Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Everyone was rushing off to go deal with that stupid compy. Like, for real, Brooklynn really thought they were done with dinosaurs. A stowaway wasn’t really on her radar of possibilities. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted Darius and Kenji going at it. It did not look civil. Kenji's face was scrunched up madder than she had ever seen it,

“For once, when you have to do the right thing, I’d like to see you put this group first. Just once!” He yelled.

“Kenji!” She stepped forward. That was too far. Darius was always going way above and beyond for them at every turn - they would have had no idea how to survive without him. And yeah, the past couple of days had been really freaking scary but none of that was Darius’s fault.

Kenji glanced at her and then took himself up the ladder, back to captaining. Brooklynn was left with a distraught Darius. His face scrunched up and his hands balled into adorable little fists at his side.

“What if he’s right?” Darius said.

“No! We both know that you didn’t do anything wrong. I was the one who told you to go without me and I knew what the consequences might be when I did. There’s no way you are at fault. I trusted whatever plan you were bound to come up with.”

“But it’s a pattern now. I failed everyone when the Indominous first attacked, then I failed Ben, and everyone again with Tiff and Mitch by trusting them too much until it was too late, and then…”

“Not one of those times was you putting yourself above the group. Darius, listen to me, you are the most selfless and kind person I know. There are no lengths you wouldn’t go to so that everyone in a situation comes out okay. And sometimes that means you’re caught in tough decisions.”

“But—“

“There’s a reason you’re our leader, Darius. Not just anyone can keep this group of crazy kids in line.” She laughed and put her hand on his. “You’re too hard on yourself.”

A fraction of a smile flickered for just a moment. He accepted her hand and ran his anxious finger across her knuckles.

“Then, why is Kenji so mad at me? We were fine for ages.”

Brooklynn bit her lip, pondering for a second. Kenji had been super annoying when they first met, like really, really annoying. But recently, he was starting to develop into someone who cared a whole lot and it was plain to see that when he cared about someone, he would stop at nothing to make sure they were okay. Like, when Sammy was on the verge of death and Kenji looked like he was going to collapse at any moment.

And when you would do anything for someone, knowing they’re in an extremely dangerous situation is about the worst thing that could possibly happen. When Darius and Sammy were forced to work with Mitch and Tiff, Brooklynn didn’t know what to do with herself. She forced herself to focus on getting everyone back together, focus on getting the comms system up and running, focus on anything but thinking about how terrible it could go at any moment.

“He was just, really worried. I think anyway, I’m not in his head. Kenji has deep down, always been an over worrier. Honestly, sometimes it feels like he’s my honorary big bro or something.”

Darius pushed his head back, groaning. “Do you think he’s going to hate me forever?”

“Nah, he’ll come around,” she said, smiling at him. “I can go talk to him if you want.”

“No!” Darius clung to her hand.

“What?”

“Can you stay?”

“Um, sure?”

“Sorry, I just… I really need you here right now. The past couple days have been a total mess and Kenji saying those things was just too much. I think I need some time to just chill.”

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen with the compy running around. And knowing everyone else they might need your superior dinosaur skills to help catch it.”

“Can’t we ever get a break?”

“Yeah no, like that’s ever going to happen. Can you imagine any of us going to school or seeing so many people again? I have a feeling, it is not going to go well.”

He chuckled, still holding onto her hand. Honestly, she never wanted him to let go. She always got these warm and fuzzies whenever he was holding her. She felt safe around him. Everything bad didn’t matter when he was there.

Oh, and, her face was flushing.

Quickly, she glanced away.

“Is it bad that sometimes I don’t want to go home?” He asked.

Brooklynn looked back, curious. “Why?”

“I mean, I miss my mom and Brand a lot. But I don’t know how I’m going to adapt. Especially without you guys around. You just get me.”

“Oh yeah, totally. I was already weird enough when we moved and I had way too much trouble making friends.”

Darius’s jaw fell open.

“How do you think I have so much time to do YouTube?” She joked. “Now, I don’t know if I’ll ever fit in. And I’ll be all the way in England! I don’t think I could ever survive without you.”

“Sorry. I’m still caught on the fact that you had trouble making friends. I mean you can be a bit annoying,” he said, nudging her side. “But you’re the coolest, ultra-talented, and super funny, oh and way too confident for your own good.”

“Appreciate the ego boost.”

“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

“Well then, Darius Bowman. You are, the kindest person, a totally adorable nerd, the best at making plans, and honestly, the best hug giver that has ever graced our earth.”

“I doubt I’m the best.”

Before Brooklynn could get another word out, Ben came out of nowhere with a bucket in his hand and a pesky compy running ahead of him. “Get back here!”

Both of them pushed thieves against the side of the boat while Ben sprinted past. The rest of the world came back into focus and she realized that their fingers were still intertwined.

“Should we maybe sorta stop slacking and go help before something bad happens?” Darius said.

“Sure. I knew they wouldn’t be able to do it without you.”

Just before they ran off, she squeezed his hand again. Her face was bright red but she didn’t mind. In fact (and she really didn’t know how she hadn't seen this before) but Brooklynn was totally falling head over heels for Darius.

For a moment, she lingered, watching with a smile on her face. “Don’t ever change, DinoNerd.”

Chapter Text

Darius’s eyes refused to close. The fire had burned out a long time ago and the stars were making him dizzy. One thing people forgot about the desert - it gets just as cold in the night as it does hot in the day. The chill seeped into his bones while the constant ache in the rest of his body pressed on. Sometimes it felt like a million years since he last got sleep.

And yet his eyes still burned.

At least everyone was here together and relatively okay. Feeling like a group as well. It had been a while since he could say that. Sammy was feeling way better, Brooklynn was laying right next to him, and somehow, Kenji was back on his side. When those two got trapped down that cavern Brooklynn must have told him some magic words or something.

On the other hand, they were stuck on a whole new island and he had no idea how he was supposed to help them. Surviving in a luscious jungle with dinosaurs he knew a lot about was one thing, surviving in a desert was another entirely.

“You’re still awake, aren’t you?” Brooklynn whispered from next to him. Admittedly, he jumped a little. “Hey, no shame in that. I can’t sleep either.”

“I don’t know anything about this new island and—“

“You’ve been trying to stay strong for everyone but you feel like you have no idea what you’re doing?” Brooklynn rolled over, smirk evident on her face.

“Yeah…”

“I know you, DinoNerd. I was like, there is no way he isn’t freaking out over how to be our leader and make sure it goes well. He puts too much pressure on himself.”

“So what if I do?”

“I’ll tell you so what, if you’re up all night worrying then there’s no way you’re getting any sleep. Darius, you need to rest. We slept for what, three hours on the boat, and then before that, we were awake for like three days straight. Do you know what that can do to your brain? And we don’t even have coffee!”

“Fine, fine, I need sleep. At least I have an excuse. Why are you up, B?”

She hesitated, glancing his way and doing that adorable thing where she twirled a strand of hair. “I have something on my mind. It’s kinda stupid but it’s just been keeping me awake.”

“You wanna share with the class?”

Brooklynn turned away. She laughed to herself. “Nah, I think it’s a little too far on the dumb side for that. I don’t wanna make a fool out of myself to give you anything more to worry about.” Her shoulders were fully hunched into herself and by the end, she was starting to trail off into a mutter.

“Is it about what happened… you know?” Saying the word kidnapped made his insides twist. “Because if you’re still stressed about that then that’s perfectly fine. I know Kenji and I kinda made it about us.”

“No, no, it’s not that. I haven’t really thought about it, haven’t had much time.”

“I guess that’s a good thing.” On the one hand, he really, really, really hated the thought of Brooklynn being stressed about that (especially when the guilt was still eating him up inside.) He also massively rested the fact that they were here with a whole new batch of stresses to think about. There shouldn’t be this much shit in their lives. 

They should have been in Costa Rica right now, maybe even all the way in America or at least on a flight there. His brother and his mom would know that he was okay. He could rest easy knowing that everyone else was back home safe as well and he’d done a good enough job looking after them. He should have a huge weight lifted off his shoulders so he could finally think about happier things.

“It is, don’t worry. And by the way, Kenji is cool with you now. I predicted it, he was just super freaked out and over worrying. As per the way of Kenji, he needed something to be mad at. He’ll apologize eventually.”

“What magic words did you say to get him to spill all that?”

“Nothing much, I kinda just explained how much you mean to me. Well, how much you both do and how I hate seeing you fight like that. Being stuck down there, well, let’s say he didn’t have much room to run from awkward conversations.”

“Phew.” Darius stretched up his arms, brushing semi-real sweat off his forehead. “And you mean a lot to me as well, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. And you know that you’re a dork.”

“As if you guys don’t tell me every day. And by the way, knowing a lot about dinosaurs was very crucial in keeping us all alive on Nublar so don’t go dissing the facts.”

“I’m not. In fact, I think you being a dork is adorable. Only you could be just out of life-threatening danger and think it a worthy time for a teaching moment. Like you remember when we were running from Rexy that one time and you just told us that the T-Rex can have teeth as big as twelve inches?”

“Shhhh, geeking out over dinosaurs is how I de-stress.”

“I mean, it’s kinda admirable how after everything you’re still DinoNerd. Personally, I would be happy to never see a dinosaur ever again.”

“From now on, I might stick to looking at them in books,” he said, a yawn sneaking in.

“You ready to go to bed now?” She asked, yawning herself. “‘Cause something tells me we won’t be getting our full eight hours.”

“Yeah, maybe. I would be happy to keep talking though. It’s been a while since we’ve just had some time to ourselves.”

Brooklynn nudged him in the side and sat up. “We were just talking earlier today,” she said. Her eyes reflected the tiny sparks in the firewood. It took everything he had not to be enthralled by them.

“Well, it feels like forever.”

“You can say that again. I really hope I live to see snow.”

“This is cool enough for me, I’m freezing,” Darius protested.

“You want my jacket?”

Darius was thankful for the darkness so she couldn’t see his sudden blush. “I’ll live. I’m sure you need it as well.”

“Whatever you say. But this is your last chance ‘cause I’m going to sleep now.”

“You keep it,” he said, curling into a ball and slowly letting his eyes close. He was getting drowsier by the second. Her voice and kind words put some kind of relaxation spell on him. “You’re really pretty in pink.”

Chapter Text

In a shocking and yet somehow not remotely surprising turn of events, the gang had run into more dinosaurs, a whole new biome, and a weird scientist lady called Doctor Turner. It all just felt like another day in the life. Of course, they wouldn’t just get to Costa Rica and obviously, they would find an island and even another person but not have any way to get off the new island.

Sometimes, Brooklynn seriously thought they were cursed.

The gang had halted their truck while doctor Turner did something on her tablet. She gave the excuse of needing to make sure the T-Rex’s had reacted properly to their food and needed to stop and interpret the data.

Alarm bells were ringing at full force and Brooklynn was immediately hesitant to trust her. She was working for another shady company who was researching dinosaurs! What was there to trust about her?

The last people they’d come across were those mercenaries and Doctor Wu. They’d ended up sacrificing too much, disrupting a perfectly good escape plan, to try and prevent whoever that Mills was they were working for. The profession didn’t exactly have the best track record. And before that, there was Mitch and Tiff. Those were the last people they had trusted.

Darius slid up next to her, concern written all over his face. “You okay, Brooklynn?” He asked.

“Yeah. I’m as fine as I think would be normal for a situation like ours.”

“Glad we found another human though,” Darius said. “And Doctor Turner seems pretty cool. I really loved her book and may or may not have read it about a billion times.”

Right, as if she couldn’t feel any worse about her distrust, Darius seemed to really like her. Brooklynn didn’t blame him. She seemed nice enough in the short time she’d known her but there was something inside her that was screaming at her not to trust.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked. Darius followed her eye-line all the way, watching her overly scrutinize every little push of the button. Brooklynn could pinpoint the exact moment when everything clicked in place. “Oh, you don’t trust Mae at all, do you?”

