Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/9709544.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Hockey_RPF
  Relationship:
      Jamie_Benn/Tyler_Seguin
  Character:
      Jamie_Benn, Tyler_Seguin
  Additional Tags:
      Alternate_Universe_-_Summer_Camp, Truth_or_Dare, Ouija, Poor_Navigational
      Skills, Homophobia, Pining, First_Time
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-02-14 Words: 5038
****** Never Take the Stars Away from Me ******
by Linsky
Summary
     Jamie watches him and thinks: this is who Tyler is. Gorgeous,
     popular, someone girls fall all over. None of that is going to change
     just because a stupid Ouija board told him Tyler’s gay.
Notes
     Inspired by the Ouija board scene in Skam. Blame (and beta credit)
     goes to Kristie.
     Title from Ghost Quartet, Dave Malloy’s brilliant musical about
     reincarnation and subway deaths.
     All_the_tumbls!
See the end of the work for more notes
They find the Ouija board one afternoon when it’s raining hard enough to trap
them all inside their cabin. “Ooh, can we play it?” Tyler asks, his face
lighting up as they pull it out from under the half-broken bunk that no one
ever sleeps in. “Can we can we?”
Some of the other guys groan, but Tyler has his excited puppy face on, and that
usually means he’ll get his way. Jamie certainly isn’t objecting as Tyler pulls
him down on the bunk next to him.
Dave, their counselor, is teaching some of the guys poker in the other half of
the room, but Brandon and Mike and Andy pile in with Jamie and Tyler. “I’ll go
first,” Brandon says. “Who here…has the biggest secret?”
“Lame,” Mike says. “That doesn’t even tell us what the secret is.”
“Okay, fine,” Brandon says. “What’s someone’s biggest secret?”
They all have to put their fingers on the pointer, so that “the spirit will
move through them,” apparently. Jamie feels a little frisson as he does it,
even though he knows it isn’t real. He’s pretty sure Brandon’s just going to
push it.
The pointer lands on the T, and everybody oohs. “Hey, it could still say
anything!” Tyler says, but he’s grinning, big and goofy.
Sure enough, the pointer goes to the Y, the L, the E, the R. Jamie’s pretty
sure someone’s pushing.
The next word is is. “Tyler is…a spy!” Andy says.
“Um, he got caught stealing extra rolls from the mess hall,” Jamie says.
“I was framed,” Tyler says, cheeks dimpling, and Jamie’s eyes get caught on
them.
“Guys! Focus!” Brandon says, and Jamie looks back as the pointer moves to the
next letter.
It’s a G.
“Girly!” Andy says.
“Gullible,” Mike says, which is true.
“Guilty,” Brandon says, drawing the word out so that they all laugh.
The pointer moves to the A.
Jamie knows what it’s going to say even before the pointer starts moving away.
His heart is beating way too hard; he can feel it in his finger where it’s
resting on the pointer. It’s moving, heading for the other end of the board,
and Jamie knows—he knows—
It stops on the Y, and Tyler dissolves into giggles.
“No way!” Brandon shouts.
“Oh my God, you’re a closet homo,” Mike says.
“I call B.S.,” Andy says. “No way could you pick up that many girls if you’re
gay.”
“That’s it, I’m changing in the bathroom from now on,” Brandon says, and
everyone is rolling with laughter now, and Jamie’s stomach is a tight little
knot.
Tyler is doubled over with giggles. “Oh my God. That’s the funniest thing I’ve
ever heard.” He kicks Jamie in the leg. “Like, can you even imagine?”
“You would be such a freak!” Mike says.
Jamie wraps his arms around his stomach and makes himself laugh along.
***
It doesn’t change anything. Of course it doesn’t.
The next night at the weekly bonfire, Tyler spends an hour across the circle,
talking to Julie Monta. Jamie watches him and thinks: this is who Tyler is.
Gorgeous, popular, someone girls fall all over. None of that is going to change
because of a stupid Ouija board.
Jamie bets Brandon was pushing the pointer, anyway.
