Chapter Text
Monday, 10:00 am—Tent and Team Assignment and Unpacking
"My name is Kiba, and I already miss my dog." The shaggy-haired kid sits down on one of the logs that encircle an empty firepit in the middle of the campground. The boy next to him—wearing sunglasses and a hoodie despite the 80 degree heat—stands.
"I'm Shino. I like. Bugs." He sits.
The blond kid to his left stands up, fast and exuberant. "I'm Naruto," he declares, "and I can take anyone here in a fight!"
"Now, now, Naruto!" Gai chides. "No fighting this year." He raises an admonitory finger in the air. "You promised."
"I know. I just don't know what else to say."
"Moving on!" Gai exclaims, clapping his hands together once. A few feet to his left, Sasuke pushes himself up to his feet. "My name is Sasuke," he says, looking around at the bored faces. "There's not a whole lot of things I like. "
"…Is that all?" Gai asks after a few seconds.
"That's all."
Sasuke sits down, feeling the sweat cool on his neck.
"Right! Moving on. Now, Sai, since this is your first year with us, why don't you give us a little more information than these fine young men have. You can start with this: have you ever been camping before?"
Sai gives the group a strange half-smile, then says, "I've gone camping with my family since I was young. However, I've never been to a formal summer camp. I do know how to swim, hike, start a fire, perform first-aid, navigate by the stars, and track, shoot, and field dress what I kill."
Sasuke doesn't roll his eyes at Sai's bragging, but he gets pretty close.
"All that said," Sai continues, "I recently moved to Baltimore from an extremely small town in rural Pennsylvania. I was home-schooled for most of my life, then remote-schooled for the past two years, so I am not familiar with most group sports and activities, other than that which one might learn from television or movies." Reconsidering, Sasuke supposes if he's going to admit what he had at the end, it wasn't all bragging.
"Very good, Sai! I feel like I know you better already!" Gai exclaims. "Now, Dosu, your turn."
Sasuke mostly tunes out Dosu and Zaku, who give characteristically snarky answers, then Shikamaru, who nearly ties Shino for brevity. And Chouji, who, as usual, talks about food. He's furtively studying Sai. He's a tall boy with short hair almost as jet-black as Sasuke's, and dark, thick-lashed eyes, and skin so ghostly pale that Sasuke knows he'll feel sorry for him the first time he gets any sun. He looks like he crawled out from under a rock, Sasuke thinks uncharitably. And what weirdo isn't familiar with team sports?
But then Sasuke takes it back. While going through the foster care system, he himself had been home-schooled for one year, and it was the loneliest year of his life. He can't imagine what years and years of that would be like. Must have been lonely as fuck.
This is a small group compared to the ones in the past. He's been coming to this summer camp for five years, and the numbers have dwindled year by year as the campers have gotten older. Now he's pretty familiar with all of them but Sai.
He snaps his eyes forward—realizing he'd completely spaced out on Neji and Lee's intros, but they were probably the same as every other year, anyway—once the other two counselors stand up—the co-counselors, Sasuke always thought of them as. One of them points his thumb to the right.
"This guy," he begins, a crooked grin wrapped around a toothpick, "is Raidou. He got that scar in a fiery motorcycle crash."
Kiba boos, and Naruto says, "You say something different every year! How did you really get it?"
Raidou, whose massive scar twists across the left side of his face and down into the neck of his t-shirt, gives them a small smile. "This is Genma," he says, gesturing toward the man with the toothpick. "He was driving the car that hit me." Going by previous years, Sasuke knows that this is probably one of the few times he'll be anything other than deadly serious.
Naruto and Kiba groan, then Raidou speaks up again. "He's not going to brag about it, but Genma quit smoking recently. He hasn't had nicotine in three months."
Light, scattered applause comes from the group. Then Gai turns to Genma and wraps him up in a huge bear hug, lifting him off of his feet.
"That's wonderful, my friend!" Gai exclaims. "What an incredible feat of willpower!"
Genma wheezes, and Gai mercifully puts him back down
"Thanks, Gai," he says with a little laugh.
"Now then!" Gai says, then he plants his hands on his hips. "Tent assignments! Sasuke, since Sai's new to summer camp, I'd like you to show him the ropes. The two of you will share a tent."
Sasuke's eyes flick over to Sai again and sees Sai studying him. He quickly looks forward. There has to be someone better for Gai to stick Sai with.
However, he doesn't sigh. Doesn't complain. He knows how annoying that can be. That, and if he's going to be showing this new boy around, he doesn't want him to resent him right off the bat.
Besides, anything's got to be better than sharing a tent with Naruto, as he had last year.
"Shikamaru and Chouji will bunk together, as will Dosu and Zaku. Then we have Neji and Lee, and Shino and Kiba. Naruto, you'll be bunking with me this year."