“Yes, no… maybe?” Brooklynn deflated. “I think I’m broken. It feels like there’s this mental block in my head against trusting her. Even though I know that she hasn’t done anything wrong but Mitch and Tiff didn’t do anything wrong either and I usually trust my instinct but—“

“Whoah, whoah, whoah, Brooklynn slow down,” Darius said, completely turning to her and slowly holding out his hands out to her. “You’re not broken. Trusting people, after all, we’ve been through is like really not going to happen.”

“I just can’t shake the feeling that this is going to turn out like Mitch and Tiff did.”

“Mitch and Tiff were weird from the beginning and I just didn’t see it. So far, she seems okay.”

“But what if she’s just hiding her true intentions. I mean, she studies dinosaurs on a remote island! You would think that she would have some way of communicating. What if something went wrong? It all just feels really convenient.”

He pondered for a second. “Yeah, I get that,” he said. “And I really don’t want to have another Mitch and Tiff on our hands. When we get to wherever she’s taking us, we can look for a phone and do all the investigating we need to do to feel confident.”

“You sure?”

He nodded.

“And you’re sure that all these islands aren’t sending me completely insane?”

“Brooklynn, investigating things is in your DNA. You’re wired to see every little detail and overanalyze and look for secrets in everything. It’s just kinda who you are. That fact has probably saved our lives a million times over.”

“As if you haven’t saved us double as much,” she pointed out, nudging him in the side.

“That's why, if anything happens to me, I’m nominating you as my replacement.”

“Don’t even joke about that.”

“Come on, I know you would do a good job.”

She couldn’t help but crack a smile. He was being so completely obvious about it but Darius trying to make her feel better always worked. Darius was such a dork.

And there were the facts that she was resisting thinking about. Maybe if things had turned out differently and they had landed safely at Costa Rica there would be time to do something about it but as of right now, her crush on Darius seemed too insignificant when compared to everything else they had going on.

That didn’t stop her from laughing at all his dumb jokes and getting enthralled in the sound of his voice. He was just so captivating. And she felt safe around him.

Safe was a tough commodity to come by these days.

“How do you do it?” She asked.

“Do what?”

“Make everyone feel better like that? All you had to do was make a couple silly jokes and then give a little pep talk. And bam, you just have a magic remedy for whenever I’m feeling bad.”

“There’s not really much thought behind it,” he said. “I just, do whatever I think is going to help, and sometimes it works. Although, I’m slightly worrying that the overdramatic speech is slightly losing its touch.”

“Well, whatever you’re doing, promise you’ll keep it up?”

“Sure.”

“There’s always at least one of us round here having a breakdown.”

“And what happens when I’m the one who suddenly snaps.”

“Well, then I’ll always be here as a shoulder to cry on. Or just a person to hug if you need it. Or even just to talk to. As long as you don’t go too mushy on me DinoNerd.”

Lie, huge lie. Biggest lie she had ever told. Brooklynn did not care one bit how mushy or emotional Darius got. If he had a problem she would be all ears.

“So far, I think I’m okay. Maybe the reality of what’s happening will hit eventually but I don’t think I’ve quite wrapped my head around it all.”

“Tell me about it,” Brooklynn said. “I mean literally ten minutes ago we were somewhere in a blistering hot desert and now we have this? The world just keeps getting weirder and weirder.”

Hopefully, it didn’t get too dangerous again. Brooklynn stared at Doctor Turner. Darius seemed to like her enough and maybe it would work out in the end. Or maybe she really was just stuck in a loop and would never be able to trust a word that came out of her mouth. Or maybe something even worse was on the horizon.

The forest seemed innocent enough but there were bound to be more than just T-Rexs hidden in it.

“But whatever weirdness sit throws at us next, I will be right here by your side,” Darius assured her, finally letting himself take a step closer.

“Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

Chapter Text

“He’s gone into hypothermic shock, I have to move him out of here somehow,” Mae said, holding her hand out against the clearly pained dinosaur. Darius could see the light in his eyes slowly giving up and flickering away.

“What about the supply plane,” Yaz argued. There were bags under her eyes and he knew that her feelings reflected a lot of unspoken tension in the group. How long could they really keep going? “It will be here in under an hour.”

“There’s no way she’ll be able to move them by herself,” Ben said.

“And we can’t just leave a dinosaur here to die,” said Kenji.

“But can we keep going if we stay here?”

“Whatever we do, it needs to be all of us or none of us.”

Their voices were surrounding him as Darius tried his best to figure out what to do. He didn’t mind when they looked to him. He knew that he had a gift for coming up with plans and for rallying people. But they trusted him and what if he made the wrong decision.

They didn’t have much time.

He needed to make a decision.

Pierce’s life was on the line.

Their chance at freedom was on the line.

“I think I need a moment,” Darius suddenly said. He stayed away from everyone. The cold bite was chipping at him making it harder to think. What if he got it wrong? He wanted to help Pierce, he really did, but he saw the way Yaz looked and…

Brooklynn tapped him on the shoulder. Darius jumped slightly and did his best to not so obviously show all the panic he was feeling.

“Sorry,” she said, shoving her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket.

“No, don’t be. I’m just kind of freaking out over here. I didn’t expect to need that promise so soon.”

“What's up?” She asked.

Darius quickly glanced back at the rest of the group. “How often do I mess up? Because I don’t want to be the reason we get left here but we can’t just leave Pierce and I’m afraid that either decision I make will be the wrong one.”

“So, the classic Darius worry?” She said, only half teasing. “When have you actually seriously messed up and had us all mad at you for it?”

“You were mad at me for Mitch and Tiff,” he pointed out.

“We were both kinda being jerks that day,” Brooklynn mumbled. They both cringed. “And yeah, I was pretty mad, and yeah I was right, but it all turned out okay in the end, and I’m not still mad.”

Darius didn’t like thinking about that day. He didn’t like thinking about the mean things they had thrown around. They were best friends and they had each other's backs, knew each other's weaknesses and insecurities. He’d been mad, sure, but saying those things really hurt.

All he wanted to do was make sure she was okay. Hurting her was like a blow to himself.

Brooklynn grabbed eye contact. Silently, she told him it was okay. “What’s the worst that can happen? Someone gets mad for a bit and then we get over it.”

“What if Kenji hates me again?”

“Kenji never hated you, Darius. And he got over it this time, he’ll get over it the next. We all get that you have to make decisions.”

“It just feels like I have two competing sides. There’s one part of me that wants to help the dinosaurs and another that knows we can’t keep going on this island. Mae needs our help but I’m afraid that helping her will cost us everything.”

Brooklynn hugged him. It was sudden but it was nice. It was everything he needed and more. Warm, and caring, and strong, and loving. She nuzzled her neck into his side and pulled him as close as possible. They’d hugged before and it has always been nice but this was different. There was something new about the way she hugged him.

All his worries drifted into the wind. All that mattered was that moment. All he needed was her.

“If it does,” she whispered. Her breath tingled against his neck. “We’ll get through it like we always do. We’re Camp Cretaceous remember.”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

He grinned. The weight of the world still hung heavy on him but it didn’t seem so daunting when she was there. He knew what he had to do.

“We have to be better than Mantah Corp,” he told her. “They are doing these despicable things to their dinosaurs and we have to help, even if it’s just in this small way. We need to help. Pierce needs us and Mae needs us.”

Brooklynn nodded. “Sounds good, DinoNerd.”

“But how do I tell the others? Yaz seems really worn out and Kenji is definitely sick and—“

“Nope, none of that. Darius, we are with you no matter what happens. And we trust you. They’ll understand, I promise they will.”

Her words seemed reasonable and his logic was sound but sometimes he wondered why he was even put in this position in the first place. All he was good at doing was coming up with plans and occasionally making speeches. But… as long as she trusted him, as long as they all trusted him, he would be okay.

“Can I have another hug?”

She pulled him back in and it helped just as much as the first time. The relaxation in his shoulders was immediate.

“You better not be getting addicted to these,” Brooklynn teased. “I only have so many hugs in me a day.”

“How many do I have left.”

“Maybe about six or seven?”

“That’s it, I want my money back.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that and— hey, you’re procrastinating aren’t you. Come on Darius, we’re freezing our butts out here, I think it’s time you gave everyone that speech you’re cooking up in your brain.”

“But—“

“Nope, it will be great, no one will hate you, and you can’t argue with me or I’ll never hug you again.”

“How long are you going to hold that one over my head for?”

“Possibly forever. But it’s effective isn’t it?”

“Definitely.”

Maybe a bit too effective. Yup, that was a thought to think about later. For now, they had a plane to catch and a dinosaur to save.

Chapter Text

“Finally some peace and quiet,” Brooklynn said. She had volunteered Darius and herself to go check on the T-Rexs and their food. Sammy and Yaz needed the rest and, well, she wanted some time alone with Darius. Some relatively peaceful alone time.

This island had turned out to be more dangerous than they initially suspected but it seemed like they were going to get some peace. Sure, they might need sleep, and staying awake to do more tasks even if it meant spending time with Darius was not the best idea but she was going to do it anyway.

That’s what having a crush will do to you.

Why did she have to realize that when they were still in danger? She couldn’t realize when they got to safety. No, she had to be worrying for her life and be worrying that she was going to make everything award with Darius and navigate having to deal with this.

Or as she liked to call it: extreme blushing syndrome. It was getting to the point that no matter how oblivious Darius could be to things like this even he would notice how red her face was getting.

“These hallways are really creepy though. The lack of noise is off after six months of jungle sounds.”

“It’s funny what you can get used to,” Brooklynn agreed. “After about a week I was totally fine with no aircon.”

“No internet took longer,” Darius teased. He nudged her slightly and she could feel her cheeks heating up again. “It took you way too long to stop trying to look things up on your phone.”

“How else am I supposed to win arguments with Kenji when I know he’s wrong but he’s so insistent. Like, who thinks cheese is naturally grated?”

Darius snorted. “Once he told me that he thought they made all the trees on Nublar as well.”

“Well, not everyone can be as smart as you,” she said. Oh, no. Now extreme flirting syndrome was also kicking in? This was worse than she thought.

“I’m not that smart. All I know is dinosaurs and we’re just lucky that it’s helped us so far.”

Brooklynn jumped in front of him, finger out and her eyebrow quirked upright. “Nope, nah ah. Where is all this self-deprecating talk coming from? We both know you’re awesome and you haven’t done anything wrong.”

It literally hurt her physically to hear him speak about himself like that. And it was happening more and more. Darius had always suffered from some serious self-worth issues but her best guess was being away from Nublar and not knowing how to best help was getting to him. Brooklynn decided that it was her job to help cheer him up.

“But—“

“Nope. I’m not hearing it. Every time you say a negative thing about yourself I will tell you two things that are amazing. You’re kind and selfless.”

“You do realize that’s just going to make me want to say more negative things,” he said.

“Okay, new rule. No doing it on purpose. My compliments are like my hugs, I have a limited supply.”

“But they’re the best!”

“Flattery will not work on me.”

Darius held up his hands. “Okay, okay, okay. Lesson learned. I will just have to be sneakier about my tactics next time.” He winked at her and she was officially on fire. Brooklynn did her best to hide her face with a fake cough. How could one person have so much power over her heart?

She wasn’t quite sure when all this started. Darius had always been one of her favorite people to hang out with and she had trusted him with her life from when they first got attacked by that Indominous. But those feelings had evolved so slowly until they had just snuck up on her.

In insight, it felt obvious. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that she’d been feeling this way since at least the yaught party, maybe before.

Now, what she was supposed to do about it? So much for her supposed confidence. Thinking about telling Darius how she felt was nerve-wracking enough, let alone actually doing it!

Maybe they could just stay friends. That way, she wouldn’t mess everything up with their friendship or the dynamic of the whole group. Maybe.

Darius’s voice snapped her out of her spiraling thoughts. “Do you think big and little eatie will be okay? You didn’t see them fighting each other it was heartbreaking.”

“I already knew I hated Mantah Corp after what they did to Sammy but making a mother and daughter fight like that.” She shivered. Even hearing a second-hand account of what had happened was terrible. Dinosaurs had been a real pain in the past but none of them deserved this.

“We have to take them down.”