He spears a marshmallow on his stick and gets on with the serious business of
roasting. It’s maybe five minutes before someone lands on his back.
“Dude!” Tyler says over his shoulder. “Why so quiet?”
“Hey, you made my marshmallow catch fire,” Jamie says. He blows it out before
it can all turn to char.
“Um, it’s the best like that, so you’re welcome,” Tyler says. He takes the
marshmallow from Jamie and plucks the charred shell from around the gooey
center. Strands of stickiness cling to his fingers, and he pops them into his
mouth. “Seriously, though,” Tyler says, nudging Jamie’s shoulder. “You’re super
quiet tonight. What gives?”
“I’m not quiet,” Jamie says. His eyes are tracking Tyler’s tongue as it licks
over his fingertips. “I just don’t talk constantly like you do.”
“Well. Not everyone can have my gifts,” Tyler says with a grin.
“Hey, listen up!” one of the counselors shouts from near the fire. “We have…a
haunting.”
“Yesssss,” Tyler says. He nudges at Jamie’s arm until he puts it around him,
and he shivers against Jamie’s side for the whole ghost story. When the ghost
finally jumps out at the campers in the end, he screams and tips over into
Jamie’s lap, laughing.
Jamie’s life is so difficult.
***
Jamie knew who Tyler was before this summer. They’ve both been coming to camp
since they were little, and all the regulars know each other at least a little.
But they were never in the same cabin until this year. This year—the year
they’re fifteen—this is the year when Tyler walks beside Jamie to the mess
hall, when he picks Jamie first for his kickball team, when he whispers things
to him in group and makes him laugh. This is the year Jamie shivers when
Tyler’s lips brush against his ear.
He wakes up one night a few days after the bonfire to Tyler tugging on his arm.
“Come on, wake up,” Tyler says as Jamie peers blearily out from the bottom
bunk.
“Wha?”
“Just follow me.”
Their counselor is dead to the world. Jamie slips his feet into his sandals and
tiptoes out of the cabin after Tyler.
Tyler keeps his hand around Jamie’s wrist as he tows him through the camp.
“Where are we going?” Jamie asks.
“It’s a surprise,” Tyler says. Jamie lets himself be pulled.
The moon is so full they don’t even need to use their phones to light the path.
They go past the mess hall and through the capture the flag field and across
the stream, and Jamie realizes they’re going to the lake.
Just before they get there, Tyler pulls him off on a side path and they balance
precariously on a narrow ledge of rock for a few hundred feet, the lake
sparkling in the moonlight below them. Tyler has to let go of Jamie’s wrist so
they can go single file. “Seriously, where—” Jamie asks, but Tyler just says,
“Sh,” grin evident in his voice.
They end up scrambling down some rocks, and Jamie takes his flip flops off so
he can go faster. It’s hard keeping his balance, and eventually he just lets go
and runs to the bottom and out onto—
“Whoa,” he says.
“Right?” Tyler calls from where he’s still climbing down the rocks.
Jamie’s standing on a dock. It’s a long one, smooth clean wood, jutting out
from a corner of shore so sharp that he can turn in three directions without
seeing land. It feels like there’s no land at all, just this expanse of
sparkling black water under the bright moon.
Tyler catches up to him, and then he’s what Jamie’s looking at: his wide grin,
the hair flopping over his forehead. “Some of the guys and I found this last
year,” he says, and Jamie’s instantly jealous.
“Yeah?” He scuffs his foot against the wood of the dock, and then, so he
doesn’t seem dumb and jealous: “It’s in really good shape.”
“I think it’s private property.”
Jamie looks over his shoulder instantly. Tyler laughs, teeth bright in the
moonlight.
“No one’s coming out here right now, doofus. It’s just us.”
Those last words fill Jamie up in a way they shouldn’t, pushing everything else
out, jealousy and worry and the part of him that knows he’s going to get hurt.
He bumps his shoulder against Tyler’s. “It’s really awesome.”
“I know, right?” Tyler looks so happy, like maybe he invented this lake
himself. Jamie’s never met anyone who gets happy like this. He wants to look at
it forever. “Okay, but that’s not why we’re here.”
