It could have been a dare. It could have been the apocalypse. It could have been a dare about the apocalypse, he didn't know and he would probably never remember. And right now he really didn't care. Everything seemed so clear, so easy, so momentously and bizarrely real.

This was what it was like to be drunk. He knew that; there was some part of his brain that functioned objectively even under the influence of alcohol... it was just walled off from the part that controlled his actions. He said and did and understood things that were never so easy in everyday life.

They had been celebrating. Everyone had gone out to congratulate each other for surviving, for winning, and finally for graduating. Their younger teammates had graduated from high school shortly before they all earned elemental distinction as graduates of the Wind Ninja Academy, and the ensuing party had been proportionately emphatic. And curiously free of mind-altering substances.

Had it been Hunter's idea? A wave of drowsy contentment kept the question from mattering. They were old enough to drink, competitive enough to make it a game, and somehow alone in the whirl of light and laughter that followed. He still didn't know how they had ended up at the truck, but he was pretty sure neither of them had been behind the wheel at any point.

The back of the truck had been far more interesting than the cab. It still was. He laughed aloud at the sheer joy of the moment: cool air on overheated skin, the soothing chir of insects and mountain nightlife all around, rough blanket barely softening the creaky metal bed. The sweaty warmth that shifted beside him at the unexpected sound.

"You're goofy when you're drunk," Hunter's voice mumbled, muffled slightly as he spoke more to the blanket than to Cam.

"And you're sappy," he informed him. Or tried to... it came out oddly slurred, which made him frown because he knew he wasn't that far gone.

There was a funny faint sound from Hunter. "Yeah," was all he said.

The night gradually warped around him, sleep washing in to dull his perception even further. He stared at the sky for a long time, the moonlight making funny shadows through the leaves, and he was vaguely aware that not everything he was seeing was real. He drifted between drowsy and dreaming for a long time. The blanket was gone and back again, pulled up over his shoulders without any conscious effort on his part, and the solid body pressed against his helped keep the increasing chill at bay.

He couldn't remember the last time he had been this happy.

He couldn't remember the last time he had been this uncomfortable.

The sky was lighter than it had been a few minutes ago, and those were definitely birds singing in a disturbingly loud and cheerful way. His mouth felt dry and disgusting and his skin was crawling. He squeezed his eyes shut harder and struggled to find a more sleep-inducing position.

The moment he moved, the soreness in his hip made him groan. His head protested the mere fact of his awareness, which he thought was unfair considering how hard he was trying to deny it, and the rest of his body started to complain. This was really a horrible way to interrupt a perfectly good night's sleep.

"Owww." The painfully drawn-out moan from beside him made him open his eyes, which turned out to be a mistake. They snapped shut again almost immediately, but nothing could block out the knowledge of someone lying next to him.

"Aw, fuck," the voice muttered, only slightly more coherent than before. "Wha..."

It was Hunter. When he forced his brain to work through the murk he remembered something about moonlight shining on leaves. Blankets... definitely blankets. And were they--

He cracked an eye open tentatively, confirming his hypothesis. They were outside. In a truck. Hunter's truck, he thought, not that he had ever seen it from the bottom of the truck bed before. They were under a blanket. And he was really, really, almost positive that he was naked.

"Cam?" Hunter's voice was quieter now, and more deliberate. He had obviously assessed the situation just as fast. He was asking a question now, not reacting instinctively to sensory input.

What the question was, though, he didn't have the faintest idea.

He settled for a noncommittal groan, simultaneously acknowledging that yes he was awake and no he didn't want to discuss it. Maybe he could just lie here with his eyes closed and his heart racing in an alarming way that seemed to be making his headache worse until Hunter left. It seemed unlikely, given that this was probably the truck Hunter would be using to leave, but it was a fleetingly attractive thought.

The blanket shifted and the truck creaked, while the exhalation from above him indicated that Hunter had moved to a more or less sitting position. He wasn't thrilled that the blanket had slid off his shoulders, but moving enough to reach for it seemed worse. If he stayed right where he was, maybe this day would just go away.

The truck bed bounced a couple of time before rising slightly. Hunter was clearly not so reluctant. And... he really hated to think about it, but this was probably about as much privacy as he would get.

