Welcome to Camp Cretaceous Chapter 17: Bonus Chapter, a jurassic world: camp cretaceous fanfic

Alright, I just want to start off by saying that this will be a completely new thing for me, seeing as how I normally have a structure and pacing that I can follow, but this time, I'll be writing a chapter completely from scratch, so I would like to know what you all think of it.

But I won't waste any more of your time. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and continue to enjoy the story as I continue to work on it.

I will see you down at the bottom.

"Hello.": Normal talking.

"HELLO.": Yelling.

"Hello" Speaking through the radio.

'Hello': Thinking.

What: Emphasizing a word.

"HELLO": Signs and Warnings.

* bang * Sound effects.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

It's been roughly two months since everything had happened with Mitch and Tiff on the island, it had been roughly two months since they had encountered another person, it had been roughly two months since they were abandoned and left to fend for themselves… again.

The campers were all getting by the best they could and tried their hardest at making it easier for them all to survive.

Day in and day out, Darius tried to find ways for them to get off the island, but when he didn't come up with any solid solutions, he would opt to just increase their chances of survivability, whether that be by gathering more supplies from around their camp or to just have an abundance of the food, water, and anything else that they could get their hands on.

Brooklynn was always busy with either one of two things, either she was helping around the camp, giving ideas, and helping come up with a blueprint for improvements to their base, like extra wood or scrap metal to help improve the stability and strength of their building, or even helping them properly set up a rain catcher system with the parts they managed to scavenge and the copious amounts of barrels she had Cass collect from his ventures off into the jungle.

Or she was pacing about trying to figure out what the hell E750 was. Cause she and the others went back to the secret tunnels and looked through the control room, but all they saw were blank screens with the occasional red screen with the error-like warning symbol, but outside of that, they were once again without power.

Ben and Bumpy being the duo that they were planned on scouting out the jungle for Darius and the others, letting them know whether something actually had supplies that they could take or if it was better off not going there due to the threat of carnivorous dinosaurs, especially since they don't know everything that InGen had made on the island before its downfall. But Ben was gonna make sure to put his newfound confidence and survivor instincts to use, as well as Bumpy's increased size and strength.

Sammy being who Sammy was, she more or less acted as the happy-go-lucky glue that kept everyone together, put smiles on everyone's faces, and gave the camp a more home-like feeling. While she never did have an actual task that she could just go off and do on her own, she was more often than not joining the others for whatever they were doing. Whether that was to satiate her own boredom or to actually lend a helping hand to her "camp fam", who knows, but no one has said anything yet.

Kenji was… well… he was Kenji, to no one's surprise and to everyone's annoyance.

Yasmina has been… occupied these last two months. Stuck between her wanting to be helpful and useful to everyone in camp, whether that'd be doing errands that'd benefit from someone as fast as her, or maybe acting as another set of muscles for when Cass was busy. As for the other thing, she really… and I mean really wanted to be around the resident beefcake of the group. After everything that he's done and been through for her and the others, she couldn't help but simultaneously feel both her feelings toward him grow, but also her worry and fear for the older boy grew as well.

He had put himself through so much, and after he showed them all his wounds and caught the others up on some of his past, as well as telling her a bit more than the others in private, like the fact that he's been having hallucinations, she couldn't help but feel genuine worry for the resident big brother of their little family as he was under so much stress from… everything.

Cass had been very busy these last two months as he was constantly needed for everything, when Darius needed a second opinion on something, with Brooklynn's little fetch quest that she had him do, helping Ben out when it came to scouting or even defending the others from harm, trying to control Sammy and get her to chill the hell out or even get her to go and get something like the golden retriever she is, attempting to get Kenji to do anything besides sit on his ass as well as threatening the smaller teen with violence, trying to ease Yaz's worries while also giving her things to do from his share of responsibilities so that she can at least attempt to take some of the burdens off his shoulders, and finally, having to deal with everything that he's done and that's happened on top of his everyday responsibilities.

The stress and pressure that he was under would've folded, if not outright killed lesser men. But he didn't have the luxury of tapping out or giving up, so no matter how much he had to go through, no matter how much weight he had to carry, no matter how much he had to suffer, he wasn't going to let anything happen to this new family of his. He planned on getting them all home, even if it killed him. So until that day came, he would take all the stress, pain, and anything else that came with what he was doing without giving up. Even if a certain someone was currently arguing with him about how he needed to take a break and rest.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Cass, for the last time, you need to rest. You can't keep pushing yourself like this." Yaz said as she looked up at the oldest member of their group as they were standing on the ground maybe 15 feet away from the ladder that led up to their camp, having halted his progression of getting ready for a resupply trip.

"Yeah… that's not gonna happen. I've kinda got this thing called responsibilities, and I can't exactly put those off, Yaz." Cass told the slightly younger pain in his ass as he checked his bag for everything that he'd need for the trip.

"Yes, I know you have responsibilities, but you can't keep forcing yourself to do everything for us, hell, you haven't even slept in the past three maybe four days? You need to get some sleep, especially since your arm finally healed a few weeks ago, you've been pushing yourself even harder." Yasmina told him as she took a step forward and grabbed his now bandage-free arm to prove her point.

"Yasmina, I know that you're worried, hell, I'm sure the others are too, but I just can't take breaks right now. This stuff has to get done because this island doesn't care whether I'm tired or not, so the sooner I get some of this stuff out of the way, the better." The young adult told her as he looked down into her eyes.

"Darius!" Brooklynn exclaimed. "Mom and Dad are fighting again!" She jokingly said to their young leader as basically everyone was watching and listening to the argument between the two.

Cass snapped his eyes to the pink-haired girl. "Brook, don't make me come up there or both you and Kenji are getting an ass kicking." He said as he pointed to both teens.

"Wait, but I didn't even do anything!" Kenji popped his head up and whined.

"You're guilty by association, you little shit." Cass said as he and the others all shared a small laugh at the group's antics.

Yasmina took this opportunity to place both of her hands on the taller teen's face and have him look directly look at her. "Please, Cass. You need to take a break, even if it's just for a few hours. You're gonna end up working yourself to death at this rate…"

Cass stared into her eyes for a few seconds before closing his eyes and letting out a deep sigh, he reached up with his right hand and pulled her left hand off his face. "I appreciate the worry, sweetheart. I really do, but I'm sorry. I have to get these things done, I can't take a break right now."

"I… see…" Yaz slowly and dishearteningly said as she looked down at the ground and began getting upset at her failed attempt at helping her crush relax.

Cass noticed this and let out a sigh as he really didn't mean to make her upset, but he merely wanted her to understand that he just couldn't take breaks, not when there was so much to do. But he suddenly got an idea as he placed his right hand on her head to comfort her. "How about this? You…You can come with me on this trip. I can't exactly take a break, but I guess I could let you help me out and make things a bit easier on myself. Would that be an acceptable alternative?"

Yasmina snapped her head up and looked at him. "You'd actually let me go with you and help..?" She questioned because at this point it was pretty well known amongst the group that Cass liked doing these things alone, while only occasionally bringing someone else along because they needed something very specific.

Cass softly smiled at her and hummed in agreement as he hoped this would cheer her up.

The girl's face instantly lit up as the sadness had left her system and was replaced by excitement and joy. "Okay! Uh, what will I need..?" Yaz asked as she wasn't exactly prepared to go on a small trip.

The oldest teen just chuckled at her. "Go get yourself a set of clothes, some food, and some water. Anything else we might need we can always just grab while we're out there." He told her as he kinda just gestured for the girl to start getting ready.

"Alright!" Yaz said as she rushed toward the ladder and began climbing up so that she could get her stuff. She made it up onto the platform and walked over to where they kept the extra bags that they (and by they, I mean Cass) had collected over the past six-ish weeks, and decided to go with a slightly smaller than average black backpack before going over the crate that held all their bottled water and canned food.

"Hey, Cass!" Yaz called out to her crush.

"Yes?" He responded as he propped himself against one of the pillars that held up their camp.

"How long are we going to be gone?" She yelled out to him.

"We're only gonna be gone for the night. So don't pack too much." Cass said before closing his eyes and just letting the wind brush against him.

Yasmina turned away from the general direction that Cass was in and back toward the crate full of necessities but was startled by Sammy's sudden appearance, causing the slightly older girl to almost yelp in shock, but she managed to lock herself down and just breathe out her nose.

"Don't do that." Yaz said as she playfully slapped Sammy on the arm before going back to looking for anything that she specifically wanted.

"Sorry, It was just too much fun not to." Sammy half-assed an apology as she looked at the girl before her. "So… you gonna make your move yet, or are you gonna chicken out, again?" She asked not so innocently and with a sly smile on her face.

Yasmina knew exactly what the Texan girl was talking about and dreaded it, seeing as how she was her best female friend, it only made sense for her to talk to her about what she was feeling toward a certain white-haired protector. But damn did she regret that decision sometimes because now half of the time that the two talk, Sammy keeps bringing up Cass and how she should just go for it.

And to be fair, she did at least attempt to try and speak with the older boy, and by attempt, I mean she kinda just stared at him from 20 feet away and then awkwardly run away whenever he notices her.

"Hey! I'm trying okay? It's just… sometimes I have bad timing?" Yaz tried to defend herself but it kinda just didn't work at all.

"If by try, you mean stand there like a deer caught in headlights, and then take off like squirrel who's gotten spooked mid-shit? Yeah, girl, you've really been trying." Sammy sarcastically answered her with arms crossed and a raised eyebrow.

"I… shut up. It's hard, okay? This is the first time that I've ever had these feelings, so I'm kinda new to the whole confession thing." Yaz once again tried to defend her lack of progress with the older boy.

"Uh-huh?" Sammy questioned. "Well, you better make your move on him soon or someone else might. He's basically the perfect package."

"Wait… what do you mean?" Yasmina asked as she finally found the food that she wanted.

"The whole him being the perfect package thing, or the fact someone else might make a move on him?" Sammy asked as she dropped her arms to her side.

"The uh… the second one. I think we already know how I feel about the first one." She said before grabbing her water and sliding the crate closed.

"Well, I'm just saying… you might not be the only one who's noticed exactly how amazing Cass is. He's tall, strong, smart, really good looking, generally nice but can be scary when he needs to be, actually cares about his friends and family, respects people, especially women." Sammy listed to the girl before whispering lowly to her. "Plus, we both know that he's willing to kill someone in order to protect his loved ones, so…"

"Okay…? But what does any of that have to do with anything?" Yaz asked seeing as how she was completely clueless about this type of thing, as most people are.

