Heya everyone :) Ok, I've always loved Holes since it came out all those years ago, and I still love it just as much now, but now I've decided to do a fanfic on it :) Really, I should've done this years ago, but I never really considered it until I watched the film last week for the first time in AGES and fell back in love with Khleo Thomas, and decided that Stanley and Zero made the cutest couple ever. Haha, nothing like a bit of slash to motivate me XD

So yeah, this is going to be Stanley/Zero pairing. Dont like, dont read, a'ight? :D

Ok, DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING to do with Holes, or the characters or whatever, I'm just borrowing them for this fic :D This is going to basically stay pretty true to the movie, with the same dialogue from the film too, but with a few slashier bits added in of my own. So read on and review and let me know what you think, and if you think I should continue it.

Rated T for now, just in case, but I might change it later on, depends how I feel ^^

Enjoy!

Chapter 1:

Zero was different. Stanley could tell that from the very moment he laid eyes on him. He wasn't like the other boys in D-tent. The boy didn't speak a single word to him, but he didn't need to, because somehow, Stanley knew. There was just… something about him. Something… well, just something.

"And this is Zero. Say hello to Stanley, Zero."

Zero stayed silent.

"You wanna know why they call him Zero? Because there's nothing going on in his stupid little head." Dr Pendanski said, mockingly placing his hands either side of Zero's head and ruffling the springy black curls. Zero didn't react at all; he didn't even blink. He just stayed exactly where he was, lounged back on his bed with his arms folded loosely across his stomach as he stared steadily straight ahead. Stanley looked over at him but the boy didn't acknowledge him at all, blocking him out just as easily as he blocked out Pendanski and the rest of the D-tent boys.

One of the boys stepped forwards, diverting Stanley's attention from Zero to him.

"Did you tell him about the lizards?" He asked, his bright blue eyes wide with eagerness and a little bit of what Stanley thought to be pure batshit crazy. His dirty blond hair was sticking up all over his head, defying gravity, looking like he'd just stuck his finger in a plug socket. Zigzag, wasn't it? That's what Magnet had called him a few seconds ago.

"Ricky, let's not scare Stanley." Dr Pendanski admonished the crazy-haired boy.

"Hey, his name's not Ricky." Another boy, the one who called himself X-ray, interrupted hotly, glaring a little through his dusty glasses at Pendanski from where he sat on his bed. How could he even see through those things? There couldn't have been more than a tiny circle of vision through all that grime and dust. "It's Zigzag, a'ight?"

Pendanski smiled, turning back to face Stanley again, who was feeling way out of his depth right now as he stared almost in horror around the tent, wishing he was anywhere but here.

"Stanley, if you have any questions, just ask Theodore. Theodore will be your mentor." Pendanski said, moving over to Armpit's bed and pulling the hat off of the boy's head. "Got that, Theodore?"

Armpit rolled his eyes, looking less than impressed.

"Yeah, man. Whatever, dude." He grunted in annoyance. Stanley didn't think he'd dare ask Theodore for anything. To be honest, he didn't think he'd dare ask any of the D tent boys for anything. Stanley had been bullied a lot at school, but those bullies back there were nowhere near as intimidating as X-ray, Armpit, Zigzag and the rest of them. Maybe it was because Stanley knew that they were all here at Camp Green Lake for reasons that weren't exactly legal. He could be sharing a tent with thieves, drug dealers and homicidal psychopaths for all he knew. And he didn't really want to know neither.

"I'm depending on you." Pendanski was still saying to Armpit. "It should be no labour to be nice to your neighbour!"

Stanley glanced over to the bed by the tent flap again, but Zero rolled over instead of meeting his gaze, turning onto his side so his back was facing Stanley and the rest of D tent. Stanley could've sworn he saw the smaller dark-skinned boy frown before he'd moved, but he didn't linger on it, instead returning his attention to the bed that had previously belonged to a boy called Barf bag (and judging by the large dark stain in the centre of the mattress, Stanley understood exactly how the boy had gotten his nickname), but now belonged to him, Stanley Yelnats the fourth, who had been sent to this juvenile delinquent camp for a crime he didn't commit.

