A/N

Greetings and salutations ladies, lords, and non-binary royalty. Before you read the chapter, I updated the chart! I've added Jordan, Stacy and Lizzie, because they weren't in the other chart and they're kind of important characters too. I know Jordan is supposed to have a beard, but I tried EVERYTHING and I couldn't get it to look good. But then I realized they were in high school so it's probably better if he doesn't have a beard. Oh, and I made some other stuff too.

I literally made them for no reason. Just thought it was fun. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

—

Weeknights where the guys could gather around after dinner happened once in a while, and it quickly became an usual occurrence for them. They would sit around in one of the cabins and chat, just relaxing and joking around. Dinner had been chaotic and they all ventured over to cabin 03 some time ago, which was Lukas', Dans and Axel's.

"Okay, no offense, but some of us—" Jesse paused and shot a glance in Aidens direction. "..need to freaking chill."

Aiden scoffed in his usual exaggerated manner. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

A smirk formed on Jesse's face. "Kind of." Aiden raised his middle finger to him in response.

"Now now, there's no need to fight, kids." Gill jokingly spoke, chuckling.

Aiden huffed. "Shut up, Gill."

Stretching, Jesse made his way across the room to the door. It was getting late, and he was growing tired of all the joking they did that night. "Okay, I'm gonna head out." The guys exchanged glances with each other and decided it was time for everyone to go to their own cabins. Yawning, Dan pushed himself off the ground. "Alright, time to hit the hay."

"Wait!" Stampy stood up and Dan turned around. "I actually had a question." The hooded teen stuck his hands in his pockets and shuffled in his spot. "Do you maybe, by any chance, uh..."

Dan ran a hand through his cyan hair and turned to completely face his slightly shorter friend. "Do you maybe want to hang out tomorrow?" Stampy asked, taking a step closer.

"Sure. Sounds great." Dan answered with a shrug. "I'll be looking forward to it."

Stampy smiled, his olive green eyes twinkling with excitement. "Sweet! Thanks Dan! Good night!" Dan watched Stampy leave the cabin and he couldn't help but smile a little. Tomorrow was going to be fun.

The next morning brought a much calmer energy to the room than the night before. Lukas woke up early that morning, which was rare since he wasn't really a morning person. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was just half past seven am. Stretching, Lukas looked around the room to see a sound asleep Axel and Dan already getting dressed into his usual attire: a turquoise t-shirt with a black jacket and dark blue jeans with brown converse. The blonde teen checked the time again, not surprised his roommate was already up. Dan never slept in, claiming it was bad to oversleep and would ruin the whole point of 'beauty sleep'.

After getting dressed himself, Lukas was about to leave for breakfast when he noticed something on the ground in front of the door. Curious, he decided to pick it up. It was a neatly folded note without a name on it. Dan shot a glance at his roommate, intrigued by the paper he was holding. "Whatcha got there Luke?"

"I think it's a letter." Lukas answered, examining the note.

"Really?" Dan asked, stepping up next to him to take a closer look. "Who's it from?"

Lukas unfolded the note, glancing at the scribbled words on paper and reading them thoroughly.

Uhh, hi there!

So uhm, I'll get to the point: I think I have a crush on you. I admire how you're not afraid to openly express your feelings and opinions. I think it's cool that you just live your life, without caring what other people think. I wish I had that much confidence. But I'm such a coward that I can't even say this to your face, but write it down on paper instead. You must think I'm a total loser or something. Anyhow, if you still think of me as a decent person, please address me ASAP and let me know what you think. If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you hate my guts and flush myself down the toilet.

"Well? What does it say?" Dan asked, peeking over his roommate's shoulder. Lukas glanced at him confused, signaling for him to give him some personal space. "I believe it's a love letter. Whoever wrote it must have a some sincere feelings for you." Dan finally backed up, his eyes widening in astonishment. "What makes you think it's for me? Is this some kind of prank?" he asked, glaring at Lukas in suspicion.

"No, I simply connected the dots. Out of the three of us you are the only one without a significant other, therefore it would be unlikely if the letter was in fact addressed to me or Axel."

"What? Give me that!" Dan snatched the paper from Lukas' hands, reading it for himself. "Who uses 'ASAP' these days?"

"Really? That's the thing you take issue with?"

"This has to be a prank." Dan huffed. "I'm the only gay guy in our class and everybody knows that."

(A/N, I know a few chapters back I mentioned that Jordan was the only one who know about Dan being gay, but that didn't work well with the story so it had to be changed.)

Lukas pulled his hair back and let out a frustrated sigh, trying to cope with his overbearing roommate. "Well unless someone is secretly queer, I'm assuming your secret admirer is neglecting your sexuality."

"You know what? I'm not dealing with this. Not this early." Dan opened the door and left for breakfast. He wasn't feeling hungry, he just needed some fresh air to clear his mind. Besides, he had more important things to worry about.

It had been roughly one hour since breakfast and Dan had already begun to regret his decision. Keeping in mind that he was doing it for Stampy, he marched through the forest, following his hooded friend to wherever he was headed to. "So where are we going exactly?" Dan asked, trying to shake off the thought that this was how people got murdered. Stampy looked back, a smile spreading across his face. "There's this place I know that's tucked away in the woods. I like to go there to relax and get my mind off of things." Dan nodded and continued to follow Stampy through the forest where the camp was far behind them. After a while, the hooded teen stopped walking. "We're here."

A small part of Dan was expecting some scary abandoned place with murder weapons and stuff, but he was glad to be proven wrong when he saw a creek with a picnic table and a few big rocks next to it. "This is my favorite place in the whole forest." Stampy said, sitting down on one of the boulders. Dan took seat next to him, making sure to give him space. "Yeah, I see why you like this place." Stampy smiled over to Dan before heading to the creek, picking up a pebble. He brought back his arm and threw it, making the pebble skip on the water.

