Danny was late to camp, and once again he came with his button-down shirt and tie and brought a change of clothes in a briefcase. Kai burst out laughing again which made Danny burst out laughing.

They went to Kai’s cabin, and while Danny changed in the bathroom Kai sat on the bed and told him the activities for the day.

Danny had a bounce in his step as they walked to the clearing, which surprised Kai considering the run they had just finished.

“Finally,” Danny said, “a camp activity I can get behind!”

“You’re very excited about tossing some water balloons.”

“You see, this is something that would have warranted a you're gonna love this Danno.” Danny said imitating Kai's deeper voice.

Kai shot him a coy look, “Is this you giving me permission to call you Danno?”

Danny scoffed and gave Kai a pointed look. “No,” he said sternly as if talking to a puppy.

He grabbed a bucket and went to the water balloon station, leaving Kai standing alone.

“How’s it going?” Malia said as she walked up to Kai, his eyes still on Danny.

“We’re not,” Kai said, rolling his eyes.

She held up her hands, “I just asked how it was going!”

“Mhmm,” Kai turned towards her.

Malia smirked and got on her tiptoes, resting her hands on Kai's shoulder as she whispered in his ear, “you’re blushing.”

“Shut up,” Kai said playfully pushing her off him, she backed away laughing.

Kai turned back towards the water balloon filling station and saw Danny staring at them, he quickly turned to talk with some of the other volunteer counselors when Kai met his eyes.

“Go help people,” Kai said, turning back to Malia, “get them lined up.”

She held up her hands and walked away.

Kai turned back towards Danny. His thoughts on what Malia had told him last week.

This is just like when she tried to set me up with that mom last year. He thought, I should tell her what I told her then. I don’t date parents. It’s unprofessional.

Besides, she’s just reading into things.

And, alright, maybe I did bend a few rules for him, Kai thought as he watched Danny load up the bucket with water balloons, but so what? That doesn’t have to mean anything. It just means I’m a really great guy and an awesome camp director!

Kai watched Danny laugh at something another parent volunteer said. Danny looked up at him and grinned. Kai smiled back.

And what? Kai’s brain continued as he watched Danny carry back the bucket filled to the brim with water balloons. Is it against the rules to like a camper’s parent??? No... Probably not… 

“Ready Kalani?” Danny said as he patted Kai’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” Kai said as Danny walked past him to his spot a few feet away.

They waited in their spots until the horn sounded from the speakers. 

I don’t remember reading it in any of our handbooks... Kai thought.

“Kalani, eyes up front!” Danny yelled out to him.

Kai looked up in time to see Danny throwing the water balloon at him as if it were a football.

“Daniel!” Kai yelled, attempting to catch the water balloon, only to have it splash on his stomach, water dripping everywhere.

“Danny!” Kai scolded again, looking up at him.

Danny was doubled over laughing, grinning from ear to ear.

Kai stopped, he really liked Danny’s smile. He felt like Danny didn’t smile enough.

“Danny,” he said, “you’re supposed to gently toss the balloon!”

“Oh?” Danny said, still grinning, as he grabbed another balloon “my bad, it’s been a few years since I’ve played this game.”

He tried again, and got the tossing part right, but forgot about the gentle.

It splashed on Kai as he tried catching it.

It happened three more times before Danny got scolded again.

“Where is your competitive spirit Danno?” Kai said, shaking the water off his hair. “We’re not gonna win if you keep tossing them like that!”

“Oh?” Danny said, a feigned innocent look on his face, he looked at the other groups, doing quite well at tossing and catching unharmed water balloons. “You mean to tell me the goal isn’t to see how many balloons you can splash on your partner?”

“Hahaha,” Kai laughed dryly. “It’s not you against me, it’s us against them!”

“I know but,” Danny shrugged, then quickly threw another balloon.

Kai, caught off guard, only had enough time to raise his hands in defense.

“This is more fun,” Danny said, holding back a laugh.

“The water is cold Danny!”

Danny’s only response was “hehehehe” laugh.

“You do realize that it’s going to be my turn next? And that you’ll be the one getting wet?”

Danny pressed his lips together, not having thought that far in advance.

Before he could think of a response Kai’s hands went to the hem of his shirt and, once again, he was staring at a shirtless Kai.

Kai wrung out his shirt, water dripped onto the grass.

Danny grinned, feeling pride at how soaked he’d managed to get Kai. He was a bit surprised he’d landed all his throws.

