The plan was chaos from the start.

Chris had the brilliant idea to take the triplets’ channel into the great outdoors—“Camping with the Sturniolos!”—which immediately earned groans from Matt and a firm “No, dude” from Nick. But somehow, with your help, Chris got them to fold. Mostly because you said you’d come. The fans loved you, and Chris knew the views would triple just from having you in the thumbnail, wrapped up in some oversized hoodie, laughing at whatever dumb thing they did this time.

But not everyone loved you.

The comments lately had been… a lot. Ever since that one car video where Matt looked at you for a second too long, the shippers had gone wild. Edits. Assumptions. It didn’t help that Matt wasn’t great at hiding things—he wasn’t doing anything, really. That was just how he was. Quiet. Observant. Always tuned in to you in a way he didn’t even realize. You knew he didn’t mean anything by it—he barely talked to you, let alone flirted—but the internet saw what it wanted to see.

Now, you were ankle-deep in pine needles, trying to figure out how the hell to prop up the tent poles without stabbing yourself. Matt stood a few feet away, squinting at the instructions like they were written in another language.

Chris and Nate had already given up and were somewhere by the fire pit. Nick was off with his new friend, you and Matt? Left with the broken zipper tent and zero upper body strength between you.

You struggled with a pole, almost snapping it in half from sheer frustration. “Ugh, what the hell even is this?” you muttered.

Matt reached over, wordlessly adjusting your grip, fingers brushing over yours for just a second too long. Then, finally, he spoke—low, like he wasn’t sure if he even meant to say it out loud

“You make everything harder.”

You looked up, startled, and he caught your expression.

He cleared his throat, smirking faintly, the way he always did when he was trying not to look flustered.

“I mean—tent-wise” he added quickly, but he didn’t look at you.

And then he was quiet again. But his ears were a little red.