Chapter Text
(Name) sighed and wiped the sweat off her forehead as she set her bags down on the front porch of the counselors cabin. It wasn’t hard getting her stuff up to the cabin, but navigating a new space in the heat would make anyone tired. Sure, she was excited to be a counselor at a summer camp, but she couldn’t say that she wasn’t going to miss air conditioning and a shower that she knew how to control.
Taking a look around, she took in the sights and made a mental map for herself. All of the camper cabins were positioned in a “U” shape, with a fire pit near the bottom of the U. The counselor and staff cabins were set right across from them, near the open end of the U. To the right of the cabins was the mess hall, and to the left was the theatre pavilion. The whole place was surrounded by a deciduous forest.
From the deck of the counselors’ cabin, she had a great view of the lake beyond the cabins, and the various sports facilities near it.
(Name) was almost caught up in the sights and the gentle breeze from the lake when she felt a rather large hand fall on her shoulder. Shamefully, (Name) jumped at least a solid 6 inches off the ground.
She turned around to greet the person who had frightened her, and hoo-boy, he was way closer than expected.
“Hey there!” The newcomer greeted her with a wave and a smile. His name tag said “Daichi”. His face said “boyfriend material”.
(Name) did her best to return the greeting, “Hi.” Nice and simple and boring.
Daichi seemed unfazed by whatever weird facial expression she could possibly be making in her introduction. (Even (Name) herself couldn’t guess) He actually offered to help her with her luggage.
What she hoped was a smile made its way onto (Name)’s countenance, and she graciously accepted his offer. “Thank you, I’m-”
“(Name). I’m Daichi Sawamura. Nice to meet you.” He said all this while taking the larger portion of her bags and quickly turning to head into the house.
(Name) was struck with two immediate thoughts. Scratch that, three. First, the sudden question of how he knew her name. Second, the shameful follow-up realization that she was wearing a name tag, just like him. And third, the slight tinge of disappointment that followed when he turned his back to her so quickly after introducing himself. That could mean a number of things, but most of them were not great.
On the way up the stairs of the cabin, (Name) was surprised to hear Daichi’s voice once more.
“So what’s your domain?”
“Huh?” (Name) wasn’t sure what he meant, and she hadn’t really been prepared for him to talk to her again, either.
“What area of the camp are you in charge of?”
(Name) puzzled over his question for a second. “Area… Oh! Lake stuff. Kayaking and canoeing and the like.” She laughed and climbed the last step. “I almost forgot. What about you?”
Daichi grinned proudly and for the first time, (Name) caught a glance of his shirt. “Volleyball.”
He was wearing one of those weirdly popular shirts with random two-word phrases on them. His own shirt said, “Volleyball bird”.
“Oh cool! I’ll have to come and play sometime.” (Name) liked volleyball. Volleyball was doable. So was Dai-
“-and then I’ll have to come on a canoe ride with you.” Daichi was casually learning on the railing ledge of the stairs.
Aw, fuck. She had missed the first half of whatever he was saying. Quick (Name), say something about the kids to make yourself seem like an okay person.
“Yeah, haha, just you me and the munchkins.”
Daichi laughed, and then looked at her expectantly. Deep water, (Name), deep water.
In a panic, she grabbed all of her luggage and hauled it to the room she was 90% sure was her’s. “Nice meeting you!”
Behind her, she could hear Daichi shuffle a little bit, and then return the formality. (Name) didn’t even look back to see if he left or not.
~~~
(Name) didn’t see Daichi for the rest of the day, or during breakfast the next morning, either. Quinte frankly, she wasn’t sure wether to be relieved or sad. He seemed like a friendly person, if a little put off by her awkwardness.
She mused about their encounter as she walked in the direction of the beach, past the cabins. She was on duty, teaching kids how to kayak in the morning, and taking the more experienced campers canoeing in the evening, with her rest period just after lunch. Now that she thought about it, (Name) supposed that she could build some arm strength navigating the lake all day long. And it would get her mind off her recent embarrassing moments.
Planning the route she would take around the lake in her head, (Name) didn’t even notice the firm surface right in front of her until it was too late. She was knocked back into the sand by her own locomotion.
Yup, (Name) ran right into the support pole for the volleyball net.
She stood up to dust herself off and look around to see who had noticed her folly. She saw no one. Except the one person she really didn’t need seeing that moment. It had to be the volleyball net.
He approached her with concern. “Are you alright? Can you stand okay?” His eyes gave her a once over to check for injuries.
(Name) attempted to laugh off the situation and affirm her health, as doubtful as that might be in the given moment. “I’m alright, just a little spaced out, that’s all.”
Daichi didn’t look entirely satisfied, and (Name) couldn’t bring herself to blame him. He had just witnessed someone walk into a pole with their eyes wide open.
To reassure him and try and make light of the situation, she joked, “Want to perform a sobriety test, officer?”
Daichi cracked a grin, but it didn’t last long. Shit.
“Um… (Name)...”
Uh oh. Here it comes. He wants you to stay away. Nice work.
Daichi shuffled in the sand. “I wanted to apologize, for yesterday.”
Caught off guard, (Name) struggled to find the words she needed in this situation. The little speech of apology and promise to give him a wide berth would not do anymore.
“Uh, you do? For what?” (Name) was thoroughly confused.
Her own confusion might as well have been contagious, Daichi looked just as puzzled as she felt. “You mean you’re not upset with me?”
(Name) was wracking her brain for something she might’ve said to make him think that she was upset. Nothing came up. If only she hadn’t spaced out when they were talking yesterday. She tried her best to alleviate his worry. “No, what do you think upset me?”
Daichi rubbed the back of his head and looked at the net. “I just thought I was coming on too strong. You didn’t answer my question, so I thought I had upset you.”
(Name) had to keep herself from groaning; so he had asked her a question while she was spacing out. “No, no! Not at all. I should be apologizing. I was totally thinking about something else when we started talking about camp. That was really rude of me, I’m so sorry. What was your question?”
A small smile blossomed on the boy’s face. “Good to know you don’t think I’m some presumptuous creep. I was wondering if you’d like to hang out on our free day. I thought we could play volleyball and go canoeing.”
(Name) laughed abruptly. “You thought that I thought you were a creep? Let me reassure you that you are the opposite!”
Daichi wiggled his eyebrows, drawing more laughter from the girl. “I’m glad you’re not repulsed by me. But you still haven’t answered my question.”
(Name) leant forward with a grin. “I’d love to ‘‘hang out’’ with you, presumptuous creep.”
“Sounds good, Space Cadet.” Daichi inched a little closer.
“Space Cadet?” (Name) was thrown by the new way he addressed her.
Daichi looked hesitant again.
“Because you space out… uh… frequently,” he explained.
“Oh.” (Name) wasn’t opposed to the nickname, but she was surprised by the truth it held. “I like it. You can now address me as so, Lieutenant Creep.” She flashed a lopsided grin his way to reassure him that she took no offense.
Daichi laughed, a melodious sound, and played along, stiffening his posture. “Lieutenant Creep, requesting to escort you to the docks, ma’am.”
(Name) blushed and reached for his outstretched hand, gently interlocked her fingers with his own.
“Permission granted.”
~~~ Bonus ~~~
“I also wanted to apologize for interrupting you. It’s just you were so cute and my face was red-”
“Daichi.”
“-I was really trying to impress you-”
“Daichi!”