Story bits

"Alright campers, listen up!" Lance called. "We're going to the lake!" The campers cheer. "Now go get your swimsuits, sunscreen, all that stuff, and meet back here in half an hour!" Shiro orders.
"You're sure the Champion kids aren't going to be there, right?" Lance whispers to the whitehaired man, who sighs. "Yes, I'm sure. Now can you go check on the Blue cabin? I think Luis might need some help getting his stuff from out of his bunk."

Keith grunted as the boat shook. "Stupid camp Champion. Thinking they're better than us because they have all that fancy equipment" Lance mutters. "We have boats! And AC, and a computer lab! What do they have that we don't?" Keith lets out a low whistle. "Hot counselors." Lance turns and feels his jaw drop.
The sleek black boat pulls up next to them. "Hey, you guys okay?" One of the men in it asks. He has light green eyes and dark skin, his black hair glistening with water.
"Keith?" The other asks. He has light olive skin, and his white trunks cling to his legs as water drips down his body. "James?" The other's purple eyes sparkle with joy. "I thought I recognized that hair! You didn't tell me you went to Altea!" "Well, you didn't tell me you went to camp Champion." James chuckled. "Fair. Keith, this is Ryan." He says, motioning to the other, who waves. "Nice to meet you. I'm Keith, and this is Lance."
"Hey, you guys wanna go for a ride?" James asks. "No. We don't want to go for a ride with /you/." Lance sneers. James sighs. "You're one of the ones who's part of the camp rivalry thing, aren't you? With the prank war?"

Keith growled and tackled the person into the tree. "Oof! Keith, get off me." They say. "James?" He asks, sitting up. The other smiles at him. "Hey." "What are you doing here?" Keith asks, standing and helping him up. "Some of our equipment went missing, and with Lance's mentioning of the prank war, I thought some of your campers might've taken it." James says, brushing the dirt off his shorts before crossing his arms.
That's when Keith realizes he doesn't have a shirt on. "Here." He says, shrugging his hoodie off and giving it to the other. "Thanks." He mutters, pulling it on. "James? You good?" Ryan says, coming into view. "Oh. Hey Keith. Lance." He says, walking over. "They sent both of you?" Lance asks. "It was Nadia's idea." James says. "She also said you should put some clothes on." Ryan points out. "And /you/ said you knew your way around the woods, so we both messed up." James shoots.
"Ladies, ladies, you're both pretty. Can we go back to you accusing us of stealing your equipment?" Lance suggests. "We didn't accuse you of anything. We were going to just ask if you guys noticed any extra equipment." Ryan says. "Then why were you sneaking around?" Lance asks, eyes narrowing. "We got lost and were trying to find the trail. Why'd you tackle me?" James asks, turning to Keith. "Though you might be someone dangerous. I'd rather tackle someone who's not a threat than not tackle someone who is." Keith mumbles.

"If you wanted me under you that badly you could've just asked." James purrs. Keith rolls his eyes and Ryan sighs. "James, you can flirt later." "He's not flirting, he's just always like this." Keith says. "Yal are weird." Lance mutters, turning around. "Come on, the trail's this way."
The other three follow Lance back to the trail, stepping over rocks as leaves and trigs crunch under their feet. "Isn't this where that guy disappeared?" James asks. "What guy?" Lance asks, stopping and turning. "The murderer. Come on, everyone knows the story." James says.
Keith and Lance stare at him blankly.
"James, they haven't heard it." Ryan says. James grins, flipping the hood over his head. "50 years ago, a man named Timothy Wallace lived in Phlatt. He was perfectly normal. Wife, two kids, a nice job at the lumber mill, well liked by everyone. But one night, he snapped. He pulled out his ax in the dead of night, and went to work. He hacked his wife and children to pieces, throwing their mangled bodies into the river before descending on the town. He killed his boss and six other men who worked at the mill with him. Rumor has it he thought they were sleeping with his wife. One of the sheriff deputies tried to stop him, and he cut him down too. His townsmen turned against him, and chased him out of Phlatt and into the woods. /These/ woods. They followed him up to Pike's Peak, axes swinging and guns loaded. They were just about to get him when.. he jumped."
Lance gasped. "Off of Pike's Peak?"
James nodded, face grim. "Off of Pike's Peak. They went back down the mountain to look for the body, but found nothing but a pool of blood. The next day, an old medicine man who lived outside of town said him and his son heard a man moaning from within the woods, asking for food and water, begging for his wife not to leave him, and scorning other men for sleeping with her. A week later, they were found dead in their home, bringing Timothy's number to 13." James finishes, voice low.
"They call him, the Woodsman. Legend says he still roams these woods, gone mad, searching for his next victim. If you hear a man moaning in the woods, you run. You run as fast as you can, and you pray to every god you know that he doesn't come looking for you. He has a habit of killing his witnesses. And a thirst for killing other men." Ryan adds.

