Still having not found a water source within the immediate vicinity of three of the four sides of the pod, they all started the next day with a bit of nervous silence as they prepared to scout the fourth direction away from the pod before having to finally admit that they may have to seriously consider venturing further than one day’s walking distance from their current comfort zone.

When Kyle moved to open the hatch to let in the early afternoon sun, Lili moved to follow him, “Hey birthday boy.”

“At least you didn’t say happy birthday,” Kyle replied with a bit of bitterness in reference to the whole of their current situation, their slightly improved relationships aside.

“Hey, come with me a minute. I wanna show you something,” she told him with a breath, causing the other two to allow brief glances toward her.

“He’s the science guy…” Kyle replied a bit warily as he cast his own glance toward Jared, who quickly turned his own eyes away.

“I’m aware. Now would you come on?” she smiled as she gently tugged at his arm.

“Hey. Hey. Hey!” Ian interrupted their continued departure from the pod, increasing the loudness with each repetition.

“What? What? What?” Lili returned, mocking his own impatience for a reaction, once she finally did turn back his way.

“No more than twenty feet without me, got it? And a gun, take a fucking gun would you?” he ordered as he pointed to where he had left a few just inside the door.

Lili just rolled her eyes as she moved back to grudgingly take the smallest one and turned to shove it into the back of Kyle’s jeans which caused him to tense up nearly visibly, “Anything else daddy?” she retorted to Ian smartly.

“Could ya call me daddy again?” he told her with a devious grin, which only caused her to scoff loudly before continuing to drag Kyle off away from the pod with her. Ian just smirked as he turned back away from the door, his eyes catching Jared’s as he did, the younger of the two just shaking his head as he looked away, “What? You can’t tell me that the way she said that didn’t get you halfway to hard too.”

“You are so very damaged,” Jared mumbled, though didn’t say much else as he continued with their preparations.

After a moment, Ian just had to speak up after glancing out the door after their two now departed companions, “So, did you two, or didn’t you, honestly?”

“Should I pretend I know what you’re talking about?” Jared returned, placing more disinterest in his voice than any obvious annoyance.

Ian just shook his head, “Ok, lemme try asking in a less direct way…think Lili might actually give birthday boy a present to remember, after all?”

Jared just scoffed again, “I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Maybe?” Ian repeated, sounding a bit more than surprised by that response, but had to get more then, “So, tell me, how does that make you feel, Jared?” he asked, mocking the deep concerned tone used by most psychotherapists.

“You guys: I love how you just assume that something or other happened and go with it, even when no one has ever validated said assumption.”

“Big words, wow,” Ian teased, then added, “and I love how you two try to play all innocent, but have never actually, honestly denied it,” he told him smartly.

Jared just shook his head again, “I thought you were more concerned with guessing at what she might do with Kyle now, not me.”

“Actually, I’m most interested in hearing what you think she might do or not do with…anyone else.”

“Well, considering you and Kyle are the only ‘anyone elses’ here...” Jared shook his head again.

“Well?”

Jared scoffed again, “So you’re asking me to tell you what I think about the girl that you think that I slept with, possibly ever sleeping with either you, or Kyle?”

“Ow, that hurt my head too,” Ian complained as he put his hand to his temple. “No but seriously, do you think she actually would do anything with Kyle?”

Jared sighed again, “Fine, if it’ll get you to stop asking:” he began as he finally took a resigned seat next to the one Ian had now also claimed, “I can only assume that Kyle is probably a virgin, right?” Jared began.

“Did you get that from the physical or something?” Ian had to ask with a smirk.

“I got that from the fact that I’m only a little older than him. I only turned eighteen like two weeks ago. And I, myself was a virgin, until very recently,” Jared swallowed again, not looking directly up at Ian just yet. “And Kyle’s life was a lot more hectic, and his brain a lot more in demand than mine, ever since he hit puberty at all. So, it’s a valid assumption that he never really got around to dating much up there. I know I didn’t.”

“So, you think Lili might actually, uh, help him out with that?” Ian raised a brow at that thought.

“I think Lili knows all too well, what it’s like to realize that life is very short, and facing a very possible death, without ever having a chance to live, it sucks a whole lot. That’s what I think,” he stated simply.

“Damn, I guess I shouldn’t have fucked all those people up there, after all. Then I coulda played the virgin card, too,” Ian shook his head.

“Yes, I’m sure you regret every second of all that sex, Ian,” Jared told him with an obvious sarcasm before again returning to his previous task.

After a few more moments of checking his own supplies, Ian just had to add, “It does kinda suck, though.”

“What sucks?” Jared gave in and asked.

“Like you said the other day, I myself, have actually wanted her since the two of you were in grade school. But hey, it is what it is,” he shrugged as he moved to get some air of his own, in silence.

After the two of them arrived at a particularly large tree, Lili stopped next to it as she looked around, “I’d say this is about as far as we’ll get without him coming hunting for us,” she smiled back at Kyle, as he nervously leaned upon the tree, attempting to focus his eyes on the woods around him as well.