"Yaz, there are three girls in this camp, including you. Do you honestly think you're the only one that's thought about getting with him? And hell, what about when we get off the island? There's gonna be a whole bunch more people trying to bag that man." Sammy knew that this probably wasn't a very nice thing to do to her friend by putting pressure on her chances of making a move, but she just wanted them to be together. So did Brooklynn apparently, but Yaz didn't need to know that she was the only one who actually found a genuine love interest in the oldest member of their camp as the other two girls just kinda watched and wanted them to be together.

Yasmina's eyes widened at the realization that Sammy was right, eventually, it wasn't just going to be the seven of them together on an island. Eventually, they were all going to go back home… and what would happen if she didn't make her move before then..? Those thoughts now plagued the athletic girl's mind.

"You're right, Sammy. I might not get another chance like this for a while. I'm…" She hesitated and took a deep breath. "I'm going to make my move tonight, even… even if it doesn't go as planned, at least I'll have tried."

"Attagirl, you've got this. Now go, you've kinda just been standing here talking to me for the past 10 minutes." Sammy let out a chuckle as she saw Yasmina's eyes widen at that fact before seeing the girl rush off to get an extra set of clothes, one of the many things that the girls' have thanked Cass for, that and the fact he was actually the only guy that remembered that girls have periods and went out to go find supplies for them.

It had taken a bit longer than expected, but eventually, Yaz came down the ladder with all that she needed for their small little trip and walked over to and stood next to Cass.

"You ready?" The older boy looked down at her and asked, which he got a head nod and a hum in response. "Good." He said before leading her a few feet away from the camp before he turned around and looked toward the others before saying. "Alright, everyone. We're gonna be heading out now, you know how to contact me should you need anything."

"Alright, stay safe." Darius said to him with a wave before going back to cataloging in his journal.

"Take care, and try to bring me back something cool." Brooklynn said with a little laugh as she gave them a wave.

"I second that." Kenji said from his spot on the couch before lazily waving at them.

"You two be safe, and if you guys need backup for anything, me and Bumper car will be there as fast as we can." Ben extended the offer as he gave them a wave.

Bumpy let out a bellow as she agreed with her parental figure as well as saying goodbye.

"You two have fun and try to stay out of trouble. I expect some good things out of this trip." Sammy told them as she gave them a wave.

Cass just chuckled with a shake of his head before turning around and began the trip into the jungle.

Yaz on the other hand knew exactly what Sammy meant by that, so with a faint blush on her features, she quickly turned around and followed after her crush.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

WITH CASS AND YAZ

It's been roughly ten minutes since the two had left camp and made their way into the forest, with Cass leading them in the front and Yasmina following him closely.

Cass had his bag strap slung over his left shoulder and held it in place with said arm while his right arm rested to his side (it's a black miniature duffle bag), with his hand staying near his knife just in case he needed to use it. But for the most part, he was silent as he occasionally looked around to make sure nothing was following them.

Yaz had put on her backpack so both of her hands were free just in case Cass needed her to grab something or hold something for him. But since she didn't exactly need to do anything right now, and as much as she could've been looking around like the older teen was, she kinda just chose to look at him instead, trying to hype herself up in order to eventually confess… but that wasn't gonna have yet because she was nervous out of her mind.

"Hey, Cass?" Yasmina suddenly spoke, catching the young adult's attention.

"Yes?" He answered as he looked over his shoulder so he could see her.

"Where are we going exactly..? You never did tell me where we'd be." She asked him.

"Oh, I guess I didn't." Cass agreed with her seeing as how he completely forgot to tell her. "We're heading toward Main Street."

"Main Street? I mean, I know it's got a ton of supplies, but isn't it dangerous to go there..? I mean, we've already had two incidents there with the T. rex and it's also where you got your scar." Yasmina told him.

"You would be correct on all accounts there. And the reason we're going is for the supplies, as for the danger that comes with it, well… let's just not do anything stupid, yeah?" Cass said to her with a chuckle.

She gave him an awkward laugh back. "Yeah… or luck doesn't exactly work like that."

"Pfft, ain't that the truth." Cass agreed with her as he scoffed, knowing exactly how unlucky he and the others could be. "But don't worry about that though." He said, catching the girl's attention. "I'm here with you, so just let me take care of anything that comes our way." Cass said to her with a smile as he playfully flexed his right arm, showing off his scars and muscles.

Yasmina kinda just stared at him for a moment, switching between looking at his smile and looking at his muscles. But she finally snapped out of it once she noticed his smile turned into a smirk once he saw her staring. "Then… Then I'll be sure to look after you when you need it." She told him.

Cass slowed down a bit so he could fall back and walk side-by-side with Yaz before wrapping his right arm around her shoulders and pulling the girl into him as he looked down at her. "I'll take care of our enemies." He said with a toothy grin knowing damn well that the close proximity would get a reaction out of the girl.

And a reaction he got as Yasmina somehow managed to simultaneously stand ramrod straight and melt into his hold, with a pretty noticeable blush on her features. "A-And I'll take care of us." She said as she looked up at the much taller boy with a very obvious emotion written across her face.

'Fuck, this is going to be a little harder than I thought.' Cass thought to himself as he noticed the way she was looking at him. Because while it was fairly common knowledge at this point amongst the group, or at the very least they'd given it some thought, but everyone picked up on the fact that Yaz feels a certain way about him. As impassive as the athletic girl tried to present herself, she couldn't exactly hide these feelings… like at all.

But unknown to everyone else, he too had feelings for the girl to his right. But with his ability to not only look and sound like he doesn't care, but also disguise his feelings behind the brotherly love that showed to all the others, no one would expect him to be hardcore crushing on Yasmina. Yet here he was having a mental struggle on whether or not he should try to make a move on her, or if he should just try to let her down softly, because truthfully..?

He was scared, no, downright terrified of having anyone that close to him, and with everything that he's been through and done, he didn't want to put that on anyone, let alone believe he even deserved to have anyone feel that way about him.

So here he was, having the mental dilemma of both actively falling more and more in love with this girl by the minute, and then wanting to stop these things before they ever start, not wanting to eventually hurt her or cause her pain with his past traumas and broken mentality. But that's the duality of it, isn't it? He might hurt her with either option, so… he might as well just try to make them both happy, right?

Cass couldn't really find an answer to that right at this moment, so with a shake of his head to clear his own thoughts, he leaned down and kissed Yaz on the top of her head before ruffling her hair. "I appreciate you being here, Yaz." He said before slightly speeding up so that he was a few feet in front of her. 'Man, I love making things worse for myself.' He thought as he silently gave himself a small chuckle.

Yasmina on the other hand… well she became a blushing and sputtering mess, almost tripping over her own feet before managing to maintain her balance and tried to wipe the smile, blush, and look of appreciation off her face, but failed as she stared at the young adult's back with a love-struck expression. She went to return his compliment, but nothing came out as her brain was still absorbed in the fact that he kissed her on the head.

'He… He kissed me on the head! Finally, some progress! I think…' She celebrated before questioning herself. 'That's something that brothers can do too… Fuck, Cass, why do you have to be so mysterious and confusing?! But… that's one of the things that make you hot, so…' She thought as she and Sammy once had a three-hour conversation about Cass's mysteriousness and the group's absolute lack of knowledge of the older teen. (With none of them realizing that every time they asked him something, he'd actually answer them) And apparently, both of them found that attractive when it came to the beefcake of Camp Cretaceous.

'I wonder if I can get him to do that more…' Yaz thought dreamily at the prospect of her being able to get Cass to shower her in affection. Verbal, physical, emotional, the whole nine yards. Soon a soft smile graced her features and light laughs escaped from her lips as she slowly managed to rein herself in but still nonetheless had her eyes glued to the form of her crush.

"Oh?" Cass suddenly called out as he peeked over his right shoulder to look at the girl. "Now what's got you in a good mood?" He asked knowing damn well that it was him.

"Nothing~." Yaz said in a teasing tone before jogging out ahead of him and turning around to look at him. "Now hurry up, slowpoke. The sooner we get there, the more time we'll have to find the good shit." She said before facing forward once more and began jogging in the direction of Main Street.

"Fine, Fine… I'll never know how you have this much energy." Cass practically spoke to himself before adjusting his grip on his bag before jogging after the girl to catch up with her.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

BACK AT CAMP

With everyone deciding that they didn't necessarily need to do anything, they all chose to take both today and tomorrow off as relaxation days, allowing them to all hang out at the campsite with minimum stress and responsibilities.

Sammy and Brooklynn were doing their usual gossiping and just talking about stuff from back home and Esther Stone. The pink-haired superstar told stories about the places she's been and all the things she's done, and the Texan girl would tell her more about the simpler side of teen life like school, clubs, and just what it was like growing up where she was.

Ben, Darius, and Kenji had all moved some small boxes over to the coffee table and used them as seats so they could sit down and play poker. Ben knew the rules but never played due to his overly cautious lifestyle before all of this, Kenji somewhat knew how to play but only actually brought up the idea due to all the movies that he watched, and Darius had absolutely no fucking clue what he was doing but decided to join since he didn't have anything better to do.

And Bumpy being too big to join them up in the camp opted to just lay down and nap for a while down near the ladder.

It's been about 20 minutes since Cass and Yaz had left camp, so they've all been doing their respective activities for the past 5 minutes or so. Right now, the air was filled with hushed whispers from the girls, and the groans of defeat from both Darius and Kenji as they once again lost to Ben, who merely let a smirk appear for a second before cooling his features.

Suddenly, Sammy had spoken up out of nowhere, cutting through all of the murmurings.

"So… do you guys think she's gonna be able to make her move?" She asked out of the blue with everyone turning to look at her, all but Ben who was still focused on the card game.

"What do you mean?" Darius asked as he looked up from his cards and gave the girl a questioning look.

"Yeah, Sammy. What the hell are you talking about?" Kenji asked as he turned around to look at her.

"She means, do you guys think that Yaz will finally get it together and confess to Cass?" Brooklynn reiterated for them.

"Oh… then no." Kenji said plainly before turning back around and passing his turn to Darius.

"Probably not." Darius answered before signaling for Ben to flip one of the community cards.

"Nope." Ben said bluntly as he flipped one of the cards and let the next turn begin.

"Wow, you boys really don't have any faith in her do you?" Sammy asked with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips, with Brooklynn crossing her arms and nodding with her.

"Look, I have faith in Yaz to do a lot of things. Fill in for Cass when we need an extra set of hands…" Kenji began.

"Be really good at art…" Darius added.

"Be a sarcastic badass…" Ben put in as he flipped another card.

"Hell, even be cooler than me at times. But like… confess her feelings..?" Kenji questioned as he looked at the girl. "You really think, the shy and introverted girl is gonna manage to pull that off? Especially now that she's with the very person that causes her brain to melt?"