“Why are we here?”
“Because this is where we’re doing our best friend ritual,” Tyler says.
Something in Jamie’s chest pulses. He feels a grin pulling at the corners of
his mouth. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know yet,” Tyler says, and Jamie laughs.
“Well, it’s got to involve a fist bump,” Jamie says. Tyler’s always giving
people fist bumps.
“Obviously,” Tyler says. “No, like ten fist bumps.” He holds up his fist, and
they do ten fist bumps, and then an exploding one, and then one behind their
backs and over their heads. Tyler wants to do one between their legs, and Jamie
almost falls in the water, and they’re both giggling by the time they’re done.
“Is that it?” Jamie asks.
“Of course not,” Tyler says. He’s so close, still holding Jamie’s arm where he
kept him from falling into the lake. “Now—now we spit in our hands and shake.”
Jamie’s stomach flips over. It’s not like it’s hot—it’s kind of gross—but just
the thought of Tyler’s…
Tyler spits in his hand, and Jamie spits in his, and they clasp hands like
they’re doing a handshake.
“And now the vow,” Tyler says.
“The vow?” Jamie echoes. He’s still holding Tyler’s hand, and he feels kind of
warm and dizzy at the same time.
“Um, let’s see.” Tyler squares his shoulders, like he’s being all official. “I,
Tyler, promise to be best friends with Jamie forever, and…and stand by him no
matter what happens, and never let anyone steal his underwear and run it up the
flagpole—”
Jamie laughs. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“I know,” Tyler says. “But you would have stopped it if you’d been there.”
“Well,” Jamie says. He’s smiling helplessly. “Yeah.”
Tyler beams at him and tugs on his hand. “Okay, you have to say it, too.”
Jamie’s not sure he can remember the words. He keeps getting caught on Tyler’s
eyes, the way they’re looking at him. “I, Jamie, promise to be best friends
with Tyler forever, and…and to stand by him, and…”
“And never let anyone steal his underwear and run it up the flagpole,” Tyler
prompts.
“And never let anyone steal his underwear and run it up the flagpole.” His
smile must look so dumb, but he can’t get rid of it.
“Good.” Tyler gives his hand a final pump but doesn’t let go. “One last part.”
Jamie’s heart gives a thump at what might be coming next. They’re already
holding hands; what if— “We don’t have to write anything in blood, do we?” he
jokes, trying to break the tension.
Tyler giggles and thumps him on the shoulder with his free hand. Jamie pushes
into the touch for a moment before he jerks back, flustered.
“No blood,” Tyler agrees. “Just this really cool thing we found out last time.
Come on.”
He lies down on the dock. Jamie’s hand feels cold instantly, but he gets down
and mirrors Tyler: on his back, head pointed towards the water. Tyler scoots
backwards so that his head is falling over the edge.
“You have to get your head as far back as you can,” Tyler says, “and then look
up.”
Jamie tilts his head back—and then grabs immediately for a handhold. “Oh,
fuck,” he says. “Fuck.”
“Right?” Tyler says, delighted.
The view is instant vertigo: water and sky inverted, so that the water seems to
form a huge bowl curving around on top of them and Jamie can’t tell which way
is up anymore. “Oh my God,” he says, flailing until his hand hits Tyler’s arm.
“I feel like I’m going to fall into the sky.”
Tyler laughs, bright in the night. “I know.” He takes Jamie’s hand in his and
interlaces their fingers. “Don’t worry; I’ve got you.”
The words tilt through Jamie, dizzying as the void. He tips his head back and
clings to Tyler’s hand and lets himself fall into the stars.
***
The next morning, Tyler gives Jamie a fist bump same as always, but he winks as
he does it. Jamie’s stomach gets hot and his face goes red and he has to spend
like two minutes tying his shoes before he’s okay to stand up.
When he closes his eyes, he can still feel the sky and the water and the stars
swirling around him.
