Chapter Text
The sun had begun to set as the campers and counselors of Hacketts Quarry Summer Camp stood in front of the lodge, lined up in their cabin groups. The counselors squint and shield their eyes from the golden light that threatens to blind them, the sun beginning to duck behind the trees. Today is the last night for the campers, and as per Hackett tradition, they celebrate with a dinner, followed by a dance. It’s a real send off for the kids, one final night of fun before they are shipped back to their parents.
The dress code is “black tie”, but the closest any of the counselors come to it is Max, wearing his tuxedo print t-shirt that he Definitely didn’t buy for this exact reason, Laura. They stand in front of the doors to the lodge, waiting for Emma and Abi to finish preparing the dining hall. Finally, Emma emerges with a big smile on her face and a top hat in her hands. The kids quickly grow quiet as they await her instruction.
“Hello hacketteers, as you are all aware, tonight is the couples dinner. But, what does a couples dinner entail exactly? Well I’m glad you asked!” She says, the energy exuding from her voice.
“Here in this top hat are a bunch of character names, I’ll walk around and you will pick a name out of the top hat, whatever name you get, you gotta find the name of that character's partner!” Emma continues, “For example, let's say my paper says… Spiderman! Now I gotta find my MJ, that’s my date for tonight. Got it?”
The crowd of campers erupt in a chorus of yeah's and uh huh's. Emma begins to work her way through the rows and rows of kids.
Dylan nudges Kaitlyn, “Who are you gunning for Kait?” He asks, gazing out into the sea of children in front of him.
“Preferably a quiet kid, last time I got paired with that one brat from cabin 4, I think his name was Zack? I ended the night with mashed potatoes in my hair and juice all over my leggings.”
“Yikes, last time I got a girl from your cabin actually, she was so shy I barely got a word out of her the entire night.”
Kaitlyn scoffs, “Yeah she had a huge crush on you, that was probably the best night of her life.”
“I’m just too irresistible, what can I say?”
“Whatever, hey maybe you’ll get lucky tonight and Ryan will be your date.” She jokes, stretching out the vowels in Ryan's name, “Wouldn’t that just be perfect? You, Ryan and an entire dining hall of screaming children, how romantic.” Dylan chokes, his face flushing in embarrassment.
“Shut up, he’s literally right there.” He whisper-shouts, elbowing Kaitlyn in retaliation. She gasps in mock offense, but doesn’t push any further. Dylan sneaks a quick glance at Ryan. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up, the chances of them being paired up are abysmal, but a guy can dream right?
Dylan’s pining is rudely interrupted by Emma, shoving the top hat in front of him in an exaggerated motion. She’s grinning at Dylan and making gestures for him to draw a name, and he does. He reads the slip in front of him, it says Bonnie in small black letters. Emma looks at him inquisitively,
“So who’d you get?” She asks, peering over to read his slip.
“Bonnie, guess I'm looking for my Clyde then.” He says, and descends the steps, and joins the swarm of children, buzzing and beaming around each other, trying to find their match.
Emma finishes handing out the pieces of paper and takes the second last slip for herself, the last one belongs to Abi who is still finalizing things in the lodge. Just as she’s about to start looking for Anna to her Kristoff, one of her kids runs up to her.
“Hey Em?” she says, tugging on the counselor's arm.
“What’s up Ashley?”
“Do you know who “Clyde” is? I don’t know who my partner is supposed to be…” Ashley explains, looking down at her paper in confusion. Why Chris had decided Bonnie and Clyde were well known characters for a group of 8 - 10 years olds is beyond Emma. Luckily, she does recognize the name, and who her date is supposed to be. Even better, Emma loves matchmaking.
“Hmm, I don’t know, why don’t you ask counselor Ryan if he will switch with you? Maybe you’ll know his character.” Emma suggests, she knows even before little Ashley replies that her plan is set in motion. Her campers love her, adore her even — anything and everything she does is worshiped and her word is taken as gospel. Her little posse would do anything she asked.
