Private Finished Secretly Sorting... Competitively

Surprisingly, or not really, the thought of being carried by Kal wasn't bad at all and Cam snuck a quick peek at his muscular arms, when they flexed a bit as Kal lifted the bins. Cam slapped himself mentally and drew himself back from his fantasies. Even if he was slightly ahead of Kal didn't mean he could afford slowing down, and Cam looked upon the pile he still had to sort. He had made some serious progress but there was still much to be done.

Though Cam paid it it no attention Ernesto narrowed his eyes at Skye whispering into Kal's ear, and he set his still half-full lemonade down. Although when Kal answered Skye Cam glanced at the two, and their closeness caused a small spark of envy to come to life inside Cam. Well, he stomped it out immediately. Cam didn't want to become "that person", who got hysteric because some other person even got close to their crush.
Cam froze for a second, this was a crush, right? What he was feeling towards Kal. Cam hadn't actually thought about it before, and just suddenly realizing it after so long when it had been so obvious was somehow...really embarrassing. Cam blushed pretty noticeably and almost missed what Kal said. Cam turned to look at him, his cheeks still red and with a confused expression.
"Huh, what? Oh, yeah, let's get this done so I can celebrate my victory."
Cam snickered, joking around made the redness on his cheeks die down. Then he smiled a bit slyly at Kal.
"Relax, you say? Can I get a massage on the house if I win? Done by the master himself."
Cam did a dramatic gesture towards Kal and grinned, putting a big triton shell into a bin in the meantime.

Cam could feel Lyrseir's aura get close, and he felt so relaxed and comfortable his pace became noticeably slower for the short time she was near them. Cam kept his eyes on the door, never stopping to package the shells. If Lyrseir came in he wanted to make a good first expression. But she never came in and their challenge kept on going normally.
"That was close, I almost felt nervous if it were possible near her."

While Cam tried to get the remnants of his blushing under control Skye was addressing Ernesto about giving Cam, his contestant, some encouragement. For a moment Ernesto just looked at Skye from head to toe, before huffing a bit and turning his eyes back on Cam.
"You don't see what I see, girl."
Was what Ernesto, finally, said. His voice was just as stern as his appearance, although his tone has such a slight gentle note to it it was barely discernable. What he was seeing while looking at Cam was his aura, and what he said he based on what he saw in it.
"Under that flimsy act he is strong. He doesn't need encouragement, not from anyone."

Kal's attempt at a shell joke was painful and Cam cringe laughed while Kal did indeed admit the joke needed to be worked on.
"I sure hope these shells won't hatch, I thought we weren't supposed to break them. Wouldn't that be a shock if something hatched from a shell? Terrifying."
Cam said while snickering and looked at the shell he was holding with a sudden serious face. Well, faked serious face.
"I know you're in there. Tell me your secrets, you slimy asshole."
Cam pretended to talk tough to the shell before his demeanor broke and he put the shell in its own bin while cackling to his own over the top joke. Well, now he and Kal were even.

Cam looked at Kal a bit surprised when he actually went along with Cam's selfish request. The truth was, Cam had been craving for a massage from Kal for a while. He was a good masseuse, and although there might've been a smidge of ulterior motives there Cam honestly just wanted a good massage. But naturally Kal wanted something if he won, and immediately after Kal said it Cam thought of many things he was willing to give to Kal as a reward, over half of them something you shouldn't say or do while there were others present.

Cam pondered for a second about a good, not indecent reward he could give Kal. He did have money, but that was just impersonal and Cam wanted to do something for Kal within his own capabilities. While thinking Cam kept sorting the shells and after lifting a 6 or so bins to his pile Cam turned to Kal.
"What kind of food do you like?"

Cam couldn't stop a small giggle when Kal called him sir damsel in distress, still coming down from Lyrseir's aura. Cam aimed to not be a damsel in distress, but when Kal called him that it wasn't that bad. And besides, it felt good to know you'd be protected when you were an almost normal person on an island full of people that could kill in the blink of an eye, even if it was a joke.
"I appreciate it, sir Shellsalot."

Ernesto looked over at Skye with doubtful look in his eyes, he looked at everyone the same way. The girl was too cheerful to his taste, all cheerful people had more to hide in his opinion. With Cam it had proven to be right.
"That boy feels ridiculously good all the time, I'm not needed in that sense."
With that Ernesto turned to look at the two again, not touching the lemonade anymore.