It makes it hard to look at Tyler. It’s been hard for a while now, but it burns
even more today, and Jamie doesn’t know how everyone can’t see it. How Tyler
can’t see it: the dumb way Jamie stares while Tyler tells a story that gets the
whole group laughing. The way Jamie shivers when Tyler bumps up against him.
There’s another campfire that night: four weeks. Halfway through camp. It’s not
the end yet, not even close, but Jamie can see it coming in a way he couldn’t
before. He laughs and eats s’mores with Tyler and some of the other guys from
4B, and his eyes keep catching on Tyler’s fingers, the way his eyes crinkle
when he smiles.
“Truth or dare,” Brandon says later that night when it’s just clusters of the
older kids around the fire. Everyone groans a little.
Andy gets dared to eat a bug and Mike has to stuff fifteen marshmallows in his
mouth at once, and it’s Jamie’s turn. “Truth or dare?” Mike asks.
Jamie thinks for a moment about saying truth. Thinks about the questions they
might ask that he’d have to lie about—and then thinks about what might happen
if he didn’t lie, delicious daring licking through his stomach, dangerous.
“Dare,” he says.
“Jump over part of the fire,” Mike says. “That part that’s sticking out, right
there.” He points, and Jamie looks at it dubiously.
“Nah, they’ll kick us out,” Andy says. The counselors are clustered at one end
of the fire, drinking something that’s probably not soda, but yeah, they’d
totally make them go back to their cabin if they started jumping over the fire.
“Yeah, okay,” Mike says. “How about you…moon everyone.”
Tyler shrieks a giggle and claps his hand over his mouth.
Jamie groans. Maybe he should have said truth.
They agree that he can do it between two of the cabins so that everyone can run
away after. The five of them get up and sneak away from the fire, looking
behind them to make sure nobody’s watching, the other guys vibrating with half-
suppressed glee.
“I can’t believe you losers are making me do this,” Jamie says as he gets into
position.
“Come on, come on,” Brandon says, a wide grin on his face, and Jamie drops his
shorts.
The rule is that he has to stay like that for ten seconds or until someone
notices. He makes it to five-Mississippi before a girl shrieks, and then
they’re all running, Jamie trying to pull up his shorts and all of them choking
back their laughter as they vault over lines of bushes and finally collapse
together in the archery clearing.
“Holy fuck, that was awesome.” Tyler flops over onto Jamie’s stomach and pokes
him in the side. “You made her scream.”
“Yeah, yeah, you were all impressed.” Jamie shoves at him, but not hard enough
to push him off, and Tyler settles his head on his arms on Jamie’s stomach.
Jamie can just make out his grin in the moonlight. The grass is cool underneath
him, but he feels warm all the way through, from his scalp to the tips of his
toes.
They have to sit up after that to keep playing. “We didn’t even go all the way
around yet,” Brandon points out.
It’s Tyler’s turn. “Dare,” he says.
“Aw, man, we should have had you go while we were still at the fire,” Andy
says. “I was gonna dare you to go kiss Julie.”
“You don’t have to dare me to do that,” Tyler says, grinning slyly, and
everyone oohs and Jamie bites the inside of his lip.
“Giving Tyler a dare away from the girls is such a waste,” Mike says.
“Doesn’t have to be,” Brandon says, and his tone of voice makes Jamie look over
warily. “Remember the Ouija board?”
“Noooo,” Andy says, a smile lighting up his voice.
“Oh my God,” Mike says.
Sweat pricks the back of Jamie’s neck.
“Tyler Seguin,” Brandon says, his voice getting all deep and serious like a
movie voiceover. “I hereby dare you to kiss…a boy.”
“Ewwwww!” Andy says.
Tyler’s giggling again. “Come on, seriously?”
“Yeah, like you’re ever gonna do it,” Andy says.
“He has to,” Mike says. “It’s a dare.”
“Yeah, but,” Andy says.
“Oh, he’s gonna do it,” Brandon says.
Jamie thinks he’s going to throw up.
Tyler finally raises his head. “Kiss a guy, huh?” he asks, still catching his
breath from laughter.