“Maybe once upon a time I would have asked how a group of six kids could do that but after six months of surviving on Nublar, I think we could do anything. We’re like superheroes or something.”

“If anyone’s going to do it, it has to be us. No one else even knows that Mantah Corp island is a thing, especially if they worked under Masrani’s nose this whole time.” 

Darius balled his fists up and she reached for them, unhooking all his fingers until she knew the tension was gone. It took her a while to realize that they had stopped walking.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It was sweet,” he said. More like his smile was sweet. She’d never seen anything as gorgeous. “Although, I hate to be that nitpicker but we wouldn’t be counted as superheroes without superpowers. Right now, we’re just some kids stuck on an island.”

“What superpower would you want?” She asked.

“Talking to animals,” he said immediately. “There is nothing I want more than to be able to understand them.”

“That was quick.”

“It’s been my answer ever since I was a kid. What about you?”

“No idea,” she admitted. “The part of me that finds relating to most people my own age literal torture would love to be able to read minds. But I think right now I would prefer teleportation. That way we could finally get out of here.”

“Good answers,” Darius said. Then, his face got wistful. “I know we ask this question all the time but, right now, what’s the first thing you will do when you get back?”

“Hug my dads,” she said. Most times they talked about this she answered with dumb things like coffee or YouTube but she missed her family. There were some things that got easier the longer you were away from them, family was not one of those things. “Then… I dunno see how it goes and if I’m in the mood probably sue the heck out of a bunch of companies.”

He laughed so much it started sounding maniacal and honestly, kind of deranged. Either she was hilarious or he was exhausted. Maybe it was a bit of both but she was leaning on exhaustion. He needed to take better care of himself and she was definitely dying on that hill.

“Count me in,” he said, still reigning in the remains of his laugher. “Who are you planning on going for first.”

“Definitely Doctor Wu. Oh, I would absolutely love to see the look on his face.”

“I can see it now. It’s going to be pretty priceless.”

“Yeah, changed my mind, that is going straight to the top of my list,” she agreed.

Right after admit her feelings and have her first kiss. That was what she wanted to do once they got out of here and there was a specific someone who she would be more than happy to do it with.

Chapter Text

Darius watched Brooklynn as she tried to figure out what to do with the screen Kash had set up to control the dinosaurs in his sick fighting games. He decided it was best that he didn’t get as involved while her eyes scoured the glass, pieces of a puzzle he wasn’t privy to clicking into place.

This whole mission was dependent on her finding a way to stop the horrors that Kash had planned. The two of them had volunteered to sneak into the compound and so far, the plan was going off without a hitch. The explosion had gone well and so far, no one had followed them in here.

Everything was on their shoulders.

Darius was aware that no one was doing well recently. The only reason he hadn’t gone alone to spare anyone else was because Brooklynn had insisted on coming with him. In the heat of the moment, there wasn’t much time to argue. Besides, he was always glad to have her and her technology skills around.

“You making any progress?” He asked. Whatever was going on looked promising. Her hands were raised and her eyebrows were furrowed.

“Kind of,” she said through gritted teeth. “These stupid drones aren’t listening to me and it’s more than a little hard to look at.”

“Don’t worry. I know you got this. Take your time. It’s better you stop it than completely mess something up trying to rush it.”

“You might be better off with it. It looks like he’s made it into some kind of fighting game.”

Darius composed himself against the desk. “A game? This is all some kind of game to him. The dinosaurs are living beings who can think and feel and he decides to turn their existence into a fighting game!”

Brooklynn put her arms down and stepped off the platform. Seemingly, just so she could hold her hand up to his face. “It sucks,” she agreed, looking him in the eye. “But we’re going to stop it. That’s what we’re staying here for, so we can stop this. As you said, we’re the only ones who seem to care.”

He nodded, feeling a little colder when she took her hand away. “Yeah I know, but I feel so bad for keeping everyone here. You all trust me to do what’s right and to think that you’re all having nightmares. I can’t believe I was selfish enough to not even consider that as a possibility.”

Brooklynn sighed. “Will you ever stop feeling bad for doing your be—“

“Brooklynn?”

“That’s the phone,” she whispered.

She was right. On the sleek grey desk, there was a phone. They were smaller than he remembered. But the phone, it was right there. That was their ticket out of here. He could call his brother, or his mom, or anyone, and they would be saved. Maybe he could even convince them to bring reinforcements or some government agents or something to help the dinosaurs.

Big Eatie roared in pain. It didn’t sound like she had much time left.

“You stop the fight,” he said, reaching across the table. “I’ll call someone. We can say everyone and save the dinosaurs.”

Brooklynn sprinted to the window, an added spring in her step as she started moving the drones away. “You got it, boss.”

He looked down at the phone. It trembled in his hands and he was stumped on what to do. It was like his brain had short-circuited or something. Maybe he couldn’t comprehend just how close they were to getting out of here, worrying that it was all some kind of dream.

Then, he thought about Yaz, struggling to run from dinosaurs without crying. All of them, feeling deflated and crushed after that plane left without them. Brooklynn, and the look she gave him before dropping down that vent.

His fingers flew across the screen. Numbers tapped into the bar. He wasn’t sure who he was calling until he pressed call. Brand. His brother. He was going to hear his brother’s voice.

It rang for a couple seconds. Each beep took an eternity. “Come on, come on, come on.”

“Hello?” The voice on the other end asked. Darius couldn’t speak. “Hello, is anyone there?”

He looked at Brooklynn. Her mouth gaped open while his felt sealed shut. It was his brother! He was hearing his brother's voice.

“B-Brand?”

“Darius? Is that you? You’re alive? Are you okay How are you calling me?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me, big bro.”

The door opened. A Brad walked through.

“Scanning room for phone.”

A Brad that was looking for the phone.

Its green lasers spewed out of it and Darius ducked behind the does, cupping the bottom of the phone so no sound could get out. Brooklynn slid next to him. They had both seen enough of the Brad’s to know what they were capable of.

Unconsciously, he slid one hand on top of hers.

“Darius?” 

The sound of the Brad’s head moving made Darius’s stomach clench. He couldn’t let them get caught. They still had to save the fighting dinosaurs. One quick glance up at the screen showed that Brooklynn’s progress had been reverted. And there would be no getting out of it, no human to reason with.

The Brad’s feet whirred to the sound of death. Getting closer and closer. It wouldn’t stop until it had the phone.

Darius hung up and slid it across the floor. That was his first hard decision.

“What was that for?” Brooklynn whispered.

“It’s looking for the phone. We can still save the dinosaurs after it leaves and now, it’s going to leave us alone.”

“Okay.”

“If that thing saw us we would have been toast.” He squeezed her hand tighter. 

“You’re right.” Her head pushed into the side of the desk. “I still can’t believe we have to fight robots as well as dinosaurs. It’s like, pick a struggle.”

“How are we still alive again?”

“Magic,” Brooklynn deadpanned.

“It must be some pretty powerful magic.”

“Okay, come on. We have a job to do,” Brooklynn said, sneaking around the corner.

She froze when the door opened again. He pulled her back and held her close. Was it more Brads coming to get them? Had he completely messed up by calling Brad? Did Kash know they were here?

“I swear, if Mae is still alive and pulling off stunts like that then I am going to lose it. When I get my hand on her, I am not letting her off easy this time. Boss will hear about this, oh yes he will.”

Kash.

And rambling like a mad man.

Darius realized he was still holding onto Brooklynn but he didn’t want to let go. She had a hand over her mouth and another trembling next to his chest.

“Shit,” she mouthed to him.

Yeah. This was not a good situation. As if it could get worse from having to throw away their chance at getting rescued, now Kash was in the room with them. What had happened to Kenji and Sammy who were supposed to be on lookout duty?

“And now, the fight is messed up too? I specifically programmed these things to keep out of reach from the dinosaurs and then they go and blow up? Boss is not going to be happy with me if this is all I have to show for my efforts.”

Kash was going to find them. He wasn’t the smartest but that made him more dangerous. This wasn’t calculating like Wu or a monster they could simply outrun like Toro. Kash was more akin to the Scorpius - an unpredictable monster.

Darius had to think fast if he wanted to get out of this alive. If Kash was to start wandering around the room or even just look up from where he was standing, then he would spot them, spot both of them. Then, both Brooklynn and he would be trapped with this monster.

He couldn’t let that happen.

Darius looked at Brooklynn. He could see her own ideas forming and could tell that she was thinking the same words he was. He could see how pretty her blue eyes were and how wide they were. She looked haunted.

Brooklynn had already been taken once by the bad guys and he would never forgive himself for it. Everything had turned out well in the end.. but if they hadn’t. He wouldn’t be able to take another close call like that.

She meant so much to him, on a level that maybe he was only just starting to understand. Their connection went deeper than any he had ever had before. To think of putting her in danger again when there was a way to avoid it?

He had to do whatever it takes.

Darius hugged her tighter. Her hugs were the best and if he played his cards right then this wouldn’t be the last one.

(He savored it anyway.)

His decision would be the best thing in the long run. It could get them insider information. It would mean Brooklynn could tell the rest of the campers what was going on. It would mean that Kash wouldn’t have a reason to think there was anybody but him.

Most importantly, it would mean she was safe.

He wasn’t sure yet why that mattered so much to him. After all, he wanted all of his friends to be safe and happy. Maybe he could sort those feelings when they were together again.

“Get out and find the others,” he said.

Then, he stood up, ready to face the music. She gasped and he silently promised her that he would be back, that he would make it all right.

“Oh my god, another person. I’m saved!”

Chapter Text

After a single deep breath, Brooklynn jumped down the hole to the platform. There wasn’t much debate - she couldn’t just leave Darius with that crazy killer. She saw what he was like when interrogating Darius and it was only by his quick thinking that he managed to get through it. He was unpredictable and had a lot of power. Those were two traits that don’t go well together.

Any moment he might snap.

They had to get Darius out right then. There was no time to wait for another platform when anything could be happening to him.

Everyone was relying on her. Darius needed her to make sure that all the information they had gained in Kash’s office got to the rest of the campers, and everyone was relying on her to lead them through this situation.

(As if she wasn’t proud enough of Darius. How did he manage to do it every day, for every choice?)

The landing wasn’t the most graceful. Brooklynn was glad no one was there to see it but lots of practice running from dinosaurs meant she was spared the worst of the pain. It also helped that she’d tried some parkour for her channel a couple times.

The rest jumped down soon after and she was bouncing on her toes. They needed to get going already. Didn’t they understand that anything could be happening? It felt like her chances of telling him how she felt were slipping between her fingers. All she wanted to do was beg him not to leave her.

 Listening to his conversation with Kash had been torture. She sat there, willing herself to stay still, or else his surface would be for nothing. Why he did it was obvious and messing it up would be foolish. But listening hurt anyway.

Did he blame her for not doing something? Probably not. She wanted to say sorry anyway.

They ran down the halls of the med bay. The maps were minimal but she managed to decode them anyway. Just down the hall, she said, just a little further she promised herself, not long until you get to get to relax until she could stop beating herself up.

Leaving was the smartest thing to do but what if he wasn’t okay?

What if she never got to tell him how she felt?

What if she never got to kiss him?

What if—

He jumped out of the elevator, slipping between the small gap. Her eyes lit up and she tried not to cringe thinking about the risks they took daily just to survive. So things hadn’t gone completely downhill since she’d forced herself to leave.

“Darius!” She yelled, not caring one bit if Kash heard them. “Oh thank goodness.”

She was the first to hug him but not the last. A classic camp fam group hug was certainly in order even if a part of her wished that she could keep him all to herself while she checked that he was okay. Even so, just having him in front of her was enough to make some of the guilt slip away.

The lift dinged.

They all slid behind a couple crates and their time was suddenly limited. Still, she couldn’t help but smile at him. If they were going to get separated as easily as that, as often as that, maybe she didn’t need to bother hiding how she felt as well.

“How’d you make it down here?” Darius asked.

“Brooklynn,” Kenji said. “It was dicey for a moment but she got us out of it.”

“Someone was determined to get back to you,” Yaz said and Sammy slightly nudged her. Okay, so those two obviously knew something was going on. To be relived or slightly mortified? It was true though, she was determined.

