“Are you sure you didn’t get into any funky mushrooms after all?” Ian finally asked as Lili continued to smile as she appeared to be listening to a conversation he himself had no way of hearing. She simply chuckled as she wiped away a few tears of happiness for once, as odd as it was for her to have ever shed such things. Ian shook his head as he continued to watch her have a nice little chat in her own head, “Possibly heatstroke then?”

Lili let out another little laugh, “it’s only in the sixties, Ian” she smiled back at him as she also continued to listen to whatever Kyle was telling her right then. She then finally shook her head back at Ian, “why so shocked? You knew Kyle could do this. Remember your birthday?” she reminded him with another smile.

“Yeah, but he was on the same damn planet, then” Ian argued, though weakly.

“I guess his powers are getting stronger, and ghost’s...Will’s were strong enough too. We were flipping out for no reason” she smiled up at him once more.

“Oh believe me, we had plenty of reasons” Ian shook his head as he attempted to return his attention to breakfast, though couldn’t help his own sigh of relief, despite his guise of remaining upset. After another few moments, Lili finally sighed almost contentedly and returned her attention to Ian. He looked back at her skeptically once more, “Guessing he hung up?”

“Something like that” Lili smiled once more, not able to stop doing that for some reason today, surprised as she was herself by that fact.

“I’m guessing they still haven’t found the ship or any survivors though, right? Figure that woulda been the headline” Ian added.

“Not yet” Lili agreed with a smaller sigh, “but they’re ok. They’re both ok” she repeated as if to solidify the statement in her own head as well.

“For now” Ian mumbled as he turned back to the meal once more.

Lili then offered him a skeptical look, “so in a conversation between the two of us, you’re the Debbie-downer? Maybe I am high” she smirked.

“So, did he say anything else of note?” Ian moved on.

“He’s having a bit of a rough time relating to Will, but I think it sounded like our ghost was beginning to grow on him” she offered.

“He does do that” Ian stated, more to himself then.

Upon finishing his telepathic chat with Lili, Kyle just had to share the fact of that success with someone; and of course that someone would have to be his only companion of the last two weeks. So he made his way toward the lake that Will and he had chosen to set up camp by the night before. Upon his approach, he found Will with his back to him, already waist deep in the water, scooping it up over his head, face and chest to wash away the grime of the last few days.

Kyle faltered for only for a moment as he reached the water’s edge, but still wanted to share his news, so he raised his voice to speak, “it worked, Will. It actually worked,” he managed a smile as Will turned at the sound of his voice, a smile touching his lips then too.

“You talked to them?” Will called back as he began making his way toward the shore again.

Now that the older man’s hair was soaked, it had finally been pulled away from his face which somehow still did not take away from his girlish appearance at all. Kyle swallowed again as Will made his way towards him, the water dripping from his long locks, over his chest, stomach, and lower as the rest of his nude body became visible once the water shallowed out and he reached the land next to where Kyle seemed to have forgotten to breathe once again.

“You talked to both? Lili and Ian?” he smiled, paying no heed to his own nakedness as he moved to speak with Kyle at a more conversational volume.

“Um,” Kyle began, trying desperately to look at anything but the water glistening off of Will’s smooth skin in the morning sun, “I just talked to her, but Ian was also with her, so.”

“They’re both good too?” Will continued.

“Um yeah” Kyle returned in a near whisper as he continued to make any attempt he could to keep his eyes averted.

That was when Will just shook his head at the painfully apparent tension in the eighteen year old, “I think you’d be much happier if you stopped being afraid.”

Kyle’s eyes then snapped up to those huge brown eyes of Will’s that were finally both visible, and quite near, “what are we talking about again?”

“I don’t even understand why you are afraid. Either we touch and you like it and we both end very happy, or you somehow don’t like it and we don’t have to touch again. Easier to just do it than to keep being afraid to even find out” he told him with another soft shake of those wet locks.

Kyle was at another loss for words for a long moment before he at least attempted to respond, “you just don’t understand...”

“That’s what I just said” Will allowed another small smile, refusing to move back, or cover himself, just standing there, forcing Kyle to confront those fears that Will honestly could not even fathom, himself.

“That’s your solution? Just do it to find out if I like it, even though, I’ve never...” Kyle just shook his head.

“You’ve never...even tried” Will finished the sentence for him as he moved a step closer and gently closed his mouth over Kyle’s.

Kyle immediately tensed, but did not pull away for a long moment before he finally moved back to catch his breath, “you don’t just...” he began, though lost the words as soon as they began.

“What is the worst that could happen if you did let yourself try? What is it you’re afraid of, really?” Will asked him in a slow and gentle tone.

“But I’m not...” Kyle began again as he finally lost the willpower to keep from letting his eyes travel openly over Will’s body at last. After a long moment to make himself bring his eyes back up to Will’s face, he finally spoke again, “other than that,” a slight gesture toward Will’s genitals, “you really do look and act just like a girl” he breathed the words more than spoke them.

“Shouldn’t that make it easier for you then?” Will couldn’t help a slight chuckle.

“I wish” Kyle just barely made the response leave his lips.

Will just shook his head again, and moved to pull Kyle to him, covering his mouth with his once more, determined to get Kyle past all of those fears once and for all, any way he could.

