After the fiasco on Midnight (which Jethro would rather not think about, thank you very much), his parents decided to take their family vacations on nicer, safer, more ecologically sound planets.

Which is how Jethro ended up on Sol 3, Middle Of Fucking Nowhere, France.

Also known as: how Jethro almost got attacked by a vicious animal and met one of the most obnoxiously charming skeevy charming ridiculous human beings in this galaxy and the next.

***

There were only two other people around Jethro’s age on the stupid camping trip. One was this tall, dark-haired girl whose appearance (hiking boots, huge, sturdy backpack, no-nonsense ponytail) suggested she had actually signed up for this insanity herself. The other was a rich, pretty boy (well, Jethro was just guessing here. Seeing as he had yet to see much of the guy besides the back of his very blond head) who’d spent the trip’s duration so far leaning over the girl and speaking in a low, coercing tone.

Jethro was pretty sure the girl was going to slap him any minute now. Ah look, there it was.

Jethro couldn’t help snickering at the put out, “Well, what was that for?!” that came from the two’s general direction.

***

For some reason Jethro couldn’t quite conceive, the rejected blond come ambling over, plopped down next to him, and immediately started talking. To Jethro. Who had headphones stuffed in his ears and was scribbling down in a notebook, and most of the subtle signals cautioning others to just stay the fuck away turned on.

Jethro yanked the earbuds out of his ears and looked up, intending to tell the other boy to go bother someone else with his problems. Only, he didn’t actually get that far.

Because Jethro looked up, and his jaw dropped. Because he’d seen the guy before (on that crap show, oh what was it called?).

“Are you – are you an actor, by any chance?” As the words slipped from his mouth, Jethro instantly wanted to slap himself. He sounded like one of those lovestruck teenage girls always lurking about in animes. (Not that Jethro watched animes. OK, there was that once, but that was all Katie’s fault. Really.)

The other boy looked slightly confused for a moment, but the look quickly dissolved into an egocentric smile. Before Jethro could stammer out that, no, he didn’t mean it like that, the boy started talking again.

“You know what? I really could be! I mean, I’m dashingly attractive, and all women want to sleep with me. What more do you need to be an actor? And I’m absolutely fantastic at those long, cinematic snogs. Want to see?”

“Er, what?” said Jethro. Who was he going to snog, anyway? The only person in a reasonably close distance was Jethro himself.

Oh. Oh.

The blond brought his face alarmingly close to Jethro’s – which would be required for snogging, only they were not going to snog because Jethro was going to regain control of his mouth and protest any minute now. Really.

Except Jethro couldn’t really focus on anything besides how long the other boy’s eyelashes were from this perspective. And then the other boy brushed his lips over Jethro’s own and murmured, “I’m Ben, by the way,” and Jethro really didn’t feel like protesting anymore.



I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS IS.