Archive of Our Own

      It’s school break, and that means Badd and Zenko have plans.

During the five or so weeks that Zenko has off at the summer semester’s end, Badd always tries to take her out as much as possible to do whatever she wants.

Considering how often he has to skip out on spending time with her normally, he makes an extra effort to spoil her rotten when she’s off school. Admittedly, it’s kind of a poor attempt to make up for it when he thinks of how many times he’s missed her piano recitals, or broken dates to take her shopping, or even had to leave her with the neighbor for the night.

Since he constantly feels guilty over that, he tries not to complain when she inevitably asks him to take her to theme parks — even though he hates going to places with crowds.

Because it’d be more dangerous in an emergency, obviously. Not because he’s short or anything.

In any case, the last thing she’d asked for was to go a Sweet Mask Expo. After that, Badd thinks he knows what hell is like. He’s tried to tell Zenko before that Sweet Mask is a real piece, but he can’t quite bring himself to break her heart like that. She likes the guy so much, so he’s largely left the issue alone — but hell if he’s going to another expo for that motherfucker. He got enough of that guy at work.

Anyway, Badd finally started trying to negotiate with her after that unfortunate episode. Something like hiking or going to the beach was more his speed.

At first she’d been stubborn, but he’d begged and cajoled her endlessly, ‘Please Sis, can’t we do something different next year?’

She’d settled on going to the beach — and no more Sweet Mask events as long as he bought her all the merchandise she wanted. She’d pinkie-promised on it.

That was two years ago, and it was also before Garou became a part of their life.

He and Zenko have planned to go out to the countryside and hike in the mountains this time, and one would assume it’d be pretty easy to either just tell Garou where they’re going and make sure he’s set for the weekend, or to get him to tag along.

Problem is, honestly, Badd’s not even sure his boyfriend will want to come. He’s never really traveled anywhere with Garou or gone on a date with him outside the city limits. That’s what comes of being in a relationship with a guy who’s still technically a public enemy. It makes things hard sometimes, because Garou has to try and keep a low profile because of dickbags like Sweet Mask who are still on the lookout for him years after the fact. Besides that, the Hero Association is still really suspicious of people who knew Garou and had been seen with him, like Bang and Saitama, so Garou can’t really visit the dojo as much as he’d like. Luckily, they don’t seem to have gotten a clue about his relationship with Badd, so there’s less trouble there.

There’s a pretty low chance of anyone recognizing him if they take their vacation outside the city limits, so it’s not like it isn’t safe. What Badd’s more concerned about is that Garou is temperamental. He gets restless.

Zenko’s school break is the whole reason they’re going — but Garou doesn’t entertain Zenko’s whims the way Badd does and is quick to impatience and boredom, so Badd doesn’t know how he’d handle spending the weekend away together. Restless, bored, impatient Garou spells trouble. 

Part of him thinks it might be best to not make a big deal of it and just give Garou a few days to himself. It’s not like he doesn’t like wandering around on his ownsome. He still gives Badd a fucking temper with the way he disappears for days with no explanation of his whereabouts.

On the other hand, he’s part of the family now, and Badd thinks it’s right that he should come on the family vacation.

Plus, what self-respecting guy doesn’t want a weekend away to kick it with his boyfriend?

Badd tries to be offhand when he brings it up, so that he won’t let on how much he wants to take that step. Garou would get smug if he knew, so he puts it off for a while, only mentioning their plans here and there, trying to gauge his reaction.

At last, one evening after work when he and Zenko are freshly bathed and in their pajamas, ready for some late night cereal and TV, Badd goes for it — because the trip’s gonna’ be this weekend.

“Two more days an’ we’re goin’ hiking,” he announces, mostly for Garou’s benefit, because Zenko already knows. She’s been counting down the days with him.

Badd tries to discreetly cast an eye over the living room where Garou’s gotten himself comfortable on the couch with the cat, waiting for them to come join. He doesn’t even pick his head up, completely uninterested.

Badd doesn’t know what that fucking means. Does Garou not care? Badd loves his little sister to bits, but admittedly, he’ll be a little disappointed if this just ends up being a two-person trip. He would have figured that Garou would enjoy getting outside with them. Maybe he’s just waiting for Badd to be more direct...

Zenko’s zipping around the kitchen in excitement, sliding on her sock feet. She manages to stop herself before crashing to the floor by getting a grip on the bottom of his t-shirt. “Whoa, easy!” She hangs on, so Badd snorts and pulls her over to the fridge, letting her slide behind him.

“I’m pumped too, Sis.”

“Big Bro, can we camp while we’re there?” Zenko chirps, hopping happily from one foot to the other. “I wanna’ camp!”

He’d figured they were just going to stay in a cabin, so Badd stops short, holding the door to the fridge open. He’d been so glad that she was excited to do something he could actually enjoy like hiking instead of those stupid theme parks. He didn’t want to let her enthusiasm burn out by letting her down — but…

“Shoot Zenko, I dunno’ how ta’ camp,” he admits apologetically.

“Hah,” Garou finally butts in, smirking lazily. “I can camp,” he brags.

Badd huffs through his nose like an angry bull, grinding his teeth and grabbing the milk out of the fridge. He kicks the door shut and makes Zenko’s cereal.

Zenko and Garou are getting along better — which is good, of course. He doesn’t know what happened exactly, because even though those two had always had some sort of truce going, they seem to have finally bridged some final gap between them. It’s nice to see, because they really felt like a family now.

Zenko’s even started calling Garou ‘Big Bro’ too, but ever since then, Garou’s been doing this kind of shit. Since Badd’s still obviously the favorite brother — obviously — Garou tries to one-up him all the time in any way he can. Which irritates the hell out of him.

And Garou knows, which is exactly why he does it. Which in turn, pisses him off even more.

“No you can’t,” Badd calls his bullshit, narrowing his eyes. Garou lets out a scoff, raising his brows.

“The hell I can’t. I lived in the woods for months before I started hanging around with you,” he reminds him, which has Badd grumbling in resentment.

“Oh yeah…” He hands Zenko her bowl and sends her over to Garou with it. Garou immediately rearranges his legs a little so she can snuggle in with him and Tama.

“You gonna’ take us camping, Garou-bro?” Zenko peeps. Garou purses his lips, eyebrow raised.

“Whadda' you mean, ‘take us,’ huh?!” Badd calls indignantly when Garou starts smirking. Like hell is he letting him hijack this trip. “I’m takin’ ya’!”

“Na-uh. Who’s the camping expert here?”

Badd has some words for Garou but he can’t say any of them with his little sister right there, so instead he growls and hucks a meat bun in the microwave, slamming the door. Garou laughs lowly, getting a kick out of riling him up as always.

“I never been camping! You should take us if you know how,” Zenko says eagerly, crawling around a little on Garou, who just eyes her unconcernedly.

Badd smooths a hand over his hair, having combed it back while it dried so that it would keep its shape without the gel. It’s fluffier than when he styles it, but still mostly in place. He gives those two the side-eye, because even though Garou got on his nerves, there’s this soft part of him that won’t fucking die that really wants him to come on the trip. Even if he’s going to brag about his wilderness survival skills the whole time.

“Hmmmm,” Garou makes a show of considering, eyes and head rolling back lazily as Zenko pleads and begs — the way she knows she has to with him, because Garou doesn’t always say yes to her like Badd does — “Nah,” he finally refuses, smirking and sticking out his tongue when Zenko pouts, because that’s the kind of shit he is.

“Dude, come on,” Badd barks, pulling out the meat bun and biting into it immediately. He doesn’t even cry over burning his entire mouth either because he’s a fucking man and he’s pissed off. Plus he’s disappointed. How’s Garou gonna’ let him down like that, huh?

“Why’d you bring it up if you were gonna’ say no.”

“Actually, you’re the one that brought it up.”

“Don’t push yer’ luck.”

Zenko whines and pleads and Garou drags it on for a little while, obnoxious in his amusement. “Okay fine…” He waits until she brightens back up and then says, “Psyche,” pulling Zenko around on a string, and Badd’s eighty percent certain that he knows he’s doing the same to him.

He wedges himself in on the couch with them and tries not to hit Garou in his smug face with Zenko right there to see it. Instead he scarfs down his meat bun and listens to their back-and-forth in silence, knowing that Garou will keep going on with it until he’s satisfied with being a weasel. He almost always relents in the end anyway, it’s just a matter of letting things play out — Garou’s the type of guy that has to get his shots in before doing anything nice.

“Maybe I will if you both ask me real sweet.”

This piece of shit. Badd grinds his jaw back and forth, steam practically piping from his ears when Zenko immediately puts her hands together and begs, ‘please, please!’

“Now you.” Garou smirks, scratching him under the chin with his finger like he does to the cat. Badd smacks his hand.

“Don’t manipulate my sister!” he barks.

Garou shrugs, not even bothering to look sorry about what he’s doing. “Aw, he won’t do it. Tough clams, Kid. Guess we’re not—” Zenko’s cheeks puff up in a pout.

Badd lets out a long anguished groan. “Garou, oh my god, please take us camping. We need you.”

“Hmmm.” Badd’s really getting a temper, and Garou seems to have a fucking meter on when to stop before turning things into a real fight, because he finally has mercy on him. “I guess that’s good enough.”

“Shaddup.”

“Yay!” Zenko cheers, which makes it worth it. Plus Garou’s agreed to come, which is also worth it.

      And Badd’s happy about it. Really.

He’s happy about it when he and Zenko are out getting camping supplies, Garou tagging along, being a nuisance. He’s happy about it when they’re all taking a look at the campgrounds near the hiking spot he’d picked out on the computer. He’s happy about it the morning they’re set to leave and Garou sees him in his plain clothes and swats him on the ass. He’s happy about it right up until they get on the road.

It was clear from the get-go that he was really going to make Badd work for this. He has him trapped, because it’s not like Badd can do anything about him being a fucking brat without ruining the trip for Zenko, and Garou knows that. 