Lance lets out a shaky laugh. "Yeah right. A crazy ax murderer? Where have I heard that before?" The others say nothing.

A low moan breaks the silence. "Erica..... Erica...."

"That was his daughter's name." James whispers, stepping closer to Keith and Lance. "Supposedly, she haunts the lake, crying for her mother and brother. She thinks she's still alive."

"Erica.... Erica..........." The voice says again, and the boys huddle closer together. Keith snakes an arm around James's waist, pulling him closer.

"YOU! YOU DID THIS!" The voice yells. "YOU SLEPT WITH MY WIFE!" A dark shadow comes rushing towards them, and the four yelp, turning and running. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

They run through the woods, crashing through the trees. Lance hears a "Shink!" And jumps to the side just as an ax blade hits the tree where he just stood. "SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!" He yells, running faster. "THIS WAY! WE CAN GET TO CAMP FASTER!" Keith yells, turning. "YOU WANT TO GO TO THE LAKE?? WHERE THE BODIES AND GHOST GIRL ARE?" Lance asks. An ax comes spinning past Ryan's head, impaling itself in the tree.
"To the lake!" Lance declares, following Keith. The four sprint as fast as they can, skirting to a stop a few feet away from the water. "I think- I think we lost him." James pants. "Um, guys?" Lance says, backing away from the water. "What now?" Keith asks. Lance points a shaky finger behind them. They slowly turn their heads and James jumps back.

"Mommy?" A glowing white girl asks. "Is that you? Where's Henry?" She looks like she can't be more than seven, but she has bags under her eyes big enough to put Lance's entire wardrobe in. "Back away slowly." Ryan whispers. "If we scare her, she'll drown us." Keith nods and steps away slowly, til him and Ryan are side by side with James and Lance. "On the count of three, we run." Lance whispers.

"Mommy? Where are you going? Are you leaving?"

"1..."

"Mommy, don't go. Please, stay. Help me find Henry."

"2..."

"3!" They turn nd start to run, but the girl appears in front of them. "I SAID DON'T LEAVE! YOU'RE STAYING HERE WITH ME FOREVER!" She yelled, voice disorienting. Lance screams shrilly as they all jump or stumble back. "NO DON'T KILL ME! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!" Lance cries, covering his head with his arm and screwing his eyes shut.

Then he hears laughing. He opens his eyes and sees Ryan and James cracking up. "Oh god, you should've seen the look on your face. Your expression was /priceless/." James says. "I knew Lance was gonna scream, but Keith? You looked like you were about to have a heart attack. And you jumped in the air like a fucking cat!" Ryan wheezes out.
"What's so funny?" Lance asks with a scowl.
The ghost girl laughed as well and pulled something out of her dress pocket. "You were right Ryan! This was fun." She says, wiping white stuff off her face. "See? I told you the ax would work!" Someone else says, stepping out of the trees. Nadia grins at the other
boys. "Hey guys." More people step out of the trees, all with smiles on their faces. A few are holding plastic axes and large trench coats, and one goes over to the girl to help her take her makeup off.