Sammy was going to speak up but immediately cut herself off as she realized that the girl might not be able to confess. "Well, what do you guys think is gonna happen?" She asked as she genuinely wanted to know what they thought was gonna happen.

"Look, Sammy. I don't know how to tell you this, but the three of us aren't as invested in this as you two are. If Cass and Yaz get together, then good for them, if they don't, then that's okay." Ben said before flipping over the final community card before all three boys set down their cards, with Ben once again winning. "Guys aren't usually into the whole drama and love life stuff that most girls are into."

Ben said before gathering all the cards and began shuffling them in his hands. "But the real question isn't whether or not Yaz can confess her feelings, no, the real question is whether or not Cass will be able to return them." He said before dealing the hands for another round.

That statement was enough to get everyone thinking about the oldest camper's perspective. They didn't even know if he felt any romantic feelings for the athletic girl. Now that was a potentially grievous oversight on Sammy's part, seeing as she had told her best friend to just go out and do it, but what if… things didn't go the way that she had wanted them to?

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

WITH CASS AND YAZ

It's been about two hours since the duo had begun their jog through the jungle, occasionally talking about things from back home and just generally trying to get to know each other, but the questions were definitely more one-sided as Yaz just wanted to know as much as Cass was comfortable with telling her. But they had just actually arrived on Main Street just a few moments ago.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask you…" Cass spoke in a more hushed tone since he didn't want to attract any unwanted attention to them. "What's your family situation..? You've mentioned your mom a handful of times before, but outside of that, I don't know anything else."

Yasmina's eyes widened a bit at what he said. Because on one hand, her crush actually remembered something she had only mentioned a few times as well as actively thought about talking to her about it, on the other hand, he was right, she never did really tell him anything about her family situation although he told her his.

"Oh… I guess I never really did say anything about it, huh?" Yaz said in a similar tone as Cass. "Well, I never really knew my dad, like, he was there in the beginning, but… I guess he just up and left one day and I never saw him again." She told him before getting a look and nod of sympathy from the older boy which she appreciated before he got the door open to get them into a store for them to loot.

"My mom on the other hand, she's… she's just the best mom I could've asked for really. Always supporting me regardless of what I wanted to do, like when I wanted to become an athlete all the up to becoming a Heptathlon champion. She supported me all the way… even with my art, even though it's just a hobby of mine. And just… so much more, teaching me anything that she could and just wanting to spend time with me anytime that she could." She told him with a fond smile on her face as she remembered her mother.

Cass looked at her and gave a soft smile. "She sounds like an amazing mother." He said gently before going back to looking for any more food or water that he could bring back. "I'm glad you have someone like her."

Yaz's eyes widened as she just realized what she was talking about when he said those words, knowing that he had lost both of his moms, she thought she had made him upset with the way she was speaking. "Oh, Cass… I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-" She began apologizing to him but was cut off by a hand being placed on her head.

"No need to apologize, Yaz." Cass said before removing his hand and looking down at her. "Like I said, I'm genuinely happy that you have such an amazing mother. As for mine… well, I'm just glad I got to know them for as long as I did, you know?" He gave her a chuckle to lighten the mood. "So how about you tell me more about yourself Ms. Orange, Orange, and Orange." The older teen jokingly made fun of her.

"Ugh. You know about that?" Yasmina whined in embarrassment as she walked off into a different part of the building to do her own searching.

"Yep. I learned about it maybe two or three weeks ago." He told her. "Sammy and I just couldn't stop laughing about it for at least a few hours." Cass told her which further increased her embarrassment. "But… I can't say I would've answered any better if I was in your position." He told her honestly.

"Wait, really?" Yaz asked with a hint of surprise in her voice before coming back over to him with a package of unopened washcloths.

"Mhm. Sammy could, and still can be, a bit overbearing for us more introverted types. So the best way to deal with her and other extroverts is to just answer their questions, whether it be with the truth or with "orange, orange, and orange", well that's up for grabs." Cass said once again poking fun at Yaz's answer.

"I fucking hate you." She sarcastically said as she gave the older teen a deadpan look before following him out of the building.

"Who doesn't?" He said plainly with a raised eyebrow.

* thud *

"Well, that means we better get the fuck out of the open." Cass told her as he grabbed Yaz by the wrist and quickly led her between some buildings before stopping and pressing both of them against a wall to reduce their visibility as much as possible.

Yasmina would've mentally freaked out over their current situation, he grabbed her by the wrist, led her into an alley, has her against a wall, has an arm holding her in place… 'I am taking this way out of context, but a girl can dream…' She thought to herself but decided she was gonna cut those thoughts short as she didn't exactly want to risk saying anything that'd allow the dinosaur to locate them.

And just like clockwork, the infamous T. rex rounded the corner of Main Street and began stomping down the road. Whether she was looking for food, water, or materials to further expand her nest, the two campers didn't plan on sticking around to find out.

"Alright, move." Cass whispered as he gently pushed the girl in the opposite direction of the dinosaur.

Not being one to argue, Yaz did exactly what he said and began to move as quickly and quietly as she could, with the much bigger teen following right behind her. This allowed the two to get off of the street that the T. rex was traveling on and onto the next one over.

* stomping in the distance that begins to fade out *

"Okay, and it seems like we're good." Cass said in his slightly louder but still hushed tone of voice. "Anything in particular you or the other girls might need..?" He asked as none of them had mentioned any request to him.

"Actually, yes. We need more… hygiene products." She said hesitantly.

"Okay..? What kind?" He asked as that answer didn't narrow things down at all.

"You know what I'm talking about.." She said as she looked at him and then off to the side as she scratched her cheek with a hint of embarrassment.

Cass raised his eyebrow before slightly widening his eyes. "Oh, that stuff." He said before going back to his neutral look of RBF. "I forget that that is something that can be embarrassing to talk about for you girls."

"It's not so much as embarrassing as it is… awkward? I've never had to really talk about it with anyone besides my mom before the whole incident, so… yeah, I don't exactly know what to say about it with other people." Yasmina explained to him with a shrug of her shoulders.

"No, that's fair. It is kind of a private matter." Cass told her. "But that stuff is further up this way." He told her as he began walking up the street.

Yaz closely followed behind the young adult as he led her to what she asked for. "Has… Has anyone thanked you for all that you've done for us..?" She randomly asked him.

"Uh… what do you mean?" He questioned as he looked back at her for a quick second.

"It's just… that you do a lot for us, like, a lot." She told him. "Going out to get things for us, being the one we rely on to move and carry things, hiding behind you when something comes at us, having you constantly defend us from danger, getting personal items that we should/could be getting ourselves, relying on you as a leader…" Yaz listed off as they walked.

"And?" Cass asked with a raised eyebrow. "I volunteered to do all those things. I take it as my responsibility as not only the oldest but also as the co-leader of this group to take care of anything and everything that I can. Plus, I'm not going to unnecessarily risk any of you." He told her honestly.

"But to do all that as wordlessly as you did… With no verbal appreciation or thanks from anyone, it kind of feels wrong… Like we're taking advantage of you, you know?" Yasmina expressed her feelings on the matter as she genuinely did feel bad about how much everyone had been relying on the oldest member of their family, and there was rarely ever a time when someone offered thanks for half the things he did for them. It just made her feel guilty to some capacity.

They finally arrived at the little general goods store that was placed on Main Street, with Cass opening the door and holding it open for the girl behind him, before closing it once she was inside and showing her where the products she was looking for were.

Cass let out a sigh before lightly shaking his head to the sides. "I never asked for thanks for any of the things that I do, Yaz. I'm doing them because I feel like doing them, plus… it just feels natural for me to take care of all of you. It's what I did with my families, it's what I'm gonna do with you." He explained to her before scanning the shelves for anything that he could snack on that didn't yet go bad.

"I guess so…" She mumbled to herself as she grabbed a few packs of pads and shoved them into her bag.

"Yasmina." Cass said plainly as he looked over at her.

"Y-Yes?" Said girl responded as he rarely ever called her by her name.

"I'm serious. You don't have to thank me for anything that I've done, the fact that you and the others are alive and well is good enough for me, but… I appreciate the thought." He told her with a soft smile. "So don't worry too much about it, okay?"

"I… okay." Yasmina quickly ducked her head back down behind the shelf as she let a blush crawl onto her face. 'Fuck, why do you have to be so sweet and selfless, Cass?!' She thought to herself before calming down with a deep breath and standing right back up again.

"Alright, well, I got what we needed, we can go to the next place whenever you're ready." Yaz told the older teen who was seen staring into the freezers that lined the back wall. "Cass?"

"Oh, sorry. Something caught my eye, but, yeah. We can head out now." He told her as he turned around and began walking toward the exit but not before playfully bopping the girl on the head with a candy bar that he had found.

She glanced back at the freezers and saw what he was looking at, it was a coffee energy drink brand called "Sleepless", which she held onto that piece of knowledge before turning and following the bigger teen out of the store.

"You get everything that you needed?" Cass asked as he opened the wrapper on the candy bar before taking a bite.

"Mhmm." Yaz hummed an affirmative before taking a glance back into the store and then at him. "Can I ask you something..?"

Cass hesitated before taking another bite from his candy bar because he already knew what this was going to be about. "Go for it."

Yasmina noticed his moment of hesitation and was now wondering if it was even a good idea to ask him about it now… but he already gave her permission to… so with a deep breath, she asked him. "Why were you staring at the coffee..? Did it remind you of something..?" She was now the one to hesitate as she wasn't sure whether she should be bringing this up with him. 'Oh, I'm such a dumbass. He obviously didn't want to talk about it, but here he is doing it for my sake…'

"Uh… Yeah… It uh…" He let out a sigh and paused so he could gather his thoughts, sitting down and leaning against the building with Yaz joining him. "It reminded me of my late sister, Florence. She used to bust off into my room, drag me into hers, grab us both one of those drinks and she'd just have me there to keep her company while she studied. Sometimes she'd even ask for my help as if she wasn't smarter than me." He chuckled to himself as the fond memories put a smile on his face.

"After she finished with her studying, she'd always have me play some puzzle video games with her, whether they were single-player or co-op, it didn't matter with her. She just wanted to spend as much time with me as possible…" His voice wobbled as he said that. "She sure did love her big brother…" Cass quietly said as a few tears slipped from his eyes. "And I loved her so very much…"

Yasmina could only stare at him in horror as she realized what she just did to him. He was having a good time, he was distracting himself with everything and she just… ruined that for him.

