Camp Lifeseries (Life series AU)

Chapter Twelve - Comfort

The sun appeared from over to top of the hill, shining its beautiful glow onto the campsite, and onto perhaps an even more beautiful boy. Bdubs sighed, sitting down next to Etho on a fallen log and carefully reaching up to tuck a loose strand of silvery-white hair behind the taller boy's ear. Etho blushed, shrinking in on himself slightly, remembering what had happened last night.

He'd been far too scared to hug him, or even come close enough for the two to accidentally touch while they were asleep. He regretted it a little, sure. But he would've regretted it more if it was awkward, because he was awkward and it wouldn't have made for a good situation.

He could feel Bdubs' eyes on him still, and his eyes flicked back over to the brunette. Bdubs smiled back at him, letting himself relax and move closer to Etho as their legs touched and the brunette rested against him. Etho felt dizzy from nerves.
"Uh, I-" He stumbled over his words, wishing he'd never opened his mouth in the first place.

Bdubs stiffened, moving away from the white haired boy again. "Sorry, I- I should've asked first," He put on what he hoped was an apologetic smile, quickly looking away again and twisting his hands in his lap. 'God, Bdubs, why do you have to go and ruin everything?' He thought, letting out a shaky sigh.

"It's okay," Etho shuffled back over to Bdubs, putting a careful arm around his shoulders to pull him closer, trying to steady his own nerves and calm down.

He couldn't keep doing this, at some point Bdubs would point out that he was being more touchy than normal and it would all be over for him. But, for now, he let Bdubs rest against his shoulder and wrap his arm around Etho's waist, pulling him impossibly closer as they watched the sunrise.

Xisuma looked over the campers, mostly absorbed in their own conversations and... cuddling? Or simply watching the sun come up. Pearl was attempting to teach Impulse how to cartwheel with very little success, Xisuma made a mental note to check if he'd brought the first aid kit with them, just in case.

"Martyn, I- I'm worried." Cleo sighed, looking back over to the blonde.
"You're clearly not completely fine, and you don't have to tell me what's going on but at least go and talk to Xisuma when we're back at the campsite,"
Martyn didn't respond, ripping handfuls of grass from where he was sat only to dump them back on the ground.

"It's not your business," He muttered.
"I care about you, of course it's my business!" The zombie girl sighed again, trying not to sound annoyed.
She wasn't really annoyed, but Martyn could just be so- stubborn. He would never let her help him.

Martyn frowned, thinking. "Sorry," He whispered, barely loud enough to hear.
"Huh?"
"You- I thought you were mad at me," He muttered, leaning back against the tree.
"Marty, I'm not mad." Cleo sat down next to him, gently taking his hand and lacing her fingers with his.

Martyn breathed out slowly, as to not hurt his chest. He was never too good with emotions, and he was having a lot of them right now. He wanted to cry. He squinted hard, fixing his eyes on a spot on the ground as he fought back unexplainable tears. Cleo shouldn't be this nice to him, but here she was, holding his hand, rubbing her thumb gently along his knuckles. Caring about him. Martyn felt his eyes start to water.

"Fuck-" He half sniffed half chuckled as tears started to fall.
"Hey, it's okay," Cleo whispered. "Do you want me to ask Xisuma if we can head back to camp? I can tell him you feel sick or something,"
Martyn nodded gratefully, feeling Cleo's warm hand leave his and go talk to the leader.

It was strange, having Cleo be that... soft? And for some reason he was just accepting it. He couldn't be bothered with the whole brave, dude-guy act right now. He was tired, and someone was offering their help, so he was going to take it. Carefully.

In the background, Impulse fell flat on his face. Maybe gymnastics wasn't for him.

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716 words above the line

Bdubs simps over Etho

The whole cleo/martyn thing going on in this chapter could be interpreted as platonic or romantic, I don't think I'm ever going to establish it fully as either so take the concept and run with it if you like dudes :]

- Volpe