All I am going to say for this prompt is Niel and Max got into a fight on the fourth of July. It's just not going to be a good day for David. =)
Hope you enjoy!
(P.S there is an announcement at the bottom that I am low key ignoring cause camp camp angst is my comfort angst)
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Fourth of July has never been David's favorite holiday. Sure the meaning of the holiday is amazing but at the end of the day always left him drained. That day made it hard for him to smile. It's been like this for years but he could never pick out the reason why. It put horrible images in his head and gave him a head ache. Then that night when he was feeling ever so tired he could never sleep. It's not like anything ever happened on that day to make it so horrible so it didn't make sense.
As usual for this day David woke up tired. He brushed it off and brewed a cup of coffee for Gwen and a small one for himself. Just to help himself get through today. He got ready for his day and woke up Gwen with a nice warm mug. She shooed him out of the councilor cabin and he went to go wake up the campers.
"Good morning campers!" He called and waited to guide them to the mess hall as usual. As usual they followed him with a groan and shuffling their feet.
As they started breakfast Campbell crawled down from his attic space giddily.
"Happy Independence day youngens!" He cheered and David's fatige came back tenfold. Whenever he was in this mood he tended to avoid Campbell to the best of his abilities. Usually it wasn't difficult but since he was serving time it was now nearly impossible. David smiled and chuckled to go get another cup of coffee.
"You look like shit today," Max commented pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"Thank you," David sighed and poured himself. Max raised his eyebrows. Not even a 'language'.
"You planning on shooting up the camp today?" He asked suspiciously.
"Oh heavens no!" David exclaimed more back to his old self. Max huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Alright. What the fuck is wrong with you today?"
"I'm not sure I know what you mean Max?"
"This better not be another Daniel situation." Max grumbled as he left the kitchen and Quartermaster strolled in again. David chuckled and rolled his eyes following him out.
"Good morning Gwen!" David greeted as Gwen stumbled into the Mess Hall. (I accidentally wrote Hell instead of Hall before I corrected it lol)
"Morning," She replied. "Happy Independence day David"
David almost cringed.
"Yeah. Happy 4th!"
"So what's on today's agenda?" Gwen asked handing David a clip board that he had left behind.
"It's a lake day," Oh look another thing he didn't like on this day. "Then after dark we are going to have a camp fire with smores and as usual there will be a fire work ceremony,"
"Oh delightful," She sighed sarcastically.
"Yep!" David agreed.
"At least it's a lake day," She offered more to herself than David. He nodded and reported the agenda to the campers. Most of them cheered and ran off to go get into their swimming suits. David smiled at their enthusiasm and went to go find his own and change.
~~I'm feelin' lazy so at the lake~~
"Alright kidlets! Were going to be careful! I have the sunscreen and every body is getting some before they get into the water!" David called from the dock as the campers started to make their way to the lake. There were a couple of groans but most of it was light hearted. Once David had gotten through the line he noticed that Max was not there. He studied the shore for a sign of the boy and spotted him on the far end somewhat hiding in the trees. Immediately David ran to Max.
"Hey kiddo are you okay?" He asked as soon as he was in hearing distance. Max jumped a little and glared at David.
"The fuck do you want camp man?"
"You're here all alone so I wanted to check on you. Why aren't you with Niel and Nikki? Why aren't you in a swim suit?"
"I don't want to hang out with Niel. And I hate lake days,"
"Did something happen?"
"He's just kinda pissing me off right now,"
"I'm sorry to hear that,"
"What ever. He can go die for all I care,"
David's heart dropped and twisted.
"You didn't tell him that?"
"Why does it matter?"
"You should go make it up. You'll regret it if you don't,"
Max glared up at David.
"I don't care. Leave me alone,"
David nodded and Max left. David stood as he recalled the memory of his and Jaspers fight. It ran through to the part where he had turned his back and Jasper went into the cave. He turned around to apologize. It's fuzzy after that. David dwelt on the fuzziness for a while and shook his head, shaking the lifeless feel from himself. He then jogged over to the lake to supervise.
The time went by quickly and suddenly it was time for the camp fire and fire works. (And suddenly I forgot how to spell a bunch of words)
David had nearly forgetten all about his awful mood being so distracted by the fun day. It was time for the worst part of today. The fire works.
"Alrighty campers you need to stay back so that none you get burnt by the fire works," He warned as he set up the chairs and started lighting a punt. "were are going to start our celebration small with some bottle rockets."
While he was talking a fight had broken between Niel and Max. David had already light one of the tiny fire works by the time Max had come over yelling about how Niel was 'sorry'. Max pointed the bottle at Neil and Campbell was laughing about something in the background. The wood scouts had already started with the big fireworks.
In a split second everything went to shit. The bottle rocket hit and popped on Niel. Campbell's voice was ringing in his ear. The heat from the campfire he was standing next to. The explosions. Holy fuck the explosions. David's head was spinning and he did a small 180 in the panic. Everything had slown down around him as he saw a burnt version of Jasper. Memories rushed through his head. (Quick thing! I like to think that the way people last saw you is how they'd se you as a ghost and if they didn't see you you'll just be in a mortal looking form. So that's what's happening here) He remembered seeing Jasper's burnt body under the rubble and blood leaking into his vision.
David screamed and collapsed folding in on himself. He could remember everything. Everything that his little brain repressed. It all came flooding. His name was being called and he tried to bring himself to reality. !(! Yo! This next sentence may be triggering to some people!)!He scratched at his arms to ground himself. !(! Okay it's over!)! He could only see Jasper and the explosion on repeat.
