Chapter Text
“…And the fact that he was a Rational made him all the more exciting somehow. She didn’t understand her reaction to that; it was a part of her queerness.” Cody flipped the page.
Noah relaxed into the twin mattress underneath him as he listened to his boyfriend’s voice as he read aloud The Gods Themselves from where he was seated by his hip. He closed his eyes. He’d never been a fan of audiobooks; he felt it detracted from the experience, but having Cody read to him was its own unique and enjoyable experience. He actually wasn’t even sure how much time had passed just the two of them and Isaac Asimov.
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“Yet another loophole in Chris’ rules—” Noah pointed out with a growing smirk, “he only specified that I not read, not that I not be read to. At least one of the ‘challenges’ turns out to be not so challenging after all.”
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“When she was a child, when she still thought of herself as an individual, a single being, and not as part of a triad, she—” Cody paused, glancing over at the dark-haired boy. “Are you falling asleep?” he asked, surprised.
Noah shook his head slightly, but didn’t open his eyes. “No, just enjoying the sound of your voice.”
Cody felt himself blush. He glanced about the empty cabin, making a quick decision. He set the book down spine up to keep their spot and leaned over to place his mouth on Noah’s.
The other teen’s eyes opened, but he returned the affection. “You know it’s going to be hard to read with our mouths pressed together,” he sassed, never not the smart-ass.
“Just enjoying the feel of your lips,” Cody played off the others’ words, raising and lowering his eyebrows several times like the dork he was.
“Is that the real reason you pulled me in here?” Noah grinned, teasing the other with a small pinch of his partner’s ear.
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Cody flushed harder in the confessional, squeezing his hands in between his thighs, “I mean, it’s pretty normal to wanna get… ah ha, ha ha… y’know… intimate… with your boyfriend while no one’s watching, right? Eh heh… I bet tons of the other campers already have. Maybe.” He scratched his head.
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Cody laughed shyly. “Guess you caught me.” He let his lips touch Noah’s again and was bolstered when it was reciprocated. He sunk deeper into the next kiss, allowing his spine to relax and his chest to press against the other boy’s. Noah’s arms came up to curl around his midsection and Cody felt his head spin with a woozy pleasure. Not taking his mouth from the other boy’s, he began to worm his hand up Noah’s shirt and sweatervest, feeling his warm skin, which made his heart quicken even more. He gave a small moan as he repositioned himself between Noah’s legs.
Without warning, he found Noah pushing him upright, putting him at arm’s length. “Easy there, fireball.”
The bright blue eyes blinked. “What’s wrong?” Had Noah heard someone coming? His head whipped around to the cabin door, but no one was there.
“Not that I’m not appreciating your enthusiasm, because I am, just…” he trailed off.
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“Okay, so, this is going to be hard to say…” Noah mumbled, rubbing his arm and averting his eyes. “And obviously I hadn’t brought it up because I never actually dreamed Cody and I would get this far… so why bother? But now…”
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Cody was still expectantly awaiting an answer, his head cocked slightly to the side. Noah cleared his throat. “I’m just a little concerned about where this might be leading.”
The brown-haired boy just about leapt off him, waving both hands frantically. “No no no, I uh… that wasn’t… well, it could be— in the right circumstances— if you were… um… That is, I guess eventually, but I hadn’t meant…” His face was redder than Noah had ever seen it (which was quite the statement considering the frequency with which Cody found himself flushed) as he blithered away. Cody scratched the back of his head aimlessly. “Sorry,” he concluded.
Now Noah sat up. “No, I’m sorry. I knew I needed to get around to telling you, but I didn’t know when to do it.”
Cody’s eyebrow drew up. “Tell me what, Noah?”
The teen screwed his eyes shut and came out with it, “I’m a homoromantic asexual.”
There was a lasting silence. “You’re… what? I thought you were gay.”
“Well I am gay,” Noah began to attempt to explain. “It’s a little more complicated than that. I’m attracted to males, I’m just… not interested in—” his tongue paused on the roof of his mouth before finishing the sentence, “intercourse.”
“But…” Cody struggled to grasp the concept, “you’re not attracted to females either?”
“No.”
“So… you want to be with a guy, but… you don’t want to be with a guy.”
Noah tested his tongue against his teeth. “Crude phrasing but that summarizes it well enough.”
Cody scratched his head again. It was pretty clear he no longer knew what to do with his hands, and he’d taken to staring at his own feet.
