That night, Johnny was acting as if everything was fucking normal. As if he did not just give another guy a handjob in the woods after chasing him down and pinning him to a secluded tree. As if that guy was not Daniel Larusso, his so-called-ex-karate-rival.

"It might just be the victory party talking," Bobby was saying, arm wrapped around Jessica and Johnny respectively. The counselors were all sitting around the campfire, the kids having long since gone to bed. Daniel hated to admit it, but he'd had the best orgasm he'd had in a long time, so he was quite comfortable and content so long as he did not think about the before-and-after circumstances of said amazing orgasm. "But I'm actually glad we beat Larusso in something. It was kinda strange you guys jetted off for the entire game, though. I ended up having to help Jess climb the blue team's tree, and I thought you would have been a little more preoccupied with, you know, capturing the flag, Johnny." Bobby looked over at Daniel curiously. "Did he end up catching you, Daniel?"

Johnny gave him an odd look, his expression a mask of nonchalance his slightly urgent eyes could not match. So, really, Daniel could play this however he wanted. And, yeah, Johnny did him a favor...in the darkened woods, being touched by another person that way for the first time, panting into the soft, heated skin of the brilliant toned frame of Johnny Lawrence...

"Nah, I got away from him. He didn't stand a chance."

Lawrence was still an asshole, any potentially one-off favors put aside. Larusso, 1; Lawrence, 0, after all.

"Hm," Bobby hummed, his attention diverted suddenly as Jessica's roasting marshmallow caught on fire. The following was a slightly frantic commotion as the red-head stood, blowing out the marshmallow and waving it around before finally collapsing back down on the log next to Bobby.

"Ah, damn," Jessica frowned, eyeing the once white marshmallow that was now mostly burnt to a black crisp. "I almost had it perfectly golden."

"Alright, just how I like it!" Bobby replied, taking two graham crackers and a piece of chocolate, promptly taking Jessica's marshmallow and making a smore. "Thanks, Jess."

At first, Daniel thought Bobby was just trying to be nice or funny about it, but when he actually started eating it, Daniel cringed. Jessica did as well, but she was laughing a moment later. "That's disgusting, Bobby."

"Yeah, he's the trash can you throw all your burnt marshmallows in, for sure," Johnny said. "It's taken a lot of practice runs to get the marshmallow golden. There's a certain artistic technique to it."

Jessica looked at Johnny consideringly as she stood, getting another marshmallow for second go. "You know, I think that's the only thing you've said all summer that I can agree with."

Daniel looked over at where Johnny offered Jessica a charming smile, his face glowing in the firelight, and he was wrong earlier; Johnny was acting every bit of normal, but he was sitting a pointed six feet from Daniel, an invisible barrier of limitations set between them.

---

Back at the boys' counselors cabin, Bobby had promptly fallen asleep. Johnny said, vaguely to the room to where Daniel wasn't entirely sure if he were talking to him, that a lifestyle of early bedtimes and lack of sugar made Bobby have the sleep schedule of an eight year old. Tommy yawned, commenting that he was going to get ready for bed as well, and went out into the restroom facility to brush his teeth.

"I'm going out, too." Daniel said vaguely, though he wasn't sure why. Johnny probably didn't give a shit...but then Daniel pictured a world where he did, where he pinned Daniel to the wall of the cabin, ordering him not to go, giving him incentive to stay...

Honestly, these ideas were getting ahead of him. There was no need to have fantasizes of Johnny Lawrence of all people; sure, he was pretty, and Daniel was no stranger to his thoughts straying that way about certain pretty guys, but Johnny? Even if Johnny had whispered in the night those dirty promises about more times like that, Johnny was probably not one to keep his word.

(But he did keep his truce in the fall, he hadn't laid a finger on Daniel. Would he keep the same promise, but in reverse?)

And though Daniel's heart had rushed, he hadn't expected Johnny to say anything. He imagined Johnny was the type that would brush this under the rug, make things normal...certainly he wouldn't go back to treating him like shit, right?

