[hider=Fun Heterosexual Camping Trip]
Years ago and miles away from the beginnings of a raging game of football with rules made by a colony of exiles in a land made of poison and sunstroke, a bulky young fourteen year-old was working his way through lush rainforest, following the kind of route game took that only the most enthusiastic of woodsmen would have the audacity to call a trail. He was big for his age, but that didn’t help much as he trudged his way through the mud and vines. Uphill. In the rain. It was one of those days.

The sun was beginning to set, and Blaine grew concerned. The mountain was dangerous at night, supposedly Grimm wandered from the ruins on the other side from the village… Or at least that was what the adults had always said. Personally, he had never heard anything at night, but regardless it was going to be trouble if Alistair and he came back after sunset. Moira was always pissed whenever one of the acolytes got into trouble, and Gods Above and Below knew that being on Moira’s bad side was as good as having a target on your back from the Hunters, the Grimm, and everything in between. Girl had a fury like a bear. But like, a large bear, with a bad attitude and some cubs. Maybe the bear was going through a bad divorce, who knew? The point was, Moira was a scary bear.

These thoughts keeping him company, Blaine stumbled into a small clearing below the cliff face in the mountainside, providing shelter from the pouring rain. Droplets hammered around him like a thousand tiny drums as he pulled a small scrap of vellum from his pack, glancing between it and the clearing. Near as he could tell, he was close to the summit, which meant that Alistair…

[color=39b54a]“Boo.”[/color]

[color=aba000]“MOTHER OF-!”[/color] The faunus whipped around suddenly, pancho slapping around him as he brought his walking stick to bear in the face of… nothing. Not a [i]damn[/i] thing. His eyes narrowed in a false glare as he bared his teeth, growling as he spoke. [color=aba000]“Alistair, so help me you almost had a meal of your own teeth. Come out or I’ll have you eat your coat.”[/color] It would’ve been quite menacing if his voice hadn’t cracked like your grandmother’s favorite china against the linoleum.	

The soft sound of laughter peeled out from above Blaine as a lithe figure drooped upside-down from the ceiling, warm green eyes accompanied by a familiar smile. His face was slim, much like the rest of him, with pronounced cheekbones and a narrow chin. His hair was wild and so was his grin, but he moved with a grace that Blaine could never match in their sparring. Beneath his scales was a deceptive layer of tight muscle, making him stronger than his hundred and thirty odd pounds seemed. Still, despite appearances, he was older than Blaine, though only by a little less than a year. It didn’t stop him from teasing the younger boy about it. He wore a foreign jacket: blue,  slightly threadbare and faded after years of travel, but still thick and warm. It had a zipper, which had fascinated the younger children in the village when they were younger, completely different from their own homespun clothes. Near as they knew it came from Vale, but it was hard to tell for certain. They were so far out from the larger settlements in Vacuo that they hardly knew whether or not Vale still spoke the same language, much less fashion trends for the time. That way lay trouble, anyhow, as Moira reminded them on a daily basis. [color=39b54a]“Come now, Blaine, you wouldn’t harm an heirloom like this, would you? Think of propriety! The history! How I would have to steal your clothes for my way down this bloody pile of rock!”[/color]

At this, the blond faunus’s glare cracked into the slightest flicker of a smile as he stood up straight, his swishing tail slowing to a crawl. He tried his best to ignore the accelerations in his chest that always happened when he was alone with Alistair. It wasn’t that bad, but always seemed like it got worse when the other boy was close to him. Most likely unhealthy. Maybe an allergic reaction. Regardless, Blaine slid into his usual posture, leaning forward on his staff and ever so slightly more forward towards his companion. [color=aba000]“...Maybe. Or maybe I’d be less inclined to chase you round with my staff if you told me why we were out here?” [/color]

Alistair sighed deeply, hanging from just his arms for a moment before he flipped around and landed on his feet. He leaned back against the taller boy for just a second, his shoulders pressed against Blaine’s chest [b]-[i]ba-thump[/i]-[/b] pausing for a moment before rapping the back of his hand against the staff Blaine carried before he continued speaking, slowly strolling to the edge of their cover. [color=39b54a]“Well, I could tell you, or,”[/color] He began, wandering back into the rain, [color=39b54a]“You could follow me, and find out. I guarantee you’ll enjoy the second option more. If you can keep up, that is.”[/color] With that, he disappeared into the rain, bolting up the path.

[color=aba000]“Alistair, you bastard!”[/color] Blaine sprinted after the other faunus, laughing through the pounding rain as he made chase. It was cold and mucky, but soon he caught his quarry. They wandered through the forest for a while, wet and cold but in good company. After some time, all hope of returning to the village by nightfall had passed, and Blaine was beginning to grow nervous. Still, Alistair assured him that shelter was just around the corner, and they would face Moira together when they returned. Eventually they rounded a corner and came to a gap in the mountains, with half of a spire jutting from the ground in the clearing, the other clearly having fallen down the side of the cliff ages ago. The only record of its passage was the lack of trees in its path downward, ending in a crumpled heap of iron.

More importantly for the two boys, there seemed to be the remains of a large complex sitting beside the bottom half of the spire, where Alistair managed to whip together a small fire below the artificial outcropping while Blaine gathered a few edible roots and berries from the surrounding forest. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and after Alistair found a snake they had a right bounty with a little bit of protein. They shed their clothes, drying them by the fire, laughing and cracking jokes across the room as they ate. There was a chill, but not a bad one.

As their clothes steamed off, Blaine tried to convince Alistair to tell him why the hell they were out here, but the smaller faunus just laughed and insisted that he would have to wait until morning, looping the conversation back to gossip about the other acolytes and how Talia definitely had a thing for Morgan. Eventually, things settled into a lull, but Blaine didn't mind. It was a comfortable silence, the kind that fell over things like a blanket, and it kept them company as much as the jokes had. In a way, it said more than they had mentioned all day. There was an agreement in that silence, and neither one of them said anything as Alistair had slowly scooted closer, hand closing over Blaine's as they stared into the flames.

[b][i]-Ba-thump-[/i][/b]

[/hider]