So yeah, Badd’s happy. A little. Garou had agreed to come, at least — but he was obviously going to take the opportunity to drive Badd out of his fucking mind.

Honestly, he’s like a kid teasing his crush, which is stupid, because they're not crushes. They’re boyfriends, so Badd had initially figured this sort of shit was supposed to stop at some point, but by now it’s just something he’s accepted is part of the Garou package. That and the maniacal smile.

Ah well. It’s troublesome, but Badd still kinda’ loves it — just like everything else about Garou.

Zenko’s over the moon, skipping along between them, holding one of each of their hands. Garou occasionally swings her, viciously chewing some gum and peering around uneasily, a hoodie pulled up over his hair. Badd keeps an extra close eye on him while he gets their tickets sorted out, because he knows Garou fucking hates being in the subway system — and he wants to get through this weekend without incident.

Garou plays with Zenko a little while they wait, walking up and down the platform with her feet balanced on top of his. He does okay in the train other than going quiet, keeping close, and fidgeting a lot, bouncing his leg like a crazy person.

Once they get off and take the bus route out to the campsite, Badd’s feeling pretty good. It’s beautiful out here. The camp is placed in a national park system and it’s up in the mountains, woods all around — there’s a ton of trails for hiking and different swimming locations. Garou’s starting to look more interested now that they’re out here, so Badd lets him pick the lot where they’ll set up camp.

The camp facilities are nice enough, the main grounds equipped with a couple different play areas and a sprinkler system for the kids. There are grills and firepits and picnic tables set up near some families who’d come with travel trailers, and there’s tons of open spots for them to choose from — but Garou picks the site farthest away from the other campers, one that’s way out in the woods. It’s quiet at least and pretty isolated, but Badd doesn’t look forward to having to walk all the way to the bathrooms in the middle of the night. Garou looks so pleased with the spot he’d found them that he doesn’t say anything about that though.

Everything’s going great. Even though Garou’s not one to do well in places like this where there’s lots of people milling around, he isn’t causing any undue trouble yet. He sticks next to Badd and Zenko as they check in at the main offices and he doesn’t wander off, one long finger linked through Badd’s belt loop.

He’s behaving himself so well that once they all start setting up their campsite, Badd feels fine to leave them for a minute to go see about renting a hotplate from the front desk — but of course, everything is too peaceful.

By the time Badd comes back, Garou’s talking about the Goatman.

Everything looks okay at first. He’s done everything Badd had asked him to do; the cooler’s on the table, the tent is pitched and their cases are inside, sleeping bags unrolled, but when Badd gets to the edge of their campsite, he stops for a second, doubletaking. 

Garou’s halfway up a tree, putting a trashbag way up in the branches above their tent. Badd stands there and stares at him as he ties a rope to it and loops it over a thick limb like a one-way pulley. “Uhhh… What’s goin’ on there?”

Badd would’ve thought that he’d walked up on him doing some bullshit nonsense as a prank, but he doesn’t act like he’s been caught at making mischief. It all looks pretty deliberately done, but Badd doesn’t have a clue why.

“Hm?” Garou mutters, focused on what he’s doing, grappling the trunk. He lets go of the rope and the bag immediately falls into the bushes below. There must be a rock in the bottom or something. He very purposefully starts pulling the rope until the bag is hoisted up into the tree again.

“Babe, why are you doing that?” Badd blurted, completely baffled.

“Oh,” Garou hummed. “It’s a trash bag.”

“Yeah I see that, Wiley Coyote. Why’s it up in a tree?”

“Keeps the animals from throwing our garbage around the camp at night.” He hops down from the tree with the end of the rope in hand, landing on the balls of his feet. He hands the rope to Zenko, who pulls it up and down a couple times and nods her satisfaction.

“Besides,” he mentions offhand, giving Zenko the side-eye. “We don’t wanna’ attract the Goatman.” Zenko looks up.

Badd’s eyebrows pull down hard. “Goatman,” he repeats dubiously. Garou starts smiling.

“What’s that, Garou-bro?”

He sighs through his nose when Zenko takes the bait. Ever since their little truce and they’d started calling each other brother and sister, Garou had quit walking on eggshells trying not to be scary around her. That piece of shit loves teasing her, like he’s trying to make up for all the spoiling Badd does by giving her a little hell. He especially likes trying to spook her — not till she cries, but enough to creep her out.

“Whaaaat.” Garou widens his eyes, grinning widely and dropping into a crouch next to her. “You don’t know about the Goatman?”

Zenko shakes her head, and there he goes again, selling Badd’s little sister bullshit. Badd crosses his arms, grimacing. “Well, I wouldn’t wanna’ get you scared,” he drawls, the fucking liar, he’s enjoying this way too much, “Maybe you can’t handle it...” Eyes closed smugly, he picks at his ear, playing it cool.

“Tell me!”

“Sure,” he agrees way too eagerly. “He’s half-human, with goat legs and a goat head, and he lives in the woods,” Garou tells her, and Badd doesn’t stop him because Zenko’s smart enough not to fall for that total pile. Besides, even if it’s fucking nonsense, Badd admittedly does like to hear Garou rant about the things he loves — which usually happens to be creepy shit.

“Really?” she wonders. Badd gives a scornful snort, which they both ignore.

“Yeah really.” He stands up with a shrug, closing his eyes and smirking. “Some people say it’s not real,” he notes pointedly, which had Badd wrinkling his nose, “But trust me, I know monsters.”

Zenko’s eyes are big. When Badd sees that, he pauses.

“He’s out there.”

“... Babe,” Badd warns.

“He prowls around at night with an axe,” Garou goes on, grin stretching wider and more sinister, his eyes getting fucking intense—  “just waiting for some little girl to—”

Badd groans. “Garou, cut it out.” He turns to his little sister, who’s frowning like she wants to hear more, but her eyes are still really round.

“Zenko, he’s fulla’ sand,” he says. She glares at Garou a little poutily, hands on her hips, mad at being tricked, but she still looks a tiny bit unsure. “There’s no such thing.”

“That’s what you think,” Garou lilts. Badd rolls his eyes in exasperation.

    “Whatever Slim. Let’s pick a trail.”

They agree on a path that heads along a winding river for a ways, then cuts through some groves and gives a scenic view of some cliffs. They pass through some bamboos, and then after climbing for some time, Zenko starts to get tired after all the stairs.

“Can you give me a piggyback, Garou-bro?” she chirps. Garou’s taken his hoodie off by now, hair glowing when the dappled sun passes over it, his athletic shoes barely making a noise on the gravel as he climbs. Badd likes looking at him out here, totally at home in the outdoors. Garou stretches out a pale bare arm and snatches her up, swinging her above his head and popping her onto his shoulders.

Badd follows with a frown. “How come you don’t wanna’ get on my shoulders,” he wonders petulantly, but Zenko’s pointing at a bird up ahead of them, quickly putting her binoculars up to her face, and then leaning forward when Garou grabs them for himself, tugging the string. 

“Short?” Garou suggests with a smirk, slipping his hand into Badd’s back pocket. Badd grimaces. “Don’t get salty. I still like ya’.” He playfully squeezes Badd’s ass a couple times.

“Whatever. She still likes shopping with me better,” he grumbles, but puts his hand on Garou’s hip too, standing with them and looking at the bird.

When they get up to the peak of the stairs and rest in the clearing, they eat some energy bars and enjoy the view of the surrounding mountains. Garou teases and picks at Zenko, pulling her clothes or holding her bar out of reach— he annoys her until he can goad her into trying to wrestle him. She leaps for him and he keeps ducking out of reach, always standing just behind her and laughing.

When she gets him, he holds her back with a finger at her forehead while she swings her arms, and once he does an exaggerated imitation of her furious pout, she starts to laugh. He grabs her and tosses her in the air, tickles her and throws her around. Badd settles in the grass with a smile and takes a video with his phone.

On the way back down, Badd’s holding Zenko’s hand as she trots along next to him, jumping from one stair to the next.

    That’s the first time Garou disappears.

“Big Bro, can we have potato pancake for dinner?” Zenko chirps.

“I brought meat for the barbecue in the cooler, how 'bout that?” he suggests, and she crows in excitement.

“Barbecue!”

“Yeah,” he laughs. “As long as we can work the hotplate. G, do you—” Turning to glance over his shoulder, Badd promptly shits himself.

He stops short and just stares behind them at the way they’d come for a second, holding his breath. The path is empty.

Garou’s gone. How long has he been gone. Where is he? Why is he not with them?

He’s probably overreacting. It’s not like he could’ve gone far, and there’s plenty of explanations. Maybe he’d gone off to pee or something and was totally fine — but to be honest, Badd kind of loses his mind when he doesn't know where his boyfriend is. He disappears from their house pretty often too and it drives him fucking crazy. He absolutely hates it. Because only bad things can happen when that guy is unsupervised.

And this time they're not at home where he can usually guess where he might be. They're out in the middle of nowhere and they'd just lost Garou. He'd never even heard him leave the path — how is that even possible?

Just as Badd’s about to flip a brick and shout Garou’s name, Zenko points up above them into the woods. “Look!” Badd follows her gaze.

Garou’s up in a tree like twenty yards off the path. He only catches sight of him at first because of his yellow running shoes dangling from a branch.

“What are you doing off the trail?” Badd blurts, trying not to blow his stack, because there was no harm done really. Besides, it’s his own fault for not noticing Garou getting so quiet back there. Quiet's never good.

“Great view up here,” Garou drawls, like he doesn’t care that he just gave Badd a heart attack. “C’mere kid, look what I found,” he calls to Zenko, and then he holds up something that Badd doesn’t immediately recognize. When he does, his gut lurches.

Aw, yeesh — it’s a deer skull.