Suddenly his arms were being held in a tight grasp. His voice had stopped it's screech of terror and the images faded. He could see Gwen infront of him holding his arms.
"David what the absolute fuck?" She asked worriedly and pulled him into a close hug. He hesitantly hugged her back. She pulled away again and held his shoulders. "What happened?"
David shrugged her off quickly and went to go check on Niel. Half of the campers were around where he was standing. Niel was also screaming.
"Out of the way!" David yelled and the campers moved. Niel was holding his arm and wailing. "Gwen get the first aid kit!"
Niel's forearms was burnt, thankfully it was only first degree. One of the campers had grabbed a nearby water bottle and David started pouring it over the burn. Niel whimpered and winced.
"It's going to be okay Niel. It's going to be okay," David reassured.
"I feel like your saying that more to yourself than to me," Niel chuckled trying to relieve the pressure. David chuckled and Gwen finally came back with a small first aid kit. Campbell grabbed the kit and shoved David aside. Almost everyone noted how the Campbell moved perfectly. It was like second nature to him now.
"How does that feel?" Campbell asked.
"It's weird you know how to do that,"
"Cut the shit kid how do the bandages feel?"
"They feel fine. Than-"
"Good," Campbell stood up and almost ran away.
"How nice of him," David said. Max rolled his eyes.
"Now isn't the time to get a boner for Campb-" He looked at David and saw him glaring in the direction Campbell went. Gwen had put a hand on David's shouder now that the commotion had calmed down. David stood up again and took to ignoring Gwen in hopes that his freak out would be ignored by the time tomorrow rolled around. It usually went like that and today would be no different. He was depending on it.
"Alrighty campers. Today has been a long day for a lot of us. So you can either choose to watch the fire work shows from other camps around the lake or head to your tents." David announced and the attention had turned back to him. A couple of the littles had already forgotten and were yawning. Erid had started leading them to their tents. (Erid, an empath, sensing this isn't a good time to be cool)
The only campers that stayed behind were Niel and Max. Max and Niel had made eye contact and didn't look away for a long time. Max shuffled and sighed.
"Hey. I'm sorry for what I did." He kicked the dirt. "I was just so pissed and I wasn't thinking right,"
Niel pursed his lips.
"I'm sorry for saying that to you. I was also out of line," He replied and put a hand out. "Friends again?"
Max fist bumped his hand.
"Yeah," They turned to David. Who was tearing up at the interaction that he never got the chance at. "Now with that issue solved. It's time to talk about yours,"
Immediately David turned around and went to go put away the fireworks. They'll forget by tomorrow. They'll forget by tomorrow. They'll forget by tomorrow.
Once those were put away he hid in the cabin he shared with Gwen. To avoid her confrontation he pretended to sleep until morning. He went about his morning as usual. Wake everyone up and make the announcements. Nobody seemed to remember but just for safe measures he 'descretely' avoided those who might remember like the plague. By the end of the day he was sure that nobody remembers his half of the chaos last night. Boy was he wrong.
That night he walked into the councilors cabin, late as usual. (I want to change the chapter title to Usual) Gwen was waiting up for him. A strange occurence. He looked at her confused as he walked to his bed. She raised her eyebrows while he semi ignored her. David unlaced his boots as if everything was normal.
"So you gonna tell me about what happened with you last night?" Gwen asked. David pursed his lips and slid off his boots.
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean?" He said sliding his socks off and tossing them into the laundry basket.
"Are you sure about that? Last I checked having a complete meltdown isn't a normal thing for you," Gwen leaned onto one of the arms of the spinning chair.
"Just the right conditions bringing up some bad memories. It's completely fine though. It really doesn't matter," David replied keeping himself busy with his night routine. The two heard a thump and looked towards the desk.
"Bullshit!" Max yelled from his spot next to a window.
"Max how did you get in here?" Gwen asked.
"I crawled in through the window. You literally just saw me do so." Max rolled his eyes.
"Max you should be in your tent." David partially scolded.
"David. What was it you said to me that night at the pizza place? Pretending things are okay when they're not doesn't help. Something like that." Max huffed. Gwen nodded silently. David pursed his lips.
"You're right. It doesn't. I guess I forget that sometimes." He chuckled.
"That's right asshole now spill it so that you can feel better or some shit. What happened with you,"
"I remembered the explosion," David said and pushed his hands onto his face.
"What explosion David?" Gwen asked. Max tilted his head but had a slight idea of what he might be talking about.
"It's a bit of a story. But back when I used to camp here. I had a friend named Jasper." Max nodded knowing what was poing on now. "One day he and I got into a fight while retrieving a file for Campbell. We stumbled across a cave and he wanted to go in. We broke up our friend ship and he went in. I was going to try and apologies when the cave exploded. I guess the councilors thought it was one of the other camps setting off somefireworks because nobody came."
"I guess yesterday was stacked against you wasn't it?" Max asked. David laughed.
"Yeah,"
"It really suck that happened to you," Gwen said patting David on the back.
"Sorry,"
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I was at a loss for an ending and I feel like David would apologies for talking about his trauma. So that's just gonna be the ending. Sorry I've been gone! I am supposed to be on a hiatus for all my camp camp fics to focus on my old ones for MHA but as I said in the beginning. This one is the exception because David angst specifically is my comfort angst.
Hope you enjoyed and have a good day/night!