Kai glanced up, caught Danny grinning at him. He froze mid wring.

Kai slowly moved his eyes back to his shirt.

He twisted his shirt again, this time flexing his arms and muscles more than necessary as he squeezed. He glanced up again, as subtly as he could, and saw Danny was still watching him.

He tried to suppress his grin.

He aired out his shirt and decided not to put it on again. 

What's the point, it'll just keep getting wet. He told himself, no other reason than that.

A water balloon hit him on the back as he tossed his shirt on the grass behind him.

He turned back around and shot Danny a look.

“You were taking too long!” Danny said, “plus you never called a time out!”

“I didn’t realize we were six.”

Danny shrugged as he grabbed another balloon, he quickly threw it at Kai.

To his surprise, Kai caught it without bursting it.

Kai grinned, tossing it in the air and catching it.

“Alright, alright,” Danny said, watching as Kai tossed it and caught it again, “we get it, you can stop showboating.”

“What do you get Daniel?” Kai asked with a smirk on his face, tensing his muscles a bit.

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny noticed Malia watching them. He could see other counselors glancing at them. They were within earshot of all of them, only a few feet away from the pair next to them.

“That nobody likes a guy with a big ego,” Danny said loudly.

Kai rolled his eyes, “sure,” he mumbled as he placed the balloon in his bucket.

Danny grabbed another balloon and was about to throw it when the horn sounded again from the speakers.

Kai grabbed his shirt and threw it on. 

“Alright,” he announced to everyone in the field, “counselors count how many balloons you caught.”

He looked down at the one balloon in his bucket. 

“One,” he announced with a pout.

Danny tried to hold back his laughter as all the other teams listed off numbers in the 20s.

Danny couldn't hold back his laughter as Kai explained the next part. 

Now the counselors were to toss back the same balloons to their trainees. The team with the most balloons left at the end would win.

That meant Kai only had one balloon to toss at Danny.

Danny couldn’t get his laughter under control as Kai grabbed the only balloon in the bucket.

The balloon hit him mid-laugh, splashing him with water. 

He laughed even harder, his knees giving way as he fell to the ground, clutching his wet t-shirt.

Kai couldn't help himself, and he began to laugh too. He walked over to Danny and sat down next to him.

“Now what?” Danny asked trying to regain his breath as he wiped away tears from his eyes. 

They looked at all the other teams still tossing balloons.

Kai shrugged. “We wait?”

“That was fun,” Danny said, “we should do this more often instead of running.”

“I’m glad you had fun Danno," Kai said earnestly. He stared at Danny for a moment, then his voice dropped to a low whisper as he leaned in. "We could sneak away, go up to the hill a bit earlier?” 

“Kalani you’re the director. Don’t you have to stay till the activity at least finishes?”

Kai shrugged, “Gao’s basically co-camp director.” Stay professional Kalani, Kai scolded himself, “but yeah, we should wait till free time.”

As they hiked up the hill Kai couldn't get out of his thoughts.

He could feel his pulse quicken a bit as he held out his hand during the rocky part, feeling more aware of how soft Danny’s hand was as it slipped into his.

They sat on the bench and got so lost in talking that before they knew it the sun was setting.

Kai’s phone rang, interrupting their conversation.

“Malia,” Kai told Danny.

Danny nodded, scratching the back of his neck as Kai answered.

“Will you guys quit making out and come down already?" Malia said, "We’re about to start the campfire.” 

“We’re not—” Kai stopped himself from repeating that in front of Danny. “We’ll be down in a minute.”

Danny called Elena on his drive home from camp.

“What’d you do today?” She said once she answered.

“Well, hello to you too Monkey, I’m good how are you?”

“Hi Danno, how are you?” she said, then quickly added, “how was camp?”

“You know, I’ve noticed a pattern forming. On Fridays, whenever I call, you just want to talk about camp.”

“Well, yeah cause while I’m at school and doing homework you get to be at camp having fun!”

“What fun?” Danny scoffed back. “We hike. And then we run. And then we hike some more. Then we do some more athletic activities. I don’t know where you’re getting this idea of fun from!”

“Well, what’d you do today?”

Danny sighed. “We had a water balloon fight.”

“Daaaad!!!”

“What? You’re the one that wanted to know! We also ran two miles before that, so, it was the least Kai could do.”

“Were you on his team?”

“Well, yes, but also no.” He said, an accomplished grin on his face.