“Where did you get that,” Badd muttered flatly, because he’s constantly amazed at Garou’s ability to find animal bones wherever he goes. He sends Badd captionless pictures of them all the time when he’s away from home, so Badd’s used to this — but for some reason, this time he feels really uneasy all of a sudden and just wants to get back to camp.

“Eh. I saw it by those logs.” He points further off into the forest. “Hey, we should make a fort while we’re here.” He’s got his hand inside the deer skull and then made it open and close like it was talking.

“Whadda’ you think?” he says, making the teeth clack together.

Badd’s getting really antsy, and he’s about to lose his temper and tell him he shouldn’t be playing with deer bones and to get the hell back here right now, but then he hears Zenko take a step into the brush — like she’s going to leave the trail and follow Garou out there. Badd grabbed her by the arm like lightning, yanking her behind him. “Zenko, no.”

He held her next to him in an iron grip, keeping her firmly on the path. He glared at his boyfriend, strung up in the branches like he pays rent. “Dude, get back here,” he grit out.

Garou let the skull fall shut with a click, holding it next to his head like a puppet, completely unbothered. His expression is mild, as if playing with a deer head he found under a log is a totally normal thing to do. “What’re you mad about?” he wondered boredly, twisting upside down on a thick branch.

Badd let out a slow breath through his nose. “You’re not supposed to leave the path.”

“So? Why’re you getting mad? . . . You scared of the woods?” Garou guessed, picking his head up curiously.

“No way,” he denied, growling.

“Then c'mere.”

“No. You can’t go off the trail.”

Garou scoffs, rolling his eyes and letting himself slide off the branch slowly, torso hanging down, head cocked back. “Badd, who cares.” He stuck his tongue out. “Who’s gonna’ tell on me. You? I thought you were off duty,” he muttered nastily.

“Garou, quit bein’ a pain and just listen for once,” he grit out.

Zenko seems unsettled too, because she doesn’t look eager to head over there anymore. She’s just staring silently at Garou and the fucking deer head, nervously gripping Badd’s hand.

“I’m not that far out. We won’t get lost,” Garou argued. Badd tapped his foot testily, scowling. Garou craned his neck out and grinned at him like he thinks he’s hot shit, holding the skull’s jaws open wide. “Don’t you trust me?”

Badd shifts his weight a couple times, grumbling, “Not always…” Garou makes a show of pouting, hanging the skull on a branch and watching it bob up and down before it came to rest. “Will you just get down a’ready?”

“Why’re you always ruinin’ my fun, Badd,” he drawls.

“I dunno’, G. Apparently, that’s all I do is disappoint people and ruin their fun.” Garou pauses, staring at him.

“... Hey. That’s not—”

“Can we go?” Zenko pipes up, losing interest in their argument now that Garou’s left the deer head alone and quit being spooky.

“Yeah Sis. Soon as he gets his butt outta’ there.”

Garou sighed, long-suffering and dramatic, hanging from his knees with his arms folded. “Babe, just come down and let’s go swimming.” Garou hummed, and to Badd’s relief, he gets down.

“Kids these days just don’t break the rules like they used to,” Garou complained as he stretched his arms above his head and came back to the path. Zenko reaches out to take his hand and Garou lets her, strolling along next to her. Satisfied, Badd settles down, but he’s still got this weird feeling. Like he's being watched, almost.

As they walk off, he glances behind him again.

It’s not like he knew right where to look, which is why it’s kind of freaky that the first thing his gaze lands on is the empty eye sockets of the deer skull, still dangling from a tree-branch, looking after them. He shudders involuntarily, and quickly realizes Garou’s noticed, and is smirking at him.

“Leave it ta’ you ta’ hang that stupid thing up like a darn Christmas ornament,” he mutters. Garou snickers. “I fell for a total creep.”

“Loosen up, tightwad.”

     “Fine.”

They all go back to the tent to change into swimsuits, and once they get down to the inlet near the main camp, Garou seems appeased for a while. Zenko’s got her water wings on and Badd and Garou take turns holding her up while the other swims next to her to show her how. Once she’s tired out, Badd and Zenko play in the mud at the shoreline for a bit while Garou swims out farther. Eventually she starts making mud pies with some other kids, so Badd follows Garou out where it’s too deep to touch the bottom.

Garou’s cutting through the water like a shark, swimming around by himself, and once Badd makes it out to meet him, he flips onto his back, floating there with his arms out, glazing just over the water’s surface. Badd treads next to him for a bit, watching the water shimmer over his pale chest.

“You havin’ a good time, huh?” he asks. Garou opens an eye. 

“Yeah.” Badd had secretly been a tiny bit sore thinking that Garou really meant it about not having any fun, so he’s pleased with that. Garou snorts. “I was worried you’d try ta’ make me go ta’ some fucking Amai Mask Expo.” Badd groans in agreement as Garou picks at his ear and flicks the wax. “Piece a’ shit,” he mutters.

“No way.” He smooths a hand along his boyfriend’s leg. He can’t get enough of Garou in those diving shorts — there’s a gold accent stripe running along his thigh that he traces his finger down.

“Lay nexta’ me, Badd.”

Badd takes a couple tries to float properly, kicking a little when his feet keep sinking down. Garou snorts through his nose when his splashing laps over his face. “Check out that cloud,” he says, pointing once Badd settles. “Looks kinda’ like Centichoro, dunnit’?”

“Dude,” Badd notes, squinting. “It looks just like Centichoro.” They float there next to each other for a while. Garou lays there effortlessly, paddling lazily with his hands to stay up while Badd kicks and squirms. His butt keeps sinking down.

Garou’s hand skates down his back from underneath, stopping at his hips, giving him a tiny support for a second before disappearing back into the cool depths.

“. . . Babe?” he mumbles, eyes firmly fixed on the centipede cloud. “Thanks for comin’ with… We don’t usually do this type a’ stuff, all three of us, so… means a lot,” he admits, waiting for some kind of response, even a tease would be fine.

“Garou?” He picks his head up, looking around, and he’s alone. Badd treads water, brows going down. He'd thought they were having a moment.

“Motherfu—” he starts, and instantly inhales a lungful of water when he’s nabbed by the ankle and dragged under.

He panics for a split-second, arms clawing in front of him as he tries to right himself and kick away from the snare on his foot, but he’s released almost immediately, bobbing back up to the surface. When he breaks, he spits and coughs, and he can hear Garou laughing.

Honestly, Badd’s more irritated that his fucking hair still stands up like that even when it’s soaked.

He wipes his eyes with a scowl, cracks his knuckles, and then beats the top of the water with his forearm, slapping Garou in the face with a sheet of water. Garou’s laughter just picks up even more, and Badd suspects he’d given him exactly what he wanted, so he succumbs to the inevitable splash-fight.

They drag each other back to shore, tackling and wrestling and flipping each other into the water, sinking into the mud more and more the closer they get into the shallows. When they’re under the water, Garou pins him to the bottom, sealing his back to the mud. He leans down and nuzzles their noses together in the dark, and Badd relaxes. He puts his arms around Garou’s shoulders and kisses him for a minute, a trail of bubbles escaping his nose as he feels Garou’s palms tenderly cup his face.

And then they hold him still so he could blow a ton of air into his mouth—

Badd comes up coughing and choking, one hand fisted in Garou’s hair. “You goddamn, fucking— snake!” he hollers as soon as he could breathe, and throttles his cackling boyfriend into the water, holding him under until the bubbles stop.

Badd pulls him up, but Garou pretends to be drowned, sticking his tongue out of his mouth and letting his head loll comically for a second. Badd hefts him over his shoulder and tows him out of the water, flopping him down in the sand next to Zenko, where he continued faking death until she lifted one of his eyelids and he grinned at her. “Bleah,” he wretched dramatically.

“Can you do the hotplate, Garou-bro?”

“Yeah. Get me summa’ that barbecue—” He and Zenko both cheer — ‘woo!’ — and then in a flash he scooped her up under his arm, easily toting her back to the water’s edge and dunking her to wash the mud off her legs. Badd waited at the shore, fighting a grin.

“Babe, you’re a total ham.”

“I’m starving, don’t talk about ham.”

Once they’d dried off, they play around, take selfies, and try to cook barbecue in the main camp area at the picnic tables. Zenko plays with some nearby kids while they screw around with an open grill and the hotplate. Normally Garou would be on edge with all the families crowding the park, some of them with dogs running loose and kids scrambling around, but he seems content and relaxed. His thigh is pressed against Badd’s as they sit at the picnic bench together, grilling meat on the hotplate, spearing it onto skewers, and handing it to Zenko to munch on as soon as it’s cool enough.

The sun’s starting to go down, so the fireflies are out and the night air is cooling off. After they’re done eating all their kebabs, Badd hangs back at the table by himself packing up while Garou escorts Zenko to the bathroom before they head back to their camp for the night.

Badd puts the leftover meats into the cooler and checks for the bags of marshmallows and chocolate bars he’s got waiting in there — there’s a couple beers in there too that he brought for Garou. Honestly, they should really eat those marshmallows out here instead of by their own tent. He spares a thought for the trash bag back at their camp, hanging in the tree by a noose.

“Hey Badd—”

Badd looks up at the sound of his boyfriend’s voice, but doesn’t see him. He straightens up fully with a frown, just in time for Garou to jump out of a tree and spook him half to death. Zenko’s not far away, leaping after some blinking fireflies.

Garou cackles. “Aww, did I scare you?”

Badd puffs up his chest, and hisses, “Quit fucking around and go get Zenko—” trying to keep it down because there’s a bunch of kids around. He still lobs a marshmallow bag at Garou’s head though when he keeps looking too satisfied about getting the drop on him.

Garou throws a hand up and catches them easily, crushing the bag and popping it with his nails, grinning like a fucking weasel. Zenko screeches from somewhere behind them and Garou’s smug expression changes to ‘oh shit.’

