David came back to camp a few hours later and found Gwen in the office. He walked inside and saw Gwen, who was gesturing to keep silence as she pointed toward Max, who was sleeping peacefully. David nodded. He walked over to the sleeping child, who was drooling onto Gwen's pillow. He placed his hand on Max's forehead to check his temperature.
"I already checked it, He's a little warm, but nothing too bad." Gwen swirled her chair towards David.
David frowned, "No, He's getting warmer… how was he?" He walked back over to the desks and sat down. He looked over the paperwork Gwen filed and signed some documents.
Gwen handed him some files and glanced over to David, "He fell asleep as soon as we got back... poor kid." She slid her chair back over to her desk and gave him a bottle of liquid medicine, "I gave him this, it's all I could find really, it knocked him out though. We need to stock up on medicine, we can't just not have medicine… what if this was like… a real emergency? The kids would probably die"
"Yeah, You're right," David gave Max one last look, "I feel kinda bad. He had a point, our archery arrows are bad, but we can't have anyone kill themselves with them either…"
"Yeah… but if they die... Fewer kids to care about!"
David laughed, "oh gosh Gwen, well, should we take him back to the tent?"
"Nah, You can keep him here, for now, he isn't bothering anyone." Gwen grabbed the files and placed them in her desk, "I'll sleep on the floor or something."
"No, you can sleep in my bed tonight, I'll sleep on the floor, it's fine." Before Gwen could protest, David headed towards the door, "I'm gonna set up the campfire, I'll let you know when it's ready.
Outside, the campers were sitting around their tents waiting for David to come back. Nikki was eating some bugs on the floor and squishing them under her fingers. Neil was just watching her in disgust. "How do you think Max is doing?" Neil looked over at Nikki, how seemed interested on the ant crawling on her finger.
"Hmmmmmmm, I don't know. My guess is he's bothering Gwen. That's what he usually does anyway."
Neil hummed in response, "I don't know, after what happened this morning, I doubt it. But then again it's Max." Neil turned his attention toward the cabin, worried about his friend.
"Yeah, I hope he's okay…" She looked down at her hand and noticed the ant had crawled away and screamed, "NOOO COME BACK HERE, MY LITTLE ANT FRIEND"
Neil jumped at the sudden outburst and looked over at Nikki confused, "Umm yeah, me too…I hope he's okay" Neil watched Nikki grab her 'friend'. She had it on her fingernail and accidentally smashed it when it bit her.
"Awwwwwwww, my friend died. Welp, time to get a new one" Nikki stuck the dead ant in her mouth, and continued looking for more ants to play with.
"Nikki, you are a disgusting person." Neil smiled and looked at the ants.
"Yeah, that's what my mom said." Nikki grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it playfully at Niel. Neil laughed and threw some back. A few throws later, David walked up and gathered them around. Neil and Nikki stood up and dusted themselves off. They walked towards David.
"OKAY CAMPERS! I hope you guys are hyped up about the surprise! We are gonna have a campfire and make s'mores!" David took out some bags of marshmallows from his bag as well as graham crackers and chocolate. The campers all seemed pretty happy and helped David set up the fire.
Neil walked over to David and tugged on his shirt, "Hey David, how's Max doing?"
David turned to Neil and smiled, "Don't worry Neil, he's okay, Gwen is watching him." He handed Neil two sticks and some crackers, "Here, and take this one over to Nikki."
Neil grabbed the sticks and walked back over to Nikki, "Here you go Nikki, crackers, and sticks… I don't know why he didn't give us the marshmallows yet."
Nikki grabbed the stuff and ran over to where David was and waited for the fire to start. Neil followed and sat down next to her. Soon all the other campers were sitting around the campfire waiting for the fire to light. As soon as David lit the fire, he handed the campers some marshmallows and chocolate. "Okay, so be careful to not burn your- NIKKI NO!"
Nikki had proceeded to place her marshmallow directly onto the flame, letting it catch on fire. In a panic, she placed it in her mouth, flame and all. "Oof, spicy." Nikki swallowed the burned marshmallow and placed another one on her stick. Repeating the process.
"Nikki… did that not like… burn your mouth?!" Neil watched in horror as Nikki began eating lit up marshmallows. He looked over to David in confusion and horror and David just shook his head in disappointment.
"Nikki, don't eat the flames." David took the burned stick away from Nikki and handed her a new one.