"Wait, was this a.." Lance trails off. "Yep! you just got pranked!" James says proudly. Lance groans as Keith laughs. "Okay, that was pretty good. How'd you set this all up?" "Perks of having equipment. The axes have magnets in them, and we put some on the trees. So when you throw it-" Nadia tosses her ax towards a tree and it shoots towards it, imbedding itself in the wood. "It sticks. We also cut notches in the trees, so we can use plastic ones. Ina's idea."
"And we have several Woodsmen and Woodswomen in case you guys went different routes." Ryan says. "We had a plan for just about every occasion."
Keith shook his head with a chuckle. "Lance, I think they won this prank war." Lance pouts as the other laugh.

Another moan goes through the air. Then another.

"Ha ha guys, very funny. You can stop now, you won." Lance says bitterly. "Um, that's not us." Ryan says. Nadia turns and does a headcount. "Yeah, all 13 of the people from Camp Champion are here, and you're the ones this prank was for." "Then what was that?" The ghost girl asks, stepping closer to Ryan. "The wind?" Keith suggests.

An ax comes flying out of the woods, impaling itself in a tree just centimeters away from James's face. "I don't think that was the wind." James whispers. "YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!" A male voice roars.
This time, when they all run and scream, it's real. No acting.
Ryan scoops up the little ghost girl, who screams and clings to him, burying her face in his neck.
Lance and Nadia run with the campers, who are all (luckily) high schoolers, and don't need to be carried. One trips and Lance grabs their hand to help them up. "Come on!" He hisses, pulling them forward. Keith and James are right behind them.
"Split up!" James yells. "Nadia, Ryan, get the kids back to camp. Lance, Keith, let's see if we can distract this psycho long enough for them to get away."
"Jamie no! Don't go!" The ghost girl cried. Ryan stopped and James went over to her. "Hey, I'm gonna be fine. I'll see you back at camp, 'K?" He asks. "But the mean man." She says. "Ariel, I'm gonna be fine. But now you and Mr.Ryan need to go back to camp. I'll be there soon, I promise." "Okay." She pouts. James pecks her on the forehead. "Go." Ryan hesitates, and looks like he wants to say something to James, but doesn't. He runs off, following Nadia and the others.

"Hey Woodsman! I heard your wife's a hoe! Who's your daughter's real daddy?" James yelled, going back to Keith and Lance. "HOW DARE YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!" The man roars. "Come on. There's a bridge over here. If we can get him over it and get back, maybe we can lose him on the other side of the cliff. Then get back to camp before he finds us again." He says, leading them towards it.
When they get to the bridge, they stop for a breather.
"That-that's the bridge?" Keith asks, glancing at it.

It's an old rope bridge, swaying in the wind. "Y-yep." James answers. "And we're supposed to follow you why? For all we know this is more of the prank." Lance says, standing. "It's not. You think we'd do something that could hurt our kids? That maniac isn't part of our prank, and I'm offended that you think it would be." "I'm just saying, you already had your campers throwing plastic axes at us. Metal is just a little upgrade." James steps forward. "What are you getting at?"
Lance stepped forward as well. "I'm just saying, the timing of all of this is a little conveint. Isn't Ryan enough for you?" "What are you even talking about? What does Ryan have to do with any of this?" James asks.
They hear a loud rumble, and a thunderclap. A steady rain falls, and Lance curses. "That's just great. Was this part of your plan too?" "I can't control the weather!" James exclaims. "Guys, please. You can argue later. We have a crazy ax murder following us, remember?" Keith says. "Fine. But we're not done here." Lance tells James. He heads to the bridge, starting to cross.
"You okay?" Keith asks, placing a hand on James's shoulder. "Are you?" He asks back. "So, that's a no." "Like you said, we can talk later. He's bound to be getting closer. Go." "You'll follow me over the bridge?" Keith asks. "I'll follow you anywhere." Keith grins and steps away from James, and to the bridge.

