Camp is hot. The sunshine is unrelenting and bakes down on them and the kids whine and grumble about the heat and the prolonged separation from their cell phones and Mike – about to tear his hair out after a morning of Arts and Crafts – is ridiculously grateful when he looks at the schedule and finds a free afternoon for his group of boys. "Lake," he tells them to a round of resounding cheers, and they're halfway across the campsite and stripping off camp uniforms before he's had a chance to blink. Shrugging, he picks up his pace and tugs his t-shirt off over his head as he walks. The gentle breeze feels amazing against his sweat-damp skin and he can't wait to plunge headlong into the cool water.

Before they've got to the water's edge they realise they're not alone; giggles and splashing says they've been beaten there by the group of 7-and-8-year-old girls who he knows have the same break afternoon as his boys. His group don't seem to mind though – kicking off sneakers they wade out and begin chattering away in a multitude of languages with the girls and with each other.

Mike's just toeing off his own shoes when he hears laughter, and his head snaps up; that voice always sends thrills and chills up and down his spine. A few hundred yards down, sitting on the little jetty is Tina. Tina Cohen-Chang. The girl he's been trying to avoid for the better half of three months since their 'friendship' had apparently gained questionable status – between homework sessions, marathons of So You Think You Can Dance, private jokes and apparently too much time spent just the two of them practicing choreography – and their friends had told him to back off. But that was when she had a boyfriend, and as of two weeks ago, she no longer does.

He knows it's kind of creepy but he can't stop himself watching her as she sits there, her black polka-dotted retro swimsuit completely conservative in its cut but highlighting all the curves he's spent months trying to ignore. As she laughs with her co-counsellor, water trails from her hair, down her collarbone and drips into the valley between her breasts; it's this more than anything else that has him flinging his body into the icy cold water.

When he surfaces, he's just blinking the water from his eyes when he's attacked by three of his boys; they latch onto his biceps and one around his neck and tussle until he manages to detach each other them and throw them into the water, making them scream with laughter. He rakes his hand through his hair, feet searching for purchase on the fine rocky lakebed when he feels eyes on him, and glancing over his shoulder, catches Tina looking.

Her cheeks flush but she doesn't tear her gaze away.

"Hot?" he asks her, nonchalant, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yes," she replies with an unconscious licking of her lips. "Very."

xXx

Monday he ends up sitting with her at breakfast. He trades her toast for his fruit cup and tries not to notice that she smells like lemons and her shorts really are unfairly short on her legs. Their knees knock together under the table and their hands brush as they reach for the orange juice. Apologising, Mike fills her glass for her and only manages to spill a little on the table when she rests a touch fleetingly on his thigh. "Thank you."

Tuesday, the counsellors have an evening campfire and she ends up shivering despite the flamey heat. He lends her his hoody and doesn't complain when she leans into his side, she claims for body heat. A few of the other teenagers give him pointed looks and Jeremy – who shares his cabin – winks as if with knowing. Mike just slides an arm around Tina's shoulders when she starts dozing off and if he walks her back to her cabin, so what? They're friends.

Wednesday he goes looking for his sweatshirt and accidentally walks in on her in the middle of changing. He curses, covering his eyes and trying not to let every single detail about her in just the tiny shorts and an unexpectedly lacy bra burn into his brain. She stammers an apology; she'd expected it to be Mai or Jenny knocking on the door and could he uh, maybe pass her a shirt? Hands over his eyes, he holds it out to her and his hand brushes skin. He hears her squeak and tries not to imagine what he just accidentally touched.

Thursday, they're in the middle of music class and he's dancing as she sings – his shirt eschewed for the temperature – and then suddenly his feet have brought him right in front of her. There's a long beat as Tina stops singing and he stops dancing and for a moment he's wondering if he's read the moment wrong but then Tina's up on her tiptoes and her hand sliding to the back of his neck and his instantly go to her waist and they're kissing and he's been wishing for this for a year and it's more than he ever imagined and then there's a small 'click' from behind them and they separate with a curse.

Friday at two in the morning, after the kids are all asleep, Mike slips out of the bed in the corner of the room and through the wooden cabin door, trying to make as little noise as possible. He's just left the path and is heading around the back of the makeshift dining hall when he feels a hand latch onto his arm and then he's stilling his feet, a grin breaking across his lips as he recognises the long hair, the pale face, the shy smile. "You came."

xXx

He knows there's something unreal about this whole thing, some kind of dreamlike quality and that's the reason he has Tina Cohen-Chang pressed against the rough wood of a cabin wall, their lips together and her hands clutched at his shirtfront as he holds her hips tight. Hidden in the darkness and lit only by the moon, it seems perfectly okay to lean down and kiss along her neck, desire only fuelled when she arches into him and mewls, her eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks. Their hips press together – naturally and accidentally – and he curses into her skin.

Pulling back from his kisses, she rakes a hand through his hair, her smile almost mischievous. "Hot?" she asks him with a cock of her head, licking her lips with purpose.

Hands sliding down from her hips to cup her ass, he grins in reply. "Yes. Very."