Chapter Text
"Uh, Leaf? Can you come over here please?" The wavering and nervous voice of Curly Majors called out to the 22 year-old cabin leader, who was standing on the other side of the clearing.
"What's the problem?" Leaf asked, watching with interest as the young boy remained frozen on the grass, staring at something. It was only the kids' third day here, and unlike a few of his cabin-mates - this was Curly's first experience in the wilderness. Leaf was used to overreactions from the inexperienced campers.
"I found a snake," Curly said quietly, which then drew the attention of the other boys.
"What kind of snake?" Came the eager question from Trigger Wilson, who quickly bounded over to stand behind Curly.
"Whoa! This thing is huge!" Trigger exclaimed, taking a step back. "Look at that head - it's copper coloured!"
Grinning to himself, Ace stood next to Trigger, looking down at the snake in question. "I wonder if it's a Copperhead? Those things are venomous," he said, crouching down and glancing at Curly's face. The other boy was terrified.
"Venomous? As in, they can poison you?" Curly asked with a gulp, still staring at the snake.
"Kids die every year being bitten by venomous snakes," Ace said, moving his eyes from Curly to the snake. He knew it wasn't a Copperhead - those snakes weren't even this far north! But Curly knew nothing about any sort of reptile, so he'd have his fun while he could.
"Oh no, what do we do? Should I move?" Curly asked, wondering just where their cabin leader was? He wasn't supposed to be in any kind of danger out here - his parents had promised him! And now this venomous snake was so close to him, it could lash out and bite him at any second!
"Bad idea, you don't want to chance making it mad," Ace replied, "Or it might strike out at you. Hopefully the nurses have venom antidotes, but who knows? You might lose a chunk of your face," he continued on, trying not to laugh. All of a sudden he felt something swat him on the head.
"That's enough out of you, Ace!" Leaf proclaimed, trying his best not to laugh. After all - he was supposed to be the one in charge, so he really shouldn't let the guys tease each other. But Curly's lack of knowledge about everything relating to the outdoors had started to grate on Leaf's nerves just a little, so he secretly enjoyed the teasing. But he could only let it go on for so long before stepping in.
"It's a completely harmless Eastern Fox Snake, from the pattern on him," Leaf replied, reaching out to tentatively stroke the snake. Surprisingly it stayed calm and allowed him to touch it. "There are no venomous snakes in this region, Curly, despite what these guys might try and tell you," he carried on, glancing at Ace and trying his best to look and sound reproachful.
But Ace just grinned at him. "What about the Massassauga Rattler?" The boy asked, still not willing to let it drop just yet.
"Yeah! That one's not as dangerous as the Copperhead, but it does kill what, two or three people a year?" Trigger replied, grinning at Ace.
"The Massassauga is not found in this area," Leaf stated with certainty, narrowed eyes looking at the troublesome pair of Ace and Trigger. "It's more to the east."
"Are you sure?" Curly asked, still nervous.
"Absolutely," Leaf replied, before picking the snake up. "Why don't you try petting this one, Curly? He's pretty tame," Leaf offered the snake out to the boy, keeping the reptile's head pointed away. No sense in taking the chance it may try and strike, even though the bite wouldn't do anything.
"No, I'm okay," Curly replied before getting up and backing away. "I don't really like snakes."
Leaf sighed and wasn't surprised - so far he'd tried to get Curly to touch a number of creepy insects that frightened him (even moths caused the kid to shriek in terror, which Leaf thought was beyond ridiculous) but the kid wasn't having it. He was joined, however, by Ace, who settled down near him and reached out to touch the snake's head.
"You are missing out, Curly! Snakes are awesome," Ace said, not afraid in the slightest. He and Teddy had done a project on the different types of snakes found in the area last year for school, and they'd both gotten to visit the zoo's reptile house to personally handle some snakes. Since then they'd both started bothering their parents about keeping one as a pet, but neither of them had gotten one yet.