And all thanks to his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!

If there was any time that Stanley decided to start believing in the family curse, this was definitely it.

"Hey, Stanley, c'mere boy!" Zigzag gestured him over to their table in the Mess Hall, budging up along the table to make way for Stanley as he sat down with his tray in between Zigzag and Magnet. "This is where you sit."

The boys of D tent looked at him in a way that made Stanley feel uneasy, hating the way they seemed to be sizing him up. He tried to keep his eyes on his tray, but caught sight of Zero glancing up at him for a split second before the silent boy returned to his food, twisting his fork into a pile of what looked to be baked beans.

"Hey, yo. New kid. Hey, yo!" Stanley lifted his head up again in surprise. X-ray was staring at him steadily, with the beginning of a smirk playing at his lips. "You didn't dig today, so, uh, you wouldn't mind giving up your bread to somebody who did, now, would ya?"

Without waiting for an answer, X-ray leaned across and swiped Stanley's bread, dropping it onto his own tray smugly.

"No, you can have it." Stanley murmured quietly, even though he didn't need to, since it was already too late and the two slices of bread that had been balanced on the side of his tray were now being used to mop up the dregs of X-ray's food. Obviously there was no point protesting about it. X-ray was without a doubt the leader of the group, and there was no way on earth that Stanley was going to get himself in up to his neck with his new roommates on his first day of meeting them. They were all more than capable of making his life a living hell, and that was one thing Stanley desperately wanted to avoid. So he just kept his eyes down and his mouth shut.

"So what they get you for?" The tall dark-haired boy called Squid asked. Stanley blinked quickly, almost like a nervous twitch in a way. He couldn't keep his mouth shut now, not when they were asking him questions about how he got sent to Camp Green Lake.

"Stealing a pair of shoes." He didn't even bother to tell them the truth. They wouldn't believe him anyway, so what's the point?

"From the store? Or were they still on someone's feet?" Squid said, laughing along with the rest of them. Of course they'd laugh at something like that. After all, they'd probably been sent here for something worse than just stealing shoes.

"Oh no, he just killed the dude first, you just left out that little detail, right?" Zigzag grinned from beside him.

"They were Clyde Livingston's shoes." Oh well, he might as well tell them that point at least. Even though he hadn't done it, it did sound a bit more spectacular when he mentioned that the shoes he supposedly stole belonged to someone as famous as Clyde Livingston.

Zero looked up at him sharply, his brow furrowing into a half-confused, half-astonished frown as the others started voicing their disbelief aloud.

"Sweet Feet?"

"What? Man you did not steal no Clyde Livingston Sweet Feet shoes!"

"They were his world series cleats." Stanley said, feeling a little bit braver now as he heard the tiniest amount of admiration in their voices. Sure, it was practically microscopic, but it was still there.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on. How did you get 'em? He's like the fastest guy in the majors, right?"

"Only guy that could hit four triples in one game."

"Clyde Livingston donated his shoes to this, uh, to this homeless shelter." Stanley explained, flicking his gaze nervously from one boy to the next. He'd intended to say more, but before he could, Zero lifted his head.

"Did they have red X's on 'em?" The smallest D tent boy asked. Suddenly the entire table fell completely silent as everyone turned their head to stare down at Zero in shock and disbelief, the only sound being the clattering of someone's fork as it fell back down onto their tray. If Zero was uncomfortable with them all looking at him, he didn't show it, instead continuing to keep his gaze fixed on Stanley's.

He had really hypnotic eyes, Stanley noticed. A deep rich chocolate brown colour, so dark they were almost black. He'd never seen eyes like them.

"You got Zero to talk!" Squid exclaimed, his brow furrowing as he frowned incredulously from Zero to Stanley and then back to Zero again.

"Hey, yo, what else can you do, Zero?" Armpit called. Zero jiggled the fork that he was holding in mid-air as he glanced briefly over towards Armpit, then returned his eyes to Stanley's again, waiting for an answer. It was almost unnerving in a way, how those hard dark eyes bored into his, barely blinking. It wasn't intimidating, just... questioning, he supposed. Like he wanted confirmation of something.