(She knew he would do the same for her. Hopefully, he loved the trait in her as much as she adored it in him.)

“And now that we have you back, we need to get out of here,” Brooklynn said, eyeing the lift.

“W-we can’t,” he protested. Darius wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Why not?”

“Kash is planning on mind-controlling the dinosaurs and I think it’s best if I—“

Brooklynn’s heart stopped. “If you stay here.”

Everyone else started protesting around her and she had to seriously debate if she should join them. He was only just back - he couldn’t throw himself into danger again!

But… it made sense.

He nodded. “If I run, he’ll go after me, and then he’ll find all of you.” His eyes flickered to Brooklynn. “And I can start sabotaging and gathering information from the inside.”

“What if he hurts you?” Brooklynn asked.

“He hasn’t yet.”

“And like that’s supposed to be reassuring. You know that he could turn on you at any moment and then where would we be?”

“In a better place than if he found all of us.”

Why was she arguing? She agreed with what he was saying. She knew that their chances at beating this guy were way higher if Darius stayed on the inside. That didn’t mean she had to like it.

“It makes sense,” Kenji said hesitantly.

“Just promise me that you’ll be safe,” Brooklynn said, putting her hands on his shoulders. “If anything starts going south in there, I want you to get out of here as fast as you can. No doing whatever it takes or anything crazy like that. We can still find a way to thwart his plans from the outside.”

“Hypocrite,” he joked.

She sighed. “There’s no way I can stop you from doing everything in your power is there?”

“No. The dinosaurs need us.”

But she needed him.

“Fine. Just make sure to check in often, always think before you speak, and remember that even if you’re going in there alone, you don’t have to do it all yourself. Okay?”

“Okay. And you call me the cornball.”

“Just… be careful. If you come back with even a scratch, I am going to be killing him myself, with my bare hands.”

He smiled but it flickered out just as quickly as it appeared. “We don’t have much time.”

Brooklynn wanted to kiss him or to tell him how she felt just in case but that was too morbid a thought even for the situation they were in. She was going to get her perfect confession and their first kiss was going to be completely on their own terms. Settling for a hug would work well enough.

He smelled like sweat and they were both shaking. It would be burned into her brain anyway and she knew she would remember it as perfect, or, maybe not perfect, but exactly what it needed to be. 

“I’m gonna be okay,” he said.

“I know.” The guilt was just coming back along with a not-so-crazy feeling that things weren’t going to go well soon. And maybe she was hoping that she would get to have him to lean on. She understood, she really, really did, it just, really, really hurt.

The lift door started opening and Darius gave them one last look before he ran off.

“You do realize you need to get better at being subtle if even I’ve figured out what’s going on, right?” Ben whispered.

Yeah, maybe. Either that or they all needed to get ready for a lot of pining.

Chapter Text

Darius was sure that whoever had designed these halls was extremely uninspired. Each hallway felt the same and all the grey walls were closing in on him. Each step he took it felt more likely that he would suddenly be outed and the gig would be up - everything that hinged on him suddenly broken.

But they kept walking. He kept the good boy innocent act up. And Kash was none the wiser.

Now he’d done both the action hero and the undercover agent and he could say that both of them were not as cool as they seemed in the action movies. They always seemed to have their stuff together while he felt like he was going to explode at every moment.

Not to mention, his mind racing at a million miles an hour while he tried working out the best way to walk on eggshells around one of the most unpredictable people he knew. His words has to be carefully chosen and every facial expression was carefully controlled.

All he wanted was someone there with him to help it make sense.

“I think this room should do.”

Darius looked around. It might have been the nicest room he had ever seen. It felt like a betrayal to say it but he was excited to try out that bed.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’m excited to sleep in a real bed for once.”

“You better keep it clean. One of the investors might have to sleep in here.”

Darius nodded eagerly. Now, quick, he needed to think of something that would be nice enough he didn’t suspect anything but awkward enough to get him to go away. “I don’t know how I could ever thank you enough for this.”

“Yeah, yeah, you can thank me by being quiet.” Bingo. “I’ve locked the windows because who knows, you might be stupid enough to try and scale down. And, I dunno, watch tv or something. I think there’s a couple movies.”

The door slammed.

Darius was finally left alone to his thoughts but it took him a second to deprogram his face. He flopped onto the bed and took a breath, his muscles refusing to relax. What was he waiting for? The bed was comfortable, almost to a fault. For once, he didn’t have the overbearing weight of the Costa Rican heat. Yet, he still felt like his skin was someone else’s and his heart couldn’t get comfortable.

He turned to the window, knowing that somewhere out there, his friends were on the run and didn’t have the luxury of a bed or AC. The cave had been compromised and they were on an unfamiliar island, with an injured person to take care of.

 But they had each other.

Darius threw the pillow across the room. It was childish but he was just… was just really fed up. He was exhausted but he couldn’t close his eyes. He was scared but he couldn’t show any weakness. And he was infuriated but he couldn’t scream. It was like he was trapped in his body and although he was alone, he was never free.

It had only been a couple hours. How was he supposed to live with this for any longer? How would he go this long being all alone? How would he go this long without Brooklynn?

Without her kind words, her jokes, and just having her around.

He was here in the first place because he was determined to keep her safe and he was sure he was going to keep that wish. It couldn’t all be for nothing and he wouldn’t let this crazy plan he’d roped himself into mean nothing.

That way, he could see her again and not have to worry. They could spend evenings watching TV instead of running from dinosaurs and they could both sleep in beds.

He wondered what she was thinking about. He wondered if she was thinking about him. Maybe she was thinking up plans and strategizing endlessly or maybe she was already asleep, exhausted from a long day.

Maybe she was wishing just like him that there was someone to talk to.

“I miss you,” he whispered.

Outside, the sun was starting to set. The oranges and pinks blended to set the sky alight, the last blast before it would melt into tiny candles. It seems to stretch further and burn brighter tonight - complemented with hues of purple.

For a second, he could feel her next to him. The bubblegum clouds reflected her hair.

His eyes started leaking, welling up and crying for the first time in a long time. The world kept on spinning while he was here - while they were all locked away on this island. He hadn’t cried for his brother in a long time, too busy worrying about his new family. He hadn’t cried for missed middle school experiences since they’d built the treehouse.

  But there was something about being separated from her that made every cell in his body stand on edge like one of the simple compounds was missing from his basic life processes. He couldn’t breathe. Her eyes were the sun he revolved around.

What was wrong with him? Why did his thoughts spiral when he heard her name, sinking into an inescapable craving and why did he do everything for her even though he loved how independent she was and how much passion she had inside her?

“Oh.”

Laying with the ceiling spinning around him, his heart drummed along to sound the truth. He pulled the covers over himself and wanted to crawl into the smallest hole he could find.

“I like her.”

It wasn't a bad realization. Just one that came with a lot of baggage and this was not the best time for something like that. He didn’t have the mental capacity for something like that.

But he burned with a craving for her anyway. 

He would just have to make sure he put extra care into getting back to her. No way he could mess up now.

And then his eyes finally closed.

Chapter Text

Seventeen Brad-Xs in and Brooklynn really didn’t know how many more of them she could do before she would snap at someone, tearing whoever’s face was closest. The only thing keeping her breathing was determination and lots of it. There truly was nothing that kept her going better than the looming threat of death.

Her hands trembled more with every movement. Their eyes all fixated with harsh lasers on her, drilling through her, exposing her to everyone. At least, they couldn’t see her thoughts and the spiral of destruction and waking nightmares she was keeping back with gritted teeth.

When she blinked, all she could see was Darius and that looming Brad-X. Darius was strong but he didn’t stand even half a chance against that beast. The more she thought, the more vicious and visceral her fantasies of ending Kash became.

Ben came running in, panic tracing his entire face and followed closely by Kenji, cautiously placing his hand on his shoulder, and Yaz, tears brewing and unashamedly leaking.

“What happened?” She demanded. Her voice was hoarse and each word scratched like a million knives slicing her insides.

“Darius has to chip the Spino.” Ben took a breath, unable to look Brooklynn in the eye. “If he doesn’t…”

“If he doesn’t what? What happens, Ben?”

He took a step backward and for a moment she registered just how terrifying her face was. Her fangs were out and her eyes were wild.

“The Brad-X has orders to kill him,” Yaz stepped in.

Brooklynn was the one to fall this time. She walked right into the wall, work spinning around her. The words has been in the back of her mind all day, and she had always considered it a possibility. Seeing Kash with her own eyes made it pretty obvious what level of twisted he was. But to actually hear that it was an inescapable truth?

She was going to throw up.

“But you got this, right Brooklynn?” Sammy asked, a nervous chuckle slipping in.

“Yeah, you totally got this,” Kenji added. He gave her a warm smile.

“You’ve done way crazier,” Yaz added. Her eyes were a brewing storm, barely contained. All it would take was that one tap on the dam.

Brooklynn’s was already burst. She wanted to make that smile last longer, she wanted that laugh to e genuine, she wanted to make Yaz’s day just for a second, and she wanted to hear Darius’s heartbeat again.

“If she can program AI, she can totally do something as simple a—“

“It’s not simple okay! And I can’t do it and I can’t hep Darius and be some savior like all of you think I am. I just can’t. So he’s going to die and I’m never going to be able to tell him how I feel!”

She ran out the room and found the darkest corner she could. Her knees pulled up and her hair slipped out of her ponytail, she felt like an absolute mess. What was she even supposed to do in a situation like this? There’s no self-help guidebook about what to do when your crush gets kidnapped and the only way you can help them right now is by hacking killer robots. If there was, it wasn’t like she had access to it anyway.

And he was all she could think about. It was a struggle to fall asleep the night before because his last look at her before he disappeared into that elevator was stuck in her head and she woke up, panting and struggling, a vague feeling that she wasn’t able to stop something truly horrible. She thought about her crush and she thought about how complicated everything was.

She thought about how unfair life was.

He was stuck with some crazy killer when he should be with them. He might never get to know she felt. He was being threatened by a robot that apparently she was the only person with the skills to control.

She thought about how perfect he was.

His eyes never failed to hold so much captivating life in them and his heart was always overflowing with so much love for other people. There was nothing he was better at than being the most lovable person in a room, drawing every soul in.

She thought about how if she didn’t get herself together, she might never see any of that again.

Because she had been such an idiot and let him go twice. She had let him do his part and he was trusting them - trusting her, to pull him out when he needed it. And she was such an idiot, she couldn’t even rewire a couple robots. Brooklynn was a fraud and she was a failure.

Hot tears cascaded down her face. “Such an idiot!”

Footsteps approached behind her and she curled into a tighter ball, knowing that all she had done was make a further fool of herself. No one would ever respect her again and she had totally messed up. She wasn’t the amazing Brooklynn everyone thought she was.

If only Darius was here - he would somehow find a way to make it all better.

“I’m sorry we put a bunch of pressure on you,” Sammy said, hesitating a couple of meters away. “We didn’t mean for it to come off like you needed to be any of those things but… it makes sense why you feel like that.”

Well her ‘secret’ was out in the open now but it wasn’t like they all didn’t suspect beforehand. It didn’t stop her from feeling like she had been a total loose cannon and completely reckless.

“I really like him and it feels like I’m drowning, knowing all the stuff he’s having to go through. And at least we all have each other. He’s alone and I can’t even make his life a little bit better so he doesn’t have the looming threat of death around his every action.”

“At least you even know where to start,” Yaz said. “If you put any of us in front of one of those things, we would be completely lost.”

“Sorry for assuming it would be easy,” Sammy said.

“And I’m sorry, I was right about you liking Darius?” Ben asked. He pushed his way to the front of the group. “I said that mostly as a joke.”

Their words were comforting and she even managed a small laugh. “Yeah, I realized I like him just before we got shipwrecked here. Just my luck to have such amazing timing,” she muttered.

“And you’re going to get to tell him, you know,” Kenji said, sitting on the floor next to her. “There is no way Dinonerd is going down any time soon. I thought you would have more faith in him,” he teased.

