A/N: I still fail at titles, yesh (this is not a typo). Anyway, this is the new story I've been working on with the awesome Garfakcy-chan. ^.^ I'm so happy we could combine our powers once more, especially since you guys liked our other collab so much. I'd like to say first that this story takes place over the span of three days, so we didn't exactly keep a logical sense of time in mind. XD Trust me, the story's long enough as it is. Anyway, we hope you'll enjoy our new story, please leave a review if you do! ^.^ They really mean a lot to the both of us. -heart-

"Effing tent!" Burn screeched when the jumble of fabric and pole collapsed on him...again. Gazel sighed from where he was sitting on a rock by the edge of the lake, lazily flipping through the instruction manual. "Ready to read the instructions yet?" he asked, propping up his cheek with one hand.

"I can figure it out!" Burn yelled back as he continued to wrestle with it. Gazel rolled his eyes and went back to leafing through the manual. Why, of all things, did Hiroto choose to go camping? Now they were stuck out in the middle of nowhere for three days! Three days of sharing a tent with Burn of all people!

Mr Great Ideas himself was at the next spot over, helping Desarm and Ulvida with their tent. Not that they needed help – unlike a certain other couple – but he and Midorikawa had long finished setting up their own, and Hiroto wanted to make himself useful. He turned his head to the bickering pair and let out a snicker. "I can help you next if you want."

"No thanks," the duo instantly answered in unison. Burn sent him a glare, but Gazel didn't even bother averting his eyes from the manual. Even though they no longer saw Hiroto as Gran, their despicable fellow master rank captain who destroyed their chance at becoming Genesis, they still resented him for being Mr Perfect, always kind and helpful. Not that they would ever admit their grudge spawned from envy.

Hiroto just shrugged, little fazed by their retort, and focused back on Desarm and Ulvida. The black-haired teen was busy spiking a tent pen into the ground, just as Ulvida came walking with more in her hand. "Dezzy, I found—"

"Watch out!" Hiroto yelled when he saw her walking straight into a set pen, but the girl already tripped and let out a yelp, alerting Desarm as well. He turned just in time to catch her, but seeing as the extra weight threw his squatting position out of balance, he tumbled on his back with her on top of him.

Ulvida groaned briefly at the impact, but quickly got back up and laughed a "Sorry." Desarm said nothing, merely hoping his blush wasn't too visible. He couldn't help but feel nervous, knowing he had just held the girl he had admired since their time at Aliea Academy in his arms. They may not be separated by different ranks anymore, but Desarm still tended to put himself below her, if only because of his enormous crush on her.

Hiroto flashed a smile, figuring the two would be fine by themselves, and turned his head to the lake. His own tent mate was sitting in the sand, his knees up in his arms as he absentmindedly scanned the water. Hiroto had noticed right away that the greenette seemed rather gloomy, despite agreeing to accompany them. Little did the redhead know that Midorikawa was worried about him, about putting a dent in his plan to go on a nice camping trip. He had been on board from the start, but his enthusiasm faltered as soon as he heard there was a lake – meaning swimming – involved. The problem wasn't that Midorikawa didn't like swimming, but—

"Why the long face?"

Midorikawa flinched lightly when Hiroto popped up next to him, beaming a bright smile. Midorikawa almost bit his lip when he saw the cheerful expression on his friend's face. He had harboured feelings towards the boy for the longest time now, and he couldn't stand the thought of ripping apart his hopes of having a fun time with everybody.

The greenette quickly gazed at the lake again and said: "N-nothing, nothing, I was just lost in thought."

"Wait," Hiroto said when Midorikawa turned away his head. "There's something on your nose, hold on."

Midorikawa widened his eyes when Hiroto reached for his face and touched his nose the very next moment. He almost backed away out of automatism, but Hiroto had already removed whatever was invading his face. He opened his hand with a smile, showing Midorikawa the dotted insect crawling in his palm.

"A ladybug," he chimed.

Midorikawa blushed heavily and quickly averted his eyes to the ground. "Th-thanks." he stuttered. Hiroto grinned. "No problem."

"Fuck!" Both former Aliea captains instantly turned to look at Burn's once again collapsed tent and the redhead thrashing around under it. Gazel gaped at the scene for a bit before face palming and stalking over to him. "You idiot! Now will you look at the instructions?" the white haired boy yelled as he attempted to free the other from his own mess. Hiroto rolled his eyes.

"I'm starting to feel sorry for Gazel." the redhead snickered when the ice user finally freed the other Chaos captain from the tent and promptly banned him from coming within a ten foot radius of it until Gazel finished setting it up. Burn stomped away, stuffing his hands into his pockets and grumbling under his breath about 'fussy white haired bitches'. He cried out in pain when Gazel's manual hit him in the head not a second later. Burn spun around and sent him a death glare, but the culprit averted his gaze innocently. Burn had given him more than enough time to learn the instructions by heart, so he decided to use the book for a much better purpose.

