Work Text:
Tsukkishima's pov:
"Camp?" I already despised the wretched idea my brother had suggested, his luminescent personality contrasted against my own.
"Yes! Mom signed you up for summer camp!"
My entire core had been tazed with the shocking news. I was set to leave first thing tomorrow morning with no time to properly pack and zero chance to fully process the information. They were sending me away on a last minute's notice to galavant with total strangers for the rest of my summer vacation.
"This will be great for you, Kei." My brother drove me to some woodland area housing several cabins, stopping in front of the one I had been assigned to. Boys around my age wandered about the grounds, this was a nightmare and before I could protest I was being pulled out of the vehicle with my suitcase. "Mom did the same thing to me when I was your age.." My brother looked at me the slightest sliver of guilt in his eyes which was soon overtaken by his usual enthusiasm, "Well, goodbye!" He hoped in his car and sped off leaving me in the reminance of the dust swirling around me, filling my lungs and causing me to cough.
Within the swirling particles, a familiar yellow head with brown roots caught my eye, the settling dust revealed Kenma, one of my volleyball rivals from a team called Nekoma. He was alone and appeared to be struggling with his duffel bag, attempting to lug it up the dampened wood steps of a log cabin. I debated whether or not to help him for a moment, finally I swung my own bag over my shoulder and made my way towards the frustrated boy, kicking at the steps and then, grabbing at his leg which surged with pain. He hadn't even noticed me pick up his belongings with much ease.
As soon as, he realized who I was and what I was doing he crossed his arms over his chest and pouted, "I had it."
I threw the bag back at him causing him to fall backwards, "Do you now?"
He lay atop the dirt, shooting a glare in my direction. I picked up the bag once more throwing onto my free shoulder and lifted him up with one hand, he was quite small despite being a grade above me.
Once he was back on his feet balance regained, he shoved past me and up the steps, leading up to the elevated room, probably located off the ground to prevent indoor flooding seeing that even Summer wasn't driving away the rainy weather.
I ascended the steps; upon entering, Kenma was frantically searching for something, a look of terror on his face.
"What?" The room was as plain as could be, a bunk bed, a dresser, a simple restroom, why did he look so scared?
He looked around once more as if though, the answer were right in my face. He got up and snatched his bag away from me which I noticed was Sanrio like mine except his was Chococat and mine was Badtz-maru, both were black.
"There aren't any outlets!!"
"Oh?" Now that would be a problem, how would I charge my phone to text Yamaguchi??
"What am I going to do now??" Kenma unzipped his bag to reveal he had brought a plethora of game consuls, wires sticking out every which way. No wonder his bag weighed a ton.
"Did you not bring any clothes or toiletries?"
Kenma looked up at me, saddneded, shaking his head slowly & solemnly.
And here I thought I was the one unprepared for camp. This would be an issue.
A bell rang, indicating that it was time for dinner, the sound broke us free from our awkward silence. I began walking out the door, Kenma however, remained sat beside his luggage fiddling with the wires.
"You coming?"
He shook his head again, his silky blonde hair swaying back and forth now creating a curtain over his face.
"Suit yourself then, gamer boy." I walked out leaving Kenma to sulk pitifully.
I carefully walked down each step which was damped from the earlier morning rainfall, the boards creaking beneath my feet was quite unsettling. I wondered how old these cabins truly were if my parents & their parents had been coming here for generations. The cabins were spread far apart with lots of greenery between them. I hadn't realized how therapeutic nature was until my walk to the mess hall, I got to see a wide array of little woodland creatures & I desperately yearned to have the presence of my friend Yamaguchi beside me. No doubt he'd start giving each one a personalized name or maybe he'd even try to hold one of the many tiny lizards roaming around.
Once inside the mess hall I was greeted with the ruckus and complete chaos that came from the mingling of teenage boys. "So immature.." I commented under my breath as, I walked past a table where a group was speaking inappropriately of one of our female camp counselors. The type of talk that I never had much interest in thus, leading them to believe I was a homosexual and shunning me; it wasn't like that with my best friend Yamaguchi, he didn't make such a big fuss of whether I was or wasn't straight. In fact we actually never spoke on the matter.