"Yeah. Yeah they did." Stanley replied. Zero blinked once, then dropped his head again, returning to his trayful of food. Normal conversation started back up between the D tent boys, but Stanley didn't join in, staring at the top of Zero's springy black curls, almost willing the boy to lift his chin again so Stanley could give him a small smile. But Zero didn't look up again after that and Stanley gave up, shovelling a forkful of mushy food into his mouth in disappointment.

At the crack of dawn, Stanley found himself walking across the dried up lakebed with all the other boys dressed in orange jumpsuits, clutching a heavy shovel in one hand and his empty plastic canteen in the other, already squinting under his hat from the intensity of the rising sun. Zero wasn't part of the crowd. He was at least a couple of metres in front, walking alone with his spade slung over both shoulders, his arms hung casually over the wooden shaft.

Stanley didn't understand him. At first he'd thought the boy was a mute or something, but now he knew that Zero could talk, he just chose not to. And Stanley didn't blame him really, considering how everyone else seemed to think that Zero was stupid. Hell, even Pendanski thought he was stupid! If everyone treated Stanley like that, he would've kept his mouth shut too, just out of hope that they'd get fed up and stop bullying him. Maybe that's why Zero never said a word.

Did Zero have a friend at all in Camp Green Lake? Nobody seemed to care about him.

"This isn't a Girl Scout Camp, nobody's gonna baby-sit ya." Mr Sir said to Stanley when they'd arrived at the place they were supposed to dig their holes. He drew a line on the dusty ground with the pointed toe of his boot and pointed down to it. "Dig here. Now if you find anything interesting, you are to report it to me or Pendanski. If the Warden likes what you find, you get the rest of the day off."

"What am I supposed to be looking for, Mr Sir?" Stanley asked, squinting up at Mr Sir curiously. The taller man leaned towards him, his eyes narrowing beneath the rim of his cowboy hat, his mouth working as he chewed on a handful of sunflower seeds. Stanley had to resist the urge to take a hasty step back away from him in apprehension.

"You're not looking for anything, you're building character. You take a bad boy, make him dig holes all day in the hot sun, and it turns him into a good boy. That's our philosophy here at Camp Green Lake." Mr Sir stated, turning his head slightly to the side to spit a sunflower seed shell onto the ground. "Start digging."

Mr Sir brushed past him and Stanley tried to balance the tip of his shovel against the hot dry earth before jumping on it to break through the crust, only to fall flat on his back on the dusty ground with a dull thump. Mr Sir had been watching him, and he shook his head slightly as Stanley scrambled back to his feet.

"One down, ten million to go." He said, turning away and heading back for his truck, leaving the D tent boys alone to their 'character building'.

Stanley brushed himself off briefly, his cheeks flushed a little with embarrassment as he wrapped his hands around the wooden shaft again and looked around him, his eyes immediately falling on Zero, who was dumping dirt from his shovel into a rapidly growing pile beside his rapidly deepening hole.

Swallowing back a nasty feeling of dread, Stanley tightened his grip on his shovel and jammed it into a crack in the earth beneath him, digging up his very first shovelful of dirt.

Stanley was seriously struggling, that much was obvious. His hole was nowhere near as deep as anyone else's, and they'd been out there for at least a good couple of hours. His hands were killing him, most of his palms covered in large painful blisters that made it hurt like hell whenever he held his shovel, but he forced himself to keep on digging.

The first hole's the hardest, right?

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Zero watching him as he dug, the smaller dark-skinned boy pausing for a couple of seconds before he slammed his shovel back into the dirt again. The ends of his corkscrew black curls now looked murky brown where they were visible from beneath his dusty blue hat, thanks to all the sand and dirt that clung to his skin and orange overalls. His skin was slick with sweat, but he didn't slow his pace the slightest, digging away like a little machine. Stanley wished he had Zero's determination.

A cloud of dirt scattered across Stanley's back, but he tried to ignore it. The three boys around him were digging their holes quite close to his, and whenever they dumped their dirt into a pile, they all seemed to be throwing their dirt into the pile that was overflowing into Stanley's hole. At first he thought it'd been just accidental, but after the fifteenth time that a shovelful of dirt cascaded into this hole and pounded against his back, he knew they were doing it very much on purpose.