“Okay!” Ashley agrees cheerily and bounds up to Ryan.
“Counselor Ryan, will you switch papers with me? I don’t know my character or who I’m even supposed to be looking for and it's lame.”
“Uhh, I’m not sure we are allowed to swap papers…” Begins Ryan, but he’s quickly cut off by Ashley pleading loudly. Finally, after a second of consideration, he relents. Swapping their slips with a small “Fine.”
“Thank you!” She reads the paper, turns around and starts yelling “Flynn rider! Looking for Flynn Rider over here!”
Dylan totally owes me for this, Emma decides, and turns away from Ryan, beginning the search for her dinner date.
After another minute or two of campers finding their dates, the crowd seems to have quieted, with most of the kids chattering on excitedly with their partner or their friends. Dylan, surprisingly still hasn’t found his date, so he calls out to the campers to start lining up in front of the lodge doors with their date..
As the crowd begins to reorganize itself into a semi-straight line, a deep voice startles Dylan out of the trance he had slipped into accidentally.
“Hey man, you found your date yet?” The voice that Dylan now recognizes as Ryan asks him.
“Uh, nope, haven’t seen ‘em, you?” Something sparks in Dylan as he realizes why Ryan is asking him this, whether it be hope or delusion he really would prefer the former.
“I haven’t found my partner either actually, are you perhaps looking for Clyde?”
Oh my god. It actually happened. Dylan thanks every god he can think of in his head as he holds up his slip of paper for the other boy to read.
“Well, hello to you Clyde, I gotta be honest here I am incredibly relieved that I got you and not one of the campers.”
“Uh huh, same here. Anyways, shall we? Join the line that is…” Ryan is holding out his arm and Dylan thinks he might faint, but he will not allow his luck to go to waste. He takes the other boy's arm and they make their way to the back of the line, just in time for Abi to finally open the doors and let the couples dinner begin.
The dining hall is bustling as everyone finds a seat at one of the many tables, for tonight and only tonight they are arranged in a square shape, making for an easier take down when they are preparing for the dance later in the evening. The room is illuminated by the fairy lights that someone — probably Abi — has strung up on the walls and around the large posts. Along with the lights, there are fake candles set on each table, and the warm glow of the setting sun peeks through the windows. Out of all the times he has attended the couples dinner, tonight has to be the best looking, he has Abi and Emma to thank for that.
Dylan takes a seat at the only table with remaining space, and scans the room — he notices that every other counselor has been paired with a camper, and he remembers how lucky he is to have the Ryan Erzahler sitting across from him.
He had never meant for his crush on Ryan to escalate this far. He had always thought that the other boy was cute — having known him from his many years as a camper — but he hadn’t really had a chance to get to know him until this year, and Dylan had fallen fast. Nowadays he was making every excuse to spend time with him, stealing glances at him whenever he could, and of course, flirting with him as much as possible. Something about literally everything Ryan did or said made Dylan's heart skip a beat, to the point where his little crush had become apparent to nearly every other counselor, much to his embarrassment.
Once finished with his scan of the dining hall, he returns his gaze to his date, who is staring right back at him. He looks good tonight, really good actually. Ryan is wearing one of his band tees — some metal band that Dylan vaguely recognizes — and since it is couples dinner, he's also sporting a navy flannel, which is his attempt at dressing fancy. His attention is brought down to Ryan's hands as he is fidgeting with them on the table and- are those rings? Four silver rings, two decorate each hand and one is currently being twisted back and forth on Ryans index finger. Dylan thinks he might actually die now, because seriously, rings?
At this point Ryan has taken notice to Dylans not-so-subtle staring at his hands and pulls them off of the table self-consciously.
“Uh… earth to Dylan? You good over there?” Ryan says, snapping Dylan out of his moment of pure yearning. His brain shuts down as he attempts to explain himself somehow but all that comes out is,
“Your hands look… really good.”
