Chapter Text
Isagi put down his bags in next to him, looking at the parking lot full of teenagers waiting to be picked up and brought to the summer camp. The international christian summer camp. The christian summer camp his grandma had convinced him to go to.
He sighed.
Then, after a few minutes, the bus arrived. One after another, the boys entered the bus, and as soon as everyone was sat, a woman with shoulder-lenght reddish hair stepped up and started checking attendance.
When she finally finished listening all the names, she started smiling, and said: "My name's Teieri Anri, you can just call me Anri, and I'll be one of your supervisors for the three weeks of this camp. You'll be sharing a room with two randomly assigned other boys. I hope we'll all have fun!"
Isagi couldn't help but smile at Anri's speech. She seemed like a sweet woman. He then looked to the side to check if the boy next to him thought the same, but he was asleep. He had unnaturally light hair and pale skin, and Isagi was already wondering what he'd be like once he woke up.
The bus ride took about 3 and a half hours, until they arrived at a small village in the mountains. Isagi sighed. That probably meant there were lots of outdoor activites to do. Like hiking. Most likely hiking.
After leaving the bus, each of the boys got a pair of translation earbuds, so the language barrier wouldn't be a problem.
The hostel the camp was staying at was nice enough. The interior in the entry area was cozy, but still had some traditionally japanese elements.
When Isagi entered his assigned room, his two roommates were already here. There was one bunk bed and one single bed, and the to boys were occuping the bunk bed (not that Isagi would complain about that). One of them had wavy hazel and magenta hair, the other had uneven blonde hair.
"Micha, here's our third!", one of them exclaimed, and the other scoffed. "You're making it sound like we're having a threesome."
The first boy pouted lightly, then he turned to Isagi. "You're Isagi Yoichi, right? I'm Alexis Ness!" Isagi was a bit dumbfounded. "Nice to meet you. But how do you know my name?" Ness giggled, while the other boy snorted. "Looks like we got one of the smart ones, Alexis.", he said, and Isagi felt his face burn up in embarrassment.
"Yoichi, silly, they put a note with all our names on the door. This is Michael, Kaiser, by the way. He's too much of a prick to introduce himself, appearantly." Kaiser just glared at Ness.
Isagi didn't speak much with his roommates after that, they were deep in their own conversation, speaking so low that Isagi couldn't understand them, and soon enough it was time for dinner.
The supervisors seemed to not have any pity for the boys after the long bus ride, because instead of a warm meal and a set table, they found a kitchen full of uncooked food.
Ness audibly sighed, and Kaiser mumbled: "Fuck this. I'm out of here." Then he turned around to leave the kitchen, but Anri semed to pop up out of nowhere and grabbed him by the wrist.
"Michael, if you aren't helping us, you can't eat with us. Come on, we can cut some vegetables together.", she said, smiling.
But Kaiser seemed unfazed, and broke free from her grasp. "I don't fucking care.", he sneered. "I'd rather starve to death than help these morons cook a meal worse than my mom's taste in men."
With that, he just ran off.
Both Isagi and Anri stared at him dumbfoundedly, while Ness' eyes saddened.
"Should we go after him?", Isagi asked Ness. The latter shook his head. "We'll only make it worse if we try to convince him. He'd do something worse than just leave."
Then the magenta-haired boy grabbed Isagi's wrist, and pulled him into the kitchen. He was smiling. "Let's go, Yoichi! We have lots of work to do!"
── .✦
Isagi was halfway through cutting a carrot, when someone was suddenly standing behind him. That someone was tall, a lot taller than Isagi, and had his black hair with red streaks gelled up. He also had a nasty sneer on his face.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
The boy grabbed the knife from Isagi's hands and started cutting the rest of the carrot himself. "I said to cut them in stripes not slices, you donkey. Go over there and help bee-boy wash the rice."
Before Isagi could even open his mouth, the tall boy turned to Ness. "You're doing a good job. Looks like there aren't only stupid people here this year. My name's Barou." Ness smiled slyly. "Thank you, Barou. You can call me Alexis."
Considering he lost his job, Isagi looked around in the kitchen, looking for someone washing rice. Because appearantly, he had to help that person now.
Then he spotted him. A boy, about Isagi's age, washing rice. That must be 'bee-boy'. Even his hair matched, brown with yellow highlights. Yellow, just like his eyes.
