A few days slip by in a haze--the camper's rehearsals, Jessica teaching at the crafts booth, Ali's campers launching a water balloon attack on Daniel's camper's only to be annihilated by Bobby's campers coming the the rescue with water guns. All in all, it's some of the best times Daniel has had in his life.

And then, in the night, there's this strange new thing going on, with Johnny Lawrence of all people. Admittedly, Johnny and Daniel could hardly find the time or privacy to fool around. They couldn't fake too many fights, after all. Once, Johnny tried to claim a shower while eyeing Daniel, but then Tommy tagged along and ended up using the stall next to Johnny. As frustrating as it was, Daniel couldn't help but be even more turned on by Johnny's own frustration.

Johnny seemed to have a lot of this planning stuff in the bag, though--he could be particularly strategic when need be. That morning, when he pulled Daniel aside and to the back of the shower facility, Daniel was met with a searing kiss. Naturally, Daniel kissed him back, though before it could escalate to anything more interesting, Johnny pulled away, his forehead rested on Daniel's.

"I've got a plan. Somewhat." Johnny whispered against his lips.

"Yeah?" Daniel asked, excitement coursing through him at any potential prospects. They hadn't really talked anything specific about what they were yet--but Daniel knew they both wanted whatever this was to keep going. Desperately. "Like the time you tried to distract everyone by claiming there was pizza in the Big Cabin?"

"Bad idea, I know," Johnny rolled his eyes. "And I'm lucky I'm still standing here. But this might actually work...you do want it to work, don't you, Daniel?" he asked lowly, breath warm on Daniel's neck before kissing the sensitive skin there.

"I...I do," Daniel tilted his head to the side slightly, gladly met by Johnny's charming--if not devilish--grin, before he pulled him in for another deep kiss.

"Things are easier when you're compliant, you know," Johnny murmured in reply, the pad of his thumb tracing Daniel's bottom lip. He seemed entranced when he did so, as if wondering how he'd never noticed Daniel's lips before.

"I didn't know you knew a word like 'compliant'," Daniel replied, and with that the tense spell between them was broken momentarily.

Johnny scoffed, but he seemed unable to help but grin a little at Daniel, and Daniel smiled back. "Just...I'm gonna tell a scary story tonight, the one about the haunted latrine? And I want you to go along with it. When the others are out and distracted, we can slip off somewhere. Alright?"

Daniel frowned a little at the thought; he didn't want to abandon his fellow counselors or scare anyone, but he also didn't want Johnny thinking he was some sort of no-fun rule follower either. "Alright, but it better be quick."

Johnny raised his eyebrows, studying Daniel quizzically. Honestly, they hadn't done everything (they had probably just scratched the surface as far as sexual things, as far as hands and mouths go), but Johnny had undoubtedly memorized every inch of Daniel with his hands alone. "And why would either of us want that?" He asked. "When we could have so much more fun...going as slow as it takes for you to beg for me...?" Johnny's hand was wondering up Daniel's thigh, teasing the inside of his shorts, but Daniel slapped his hand away.

Johnny's blue eyes lit up with worry, and Daniel shook his head, letting out a shaky breath. "I want to, but...we should wait..."

Johnny didn't look pleased, though he nodded reluctantly. "Let's go back to the others, then, before they start missing me too much."

The day ticked by in its own excruciating slowness. As he watched Ali take jabs at Bobby during lunch, Daniel met Johnny's eye, and it was all he could do to keep from pulling Johnny aside. Honestly, what would that even look like? Sorry, guys, I gotta pull Mr. Johnny away, we're gonna have a counselor discussion on what not to do when it comes to friendly peer contact.

Eventually, finally, the day melted in shuddering gold into night. The counselors all gathered by the crackling fire in front of the Big Cabin, and Daniel was content listening to Jessica and Susan exchange cute tidbits of gossip of which of the campers liked each other as he nibbled on a toasted marshmallow, not bothering to get up for any graham cracker or chocolate.

Bobby was telling a story, something about a couple he caught hooking up by the creek last year, when Johnny caught the attention of the counselors just at the end.

He stood up at his six feet of annoyingly attractive tallness, using an on-fire marshmallow as a temporary torch of sorts. "Do you guys wanna hear something really interesting?" he challenged, just as the fire flickered out.

"Not one of your hook-up stories, I hope?" Susan asked from the group. "Poor girl."

(Nope. Wrong on two counts.)

Johnny offered her a mocking polite smile. "Could say the same about you, Susan. Say, have you ever liked a guy before?"

Susan sneered at him. "Whatever you're implying, I could still get more girls than you."

Daniel looked curiously at Johnny at that. He knew they had to save face, but that was just plain hypocritical. Still, Johnny and Susan didn't look phased, so Daniel supposed that was just how they were.

"I was going to offer to tell a story," Johnny continued, walking around the circle of logs around the fire before finally stopping behind Daniel, his large hands on his shoulders sending a spark of electricity through him. "Da--Larusso hasn't heard the Tale of the Haunted Latrine."

Ali sighed and rolled her eyes at that, but Bobby looked interested. "Hey, yeah, that's right! The kids made you tell them, but we still haven't taken Daniel there."