“Whoops,” he blurts. “Here.” He offers her the squished bag, which is now one big piece of mush and punctured plastic, and she takes it huffily, flouncing off. Badd shakes his head at Garou and swings the cooler onto his shoulder.

Once they head back to the tent, Badd starts the campfire with a lighter and some crumpled newspaper while Garou stands clear with Zenko. They all relax with some blankets and look at the stars together, eating candy.

Badd’s pretty comfortable all bundled up and stretched out like this, Garou’s foot poking under his blanket to rest across his knee, so he just stares at the sky for a while and listens to them chatter at each other. Those two are both sitting up around the campfire, and Garou’s showing Zenko how to pick at it with sticks, but Badd can’t be bothered to stop them, enjoying being able to relax for once. He’s feeling pretty awesome, being out here. He did good with this one.

One thing that is getting on his nerves a little is that they’re supposed to be settling in for the night and Garou won’t stop talking about the fucking Goatman.

It’s a pile of shit, and he knows Garou’s just trying to scare Zenko, because it’s dark out and the flickering of the fire makes everything kinda’ spooky — but now Badd is starting to catch on to the fact that Garou’s trying to give him the creeps too. He can tell because of the smug-ass look on his face.

He keeps going on about things in the woods and how the Goatman stalks people and kills them — especially young couples. He says it’s really fast and sounds like a demon, and it attacks whoever it can catch. Zenko’s sitting more and more curled up as the story goes on, knees to her chest, eyes wide and hypnotized.

“He’s completely evil,” Garou says, and Badd’s gotta’ admit he’s got a really good scary-story voice. It’s making the hairs on his neck stand up, and Garou can probably tell what he’s doing judging by the way he’s eyeing Badd with this little crooked grin.

“He even chops the heads off people’s pets with his axe and drinks the blood out of their chopped-off necks—”

“Babe, enough,” Badd finally interjects. “Zenko, he’s just tryina’ make you scared,” he says, because she’s clearly starting to get the heebies.

She’s still young enough to be easily frightened and get nightmares over silly stuff, and Garou doesn’t know when to cut it out sometimes.  “There’s nothin’ big in the woods but deer an’ pigs,” he assures, waving a hand. “You’re completely safe.”

Zenko looks a little unsure, like she believes he’s telling the truth but isn’t positive that he’s right. She looks to Garou, an uncertain frown on her pouty sullen face. She’s probably catching on that he’s being a jerk on purpose, but still can’t shake the seed of doubt.

“... Is the Goatman real, Garou-bro?”

“Oh he’s very real—”

“Babe.”

Garou shuts up but keeps smiling, the shadows of the fire licking his face eerily. Badd gives him the stink-eye and Garou just shows his teeth gleefully. “What-ever, Garou,” he huffs, exhausted with him for the day.

He tells Zenko it’s time for bed, so she stands up with her blanket and he watches her gulp and peek around the campsite. Badd huffs and stands to go with her even though the tent is right there, plainly visible in the light of the campfire. He unzips the door for her and turns to glare at Garou, who’s lounging with his arms behind his head, looking pleased with himself.

“Are you fucking happy?” Badd mutters as she shuffles into the tent and leaps into her sleeping bag.

Garou hops to his feet and rolls his eyes, and Badd’s about to give him a piece of his mind when Zenko calls from behind him in a tiny voice, causing him to immediately drop the angry expression and turn. 

“Big Bro?”

“Yeah?” they both pipe up. Badd socks Garou in the shoulder and sends him ass-first into a bush.

“Are you coming to bed too?” she mumbles, her nose and eyes poking out above the edge of her sleeping bag. She looks nervous. 

Badd grits his teeth for a second, a vein popping in his forehead — fucking Garou! — before he agrees, “Yeah sure, Sis.”

He shoves the remaining trash from their candy into the cooler because he’ll be damned if he’s touching Garou’s stupid garbage tree, and then he gets in the tent. Garou follows after a minute, dousing the fire with a water bottle until just the glowing coals are left.

Badd gets in the double that he and Garou are sharing and scoops an arm around Zenko’s sleeping bag, dragging her right up next to him. Garou slides in with him, cold feet and all, putting his arm around him and stretching himself out like he’s in bed at home — man, he was serious about living outside for a couple months, because he doesn’t even shift to get comfortable, completely indifferent to sleeping on the hard ground. Badd has to roll a couple times to find a flat spot, propping his head on his arm.

It’s a quiet night, and other than the occasional pops of the dying fire outside, there’s hardly even a rustling of leaves outside the tent. It’s really peaceful — but it also means he can hear every single time Zenko wiggles and squirms in her sleeping bag. She keeps it up, restless and wide awake, sitting up at every tiny noise from outside until Badd lets her crawl in with them.

Once she does, she settles almost immediately and falls asleep — which he’s glad for, because Garou gets irritable really quick if she comes to bed with them and then squirms too much. Badd would’ve preferred to stay up with Garou for a while but he doesn’t want to wake her back up, so he gets cozy against Garou’s arm and stares at the roof of the tent in silence while Garou plays with his hair, fluffing it and picking the hairsprayed bits apart. His pomp’s been a mess all day, spikier on the top without his usual heavy-duty gel.

The bags are actually pretty warm and the night is still, so it doesn’t take long for them all to fall asleep in a bundle like that.

     Badd wakes up when he hears a branch snap.

Something feels wrong. Eyes opening with an eerie sense of instant alertness, he stares at the roof of the tent, blinking and taking in the ensuing quiet. It’s obviously still dark and it’s gotten a little chilly. It’s not like him to wake up in the middle of the night out of nowhere like that and even though it’s dead silent, he knows he just heard something.

He sat up and wiped his eyes, yawning quietly, and then realized all of a sudden what was missing. Garou’s gone.

His stomach lurches, and for a second he just sits there and stares at the empty half of the double sleeping bag and tries to think. He holds perfectly still, listening to the little sounds of the woods outside, but the night is so still that it’s eerily silent.

Garou’s not in the tent. Why the fuck is he not in the tent — his side of the bed is cold so he’s been gone a while. Where is he? 

It takes a while for the fog of waking up so suddenly to clear, but once it does, he starts to think it over. That sound of the twig breaking might have been Garou fucking around outside. He’d probably needed to take a leak. There’s also a chance that he was restless sleeping in an unfamiliar place and was up walking around. Even so, Badd can’t shake this gut feeling that something’s off.

Badd a city boy, but he still knows that you can’t let yourself get paranoid in the woods. Once you do, you can’t stop. It’s so easy to see unfamiliar things in the dark trees, and if you let yourself get jumpy over it, those things will scare you to death in that instant you can’t recognize them — when really, it’s probably just a leaf falling, or a little animal creeping through the underbrush. You’ll start to jump at every noise, every strange shape, every shadow, and eventually you’ll start thinking something’s really out there — even though in reality you’re just psyching yourself out.

Badd knows that, but his heart’s really starting to pound. He keeps waiting for the sound of Garou coming back to the campsite and unzipping the tent but he must not even be anywhere near the camp, because it’s so quiet out there that it’s really wigging him out.

But then the thought occurs — it’d totally be like Garou to pull some bullshit prank on him to try and make him pee himself.

Badd narrowed his eyes and ground his teeth when he heard something else rustling around out there. “Are you fucking serious?” he grumbles under his breath so that he won’t wake his baby sis, but he pulls himself out of the sleeping bag and crawls to the door.

He’s pissed off but it’s the middle of the night and he’s totally got the creeps. The hair is standing up all over his body and it takes him a couple minutes before he gets the gall to feel along the edge of the tent for the zip. 

He slowly unzips the flap and sticks his head out.

The moon is really big and bright tonight, so he can actually see their camp pretty well. He hadn’t expected to spot anyone because it was so quiet, so he gets a real fright when he immediately sees a guy right there, in clear view of the tent door. It only takes a second to register that it’s just his boyfriend, but it’s still freaky. Rather than feeling relieved, Badd’s still uneasy as hell.

It’s Garou, and he’s standing at the edge of the campsite, right where the shadows of the woods start to eat at the edge of the moonlit clearing. He’s got his back turned to Badd, and from what he can tell, it looks like he’s staring into the trees at something.

It’s dead quiet out there and Badd is starting to get seriously steamed because he hates feeling scared and something is fucking wrong about this whole thing. Garou hadn’t even turned around at the sound of the tent zip, which was impossible not to notice, since it broke the still of the night like a goddamn chainsaw.

Badd gets out, creating enough rustling that he knows Garou had to have heard him, but he doesn’t fucking move. He just stares into the pitch blackness of the woods, standing stock still.

“Hey,” Badd hisses, “What the fuck are you doin’ outta’ the tent?”

At the sound of his voice, Garou looks back at him over his shoulder, and all the hair stands up on Badd’s neck. Garou’s eyes are blown open wide. He can see the whites all the way around and the pupil is shrunk to a pinprick.

He gets an instant to register that before he hears growling — low and terrifying like a rabid dog.

And then Garou’s gone. He just disappears. It’s like a door opened up in the blackness just in front of him and dragged him in. It’s so fast, almost like he’d gotten sucked through a sideways pitfall.

“Garou!” Badd shouts, reaching out, but he falls short, hand hanging there, because just like that, he’s alone.

His blood runs cold as he takes another couple of steps, panting and looking around him, trying to make out anything beyond the treeline. Heart racing, that’s when he notices that the trash bag is on the ground, ripped down from the tree and split open. There’s bones scattered by the firepit.

Badd backs towards the tent, one slow step after another as he tries to slow his breathing and make sense of what’s happening, but he freezes when he feels breath on his ear.

“Badd,” he hears, and promptly whips around, finding himself staring into dead black eye sockets. He’s nose to nose with a skull.

His heart almost exploded from jumping so hard, but it only takes a second to get over the intense jolt of pure shock and realize that it’s just Garou, standing behind him with the fucking deer skull.

Badd pants and stares at him for a beat, and Garou stares back, and then smirks suddenly — the dick.