"Awww, I don't want to bunk with a counselor!" Naruto complains, loudly enough that birds take flight from the trees around them. "I want to sleep with someone cool!"
Sasuke snorts, as do a few of the others.
Lee shoots up to his feet, saluting for some reason. "It would be my honor to share a tent with you, Mr. Maito!" he exclaims, even louder than Naruto had been.
"Now, now, Lee, just call me Gai. No last names—we're all friends here."
"Yes, Mr. Gai!"
Gai throws his head back and laughs. "Then the honor would be mine, Lee. Naruto, you're with Neji."
Then he goes on: "Teams! As every year, we'll have Red Team and Blue Team. The fiery-hearted Red Team will consist of Sasuke, Sai, Shikamaru, Chouji, Dosu, and Zaku."
Sasuke inwardly celebrates. Assuming Sai's not a total failure, that's a pretty competent, relatively non-annoying team. Unlike:
"The super-cool Blue Team will be made up of Naruto, Neji, Kiba, Shino, and Lee."
"But… Red Team has one more member than our team has," Kiba points out in a tone approaching a whine.
"Yeah, that doesn't seem fair!" Naruto adds.
Shikamaru snorts. "Let's be real," he says. "We all know I'm going to sit most of the activities out, anyway."
"Oh." Naruto deflates a little. Apparently, he'd been ready to argue. "Then I guess that's fine."
"Any more objections?" Gai asks, looking around their group with a smile. When no one responds, he claps his hands together.
"One more thing!" he declares. "I know that all of you are hot-blooded teenagers, and as temperatures rise, so will passions, but… as always at Camp Caledonia, there is to be no hanky panky!
"That said, this is all of your last year as campers. Let's make it an enthusiastic and exciting week! See Genma and Raidou—they'll hand out tents. Your first task will be pitching your tents."
Zaku snickers and says in a loud whisper, meant to carry, to Dosu, "I thought he said no hanky-panky."
Gai shoots him a good-natured glance, then continues, "First team to finish gets the first point!"
Then Gai takes a step back, out of the circle. Genma and Raidou head to a pickup truck parked haphazardly next to the campsite, where bundles of red and blue tents are lashed down in the bed.
"I guess you'll be showing me around, then, roomie," Sai turns to Sasuke and says.
"Looks like it," Sasuke says, and he wonders if he should object to the nickname… but he decides it's innocuous enough, so he leaves it at that as he stands and moves to where their tents are being passed out. Sai's right behind him, and without a word, he lifts the back end of the packed-up tent and helps Sasuke carry it to one of the designated spots.
Sai quickly and efficiently assists Sasuke in getting the tent set up, with few words said between them, and despite being the last to get their tents, they're the first ones to finish. Even Gai and Lee are not quite done, probably hampered by Lee's enthusiasm.
So maybe it wasn't all bragging, Sasuke thinks. But he'll wait and see. Sai gives him a smile, which Sasuke returns a fraction of.
"This is for Sasuke," Genma says, handing him a paper bag. "And this is for Sai."
Sasuke opens his paper bag and digs out a heather-red t-shirt—for Red Team—with dark red rings at neck and sleeves, emblazoned with a Caledonia State Park logo, and he strips off his t-shirt and pulls his new one over his head. These will be his shirts for the next week. Once he gets it on, he glances over at Sai and can't stop a snort from escaping his nose.
"What, did they get the wrong size?"
Smiling awkwardly, Sai smooths his hands over his chest and stomach. The shirt doesn't reach his shorts, leaving a strip of pale white stomach showing under the hem, including about an inch of his narrow, dark happy trail. The sleeves ride almost all the way up to his shoulders.
"I experienced a growth spurt this year," Sai explains. "My parents must have been so accustomed to my old size that they were on autopilot when they placed the shirt order."
Sasuke nods, amused.
"I used to be even shorter than you!" Sai says, smiling wider.
Sasuke's been on the verge of rolling his eyes at this boy several times, but this time finally does it. "I'm average height," he says, voice flat.
"Of course you are," Sai says indulgently, and Sasuke rolls his eyes again, all the tent-pitching goodwill gone now.
Monday, 4:00 pm: Swimming
"Where'd you get that shirt?" Zaku calls as Sai walks onto the beach. "Twinks-R-Us?"
"Where?" Sai asks, looking confused.
"Ignore him, he's a jerk," Sasuke says offhandedly when Sai approaches him.
"Can you get my back?" Sai asks. He's been Sasuke's shadow for most of the day, so it's no surprise that he's laying out his towel and sitting less than two feet away from him on the sandy riverbank. Sasuke sighs. It wasn't as if he could get a lot of privacy and personal space at summer camp, but he hadn't expected… this.
