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Qiao Yu is beautiful. This is all Shen Yuhua can think about as Qiao Yu drapes her jacket around Shen Yuhua's shoulders.
"Feel warmer?" Qiao Yu murmurs, and Shen Yuhua can only nod. Her tongue is tangled in knots. The campfire flickers in front of them, but the strongest warmth burns in Shen Yuhua's stomach. Qiao Yu leans forward to prod at the fire with a log, and her muscular arm glistens in the firelight. Shen Yuhua swallows hard.
"Those kids kept us running around like crazy today, huh?" Qiao Yu says, settling back on the bench. "They're cute, but it's a lot of work."
"Yeah," Shen Yuhua agrees, breathless. She's an athletics counselor, just like Qiao Yu, which means they both get to watch over the same batch of screaming, sweaty preteens together. At the beginning of the summer, Shen Yuhua had envied her friends their positions—Swallowtail worked in arts and crafts, weaving bracelets all day, while Leng Feng was a lifeguard, and got to relax by the lake. Shen Yuhua had to herd kids through games of capture the flag with constant reminders to reapply sunscreen, stay hydrated, and don't eat the poison ivy . But the time she got to spend with Qiao Yu made it all worth it. When, at the end of the day, Qiao Yu had shaken her hair out of its ponytail and said, "Whew! Want to join me for a quick dip in the lake before the bonfire tonight?" Shen Yuhua had yes on her lips before she had even registered the question.
Qiao Yu, with her giant biceps and big smile. Qiao Yu, with her easy kindness towards the kids and Yuhua alike. Qiao Yu, who clapped a warm hand on Shen Yuhua's shoulder every time she did well, who offered to share her water or braid Yuhua's hair on a hot day, whose every glance made Shen Yuhua blush like an idiot—how could Shen Yuhua not like her?
So here they are, hair still damp from the lake, huddled together in front of the campfire as their baked potatoes roast in the embers. Shen Yuhua's heart is beating so loud she's surprised Qiao Yu can't hear it. She knows Swallowtail doesn't much like Qiao Yu—"She's aggressive," he muttered once, after Qiao Yu had given another counselor an earful for ignoring a fight that broke out between two of the kids in his cabin—but Leng Feng understood. "She looks like she gives good hugs," was how he'd put it, and Shen Yuhua had to agree. Qiao Yu gave great hugs. Today, as soon as the afternoon soccer match ended, she'd wrapped Yuhua in a sweaty embrace. "Good game," she'd murmured in Shen Yuhua's ear, and even though the afternoon sun was beating down, goosebumps rose on Yuhua's skin.
She shivers now, thinking about it. Qiao Yu notices, and scoots a little closer.
"Still cold?" she asks, concerned, and Yuhua quickly shakes her head.
"I'm fine!" she lies. "I'm getting toasty in front of this fire, actually. You did a great job building it."
Qiao Yu laughs and shakes her head. "It's not hard. I can show you next time."
Next time? Shen Yuhua feels something jump inside of her. When she had told Leng Feng and Swallowtail that she wasn't going to join them for dinner on their night off, they had both been surprised. But while the surprise morphed into frustration and annoyance on Swallowtail's face when she told them about Qiao Yu's plan, Leng Feng had offered her an exaggerated wink.
"Sounds great!" he said cheerfully. "You two have fun. And if you stay out all night," he punctuated this with a waggle of his eyebrows, as Swallowtail stared at him in horror, "I'll cover for you in the morning. Say you have the camp flu or something."
"Thanks," Shen Yuhua had replied, too aware of the blush burning on her cheeks. "I'm sure it's just a friendly thing."
"I've seen the way she looks at you," snaps Swallowtail. "That isn't friendly." He had said it with disgust, but still, Shen Yuhua's heart fluttered. Could her friends be right? Could Qiao Yu possibly see her—Shen Yuhua, the short athletics counselor with the bushy eyebrows—as more than friends?
"Next time," she says aloud now, watching the shadows dancing on Qiao Yu's face in the firelight. "I'd like that."
Qiao Yu turns to face her with a smile. "We get so few nights off, so I'm glad we can spend this one together. Even though," her smile turns self-effacing, "I'm sure you'd rather be eating at some normal restaurant somewhere in civilization."
Shen Yuhua shakes her head quickly. "I'm happy to be here with you," she says honestly, and tries not to read too much into the way Qiao Yu's eyes light up. "I'm glad I get to see your cookout skills in action."
"That's sweet of you to say." Qiao Yu rubs the back of her neck abashedly. She got sunburned there earlier today. Shen Yuhua wants to be the one who rubs aloe on her sunburns in the evenings. She wants to be the one who gets to touch the soft, tender skin behind Qiao Yu's thick curtain of hair. Goosebumps rise on her skin. Shen Yuhua, be normal.
Qiao Yu glances at Yuhua as she shivers again. "Are you still cold?"
"I'm—" Shen Yuhua begins, but then she cuts herself off, because Qiao Yu is wrapping her arm around Shen Yuhua and tugging her closer, and Yuhua's brain is no longer functioning. She's so warm. Her arm is so strong. Her face is so close. Yuhua blinks, and a tiny part of her last functioning brain cell registers that Qiao Yu's cheeks are also tinged pink. An illusion of the campfire?
"Um," says Qiao Yu softly, "I'm an idiot about things like this." Things like this? Shen Yuhua wonders, but then Qiao Yu's hand comes up to brush a damp strand of hair off her cheek, and Shen Yuhua's brain is moving in slow motion again. "I mean, it's hard for me to say, because I'm not good at fancy speeches…" Qiao Yu takes a deep breath in through her nose and exhales through her mouth. "Er. What I'm trying to say is—well…"
"I like you," says Shen Yuhua's mouth without her brain's permission. "Qiao Yu, I like you."
Qiao Yu's eyes are so big. Her mouth is drawn up into a surprised O, and Shen Yuhua is close enough to see her soft, slightly chapped lips, close enough to see the freckles dotting her cheeks, close enough to see the moment when Qiao Yu's brow smooths out and something like relief—-something like joy—shimmers in her eyes.
"I like you too," Qiao Yu whispers, and her hand is back on Shen Yuhua's cheek. Warm and calloused and real. "Are you—can I?"
"Yes," breathes Shen Yuhua, and Qiao Yu leans forward. The kiss is soft and slow, just as Shen Yuhua imagined it (and she has imagined it, late at night in the cabin, turning over in the top bunk and picturing Qiao Yu's brilliant smile, her strong arms, her mouth on Yuhua's) but none of it can compare to the reality of the soft heat, the little noise that Qiao Yu makes as Shen Yuhua's lips part, or the electric stroke of her tongue against Shen Yuhua's teeth. Shen Yuhua makes a very embarrassing sound, and suddenly Qiao Yu's arms are both around her, one hand sliding into her hair, and Shen Yuhua's hands are clutching at the front of Qiao Yu's shirt. Her heartbeat is ringing in her ears. Qiao Yu is kissing her slowly and deeply, like she wants to take her time, like Shen Yuhua is something she has to savor, and Shen Yuhua has never felt so dizzily in love.
A twig snaps in the forest behind them. Qiao Yu and Shen Yuhua spring apart and find themselves staring down the flashlight beam of—
"Oops," says Chu Tian, head of the camp athletics department and known troublemaker. "Sorry about that! Just got lost looking for the outhouse." His eyes twinkle. "Don't stop on my account!"
"I'm going to kill you," says Shen Yuhua, breathless.
The baked potatoes burn.