"Woah..."

Stampy turned to Dan surprised, before picking up a pebble and giving it to him. "Do you wanna try?"

"I don't really know how." Dan admitted with a shrug. Stampy picked up a pebble for himself and positioned his arm. "So you bring your arm back like this, then toss it this way. Make sure you give it a strong flick to make it skip more." Dan nodded and followed Stampy's instructions. But to his dismay, the pebble sank to the water.

"Um, let me see..." Stampy grabbed Dans arms, guiding him through the process. The slightly taller teen felt his heart beat faster having his sort of crush that close to him. Stampy nodded with a smile and explained to his friend how he was supposed to do it. After a few sorry tries, Dan was finally able to make a pebble skip on the water. He grinned happily, proud of his achievement.

The next instant —

"Hey, Dan. I've been meaning to ask you.."

"Hm?"

Stampy suddenly went silent, and his usual enthusiasm seemed to lessen. "Have you by any chance noticed something different today? Something.. odd?" Dan's mind instantly flashed back to the note from that morning, but he shook off the thought, assuming it wasn't what Stampy was talking about. "No, not really. Why do you ask?"

"O-Oh.. uhm, no reason.." Stampy muttered. He seemed.. sad? What was going on? "We should head back soon. Camp activities are starting soon, and if we don't get there asap, we might get in trouble." The hooded teen stuck his hands in his pockets and turned around, walking away. Dan watched his friend walk off, trying to comprehend what just happened.

And then it hit him.

"Who uses 'ASAP' these days?"

"Well unless someone is secretly queer, I'm assuming your secret admirer is neglecting your sexuality."

"Have you by any chance noticed something different today? Something.. odd?"

Suddenly everything started falling into place. It was all so clear now.

"You're the one who wrote the note?!" Dan exclaimed astonished. Stampy stopped dead in his tracks, turning around with a shocked look on his face. "..Yeah? I mean, I kind of assumed you already knew that.."

Dan shook his head, still surprised. He was so shocked that he almost didn't know what to say. Picking up all the confidence he had left, he spoke some simple words and tried to stay subtle. "Well it's a funny story actually you see this morning my roommate — what's his name again? I don't know something like Leonard I think anyway he picked up the note and read it but it didn't have a name on it and then he was like "this is for you bla bla bla" and I was like "how do you know it's for me?" and I actually didn't really listen to the rest he was saying but anyway then I left for breakfast and—"

"DAN! Slow down." Stampy exclaimed. "I barely understood what you just said."

"Very subtle, idiot." Dan thought. He took a deep breath and tried again. "Long story short: there was no name on the note so we didn't know who it was for." Stampy had calmed down by then, and he tried to cope with his friend. "There was no name on it? That can't be right.. Are you sure you checked it thoroughly?" he asked, perplexed. Dan repeated himself, louder and clearer this time. "Yes, I did. But there was no name from who wrote it nor who it was for."

"Really?" Stampy pondered aloud. "Well that is rather strange, I could've sworn I—" he abruptly stopped talking, his eyes growing wide in shock. "OH CRAP I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING!"

That got a chuckle out of Dan, who was amused by the adorableness of his crush. He could remember as though it were yesterday he developed feelings for him. Dan was decently popular at Emerald high, and he grew familiar with many other people during his time at school. But there wasn't a single one of them he'd have called a friend. But this Stampy fellow had the mysterious ability to slip past one's defenses and stick around, and to Dan's surprise, he didn't really mind. From that moment, everything changed for him.

"Stampy, I.. I don't even know where to begin."

"It's fine, I get it. You hate me now. I was just gonna go anyway so—"

"NO No no! I mean, look, this is going to be a lot to take in. But you have, to trust me, and just bear with me for a moment." Dan took a step forward and held Stampy's hands. He gazed into his eyes and let his words work their magic. "I like you— no, that's an understatement. I love you. Like seriously, I can't stop thinking about you. You are the person I want to be with everyday. And that.. is something that I've been very afraid to say. But.. I worship you. I'd freaking trade my life for yours. You're the most caring and compassionate person I have ever met in my entire life. I love you!" The words were spoken fast, but Stampy understood every part of it nonetheless. Dan was expecting a hug, maybe even a peck on the cheek, but instead he got this:

"I-I.. don't understand.. Dan, I am s-so messed up.. Why do y-you even like me?" Stampy muttered, his voice trembling. He let go of Dans hand and took a step back.

"I guess.." Dan paused, his thoughts racing. "..it's because you're just as messed up as I am."

Several seconds of silence passed as the boys gazed into each others eyes. "Look, I know I haven't always been an ideal person.. But I really love you. So, by any chance you still want to go out with me?" Dan asked hopefully.

Stampy stuck his hands in his pockets and shuffled in his spot. "You wouldn't want to date me, I'm a handful.." But Dan only smiled and held up his hands. "Good thing I have two hands then." he joked with a playful wink. A bright crimson blush covered Stampy's face, making Dan laugh. Stampy couldn't help but smile as well. "Let's stay here for the day."

And that is what they did. Just sitting around, talking about life and other stuff. Little did they know that would be the beginning of something beautiful.

—

A/N

Crap. This was supposed to be a very uwu chapter but the ending kind of sucked. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. I have a good idea for the next chapter, involving Lillie, Luna and Lucy. (If you don't know who they are, they're three ocs from readers I put in the story.) I've been meaning to use them but so far I didn't really have a good idea, until now. But more on that later.

Sincerely, me ❤️