"So now… I can't even look at those drinks without thinking of her…" He said before squeezing his eyes shut before rubbing the tears away and allowing a moment of silence to be put between them. "Sorry about that, you probably didn't-"

Yasmina quickly cut him off as she wrapped her arms around the saddened teen and hugged him as tightly yet comforting as she could offer, shoving his head into the crook of her neck and just trying to offer some sort of comfort to him. "I'm so sorry, Cass. I didn't know." She said as he ran her fingers through his hair, in an attempt to soothe him, because she honestly had no clue on what to do but knew she that she needed to do something.

"It's been almost four months since you lost Florence and Ms. Ayesha, and you haven't had a single moment to be able to mourn them. You've just kept having to put more and more responsibilities on your shoulders to try and distract yourself so you didn't break down when we needed you…" Yaz explained to him. "So no… please don't be sorry for breaking, for crying. You've been through so much already, please don't deny yourself the ability to cry…" Yasmina said as she herself sounded like she was close to tears.

It hurt her so much seeing the person she loved feel and look the way he did. To see him feel the soul-crushing sadness that he had to carry with him at all times. To see someone who had built himself up as nearly invincible, break before her very eyes. It hurt her so much to see him get hurt to any capacity, especially when she could do nothing to prevent it.

Cass was momentarily shocked as he never expected for the girl to outright hug him like this. While she had hugged him a few times in the past, it was usually when she needed him, not when he needed someone… But he soon let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and just tried to relax in her arms. "I… okay." He mumbled as he hesitantly wrapped an arm around her to hug the girl back.

And they stayed like that for a few minutes, just trying to comfort each other and feel better as they held onto each other. With both of them knowing that they now shared a sensitive and very private moment with each other, linking them together and further building onto the feelings they already had for each other. But like all things, it couldn't last forever.

* thud *

"God fucking damnit." Cass groaned out, causing Yaz to let out a giggle at his reaction. "Guess it's time to get up and start searching again." He said as he stood up and helped his partner up.

"So where to next?" Yasmina asked as she stretched and popped her back.

"That, I'll leave up to you. Pick a building, any building." He said with a slight chuckle. "We still have a few hours left of sunlight left… why not try to have some fun while we work?" Cass said with a smile on his face.

Yaz returned his smile as she grabbed onto his wrist. "Well, if that's the case, then I say we get away from T. rex first." She joked before she began dragging him away from the approaching stomps.

Cass let out a small laugh before looking down at the girl fondly. "Whatever you want."

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

BACK AT CAMP

"So… what time is it?" Sammy asked out to the only two people who have watches as she and the others have all been lazing about at camp for the past hour and a half.

"It's 4:35, Sammy…" Ben answered with a sigh.

"And you asked that question not even five minutes ago." Kenji told her as the two boys were getting tired of having to answer the question.

"I know… It's just I'm-" She started.

"—Worried about what's gonna happen between Yaz and Cass." Everyone else finished her sentence.

"Yeah, we know, Sammy." Brooklynn said as she fidgeted with an empty cup. "You've said it about as many times as you've asked for the time."

"Which would be twelve times so far." Ben told her exactly how many times she asked. "And they've only been gone possibly for three hours."

"Maybe I should check in on them. See how everything is going." Sammy said as she stood up and walked over to the walkie-talkie that sat on their table.

But before she could grab it, Brooklynn snatched it and tossed it to Darius who was on the other side of the platform, with the young leader catching it and holding onto it.

"Not so fast, Sammy. That's for emergencies only, you know that." Brooklynn told her as Cass was usually the primary holder of the second walkie-talkie, and he told them to not radio him unless they absolutely needed to, just because he wanted to avoid the possibility of them contacting him when he needed to be sneaky, but Sammy would occasionally break that rule just so she could sate her boredom, luckily, she always seemed to radio Cass when he wasn't really doing anything.

"I know, but…" Sammy tried to justify why she needed it.

"But, nothing." Kenji told her. "Even I know not to use that thing unless someone is dead, dying, or bleeding. That, and Cass would probably shove that sledgehammer of his somewhere where the sun doesn't shine, and uh… I don't really feel like becoming a scarecrow." The teen grimaced at the thought of it, which got a chuckle from Ben and Brooklynn.

"You just need to chill out for a while, Sammy." Darius told her. "You're just getting yourself worked up over something out of your control. Whatever happens between them, happens. But I can assure you that nothing bad is gonna happen."

"Yeah… I guess you're right." Sammy said after letting out a sigh before taking a seat on the couch. "I just… want everything to work out between those two… They mean a lot to me, and they help each other so much, that it's just… perfect." She looked down into her lap. "Yaz wants this so bad… Cass needs this. After everything that he's been through, he deserves to have some happiness in his life."

"On that… we can all agree." Brooklynn told her as they all know that their pseudo big brother has been through far more than what normal people could handle.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

BACK WITH CASS AND YAZ

Once again, they had managed to avoid detection from the T. rex, and luckily they haven't been bothered by the Compys that they knew lived here. But like Cass had said, they tried their best to have fun while they continued to search for anything that they could have needed, like the batteries that Yaz had found that worked with the two flashlights and electrical lantern that Cass had found in the back of the bigger gift shop on Main Street.

"Well, we've got a good two, maybe three hours left before it gets dark." Cass said as he was leaning against a wall and looking at the sky, guessing based on the sun's position. "Anything in particular you wanna do or look for?" He asked as he looked over at the girl to his left.

"Hmm…" She hummed to herself as she thought of anything they could do. "Well… there's an arcade here, right?"

"Yeah..?" Cass questioned with a raised brow. "But how are we gonna… oh, right, not everything there technically needs electricity." He answered his own question before shrugging his shoulders. "Fuck it, let's go see if we can do anything there."

"Then let's go already." Yaz said as she took a few steps forward before immediately turning around and stood next to Cass. "I actually don't know where it is.." She said with a small bit of embarrassment.

"Yeah, I figured as much." He chuckled at her. "But lucky for you, I do, so come on."

Cass began leading Yaz across the street and onto the appropriate side of the park where the arcade was located, with the two of them walking slightly closer to each other than before, but whether they noticed or not, that's up for debate. But neither one of them said anything about it if they did notice their slightly closer proximity. After a few more minutes of comfortable silence and walking, the two of them arrived at the arcade building, which was thankfully a decent distance away from the T. rex's lair, so they hoped they wouldn't have to worry too much about making some noise.

"So, we're here." Yasmina said as she looked up at the big sign that said "JURASSIC ARCADE". "Now how do we get-" She began asking but was cut off as the door was pulled open.

Cass stood in the doorway and held it open for the girl. "What? When we were in the control room, I made sure to deactivate all the locks on Main Street after we got the power back, so now we can just enter any building on Main Street without having to worry about breaking something." He told her as if it was an obvious thing that he did.

"And yet you told no one about this?" Yaz asked him.

"Hmm, I guess I didn't." Cass said plainly. "Now get your ass in here."

"Yes sir." She said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes before walking past him and into the arcade building.

"Ugh, you make me sound old." He said before closing the door and walking deeper into the building to see if there was anything they could do.

"You're not old…" Yaz said with a pause. "…You're ancient." She told him with a playful grin on her face as she teased him.

"Ha ha." Cass gave a fake laugh as he rolled his eyes. "Choose a game, smartass."

"Let's see…" She spoke to herself as she looked around the building to see if anything could actually be played without electricity, spotting only about four games that would possibly work in the room. Those being a basketball game, Skee-ball, magnetic darts, and Air Hockey, all of which like most things in the park were Jurassic World or dinosaur themed.

"Okay, well, I've found four games we could play." Yasmina said as she turned to look at the older teen. "Pick a number one through four." She told him.

"Didn't I just tell you to pick?" He asked the girl as he looked at her questioningly.

"Just do it." Yaz told him.

He let out a sigh before looking over at her. "I pick number four."

"That'll be Air Hockey." She happily told him as she jogged over to the table and grabbed the blue pusher as she fetched the puck from its holster and placed it on her side.

Cass walked over and grabbed the red pusher and set his bag next to his feet. "So, the first to five wins..?" He asked as he rolled his shoulders and tested his reach on his side of the table.

"Mhm. And whoever wins the most mini-games gets to choose a prize off of the back wall." Yaz told him with some excitement and competitiveness in her voice as she pointed to the wall behind the counter.

The young adult gave her a small laugh. "Sounds good to me." He said before readying himself. "Ready?"

"Ready." Yaz told him before slamming the pusher into the puck and sending it toward him.

FIVE MINUTES LATER

Yasmina stared in total disbelief and defeat as she had lost to the older teen by the complete 5-0 score that they had kept track of. She just didn't understand, she could've sworn that she should've had a few points, but right as she thought she was gonna score, Cass pulled some shit out of nowhere and managed to send it right into her goal in the blink of an eye.

"H-How..?" She hesitantly asked.

"You want the nerd answer or the asshole answer?" Cass asked as he set the pusher down and stretched his back and arms.

"Asshole answer?" She questioned.

"I'm just better than you." He told her.

"Nerd answer, please." Yaz asked as he was correct, that was an asshole answer.

"I was calculating the trajectory and force that you were hitting the puck and dictated my moves based off of that, managing to constantly redirect the puck and your pusher until I eventually had a solid shot directly into your goal." Cass told her as he reached down and grabbed a bottle of water out of his bag and took a few sips before putting it back.

"That's just not fair, like… at all." She told him with a whine.

"Yeah, probably not. Want a rematch?" He asked as he cast his gaze onto her.

"Damn right I do." Yasmina said as they both got ready for round two.

ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES LATER

Yaz dropped her pusher onto the table before dropping her arms down to her sides. "I'm never playing this against you again." She said as she once again could do nothing in the face of Cass's bullshit calculations. She even played defensively and no matter how hard she tried, he still managed to score on her, making the points 10-0.

"Understandable." Cass said while chuckling at the girl as she sulked at her defeat on the other side of the table. He picked up his bag and walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "That technically only counts as one win for me, and we still have three more games. So cheer up, and try to beat me, because I'm not taking it easy on you." He told her as he knew that would once again spark her competitive nature.

'Don't take that out of context, don't take that out of context, don't take that out of context.' Yaz repeated to herself over and over again as she tried to reel in her thoughts before looking the older teen in eyes and gave him a smile. "Alright, let's do this. Pick a number."

"Hmm… I'll pick two." He told her as he got off of her.

"That's Skee-ball then." She said before leading him over to two of the four Skee-ball machines that were placed against one of the walls. With them being the typical scoring system from bottom to top being 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, with there being two holes in the top corners worth 100 points. "So, how do you wanna do this?" Yaz asked him.

"Well, since there's no electricity to power a timer/scoreboard or cut off the supply of balls, it's gonna be a bit harder to do this." Cass told her which she nodded and agreed. "But, we can just take turns and whoever is playing can keep track of how many they've thrown while the other tracks their score?"