“Are you fucking serious?!” Badd blurts, red and breathless, because oh, he’s really mad now. He doesn’t even care that his voice is probably traveling in the still night and waking up half the camp. He’d thought for a second that something got him. Not only is Garou totally fine, he’s been waiting to get the drop on him, the sick freak.

He swings for Garou, who just bends back at the waist, avoiding it and starting to laugh. “You think you’re a real fucking riot, huh?! You conniving little shit!” Badd swings at him a couple more times, but he’s too disoriented and hyped up to really go after him.

“Your face was hysterical! Haha, I got you good!”

Garou wiggles his tongue at him and opens the deer’s jaw, showing off the dead gaping mouth, a dark hole piercing through the white bone.

“Dude, nasty. Why did you bring that thing to the campsite, you fucking creep?” he sputters, sour over his wounded pride, because Garou always manages to trick him that way. It doesn’t even matter how much he anticipates it or how many times he’s gotten him with the same thing. Badd’s just gullible like that and Garou loves using it to his advantage — which Badd thinks is unfair, but Garou says if he stops being so dumb then he’ll quit falling for it. Badd doesn’t think that justifies him repeatedly scaring him with deer bones.

“I just found it in the bush earlier. Musta’ been another one layin’ around.” Badd doesn’t know if he believes that because Garou tells harmless lies like that all the time, but it’s better than thinking the alternative, which is that Garou has been carrying around that same fucking deer head all day. On the other hand, this would explain why that stupid bag had made him so uneasy if Garou had weighted it with a pile of bones from the get-go.

'Ugh. What the fuck is this relationship.'

“Check it out, it's completely intact—” Garou keeps playing with the fucking jawbone, and that's when Badd realizes he probably thinks they're cool and not creepy and he might just be trying to show it to him or something, which would explain why he always sends pictures when he finds them on his own. “You wanna' try?”

Badd lowers his voice, because thankfully Zenko wasn't already up from all his shouting and he didn't want to push it. “No. I bet it's got bugs.” Garou pursed his lips, and keeps offering it out. “Get it the fuck outta’ my face. That shouldn’t be near the tent.”

“The Goatman musta’ left ‘em out here.” Garou makes the deer skull’s teeth clack together and if Badd hears one more fucking word about the Goatman, he’s gonna’ wring Garou’s neck.

He opens his mouth to chew him out, furious, but he manages to swallow his temper before he wakes Zenko.

Shaking his head scornfully, he spits in the dirt. “Garou, I’ve had enough a’ yer’ fuckin’ shit. I’m going to bed.” He turns his back to Garou and curses, “Fuck this,” grumbling all the way back to the tent and ignoring his boyfriend when he follows. He can’t really make Garou sleep on the couch, but he does turn his back to him to let him know that he’s fucking had it.

By the time Badd wakes up the following morning with a few more hours’ sleep, he’s not mad anymore and decides to forget about last night’s antics. Garou’s awake before him as always, and Badd can hear Zenko rustling around.

Letting out a long yawn and squirming his sore back against the hard ground, Badd keeps his eyes shut and mumbles an approximation of ‘good morning’ as he feels Garou moving next to him. “I wanna’ wash my hair,” he sighs, immediately getting Garou’s hand ruffling affectionately through his loose silky mop, day-old hairspray and all.

He must be feeling a little frisky, because when Badd peeks an eye open and mutters, “Watch Zenko while I go shower, kay?” Garou rolls against him and licks the underside of his arm, nosing at his armpit and informing him that he enjoys his musk the way it is. Badd halfheartedly tries to fend him off, yawning again and then groaning when Garou paws at him a little more, even giving his cheek a playful bite.

Badd shoves him away from his face with a snort, laughing when he goes in again and gently bites his entire nose. Zenko goes out of the tent in her jammies, wise enough to get out of their way as they tussle around the floor of the tent for a minute — Garou trying to get his licks in, literally, and Badd making a show of trying to get away. “Yer’ a goddamn menace,” he huffs, but he eventually comes to a stop and gives Garou a little attention, gaining a pleased hum.

“Big Bro!” Zenko calls from outside, sticking her head in the tent to find Garou halfway inside Badd’s t-shirt and Badd with his legs around Garou’s hips. “I gotta’ go- . . . Hey, no fighting!”

“We’re not fighting,” Garou muffles from between his tits.

“Then no kissing!”

“Butt out, you!” he blurts, popping out, and then lets out a whine when Badd starts getting up to stretch.

“Sorry Sis, you need the bathroom? One sec’, I’m comin'.”  

Badd takes her out to the bath facilities and waits for her to come back so he can leave her with Garou while he showers. While he’s in there, Garou tries the door, but Badd sends him out. Not before Garou can reach in and pinch him on the ass while he's trying to style his hair though — “Watch Zenko!”

That day is fun. They hike out on a different trail, taking a path that winds through the cliffs and gives a great view of the mountainside.

Garou stays on the path this time but he keeps wandering ahead of them, poking his head into holes in the rocks, looking for animal burrows — or else, he climbs up on things that he shouldn’t.

“You are such a bad influence,” Badd groans as Garou scrambles up onto a tall rock mound lining the path, straightening up and looking out over the edge once he reaches the top. Zenko keeps wanting to climb a little bit too, but Badd holds her hand stubbornly and won’t let her climb farther than she can reach.

"We can't both be a good influence. How else is she gonna' know right and wrong?"

"Dude, that... doesn't make sense . . . Wait," he considers, and in the meantime, Garou keeps wandering higher up.

"Badd. I'm kidding, don't hurt yourself."

"You don't hurt yourself!" Badd blurts indignantly when he realizes he was messing with him again.

In the end he lets Garou get away with doing what he wants, the fucking spider, because he’s trying to have some patience. They’re not allowed to climb on the rocks because there’s the danger of falling to one’s death or starting a rockslide, but he doesn’t nag about it too much. He knows that if Garou brazenly misbehaves out in the open like that, it’s almost always just for show or a reaction from him. If Badd’s in a mood where breaking stupid little rules annoys him, Garou kicks it into high gear just to tease him. When Badd chills out, Garou does too.

Besides, he’s starting to feel a little bad about getting such a temper last night. Maybe he really is being too uptight. Garou had probably just wanted to make out or something, y’know, get a little attention, and he’d gone and invited Zenko into their sleeping bag and shut that right down. Sure he’d been mad about Garou scaring him, but he’s probably overreacting. Garou screws around, it’s not like that’s new — it's how he plays. In a way it's a loving gesture, as fucked up as that is, and Badd can just as easily choose to go along with it and laugh about his antics as he can get angry, so why not enjoy himself instead of stressing out. It’s supposed to be vacation.

It’s still making him a little nervous seeing him up there though. It’s not like Badd could catch him if he slipped. Not that he’s ever once seen Garou lose his balance in the entire time he’s known him.

But still. He’s so long and lanky and he’s jumping around up there like there isn’t a mile-long drop down a steep rocky slope beneath him.

If he falls down towards the path, he’ll just bust his ass and Badd’ll laugh at him, ‘cause that’s what he gets. If he falls the other way, he’ll break every stupid bone in his stupid body and die.

When Garou climbs up to a peak that Badd has to tip his head back a little to see the top of, he really starts to squirm. Garou’s got his phone out and is taking a clip of the view, crowing that it’d be great if they’d come up here with him for a picture. Badd stubbornly remains on the solid path with Zenko, watching him.

Then he goes higher, standing up on this tiny platform that gave him room for both feet and that’s it, the fearless idiot.

“G, get away from there!” Badd calls, feeling his gut twist. He doesn’t want Zenko to see Garou hurt himself, she’ll cry — and if the fall is nasty enough, he might too.

Hearing the strain in his voice, Garou looks over his shoulder at them, turning around with a delighted grin, because he’s just found another way to make Badd lose his hair.

“Oh no!” he shouts dramatically. “Oh no, I’m gonna’ fall!”

He pinwheels his arms wildly, one leg in the air like he’s trying to balance. Zenko gasps. “Babe, quit—”

“Wah!” Garou cries in a short burst, lurching backwards, and Badd jolts, throat going dry. Zenko lets out a short terrified screech, but Garou sets his foot back down with ease, satisfied with spooking them, and starts to laugh.

Badd has a conniption fit. “Stop screwing around!”

"Garou-bro! You dummy!" Zenko yells, stomping her foot.

Garou picks at his ear. “Quit yelling or you’ll start a rockslide,” he warns. Badd squeezes Zenko’s hand and tries to chill out.

“Why not get down, Slim Shady. We’re impressed, okay? Now quit tryina’ make me worry about you.”

“Aw, you care about me or somethin’?” Garou grins, looming over them.

“Don’t get a big head. I don’t wanna’ get in trouble with the rangers because a’ you.”

Garou crosses his arms with a scoff. “What’re they gonna’ do.” He eyes Zenko suddenly, grinning real wide in that way that spells mischief. “Now the Goatman, I’d be worried about him—”

“Aw, give it a rest already,” Badd groans, but Garou’s already spun around again.

“I wanna’ set up the camp out here,” he says. “I bet we’ll see the full moon perfectly tonight.” He poses with his hands on his hips, looking towards the horizon.

“Whatever,” Badd sighs, smiling a little, ‘cause he’s a terror but he sure is cute. “Get down here, sexy.”

Garou hops down, thank the lord.

Once Zenko’s tired out from their trek through the mountains, they head back to camp and bum around in the jungle-gym area while Zenko plays with her new friends. Garou’s sitting on a swing, completely spacing out, looking into the woods. Badd's gotten comfortable on a park bench behind him, occasionally reaching out with his foot to nudge him in the back and push him on the swing.

“Wanna’ try building a fort back home?” he raised in a conciliatory manner, remembering what he’d said yesterday. He feels a little bad, because this whole trip he's pretty much been making Garou do what they want and shooting down all his, admittedly rotten, ideas.

