the others are distracted. Soap and Ghost try it out and they have the same reaction. Half the bowl is gone before I know it, although I have to threaten to take it away when Gaz tries to hog it. I’m too pleased to even tease them about liking it so much.
By the end of the game, Simon is the one who has claimed the bowl and is idly licking the bottom while Soap tries fruitlessly to shove him off the couch. Everyone eventually filters out after helping clean up and I smile when John immediately reaches for me the second that we’re alone. “That was fun.” I murmur against his shoulder as he pulls me down onto the couch next to him and tucks me against his side.
“Mm. Glad we didn’t exhaust you.” He says sounding pretty tired himself.
I smirk and heave a contented breath. “Didn’t say that.” He smiles and I feel the warmth of his hand as he slides it up and down my back.
“You need to leave?” He peeks down at me and I shake my head.
“I can stay a little while longer. If you’ll have me.”
“I’ll happily keep you, sugar.” His other hand slides over my knee to rest in the crease above my calf and I risk letting my legs stretch out a bit. Price makes a deep sound in his chest and pulls me closer so my legs are draped over his lap. His eyes shut as he rests his head back on the couch and I watch him with a little smile before my eyes slowly shut as well. We fall asleep like that and I can’t help thinking that if more of my days are like this one, and like they have been with this team, I think my life would be a happy one. Finally.
Taglist (thank you all for reading and wanting to be tagged, I'll keep tagging you in new stuff with Price and G unless you say otherwise!)
@under-the-dirt @jj-ara33 @sorchateas @cherry-blosom-tree
@thriving-n-jiving @jinxxangel13 @emsstuff1 @missmidnight-writes @thereeallink @younggirlgenius @1wh4re1nova
#captain price#call of duty#cod#angst#fluff#cod mw2#gaz#ghost#price#price x reader#soap#john soap mactavish#soap cod#soap mw2#johnny mactavish#simon ghost riley#simon “Ghost” riley#cod modern warfare#hurtxcomfort#task force 141#tf 141#kyle gaz garrick#price fluff#captain price fluff#female!OC#oc:G#pricexOC
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Helloooo could u please do Poseidon cabin next? My hc is that they can be either very chill like typical calm surf kids and super relaxed (like calm and relaxing waves” or unhinged af like chaotic, super fun in a bit of crazy way and overall more energetic and like yeah unhinged (like Percy). Lil obvs usually overall the same calm, go-with-the-flow kind of kids but also either very chill or very chaotic. Wanna know what u think tho… so yeah. Poseidon cabin if u can please?
⇢ ˗ˏˋ poseidon cabin headcanons ࿐ྂ
hi!! of course i can do poseidon cabin hcs! i honestly have a lot of ideas about poseidon kids. thank you so much for the request and i hope you like these!
i totally agree with you that there are two ways a poseidon kid can turn out
1) totally chaotic (percy)
2) totally chill surfer kid
there are a few people who are a mix of chaotic and surfer, which makes them actually really fun to surf with, but only perodically, because while surfing with them is fun it can also be kinda scary at times
continuing on with water sports
poseidon kids are naturally really good at any and all watersports
they can often be found as the captains of swim teams
and very good at waterskiing and waterboarding
a go-to job for a poseidon kid is lifeguard as well, obviously
poseidon kids also don't eat seafood
some people find this confusing and some people find this obvious, i personally think it's obvious
it's because they can understand what fish are saying, so they don't like eating them
if you ask them why that bothers them, they'll say "you know what people are saying, would you eat them?"
not the most sound logic, but they're not exactly known for that
all poseidon kids have natural beach waves
poseidon himself definitely has beachy wavy hair, and he definitely passes that onto his kids
just like hecate and athena pass on their eye color to their kids, poseidon passes on his hair
poseidon kids are hardly ever seen wearing shoes unless it's absolutely necessary
they just naturally feel more comfortable barefoot
(the darks are a-barking)
(BARK BARK BARK)
ignore me
they love spending time at the beach, obviously
little beach creatures always manage to find their way to them
like you'll look away from a poseidon kid at the beach for about two seconds, and look back, and they have a little crab in their hand
sometimes they can look a little crazy, because they'll start having conversations with these little creatures
another thing about the beach with poseidon kids:
yknow the thing where whenever you leave the beach, you have sand just everywhere
they don't
it's something to be genuinely envious of when it comes to poseidon kids
like, they'll shake out their towel and there will be no sand on it, and then it's just done
it's definitely magic, a gift from their godly father
poseidon kids also hate aquariums
most aquariums don't treat the fish like they need to be treated, so going to an aquarium is kind of traumatic for a poseidon kid, because they can understand what the fish are saying
a kind of universal traumatic event for any poseidon kid is going to an aquarium on a field trip in elementary school (not yet aware that they're the child of poseidon) and hearing the fishes beg for help to be liberated from the prison they were being kept in
and when they got to the touch tank, hearing the fish beg to not be touched, things like that
like any and all poseidon kids ran around ripping everyone's hands out of the water, begging them to stop touching the fishes because they didn't like it
needless to say they got picked up early that day
poseidon kids also tan really easily
like, they'll fully walk past a sunny window and get tan
like for the full summer season, they're tan
they also stay tan for a really long time, so they're honestly still tan into like spooky season
poseidon kids are also very good at throwing parties
it's their chaotic side
they know where and how to get the best decorations, where the best spot to set everything up is
(and where to get good alcohol without getting caught, but you didn't hear that from me)
poseidon kids are the definition of horse people
not all horse people are children of poseidon but all children of poseidon are horse people
not in a cringy way, either, they just connect with horses more than any other animal, which makes sense because they can hear them and can have real relationships and conversations with them
they do often look a little bit crazy if they're seen at the stables fully having a conversation with horses
if they return to the stable where their horse is kept after spending all summer at camp, they'll go around catching up with all the other horses
they're also naturally skilled at riding horses
like if i jumped on a horse right now, i would fall off and die because i've never done it before and horse riding is a skill (according to the sims 4)
poseidon kids could go literally their whole life without riding a horse, and then jump on one during a quest and ride perfectly
the favorite movie genre of poseidon kids is also westerns, because they generally have horses in those movies, and they can understand their neighs
they think it's hilarious when a horse makes fun of the actor in the movie but no one but them can tell because they can understand what they're saying and no one else can
they look like crazy people watching westerns
at the camp movie nights, whenever it's poseidon cabin's turn to pick the movie, they pick a western, and are laughing at the most inappropriate times in the movie, because the horse just neighed in the background and he was making fun of the actor guys! the horse thinks this makes as much sense as we do, trust me, he has a really good sense of humor
going back to the aquarium thing a little bit, poseidon kids are also not a huge fan of zoos
this is because they can understand zebras, and zoo animals are also not treated the best
sometimes they're treated better than aquarium animals, but poseidon kids are always hesitant to go to the zoo, or just any place where you go and look at animals of any kind for fun
they can't help but think how they would feel if they were in that position
so basically poseidon kids have the hugest hearts ever
and they're very brave as well
and basically the coolest ever
you should probably be friends with a poseidon kid... if you're not already
alright that's all for poseidon kids! this was super fun, i had a bunch of ideas for poseidon kids! i want to thank everyone again, for all the support i'm getting on these. i've decided to start writing for harry potter characters, because i'm binging those movies and have a bunch of ideas, so these might be coming out a little bit slower, but know that i'm working on them! if you've requested one and i haven't posted it yet, just know that it's in the works. thanks so much for all the support and requests, i love you all so much!! muah!
#percy jackson#percy jackson x reader#percy jackson and the olympians#percy jackson and the heroes of olympus#pjo#hoo#poseidon#cabin headcanons#cabin 3#xanasaurusrex#xan's anons#percy jackson headcanons#pjo hcs#hcs#headcanons#cabin hcs
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Under Summer Skies
(the long awaited Campfic)
a/n: As an alumni of 11 years of Jewish Summer Camp, this fic means more to me than anything else I have ever posted on here. I’ve been planning to write this for as long as I can remember, and working on it for at least 2 years. I hate editing and literally spent months editing. So if it’s terrible please do not tell me.
Author: @helladirections
Pairing: Harry x YN
Status: Complete
Word Count: 37k
MASTERLIST | PATREON | USS TAG | WRITING TAG
Deleted Scene - Campout
Extra 1: Lemon Over Ice
Summary: Harry and YN are longtime best friends back for another summer as the Dream Team on staff. Featuring getting called out by 12 year olds, two dumb best friends who can’t see what’s right in front of them, and lots of stargazing.
Preview:
“Listen to me YN. I’ll be here for everything you need. I can be everything for you. Let me be everything for you.” He took a deep breath, shifting his hand from her jaw to rest on her cheek instead. “I can tell that you’re lonely, but I’m literally right here. Let me be here for you. I just... I want you to be happy. Let me make you happy.”
“I’m so lucky to have a friend like you, Harry.”
Read below or on AO3 or Wattpad
Pool time was, objectively, one of the most frustrating parts of the day for YN.
Not because she didn’t like the pool or the kids were difficult - actually it was practically an hour off for most of the counselors because the campers were fenced in and watched closely by lifeguards. No, it was frustrating because she was constantly tempted by Harry’s body in a swimsuit, even though he rarely went swimming.
He wore no shirt and a pair of swim trunks with a shorter seam than she deemed necessary, causing YN to be sometimes distracted by his honey golden skin, which only tanned more as the summer went on. His muscles looked like he could be a professional wrestler, but really he only ever used them for soft, welcoming hugs. His deep green eyes always made the person he was looking at feel like they were the most important person in the world. His chocolate brown curls were often disheveled in exactly the perfect way, the only real sign of exhaustion from a hard day’s work.
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind, Harry was the cute counselor. Even before campers arrived and the staff was still in training, other counselors were falling all over him, just begging for a piece.
Even YN would be lying to say she wasn’t distracted by him at least a little. They were lying beneath the shade of an overhang during pool time; Harry preoccupied with drawing on the back of his clipboard and YN focused on a new, complex friendship bracelet pattern. His skin glowed in the sun, a littering of tattoos on display now that his shirt was off despite the fact that he had no intention of going swimming. And if YN looked close enough (which she definitely did not do) she could just see the light dusting of chest hair he had started to grow in the last few years.
They were a reasonable distance away from the campers, taking advantage of this time to catch up with each other and only keep half an eye on the kids while they were contained and supervised by three lifeguards. They were gossiping about staffing changes among the higher-ups, a rumor that Mitch was hooking up with YN’s co-counselor Sarah, and that Harry’s co-counselor Niall had been hungover when he got back from his last day off. But mostly, they were sitting there together in relative silence. It was nice, and comfortable.
Eventually, Harry broke the silence, snapping the cap back onto his sharpie and letting his clipboard rest on the ground next to him.
He nudged YN’s feet with his own, outstretched as he rested back on his hands. “What are you doing for cabin time tonight?”
“Not sure, why?” After two weeks, she had used up most of her easy evening cabin activities and hadn’t had a chance to start brainstorming new ones yet.
“Thought it might be fun for me to come in. Do a little question time, see what’s on their minds.”
“Really, with kids this young?”
Harry turned to look towards the campers for a moment. Half of them were still enjoying the pool, the other half pretending they were too cool for it and sitting around the edges gossiping or playing cards.
“Why not? Y’girls been staring at me for weeks now, must have somethin’ on their minds.” He gestured towards a group of five or six of her campers, sitting around in a circle whispering and looking over at them, quickly looking away and giggling when Harry waved to them.
YN mulled it over. She had ten campers in her cabin, half of them eleven and half of them twelve. They would definitely be excited for anything involving Harry.
“Alright,” she relented. “I mean, they do adore you.”
“I’m staying in the cabin though,” she clarified. “I know a couple of mine wouldn’t want to be left alone.”
He shrugged. “That’s fair. Y’little one always struck me as quite shy.”
“Oh no,” she laughed. “She’s the most rambunctious of the bunch. Did I tell you what we caught her planning the other day?”
As YN told him the story of the shenanigans her camper had gotten up to, she was reminded of when she and Harry were that age, getting up to similar mischief. Long before Harry was the cute counselor, he was a camper with a reputation, notorious for sneaking out at night to make out with whichever girl was brave enough to risk getting caught. YN, however, was never Harry’s kiss of the week. He never offered, so she never asked, and she buried her little crush in the back of her head to make room for a friendship instead. If he wasn’t busy locking lips with someone, he was still sneaking out, but with platonic intentions to watch the stars with YN.
It was around age 16 or 17 that YN realized it was futile to have a crush on Harry. For one thing, she had too much competition and she could never really compare. And for another thing, having a crush meant being awkward and he just seemed so nice she would rather be able to have an actual conversation with him without trying to uncomfortably flirt (a skill she never truly mastered). That’s when they started eating meals together and sharing items from care packages and gossiping about their friends. It was when they discovered their special spot by the lake and they snuck out to go stargazing and not touch each other. Some of the other girls noticed that they were getting close, but no one ever thought it was anything more than a friendship. More than a few times, YN was asked to put in a good word with him for other girls, hoping that next time he snuck out it would be with them. And sometimes it was, but he had turned down makeout sessions on numerous occasions to stargaze with YN instead.
YN never really stopped thinking Harry was cute, or sweet, or any of the nice things the other girls said about him, because he was. She just stopped putting so much emphasis on those things and treated him like a whole person instead. And somewhere along the line, he started treating her like a whole person as well.
They kept in touch during the school year as they got older - time zones made it difficult while he was back in England but they got creative. YN knew all the gossip at Harry’s school across the ocean, and he knew hers. He called her on holidays, even the American ones that he didn’t celebrate. Sometimes they would text at all hours, first thing in the morning for one of them and last thing at night for the other. But they managed.
So YN gave up on a crush and instead she earned a best friend that she trusted with her entire being. And that trade-off seemed pretty fair to her, looking back. Boys would come and go, but Harry had become a constant, and she didn’t want it any other way.
As they entered into adulthood, they grew even closer. YN had always been very independent, sure, but there was something inside of her that craved companionship that she was never quite able to satisfy. Except for Harry.
Their first year on staff together they were assigned to the same age group for the first half of the summer and from the get-go, there was something special between them. It was even to the point where Mitch, the camp director, noticed that when they were together, kids listened better, cabins were cleaner, and the kids were more engaged in programs. So YN and Harry appropriately started calling themselves the Dream Team and no one ever tried to correct them. It felt nice, YN realized roughly three-quarters of the way through that summer, to feel like she was doing life with someone (even if that someone was a different person than the someone she was hooking up with, but that was beside the point).
So it was natural that when they both came back for their second summer on staff, they were smart enough to equip themselves with cheap little walkie-talkies so they could stay in touch throughout the day and night, seeing as there was no cell service out in nature. Without some lame asshole trying to take advantage of her, YN found herself clinging to Harry even more than the year prior. If he noticed, he never said anything, and he seemed to enjoy being with her at least equally as much. Harry never tried to change her mind about anything important, never tried to pry if she made it clear she wanted to keep something to herself, and never allowed her to feel alone or unloved, which was something she had definitely never experienced before. He made it clear that he valued her independence, her strong-willed nature, and her opinionated mind. Every ex she had ever had, including the one from the summer before, had attempted to change or alter some aspect of who she was, and Harry never did. Instead of trying to reel her in and make her fit into a specific place in his life, the two of them were equally part of each other’s lives, cheering each other on and supporting one another in whatever they were doing or saying or thinking.
To no one’s surprise, they were placed in the same age group together again, too. Unfortunately, they were given the most difficult age group - 11 and 12-year-olds - which Mitch validated by claiming the Dream Team could handle anything. Middle schoolers were difficult for lots of reasons - some had started puberty and had the hormones of teens but the knowledge of children. Others hadn’t yet and felt the pressure to keep up with their peers. They still needed to be reminded to brush their teeth every night, but if they were left alone for too long they might start trying to kiss each other in the middle of the field.
She knew it would be a bit difficult, but everything was made slightly easier with Harry by her side. It meant they could spend quality time together during the day, and when he talked, the campers would actually stop and listen to him. Plus, the girls definitely thought she was cooler since she was so close with the cutest counselor. Unsurprisingly, they were pretty obsessed with Harry. And honestly, YN didn’t blame them.
It was like Harry was born to be a camp counselor. He had something about him that entirely bloomed if he was in the right setting, and YN was confident that their summer camp was that setting. He was fun, energetic, and he played the guitar. The kids loved him and his silly antics, and the staff wanted to be near him. He had the most beautiful British accent which made everyone stop and listen, even the most ruthless campers. And of course, he was undeniably cute.
Before long, the lifeguard blew his whistle. YN and Harry each stood up and started counting their campers, getting ready to head back to the cabins to shower and then on with the rest of the day and other activities. The two of them were glued together as always while they sent their campers off to electives, sat in the daily staff meeting, played sports on the field, and wrangled everyone for dinner. And they walked together leading the group to their evening activity for the day. Which at the three-week mark in the summer was a talent show in front of the campfire.
The talent show was a camper favorite and the counselors even came up with a clever name for it a few years ago - Talents Under The Sky (TUTS). So, after every act instead of applauding the audience would “tut, tut, tut” as if they were disciplining a toddler. It made no sense, but everyone bought into it and it brought out laughter so it was definitely a winner as far as Mitch was concerned.
YN was mostly relieved that she was going through this with kids that were old enough to have actual real talents, and not the 8-year-olds that all insisted on doing skits about nothing that made no sense while speaking too quietly for anyone to hear. Her campers sang songs, did gymnastics, and told jokes. One of Harry’s even attempted to rap. He was a total mess, but you’d never know based on the way that Harry cheered him on and congratulated him when he got off the stage.
After all the kids had their turn, a few of the counselors decided to step up and show off as well. Sarah read slam poetry that was clearly a joke and had the kids bending over with laughter. And Niall brought out one of his golf clubs to hit pinecones with, allowing some of the campers to run out into the field and measure which one went the furthest. But YN had limited skills and didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of campers who already only thought she was cool when she was next to Harry, so instead of going up on stage, she used her marshmallow roasting talent to build s’mores for all the kids.
Harry, on the other hand, was actually filled with talent. As the last act of the night, he joked that he was headlining the show. With a guitar in hand, he stepped up to the stage. Lit by the fire in front of him, his skin glowed even more than it did under the bright summer sun. His rosemary eyes reflected the sparks of the fire, twinkling in a way that made it so YN couldn’t look away (she almost burnt a marshmallow but blew out the flame just in time). But mostly, YN thought he looked at peace, at home. Sitting there on the stage in front of campers, staff, the fire, and YN must be his happy place, YN decided.
He pursed his lips to the side as he sat there on a chair and looked up at the sky considering what to play.
“Anyway, here’s Wonderwall,” he started with a chuckle and no other introduction.
The campers sang along, but Harry’s voice came across strong and clear over them. It didn’t really matter what he was singing, his voice would always be soothing to her ears. It reminded her of years past, of their own campfire talent shows, of music elective as a camper, and late nights under the stars. She felt goosebumps on her skin, but brushed them off as caused by the chilly night air.
By the end of the song, every camper had a s’more and YN switched her focus to making one for herself (and one for Harry after he finished playing guitar).
Harry let out a breath. “Ok.” he slapped his own legs with finality. “That was... not too bad, right?”
Most of the kids cheered for him, but one of the boys from his cabin called out “that was trash!” giggling as he spoke.
“Early bedtime for you tonight, I think,” Harry called out with a laugh. “Alright, I know we said everyone got to do one song but... I’m in charge so I’m gonna do another and no one can stop me.”
A few of the campers laughed and YN smiled as she finished putting together the sandwich treats for herself and Harry.
“Some of you might know this song, but I’m not sure. It’s one of my favorites and it’s called Girl Crush.”
YN sat on a bench, her own s’more in hand as she gazed up at Harry in front of her. Curled in on herself and her sweater to keep warm, YN admired the way the stars framed his face. She could feel a bit of marshmallow finding its place on the corner of her mouth, but she didn’t mind - the treat in her hand tasted good and the majority of her attention was on Harry and his guitar.
His voice sounded beautiful with everything he sang, but for some reason on this last song, YN felt completely enraptured by his angelic tones. He belted out notes that she didn’t think he could reach, lyrics clear and melody soothing. And if she didn’t know any better, YN could swear he was looking over in her direction a little too often.
There was a moment at the end of the song - all the campers and staff were silent as Harry was singing softly, his gaze directed at YN, eyes wide and unblinking. He finished the last word, strummed the last chord, and in that moment, it looked like he was going to say something. Taking a breath, he opened his mouth, but no words came out. His audience waited for a beat or two, expecting him to say something with finality, but he didn’t. All he did was cock his head to the side, look into YN’s eyes, and sigh.
“Alright, a round of applause for all of our very talented friends tonight!” Sarah called out, breaking up the moment.
Harry blinked a few times and turned his attention back to the rest of the group, clapping along with the campers. He stood up and walked off the stage, removed the guitar strap from his chest, and went to sit next to YN, taking the s’more out of her hands with a small smile of thanks but not saying anything.
When YN got her campers back to the cabin after closing circle, they were still hyped up from TUTS, but mostly they were gushing over Harry’s singing.
“He sounded so pretty and his hair looked so cute!”
“Oh my gosh did you guys see the way he was looking at YN while he sang that last song? He’s totally in love with her!”
YN realized it was time to cut them off and shift their attention. “Brush your teeth please, but don’t get changed for bed. We’re having a guest tonight!” YN called out when she got her campers back to their cabin.
The girls immediately started giggling and chatting, giddy with excitement as they tried to guess who would be coming and what they would be doing. For the most part, they followed her instructions and cleaned up the floor for their guest before sitting together in a circle in the front of the cabin by YN’s bed. She checked her watch - Harry should be there any moment, it couldn’t take that long to get his boys ready for bed and leave them with Niall.
It was sweet, the way the girls were all jittery and excited without even knowing what was in store. YN fondly remembered nights exactly like this when she was their age. Sure camp taught her how to climb trees and tie-dye shirts and sing new songs, but the untold truth was that camp was the perfect place to learn about boys and kissing and dating, and when she was only a year or two older than her current campers she appreciatively remembers a girl telling her about blow jobs. It seemed so grotesque back then - boys don’t even wipe when they pee, why would she want to put that in her mouth?
Finally a knock at the door.
“Hello? Yeh all decent?” Harry called from the other side of the cabin’s door.
The girls shrieked.
“Yeah, come on in,” YN replied.
Harry walked in, ducking his head to make it through the barrier which had been originally built in the 1930s and had hardly been upgraded since. When he looked up and made eye contact with her, YN couldn’t help but notice how bright his deep green eyes looked, even after a long exhausting day of being a camp counselor. He had on a pair of worn-out jeans with holes over the knees and a baseball t-shirt with a yellow collar and sleeves, which showed off his arms nicely.
He made his way over to the center of the cabin and sat down on YN’s bed next to her. The girls were all smiling and whispering to each other.
“Y’need anythin’? Water?” Harry asked YN softly, holding up his own water bottle.
YN chuckled a bit. “H, this is my cabin, I’m good.”
“Just making sure,” he shrugged before turning his attention to the campers. “Alright ladies,” Harry started. He almost always referred to the girls as ‘ladies’, and YN secretly loved it - it was sweet that he was giving them that kind of respect. The campers quieted down, looking directly at him like whatever came out of his mouth was going to be the most important thing in the world. “I’m here tonight to do a question time. Ask m’anything you want. Can ask about me, or about boys, or camp, or school. Whatever’s on y’minds, alright? All questions are valid and I’m an open book.”
