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Cammy huffed. Their legs were aching and they didn’t like the feel of the sunscreen on their skin. Why did he even have to wear it? He wasn’t white like Trophy who had to layer tons of sunscreen to avoid being burnt to a crisp. He crossed his arms and kept walking behind Trophy.
Whatever.
He had been told that it’s safter to wear sunscreen no matter what because you can still get sunburnt. Right… Cammy had never gotten sunburnt in their LIFE!! To be fair…. Cammy didn’t do much outside stuff in the sun, but STILL!
“Trophy, how much longer till we get to the spot?? This is so boring. It’s just fancy walking.”
“I dunno dude, like… 30 more minutes. Maybe 15.”
“Thats a very bad answer to that question. How can your answer be that varied?”
“I’m regretting taking you hiking.”
“You’ve said that 3 times now!”
Trophy closed his eyes and sighed. Cammy was the single most annoying person on the planet. Why had he even considered taking them hiking. Whatever. It’s better if Cammy is outside anyway. Maybe they’d realize how fun it was. Hiking let you enjoy nature, while also letting your body stay active. Plus, there were so many picture opportunities! Trophy knew Cammy wasn’t as much into photography as he was, but he knew Cammy couldn’t resist a sunset photo from a lookout spot on the top of a mountain. Nobody could.
“You know what Cammy, I’m actually glad you agreed to this. I’ve been wanting to hike, and I don’t like hiking alone, so thanks then”
“What? Oh come on you’re not supposed to be all positive… this is suspicious.”
“God forbid a man enjoys something” Trophy said while rolling his eyes.
“Mephone?? No he wouldn’t forbid that at all actually. Speaking of which I do wanna perhaps grab something from here to add it to my shrine… I also think showing my gratitude to Mephone through physical activity is nice… I’m enjoying the nature he created for us.”
“See? We’re both gaining something from this. So there’s no point in complaining!”
“Whateverrrrrr fine. You win. But my legs still hurt.”
“Like I said bro, complaining doesn’t help.”
Cammy audibly sighed and adjusted their glasses… They really weren’t used to doing this much walking all in one day, especially when it was this hot out.
“Carrying me would help my legs but you’re just a fart and won’t do that”
“Why on EARTH would I carry you.”
“Because my legs hurt.”
“My legs would hurt even more than yours if I had to carry you.”
“How much longer till that spot”
Trophy didn’t reply. He had JUST told Cammy how far it was a few minutes ago. He could figure it out. But it was actually close. He toyed with a strap from his camera case in his hand. He was itching to take photos. But he had been forcing himself to wait because he knew he’d delete these ones later anyway.
The photos he REALLY wanted to keep would be the ones from the sunset. He could wait. He was happy to be the first person to take Cammy on a hike too. Most of the other contestants enjoyed various physical activities in their free time. Cammy did not. He knew that Lifering and Bonesaw also frequently hiked this mountain. Trophy came to this one all the time and occasionally saw them. Although he never usually approached them. He loved to simply wait at the lookout just to take a few pictures. Even if he never really liked them THAT much, it was still nice to be outside.
“Trophy.”
“What?”
“Are we close to the spot yet????”
“Literally like 10 more minutes”
“So when you said 30-15 minutes earlier you should have just said 15.” Cammy said as they looked at a watch on their wrist. It was a digital one. They were the only person who even owned a digital one rather than analog. Clearly they used it to frequently check the time, not just for style like many others. Cammy had a strong habit of always keeping an eye on the clock.
Trophy found it odd but interesting. He did like how he could always ask Cammy for how long something was or how much time had passed since they always kept track of it. Plus Trophy himself wasn’t good with clocks in general. He frequently messed up how long until something. Usually off by an extra hour. He was glad he didn’t have to worry about that and could just ask Cammy instead.
“Yeah, I guess I coulda said that. I dunno. When I come up usually I don’t check how long it takes. I usually just start hiking and guesstimate how long it takes.”
“Whatever… it’s good we won’t miss the sunset right? I’m assuming you want pictures of it.”