Burn rubbed his head with a growl and turned around again, eyeing the lake in front of him. He lifted his eyes and suddenly noticed a tall cliff hovering above the water, which looked accessible from the ground. Burn's face lit up with a smile; that thing had to be awesome to jump from. Suddenly psyched, he rushed back to his friend and asked: "Are you done yet?"

Gazel, having borrowed Desarm's hammer and looking up at the boy with a couple of nails between his lips, raised an eyebrow. "I just started. And didn't I tell you you're banished?"

"Well, hurry up!" Burn urged, ignoring his second remark. "I wanna go swimming!"

Gazel's other eyebrow went up. "Then swim, you don't need my approval."

"No, but Gran said we should wait until we've all set up our tents," Burn sputtered, resembling a five-year-old more than anything. "So get a move on, will ya?"

Gazel suddenly felt an overwhelming tendency to hurl the hammer at his head as well, but he managed to maintain his composure. His grip did tighten on the tool, however. "Whose goddamn fault do you think it is that our tent is the only one still down?" he demanded in a low tone. "Get the hell out before I ban you permanently and you can sleep with the mosquitoes."

"What do you mean, there's nothing to get out of," Burn stuck out his tongue and snickered when Gazel flipped him off as a response. He put his hands back in his pockets and started walking off again, but stopped when he heard Gazel complain to himself about the hot temperature. Burn, rarely bothered by the summer heat, turned around and watched Gazel remove his shirt, only to toss it to the side. The sight of a sweaty, half-naked Gazel caused Burn to blush for some reason, and he quickly diverted his gaze when he realized he was staring. He frowned to himself, puzzled. What was that just now?

Gazel huffed loudly. Why did it have to be so hot? Why couldn't they have gone camping in, let's say, December? It would have been so much nicer then. At least they could swim. That was something to look forward to. Granted, he'd be able to get in the water much faster if Burn hadn't messed up their tent so much.

Ulvida grunted quietly as she finished unloading the food and supplies out of the back of Desarm's van. "Wow, it's so hot! I can't wait to get in the lake! What about you, Desarm? Desarm? Dezzy?" she turned around in a circle a couple times, searching for the other teen. She smirked and planted her hands on her hips when she found him hiding behind a rock, looking through a pair of binoculars. Ulvida walked over and dropped down next to him, snatching the binoculars away to see what he was so focused on. She rolled her eyes when they landed on a particular greenette and redhead.

"Really, Dezzy? You're like his dad or something." she tossed the binoculars away and Desarm snatched them back up, locking onto the pair again. "He's going to try something, I know it." the black haired teen hissed, glaring at Hiroto through the lenses. Hiroto was standing in front of Midorikawa, talking animatedly. Every now and then, Midorikawa would blush and laugh and Hiroto would grin like an idiot. Suddenly, Midorikawa seemed to notice something before turning in his direction and narrowing his eyes. Uh oh...

"Desarm!" Midorikawa screamed. Said former Epsilon captain quickly tucked the binoculars behind his back and scrambled up to hide behind the van. But Midorikawa already came running and blocked his way, a grumpy look on his face. "What do you think you're doing?" he huffed.

Desarm awkwardly shifted his eyes to ten different places before locking them on the greenette. "Just looking out for you," he answered carefully. "I don't want to see you get in trouble."

"In trouble with what? With Hiroto?" Midorikawa gave him a look. "He's my best friend, why do you get so hyped up just over us talking?"

While Desarm tried to find a better answer than "He's looking to get into your pants", Ulvida crossed her arms and snickered at the pair. She remembered how the greenette used to struggle just looking Hiroto in the eye, let alone speaking his first name with so much force. She was well aware of how much he let his true feelings for the redhead block his path, but it was still great to see him so carefree compared to his time as Reize.

Just as Midorikawa started chasing his 'big brother', demanding he hand over the binoculars, Gazel approached the blue-and-white-haired girl and jabbed a thumb at his and Burn's tent. "Finished."

Ulvida gave him a teasing smile. "About time." She then raised her voice and shouted: "Alright, everyone, all tents are finally up! Who's up for some cooling off in the lake?"

Hiroto, Gazel, Desarm and especially Burn instantly agreed, but Midorikawa froze abruptly, totally forgetting about fishing the reason for Desarm's overprotective behavior out of him. They were going swimming? Now? His eyes shot to Hiroto, who came walking with an enthused smile on his face. Midorikawa frowned in panic, his hand flying to his mouth. Oh no, they were gonna find out…!

