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Aziraphale was not having the fun summer he’d thought he’d have. Aziraphale had signed up to be a camp counsellor, expecting to lead a group of preschool aged boys through a fun-filled week. What he’d not been expecting was to be placed with boys on the cusp of pre-teens. Not just that, but he was stuck with the worst co-counselor imaginable.
Aziraphale’s co-counselor, Crowley, did not want to be there. He said his parents forced him as they thought he’d learn responsibilities. But Crowley did not care about his responsibilities as a counsellor at all. He hardly paid any heed to the boys under their care or to the schedule they were supposed to follow. In fact, Crowley went out of his way to pointedly ignore the camp’s schedule or rules. It had Aziraphale all rather flustered. But the worst of it was that the kids loved Crowley for the mere fact that he’d let them run around wild, doing whatever they pleased. The boys didn’t listen to Aziraphale at all. Crowley never ordered the boys to do anything, even after Aziraphale tried to get him to do so, hoping the boys might at least listen to Crowley.
Overall, Aziraphale felt very overwhelmed and quite out of his depth, trying to wrangle the group of pre-teen boys who didn’t listen to a word he said. Said pre-teen boys would much rather run about wild than follow the structure of the camp at all. Aziraphale desperately wanted the summer to be over.
Somehow, Aziraphale managed to wrangle the boys together for a nature walk. Of course, the boys took the opportunity to run free into the woods, off the trail. Despite Aziraphale telling them not to, that it was dangerous.
“Relax, Aziraphale,” Crowley muttered quietly in his usual annoyed tone he used when talking to Aziraphale. (He rarely talked at all, however). “Nothing’s going to happen to them. We’re out in the middle of nowhere. There’s not like there’s bears or poisonous snakes.”
Aziraphale sighed tiredly as the boys screamed and ran about. They had picked up some sticks, waving them in the air at each other. Aziraphale looked back at Crowley, who was aimlessly following after him, the sunglasses that never left his face covering his eyes. Crowley’s hands were shoved deep in his pockets, and he looked like he longed to be anywhere else. Aziraphale sighed again, feeling similarly, but continued onward. The boys were zigzagging across the path, and Aziraphale had given up on keeping track of them. He’d given up overall.
Then suddenly, there was a great wailing, pained cry from behind them, causing everyone to stop and look back.
“Where is everyone!” Aziraphale panicked.
“Help!” Adam’s voice came, and Aziraphale started towards it, followed quickly by everyone else.
Aziraphale stumbled into the trees to find Adam standing over Warlock. Warlock was sitting on the ground, clutching his leg to himself.
“He…” Adam stuttered.
Aziraphale rushed over, only to be met with blood seeping from a wound on Warlock’s leg. Aziraphale’s stomach turned at the sight of the blood. Aziraphale stood there frozen before Crowley was at the boy’s side.
“Can you move it?” Crowley asked.
“It hurts.” Worlock wailed.
“Aziraphale,” Crowley’s head turned to him sharply, causing Aziraphale to jump out of his state of shock. “What do we do?” Crowley’s voice was urgent, almost scared.
“We need proper bandages. We need to get him to the nurse’s office.” Aziraphale said, still feeling rather overwhelmed.
The boys were starting to huddle closer, whispering worriedly.
“Alright, everyone!” Crowley was up in a shot. “You are all going to follow Aziraphale in an orderly fashion back to our cabin. I’ll take Warlock.”
“But…” Brian started.
“I will not hear one if, and, or but about it!” Crowley’s voice was raised in a way Aziraphale had never heard before, startling him more so. “You will listen to Aziraphale!”
Crowley then began to move to Warlock, starting to pick the boy up carefully.
“Alright, everyone.” Aziraphale moved to gather the boys up, away from Warlock. “Let’s try to get back all in one piece, please.”
The boys followed in a very organized fashion back to the cabin. They seemed very concerned about Warlock. Aziraphale asked them to wait in the cabin while he checked in Warlock and Crowley.
Aziraphale then ran to the first aid office. Warlock and Crowley were already there. The camp’s nurse was treating Warlock.
“You’re going to be fine,” Crowley said in a soft tone, another inflection Aziraphale hadn’t heard from him.
Warlock was still crying away, and Crowley passed a tissue to him.
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” The nurse informed. “Would you like me to call your parents Warlock?”
Warlock shook his head, and the nurse nodded. “You can stay here for as long as you like. Why don’t I get you a treat.” She left then.
“How are you feeling, Warlock?” Aziraphale approached cautiously, for the boy had made his disdain for Aziraphale clear in the past few days.
“I don’t want to go home.” Warlock sniffled through his tears.
“Oh, I’m sure it won’t come to that. The nurse said it wasn’t as bad as it looked.”
Warlock sniffled some more. Crowley patted the young boy’s shoulder before standing up to face Aziraphale.
“How are the others?” Crowley asked softly, almost in a whisper.
“They’re okay. I asked them to wait in the cabin. I don’t know if they’ll listen to me, though.” Aziraphale sighed again.
Crowley looked back to Warlock as the nurse reappeared.
“How bout an ice cream sandwich?” The nurse was holding one up.
Warlock’s face began to shine as he took it from her. Crowley was moving past Aziraphale and touched his arm lightly. Aziraphale jolted and looked up to see Crowley tilt his head, as if asking if Aziraphale could step outside with him. Aziraphale nodded and followed Crowley out of the office.