Leaf couldn't help but grin as Ace confidently handled the reptile. Of course this kid liked snakes - that was just one more tick on Leaf's list of cool things about him. Leaf was doing his sixth year as a counselor, and every summer he couldn't help but pick a favourite kid in his cabin, a surrogate little brother for the summer. It was a tradition he'd participated in from his own first summer at the camp as a camper - at which point he'd been his counselor's "little brother". Amusingly enough for him, he was now working with said counselor - Magnum Carter, who had his own cabin to handle.
Sometimes it took Leaf a few weeks to pick one, but this year Ace had been busy making a name for himself since day one. "Here then, cuddle up with it," Leaf responded, draping the rest of the snake over Ace's shoulder.
"Can I take it back to the cabin?" Ace asked eagerly, to which Leaf was already shaking his head. "Oh come on, Leaf! We can rename our cabin for the summer and have a mascot," Ace pleaded, and was soon joined by Trigger and the other boys (Rocky, Cloud, and Slate) with Curly as the sole dissenter among them.
"No snakes in the cabin," Leaf said with a tone of finality, though he was grinning. "We already have enough spiders in there after all, we don't want a war to break out." Curly's whimper nearly made him laugh - but he was just able to keep it together.
"Fine," Ace replied, before setting the snake down and watching it slither off in the bushes. He then looked at Leaf, a gleam in his eye. "You make a good point anyway - tarantulas hate snakes, and that's the last thing we need to worry about when we're trying to sleep."
Curly whimpered again and this time Leaf couldn't keep himself from laughing - though at the same time he felt like the worst cabin leader in the world! He tried to deflect the attention completely off the situation then by ordering the boys to the mess hall to line up for lunch. He grabbed Ace though and kept him behind for a moment.
"You need to stop making me look bad," Leaf said with a wink, "I'm not supposed to be laughing at Curly!"
Ace grinned in response. "You're a terrible influence," he reprimanded, before Leaf reached out and swatted him on the head again. "And physically abusive!"
Leaf laughed and instead reached out again, but this time he just settled on ruffling the kid's hair. "You better get used to it," he threatened with a wink of his own, "because it's not ending any time soon."
Ace laughed and dodged away from Leaf, feeling quite happy with the threat of continued attention from the older male. On day one when he'd gotten here, only to find out that he had been separated from Teddy, in his own cabin with no one he knew, he'd been angry and disappointed. He'd agreed to the summer away in the woods in the hopes it would take his mind off of his parents and the mess of his home life. He'd expected to partner with Teddy for everything, excelling at anything they tried to do (and poking fun at everyone else who couldn't do it to their standard). But those plans had been dashed, and instead he'd had to watch as Lancer celebrated having Teddy to himself.
It was kind of weird, in a way, the way that he and Lancer had kind of started fighting over Teddy. Not that Ace would ever admit to fighting over friendships, but they were two different people who brought out two different sides of Teddy. He'd immediately started wondering if Lancer would completely poison Teddy against him over the course of the next two months, leaving him having to find a new best friend once they got home again.
But then something had happened that had changed his stance on the summer, thinking that maybe it wouldn't be a total waste. They'd met their cabin leaders.
Teddy and Lancer had gotten stuck with an older, extremely intimidating male - a guy who just screamed "No fun, all work!" Ace, on the other hand, had gotten who he personally thought was the coolest guy at the camp. Right from the start Leaf had begun telling them stories about things he'd done - like tracking wolves in the north and parachuting in the south, and Ace was captivated. Leaf was exactly the kind of person he wanted to be when he was older - the sort of guy who wasn't afraid to try anything, who would be the first one to jump into a scenario full of danger.
So instead of worrying about Teddy and Lancer, Ace had instead devoted his energy into making a mark on Leaf. He desperately wanted Leaf's attention, he wanted to be his favourite. It seemed to be working perfectly so far after all - Leaf seemed to pay more attention to him than he did to the other boys in his cabin, picking him for demonstrations and always finding some reason to touch him. Ace would never admit it to anyone, but every bit of attention made him happy in a way he wasn't used to.