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Noah sighed. “Mood: ruined. Relationship: probably also ruined.” He shook his head. “I don’t even know what I was thinking when I asked Cody to be involved in a romantic relationship.” He put his face in his hands, muttering through them, “Just vote me off the island now…”
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Noah got up suddenly, causing Cody’s head to lift. “I’m going to go…” Noah thumbed back at the cabin door. “Thanks for…” he struggled to come up with words, “thanks for reading to me.” He turned hurriedly.
Cody gave a little sigh as the door thumped closed after him. “But we didn’t even get to the end of the chapter…” he mumbled, picking the novel up sadly and flipping a few stray pages.
~~kkkssshhhttt…!!~~
“Jeez…” Cody slapped his forehead roughly, “I went and ruined everything. What was I thinking going so fast? I totally made Noah uncomfortable. Guess it turns out I’m not such a great boyfriend afterall…” He sighed deeply, sinking his chin into his palm.
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—
“Relax, Izzy, you can do this, I know you can!” Owen said.
The orange-haired girl was clutching her heaving chest, hunkered down with a rabid expression on her face— it looked like her fight or flight insincts were seconds away from kicking in. Beside her feet was an inflated air mattress taken from one of the cabins. “I can’t. I won’t. It’s eeeevillllllll…!”
Noah rolled his eyes as he continued past.
“Just close your eyes and pretend you’re lying on my stomach instead,” Owen said, poking at his own massive gut. “Hahaha.”
Her green eyes blinked as if contemplating the task in a whole new light. She promptly shut her eyes and dove onto the mattress, snuggling it. “Big O! What’d you eat, popcorn? You’re soooooo fluffy!” She squeezed it happily.
“And that’s another point for the Gophers!” McLean announced. “Well then, ready for that airplane ride, Owen?”
The large teen poked his forefingers together and released some nervous flatulence. Izzy leapt up, eyes still shut and squeezing the mattress tightly, causing it to release air as well. “Yep, he’s all ready to go!” She squeezed it a few more times, apparently still lost in the delusion that the inflatible was Owen. Frrrrt, frrrrrrrt…! “Ooh, no, you must’ve had a few burritos. Wow!”
Noah approached the beach. A couple more of his team were there as well. Including Gwen, Trent, and Chef Hachet, who was at present digging a hole in the sand with a very large shovel. The green-haired goth looked incredibly anxious, but Trent was rubbing her shoulder to keep her calm and level-headed.
“All done,” Hachet thrust the shovel into the sand beside him with finality, “Hop in, girlie.”
“Oh God… I don’t know if I can do this…” Gwen winced.
“Easy,” Trent smiled, handing her a walkie talkie. “I’ll be here for you the entire ten minutes.”
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“If anything can get me through this, it’s the sound of Trent’s voice…” Gwen revealed, then shook her head. “Ugh, that’s so sappy, but I can’t help it, it’s true!”
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“I’m just so glad I can be here for Gwen,” Trent said to the camera. “The only question is, while it’s just the two of us, should I tell her how I feel?”
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“Really?” she smiled back, pushing hair behind an ear. Her blush metamorphized into a look of stoicism as she hopped into the glass coffin in the sand, clutching the device to her chest.
“Yup,” Trent gave her a little fistbump, followed by a wink, “You’re a Screaming Gopher, a little time underground will be easy.” The chef nodded and began filling the hole back in. Gwen’s eyes immediately bugged out.
Trent held the talk button with his thumb. “Doing great. The timer’s already begun. Just nine minutes, fifty seconds to go, Gwen.”
She nodded frantically, but that was the last of her to be seen as Chef Hachet tossed a large heap of sand over the glass covering her face. She emitted a tiny but shrill ‘eek’ over the airwaves.
“Doing great, Gwen,” Trent repeated patiently. “Just nine minutes, forty-five seconds to go.”
“Can we please talk about something other than how much time is left!” her voice came over the radio.
Trent took a seat on the sand. “Sure, what do you want to talk about?”
“Let’s talk about…” she only paused a second before deciding, “your music.”
Trent blinked in surprise. “You wanna talk about my music?”
“Y-yeah.” She sounded scared but calming down. “Your music makes me feel… happy. I like it.”
“Thanks, Gwen, that really means a lot.”
“M-maybe… maybe y-you could sing me one of your songs now,” she suggested. Hachet continued shoveling away, filling the pit more and more.