He smirked, looking over to YN next to him. The area was small and their shoulders and legs were touching as the aging bed sagged in the middle from their weight.
A few girls raised their hands to start asking questions, and Harry called on them one at a time. They started rather innocently.
“What’s your middle name?”
“Edward.”
“How many years have you come to camp?”
“This would be m’tenth.”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Pink.”
But it wasn’t long before they strayed...
“What color is your underwear right now?”
“Blue.”
“Boxers or briefs?”
“Do y’even know what the difference is? Anyway boxer-briefs.”
“How old were you when you had your first kiss?”
“Hmm...” he paused. “Think I was thirteen. Happened here at camp actually, out behind the Oak cabin if m’not mistaken.”
“Ooh tell us the story!”
Harry smiled, looking over towards YN. He opened his mouth to speak but one of the girls interrupted him.
“Oh was YN your first kiss?!?!?”
Harry chuckled. “No, no. But she was kind of there if I remember correctly.”
YN nodded at the memory.
“Was with a girl in my age group named Anna. Though she was quite cute, so I gave her the pot I made in art elective. Sat next to her at every meal for three days, too. Finally, she slipped a message to me to meet her outside behind her cabin at midnight, when she thought her counselors would be gone. So me and Niall snuck out of our cabin and met her. We got there and she had a friend with her, so our two friends walked a little bit away. Was quite awkward, but she was sweet.”
“I was in the cabin,” YN clarified. “But we were all staring out the window.”
“And your counselors were asleep?”
Harry laughed again. “No, we underestimated how late they would stay up. Got caught red-handed, we did.”
The campers laughed.
“But I want yeh to know, it’s ok if you’re a lot older before you have your first kiss, or younger, or however old. The most important thing is that it’s a good experience, right YN?”
He looked over at her for reassurance and she nodded.
“And always remember, you never need to define yourself by a romantic partner. You are all strong little people who will grow up into stronger bigger people. And if you really want a partner when you’re older, you’ll find one who respects you for who you are. But don’t ever be afraid of being alone.”
The campers totally looked past her well-meaning, deep-hearted advice. “How old were you, YN?”
“Hey now, that’s for another night. This is Harry’s question time, not mine,” she teased back at her camper.
“Harry, do you have a girlfriend?”
He took a deep, shaky breath and stared at the ceiling for a moment before answering. YN knew the question must be difficult for him. He’d been dating a girl back in London for around six months when he heard back that he had been hired to work at camp for another summer. She didn’t want to come with him. She didn’t want to do long distance. She didn’t want him to leave.
Harry called YN out of the blue one day - well it was the middle of the night for him, that’s why he said he called her instead of a friend in London. He told her that he didn’t want to wake anyone up. And he wanted to know what she thought since she was his best camp friend. And she was honest with him.
“Look H, I can’t tell you what to do. But I want you to be happy and I know I’ve never seen you happier than when you’re on a hike to the hidden campsite. And someone who really loves you should also want you to be happy. But I don’t know. Maybe you’re happier with her and I haven’t seen it. Just... do what makes you happy H, yeah?
He broke up with her the next day and called YN in a blubbering mess.
“No, no I don’t,” he answered softly.
“You should date YN!” one of the younger ones called out without missing a beat.
YN felt herself blushing, but she wasn’t sure why. Campers always wanted their counselors to date each other. And it wasn’t the first time someone had suggested it to the two of them. But he was sitting close to her, legs and arms touching, lounging on top of her favorite blanket. It had been a while since she had even considered it. But there was no point in thinking about it, really - they were best friends and she wouldn’t risk anything to lose him.
Harry flashed her a toothy smile, and if she didn’t know any better, YN would’ve sworn she saw a glimmer of mischief in his eyes.
“I don’t know, ladies. Your YN’s got staff boys falling all over her,” he teased. “Of course they know they have to get through me, first,” he said, puffing out his chest in show.
She gave him a playful shove and they both laughed. They both knew it wasn’t true.
“You’d be so cute though! Harry could sing to you and you could go on romantic hikes and he clearly likes you, everyone can tell.”
Harry was smiling, all in good fun until that very last statement. His brows were high on his forehead, eyes wide. He coughed. YN tried to read him, but it was hard. Other than shock, he wasn’t giving much away. Taking a deep breath, he looked back over to YN. Their eyes met and she shrugged.
“Have you ever dated each other? Or kissed? Or anything?”
Both of them shook their heads. “Nope. YN is my best friend. We’re the dream team, right?” he looked to her for a nod of agreement. “I’m so lucky to have her in my life.”
“Ok, well, what’s your favorite thing about YN?”
Harry looked at her for a moment. “I like... I like that she’s kind to everyone, even if they don’t deserve it.”
Most of the campers let out a little “aw” as she blushed at his response. But the little one wasn’t satisfied with the answer.
“What’s your favorite thing about her physically though?”
“Everything,” he answered quickly.
The response kind of took her by surprise. He didn’t even take a pause to think it over, didn’t try and come up with a bullshit work-around answer. Straight up, ‘everything’. What was she supposed to do with that information? Did he actually like the way she looked?
“Ok, next question?”
“You sang that song Girl Crush so... do you have a crush on anyone?”
His smirk spread across his face.
“A crush is supposed to be a secret, if I tell you then what happens?” he answered. “Can’t have you telling her because then I’ll never get my chance to do it properly, hm?”
“That means yes, you totally do!”
He shrugged. “Alright, who’s next?”
“How do I know if a boy likes me?”
“Who was your first crush?”
“What do penises taste like?”
Some of the questions really challenged the statement that all questions were valid and they wouldn’t laugh. But they did their best. YN definitely helped answer some, because Harry for one had no idea what penises tasted like, but he did promise that if he ever found out, they would be the first to get his report back.
They pushed and pushed about the two of them together. Something about being 11 and 12 years old made it engraved into their DNA that they would never let this go, no matter how many times both Harry and YN reassured the kids that they were only best friends. They asked what his favorite color of eyes was, and then pointed out that YN had that color. They asked what his ideal first date would be, and then cheered about how cute it would be for the two of them to go on that together. And they asked what he likes best in a girl, easily noticing that every characteristic he mentioned matched YN perfectly.
All together, Harry’s visit was probably the most exciting cabin time they had ever had. They were pretty riled up by the end of it when YN noticed it was ten minutes past their bedtime and forced the session to a close.
“You can ask me any questions, any time you want. I’m a safe, open book, alright?” he promised them.
“Except not who you like!”
“Still gotta keep some things to myself, hm?” he said, looking directly at YN.
After Harry left, YN spent over half an hour getting the campers settled down and ready for bed. All in all, they were good kids, even if tweens were generally awful. At least her kids listened pretty well and everyone took showers. That’s all she could really ask of them.
She turned the lights out, saying goodnight and walking back over to her bed area. Technically, counselors were supposed to stay inside the cabin if it was their turn for bed watch. But YN’s co-counselor was on a night off, and she hadn’t had a spare minute to herself for far too long, so she changed into her PJs, grabbed her phone, and snuck out the back door.
Her quiet escape was almost ruined, though, when she walked directly into another body and gasped louder than she meant to.
Harry put his hand over her mouth as fast as he could.
“Don’t let them hear you,” he whispered.
She smiled, and Harry let his hand slowly drop away.
“Scared me, H,” she told him as quietly as she could manage. “This is what the walkies are for, aren’t they?”
He chuckled a bit, taking half a step back and nodding towards the half-wall built in to support the hill a few feet away. They sat together for a moment in silence, looking at the window and listening for any movement that might be coming from inside the cabin. Only when they were both convinced the kids were still in bed did YN released the breath she was holding and turned to face Harry.
“The girls had fun tonight, I think,” she whispered softly.
Harry smirked. “So did I.”
“After you left they asked me what boxer briefs were.” She paused for a moment, laughing at the ridiculous way the question sounded as it came out of her camper’s mouth. “Led to quite an interesting discussion, I think.”
“Oh, I bet. You’ll have to give me your notes on it later,” he responded.
YN realized she was still holding onto her phone, so she slipped it into her back pocket. She had wanted to come out here to be alone, but being with Harry was undoubtedly better.
“You know,” she started, looking straight ahead towards the cabin. “They’ve been telling me to date you all week.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, probably should’a warned you about that.”
She turned back to see him shrug.
“Didn’t mind the question that much, really.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, why would I mind?”
Because you would never want to date me. Because I could never compare to your ex. Because every straight girl on staff is plotting how to get into your pants. Because we’ve been best friends for years and I gave up hope on anything romantic between us ages ago. Because everyone I’ve ever been with has made it clear that in some way, I’m too much for them.
“Dunno,” she lied. “Kids can make things like that a bit awkward, ya know?”
Harry responded with a noncommittal hum. “I don’t know. They’re just kids - they have crushes and want to start dating and so they project that onto us. ‘S natural.”
“I guess... Sounded good at TUTS tonight,” she tried to change the subject.
“Thanks, love that song. It means... a lot to me...”
YN nodded, kicking a pebble lightly with her toe.
“Did you mean what you said when they asked you about the crush?”
“Which part?”
“The part where... well you said you had one but you wouldn’t tell...”
Harry chuckled a bit. “Course I won't tell a bunch of kids like that. When it’s time to tell her I like her, she’ll know.”
YN looked up at the sky as she contemplated what that meant - that he had already fallen for someone else and her chances with him (that she definitely wasn’t hoping for) were all but forgotten. The feeling wasn’t new, but it meant that maybe one day, sooner than she would like, her place beside him would be replaced with someone else and she would be out on her own again. Which, honestly, was ok. She had gone this long by herself, she could do it again. But she couldn’t deny that she would miss having someone next to her, physically and metaphorically.
The sun had gone down long ago, and the stars were shining bright above them. That’s one thing she especially loved about camp - the nighttime stars. They were so much clearer than in the city. It was easy to get lost in them if she allowed herself - not unlike Harry’s eyes when he gave her that special look filled with softness and care and something else could never quite place. His eyes were probably made of stardust, she thought. Like someone had snatched one out of the sky, ground it up into little tiny flecks, and scattered them around his face as a little baby. And now, years later, those flakes were still present as shiny spots in his irises, in freckles on his nose, in the little mole under the corner of his mouth.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been staring at the sky before Harry nudged her.
“Oh, sorry.”
“Lookin’ at the stars again?”
“Yeah,” she sighed.
“Hey,” he brought her attention back to him. “What do you say we go stargazing tomorrow night? You’ll be off, right?”
It had been a long time since they had gone out together in the late night, walking to the hidden spot near the lake where they would lay on their backs and look at the stars. Sometimes they were silent, but other times they talked about what else was out there, or what shapes they could see in the stars, or anything and everything that came to their minds.
YN furrowed her brow. “Yeah, but you’ll be on bed watch, right?”
“Technically,” he shrugged. “But Niall owes me.”
She didn’t respond right away. Maybe she was still a bit lost in the stars, or maybe she was lost in Harry.
“Y’cold?”
“Hm?” she asked.
Harry reached out to rub her arm. “Got goosebumps. Y’want my jacket?”
She looked first at where Harry was trying to warm her, and then quickly noticed what had probably actually gotten his attention. When she changed into her PJs she had taken off her bra, not expecting to be face to face with anyone else for the night. It wasn’t completely out of the ordinary for the two of them to be hanging around in pajamas and braless, but they weren’t usually outside in the cold and her nipples weren’t usually hard and on full display.
She looked between Harry and the cabin, weighing the odds of getting back inside, finding a jacket, and coming out again, all without the campers noticing. Even if she was wearing a bra, she knew that the chances of the whole endeavor working out were fairly slim. And Harry always had the softest sweatshirts.
“Uh, yeah. If you don’t mind?”
“Course I don’t.” He laughed as he pulled off his hoodie for her. “I would do anything, give you anything. You know that, YN.”
She slipped it on over her head, breathing in deeply when she thought he wouldn’t notice. His smell was so nice.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
Harry looked back at her, but she couldn't read his expression. He didn’t respond, just let his eyes meet hers. With a slight smirk, he tilted his head to the side but still stayed silent.
“What?” she giggled.
“Nothing.”
“That’s a lie.”
He sighed, but with a smile. “You’re right.”
She thought she had him trapped, but he still stayed quiet. Maybe it was the kids throwing it out only an hour earlier, or maybe it was being surrounded by his scent in his comfy hoodie, but YN might have tricked herself into believing that Harry was looking at her with something a little extra in his eyes. But she knew better.
“Well whatever it is, I’ll be here when you want to tell me.”
YN figured that he would share his thoughts with her eventually, he always did. She made sure he knew that he could trust her, that she would listen without judging and that everything said between them would stay between them.
She didn’t know that Harry was thinking about how good she looked in his clothes. About how he would like to see her walking around in one of his large t-shirts and no bra, socks on her cold feet as she walked around his apartment. About how in this particular sweatshirt she just looked so cozy and all he wanted to do was grab her and hold tight, cuddle under some blankets and fall asleep with a smile. About how she’s always on his mind these days. She didn’t know any of that.
But she listened as he continued on with something unrelated. He told her how Niall had convinced his campers that the dining hall staff actually have a way to measure which age group is eating the most vegetables, so they better eat more or else he could get fired for malnutrition. They sat down together on the cabin porch and he told her about how he had discovered a dusty old guitar in the back of the music room and spent a few hours trying to get it into tune, only to no avail. When an owl spoke up in the distance, she listened as Harry told her about the time a kid in his class when he was 8 years old who was obsessed with owls and talked about them incessantly, and to this day Harry can name random owl facts that he wished he didn’t know.
And she listened until Harry had bored himself, realizing that he had spent the entire time talking.
“Let’s talk about you, hm?” he offered.
YN shrugged. “What about? I’m not that exciting, H,” she laughed. “My campers think I’m lame unless I’m with you, I have no idea what life holds for me when the summer ends, and I haven’t even touched a boy since that guy last summer.”
“Yeah well,” Harry crossed his arms over his chest. “Liam was no good anyway.”
“He was fine, harmless, H,” she insisted.
“YN, seriously.” His tone lowered. “You keep calling him ‘that guy last year’ but he was your boyfriend. And he sucked.”
Sighing, YN took a few steps away from Harry, kicking a rock before turning back around to respond to him.
“Well first of all, he refused to suck, so write that down.” She looked up, expecting Harry to laugh at the joke but was only matched with a concerned face and a raised eyebrow, so she continued. “He just... he made me feel a little less alone, ok?”
“He took advantage of you, YN. He was only nice if he was sober and he told me he never liked you.”
“I know!”
Both of their eyes widened at her outburst, forgetting they were standing right outside a cabin of hopefully sleeping kids. They waited for a moment, expecting a voice to come from inside. After it was quiet for a moment, they continued.
“I know he took advantage of me, H. But no one had ever given me that kind of attention before, you know? He made me feel wanted, made me feel like maybe I could be loved because I could do something for him that no one else could. Made me feel like even if I was ok alone, maybe I didn’t have to be.”
“I know,” he answered softly, bringing a hand up to her arm and squeezing lightly. “But you don’t need that kind of attention, not from guys like that.” He paused for a moment, looking up at the sky before looking back at her.
Before he could open his mouth again, she filled the silence.
“But this is what I get, right? Men are trash and I let them in because I’m just a big dumpster fire?” She laughed at the end, looking down at her feet.
“YN, look at me.” When she didn’t, he got stronger. He softly grasped her jaw, forcing her attention back to him and bringing his other hand to rest on her waist. “Stop trying to make jokes to get out of this. You don’t need him, or anyone like him. You have me, and I’ll give you all the attention you want. I won't let you be alone anymore.”
She closed her eyes, breathing deeply as she processed his words.
“Listen to me YN. I’ll be here for everything you need. I can be everything for you. Let me be everything for you.” He took a deep breath, shifting his hand from her jaw to rest on her cheek instead. “I can tell that you’re lonely, but I’m literally right here. Let me be here for you. I just... I want you to be happy. Let me make you happy.”
She leaned her head into his large, supportive palm, and allowed his warmth to spread through her. YN was grateful it was late and there were no lights behind the cabins because if there were then Harry would have seen her blushing at his comment.
“I’m here, YN. I’m yours. Ok? I’m yours and you’re mine, and we’re going to be ok.”
He said it with finality, and YN didn’t want to fight him. Instead, she lunged forward arms first, grabbing around his torso tightly and tucking her head into his chest. From her spot against him, she could feel the puff of his breath as her body reached his with a bit of power behind it, and then the way his heart was beating a bit faster than usual.
He wrapped himself around her quickly, one arm around her waist and the other rubbing up and down her back softly. After a moment, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I’m so lucky to have a friend like you, Harry.”
She was flattered that he felt so protective over her. So she listened as he talked about how much cared for her. And she listened as he talked about the standards she should be holding herself to. And she listened as he gave her a hard time for never taking her own advice. And she listened as he gave her comforting words, reminding her that she was worth so much more than she was allowing for herself.
And she listened when Harry checked his watch and realized he had ten minutes to get back to his cabin and get in bed before curfew.
The only thing she didn’t listen to was his insistence on her keeping his sweatshirt.
“I’m like five feet away from my bed, H. You need it more than I do.”
“Fine, but stargazing tomorrow, alright? Don’t forget.”
Not that she ever could.
. . .
The next day seemed to have dragged on for ages, even though she knew it was the same daily routine they had been following over the past three weeks. They did group activities, sports time, meals, electives, pool, shower time, and more group activities. But still, the day felt like it was never going to end, there was always something next other than spending alone time with Harry. She did see him literally all day and ate every meal sitting next to him as always, but looking forward to stargazing that night made the seconds tick by slower than ever. Bedtime couldn’t have come soon enough.
As the closing circle wrapped up and kids hugged each other goodnight, YN felt a firm but soft hand come to rest on her back.
“Click the walkie three times when you’re ready,” he whispered, reminding her of their code. “Meet me in the parking lot, ‘ve got a surprise.”
She could hear the lilt in his voice and knew without even looking that he was trying to hide his signature smirk. YN couldn’t for the life of her figure out what kind of surprise he might have in store for them, but the butterflies in her tummy came back in full force. Taking a breath, she nodded her head. Harry’s body was close enough that she could just barely get a whiff of that signature smell he carried around with him. She wanted to drown in it.
Back in the cabin, she waited for a while to help the girls get settled into bed. It was Sarah’s turn for bedwatch, so YN allowed her to take the lead on calming everyone down and getting them into bed. Before turning out the lights, she changed into comfortable clothes and grabbed her walkie-talkie from the shelf next to her bed.
“YN!” one of the campers whisper-yelled to her.
She whipped her head around until she spotted a camper on a top bunk lying with her head in her hands, watching YN. She walked over, resting a hand on the bunk.
“Where are you going tonight?”
YN couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Just on a little adventure. If I’m not back by morning, call the authorities... or call Harry,” she joked before turning back around.
“You’re going on an adventure with Harry?!” the camper cheered out.
Suddenly the calmness in the room was shattered as most of the campers were sitting up in bed, asking questions or yelling out reminders (specifically that if Harry ever let her touch his hair she was required to report back to them in vivid detail what it was like).
“I knew you were dating him!” the first camper called out again.
YN laughed under her breath as she gathered up her things for the evening. “I’m not dating him, he even told you himself, didn’t he?”
“But sometimes counselors lie,” the girl insisted.
YN pulled on a sweatshirt and grabbed her phone and walkie to put into her pockets.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve never told a lie in my life!”
She headed towards the door, but the campers were still eagerly chatting away about the situation. YN was grateful that it wasn’t her night to stay on bed watch, and Sarah would have to calm the kids back down now. After three nights in a row, she deserved the night off.
The staff parking lot was at the very bottom of the hill, meaning YN found herself walking through the entire camp. After all these years, she still found awe in the way camp looked at night after everyone had gone to bed. It was quiet in a different way than she was used to. And although she had every other night off from bed watch with the freedom to spend time by herself, she still found beauty in the eerie stillness of a place that was usually bustling with energy.
When she finally reached the lot, which was really more like an extra-wide dirt road with some dusty vehicles parked along the edge, she spotted Harry sitting on the trunk of his car, distracted by the phone in his hand. As she walked along the road, she laughed at the jokes and names and shapes that campers and staff alike had drawn into the dust-covered surfaces of the cars.
She watched as Harry finally looked up from his phone and spotted her walking towards him from about fifteen feet away. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but she could’ve sworn she saw his face light up at the realization.
“Well hello darling,” he greeted her softly.
YN took the last few steps towards him before hoisting herself up onto the trunk next to him.
“Hey H. Hope you haven’t been waiting too long. I know I sent the signal a while ago but then one of the girls asked where I was going tonight and when they found out I would be with you, all hell broke loose,” she giggled.
He looked back at her with a soft gaze, shaking his head.
“No such thing. Would wait hours for you, you know that.”
It was quiet for a moment before Harry coughed, bringing her attention back to him.
“So um, I’ve actually got a little something planned for tonight, if you’re alright with it. Still gonna stargaze! Just thought... y’know... maybe we could have a little fun along the way.”
She looked back at him quizzically.
“Uh right so, actually the surprise is in the car so...”
Harry jumped off of his perch before lending a hand to YN and helping her down as well. She watched him fish his keys out of his pocket and start opening the back end of the car.
“Hey, s’a surprise,” he insisted, urging her to giggle and turn away from him.
With her eyes closed, she could hear him opening the trunk, throwing a few things around, and closing it again. A few options of what it could be ran through her mind - some good food he’d smuggled in from his last day off, an extra one of his perfect-smelling sweatshirts, some candy he had confiscated from a camper.
“Are y’eyes closed?”
“Yes, Harry! Tell me what it is already!”
First, she heard him - his footsteps on the imperfect dirt road. Then she felt him - his breath on the back of her neck and his left hand resting on her waist. She held her breath.
“Alrigh’,” he whispered directly into her ear. “Open up.”
It took a few blinks for her eyes to readjust to the limited lighting they were under, but when she could get a clear picture again she couldn't help but smile wide. She turned around in his arms, laughing as she went.
“Harry! You snuck in alcohol?!” She gave him a little shove to his chest to punctuate her accusation.
Harry shrugged. “Yeah, brought it at the beginning of the summer but wanted to save it for something special. But any occasion with my girl is a special occasion. And I know for a fact that you haven’t had anything to drink yet this summer, even on your days off. You deserve to have some fun, so I’m not taking no for an answer.”
YN sighed, feigning discontent.
Harry just raised his brow, challenging her.
Ever the rule follower, the truth was she did feel guilty drinking during the summer even on days off. But Harry was right, it had been weeks. And if she was ever going to break a rule with someone it was going to be Harry. He always made those moments worth it.
“Fine, just this once though, ok?”
A giant smile spread across his face then as he knew he had won her over.
“You say that now, but I bet y’would drink again if it came with the bonus of spending time with me.”
“Bonus? Hanging out with you is like a chore at best,” she teased. “Now open that thing before I change my mind.”
Harry shook his head as he turned his attention to the bottle of cheap vodka in his hands. She would tease him for buying the off-brand as well, except that she knew what his salary was, because it was the same as hers, and it wasn’t nearly enough to validate buying the good stuff like she knew he preferred.
Once the lid was twisted off, he handed the bottle to her.
“Do the honors?”
“Wait, you don’t have any chaser, do you? Harry!”
He laughed again. “You get what you pay for, love. Now take a drink before I change my mind about sharing with yeh.”