"Finally!" Burn whooped happily, ripping off his shirt and shorts to show he was wearing his swim trunks underneath(red of course with orange flames). "Last one in's a rotten egg!" Burn screamed. He immediately raced towards the cliff, Gazel not too far behind. Ulvida instantly stripped down to her purple bikini(Desarm hid a nosebleed) and spread out her towel on the beach.

"Canon ball!" Burn screamed as he plunged into the water below after jumping off the cliff. Gazel sighed at his friend's antics before jumping off as well. Desarm, and Hiroto, pulling along a skittish Midorikawa, quickly joined them.

"Race you guys!" Burn yelled, running back up to the top of the cliff. Gazel yelled after him for being unfair and Hiroto tugged on Midorikawa's hand. "Come on!" he pulled the greenette up the cliff. Midorikawa swallowed hard when they got near the top, looking fearfully over the edge. Hiroto noticed his nervousness and leaned to look him in the eye.

"You don't have to jump if you don't want to." he said, smiling kindly at the former Gemini Storm captain. Meanwhile, Desarm had joined Ulvida on the beach, lounging in the sun, reading. He looked up when he caught their movement out of the corner of his eye. 'What does Ryuuji think he's doing? He knows he can't...'

"Come on, Reize! Stop being such a baby!" Burn yelled, grabbing the greenette tightly around the waist and hurling him as hard as he could over the edge. Midorikawa screamed but was cut off when he hit the water. Ulvida yelped when Desarm's book nearly hit her in the face. "Osamu! What was that for?" she sat up, watching the dark haired boy race towards the water.

"Ryuuji!" Desarm yelled the younger boy's name and dove into the water, almost instantly resurfacing with the coughing and sputtering greenette.

The former master rank captains gaped at the two from atop the cliff, all of them stunned to see Desarm jump to action so fast. They first thought Midorikawa was afraid of heights or something, but Hiroto was the first to realize he possessed a far bigger problem: the greenette couldn't swim.

"Midorikawa!" He ran back to the beach, where Desarm had brought their friend in record time. He was seated in the sand with the other boy in his lap, who was shivering and occasionally whimpering, his eyes filled with terror.

"Are you okay?" Desarm inquired for the fifth time since he'd saved him in the lake, but Midorikawa didn't answer. It had only lasted for a split second, but the impression was still there – that immense, agonizing fear of drowning. Midorikawa squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in Desarm's chest, tears spilling on his cheeks. Desarm frowned worriedly and rocked the boy a little, trying to soothe him. Just as the greenette started to calm down a bit, he jumped when Hiroto's voice suddenly reached him. His head shot up and he looked into those teal eyes, usually set to happiness but now overflowing with worry. Midorikawa widened his own. Oh no… He had done it. They had barely set up their tents and he had already ruined Hiroto's vacation.

The greenette squirmed out of Desarm's arms and got up on his feet, fleeing from the boy he held so dear. A completely shocked Hiroto thought he wanted to enter the surrounding forest at first, but Midorikawa hid in their tent instead, relieving him despite the current situation.

"You know, he could've at least hidden in someone else's tent. He's not gonna get far when you're the one he'll be lying next to," Ulvida commented, her arms crossed on her chest.

Hiroto managed a small smile and made for the tent. "I'll handle this." Desarm followed him with his eyes, a little worried at first, but then figured the last thing Hiroto would do at this rate was harm his little brother. Soon after, his gaze shot up instead, piercing straight through the redhead that had caused Midorikawa so much fright. Despite the distance, Burn could instantly feel Desarm's death glare on him and took a step back, a lump blocking his throat. Desarm didn't look too friendly to begin with, and even Burn got the chills when the black-haired boy was seriously mad. Now was definitely one of those cases.

The redhead gulped loudly. "You know, I think I forgot something in the car. I'll just go get it now. Bye guys!" with that, Burn sped towards the van, Desarm hot on his tail. "Get back here!"

Gazel sighed and walked back to the beach, plopping down in the sand next to Ulvida, who had begun reading Desarm's book. "Think he'll be okay?" Gazel asked. The blue and white haired girl nodded. "I'm sure he'll be okay. Hiroto will handle it. I wish he would've said something though. We could have avoided all of this." Gazel nodded. "I'm sure he wouldn't have minded missing out on a near death experience. I always knew Burn would kill someone someday."

"Midori-chan's not dead...yet, anyways. We should probably keep him away from Burn though. Heaven knows that boy doesn't have many restraints." Gazel chuckled. "I think we'll be good for a while." He said pointing to the van. Burn had taken the keys and locked himself inside the car while Desarm tried to break into it to get at him. "We should go interfere before someone calls the cops on Desarm."

"And who exactly would call the cops? We're the only people around for miles!" Ulvida exclaimed. Gazel shrugged. "You never know."