Johnny grabbed Daniel's forearm from his place on his bed before he left, halting his thoughts. At first, Daniel thought (hoped?) Johnny would pull him on the bed and take him right there with Bobby sleeping one bed over and Tommy possibly coming back any minute. (Daniel hadn't gotten a chance to feel up Johnny's toned chest earlier, a true crime indeed). But alas, this broken clock was right only once. Johnny was looking at him apprehensively, mouth a thin line.

"You're not gonna go gossip with Jessica, are you?" He asked. He seemed to try to appear intimidating, though his eyes looked too worried to make it convincing.

Daniel scoffed, face reddening. "Please, I have a lot better to talk about than that."

Johnny didn't look convinced, though he nodded, releasing Daniel's arm.

---

"Jess, you're not gonna fucking believe what just happened," Daniel burst into what was thankfully the private tent (because apparently they had to use it when they wanted to use a candle, per Susan's allergies. Daniel couldn't care less, so long as Jessica was alone.) He was relieved to see Jessica there, relieved even more to see that Ali (who had bought the tent) was not present. There was the sound of the shower running in the facility about twenty feet from them, so that answered that question.

"What?" Jessica asked, immediately interested as she bookmarked her novel. She looked vexed for only a moment. "If you're just annoyed with Johnny or Tommy--"

"No," Daniel interrupted. "I mean, yes, this is a Johnny thing, but it's not what you think--"

"Daniel," Jessica sighed, rolling her eyes. "I know he can be an asshole sometimes, but just--"

"He kissed me, Jess!" Daniel burst out, hopefully not too loud. "Well, I technically kissed him first, but, uh...it was a moment of tension, and he ended up..."

"What?" Jessica asked, shell-shocked. She looked Daniel up and, well, pointedly down. "What did he end up doing?"

And now Daniel felt a slight twinge of regret. Jessica knew he swung both ways--

("Like Bowie," Daniel had insisted.

"Daniel, I love you, but you'll never be an ounce as cool as Bowie," Jessica fired back, soothing but firm in intent.)

--but now she expected details. And Daniel greatly wanted to give out said details. Jessica had certainly informed him of any hookup she happened to have (incidentally few, as she was choosing to wait for marriage, but she had a great time finding "loopholes".) But Daniel supposed it was different for girls, and though Jessica may have called him "one of the girls" a time or two, this was certainly different.

"You see," Daniel started, face heated as his eyes darted around the small tent. "When two guys hate each other, then become friends...then one gets a little, uh...hard problem on the other's leg--"

"Oh my god, Daniel, I'm actively dying, just spill already!" Jessica urged.

And so, Daniel complied. He described running from Johnny, Johnny catching and pinning him to the tree ("I actually know that area, the one with the boulder pile?" Jessica contributed. "The kids call it Mount Mountain. Stupid name, I know...wow, you guys were really far out..."). Daniel told Jessica about what it was like, going in for that first desperate kiss, and he spared Jessica the details about what Johnny did under his shorts outside of a particularly vulgar gesture ("I'm not telling you about my dick, Jess, how would you like it if I asked for details about what's going on in your shorts?"). Still, he spared no details when telling Jessica of all the dirty things Johnny had whispered to him, all the filthy promises of a round two.

"Hm," Jessica hummed, her expression almost impressed, if not incredibly flustered. "Wow. I mean, I knew you were...you know." She nodded, and Daniel nodded back with a shrug. "But Johnny...you know, if that were Bobby that tried to put the moves on him--which he wouldn't, but hypothetically--Johnny would probably slap the shit out of him."

"Yeah?" Daniel replied, voice soft with thought. He didn't know why, but something about that made him feel pretty special. It wasn't as if he were a grade school student hoping to be Johnny's valentine, but the thought still made him feel surprisingly warm. "Why do you think I'm different, then?"

"I dunno," Jessica shrugged, a thoughtful expression on her features. "I mean, you're cute...but so is Bobby..." Jessica blushed a little at the mention, biting her lip. "Maybe Johnny's just attracted to you, end of story. Sounds to me like you've gotten yourself a summer hookup. I'd ride that train while it lasts, if you know what I mean."

Daniel did not know what she meant, though hopefully he didn't appear too much like a confused puppy. "I think he was just saying empty promises, heat of the moment stuff...you know?"