“You don’t have a yard,” Garou replied after a few more silent beats staring at the trees. He sticks his tongue out at Badd over his shoulder, pushing himself off and swinging a couple strokes before stopping himself by standing up. Then he picks his legs up and lets himself fall, gliding down in a tight arc. Badd wonders if he’ll try to launch himself out. He’s too tall for this thing — he rocks the whole damn swingset.

“Yeah well… Blankets and chairs?”

“Hmm,” Garou considers, letting the swing carry him a few more strokes until it came to a slow stop. Badd gets up and sits on the empty seat next to him and tries to see what he’s looking at in the woods, but there’s just trees. He accepts one of Garou’s fingers into his palm when it comes searching.

That night, they lay out and eat hot marshmallows under the stars again. The moon is full and gorgeous and the fire is cozy. Garou’s been good for the rest of the day. For one thing, he’s finally shut up about the fucking Goatman.

Zenko goes to sleep before them, so they stay up around the fire and talk. Garou cracks a beer and they look at the sky together and talk about the logistics of setting up the tent on the roof back home — or put some bedmats up there or something, just so they could lay out under the stars, maybe make out up there on a warm night.

Badd teases Garou about being a wild man and that he’ll start to stink after two days hiking with no shower, but Garou just puts his nose in the air and pulls the ‘I-lived-on-the-streets’ card. “Don’t talk to me about smelling bad until you’ve slept in a moldy shack in week-old bandages.” Badd rolls his eyes.

“Want summa’ this?” Garou offers the rest of his drink. He’s recently twenty and really enjoying it. Badd’s own birthday’ll come around soon, but not yet.

“Nah. Gotta’ set an example for Zenko.”

“She’s asleep. How’s she gonna’ know.” Garou’s breath is sweet. He looks really warm like that, the fire glowing on his cheek and coloring his pale hair. Badd cracks a smile. “I won’t tell anyone Metal Bat was drinking underage.” He smirks, eyes twinkling.

“You’re like, six months older than me.”

“Whatever.” Garou drinks the last of it and then leans in towards him. “Just take a taste then.”

        He kisses him. It’s nice.

  Badd wakes up needing to pee.

He sits up in a daze, yawning, and pushes his bangs back from his forehead where they’ve come loose. He pulls himself out of the warm nest of sleeping bags where he’d been cuddled up with his boyfriend, careful not to jostle him or baby sis on the way out. He gets out of the tent as quietly as he can, stumbling around in his t-shirt and boxers.

He’s sleepy, so it doesn’t cross his mind to make the walk to the bathroom facilities at the main camp. He just walks out into the woods a little ways from their campsite with his sandals on. Eyes barely open, he pees against a tree, aiming away from his feet.

He’s just about shaking off when he picks his head up and stares directly into two glowing yellow eyes.

Instantly awake, he flails and falls back on his ass in a bush — because for a second, he thought he saw horns.

But it’s just Garou hanging from a branch upside-down in front of him.

He’d been too relaxed and dazed to really be thinking about anything, so the way that had come out of nowhere really got him. Holy shit that had freaked him out. He hadn’t even heard Garou get out of the tent, and all those goddamn stories about the Goatman had really made him think for a second that it had come to get him—

Badd is fucking fed up. Garou’s been trying to scare him all fucking weekend, and by now he was so pissed off that he’d managed to get to him this badly that when Garou gets down, laughing it up, Badd gives chase, tearing after him through the trees and finally just tackles him in a wild leap.

He sends them tumbling into the sticks and leaves, scratching them both up on the way down. Badd grabs him by the fucking throat and starts shaking him back and forth, banging him against the ground in his rage. Garou’s laughing his head off, not even fighting him or worrying about biting his tongue with the way Badd’s throwing him around.

Badd eventually tires, sitting on Garou’s middle, panting. He blows upwards to move his bangs off his face. There’s a leaf in his hair. “I hope I knocked you inna’ my piss,” he grumbles. “That’d serve you right.” 

“Hey, you know what?” Garou says, eyes still glittering the way a wolf’s do in the dark.

“What, you piece of shit.”

“This trip was kinda’ fun,” he cackles, remorseless. Badd’s cheeks puff as he just barely holds in a bellow of absolute fury.

He balls up his fist and tries to punch him in the face, but Garou rolls, laughing wildly when Badd’s hand sinks into the ground next to his head. “You make me so fucking mad,” he seethes. “Getting your rocks off on being a cheap jumpscare.” He swings and swings, but he gets half-hearted about it, because Garou’s grinning that shit-eating grin of his, but it’s more gleeful than usual. His eyes are sparkling, and each time he dodges, he leans in more and more towards him.

“Was I good?” he says at last, smiling.

Badd pants, shoulders dropping. “. . . Yeah,” he mutters eventually, because he was. “Bastard,” he breathes.

And they lean into each other. Garou sits up to meet him as he moves forward to brush his nose to Garou’s. “The bullshit I put up with,” he gripes, winding a hand into Garou’s crazy thatch of hair. “I love you.”

Garou’s still snickering a little, humming and rubbing noses with him as they kiss. He loops his arms around Badd’s back and enjoys having him in his lap. Badd sighs, placated, because he’s a total piece of shit, but he’s cute, isn’t he. He drives Badd up the fucking wall but he can’t imagine not loving him.

He’s kissing on Badd’s neck a little bit, really getting into it for being outside in the woods at the dead of night after having just gotten the drop on his boyfriend taking a leak against a tree.

“Wanna’ do it?” Garou breathes, husky and eager.

“What, outside?” Badd mumbles, tipping his head back as Garou nips at his throat.

“Sex is made for outside.”

“Uh-huh,” he muttered dubiously, but made no move to stop him, letting his eyes fall closed. Garou’s teeth graze his shoulder playfully.

“You think makin’ love under the full moon’ll turn us into werewolves?” He sounds way too excited about that prospect, squeezing and cuddling on him. Badd snorts.

“Chasin’ me in the woods… Is this you bein’ romantic?” he realizes. Garou shows his teeth, crooked smile, bright eyes.

“You like it?” he breathes. Badd feels a swell of affection despite himself. Yeah, he does like it. Loveable jerk.

“We should go back.” He made no move to get up, because Garou’s in that rare lovey mood and hell if he’s going anywhere. “I’m already getting bugbites.”

“Zenko’ll wake up,” Garou hummed — as if Badd would actually let him do it in the tent where his little sister’s sleeping. He puts a hand behind Badd’s head to press him forward, mouth against his neck.

“Yeah no shit, I meant to sleep.”

“Play with me for awhile,” Garou breathes into the shell of his ear, getting him to shiver.

“I dunno’, I’m not so hot about the idea of gettin’ stuffed while I’m layin’ in the dirt, Babe.” He’s still pretty young and easily worked up but he knows how intense Garou gets and if he lets him go at him on the ground right here, he’ll just throw out his back — and Badd’s not about that life.

“Then let’s do it standing up.” Garou’s really into it, and Badd’s starting to feel it too. The idea of messing around out in the woods under the moon is pretty hot.

“Naw, I feel exposed out in the open—”

“Then get on top an’ I’ll lay down.” He’s panting for it, laying back and pulling Badd with him into the leaves. A laugh bursts out of him because he loves the look on Garou’s face, excited and gleeful.

He doesn’t know how serious Garou is about going all the way outside, but Badd doesn’t see anything wrong in going along with it for now. How’s he gonna’ turn his nose up at getting some alone time to make out with his boyfriend.

Garou’s hands dig into his back, his hips, his ass, tangle in his hair as they kiss. He sucks Badd’s tongue across the points of his teeth, his mouth cool and smooth against his own. Badd gropes at him eagerly and groans; his boyfriend’s body is unreal. “Hmmm,” Garou sighs, sliding down to bite Badd’s chin and drag his teeth down his throat. “You sure you don’t wanna’ fuck out here?” He’s feeling at the seam of Badd’s ass through his underwear, reaching around his back with his hand.

“Don’t make us the nasty teenagers who get caught doing it in a bush,” Badd says, but he’s a little out of breath.

“Whether we’re caught or not, we’re still teens in a bush, so I dunno’ what your damage is—”

“Garou—” He sputters a laugh. Garou grins and sucks on his throat with relish, licking back up to his mouth.

“C’mon, I’m so horny for you. Fuck, you look hot like this—” Garou traces the moonlight hitting his cheek and then seizes him in another enthusiastic kiss. Badd’s getting pretty turned on too, so he deigns to grind on him a little, groaning into Garou’s mouth. “Mm, yeah baby,” he growls, standing the hair up on Badd’s neck, because he calls Garou pet names all the time, but Garou only ever reciprocates during sex — hearing it is a total thrill.

“What about just the tip?” he negotiates jokingly. Badd starts to laugh, and they grope and cuddle a little more, shoving around in the leaves.

“What if you get poison ivy in your dick.” Garou snorts into his mouth when he says that, but then pulls back thoughtfully.

“... If I fucked you with poison ivy dick do you think you’d get it in your asshole?” Badd throws his head back and laughs.

‘God I’m sweet on you. You fucking crazy man.’ Garou lights up in a grin when Badd keeps laughing, and he rears up to kiss under his ear, cuddling him and and grinding their hips together a little more.

Trying to stop laughing, soft moans breaking through as Garou enthusiastically feels him up, Badd replies, “I think—”

  A branch snaps near them and they both freeze.

For a second he really thinks they have been caught by some other campers, but there’s no flashlight and no other noise that follows. They lay there on the ground in a loose embrace, on their asses in the leaves, listening for anything else.

Garou slowly picks his head up from Badd’s neck, staring towards the source of the sudden sound. Badd can’t see anything three yards from them, the moonlight only cutting down to the forest floor in sparse patches that make it through the canopy above. It’s another still night other than the occasional light breeze, so it hasn’t been completely quiet, but they still should’ve been able to hear anything coming up on them — something big had snapped that branch.

