"Goooood morning campers! I hope you're all ready for a wonderful new day with your new friends! Today will be filled with canoe racing, rock climbing, and hiking! I hope you're ready to get your outside on!"

"What does that even mean?" Will grumbled, peeling his eyes open as their head camp councilor, Taryn, spoke over the intercom in each of their cabins. "'Get your outside on'?"

"I think," Ash said with a yawn as he pulled on a shirt down below, "that it means, like, get ready for the day. Or something."

Jake was already gone--he usually was, by this time of the morning--and Chaol was snoring as heavily as ever. Will usually had to wake him up with force.

Will huffed. "It sounds stupid."

Ash giggled a little and strode to the bathroom, starting to brush his teeth. "Mhm."

Will yawned and stretched, smacking his lips. The sun was just barely over the horizon. Rock climbing and canoe races could be fun...

Will climbed down from his bunk and crossed to Chaol's, slapping him lightly on his face. "Chaol, bud, wake up," he sighed. "We don't have all day."

"Uggggh," Chaol groaned, rolling over and slapping Will's hand away. "Nooo. Stop."

Ash chuckled from the bathroom, and Will looked over, noting with some surprise that is it just me, or is Ash getting taller?

He cleared his throat and returned to the task at hand, then yelled at the top of his lungs, "SHIT, CHAOL, YOUR BLANKET'S ON FIRE!!!"

That did it.

Chaol's eyes snapped open and he started thrashing, squealing like a scared pig. Ash spewed his mouthful of toothpaste and spit and started laughing when Chaol flopped over the edge of the bed and landed with a thud on the hard wooden floor.

"aH--" Chaol gasped. "Get it OFF--"

Will grinned and held out a hand to help Him up. "Good morning."

Chaol blinked at him, winded, and then realized that there was, in fact, no fire. His face split into a grin. "Ah, you got me good," he chuckled. "You sneaky little fuck."

Ash was still laughing, and Will could hardly believe how good it felt to hear that again.

~ ~ ~

"Uh, like, what the fuck is this?"

"A canoe," Ash said simply, buckling his life-jacket. "Have you never seen a canoe before?"

"That's not a canoe," Will yelped, poking at the absurd yellow banana-like thing that was sitting half-in the water with his paddle. "That's a floating embarrassment, is what that is."

Ash grinned. "It's not my fault you just had to get the last bagel in the dining hall, otherwise we could have had one of the sexy red ones." He shrugged. "Plus, my foster dad says embarrassment builds character."

"I have character," Will huffed indignantly. "I have all the character in the world, thank you very much."

Ash only chuckled and headed for the canoe.

Yep, he's definitely taller...

Today, Ash was wearing faded blue ripped jeans and a white t-shirt, and Will couldn't decide if he looked hot or adorable. He settled for somewhere between the two and followed him to the horrible yellow monster of a canoe, helping to push it into the water once Ash got settled. Then he climbed in.

"Your life-jacket," Ash reminded him, and Will scoffed. 

"I can swim just fine. I'm like a duck."

Ash giggled. "My foster dad would say that being a duck builds character."

"I bet your foster dad is the definition of 'no character'."

Ash snorted a surprised little giggle that turned into a laugh, and Will grinned, pleased that he'd elicited such a reaction from the smaller boy.

He started to use his oar to push them farther away from the shore when Ash said suddenly, "You never used to smile so much."

Will blinked, his grin freezing on his face, and his head snapped toward Ash. "...How do you--"

Ash blinked, then flushed. "I...oh. I just remembered something, didn't I--?"

Will nodded mutely, staring at him.

Ash ducked his head, fiddling with one of the straps on his life-jacket. "...cool."

Will bit his lip in an attempt to stop an even bigger grin from splitting his face. Baby steps. 

They pushed away from the shore, trying to catch up with the rest of the campers before they got too far away. It was slow work, since they kept knocking their oars together and could never figure out which direction was which, but it was fun, just being in a canoe with Ash with the sun as yellow as their boat glaring down overhead, sparkling on beautiful dark water.

"Look!" Ash gasped, leaning over the edge. "Fish!"

The canoe rocked dangerously and Will yelped, grabbing onto the sides of the boat to stop it from flipping. IN doing so, it dislodged his oar, which plopped into the water and started to float away.

"Shit," Will cursed, trying to reach for it.

"EEP--" Ash yelped, and now his oar dropped into the water as he tried to steady the boat.

For a moment, they both just stared at their oars, which were floating away surprisingly quickly. And then Ash said in such a mournful voice that Will nearly burst out laughing, "Oh no."

Ash glanced back, his eyes wide. "Will! Stop laughing!"

That, of course, only made him laugh harder.

It really was an awful situation, what with them being a crazy distance from shore and the others too far out of earshot to be of any help. Their oars had floated in completely different directions and were now bobbing lazily on the surface of the water.

"Goddammit, Will," Ash said with a sigh. "We're gonna be stuck out here all night, and it's because of your stupid ass."

Will grinned at him. "...getting stuck on a boat builds character."

Ash stared at Will fro a moment, and Will at him. Then they both burst out laughing, shaking the boat so hard that the next thing to topple over the edge was themselves.

The water was shockingly cold, and Will gasped when his head broke the surface. Ash was already there, his hair hardly even wet, staring in surprise t their overturned, sunny-yellow canoe.

"Shiiiiit," Ash sighed, and Will stifled another laugh as he started to swim after their boat.

"Ah, no, don't leave me here!" Ash squeaked, starting to doggy-paddle in Will's direction.

"Go get the other oar, dingus," Will chuckled. "We can't do anything until we get those."

Nearly half an hour later, they had both the oars. Ash was holding onto the boat, floating on his back, his hair waving peacefully in the water, while Will was flopped over the top of the overturned canoe like a cat in a sunspot.

"We're gonna die out here," Ash moaned.

"We are not," Will argued, kicking his feet in the direction he thought the camp was in. The other canoes had gone out of sight forever ago.

"Yes we are," Ash whined. "The fish are gonna eat us. Then our bones will sink, and all that'll be left is this ugly canoe."

Will hummed, thinking. "See, I told you bright yellow wasn't a good sign."

Ash groaned. "I'm gonna die, and you're gonna be the last person I see."

Will tsked. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Ash flushed, flipping off his back in the water and hoisting himself up next to Will, draping his arms over the boat. "You weirdo."

- - - - - - - 

Hehehehehehehe. Heh.

This chapter was actually a lot of fun to write. I do love my Wish fluff, i guess. (lol)

Ah, what else. This is only the beginning of a long journey (teehee)

I debated hauling Tristan along, but then decided that Tristan is actually kinda an annoying character to write about (sorry, my dude. He really does deserve the world, but not this one.)

Vote and comment pls!

Q: Favorite type of pants? (haha random question lol)

A: Jeans. Definitely jeans. Or pajama pants.