The counselors glanced expectantly at Daniel, which made him look up at Johnny. This was his plan? Hearing the story, then taking Daniel there to potentially hook up, somehow? And they say romance is dead.

"Alright, let's hear it, Lawrence."

Johnny smirked at that, handing off his burnt marshmallow to Bobby before getting another, leaning it towards the fire. "There was once a girl that went to this camp thirty years ago--"

"This camp is only fifteen years old--" Daniel started.

"It's been fifteen years since the remodel, dumbass." Johnny ruffled Daniel's hair before continuing to walk slowly around the circle. "Compliance is key to listening to one of my stories. Now--there was a girl that went to this camp thirty years ago. There was no other way to put it--she was strange. She had long, black hair that often obscured her face, and she would often say strange things about people, as if predicting their fates. There was a group of boys that made fun of her--they would say things to her, about her, and hit her, too. One night, she had enough. Under the guise of snacks and other babes, she lured the boys to the woods..." Johnny met Daniel's eyes as if unable to help himself, and Daniel was smiling over at him; Johnny smiled back, his face a mask of amusement and disbelief.

"When she lured them, she revealed a power like something out of a nerd movie: she could move things with her mind. She forced them all into the tiny latrine, which she then lifted with her mind, slamming up and down, up and down...until she opened the door, and they all were dead. Afraid of punishment, she ran off into the woods, never to be seen again...it is said, though, that her spirit still haunts the woods, as well as the spirits of those boys who died in the latrine..."

A hushed silence fell over the group as they seemed to soak the story in, until Daniel snickered. Johnny looked at him with raised eyebrows, as if daring him to challenge the legitimate nature of his tale.

"That is...really something, Johnny. I sure wish I had known about the haunted elevator toilet before I went in there for capture the flag in the dark." Daniel said, trying to cover his grin with his hand.

Johnny just sighed, exasperated, rolling his eyes. "Do you not take anything seriously?"

Daniel then remembered how he was supposed to be enthralled by the story, and he shook his head. "No, no, I just...I guess I would have to take a closer look at it, is all. See if it's legit."

Johnny nodded, all improv and 'yes, and'. "Alright, fine. I'll show you."

"Oh, can I come?" Tommy asked. "It's so creepy at night..."

"I don't see why you'd want to go if it's creepy, but I guess I'll go, too." Ali offered. Bobby then asked Jessica if she wanted to come with, and soon, all the counselors were walking dutifully down the path into the woods.

Daniel still wasn't entirely sure how this was supposed to work with five other counselors packed in their group, but he supposed he should trust Johnny. That was an odd concept in itself--trusting Johnny. Even so, Johnny had been here several more years than him, and knew the others well--but Johnny seemed to be lacking sometimes, in what Daniel would deem either wit or common sense.

Johnny did pull Daniel to the back of the group, leaving Bobby and Ali to lead, which Daniel thought was a good idea. In the back of the group, however, Johnny had free reign to play grab-ass in the dark, which was doing nothing to help with Daniel's strategizing. So, he supposed it was better to jump the gun:

"Oh, I think I heard something this way--I'll be right back, guys, don't wait up." Daniel offered.

"Oh, no, I won't have you dying on my watch," Johnny countered, heading in an aimless direction ahead of him. "You guys go ahead, we'll let you know if we see anything interesting over here."

Jessica seemed to get whatever telepathic memo Daniel was sending her way, because she grabbed Ali's hand suddenly. "Hey, let's go this way, we can meet up later. You alright being my ghost-hunting buddy, Ali?"

Ali let out a soft laugh at that, looking flushed in the light of the flashlight. "Sure thing. I don't really believe in ghosts, anyway."

"Why do I have the feeling I'll have to comfort both of you when you hear a random noise?" Bobby added, the group's chatter fading with every step as the two groups headed in separate directions.

Daniel thought he might actually miss them, his friends. Better than the company of Johnny Lawrence, anyway. But Johnny could be decent...as they walked, Johnny reached back, holding Daniel's hand. Daniel thought to say something witty on it, but he liked the feeling so much, he figured he would keep his mouth shut for once.

"We've got five minutes, maybe ten..." Johnny predicted. 

"No time for anything really romantic, then?" Daniel asked smartly, and he had the slightly off feeling that he'd said something wrong, that he'd overstepped a boundary. But when--especially considering all the boundaries they had overstepped in the past week and a half--was Daniel ever worried with overstepping when it came to Johnny?

Luckily, though, Daniel could see hints of Johnny's sarcastic, charming smile in the light of his flashlight. "I didn't take you out here for a romantic moonlit stroll, Larusso."

The last time Daniel had been on a nausea-inducing ride was when he was fifteen, when the fair came through Jersey, and he was lucky to have a stomach tough as nails enough to eat funnel cake and then go on the Tilt-A-Whirl. He remembered more dangerous roller coasters, ones in which he was at the top of the hill, starting to question getting on this ride before plummeting to the ground. Only with Johnny Lawrence, getting off the ride--getting away--it was the last thing on his mind.

All that to say: "You really think you're dangerous, huh, Lawrence?"