"Sounds good to me, just try not to get upset when I beat you in this one." Yaz said in a joking but competitive tone as she walked over and got ready to play her turn.

"Uh-huh, sure." Cass said with a roll of his eyes. "Just get ready so I can destroy you in this game too." He said as he playfully bonked Yaz on the top of her head before he stepped back so he could count.

"One." Yaz called out her first roll.

* crash *

"50." Cass mumbled her score so that she could concentrate.

"Two."

* crash *

"90."

"Three."

* crash *

"120."

"Four."

* crash *

"160."

"Five."

* crash *

"180."

"Six."

* crash *

"220."

"Seven."

* crash *

"250."

"Eight."

* crash *

"290."

"And nine."

* crash *

"310."

Yaz turned around and looked at the older boy. "So what's my score? I know it's pretty high." She said as she excitedly waited for him to tell her.

"You got 310 points. You did really good." Cass told her as he saw the girl absolutely radiate at getting such a high score. 'I'm so gonna feel like shit if I end up beating her in this too.'

"Alright, alright, it's your turn." She told him as she basically made him swap places with her so that he could have a go at this.

"One." Called out his first roll.

* crash *

"30." Yasmina quietly calculated his score.

"Two."

* crash *

"60."

"Three."

* crash *

"100."

"Four."

* crash *

"140."

"Five."

* crash *

"180."

"Six."

* crash *

"230.."

"Seven."

* crash *

"280…"

"Eight."

* crash *

"330…"

"And nine."

* crash *

"380…"

"So what did I get?" Cass asked as he turned around to look at the girl but saw the look on her face. "I beat you didn't I..?" He asked softly as he didn't mean to, he's just… good at games.

"You got 380.." She told him in a flat tone. That makes it 2-0.

He grimaced as that was a pretty decent gap in their scores. "My bad, Yaz."

"It's not fair, how the hell are you so good at games?" Yaz complained as she grabbed the older teen and shook him, well, tried to anyway, he was like a brick wall to her.

"I don't know, practice? Experience? I used to go to a bunch of arcades, carnivals, and fairs with my families, and I usually tried my best to win prizes for my moms and sisters, so I guess I just got really good at games because of that." He offered up the only explanation that he could think of.

"That's… actually a very sweet and wholesome reason for you to be kicking my ass in these games." Yaz told him as she stopped trying to shake him before letting out a sigh. "And despite me losing all the games so far, this is probably the most fun I've had in a while.."

"Wait… really?" Cass asked as he scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Mhm. This is probably the first time that I've actually enjoyed myself in a place like this." She said to him honestly. "I never really got to spend any real amount of time in an arcade or anything like it. As I'm sure I told you, I never really had any real friends to go out and hang out with, and every time I tried to come into one of these on my own, I just… felt so out of place that I just left without really playing anything." She told him a bit of her past as she looked down at her feet and awkwardly rubbed her left arm.

Cass just smiled softly at her as he knew exactly what she felt like. After his original mom and sister died, and he was on his own, he didn't really feel like he had any reason to be in a place like this, like he just stood out compared to everyone else and he just needed to leave. But he eventually got back into them once he was taken in by Ms. Ayesha and Florence. And now here he is, paired with someone who feels the exact same way as he once did.

"Well… once we get off the island, I wouldn't mind doing this again." He told her honestly.

"You… You mean that?" She asked hopefully.

"Of course, whether it's with the others, your mom, or even just a little one on one like this… whatever you want, we can go out to do. I know you didn't exactly have the friends growing up to do this kind of stuff, and neither did I. So we can always just go off and experience these things together if you want to that is.." Cass said as he sounded comforting in the beginning before sounding a bit self-conscious at the end.

"That sounds amazing, Cass. Thank you, I'll make sure to hold you to that once we get back home." Yaz told him with a smile on her face as felt her feelings for the young adult grow once more as she felt a small blush come to her face.

"You don't have to thank me, Yaz.." Cass mumbled to himself as he looked off into the distance as he did his best to reel in his feelings and to not let anything show on his face. "Um, so what game do you wanna do next? We only have two left, right?"

"It's only gonna be one if you whoop my ass again." She said with a deadpan tone before chuckling.

"That's true.." Cass said as he gave his own chuckle.

"Let's do the basketball game, I don't think I'd be able to do all the math that comes with darts manually." Yaz told him as she walked over to their left toward the basketball games.

"That's fair." He agreed with her before setting his bag down in front of his machine. "So… how are we gonna do this one? One minute timer, whoever gets the most wins?" He asked as he popped his back and rolled his shoulders.

"Sounds good to me, big guy." She told him.

"That sounds so weird coming from anyone who isn't Sammy." Cass told her.

"Like when Kenji called Brooklynn "Bubblegum" and she put him in a choke-hold until he swore to never call her that again, because, and I quote "Only Cass gets to call me that." Yasmina told him with a laugh that was returned by the older teen.

"Yeah… I honestly did expect her to be so protective over the nickname." Cass told her. "And when we asked her why she told us it just didn't feel right coming from anyone else."

"I mean… I can understand that, if anyone else besides you or my mom called me sweetheart, I probably would've punched them in the throat." Yasmina said to him.

"Oh? So you don't mind it?" Cass asked with a smirk growing on his face.

"I shouldn't have told you that…" Yaz realized her mistake.

"You really shouldn't have." Cass chuckled as he knew that he was totally going to tease her with pet names. "Now come on, let's play already."

"Alright, ready?" She asked which got an affirmative nod in return. "Go."

ONE MINUTE LATER

It was a relatively close game between the two teens, with Yasmina ending up with 28 points and Cass winning with 33. And the only reason that she had lost (if you ask her that is) is because right as she kept going on a streak, Cass would call her a sweet nickname and it'd fuck up her throw and it'd take her another throw or two to get back into it. But Cass would deny him doing it till the day that he died.

"That was so not fair, Cass. I would've won too." Yasmina complained with a blush on her face as she crossed her arms and looked away from him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said with a smug look on his face.

"Oh bullshit, you know damn well what you were doing." She said as she whipped around and looked at him.

"If I was doing something that gave me an advantage, why didn't you do the same, hmm?" Cass asked her knowing that she'd probably never be able to without having a mental crisis.

"I… You… Go fuck yourself." She stuttered and fumbled over her sentence until she just gave up.

"Well, I won three out of the four possible games, which means, I get to choose a prize off the wall." He said before grabbing his bag off of the ground and walking over to the counter and vaulting it to get access to the prizes.

"So what are you gonna get?" Yaz asked as she walked over and leaned on the counter.

"I know exactly what I want to get." Cass told her before crouching behind the counter and began rummaging through the containers before pulling out what he was looking for.

"Whatcha get?" Yaz asked with a tilt of her head.

"These." Cass told her as he showed her two matching bead bracelets. With the colors being black, purple, and white. He slipped one bracelet over his left wrist before reaching forward and grabbing Yasmina's right wrist and slipping the bracelet onto said wrist.

"C-Cass.." Yaz stuttered as she looked at and admired the bracelet that he gave her.

"Well… this is our first of hopefully many outings together, so I just figured that I'd get us something to remember today by, and you know… I just wanted to make it special for you… Like, a promise that we'd be able to do this again." Cass told her with a bit of apprehension in his voice as he closed his eyes and offered a semi-nervous chuckle.

"You know… you're making it sound like this was-" Yasmina began saying lowly as she kept looking at the bracelet with a soft smile and a blush on her face.

"—a date?" He finished her sentence as a small hue of red appeared on his face before he cleared his throat to get rid of the blush and calm himself. "Yeah… I guess it does seem that way, huh?"

Yaz knew that he was trying to keep his cool and not seem like an awkward teen like she was, but she knew that he was very much in the same boat that she was in at this moment. 'Which means… he might have feelings for me too…' She thought to herself, allowing the warm and bubbly feeling of love to swell up inside of her before she looked at him and gave him a big smile.

"Thank you, Cass… This is the best day I've had in a very long time." She told.

"Same here, Yaz… Same here…" All he could do was smile at her as he knew for a fact that he could no longer try to hold himself back, and could freely admit to himself that he had feelings for the girl before him.

Despite how short their time together here in the arcade had felt, they were in there for roughly 45-60 minutes, just having fun and talking had made everything fly by. But they soon decided that they had had their fill of fun in the building and since there was very little that they could do or even think of doing at this time in the evening, they eventually just decided that it'd be best for them to find a place for them to stay the night.

Cass had the idea of staying in the hotel, since the doors were unlocked, they wouldn't have an issue with getting into there, plus they could always just grab a key to any room that they wanted. And who knows what they had left in there when the park shut down that they could find useful. That, and it'd just be nice to actually sleep in a comfortable bed again, or sleep at all in Cass's case. And as long as they weren't too loud, the two of them could actually relax without having to worry about dinosaurs.

So with that plan in mind, the two campers made their way toward the luxury hotel that was placed on Main Street.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

BACK AT CAMP

It was now 6:30 in the evening, with all the campers wrapping up a majority of any possible responsibilities that they would have at the campsite. Darius was up in the watchtower to make sure that no large dinosaurs were in the area, Brooklynn was checking their storage to see how much supplies they have left, Ben went out for a bit with Bumpy so that she could get some food and water for the night, Kenji was on Sammy duty, which means it was his current job to distract the girl and keep her busy so that she wouldn't try to bombard Cass and Yaz over the radio.

"Just give it a few more minutes, Sammy. Soon, we'll eat, and then I'm sure that Cass will check in once he and Yaz are done for the day." Kenji told her as he rested with his eyes closed and arms behind his head.

"Okay… but did you really have to sit on me? You're starting to get kinda heavy for how skinny you are." Sammy groaned out as she was laying on her stomach and looked behind her as she saw the older teen sitting on her back.

"Maybe if you didn't keep trying to take the walkie-talkie, then maybe I wouldn't have to do this." He said to the girl. "Also, I'm not skinny."

"Well, you definitely aren't a beefcake like Cass…" Sammy said to him. "Like… not even close."

"Sammy, most people would be considered skinny compared to Cass." Brooklynn chimed in as she made her way over to them. "The guy is 6'6 and around 250 lbs, that's like… way above average. And he looks like he weighs more than 250, so…"

"Yeah… You're right." Sammy agreed as their oldest member was literally massive compared to 99% of the human population.

"But Darius told me to tell you guys that we could go ahead and start eating since he saw Ben and Bumpy returning." Brooklynn said as she put away the pen and paper that she used to mark down their supplies.

"Food!" Kenji exclaimed before hopping off of Sammy and going over to their crate where they kept their canned and packaged goods.

