Author's Notes

I've finally managed to sit down and write for my current obsession: Camp Lazlo. Anybody who knows me really well could've seen it coming. This is also my first romance piece (not counting vignettes and ficlets), so please be nice to me. As it says on my profile, I am a fan of shonen/shoujo ai and yaoi/yuri, in other words, slash, so it isn't weird for me to write about it. But in case any of my readers are sensitive to it or just don't like it, I'm warning you beforehand, this is for a slash pairing. So now you can't say I didn't warn you.

Chapter 1

Frolicking In Foreign Lands

Camp Kidney glistened with bright sunshine, as vivid as the day he left it four years ago…for the last time. The camp felt like a foreign place to him since he last set foot on the grounds. Unfamiliar faces showered in stinkweed, the dusty mud tracks he and his generation created long buried beneath fresh footsteps. And yet, not much had really changed. The resonant sound of giddy laughter still floated throughout the balmy summer air, log cabins stood in place like candied gingerbread houses…and the booming voice of the Scoutmaster moose he had admired as a child echoed throughout the camp.

“Move it! Let’s get going; we haven’t got all day!” Scoutmaster Lumpus hollered at the campers in almost a chiding voice, a voice that, he hadn’t realized until now, held just a slight tint of affection to it. Lazlo smiled in fond remembrance.

“Scoutmaster Lumpus?” Lazlo spoke up, feeling the mispronunciation of the moose’s name slide familiarly off his tongue. A shocked yelp escaped the Scoutmaster’s lips, as he realized just who had been standing behind him. He turned around, and instead of greeting his former camper with surprised delight like any other would, his domineering nature got the better of him.

“What are you doing, sneaking up on me like that!” Lumpus shouted, his antlers appearing a tad more menacing than they used to seem. Ah, old times were here at last….

“Come to think of it, what are you doing here at all?” Lumpus asked the monkey, remembering those years were long gone. “I thought your last year here at camp was six years ago.”

“Four, sir,” Lazlo corrected calmly.

“Whatever,” Lumpus muttered bitterly, the realization of the monkey’s presence beginning to sink in. Maybe if he played the “nice guy” routine, he could get the monkey out of his hair quickly without hurt feelings.

“So…what brings you back to Camp Kidney?” Lumpus asked sweetly, obviously uncharacteristic of him, but fooling Lazlo nevertheless.

“Why, Scoutmaster Lumpus, don’t you know?” Lazlo asked, as if the answer should be first on the moose’s mind. “I’m your camp counselor this year!” he said with excitement, hardly able to contain his delight. Lumpus, however, felt as though a dagger had shred his calm and soothing summer to pieces.

“Aren’t you just so happy?” Lazlo exclaimed.

“Ecstatic,” Lumpus muttered under his breath.

The wood desk shone as brilliantly as it did all the times he sat before it all those summers ago. But, instead of craning his neck to peer over the desk, he could now gaze comfortably over his Scoutmaster’s working space, though piles of papers had already claimed their homes, nestled in among the cracks.

“So…you got any experience?” Lumpus asked the monkey, who he knew fully well didn’t have any kind of experience under his belt, besides the fact that he was a camper himself once. Sitting there before him, Lumpus slowly began to notice his accomplished four years of growth, which wasn’t much, considering his species, but still noticeable.

“Only the experience of camping here myself,” Lazlo responded with a grin, knowing fully well that his Scoutmaster already knew this and was simply following procedure.

“You do realize you’re fourteen,” Lumpus stated, as if that was much to old to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere with crazed campers for a summer to a year.

“Sixteen, sir,” Lazlo corrected once again.

“Well, then, what are you doing out here!” Lumpus cried, hands jumping to his desk in silly frustration.

“What better way to spend your summer than roasting marshmallows, sleeping out under the stars, and eating tofu hot dogs back at Camp Kidney?” Lazlo said, that monkey-grin of his never wavering from his face.

He made it sound like a tropical vacation.

“I’ll tell you what. If you can bunk here for the summer and do everything I tell you without being too much of a bother, you can have the job,” Lumpus issued an ultimatum.

“I won’t let you down!” Lazlo saluted, his insides leaping with excitement like jumping beans.

The door creaked open hesitantly at his words, inviting wandering dandelion snow inside. Lazlo turned his head ‘round at the sound to see the timid banana slug he knew all too well step into the room.

“Oh, good, Slinkman, you’re here,” Lumpus said to himself, shuffling papers to signal he was finished with Lazlo…for now. “I need to discuss this with you.”

Slinkman, however, seemed more preoccupied with the boy inhabiting the chair before the Scoutmaster than the Scoutmaster himself.

“Is, that…Lazlo?” Slinkman asked hesitantly, puzzled as to the reason why the monkey would be there.

“Hey, Slinkman!” Lazlo greeted cheerily, waving frantically at yet another old friend.

“Hey…” Slinkman returned the wave, trying his best to appear equally friendly, but his confusion overshadowed the attempt. He chose to dismiss it for now, for there were more important matters to attend to at the moment.

“Sir, the camp counselor has arrived,” Slinkman informed the Scoutmaster.

“Yes, I know, that’s what we need to discuss,” Lumpus said impatiently, pointing to the chair that Lazlo currently occupied. Slinkman eyed him curiously.

“Shouldn’t we bring him in first?” Slinkman queried worriedly. Now it was Lumpus’ turn to be confused.

“What are you babbling on about?” Lumpus asked, becoming more frustrated by the minute. Slinkman didn’t even need to reply, for someone stepped out from behind him to distill their confusion…a someone, who caused Lazlo’s heart to beat from the depths of his bowels to the tonsils in his throat.