“I do want to take pictures of it.” Trophy paused. “Is that why you keep asking how far it is? So we don’t miss the sunset??”
“Kinda… I dunno. I also wanna sit down soon. My legs still hurt”
“Ok bro. Thanks for keeping track though.”
“No problem!!!” Cammy beamed. They liked getting thanked for the things they did. It made him happy. Of course most people were happy when they got thanked, but Cammy typically wasn’t thanked all too often. That was partially why he liked Trophy actually. Trophy not only actually listened to him when they were ACTUALLY talking, but Trophy also did say thank you. And appreciated a pretty solid amount of things Cammy did.
Cammy had mixed feelings on the hike. His legs hurt. A lot. It was annoying. And he was super exhausted. But also he liked to hang out with Trophy. He would be open to more hikes. But not too often. Maybe like once a month.
Or every other month.
Trophy and Cammy were relatively silent in the last few minutes until they reached the lookout. There wasn’t much to talk about until they reached the cool part of the hike. Cammy had occasionally pointed out a tree or plant and explained what it was, even if Trophy hadn’t asked about it.
Trophy didn’t mind the chatter. It helped fill a silence that he commonly was surrounded by on normal hikes. He always preferred hiking with another person. Plus it’s WAY safer.
A moment passed, and Cammy gasped.
“IS THAT THE SPOT????” they pointed their hand at a opening in the trail ahead and rushed past Trophy into the opening, half-tripping over a rock and continuing forward.
Trophy quickly followed behind them. So much for their legs hurting…
Cammy reached in their pocket and fumbled with a small digital black point camera. They struggled a bit to place their hands in the right spot, but eventually got a grip on the camera correctly. They focused their camera over the lookout spot and snapped a picture. He only wanted one. He took pictures to remember stuff, not to look nice like Trophy did.
Speaking of which, Trophy soon appeared next to Cammy with his own camera in hands.
There was a click and then a bright flash from Trophy’s camera.
“SHOOT! Sorry, l forgot to turn off flash.”
“I don’t know why you keep the flash on auto, Trophy.”
“Well… I dunno it’s just easier usually.”
“Yeah but 99% of the time you have to go into the settings and turn it on or off… I don’t even know why ‘auto’ is an option on cameras in the first place.”
“Ok Cammy, hush. I’m trying to take a photo.”
Cammy took a step back and looked at Trophy’s camera from over his shoulder. After a moment of Trophy struggling with the angle on his shot, Cammy pointed to a rock near the ground.
“Trophy take a picture as if you were the rock. Like low from the ground and then look up into the sky. You’ll get the grass in the shot and then also the sky.”
“Why would I take that advice from you? I thought you didn’t like to be all fancy with photos.”
“But you do. Sooooo…”
“Fine. I’ll try it.” Trophy dropped to the ground and got the angle like Cammy had suggested. To his surprise, it was really nice. It was perfect, honestly. He patted down some of the grass do get it out of the picture and angled his camera down a little. But he didn’t like how Cammy was the one to show him how to do it, not himself. It was like Cammy had an unfair advantage for this. Like he was born to…
He was.
Trophy thought about it again. He always secretly hated how Cammy was just naturally born amazing at photography while Trophy himself had to actually learn how to do everything. But ever since they became closer friends, he didn’t like how he hated that about Cammy. He just felt guilty. It wasn’t Cammy’s fault they had been naturally skilled. And besides, they hardly showed intrest in photography like Trophy did. Cammy didn’t show off their photos to the others. Cammy just kept them for fun.
Trophy snapped the photo and sat up. It looked really good. He picked up the rock Cammy had pointed at and held it up to show them.
“Here, for your shrine thingy.” Trophy tossed it to Cammy, who tried to catch it but it slipped out of their hands and hit the floor. They quickly bent down to pick it up from the ground and made their way to sit next to Trophy to get another picture of the sunset. It’d look nice from this angle, especially with him and Trophy’s legs in the shot. It’d be a good photo to hang up in his room. A keepsake.
“This is nice actually. And now I’m glad because my legs don’t hurt because I’m sitting.”