He's almost all the way across when he hears a growl. He turns his head and immediatley wishes he hadn't. The Woodsman comes out of the woods, and he sees what he actually looks like. A long black trench coat, sleeves dotted with dark spots. He has a low brimmed black cowboy hat, and bandages wrapped around his hands, which are gripped around an old ax. It's blade glistens in the moonlight, and the man sneers. And oh god, his face. The only parts not covered by bandages are his rotten toothed smile and black eye.

"James, come on!" He yells. James starts making his way across the bridge, being careful to step on the center of the braided rope and not the edge. "He's going to get himself killed." Lance muttered, running a hand through his hair. "No... he's luring him. He'll follow James, then he can lose him here as we make it back across. Then he can follow. He's risking his life for us." Keith says. "Come on. We have to hide." He grabs Lance's hand and leads him into the woods, pulling him behind a wide tree and crouching down. "In five minutes, we go back to the bridge and cross. Then we wait for James." Lance nods, willing himself not to blush. Now is /not/ the time.

"COME ON SLOWPOKE! THE BOSS WANTS TO KNOW THE NEXT TIME HE CAN HAVE YOUR WIFE!" James's voice yells. "DIE!" The Woodsman roars. "GOTTA CATCH ME FIRST!"
They hear leaves crunching, and Lance shrinks into the tree.

After several moments of silence, Keith stands. "Come on." He whispers. Together, they sprint to the bridge, crossing it quickly. Then they wait. "Where is he?" Keith mutters, pacing in front of the bridge. The rain water as his hair sticking to his head, and his clothes are drenched. "Keith, are you sure he'll come?" Lance asks, rubbing his arms. His jacket is useless now that it's soaked through with icy rainwater. "He'll come back. He always does." Keith answers.

After a few more minutes, they see movement. Then James comes bursting out of the brush. Keith lets out a sigh of relief as Lance gives a shaky laugh. But instead of immediatley crossing the bridge, James stops to mess with the support beams on his side. He tugs at the ropes, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds. then he jumps up and grabs the sides of the rope bridge, beginning to cross.
When he gets to their side, Keith engulfs him in a tight embrace. "You're okay." He mumbles into his hair. James squeezes him tight. "Okay, I need you guys to help me with the bridge." He says when they seperate. "What about it?" Lance asks. "I loosened the ropes on that side, so if we pull it hard enough from this side, it should fall. Then he can't get to us."
The other two nodded, and the three began yanking the ropes, pulling them towards them.
But the rain made it hard to get their footing on the rock, and the rope slippery under their hands. They heard a moan from the woods "Erica.... my poor Erica.... left her in the lake..... have to get back to her..."
"Hurry! He's coming!" James said, and Keith chuckled a bit. "My god Keith, that's where your mind went? We're facing a maniac and you're thinking about /that/?" James huffed. " Keith grunted, pulling harder, and the bridge wavered. "Harder!" James said. "Ugh, not like that." He added once he saw Keith and Lance's smirks.
They yanked hard one more time, and the bridge gave away, ropes on the other side ripping.

The three boys cheered as it fell.

But they silenced when they saw the man in the shadows. He gripped his ax with both hands, head dipped. "We should get out of here." Lance says. "Yeah, god idea." Keith agrees. "Wait. What's he doing?" James asked, squinting at the man, who was picking his ax up. "He couldn't- could he?" He asked, more to himself than them.
The man threw the ax, and Keith pulled James back against his chest as it implanted itself in the ground where he had been standing. "Holy shit." Lance whispered. "Let's go." Keith says, and James nods. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." He says, voice strained.