She rolled her eyes before bringing the bottle up to her mouth. YN took a small sip before opening her mouth wide, sticking her tongue out, and making a disgusting noise that she would only ever allow Harry to hear.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it!” he insisted.
“Harry, I swear to god, if you ever make me drink straight vodka like that again-”
“Relax, babe,” he cut her off with a giggle. He turned back around and opened the trunk again, pulling out a bottle of juice and holding it up.
“Harry!”
“What! I just wanted to see if you would do it s’all.”
He grabbed a couple of plastic cups as well before closing the trunk and using it as a table. YN hopped back up to sit on it, swinging her legs back and forth against the back of the car as he mixed their drinks. They stayed there for a while, drinking together and chatting. It hadn’t been long since they had last talked, a few hours at most, but over their entire friendship, they had never once managed to run out of things to talk about. They traded stories of their nights out during the year away from each other. Most of YN’s involved her friends doing stupid things and her having to clean up the mess, and most of Harry’s had to do with his ex.
Harry was in the middle of telling a story about the time that he and his ex went to a bar, she lost exactly one shoe, and he spent twenty minutes crawling around on his hands and knees in the sticky bar looking for it only for her to remember she left it at their table.
“Hey, stop that,” YN interrupted.
“What? “ Harry raised his brow and took another sip of his drink.
“Stop talking about her. I don’t want to hear about her and I know you don’t want to talk about her.” She paused for a moment, pursing her lips and looking down at her feet before looking back up at him. “Alright, here’s the deal. No more mentions of her tonight, tonight is a fun night. And then we can pick a different time to sit around and be sad about her, alright?”
Harry seemed to think over the proposition for a moment before nodding his head. “I’ll do my best. ‘S hard though... spent nearly every day with her for six months.”
“You also spent time working and studying and doing things with friends, right?”
Again, he nodded.
“Great, tell me those things.”
“Fine, but not here.” He hopped off the car, grabbed his mixed drink in one hand and the half-empty bottle in the other, and started walking further down the dirt road away from the cabins and fields and program spaces and towards the hiking trails.
“You coming?” he called back over his shoulder.
YN followed his lead, hopping off the back of the car and jogging to catch up with him as they walked deeper into the forest. When they reached the first fork in the road, YN started naturally going right, but Harry stopped her.
“C’mon, let’s go this way,” he nodded to the left with his head.
“Towards the lake?”
“Yeah, why not?”
YN was a little confused at first. “Lake” was a strong word for the collection of smelly water hidden at the end of that trail. For years camp tried to clean it out and make it swimmable, or boatable, or even just not smell so bad. But every year they came back for the summer and it was exactly as disgusting as ever. Generations of campers and staff continued the legend that if you touched the water you would get a special rash that no one in the infirmary could heal. And when YN was a young camper, she swore she saw a dead fish floating around in it, but no one ever believed her.
But Harry looked determined, and YN trusted him, so she followed him anyway.
“Fine, but give me a refill,” she insisted, holding her cup out in front of him.
He gladly filled her cup and continued to lead her down the path. About five minutes in, YN realized how long it had been since she had gone this route. They no longer took campers to this spot anymore, not on purpose anyway. Which meant the last time she had been there must’ve been when she snuck out of her cabin as a teen. And that had to mean...
“Harry, are you taking me to our spot?” she asked softly.
He kept his focus straight ahead as he nodded.
“Yeah, thought it would be nice. S’alright, right?”
“Mhmm.”
There was an easy pause before Harry started up again telling a story of the time his friend accidentally picked up a stranger’s phone at a bar and got halfway home before realizing it. YN laughed along as they walked.
Truthfully, YN could listen to Harry talk for hours and never get bored. It didn’t even matter what he was saying. The sound of his voice was familiar and soothing, and the way he spoke sounded like a gentle melody from the birds or the waves crashing in the ocean. She had been known to completely zone out while he was talking, listening to the rhythm of his voice and entirely forgetting what the words coming out of his mouth actually meant.
Harry finished the story as they reached their destination, but YN almost didn’t even notice. She was so much more wrapped up in his presence next to her than what he was saying.
YN shivered as a cold wind blew through them.
“YN,” Harry said a bit sternly, “Did you forget to grab a jacket again?”
She shrugged.
“Here, take mine.” He placed his cup and the bottle on the ground carefully before taking his jacket off and draping it over YN’s shoulders. YN would never say no to getting to be wrapped up in Harry, even his clothes were close enough to the real thing.
The trail eventually opened up to a clearing overlooking the lake. Structures that had been built there in the past were worn down and weeds were growing in the center of an old fire pit. But off to the side still sat the small platform that YN remembered. Apparently at one point in time, it was used as a stage for campers to do talent shows, long before anyone had come up with naming them TUTS. But its only real use in YN’s memory was for lying on her back next to Harry and staring at the stars above.
They sat in the center of the platform together, cross-legged as Harry placed the bottle of vodka in between them.
“Alright,” he started with a sigh, hands landing on his knees. “We’re out of earshot of children for the first time in weeks, tell me what’s really on your mind.”
YN smiled but just shrugged. “What, like sex, drugs, and rock and roll?” she teased.
That had Harry giggling, which told YN he was definitely at least as tipsy as she was by that point.
“Ok, well the first one is sex, you go first.” she declared.
“I go? What do you mean I go? Like what do you want me to say?”
“Like, I don’t know. Tell me something I don’t already know. Like..” she stared out at the lake for a minute. “Ok, I’ve got one. Tell me a kink you have!”
“What?!” Harry said. “I’m not doing that, YN ask something else.”
But she crossed her arms and held firm, a pout on her face. “Nope, you have to answer, that’s the game.”
“What game?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Just answer the question ok? You get to ask me one next.”
“Alright fine,” he eventually relented. He turned his body away from her to look straight ahead at the overgrown firepit and took another sip of his drink.
“What are you doing?”
“Don’t want to look you in the eye while I say it out loud.”
“Harry! That’s not fair! You totally have to look at me.”
“Fine,” he groaned, twisting around. “Just one, right?”
“You have more than one?” she raised her brows high.
He had a small smirk on his face as he darted his eyes, looking around everywhere except at her but not answering the question. “I really like... uh...”
“Out with it!”
“I really like being told I’m doing a good job, ok? I like... lots of compliments and nice words and honestly, the moaning counts too, because that means I’m doing, like, an extra good job.”
“So, a praise kink?” she clarified.
YN could see the blood rushing up to his cheeks even more than it already had, and it wasn’t because of the alcohol.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so.”
His fingers toyed with his lower lip, a nervous tick that YN was well acquainted with. She couldn’t believe he would even consider the idea that she might make fun of him for that.
“A praise kink is like, totally super normal. Tons of people like that shit,” she reasoned. “It’s kinda cute, actually.”
The words slipped out of her mouth before she could realize what she was saying. By the time it hit her that she had sort of called him cute, it was too late. But he was smiling back at her.
“Yeah? Y’think so?”
“Mhmm.” YN didn’t know what to say, looking down at her fingers in her lap and picking at her cuticles to distract herself. After the campers badgered him the night before she had meant to be extra careful with using those kinds of words around him unless she wanted to completely embarrass herself. But the alcohol made her loose-lipped and she couldn’t really help it.
He sat there in silence for a moment before finishing up the second half of his current drink.
“Wonder if you’d say the same thing when I get all possessive over you,” he said under his breath with a chuckle, refilling his cup.
YN’s eyes went wide for a moment.
“Alright, your turn,” he told her with renewed vigor, not giving her a chance to ask about what he had just blurted out. “Tell me something... oh, ok, I’ve got it. Tell me about the best fuck you ever had?”
“Ever?”
“Yeah. Who was it, what made it so good, spill.”
YN let out a breath. That was actually a pretty difficult question, considering her relative lack of experience. Harry talked like everyone had a sex life as extensive as his. She knew for a fact that he started having sex years before she did, and had heard plenty of stories from the other girls at camp about the experiences.
“What’s taking y’so long?” he whined.
She shrugged. “Dunno. Haven’t really had... I mean some times were better than others, yeah? But none really... stuck out as all that special, y’know?”
YN watched as Harry tipped his head to the side, curiously. “No, I have no idea. I remember all the special -” but he cut himself off mid-sentence. “Oh my god,” he gasped.
Now she was confused. “What?”
Harry just took another sip of his drink, chuckling as he swallowed. She hated when he did this, goading her on, teasing her with information. In the back of her head, YN knew he only did it because he liked to get her riled up. And as much as she didn’t want to let him win in his endeavor, she really had no choice in this situation. At least not with her lowered inhibitions and the feeling in her lower stomach that she was desperately trying to ignore.
“Harry!”
“No, I’m gonna make you say it.”
“Well, how can I say it if I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“Ok fine,” he relented. “I wanted you to admit that Liam was small. Probably didn’t even make you cum!” he teased.
“Yeah, well... he wasn’t the only one,” she grumbled, taking another sip out of her cup.
“You’ve been with other really small guys?”
“No, I mean...” she didn’t want to admit it, not to Harry of all people. But she supposed she made up the rules of the game and now she had to stick to them and actually answer everything. “I mean... no guy has ever made me... y’know... finish. I mean there was this one time where I thought maybe it happened but like, I know what it feels like and I just really liked the guy and was trying to convince myself he was making it happen.”
“Wait, really? Never?”
“Never by a guy... no,” she admitted.
She felt small under his gaze, but not because of what he was saying or doing. Just the knowledge that he had so many partner-induced orgasms that he had to specify a favorite. And on top of that, he knew for a fact that he was at least good at fingering girls because he had fingered Rachel L down by the gazebo three summers ago and everyone found out. All of that combined and YN felt like she could never compare, not to Harry, not to his ex, not to anyone. She was better off staying alone, like she always had been, like she probably always would be.
“Hey, hey, don’t be sad. We’ll make sure it happens for you,” he assured her, placing a comforting hand on her thigh.
“We?” She looked from his hand to his eyes.
Harry paused for a few seconds, then nodded. “Yeah, of course ‘we’, who do you think I am? Dream Team, remember? Gonna make sure your dream comes TRUE this summer.”
YN couldn’t keep from laughing at that.
“Ok your turn,” she declared.
“Shoot.”
“How big is your dick?”
Harry scoffed. “Tell you for a fact that I’m bigger than Liam from last year, and the guy from high school.”
“You’re just saying that!”
“Fine, fine. You really wanna know that bad?”
She had always been a tiny bit curious, but now that he was playing his little game and trying to hold the information back, YN was literally going to explode if he didn’t tell her.
“Well now I do, yeah.”
“Alright, it’s... well it’s about this thick around and this long...when I’m hard... on a good day.”
He showed her the measurements with his hands, and her drunken mind was in awe. There was no doubt in her swirling mind by then that he was anything like anyone she had ever been with. The idea of someone that big? He had to be bigger than any vibrator she currently owned (very well hidden away inside her suitcase under her bed and behind all her shoes so no one would find them). The image of him stretching her out as she had always hoped to experience one day was painted on the inside of her eyelids. It would probably hurt a little at first, and he would groan as she shifted her body to adjust to him. He would tell her how tight she was in between thrusts and she would feel so full - maybe even feel him all the way in her tummy when he came inside of her.
Harry laughed.
Her eyes went wide as she realized she had actually sat there and asked Harry about his dick then closed her eyes and imagined it right in front of him. The alcohol was clearly starting to get to her. He started pouring himself a refill, not giving YN time to fully recuperate after learning this new information.
“Ok, your turn. When was the last time you had a real orgasm and who were you with? Or I guess... what were you thinking about?”
He asked it so casually. And on the one hand, of course he did, that’s the game they were playing. But on the other hand, YN could feel the butterflies flying around her tummy because she knew what the answer was going to have to be.
“I... I mean I do it a few times a week, the last time was yesterday.”
She stopped short, but his gaze never left her.
“And you were thinking about...?”
She sighed. YN really didn’t want to have to come out and say it. Harry was her best friend and she didn’t want to make it weird. If he got all weird and looked at her differently after she told him, well she didn’t think she could survive the rest of the summer like that. It would be such a stupid reason to have to break up the dream team anyway. Even if he didn’t make it weird, she probably would. YN was already embarrassed by the way her campers talked about her and Harry, she didn’t need to add any fuel to the fire.
But, she was exactly intoxicated enough to not be able to think of a reasonable lie and the liquid courage took over instead.
“I was thinking about...Uh... well... you,” she finally admitted.
Harry put the alcohol down on the platform quickly before looking over to YN. She couldn’t read his face. He didn’t say anything, not right away at least, and she could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks as she did her best to look away from him rather than melt under his gaze. She had ruined it, hadn’t she? All these years of friendship and she messed it all up with one drunken admission and now she was going to be miserable. He knew something he was never, ever supposed to know.
“Hey,” he started, letting his hand rest on her thigh to get her attention. “S’not weird.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, ‘s like... s’a compliment, right? We’ve all thought about people while doing that. And at least it was someone I approve of.” He paused for a moment, appearing to be deep in thought before cracking a smile again. “I want to know how you had time at camp!”
She giggled at that. It was clear to her that Harry was trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible, which only fed into the mushy melting feeling she had inside of her chest while looking at him.
“During my hour off, Styles. Geez, you’re an amateur.” She finished up her drink as an emphasis to her point, Harry chuckling beside her.
YN reached out for the nearly empty bottle of vodka, only for Harry to swipe it out of her grasp.
“Harry!”
“Come on, love. I think you’ve had enough.
She let out a little ‘hmph’, sparking a little laugh from Harry as he set the bottle on the other side of the platform.
“You’re just doing that because you don’t want me to see you get any harder,” she insisted.
Harry coughed, clearly taken back by her comment. “You... I... what?”
“Well you’re really bad at hiding how turned on you are,” she said with a shrug, pointing towards the obvious bulge in the front of his sweatpants. Of course, she had been trying to ignore it, but with his size, how could she? In her slightly drunken state, she tried her best not to think of what specifically had turned him on to that point. She tried to remember that there was no way he could be attracted to her or something she said. So, therefore, it must be an alcohol thing, right?
Harry clearly didn’t want to address the situation at hand, so instead, he tried to change the subject. By this point, YN wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the late hour and lack of sleep that was making them delirious, but either way, she just couldn't stop laughing. And neither could he. Everything one of them said was the most hilarious thing in the world.
“I saw a whale one time,” Harry told her, sitting up proud.
“A whale! Oh my gosh, a whale! No one has ever, in the history of the entire world, seen a whale before!” she teased.
He shoved her lightly by the shoulder before finally looking at his watch.
“Oh shit, we better get back. Gotta get you to bed, don’t even wanna know what you’ll be like in the morning if I let you stay out any longer.”
. . .
“You look like shit.”
“Thanks, Styles, just what every girl wants to hear. Such a way with words.” YN shoved him a bit as she came up next to him at the coffee station during breakfast.
His face broke out in a smile, dimples and all, as he finished stirring his coffee. She rolled her eyes, reaching toward the stack of coffee cups. But he pushed her arm aside.
“Here, I made this for you. Figured you’d need it after last night... plus I noticed there was only a drop of that non-dairy creamer you like left.”
YN felt a soft smile break out across her face, and she recognized a look in Harry’s eyes that she had seen in the past but couldn’t quite decipher.
“Thanks, H.”
“Of course.”
It was quiet between them for a moment, but not in an uncomfortable way. She just so genuinely appreciated him and the things he would do for her. The little things - like making her coffee exactly the way she liked it because he was worried the creamer would run out prior to her getting there. Or making sure she got to bed on time to get enough sleep. Checking in whenever he could tell she was feeling sad, or planning a fun day off for the two of them because he knew she needed it. One time in the winter he even ordered a delivery meal for her, from all the way across the ocean. He always took such good care of her.
“Scuse me,” Niall pushed his way in between them, breaking YN out of her thoughts.
Harry grabbed another cup to make his own coffee, which he took with no creamer and only one sugar. YN shifted her weight to one side as she watched him, realizing that if he didn't use a creamer, he had no reason to notice that it was almost empty. Maybe the bottle was in his way and we went to move it and that’s how he noticed? Or maybe whoever had made coffee right before told him it was running low?
They walked together to sit at the end of a table, their campers a good six feet away and too preoccupied with each other to notice or care what their counselors were doing.
YN took a sip of her coffee, looking across the table at Harry again. She might look like a disaster after a bit of drinking the previous night, but he looked as perfect as ever. His hair looked fluffy and soft, curls in the front highlighted by the summer sun and reminiscent of cinnamon rolls. His eyes were bright, and focused, and didn’t have any bags. And his shirt displayed his broad shoulders and muscular yet comforting arms in precisely the perfect way. It wasn’t fair, really, that he could be up late drinking and still look like that in the morning.
She knew she had been a little loose-lipped that night, and it’s not that she didn’t trust him. It’s just that... she never meant for him to know some of those things. He didn’t need to know that no guy had ever gotten her off, or that she thought of him while she touched herself sometimes. They were good friends, of course, but even still there were some things you always keep to yourself.
“So about last night...” she started, softly so no one could overhear them. Harry raised his brows, urging her to continue. “That stuff we said...it stays between us, right?”
“‘Course,” Harry answered easily, taking another sip of his own coffee. “You can always trust me, you know that.”
“I know it’s just...” she sighed, looking away from him for a moment. “I never really meant to tell you those things. I said it because I was... well... your surprise and all..” She didn’t want to say out loud that she was a bit drunk, just in case a camper or other staff could overhear her. It would be grounds for getting fired.
“YN,” he started softly. “It’s ok. I won't tell anyone anything. Hey, look at me.” He tipped his head to the side, reaching his hand across the table to rest on hers in an attempt to draw her attention back to him. “I’m on your team, always.”
She could feel herself blush at that, but she couldn’t make herself look away. His eyes were so clear and gentle, and she knew he meant every word he was saying. It wasn’t that she doubted he would keep her secrets, it was just that she needed reassurance that everything was going to be ok. That nothing had changed between them and he wouldn’t treat her any differently. That he valued her the same way he always had, and always would. His answer went further than that, though, telling her she could rely on him always. His words, the look in his eyes, the way he spoke to her outside her cabin a couple of nights ago, it’s like he was telepathically giving her a giant, warm, cozy hug. She desperately wanted one for real, but knew this wasn’t the time or place.
Before their conversation could go any further, one of YN’s campers came up to her asking to be taken to the infirmary.
“Duty calls.”
As they walked away, the camper whispered “are you dating him though? You can tell me, I’ll keep it a secret, I promise!”
. . .
“Nah, you’re way too good for Niall. Trust me, I saw him wear the same underwear two days in a row once,” Harry laughed.
It was later in the morning, and both YN and Harry’s cabins were having their turn at the ropes course. On the short hike through the trees, the two of them walked side by side, chatting as always. He had asked her if she had her eye on anyone this summer - she didn’t really, but she started listing other counselors that she thought were cute enough. Apparently, she gave the wrong answer.
“You asked who I thought was cute though - and he is. That doesn’t mean I’m like, in love with him or gonna make a move or anything.”
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Want you to be happy. And he’d make you happy for a few minutes but not... not much longer.”
“So you’re saying he can’t last?”
“No! I’m saying - are you running out of breath?”
They were almost halfway there, and YN started getting tired and her breathing sped up. Harry noticed right away.
“Drink some water, babe,” he told her.
“Forgot my water bottle.”
“Have some of mine.”
When they arrived at the ropes area, the boys and girls split off to do their activities separately. It started with team-building activities for the kids on the ground, getting them comfortable with some of the equipment and learning to work together. The boys were having trouble, arguing with each other so Harry, Niall, and Adam, the ropes staff, kept having to cut in and calm them down. But YN’s girls were in their own little world, working through the problems together and finishing some of them in record time.
That’s how the girls ended up getting to climb the rock wall, climbing tower, and actual ropes course first. And everything was going well for a while - the climbing wall wasn’t very tall and there was a lower point on the tower that the kids could stop at if they were really afraid of heights. Plus they were secure in harnesses and connected to ropes managed by some pretty strong staff members.
It was the on ropes course itself that there was some trouble. It hung up high in the trees, roughly 30 feet above where they were standing. The ropes were old, and from the distance, the kids thought they looked a bit worn down. Plus, the first section required partner work, and even with the team building and safety measures, most of the kids were pretty worried. YN reassured them over and over again that if they could do the earlier team-building activities together, then working with a partner to walk across the rope bridge should be a piece of cake! But it was to no avail.
Then Adam had the amazing idea of putting YN in a harness and having her demonstrate to the campers how to do it. He had to stay on the ground as part of the safety rules, Sarah was on her hour off, and she couldn’t be partners with a camper, so that’s how she and Harry ended up perched on top of a poll, 30 feet or so off the ground, attached with carabiners and ropes.
YN held onto the pole so tightly, her knuckles were turning white. She kept looking down, even though she knew not to. And Harry could see the way she was nervously shaking her leg.
“You’re not actually afraid of doing this, are you?” he asked her softly, so no one on the ground could hear.
YN shrugged. It wasn’t that she was afraid of heights, per se, and she knew if she fell the harness and ropes system would catch her. But the ropes course hadn’t existed when she was a camper and she had never actually tried it. They had the chance during staff training week before the campers arrived, but she and Harry opted to test out some of the new guitars instead. She had no real reason to be afraid, but the concept of a ropes course, in general, is quite daunting.
Harry’s face dropped when he realized that she was, in fact, a bit scared. He reached out, touching her arm lightly to get her attention.
“Hey, it’s ok. I’m right here. I’ll never let anything happen to you, ok?”
His voice was soft but strong, and YN found herself holding her breath for a moment before finally releasing it and nodding her head. Harry would be right there. He would be holding her and guiding her across the bridge, and everything would be ok.
“Dream Team, right? We can do anything. We can do this,” he assured her again.
“Ok...yeah...ok.” She didn’t sound very convincing, not even to herself. And she could tell from the look on Harry’s face that he wasn’t convinced either. But Adam called out from down below and started giving Harry directions on how to get to the platform in the middle of the bridge.
He looked at her one last time, taking a deep breath and following the instructions. She didn’t want to look down, so instead she focused on his arms, muscles working hard as he lifted himself further up the pole, across a hanging log, and back down to the platform.
“Now there’s nowhere for her to put her hands for balance,” Adam explained from the ground. “So Harry is going to have to do that for her. Harry!” he called out. “Put out your hands so she can reach for them, and YN go ahead and step onto the first rope on the bridge.”
Looking down at her feet, YN could feel herself becoming nauseous. It was a long way down, and even if the ropes caught her the harness was really uncomfortable, and it would be so embarrassing in front of the kids. She silently wished she hadn’t agreed to this, not realizing how intimidating it would be until she was already at the top of the pole and it was too late.
“YN,” Harry whispered, arms stretched out in front of him. “I’ve got you.”
She took a deep breath and used one leg to test the first rope of the bridge. There was some slack, and she would definitely be needing Harry’s help. That was the point of the activity, after all. Placing each of her hands in his, she looked back up at him.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” she asked
“Always.”
Nodding her head, she took the first step. YN wobbled quite a bit, but Harry’s strong arms stayed constant to support her. His hands were warm and solid, comforting and secure. With her feet spread wide, she was able to find her balance and control her breathing. He squeezed her hands, causing her to look up so he could smile at her.
“See how she’s distributing her weight across the rope and not in one spot?” Adam pointed out the campers, who all nodded. “And he’s got his knees bent for a stronger stance so he can give her extra support. Alright, YN, whenever you’re ready you can take the next two steps and get to the center platform.”