“Like I said. It’s fun.”
“Yeah. I’m kinda tired though. Like sleepy.”
“You can lie down and close your eyes for a bit if you want. I usually lie down when I get here.”
“Yeah but the ground is hard and dirt will get in my hair. I’ll stay awake for now.”
“If you insist.”
Trophy didn’t feel tired himself. He was too busy trying to take more photos. He kept chatting with Cammy about various topics the whole time. Football and how the game actually works (Cammy had apparently never understood beforehand), they talked about how cold the hoot always was, they talked about how salt had been a constant annoyance, and how salt would get along with Magnet if they actually talked to eachother. Then Cammy ranted about their shrine and eventually moved onto the subject of Mephone 4 in general. After a while, Cammy’s talking slowed down and Trophy continued to listen until Cammy stopped talking altogether.
Trophy assumed Cammy had just now been worn out to talking and they were just enjoying the silence…
Until he felt Cammy’s head slump onto his shoulder. It kinda scared the crap out of him at first, but he also got kind of nervous. Cammy never got this close to him. Especially not to the point of sleeping on his shoulder. Snoring. In Trophy’s ear.
“Ohhh my god.”
Trophy thought Cammy wasn’t that serious about being tired. He realized they should have gotten up to go to the cabin 30 minutes ago anyway. He was suprised Cammy didn’t say anything about that actually. Maybe the conversations were too distracting. But it was getting dark and Trophy didn’t want to have to hike the last bit up to the cabin in the dark. But he didn’t wanna wake Cammy up either. He looked too peaceful.
Plus he kinda… liked the feeling? He didn’t know. He just liked having someone resting on him. Having someone close felt nice. Trophy just decided to sit still and scroll on his phone until Cammy woke up. He kept glancing at Cammy though. He didn’t like how dark it was getting and hoped they’d wake up on their own soon…
• • •
About 30 minutes later, Trophy felt the weight on his shoulder being lifted. Cammy had finally woken up.
“Huh…? AH?!?? WHERE— ohhhhh hi Trophy. Did I fall asleep? That’s a stupid question, don’t answer that.”
“Yeah I was waiting for you to wake up so we could walk up ro the cabin but it’s kinda dark now.” Trophy shrugged and started to get up from his spot on the ground.
“Why didn’t you wake me up? Do you even have flashlights? How are we gonna make it to the cabin now, you fart?”
“I don’t know dude. You were asleep! I mean it’s l rude to wake someone up, you know?”
“I think it’s more rude to not wake up someone before the sun sets and now that person has to hike in the DARK!”
“Ok well just calm down Cammy. I didn’t bring a flashlight but my phone is pretty bright. We can walk to the cabin. Plus I know the path so it’s ok. We won’t get lost.”
Trophy opened his phone and tapped the flashlight icon on it. He kept thinking about how he really should have said something earlier. He was worried Cammy might go off trail or get lost. He knew Cammy was apt to run off into the woods. He had run off in the middle of the blizzard. But Trophy figured they’d be smart and not run off...
Maybe. He wasn’t actually 100% on that, so it was more like secretly praying for this ti go smoothly. Trophy walked ahead of Cammy and shone the light at the ground and the surrounding trees. The path was wide and pretty walked on. But it was still scary because there was a pitch black forest to their left and a drop off the mountain on their right.
“Trophy. How long is it until we’re at the cabin?”
“It’s only five minutes, I think you’ll make it bro. You were just resting for like 30 minutes I think your legs are fine.”
“No, my legs are ok I just don’t want to walk in the dark. What if we get mauled by a bear?”
Trophy sighed and pointed the flashlight ahead and sped up his pace. There were no animals wandering around inanimate island Exept for like a few birds here and there. Mephone had never made animals for the island himself, so the only ones on it were from the ocean, like Baxter, or they were birds flying overhead.
But it still was creepy, he had to admit.
“Cammy, there aren’t any bears on this island. Mephone never made any. And the OSC said the mountain was safe, as long as you follow the path.”
Cammy stood still for a moment and said nothing. He slid his feet closer together and fidgeted with his watch.