“Thank you, Crowley. For stepping up like that,” Aziraphale said as soon as they came outside. “In the moment, I just froze. And I’m usually the responsible one.”
“This is all my fault.” Crowley suddenly said. Aziraphale noticed utter disappointment across Crowley’s features beneath his sunglasses (which were still on his face for some god forsaken reason).
“I…I’m sorry. I just…I never thought one of them would get hurt.”
Aziraphale could see how much this was affecting Crowley. “Crowley, it’s alright. It could have been a lot worse…”
“Exactly. You know, they tell you all this stuff that could happen. But I just thought that, that stuff never happened to me. I thought you and everyone else were just being all uptight and not allowing the kids to have any fun. And I just wanted them to have fun. Because I remembered how much fun this was when I was a kid. How much fun it was to be free from parents or rules. And now…”
He trailed off, leaving Aziraphale blinking. Aziraphale thought all this time that Crowley didn’t care about the kids or camp or any of it. He sure gave the impression he didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” Crowley repeated.
Aziraphale softened at Crowley’s apology.
“For what it’s worth, the kids adore you.” Aziraphale offered. “You see how they are with me. They won’t even listen to me.”
Crowley fidgeted, ducking his head, and Aziraphale sighed.
“Look, could we perhaps try and work together? The kids listen to you, and if we had slightly more structure, then perhaps we might avoid a situation like this in the future.”
Crowley nodded slowly.
Aziraphale felt pleased enough and drew in a breath, standing up tall. He felt hopeful that they might have figured out this whole co-counsellor thing.
“Come on. We should get back to Warlock.” Aziraphale prompted.
“You go. I’ll check in on the other boys.” Crowley offered.
“Warlock hates me,” Aziraphale stated.
“He asked for you. It seemed he’d only trust you that his leg wouldn’t fall off.”
“He asked for me?” Aziraphale puffed up at that as Crowley nodded in assurance.
“Warlock needs the responsible one right now. Not the fun counselor.” Crowley smiled widely before brushing past Aziraphale and walking away.
Aziraphale still felt brimming with pride as he walked back into the nurse’s office alone. Warlock had finished off his ice cream sandwich. He was still sitting on the cot, his leg all bandaged up.
“How are you feeling, Warlock?” Aziraphale cautiously approached.
“It still hurts.”
Aziraphale nodded as he sat down next to the boy.
“Do you think I can still play with the others later?”
“Only if the nurse says you can and if you feel you’re able to.”
Warlock nodded shyly.
“But I’m sure you’ll be better in no time,” Aziraphale reassured.
A few seconds later, Crowley returned with the rest of the kids from the group to comfort Warlock. When the nurse’s office started to get too hectic, Crowley raised his voice to still them and the boys all went quiet. Aziraphale smiled at that, glad the boys were listening for once.
Warlock was to stay in the nurse’s office for the rest of the day. But he’d been given a Gameboy, which made all the other boys jealous, for technology was not allowed in the camp.
By nighttime, Warlock returned to the cabin with everyone fretting over him. Crowley had to remind the boys to give Warlock his space. Aziraphale made to check in on Warlock one last time.
“Aziraphale, my leg’s not going to fall off, right?” He asked in a worried tone.
Aziraphale cracked a smile at that. “No, it’s not going to fall off. Now, you get to bed so you can play with the others tomorrow.”
The next morning, Aziraphale was trying to gather the boys together with little to no success. Crowley somehow slept through their rambunctiousness. Aziraphale wondered how on earth Crowley could sleep through their loud noises. The boys ran about wild outside as Aziraphale failed to get the group together. Only Warlock stood politely by his side. However, the boy giggled at Aziraphale’s lackless efforts. Crowley finally came out of the cabin, grumbling to himself as he placed his sunglasses on his face.
“Morning.” Aziraphale sighed in defeat to him.
“No success getting them to gather?”
“No.”
“Boys!” Crowley yelled, and the boys froze. “Now, what did I say to you all yesterday about listening to Aziraphale? There’ll be no treats for you today unless you all gather here together so we can head off for morning call.”
The boys gathered slowly, grumbling.
“But Crowley, do we have to?” Brian whined. “Morning call is so boring and lame.”
“We’re going to be doing things a bit differently around here from now on, alright?” Crowley told them sternly. “We’re going to actually be enjoying camp by participating in it.”
The boys whined.
“But the game sand activities are so boring,” Adam spoke up this time. “And lame like, Brian said.”
Aziraphale worried about losing the boys, when they’d just managed to get them under control for once, finally.
“Well then, perhaps we could make up our own games and activities occasionally,” Aziraphale suggested. “But no more running around without rules. Because we’re not having anyone else hurt themself like Warlock.” He looked to the boy, who ducked his head shyly. “None of you boys want to go home to your parents, or worse, to the hospital, now do you?”
The boys stilled at that, and Aziraphale felt he’d finally gotten right through to them, smiling to himself.
“Alright, boys!” Crowley raised his voice again. “Now off to morning all for us. Maybe it’ll be fun. Who knows.”
The boys sighed but fell into place, heading off. Crowley and Aziraphale fell behind their group’s line, walking beside each other.
“Thank you, Crowley.” Aziraphale looked over at him.
Crowley hummed in a muted tone. “Let’s just try to get through this summer in one piece.”