You Can Call Me Thomas - A Valkyrae x Sykkuno story - TEMPORARY COVER

Chapter 8: Sykkuno - Double Date

     "A what?"

     "A camping trip." Corpse leaned back on the counter.

     "...who's gonna be there?"

     "You, me, Poki, Rae. You know, like a double date."

     "Rae and I aren't - wait, what?" I processed his full sentence. "You and Poki are dating?"

     "You could say that." Corpse's face showed no sign of emotion. Of course, he was wearing a mask, so that wasn't any indication of anything.

     "Um, congratulations?..."

     Corpse broke out into a smile. "We're not really... it's a long story. Not my place to tell anyway."

     One of the things that I first discovered about Corpse is that he's very good at hiding his true feelings. It's cool, but annoying at times when all I want to know is the truth.

     "When?"

     "Tonight. Bring a sleeping bag and a water bottle to piss in."

     Corpse laughed at my shocked expression. "I'm joking... ahahaha."

     I hated tents.

     Corpse bought along two tents that he admitted to not knowing how to set up. He thought we could figure it out along the way.

     Fast forward to now, where Rae and Poki were jousting with the poles while I tried to free Corpse from the tarp that he somehow had gotten stuck under.

     "OK, that's it! I declare emergency dictatorial powers, and I command you to set up this tent exactly as I say!"

     Thankfully they followed my lead, otherwise we probably wouldn't have had a place to sleep in.

     Ten agonizing minutes later the tents were set up.

     "There's only two of them... who sleeps where?"

     "Oh, let's not worry about that now," Poki dismissed my question, with a half-smile on her face.

     The rest of the night went pretty smoothly. Corpse told us stories of his childhood beside the fire. It was almost like a Boy Scouts campout... maybe. I'd never been in Boy Scouts before.

     "In grade 8, I asked this girl to the dance. Not because I liked her: precisely the opposite. Whenever I got near a girl that I liked, I'd get nervous and start stammering.

     "Well, that girl ended up being my best friend for the next five years... those were the best five years of my life."

     "What happened to her?"

     "I ended up falling for her... it didn't work out."

     A gentle snoring sound made us all laugh. Poki had fallen asleep on Corpse's shoulder.

     "Rae, how about you get some more wood for the fire? I need to put sleepy-head over here to bed."

     Rae looked a little scared, but agreed.

     As soon as Corpse was out of earshot, Rae turned to me. "Can you... come with me?"

     "Why?"

     Rae looked embarrassed. "I'm... kinda... scared of the dark."

     I couldn't help but laugh a little, which earned me a sharp slap to the back.

     "OK, fine... ahaha."

     We'd used up all the twigs around our campsite, so it was necessary to into the forest to find wood.

     Rae's warm body pressed against mine as we walked into the forest. She obviously wasn't joking about being scared.

     "Here, I found a dead tree, it should be easy to strip some dry branches."

     Rae didn't move. She leaned against a tree, as if she was deciding to say something.

     "Rae?"

     "Sykkuno... I... I-"

     Whatever she was about to say, it was cut off by a howl, distinctively a wolf's.

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Cliffhanger :)

Please don't attempt anything like this... I'm not sure if it's legal. This is a fictional story.

Love you all, stay safe!