"No, I don't," Jessica insisted with an amused smile. "I'm willing to bet money--five dollars says he'll definitely try to hook up with you before the end of this summer--no, the end of this week."

"I don't have money to bet, but how about my snack from the Big Cabin?" Daniel challenged, wondering just when this became his life.

"You're on."

---

When Daniel walked up to the boy's counselor's cabin, he expected to see all the lights out. He did not expect to see Johnny waiting for him outside the door, arms crossed as if he were the bouncer of a club containing two sleeping guys.

Daniel approached him, tension bubbling in his stomach, but definitely not a bad kind. He felt jittery--and upon seeing Johnny's face, which was not upset, merely curious--he felt his blood rush every which way in anticipation.

"Good job on winning capture the flag tonight," Daniel started, because honestly, he couldn't think of a stupider thing to say.

Johnny was not so up-to-speed on the art of addressing pleasantries. "Did you tell Jessica?"

Daniel could sense the proper answer here, and he was glad years of lying about bullying and his charm with teachers had sculpted him into a pretty good liar. "Nah--I don't actually tell Jess about affairs of the dick. She doesn't know about...a thing. About that...or me." And yeah, that was sort of his coming out to Johnny, if Johnny could pick up on it. Daniel had to let him know that it meant a shred of something to him, to how he perceived his (fractional) attraction to men (which, now adding Johnny Lawrence into the "wet dream potential" category, the statistics of sexual attraction could no longer be computed so simply).

Johnny only hummed in reply, and though some of the tension dissipated at that, it was merely a drop in the ocean. Daniel didn't know what he wanted to say (he knew what he wanted to do, though, and between Johnny Lawrence or a bag of chips he'd be losing in his bet, he'd take Johnny any day of the week.)

"So I guess this was just a one-off?" Daniel inquired, his voice curious and a tad hopeful under a layer of faux nonchalance. He supposed asking directly broke a rule somewhere unspoken, but damn it if it wasn't his game, as if he wasn't going to enjoy playing it. "Just a favor for a friend? It is odd, I never really even touched you back...oh well, goodnight--" Daniel started towards the door, hand not even on the doorknob before Johnny grabbed him, pinning him against the wall of the cabin.

"You sure like pinning me to stuff, don't you--?" Daniel started, but he found himself halted by the pad of Johnny's thumb, tracing his bottom lip. He tried not to whimper at that feeling alone, of being out here alone with him after all that tension rebuilding over a few short hours. After looking up to meet Johnny's eyes, however, and seeing their dark desperation, Daniel couldn't help but let out a soft pleading noise.

"Please, Daniel, can I just...?" Johnny asked, voice low, daring, but shaking with a vulnerability that Daniel sensed he had the power to make or break in this moment.

Daniel didn't think the sound of his own name from Johnny's lips would turn him on so much. He nodded eagerly, and Johnny moved in, striking first as he pressed his lips to Daniel's, warm and intent and something natural despite the circumstances. Daniel wrapped his arms around the back of Johnny's neck, Johnny's wondering under his shirt, rubbing at his hips. The summer air suddenly grew twice as hot, the crickets' chirping and fireflies glowing in the night fading to dull and meaningless compared to the closeness of Johnny, the spark of how everything clicked when he touched Daniel.

The next day, when Daniel casually handed Jessica a bag of her favorite chips, she merely gave him a knowing smile.

---

The fact that this ended up being exactly 2,200 words is incredibly satisfying. And no, before you come in with the pitchforks in the comments, I do not endorse outing anyone under any circumstances (unless the person explicitly asks you to/gives you permission, of course). I just like that trope where the character is like "no, I'm not gonna do that thing, of course not!" and then the next scene, they're doing that thing lmao. Plus it's just a funny/accurate character decision imo, no way would Daniel be able to keep the secret.

Also it's been three chapters with no Cookies the kitten content! I have seriously robbed you guys and for that I apologize...I know you're not really here for him, but he loves you guys regardless. He was, um...*checks notes for excuses* reading Tommy's '81 Playboy in the Big Cabin lol. If any artists in the chat wanna draw Cookies the kitten reading a Playboy (or anything from this story, really) I would die of happiness.

Until next time,

~mw