Lost in a trance, YN was staring at the ropes in front of her, part of her brain trying to figure out how to approach the next challenge and part of it was trying to convince herself that she was going to be ok.
“The first one’s always the hardest,” Harry insisted, drawing her attention back to him. “Everything from here is easy.”
They worked together, her relying heavily on his strong, sturdy arms to make her way across. With each step, she got closer to him. Her hands moved from his hands to his forearms. She could feel how tense his arms were, but his face looked so relaxed. His soft, warm skin supported her as she moved to the third rope, hands now moving to his biceps. And she knew he was strong, she knew he had muscles, but she had never taken the time to really appreciate them and feel them in this way. His upper arms were dense and sturdy, and her grasp didn’t fit as far around them as she expected. Finally, she reached for his shoulders and made it to the center platform, letting out a sigh of relief.
That was, until she realized exactly how small that platform was, clearly built for children and not for two grown adults.
“Here lemme just...”
Harry placed his hands on her waist, pulling her close to him and then rotating them both to get her across to the other side of the small platform. He was focused, looking down at their feet as she trusted him to maneuver their bodies.
Down below, YN could barely make out Adam explaining something to kids. She took a moment and looked into Harry’s eyes. When he finished rotating them, he looked up at her and smiled.
“See, Dream Team.”
“Yeah,” she let out a huff. “Something like that.”
Her hands rested softly on his shoulders still, his securely on her waist. The entire fronts of their bodies were touching from their chests all the way down to their toes. He held her close to him, and she wasn’t entirely sure if they needed to be as close as they were. But she didn’t mind, and judging by his soft smile, neither did he.
“I’ve got you, YN. You know that, right? I’ve always got you.”
She nodded her head, taking another breath and looking behind her at the other half of the bridge. If she did the first half she could surely do the second. It would just be a bit more difficult with Harry behind her rather than in front of her.
“Alright guys!” Adam shouted up at them. “Good job switching positions but now YN needs to turn around so she’s facing the second side of the bridge!”
YN felt Harry’s hands, still on her waist, as he turned her around. Their bodies still touched as they were confined to the small space, and she could swear she could feel his breathing on the back of her neck. He squeezed her lightly.
“Call me selfish,” he started, just loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough for anyone on the ground, “But I’m so glad I was here to be your partner. Wouldn’t want anyone else holding you close like this.”
She swallowed hard. What was that supposed to mean? Did he really enjoy holding her close? Did she like the way it felt to be close to him? Blood rushed up to her cheeks and she was grateful that she was already facing away from him so he wouldn’t be able to see.
Before she could respond, Adam called up to them, instructing how to take the next step off the platform.
She didn’t really pay much attention to anything that happened after that, risking her own safety to flip his words over and over in her head. Hours later and she still couldn’t get the comment out of her mind. Wouldn’t want anyone else holding you close like this. Why would he say that? Would someone else holding her close mean that Harry would get jealous? Wouldn’t want anyone else holding you close like this. Did she like being close to him like that? Did he like it just as much? Wouldn’t want anyone else holding you close like this. After all those years as friends, as pretty much the only girl he never tried to get with, did something change?
She thought about it when he cheered for her after she made it to the end of the ropes course, a task she couldn’t have completed without him, literally. And she thought about it when he sat at the top of the waterslide during pool time, counting 15 seconds in between each kid to keep them safe and listening as they called silly things out to hear the echo. She thought about it again when she convinced her most stubborn camper to take a shower because honestly, people were starting to notice. Then she thought about it when supervising field time and watching Harry teach some of the boys how to properly throw a frisbee. She even thought about it when the kids were at their elective time and the counselors were in their daily team staff meeting with Mitch going over the schedule for the next day.
And it was still on her mind when the meeting ended and their daily hour off started. She walked up to Harry out of instinct, but soon realized she didn’t quite know what to say. Which was quite out of character for her, since she and Harry had pretty much never run out of things to talk about. They had talked earlier about sneaking into the kitchen and stealing some of the good snacks ahead of distrubution, but she had other more urgent things on her mind. Biting her lip, she looked up at him. But before she could get anything out, he stopped her.
“I’m just gonna take some time to myself in the cabin today if you don’t mind postponing our snack burglary,” he teased.
“Oh, yeah,” she said softly. “Enjoy yourself.”
This of course left YN with an entire hour to herself, which normally was something she relished, but on this day she so desperately wanted to be distracted and stop thinking of what he had told her. Harry was her best friend, and she shouldn’t be spiraling over something as simple as this. A few words shouldn’t be affecting her this much.
They hadn’t always been this close, though. Both started going to camp when they were pretty young, at an age where the girls and the boys didn’t really mingle all that much. She knows for a fact that they were in the same age group for several summers, but she had absolutely no memory of him ever existing.
Then they got a bit older, and middle school came around. YN does have memories of Harry during this time, but they were mostly from a distance. He was always so cool and exciting and popular, and she was just kind of there. He was foreign and had an accent and fluffy hair and sparkly eyes, and she just kind of existed. Harry was always kind to her, but not in a way that was any different from how he treated everybody. He was always helping people when they fell down or thanking the lunch ladies even if they made burnt grilled cheese for the third time in a row.
It was in high school when things started to change. Harry went from being only that sweet, cute, British boy over there to being the one all the girls - and some of the boys - were fawning over. YN knows for a fact that he was at least three different girls’ first kiss in one summer, because she was actually present when all three happened (truth or dare, at a campfire, and behind a tree while they were supposed to be playing capture the flag). And if she remembered correctly, Harry soaked it all up. He didn’t brag, the other boys did enough of that for him. But he preened in the attention and accepted his role.
It was after YN had resigned to ignore her quiet little crush and make friends with Harry that they got so close. And eventually, they were practically inseperable. Harry even helped YN decide on a college, and then classes, and then a major. He never told her what to do but he was a great listener and always asked the right kinds of questions to get her thinking until she could come up with an answer she was confident in. He reminded her that school and work would never be her entire life, but they would be the way that she spends a lot of her time. And no one should spend that amount of their time miserable. And that was really the theme - he just wanted to make her happier. He pushed her to go out with friends more often and go on spontaneous adventures and learn about things she was actually passionate about - all from thousands of miles away.
In the past two years, they had spoken nearly every day - either over the phone or by texting, though Harry always preferred to actually hear her voice. They would stay on the phone until late at night talking about whatever was on their minds and on more than one occasion YN had a roommate bang on the wall to get her to quiet down. Sometimes she even got to fall asleep to the sound of his voice. They talked about their days, or their jobs, or their families. They talked about the universe like they used to do under the stars at camp. They talked about relationships and what they wanted in a partner. She knew all about his girlfriend, who he was really smitten with for a long time. They had no real secrets between them, none that she knew of anyway. Besides, she had kind of spilled the beans in the only category she was really keeping to herself the other night after drinking.
And if they didn’t have any secrets, then it should be easy to have a conversation with him about what he said up on the ropes course, right? She should be able to walk right into his cabin and say “Hi Harry, What did you mean when you said you wouldn’t want anyone else holding me close? Has something changed between us?”
So without thinking over it any harder, she marched right down to his cabin with the intention to do just that. Walked down to the boys’ village where she wasn’t technically supposed to be (but there were no campers around so it was fine) and threw open the door without knocking. No secrets.
Except, maybe they should have some secrets. Like it probably could have stayed a secret that Harry had his cock in his hand, his computer beside him playing a video, and soft moans coming out of his mouth. YN probably didn’t need to know that he was turned on by watching a video of shower sex. Or that he liked to alternate between fast and slow strokes. Or that he spit directly on his dick for lubrication.
YN probably could have gone her whole life without knowing those things.
But it was too late. By the time she yelled “Oh my god!” and turned around with her eyes closed, she already knew too much.
Harry slammed his computer shut and yelled out several expletives. She could hear him moving around on his bed searching for his shorts and pulling them on. And then she could hear silence.
A silence that had never really existed between them before. And it lasted for what seemed like an eternity.
Eventually, Harry coughed. “You uh... you can turn around, if you’d like.”
He sounded scared.
YN took a deep breath before turning around, waiting another couple of seconds, and finally opening her eyes. The view in front of her this time was much more than what she was used to - Harry, sitting on his bed, fully clothed, fluffing his pillow to give himself something to do. It still wasn’t completely normal, as she couldn’t help but notice he was still completely hard beneath the loose-fitting shorts, which were doing nothing to try to hide that fact anyway.
At first, she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing really came out. She wanted to say she was sorry. She wanted to pretend none of this ever happened. She wanted to make a bad joke that would distract them from the issue at hand and allow them to move on without discussing it further. But that’s not what she said.
When she finally spoke, she only mustered up, “Were you just touching yourself?”
“No,” Harry deadpanned.
Which, like, was obviously a joke but considering the situation YN was too afraid to say anything.
“YN you literally told me last night that this is the time in the day where you do this. I told you I wanted to spend some time alone and you didn’t put that together?”
“Well, I... I was thinking about other things,” she admitted with a shrug.
She looked up at Harry, desperately trying not to look at his lower half but it was a pretty tall order. He raised a brow, asking her to continue.
“I was thinking about you...” she started. And she was going to say she was thinking about what he said earlier in the day, she really was. But he jumped in first.
“So was I... about you! I mean. Not myself. That would be... I have an ego but it’s not that bad.”
And that... was definitely not what YN was expecting to hear.
“Really? Me? While you were...?” she asked softly, feeling somehow afraid of the answer. Because if he really was thinking about her, that meant even more than his little remark on the rope bridge. It would mean that they had both thought of each other in that moment. It could mean... a lot.
Harry shrugged, “yeah.” And it wasn’t fair, really, that he was able to brush this off like no big deal and she was still standing there feeling like there was a spotlight pointed directly at her with a ticking time bomb getting ready to go off somewhere in the background.
“Oh,” was all she managed to get out.
“It doesn’t have to be weird... you told me yesterday you thought about me so I figured...”
“No, yeah, I mean. Not weird at all,” she lied.
“Ok, good.” Harry let out a big sigh, looking down at himself. “I uh... I’m kinda...”
“Oh, right, yeah. I’ll um... I’ll let you take care of that. I’ll see you... later?”
She started to leave, but not without hearing Harry under his breath say “Maybe you’ll help me out next time.”
. . .
That night for cabin time, YN and Sarah tried to wear out the campers by having a glow stick dance party. Unfortunately, all it seemed to do was rile them up further. The amount of energy stored inside 11 and 12-year-olds' bodies seemed limitless. And the little one broke a glow stick and got it all over her fingers, which meant she got it all over her bed, which meant YN had to spend 20 minutes helping her clean it before turning out the lights.
It felt like it took ages for them to actually quiet down and start to go to sleep. She had to resort to playing an old meditation story so they would at least stay quiet enough to hear and hopefully, maybe, eventually drift off. While the story was playing Sarah left for her night off and YN stayed behind on bedwatch. She heard the walkie click three times - her code with Harry that it was time to chat - but the girls were definitely still awake so she had to wait. To kill the time, she cleaned up the floor, refolded her clothes, and pushed her suitcase further under her bed. Anything to give her something to do so her mind wouldn’t wander too far.
This day had been... a lot. Just in 24 hours, YN felt as if everything had changed between her and Harry, and she was terrified of it. A new door had opened in their relationship and she still didn’t know what any of it meant.
The meditation story eventually ended, and YN let out a breath of relief when she could hear the sounds of steady breathing. To be safe, she turned on another story as she grabbed her walkie and carefully slipping out the door.
She took her seat just outside the cabin, checking to make sure no one was within earshot, and clicked the walkie three times, biting her lip as she waited for a response. YN had never been this nervous to talk to Harry. Everything was always so easy with him. Conversation came naturally and she trusted him so deeply. But now, everything was confusing.
It wasn’t long until Harry’s soft, calming voice came across the radio.
“Hey darlin’,” he whispered, likely sitting directly outside his own cabin. “Was afraid you weren’t gonna wanna talk to me tonight.”
YN furrowed her brows. “That’s crazy, H. Why wouldn’t I want to talk to you? Things get so boring here.”
“Oh so I’m only good for my entertainment value?”
“Obviously.”
She smiled softly.
There were so many things YN wanted to say to him at that moment, but none of them seemed quite right. She was scared of what he might say, what might change, what all of it could mean. She was scared that he would be scared and then she would be alone again. So instead she figured the safer conversation would be the one she owed him anyway, which would remind him of where they really stood.
“Anyway, I know I cut you off from talking about... her... last night, and that wasn’t really fair. So if you want to think out loud, or vent, or whatever, I’m here for you to do that tonight.”
Harry sighed through the speaker.
“Yeah I... I guess I probably should talk about her some, to get it out, right?”
It was hard for YN to listen to Harry talk about his ex, but as his friend, she knew it was the right thing to do for both of them (because also maybe it would remind her not to get her hopes up too high about him). He had been carrying some of this around for so long, and she could see the look in his eyes when the campers asked him if he had a girlfriend and knew that he was still feeling some sort of pain. It had been over a month now since they broke up, but he had been sharing his concerns about her with YN for much longer.
When they first got together, Harry seemed so genuinely happy. He was always telling stories of his time with her - going on adventures, seeing new places, meeting new people. She brought out something special in him that no one he had previously been with seemed able to do. He seemed relaxed around her and YN could hear his smile through the phone while he talked about her. He was happy, and so YN was happy for him.
Harry would acknowledge that something changed around the time Camille’s lease was up and she started suggesting either moving in together or moving out of town. But he didn’t know that making that decision was just the start of it. He didn’t know that Camille had called YN up one day (Harry had given them each other’s numbers and they texted occasionally, but only in reference to him) and practically threatened her to stay away from Harry. She claimed YN was taking up too much of Harry’s time and it wasn’t normal for someone in a relationship to be that close and talk that often with another girl. She was convinced he was “emotionally cheating” on her with YN.
And to be honest, YN was a bit intimidated by Camille at first. She had a strong presence, a loud voice, and sounded serious on the phone. But when Harry called her the next day, she realized how ridiculous that was. Anyone who supports Harry should support all of him, including his other friendships and relationships. Hell, YN was supporting his relationship with Camille because it made him happy. So she wasn’t surprised that shortly after that conversation, Harry started mentioning things getting weird between the two of them.
When he flat out rejected the idea of moving in together (“six months is a long time but it’s also not that long. Not long enough to make entire life decisions based on”) Camille was furious. She still tried to convince him to move out of town with her, and he did seriously consider it for a while. He felt pretty selfish when he decided to stay, but YN would remind him that if he was making a decision based on what he thought would make him happiest, then he had no reason to feel anything but confident in his choice.
Apparently, that wasn’t enough for Camille to end things with him, but she definitely held onto the anger. They stopped going on dates, stopped seeing friends together, and their conversations ran stale. Harry complained to YN that she had turned into a fuck buddy, the exact habit he was trying to escape. She would come over, eat dinner, watch an episode of tv, fuck, and then leave without so much as a cuddle. That was the hardest part for YN to hear about - their sex life. He never went into detail but even the fact that he acknowledged it existing was difficult to hear - partially because of her old crush and partially because of her own lack of sex life.
“I’m so glad camp started when it did,” he admitted. “I don’t think I would’ve had the courage to leave her otherwise.”
“Sure you would’ve,” YN insisted. “You always do what you know is right.”
“Maybe...” he sounded pensive. “Sometimes I... sometimes I miss out on opportunities and regret it later.”
“Like what?”
“Like... well it’s not important. The point is she went from being my girlfriend to a fuck buddy and it sucked.”
“Hey - at least she sucked in a good way, right?” YN teased.
Harry groaned on the other end.
“That was terrible.”
“I know, but I’m absolutely not sorry at all.”
“Ok but, the last thing I want to think about right now is doing that with... her. I’d much rather talk about you.”
“What about me? We talked about my sexual shortcomings last night, there’s not much else you don’t already know.”
“Just... tell me what’s on your mind? I’m done talking about her. She’s old news and honestly, I feel like a robot when I talk about her now. I miss having a person, but I don’t miss her. ‘Sides, you’re my person now.”
He said it so easily, it wasn’t even fair. YN was grateful that he couldn’t see her and the way the blood rushed to her cheeks as he admitted that she was his person. The sentiment wasn’t anything new, but hearing him say it so bluntly like that... brought back her swirling thoughts from earlier in the day.
“There’s a lot on my mind.”
“Like what?”
YN took a deep breath. They were beyond the point of no return, there was nothing she could say to him that would be any more embarrassing than anything that they had experienced in the last day. So she might as well be honest.
“Been thinking a lot about you, H.”
“Oh. Like.. have you been...after you saw me were you....doing it and...”
“No!” she quickly cut him off, knowing what he was insinuating. “Not that I wouldn’t...or that I would? I just... ugh.”
Harry chuckled through the walkie. “It’s alright YN, tell me what you were thinking then.”
“Was thinking... well, earlier I was thinking about what you said this morning, on the ropes. That you wouldn’t want anyone else to hold me close. What.... what did you mean?”
“I meant... I meant what I said. Had an excuse to hold you close, and if I saw anyone else doing that with you I would’ve... well... I don’t know, YN. I’m selfish, I get jealous, and you’re mine.”
“I’m yours?”
“Yeah, my person, my dream team, all that. Wanna just... just keep you all to myself sometimes, yeah?”
“Harry, we spend all day every day together.”
“I know. And I like that. I like... I like having you with me. You make me smile, and... you’re safe. And holding you close like that this morning... it was nice. Wanna do that more. But maybe on the ground and not 30 feet in the air with 20 little kids staring up at us,” he laughed at the end.
YN let out a small laugh, but she was too deep in thought for it to sound genuine.
“Does this mean... Harry, has something changed between us?”
The silence while she waited for an answer seemed to last for an eternity. What had she done? Asking him so forward like that? But everything he was saying, it was so... sweet. And it made the butterflies in her tummy flutter bigger than they had in years. Her mind was swirling with possibilities, the good and the bad.
He liked holding her close. Would he hold her close in bed, for a nice cuddle? Would he stroke his hands through her hair while they watched tv? Would he squeeze her too tight in his sleep, just by instinct, forcing her to wiggle away from him? What if her wiggling woke him up? Would he have a cute, sleepy, pouty face as he opened his eyes, grabbing his hands out to nothing until she relented and moved back into his grasp? Would he kiss her goodnight before tucking his head into her neck and letting out soft little snores?
Or would he be completely appalled and offended that she had even asked the question? Maybe he would laugh and say something to remind her that he would never see her romantically. She could never be more than a friend to him, always having to push her little crush into the back of her mind so it wouldn’t bother anyone. Because that’s what it was, wasn’t it? An embarrassing little childhood crush that had never quite faded away. He would connect the dots, after her admission last night, and the questions she asked him today, and he would no longer feel so safe and comfortable with her. He would put space between them like they were young again and she would lose her best friend.
“Of course not, don’t be silly. I’ve always felt this way about you, YN, you should know that. Well, maybe not always but a really long time.”
“Oh.”
YN wasn’t quite sure what to make of that answer. He wasn’t exactly declaring his love for her, but he wasn’t pushing her away either. He was just... continuing on with what they already had. And that had to be good enough YN.
She wanted to ask him what he meant about ‘feeling this way’. She wanted to ask what the future was going to look like. She wanted to ask if she was ever going to have a chance or if he would just be a soft, lovey-dovey best friend forever.
But she didn’t ask.
“Me too,” she responded softly instead of any of the questions running through her mind.
“Good... I’m... I’m really lucky to have you in my life, YN.”
In the short silence, she heard Niall’s voice distantly in the background from the radio.
“Ah, Niall’s back. Should probably head to bed anyway. See you in the morning.”
“Yeah...see you.”
YN went back into the cabin then, closing the door as softly as she could. But as soon as she did, one of the campers sat straight up.
“YN!” she whisper-shouted.
“Shh... you’ll wake everyone up. What do you need?”
The camper rubbed her eyes before answering. “You were talking to Harry.”
“Yes...”
“I don’t know what he said, but I heard his voice. He has a nice voice...”
“Yes, he does,” YN smiled. “But it’s late. Harry went to sleep and I’m going to now. You should be asleep too.”
“Ok,” she answered softly, lying back down on her bed.
YN made her way to her bed, changed into her pajamas, and got under the covers. But she didn’t sleep. How could she, with Harry’s words running through her head? Instead, she spent the night tossing and turning, rolling around in her bed and desperately trying to shake her thoughts free. That night, she was up later than the time the campers wanted to pull an all-nighter.
. . .
Looking back, it would have been smart of YN to cut her conversation with Harry short, go to bed early, and get a good night’s sleep. She would have smiled while thinking back on a conversation about mundane nothingness, snuggled under her warm blanket that she brought from home, and drifted away into an easy dreamland for eight hours. Maybe she would have even dreamed something sweet about Harry, something mixed in with crazy dream logic like maybe he was holding her close and teaching her to fly off a cliff so they could escape the crazy ostriches chasing them through the forest. That would have been nice.
But no, that’s not what YN did. She had a conversation that left her more confused than she started, and she hardly got any sleep. Rolling over every five minutes and never truly able to get comfortable, she struggled all night. Her body would not let her relax. Her feet kept tapping and her mind kept swirling and her leg was really itchy for some reason.
All in all, she probably got four hours of good sleep that night. And normally, she would have been able to make do, maybe take a nap during her hour off, take it easy for the day. But that wasn’t possible as she was woken by excited screaming and pounding on the doors and windows.
Somehow, YN had forgotten that it was Color Wars day. And when the realization hit her, it came with the extra weight of remembering that she was supposed to be a team captain. Blue Team - which it turned out was different from the team her campers would be on because they were assigned separately, which made the morning quite complicated.
The kids were excited, jumping out of bed as they searched through their clothes for something red to wear to represent their team color. They were eagerly chatting and Sarah had to remind them to brush their teeth because they were just so excited.
Meanwhile, YN rolled out of bed slowly, groaning as her aching body moved and her eyes adjusted to the light in the room. Why had she agreed to be a team captain? This day was practically a day off for most of the staff - not having to shepherd the kids from one place to another, most of the responsibility landing on the team captains and the teenagers. And then she remembered that Harry had talked her into it a few weeks ago. The original idea was to be team captains together, but then Mitch thought it would be funnier to make them compete, and now YN was going to spend her entire day opposing Harry instead of lounging around with him.
It didn’t help her mood that the wake-up call of screaming teenagers came 30 minutes earlier than the usual alarm so that the teams could congregate prior to breakfast and start the day with energy. So with less sleep, more on her mind, and no real enthusiasm, YN trudged her way to the amphitheater where she made sure her campers were seated with their team and she took to the stage with the other captains.
Harry was already there, all dressed in red complete with a red cowboy hat and sunglasses. YN smiled to herself, knowing the girls would love being on his team for the day. Next to him stood Niall, YN’s co-captain for Blue Team. Niall was always sweet, and always had so much energy, so he would be a great captain in that respect. But she knew that he would get lost up in the excitement of everything and YN would end up being the one to count the kids and make sure everything actually ran smoothly.
Music was playing loudly in the background (too loudly for so early in the morning, if you asked YN, not that anyone did) and the kids were all dancing in their seats. When it was time for the team captains to introduce themselves, Harry of course went first.
“I’m Harry and I’m your Red Team captain! And Red Team is going to win because we’re on fire!” The girls on the benches screamed after him, giggling to each other about how they would get to spend the whole entire day with him. He had way too much energy for someone who had the same conversation the night before as YN did. It wasn’t fair.