But who else was going to get Sai's back? He supposes Sai could ask anyone, really, but… Sasuke is supposed to be helping him out.
And really, what had he done wrong? He'd maybe bragged a little when he'd introduced himself. He'd called Sasuke short. He stuck a little too close. So it was a little annoying. So what.
Still, it is annoying.
"Sit in front of me," Sasuke says curtly. Sai moves to sit between Sasuke's parted feet, and Sasuke scooches forward on the towel a little to get close enough.
"Sunscreen," Sasuke says, and Sai passes it over his shoulder. Then the other boy peels off his tight t-shirt, and the skin of his back is somehow even paler than that of his arms and face. Sasuke's a little impressed, really. Sai makes Sasuke, who is regularly called pasty, look tanned.
Does he ever go outside? he wonders as he squeezes out a generous glob of the lotion onto his palm. He glances at Sai's back, then adds another squeeze. As he rubs it over Sai's skin, he wonders at how… flawless it is. It's pure alabaster, no marks or blemishes, not even a bug bite, of which Sasuke already has a handful despite wearing his bug spray. And it's so smooth. Most girls would die for this skin.
Of course, he's not going to say any of this. Instead, he only says, "Here," and passes the sunscreen back over Sai's shoulder.
"Thank you, roomie," Sai says, turning to look at him out of the corner of his eye. "You used a sufficient amount."
Sasuke snorts in amusement. This boy would be eaten alive in public school.
Sai spreads the sunscreen over the rest of his torso and legs, and brings out a special pot of sunscreen for his face. They stand, and Sasuke sighs. He'd been planning on asking Shino or something, but Sai's right here, and he just did the same, so… "Can you get mine?" he asks, pulling his shirt over his head and letting it fall to his towel.
Sai's hands are long-fingered and soft, and he has a light touch as he spreads Sasuke's sunscreen lotion across his back. He moves up to his shoulders and begins almost massaging them, and Sasuke grunts. "That's enough," he says, turning to face the other boy. "Thanks," he grumbles.
"You're quite welcome," Sai says with a bright, but still awkward, smile. "Make sure you apply some to your face. It would be a shame to ruin your nice complexion."
Sasuke laughs outright.
It's not long before Naruto and Kiba are on Chouji and Shino's shoulders, respectively, having an enthusiastic chicken fight. Sasuke's paddling around lazily on the other side of the swimming area, and Sai's actually not too close to him now, just floating on his back somewhere in the middle. He's near Lee, who often makes other people's bodies his business, albeit in a very enthusiastic and positive way. Case in point: "Sai, for one who doesn't participate in sports, you have quite an impressive physique!"
"Thanks," Sai says, doing a few lazy backstrokes. "We were held to a rigorous schedule of calisthenics in my town."
What kind of town did you grow up in? Sasuke wonders vaguely. But he just keeps paddling around, enjoying the cool water and the warm sun. The idea sticks with him, though. Did the whole town have to participate? Was it only the children? Only Sai's family? He's not curious enough to ask, though, so he ducks under the water and swims a few strokes before surfacing.
Monday, 8:00 pm—Campfire and S'mores
When the sun dips below the trees, the sky violet and rose and creamy orange, the campers sit side-by-side with their tentmates around a crackling fire in the center of the campground. Genma and Raidou pass out the makings of s'mores as Gai adds another thick branch to the fire.
Genma walks around handing out straightened metal clothes hangers, with the admonition, "I can't believe I still need to say this, but—no sword fighting. Anyone caught sword fighting will have to clean up after lunch tomorrow. "
"I didn't know they even made these anymore," Kiba says, turning his over in his hands as if it is, in fact, a sword. "Where'd you get 'em?"
Raidou answers. "Thrift store in North Baltimore."
As Gai explains a rough outline of their schedule for the week, and then a more precise one for the next day, Sasuke stretches his legs in front of him. He's pleasantly tired from the day—Capture the Flag is always fun, and despite spending time in the water earlier and having just finished dinner, all the boys had been in high spirits for that event. Now his muscles are still cooling, and he subtly stretches his back.
"Do you need a massage, roomie?" Sai asks.
"What? No," Sasuke says, frowning at him. "It's not that kind of camp, Sai," he says.
"What kind of camp?" Sai asks, looking quizzical. "I often massage my father's back after a long day."
"Never mind," Sasuke says. "You can't just… go around asking other boys if they want massages."
"Ah, I see. Fear of being viewed as homosexual."
Sasuke blows a hard breath out of his nose. "Something like that," he says.
Then it's s'mores time. With his graham cracker and chocolate bar balanced on his knee, Sasuke spears the marshmallow with his clothes hanger and sees Sai doing the same beside him. He leans forward and holds it out over the fire. Sai copies his movements again.