And within the next minute or two, both Darius and Ben had joined them around the table so that they could all eat together, with each of them grabbing their preferred can of fruit and gathering around the table. They began to make small talk with each other, just talking about what they'd been doing, or even the possibility of them playing some more games before they went to bed for the night.

* static crackles *

That noise caught their attention as Darius reached down and unclipped the walkie-talkie from his pants and set it done on the table so that everyone could hear.

"Alright, I and Yaz are done for the day and we should be safe from any possible threats, which means if you want, specifically you Sammy, you may talk to us for a bit before we have to go radio silent for the night." Cass's voice came from the radio.

All of the campers just shared confused looks on their faces as they couldn't tell if this was some kind of test, or if Cass was legitimately giving them permission to use the walkie-talkie.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

BACK ON MAIN STREET

"But." Cass suddenly interjected since he knew that Sammy was going to grab the walkie-talkie. "You guys have to finish eating first, and no rushing." He told them but it was specifically aimed at the Texan girl. "And yes, I'm treating you like children. Talk to you in a few." The young adult let out a sigh before he clipped the radio to his waist before beginning his search for a set of keys.

"You didn't have to do that, you know? I know that you usually prefer to keep things quiet and not use the radios unless we have to." Yaz said to him as she sat on top of the front desk and looked over at him.

"Oh, I know I didn't have to, but I know how close you and Sammy are, and she was gonna bug the shit out of us one way or another, so I might as well just give you two an opportunity to speak before we have to call it a night." Cass told her as he began opening drawers to find a key that he wanted.

"Well…" Yaz started as she swung her legs back and forth as she waited on him. "I appreciate you breaking one of your rules for me."

He let out a scoff. "You make it sound so much more serious than it actually is. It's not a rule so much as it is a preference." Cass told her before grabbing the drawer and ripping it out of the counter and dumping its contents on the countertop, with said action causing Yaz to stare at him.

"What?" He asked as he saw her staring at him from the corner of his eye.

"So you just… casually rip drawers out with one hand..?" Yasmina asked as she kept looking between him, the contents on the counter, and the drawer that was set off to the side.

"I mean… yeah?" He answered as he looked through the keys in the pile and started comparing their numbers to the room sheet so he can get a decent key.

"That's hot…" Yaz mumbled to herself as she helped look through the keys.

But she didn't it quiet enough as Cass stopped what he was doing after what she said clicked with him. He slowly turned his head to look at her. "What?"

"Huh?" She asked as she didn't know what was happening.

"What did you say?" Cass asked although he knew exactly what she said, he wanted her to repeat it.

Yaz gave him a questioning look. "I said somethi-" It suddenly clicked that she didn't think it, but said it. That's when the look of embarrassment and panic took hold of her features.

"So… me having this kind of strength is hot?" Cass decided he was gonna tease the poor girl as he gave her a sly grin.

"I… have no comment." She said as she turned away from him and hid her obviously blushing face.

He gave her a chuckle before turning her to face him again. "You've gotta answer me, Yasmina. Of course, I could always just ask the other girls…" Cass told her knowing damn well that she'd rather admit things herself.

"Okay!" She exclaimed before she tried to block his view of her face. "You being strong is very… attractive." Yaz cast a look at him before looking away. "Happy now?"

Cass could only laugh at how different this Yaz was from the one everyone else was used to seeing. "Very. Now get that ass of yours off the counter, I found a key I was looking for." He told her before putting everything else back into the drawer and shoving it back into the desk.

She hopped off the counter and stood next to the older teen but opted not to look at him as she was still thoroughly embarrassed from what just happened, and his ass remake didn't help either. 'I can't tell whether he's just teasing me or trying to flirt…' She thought to herself before following after Cass as he began making his way to and up the stairs.

But after a few minutes of them walking in silence, they had made it to the fourth floor and walked down the hall until they arrived at their room number. And without wasting any more time, Cass inserted the key and unlocked the room before opening the door and stepping it with his partner following right behind him.

"It's not nearly as dusty as I thought it'd be, especially after sitting here for over three months." Yaz said as she looked around the room and noticed that there was only a very thin layer of dust that covered the room.

"Well, we better get to cleaning then. Shouldn't take long though." Cass said before immediately hearing the crackle that came from his walkie-talkie. He clipped it off his pants and handed it to Yaz. "You can handle that while I go rip a door off its hinges to find cleaning supplies."

Yasmina just watched him leave the room and more than likely actually rip a door off its hinges. "Hello?" She asked into the walkie-talkie.

"Ah, perfect, it's you." Sammy's voice was heard speaking to her. "Cass anywhere nearby?" She asked.

"Well…" Yaz stared.

* loud bang *

"…he actually just ripped a door off its hinges down the hall, so we might have a few minutes." She told her.

"Does he know that it's hot he can do that?" Sammy asked as she didn't really expect to get an answer.

"…Yes." Yaz hesitantly said.

"Wait, what?!" Sammy got whiplash from how fast she turned to look at the radio as if looking at her friend herself.

"Yeah… I kind of… told him..?" She said as she didn't know how Sammy would react.

"How the hell did that come up?" The Texan girl asked.

"Well he ripped a drawer clean out of a cabinet with one hand not five minutes ago and I kinda just… said it." She said with a small hint of embarrassment before peaking out of the room and saw Cass still grabbing everything that he needed for the room.

"Well good for you, making moves even if you didn't mean to." Sammy said with a small laugh.

"This is simultaneously harder and easier than I expected it to be, Sammy. I don't actually know if I'll be able to do anything tonight or if I'll just end up a blubbering mess." Yasmina said a bit quieter into the radio so Cass hopefully wouldn't hear her.

"You've got this, girl. What's the worst that could happen?" Sammy asked rhetorically.

"Besides the fact that I could possibly ruin our friendship over this? That I could make things infinitely awkward between us?" She answered honestly.

"See, you weren't actually supposed to answer that, but at least you're not blindly throwing caution to the wind." Her friend told her. "Cause I know I would. Cass is a hunk of a man, and I'd be damned if I didn't bag that sweet, caring, strong, dangerously mysterious, and sexy ass of his." Sammy listed off causing Yaz to gain a huge blush on her face as she got lost in her own thoughts about the young adult.

"Thanks, Sammy." Cass said from the doorway, causing both girls to let out yelps of shock and surprise at his sudden appearance. "Glad to know what you think of me." He said with a chuckle before setting the cleaning supplies off to the side.

"N-No problem, big guy. Hey, Yaz, I'll talk to you in a bit, radio me when you're available." Sammy said into the walkie-talkie before cutting off the feed as even she was a bit embarrassed at being caught saying those things.

"So does everyone at camp talk about me like this, or is it just you two?" Cass asked with a teasing smile on his face as he leaned down closer to Yaz.

And said girl could do nothing except for stutter and not get any real words out because she was so embarrassed at being caught talking about him like that, that her brain basically just shut itself off. But after a few moments, she managed to gather herself and say something. "W-We… should start cleaning… yeah..?"

"Hmm, yes. I'd say we should start cleaning." Cass agreed as the teasing smile never left his lips as he walked over to the cleaning utensils and grabbed a duster for the both of them and handed one to her so they could get a majority of the dust off of the furniture.

It had only taken them about 15 minutes to dust, sweep, and wipe down their room and bathroom, as well as get a change of sheets, blankets, and pillowcases for their two beds. So once that was out of the way, they could finally sit down and take a break in their room without having to worry about having a sneezing fit. But throughout the entire process, Cass and Yaz didn't share any words, as the female of the two was still way too embarrassed over what he had heard she and Sammy talk about, and the young adult just merely decided he was just gonna tease the poor girl by keeping that smile on his face.

Cass set his bag at the foot of the bed before he let out a sigh of relief as he fell back onto his bed and closed his eyes as he just tried to take in the feeling of a soft and clean bed again. "I'm sure whether I love this or hate it." He said after a few moments with a chuckle as he slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.

"What do you mean?" Yasmina asked as she sat down at the end of her bed and looked over at him.

"On one hand, it's super comfy and it feels like my body can actually relax into something…" He told her.

"And the other hand?" She questioned.

"It's not nearly as stiff and… not comfy as I'm used to, so like… my body doesn't know how to feel about it." He explained before sitting up and grabbing his bottle of water.

"I guess that makes sense? You don't exactly seem like the type to sleep on a bed like this in the first place, and the past three months haven't really offered comfort alongside survival." Yaz agreed with him as she laid on the bed to test it for herself. "I actually agree with you on this… I'm also used to a slightly tougher bed."

"When do you not agree with me?" Cass rhetorically asked before he got off the bed and began gathering his second pair of clothes as well as the lantern and batteries that he and Yaz had gathered. "Wanna take a shower?"

Yaz immediately sat up straight and stared at him with large eyes. "W-What do you mean?"

"Like, do you want to take a shower before me..?" He clarified as he looked at the girl questioningly.

"Oh… uh, no… I took one this morning so I'll just take one when we get back." She answered him as she managed to calm herself down and not completely embarrass herself.

"Mmn, alright." Cass said before popping the batteries into the lantern and turning it on and began walking toward the bathroom which was right past Yaz's bed, and being the absolute jackass that he was, he decided to tease her. "Though if you change your mind, you can always join me." He told her with a playful wink.

"C-Cass!" Yasmina went atomic at his teasing and hid her face in her hands as his laugh filled her ears but was soon muffled by the closing of the bathroom door.

'Okay, now he's definitely just fucking with me… which means he must know that he'll definitely get a reaction out of me. Shit.' Yaz thought to herself before slowly pulling her hands away from her face as she heard the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. "I'll just talk to Sammy in the meantime." She mumbled to herself before getting up and grabbing the walkie-talkie off of the dresser.

"Sammy, you there?" The girl asked as she once again sat back down on her bed.

A few seconds had passed before the telltale crackle came from the radio. "Hey, Yaz. Sorry, just needed to get back into the truck, you know, to get some privacy." Sammy told her friend. (The truck she's talking about is the jeep that was flipped upside down at their camp in episode/chapter 4)

"Thank god that Cass had Ben and Bumpy flip this thing over and move it before he cleaned it out. Because outside of this..? There isn't really any privacy at camp." Sammy said as she got comfortable in the back seat of the perpetually stationary vehicle.

"Speaking of Cass, he's in the shower, so we should have about 10 to 15 minutes to talk without any… surprises, hopefully." Yaz said as she laid down on her bed and prayed that Cass wouldn't once again manage to sneak up on them.

"Ain't that the truth, scared me half to death and made me of all people feel embarrassed." Sammy said to her.

"To be fair, you were kinda getting really into the whole Cass thing." Yaz said to her. "You know, now that I think about it, for someone who to my knowledge isn't romantically into him, you sure do like to talk about him… like a lot." The slightly older girl pointed out as she looked at the walkie-talkie like it was Sammy herself.