Back at the cabin, Gwen was watching through the window and laughed at what she saw, "Only Nikki would eat fire… damn, that girl is weird." She walked into the laundry room and grabbed Max's now clean sweatshirt. She folded it and placed it on the top of the machine. She walked back into the room and turned the lights off. She hopped into Davids bed and began writing. She was about thirty minutes in when she head Max shuffle in the bed next to her. She paid no attention to it until he sat up and gagged. "Oh well shit." Gwen got up and quickly went over to Max, she instinctively placed her hand over his mouth to prevent him from vomiting onto the bed, until she realized that that solves nothing. "I'm a fucking idiot…" She quickly grabbed the trash can and placed it under Max. As Max vomited, Gwen sat down beside him and rubbed circles into his back. She tried to not watch what was going on because that would make her vomit, and we can't have two people vomiting at the second time…. It never ends well.
Once Max was done, she quickly grabbed Max's hand and walked him towards the bathroom, bringing the trash can along with her, "Jeez Max, a little warning next time." Gwen threw away the trash can.
"Oh sorry Gwen, I didn't mean to vomit suddenly "Max spoke in a sarcastic tone and turned on the sink. Gwen handed him some water and he rinsed out his mouth. Max felt horrible, not only did he embarrass himself in front of the David and his friends, he embarrassed himself in front of Gwen too. He felt like crying, but Max wasn't going to allow that to happen.
"Let's take you back to bed, you need to sleep." Gwen guided him back to her bed and Max got in. He laid down and looked at the roof. Gwen went back to writing her books on Davids bed. Max couldn't sleep, his mind was going places.
Usually, whenever he got sick at home, he just had to wait it out, but now it's different. Now someone is there to care for him and give him things to make him feel better. This was something Max never really experienced, and for the first time in his life, he felt like an actual child. In a good way. His parents would have never taken the time to look after him… at all.
"Hey, Gwen?"
She hummed in response
"I can't sleep" Max shifted in his bed and faced Gwen, who was typing away on her computer, "Also, what are you doing?"
"Eh, I'm updating my resume and trying to pay my bills, honestly, a pain but hey, that's life…oh and I'm writing so, yay. Or at least I was… I kinda lost inspiration." She put her laptop down and walked over to Max, she sat down and pushed his unkempt hair out of his face, "Gosh Max you are burning up. Are you feeling any better?" Gwen sounded worried, a tone unfamiliar to Max.
"Nope. My stomach still hurts like a bitch" Max looked up at Gwen and smiled, "also, is this really how you spend your nights? You actually write shitty fanfiction?"
Gwen rolled her eyes and smiled, "You are literally burning and you still manage to be a little shit." She walked over to her desk and pulled out a sketchbook.
"Oh shit, you draw the smut too?"
"'oH sHiT yOu DrAw tHe SMut' - Shut the fuck up Max and scoot over."
Max looked at her confused but made room for her anyway. "what are you doing?" He watched as Gwen laid down next to him and opened the sketchbook to a new page.
"we are gonna play hangman!"
"God if only…why don't you hang me instead"
"Max, can we have one moment where you do not want to kill yourself? Also, this game is fun, it's fun watching people struggle with basic English words" Gwen proceeded to start the game.
They played for a while, taking turned each guessing and drawing the game. Max had fun.
As time went on, Max actually began to grow tired and started to drift off to sleep. Gwen noticed and she put the sketchbook away, "I guess we can sleep now." She turned and covered him with the blankets, making sure he was nice and warm. Max reached out and grabbed Gwen's arm. Her first reaction was to pull away.
Max quickly let go of her arm and hid it under the covers. "Sorry" he mumbled, barely audible. Max turned around and cursed himself for acting like such a baby. What made him think doing that would be a good idea?
Gwen looked at Max and realized that he's just a kid and it wouldn't hurt staying with him for a bit. She laid down next to him and waited for David to get back.
"What are you doing?" Max kept facing the window
"Going to sleep… duh"
"You have your own bed, you bitch"
"Fine" Gwen sat up, "If you want me to leave so badly, sheesh."
"Wait, no…. You can stay… if you want." Max cringed at his choice of words but he didn't want Gwen to leave. He felt like shit and wanted to die, and having Gwen there helped. Kinda.
She smiled and climbed back in, "okay." She laid on and covered herself with her blanket.
They both had already drifted off to sleep by the time David came back.
"Sorry Gwen, I was gonna tell you once the campfire started, but Nikki ate the fire and Nerf threatened Preston again, so I had to-" He found Gwen and Max snuggled together, sleeping. David smiled and turned the lights off, "Oh." He quickly changed into his Pajamas and went to bed.
A/N: HERE YOU GUYS GO! Thank you all for leaving Guest and Cyfallist! I'm glad you guys are liking this! Gwen is a MOOD! Also, Nikki eating fire was based on a true story... I still have a scar on the roof of my mouth cuz I'm an idiot. XD Honestly, I thought I was gonna be able to upload this yesterday but I completely forgot and realized at like 3 am. OH, I got accepted into college guys! wow, the highlight of my week. Anyways, I will see you all next week my little shits! I promise I'll try to not be late ;)