“I’m YN and I’m the Blue Team captain! And Blue Team is going to win because we’re the coolest!” Niall came up after her and sprayed his entire water bottle on the Blue Team campers in the front row.
At breakfast, YN made a beeline for the coffee station. She was going to need more than one cup if she was going to survive this day. The coffee machine was slow, so she stood there for a few minutes surveying the room, eventually making eye contact with Harry. He smiled wide and walked over to join her.
“Y’alright?” he asked, wrapping his arm around her in a short hug.
“Yeah,” she sighed.
“Y’look like sleeping is your next sport.”
“I’d lose at that too,” she told him with a sigh. “Couldn’t sleep last night. Gonna need extra coffee to get through this day.”
“Really? The Color Wars energy doesn’t just... run through your veins and make you go crazy?” he teased.
YN snorted. “Not exactly, Styles, no.”
He dropped it, grabbing a cup to make his own coffee for the morning before changing the conversation.
“Why couldn’t you sleep? We weren’t up all that late.”
She shrugged. “Had a lot on my mind after...” She drifted off, not exactly sure how to finish her sentence. But he nodded anyway, understanding.
“We gotta work on that - make sure you’re sleeping good at night. S’not healthy to not sleep... plus you get so cranky, pain in my ass.”
YN playfully whacked him on his arm.
“I’m just being honest, looking out for ya,” he shrugged.
They sat together for breakfast, ignoring the fact that the teams were supposed to be divided in the dining hall. But no one tried to separate them. They talked as they ate their rubbery pancakes, laughing over old memories and new camper stories.
And then Harry stopped. He looked at her with his head cocked to the side and reached out to her face. With his fingertip, he brushed just under her eye.
YN held her breath.
“Y’got an eyelash,” he said softly, sitting back down but holding the lash on his fingertip for her to see. “Make a wish.”
She closed her eyes, thinking for a moment and then blowing the lash away. When she opened them again, Harry was looking at her with a gentle smile.
The moment was interrupted by Mitch handing them their schedules for the day. They were disappointed to realize the only hour in the day they would have together was capture the flag in the late afternoon - which they would also be required to participate in. That meant YN had to spend the whole day giving off fake energy for a day she didn’t really care about and Harry wouldn’t even be there to cheer her up or keep her going. It also meant more time for memories of the conversation last night to take hold in her mind and no way to clear anything up with him.
She did her best to grit her teeth and make it through. To the best of her ability, she did what she could to ensure that none of the kids knew she was dreading every moment of this day. With a smile on her face at all times, she kept campers of all ages engaged and excited and pretended like someone was actually keeping score of who was winning all the sports and games. (Yes, games. There were complaints last year that sports-only was not inclusive enough so this year they included things like competitive Apples to Apples and water pitcher chugging contests.)
And although YN didn’t exactly have a companion directly by her side all day like usual, she had to admit, being paired up with Niall for the day wasn’t so bad. She was mostly right about him being sweet and kind and full of energy. She was also right about her having to do most of the logistics and responsibility aspect of the job, but she was ok with that. He kept up the energy and she made sure no one got killed and for the most part, things seemed to be going smoothly. Only three kids had been taken to the infirmary and only one of those kids was actually injured in a way that made her nervous, so she considered that a pretty big win.
Lunch wasn’t so bad either. It was a tradition that the campers had to be silent at lunch on Color Wars day, and only the team captains could speak. That meant she couldn’t sit down and have a regular conversation with Harry because everyone could hear everything she was saying, but it meant that she got to call across the giant room to Niall and wave and make jokes about how the Blue Team was going to win. And he wasn’t Harry, but Niall definitely made her laugh quite a bit.
By the afternoon, YN was more exhausted than ever, but her mood was a little better than it had been in the morning. With a handful of fun moments under her belt, and a break from her own cabin of campers, the day hadn’t been a total loss after all. But then she twisted her ankle playing basketball causing her team to lose, and she caught three different sets of campers making out behind a fence, and her grumpiness came right back.
So when it was time for capture the flag against Red Team with Harry, YN was both annoyed in general with her day and relieved to at least get to see him. But they couldn’t even play on the same team since they were opposing team captains, which only made her crankier. Plus, YN had never seen her campers so engaged in an activity as they were when they were listening to Harry describe the strategy for the game. Which totally wasn’t fair because they never listened to her if she tried to give instructions or remind them to shower or quiet down at the end of lunch.
The game started and kids from both teams started running around the field, tagging each other and guarding their flags. Harry was deeply invested in the game, or so it seemed. He stood at the border between the two sides and instructed the campers on who should run where, who should go up against who, and what their best possibility for actually getting the flag might be.
YN, meanwhile, stayed back. She helped to guard Blue Team’s flag, which sat in the middle of a circle of bright orange cones. Her thinking was that most of the campers and staff would get tagged before they even got to her, so she wouldn’t really have to do all that much. She also thought that if she had a frown on her face or her brows were furrowed, no one would really notice because they wouldn’t really be looking at her, but looking past her to the flag itself.
When YN and Harry first made eye contact from across the field, his expression changed from one of determination to one of concern. He cocked his head to the side and mouthed “are you ok?” as best he could, and YN shrugged and nodded. He didn’t seem convinced, but a camper ran up to him to excitedly tell him a new possible strategy, and being the allstar counselor he was, Harry turned his attention to the child.
After that, they caught each other’s gaze a few times from across the field, Harry’s devious smirk growing more pronounced each time. YN couldn’t quite figure out what it meant, so she pushed the thought away and continued in the game. So far, her strategy of staying back and putting in minimal effort was working, and she was rather proud of herself for that. Maybe she could get through this game without too much difficulty, finish off the day strong, put the kids to bed, and spend time in the lounge with Harry comparing their days through laughter.
After the game had been going for nearly 30 minutes, campers were getting tired, and YN was checking her watch, she knew something big had to be coming soon. Harry was smart, and he wasn’t going to keep directing his team to be doing the same thing forever. Plus he noticed that YN wasn’t in the happiest of moods and if history meant anything, he would probably be doing something stupid to try and cheer her up pretty soon.
YN was right, as she saw Harry circle up a group of campers (mostly her cabin, who were essentially attached to him all day). They broke up their huddle and spread out and Harry counted down from three, and that’s when all of them, including Harry, ran towards the Blue Team’s side of the field. Typically he would let a camper here or there catch him and send him back to the other side to give the illusion of success, but not this time.
He swiftly dodged the many small hands reaching for him until he made it to the back side of the field. Standing in front of YN, his stance was crouched down a bit with bent knees and he looked at the game around him. His eyes then reached YN, who took his same stance mockingly.
“Think you can get past me, Styles?”
“Maybe.” His dimples were on full display.
“Can’t get the flag for yourself, gotta let a camper get it. Come on, thought you were better than this.”
Harry shrugged. “Maybe I am.”
He looked around again, and when he saw that several of his team’s campers had made it to the far end of the field with him, he called out to them “NOW!”
One foot in front of the other, he ran directly at YN rather than trying to get around her.
“Harry what are you - HARRY!” she called out as he wrapped his arms around her waist, picked her up, and carried her over his shoulder and away from her guard post, legs kicking out and arms whacking his back.
“Harry put me down!” she called out through a laugh.
“NO! This is for Red Team!”
He carried her as close to the edge of the field as he could before dropping to his knees, placing her on the ground on her back, and pinning her down. He sat on top of her, legs on either side of her hips. Smile on full display, dimples deeper than she had probably ever seen, and eyes bright and mischievous, he held her there giggling at his own strategy.
YN was lost in his eyes at this point, no longer paying almost any attention to the game at hand. Later on, someone could tell her that actually a meteor had struck the middle of the field and everyone had passed out and she probably wouldn’t have noticed. She was too busy gazing up at the best view she had seen in ages - Harry’s excited, devious, cute face.
“Let me go!” she called out, though she didn’t really mean it.
“Never!” he answered.
She started flailing her arms around, pushing on his shoulders in a last-ditch attempt to get him off of her, but he only grabbed her hands in his own and raised them above her head, pinning her down completely. He was bent over at the waist, their faces closer than before. They sat there for a moment then, both of them laughing. YN’s cheeks were starting to hurt from the strain of her own smile.
But then something strange happened. Harry’s face dropped, and he suddenly looked much more serious. His gaze traveled to where their hands clasped together above her head, down to her face, along her torso, eventually making his way back up to her eyes.
“Shit, can’t wait till we’re alone...so much I wanna do to you right now...” he whispered with a deeper inflection to his voice than usual.
YN’s smile fell then too as her gaze traveled along his body, landing at the spot where they were connected but saying nothing.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment before inhaling deeply and looking back at her.
“Y’alright though? Didn’t hit the ground too hard did you?” he changed the subject.
“I’m fine, Harry,” she responded, still smiling.
Harry nodded, looking away from her for a moment to gauge what was happening in the game.
YN took her opportunity then, gathering her strength and rolling them both over in the grass until he was on his back and she was on top. Smiling back on her face, she bit down on her bottom lip as she took control of the situation.
And maybe this wasn’t the smartest move YN could have made. Maybe rolling around in the grass until she was sitting on top of Harry, her center resting over his hips, hands held together next to his head, wasn’t the greatest thing to be doing in the middle of the day around a group of campers. And maybe relaxing her waist and putting more pressure on him when she already knew he was at least a little bit turned on wasn’t the most appropriate thing she could have done to her best friend. But she did it, and the look on his face when he closed his eyes tight and let out a breath was all the reward she needed.
“Fuck, YN,” he groaned out, still quiet enough that no one else could hear but her. “Y’gonna kill me, y’know that?”
She felt him then, solidly beneath her, right where she always secretly wanted him to be, and her eyes went wide at the realization of what she was feeling.
“Shit Harry I - I’m sorry I’ll get up, I’ll -”
“No!” he cut her off. “If you... if you get up now then everyone will see that I’m...”
“Oh... yeah lemme just...” she shifted her weight onto her knees so she was hovering above him then, quickly missing the sensation of him between her thighs but immediately feeling guilt over the thought of her best friend.
“Just... just need a minute,” he told her, eyes squeezed tight.
YN looked up then as she heard screaming from the other end of the field. Harry’s strategy had worked and one of the girls had carried the flag back to Red Team’s side leading to a celebration.
“Think of Niall snoring,” she told him quietly, hoping it would solve his problem before they had to take over responsibilities as captains again. Her suggestion made him laugh.
So, maybe the day hadn’t been a complete waste after all. YN was undoubtedly in a much better mood after their little moment on the field, which was a good thing considering neither blue or red won, but actually it was the green team who was announced as the winner of the day just ahead of dinner time.
YN’s campers spent the evening telling her about their day with Harry. Apparently, he was significantly more fun than they realized, he helped them win lots of games and encouraged them. They were arguing over who got the most high-fives from him and the little one bragged that she even got to give him a hug! He was so muscly but also soft! And his arms were bigger than my face! YN smiled as she heard them recount their stories. Harry was always so good with the kids, knowing when to be kind and gentle, when to give some tough love, and when to make them laugh.
“You’re so lucky you’re dating him, YN,” one of the campers said that night before bed.
“I told you a million times, we’re not dating.”
“Whatever... you spend a lot of time with him and he obviously likes you.”
“And we saw you fighting with him on the field during capture the flag! He was smiling with dimples and everything!” another one called out from her bunk.
“I don’t know what you think you saw,” YN started, “but I’ve told you a million times, we aren’t dating.”
She turned off the lights shortly after that, and luckily the kids were pretty wiped out after the exciting day. It was Sarah’s turn for bedwatch so YN changed into her comfy sweatpants and snuck out the door quietly. Harry hadn’t made a plan with her for that night, but she knew he would be off that night too, and likely in the staff lounge with most of the other counselors.
The stars were bright that night, brighter than usual it seemed. YN almost walked into a tree three separate times on her way down to the staff lounge because she was so distracted by the shapes in the sky. She realized then that they never actually did any stargazing the other night. Maybe she could get Harry to join her in that tonight instead.
She heared the laughter before she even opened the door of the small structure. Inside, something like ten other counselors were sitting in a circle, sharing snacks and laughing about their day. Harry’s face snapped to the door as soon as she opened it, his smile growing big across his face as he scooted over on the old couch to make room for her to sit next to him. YN could feel the tension releasing in her shoulders at the sight of him, realizing that she could have her buddy back and feel a little less alone again.
“YN, just in time!” Adam called to her from across the circle. “We were gonna start playing truth or dare.”
“What are we, 15?” YN teased.
Adam shrugged. “Maybe those teenagers got something right about a fun way to spend the night together.”
Harry draped his arm around the back of the couch then, making space for YN to move in a bit closer to him. His body heat radiated off of him and warmed her on the chilly night. She wanted nothing more than to cuddle into him for real, rest her head on his chest and listen to his heart beat as he spoke soothing words to put her to sleep. Maybe his arm would come down from the couch and wrap around her to keep her securely next to him and he would give a kiss to the top of her head and she closed her eyes.
YN visibly shook her head to get the thoughts to dissipate.
The game started then, going around in a circle. It felt like they were teenagers again - daring each other to kiss and making each other share embarrassing stories or fantasies. Adam apparently had a thing for fucking doggy style and Niall admitted that he had hooked up with two girls in one day one time.
When it was Harry’s turn, he picked truth. Adam started snickering right away.
“I’ve got a good one,” he declared to the group. “Would you ever hook up with YN?”
Her heart dropped. She didn’t want to hear the answer. If the answer was no, she would be at least a little heartbroken to know that she had absolutely no chance, and none of what he had been saying the past few days really held any weight. And it would be so completely embarrassing for that to come out in front of so manypeople, who would no doubt see her face fall a slightly and read into it and maybe realize that she kind of liked him and-
Harry looked down at her with a soft smile before looking back at Adam across the room. He shrugged a bit, dropping his arm from the back of the couch down to rest around her shoulder.
“Sure, why wouldn’t I?” He admitted.
YN was a bit in shock, but she tried her best not to show it. She felt every muscle in her body tense up and her brain was on fire.
The group around them started chatting and joking about the answer, and Harry leaned down to whisper into YN’s ear.
“Are y’alright? That wasn’t too..?”
“No... yeah... I’m...I’m good,” she told him with a forced smile.
Harry dropped his brows. “Y’cold?” he asked, seemingly looking for an answer to why she seemed so uncomfortable.
“No, I’m fine H.”
“YN, it’s your turn!” someone called out, bringing her attention back to the group.
“Um... truth I guess?” In all honesty, YN was a bit afraid after that last question that if she had chosen dare they would dare them to kiss and although she had imagined that moment a million times, she didn’t want it to happen like this. If it was going to happen, she wanted it to happen for real.
“And you have to ask her a different question!” someone clarified.
The group seemed to be thinking to themselves for a moment, trying to come up with a good question before Niall spoke up.
“I got one - YN, tell us about the first time a guy made you cum?”
She immediately felt the blood rushing to her cheeks as she looked down at her lap. Of course, she didn’t want to answer the question, but she didn’t want to cause a scene either. Maybe she could lie. Make up some guy from college who theoretically rocked her world and call it a day. But the point of the game was to tell the truth and she was shit at lying and a stickler for following the rules. The whole room was staring at her, the pressure intensifying with every second. She squeezed her toes, desperately wishing at that moment she could simply disappear and none of this would matter anymore.
Harry’s arm flexed and held her tighter against him as he spoke up.
“She’s not gonna answer that one, ask something else,” he said.
“That’s not fair, it’s the point of the game. Come on, we all shared,” Adam insisted.
YN looked up at Harry, silently begging him to do something. And it was like he could read her mind.
“I said she’s not answering. Either ask another one or we’re leaving.” His voice was deeper and stronger than usual, and all signs of his typical smile vanished completely from his face.
“What, you’re not a virgin are you?”
“No! I’m not it-it’s just...” she couldn’t find the strength to say anything. Luckily, Harry came to her defense again.
He stood up suddenly, grabbing her hand in his and standing up suddenly.
“C’mon, we’re leaving. You don’t have to answer that,” he told her. “She’s not answering it,” he repeated again to the room as he started walking them towards the door.
She did her best to look apologetic to the rest of the group, but when they reached the night air outside and the door closed behind them she let out a sigh of relief. They walked down the hill a little way before Harry stopped, wrapping his arms around her neck and pulling her in close. He always knew exactly what she needed.
“Thank you, H,” she whispered into his chest, arms secured around his lower back. He was wearing an old cozy sweatshirt and she wanted to crawl up inside of it.
His hand started to rub up and down her back. “Of course. Stays between us, right?” He reminded her of his promise the other day. “Still gonna make sure that happens for you this summer though.”
YN knew exactly what he was suggesting, and she felt herself blushing again as she considered Harry somehow fulfilling his promise to give her a partner-induced orgasm before the end of the summer. After everything he had said to her recently, she started to wonder what his plan was. She was grateful that her face was still hidden in their hug.
“Now,” he started softly. “What are we going to do with the rest of our night? Hm?”
YN released her arms from around his back, and Harry followed suit.
“Well I realized we never actually did any stargazing the other night, and it’s so bright tonight I thought maybe we could -”
“Yes!” Harry cut her off. “That sounds perfect. Don’t wanna walk all the way out to our spot though, mind if we go somewhere else?”
YN agreed, and Harry took her hand to lead her to wherever it was that he had in mind. She expected him to let go after a few steps, but he didn’t. Instead, their hands dropped between them and he held onto her tight. His hand was large and warm around hers. Occasionally his thumb would rub up and down the back of her hand.
The walk was nice, and peaceful. She always loved walking through camp at night but it was ten times better with Harry. In the quiet between them, she let her mind wander to happy memories of summers past. The time she watched Harry win a hotdog eating competition in the dining hall. The time she almost fell on her roller skates but Harry reached her right in time so he fell on his ass but she fell only on him. The time YN attempted to play frisbee with him on the field, but accidentally threw the disk into the forest and it took Harry 15 minutes to find it and come back. The time they discovered mint growing down by the creek and picked some to put in their water bottles. The time when they were kids and YN tried so hard to teach Harry to properly dive, but he was a terrible pupil and ended up smacking his face on the water every time.
She had memories with other friends too, sure. But it was those moments with Harry - some special and some rather mundane - that stuck out to her the most. It was him she thought of when they passed each of those locations in the still night, bright stars overhead, and hands clasped together.
“Can practically hear you thinking,” he broke the silence.
She looked up at him with a soft smile. “Yeah, but good things though. I promise.”
Harry hummed in response as they turned the corner and reached the field. “Thought we could hike up to the cliff, stargaze from there. Know it’s dark but it’s not far and I’ve got a flashlight,” he suggested.
She realized then that he must’ve been somehow planning this because he never carried anything with him that he didn’t absolutely need. YN agreed and followed him to the small trailhead at the corner of the field. They started hiking up the narrow path, hands never releasing from one another.
They had hiked this trail dozens of times - a signature hike that was practically a requirement for any camper. But neither of them had ever done it at night. Harry led the way, scanning the trail with his flashlight and warning YN of rocks on the path or roots sticking up. He pushed low branches out of their way and tested the bigger rocks for stability, only allowing her to cross over them when he was convinced she would be safe.
Eventually, the trees parted way and opened up to a small clearing at the top of the cliff. From the edge, they could see the entire camp by the light of the moon. Harry stood behind her, holding her close with his arms around her middle, and she relaxed back into him. Her head rested on his chest and she let out a deep breath.
“Don’t think I’ve ever been up here at night,” he whispered to her like it was a secret, even though they were alone.
“Me neither.”
YN was meant to be looking up at the stars, but she was so at peace in that moment she let her eyelids drop and soaked up the moment with Harry instead. He had said he liked holding her close, but she never truly appreciated how good it felt until this moment. If she could freeze time and live in one moment forever, she’s pretty sure she would choose this one.
They were silent for a while, appreciating the moment together. Harry’s thumb stroked up and down her tummy a bit, and YN moved her hands to hold Harry’s arms. He was soft, and warm, and strong, and safe. The entire universe could melt away leaving just the two of them, and YN would still be happy to be standing there together.
After a few minutes of quiet, she opened her eyes. Adjusting to the moonlight, she blinked a few times, letting out a contented sigh.
“Harry?”
“Yeah?”
“I like when you hold me close too,” she admitted.
“Good,” he answered. “Because I think I want to start doing it a lot more often.”
YN turned around to face him without removing leaving his grasp. He had a pout, clearly disappointed that she was no longer resting up against him.
She leaned her head back and looked up at him to ask, “What do you mean when you say those things, H? Like when you said you wanted to be everything for me, or you were selfish and I’m yours. Or on the field, you said you wanted to do things alone?”
Harry sighed, a smile on his face as he shook his head at her. “You ask all these questions, YN. Thought I was making it pretty obvious.”
“Making what obvious?”
“That... that I want you.”
They were whispering, even though no one was within earshot. Harry used one hand on her lower back to press her closer to him, and lifted the other to rest his palm on the side of her face, his thumb rubbing softly at the apple of her cheek.
“Want me how?” she asked, breathless.
“Want you like this.”
He looked down to her lips, then back up at her eyes. Closing the distance between them, his soft lips touched hers. The gesture was gentle, careful, both of them holding their breaths. She melted into his touch and reached out for his body bringing one hand to his hip and the other to his chest. When his lips began to move, her hand grabbed at the top of his shirt, bringing him in even closer.
Harry took the lead in parting slightly, their lips still brushing as he spoke.
“You’ve no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”
“Really? I... I never thought that you would want this... with me.”
He looked at her quizzically, head cocked to the side. “Why not?”
“Well... because you’re you, and I’m me,” she explained like it was obvious.
“What does that mean?”
“It means... Harry, you’re cute, and you’re sweet, and you have that accent, and you could get anyone you want. You kissed all my friends and never made a move on me so I just figured....”
“YN,” Harry started, shaking his head. “That is so... stupid. I never did that with you because... you were always worth too much to me. Those girls... I kissed them once and then never talked to them again. Or we hooked up a few times and then things got weird. I didn’t... even back then I knew you were more important than that, I didn’t want to lose you. Been thinking about this for years but you... you always turned me down.”
“Turned you down?” she asked, confused now. “You never even...”
“Babe, all those nights we went stargazing? You wouldn’t even touch my hand or give me a hug! I tried so many times but eventually, I just gave up and... I figured I’d rather have you as my friend than not have you at all. Or even the other night, outside your cabin. I told you I wanted to be everything for you, and you just hugged me and said I was a good friend. I’ve always been here. I’ve been right here waiting for you.”
YN was shocked at the revelation but did her best to hide it.
“You are... everything to me. Really.”
“For so long I thought you would never see me as anything else,” he admitted to her. “But now that I know that you... I’m never going to let you feel alone, ever again. I promise.”
“Well... let’s make up for lost time then.”
He didn’t answer, only leaned back in and started kissing her again, this time with a little more force. His right hand supported her jaw while his left traveled down to her hips where he used his leverage to pull her in tighter against him. YN let out a little gasp when she felt her core right up against him, and he used the opportunity to slip his tongue between her lips. YN took to it naturally, her heart fluttering as he squeezed at her hip and let his other hand move back into her hair.
“Harry,” she breathed out as he took a moment to catch his own breath.
“I know,” he responded before diving back in.
They continued like that for a while, hands wandering, lips and tongues working together. She could’ve sworn she heard him let out a few little sounds, but it might have been a trick of her brain when some birds called out overhead. His body was warm, and cozy, and safe. And he was really good at what he was doing.
