Chapter Text
There was already the sound of children's laughter in the air. Stiles groaned. That was never good. He dashed toward the sound of the laughter, his fingers curling at the sight of two of the new campers wrestling while several others looked on. "Hey, guys. Um, you're not supposed to hit each other. You know this."
The taller boy stood up, arms crossing over his chest, and glared at Stiles. "My daddy told me I could do whatever I wanted at camp."
"Well, here's the thing. He actually signed an agreement that you would behave or Camp Sunset could send you home. Do you really wanna go home?" Stiles hoped against hope that this was one of the campers whose parents decided to toss their kids in camp for a week while they went on vacation and therefore made a big deal about the behaving.
The boy tossed his hair back, or at least used the same motion. Stiles wondered whether the buzz cut was a recent thing. "Home's just as boring as this place is." He stalked off.
"You've been here for like two hours!" Stiles sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Dinner's at the mess hall at six! You miss it, you don't eat." He looked at the other kids standing around and then to the duffel bag still sitting in the dirt. "This his?" At the nods from several of the kids around, Stiles grinned and picked up the bag, taking it with him to the counselor's tent that sat in the center of the other eight tents that made up their camp site.
Once inside, it didn't take long to go through the bag and remove all of the snacks that had been smuggled in. There was other camp contraband in there, but it was the snacks that Stiles was most worried about. There was enough to be worried about with a bunch of kids in the woods. It should be the one time that they didn't have to worry about peanut allergies. Never mind that most of those kids would discover they were allergic to at least three other things at camp. Besides, Stiles had missed out on eating lunch himself because one of the other counselors was late so he'd had to pull double duty at check-in.
This was why Stiles met the new counselor with half of a Snickers bar shoved in his mouth.
The new guy was buff. He seemed tall, but once he got closer, Stiles realized they were about the same height. He pointed to one of the bunks and asked, "That one free?"
Stiles was quick to chew and swallow and amazingly didn't choke. "Uh, that one's mine. But, the next one down is free." He wiped his mouth and smiled. "Hi. I'm Stiles Stilinski. I assume you're Derek Hale?"
Putting his bag on the bunk, the guy nodded. "Yeah. I figured you'd be Stiles. Scott showed me the path to get here and Isaac's the one who recommended me for the job."
"We've got one camper already trying to run off." Stiles checked the tag on the duffel bag. "Sven Langston. Well, he looked nothing like a Sven."
Derek let out a soft growl. "Why do you have a camper's luggage?"
Stiles held up the Snickers bar. "He had contraband. Also, he was being a dick. I'll return it when he comes looking for it. But, seriously, he was wrestling with one of the other kids and tried to pull some macho act with me."
"I take it it's not your first summer here, then." Derek leafed through the candy that Stiles had removed from the bag, grabbing a box of Raisinets for himself as though he was picking the thing closest to health food.
"Nah. Second." Stiles nibbled another peanut from the Snickers bar. "You done the counselor thing before?"
Derek shrugged. "Something like that. Not really a summer camp. Survival camp."
"Yeah, that's gotta be pretty similar." Stiles grinned and then turned his head toward the door, hearing more laughter. "I hope it was one of the zombie ones. Zombies and kids at summer camp? The only difference is that you're never really certain if it's brains in the mystery casserole in the mess hall or not."
The grin Derek gave him at that, flashing bright even in the low light of the perma-tent they were in, made Stiles' mouth go a little dry. "Stiles, maybe we should get out there and actually do our jobs."
Shoving the rest of the Snickers bar in his mouth and then piling the rest of the candy into a bin that went under his bed, Stiles followed behind Derek. "So, um, everyone else agreed that because you were late that you got to take dinner duty."
Derek looked back at him. "And what exactly does dinner duty entail?"
"Just kind of keeping everyone in order? It's the first night of camp for most of the kids and some of the counselors so Ms. Kirk will go through everything that needs to be done. I mean, me, Scott, and Isaac will still be there to help out. But, you get to take lead so everyone hates you first." Stiles cleared his throat as his eyes roamed over Derek's chest. "But, you know, I'm sure you had a good reason for being late so I can always help out some more?"
"I overslept," Derek said, walking back toward Stiles. "I'll take my punishment." Suddenly, his thumb was brushing over Stiles' lips. "And maybe you shouldn't walk around with chocolate all over you. You don't want to give campers ideas, do you?"
Stiles licked his lips immediately, swearing to himself that he totally didn't taste anything other than chocolate. "So, um, yeah. We should probably go check that everyone's getting settled in and remind them that the camp tour is at two."
"I'll get tents one through four." Derek waved one hand at him and was on his way.
