Summer Camp - 17. Boundaries

“Paddy?”

Paddy looked up from his book to find Noah walking towards him across the field. The young Canadian did not look particularly happy.

“Nic wants to see you.”

The Scot jumped up, folding his book mark neatly into his page. He had not been looking forwards to this inevitable conversation. Unlike Troy, at no point had Paddy actually allowed himself to believe wandering off drunk was going to be how their boss was going to be happy resolving things. Nic obviously had some issue or other with their being gay, but more than that, their being together, and Paddy did not want to have to wade through the proverbial bullshit which would be spouted before they reached a decent conclusion. As he walked towards the mess hall, he found the string around his heart and tugged. Troy had gone off into the woods after breakfast that morning, and Paddy was fairly certain he was hunting. His mate would not wish to be interrupted, but there were things more important than dead rabbits.

Nic was sitting in the high backed, decrepit wing chair in the mess hall when Paddy arrived, and he didn’t look too thrilled about having this conversation either. Nic had been a mess most of the previous day after their drinking session, and had only really been compose-mentis late in the evening when Paddy, Troy, Ava, Sean and Noah had gone to build a camp fire for themselves and sat around toasting marshmallows and shooting the breeze long after the sun went down. It had been so wonderful to have Troy under his arm, the space filled automatically as though there was nowhere Troy would rather be than right there beside him. They had watched the fire dance and spin the night air, and Paddy had been as happy as he could remember being. He had his mate, and now he had friends around him. Noah had turned out to be a solid and reliable guy, and Sean seemed to have no truck with them at all now he had everything sorted out in his head. Ava was still generally nuts, but she had brought the marshmallows, and begged Paddy to tell again the story of the man whose brother became a bear, quizzing him over the details of the story.

“Boss?”

“Come in Paddy.” Nic nodded to him, but his smile was tight. “Sit down.”

Paddy sat on the sofa. To him, if not to any human, it still smelt of his and Troy’s lust.

“What’s goin’ on?” Paddy asked carefully.

“Look-”

“I forgive ye.”

“Right.” Nic sighed and stared past his fingers to the floor between his feet. “A member of staff has suggested one of you be transferred to another team.”

Paddy snarled.

“I’m not going to!” Nic held up his palms in supplication. “Jesus you’re a scary fucker when you’re angry. I’m just giving you the heads up.”

Paddy felt Troy pull at his heart, an action which forced him to grip the arm of the sofa, lest he be pulled away. He tugged back, guiding Troy to where he was.

“Which member o’ staff?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.” Nic glowered. “Look, it went straight to central, which is why I have to talk to you about it. Because of the… concerns,” Nic’s mouth set in a straight line, and Paddy could almost see the anger and aggravation pouring off him. “Some of the teachers from the last school and this member of staff thinks your relationship with Troy will damage the good standing of the site and of Eighth Plane in general. Personally, I think this particular member of staff is lining up to shoot themselves in the foot, but there we go. The kids all love you, and Troy. This whole thing is ridiculous.”

“What’s ridiculous?” Troy arrived in the doorway. Wherever he had been in the forest, he had run from there, and his eyes were wide with the anger and worry Paddy had unwittingly sent down the line between their hearts.

“Someone we work wi’ think we are a danger tae the kiddies.” Paddy spat.

“Who?” Troy snarled.

“He cannae say.” Paddy stood up and stepped around the coffee table to where Troy stood. He needed the touch of his mate to calm him down. Troy felt it too, and as soon as he was close enough Troy’s palm on the back of the big Scot’s neck was like an anchor, rooting him to the spot, sending a wave of calm through his body. “Are we done now?”

“Guys, I’m sorry about this.” Nic didn’t stand up, some ancient instinct telling him to remain small and unassuming in the face of two disgruntled predators. “But I have to warn you. If anything, and I mean anything happens... If a parent or a teacher makes a complaint about your relationship… Just, be careful.”

“You mean stay hidden?” Troy’s tone was acidic.

“Use your professional judgement.” Nic said sharply. “And don’t let Levi find you doing – whatever it was you were doing – in the equipment store again. You would not believe the time I had talking him down from his high horse.”

Paddy grunted as he stepped out of the mess hall into the clear air. It was a beautiful day, hot, sunny, the perfect weather for being outdoors with the man he loved. He scuffed his boots on the grass. However he was no longer in the mood for lazing around in the sun on the grass, reading and day dreaming of the next time he would get to taste the muskiness of his mate.