A gust of wind passed over them, causing YN to shiver a bit. Harry stopped then, a look of concern on his face.
“Y’cold? Can have my jacket if you want,” he offered.
“No, I’d rather just... just keep holding me.”
So he did. They stood there together, at the top of the cliff overlooking the whole camp, and held each other close - YN’s back leaning against Harry’s front and her head resting on his shoulder. Their breaths synced up and YN turned her attention to the sky, where it was meant to be all along. And they stayed like that, close and warm and content until YN looked down at her watch and noticed it was almost staff curfew.
“Should probably head down now,” she said.
“Yeah...” he agreed but didn’t move. “Just... lemme stay like this for a couple more minutes.”
. . .
YN couldn’t stop smiling. It was plastered across her face all day, and only got wider when she saw Harry or remembered last night. She was in a great mood in the morning, a time that she was usually a little bit grouchy. And had almost too much enthusiasm when her campers won a basketball game. At pool time, she actually changed into her bathing suit and played with the kids, jumping and diving in and taking silly pictures.
Harry was being sweet on her all day too. At breakfast, he made her coffee and let her eat off of his plate. He disciplined a camper so she didn’t have to when they were refusing to clear off their lunch plate. And he sat next to her during every program and activity - which wasn’t different from normal, but given what had just happened, it felt different to YN. Some little empty spot inside of her heart that had been there for as long as she could remember felt like it had been filled with a magic, sparkling warmth that only Harry could give her. She remembered how Harry had told her that night behind the cabin that he knew she was lonely, and YN knew in that moment that she was never going to feel lonely again. Not as long as Harry was around.
Like every day, the campers pestered her about Harry, but she indulged them a smidge more. When they giggled over how cute he was she casually agreed, and when they asked what his hugs were like she described them as solid and warm and safe. When they asked if they were dating, she still said no but she said it with a bit more of a smile than usual.
In the early afternoon during art time, the girls were working on ceramics and the boys were having a turn at tie-dye. YN doesn’t always participate in these activities with the campers, often taking the time where they are being supervised by additional staff to take a step back and relax or gossip with Harry. But he was heavily engaged in helping his kids with their tie dye (mostly making sure they didn’t squirt dye at each other) so YN decided it was as good a time as ever to try her hand at making a pot. There was definitely some trial and error involved, and when Harry walked over to check on her “need some water or anything?” she couldn’t stop herself from dabbing a spot of wet clay onto his nose, both of them giggling.
They sat together during the daily staff meeting, Harry’s arm securely around YN’s shoulder as Mitch droned on with information that they were meant to be listening to. She had to resist the urge to melt into his side the same way she melted into him while held her on the cliff the night before. In all honesty, she hardly paid any attention to the meeting. Her mind was too busy replaying visions of her and Harry hiking, looking at the stars, kissing...
Harry stood up, shaking YN out of her thoughts as the meeting ended. He turned around to look at her with a soft smile.
“So, steal some snacks? Watch TV in the lounge?” he suggested.
“No, let’s... let’s hang out in my cabin.”
Harry’s smile grew wider as he knew exactly what she was thinking. They walked up the hill hand in hand, giggling as they fell through the doorway of the cabin, trekking over the messes left by campers after weeks of not cleaning. They made it to the front of the cabin and stood in front of her bed.
Hooking his fingers into her belt loops, he pulled her in closer to him so their centers matched. Her breath was heavy as she looked into his eyes and started giggling softly, one hand on his bicep and the other resting over his heart. Matching her energy, Harry placed a few pecks on her lips before leaving short kisses on the tip of her nose, her cheek, her forehead. Her laughter grew with his every touch and she felt the butterflies in her tummy dancing like fireworks.
Stopping for a moment, Harry backed up and tilted his head, hearts in his eyes as he admired YN who started blushing uncontrollably.
“Y’so.... fuckin’ beautiful, shit,” he murmured under his breath. Her blush grew even deeper.
“Shut up and kiss me,” she responded, moving her hand from his arm to bury her fingers in the hair at the back of his head.
“Alright.” With a smile, he dove back in, kissing her deeply.
The night before on the cliff was gentle, timid, unsure, and soft. But this time was eager and hungry. One of his hands stroked up her side, thumb gently passing over the side of her breast and then snaking around to her upper back, where he used his new leverage to push her even closer to him. His other hand remained on her hip, squeezing tightly, and she hoped there might be faint bruises left over.
As they stood there together, making out in an empty cabin in the middle of the day, YN was the happiest she could ever remember being. Historically, she had not always loved making out compared to other acts she could be doing instead, but with Harry, she would take whatever he would give her. His lips were soft and plush, his body was warm, and she never felt more wanted than in that moment with him.
He let his hand wander from her hip around her back to appreciate her ass. Squeezing one cheek lightly, the tips of his fingers reached below the frayed hemline of the shorts and came in contact with her soft skin.
“Fuck, babe. Driving me crazy running ‘round in these things,” he groaned against her lips.
She giggled in response, becoming pliant as he turned their bodies similarly to how they navigated the platform on the ropes course, and the back of her knees hit the edge of her bed. Their lips broke for a moment as she rearranged herself to be lying down on the twin-sized mattress. Harry followed her, his left arm supporting his body on the bed next to her shoulder and his right hand finding its place on her jaw. He hovered above her, tilting her chin up to meet his as he reconnected their lips.
That’s when she felt his hips drop down to meet hers. She let out a small gasp into the kiss as she felt the extent of his excitement, and he chuckled under his breath in response. They tried not to break their lips apart, but when he rolled his hips into hers, she couldn’t help but let out a shallow breath, mouth open wide.
“Fuck...so much I wanna do... don’t know where t’start,” Harry admitted, lips brushing up against YN’s.
“Harry, I’m gonna be honest, I’m so fucking wet right now I don’t even care what you do but if you don’t do something right now I’m going to literally die,” she begged.
He laughed a bit at that, shifting his body enough to leave a soft kiss on her forehead.
“Want me to take care of you?” he asked.
“Please.”
“How much time do we have left?”
YN looked at her watch. “A little over 40 minutes.”
“Ok,” he nodded, gears clearly spinning as he thought through his plan. “I can work with that. But next time,” he raised a brow, making sure she was looking at him before repeating himself. “I can make that work, but next time we’re gonna go slow, alright?”
She nodded her head eagerly, still desperate for him to do something, anything. To touch her or kiss her or something.
“Eager today, hm?”
“Harry, I’ve been waiting for this for so long, please just touch me.”
He laughed again, leaning down to kiss at her jaw, behind her ear, and down her neck. Desperately, he wanted to leave a mark on her pulse point but he knew better than that given the circumstances. Still, he took his time, appreciating every bit of her body that he had access to. Her shoulder, her collar bones, the top of her chest.
Finally, his hands found their way under the hem of her shirt and started to lift slowly. His touch on her skin felt like fire in the best possible way.
“Can I?” he asked. Again, she nodded her head.
She sat up a bit to help him lift her shirt up over her head, which he threw to the ground to join the rest of the mess in the cabin. Before YN could lay back down completely his hand twisted around to her back, resting flat over the clasp of her bra.
“And...?”
“Yes,” she breathed out desperately.
With a quick twist, he released the clasp and she wiggled her shoulders to help the old, unexciting bra fall down. He took it the rest of the way off of her, throwing it on the floor as well. Then he sat back for a moment, eyes glued to her body, admiring her wordlessly. YN started to squirm under his harsh gaze, tempted to cover herself with her arm.
She started to move to block his view, but he caught her hand just in time and placed it back beside her.
“No just... so pretty I jus’ wanna...” his voice drifted off and his gaze turned softer as he leaned down and started leaving kisses on the tops of her breasts.
YN closed her eyes, appreciating the feeling of his mouth on her body, finally. While his mouth focused on one side, his hand kneaded at the other until they switched. He sucked and pinched at her nipples until they were standing up proud for him to lick at. But he was moving slowly, too slowly, and they only had limited time before they had to pick up their campers from electives.
“Harry, this is great but I need you to-”
“I know,” he cut her off.
Harry left one last kiss on each breast before trailing his mouth down her stomach until he reached the top of her denim shorts. He hooked a finger beneath the waistband and looked up at her, waiting for her nod before he continued to pull down her shorts and panties in one pull. She lifted her hips to help him and he threw them onto the floor with the rest of her clothes.
“Take off your shirt,” she demanded.
He smiled, pulling his shirt from the back of his neck and tossing it aside.
“Like what you see?” he teased.
With a straight face, she responded “Yes, now please.”
Harry giggled a bit, sitting back on his knees at the end of the bed. He placed his hands on her thighs and looked up at her with a soft gaze as he left a gentle squeeze.
“Now this,” he said, dimple popping on one side, “is where I keep that promise from the other night.”
It took YN a moment to break through the fog in her brain and remember what he was talking about - a partner-induced orgasm.
“Bold of you to assume you can do it.”
“Is that a challenge? I take this very seriously,” he replied, smile still plastered across his face.
She nodded.
“Alrigh’ then, spread your legs for me darlin’,” he told her softly, dragging his hands down her thighs and helping to spread her open.
He took his place in between her legs, and exactly as he had with her chest he took a moment to admire her body in front of him.
“Can’t believe y’hid this pussy from me for so long,” he said mostly to himself, shaking his head.
YN felt the cold air meet her center and shivered.
“Won’t be cold for long, I promise.”
With that, Harry dove down and got to work. He started by licking her core up and down, appreciating it and getting a feel for her body. When he sucked lightly on her clit she felt her body jolt, completely out of her own control. And when his tongue entered her, she threw her head back on the pillow.
But the killer was when he sat up a bit to take a breath and used his hands to spread her lips apart, keeping direct eye contact with her as he let a trail of spit land right on her most sensitive spot.
“Harry,” YN said breathlessly. “It’s... it’s a lot but it’s so... fuck H... you’re doing so good you...” She could barely get a sentence out but tried her best knowing that he liked the praise.
“Y’like that? Good... you’re doing so good for me, baby.” Her body shuddered again, but this time it wasn’t from the temperature in the room. Maybe she liked the praise a little bit too.
“Harry...”
“I know baby, I know,” he whispered against her skin, not stopping his movements.
He looked right up at her then, making eye contact as he put on a show of licking at her little button. It didn’t last for long though, since she closed her eyes to cope with the pleasure she was feeling. By this point, she was squirming and wiggling beyond her control, and Harry had to place his arm over her lower tummy to help keep her still for him.
They were in a rush timing-wise, but based on Harry’s movements she would have thought they had all the time in the world. He used his tongue in long, languid strokes, his fingers assisting with her clit while he tasted her. Rubbing in slow circles, his movements somehow matched the low groans he was letting out at her taste.
“Best thing I’ve ever tasted,” he murmured under his breath before looking up at YN’s face. “Could stay down here all day, y’know that?”
“Harry, please. We don’t have much time.”
She was right, his slow movements were eating away at their deadline and if he wanted to get her to the finish line he was going to have to start working for it. He looked at the time on her bedside clock, eyes going wide as he saw that they only had 20 minutes left.
“Want you to relax for me, can you do that?” he asked her. “Only gonna work if you relax and let me work, ok?”
“I’ll try.”
“Good girl.”
She keened at the phrase, and blood would have rushed to her cheeks if it wasn’t already rushing down to her throbbing clit. A bit embarrassed, YN was relieved that Harry didn’t say anything about her reaction, but secretly hoped he noticed enough that he would at least say it again.
As he refocused again, he brought his mouth to her clit and filled her with his fingers. She hadn’t had anyone inside of her for a long time, so even though his fingers were smaller than her vibrator, the sensation took a moment to get used to. But he hardly gave her any time at all, thrusting his fingers in and out of her at a ruthless pace. Meanwhile, his lips encased her enlarged clit, sucking hard in pulses and using his tongue to circle around the area. It was a lot, and it was so good.
“Harry... I... fuck... you’re so... Harry...”
He hummed without lifting his mouth from its spot and the vibrations went straight to her core. She could feel her stomach starting to tighten up, her toes starting to curl, the muscles in her legs starting to tense. With one hand she grabbed at the sheet, the other buried deep in his hair and starting to pull. She wanted to tell him he was doing a good job, wanted to tell him she was going to cum soon, wanted to tell him ‘thank you for trying so hard’, wanted to appease the praise kink she knew he had. But in that moment her brain was relegated to a pile of mush and if she tried to say any words she was confident they would come out like gibberish.
So instead she opened her mouth, allowing her vocal cords to wake up and add some music to the heavy breathing and panting she had been doing up until that point. Her small moans did the talking for her, letting him know she was close and starting to lose control.
The octave of her sounds went up suddenly when he twisted his fingers, rubbing them against the top of her walls and finding that elusive spot that no other man had managed (or even tried) to find. Her hips started bucking towards him on their own accord, and that’s how she knew he was really going to keep his promise.
“Harry... I... Harry,” was all she could get out of her mouth prior to the flood of pleasure ripped through her body. It was completely different than the orgasms she had caused by herself. Maybe her vibrator could be a bit stronger than his fingers, but with Harry never stopping his motions, she felt grateful and happy in a way that the small robot could never make her feel. Her eyes squeezed tightly closed, head leaning all the way back to reveal her elongated neck, and she tugged even harder at Harry’s hair (which only made him moan again, increasing the sensations she was experiencing in that moment).
YN wasn’t even aware of the noises she was making or how loud she was being, even though she probably should have tried to keep quiet as the old buildings were definitely not soundproof to any extent. But in that moment none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was Harry and the way he was making her feel.
He continued rubbing and thrusting and sucking and licking until she couldn’t take any more, whimpering as she used her grasp in his hair to push him away. She was panting, eyes still closed as she attempted to catch her breath.
Opening her eyes just in time, YN saw Harry bring his fingers up to his mouth, sucking them clean followed by wiping his shiny face on the back of her discarded shirt. He crawled up the bed to lie down next to her, and she knew she had a stupid smile on her face but she didn’t even care.
“Told you I’d make it happen for you this summer. Dream team, right?”
She giggled at that.
Looking at her watch, she realized they only had 10 minutes left until they had to be down the hill with their campers, which meant they only had 5 minutes until they had to throw their clothes back on and leave the cabin.
“Is five minutes enough for me to... for you... your turn?” she settled on, unsure of how to ask what she was suggesting.
Harry let out a short breath. “Shit, YN. After watching you do that I think I could cum in about 30 seconds. I mean. Fuck.”
YN giggled as she reached down to his tummy, spreading her fingers out to feel his soft skin and muscles before drifting lower to the top of his shorts.
“Gonna let me help, then?” she asked softly.
He nodded in response as YN hooked her fingers in his waistband and pulled his pants down. When his length sprang up and nearly hit his stomach, she had to pause. YN wanted so badly to admire his cock, to appreciate his body the way he had done for her, or maybe even more so. But they didn’t have time. She could swear it was both longer and thicker than what he had described while they were drinking a few days ago, but she could easily be remembering wrong. Regardless, it had no business being as pretty as it was. Solid, a thick vein running up the side, his head sensitive and nearly purple as he started to leak.
But right as she was about to reach for it and get to work, Harry stopped her. He grabbed her hand, bringing it up to his lips where he kissed each of her knuckles.
“Wait, no babe,” he told her. “We don’t have time and I want... I want things to always be good with us, yeah? I made you feel good, and next time it can be my turn, ok?”
With a few minutes left over, the two of them opted to stay where they were in her bed, YN resting her head on Harry’s chest and their arms wrapped around each other. This was the type of holding close she had been secretly hoping he was talking about up on the ropes course. She heard his heartbeat eventually start to slow down, and his breathing stretched out. If they had more time, they definitely would have both fallen asleep like that.
But they didn’t. With five minutes left until electives ended, at the time they should have been walking out of the door, YN and Harry groaned in a very unsexy way as they pulled themselves out of the bed. Harry threw his clothes back on quickly, but YN had to dig through her shelf to find a new shirt and make sure to hide the dirty one at the bottom of her laundry bag.
After changing, YN turned around to see Harry looking at her with a smile.
“What?”
“Nothing just...” he placed a short kiss on her lips. “Alright, now we can go.”
It was like that for a few days, then, spending that quality alone time together in her cabin during hours off. On nights off they had to get more creative with their locations - the storage room on the field, behind the infirmary, in the oversized bathroom, on a platform hidden behind some trees that no one ever used. It was risky, sure. But it was exciting, and fun, and new. YN didn’t really care where they were or what they were doing as long as they were doing it together.
Harry was so good with his words, too. So many years of practice made him great at getting her worked up just by what he said to her and how he said it. Sometimes he would whisper something naughty in her ear during the staff meeting when they were surrounded by their peers. But mostly he spoke to her in that perfect way while he was knuckles deep inside of her, or his head was buried between her legs, or his dick was inside of her mouth and his hand was on the back of her head.
They always felt like they had limited time. Even on nights off, there was a curfew and the ever-present risk of getting caught. They were hardly the first couple to hook up at camp but still, no one wanted to get caught in the act. So with the risk and time limits hanging over their heads, they never felt safe enough to really go for it, to fully give themselves to one another in the way they really wanted to.
YN didn’t mind though. Ever since that night on the cliff, she craved Harry’s lips on hers. It was like a drug. She started getting distracted while he was talking to her because instead of staring into his bright eyes, she was gazing longingly at his plush lips. On more than one occasion she caught herself right in time before leaning in to kiss him in front of campers. When they finally got to be alone, the first thing she would always do is attach herself to him by the lips and swear she would never let go.
They weren’t always being naughty while they were alone though. Oftentimes they were doing the same thing they had always been doing, just with some extra affection. They still snuck into the kitchen to steal snacks but hid in an empty room so they could give each other kisses between bites. She told him about her day with her head on his lap as he played with her hair. And she scratched his back lightly while he was face down on her bed complaining about a camper. Sometimes they held hands and walked through the forest at night, reminiscing over old memories. And a lot of the time they held each other close, cuddling warm and cozy without saying a word.
One night they decided to hike to the hidden campsite that was never used anymore and do some more stargazing together. They sat down on a big rock and Harry wrapped his arm around YN to hold her close and keep her warm. Like they always had, they would point out shapes in the stars to each other, discussing the universe or whatever else was on their minds. But what was on their mind tended to be them together, and in between, they couldn’t keep from kissing each other. YN even caught Harry looking at her when she was trying to point out a puppy she had found in the stars.
“H, you’re not looking,” she chastised him softly.
“I’m looking right where I wanna be, babe.” He left a kiss on her cheek before finally turning to see where she was pointing to.
And when it was quiet, they would talk about the future. They discussed their career paths, and how YN always wanted a little home with a picket fence and a dog. And Harry told her about the garden he always dreamed of when he was little. She told him about the cities in America she was considering when it was time to leave camp and start a year-round job, and Harry desperately tried to convince her that London was better.
“But it’s so foggy and gray, Harry,” she had complained.
Harry shrugged. “Sure it’ll brighten up if you’re there. You’ll see. I’m taking you in September, and don’t even try to stop me.”
And she didn’t. She loved the idea of getting to visit London with Harry, finally seeing the places he had been telling her about for years. But mostly she wanted to see him in his other comfort zone - camp was definitely a home to him but his real home, she was sure, would bring out something else in him that she might not have been able to see yet. And she always wanted to see more of him.
One day they decided to do things a bit backward. Instead of sneaking out at night, they each slipped out of their cabins early in the morning, before the sun was up. YN was giggling to herself when she found Harry at the trailhead for the cliff in the corner of the field. They were each still in their pajamas, wrapped up in sweatshirts and bracing the chilly morning air. They made it up the hill in time to watch the sunrise over the camp together. The wind was sharper up there, so YN brought herself close to Harry, hugging him tightly and tucking her head under his chin. He held her close, rubbing up and down her back to help keep her warm as they looked out at the pinks and oranges in the sky together before quickly hurrying back down and into their cabins before anyone could realize they were missing.
YN was notoriously not a morning person, but it was impossible to say no to Harry if he suggested something so special. To make it up to her, he had her coffee and breakfast waiting for her in the cafeteria that morning.
Even in her sleepy state, Harry was able to make her laugh at breakfast that morning. They always laughed together, but in the recent days since they kissed they had been laughing even more. It was a big lift, considering Harry had been making her laugh for years. But for some reason, every word that came out of his mouth seemed funny, and she couldn’t keep herself from giggling. She was just as bad as some of her campers, except they would run away as the giggles broke out. With nowhere to run, YN was relegated to childish laughter right in front of Harry. But he never seemed to mind. She could swear it made him smile deeper.
Harry took that laughter to heart, apparently. Because after his little move at capture the flag worked on her, he was desperate to catch YN like that again. He practically chased her around the pool until the lifeguard actually blew a whistle at them. She slowed down to a walk, but not for long as he rushed up beside her, grabbed her by the waist, and jumped into the deep end with her screaming. They came up for air laughing and gasping for breath. YN tried to shove him a bit, but Harry just swam away, daring her to catch him.
And YN didn’t hold back anymore, either. Not that she really was before. But when he walked into dinner wearing a yellow shirt that showed off his honey skin tone and gray shorts that were a bit shorter than his regular tan line, she couldn’t control herself.
“You look hot,” she told him after looking around to make sure no one was in earshot.
He shrugged. “I was out in the sun all day. Here I got you that salad dressing you like,” he said, passing a plate over to her.
Harry had always taken care of her, asking if she needed water, reminding her to grab a jacket. He redoubled his efforts in that area. Refilling her water for her when the line at the fountain was long, reminding her to actually eat her meals when she got distracted by a needy camper, even bringing an extra one of his sweatshirts one evening because he knew that no matter how much he reminded her, she would always forget how chilly it gets once the sun goes down. The effort was big enough that YN noticed, like really noticed. And for the first time, she realized that he had been doing some of these things all along. And maybe if she wasn’t so dense she would have noticed that he didn’t just treat her so well because they were best friends, but because he cared so deeply for her that he couldn’t help it.
YN did nice things for Harry as well. In addition to the onslaught of hugs he was receiving, she gifted him the clay pot she had made in art a few days prior. She painted it rainbow, and when she gave it to him she promised that on their next day off they would buy potting soil and a nice plant to grow in it. She snuck some of his dirty clothes into her bag when it was girls’ laundry day and he was running out of clean socks. Over the years she had made Harry countless friendship bracelets, but it was always because he asked her. Now she was making him one of the biggest she’d ever made and wouldn’t even let him pick the colors because the colors are based on my impression of your aura. You can’t give me any hints.
The campers definitely noticed that something had changed between them as well, but for once, YN didn’t really mind their badgering. She started answering their questions a little bit more coyly. Instead of saying no when they asked if she was dating Harry, she would respond “well, what did I say last time? Do you think anything is different than the last hundred times you asked?” They were so intrigued by him, begging and begging for him to come by their cabin in the evening again, that YN finally relented and invited him to bring his guitar to sing lullabies.
That night was a good deal for YN anyway. She got to spend more time with Harry, listen to his beautiful singing voice, and even put her campers to bed earlier than usual. His voice was nothing short of angelic to her ears, and apparently, the kids agreed. Most of them drifted off within fifteen minutes of his arrival. And although he was technically supposed to be singing to the campers, he spent most of the time looking directly into YN’s eyes. After most of the campers had drifted off, he played both Landslide and The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, which YN knew were two of his all-time favorite songs. His voice was soft and calming as YN eventually tucked herself into bed.
Before he left, Harry gave YN a kiss on the top of her head.
“Sleep well, baby,” he whispered to her, careful not to let any lingering ears hear the pet name.
