Wednesday: Head Count

"You're going." Hunter muttered. His voice was quiet as they huddled against the van parked out behind Storm Chargers. He kept his voice quiet partly because he didn't want anyone to overhear, and partly because he didn't need to talk any louder than he was.

"Yeah," Cam gasped, tipping his head back as Hunter pressed another kiss to his neck. "You mentioned that." His hands were sliding across Hunter's back, making his skin tingle everywhere his fingers touched. "Several times."

"So?" Hunter kissed his mouth because he could, then pulled back to glare at the other Ranger. The effort was hampered by the shockingly distracting effect of Cam's proximity. "Why aren't you packed?"

"I am," Cam grumbled. The admission seemed reluctant, even forced, like being ready to hop in a van bound for the X Games was the most uncool thing he could possibly confess. "I'm just not done with my work."

He made up for this ridiculous statement by running his hands up Hunter's back and burying his fingers in his hair, pressing their mouths together again. Kissing seemed more important than any argument he could be making, so Hunter went with it. Especially since he had no idea when it was going to happen again.

The team had gotten two hotel rooms for their four night stay in Los Angeles, which, when you added it up, equaled zero privacy until the beginning of next week. Hunter had always had a general appreciation for privacy, but that baseline respect had skyrocketed around the same time he'd realized how much Cam liked it. Or rather, how much Cam didn't object to sharing it with him.

"Less work," Hunter whispered, when he had a spare breath. His arm was pressed up against the cool metal of the Storm Chargers van and the rest of his body was pressed up against Cam's. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing better he could be doing with his time right now. "More play."

"Words of wisdom," Cam murmured. "From a guy who doesn't take his own advice."

Hunter kissed him, hard, because coming from Cam that was almost a compliment. "I'm not the one--" He almost forgot what he was going to say when one of Cam's hands slid into the back pocket of his jeans and suddenly they were that much closer, he was held in place by something he hadn't in any way expected.

"Threatening to skip my vacation," Hunter finished breathlessly. "Because I have work to do? That's what vacation is for... to get away from work for a while."

"I'll get a ride with Dustin tomorrow," Cam muttered, and his free hand was looking for something. The other pocket, maybe. "He has work too."

Dustin's work consisted of things that actually needed to be done, whereas Cam's work mostly involved checking things that had already been done by people or systems less thorough than he was. Which was all of them, according to him. On the other hand, Cam was a pretty sure bet when it came to being more efficient than Dustin, which meant that chances were good he really would be ready to go by the time Dustin was done.

"I'm holding you to it," Hunter whispered, trying to ignore the fact that Cam was doing a lot better job with holding things than he was right now. "If I don't see you tomorrow, you're gonna hear about it."

"Yes," Cam agreed, leaning back a little so that Hunter was trapped between his hands and his hips. "Because threatening me has always worked so well in the past."

"Shut up and kiss," Hunter growled. He didn't really feel like being teased right now, and Cam could do it with his body and his brain simultaneously. It wasn't one of his more charming traits.

Cam did as he was told. Not typical of him, but that was one of his more charming traits: he occasionally listened to Hunter.

***

"C'mon, guys! Let's go!" Tori yelled again, for all the good it was doing. She doubted Kelly appreciated her screaming either.

She'd been at Storm Chargers for almost twenty minutes, but the others had yet to load a single thing into her van. And Hunter was missing all together. The only one she couldn't be mad at was Dustin.

But that was only because since he wasn't riding with her, technically she wasn't waiting on him. He was the only one putting forth any effort too. He was hard at work on a bike. And she suspected he would be there late into the night trying to get all his work done.

On the other hand, his fellow Rangers weren't that ambitious. Blake and Shane were crowded around the tv in the lounge area. The pile of packs and bags went unnoticed on the floor, as they clung to the images on the tv set. You'd think they wouldn't be seeing one for a week, she thought. And they might not if she had anything to say about it.

She grabbed a hackeysack off a shelf, throwing it at Shane's head. Somehow he managed to catch it though, without turning from the tv.

She looked up at the tv in disgust. "Guys, they're just showing old X-Games footage! If we actually left, we could see this stuff live!"

"But Tor, there's a chance they'll show our video during these clips!" Shane said, as if trying to buy time.

She threw up her hands. "You've seen our video! You're *in* our video!"

"Yeah, but this is ESPN2!" Blake added, as if that would help. It didn't, he discovered, as his backpack flew at him. Quickly followed by several other bags.

That was enough to break the group up. By their second trip to her van, she noticed that Hunter had appeared. She spotted him quickly enough, leaning over the counter to talk to Dustin.

"Now I'm serious, man," Hunter warned. "Whenever you're done, go check on Cam. Don't let him bail on us."

"No problem, dude," Dustin replied. "I won't let him out of my sight."

"Cam might actually get more done if you left him alone, Dustin," she interrupted.

"Or he won't get anything done at all," Hunter said. "And he won't come."

"Without someone there to nag him?" she asked. "He so won't thank you for this."

"Better Dustin than me then," he shrugged mischievously, heading for the door.

Dustin was already back to work on the bike though, and had missed the last part of the exchange.

"Later, Dustin!" Shane called, waving as he ducked out the door.

Dustin looked up, waving in return. "Later!" He turned to Tori, "Be careful and have fun."

"We will. See you soon!" She leaved across the counter and gave him a quick hug.

"You know it. Tomorrow afternoon, I swear."

"You better, if you know what's good for you," she waved as she left.