“That’s the dare.” Brandon sounds way too smug about this. “So what are you
gonna do about it?”
“He’s gonna pussy out,” Andy says. “Bet you five bucks.”
Tyler looks around at the four of them. Jamie doesn’t know if he’s hoping for
Tyler’s gaze to land on him or not, until it does, and then he knows that
that’s what he wanted, even though it’s dumb, even though it’s the worst thing
that could possibly happen. His heart is pounding so hard he can hear it.
“Hey,” Tyler says to him, eyebrows waggling. “Do a guy a favor?”
“Oh my God,” Mike says, half-hysterical, and then, “Oh my God.”
Jamie’s body parts are all connected wrong. He can’t move or breathe or
anything.
Tyler’s crawling across the circle towards him. Jamie can see the smirk on his
mouth. It’s filling the whole world, that smirk. Tyler’s lips. Tyler’s face.
Getting closer. Jamie’s stomach lurches, because this is actually going to
happen, Tyler’s going to actually—
Then Tyler’s mouth is pressing against his. It’s a brief, hard push that slams
Jamie’s lips against his teeth and spikes his adrenaline, and then—before he
can even really feel it—it’s gone. Tyler’s gone, falling back on his heels.
“Holy fuck!” Andy says.
“You owe me five bucks,” Mike says to Andy.
Not even a second. Tyler didn’t even kiss him for a whole second.
Jamie’s lips hurt where they were pressed against his teeth. “Oh my God, I
can’t believe you did that,” he says, opening his mouth and finding his voice.
“Hey, sometimes you have to take one for the team,” Tyler says, voice full of
laughter, and something cold and tight wraps itself around Jamie’s stomach.
“Yeah, yeah, we going on with the game or what?” Brandon says, and Jamie pulls
his knees up to his chest and tucks his hands into the folds of his knees and
doesn’t say anything for a while.
***
“Okay, remind me why we agreed to this one again,” Tyler asks maybe a half-hour
later, when the two of them are on a path in the woods that Jamie’s definitely
never been on before.
“I think that was you,” Jamie says. “Something about it being fun?”
“Oh, yeah.” Tyler turns toward him, grinning, moonlight falling over his face
between the leaves of the trees, and Jamie thinks, I bet you kiss better than
that when it’s a girl.
“Also, because Brandon’s trouble,” is all Jamie says aloud.
“Not, like, really, though,” Tyler says, like he wasn’t just sitting in that
clearing, like he doesn’t remember how Brandon dared him to—
They’re supposed to be getting to the rock in the middle of the forest where
the zip line courses start. “No main roads, twenty minutes, go!” was what
Brandon said to them. And then they’d decided on teams, because that was safer,
and Tyler attached himself to Jamie’s side, and it’s not like Jamie was going
to say no, even if he still can’t quite look at him. Even if his stomach still
hurts, and his lower lip is sore.
“Fuck, which way?” Tyler asks as they reach a fork in the path.
Jamie tilts his head back and looks at the clouds. He took navigation as his
first session elective, but that doesn’t help much without a compass or the
ability to see the stars. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe we can navigate by the trees.” Tyler goes over to a trunk. “Which side
does the moss grow on again? The south?”
Jamie wants to go up to him and—he doesn’t want anything. He needs to get over
that.
They decide on the left path, because Tyler “has a feeling,” and it’s not like
Jamie has any better ideas. They go down that path for a while until it ends in
a cluster of trees.
“Try the other fork?” Jamie says, and Tyler nods. They turn to go back the way
they came, but it’s getting darker now, clouds covering the moon, and—
“Fuck,” Jamie says. “Where did it go?”
“I thought it was this way,” Tyler says, but that way is a giant thorn bush,
and Jamie’s starting to feel really worried now.
“Wait, no, we have phones,” he says. He pulls his out—the screen seems
ridiculously bright in the darkness—and opens the map app. “It looks like
we’re—” and then he sees the battery count in the corner. “Oh, shit. Shit,
Tyler, how much battery do you have left?”
“What? Um, I don’t. They confiscated my phone during climbing today.”