He peeled his eyes open, wincing in spite of himself. It probably wasn't even dawn yet but the light was unwelcome on several different levels. The only thing that motivated him to move was the fact that lying here was just as uncomfortable as sitting up promised to be.

Almost. He ignored the stab of pain that came with lifting his head, along with the various aches and stiffness that came from sleeping in the back of a truck, and tried to decide if he was really as badly off as he felt. He was in pain and incredibly thirsty--and naked, which wasn't something he took lightly--but on the other hand, he was mostly alone.

That encouraged him to find his clothes. Underwear, pants, shirt, in that order, and what had happened to his shoes? He flinched at the fragment of a memory that suggested he was lucky he'd found as much of last night's outfit close at hand as he did. He didn't want to think about it.

He leaned carefully back against the side of the truck, letting his head hang for a moment before pressing the heel of his hand to his forehead. It didn't do anything for the pain in his head, but it did block out some of the light. He decided he could probably stay like that for the rest of the morning.

The rustle of brush and uncertain footsteps didn't surprise him. Hunter's tentative tone did. "Hey," he offered warily. Like he didn't know what to expect.

Cam let out a sigh, not bothering to lift his head.

"Yeah," Hunter said, still quiet. "You, uh... you want some aspirin or something?"

He thought about that. Not because there was any question, but because the possibility that Hunter actually had some aspirin deserved consideration. After a moment, he held out his free hand wordlessly.

Something small and aspirin-like was placed in it, but before he could debate the dubious merits of trying to swallow it dry Hunter added, "I have water."

That made Cam open his eyes. He narrowed them immediately, partly because there was light and partly because Hunter looked like... he didn't know. He was wearing his jeans from the night before, the ones that were dark and shiny in a subtle way that made Cam wonder if there was actually glitter woven into them--and that was it. That was all he had on.

"Done this before?" The words were out before he could think, before he could stop them, and he saw Hunter's expression go from concerned to closed-off in the time it took to draw a breath.

"It's from the first aid kit," Hunter told him. His voice was just as quiet as before, but his tone was flat. "The aspirin, I mean. Not the water. I always have water in the truck."

The water bottle Hunter was holding out to him didn't waver, and he recognized it as the one Hunter stowed under the seat every time he got in. "I'm sorry," he muttered, and he meant it. Just because Hunter could have anyone he wanted didn't mean he did.

"It's okay." Hunter waited until he took the water to climb into the back of the truck. Something opened, shifted, and closed. Then there was silence.

He stared at the ground. Those were his sneakers, there, one by the tire and the other a little distance away. He should pick them up. Something made him reach for Hunter's t-shirt instead, and he looked at it for a few seconds before steeling himself to do something with it.

Hunter was leaning back against the storage bins at the front of the bed, knees pulled up loosely in front of him and his arms braced on top of them. He looked up when Cam climbed into the back with him, eyes going to the t-shirt in his hands. Cam hesitated, then surprised himself by setting the shirt down just out of reach and settling himself beside Hunter. Gingerly, he leaned back against the storage bins and crossed his legs.

Neither of them said anything for several minutes.

"How's your head?" Hunter asked at last.

His lips quirked. "Still attached." There was a brief pause before it occurred to him to add, "The aspirin hasn't kicked in yet." Another hesitation. "Thanks, by the way."

"Yeah, sure." Hunter's reply was a little too quick.

Finally Cam glanced over at him. He was starting to feel vaguely more like himself. And if Hunter's discomfort was anything to go by, he wasn't the only one. "This is really embarrassing," he mused.

For some reason, that made Hunter chuckle. "It's been worse," was all he said.

He frowned, but it didn't take him long to come up with the cause of their first date as an example. The thought coaxed a grudging smile onto his face. "What is it about us," he muttered, not expecting an answer.

"Clones and alcohol aside?" Hunter asked, mock-thoughtfully.

His lips twitched, the smile lingering, and he looked over again to find Hunter watching him. "If I take responsibility for the clone," he wondered, "will you accept blame for the alcohol?"

Hunter snorted. "Nice try. The club was your idea, and if I remember right you were also the one who promised Tori and Blake a thousand times that we'd call if we needed a ride, and not to worry."