Fuck.
Out of all the things he could’ve possibly said, that is what his brain provides him in his moment of weakness?
There’s a painfully long second of confusion on Ryans part and humiliation on Dylans part until Ryan huffs out a laugh. His face is lit up in what seems to be an amused smile and all that Dylan wants is for god to strike him down then and there.
“My… hands?”
“The rings, I’ve never seen you wear those before.” Dylan replies, his eyes are locked on Ryans in an attempt to recover smoothly from what he just let slip, but by the way his face flushes he knows he's not doing a very convincing job.
Ryan, finally understanding what Dylan meant, brings his hands back onto the table. He looks over his hands thoughtfully, turning them over and admiring the rings. Dylan definitely does not stare.
“I mean, I know you got that whole mysterious, loner bad boy thing going on, but you don’t really strike me as a ring guy.”
“Well, they’re my grandfathers, I don’t really know why I even brought them to camp. There aren’t really any good times to even wear them, and I couldn’t imagine losing them in the lake, so I don’t wear them often. But I remembered that I packed them, and my fancy dinner outfit needed a little bit of spice you know?” Ryan explains, looking up from his hands to look at Dylan, “Also, loner bad boy? What?”
Dylan fumbles a little, trying to explain himself, “You know, your whole thing is being cool and quiet and reserved and all that. It’s a good look, don't worry, it really works for some people.”
“Some people huh?”
“Yeah… some people.” Luck is definitely on Dylans side tonight because before Ryan can say anything else, Nick comes out of the kitchen wheeling a cart with their dinner on it. Dylan immediately stands up and goes to help Nick serve the food to everyone — totally because he’s a nice guy and definitely not because he didn't want to humiliate himself any further. Ryan joins him of course — because Ryan is actually a good counselor and would have either way.
After the food has been passed out, the boys resign themselves back to their table, and fill what would be an awkward silence by eating. Nick has cooked up a delectable looking meal, with turkey, mashed potatoes and a side of mixed vegetables. Pretty standard meal, but Nick somehow makes it taste delicious.
“I know I say this every time, but Nick really is a fantastic cook. Like how do you make vegetables taste this good?” Dylan says, “I’m starting to see why Abi is head over heels for him.”
“Because he can cook well?”
“Totally, you know the saying, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Ryan shoots him a pointed look.
“Oh, so your type is guys who can cook now? Interesting… Should I tell Abi that she’s got competition?” Ryan teases, seriously, if he keeps this up Dylan is not going to survive the night. One more comment from Ryan and he just might explode.
“Oh yeah for sure, I mean, pretty sure I can seduce Nick.” Dylan starts, “Abi has her art and I have…”
“You have? Don’t start thinking too hard over there, don’t want you short circuiting on me.”
“Shut up. Got it! I have my award winning humour and my boyish charm, I’m a total catch.” Dylan exclaims with a little bit of faux-confidence. It’s not that he doesn’t think that these things are true about him, but they don’t come naturally. All of that is blasé Dylan.
“Ah, of course.” Ryans reply is short, but the small smile on his face speaks louder than words.
Dylan is about to ask Ryan about his type, when the camper next to him erupts in a high-pitched scream. He turns to see the young girl covered in mashed potatoes and gravy, and the boy across from her is giggling like a mad man. Can’t have a couples dinner without at least one kid getting food thrown at them, it's practically tradition at this point.
Dylan kind of wants to laugh but the girl has tears in her eyes so he turns to the boy and gives his best impression of Kaitlyn when she disciplines the kids. She may be the smallest but that only means her rage is compressed, she does not let the kids off easy, Dylan envies her for that unshakeable intimidation. To most campers Dylan is a low threat, even when he tries to bring out the mean, stern vibe all he really gets in return is more backtalk.