“So, what’d you wanna… show me?” he asked quietly. Lili simply smiled as she turned back to him before moving in close to him, causing Kyle to take a nervous step back only to have the tree come in contact with his back. “Hi,” he stammered a bit as her face was now mere millimeters from his own as he was basically pinned between her and the tree.

“So, you were actually wrong about something, up there.”

“Um, what might that have been?” he asked, trying very hard to keep his voice level, but it was increasingly difficult the longer she stood that close to him.

“About me never noticing any other guys but Jared.”

“I, uh, was?” he asked innocently.

“Kyle, you were the only one up there who was too busy to notice anyone, or at least let anyone know that you noticed them,” she corrected.

“I w--was?”

“Yeah, a bit,” she whispered with another smile as she moved in to trace her lips over his neck gently.

“S--Sorry?” he managed as her hands moved to the bottom of his t-shirt.

“You’re not busy now, are you?” she asked in her own whisper as she traced her fingers over his stomach.

“Nah, I, uh, got time,” he choked a bit on the words, which only caused her lips to smile against his neck before she moved to kneel in front of where he already stood about six inches taller than her, and then began tracing her lips over his stomach as well.

As her kisses spread over his stomach, her fingers simultaneously moved to the front of his jeans, causing him to arch his back against the tree, his nails digging slightly into the bark when he felt her fingers move to the snap and zipper of the jeans that had become painfully tight the very moment she had moved close to him at all.

After the next several moments that Lili spent fully completing that task, Kyle allowed his now limp body to slide down the base of the tree, where he took a seat on the ground as she wiped at her smiling lips, while he didn’t even close his pants right then, as he was now just too spent to even bother.

“Now am I allowed to say happy birthday?” she asked innocently, which did indeed produce a loud laugh from him in response, rather than any words right then. Though hearing any of them able to laugh at all, that was the real present, and hopefully a lot less fleeting than the simple orgasm she had allowed him to feel at her touch.

“Oh believe me, you can say whatever you want,” he told her in the same breathless tone.

She blushed a bit as she moved in to zip his pants back up for him with a smile, “Sorry, though, I’m sure you may have wanted another sort of ‘present,’ but I’m still not feeling quite up to that after the other day, you know,” she told him with an apologetic smile as she finished fastening his pants for him.

Kyle swallowed a bit and clasped her wrist as she was about to move it away, “You mean…” his voice trailed off as he attempted to put his question into words, “You mean, you actually would, you know, do that with me, too?” he managed in a whisper.

“It’s a different world, a different life, and no one should be deprived of feeling all the good parts of that life…while they still can,” she told him in a hoarse whisper.

In that simple statement, Lili’s words almost identically reflected the very concerns Kyle had shared with Ian the previous evening, in regards to his fear of missing out on such a huge part of his life now that they all seemed trapped here in their current situation. Lili then placed a tender kiss over his lips, and finally pushed herself up off the ground with a smile before moving back toward their strange new home of sorts.

Once she returned to the pod a few moments ahead of Kyle, Lili simply offered a silent smile to where Ian was leaning back just inside the door while Jared updated some of the findings on his own computer. Ian pointedly looked out the door behind her, where Kyle was slowly, but surely making his way back as well.

“Jeez, he’s even havin trouble walking now?” Ian scoffed as he looked back her way accusingly.

“Yes, Ian, I’m just that good,” she teased with a total lack of seriousness, before grabbing her bag for the day as she awaited the beginning of their continued search for water.

Amazingly though, neither Jared nor Ian said anything about her earlier ‘walk’ with Kyle, or at least not to her. After several minutes walking in the only unexplored direction, Jared pointed out a plant that did indeed seem to bear a type of small edible berry. Lili moved to Jared’s side to inspect the plant as well, leaving Ian on guard several feet off, where Kyle leaned upon a tree next to him.

“Come on, already, I am the one who pointed out your need to take advantage of her, offer of generosity, shall we say,” Ian finally gave in to curiosity, prodding the younger man.

“Yeah, I know,” Kyle smiled, but said nothing else.

“Oh you better fuckin fess up,” Ian shook his head.

“God Ian. No, her and I didn’t go off and have sex…exactly,” he couldn’t help adding.

“Exactly?” he asked more loudly.

“No, we didn’t,” Kyle admitted, though still wore the smile.

“Exactly?” Ian repeated more pointedly.

Kyle just shook his head with the continued smile, “She did kiss me, ok?” he allowed himself to admit, “But it is my birthday.” he had to add.

“Kissed you, huh?” Ian returned as he looked the younger man up and down.

“Yeah. It was nice,” Kyle admitted with a thoughtful look down.

“Nice?” Ian repeated as he nodded his head as if satisfied with the answer, then quickly continued, “Nice like a sister kiss or nice like, an ‘oh my god, my pants are about to burst’ kiss?”

Kyle couldn’t help chuckling with the slightest blush, “Actually, I think the kiss actually happened, after my pants were zipped back up,” Kyle couldn’t help, “It was a bit of a blur.”

“Back up?” Ian asked more loudly, obviously only hearing that part of the statement.

“Yeah, but like I said, we didn’t have actual sex… least not yet,” Kyle had to add with his own grin before moving off to join Jared and Lili those several feet away, leaving Ian to only look after him with another look of disbelief.