Inksgiving reward, last ch from Danny's second week at camp! Posted 7/30/2021

The winning duo from the paddleboarding activity started off the bonfire with a speech and a toast.

Malia, who was trying not to be too much of a sore loser, sat at one of the logs putting together her marshmallow. She held it up in toast with everyone else.

Then some movement in the distance caught her eye.

She spotted Kai and Danny walking down one of the trails, hand in hand, heading towards the rest of the group.

She raised her brows, smirking a little as she got up to go toast her marshmallow.

Malia, Gao, Kai, and their trainees all sat together at a picnic table munching away on their hot dogs and marshmallows.

She tried her best to act as clueless as possible but she couldn’t help but glance at Danny and Kai every time they bantered with each other.

“Are my ears about to start bleeding?” Danny asked her as Kai was handed a guitar and goaded towards the front of the campfire, “should I stuff them with marshmallows for protection?”

Malia laughed and shook her head. “He’s actually a really great singer and guitar player. He’s a very multi-talented man. He's pretty much amazing at everything! And he's not too bad looking either, right?” She gave Danny a knowing smirk and a wink.

“Mmm,” Danny said, not sounding very convinced, though he did a double-take between Malia and Kai, sensing the meaning underneath her words. She and Kai were dating.

Danny was partially upset when Kai started playing and singing. He didn't feel it fair for Kai to be so good at that too. 

Another part of Danny, specifically his mouth, was left hanging open in awe.

“Kai is dating a parent! Kai is dating a parent! Kai is dating a parent!” Malia sang, jumping around Kai as they finished closing up the camp.

The bonfire had ended and all the volunteer counselors had left, the only ones still there were a few of the full-time staff that had been assigned to close.

Kai quickly looked around, thankful no one else was around them aside from Gao, who was looking at them intrigued.

“What? No I’m not!” Kai said.

“Yes, you are!!!” Malia said, reaching down to pack up some things left around the campfire.

“Who?!” Kai said indignantly.

“Danny Arturo!” Malia exclaimed, “Your ASSIGNED PARTNER!”

Gao snickered as he cleaned the cooking tools on the picnic table.

“Which by the way,” she continued, bringing her hand up to her chin in a thoughtful gesture, “don't you find it interesting Gao that our great boss and leader, who normally doesn't take on trainees because he 'wants to focus on everyone equally' suddenly has a trainee?!? And it’s none other than Danny Arturo!”

Kai, in charge of picking up the trash, stayed motionless, skewer in one hand and open trash bag in the other.

Gao nodded, “she makes a very valid point Kai.”

“I- well- we-we were uneven!” Kai said, waving the trash bag and skewer around, “I had to be his partner, otherwise he would have been by himself!” He stopped and looked at the skewer— which he was now wielding around like a saber, he set it down on the floor.

“We’re uneven,” Malia said exasperated, “because you made an exception and let him sign up past the deadline!”

“Another very great point.” Gao chimed in, moving on to clean the grill.

“I-I...what was I supposed to do?” Kai said looking back and forth between Gao and Malia, “Turn him away? We don’t turn people away!”

“Yes we do,” Malia said, “that’s why we have a deadline and capacity limit!”

“Three very solid points!” Gao said.

They looked at Kai, their faces saying check and mate.

“Alright well… all that aside, we’re not dating. I don’t even think Danny’s into guys so… plus he's freshly divorced-I think- so even if he is I don't know if he's looking for someone, or if I am either.”

“Kai," Malia said softly, walking over to sit on the picnic table, "You said you felt like you were finally ready for a real relationship.”

“I say a lot of things…”

“Well, you'd been saying the opposite of that for years.”

“Yeah,” Kai said, dropping the trash bag and walking over to the table, “and well, I tried the whole serious relationship thing, and look how that turned out.”

“Yeah because you and Rebecca were on different pages.” Gao chimed in, leaving the grill and walking over to them. “She didn’t want a serious relationship, she was happy being your friend with benefits. You guys tried the real thing and it didn’t work out. But don’t let that hold you back from trying again.”

“Well,” Kai thought about Danny, the short dude with an even shorter fuse, so loud and caring. How he expressed himself with every fiber of his being.

He thought about the way Danny huffed in frustration every time a strand of his hair fell out of place, the way he would comb it back, running his fingers through his hair.

He thought about their hands slipping into each other, Danny’s soft skin rubbing smoothly against his calloused one.

He thought about Danny’s eyes on him... was he just checking out the tattoos?

He thought about two tour guides are better than one.

“Like I said,” Kai sat down next to Gao and Malia, “I don't even know if Danny’s into guys, or if he’s even looking for a relationship.”

Malia’s face scrunched up. “You guys have been flirting nonstop!”

“What? No we haven’t!”

“Time passes by quickly when you’re talking with someone you like Danno,” Malia said imitating Kai from the week before, “and Danny freaking blushed and stuttered.”

“Okay well, it's not my fault if I'm a seasoned charmer,” Kai said, shrugging, "I can't help myself."

“No, you're a seasoned one nightstander,” Malia said gently, placing her hand on Kai’s shoulder, as if trying to soften the breaking news.

“Ouch. You do remember I'm still your boss right?” Kai said, then glanced at Gao for backup.

“Don’t look at me,” Gao said, holding up his hands, “I’m not HR.”

“Our shift ended an hour ago. I’m talking to you as a friend right now,” Malia said.

Kai sighed and laid back on the picnic table, looking up at the stars.

“And,” Malia continued, “earlier today, Danny yelled out showoff and you lost your balance! You were this close to falling into the water!” She said holding her thumb and index finger together.

“Yeah, because he distracted me!”

“No, no, no,” Gao said, shaking his head, “not our Kai, no, you’re an expert at blocking out distractions, especially when you're out on the water.”

Kai stayed quiet, looking up at the stars, creating constellations in his head.

“And,” Malia said, she paused and grinned, like she knew she was about to hit a home run, “I saw you two holding hands as you came back down from your tūtūman's hill.”

Kai sighed, “it was rocky terrain and it was dark! Guys, look, I really don’t think Danny sees me that way, so let’s just drop it.”

“Okay, well I’m just sayin boss, there are signs.”

“Definitely signs.” Gao said, nodding his head, “and a lot of valid points.”

Kai started tracing his tattoos over his shirt, long ago having memorized where each line and curve was.

“Alright,” Gao said, noticing Kai’s hand reach and rest on his dog tag tattoos, “let's leave him be.”

Gao and Malia locked eyes for a moment before they got up, continuing their tasks right there next to Kai, but letting him rest and watch the stars, his hand still on his dog tag tattoos and his heart.

Author's Note

And we come to the end of week 2!!!! Onto week 3! lol (did we win week 3 with our ink rewards? I'll have to go check what other bonus chs we won. I kinda wanna add week 3 regardless though...) Let me know what yall think about this week 2 addition! Did you like the chapters?!

I really liked writing them, I feel like now that we retroactively have more insight into Danny and Kai I can go back in and add more details and stuff! It's also just been super fun to write Danny and Kai again in all their obliviousness and banter and glory lol.

Also, if you still haven't checked out what Danny and Kai will look like in the minicomic but don't really feel like joining a discord group then you can click on the link below and scroll down a bit to see a picture of it! I want to start posting there more often, just added a bunch of photos, am kind of using it like a blog/insta.