They walk back to Camp Champion, since the rain's made the ground to slippery to safely walk on. "What the hell is happening?" James asked. "First, Alfor and Zarkon get in car crashes and can't run the camps this summer, then half of the instructors cancel, then our equipment goes missing, and now we have a crazy ax-wielding murderer running around the woods?"
"Wait, I thought he was stuck on that island thing." Lance says. "He is, for now. But there's another bridge on the other side. Last I saw it, its boards couldn't even hold the weight of a bird, but the ropes are still pretty sturdy. Now, they're old as fuck, and if he screws up they could snap and he'd fall into the ravine, but I doubt we'll be that lucky."

When they got to Camp Champion, the little ghost girl ran into James's legs. "Jamie!" She yelled. "Hey Ari." "Is the mean man gone?" She mumbled into his thigh. "For now. Why aren't you asleep? It's late." "She wouldn't sleep until you got back." Nadia reports, coming over and handing them each a towel. "Thanks." James says, taking Keith's now soaked hoodie off and replacing it with the towel.

"James! You're back!" Ryan said, coming into the room. "Hey Ry. Are the kids okay?" He asks as the taller boy hugs him. James smiles and breaths in his woody scent, sighing contently. "They're fine. I'm more worried about you." "Ryan, I'm fine." James says. "You're soaking wet and it's cold outside and you were just chased through the woods by a crazy ax-wielding maniac who wants to kill you." Ryan cupped James's face. "I care about you, and you're acting like this was a completely normal night. You're stressed, you're panicking, and you're going to be freaking out about this until it's over." "Ryan, I'm fine." James says, tugging his hands down. "And you're supposed to have all the campers in bed by 9:30, and you're teaching swim with the 6 year olds tomorrow at 9, so you need to sleep. Now go."
Ryan sighed. "Fine. Goodnight." He said, before kissing James's forehead. "Goodnight. Now go to sleep." As Ryan padded out of the room, James went over to Ariel and scooped her up. "And you my little mermaid, need to go to sleep." He handed her to Nadia, who hugged her to her chest. "You probably should get some sleep too. Archery isn't going to teach itself." She nods and gives him a one armed hug. "Night Jamie." Ariel says with a yawn. "Night princess." He says softly.

Then he picks up Keith's jacket before gesturing to Keith and Lance. "Follow me." He says. He leads them to a different building, and into a room with a two couches and a kitchen. "Sit. Do you guys want something to drink? Hot cocoa?" He asks, going to the cabinets and pulling out a box of mix.
"Yes please." Lance groans, falling on one of the couches. "If you guys are cold, there's some fuzzy blankets in that cabinet there. Nut the red one is mine." "Boo." Keith whines. "But you can borrow it just this once." Keith grins and grabs the blanket, throwing a blue one at Lance. "Here."
5 minutes later, James is handing each of them a mug. "Here. I put marshmallows cause I assumed you guys would like them. Scoot." James says, sitting next to Keith. They sip their cocoa in silence. "Ryan is right you know." Keith says after a few moments. "About?" James says after he swallows.
"You're stressing. You go into big brother mode when you're stressed. You don't always have to take care of everyone you know." Keith tells him. "I know, Keith. But it's normal for me. Calming. Now shut up and stop hogging the blanket, I'm cold." James complains, setting his mug down and elbowing Keith. He chuckles and opens up the blanket, letting James lean into his shoulder before covering both of them with the soft red material.

"That's pretty gay." Lance says in a singsong voice. James yawns. "We're pretty gay. Now shut up and go to sleep. You guys have to go back to Altea tomorrow, and we have to- *yawn*- file a police report, and call the park rangers and a bunch of other stuff." James yawns again and nuzzles into Keith's shoulder before his eyes flutter closed, and he falls asleep. "Wow." Lance says. "He went fast." "Yeah well, when James is tired, he's tired. Goodnight Lance." Keith said. "Mm, night Keith." He muttered, lying down. He was asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