Jamie remembers that: Tyler telling him jokes during the safety presentation,
him trying to choke down laughter. Tyler not doing a good job of it and having
his phone taken away. “So you don’t have it at all?”
“They said I’d get it back in the morning, remember?”
Jamie makes himself breathe. “Okay. Okay. We’ll just have to—” He rotates the
map app, trying to get his bearings, and then the phone winks out.
“Did it just—” Tyler’s voice sounds kind of scared now.
Jamie mashes at the buttons. It doesn’t do anything. “Fuck. Okay. Look, um.
Don’t panic.”
Tyler’s breathing is loud in the darkness. He’s closer now, body heat all along
Jamie’s front. “Jamie. What if we’re stuck here?”
“It’ll be okay.” Jamie finds Tyler’s hand and laces their fingers together.
“They’ll notice we’re gone and find us tomorrow. It won’t be a big deal.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” Tyler says, though he doesn’t sound any calmer. His
breath is hot on Jamie’s collarbone.
They should move, probably—look for the path again, or at least try to find a
place to sleep—but moving in the forest seems scary. Jamie would rather stay in
this space they have, just the two of them.
Tyler’s hand is clutched tight in his. Jamie thinks he can feel Tyler’s chest
rising and falling, not quite touching him, but displacing the air in time with
his breaths. It makes Jamie’s skin tingle.
He’s not—he shouldn’t be feeling like this. Not without Tyler wanting it, too.
He should—he needs to move.
He’s just about to when Tyler draws in a fast breath and says, “Sorry.”
The word gusts over Jamie’s skin. “What?”
“For, um, before.” Tyler shuffles a little closer, and his t-shirt whispers
against Jamie’s. “The dare.”
The side of his head is really near Jamie’s face. Jamie shouldn’t—but he didn’t
get even his one time, not really, and Tyler probably won’t notice. He lets
himself turn his head the fraction of an inch it takes to brush his nose
against the softness of Tyler’s hair. “It wasn’t, um.” He swallows, trying to
get the roughness out of his voice. “It was fine.”
“No,” Tyler says. “I shouldn’t have done that to you. I’m sorry.”
Jamie’s stomach does a complicated twist. “Which part are you sorry for?”
“Um,” Tyler says. He sounds vaguely panicked. “I guess, um. You’re my friend,
man. That wasn’t…cool. Right?”
He’s so close, his arm pressing against Jamie’s. Jamie tries to recall the
feeling of the kiss, just to ground himself—the disappointing smash that was
nothing like that he thinks about in his bunk at night. But his nose is full of
the scent of Tyler’s hair. Every time Jamie breathes in he feels like he’s
inhaling sparks, little bits of fire that take up residence in his stomach
lining. He wants this to be real.
“Maybe I wanted it to be. Cool,” he says, soft words breaking open in the
night.
Tyler sucks in a breath and lifts his head. Jamie can’t quite see him, but he
can feel his breath, hot against Jamie’s face. “You…” Tyler says.
His mouth is right there. Jamie can almost taste it. This time he’s the one who
moves, who presses his mouth to Tyler’s.
It’s nothing like their first kiss. This one lodges in the center of Jamie’s
body, shivering all over his skin. Tyler makes a soft noise and Jamie slides a
hand in his hair and angles his head and kisses him. Kisses him, warm and open,
soft and wet and…
This. This is what he’s been dreaming about at night.
“Jamie,” Tyler says, and it sounds like a plea: a plea for the way Jamie’s body
is against him, the way Jamie’s tongue is slick in his mouth. Jamie slides a
hand under his t-shirt and into the dip of his waist. He feels desperate,
blind, clumsy with longing.
He moves his mouth away from Tyler’s. Tyler makes a noise, but Jamie wants—he
skates his lips hungrily over Tyler’s jaw, that sharp angle, and finds the spot
behind his ear that’s been driving him crazy all week. The skin feels thin and
tender, and it pulses when he sucks on it. Tyler shudders and cries out and
Jamie clutches him and feels like he’s going to burst.