"I- You- Look! A girl can appreciate something even if it's not exactly what she's interested in. And I am appreciating the hell out of him because damn, that's one hell of a man." Sammy defended/explained herself. "And he's just a really amazing and nice guy, you know..? He's done a lot for us and has been through hell, and I just… like him. Cass is one of the most amazing friends I've ever had, and he even acts like a big brother half the time, which makes me feel like I'm still with my family at times…" She said in a more sentimental tone.

"I know what you mean, Sammy." Yasmina said as she too just liked Cass in general, even outside of her feelings for the young adult.

"Plus, without him..? I'm not sure where we'd all be or what would've happened if he hadn't been accepted to camp." Sammy said as she didn't even want to think about what could've happened, especially when Mitch and Tiff were on the island.

Yaz gave a small laugh. "Like that time at the lagoon when we were trying to escape from the Mosasaurus? If he wouldn't have been there and taken the fall for me, I probably would've broken something."

"Or that time in the tunnels where we had to hide in the vents, and he held off Toro for us while you and Darius got the other vent open?" Sammy reminded her. "Actually it goes further back than that, like when we tried to board the monorail and Toro ended up finding us on the stairs? Cass straight up kicked Toro in the face to save you." She said with a laugh of her own.

Yaz laughed a bit harder as she remembered that moment. "Yeah, and then he threw me over his shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes."

"Right! That did happen!" Sammy exclaimed as she had forgotten about that particular detail. "And you just laid there and enjoyed it as much as you could, didn't you?" She asked knowing damn well she was right.

"I… maybe… yes." Yaz just gave up and agreed because she knew she wouldn't be able to lie about it.

"So easy." The Texan girl said with a giggle. "Though I can't really say anything since Cass also saved me on the stairs… and when we first went to Main Street." She admitted.

"Wait, really? Well, now you've gotta tell me." Yasmina said as she sat up.

"What am I supposed to say? It's not like they're too interesting." Sammy told her but just let out a sigh. "Well for the one on the stairs, it was right after he had managed to lure Toro away so that we could all cross and actually get onto the stairs. We all began climbing the stairs with me and him in the back, and I guess he spotted Toro heading toward us because he grabbed me and just held me really close to him to make sure we weren't seen when Toro peaked over the sides of the stairs, and luckily it worked." Sammy recollected the first experience.

"As for the one on Main Street, it was back when we had all split up after Rexy left her nest so that Darius and Kenji could activate the EDB? Well, it happened when me and Cass went off to keep track of the big girl. I had momentarily lost track of her and before I knew it, she was right below me trying to get branches from the tree we were in. I was so scared of being found, and I had gasped and was just breathing heavily, but Cass just put his hand over my mouth so that I'd focus on him, he looked so calm and collected and he just held me there in that tree, and I honestly don't think I've ever felt safer with someone in my life… but he did manage to get me to calm down. And that's when we contacted y'all." Sammy told her the second experience that she could remember with their oldest member.

Yasmina let out a giggle of her own. "Yeah, that sounds like Cass alright. Always being there when we need him most. To think that despite us all being strangers in the beginning, he's been saving us since day one."

"He has..? I can recall about day three being the earliest incident that involved us due to the storm during the dino drive, but he was off with Dave and Roxie during that." Sammy asked with a bit of confusion.

"Well, I overheard Dave and Roxie talking about it, and apparently Cass had saved them from being trapped underneath a truck that was pinning them against a rock." Yaz told her.

"Oh my god, really?" Sammy asked.

"Mhmm, and Kenji ended up telling me about this one, but apparently he, Darius, and Brooklynn all snuck off on the first night of camp to go look at some Compys, but Kenji knocked Brooklynn's phone down into the enclosure and went to go get it, but guess what?" Yaz asked.

"What?" Her friend asked in anticipation.

"It wasn't the Compy pen, it was the Velociraptor enclosure! So obviously, Kenji freaked out and yelled at them to get the gate open so he could leave, but Brooklynn accidentally opened the wrong gate, so now the Velociraptors could actually get the Kenji, but Darius apparently kicked a pipe to temporarily blind the dinos and he joined him down in the enclosure." Yasmina said.

"Oh no…" Sammy said knowing that everything turned out alright, but the story was still anxiety-inducing.

"But the steam from the pipe didn't last long, and instead of the one Velociraptor that they saw, suddenly there were four of them. Cue Kenji freaking out even more with him and Darius thinking their lives are about to end, and then suddenly the lights and alarms of the enclosure go off, momentarily distracting the dinosaurs while Roxie threw out meat toward the Velociraptors and tells them to get out of the cage, but one dino didn't take the bait and was still focused on the boys. The Velociraptor started running at them, then out of nowhere the gate behind them opened up and Dave and Cass pulled them out before a gate slammed down in front of the dinosaur." Yaz finished the story.

"Two things. One, oh my god he actually has been saving our asses since day one. And two, that explains why the two of them were put on dino dung duty the next day." Sammy told her as she had secretly been wondering why they were put on that because they weren't told anything other than the two boys were in trouble.

* door opening *

Yaz turned around and saw Cass standing in the threshold of the doorway and took in his appearance. The young adult was wearing a black tank top as well as slightly baggy black pants that had a few distressed spots on his thighs and some on the knees, and like last time he still had his black combat boots on. His hair had gotten longer with it now reaching down to his chest with the color being as white as ever, if not whiter. He still had his piercings in with the new addition of their matching bracelet still on his left wrist. The older boy's left hand was holding the now turned-off lantern while his right hand was occupied with drying his hair off with the towel that he used, effectively blocking his sight of anything as he just stood there and did what he needed to do.

Cass had felt Yaz staring at him for the past 30 seconds that he was drying his hair, but he didn't care or mind. But he removed the towel from his head and threw it onto the side of the shower before looking back at her. "So, what are you girls talking about?" He asked since he saw that she had the walkie-talkie and figured that Sammy was on the other end.

"O-Oh, uh… we were just talking about how you've been practically saving us since day one and even recollected some of those times." Yaz said as she snapped back to reality. "Isn't that right, Sammy?"

"Mhm. Honestly, I'm surprised at how many times you've done it." Sammy piped up from her end of the radio.

Cass merely chuckled as he set the lantern down and laid across Yaz's bed to join in on the conversation. "You two girls love talking about me it seems." He said with a stretch. "But there is a time that I saved you all that none of you know about."

Now that caught their attention, because how was he supposed to have saved them with none of them knowing about it?

"When was this?" Yasmina asked as she was genuinely perplexed by him saving them without anyone noticing.

"Yeah, 'cause I'm pretty sure I would've remembered you saving my ass." Sammy told him over the radio.

He rolled over onto his right side and looked at Yaz and the walkie-talkie before letting out a sigh. "It was all the back when we were on the monorail. A pteranodon swooped in and managed to knock Ben out of the car but Darius caught him, then two more pteranodons crashed into the car behind us, I had managed to get to the door quick enough and slammed it in their faces but they began pecking at it, trying to get through the door. I called out to you guys, but you were all too scared and panic-stricken to move from where you were like you were lost in your own worlds of fear." Cass told the two girls.

Sammy and Yaz chose to remain quiet as they processed what they heard, as they don't even recall hearing Cass say anything at that time, but that made sense. They really were too scared at the time to do anything. The two girls offered small apologies that were just waved off by the eldest of the tree.

"But once I noticed that none of you heard me, I decided that something had to be done. So I stood up and closed one of the doors behind me before opening the one in front of me and rushing past the two pteranodons to grab their attention from off of the door. So I was in that car for a few minutes dodging and blocking their attempts to skewer me with their breaks, right? Eventually, I just get tired of having to do that, so I grab one by the beak and kick it in the chest off the monorail, the other one got pissed at seeing that, I guess, cause it screeched at me and started aiming for my legs, so I just waited for it to make contact with the car floor again before slamming my foot onto its beak as hard as I could, cracking it and chipping a few pieces." Cass told them.

"I guess it finally realized that it shouldn't be there because it let out one more shriek before bailing out the side of the monorail. And then that's when I walked back to you all and Sammy hugged me and the two of you used me to comfort yourselves." He finished up his story.

There was a few moments of silence as Yaz kind of just… stared at him, and he was sure that Sammy would be doing the same if she was here. Speaking of said girl…

"Cass…" Sammy called out.

"Yes, dear?" He sarcastically answered as he figured he knew where this was going.

"Could you get any cooler?!" She exclaimed as just the thought of the older teen actually fighting dinosaurs seemed badass to her.

Cass let out a deep laugh as he rolled onto his back. "Eh, I probably could, but I doubt it." He said with a shit-eating grin on his face, causing everyone to laugh, including Yaz. "Alright, well it's about time that we all try to wind down for the night, it's probably around 8:00." Cass told them.

"If you say so, big guy. And Yaz?" Sammy spoke.

"Yes?" Said girl responded.

"Good luck and have fun!" Sammy quickly said before going radio silent, leaving her poor friend with a small amount of blush appearing on her face that was increasing by the second as her mind wandered.

"Oh? "Good luck and have fun."? I wonder what she meant by that…" Cass said as he figured that he might as well tease her a bit more before the end of the night. "Know what she meant by that?" But all he got was Yaz sinking into herself as she tried to block him out and hide the blush that was on her face.

Cass just let out a little chuckle as he reached forward and grabbed the walkie-talkie from her hands before putting it onto the nightstand that was between their beds. "Or just sit there, that works too." He said before sitting up and getting out of her bed.

'I've got to do something… I don't want to let this chance slip away from me, but I'm just so nervous…' Yasmina thought to herself before suddenly reaching out and grasping Cass's right wrist and holding onto him.

"Yes?" The older boy asked as he looked down at her.

"I… I…" She stuttered over herself and just couldn't get it out. "I just wanted to know if I could check out your scar again..? Make sure everything is okay?" Yaz came up with a different thing to say which would hopefully buy her more time to build up the courage.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Cass agreed before sitting back on her bed and offering his arm for her to inspect.

Yaz gently held his arm in her left hand as she hesitantly traced her fingers across his scars. She started from the tips of his fingers and went up the back of his hand, further along, she traced the scars on his forearm and up onto his bicep and tricep before coming up to his shoulder and stopping as the rest was blocked by his shirt. It had taken her a few minutes to have gotten that far up with how slow and gentle she was moving.

The girl slowly raised her head and took her eyes off of the older boy's scars and looked up to his face just to see him fondly looking back at her. "W-What?" Yaz asked.

Cass gently shook his head to the sides. "Nothing, just… admiring the process." He told her with a soft smile.