“Babe?” Troy stroked fingers down his arm and Paddy felt the static energy on his skin.

“I’m gonna go for a swim.” He huffed. He wanted to swim in his fur in the cold clear waters of home, catch fish on the little rocky ford between the main lake and the more sheltered one where the fish liked to spawn. He wanted to lie on the grass with the campfire and listen to his grandmam singing lullabies of home. But it was a sunny Sunday, and not a lot of people had gone home. There were young men and woman all over the campsite, and he couldn’t risk being seen.

“You want company babe?” Troy wrapped an arm around his waist and hugged him quickly.

“Maybe later.” Paddy kissed his temple softly. “I’ll let ye ken.”

He got his thinnest board shorts from the cabin, donned his flips flops, and took a towel, just for the look of the thing. Back home, they would usually swim naked, since all the guys shifted in the water anyway. There were a couple of other people on the far end of the lake where the shape thinned out, mucking around with the kayaks. Paddy had hoped he might have two minutes to be in his fur in the water, but when someone he didn’t know waved to him across the shoreline, Paddy simply sighed. He waved back though, because his mother had raised him to be polite even when he was in a bad mood.

Leaving towel and flip flops on the bank, Paddy stepped quickly into the water, and swam out until he could no longer touch the bottom of the lake. It was only deep in places, but all the kids, teachers and instructors had to wear life vests when they went out in the kayaks and three man canoes. Now it was the weekend, they could swim unencumbered. Paddy looked up at the sky so blue at the zenith, took a deep breath and pushed himself under the water. There were fish down the in the black depths of the lake, trout who would swim up to investigate him, fish who hadn’t been hunted enough to know better. It would be an easy thing to have one or two. The fish would forgive him their swift and silent deaths. When Paddy felt the dizziness of a near-shift in his mind, he forced himself to the surface and breathed deep. He wanted to change and splash about in his fur, but it wasn’t worth the risk of getting caught. Instead, he swam the width of the lake, turned at the far end, and headed for the little clear stream that ran with trout travelling along the waters of their home.

He stood crotch deep in the water with the sun drying out his thick hair and waited for the fish to swim into the harbour of his hands.

“Whatcha doing?”

“Fishing.” Paddy didn’t look up, or move at all as a big fat trout came to rest in the little shelter made by his fingers in the water. He didn’t recognise the scent of the human who stood on the bank, but he knew the squeal when he grabbed the fish by the tail, hauled it from the water and, quick as a flash, smacked its head on a big stone sticking out of the bank’s edge. He looked up to see a girl of about his own age watching him with a horrified sort of expression. She was wearing a bikini top and board shorts like his own, and had a kayak paddle in one hand.

“We were wondering if you wanted to join us. Bunch of us were going to race across the water.”

“Ta.” Paddy looked her up and down. “Ye done freaking out about tha fish now lassie?”

“Are you gonna eat it later?”

“I w’ sorta thinkin’ I might eat it now lassie.” Paddy grinned at the look of shock that passed over the girl’s features. “I’ll put ‘im in the fire later. I’m Paddy.” He offered her his hand and she shook it firmly.

“Jeanie.” She smiled. “So can you paddle with those big arms of yours then Paddy?”

Paddy ended up in the back of a three man canoe with Jeanie at the front and a very tanned well-built guy sitting on the centre bench who had introduced himself as Benny. Along with another canoe and two kayaks they splashed their way across the lake, laughing and shouting, spraying each other with water and paddles, swearing good naturedly. Benny tipped over a curvy girl in one of the little kayaks who had been splashing him and flashed Paddy a big smile.

“Jerk!”

“Sorry Sandra…”

The girl and Paddy exchanged a look, and silently, he offered her the handle of his paddle with a smirk. A moment later, Benny too was in the water, and Paddy found himself clutching at his sides because he was laughing so hard.

Babe. He pulled gently on the heart string, tapping it with the fingers of his mind. You gotta come up and see this.