Tyler’s hips jerk against his, and oh. He’s hard, and he’s pressed against
Jamie, and Jamie’s nerves crackle all over his body. “Tyler,” he says, and
Tyler makes this amazing noise, and then they’re gasping and panting into each
other’s mouths as their hips hitch together. Tyler’s cock slides along Jamie’s
and Jamie holds him and kisses his hot sweet mouth. They move their hips
together until the shimmering pleasure makes them both cry out and spill, white
light behind Jamie’s eyelids and his nose buried in the wonder of Tyler’s neck.
***
They fall asleep in the forest. Jamie’s not afraid of it anymore; his whole
body feels good, glowing, and Tyler is with him. He lies on the ground and
pulls Tyler onto his chest and murmurs things to him, and if he doesn’t sleep
that well on the hard ground it’s okay because being awake feels like a dream:
the best dream ever, the kind he thought would never come true.
He does sleep eventually, though, and he wakes up to see Tyler grinning down at
him in the thin morning light. “You have pine needles in your hair,” Tyler
says.
“I have a Tyler on my chest,” he says, and Tyler giggles.
Jamie sees it, the moment uncertainty crosses Tyler’s face. He’s afraid of it
for a moment, and then he gets rid of it by sliding his hand into Tyler’s hair
and pulling him down into a kiss.
Tyler goes with it. Thank God, Tyler goes with it. It makes Jamie shiver just
like it did last night. Tyler’s mouth tastes kind of funny after not brushing
his teeth and sleeping all night, but Jamie doesn’t care at all: he licks at
Tyler’s lower lip and swallows the sounds he makes.
“You’re so perfect,” Jamie whispers, and the way Tyler’s mouth curves up
helplessly is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.
“I didn’t, um,” Tyler says, and he ducks his head a little. “I don’t know how
to tell the others.”
Jamie’s gut clenches at the thought of it: the way the guys would stare, would
say things. “We don’t have to,” he says. “It can just be us,” and Tyler kisses
him again, and again.
They get up before too long, because the ground kind of hurts, and also they’re
lost in the forest. Except that they aren’t lost anymore, because the sun is
coming up and that means that direction is east and Jamie knows the way back
from here.
“But are you sure?” Tyler asks, tongue poking out of his mouth a little. “How
much did you really pay attention in that navigation class? Because you did
just get us lost in the woods for an entire night—” And then Jamie has to stop
and kiss the giggles out of his mouth.
It’s a much better walk than it was last night.
They drop each other’s hands when they get back to camp. It’s early enough that
no one’s up, but they hear voices as they come near their cabin. “Sh,” Jamie
says, stilling Tyler with a hand on his shoulder.
“—but, like, we can’t just search the whole woods!” someone’s saying. “We have
to—”
“We can’t tell someone, they’ll get kicked out,” someone else says. “I told
you—”
“Andy and Brandon,” Jamie mouths, and Tyler covers his mouth to hide his
giggles.
Jamie puts a finger in front of his mouth, and Tyler’s eyes are dancing, and
they creep around the corner of the cabin.
The three guys are huddled together, talking. “But what if they’re dead,”
Mike’s saying as they get close.
“You boys looking for something?” Jamie asks in his deepest voice, and all
three of them leap like they’ve been stung. Jamie and Tyler crack up.
“Fucking—we’re going to kill you!” Brandon says, punching Jamie on the
shoulder. “Where the hell were you?”
Tyler falls against Jamie in his laughter, clutching at Jamie’s shirt. Jamie
put his arm around his waist—just like he would have done before, but it feels
totally different now. “You know how it is,” he says, looking down at Tyler,
all warm and happy against him. “Sometimes you just have to spend a night in
the woods.”
***
That night, Tyler and Jamie sneak away again and find a tree so that Jamie can
press Tyler against it, licking into his mouth until they’re both shaking with
it, breath coming in hitches and hips jerking together and the wonderful wave
of Tyler, Tyler crashing down over Jamie until he can’t even think.
Nobody gets lost this time.
End Notes
     Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! <3 <3 <3
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