It was nearing midnight when they had successfully finished their dinner and had now set up all four of the tents that had been stored in the supplies back at the pod. Three of them were set up down on the fire lit river bank, while Ian chose to place the fourth up at the top of the incline, as well as a lantern and a heater, so as to be better aware of anything that might approach the camp at any time.

Two of the team had already decided to attempt a nap by that hour. Jared was apparently up for a break after allowing himself to use a little more mental power than he had really willingly used in two weeks, so he curled up inside one of the river bank tents. Ian’s relentless energy regardless of his lack of much sleep at all in the last four days, apparently encouraged his own vacation from consciousness as he placed himself atop the incline, heater and lantern on one side, artillery on the other.

“Lightweights,” Kyle attempted to break the silence between himself and Lili as he added a few twigs to the fire, and she trailed her fingers over the surface of the water which still felt warm from the previously humid day.

“Uh oh, how will we ever survive with our big, bad protector asleep?” Lili teased quietly as Kyle managed to let his feet carry him over to her place at the water’s edge.

“Guess we’ll have to hope my superpowers kick in soon, now that I’m only a year away from the big one-eight,” Kyle teased as he kept his eyes on the water rather than on her.

“Oh that’s right, you have less than an hour left of your birthday,” Lili smiled. “I think it was a pretty good day for you, considering,” she added as she gestured at their surroundings, though Kyle’s blush proved that he wasn’t really thinking about the discovery of their new camp when he took account of the day as a whole.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he agreed with his own slight grin, while still keeping his eyes averted.

Lili couldn’t help smiling at his obvious awkwardness, before she couldn’t resist taking advantage of their semi-aloneness to further the feeling in the young man. “Guess it’s my turn,” she offered as she finally stood.

“Turn?” he asked, finally looking over as she stood.

“For my own swim,” she told him with a sly smile before beginning to remove her own boots.

“At this hour?” was all Kyle managed, a nervous glance back toward the two tents containing their still sleeping companions.

“Not all that tired, yet,” she offered as she reached for the bottom of her own t-shirt. “Are you?” she added as she pulled the shirt free, exposing her bra to his now seemingly glued gaze.

“I’m feeling, uh, oddly alert,” he managed under his breath, which only caught again once her hands moved to the snap of her own jeans rather than his, this time.

Not able to help the smirk inspired by his last comment, Lili took her own glance backwards, before taking a breath and beginning to unhook the bra and drop it to the ground as well.

Kyle couldn’t help a response, “Ok, you’re definitely allowed to say happy birthday,” he stammered, only to forget his voice altogether when she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her panties and began pulling them away in the dim firelight as well. “Very happy,” he breathed as the last of her clothing was dropped to the ground next to him before she giggled a bit and finally gave him the tiniest bit of relief as she entered the water at last.

Once she immersed herself in the water to help heat her body evenly there under the light of this planet’s nearly blue moon, she finally returned to the surface, pushing wet red locks from her face as she looked back toward his continued watchful gaze. “Happy enough to come in too?” she chided.

“Uh,” he began, his concentration just barely returning as she was now only exposed from the neck up, “wasn’t I already in there today?” he swallowed.

“Your point?” she chuckled back.

“Ok, you make a valid argument, I guess,” he allowed his own chuckle as he stood to remove his own t-shirt once more, blushing sideways at her before beginning to remove his jeans again as well. “So, should I be a gentleman, or something, and leave these on?” he finally managed when he was down to his own snug boxers.

“Only if you really wanna sleep in wet underwear…” then she couldn’t help adding, “I know I didn’t want to.”

Another deep breath as he tried to force his own currently raging hormones not to interpret her comment the way Ian would have, though he wasn’t honestly sure that wasn’t how she meant it. On that disturbing thought, he just had to shake his head before finally pulling the boxers free once again.

“You do seem to be having a remarkably happy birthday,” she couldn’t help teasing him as her eyes pointedly moved down over him as he entered the water.

“You are very evil, woman,” he chuckled with another blush, before moving the rest of the way into the water, hindering any further appraisal she may have had of his current mood.

“Yet, you still came in,” she teased as she swam closer to him.

“Yeah, not a lot of blood in the brain right now,” he admitted as he attempted to splash some water over his face, for more reasons than adjusting the temp difference between the warm water and cooler air.

“Oh, Kyle,” she told him with a teasing, yet sincere smile as she made her way over to him. “It’s just a naked body.”

“No, that logic is really not helping right now,” he stated with feigned thoughtfulness as she moved around behind him to wrap her arms around his waist with another giggle. “Not helping a damn bit,” he breathed in reaction to her body now pressing against him from behind.

She let out another chuckle at his reactions before moving around in front of him. “So, would that mean that you want to, Kyle?”

“W-want to?” he managed as she finished moving to that spot now in front of him.

“Seems like you want to,” she smiled, pointedly glancing down at the water between them. “And I’d hate to have our genius as distracted as you so obviously are.”

“Um, if you’re talking about…” she just nodded. “Um, didn’t you say that you like, weren’t feeling up to it, or something?” he managed, choking on nearly every word.