“Trophy I want to go to the cabin faster.”
“If you start walking faster, we will get there faster. Like I said complaining isn’t—“
“Trophy I’m scared.”
“What?”
“It’s dark and I’ve never been here before and I don’t know where I’m going and it’s scary. I don’t know. I don’t want to get lost.”
“Oh. I know the path so just follow me. I have my phone flashlight too so you can see ahead, if you want me to angle it better.”
“Okay…”
“Do you want to hold my phone instead? So you can have the light?”
“Trophy, can I hold your hand? You don’t have to but I think it would help a little. So I don’t loose you”
“Oh— uh… I mean yeah if you want.”
Trophy reached out his hand to Cammy and let them grab it. The two laced their fingers together and started walking. His palms weren’t as clammy as he had expected. The metal on Cammy’s hand brace was cold to the touch, and Trophy was surprised at Cammy’s comment too. And he felt weird again. Trophy knew this feeling. He knew. He didn’t want to admit it, but he hated that he felt that way about Cammy. They had become friends so quickly. They got along well, even if they seemed like they wouldn’t.
And of course Trophy had to go and get a big fat crush on Cammy. Of course he did. It was embarrassing, but he liked the feeling. He liked to do stuff with Cammy and it made him happy. But it was still so so so so so embarrassing. He could feel his face going beet red too.
They kept walking in silence for a bit until Cammy spoke up again.
“Trophy?” Cammy pulled on Trophy’s hand and looked at his face. I mean, not that they could see it at all though. It was too dark to see anything besides what they were aiming the flashlight at, which was the path ahead.
“Yes?”
“Your hands are really really sweaty. And you’re crushing my hand.”
Trophy immediately loosened his grip on Cammy’s hand and mumbled an apology as they continued walking in silence. Trophy felt so awkward. Typically he had an easy time staying tough and stuck up around others. But it was just them. Walking alone with nobody else around.
He felt that urge in him he had felt before. To open up and confess everything about himself. How he felt about Cammy. His guilt for being such an asshole his entire life. His constant competitiveness he struggled to control. And his sadness he felt knowing he had nobody who really actually liked him wholeheartedly besides…
“Cammy?”
“Yeah?”
“I- do you actually like hanging out with me at all? I mean you complain about stuff a lot so I don’t know if this is actually fun. I don’t know.”
“No! I liked this! And it was fun. The view was pretty. And you know I just complain to complain. I don’t actually really care.”
“That’s good. I dunno I’ve just been thinking about you a lot and doubting if anyone actually likes me at all.”
“Well I like you. Nobody likes me either!”
“I wouldn’t say nobody” Trophy said with a slight smile. He was glad he told Cammy at least that. Small steps were easier.
“So you DO like me! I knew it!”
“I— wait what!?”
“You like me! It’s obvious hehe!”
Trophy’s eyes widened. How long had they known?! How did they even know? Was it that obvious??! Was it because Trophy treated them differently? HOW does this guy know???
“I— I didn’t know you knew that. This is so embarrassing” Trophy rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand nervously.
“I mean, you’ve called me your friend before? So I assume you like me. Unless you secretly hate me and OJ pays you to be my friend. That would be bad.”
Trophy felt himself relax. Cammy meant ‘like’ in a friendship way. God, he was so scared Cammy had found out. That would be so weird especially since they were about to spend a night together in a cabin in the middle of the woods.
Speaking of which, the two had just walked into sight of the cabin. Cammy immediately sped up their pace and let go of Trophy’s hand to run ahead to the cabin.
“YAYYYYY WE’RE HERE!!”
“Hey! Wait up you’ve got my phone!”
Trophy chased after them and caught up, eventually walking beside Cammy and up the small stone pathway to the cabin. He fished in his pocket for the keys to the cabin and opened the door for Cammy. Since the osc promoted physical activity, they opened up this cabin to anyone who wanted to use it for free. All you had to do was ask for keys and a time spot for it that wasn’t taken.