Kal joined in on the fun by messing around with a rather large shell, and Cam cackled a bit at the show the guy provided. Why had Cam even considered he had been too silly? One of the best things about being with Kal was that Cam couldn't be too silly. He grinned back at Kal and peered at him with an amused look.
"Please don't get swallowed by the ancient evil, I'd be but a shell of a man if you disappeared."
Cam snickered and packaged next two shells at the same time, absently rubbing the other one with his other sleeve when he thought he saw a stain.

As Cam waited for Kal to tell him his favorite food(s) his mind raced with all the alternative prizes he could've offered. Instead of asking Kal's preferred foods Cam could've asked his preferred...other things. The thought made Cam want to blush again but he just took a breath and distracted himself by straightening a bin so it was aligned with the one under it. He needed to calm down.

Cam didn't know why he had expected Kal to like sushi or otherwise fish. Perhaps it was the ocean theme the guy seemed to have. But barbecued ribs did sound amazing and delicious, Cam wasn't exactly a picky eater either and his mother had made sure he could cook for himself before Cam had moved out. Cam had found a surprising hobby in cooking and he now had his own recipe collection. He smiled and nodded, excited and somehow nervous about the thought of cooking for Kal.
"I think I can manage that. I got a good recipe that I've been dying to try. You can be my pois-, I mean, taste tester."
Cam blinked innocently, nope, he had not almost said poison, what are you talking about?

Cam almost burst out laughing at Kal's strange flamboyant mess of a bow, but instead he curtsied back with a shell in his hands and his bow, although it had some amount of grace, was as bit of a mess as well. Similarly to Kal Cam also spun right back around and resumed packing the shells, that were lessening more and more. They were going to be on the final straight soon.

"What can I say? I work fast. But I'm sure my amazing ribs won't end up as your doom this time, since I will be the one to win this."
Cam said mischievously and sent a wink at Kal along with a small sly grin. But the grin melt away into a genuine smile soon enough when Kal admitted he was excited to try Cam's recipe.
"Oh well, maybe I'll let you be my poison tester even when I win. Just this once."
In all honesty, Cam wouldn't mind cooking for Kal anytime he wanted. If that meant Cam could spend more time with the guy heck, he'd cook up a 5 start lobster dinner, and the biggest pile of ribs humankind has ever seen.

Cam could feel the tension rise when he and Kal both only had few shells left. Cam grabbed his last two and started double packing them, almost elbowing Kal who was pretty close in the small space that was their respective areas. Cam didn't even have time to be nervous for being so close to Kal, he was too concentrated on finishing this challenge. Without even looking at Kal's work Cam wrapped the shells, put them to their bins and set the bins to the pile as fast as he possibly could, which was pretty fast. And the moment he set the bins on the pile Cam spun to face Kal, his mouth open and ready to proclaim his early victory. But instead Cam slipped and stumbled forward, not enough to fall on his face but certainly enough to collide with Kal.

"Oh, I know our history with spills, and also how good we look in them. I think you would rock a barbeque sauce stain."
Cam joked and grinned widely, also remembering their time at Forbidden Zone. Cam had gone there one or two times after their outing, but everytime he went there without Kal it just somehow didn't feel right. Cam hoped they could go together again sometime.

Cam couldn't stop his momentum in time and ended up just closing his eyes just before he collided with Kal. Cam expected them both to fall to the ground and bring the stacks with them. Cam could almost see his life flash before his eyes, when imagining what kind of punishment there would be for him after destroying Lyrseir's whole hoard.

But instead of falling with him Cam felt Kal catch him. Later Cam would laugh at himself for thinking his feeble body could bring Kal down. But at that moment, when he felt Kal's arm holding him up and his chest against his shoukder, Cam could feel his heart starting to race. For a second he was bit stunned and didn't move, looking up at Kal while basically hanging onto him. But soon enough Cam stepped away from Kal, perhaps bit too quickly, and had an apologetic and embarrassed expression. His heart was still pounding and his cheeks a bit flushed.
"Shit, I'm sorry. I could've seriously fucked that up. Was anything broken?"