Garou’s holding stock-still, staring fixedly at something just beyond some trees beside them. He’s holding onto Badd, wide-eyed and motionless. Badd’s about to whisper something to the effect of, ‘what was that,’ because he would’ve brushed it off as some animal wandering around catching them off guard, but Garou looks spooked, meaning it’s not an animal.

Staring into the darkness where Garou’s looking, Badd finally sees something getting closer. A few seconds later, he recognizes the vague shape of a monster coming out of the trees, and for a second, Badd forgets that he kills them every day. Maybe it’s because Garou built it up so much telling those stupid stories or because he doesn’t have his bat with him, or maybe it’s because it’s night time and he can’t fucking see what’s happening, but whatever it is, seeing that thing looming out of the pitch blackness, he feels scared out of his fucking mind.

A thrill of pure terror shoots up his spine as he sees the yawning abyss of a deer skull come floating from between the trees, dead dark eyes and crooked antlers, and a second later he catches sight of the disgusting twisted body below, moving it through the woods towards them on hind legs.

It stops short of the small clearing they’d flattened out during their makeout and stares out at them, and Badd’s heart leaps into his throat as it cocks its head — but it doesn’t stop there. The skull just keeps rotating, making a full three-sixty like a doorknob being turned.

“Is that…?” Garou whispers, and there’s a definite note of dread there, which freaks Badd out worse than anything. Garou never gets scared.

As soon as Garou speaks, the thing moves, crawling up the side of a tree like a fucking spider, spine and limbs bending backwards as it sticks its head upside down to peer at them — it’s fucking sick.

Badd’s a pro hero, he faces monsters daily, but right then, he’s a little kid who still plays T-ball and wets the bed and cries over the thing in his closet. The fucking Goatman came up on them in the woods, deer head and fucked-up disjointed humanoid body and all, and fucking crawled up a tree sideways like some nightmare creature.

It lets out this high-pitched rattling noise, and Badd screams at the top of his lungs, “Holy crap, it’s real!”

They finally burst apart and scramble to their feet, losing sight of the thing as it climbs away, an eerie howling emanating from the surrounding trees. Badd knows immediately that Garou’s not fucking with him this time because he looks equally as spooked. His hackles are raised and he looks paler than usual, probably freaked out by being caught off guard more than anything. Or maybe it’s because he’s never heard Badd scream like that before.

As quickly as it had come up on them, it disappeared, this weird echo of a howl floating around them like it’s traveling on the wind. They stand back to back, staring around them silently, panting, fists at the ready.

“What the fuck—” Badd whispers.

“Shhh,” Garou hushes, looking around, glowing eyes frantically zipping from tree to tree.

“Zenko,” he realizes with a lurch of dread.

“Badd, shut up.”

“Zenko’s alone.”

Badd’s blood curdles when he suddenly hears it again, this chilling voice drifting out of the trees. He can’t tell where it’s coming from, but it’s unmistakable — “Human monster.” Garou goes stock-still, but Badd bristles, heaving with adrenaline.

     “Did you think it was over?”   That chills his fucking blood, which in turn, enrages him.

“You fucking freak! Show your fucking face, you piece a’ shit!” he hollers into the trees.

“Badd,” Garou says suddenly, expression grim, “Get back to the tent.”

“What?” Badd looks around, breathing heavily, and he’s about to give him a piece of his mind, who the fuck does he think he is, sending him to safety while he fights on his own — but Garou’s not with him. He’s gone.

“Garou?!” he calls, losing his shit. “What the fuck, get back here! Where are you!”

He can’t see anything, he’s alone in the woods. Oh shit, did that thing get him? Or did Garou just fucking leave him! Hell if he’s going back to the tent without him — he isn’t even positive he can find it on his own.

Suddenly he hears yowling up ahead and a violent scuffle, like they’re throwing each other into trees and dragging through the underbrush, locked together.

Gritting his teeth, Badd snaps a thick branch off a fallen log and growls, “If you two are trying to out-monster each other, I’m gonna’ flip my shit.”

He heads after the commotion, doing his best to follow through the pitch black woods, but he can’t see where Garou and the freak-deer are, the moon not doing much to help him in such a densely forested patch. His sandals keep getting caught on sticks but he doesn’t slow down, running through the woods after the noise, blood pumping at the sound of vicious snarling and sudden sharp cracks, like they were blowing trees apart—

Badd follows for what felt like ages, heart in his throat, because Garou hadn’t finished it yet. He rarely had this much trouble with a bothersome monster unless it was serious. He tries to catch up, but they wander further and further until he realizes that he’s being led out to the cliffs. He can finally see somewhat, the moonlight piercing through the trees as they grew sparser and finally parted into smooth ground broken only by boulders. Badd can see them fighting up there, two dark figures lit from behind by the moon.

It’s a tangle of limbs and crazed howling that he can’t pick apart. He speeds up, feet hitting the ground heavily as he met up with a gravel path cutting through the wilderness.

He skidded to stop suddenly, heart freezing — everything is silent for a second as he sees something fall.

Then a blood-curdling scream pierces the night, echoing across the mountainside. It’s the scream of someone plummeting to their death. It melts away, drowned out by the sound of rocks crumbling and skittering over the peak and crashing down into the depths below. 

Badd cuts across, bursts out of the trees, and runs out there to the edge. The moon is a bright dot in the sky, illuminating the cliffside he stands on, but below him he can’t make sense of anything. He looks around frantically, trying to see, trying to pick individual rocks apart, his heart pounding so hard that he can feel it in his eyes and his lips and his throat.

And then suddenly he realizes with a lurch that Garou’s the one who fell.

Because the creature is right there, perched on an outcropping of rock some ways above him. It’s just looking at him, crouching sideways on the wall, all long and twisted out of shape, and as he stares, its head twists upside down, eyesockets glowing white. For a second he’s paralyzed, so creeped out that he can’t react.

The echo of that terrible scream finally dies and like a switch being flipped, Badd stops feeling scared and is overcome by blood-boiling rage. He spits in his palm and lowers his weight, staring the thing down.

When it comes at him in a flash, he roars and starts beating it with the branch. He’s so fucking berserk that he can’t even remember why he was scared of this fucking freak of nature, all he can think of is wrath, revenge, make you pay for this, pay for him, gone because of you, fuck you—

He’s got it on the ground and just wails on it, the wood splintering after two blows and leaving him to hit it with his fists, frenzied— Blood is spurting onto his hands as the hard bone of its skull breaks his skin, but he just punches it and beats it into the ground and screams in rage until he shatters it.

He gets up from its mangled corpse and stumbles off a few steps. He spits and wipes his face. 

Then he starts walking along the cliff, sniffling and trying to find his way, looking in vain for a way down. He knows that he can’t climb down in the dark without really hurting himself, and then Zenko really will be alone, but he has to do something. He has to go down there and find where his boyfriend fell, find his body and recover it.

He’s probably alive. He could have survived the fall if he’d managed to control the landing, but he probably still had a broken spine, broken legs. He could have hit his head on a rock and splattered his brains out or knocked himself into a coma.

Badd doesn’t call out. He doesn’t want to hear silence echoing back, so he just stumbles around in the dark all alone, face sticky with the blood he kept smearing there from his hands in an effort to wipe his eyes. At last he finds a small gully and maneuvers down into it, leaning out over the edge as far as he dared.

He thinks he can see something down there this time, strewn some hundred yards below him on a wide slab of rock jutting out where the slope started to taper slightly, and for a second he thinks that the freak-deer had somehow survived and reconstituted itself, because it doesn’t look so different. There’s long dark limbs and he thinks he sees horns, but as he tries to focus on it, his vision fuzzy from so far away in the dim light, he leaps back in a hurry.

He nearly jumps out of his skin as whatever it is down there starts letting rip these wordless animalistic howls. It’s this deep soul-wrenching scream like he’s never heard in his life. Badd’s come across some pretty nasty monsters before, but these wails — they’re inhuman.

He leans out again for another look, and suddenly makes sense of these yellow pinpricks pointed up towards him. Is that... Garou? — it can’t be Garou. That thing isn’t Garou.

When Badd’s head comes into view again, tall, dark, nightmare man loses his fucking mind.

“You! Fuck you!” he roars, absolutely anguished, screaming like he’s trying to draw blood, shredding his throat up. He threw himself against the wall and grappled it desperately, dragging himself up from rock to rock.

“Garou?” Badd called uncertainly, and the screaming stops.

The twin lights blink, and suddenly Badd can see his face a little clearer, like the shadow had receded. His head glows in the light of the moon, reflecting off his pale face and white hair. His arms and legs, dark slashes across the rocky cliffside a moment ago, are human.

“Badd?” His normal voice is almost small by comparison. It is him.

“Garou!”

“Badd? Badd!” Garou calls, and he suddenly understands. Garou must’ve thought it had gotten him.

He’d heard everything — his fit of rage in beating that thing to death, the ensuing silence, all of it. He’d thought he was being brutally murdered up there, and when he’d looked out over the top of the cliff, backlit by the moon, he must’ve looked completely black, like the creature.

Badd skids down a little ways and tries to steady himself by holding onto a tree root. He leans out and holds out his arm. “Can you reach me? Take my hand.” He stays there as Garou climbs up slowly beneath him, gripping one rock and then the next, at last able to reach for him.

He takes his wrist, warm and slick with blood as he pulls him up. He drags him back and tows him up with him until their bodies meet. Then he hauls him over the edge and onto flat ground and they land in a heap. Garou collapses against him and just stays there in his arms, panting, face in Badd’s chest. He’s trembling, ever so slightly.

Badd holds him, haunted by those tortured screams of grief and rage. He can feel blood soaking into his t-shirt where fingers dig into his back. Garou’s hands are ripped apart. He’d tried to get to him. He’d heard him fighting and had tried to drag himself back up there so he could come help him.