The big Scot couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this normal. All his friends back home were human, and not since the weekend where he and Troy had raced the others across the lake had he felt this at ease amongst other people. He rocked the Canoe until Jeanie screeched, then stood and dived into the water with a giant splash. There was nothing in the play, he barely knew the people he swam with, but it changed nothing. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, and they were all young and free. It was easy to forget how angry he had been that morning, sitting in front of Nic in the mess hall, somehow made to feel like a an unruly teenager all over again. Now they all splashed about like there was nothing wrong with the world, and by the time everyone was gasping for dry land and tired of the play, Paddy had allowed himself to forget he was fundamentally different from his afternoon companions.

“So you’re from the field at River Road?” Benny asked as Paddy knuckle-rubbed the water from his hair, spraying glistening droplets everywhere.

“Aye. It’s a gid site. Where are ye again?”

“Lake View.” Benny rolled his eyes.

“It’s a bit of a joke.” Sandra was from there too. “You can’t even see the lake for all the trees in the way.”

“De nae dis the trees lassie.” Paddy grinned. Those were the same thick pines that had given him and Troy shelter many times, allowed them to roam in their fur in relative safety and hid them from the cars which passed along the curve of the road. “I liek it in tha woods.”

They sat around on the bank on their towels and Paddy was not in the least bit surprised when Sandra snuggled herself into Benny’s lap, her curvy hips between his thighs. He combed her wet hair with his fingers and she lamented how without blow drying it would dry curly. Paddy felt very keenly the missing presence of his mate, and was delighted to find when he touched the taught string around his heart he became instantly aware Troy was already heading in his direction.

“What made you come all the way down south, Scottish?” Jeanie asked. She and another two girls had brought a little foam cooler and she handed out cokes and slightly chilled chocolate bars to everyone.

At that precise moment, Paddy inhaled a breath which tasted of ice and salt, thick forest pine and new snow, and looked over his shoulder to see Troy jogging along the path towards them. He beamed.

“I came tae find love.” Paddy knew he sounded like an idiotic sap, but it was hard to feel anything other than a deep seated lazy sort of joy at the sight of his mate coming towards them along the water’s edge. Troy looked ruffled, and there were grass stains on his knees. To the big Scot, he looked perfect.

“Old fashioned romantic are you?” Benny asked with a smirk.

“Less old fashioned.” Paddy fell back on his elbows as Troy approached. The lynx tugged deliberately on his heart strings, then dropped to his knees, hands running down Paddy’s chest and he kissed him like no one was watching.

“He’s very bloody romantic.” Troy said with a grin. “You have nice swim babe?”

“Aye.” Paddy smiled at the assembled humans as he got to introduce his lover for the very first time. “Guys, this is my… partner?” Troy inclined his head, just a little, to show he was happy with the label. “Troy.”

“You guys met on camp?” Sandra asked. “That’s so cute!”

Troy settled down beside him, and Paddy was delighted when the lynx wrapped an arm around his bare waist. He and Benny got into a heated conversation about politics, which wasn’t something Paddy had ever guessed his mate would have been interested in, and Paddy lost himself in the warm pleasure that Troy being open gave him. They’d spent so long not appearing to be together, and now Troy seemed to have lost all of his inhibitions about privacy and secrecy. It was as though a weight had been lifted from him a slackening of the tension across his heart. Paddy poured love and happiness and peace down the line connecting them, felt the emotions reflected back at him, touched with the flavour of Troy’s mind, and bathed in the joy of it all. He smelt no fear or anger or hurt leaking off the humans around him, and found they genuinely didn’t seem to care if either of them were gay. It was a non-issue. Paddy wished Nic could start seeing it that way too.

“Fish for dinner?”

Paddy stroked the dull scales of the single trout which lay on the river bank.

“Thar wi’ be if I catch some more fish. I ken we mi’ do ‘em over tha fire again.”

Troy pulled the short gutting knife from his boot and slit the trout open with quick precise movements.

“Get on with it then babe.” He smiled as he worked. “These nice people have fed us. It’s only polite to invite them to dinner.”

*

Paddy yawned, covering his mouth with one hand, and stamped with his thick soled boots on the last of the dying embers. The stars overhead shone ever brighter in the new dark. It had been a good fire, and everyone from their site plus all of the guests from the lake had come to join them, bringing bread and salad, beer, cider and huge quantities of snacks. Paddy had caught his weight in fish, enough that he had already decided not to fish in the lake for a few weeks to allow the stocks to recover. Every death had been quick and painless, and of that he had been proud. Troy and Noah had built the fire, and Sean, annoyed that he had over slept on bow making had griped and sat in the fire light, hewing out the rough shape on his length of elm.