She quickly looked back down at his arm as she began to blush once more. But decided to at least pretend that she was actually inspecting his scars before moving her fingers back down his arm to make sure everything was as good as it could be on the damaged appendage.

"Everything to your liking?" Cass teased as he leaned in close to her, causing the already panicking girl to abruptly stop and just hold his arm across her lap.

But he actually received an answer as she nodded and peaked up at him. "Yes.."

"That's good." He said before resting his head against hers. And after a few moments of silence, he spoke softly to her. "Is there something you wanted to tell me, Yaz?" He felt the girl freeze up against him before relaxing again and giving him an affirmative nod. "But you can't say it right now, yeah?" Once again, he received an affirmative nod.

After a few seconds of them just leaning on each other, he told her. "Take your time, Yaz. Just talk to me when you're ready, okay?"

"Okay.." Yaz hesitantly answered him as she mentally beat herself up while simultaneously trying to build up the courage to confess to him.

"Try and get some rest. I'll be right of there if you need me." Cass told her as he slowly pulled away from her and went over to his own bed before laying on his back and letting out a sigh before closing his eyes and tried his best to fall asleep.

Yasmina kept her eye on him the whole time as she tried her best to build up her ability to tell him how she felt, but it was so much harder than she had thought.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

ABOUT TWO HOURS LATER / 10:00 PM

Cass had tried his best to remain asleep throughout the night, but due to how much stress he was under, the apparent return of his insomnia, and the fact he can't go too long without interaction or else his mind will begin to make him hallucinate, he wasn't having the time sleeping like he used to. But luckily he'd soon have something else to focus on…

* rustling *

The older teen felt the bed shift on either side of him before the feeling of someone looking at him registered in his mind, causing him to slowly open his eyes and see Yaz hovering above him as she was more or less straddling his prone form.

"Cass…" Yasmina said his name as she looked into his eyes.

"Yes?" He responded as he looked back into her eyes.

"I just wanted to tell you… that I… I…" She began faltering as she kept looking at him, and realizing what position they were in. 'What am I doing..? I shouldn't have even tried to do this… I can't do this…' Yaz thought as tears began to well up in her eyes. "I… I'm sorry, I-"

She was quietly cut off as Cass reached up with his scarred right hand and rested it against her cheek and wiping away the tears that had almost fallen from her face. He smiled softly up at her and looked at her with so much warmth that she almost collapsed onto him.

"I love you." Those three words left his lips so gently yet with so much meaning and sincerity.

She looked down at him with a shocked expression and widened eyes. "You… what..?" The girl shakily asked.

"I love you, Yasmina." Cass repeated as he tenderly rubbed his hand against her cheek.

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back, as Yaz quickly closed the distance and wrapped her arms around his neck as she hugged him tightly, and rested her head in the crook of his neck.

"And I love you too." She sighed out as she finally confessed her feelings for him.

The older teen wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close, knowing that this meant a lot to her, he just let her have a moment to collect herself as he sat up with her in his lap, still holding her against him as he had no plan of letting go until she did.

After a few moments of silence between the two, Yasmina slowly pulled her head back from his neck but still kept her arms wrapped around him before looking at his face once more.

"So… does this mean… we're a… thing?" She hesitantly asked.

"Of course, my dear." Cass answered her honestly as he looked down at her with a soft smile, which was returned by her.

"Then that means… we need to make it official…" Yaz said as she kept casting glances toward his lips.

"I couldn't agree more…" He told her with a slight huskiness to his voice.

Cass leaned forward and rested his forehead against Yasmina's for a moment as they looked into each other's eyes before pressing forward with both of them closing their eyes as they prepared for what was about to happen, and with nothing else stopping him Cass gently placed his lips against hers. Both teens slightly pressed against each other to deepen their first kiss together.

Their kiss lasted for over five seconds before they slowly pulled away and opened their eyes to look at each other. Love was evident on their faces as they took in each other's presence and just felt happiness at their newfound relationship.

"I want another…" Yaz quietly said.

"Good." Cass told her before once again leaning down and kissing the girl in his arms.

This kiss lasted just a bit longer than the last one, with both of them pulling back with content looks on their faces as they held each other. But soon they slowly began to crack up and began laughing with each other at how much she had struggled to confess to the older boy.

"See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?" He teased with a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh, shut up." She told him with no real meaning. "This is the first time I've done something like this, and anxiety is a bitch."

"Of course." Cass said with a smile. "But let me guess… Sammy convinced you to try and confess to me tonight, right?"

"How did you…" Yaz questioned as she looked at him expecting a response.

"Well, you two were pretty quiet, but not too quiet to where I couldn't partially hear you this morning." He told his girlfriend. "That, and basically everyone knew you had a thing for me."

"…You're joking, right?" Yasmina asked with embarrassment building up on her features.

"Nope." Cass said with a chuckle as he saw the girl in his arms groan with embarrassment before she shoved her face in his chest. He leaned back onto the bed and laid down with her on top of him.

"Wait…" She suddenly realized something. "You've had feelings for me this entire time?!"

"Yep." He casually responded.

"So you purposely let me suffer with this and get embarrassed since the moment you noticed my feelings for you?" Yaz asked as she looked up at him.

"I mean… basically." Cass said as he shrugged his shoulders and looked down at her. "As much as I knew that you had feelings for me and I had feelings for you, I didn't want to rush anything. And I wanted you to be able to confess to me yourself rather than just freak you out with a random confession." He explained.

"That… makes sense." She agreed with his explanation before putting her head back down.

"Mhm. Now, as much as I like this, we still have to head back in the morning." Cass told her as he tried to get comfortable.

"Whatever you say, old man." Yaz sarcastically responded as she snuggled into him as she didn't plan on getting off of him.

"Hey, you're now dating this old man. So no complaining." He told her as he playfully bopped her on the head before kissing that exact spot.

"I know…" She said with a slightly dreamy tone.

Soon the newly made couple drifted off into sleep while in each other's embrace, with both never having better sleep since they came to Isla Nublar, maybe even before that, or feeling so calm since the downfall of Jurassic World, but they knew that they'd always have each other to lean on, especially now.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

BACK AT CAMP

It was roughly 9:00 in the morning with everyone lounging around at the campsite waiting on Cass and Yaz to return so they could get back to doing literally anything other than just hanging around the camp. Because as much as the campers liked having a break from a majority of their responsibilities, they also didn't exactly have a lot to keep them occupied.

Except for Sammy, she's been up for the past hour and a half pacing around as she not so patiently waited for their two remaining campers to get back. But she just couldn't help herself from worrying that things didn't go the way she had wanted them to.

"What's with all the pacing?" Ben asked as he had just climbed up the ladder after feeding Bumpy.

"She's stressed from the whole Cass and Yaz situation." Brooklynn answered him as she was leaning back in her chair.

"Ah." Ben simply let out before walking over to the couch and sitting on it, joining Darius.

"You just need to chill out for a moment, Sammy. If Cass's previous excursions are anything to go by, they should be back any moment now." Darius told her before going back to his journal and going over the dinosaurs and dinosaur facts that had been written in there.

"I know, but I'm still anxious." Sammy said as she stopped and turned toward the three at the table. "What if things didn't go right? What if Yaz is heartbroken? What if-"

"They're almost here." Kenji tiredly said as he was slumped over onto the railing of the platform.

"Really?" Sammy excitedly asked as she whipped around toward where Kenji was looking, and as he said, they were heading their way.

Cass and Yaz had trekked through the jungle for the past two hours as they made their way back to their camp, walking side by side with each other as they tried to enjoy as much alone time with each other before they'd inevitably be consumed by their responsibilities. But the two of them soon saw their camp less than 100 feet away from them, so they prepared themselves for the onslaught of questions that the two of them knew Sammy would try to throw at them,

The couple stepped past the tree line and into the opening that their camp was in before heading toward the ladder that led up to the others, with Cass letting Yaz go first before following right behind her.

"Yaz! Cass! Welcome back!" Sammy exclaimed as she was glad they had returned with the other campers giving them their own variation of a welcome back saying.

"It's good to be back." Yaz told them as Cass grunted in agreement as he popped his back.

"So… got anything you wanna tell us..?" Sammy asked as she tried to steer the conversation toward their relationship.

"Hmm?" Yaz gave her a questioning look. "Like what?"

Cass began rummaging through his bag. "Oh, right. Brook, these are for you and the Dynamic Dipshit." He said as he tossed two small plastic orbs toward the girl.

She caught them and opened one of them up and saw that it was one of the stretchy-sticky hands.

"So what did he get us?" Kenji tiredly asked as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"These!" Brooklynn said before slapping Kenji in the face with the sticky hand, scaring the shit out of him, and causing everyone at camp to laugh at his reaction.

Sammy turned back toward her best friend. "So nothing happened between you two? Did you never get a chance..?" She whispered as she tried to keep it a semi-private conversation.

"Oh… Cass." Yasmina called for the older teen, catching everyone else's attention as well.

Said person walked over to her and to her immediate right before they both reached for each other's hands and held them before bringing their arms up, showing them holding hands and their matching bracelets that rested next to each other.

"Is this what you wanted?" Cass asked as he looked down at Sammy with a raised eyebrow. "Or were you expecting something more among the lines of this?" He said before leaning down and capturing Yaz's lips for a quick kiss before pulling back.

Yaz became a little embarrassed at their little PDF, but she knew she'd get used to it with time. "So as you can Sammy-"

Sammy cut her off as she hugged her tightly with the excitement of a kid on Christmas. "Oh my god, I'm so happy for you, both of you." Sammy gushed as she was glad that they had gotten together.

"Thank you, Sammy." Yasmina said as she let go of her boyfriend's hand and hugged the girl back.

"'Preciate it." Cass said simply as he pat the girl's head before shrugging off his bag so he can unpack.

All the other campers also gave their congratulations to the new couple, with Ben, Darius, and Kenji being surprised that Yaz was able to confess in the first place, but they were nonetheless happy for the two.

But soon everyone decided that it was time that they could once again get back to working and handling their responsibilities/chores for the day now that Cass and Yaz were back from their trip, but Sammy wanted to do something special for them now that they were back, she wanted to throw them a small party that night to once again congratulate them on their relationship. And with everyone on board with the idea, they all did what they needed and wanted to do throughout the day until it was time for them to settle down at camp and enjoy the party.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Sweet fucking Satan and the Nine Hells. That was a long ass chapter and it really tested my ability to write on my own without an actual guideline to follow. And I'm sorry if it seems like the ending was rushed a little, this story was almost 20,000 words long, and I just really wanted to get it out to you all, who knows, maybe I'll rewrite the ending sometime.

But anyway, I appreciate any and all who have read this chapter and I look forward to any reviews you give. I will hopefully see you all soon when I begin writing for season three.