"'Scuse me, can you do that in another pile or something, because it keeps getting in my hole." Stanley asked, his voice hoarse from how dry his throat and mouth was. It was like trying to talk through a mouthful of sandpaper.

"Shut up, man!"

"Shut up!"

"Watch where you're moving your dirt at."

"Yeah, watch where you're throwing your dirt, Stanley."

They laughed at him unkindly, continuing to toss their dirt in his direction. Stanley repressed a sigh and looked out onto the horizon, losing himself to his thoughts, absently picking at the skin around the largest blister in the centre of his right hand.

Zero looked over at him once more with eyes narrowed against the punishing glare of the sun above their heads, then dumped another shovelful of dirt onto the pile beside him.

Several hours later, Zero pulled himself out of his hole with remarkable agility for someone so small and measured the depth of it with his shovel before he spat in it, picked up his plastic canteen and made his way between the other boys and their unfinished holes.

Stanley looked up at him as the dark-skinned boy walked past his hole.

"You done already?" He called, a little in awe at the boy's speedy digging skills. Zero didn't reply; he didn't even glance Stanley's way as he just kept on straight past him.

"Don't you know, man? He's like the fastest digger in the camp." Magnet said, pausing in his own digging to watch Zero leave with his shovel slung over both shoulders again, twisting it around and around against the back of his neck.

"He's a mole, I think he eats the dirt." Squid joined in, his face scrunched up against the harsh sunlight blazing down from high in the sky, directly over them.

"Yeah, he's a weird dude." Zigzag added as he wiped a line of sweat and grime from his forehead with the back of his thick protective gloves. Stanley leaned against the side of his hole thoughtfully, his eyes fixed on Zero's departing back as the boy started back towards the camp.

"Moles don't eat dirt. Worms eat dirt." X-Ray pointed out, but Stanley wasn't listening to them anymore. Zero's departing figure gradually got smaller and smaller, and it was only when the boy had practically disappeared into nothing more than an orange speck in the distance that Stanley finally tore his gaze away, a strange feeling clenching his stomach in a tight steely grip. He could've blamed it on the fact that he was hungry or that he was still feeling pretty intimidated in this group of juvenile offenders, but he knew that neither of those excuses were the real reason.

It was because of Zero.

Adrenaline was still rushing through Stanley's body from running as fast as he could back to D tent after his narrow escape from that yellow spotted lizard. Thank God Mr Sir had shot it just as it leapt through the air towards him, because if he hadn't, Stanley would've had a chunk bitten out of his leg and then died a slow painful death right there in front of the shower stalls.

A shirtless Zigzag leaned in close to Stanley, right up in his face, Magnet not too far behind him.

"What colour was it's blood?" He asked, his shocking blue eyes wide with excitement. Stanley flicked his gaze up to meet his, blinking rapidly. His hands were still shaking pretty badly, but he was beginning to calm back down now a little. That'd been a really close call back there… He could barely even think about it without shuddering. His life had literally flashed before his eyes, and he'd realised just how unbelievably boring and luckless his life really was.

"I don't… I don't know, I couldn't tell." Stanley mumbled, his voice quiet.

"I wish I'd have seen it. BAM!" Zigzag shouted that last word and Stanley jumped about a mile from the shock of it. Armpit laughed, hissing a little through his teeth as Stanley turned away from them and walked away to his bed, trying to slow his rapid heart rate back down to its normal pace.

"If Mr Sir didn't shoot it, Stanley, you'd be in a hole." Magnet grinned from behind Zigzag, who was still staring at Stanley through those unblinking crazy eyes of his.

"Did you know that each one's got exactly eleven spots?" Zigzag said.

"Yeah, man." Squid joined in, tossing a couple of stones he'd made into crude dice down onto the sheets between where he and Armpit were lounging on his bed. "If you ever get close enough to count 'em…"

He made a slashing motion across his throat.

"You're dead."

