He disappears into the darkness, and Dawn watches after him. Wants to say something, but there’s nothing to say.

She’s too tired for this drama, anyhow.

Warden’s sitting by the fire when Dawn comes back from her little tiff with Lucas.

He’s alone.

Dawn can see light in the other tents spread around the campfire; she can hear rustling as the rest of the Bear Pack gets comfortable for the night. But Warden’s just sitting there watching the fire die, his hoodie up over his head and the flames dancing in his eyes.

“Everything okay?” he asks, smiling that mischievous smile as Dawn comes back into the circle, like he knows what’s going on between Lucas and Dawn, and he knows how Dawn’s conflicted about it.

Dawn tries not to blush, avoids Warden’s eyes. “Everything’s cool,” she tells him. “Look, I think I’ll just crash with Kyla or something. Save everybody the trouble.”

Warden nods. “Lucas is upset,” he says. “Jealous.”

“I guess so,” Dawn says.

“He has a thing for you.”

Dawn shrugs.

Warden stands and walks to his tent. Unzips the flap and shines his light inside.

“Look, it doesn’t have to be like that,” he tells her. “You can crash in here and we can be good, I promise. I just didn’t want you to sleep in the cold.”

He sounds so innocent when he says it that she almost believes him, and his eyes are clear of the mischief that often lives there.

(Dawn isn’t sure if she wants to believe him, but that’s a different thing entirely.)

“But hey,” Warden says, “if it’s a big deal between you and Lucas, believe me, no worries.” He reaches into his tent and comes out with her backpack. “The last thing I want is to fuck up group dynamics.”

He hoists her pack and makes to hand it across to Dawn. Dawn stares at it. At Warden behind it. And she’s suddenly aware of how cold she is already, and wet; she’s shivering and her teeth are chattering and her toes are like ice, her pants wet and her legs wet underneath them and her feet are the worst of all, and she’s suddenly aware of how nice it would be to get warm and cozy and curl up beside somebody and not just, you know, shiver the night away by herself, and she must be subconsciously looking inside Warden’s tent, because he seems to read her mind.

“We can be good, I promise,” he says. The way he smirks makes Dawn feel like she’s being childish. “It doesn’t have to be anything you don’t want it to be.”

Dawn hesitates.

She closes her eyes.

She wonders how she’s going to face Lucas in the morning.

But then she takes her backpack from Warden and puts it back in his tent.