Trophy remembered the talk he had with Cabby while she was searching for the keys in the cabinet under her seat. He also remembered when he mentioned he was going with Cammy. The way she raised a brow at him suspiciously and smirked. Trophy had obviously yelled at her explaining that’s NOT why he wanted the cabin, and it was just something fun to do.
Although…
No. He stopped his mind from wandering and closed the door behind him, which locked itself.
“Ahhhh! Sweet sweet air conditioning… oh how I love you.”
Cammy spread open their arms and flopped down on his bed in the bedroom. They had decided to take the left side since they could ‘reach the door the fastest’ in case of emergency.
Trophy dropped his duffle bag on the floor and also followed suit with Cammy, walking into the room and flopping onto his bed. It was soft. He had no idea who had been the one taking care of this cabin either. He figured someone in the OSC. Maybe Bot? They probably had an easy time getting up here because of their retractable legs.
Trophy would usually fold up his blankets and clean up messes he made when he was done, but he wasn’t sure who had been the one actually cleaning the rooms.
“I’m going to shower I feel gross and sweaty.” Cammy said as they got up from their spot on their bed and grabbed some clothes to change into.
Trophy sat up in his bed and shuffled around with his clothes for a minute before picking out a shirt and shorts to wear to bed. Usually he just wore his underwear, but he didn’t want to be indecent around Cammy.
That was a close call back there. I really thought he figured out or something… but he didn’t seem angry? Maybe Cammy would be okay with it. Maybe Cammy didn’t care? Maybe Cammy ALSO felt the same?
Trophy scoffed to himself, but also grinned at the thought of it. He always thought Cammy was so intresting. They genuinely appreciated him, and they were actually insanely knowledgeable about cameras too. Sure, they were annoying, but honestly Trophy never really minded it. He himself was viewed as annoying too. Plus Cammy was actually pretty attractive in Trophy’s eyes.
Trophy liked the way Cammy’s hair curled around his face. Their eye was also super dark and full of so much life. He loved how Cammy’s nose was shaped and centered on their face. To be honest he just liked the way they looked in general.
Trophy sighed and crossed his legs under himself. He remembered how when Cammy first suggested they do these back and forth things with each other. It started with Cammy forcing Trophy to watch 3 seasons of his cartoons. About halfway through season 2, Trophy made Cammy promise to do something with him next, and they agreed.
And so forth, they started this game of trying to get eachother to do something they haven’t done before. Trophy figured next he’d make Cammy learn EVERY single rule to football and maybe watch a game with him. Trophy eventually opened his phone again and texted box, telling her that so far the hike was fun. A few minutes later, Trophy ended up just scrolling on his phone.
• • •
After WAY longer than they should have, Cammy stepped out of the bathroom with just a simple black tee shirt and pants to swap places with Trophy.
Trophy stood up and rolled his eyes as he headed into the bathroom with his clothes.
“Your shower CANNOT be that serious. How does it take 45 minutes to shower?”
“Uhhhhh…”
“You’re lucky the water pressure is good in this cabin or I woulda kicked you out for using up all the hot water.”
“You would never.”
“I would, but whatever, nerd.”
Trophy closed the door behind him and threw his clothes on the sink ledge and stepped into the shower.
(Note: nope! You don’t get a steamy trophy shower scene 💚💚💚!! Pretend like time passed!)
Trophy had finished up in the shower quickly. He dried himself off and looked at himself in the mirror for a bit, brushing his hands through his hair. He sifted through one of his pant pockets and grabbed some of his polish supplies to touch up on his handles a bit. He hadn’t polished them in a bit and they were getting dull.
He took his microfiber cloth and polishing liquid and applied it to his handles, making sure to clean every angle of them. He quite liked to polish. And he was pretty good at it now. Sometimes someone would come to him to use his supplies on their own jewelry. He typically was fine with it, but honestly preferred if everyone else could just get their own stuff too.
He rubbed the cloth in small circles on his handles once he had applied the liquid completely on them. After a few minutes, he wiped off the grease and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked pretty good and liked how shiny he was now.