Already under the blankets and cozy, YN decided it was probably best to call it an early night. Not long ago she had been kept up late because she was thinking of Harry - but this night, she felt comforted and safe even just by the memory of him being there. She imagined he was in the bed with her, innocently cuddling up close to each other. That night she dreamt of his voice singing only to her while she rested her head on his chest, his arms embracing her, warm under the blanket in a room by themselves.
It might have been fun and games for the campers, but trouble came in the form of other staff noticing that things were changing. No one could really point to anything in particular because if they said it out loud, it sounded like the kind of stuff they always did - sitting together at meals, gossiping during programs, spending nights off together. What had changed was in the unspoken moments - the way they looked into each other’s eyes, the vibe let off while they were together.
It had gotten to a point where Mitch had actually reprimanded the two of them for spending too much time together and not enough time with their campers. They tried to argue that they were often together because they were with their campers, but it was to no avail. The ultimatum was that if they weren’t sitting with their campers at the next meal time, they wouldn’t be allowed in the same age group next session. And that was a risk neither of them were willing to take, especially not now.
So they sat at the table eating their soggy tacos for lunch surrounded by 11 and 12-year-olds and pretending like everything was exactly the same. YN tried desperately to follow the stories the kids would tell, to understand the gossip they were spinning, but she always lost her way. Harry, on the other hand, was right there with them. He really shined while he was doing his job. He listened, he made them laugh, and he gave great advice. The girls were still coming up to him with random questions after his promise to always be honest with them after that first night in the cabin.
And honestly, even while YN was surrounded by kids, she had a pretty narrow vision of Harry. She was practically blinded by the light he was letting off. Multiple times the kids had to reach around her to pass the sauce because she wasn’t paying enough attention. And normally she would have felt guilty - she really prided herself on her job as a counselor. But at this point, she didn’t really care as much as she cared about listening to whatever words came slowly dripping out of Harry’s mouth.
So they met the ultimatum, but only barely.
At dinner, Mitch instructed them to sit completely separately from each other. They needed to show the campers that you should be friends with everyone! And as hard as it was, both of them knew they had to do it. A little time apart would be ok. And they weren’t truly apart anyway, they were only sitting at different tables for one hour for dinner. How bad could it be?
YN honestly thought it wasn’t too bad at all. At first, she was frustrated because after spending days completely absorbed in Harry, the thought of losing one of their favorite moments of the day together was going to be difficult. But she ended up sitting with a group of campers and Niall, and she already knew he could be fun after they were color wars captains together. He was funny and made her laugh with his dramatic stories and big gestures. The kids ate up every word that came out of his mouth (including when he told them to eat their vegetables).
“Y’know,” he turned to her when the kids were mostly distracted. “On color wars day, when we went back to the cabin after lunch, he was all mopy and grumpy,” Niall told her.
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. But he always gets like that when you’re not around.”
This was news to YN, but she couldn’t say she was surprised. She often felt out of sorts when they were separated too, and after the way he had been treating her so sweetly recently...
“He was so cranky I had to mess with him so of course I put a peeled banana in his pillowcase that night. Didn’t laugh as much as I had hoped but, it helped.”
YN laughed at the story, and she kept laughing as Niall told her about more pranks and jokes he had pulled on Harry and others. And because she couldn’t see the look in Harry’s eyes from across the room as he watched her laughing at Niall’s jokes, she thought everything was fine and dandy. She happened to be standing next to Niall during closing circle that evening, and while the arm around her waist wasn’t Harry’s, it was nice being supported by someone over the age of 12. When the song ended, the kids all started to hug each other goodnight, so naturally, YN gave Niall a quick hug and then sought out Harry who was on the other side of the room.
YN was excited to get a moment to talk with Harry after being separated from him for most of the day, but as she approached him she saw a deep furrow in his brow. Her smile dropped quickly as she cocked her head to the side, questioning him.
“Why’re you so grumpy?”
“Not grumpy,” he denied, voice deeper than usual.
She smiled then, reaching up to push back a curl of his hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. Grabbing his face lightly, she used her thumbs to try and smooth out the crinkle in his brow. His gaze softened a touch, but not as much as she had hoped.
“Definitely grumpy about something...”
He sighed. “Just... I mean just because we weren’t allowed to be together today doesn’t mean y’gotta be all over Niall, y’know?” he said softly so no one else could hear.
At first, YN thought he was kidding and started to chuckle. But when his expression didn’t change she realized how serious he truly was.
“Oh babe, I wasn’t all over Niall. He’s a nice friend, gives good hugs. No need to be jealous.” She used a gentle tone, hoping to soften him up a bit.
“‘M not jealous,” he insisted. “It’s just...” he grabbed her hand and pulled her body closer to his, but still not as close as she knew he wanted. Whispering in her ear he finished his sentence, “You’re mine, ok?”
“Course, H. We’re the dream team.”
“No,” he shook his head. “We’ve always been the dream team, but now you’re really mine...”
“Oh.” She didn’t know how else to respond. The comment made her insides feel like melted marshmallows and the campfire that burnt them all at the same time.
“I don’t like to share,” he admitted.
YN stood there for a moment, thinking until a lightbulb went off.
“You don’t have to share me, H. In fact... meet me by the parking lot again tonight. Think it’s a good night for our spot, yeah?”
They agreed, and YN gave him a short kiss on the cheek goodbye, immediately blushing and looking around to see if anyone saw. She thought she might be in the clear, but just in case, she started brainstorming excuses. Harry could apparently see the gears rotating in her head because he cut off her thoughts.
“Tell them it’s a British thing - they won’t know any better.”
And the line worked because the girls definitely had something to say when they were back in the cabin. They were so thoroughly convinced that YN and Harry were in love that the little one started asking things like “What’s the nicest thing he’s ever done for you?” and “Does he like to cuddle at night?” She brushed them off as usual, but it was getting harder every day to keep up the charade. Before they had gotten together it was annoying but fun to field their questions. But now? Now it was getting to be a bit of a struggle because camp rules required them to never find out the truth.
She clicked the walkie-talkie three times as she headed out the door, and smiled when she heard three clicks in return. Practically skipping down the hill, she made her way to the parking lot where Harry was already waiting for her. Although this time she was hoping he had no alcohol with him.
When they were still a few yards away from each other, YN couldn’t help but jog, jumping up into his open arms. She stood on her toes, arms around his neck, and kissed his lips eagerly. It was difficult, though, because both of them were smiling like teenagers.
“Your hair looks nice,” she told him, dragging a hand through his locks after they separated their lips.
“You’re only saying that because you want to get in my pants,” he teased.
She shrugged. “No, I think your hair looks nice and I wanna get in your pants.”
He kissed her nose sweetly and then turned his attention away from her and back to the trunk of his car.
“Listen I have a few things I thought we could bring with us...” he trailed off as he searched around in the endless dark void.
“You are not drugging me up again, Styles,” she demanded.
“Don’t worry babe, wouldn’t even dream of it. I have... ah!” He looked proud of himself as he pulled out what looked to be an old blanket.
“Y’always get cold, even with a sweatshirt, so I thought we’d bring some blankets. And I knew you’d forget your water, so I brought some extra.”
“Take such good care of me, H.”
They walked hand in hand down the path on the way to their old spot, recounting their days to one another. For the first time in a long time, they actually had new information for each other after spending some time apart. One of Harry’s boys might’ve sprained his ankle during sports time, causing a whole scene and refusing to go to the infirmary. And one of YN’s girls had gotten a crush on an older boy that she couldn’t stop talking about. Both of them, it turns out, had to field more questions than usual from their campers regarding their relationship.
“Getting harder to convince them nothin’s happening,” Harry told her. “I think they see the way I look at you.”
They reached their spot, the small stage in the middle of the clearing near the lake. Harry spread out one of the blankets he had brought and they laid down on it, on their backs so they could look up at the sky.
It was quiet, except for the rustling of the trees as the wind blew or the scurrying of a small animal a short distance away. She held his hand, interweaving their fingers as they settled into their peaceful surroundings. Even with all the other new fun things they were doing together, nothing would ever beat this - stargazing in their spot together. And for the first time in a long time, YN’s head wasn’t spinning with scenarios or ideas or questions. She was just content. Harry was with her, the stars were above her, and she was content.
“After the summer, I think we should travel together,” he stated out of nowhere.
She laughed a bit. “Sure, H. You gonna pay for that on your amazing camp salary?”
“I’ll find a way.”
It was quiet again for a moment.
“Can I wear your yellow sunglasses tomorrow?” she asked softly.
“Sure.”
Another pause.
“What do you think the stars would taste like?”
At first, she wasn’t sure if he was serious, but he asked the question softly so she considered it.
“Putting aside the fact that they’re like... fire or whatever...” they both giggled. “I think, like, metaphorically, they look like they taste like honey.”
“Honey?”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t explain. And he didn’t ask.
“Harry?”
“Yeah?”
“I like having you with me.”
“Always been here, babe. Was waiting for you to realize it.”
She rolled over, then, to give him a quick kiss on the lips, though they were both smiling through it making it a bit difficult logistically.
“I just wanna tell everyone that you’re mine,” he admitted quietly.
“Everyone?” YN started. “I think you really just wanted to tell Niall today.”
Harry laughed. “Yeah well... someone has to tell him eventually, hm?”
“Tell him what, exactly?” she challenged.
He looked at her with confusion. “That you’re mine?” His voice went up a bit at the end.
“Is that a question? What... what does being ‘yours’ mean?”
And he answered her question much like he did her question up on the cliff.
“It means this-” He rolled over, kissing her deeply and bringing his hand up to rest on her jaw.
YN wanted more answers, she wanted to get him to actually explain things for once. But more than that she wanted to keep feeling his lips on hers and his hands on her body. She would never get completely used to the feeling of kissing her best friend, but it was so good that the nerves faded away quickly.
She reached to bring one hand up into his hair and the other one around his back. He rolled further on top of her, still hovering a bit but allowing their bodies to touch. She felt surrounded by him, and his smell, and the heat coming from his body. They were rolling around making out on an old blanket atop an abandoned stage, it was comfortable, and she never wanted the feeling to end.
“Haven't... haven’t done much star g-gazing,” she stuttered between kisses.
“Fuck the stars.”
“Or you could fuck me.”
He stopped then, backing his face away from hers so he could look into her eyes. Waiting a moment, he left ample space for her to take back her comment, to say it was a joke, to withdraw consent in any way. But she didn’t. She bit her lip, staring up at him like he was the entire universe, and silently begging him to do more.
“Don’t start something you can’t finish, YN,” he replied breathlessly.
“If I can’t finish, that’s on you.”
He chuckled at her response before kissing her again, this time with more desire and urgency. Using his arms to support himself, he readjusted his legs so one was against her center, and started rolling his hips into her. She gasped into the kiss and he bit down on her lower lip lightly.
Without stopping his movements, he whispered to her between breaths. “I think... you’ve always been mine... just didn’t know how... how to tell me.”
And he wasn’t wrong in that assumption. She had always been his best friend, his default partner, his confidant, his dream team. And he was just as much hers, she just never realized that when he reminded her to drink water or gave her his sweatshirt it was because she had him utterly and completely whipped for her.
“Tellin’ you now...”
“Tell me then. Tell me you’re mine.”
He practically growled at the last phrase, digging his hips into hers with more force and causing her to gasp again. Every bit of his body felt good, and she was only barely touching him. Her grasp in his hair got tighter, and her fingers curled in to grab at his shirt on his back.
“Yours... I’m yours.”
“Fuck.” Harry hung his head low, trying to even out his breathing. “That’s by far the hottest thing you’ve ever said to me... I can’t... YN I can’t wait any longer. Gotta make you mine for real. Gotta... shit.”
“You wanna fuck me?” she filled in for him.
And again he groaned at her words. “Fuck yes, babe. I... shit I don’t have a...”
“It’s ok,” she cut him off. “I... I’ve got an IUD and I’m clean and you...”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m clean. Promise. Shit, you sure you’re ok with this?” he asked, giving her another opportunity to back out.
But she didn’t need it. She was confident that she wanted this as she had never wanted anything else before.
“I... yes Harry,” she told him. “Just...”
His head snapped up to look at her when he sensed her hesitation.
“Just haven’t done this in a while, so I might not be... I’m a bit rusty, ok?”
Harry gave a comforting chuckle.
“Baby, all you gotta do is lay there and look pretty. And you’re doing a damn good job at that. Doesn’t matter what you do, I think I’ve made it pretty clear I’m crazy for you.”
YN wasn’t typically the most assertive in sexual situations, but in this case, she couldn’t wait any longer. She used her leverage on the back of his head to bring his face down closer to hers and continue kissing him, slipping her tongue between his lips until he opened up and allowed for the intrusion. Their tongues worked together, dancing and drawing shapes around each other furiously.
Her grip in his hair tightened again and her hand on his back searched for anything to grab onto. He audibly groaned as she started scratching lightly at his skin. She used the opening to further explore his mouth with her tongue, silently begging him for more.
“Gonna... gonna fuck you so good... make sure everyone knows... knows that you’re mine,” he said between breaths.
“Yes,” she told him. “Yours... I’m yours... make me feel so good...”
He groaned at that, her words clearly affecting him as he left his spot on her mouth and allowed himself to lick and suck at the tender spots on her neck instead. At first, she let out a disappointed whine at the loss of contact, but the disappointment quickly turned into pleasure when he bit down harshly on a soft spot right below her ear.
Slowly, he continued a trail of kisses down her neck, to her chest. Her shirt was in his way and clearly frustrating him.
“Gonna take this off, ok?” he asked, pinching her shirt.
She nodded and sat up a bit to help him lift the shirt over her arms. He had seen her without it many times now, but he still stopped for a moment to stare and appreciate her body in front of him.
Mumbling to himself, she barely heard him say, “shit, y’so fucking beautiful... love y’body so much.” He said it quietly, clearly out of pure admiration.
As she was about to beg him to move, he leaned back down and picked up right where he left off, leaving small, wet kisses to the tops of her breasts. He made his way down a little lower, pulling one of the cups of her bra down and biting down a bit harder just next to her nipple. She whined lightly, but he soothed the area with kisses and then leaned back to admire his work.
He had left a deep, pretty mark, not far from her nipple where it was sure to always be covered. She felt like he was claiming her, and it felt amazing. He continued kissing around the area, hands exploring her body, but he wasn’t moving fast enough.
“Harry... please do something...”
“I am doing something,” he teased.
“Do more.”
“What do you need, darling? Tell me.”
She huffed, grip in his hair once again tightening until she heard him hiss against her skin in response to the pain.
“Touch me,” she breathed. “Need you to touch me.”
“I am touching you.”
“No... touch me... here.”
She took his hand and dragged it down her body to rest above her core. There was a heat swirling in her stomach, stronger than ever before. She could tell she was wet between her thighs and her body had never been more ready for him.
“Shit, YN,” he groaned. “This mine too?”
She nodded her head.
“No. You gotta say it... say it and I’ll touch you.”
“It’s yours.”
“What is?”
“My...my...” in most situations, she hated the word that she knew he was trying to get her to say. But for the first time, she finally understood why it could be so hot because in this moment it was the only word that accurately described not only her body but the way she was feeling. “My pussy is yours.”
And that’s where Harry just lost it. He moaned at her words, hanging his head between his shoulders for a moment to catch his thoughts and his breath, shaking his head.
“The things you do to me...” he mumbled beneath his breath. He looked back up at her, “gonna take this off, ok?” he slipped his finger beneath the waistband of her pants.
She nodded her head, and he got to work stripping her of her pants, then his own top layer of clothing until they were left in their underwear with a blanket draped over them. He kissed around the tops of her breasts before grabbing the other cup of her bra and pulling it down to match the other and expose her to him further. His tongue swirled around her nipple, hand pinching and pulling at the other one.
“Harry,” she gasped between breaths. “Feels good but... want you... please.”
“I know baby, but you know how big I am. Gotta make sure you’re ready for me,” he told her between kisses.
“I’m ready I promise I’m-”
He cut her off with a desperate kiss to her mouth. As she caught her breath, he moved a strand of hair out of her face and behind her ear.
“Know you feel ready. Just want to make sure. Wanna make my girl feel good, yeah?”
She nodded her head silently. Hearing him call her his girl did a number on her, and she felt it deep in her tummy. She was his, she had always been his, and she always wanted to be his.
Harry trailed down her body, leaving a string of kisses in his wake. The moisture from his mouth mixed with the cold night air gave her the chills so she reached for a blanket, but Harry stopped her.
“Take my sweatshirt, babe,” he whispered. “Wanna fuck you in my clothes.”
YN was completely surrounded by all things Harry, then. His blankets, his sweatshirt, his mouth. It all smelled like him and she couldn’t keep from taking a big deep breath inside of the hooded jacket. His smell was so nice - had always been comforting but now even more so. She would buy candles of it if she could.
Harry spread her legs wide, hands on her thighs and thumbs stroking over her skin gently as he looked at her.
“Look at that...” he mumbled, mostly to himself. “So pretty... look at how wet you are, how swollen that clit is. Is that all for me?” He looked back up at YN, waiting for her to answer.
She knew now that he needed to hear her words, so in addition to nodding she told him, “yes, all for you.”
“Because this is my pussy, right?”
“Yes, H. Yours. It’s yours.”
He couldn’t take it any longer and started working over her center with his mouth and his fingers.
“Gonna... make you cum... before I fuck you... make you feel good... then make you... mine,” he told her in a low voice between licking and sucking and kissing on her folds.
She let out an unconscious whimper at that. She knew he would make her feel good - he always did. But something about the way he said it this time made her eyes roll into the back of her head. In desperation, she wanted to respond to him, to hype him up and make him know how wonderful he was making her feel. But she couldn’t get the words out, whines and moans and groans taking their place.
“That’s right... good girl... let it out just like that...'' he encouraged her. “Geez, y’so fuckin’ wet for me.”
With one hand he stroked her inside walls, driving her crazy, the other sitting firmly on the inside of her thigh to open her back up again every time she tried to close around his head. His hand was a warm and comforting presence on the cold and quiet night, and she let out a gentle sigh. Her sigh was cut off though, and turned into a bit of a squeal as he sucked harder on her clit, curling his fingers inside of her and hitting her best spot. His tongue lapped at her wet folds, hungrily taking everything she would give him.
It didn’t take long - it never did with Harry. Compared to the other guys she had been with who never made her cum even once, Harry’s ability to do it so quickly and consistently blew her mind. He knew what he was doing before he even touched her, but then he took the time to learn her body too. Harry knew what she liked, what felt the best, what drove her over the edge. He knew which pulls of his hair meant she was feeling good and which meant that he needed to slow down and give her a break. He knew the way her body shuddered when the pressure was building, and he knew the way she tasted after that bubble burst.
Usually, after she finished, he would kiss back up her body until he reached her mouth and whisper sweet things to her as she came down from her high. But this time, he kept working where he was. He was gentler on her sensitive nub, but his fingers moved faster. He spread her out, opening her up for him and adding in a third finger. YN gasped at that, one hand flying to her own chest and the other finding purchase in Harry’s hair again.
“H... fuck... s’a lot... feels... a lot,” she told him from above.
“I know darling,” he comforted her, removing his mouth and leaving careful kisses at the top of her thighs. “But m’cock is gonna be even more. You still want it, right?”
He was giving her another out, an easy out, and wanted to make sure. They both knew that once you fuck your best friend, there’s no going back. But YN never wanted to go back. It didn’t even feel possible to go back. She just wanted him. And she told him as much.
“H... make me yours... I want... I wanna be yours.”
Harry sat up on his knees then, one hand with fingers still inside of her and the other getting to work on his own briefs. His cock sprang free, hard as ever and practically leaking from the purple tip. YN’s eyes went straight to it, as they always did. She could never get herself to look away. He looked too pretty. And that pretty thing was about to be inside of her.
She moaned his name, begging him to hurry up, and he got the message. Removing his fingers from her, he made a show of licking each one. He tapped her bottom lip and she opened her mouth, where he inserted his first two fingers. She closed around him and sucked lightly, tasting herself on his skin.
“Fuck,” he groaned at the sight.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m waiting for,” she teased back.
He chuckled before hovering his body over hers and lining up his cock with her center. Slowly he dragged the tip up and down her folds until she let out another little whimper.
“You want my cock?” he asked her.
“Yes.”
“Lemme hear you say it. Tell me what you want.”
She took a breath. “Want... want your cock, Harry. Want to feel you inside of me. Want-”
He cut her off then as he entered her, entering her slowly and stretching her out.
She let out little gasps as he went deeper.
“Good girl... know you can take me...”
She couldn’t help but moan at his words, but her eyes were screwed shut.
“Look at me, baby. Please...” Harry begged her softly, his words practically a whine.
Opening her eyes, she gazed up at him like he hung the stars and the moon. But when he pushed in a little further she squeezed her eyes closed again, the feeling tight and the stretch a little tingly.
“S’really big, H.”
“Relax, baby,” he whispered, kissing her forehead. “Gotta relax for me, let me in...”
She let out a deep breath signally for him to continue until she was completely full of him. Waiting a moment, he gave her time to get used to his size, and he took a moment to get used to the feeling of her around him.
“Fuck baby, ‘slike you were made for me,” he whispered into her ear.
She whined at that, and he took it as a sign to start moving. He started slowly, both of them moaning at the feeling. Dropping his head down to her shoulder, he bit down lightly, causing her to gasp. Her hands came up to his hair and his back again and she held onto him like he was going to float away if she didn’t.
“Feel so good,” he whispered. “So fuckin’ tight. So...fuck... so good... y’pussy feels like heaven. M’not gonna last very long.”
“That’s ok, just... just keep going. You’re so big... stretching me... so deep... fuck... Harry, please.”
She didn’t know what she was begging for, but she knew he would give it to her. And he did, as his hips started snapping against her harder and faster. Her moans and groans and gasps filled the air around them, but neither of them cared since they were far away enough from the rest of the camp. It was just them, under the stars, together.
“Sound so pretty,” he mumbled between thrusts as she gasped and moaned into the night air. “Best sound in the world... wanna hear that... hear you all the fucking time,” he groaned.
Harry reached down again then, rubbing her clit with his thumb as his thrusting continued. She accidentally held her breath, only releasing it when his lips met hers in a sloppy kiss. Their lips hardly even touched as they panted into each other's mouths, savoring the feeling and the moment they were having together.
Her hands frantically searched for something to grab onto on his back, but upon finding nothing she resigned to digging her nails into him lightly. Apparently, that was the right decision, because his movements only sped up more.
“Tell me how you feel,” he instructed her.
“So good... fuck H you feel... I can’t even...” she let out another gasp as his tip went deeper than ever before, and she felt his smirk against her own lips.
“Too good for words, hm?”
She nodded her head in agreement.
They were both trying to hold off for as long as possible, but with the days, weeks, and years of build-up, it was nearly impossible. Both of them knew it was going to be over soon, but neither of them wanted it to end.
“Fuck... Harry,” she moaned again as he increased the pressure rubbing on her clit. Her body reacted to the change, contracting on his dick and making him see all the stars that were never there.
“Think you can... can cum again?” he asked her.
“I don’t... maybe but...”
“Gonna make my girl cum again,” he stated, sure of himself.
“Yes, yes I’m yours,” she cried out again, followed by a long whine as the head of his cock brushed against her g-spot.
He lifted her legs then, her knees bending over his shoulders as he pushed into her again, the new angle giving him deeper access. From higher above her, he could see her breasts wiggling with the movement of her entire body. But she could tell he was looking mostly at the place where they connected, where it was wet and messy and amazing.
