Elio and Oliver had stayed out by the lake until the whistle had gone off for them to return to their tents. Elio wished he could have stayed and he could sense that Oliver had felt the same. There had even been a moment where it had almost felt like they were about to go in for a kiss, but then Elio had reminded himself that this was not some rom-com and these things do not happen in real life. Not to him, anyway.

So he had gone back to his tent and he had quietly gone in, but Thomas wasn't there. It had kept Elio up all night, preparing for the stranger to come into his tent. He had even had a panic attack when he heard voices in the middle of the night because he was expecting something bad to happen.

Nothing had happened though, and after a sleepless night, he is now looking around searching for his best friends. He had texted them during the night because he was scared and he didn't expect them to answer right away, seeing as they must have been asleep. But when Elio had just checked his phone, his messages had been read earlier this morning, yet he hadn't gotten a reply from either Marzia or Chiara. He is half-expecting to find them looking for him to try and see if he's okay, but when he finally manages to track them down, they are with a group of girls from the other school.

"Elio, sit down!" Chiara smiles, like he hadn't sent her those texts at all. "We were just talking about what they've got planned for us today."

"It's basically hide and seek," Marzia laughs. "What are we, five years old?"

Elio smiles awkwardly as he sits down with them, trying his best to hide how hurt he is that they don't seem to care about him at all. But when Marzia grabs his hand underneath the table, he realises that he is being childish. She's his best friend, so of course she cares. She just doesn't want to bring it up in front of the others because she doesn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. Right?

By the time breakfast is over, and the three of them make their way back to the tents, the girls still don't bring up the texts though. Perhaps they are hoping that he will bring it up himself, Elio thinks, but they are so excitedly talking about how much fun they had had last night, that he doesn't want to ruin the good mood.

Thomas - Elio's tent mate - had come back for a minute or two to grab his things for today, but he hadn't said a word. So Elio had gotten ready for the day, hoping to find Marzia and Chiara again and spend the rest of the day with them. But when he had gotten to the site where they were meant to meet up, he realised that they were split up in teams. He was in a team with four people he didn't know - and didn't care to know.

The game was simple. Each team got a coin, and the team had to pick one member of the team to keep the coin safe. The goal was to take out each team by finding their coins. The members who did not hold a coin acting as decoy and searchers, the members with coins hiding for as long as they could. Or, of course, bluffing their way through the game by running around like they were decoy, when they were in fact holding a coin.

So, as the girls had pointed out, a more time consuming version of hide and seek. But it was easy enough, and Elio didn't mind spending the day out in the forest.

He was given the coin, and after a sleepless night he didn't exactly feel like running around. So he had found a quiet spot and had hidden there, trying his best to keep quiet every time he heard someone coming by. He had been spotted once or twice, but seeing as he hadn't tried to run away, the searchers had ignored him - assuming he was just lazy and not actually holding a coin.

But this time when he hears footsteps, he jumps up, ready to run away. Might as well try and be part of the game, right? Even if it means he'll get caught and ruin his team's chances of winning.

When he sees Oliver, he gets that nervous butterfly feeling in his stomach, but it has nothing to do with the game. He wasn't expecting to be alone with him right now, and he wasn't even sure if he was going to see him again tonight. Sure, Oliver had asked him to meet him by the lake again tonight. But that didn't mean that he was actually going to be there, right? For all he knew, Oliver was going to stand him up.

"May I?"

"I don't have the…," Elio begins, but when Oliver shows him his own coin, he can't help but smile. "Me too."

"I figured." Oliver nods as he sits down next to him. "How did you sleep?" he asks, but when Elio just shrugs - too embarrassed to tell him what had kept him awake all night - he nudges him in the arm. "Does Thom snore?"

"I don't know. He didn't sleep in our tent."

"Ah...yeah, I did notice some people swapping tents when I went out for a smoke last night," Oliver laughs, but quickly keeping quiet when he hears leaves rustling. When they're certain that no one else has spotted them, he goes on, "I ehm… I walked by your tent last night."

"Oh?"

"I thought Thom was with you, and I wasn't…," Oliver tries, not sure how to put it. "I wasn't sure what I heard. But… were you okay? You didn't sound alright. I didn't want to interrupt, or…"

"What exactly did you think was happening?" Elio chuckles, not failing to notice the dark blush on the other teenager's face.

"You don't want to know," Oliver admits, but then he sighs and he repeats, "Were you okay?"

Elio almost blurts out a lie, but then he shakes his head - something about Oliver making him want to tell him the truth. Maybe it's the fact that he hadn't been able to talk to Marzia and Chiara, maybe it's the way Oliver had looked at him last night - the way he is looking at him now.

"I had a panic attack," he admits. "I thought someone was going to come in and do something to me. It's stupid."

"It's not," Oliver sighs. "Have they done shit to you before?"

"No. I'm pretty sure most of them don't even know who I am… what?"

"Look at you. How can they not know who you are?"

"Fuck off," Elio laughs, but then he shrugs.

Oliver smiles to himself before scooting closer towards Elio, Elio trying his best to hide how it makes him feel to be so close to him.

"Would it help if I stayed with you tonight?"

"What, to protect me?" Elio chuckles, half-thinking that Oliver is joking. But when he looks up at him and he sees the earnest look on his face, he realises that it wasn't a joke. "Oh, you don't have to do that. I was just being stupid."

"But I'd like to," Oliver admits. "Jay does snore, so…" He shrugs, a mischievous smile on his face.

Elio can feel those butterflies in his stomach going wild, but there is no trying to hide it anymore. He can feel the smile bursting out of him, so he buries his face in his hands - too embarrassed to face Oliver.

Oliver wraps his arms around him, laughing to himself as he pulls him into his chest. Recognising his giddiness and embarrassment all too well - knowing exactly what it means - and happy to see him like this after finding out that he had been so scared last night.

"Do you think we should go out there and see what's going on with the game?" Elio asks after they've been waiting to be found for what feels like hours. He is leaned back against Oliver's chest, Oliver's arm wrapped loosely around his chest.

"They've probably forgotten about us."

"We have the coins," Elio points out, but Oliver just shrugs. Feeling too comfortable out here in the forest with Elio, and not giving a damn about the game or their schoolmates.

"Or we could just stay here," he suggests, but Elio ignores him and he tries to get up. Oliver pulls him back into his arms though, and when Elio looks up at him, he can't help but wonder if Oliver is going to kiss him.

Last night he had told himself that he must have imagined it, but this time Oliver is definitely leaning in for a kiss when they hear their names being called out by their teammates who have been looking for them all this time.

Oliver flashes a smile, keeping his voice down as the others come up to them.

"Another time, huh?"