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“Well, that was twelve hours ago,” she smiled as she placed another gentle kiss on his neck. “And the water’s helping.”

“It…is?” he managed, not able to stop his hands from inadvertently reaching for her waist.

“Like I said earlier, water’s a very good thing,” she smiled back up at him, her hands holding onto his shoulders as she remained pressed against him under that water running gently past them.

“Yeah, I officially love it,” he managed.

“Yeah, I think we definitely need to find a cure for this distraction of yours,” she agreed once more.

“Oh, definitely,” he agreed as more of a breath than a statement.

Allowing only another small smile as she glanced back up at the still silent tents, Lili moved to pull herself up to wrap her legs around his waist, still bracing her now weightless body with a remaining hand on his shoulder before moving the other down between them. It took only another brief moment, and a long breath on both their parts, before she easily slid him inside her, before beginning to move against him, giving him that present after all: That perfect second that he had only previously heard about, and now, had his chance to experience, at last.

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“Up and at ’em, kids,” Ian called out at the next morning’s dawn as he started down the incline toward the tents, where they slowly stirred inside.

“What time is it, even?” Jared complained as he poked his head out of his own tent while Ian made his way over to the fire.

“Like six,” Ian shrugged as he reached the fire.

“A.M.?” was Jared’s response as he pushed some sleep-tangled locks from his eyes as Lili and Kyle each crawled out of their own tents.

“Please, you were out before me,” Ian scoffed as he narrowed his eyes at the still high flames.

“The fire’s still going?” Lili managed her own greeting as she stepped out of the tent, only taking a moment to exchange a brief smile and blush with Kyle.

“Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say. Who kept it going all night?” Ian returned.

“Like you said, I was out before you,” Jared responded as he stood and stretched.

“When’d you two go to sleep?” Ian turned the question on Lili and the remarkably silent youngest of the group.

“Um, like around one, or so?” Kyle warily answered as he glanced over at Lili to confirm his statement.

“Yeah, somewhere around there,” she agreed, turning her eyes quickly downward as she did.

Ian’s brow rose a bit as he looked between the two of them and just sighed loudly and shook his head, “Anyway,” he began, his voice sounding a bit rougher than a moment ago, “you gonna fish us up some breakfast, or is it another tasty freeze-dried morning snack before I head out?” Ian turned the question to Jared, deliberately not looking back toward Lili or Kyle right then.

“Me?” Jared asked, finally turning his attention back from where he had been sliding back into his t-shirt as Ian had spoken.

“Well, you apparently have the magic touch.” Ian returned, only casting another brief sideways glance at Kyle and Lili, while Jared cast his own nervous glance at Lili, for an entirely different set of reasons than the ones in Ian’s ocean-colored eyes on her.

“Well,” Jared swallowed a bit, “if you’re hungry now, may as well grab another of the meals from the pod, the fish may take a while,” he attempted to reason.

“Whatever,” Ian repeated, as he moved to go and find his breakfast.

After a few moments into the otherwise silent meal, Lili turned her eyes toward Ian, “So, you said, before you head out?”

“Yes, I did,” he stated simply as he took another bite.

“Um, head out, where?” she asked, trying not to read much into his seeming coolness, as Kyle tried not to do as well, from his own nearby seat.

Ian sighed, “I was going to go hunting for some of those deer-lookin things we saw the other day. Cause this is day five, food’s running out, and I doubt if we only wanna decide between fish and fruit for the next twenty years. Oh, sorry, what was it, two years?” he added as an afterthought.

“Not quite,” she whispered quietly, as she and Jared both exchanged a downwards glance.She then had to speak up with a bit of worry, “Are you sure you wanna go hunting out there all alone, though?”

Ian couldn’t help a loud chuckle, “You forget who you’re talkin to, darlin?”

“I know, but still, something could happen,” Lili continued, trying not to sound too pleading, but it was difficult.

“Odd, I thought I still had a good two years,” he returned smartly.

“I said you all might have a chance at being here in two years still…and the time frame, well, it wasn’t as accurate as we first thought,” she attempted, looking to Jared for some kind of support, though he couldn’t really offer any without going into way more detail than the two already had.

“The concern is touching, really Lil. But I’m gonna find us some real food,” he nodded as he set aside his empty food carton, and headed off toward the woods, despite the look of continued worry on Lili’s face.

“I’ll uh, go with,” Kyle offered with a deep breath as he moved to quickly retrieve his own knife before attempting to catch up with Ian.

Once they were out of hearing range, Jared gave her a slightly puzzled look as she continued to look off after them, an obvious fear on her face, “Why are you so worried, Lili? It is Ian we’re talking about.”

“Yeah, I know but...” she just shook her head, “but it’s not two years anymore, remember?”

“I know, but you can relax a little.We still know that at least one of us is still gonna be here to, uh, start that nine months, remember?”

“Yes, but we don’t know which one, and…” she looked down, swallowing hard.

“And what?” he asked perceptively.

“And any one of you could still have something terrible happen to you at any moment.Especially…if that nine months has already started,” she sniffled, trying not to look up at whatever shock may be on his face at hearing her confession.“And if it has, and if I lose any one of you…I just can’t deal with that.”