Instead of backtalk, this time Dylan gets a fistful of mashed potatoes thrown at him, the boy misses for the most part, but now he’s got bits of potato in his hair and on his nicest shirt. He lets out a gasp as he tries not to murder the kid with his bare hands. He hears a snicker coming from somewhere to his left and he turns to see Kaitlyn staring right at him. She's got her hand covering her mouth but he knows that she’s moments away from busting out in laughter.
Apparently Kaitlyn’s date thought it would be pretty funny to copy the other boy he saw throwing food and before Kaitlyn can say anything she now also has a fun new stain on her shirt. Though this time it’s not potatoes but instead a mix of gravy and peas.
“Look who’s laughing now, huh Kait!” Dylan yells, pointedly ignoring the mess of food stuck in his hair and on his clothes. Meanwhile, Ryan has gotten up and wrangled the original food-menace, hauling him outside to presumably give him the talking to of a lifetime.
Kaitlyn and Dylan get up at the same time and make their way to the bathrooms, Kaitlyn not forgetting to stare daggers into her date as she leaves — the boy shrinks down in his chair and starts picking at his food.
“God, this is disgusting. I mean, how unlucky do I have to be to get food throwers twice in a row?” Kaitlyn says, looking at herself in the mirror with a frown.
“Well, it seemed to me that you getting peas and gravy chucked at you was the universe making things right. I mean, karma for laughing at me.”
Kaitlyn shoots him a deadly stare. Dylan immediately regrets speaking.
“Ok, I retract my statement, sorry Kait.” Dylan tries, mentally preparing for whatever might come out of her mouth next. Knowing her it could be anything.
Instead she sighs, “You know what? I’m too tired to deal with this tonight. God, I can’t wait to go home tomorrow. If I have to deal with any more crying children before pickup I will be on the national news.” Not exactly what Dylan was expecting, he lets go of the breath he didn’t even know he was holding.
Kaitlyn inspects herself in the mirror, meticulously picking each chunk of gravy out of her short black hair. Dylan moves behind her to get a good look of himself.
“I get it girl, it has been two very long months. Although I personally don’t want it to end just yet…”
Kaitlyn scoffs, “Yeah of course you don’t want it to end, you still haven’t sealed the deal with Ryan. Hell, you have barely even made a move at all.”
“Okay ow. Rude. Also wrong, I have been making moves, maybe you just haven’t been paying attention.”
“Oh okay so staring at him hopelessly all day and shitty pick-up lines count as making a move then.” Kaitlyn turns around to face him, a smug grin on her face.
“I flirt with him! I swear I do more than make heart eyes at him all day.” He replies, raising his voice a little louder than necessary.
“Sure, but quick question? How does asking Jacob to make out with you constitute flirting with Ryan?”
“That was one time! Ryan actually was flirting back with me for once and I panicked! I wasn’t actually gonna make out with Jacob, even if he said yes, that’s my bro right there.” At this, Kaitlyn turns back to the sink, and starts grabbing a paper towel. After picking out the rest of the potato out of his hair, he follows suit.
“Well, I’m sure that was totally not confusing for Ryan, and it definitely didn't hinder any progress you had just made. C’mon Dyl, you just gotta go for it. What’s the worst that can happen?” She says, her tone softening.
“I can think of multiple worst things that can happen, werewolves, for one.”
“Werewolves?”
“Yeah, werewolves, I mean, you asked for the worst thing that could happen, and I think that’s a pretty close contender.” Dylan throws his hands up for emphasis. Kaitlyn just rolls her eyes.
“Anyways, circling back to Ryan, how’s your date going?”
Dylan focuses his attention back to getting the stains out of his shirt.
“It's… certainly going. I accidentally told him his hands look good,” Kaitlyn's eyes flick up to look at him in the mirror, “Don’t ask.” He finishes with a huff.
“But… besides that? I can’t imagine you have been embarrassing yourself this entire time.” She says, in an attempt to console him.