“I do, I do—“

“You’re just putting all the pressure and the guilt onto yourself instead of focusing on the ways that you can help and the ways you are helping.”

“Well… yeah.”

“You two are honestly made for each other,” Yaz said.

“What do you mean?”

“If you were in his place right now, he would be exactly as stressed as you are now, freaking out about how it’s all his fault. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just funny that you’re both so protective and didn’t realize this information earlier.”

Brooklynn looked down, a small twinge of a blush blooming. “Maybe you’re right but that doesn’t exactly help me hack into a Brad-X. I’ve tried basically all of them in here and I can’t find a single weakness and it’s not like Kash is a particularly outstanding coder or anything.”

“Nope!” Kenji stepped forward. “None of that self detrimental stuff. We are currently on a positive thinking train and our next destination is good ways to help Darius.”

“But how many ideas could there possibly be if I’ve done almost every…” she trailed off. The gears were beginning to turn. “I got it!” She yelled.

It might work. It was a completely different way of looking at the problem. That might have been exactly what they needed. It might work. It had to work. Darius needed them now.

“What is it, B?” Sammy asked.

“I need to try the Brads.”

She grinned. Take that Kash. He was going down and she was going to see Darius again and she was going to hell him how she felt.

Chapter Text

Darius was better adapted to staying up for crazy lengths than was acceptable for someone his age. By this point in his dino-saving, island adventuring exploits, he barely even felt the nag of tiredness clinging to his bones and it didn’t take much more than a sharp breeze of night air and the ever-present anxiety to keep his eyes wide open.

He’d done everything he could do to prepare for his friend's arrival and break-in. The rope was tightly secured to the Brad-X and he’d made sure the raptors below were sound asleep. All that was left to do was wait. And pace. Wait and pace.

Since his run-in with the Spino, his time around Kash went smoothly, made a million times easier by the crazy man’s trust in the now controlled Brad-X, meaning he could do pretty much whatever he wanted without fear of getting caught. On the other hand, after his revelation about… his feelings, the longing and dread increased tenfold. Each moment spent here felt wasted and each moment significantly increased the chance of something going terribly wrong.

Like a pterodactyl from above, he spied his friends making daring move after daring move, silently drifting through the jungle. Their careful dance was precise and the five of them moved perfectly in tandem from tree to tree. The Raptors didn’t even blink.

Brooklynn led the group, tablet securely in hand, and even seeing a splash of her vibrant hair made his shoulders unclench and allowed him to even his breathing as they approached the edge of the building. Still, they balanced on a knife’s edge - any misstep could be their last. Risk a breath too loud and it was all over.

The group paused beneath the meeting point. Darius checked the security on the rope one last time before throwing it down, wincing when the sudden movement made them all jump.

It made the raptors jump too. Even from a distance, he watched her eyes open and... close.

The moment passed.

Everyone breathed again. But another move like that and all he would be seeing were their corpses. They couldn’t afford anything to go wrong. He didn’t know what he would do if anything happened. He gulped - better not to think about it.

Ben was the first to take a shot at the rope, signaling silently to everyone what he was about to do and giving Darius a confident nod. Effortlessly, he pulled himself up and over the railing. Yaz and Sammy were next. Then Kenji.

His knuckles were turning white from holding the railing so hard.

Finally, it was Brooklynn’s go. She held the tablet under her arm and carefully took it one moment at a time. The five of them watched with intensity, holding on to every breath. Every so often she would glance back at the dinosaurs slumbering beneath.

And that was her failure.

She was halfway up when she slipped. Darius’s heart fell with her, beating faster, and faster, and faster. Because she screamed, and then the Raptors were awake, and then they were running faster, and faster, and faster.

“Brad move back!”

The machine moved backward, dragging the rope with it, but it wasn’t going fast enough while all he could do, standing on the roof in safety was watch while everything he loved was nearly snatched from him. 

But he couldn’t look away.

Finally, she collapsed over the railing, falling right into his arms, panicked shrieks slicing through the night air. Trembling, the pair held each other and he couldn’t stop himself from counting her breaths and each beat of her heart. Just to make sure she was still there. They were both still there, and alive, and as safe as they could be.

But he couldn’t stay in fantasy land for too long and soon enough, his proactive mind took over and he had to look up. “Brad stop.”

On command, the machine halted, staring ominously into space. It felt strange to have that much power over such a beast.

“Are you okay?” He asked, still holding her hand. He was grateful for the dark or else someone might see the way he was looking at her. It was hard to help it when the sight of her alive was the most beautiful thing he’d ever laid eyes on. 

She nodded, not making any attempt to release her hand and eyes still slightly glazed over. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Good thing you got the Brad voice commands up and running,” he said. She’d tried explaining how she’d done it when giving him a remote rundown of all its capabilities and while he didn’t understand the majority of the technical jargon, it had him in awe. Sometimes, she made the mistake of forgetting just how smart she was. Silently, he promised to never let her do that again.

Brooklynn glanced back down where the dinosaurs were still snapping their jaws. “Yeah, a real good thing.”

He gulped, not wanting to consider the thoughts running through her head. Instead, he brought her in for another hug and only relaxed when he felt her breathing even out.

“We should get going,” she said, standing up and dusting herself off, before taking the tablet back from Kenji. “We need to make up for lost time if we want to beat Kash’s usual night cycle.”

A part of him wanted to argue and insist that they could just stay up there forever, maybe spend a couple of hours watching the stars, but of course, she was right and he let the dream go. One day, they would be free from all this, and then he would be free to hold her hand, watch the stars, and talk about dumb things all they wanted. One day.

As she walked past, he noticed the rest of the group snicker a little. Unamused, he turned to them. “What?”

“Nothing,” Yaz said, with a face that very much said it was not nothing. “Nothing at all.”

He narrowed his eyes but as Brooklynn said, they didn’t have the time, as much as he wanted to question them further. “Come on,” he said, trying not to be unnerved by how suddenly calm everyone was. They were not normal kids.

He smiled to himself.

(And Brooklynn was exceptional.)

Chapter Text

Brooklynn groaned, pushing her head into the rock behind her. Ben said that he and Darius should’ve been back soon and she couldn’t stand the feeling of her stomach churning and the sweltering heat forcing itself down on her just aggravating her anxiety.

“Have they sent over any more messages?” She asked the group, wondering why on earth she ever gave up her tablet.

“No more since the last time you asked… a minute ago,” Mae said.

How was she supposed to be reacting? This was their one opportunity to get Darius out of captivity from that stupid, horrible Kash guy, and everything that could go wrong already had. Who's to say Darius and Ben hadn’t got caught or worse on their way to save the baby dinosaur? And the two numskulls had the audacity to only send them one message!

She knew why they did it - just in case, now that Kash was mad enough, he had the motivation to finally figure out she messed with the Brads. But for the sake of her anxiety Brooklynn really wished she could at least know if they were ok.

Their plans always went wrong but sometimes they went worse than wrong.

“They’ll be okay,” Kenji reassured her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she at least had the decency to smile at him, grateful for the support. “We’ve done the hard part now anyway, Kash is somewhere he can’t hurt us anymore and those two, they can get through anything.”

She sighed. “I know… I just have a bad feeling - it feels like we’re still waiting for the other shoe to drop. And in my experience, just when we think everything is going our way, something worse happens.”

No one corrected her there. It was always the way. Just when they thought they were about to be free or about to finally save the dinosaurs, something went wrong. Looking around, she knew she wasn’t the only one who had that sinking feeling.

Just as she was starting to feel bad for pulling everyone into a deeper pit of despair than they already were, footsteps approached. Brooklynn grabbed Kenji’s hand and everyone held their breaths. But after peeking her head out and spotting the two of them running up from the distance, Brooklynn jumped up.

She closed the distance and practically crashed into Darius, feeling like she could finally breathe again. “You’re okay,” she said, squeezing him.

When Ben came back to them with news about the baby dinosaur she’d felt ill with the thought of Darius having to watch that, and pretend to be okay with it! Not even mentioning the other torture from staying with Kash. Her eyes scanned Darius, making sure he’d been left in one piece.

“Ben’s plan worked!” He announced.

Everyone else appeared and burst into fits of elated giggles. There had been so much tension, nausea, and endless worrying that now the bubble was burst and he was standing before them, and free… Brooklynn didn’t have words for the way she felt like it would jump out of her chest and her body buzzed with energy.

Even as they broke away and let others hug him, Brooklynn still kept her intertwined with his and Darius didn’t make any effort to separate them. She couldn’t let herself separate from him after days of brief appearances - she wanted to soak in as much of him as she could.

Ben smiled, petting the baby dinosaur’s head. “Thanks, guys, I just couldn’t let that jerk face keep Firecracker.”

“I’m sorry, Firecracker?” Yaz laughed.

“Oh yeah, I named her,” he said.

Soon came more commotion and celebrations. Everyone crowded around Firecracker and couldn’t help but adore the girl. Darius held her hand the whole time and she tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach while talking with everyone else, but they refused to go away.

“How are you guys?” Sammy asked, anxiously looking between them. They’d all seen the pteranodon attack, and that was a pretty hard rescue mission. But ben turned to Darius, seemingly asking the same question.

“I’m fine, I promise you guys,” Darius said, scratching the back of his head. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Well, that’s too bad because I will be worrying about you whether you like it or not,” she said, crossing her arms and smiling at him.

Was she being too obvious? Judging by Yaz and Ben’s snickers, maybe, but Darius didn’t seem too phased by it, grinning sheepishly back at her.

“Maybe we should leave you two alone to do that then,” Yaz said and Brooklynn was this close to strangling her but she settled for a death glare instead. “What? I’m just saying you might want it.”

Darius nodded, something like determination flashing across his face, and started leading her away. “Sounds great, thanks,” he said, waving back at everyone.

Was it just her or was the jungle getting even hotter?

Her heart fluttered and stuttered with every step they took away from the group and all the confidence she’d built up throughout her life was crashing down around her.

“S-so, what did you want to talk about?” She asked and tried to push the thought of kissing him out of her head.

“N-not much, I guess I just wanted to ask how you’ve been doing. Maybe you could give me the low down on what’s been happening while I was away.” They sat down far enough away from the rest of the group, overlooking the lake and tucked into the shade.

“I think you know most of it. We’ve been working on getting you out of Kash’s hands, looking after Mae, and going on missions. Overall, it's been pretty stressful. You know, I kinda miss how casual things on the island were, epic missions only came along every couple of months. But now you’re back and I’m not as stressed and worrying about you, and—“

“You were worried about me?”

“Duh! How could I not worry about you? I mean, I know you’re completely capable and all that, but I couldn’t help but be terrified that something was going to happen and I was scared I would never get to tell you…” she stopped herself and looked up at him, unable to stop her cheeks from glowing red. “I’m rambling now aren’t I?”

He nudged her slightly and shuffled closer. “Don’t worry, I think it’s cute.”

“You… you do?”

“Yeah, it’s nice when I know you can let your guard down around me.”

Okay, now she literally was going to explode.

“And you know, I had something I was scared I wouldn’t be able to tell you as well.”

Don’t get your hopes up, don’t get your hopes up, don’t get your hopes up. “Oh?”

“You go first,” he said.

She scowled light-heartedly and tried to hide nervous jitters in her hand. Nothing in her life had anything on the anxiety she was feeling then. Brooklynn took a deep breath. “I like you,” she admitted, not opening her eyes. “As in like like you.”

“Really?” He asked and she hoped she wasn’t making up the excitement in his voice. “A-are you sure?”

“Very,” she said, peeking her eyes open and nodding.

Darius laughed. “This really is the best day ever!” He said.

Her breath caught. Was this real?

“Because you know, I really like you too,” he said.

“C-can I kiss you?” She asked.

He nodded once and she leaned forward, brushing her hand against the back of his hair. Accompanied by the fireworks in her head, their lips collided briefly.

When they broke apart Brooklynn rested her head on his shoulder. “You’re right,” she said. “Best day ever.” 

Chapter Text

Darius gasped. His lungs burned, choking and gasping for air. His eyes raced from side to side, trying desperately to work out where he was - to find out why his brain was screaming at him and why he wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball. He’d just been running, and yelling, and dying. And—

“Darius.”