He put on his shirt and shorts after drying the final wet bits in his hair and walked back into the main bedroom. Cammy was still awake, they had their phone open on some random video and was looking through their camera at the same time.
Without even looking up, Cammy started talking.
“So much for ‘taking forever in the shower’ Mr 43 minutes.”
“I mean, I was only showering for a bit. The rest of the time I was polishing my handles and that takes a while.”
“Wait what? Lemme see!” Cammy sprung out of their bed and rushed over to look at Trophy’s shiny handles. They looked closely at them and put a finger on the cool metal.
“That’s pretty interesting. I didn’t know you actually polished them!”
“I mean I like how it looks when it’s shiny. Plus why wouldn’t I?”
“I guess it never crossed my mind.” Cammy was still looking at the metal and moving their head to see different angles. They were very obviously interested in the concept of having to actually physically polish yourself.
”Okay, okay, enough looking I wanna lie down.”
“Wait lemme take a picture! The light is shining off then really nicely.” Cammy walked over to their camera and powered it back on. They fumbled with the buttons for a second as the lens extended out.
“Hold that pose, okay Trophy?”
“Alright.”
Cammy brought their camera up to Trophy’s head and focused the camera. They adjusted the photo mode to macro, so they could get a close up shot. They took a small step back and, after focusing the camera, snapped a picture.
“Hmm… not the same as it actually looks in real life, but I like this.”
Cammy handed the camera to Trophy, who opened the camera’s gallery and looked closely at the image. It looked pretty good. Especially with the light bouncing off the gold.
Trophy turned the camera around and faced it towards Cammy, starting to focus it on their face now.
“Hah— HEY!!” Cammy snatched the camera from Trophy while giggling before he could take a picture of them. “I don’t like getting my picture taken. Also my hair is like half dry and half wet from my shower. I look like a homeless person!”
“Come on, you took one of me, so it’s only fair.”
“Fine. Just don’t expect me to keep the photo.”
“Actually,” Trophy reached into his bag on the floor and grabbed his own camera instead of the one Cammy had motioned for him to take the picture with. “I’ll use my camera since I don’t want you to just delete my masterpiece.” Trophy teased.
“You’re such a— fine. Just don’t print it out and use it to blackmail me.”
“I’m over blackmailing. I’ve healed from my evil past.” Trophy stuck up his left hand and did air quotes around the word evil. He then lifted his camera up and snapped a messy picture of Cammy.
He would have liked to actually take a nice photo of Cammy at some point. They never let him take a real picture, only quick and silly ones they demanded to be deleted immediately.
“Show me it!”
“Yeah yeah I’ll delete it don’t worry.”
“Wait just show me first” Cammy stepped behind Trophy and tried to look at the image over his shoulder. After a few seconds Trophy lifted his camera into their line of sight. He was already on the deletion menu.
Cammy paused. It actually looked kinda ok. Maybe they’d let this one slide…
“Well?”
“Fine. You can keep it”
“Really? Thats new.” Trophy exited out of the menu and shut off his camera, putting the lens cap back on, and this time putting it back in its case. To Trophy it looked like the other pictures of Cammy he had deleted before…
“Okay okay… it’s like 10:00. I wanna go to bed so we can wake up early and LEAVE!” Cammy then jumped up into the air and landed face first into his bed. “Ahhh… these beds are actually better than the ones in the HOOT.”
“They are really nice, you’re right.” Trophy put his camera case down on the side table next to his bed and sat down on his own bed, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back on the pillows.
Cammy turned over onto their back and turned off the lamp next to their bed. He pulled the blankets up around himself and wiggled around a bit to get comfortable.
“Okay Trophy, goodnight.” Cammy yawned and pulled the blankets over his head. Then after a moment he sat up and took oh his glasses, putting them on the table with Trophy’s camera.
Trophy turned off his light and opened his phone. He put one earbud in and started a random playlist of his. Just various songs he had heard before and songs reccomended to him in general.
“Goodnight Cammy.”
Trophy closed his eyes, music still playing quietly, and drifted in and out of sleep. After a few minutes, he succumbed to the tiredness and fully fell asleep.
And it was peaceful.