"Have you never made s'mores?" Sasuke asks, incredulous.
"No," is all Sai says, his brow slightly furrowed in concentration.
And how many times have you gone camping? Sasuke wonders. But all he says is, "You want the marshmallow to catch on fire, just a little. It's better that way."
"Thanks," Sai says with a vague smile. When he's looking at Sasuke, his marshmallow slips off the hanger and falls into the fire.
Kiba laughs raucously from a few seats away. "You don't want it that burnt, twink."
"Here," Sasuke says, pointedly ignoring Kiba. He brings his marshmallow, which had caught fire, back to himself and blows out the flame. "Hold out half of your graham cracker. Put half your chocolate bar on it."
Frowning, Sai does as he was instructed, and looks astounded when Sasuke slides his marshmallow off onto the chocolate.
"Now the other half of the cracker goes over it," Sasuke says, businesslike.
"You're giving me your marshmallow?" Sai asks with wonder in his voice.
Face a little warm—did everyone see that?—Sasuke watches Genma, who still holds the nearly full bag of remaining marshmallows, retreat the few steps he'd taken toward them when he'd noticed Sai's mishap.
"Thank you," Sai says, with a more natural smile than any he'd shown so far. "That was exceedingly kind."
"I don't really like sweets," Sasuke explains, keeping his voice down so as not to draw even more attention their way. "Hurry and eat it before it gets cold."
Still smiling, Sai digs in, getting melted marshmallow and chocolate all over the corners of his mouth.
Sasuke smiles very slightly at the sight, and eats a plain graham cracker, the least offensive of the three ingredients, just so that he can say he's participating.
The s'mores would have been disgusting, anyway.
Monday, 11:00 pm—Lights Out
Sasuke steps out of his shorts and t-shirt, his skin fragrant with soap, then unzips his sleeping bag and lies down on the interior.
"Night," he feels compelled to say.
"Good night, Sasuke."
In the silence that follows, the air is filled with the chorus of frogs. Outside the tent the dark is softened by a nearly full moon and the lanterns the counselors have placed around the campsite to help guide campers who might need to take a piss in the middle of the night.
One sits right beside their tent. Its light shining through the red fabric gives everything a rosy, blurry appearance.
He can see Sai stripping down too, and without really trying to look but unable to stop himself, at first he thinks Sai's stripped completely naked. But no, once his eyes adjust more to the meager light filtering in through the sides of the tent, he sees that Sai's in a pair of white briefs. They're almost the same color as his ghostly pale skin.
Really, who sends their teenage boy to summer camp in tighty-whities? Sasuke closes his eyes quickly before he's caught looking, then settles in on his back with his fingers laced over his stomach.
Sleep begins to creep up on him soon, and he's almost there when he hears the furtive sound of a zipper being quietly unzipped. Sai's sleeping bag. But why furtive? Sasuke listens closely.
And of course. As soon as he hears Sai's breath coming out a little faster, it's perfectly obvious.
Sai's jerking off not three feet away.
Sasuke is careful to maintain what he thinks his breathing speed and depth were before the zipper, and apparently he's doing just fine, because Sai shows no signs of stopping. Curious, Sasuke barely cracks an eyelid and looks over at Sai's dick.
It's big. It's not terribly thick, but it's long and straight with a bulbous head that, even in the half-light, is visibly darker than the rest of him. Sai exhales softly, but it sounds louder than it should, so Sasuke carefully brings his slitted gaze up to his face—to find Sai looking right at him. Sasuke almost jumps, but he is able to suppress that instinct. What he's not able to suppress is the reality that, for whatever godforsaken reason, his dick is hardening in his underwear.
Now that he's seen Sai watching him, it's as if he can feel Sai's eyes on him. Moving down from his face, lingering on his body, then lower, to his cock, which is half-hard by now, and must be visible in his loose boxers.
He can pinpoint the second Sai notices it when he hears Sai swallow hard, and the quiet slapping sound of his hand on his dick is alarmingly loud in their tent. Sasuke sends up a thankful prayer to the frog gods for the noise cover.
"Mmh," Sai moans softly, then, with a quiet, strangled groan, he finally goes still, breathing hard and obviously trying to hide it.
Sasuke holds himself very, very still until he hears Sai's zipper again, and deems it safe to turn on his side. He has the momentary urge to—no, he's not going to jerk off to the thought of Sai jerking off to him.
Really, he should have told Sai it was inappropriate as soon as he noticed Sai looking at him. Not jerking off—every teenage boy jerks off. It was the watching Sasuke that bothered him. That turned him on. No—that bothered him.
Bother him or not, it takes longer than he's comfortable with for his boner to subside so that he can go to sleep.
—tbc