It had all gone wrong. No matter how hard he’d tried and it had all gone wrong—

“Darius are you there? Are you okay?”

A hand brushed his shoulder… and then the world wasn’t really spinning or ending, not right at that moment anyway. Brooklynn was sitting next to him. She watched him, tears gleaming in her eyes, awake, and ready to face whatever he was trying to fight.

“Y-yeah,” he hiccuped.

“Was it a nightmare?”

He nodded, afraid that if he voiced it, everything would suddenly come flooding back.

“Okay, well… remember that none of it was real. At least, not in this moment, not right now.” No, not while she was here with him, looking into his eyes with more love than he knew what to do with. The fears that played at the back of his mind suddenly seemed really inconsequential.

The island was still wrapped in the soft, terrifying embrace of night. Darius figured it was probably all paneling, just made to look like darkness, but in the end, the horrors (and the wonders) were still the same under fake tiling or not.

As his eyes adjusted, he searched for the rest of the group and he realized that the two of them must have fallen asleep where they’d hidden away. He hadn’t felt tired at the time but even with the comfy beds he’d barely gotten any sleep and there was no denying that a weight had lifted last night.

“Do you think you’ll be able to get back to sleep?” Brooklynn asked. She inched a little closer, searching his face for signs. “I don’t think there’s much time left before we all have to be up but we have a long day ahead of us.”

“No, I’m alright. Don’t really feel like closing my eyes right now.”

“That’s totally understandable. In that case, I’ll stay up with you.”

“No! I don’t want to keep you awake too, then both of us will be low on sleep and—“

“Darius, you had a nightmare, and well, you’re my boyfriend.” His heart fluttered. “I would have to be pretty mean to leave you alone after that. Nightmares suck a lot - a lot, a lot, and I’m not leaving you alone to face those thoughts.”

How exactly was he supposed to say no to that smile? Darius sighed and nuzzled into her side. “Okay. But you really don’t have to.”

“It’s alright, Dinonerd, I know you’re our brave leader, you don’t have to prove anything to me.”

The jungle biome heat itched at his skin after too many nights locked away with aircon and holding onto Brooklynn like his life depended on it probably didn’t do him any favors. In the distance, a dinosaur roared, howling like a wolf on the full moon and sending shivers down his spine. Time passed at a snail’s pace but through it all, Brooklynn never wavered, keeping an eye on him, talking when he needed, and just laying there when he craved silence.

The sun rose gently and their friends started gathering themselves in the distance. “You’re right,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “I would have gone crazy if I didn’t have you here with me.”

Brooklynn slowly leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek. “You know it,” she said.

“But it did give me some time to think, and I realized: everyone already knows don’t they?”

Brooklynn laughed. “Yeah, Yaz, Sammy, and Ben have all been the world's biggest shippers. Like, yikes, I thought I was bad. It has been cute though, if a little, tiny, bit annoying.”

“Some of those looks make a lot more sense now,” he said, remembering all the times Yaz said something cryptic with a mischievous grin in her eyes. “But, uh, what about Kenji?”

She looked over at the group. “I… don’t think he knows.”

“In that case, I think I want to tell him first if that’s okay. I don’t think he’ll care, but I guess I want to break it to him gently. Plus, we haven’t spent much time together in a while.”

(If you ignored the fact that he hadn’t had any time with anyone.)

Brooklynn smiled. “Firstly, that’s absolutely adorable,” she said, giggling. “And second, yeah sure, I get it. He won’t be mad and if he is, which he won’t be, then he’ll never hear the end of it.”

“You’re the best,” he said, holding her hand. “Can I kiss you again?”

“Obvi.” Her eyes twinkled.

Barely containing a smile, Darius pressed his lips to hers, savoring it for just a little longer than last time. Was it strange that she tasted like flowers? Maybe. Either way, his whole body buzzed as they broke away.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of that,” she said. “Now, go gettem, Dinonerd.”

He jumped up, unable to resist the urge to look back and smile at least twice. Walking past Sammy and Yaz, they smirked at him and giggled at each other. Darius rolled his eyes and shook his head. How had he missed that?

Obviously, most of their friends were on board, and like Brooklynn said, it only made sense that Kenji would be happy for them, but after how rocky their relationship had been his heart rate was a little elevated. In fact, he had all the traditional symptoms of nervousness - the sweaty palms, the labored breathing, and his thoughts crashing against each other in violent waves.

(Not to mention, the occasional, side flash of his dream. But that wasn’t Kenji’s fault.)

“Hey, D!” Kenji said as he walked up, waving happily. “You’re gonna love Firecracker, and all the babies really, but Ben does find the coolest dinosaurs to adopt.” As if to prove a point, the precocious dinosaur jumped up and knocked Kenji down.

“He does have a lot of energy,” Darius said.

Kenji dusted himself off and ruffled Firecracker’s head. “Anyway, what brings you to these parts?”

“I just wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Isn’t that like… ninety percent of the reasons people exist near each other?”

“True, but… well you’re right. I guess it’s just more important than a simple conversation and I know that we’ve patched everything up but I don’t want you to hate me.”

“Is something wrong? Did you kill something? Is everyone else okay?” Kenji’s eyes widened and he tilted his head. “Come on, dude, you know you can talk to me.”

Yeah, what was he even worrying about - Kenji was like his brother. “Brooklynn and I are dating. We both admitted we liked each other last night.”

He blinked. “Last night makes a whole lot more sense now. Those three were absolutely insistent that we couldn’t interrupt you guys. A lot of things make more sense now, actually. Why would I be mad at you for that?”

Awkwardly but with great relief, Darius laughed. “Yeah, yeah, I guess you’re right… again.”

“Although, there is one thing.”

“Shoot.”

“If you dare hurt her, I will kill you. Don’t even think I won’t.”

“Trust me, I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Chapter Text

For all her talk on the wonders of coffee, the nicest surprise and luxury was a simple bowl of ice cream with her friends. Even though the part of her that struggled deeply with trust still suspected Daniel Kon she sat there with a smile - a little golden spoon in hand and tree blossoming behind them.

Sammy and Yaz giggled to each other about something mundane and the little things they’d noticed about this nice compound. Kenji listened to everyone talk, unable to hide his goofy smile and revealing how much his dad really meant to him. And Darius, sitting beside her with their hands intertwined, joked with the rest of them but there was something obviously bugging him.

Not wanting to expose him in front of the rest of their friends, Brooklynn kept it to herself while they all chatted, resorting to comforting him with small squeezes and knowing looks. It was hard to justify being upset when it looked like it might finally all go their way, but she knew firsthand how forceful intrusive thoughts could be.

When everyone else turned in for the night, she grabbed his hand.

“Aren’t you guys excited to actually get a good night's sleep?” Sammy asked, holding the door open for them.

“Yeah, yeah, we are. Darius and I will be out in a bit. We just wanted to talk a little first.”

Yaz elbowed Sammy. “Come on guys, let’s give the lovebirds some space.”

Excited whispers slowly faded away behind the door and Brooklynn turned to Darius, placing a hand under his chin, silently asking what was wrong. Without everyone else there to bring the mood up by a hundred octaves, his stress was even more evident - he didn’t even look all there.

“Let me guess, the nerves are still getting to you too. Even with the promise of more coffee and ice cream, the vibes of this place are so off.”

Darius’s eyes readjusted. “Totally. Mr. Kon is really getting on my nerves and I can’t really pinpoint why.”

“And it feels wrong to look into it because we don’t want to hurt Kenji.”

“Yup.”

“But most of the time we’re right to assume that people don’t have our back. Like Hap and Mae were the only ones on our side. Even Dave and Roxie left.”

“Why is this so hard?”

Brooklynn massaged his shoulder. “It's super hard,” she agreed. “But at least we have each other, and the rest of the fam. If there’s anyone who could survive this stuff, it’s us. Not to brag or anything, but we’re all pretty awesome - especially our valiant leader.”

Darius shook his head to himself. “You don’t have to say that just because you’re my girlfriend now.”

Brooklynn just rolled her eyes and cuddled a little closer to him. She hope one day he could see himself the way she saw him. When his confidence shined through there was really nothing like it. And if she had to shower him in compliments until that message finally got through to him, then she would do her duty gladly.

It would be hard to know where to start. His goofy smile or the dumb jokes. How hard he fights for the things he believes in or his endless compassion. What was not to love?

Even in this time of stress and strife, it was important to remember the good things.

“How about we go on a date tomorrow?” That was definitely a good thing. “It might help take both our minds off everything that’s happening. And to take advantage of the relative peace, however weird it might feel.”

“A date?”

“Yeah, you know, the thing most couples do.”

Finally, she was able to coax a smile from him. “Yeah, that's a petty good idea. Tomorrow afternoon, you, me, some good food, and—“ he stopped himself, smiling again. “A date sounds awesome, Brooklynn.”

“You know it. We can totally still do some snooping tomorrow as well, I just, wanted to do something just us.”

“This is just us isn’t it?”

“I guess. Something romantically just us then.”

He kissed her on the cheek. “I think that was pretty romantic, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah.” She kissed him right back, blushing profusely. “Something romantic and self-indulgent, then. A true moment to block everything else out.”

“I’ll try,” he promised. And suddenly she remembered how much he struggled with ice cream - with just sitting down to celebrate. This really was weighing on his mind. Granted, Darius cared a lot about most things but this stress was growing, and if they were right, it would only get worse.

“Okay, just also remember that you can talk to me about anything. I promise not to judge. There is nothing in this world you could do that would mean I would care for you any less.”

Pondering something, he bit his lip but nodded eventually.

“Good. I—“  I love you. “I hope you sleep better tonight. Nightmares are a pain.”

(She did love him. So, so, so, much. Sometimes, it hurt how much she loved him.)

“You can say that again. I thought I’d got rid of them after Ben came back.”

They both hesitated to leave. On the one hand, sleeping in their own bed with blankets and pillows did sound like a great idea, on the other… there was something unparalleled about a cuddle pile. Even if it was only the two of them.

“Meet back here in two minutes with pillows?” Brooklynn asked.

Before she could even get her bearings, he jumped up. “I’ll race ya!”

“Try not to wake anyone up.”

In the end, Darius beat her but Brooklynn argued that it was just because he knew the building better than she did. Darius argued that he was just faster. Either way, she snuggled into his arms.

And as Brooklynn should have expected, the rest of the gang trickled in one by one. First Kenji and then Yaz and Sammy, all looking sheepish before they realized that everyone else had the same idea.

And of course, Sammy couldn’t resist a little comment about how adorable they were cuddled up together.

Chapter Text

Darius looked up at the sky - looked up at the encroaching night. Their short expedition had taken a lot longer than they thought it was going to. What had started as a simple trip to find out what Mae was trying to tell them and what happened to Kash quickly spiraled into running for their lives and being obviously blocked on their path home.

Guilt pooled in his stomach and no amount of running from dinosaurs or pushing it to the back of his head while he tried to evade the drones made it go away. It was supposed to be their first date and instead, the two of them were doing the same old stuff. What was romantic about almost dying?

“This really wasn’t how I was planning our first date to go,” Darius said, jumping over a log and ignoring the terrifying raptors snapping behind them.

“Neither but maybe we should have seen this coming,” she said.

Ben wrapped his head around, eyebrow raised. “You two were going to go on a date tonight?” He asked.

“Yup,” Brooklynn said.

“I’m sorry - Mr. Kon just has to ruin everything, doesn’t he?”

Darius couldn’t believe he’d ever even thought about trusting that man. While Kash might have been operating separately, he was still hired by Daniel and the only thing that seemed to make him mad was the possibility of being done for attempted murder against Mae. He didn’t seem remotely phased when all his other horrific behavior was listed.

“You can say that again,” Darius said. Letting Kash go was just the nail in the coffin.

“The date isn’t ruined,” Brooklynn said, flashing him a quick smile. “And we needed to do this. I’d rather have a hundred flawless dates after taking these guys down and knowing that we’re safe than only one on this island and then being stuck here forever. It doesn’t mean it’s fair though.”