Either Johnny deemed their spot secluded enough, or temptation had finally grappled at his reasoning, for he stopped right then. He pushed Daniel up against a thick tree, hands grabbing his wrists and keeping them pinned to his sides.

Daniel's breath hitched as he dropped his flashlight, eyeing Johnny with a dark sense of need. He was silent, stunned speechless by that hungry look in Johnny's eyes; he wondered if Johnny always had felt that desire for him, or what spurred it in the first place.

"Do you think that I'm dangerous, Daniel?"

Daniel swallowed, attempting to keep his head from cocking to the side like a curious puppy. There was something about it, intimacy, that was so utterly strange. One could read about it, or see it in a movie, or even bring themself to completion alone...but something about being alone with another, when the desire builds...it is so real, it almost shocks Daniel into complete silence. It almost makes him give in to whatever natural tendencies may make him submit to Johnny's games; but he has no reason to be intimidated. It's all in good fun, after all.

He's reminded, inevitably, of karate. Of how the moves intimidated him at first, but once Daniel repeated over them, they were natural. He overcame them, owned them. And the thought that he could do the same with Johnny Lawrence made him start to smile something sweet in his own tantalizing promise:

"You're not dangerous, Johnny. You're mine."

Daniel thought back on those words from the capture the flag game, and he wondered if Johnny meant them as the same promise then. He wondered if Johnny was going to lose his shit now, try to claw his way to dominance through physical intimidation or otherwise. But no. No, instead Daniel relishes as Johnny's cheeks heat, eyebrows raised as he licks his lips, looking down at Daniel's own.

"Yeah?" Johnny whispers. His grip loosened, and Daniel cupped Johnny's cheeks, thumb running along in his hands-on study of Johnny's cheekbone.

"Yeah," Daniel replies, pulling him into a deep kiss, cherishing the feeling of Johnny's strong arms around his waist, how he pushes him against the tree with no hope but to melt into his embrace. Daniel, among any potential fantasies of girls at the beach or guys in movies, cannot think of a single fantasy he'd rather live in.

"We don't...have a lot...of time..." Johnny murmurs between kisses, seeming for the most part entirely disinterested in what he was saying as he moved to kiss Daniel's neck, sucking a hickey low enough on his collarbone that his shirt will cover it--but not if Johnny continues to pull on his shirts as if he owns them.

"Wanna repay my favor?" Daniel asks breathlessly, trying not to think on Johnny's wandering hands and how good one would feel wrapped around his throat. "You know, suck me off? I could give you pointers this time, you know, since I've got a lot of experience from my one time--"

Daniel feels hushed suddenly as Johnny pulls away, look unreadable, but Daniel feels he definitely did something wrong. "I'm not," he starts. Swallows. Looks almost frightened, and Daniel would pull away if he weren't already pinned to a solid surface. "I'm not doing that..."

"Okay," Daniel replies immediately, hardly letting a second of suffocating, deadly silence leech into the tense air. "Okay. It's fine, Johnny, whatever you wanna do..."

Johnny nods, but his eyes are a little glazed and unfocused. "I do like girls, you know..."

"I know," Daniel whispers back. "You're really good with girls, Johnny..." He says, thinking he would only ever admit such a thing now, with Johnny in this state. Daniel senses some sort of inevitable tipping point, something where Johnny's gonna walk away, and that'll be it.

Johnny nods again as if he can't think of anything else to do, any other way to process the proposition. His eyes lock on Daniel's again. "You're the exception, though..."

Daniel can't help but smile crookedly at that, fingers playing with Johnny's hair. "I'd ask why, but I know you didn't take me out here for romance..."

"I didn't," Johnny says, tilting Daniel's head up by his chin, pressing a kiss to his lips, as if confirming then that everything was alright. "But you are...somewhat good-looking, if that's what you were looking for. I wouldn't wanna hook up with you if you were ugly, anyway."

Daniel scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You are really something, you know that?" he starts, but just then, the two were jolted into reality by a scream in the distance.

Johnny looked out into the ceaseless dark ahead of them and called: "Everything alright?"

The sound of far-off laughter and an "ah, Jesus!" makes Johnny's tense shoulders relax slightly, and he looks back at Daniel. "We should get back," he says, making no effort to mask his disappointment at the realization that he would be getting no action then. "We'll figure something out, promise..."

"You just wanna find a time to use my mouth again," Daniel shrugged, trying to seem indifferent to the matter as he ducked under Johnny's arm and started off, picking his flashlight back up.

Johnny grabbed Daniel's arm at the last second, pulling him close. Daniel could tell he smelled like more of whatever men's deodorant brand deemed "pine trees" than actual pine trees themselves. "And what if I do, Daniel?" he asked, pushing boundaries Daniel had wanted to hack down anyway.

"You were the one who said we should leave," Daniel replied, his cheeks flushed. "Come on, pretty boy, let's go."

Johnny just scoffed, following after him. Along the way, Daniel could hear him behind him mutter: "Pretty boy? What the hell, man...", and Daniel couldn't help but grin, reaching back to hold Johnny's hand, if for only a little while.