Sudden realization hit, and he dropped his head back against the bins with a groan. Which prompted a flare of pain, forcing him to close his eyes and grit his teeth. "I didn't call my dad."

"He'd have called the others if he was worried," Hunter pointed out. He didn't sound totally sure.

"And they would have told him we went out drinking." Cam tried to remember what he'd done with his cell phone. He'd be lucky if his dad didn't already have the entire school out looking for them.

"Wait here."

The truck shifted, and he opened his eyes in time to see Hunter crawling out of the truck bed. It was a particularly nice view, and the thought almost made him close his eyes again. He really... he didn't know how he'd gotten here. To the truck, okay, that either, but mostly to the point of drunken sex with someone like Hunter. How had it even become a possibility?

The door to the cab slammed shut, and he winced at the sound. A moment later a gentle touch on his shoulder made him look around in surprise. Hunter had his own cell phone to his ear and he was offering Cam's to him with a small, oddly guilty smile.

Cam took it, but a glance at the display told him he had only one message--and it wasn't from his father. He caught Hunter's eye, but he just shrugged. "It's Blake," he offered, clearly referring to his own voice mail. "Checking in."

Cam's was from Tori. She told him Blake hadn't been able to reach Hunter, so she was trying her luck with him. Call me if you need anything, she told him, and don't do anything I wouldn't do. There was a pause then, and it was like she could see his eyebrows rise. Never mind, she added.

He hung up while Hunter was still listening to his voice mail. "Still Blake," he said, rolling his eyes when Cam looked at him. "Or Blake again. He called three times."

Cam set his phone down, leaned his head back, and waited. For what, he wasn't entirely sure. What were they supposed to do now? What were any of them supposed to do now? They had defeated Lothor. They had won. More than that, they had graduated. They really were on their own.

He felt a soft touch, almost a tickle, running across his arm. He let his head roll to one side, regarding Hunter with surprise. He had lowered his phone and was now braced against the outside of the truck, his fingers trailing idly over Cam's shoulder. "Hey," was all he said.

He swallowed. What could he say to that? To the touch, to the unspoken question, to the whole situation? They had slept together. It had meant maybe more than he realized, given that they were still stuck in the "do we talk about this or not" stage that he had expected to completely avoid. They were guys, after all. They didn't have to verbalize everything.

Yet here was Hunter, clearly unwilling to just get dressed and drive away. He was trying to prod Cam into saying something, apparently... but what? What did he expect?

"What do you want me to say?" Cam blurted out.

Hunter's hand on his shoulder stilled, but he didn't take it away. "Well," he said evenly, "I guess 'hey' back would be a start."

He almost smiled. It was such a bizarrely ambiguous thing to hear from Hunter. "Hey," he conceded, lifting his head reluctantly. It didn't hurt as badly as it had before.

There was a long moment, and then Hunter remarked, "I have a meeting with Sensei Omino today."

Just like that, it crystallized in his mind. "I don't want you to go back to the Thunder Academy," he said abruptly.

It could have sounded... well, like any number of things. Controlling, petulant, just plain silly. But he could hear the warmth in Hunter's voice when he replied, and he knew it had been the right thing to say. "Yeah, well. Maybe I don't want you to stay at the Wind Academy."

Cam considered that and found it a fair statement.

"You want to get some coffee or something?" Hunter asked, as casually as though they discussed this sort of thing every day. Life, the future, and breakfast. Together. It was both weird and comfortable at the same time.

He made his decision. "Yeah," he agreed. He sat up, reaching for Hunter's shirt and handing it to him over the side of the truck. "There's some camp showers at Bear Brook, just down the mountain."

"Nice." Hunter accepted his shirt, pulling it over his head without a hint of awkwardness. "I'm gonna call Blake, let him know I'm okay, and we can go."

Cam hesitated on the edge of the truck bed, then leaned back to grab his own phone before climbing out. "Sure." He had someone waiting on him too.

He listened to the phone ring while he made a half-hearted attempt at gathering up his sneakers. The sound of the line connecting warned him, and when his dad's voice replied he took a deep breath. "Hi, Dad, it's me.

"Yeah," he agreed a moment later. He was fine. "I'm with Hunter."