“Pretty much, yeah. I think he’s actually been flirting with me though, and I guess neither Dylan knows how to handle that.”
“Neither Dylan? What you got an alter ego I don’t know about?”
“It's- never mind.” He dismisses.
As they finish cleaning themselves up, Kaitlyn stops him at the door, “You got this, okay? Just be yourself, or something.”
Dylan smiles, “Or something? That’s all you got? No big pep talk for me?” She lightly smacks his arm in response.
“Shut up, you know comforting isn't my strong suit.”
“Clearly,” Dylan receives another smack for that comment.
“Oh my god. Let's go, your handsome date is probably waiting for you.” She decides, opening the door and heading back to the dining hall, Dylan trailing behind her.
Ryan is waiting for him when they return, he gives him a small smile when he notices Dylan, making his stomach flip. Dylan takes his seat across from the other boy, he notices that the original troublemaker is at his seat, but he's calmed noticeably. Dylan tries to imagine Ryan yelling at the kid and he smiles to himself.
“You give ‘em hell?” Asks Dylan, receiving a furrowed brow from Ryan.
“What?”
“Did you give the little menace a talking-to? Show him mean-Ryan perhaps?” He explains, leaning forward and making an exaggerated motion in the direction of the kid.
Ryan chuckles a little, “No, I didn’t ‘give him hell,’ I just talked to him. Explained why it's not nice to be throwing food, and he apologized.”
“Not to me.” Dylan mutters, a little too loudly.
“Well, he is sorry. Aren’t ya bud?” Ryan looks over at the kid, who nods his head in shame. He doesn’t look Dylan in the eyes, but the apology is as good as he is going to get, so he lets it go.
Dylan looks down at his food, which has gone lukewarm during his quick bathroom break. He considers eating it anyways, but decides against it, with the food throwing and the ‘Ryan talk’ with Kaitlyn, he’s lost his appetite.
Just as their silence turns awkward, dessert is served — apple pie with ice cream. He passes down the bowls until he receives his own, and is about to start picking at it when Emma comes by, and snatches his desert from the table. He turns to face her, confused and also annoyed.
“Hey, that's my desert Em. Go get your own.” He says, attempting to rescue his stolen pie from the other counselor. His swipes at the bowl are unsuccessful though, as she puts it far out of his reach, and leans down to whisper in his ear, “You owe me,” before walking back to her table with a smirk.
Dylan sits there for a moment, confusion clear on his face. He turns to Emma, then back to Ryan, who is looking at him with amusement.
“What was that about?” Ryan asks.
“Dude, I have no idea. She said that I ‘owe her,’ whatever that means.”
“Oh? And what could it be that you owe her for?” He muses, cocking his head to the side slightly, “Some secret bribe I don’t know about?”
All that Dylan can think of to say in response is a dramatic "No." Which doesn’t seem to convince Ryan.
“She’s probably just up to her regular schemes, whatever she’s currently doing for me I’m sure I'll appreciate later. But right now? I’ve no clue what she’s up to.”
“Sure…” He says, unconvinced, “You want some of my dessert? I don’t really love apple pie that much.” He offers, pushing the bowl between them. Suddenly, Dylan's appetite is back.
“I shouldn’t, but if you insist,” he replies, grabbing his fork and digging into the pie. Ryan rolls his eyes in response.
As dinner comes to a close and the campers begin to prepare for the dance, the dining hall is empty, save for a handful of kids, Dylan and Ryan — who are both on dish duty coincidentally. With the kids hand washing dishes at their respective tables, Dylan and Ryan are tasked with sanitizing the clean dishes. As they wait for the kids to start bringing them dishes to sanitize, Dylan heads over to the speakers, pressing play on a playlist titled “Dishwashing Tunes.”
Ryan is prepping the sink for sanitization when Dylan returns, and he decides to start laying out towels and hand towels on the counter next to him. After a few minutes of self reflection, Dylan decides to break the silence, a question on his mind.
