#rtahuniverse

You were three and a half hours into your drive to get Max when you started to question why you had agreed to do this. There was about an hour left, you were driving into the middle of nowhere, and the signal was so bad that you couldn’t stream music while you drove. Great, just fucking great. You glanced at the gas meter and noticed that you were running low already, it seemed like the universe was truly just intending to give you a hard time today. Whatever.

You pulled off at the next exit and rolled up into the gas station, cutting the engine and hopping out, snagging your phone and wallet as you went. Miraculously there was signal here so as you filled up the tank you opened Tinder. Tinder was mostly a joke to you, you occasionally had a short conversation with people but most guys just wanted… well they weren’t ever your type. You didn’t think there would anyone in the area, but a new face popped up in your feed. David, a super red head with shockingly green eyes and a brilliant smile. You couldn’t help but smile back down at him, scrolling through his posted pictures. He seemed to be an outdoors man, lot of pictures of him hiking and generally enjoying nature. Surprisingly pale for someone who spent that much time outside, but you definitely didn’t mind. Figuring you’d never run into him seeing as it was so out of the way of where you normally where you swiped right, maybe he’d be fun to talk to.

A few minutes later “It’s a Match!” popped up on your screen and you found yourself smiling again. The click of your tank being full pulled you from your thoughts and you decided to shoot him a message, just a quick hey before you got back on the road. You took a minute to go inside and grab a red bull and crafted a perfect pick up line to start the chat and it popped into your mind right as you were paying.

“Hey David, do you have a bandaid? I scraped my knee falling for you.” You sent, laughing to yourself as you climbed back into your car. The response was faster than you thought it was going to be, only 20 minutes into the rest of the ride.

“I always have bandaids, a true outdoors lover is always prepared! But are you certified in CPR? You’re taking my breath away.” David had sent back and you found yourself cackling over his equally as cheesy response. He was going to be a fun one for sure, you were glad that you had swiped right on this one. Seeing as you were driving you decided to wait on a response and just tried to think of a way to one up his jokey line. Thankfully focusing on that seemed to make time pass faster, so as you rolled up to Camp Campbell, or at least what you thought was Camp Campbell since the sign only has Camp Camp left on it, you grabbed your phone for one last response before you picked up your little brother.

“Wait a second… red hair, super hot, make me want s’more… are you a campfire?” You hit send and grabbed your bag. You had gotten there a little earlier than the technical pick up time, and there was a bit of a walk up into the camp from the parking area so you decided to walk up and see if you could walk around the camp a little bit. It wasn’t the first time you’d been the Camp Campbell, though the last time was when you were much much younger. You walked under the old sign and into the camp entrance. It didn’t look like really anything had changed since you had been there as a kid. As you walked into the center of the camp you heard some doors open and Max came running out from the Mess Hall.

“Y/N, thank god you need to get me the hell out of here I am so fucking sick of this shit.” He panted, footsteps following loudly behind him from the hall.

“Max, get back here! We aren’t done with final reflections!” A friendly but desperate voice called after him and also burst from the hall doors, followed by a pack of campers. Your eyes widened and you tried to hide your laugh behind your hand. Standing right there, yelling at your brother, in full camp garb with his red hair and sparkling green eyes was David. The same David you’d just been mercilessly flirting with just minutes prior. His reaction appeared to be the same, and that pale skin flushed the same color as his hair. Max was looking between the two of you, squinting in confusion.

“The fuck, do you two know each other or something? This is weird.” He said, and only when David broke eye contact with you did you look down at your brother.

“I guess you could say that we know each other, yeah. More acquaintances right now.” You explained smoothly, eyes trailing back over to David who was nervously shifting from foot to foot. He was clearly uncomfortable, and it made your smile fall. “You should go back in and do final reflections or whatever, I’ll just be hanging out here.” You said, pushing Max back in the direction of the Mess Hall. He groaned loudly, trudging back towards the rest of the campers and right up to a skinny curly haired kid and a girl with teal hair. You were glad to see he was at least making friends here, even it is appeared to be begrudgingly. The other camp leader shepherded them into the Hall, giving David a knowing look before shutting him out just as he was about to follow. Slowly he turned around to face you, and you just waved him over. He took a deep breath and walked over, looking rather sheepish.

“Uh, hi Y/N.” He said quietly, digging a toe of his shoe into the ground.

“Hey, you don’t have to act like this is some big scandal. We barely sent each other three messages, if this is too weird for you or something we don’t have to keep talking. I had… well I had no idea you were my bro’s camp counselor.” You said, not sure if it would be too much to reach out to try and reassure him. “And hey if it’s any consolation you’ll never have to see me again since if Max has any say in it he will try not to come back here.” David immediately frowned at that statement and shook his head.

“No, it’s not that I just. You’re really pretty. Like, wow. That moment you look at the view after a hike kind of wow. Take your breath away moment for sure. It’s crazy because you’re even prettier than in your pictures.” He paused, licking his lower lip and taking a chance to look up and make eye contact. “I figured you’d like… joke matched with me or something which is why I didn’t take it overly seriously and now that you’re here I just feel like a moron. You’re really funny and your line caught me off guard in the best way and it just seemed like a too good to be true kind of moment, y’know?” He rambled and you felt your cheeks heat up. That was the most genuine compliment you’d ever received, maybe it was because it seemed liked David might not be able to do anything that wasn’t genuine. You could feel lots of young eyes staring at the two of you from the mess hall window. His face immediately went lobster red again as you fished a pen from your pocket and grabbed his hand.