"Hey, I think Barou told me to help you wash the rice.."
Isagi approached the boy. He immediately started beaming. "Thanks, it was getting lonely over here. I'm Bachira Meguru!" The boy's smile was contagious, because Isagi felt his own lips curve up into a smile.
"I'm Isagi Yoichi."
"So, why did Barou ban you to the sink washing rice?", Bachira asked, while going back to rinsing the rice. Isagi sighed. "I cut the carrots wrong. They were supposed to be in stripes, not slices." He mimicked Barou's voice towrds the end.
Bachira giggled. "And why're you here?", Isagi asked. Bachira just shrugged his shoulders. "I put a plastic box into the microwave. It all melted. Huge mess." Isagi raised his eyebrow. "Isn't not putting plastic into a microwave basic common sense?"
Bachira just shrugged his shoulders again. "Never had much of that."
What a weird boy. But strangely, Isagi found himself not minding his company.
── .✦
After around two hours of work, to everyone's surprise (even Anri's), a proper meal was standing on the table. It was mostly the work of Barou and his cruel selection of good cooks, but everyone was proud nonetheless.
Isagi sat with Bachira and Ness, but only after a few bites, Ness packed up his food and stood up. He looked around the table, and luckily Anri was deep in conversation with two boys sitting with her, so Ness turned to Isagi and Bachira, and murmured: "Don't tell on me."
Bachira grinned and showed him an okay sign, while Isagi nodded. So Ness ran off, towards the elevator to the rooms.
── .✦
"Kaiser?", Ness asked quietly. In response he received a muffled groan, but he smiled. Any reaction from Kaiser was worth a lot.
"Aren't you hungry?"
Kaiser clicked his tounge. "No. I'm used to straving. I won't go downstairs now." Ness chuckled. "Too stubborn? Good thing I brought you something." Kaiser finally lifted his head and looked down on Ness from the top bunk. "You did?"
Ness smiled. "I did." Kaiser let his head fall back down. "I'm too tired to eat." Ness sighed. "Micha. You know I don't like it when you don't eat. Come down." "No, you come up here." "Will you eat then?" "I don't know.." "And if I feed you?" "Okay.."
Next, Ness put the plate of food on the top bunk, then he himself climed up. He positioned himself across from Kaiser, with the plate of food between them, and picked up the first bite.
Kaiser frowned. "Why do you do this? Being so nice to me. It feels weird." He was looking down, and Ness tilted his head upwards by the chin to be able to feed him better.
Kaiser's long blonde hair was messy, and his eyes slightly red, probably from crying. He was sitting with his shoulders hunched over, one of his hands just lightly grasping Ness' free one, and Ness felt an overwhelming need to protect Kaiser forever swell in his heart.
"Because you deserve it."
── .✦
Isagi was laying on his side, trying to sleep, when suddenly, Ness spoke up.
"So, Yoichi, what're you in here for?"
Isagi raised his eyebrow, even though the other two couldn't see him in the dark room. "You're almost acting like this is prison."
Kaiser chuckled. "But Yoichi, that's what it is. People are usually sent to religious camps if they need to be 'redeemed'."
"Then why are you guys here?", Isagi asked. "I'm gay. And my parents don't like that.", Ness responded honestly. Isagi was genuinely dumbfounded. "You are?" Ness snorted. "Yoichi, have you looked at me literally once? I wear girly jewelry and make-up, and clothes from the women's section, and I style my hair every day. I'm also going to a fashion school in Germany, specifying in hairstyling." "Well I haven't known you for that long..", I sagi mumbled, and pouted.
"And Kaiser? Why're you here?", Isagi asked after a while. Kaiser chuckled, but there was no joy behind it. "I'm here because I'm fucked up, Yoichi. So fucked up that my foster family believes only god can help me." Kaiser's bedsheets rustled, as if he had turned around to face Isagi. "But he can't."
"Foster parents?" Kaiser laughed quietly at Isagi's question. "That's a story for another time. But now, why are you here, Yoichi? Are you a fag? Or do you have untreated mental problems?" Isagi shrugged his shoulders, forgetting that the other two couldn't see him. "No reason like that. My grandma just really wanted me to go, and my parents went along with it." Kaiser snorted. "Look at him, Alexis. Poor little Yoichi doesn't even know what he did wrong."
── .✦