"Guys shh, you'll wake them up." Lance groaned and sat up. "Whas happening?" He asked. Nadia shushed him, pointing to the other couch. He turned his head and had to stifle a giggle.
Keith had somehow pulled James ontop of him during the night and laid down. James's head lay on his chest, lips parted ever so slightly and arm throw over Keith's waist. "This is priceless." Nadia whispered. Ryan, Ina and Matt were there too, smiling at the other two.
"Keith, get up! Shiro's gonna dump the ice water on you!" Lance declared. Keith's eyes shot open and he tried to sit up, but the other boy ontop of him disabled him from doing that. "What the- Lance? What time is it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes. James grumbled and clung tighter to him, eyes squeezing shut. "And why do I have a lapful of James?" "Too loud." Said boy muttered. "James, time to wake up." Nadia said in a singsong voice. "Noooo. 'S too early." He mumbled, nuzzling further into Keith, who blushed. "James, get up." He said. The other boy raised a finger, putting it on his lips. "Shh. "M tired." Keith sighed and laid back down, letting James stay ontop of him. "Guess I'm stuck here." Nadia sighed. "Alright, bring her in." She told Ryan.
He nodded and went to open the door, and Ariel came running in. "Jamie!" She yelled, running over to him. "It's time to wake up! Ronny said she'll make chocolate chip waffles if you wake up!" "Ariel?" James asked, opening an eye sleepily. "Get upp! I want chocolate chip waffles!" She whined, tugging on his arm. He groaned. "Fineee." He sat up and stretched, and Lance nodded a bit. Not quite a sixpack yet, but he definently had a swimmer's build.
"Yay! Now come on. Keith can have waffles too." "Keith?" James asked, rubbing his eye. "Morning." Keith muttered. James looked at him, then at where he was, then around the room. "Oh. Sorry for using you as a pillow." He told Keith. "It's okay. As long as me and Lance get waffles." "You'll have to ask Ronny. mmh." James stretched again. "Come on." He climbed off of Keith and picked up the hoodie from last night, pulling it and his shoes on. Ariel takes his hand and tugs him along. "Come on Jamie. She said she'd only wait for a little bit longer."

"Get. Off. ME!" James's voice said, and they heard blows landing. "BITCH!" Another voice roared. "James! James!" Keith called, running towards the sound. He saw James pushing a man with blonde hair off of him. "What the hells happening?" He asked. The man snarled and wiped some blood off is lip. "The bitch hit me." "You tried shoving your hand down my pants perv!" James snaps.
He's standing, and his fists are clenched. "You're lucky I didn't knock your lights out." "You little-" The man rises, but Keith steps in front of him. "Back off." He growled. The man glanced behind him and say the others approaching before he chuckled. "All right, I get it. I'll be going."
He headed down the street and Keith turned back to James. "Are you okay?" He asks, concern seeping into his voice. "Yeah, I'm fine." "James.." "Keith, I'm fine. Let's just go."

Nadia opened the door with a smile, which quickly fell when she saw what was happening inside. Keith was ontop of James, a leg slotted between his as they made out, James's hands tangling in Keith's long hair.//// Keith put his hands on James's waist, pulling him closer. James cupped his face, kissing him gently. Keith grabbed James's thigh, causing him to shiver at Keith's warm hand on his bare skin, and put him on the balcony edge, licking into his mouth when James gasped. His legs bracketed Keith's waist,
They heard laughter and broke apart, looking behind Keith.
Their friends were standing in the doorway, some with their phones out and taking pictures. "Finally! I've been dealing with 5 /YEARS/ of pining. It was about time." Hunk says. "I knew it! Allura owes me 20 bucks." Pidge says, tapping away on her phone. Keith rolls his eyes and turns back to James, who smiles at him. "So.. what now?" He asks. James shrugs. "We could kiss again." Keith grinned, leaning in. "I like the way you think."

Lance and Ryan are silent. They're staring at the other two in shock.
Ryan has had a crush on James for the better part of 4 years. He was actually planning on asking him out the next day.
Lance had been crushing on Keith /hard/ for the part year.