“I saw you fall,” he rasped, mouth in Garou’s hair.

Honestly that’s what had really scared the piss out of him the most. He’d really thought for a second that he was gone. Stupid, because he’d seen Garou beat to complete shit before — stupid, but he’d thought it. The slipping sound and the dark shape of a body cutting through the open sky as it dropped like a stone, he’d really thought he was gone.

That one had really got him good.

“Was fine. Just got trapped under a rock,” Garou mumbles into his front, voice low and gravelly. He must’ve been in monster form during the fall to be in this good a’ shape.

“For a second I thought it mighta’ got you,” he breathes, so faintly that Badd could hardly hear him.

“Same.”

And they hug each other like that, sitting there in the gravel before the endless sky and the wide open mountainside. They look out at the moon together, big and heavy in the cloudless night.

“Did you get it?” is the first thing Garou says once he’s composed himself.

“It’s gone.”

They’re quiet for a long time.

One thing Badd can’t stop thinking about is — “Why did that guy talk like he knew you.” Garou’s silent, which only confirmed his suspicions. Whatever this beef was, it had sounded personal.

“Did you know it was out there, the first night?” Badd figures out. “Izzat’ why you were outta’ the tent?” He’d always figured Garou had ripped the bag down and had been behind all those attempts at scaring him, but now he’s not so sure.

He thinks of those fucking deer skulls showing up everywhere and shudders. Maybe it really had been the same one all along.

“Holy shit. Holy shit,” he keeps repeating. Maybe it’s the shock wearing off. “What the fuck. Shit was absolutely buttfuck crazy. What the fuck was that thing.”

“I never met that dickweed in my life,” Garou grumbles, denying it completely. He sounds back to normal at least, but the way he’s still clinging onto him gives him away.

“Well he sure knew who you were.”

“Yeah well. Lotsa’ people do,” he mutters with a little of that cocky spirit that would normally have Badd irritated.

“Are they still after you?” Badd asks grimly, because everyone and their mom knows about the HA being after Garou. It hadn’t occurred to him that monsters were pissed off with him too.

“There’s no they anymore,” Garou finally sighs, when he sees he can’t get out of this conversation. “They’re unorganized without Orochi, so there’s no real danger of them working together and pulling off something crazy,” he brushes off, but admits, “—But a lotta’ them still want me dead.”

Badd’s brows furrow. “Ya’ never said.”

“Don’t worry about it. They only come at me individually, so it’s never an issue — kinda’ pathetic, actually. Just didn’t expect to come across something way out here in the sticks.”

“What the fuck do they want from you?” Badd tries to understand. It’s not like Garou’s an official hero, so there’s no reason for the monsters to target him, really. They’d tried to recruit him, for cornsake.

“Ah. They’re bitter, y’know?” Garou says. “Betrayed my own kind.”

“You’re not a monster,” Badd grits out, making him look him in the eye, because he fucking hates when Garou says stuff like that. "You’re not a monster, so it’s not a betrayal." 

Garou stares at him wordlessly, wearing the same old expression he always gets when Badd says that to him, like he doesn’t believe him but is more surprised that Badd believes it. Eventually he puts his hands up to the sides of Badd’s face and sighs, just staring into his eyes. His finger traces the curve of his cheek and Garou shakes his head, as if to say, ‘you’re something else.’

At last he mutters, “Sorry it ruined your weekend. I know you guys were looking forward to it.” He’d actually apologized. Badd stared at him as he grimaced and pulled his ear a little, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with affection. “I’ve been kind of a dick—” Badd grabs his chin and kisses him.

Garou relaxes into it after a second and then wraps his arms around him, kissing back with a sigh of passion. They embrace like that under the night sky for a long time.

“Damn,” Badd huffs when they break apart for a second to catch their breaths. “Look at that moon.” They both look, sitting on the ground together not far from the ledge, the open sky one clear swathe above the mountain range below them. The moon’s hanging in the sky, humongous and bright as a lightbulb. “Kinda romantic.”

Garou doesn’t reply, but he seems absurdly pleased.

“You coulda’ just told me you wanted a’ mess around,” Badd says with a grin, because he’s a total sucker for Garou’s ‘little boy annoying his crush’ tactics. Garou turns away, nose in the air. “Instead a’ tryina’ make me shit all weekend.”

To be fair, if Garou had been direct, Badd wouldn’t have agreed. So he’d just picked and teased him instead, looking for attention because he wanted a way to spend a night with Badd under the full moon. “You’re kinda’ sweet sometimes, aren’tcha.”

Garou seizes him, gripping him under the arms tightly. “I knew some fucking taxidermy gone wrong couldn’t end you.” He squeezes him under the armpits a couple times, as if to tickle him. “Even you’re not that pitiful.”

“Who’s the one who couldn’t finish the job ‘cuz he got thrown off a cliff?”

“Hey, I woulda’ gotten him.” Garou licks his teeth. He gives a cocky grin and brags, “We both know who’s the scariest in these woods.”

    God, he’s so into this guy.


“C’mere,” Badd breathes, and then grins into a kiss.

They make out for a minute and then all of a sudden Garou slides an arm under his knees and scoops him up. He stands up and spins him around and around under the moon, laughter echoing down the cliffside. Badd starts laughing too, hanging onto his shoulders.

It’s really late and they almost just died so they’re feeling a little drunk off it. Plus, they’re teenagers — so basically they just start goofing around like idiots.

Garou keeps toting him around, holding him up with ease and whirling them until they’re stumbling in dizzied circles.

He stops and glances down when they come across some pieces of skull. “Ew.” Garou kicked it and they watched it skitter out over the edge of the cliff and fall into the abyss.

Badd cupped his hands around his mouth and shouts, “Fuck you, Goatman!”

“Fuck you!” Garou agreed, lit up in surprise and glee, as he always did when Badd loosened up and screwed around with him.

He kisses Badd on the mouth and then rips away. He throws his head back and honest-to-god howls like a wolf. “Awoooo— Ow-ow-owww!”

“Oh my god, shut up, you’re so extra,” Badd scolds, but can’t fight a smile, because it’s nice to see him that pumped up. Garou finally sets him down, grinning his ass off.

“Would you have fallen for me if I was basic?”

“Naaahhhh.” Badd grins. “Catch.” He throws the last piece of skull in the air and then watches as Garou spins and kicks it past the sound barrier. A few seconds later they hear the tiny noise of it bouncing down the mountainside in the distance, and then some more crumbling rocks.

“Piece a’ shit!” Badd calls after it. Garou throws a hand out in front of his chest.

“Badd, shut up!”

Rocks are falling from all their stupid yelling, and they hightail it back into the safety of the woods. “Oh shit!”

A deer bolts out from the trees and they both leap a mile and let out matching high-pitched screams — “Yipe!”

They stare at each other in the dark as the rocks settle and the deer bounds away down the path.

      “. . . I won’t tell if you don’t.”

They headed back together in the dead of night. It’s probably about three in the morning by now and they’re lost. Badd has no idea where they are. They’d run too far away from their campsite on the way out to the cliffs and on the way back, they’d somehow lost the trail.

Badd trudges along through the dark, occasionally yelping when his foot landed on something sharp — he’d lost his shoes earlier in the scuffle with deer-head guy. He’s so burnt out he can barely keep his eyes open, and it’s just as well because he can’t see shit. Garou walks ahead of him, holding his hand and leading him through the trees. Badd’s not convinced he’s taking them anywhere, but he keeps plodding along regardless.

It feels like they’ve been walking for hours. Garou occasionally stops and tells him to wake up. Badd’ll open his eyes and see Garou standing next to him, squinting and looking around thoughtfully, and then they’ll change direction and start walking again.

Badd doesn’t talk, stumbling along after him and dozing even though he’s sure they’re wandering lost. All that’s keeping him awake is the thought of Zenko alone out there. What if she’d woken up and realized she was by herself. What if she’s scared and crying all alone in the tent?

Suddenly, they’re back at the campsite.

Badd doesn’t know if he zoned out or what, but one second to the next, they’re walking through the trees and then they come out into the clearing next to their tent. Garou gives a triumphant smirk and winds the crank-lantern for a little light. They use a water bottle to wash off Badd’s smeared face and his blood-encrusted bashed-up fists. Garou washes his hands too, but under the dried blood, the cuts and the ground-up nails and fingertips from before are gone. He’s totally fine — even though he fell off a fucking mountain and was crushed under a boulder. Figures.

“Zenko, you awake?” Badd calls softly, just in case she was up and was totally spooked being by herself and hearing guys walking around the tent, but she doesn’t answer, so they creep inside and get in the sleeping bags.

Badd conks out almost immediately, but he’s pretty sure that Garou doesn’t fall asleep all night, because he can vaguely feel him shifting and occasionally picking his head up at the slightest noise from outside. His cold arms wrap around him and Zenko like the straining coils of a snake, but Badd rests peacefully, feeling completely secure.

In the morning, Zenko is alert and chirpy, and is dancing on top of them in an attempt to wake them so they can all get up and play. They’re both exhausted, side by side and dead to the world — until her feet sink and jab into them as she bounces around.

“Oof!” Garou coughs in surprise, groaning.

Badd throws his arm over his eyes, grumbling, and then curls up in pain, rolling into Garou for protection, finding that he’s also rolled onto his stomach and pulled the sleeping bag over his head.

“Ow! Aw, Sis… Right in the gut.”

Once they’re up and eating breakfast, both feeling like zombies while Zenko swings her legs merrily and chatters with some nearby kids, Badd and Garou both flop into their plates a couple times.

“What happened to your hands?”

“Oh,” Garou hummed, letting out a huge tongue-curling yawn. “The Goatman showed up last night.” His eyes flash as he wakes up a little more, smirking.

“What!” she gasps. “You seen him?!”

“Yeah, he was terrifying. Huge antlers. Badd was freaking out, but I fought him off—”


    “Hey! What are you telling her!”