“So… If you had to rate the date out of five stars, what would you give it? Did I succeed in seducing you?” He asks, his hands coming to rest on his hips. Ryan scoffs, turning to face the other counselor with a grin on his face.
“Seducing me?”
“Uh huh, was it a good date? Would you maybe, be up for a second one?” He thinks back to what Kaitlyn said in the bathroom, about the worst thing that could possibly happen — Dylan decides that werewolves would be much better than any rejection he could face.
“I mean, ignoring the fact that that was not a date, that was a dinner surrounded by children, and the mishap we had earlier with the food… Yeah, pretty decent first date. I’d give it… four stars.”
Dylan is definitely not freaking out right now. In fact, there is absolutely no sweat on his palms whatsoever — he is wiping them on a hand towel for a completely different reason. Still, he must stay strong, he would rather die than let Dylan-Dylan out by accident right now.
“I mean I’ve definitely had worse, so i’d give it four stars too, I think.” Dylan is about to say more, when a baby-faced camper from his cabin walks up to the two counselors, struggling to hold up his crate of clean dishes with both hands. Dylan thanks the kid and passes the crate off to Ryan, who places it into the sink.
Dylan decides to mix up the conversation a bit — to keep things fresh, no other reason.
“Speaking of dates, you got anyone on your mind for the dance?”
“Unless you count the girls from Kaitlyn’s cabin, who practically cornered me at the fire yesterday demanding that I go to the dance with all of them. No I don’t have a date.” Dylan laughs at this, remembering how Ryan ended up standing on the log bench, in an attempt to get some distance between him and the gaggle of elementary school girls around him. That had been Nick’s idea actually, although Dylan did not mind the free entertainment.
“Sounds like you have a few dates actually,” Dylan jokes, taking the soaking crate out of the sink and unloading the dishes onto the counter, “Hmm, Kait’s cabin you say? That checks out actually.”
More and more campers are beginning to bring their crates into the kitchen, having finished their first round of dishes at this point. Dylan takes to drying plates as some of the kids join him. Ryan still hadn’t understood the reference the other boy had made, staring at Dylan with confusion clear on his face.
“What?”
Oops. Maybe Dylan shouldn’t have let that one slip.
“Nothing! Anyways, you’re gonna exhaust yourself dancing with the girls all night. Lucky for you, I’m on DJ duty, only the best jams from yours truly.” Dylan says easily, “Isn’t that right guys? DJ Dylan has the best music taste, right?”
He gets a couple excited cheers from the campers, Ryan laughs quietly.
“They like your music taste cause you play everything, you're just a musical jack of all trades, man.” Counters Ryan, Dylan just shakes his head.
“Okay well, the results speak for themselves, don’t they? Admit it, this dishwashing playlist is pretty good.”
“You have a dishwashing playlist?” Ryan says, in disbelief.
Dylan pouts, “Come on man, you can’t really be surprised, it’s like you don’t know me at all!”
He receives a scoff from Ryan, before their mostly uninterrupted flirting is rudely brought to a halt by the sounds of something heavy hitting the ground, water splashing, and children yelling — all within a second.
Dylan sighs, putting down his towel and leaving the kitchen only to run into a young girl, who came to tell them about the situation. He turns back to Ryan quickly, gesturing towards the girl as she explains wildly the events leading up to the crash — something about a spider? He's not quite sure. Ryan gives him a knowing look, and a fond smile as the other boy is pulled away from the kitchen. Dylan blushes, and tries not to think about it too much as he fetches the mop from the supply closet.
After about a minute mopping and thinking strictly non-Ryan thoughts, he gives in. Who cares if he’s acting like a lovesick idiot, he’s planning the best way to ask Ryan for a dance tonight. Maybe he's also fantasizing about slow-dancing with Ryan under the moonlight, but that’s nobody else’s business but his own.