He sighed, spying the building just a little further in the distance. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right.” 

After nearly getting eaten by Little Eatie, they found a way to press themselves into the wall. No matter how hard he reminded himself that the drones were blocking her, having her teeth snap inches from their heads was not something he would like to repeat.

Making their way to the lift, sweat dripping profusely from every pore on his body, Darius groaned. “And there goes our evening,” he said.

Brooklynn shook her head. “While we might not be the most presentable, we do have the time. As much as I would like to, storming that investors party doesn’t seem like the best move. If we want to get Kenji on side then we’ll need to do it when he’s away from his father and all those investors are variables we haven’t accounted for. In short, if you’re still up for it, I would be down to let the date go ahead. Even if it is past sundown.”

The bass of the party music thrummed through the hallway. “You’re right,” Darius said, reaching for her hand. “Why should we let him ruin our fun?”

She nodded, taking his hand right back. “Something tells me we won’t get another opportunity for a while.”

Giving them a thumbs up, Ben backtracked down the other hallway. “Have fun, you guys. I’ll just be over here, making sure not to get in your way.”

“Thanks, Ben.”

The lift ride was agonizingly slow and Darius didn’t know what he was going to find when he opened the double doors to the dining area. For all he knew, Daniel could’ve purposely messed everything up. Instead, it was perfectly serene and quiet with the tree towering over everything in the room.

“I was planning on doing this place up,” he lamented anyway.

“Oh well, this will work just as well, I know it. Plus, for a date to be fun all I really need is for you to be here, DinoNerd. Don’t worry so much about the other stuff.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

Gently, she let him to the table by the window and nuzzled into his side. If you looked at the forest just right, it was almost magical, reflecting the lights through the window and encasing them in a little sheltered alcove. Obviously, it wasn’t as pretty as the precious human hugging him, but it might have been a second.

“What are you thinking about?” She asked, tracing her finger down his arm.

“I was um… just thinking about how pretty you are,” he admitted.

Giggling, she smiled and Darius felt his heart explode right then and there. “That’s really sweet of you. And as a matter of fact, I was just admiring your handsomeness and how peaceful it is here.”

“I never thought I’d ever find anything about this place remotely fun but here we are.”

“First time for everything I guess,” she said and her eyes lit up. “Speaking of first things, now that we’ve had all the basic luxuries, what is on your revised list of first things when we get home. My coffee machine won’t have the same edge now that I’ve had at least four today.”

“Brooklynn!”

“What? It’s not the world's worst addiction.”

“I know, but I remember the withdrawal headaches after the park went down. You were grumpy.”

“We were all grumpy.”

“I know, I know. It was pretty funny though. Of all the things to be worried about - of all our stressors and you complained about coffee. But… it was nice to have something normal to complain about.”

“We were so innocent back then,” she laughed. “I thought I knew so much about the world - about how it worked and my place in it. I thought I had my whole life sorted. Now, I don’t even know if I want to do YouTube anymore.”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“I know, it’s just wild thinking about how much of a different person I’ve become - that we’ve all become.”

“You can’t really blame past us. How many kids our age ever have to worry about the things we have?’

“Like zero.” For a moment, she disappeared, looking beyond him to memories he’d never see. “Anyway, existentialism was not the point of this date. One thing you’re going to do when you get back.”

“Uhhhhh, probably check Alan Grant’s website and make copies of all my notes.”

“I should have guessed. Even after all this time you’re still a DinoNerd.”

“Is it weird that I like dinosaurs more now?”

“No. I don’t think so. You know, as scary as they can be, I think I might call myself a dino fan, now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, living amongst them has really opened my eyes to how magnificent they can be. And not in the fake Jurassic World way. And you know, you were a really big part of that realization. I’m so thankful for you showing me. God, I was such a self-absorbed—“

“No, you weren’t. You’ve always cared about people, sometimes, you just had a hard time showing it.”

Rolling her eyes, Brooklynn rested her head on his shoulder. “I guess you’re right. Their eyes locked. “I really want to kiss you right now,” she whispered.

“Me too.”

The door swung upon and in strut Kenji. The fluttering in Darius’s heart disappeared immediately and his shared glance with Brooklynn immediately turned sour.

“Uh… hi?” Darius said.

Kenji’s face soured. “My dad told me what you guys were up to. I know about all your snooping.”

So much for their nice date.

Chapter Text

Every time they came up with a plan like this, Brooklynn wondered when exactly they’d all lost their marbles. Despite all odds, and any common sense, they were running head first into dinosaurs - controlled dinosaurs, and trying to get as close as possible. It made sense and she was confident they could pull it off but they probably should have been more concerned that none of them even blinked anymore.

As usual, she was on a team with Darius and they were tasked with destroying Big Eatie’s chip. Brooklynn couldn’t say she’d expected it to be easy but she didn’t expect it to be that hard. The dinosaur's moves were surprisingly swift considering there was a human behind each and every one of them. She certainly hadn’t expected to nearly have her head taken off.

Kenji saving them was appreciated but she couldn’t bare to look at him. How could she rationalize this Kenji, the one who watched patiently by his father’s side as dinosaurs were forced to fight, with the Kenji who had become like a brother to her? And instead of the slightest bit of guilt, he once again blamed them.

(Of course, he was being brainwashed. Obviously. It only made sense. But all she could feel was the betrayal.)

“Sorry Kenji but we’re finishing what we came here to do,” Darius said and Brooklynn silently thanked him. There was no way she would have found her voice at that moment, wondering what on earth was happening in his head. Darius stood and she followed, risking one look back as she pushed herself closer to him.

“What’s the plan now?” Brooklyn asked because there would be time to worry later, decompress later, think it through, later. Right now, there were more important things at stake than her feelings.

They stationed themselves behind a tree, trying not to wince at each roar that could spell the end of one of their friends. Big Eatie’s stomps were always loud but they were still especially loud so she was likely still close.

Darius held his finger to his lip for a second before nodding to himself. “He doesn’t know where we are. That gives us the element of surprise if we can keep it that way.”

“We ambush him, take the controller, and keep Big Eatie still while we disable her chip.”

“Exactly,” he said. For a moment, she watched his eyes twinkle at her like the thought crossed his mind to kiss her right then and there, but it passed just as quickly. “I’ll run out in his line of sight, giving you—“

“An opportunity to grab him from behind.”

He nodded, unable to hide a small smile. “We’re getting good at this.”

“It’s mostly you, I just follow your lead.”

“Don’t underestimate yourself.”

A louder stomp caught both their attention. Darius balled his hand into a fist and crouched before starting to count down from four. When it hit one, he leapt into action and Brooklynn crept around the edge of the small clearing, keeping one eye peeled for stray branches and the other focused on Darius’s progress.

She waited for the idiot to fully take the bait before striking, latching on to his back like a viper. And she missed. Grunting, she reached for the device with all her might but without shock to rely on, he was able to continuously throw her off, disjointedly controlling Big Eatie at the same time.

Thankfully, Darius dodged all the attacks, ducking and rolling with precision. She tried not to watch but it was hard to take her eyes off it - hard not to worry about her boyfriend as he put himself in the direct line of peril. It would all be over if she could just reach a little further.

“Try and hold her steady,” Darius yelled.

Then he almost got stomped on. Brooklynn’s heart leaped into her chest. “I’m trying,” she said. He’d done his part perfectly, why was she struggling so much?

After a series of missed snaps, the investor pushed down on a perfectly timed combo. Brooklynn gasped and could do nothing as Big Eatie swung round and hit Darius with her tail… right into a tree.

“Darius!”

Knowing it was a bad idea, she leaped off the investor and ran straight for him. There was no Kenji to save them this time and Big Eatie was walking straight for him. And to her horror, he was completely knocked out cold, open wound leaking down his arm.

“No, no, no.” Brooklynn crouched down by his side, trying to remember all her medical training through the cloud of guilt and horror. “Darius, wake up, come on.”

Behind her, Big Eatie’s sign blinked red then crossed out. She was free. Both a blessing and a curse. There was no way she was leaving him but the dinosaur stalked forward, eyes trained on them.

“Darius you gotta wake up,” she pleaded.

His eyes fluttered. “W-what?” Then they flew open. His mouth dropped and he refused to blink, watching the dinosaur. Brooklynn shielded them both.

Big Eatie snorted, nostrils flaring. And then she left.

“Did you see that?” Darius asked, sounding a lot more excited than he should’ve. “She purposely made the choice to leave us alone - she recognized that we saved her.”

“Yes, I saw, it was cool. More importantly, how do you feel?”

He blinked, holding the back of his head. “Fine, I guess, my head just aches a little. We should go help the others.”

“Yeah, no, not happening. You were just unconscious for at least thirty seconds and you’re bleeding!”

“Thirty seconds? It felt a lot longer than that.”

“Not helping.”

“And the cut is fine. I can barely feel it. Besides, we all bleed all the time. It’s just part of living here.”

“Darius—“

“Now come on, the others need our help.”

“Darius—“

“Sammy and Yaz still haven’t deactivated their—“

“Darius, think about you for just one second, please. The others will be fine and you need to take a break, if only for like twenty seconds. You don’t need to take care of everyone all the time because it’s going to get you killed and I can’t… I can’t lose you, okay.”

He paused. “I—“

“Please, stay down. Just this once. For my sake.”

“Fine. Just this once. But for the record, it really doesn’t hurt.”

“For the record, I’m the one with the medical training.”

“And for the record, you’re cute when you’re being all protective.”

“And you are going to be the death of me.”

Chapter Text

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Darius watched the clock tick second after second, waiting to see if his hypothesis would be vindicated. The skyline taunted him - a sky they were working to get back to and yet kept getting set back.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Every second they sat there, they were wasting time, losing time. Every second was one Mr. Kon (and Kenji) could use to fulfill whatever evil scheme he couldn’t believe he’d ever been remotely complicit in. But he tried to watch patiently.

Tick.

(Kenji had just stood there. How could he just stand there!)

Tick.

(They’d done everything to prove to him that his dad was in the wrong and yet he still looked down on them.)

Tick.

They needed a way out. That was the next step. Find a way to protect the dinosaurs. Find a way off the island. Focus. Make sure all his friends (and Kenji) got home safely. Priorities.

There was no time to think about the chill from the medical bay biting into his skin that wasn’t accustomed to it. No time to be defeated. (No time to think about how he’d just switched like that. His best friend one moment and a misguided jailer the next.)

Tick.

Tick.

His friends huddled behind him, mulling over simple objects they found or hunched in thought. Depression and anxiety radiated from them, suffocating him.

“I can’t believe he just left us,” Brooklynn said. Her voice was so hollow, quiet, so unlike herself.  “I don’t get it.”

(So much for telling him to look out for the rest of the team. What was this if not a selfish move on his part? How was this a move right for all of them?)

“Why would Kenji do that?”

(After all they’d been through together. He’d even begun to see him as a—)

“You think you know a guy.”

No matter how much he wanted to turn around, hug all of them, cry it out even, he had to stay focused - keep them all alive.

Tick. “Three.” Tick. “Two.” Tick. “One.”

A Brad appeared and the world’s smallest smile twitched on his face. Green light burrowing into their eyes, everyone cringed away, zapping whatever good energy they had left.

“All accounted for,” it said. The robotic voice bit through the last bits of his patience.

Turning around, Darius prepared to explain his plan to everyone, keeping it pragmatic, keeping them all alive. And then… he caught her eyes, or rather, lack thereof. Brooklynn stared at the floor, Sammy’s arm draped over her shoulder and tears barely contained. All her emotional vulnerability was on display and he was being the world's worst boyfriend.

He was about to just dismiss them all. They needed him. They all needed each other. And he was just about to push everything to the side.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

But the time pressure was still on.

Darius sighed. “Okay, guys, we have half an hour until the Brad comes in to check that we’re all here. Which means, we have half an hour to find a way to escape this room and then another half an hour head start before the Brad’s start looking for us.”

Everyone blinked at him.

“And I know… I know it’s not healthy and this is a complicated situation that we do need to talk about, but we can do that when we’re free. Don’t let them keep us down.”