“Yer different now.” Paddy said quietly ad he draped his arm over Troy’s shoulders.

“Am I?”

“Aye pet. Ye were right polite and open with the guys from the other site. I did nae think ye would be.”

“And why not?” Troy pouted at him. “Aren’t I a nice guy?”

“Ye are tae me.” Paddy mused on this for a moment as they began walking back towards river road. He had very little experience actually seeing Troy interact with other people beyond the short frantic sort of conversation people had when they were working. Calling for harnesses or rope, checking on group names and numbers, shouting for children to come and clear up their plates, joking about the latest “spanner” style follies of teacher and kids alike. He had very little frame of reference for Troy actually having what he would have termed normal conversation with anyone other than him. It was no secret they had spent all of their time together, being secretive and alone in the woodland. But now they didn’t have to, now that Paddy could share this wonderful thing he had found with the rest of the world, he saw Troy was, deep down, a lot less shy and withdrawn than he had originally thought. “Sorry babe. I guess even a’ter all thi time, we dean’t ken each other tha’ well eh?”

Troy’s hand crept down and squeezed his arse through his shorts.

“Oh don’t know. I think I know you pretty well.” Troy’s lips were soft against the join of his neck and shoulder, his stubble rough on the tender skin. “It’s your birthday in a week.”

“And two days.”

“Exactly.” Troy’s grin was devilish. “And maybe I sorta wanted to try out on you that thing you did to me the other day.” He licked his lips. “You know the one with the tongue.”

“Oh sweet heavens…” Paddy couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. It was going to be a muffled, pillow biting sort of evening. “Yes please.”

Troy pulled at him with the heart string, making him want to run, scoop his mate up in his arms and carry him to bed. It was a good urge, so Paddy gave in, crouched and picked Troy up bodily. The lynx twisted in his arms until he ended up with his legs wrapped around Paddy‘s waist.

“Ye ken it makes it harder tae carry ye when ye do that. It’s very distracting.”

“Oh, I know.” Troy was thinking about the world outside, Paddy could tell by the distant sort of look his eyes held. “I wasn’t thinking that we’d go all the way back to the cabin first.”

“An’ what about all tha’ stuff Nic said about nae havin’ sex in tha woods?” Paddy muttered into his mate’s silken hair. “Boundaries an stuff.”

Troy grinned.

“It’s the weekend.” He wrapped his fingers into Paddy’s thick hair. “Doesn’t count.”

*

“Coach’ll be here soon.” Sean straightened up and cracked his back, having set the last peg in the now rather hard ground. Paddy tightened a guy rope on the newly moved tent. “All-girls school.”

“Really?” Paddy sighed. “It’s all gonna be tantrums an’ hair straighteners fer four whole days is nae?”

They walked over to the edge of the dust road to look for the coach. Troy was already there, and Paddy wrapped his arms around the slender man’s rib cage.

“Hey babe.”

Troy snuggled back into him with a sigh.

“I can smell the oestrogen from here.”

“Oh dear.”

“Oi, you two!” Nic was standing on the other side of the pale sandstone road, hands on hips. “Keep it to yourselves eh?”

Troy growled, and Paddy tugged quickly on the cord between their hearts. He had to pull quite hard, because the bond itself was longer now and stretchier, stronger but much more indistinct than it had been a month ago.

“Leave it be babe.” He stood up straight again and stepped sideways.

“He fucking runs around after Alexia and her fucking gender role issues, her diet, her fucking opinions about everything, but we’re the ones who need to be controlled in front of the kids?” Troy sounded pissed. “They’re all girls too, what fucking danger could we be to an all-girls school?”

“Who ken babe.” Paddy growled gently. There was no use; Nic had obviously made up his mind about them. “It’s only fer another month, we’ll cope.”

“I don’t want to cope babe.” Troy wrapped his hand around Paddy’s wrist, and linked their fingers gently. “You were right all along, I should have just said you were mine from the fucking get go.” The coach was pulling up now, the brakes grinding to a halt in the grass. “I want to be free. There are too many people here, not enough space to run.”

“Wha’ dae ye want tae do then babe?”

“Let’s go home.” Paddy never thought he’d hear the lynx say it in such a definite tone. “Screw their boundaries. Let’s go home.”