Stanley sat down on the edge of his bed, wringing his hands together nervously in his lap. He glanced over towards Zero and was surprised to find the boy was already looking straight back at him, lying on his side with his head propped up on one arm. The smaller boy shook his head slightly from side to side, a small frown creasing his now dirt-free features.

"Look, it's the lizards we working for, man. We build their houses for 'em." Armpit was saying, but Stanley wasn't really paying much attention to him. Zero held his gaze for a second longer before he averted his eyes, looking back down at his own bedsheets. That feeling from earlier out on the lakebed squelched Stanley's stomach again, but he forced it down and turned his head back towards Armpit and the others, leaving Zero to his own solitude.

"I mean yesterday, I saw like ten of 'em in one hole."

"We ain't digging for no lizards." X-ray cut in. Armpit frowned and looked back over his shoulder at him.

"What we digging for then, man?"

"Like Mr Sir said, we digging to build some character." X-ray smiled, his voice slightly mocking. The D tent boys laughed amongst themselves, all except Stanley and Zero. Suddenly, there was a vicious gunshot from outside and everyone stiffened, straightening abruptly from their slouched positions as they stared in the direction of the noise. Mr Sir was still out there, shooting more of those yellow spotted lizards.

Stanley shuddered again.

He didn't really expect to get much sleep tonight.

The last thing he saw as he climbed into his bed and pulled the thin covers up around his throat were a pair of dark eyes staring at him from the bed beside the tent flap, and when Squid turned out the lights, Stanley could still feel those hypnotic unreadable deep rich chocolate brown eyes on him, even through the darkness.

Love, your son, Stanley.

Stanley had just finished writing his name at the end of his letter to his mother in the Wreck Room when suddenly the sheet of paper disappeared from his hands, snatched easily away by Squid as the taller boy walked past his table.

"Who you writing to?" Squid jeered as he quickly read through the letter and Stanley surged to his feet after him. "Aww, you miss you're mommy and daddy?"

Squid lightly slapped Stanley on the shoulder and then on his cheek before he put his arm out stiffly against Stanley's chest, stopping him in his tracks as he lunged for his letter.

Behind them, there were several boys gathered around the battered pool table, playing against each other for shower tokens. Zero was stood there with the group, but as soon as he saw Squid swipe Stanley's letter, he pushed past the boy beside him and walked briskly into the centre of the room, holding his pool cue threateningly in both hands, his eyes narrowed as he watched the exchange between the two dark-haired boys.

"I don't want them to worry." Stanley said desperately, trying again to snatch the paper back out of Squid's hands, but Squid pushed him roughly away.

"They don't care." He replied nastily.

"Will you give me the letter –" Stanley started to say, but Squid grabbed a fistful of the front of his orange overalls and glared at him fiercely.

"Believe me, they're glad to be rid of you." Squid spat as he crumpled up the letter in his hand and threw it into the metal bin beside them before he let go of Stanley and walked away. Stanley sighed heavily and bent down, reaching into the bin and pulling his balled-up letter back out. He straightened it out as best he could and moved over to the small wooden post box mounted on the wall, rubbing the paper against the edge of the box to get rid of the rest of the creases.

A few metres behind him, Zero kept on staring at Stanley with his usual unreadable expression on his face. He let go of one end of the pool cue as soon as Squid had disappeared completely from sight and he leaned against it instead, resting both hands on the tip, observing Stanley steadily as he pressed his letter to his lips, kissing it before he dropped it into the wooden box.

Stanley glanced backwards over his shoulder, almost as though he could sense Zero's eyes on him. Dark brown met hazel for what felt like hours, but had really been only a couple of seconds. A single blink from Zero broke the spell and the smaller boy turned away, heading back over to the pool table.

Stanley watched him as he leaned over the table and took a shot, sending the brightly coloured balls scattering in all directions across the green felt.

That feeling in his stomach came back again in full force, but Stanley still had no idea what exactly it was.

Or rather, what exactly it meant.

Like it so far? I hope so ^^

Any more chapters will probably be about the same length as this, and as you can tell, I'm just focusing on the bits in the film where Zero and Stanley are in the scenes together for now. Will that change? Who knows haha XD

Anyways, review for me? It would make me a very happy bunny :D