𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑜𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑂𝑛𝑒𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑠

Camping

"SNAKE!"

"That's a leaf."

"LEAF THAT LOOKS LIKE A SNAKE!" I poked my head out of the tent to witness Alex screaming at a leaf. By some miracle, I had gotten him to go camping with me. It was not working out.  

"Alex, why don't you go prep the food?" I asked, desperate to have something for him to do. "You can start the fire and get out the hot dogs and marshmallows?"

"Magnus Chase,  I can barely use a lighter. You really expect me to start a fire?" He asked, putting his stuff in the tent. I rolled my eyes, getting out of the tent. I grabbed the matches, fire starters, and a handful of leaves. We sat down next to the fire pit, as I sprinkled dried leaves in. I lit the dead leaves, dropping in dried kindling. After a few minutes, we had gotten a happy fire going, strong enough to drop in a large log. 

Alex started the hot dogs as I finished unpacking our stuff. We were only going to be here tonight and tomorrow morning, but we came prepared. We had plenty of food, a million blankets, and the six bottles of bug spray Alex had insisted on bringing. 

"Magnus!!" I ran out, expecting the worse. I was instead met with Alex holding a skewer that held a hot  dog in between two pieces of a chocolate. "It's a culinary revelation!" I instead walked over, removed the chocolate, and sat Alex down. 

"Alex, I'd rather not die of food poisoning."

"I'm not that bad."

"I trusted you to make dinner and had food poisoning for three days." I picked up the skewer and hotdog and began to cook it. The fire crackled merrily as the juice from the hot dog dripped down.

"Fine. I'm gonna go do something. Stay here."  He took off, grabbing something from his suitcase and heading out into a neighboring field. I shrugged, continuing to roast the meat. After a while, I had cooked everything, from hot dogs to corn. 

"Alex? Alex!" I called over the brush, trying to find him. A little ping rang on my phone. It was a text from Alex.

ALEX

Come to the grove of trees we passed. 

I tucked my phone in my pocket, looking around warily. The sky had darkened, and there was just barely enough light to not use a flashlight. I ventured down the path, coming to a pretty grove we had passed on the drive in. I saw a little twinkle from the dense brush surrounding the trees. I pushed my way through, until I broke out into a circular  clearing, no wider than ten feet.

I stared in amazement, spinning in a small circle. The trees surrounding the clearing were decorated by what seemed like thousands of fairy lights. It illuminated the clearing, casting a happy glow on the man in front of me. There stood Alex, grinning at me. He grabbed his phone from his back pocket, playing a song. The melody danced around me, sweeping me away. Alex held his hand out 

"May I have this dance?" I smiled right back, taking his hand. He pulled me to him, resting his hands on my back. We swayed to the music, letting the lights twinkle around us. 

 I rested my head in his shoulder as he put his head on mine. We swayed, letting the moment fall to pure bliss. He lifted my chin with two fingers, pulling my mouth to his. I smiled at the feel of his soft lips on mine, happily kissing back. The food got cold.