Silence for a second and then just nods.

For a short time, that was enough to put his guilt and his own worries completely to the back of his mind while they searched the whole room head to toe. Despite it being a small cell, it wasn’t designed to be a cell which meant there was a lot of junk lying around that could potentially be useful. The only problem was: most of it wasn’t, leading to a lot of lost time.

In the last few moments, they found a man-sized sewer grate sitting right under their noses.

“Found something,” Brooklyn said, pointing to the small gap between the lid and the rest of the ground. “I bet if we open this, it’ll go somewhere.” She smiled but he still saw the little pain in her eyes.

“You would really think we’d be better at this by now,” Yaz said, helping Darius lift it. “It’s not like this is our first time escaping from somewhere.”

They all laughed but it was hollow. It didn’t sound quite right like there was something missing.

(He was always the one who made them laugh. He was the jokester - the one who kept their fires burning when even Darius couldn’t bare to go on a second longer.)

After another visit from the Brad and another stupid, ‘all accounted for’ that made Darius want to scream, they steeled themselves to drop down into the unknown. Well, not entirely unknown - they did know that it smelt terrible and they knew it was better than sitting around in the glass container like sitting ducks.

As they all jumped down, Darius gripped Brooklynn’s arm. Her eyes widened but she nodded and paused while the others disappeared down the grate. A part of him didn’t want to do it - even possibly acknowledge that there was something wrong because then how would he ever put it back in the box, but he had to do it for her.

Deep breaths. “Hey, I… I know you’re having a really hard time with this Kenji thing and that you want to talk about it. That’s perfectly cool and everything, and despite everything that’s happening, and is going to happen, I don’t want you to think I’m dismissing you.”

“I don’t.”

“Good. I just— I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about it yet. I just can’t while there are so many other things to be worried about and worrying about keeping you all safe, you know.”

“Okay, a, you’re not completely responsible for everyone, and b, yeah, I understand. This is hitting hard but you make sure to take as long as you need. I don’t want to rush you.”

“I knew you’d understand.”

“Always.”

Chapter Text

After the rest of their friends left, Brooklynn nestled in next to Darius. His eyes were intent, focusing on the tablet like he wasn’t just trying to fool everyone else but himself too. Earlier, he’d asked to be alone on his mission, and Brooklynn, obviously, had respected that. But it was just them now, the danger had passed, and there was nothing to stop the worry and anxiety from bubbling to the surface.

She didn’t say anything at first, resting her head on his shoulder, listening to the peace of the fake forest. Distantly, dinosaurs howled, piercing through the constant electrical hum of the barriers. What would their lives be like when every second was, once again, surrounded by the hums and shouts of the real world? Would she have time to just hold him?

“I know you said you wanted to be alone for a while,” Brooklynn said. She felt him shift next to her and the taps on the tablet stopped but he didn’t say anything. “And that’s fine. I mean, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this whole situation it’s that we all deal with terrible things differently.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah,” he said softly.

“I was just wondering if you were okay to talk yet because…” She breathed, trying to mask her shaky voice like she had so many times before. But this was Darius - if there was anyone to be open with, it was him. “Because I’m so angry, and hurt, and confused. And you're the person I trust the most, Darius. You're the person who needs to understand.”

“I think… I think I’m ready,” he said. Not a promise but an opening. She could work with that.

“I just don’t understand how we- I managed to misjudge him so drastically. The Kenji I thought I knew, the Kenji who would move heaven and earth to save all of us, he would never do this - never denounce us as his friends. The Kenji I consider a brother would never betray us like that.”

“I know how you feel,” Darius admitted, staring into the night sky. “But I think for the past day, I didn’t want to feel. I didn't want to process. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

“It hurts,” she empathized.

“With dinosaurs, with this,” he said, picking up the tablet again. “I know exactly how they’re feeling. If they want to hurt me, they’ll let me know. It’s easier. Nothing is lost in translation. Nothing can catch me off guard, once I understand. ”

“You’re getting really good at communicating with them now.”

“What good is the ability to talk to dinosaurs if I can barely communicate with other people?”

“You communicate fine with me,” Brooklynn objected.

“I basically shut down for the past day." Then, he looked up at her, re-evaluating. "I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“You needed your space,” she reminded him but it felt good to hear him say it. “And you are now, that’s what matters.”

Kissing him on the cheek, she melted further into his embrace.

No matter what happened, no matter who betrayed them, or who got hurt, Brooklynn was confident Darius would stay by her side. Loyalty was one of many traits she valued in him. Which made it especially infuriating when someone took advantage of that.

It hurt watching Darius’ precious trust in the world around him slip from betrayal after betrayal. If, by some miracle, Kenji came around and realized his mistake, Brooklynn didn’t know how she was going to forgive him for hurting Darius. The two of them were best friends. Who was he to just throw that away without a care?

“So, what now?” Darius asked. They were completely entangled in each other, clinging like this was the only thing that mattered.

“I don’t know.”

“Part of me wants to get started on messing up Mr. Kon’s plans. But another part of me wants to stay here forever, relaxing with you. I know it’s selfish.”

“It’s human. You’re going to crash and burn if you never let yourself rest.”

He sighed. His heartbeat continued to thunder.

“Darius, you won’t be able to save anyone, if you don't put yourself first at least some of the time.”

Sucking in a breath, he groaned. “It’s not fair that you know me so well,” he said.

“On the first day we met, you jumped into a raptor pen to save Kenji. As much as I would love to claim these girlfriend points, your heart has always been on full display to everyone.” She nudged him. “And it’s pretty damm hard not to love you for it.”

“Or abuse it,” Darius muttered. His gaze retreated back to his shoes.

Brooklynn mentally slapped herself - she walked right into that one. “We all have our weaknesses. Don’t you dare blame yourself for this, Darius Bowman. It is Kenji’s fault for betraying us, Kenji’s fault that he’s controlling those dinosaurs, and Kenji’s fault that we are left here picking up the pieces.”

“I know, I know.”

“Do you?”

“As long as you stick around to keep reminding me,” he half-joked.

She giggled, knowing when to drop the topic. Both of their emotions were still raw - if he wasn’t ready, she wouldn’t push him too hard. Self-reflection could come after saving the dinosaurs and destroying Mr. Kon. They were going to completely wreck him.

“I’ll stick by your side as long as you’ll let me. And maybe even if you want me gone, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of me.”

Scoffing, he wriggled out of her grasp. "Are you sure about that?"

She poked him in retaliation - in the spot under his chin where she knew he was ticklish. He batted her hand away but stopped when instinctively, she caressed his face. Oh. That was new.

Suddenly more aware of every breath, they inched closer and closer together. Their lips locked and Brooklynn almost forgot why there was a hole in her chest. Almost.

As they pulled away, Darius chuckled. “You certainly know how to improve the mood,” he said.

“You were the one who said you wanted to stay here forever.”

“I did say that, didn’t I?”

“But I think you were also right, there are some things we can be doing to mess up the Kons’ plans.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“Well for one, I’d like to kiss you again. But after that, we can totally get started on our revenge.”

Chapter Text

After three rounds of two truths and a lie, culminating in a tiebreaker between Ben and Brooklynn, everyone decided to finally head to sleep. But despite the exhaustion, both the good and the bad kind, Darius couldn’t find it in him to rest.

The conversation with Brooklynn had been cathartic but it was also playing on loop in his head. All day, there was distraction after distraction, keeping the thoughts from burrowing too deep, but everyone else was asleep now, the fire was dying down, and the high of the game was a memory.

He knew that everyone was struggling in their own way after what Kenji did even if it wasn’t the constant topic of conversation anymore. Smiling felt strange, wrong, like his own form of betrayal, but as the ‘leader’, he needed to keep morale high.

Brooklynn snuggled closer to him and the anxieties didn’t disappear entirely but they dulled, paling in comparison to the light of her bright pink hair and kind heart.

She poked him. “I know you’re not asleep,” she said.

“I’m just thinking,” he said.

“Careful, I heard doing too much of that could be fatal,” she joked, sitting up and crackling her knuckles. “After the way, Yaz and Sammy talked about destroying those Brads, I’m jealous of how cathartic that must have been. I’m really in the mood to punch something and not have to think for a while.”

Darius sat up too and leaned into her. There were only embers left in the fire but he could still taste the marshmallow in his teeth. “Is it bad that I’m sort of nostalgic about Isla Nublar for exactly that reason?”

“How do you mean?” Brooklynn asked, actually already knowing the answer to the question but also knowing he needed to say it out loud.

“There were a couple of months there, when we’d got Ben back, and dealt with Tiff and Mitch, and could just focus on trying to get home, where it was simple. We ran from dinosaurs and just lived day to day. All this… with Kenji and Mr. Kon, and the fate of all the dinosaurs with them trying to control them, it’s tiring.”

“I think that’s understandable,” she said. “Especially with all the excess pressure you put on yourself.”

“But then again, I didn’t get to do this on Nublar.” He kissed her on the cheek, relishing in her little giggle. “So was it really better?”

“That’s also true.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Then she leant back, contemplating the stars. “I thrive on a mystery, on having a case to crack so I don’t relate entirely, but I just… I wish this one didn’t turn out to be so complicated.”

They just sat for a bit, enjoying each other's company, watching the last sparks of fire die, watching their friends rest. Not having to worry about the Brad’s anymore was such a weight off his chest. Add getting closer to communicating with the dinosaurs through Mae’s research on top of that, and Darius could trick himself into feeling safe.

Hypervigilance had been his constant companion since Ben fell off the monorail, maybe even since his dad died, but there was peace in this moment. There was no need to check for danger. In Brooklynn’s arms, he could imagine the illusion of perfection. How could anything be wrong when something so calming existed in the world?

Yaz and Sammy slept holding each other’s hands. Every so often one of them would wince, haunted by nightmares, but the other would nestle closer, and balance was restored. 

Ben moved a lot in his sleep, unsettled. Did he still slay Toro every night? Was he riding bumpy in the jungle, surrounded by their pack of ankylosauruses?

Brooklynn held onto him like her life depended on it. Each moment away from her was like trying to breathe underwater. They’d been separated too many times. They’d worried and yearend for each other for too many moments. It would inevitably happen again but Darius promised to keep her safe anyway.

“What do you think Kenji is doing right now?” Darius found himself asking.

“Sleeping I guess,” Brooklynn said. But then she actually considered the question and sighed. “I would like to think he’s worrying about us but… I don’t know how much that’s just wishful thinking. Part of me hopes he’s regretting it, feeling bad, tossing and turning, but that feels cruel. This friendship thing is so stupid.”

“It’s not stupid to care.”

There was silence again. This time it was Brooklynn who broke it. “What do you think normal teenagers our age are doing? Not that any of us have ever been normal teenagers. But, you know what I mean.”

“If we survive this will be one hell of a story to tell.”

“I can already imagine some of the comments I’d get on that storytime video. Or videos plural, this cannot be relegated to just one video.” Her laugh turned insecure. “Not that I’m sure I even want to go back to making videos, but I feel like I owe the Brooklanders a part of this story, at least.”

“Do whatever you want to do. I would be happy to appear as a guest star.”

“If I introduce you as my boyfriend that would really piss off all the creepy old internet weirdos. It’ll be so funny, we have to do it. And then, once we’ve made a ton of money off my channel and all the publicity, we can go live our lives, doing whatever we want.”

Obviously, Darius always wanted to survive. Even at his lowest, even when he wanted to give up after Ben, after the Scorpius, after getting captured by Kash, even then, he knew he had to get home. (Make sure everyone else made it home.) But hearing Brooklynn talk about a future - a future with him - it reignited the flame, turning it into an inferno.

Domestic, ‘normal’, teenage bliss awaited them. And beyond that, they could live whatever lives they wanted, in as much danger as they wanted. They could do it together. They would do it together. 

“Whatever we want,” Darius echoed. “I love you.”

It was dark, but he knew she was grinning. “I love you too.”

“Should we try and sleep now?”

She groaned, but she was still smiling. “Yeah yeah, as long as I get to keep hugging you.”

There wasn’t a universe where he denied her.