“Mine,” he growled again.
She nodded her head, unable to make any words come out of her mouth anymore. There was too much happening all at once. The pressure building in her lower stomach, her clit throbbing below Harry’s thumb, her walls being stretched by his length. It was so much, too much.
“Too much,” she told him.
“Want me to stop?”
“NO!”
“Then it’s not... not too much,” he concluded, never losing his pace.
“Gonna... soon... almost...” she still couldn’t get her words out, but he was able to decipher her message.
“It’s alright baby,” he whispered. “Cum for me. Want you to cum again for me. Then I’ll cum inside this pretty pussy... my pretty pussy... make you mine. All mine.”
And she completely lost it at his words. Her back arched up and she pressed up into his warm chest. Her head rolled back as much as it could on the hard surface and her eyes squeezed closed as she felt tears starting to form at the edges of her vision. The feeling was white hot, like a star exploding somewhere in distant space, a mess to experience but beautiful to the viewer.
So beautiful, in fact, that Harry let his own release go shortly after. He shot ropes and ropes of warm cum, filling her. His hips kept moving, thrusting slower but not giving up, even though he was through. She whimpered at the feeling, both of them fucked raw. When he was too sensitive and just couldn’t take it anymore, his hips eventually stilled. He kissed her neck and shoulder until he could catch his breath but made no move to slip out from inside of her. As they both caught their breaths, YN started rubbing Harry’s back lightly. He hummed at the feeling.
“Harry?”
“Yeah?”
“You never... you never answered my question?”
“Which question darling?”
YN tried to think back, her mind still foggy from the two intense orgasms.
“What do you mean when you say I’m yours?”
There was silence for a moment, their hearts beating in unison but still fast. Most if not all of his weight was on her, and his body was like a furnace keeping her warm.
“Means I get to do that again.”
“Will you still be my best friend?”
He laughed at that, before realizing she was serious.
“Of course, sweetheart. Always. Best friend, dream team, girlfriend. They aren’t mutually exclusive.”
“Girlfriend?” she asked, a cheerfulness in her voice.
“Mhmm...if that’s... if you want that?”
“Yes!” she answered quickly. “Want it with you.”
Harry smiled before kissing her lips lightly. She could see his pupils were still mostly blown out, although it might have been a reaction to the dark night around them illuminated only by the stars above, which they had stopped looking at ages ago.
“Alright then,” he started. “Looks like we should probably get my girlfriend cleaned up and ready for bed, hm?”
He made a move to change his position, to pull out of her and do what he had said, but she stopped him with a firm grip.
“Not yet, just... lemme stay like this for a couple more minutes.”
MASTERLIST | PATREON | USS TAG | WRITING TAG
Deleted Scene - Campout
Extra 1: Lemon Over Ice
#writing#uss#harry styles#harry#harry fanfic#harry styles fanfic#harry styles fanfiction#harry fanfiction#harry fan fiction#harry styles fan fiction#smut#harry smut#harry styles smut#fanfic#fanfiction#fan fiction#harry fan fic#harry styles fan fic#summer fanfic#yo
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2023 FIC REC LIST
I did this last year, and I thought I’d do it again. To close out 2023, here’s a list of some of my favorite fics I’ve read this year. These aren’t everything, just of course the highlights. If the author has a tumblr, I tried to tag them, but if I missed anyone let me know or feel free to tag them yourself!
WILLOW
did i dream (that we were so perfectly entwined) | General | Tanthamore | One Shot | 8.9k
Jade and Kit, from childhood through season one. Jade’s pov.
Our hardest battles are the oaths we keep by @rehizle28 | Mature | Tanthamore | 7/25 | 50.9k
Jade grows up as a Knight of Galladoorn. When Graydon and Kit are engaged, she travels to Tir Asleen as Graydon’s personal guard. Words cannot describe how much I love this. The pining and shenanigans these two get into is so so good. Kit causes problems on purpose and Jade Cannot figure out what the princess’s deal is. King Hastur is perfectly normal and has Totally Good intentions.
be my mirror (my sword and shield) by @onlyshestandsthere | Explicit | Tanthamore | 30/? | 228k
Bone Reaver Jade helps the Crone’s followers bring Kit to the Immemorial City. Quite easily one of the angstiest fics I have ever read. But for all 100k of angst there’s another 100k of fluff and that’s only vaguely an exaggeration. The magic is absolutely horrifying but it feels totally realistic to what we’ve seen in canon. Jade and Kit both need a hug.
if we’d turned a corner (if i had waited) by @sugarfey | Mature | Tanthamore | 5/? | 13.9k
Soccer au! There’s plenty of angst in this one, but it focuses on the healing. I love everything about this fic. Kit and Jade are so dumb as usual and I love the social media bits.
The Flawless Five, Vol. 1: Rise of the Five | Teen | Gen | 2/6 | 11.9k
Superhero au! It’s silly and goofy and so so much fun to read. I’m really liking the mystery so far, and I’m looking forward to how it unfolds.
Triumph of the Wyrm | Mature | Tanthamore | 3/12 | 13.8k
Series still currently in the first book. Kit successfully runs away, and every attempt to rescue Airk fails. Twenty years later, the world is under the rule of the Wyrm. Kit and Jade work in smuggling, unaware what happened to the other. Until, of course, they end up working together on a job. The world is so so horrifying but so well done. Also, Kit is allies with Sarris the Troll.
Let’s take a knife and cut the world in two by @spybrarian | Mature | Tanthamore | One Shot | 7.9k
Exorcist Jade and possessed Kit! Very angsty. The worldbuilding is very very well done and so so horrifying.
these walls come tumbling down by @onlyshestandsthere | Teen | Tanthamore | 4/? | 28.8k
Vet Jade and Perfectly Normal Human Kit. After Jade hits Kit (as a cat) with her car, she takes it upon herself to take care of her. Told in two timelines, one in Kit’s pov before the accident, and one in Jade’s pov after. I have laughed so much reading this I absolutely adore it.
One Night in October | Teen | Tanthamore | 9/9 | 29.k
Slasher fic! Angsty, mysterious, but it has a bittersweet ending.
Sink or Swim | Mature | Tanthamore | 7/7 | 16k
Lifeguard Jade and disaster Kit. Seriously she is so, so dumb and it is so, so funny.
LEGENDBORN
Rescue | General | Gen | 1/1 | 4k
Valec’s point of view of Chapter 42. I love Valec okay.
A Place at the Table | General | Gen | 1/1 | 7k
Legendborn/Merlin cross over. Basically, Arthur is a lot better than in canon and it’s so nice to read after Bloodmarked.
Beach Day Memory Walk by @justbrainrot | Mature | OT3 | 1/1 | 3.5k
Bree takes Sel and Nick on a memory walk during Sel’s birthday. Super cute and fun.
Mother, Merlin | Mature | Gen | 4/? | 13k
Natasia healing Sel after the events of Bloodmarked. Very very angsty, but also very very good. I love how Natasia is written.
Dancing in the moonlight by @nightworldlove | Teen | Willark | One Shot | 3k
William and Lark dance. Uh. In the moonlight. Very cute one shot.
Sometimes Hunting and Running Blur Together… by @ficnoire2 | Explicit | Other | 4/? | 11.9k
Valec backstory and I absolutely adore it
DESCENDANTS
Yeah I’m pretty sure we’ve all probably read most of these but nevertheless
Blessed Art Thou Among Women | Mature | Gen | One Shot | 1.3k
Claudine and the Catholic virtues
Descendants: A Different Tale by @kanzakurawrites | Teen | Gen | 9/? | 17.9k
I think this altered my brain chemistry tbh Mal deserves the best parents
Dark Fire by @dragoneyes618
Yeah just go read these if you like Claudine
Obligatory @isleofdarkness shoutout I am quite literally obsessed with this au
Let Dead Men Lie by @dragoneyes618 | General | One Shot | 2.6k
Everyone takes the blame for killing Frollo. Ben is struggling.
Death threats on Dead Beauty by @panthera-tigris-venenata | Mature | Gen | 2/3 | 2.7k
Listen I think Harry should be this feral all the time
the devil had done for the rest | Teen | Gen | One Shot | 2.5k
Harriet! Harry! Yeah that’s all.
Cursed || Harriet Hook | Teen | One Shot | 10.7k
Any Harriet content makes me insane and this is no different. Harriet backstory.
THE MECHANISMS
love in his own eyes by @nonbinarylowkey | General | Gen & Multi | One Shot | 5k
Arthur’s first night as a father
(im)mortality by @nonbinarylowkey | Teen | Multi | One Shot | 7.7k
Arthur handles Mordred’s “death” in a perfectly normal way. Sometimes I think about this fic and take physic damage.
From The Wastes His Child Came (Bringing Revelations Of All Things) | Teen | Other | 3/3 | 7k
Arthur forgets trans people exist and finds Mordred. I’ve reread this so many times I adore it.
la soleil passe son bras par la fenêtre by @ladydragonkiller | General | Gen | One Shot | 6.4k
Brian falls from the gallows and stops the Battle of Camlann, as he should
Inverse Suspension | General | Gen & Multi | One Shot | 3.4k
Mordred frees Brian, and everything turns out okay
no path past kindred’s stain | Teen | Multi | 3/3 | 9.8k
Pendragon backstories my beloved <3
#hi the amount of times I had to redo this was insane#this took hours lmao#enjoy the fics that is a THREAT#willow 2022#disney descendants#descendants#the mechanisms#high noon over camelot#hnoc#naia recs fics
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One Piece Surfer AU
This was a long ramble session put together by myself and my friends Jordon, @fashionable-hamster , @incomingalbatross , and @thehappybaker .
If anyone wants to draw these or muse around in this AU, please feel free (and tag me!) We had so much fun coming up with these!
Things that are the Same
Devil Fruits are still a thing (mostly because it's really funny if they're surfers and can barely swim. They all wear inner tubes and water wings.)
Crew Compositions are also the same! They are now teams.
Sea Kings and assorted monsters are still here. They are, in fact, more common. The job of Life Guard is not only to keep people from drowning, but to fight monsters so your friends can surf in peace.
World Changes
Almost every dead character you can think of is alive. Because this is a fun, low stakes AU.
"King of the Pirates" is now "King of the Waves", you become a Yonko by being an Olympic Gold Medalist, you become "King of the Waves" by beating all of the Yonkos in a competition.
The goal of "World's Greatest Swordsman" has been changed to "World's Greatest Lifeguard." The way you move up in ranks for it is by competing in underwater feats of power (holding your breath, underwater wrestling, spotting and saving drowning people, performing rescue maneuvers.) It is all incredibly competitive and intense.
Doctors tend to pool supplies and set up a single medical tent, but more intense competitions mean they'll stay apart.
The Celestial Dragons have bought up most of the local public beaches. Surfing on them is considered illegal, but that doesn't stop any of the crews/teams.
The Marines are now local police who are trying to keep the surfers from the private beaches. Sometimes it escalates to fighting, but not too often. It's more like a race to surf before the police show up, it adds time and tension to competitions.
The Revolutionaries are a skateboarding gang who are committing actual crimes trying to bankrupt the city. They are treated with less attention than the surfers, somehow.
Strawhat Headcanons
The Thousand Sunny is a massive surfboard that all the team can fit on. They don't use it super often, but Franky made it for fun one day and they have a good time zipping around together.
Luffy is almost unchanged. He wants to be King of the Waves, he goes around recruiting buds to help that happen. He is more than willing to solve these problems by beating people up. It's Luffy.
Zoro is training to be the World's Greatest Lifeguard. He mostly focuses on paddling around and killing monsters that try to attack his friends, he's group protector in any AU. His backstory is similar as well, Kuina dying and leaving him her family life preserver. He and Sanji sit on the edge of the group surfboard, they're both very worried about their friends falling in.
Nami and Nojiko were illegally taken in by Bellemere. Nami has a supernatural sixth sense for when storms and strong waves are coming in, which was noticed by Arlong. Arlong threatened to reveal the illegal adoption to the police if she didn't come work for him and his team. Nami agreed, but once Luffy finds out, he contacts Whitebeard and get into a fierce legal battle to keep Nami and her family safe and away from Arlong. She's now living out the childhood she always wanted, spending time with friends and surfing instead of being under Arlong's control. Bellemere is running her tangerine orchard and shows up to their competitions a lot, mostly to cheer on her kid and hand out orange slices like a soccer mom.
Ussop runs a kid's swimming school! He's really popular because he's great with kids. People want to get their kids in love with swimming so they're less likely to impulsively eat devil fruits lolol. He's always wanted to be a surfer, and he jumps at the chance when Luffy comes their way. Kaya buys them fancy new surfboards and she's one of their most dedicated sponsors.
Sanji used to work in a five star restaurant, but ended up shifting to make his own top-class food truck so he can be with the crew and go to different competitions. Zeff sponsors the Strawhats so that Nami stops stealing the rival team's wallets to pay for gas money. (She still does, but less often now.)
Chopper is still a reindeer boy, and he wasn't able to go to normal school because of it. He was homeschooled by his parents, who are both doctors. He's enjoying his first taste of a real childhood with the Strawhats, and Hiriluk and Kureha come to what competitions they can.
Robin is a former CIA agent turned lawyer. She has gotten the Strawhats and teams they're friendly with out of SO many legal issues. She wears water wings on All of her Arms when she goes out to surf. She still does archeology on the side as a fun hobby.
Brook's backstory is mostly unchanged. He used to be on a great group of surfers, but when they were on a boat trip, their drinks were poisoned by a rival team. He washed up a skeleton by the Strawhat's van. He had made friends with Laboon, but since Laboon has faced some issues in the wild, he was moved by a wildlife conservation center. Brook is traveling the coast with the Strawhats to try to find him again, checking with every wildlife center they pass.
Jinbe is tired. He was a city council member, and left when it became horribly corrupt. He's reliving his old days of surfing with the Strawhats, and he's specifically helping Zoro be a better swimmer.
Non Strawhat Headcanons
Shanks and his crew run a nice little bar. They're renowned for their surfing skills, but they're holding back from competitions for awhile so the kids get their chance to shine. Shanks is known as "that guy who once surfed a tsunami so well he reversed it. Somehow."
Whitebeard is a CPS worker. He has worked at this tirelessly for decades, and ends up fighting a fierce legal battle for Nami, and then later Ace, both of which he wins!
Ace (which was actually how this entire thing started for me) is super competitive and travels around almost as much as the Strawhats do. He wears his hat surfing because of course he does. He's got to be very careful using his Devil Fruit, but he's pulled off some crazy stunts with it.
Buggy the Clown runs a water show with super talented performers; water aerialists, dolphins, even some surfing like the others! He is a terrible surfer but manages to fail upwards into winning an Olympic medal. Whoops!
Vivi is a mayor's daughter and is constantly campaigning for better protection for the local beaches. She's managed to get her hometown safe for the teams to compete at, but she doesn't have a lot of sway outside them, and she had to fight against a certain local business to get that far. She's studying abroad in Europe after she helped, and they miss her a lot :(
Crocodile (mentioned above with Vivi) owns a casino near the beach. Luffy hit him with a supersoaker of ocean water once for putting a hit out on Vivi. I have nothing else for him except "he makes crazy sandcastles"
Mihawk is the World's Greatest Lifeguard, and most of the time people practice perfect water safety around him because he's SCARY to be rescued by. Those eyes....
Most of the first mates (Zoro, Bepo, Killer) are training to be lifeguards. Their captains have devil fruits, they have to.
Corozon is the Heart Pirate's biggest supporter. He loves watching them compete. He's working with Bellemere in her orchard, they know each other from their old police days.
Blackbeard's favorite activity is snitching on other surfers so they get interrupted by the police. He also likes knocking people off their boards. He's never invited to these things, he just shows up.
Uta showed up once to cheer on Luffy, but Blackbeard dropped her location online. The beach got swarmed by fans and they had to cancel :( But she still comments on Nami's social media posts about the competitions and voices her support!
Gecko Moria owns a terrible "haunted water ride" experience and it's terrible and rundown. Kuma, who works for OSCHA, shows up to shut it down but the crew has already beaten up everyone there because someone was being a creep to Nami.
That's all for now! Might add more later as they come up!
Please please reblog <3 I want to hear people's ideas!
#one piece#one piece au#one piece surfer au#monkey d luffy#roronoa zoro#nami#ussop#black leg sanji#tony tony chopper#nico robin#soul king brook#cyborg franky#jinbe#whitebeard one piece
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Heya! First off I’m around halfway through teenage mutant what now and it is the funniest fic I have ever read - Beautifully written and overall brilliant but the jokes get me every time
And second, is it okay if I reference a pose from one of your gemini artworks for my own work? I’ll credit the inspiration if I post it anywhere ^^
whew we're overdue for an ask dump,,, OKAY ALRIGHT.
THANK YOU ; w ; I'm really glad you like it hehehehe. also yeah sure feel free! I don't mind! ^^
HEHEHE THIS MAKES ME VERY HAPPY THANK YOU
oh he DEFINITELY freaked out at first. there was a lot of panicking and confusion and "how could this even happen?!" ("you think i'd genetically engineer a creature that's not capable of reproducing? all of you should be genetically compatible with practically any yokai," draxum said. "AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO, I DUNNO, TELL US THAT?!" donnie said.) but eventually, he did calm down, and he and his partner talked about it (a bunch, multiple times), and eventually some of the panic gave way to... curiosity, first of all... and then maybe kind of excitement? and some fondness? i mean, he was still pretty scared, and sure, he doesn't really consider himself a 'kid' person, but it's not like he never thought about EVENTUALLY having kids, just maybe... not so soon? but. i mean.
well. if they're already cooking...
THANK YOU ; w ; i'm glad you like them! @kiwi-smug-silvalina
oh gosh, that's a good question. i'm not entirely sure... uhmmm... i would say perhaps... details about how gemini!donnie's witchcraft looks and acts, VS how venus's witchcraft looks and acts...
it is very shiny. i like that people call it "the bean" instead of its actual title coz it pisses anish kapoor off.
ah ; w ; THANK YOU SO MUCH,,, thats so sweet and this made me very happy,,, <3 im glad you liked it!!!! @allegedllama
HEHEHE thank you. yes im aware that i am deranged.
omg same hat!!! i was a lifeguard and it was.... uh.... INTERESTING to say the least... (sometimes lovely, sometimes AWFUL...) @datfearlesschick
if by games you mean 'messed up deals that she can manipulate to her own advantage,' then yes! @frogonamelon
@beannary @spectralsleuth @heckitall @livsinpjs and the sep council as a whole!!! y'all's support has definitely meant so much and there's no way i'd have gotten as far with any of my projects as i have without them... or without literally ANY of the people who take the time to do things like reblog with tags, leave commentary in the tags, send in asks about my stories, etc etc etc! that's definitely one of my main motivators to create more!!! <3 thank y'all!
EEEE this made me smile, hehehehe. thank you :3c @thejavavoid
AAAAAA THANK YOU THIS GENUINELY MADE ME SO HAPPY COZ I WAS SO GODDAMN PROUD OF THOSE HANDS AND HOW THEY CAME OUT ; w ; THANK YOU @onejellyfishplease
thank you!!! u w u @fanrulerjynx
THANK YOU ; w ; I REALLY APPRECIATE THIS,,, it made me very very very happy and HEHEHE IM GLAD YOU LIKE YASSIFIED DRAXUM,,, i just think he DESERVES it, y'know? also thats just my favorite way to draw characters lmao I think it's fun so I decided for this comic I just get to indulge...
not necessarily-- this was mostly just a coincidence! @breezehurricane
oh gosh. i'm not sure, but i know it definitely WILL affect their parenting... i think at first donnie will find himself just... deferring to his partner a LOT in almost any situation because he's afraid that he'll fuck it up, because he DOESN'T feel like he understands proper boundaries or what parenting is supposed to look like, etc etc etc, and he's afraid he'll mess up. he probably reads a TON of parenting books as well because RESEARCH and will often try to pull directly from them in any situation he can, and is confused when things don't go exactly the way they were described in the text... leo i think kind of tends to flounder between being overprotective and feeling the desire to protect his son from everything and anything and wanting to overcorrect this tendency by pulling back and trying to give him as much freedom and space as possible, which sometimes leads to some... inconsistencies. there's definitely a learning curve for both of them, but they both get the hang of it eventually. they both have lovely partners and a very loving and supportive family to help them and they'll figure it out with a bit of practice.
ahhh thank you! :D im so delighted that my silly stories actually inspired something for you!!! hell yeah!!! MAKING THINGS IS GREAT!!! THANK YOU!!! @can-elope
i like to imagine them all staying very close, especially coz i'm loosely planning on them all going through the kraang-apocalypse together (and then coming through to the other side!) so i can't imagine them ever drifting too far from each other, emotionally or geographically. there's a bit of a rocky start for a lot of them, but all of the siblings end up a very tight-knit bunch.
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And the second batch of tonight is the Koopalings! FOR WHICH I HAVE A LOT OF WORDS SO YEAH LOL.
The Koopalings are kids that Bowser used to babysit when he was a teenager, as a sort of "prep for when he became king" (in actuality the other nobles just dumped the kids on him during their alone times lol). Larry is Ludwig's younger brother, Wendy and Roy are also siblings, but the other three aren't related. The older kids liked to make fun of how much of a worrywart Bowser was with them by calling him "dad" but they stopped around Junior's birth so as to not confuse the kid later on. (Junior still looks up to them as surrogate older siblings tho)
they're also all different ages - Larry is 19, Lemmy is 20, Iggy is 21, Wendy is 23, Roy and Morton are 25, Ludwig is 26.
Larry I did not change all that much, I leaned into him being the more eager during sport games to make him a jock, currently in Koopa University with a tennis scholarship. Since he's the closest in age to Junior he's the one he tends to spend the most time with.
I changed Lemmy's hairstyle because the mohawk + rattail combo was too 80's for me and it was hell to draw so rainbow hair in a ponytail is my compromise lol. He's part of a local performing troupe and has honed his acrobat skills accordingly, sometimes getting top billing on shows.
Wendy got a bit more of a glowup than the rest lol - she has hair now and made her scales a bit darker to match Roy. She's studying to become a professional interior designer and decorator and has a side job as lifeguard.
As for Iggy, he works as a mechanic for the numerous Kart tournaments and considers himself the top kart designer and creator due to the speed at which he can finish his projects, flaunting his superiority which earns him the ire of his coworkers constantly. He's quick to accept criticism, though.
Morton runs a building and demolition company alongside Spike as co-owner, and has the most stable job out of all Koopalings sans Ludwig. He takes good care of his crew and is in charge of first aid alongside his planning and building work.
Roy for the most part works as a DJ in 3 different nightclubs, and can be summed up as "If Blanche Deveraux from Golden Girls was a man in his mid-20's" aka a bit of a slut. Despite this he has a degree in electricity and electronics, he just doesn't use it much except for quick fixes around his house and for friends.
Lastly, Ludwig is a permanent orchestral director and composer at Koopa Theatre, and likes to boast of the many plays he has composed for. He does sometimes go to Roy for advice when he hits a creative block, as he is so classically-trained deviating from that is hard for him and he doesn't all his work to sound the same.
#Drops's Art#Super Mario Bros.#Drops's Super Mario#Koopalings#Larry Koopa#Lemmy Koopa#Wendy O. Koopa#Iggy Koopa#Morton Koopa Jr.#Roy Koopa#Ludwig von Koopa
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