Tent five was the counselor's tent, so tent six meant that Stiles had to turn a little which meant looking away from Derek. Only, he was maybe a little faster with the turning away than with the looking away and suddenly had a face full of pine tree branches. Spitting pine needles from his mouth, he forged through the treeline and over to the tent, leaning his head in first. "Hey, Kyle! I didn't see you were back. And Matt? You weren't supposed to get that much taller." He pointed to the two campers he didn't yet know. "Okay, I don't know you guys, so you probably don't know me, but I'm Stiles and I'm going to be your favorite counselor."
One of the kids he didn't know yet rolled his eyes. "I like Isaac. He doesn't talk."
"I will be happy to shut up once I know you're going to behave to the most minimal of standards." He shrugged. "Tell me your names first."
Eye roller answered first. "Steve."
The other unknown raised a hand. "Tommy. Can I go to the bathroom?"
Stiles nodded. "Yeah, of course. Kyle? Can you go show Tommy where the bathroom is?" He pointed at Steve. "You need to go, too?"
"Only girls go to the bathroom in packs." Steve opened his bag and pulled out a phone.
Quickly grabbing the phone, Stiles smiled. "Actually, wolves do sometimes. And phones aren't allowed since you don't have anywhere to charge them. I'll power this down, though, and put it in the camp director's office for safe keeping until your parents get here. Anyone else have a phone they need to have stored away?" No one answered. "Good. Okay, get your beds made and your bags tucked away underneath. Dinner's at six, but we're going to do a tour of the camp here in a half hour or so. I'll swing back by to get you guys!"
He retreated back from the tent and began to move on to the next one only to see Scott in the distance who called out to him, "Stiles!"
"Yeah?" Stiles wondered what plant Scott had gotten attacked by this time.
"There's a new girl counselor. Allison. She's amazing and I need you to switch nights off with me so that I can ask her out." Scott was practically jumping with enthusiasm.
Stiles reeled back a little. "Wait! You want to switch nights with me and you haven't even asked her out yet? What if she says no?"
"She won't, okay? She gave me this smile. And she had these dimples and they were just... And I let her borrow my pen!" Scott looked like he was about to burst into song.
"Fine. It's not like I was going to do anything other than going out to eat anyway." Stiles took a few steps toward the next tent. "Hey, Derek and I are doing the tent checks, but there's one kid who's already run off. Sven... something or other. Go see if you can find him and catch up with us on the camp tour. The kids all go for your puppy dog eyes." He slapped Scott's shoulder. "Hey, maybe Allison will, too!"
Scott smiled shyly. "You think?" He looked up suddenly. "Sven... the one with the buzz cut?"
"Yeah. You meet him already?" Stiles tried to work a piece of peanut out from between his molars using his tongue.
"I did. He couldn't find his tent at first." Scott frowned. "I'll find him. We'll meet you guys over by the infirmary."
Stiles raised his eyebrows. "I just hope you don't need to go in. See ya, Scotty."
Scott ran off and Stiles entered the next tent, following the same routine. Only, this time he didn't recognize any of the campers. Thankfully, one of them still knew where the bathrooms were and went to show the others. He figured one of those four would be the one to come to him to complain that the bathroom was really just four outhouses stuck together. He just hoped the spiders hadn't nested yet. Two most tents yielded three more campers he knew. It also yielded a bruised shin from where new camper Charlie told him he looked like a middle-schooler and shoved him out of the doorway where he managed to twist and fall against the step that led into the perma-tent. "You're not getting dessert tonight, Charlie! I'm eating your cookies."
"I would have said at least a freshman," Derek said, suddenly right beside Stiles.
Groaning, Stiles pointed at the tent. "Jokes. They're jokers! I'm 19. And I'd make some remark about how often I have to shave, but then I see your face and I'm kind of just stunned into silence."
"Your silence is really loud." Derek hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. "I hope you're not expecting me to lead the tour. Other than the day I got hired, I haven't been here since I was eleven."
Stiles tucked the confiscated cell phone into his pocket and shrugged. "You don't wanna go in at the deep end? Okay, fine. I'll get Isaac to lead and you and I can be in the back and I'll point out some extra stuff for you. Trust me, you'll want to know for when some camper figures out how to get somewhere they aren't supposed to be."
"I..." Derek nodded his head. "Yeah. That'll be nice. So, um, is there anything I should know about you?"
Confused, Stiles felt his mouth hanging open for a moment. "Uh, no. I mean, is there anything you'd like to know? I'm an open book, man. Ask away."
"You say that... but we just met." Derek smirked. "If I ask for your most embarrassing moment, I doubt you'll tell me the real one."
"Most embarrassing moment? Last year at camp. I had a crush on one of the other counselors and ended up confessing it over the intercom at dinner because I slipped in mashed potatoes and hit the button and couldn't shut up about it for the ten seconds required to fall. And then I needed to get stitches." Stiles grimaced at the memory, but it couldn't quite diminish all of the grin that just looking at Derek put on his face.
Derek snorted. "So, is she back this year and going to make your summer interesting?"
"First, I never said 'she'. Granted, yes, Lydia is back and will make life interesting, but she was very loud with her refusal. Very loud. I'll have to find a new summer crush." Stiles sighed dramatically.