Trent scratched the back of his head before depressing the radio button again. “Sure, but I don’t have my guitar with me. I could go grab it—”
“Doesn’t matter!” she interrupted him quickly so he wouldn’t have a chance to leave. Gwen definitely sounded on edge with how fast her response came back. “I like the sound of your voice too.”
“Well, alright, in that case…” Trent shrugged, trying to think over what he was going to do with just vocals. He’d only let a few seconds of silence elapse when Gwen cut in again.
“Trent?!”
“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry. I was just trying to decide what to sing to you.”
“Well decide faster!”
Hachet finished filling in the hole and pat down the sand with the back of his shovel. He nodded in satisfaction with the job and lumbered off.
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“I guess… I guess now’s the time,” Trent sounded a little nervous himself.
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Now alone, Trent cleared his throat. “I should’ve told you sooner how I felt about you…” he began. “Cuz the moment I laid eyes on you, that’s exactly when I knew…” Gwen had gone silent, but no doubt she was listening intently underneath the sand. Trent’s voice grew stronger as he serenaded into the walkie, his eyes shut with emotion, “You’re such a gorgeous girl! And giiiiirl, yeah, there’s just so much I wanna say to yooo-ooooh-oooohhh! Cuz I just can’t— I just can’t— I can’t get over yooo-ooooh-oooohhh!” He sucked in a sharp breath to keep going, softer, “Girl, you’re just so beautiful… and I lo—” The guitarist had just about been to proclaim his love when a sound from faraway caused his throat to clamp down and his whole body to seize up.
It was the sound of a dental drill.
He turned to face the sound and let out a scream at the sight of Chef Hachet wielding a massive rotating drill bit, letting it whirr loudly as he approached menacingly on the green-eyed teen. Trent screamed a second time and dropped the walkie-talkie when he stood. He gave a third scream as his legs pinwheeled, but his feet only dug into the sand, sending the granules flying as the terrain hindered the hastiness of his escape.
“Trent? Trent?! TRENT?!” Gwen’s voice panicked from the speaker of the device. “Oh my God. Let me out! Someone let me out!!” Beneath the sand you could hear her fists thudding against her glass cage.
Noah walked into the situation, bending down to pick up Trent’s forgotten radio. He blew off the stray sand and then depressed the talk button. “Gwen, relax. Your boy-toy just remembered he was late for his dental appointment.”
“Noah?” For a moment confusion overrode her fear; she switched between questions, “What are you—? Dental appointment—?” You could almost hear her eyes narrow down, “…Did you just call Trent my boy-toy?” She actually sounded amused.
“Sorry,” Noah faux-apologized with a loose flip of his wrist, “Do you two prefer the term ‘love slave’?”
She snorted a laugh, “Okay, now that’s not at all it.” The walkie hissed a moment before she asked, “You really think Trent likes me though?”
Noah ignored her question to continue ribbing her through the radio, “I know you goths are more into the leather scene and all that BDSM stuff, but full-on burying yourself in a coffin? That’s kinky. If you come out of there as a bat, does that make him into necrophilia or beastiality? I’m confused.”
The burst of laughter was enough to be heard not only over the radio but coming up from under the mound of sand as well.
Chris walked casually onto the set. “Huh…” he wonder aloud as he evaluated the scene, obviously more than a little surprised Gwen was still beneath the sand, “Just three minutes to go.” His eyes and smile turned to the camera, “Will she make it? If she doesn’t, will she be dooming the Gophers to a loss they can’t afford?” he jazz-handed, hyping the mood for the show.
Gwen finally managed to compose herself with a few lingering snorts; it was clear Noah had effectively taken her mind completely off her situation. “But seriously…” she probed again.
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Noah rolled his eyes. “Heteronormatives.”
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“You want me to give it to you straight?” he asked, drawing her out, his eyes on the timer as it neared its final minute.
His wording left her worried. “Yeah.”
“So does he.”
“Did you just seriously turn that into a pun? You are the worst. I’m done talking to you; put someone else on,” she joshed. “I’ll even take Heather.”
“Harsh,” Noah chuckled. “But okay. How about I hand you off to this guy instead?” he extended the walkie to arm’s length toward the person approaching.
Chef Hachet had just come back from terrorizing Trent and he vocalized into the radio gruffly, “Yo’ time’s up. I’ll dig ya back up now.” He got to work with the shovel, taking massive scoops and flinging them over his shoulder.
“Wait, seriously? It’s been ten minutes already?”
Noah tried to resist, but he just couldn’t. “Time flies when you’re having fun…eral.”
“Oh my God,” he heard Gwen slap her forehead.