I grabbed a tray and began serving myself x2. The food was the equivalent of school food, bland sandwiches with sides of potato wedges, fruits & veggies. And of course cartons of milk and juices. I sat in the midst of the craziness & instantly regretted it after one boy decided flinging a spoonful of yoghurt at his friend would be funny, the gooey substance landed on my face instead, dirtying one of my glass lenses in the process. I was fuming. "Hahaha, You good?" I packed up the food and left without saying another word. "I think he's mad at you, bro." one of them stated plainly as, I walked away with the food secured in a brown paper bag.
"I hate everyone here!!!" I yelled into the quiet abyss of the forest, only the dirt path and still cabins were illuminated by a warm yellow glow like the full moon above. The sound of my heavy breathing caused by the anger finally subsided & I could feel the eerie chill of the air surrounding me. Most of camp was still in the giant building situated several yards behind me. I clutched the bag of food tighter in my grip and cursed my family for forcing me into this crap. I stomped across the path filled with both fear and hate; something could easily jump out from the darkness and take me. Maybe then, my family would regret sending me to such a stupid place to waste my summer.
Of course my cabin had to be on the outskirts where the lit path ended & I couldn't even make out the cabin in the darkness. Then, it hit me, the lights weren't on in our cabin. Maybe Kenma got hungry and left? There was no one in the cabin if that was the case. I'd have the place to myself.
I climbed up the steps carefully, unable to properly see my footing one wrong step and I'd be sent tumbling down. Every plank made a distressed creaking sound as if though, it would snap. I finally made it to the door in one piece, I entered the dark room not expecting the force of an object colliding against my head, had something been thrown at me, I had no time to process what had occurred because, next thing my body hit the floor, my head hitting the door frame. double knockout.
I opened my eyes to find a figure hovering over me, I rose in a panic hitting against the other person's forehead. "Ow!" I heard Kenma shriek. I rubbed against my own forehead which was throbbing in pain. "What happened?" I sat up to make out the other still at my side with a guilty look plastered onto his face, "I thought you were an intruder so, I threw a shoe at you.."
Damn. No wonder it hurt ,but I wasn't going to let him know that so, I brushed it off and waved a hand in the air. "Whatever. Doesn't explain why you're in the complete darkness when we have lanterns."
Silence.
"I... I didn't know how to turn it on." Kenma scurried across the floor to bring me one. "There's no power switch or anything."
I took a lighter out from my pocket, with a few clicks a bright orb was formed, I brought the flame close to the wick until it caught fire. One little candle was enough to coat the room in a soft orange glow and a faint yet gleeful grin from the other boy. I wondered just how terrified he must have been waiting in the dark all alone- A rumbling sound emanated from Kenma who sat, once mesmerized by the fire's glow. I tried stifling my chuckle ,but the other was quick to snap at me, "Shut up or I'll throw another shoe at you!" I scanned the room for the bag which contained the food from earlier and brought it over to Kenma who was confused until reaching into the bag.
"Now I feel like a jerk." He adverted my gaze, still taking the food and eating and eating it in silence while I used up the last of my phone battery to play game in which you raise your own dinosaurs from an egg & battle them. Kenma looked over at my screen with wide eyes, "You have that game too!?" He leaned in closer to watch me play in offline mode since, our signal was trash. We bonded over the 2D creatures on my phone until at last it died & the screen faded to black bringing an end to our entertainment. I actually didn't know that he held the top battle score & I even learned some pointers from him. Hopefully I didn't geek out too much over it.
"So, you gonna be top or bottom tonight?"
"What!?!" It felt like a rug had been pulled from under me, the question causing me to panic until I turned noticed the bunk beds sat at the corner of the room, "Oh, I don't care."
A smirk crept across the other boy's face, "What was the panic for?" He made his way over to crawl in the bottom bunk still relishing in my struggle to respond.
"Aren't you going to change into warm clothes?" Changing the topic was my only salvation.
"I told you I didn't bring anything. I didn't believe my parents when they threatened to dump me here." He pulled the sheets over him prepared to sleep in jeans, the thought made me shiver at how uncomfortable that must be. "Here." I tossed a pair of pajamas onto him.
"What's this?" He sat up to examine the garments one adorned with little t-rex's, the other with a volleyball & the word "KARASUNO" printed in bold white lettering on the black tee. "Stop being nice to me! We're rivals!" He spat while changing into the clothes right there.
"Fine, give them back."
He put on the clothes and tucked himself back into bed without saying another word on the matter. True we were rivals on the volleyball court ,but I felt kind of sorry for him since we were both stuck in these unfortunate circumstances.