"You'll just have to find a better crush. Make her jealous." Derek checked his watch. "Okay, good. Still a few minutes before the tour."
Stiles bit his lower lip, staring at Derek for a moment. "You know, it only works to make someone jealous if you pick someone hotter. And the only person here hotter than Lydia is you. Do you want me to have a crush on you?"
Derek met his gaze and smirked. "I can think of far worse camp experiences."
Stiles clamped his teeth together to keep himself from squeaking. "Okay. Well, we'll need to talk about that later when little ears aren't listening in."
"Yeah." Derek laughed and turned back toward the tents. "They're already annoying me. That's not a good start, is it?"
"Sure it is. You start annoyed and end up wishing they'd stay. I try to make that same impression." Stiles sighed. "Well, let me go find Isaac and we'll get this thing started." He walked past Derek and turned his head to wink at him. "Get the kids in a line?"
Derek rolled his eyes, but smiled. "Sure."
It only took a few moments to find Isaac where he was looking inside the bathrooms. "Spiders?" Stiles asked, jogging over.
"I hope not. Although, better here than the girl's. At least the boys aren't afraid to pee in the woods." Isaac shrugged. "There are ladybugs, though."
Stiles nodded. Plenty of campers confused all insects for spiders. "Cool. Okay, so, Derek's lining up kids for the tour but you're leading it. Scott should meet up with us around the infirmary and I'm going to be at the back with Derek telling him extra stuff to look out for."
Isaac groaned. "Why can't you take the lead? You know I don't like talking."
"Which is why this is good for you, buddy! Come on. One kid already said he liked you better than me." Stiles patted Isaac's shoulder and headed back toward the tents.
Isaac jogged in front of him and up to where Derek was, relieving him of command. Stiles watched as Isaac instructed everyone on how to stay in line, counting off the campers into a buddy system and buddying himself with the one kid leftover until they found Sven. Derek joined Stiles at the back of the line and groaned. "I wish bug repellent actually worked on me."
"Here, try this." Stiles pulled off one of the rubber bracelets he was wearing, handing it over to Derek. "Most stuff doesn't work on me either, but these bracelet things work pretty well."
Derek took the bracelet, holding it in front of him for a moment. "I guess it's worth a shot." He slid it on, rubbing his wrist where the bracelet had caught in his arm hair. "Any idea what the dinner's supposed to be tonight?"
"Rumor has it that tonight is actually hot dogs, baked beans, and chips. If you value your life, skip the baked beans. I'm pretty sure they're seasoned with horseradish and dirt." Stiles shook his head at the memory.
"I'm intrigued by the description. Maybe I'll get a spoonful just to set a good example for the kids." Derek started to walk as the kids in front of him moved.
Stiles shuddered. "Better you than me." He jumped over a tree root in order to stay side by side with Derek. "Okay, so we're heading clockwise around the camp to show everything off, but there's a lot of other paths that go through here, too. You'll learn most of them by next week. We try not to walk past the girl camps so our campers are less likely to try to find them at 2am, but this'll at least give you an idea of where everything is." He paused. "Did they give you a map?"
"Yeah. But I'm used to a different kind of map." Derek shrugged, looking entirely comfortable with his hands in his pockets as he strolled along even though Stiles was already starting to feel a little winded. "It's going to be interesting to see how different it is to watch kids than it is to try to teach people my age."
"What's your specialty?" Stiles gestured toward Isaac with one hand. "Isaac does a lot of the boat stuff and Scott's in charge of teaching the kids to ride horses. Are you the new archery specialist?"
Derek cleared his throat. "Actually, arts and crafts."
Stiles clapped one hand over his mouth. "Seriously? Me too!" He grinned. "You're gonna go home with so many macaroni pictures."
"My dream come true," Derek deadpanned. "If we're going to get to work together on it, you about we work on things like sculpture in addition to food art and glitter glue?"
Grinning, Stiles nodded. "You're still going to go home covered in glitter. But, it's awesome." He suddenly tripped, but righted himself almost immediately after hitting the ground. "And there goes any chance I had of anyone having their summer crush be me."
"You can't really say that until the summer's over, can you?" Derek raised an eyebrow at Stiles.
"Y-yeah, I guess." Stiles pointed to a path off to his right. "If you take that all the way to the end, you'll find the bonfire pit we use on the nights the kids aren't here. There's also a panic room type thing just in case of... I don't even know. Emergencies? It wouldn't hold everybody, but it would probably hold all of the staff."
Derek gave him a strange look. "Stiles? You're bleeding."
Stiles looked down and noticed that his shoe was a lot more red than he'd remembered it being. A second later, he noticed a giant drop of blood splash against his shoelace, drawing his attention to the rather large cut on his knee. "Well, how about that?"
If anyone asked later, he fainted from the blood loss rather than the sight of the blood.