When Ian awoke the next morning, he couldn’t help the slight scowl as he noted that he had indeed spent the entire night alone in his quarters. Much to his dismay, that was the first time that had happened in the entire two weeks since Kyle and Will had left. Of course, each night that he and Lili had spent kissing, cuddling, and holding each other, it got harder and harder to keep themselves from giving into their mutual desire to do much more than that.

With a sigh of frustration, he went to check on Hope and relieve himself before returning to the shack shortly thereafter. Another look down at Hope, followed by another look toward Lili’s doorway, and he gave into the urge to go and see if she had missed his company as much that night as he had missed hers.

He was a bit more than stunned when he entered her room only to find that Jared had actually been the one she had spent her previous evening with. But the stun factor came in when he found that they both were fast asleep atop Lili’s covers, their bodies pressed close to one another, and not a scrap of clothing to be found between the two of them.

Somehow, he couldn’t make himself just turn and leave, and instead, ended up clearing his throat loudly to get the attention of his two companions. Being as light a sleeper as she was, Lili was the first to easily return to consciousness, her sleep-filled eyes widening more than a bit at Ian’s presence as he simply held her in his gaze, awaiting her explanation.

“Ian...” she whispered hoarsely as she gave Jared a slight nudge from where he had been laying close behind her.

“So, I guess sex is back on the menu, eh?” Ian spoke up more loudly as Jared’s pools of brown slowly opened as well.

“Ian” he repeated Lili’s greeting in the same hoarse tone, a blush rising to his cheeks to match Lili’s.

“So, this is new-ish” Ian continued as the two awkwardly sat up, Jared attempting to pull a sheet around them both as he seemed to be trying desperately to sink into the wall behind her bed, eyes cast down in silence.

Despite Jared’s attempt at hiding them beneath the sheet, Lili only seemed concerned with covering her mid-section to hide the scar from where she and Ian’s daughter had to be cut from her two months earlier.

Swallowing slightly as he caught sight of that scar for the first time since Hope had been born, it nonetheless reminded him of why the scene before him was so shocking, “so, I spend the last two weeks holding you, kissing you, trying my damnedest not to think about how badly I wanna do so much more to you, and he’s the one who gets the first ticket back to naked-ville?”

“We didn’t actually have sex” was Lili’s own defense, barely audible though it was, “just, other stuff” she added even more quietly.

Ian just shook his head, while Jared still couldn’t look him in the eyes after their previous conversations about what Lili was or was not ready for after the baby. “I suppose that’s supposed to make me feel better, right?” was his only response, though his voice was still relatively even, all things considered.

Lili swallowed again as she looked back at Jared with a shallow breath, “you’re sure those plants will work?” was her completely unexpected statement, which easily caused both men to look back at her in shock.

“Lili, you don’t have to...” Jared began, as Ian simply swallowed whatever words he might have had to respond with.

“Yes or no?” she prodded the younger of her two former lovers, though her voice remained gentle and calm, despite all else.

Jared had to take a breath to compose himself before answering her, “they should, yeah, but...”

Not letting Jared finish with whatever assurances he was about to repeat to her again, Lili turned her eyes back to Ian, “come here” she told him in the sweetest whisper, which only caused further shock in the two men; Jared especially so, considering.

Though he was quite surprised by the offer himself, and still clad in just the immediately tightening underwear he had slept in, Ian easily obeyed her request, ignoring exactly how much tenser Jared had suddenly gotten in the last five seconds.

As Ian reached the bed, Jared’s breath caught as he watched Lili pull the older of the two men closer to her still nude body, covering his mouth with hers hungrily. Jared waited a long moment as that kiss continued, trying to decide exactly what his best course of action was right then. But when Lili not only dragged the kiss out even longer, but also began reaching to pull Ian free of his underwear during that prolonged lip-lock; that was when Jared finally gave into his urge to extricate himself from the situation.

Once Lili felt Jared push himself toward the edge of the bedding, she finally turned her lips from Ian. Not one to be swayed at that point, Ian simply moved his kisses to her neck, his hands easily moving to her waist now that the hindrance of his own clothing was gone as well.

“Where are you going?” she breathed the question to Jared as she reached out her hand to grasp his wrist.

Jared scoffed slightly, still not quite able to look back at either of them, “I’m pretty sure I’m no longer needed here right now.”

“You are” she breathed the words as she pulled him back to his seat behind her once again.

Once Jared had awkwardly let himself be returned to his previous seat, he still nervously grasped for the sheet once more to try in vain to hide his quickly reacting body. Lili just smiled back at his gesture before pulling that sheet from his hand and tossing it from his reach. Jared just shook his head, though could think of no more words as she then moved back to slide herself into her own seat between his legs, pulling Ian with her all the while.

“Lili...” Jared breathed heavily as he felt her backside pressed against his hardness while Ian continued to move closer as Lili did, trailing kisses from her neck downwards toward the breasts that still swelled with milk for that little life waiting in the next room.

“If you keep talking, I’ll be kissing you next” Ian teased to the other man before his lips did finally find their way to her already hardened nipple, causing the slightest gasp from Lili as she felt his lips close around it just as his daughter’s had so many times in the last few months.

Jared was more than a little caught by that particular threat, but soon forgot it. In the next moment. Lili arched her back to let Ian continue tantalizing her breasts while she herself let her hands find their way to a place behind her backside where she began caressing Jared with her fingers as Ian continued to do to her with his lips and tongue.

When Ian not only continued tasting her breasts, but also let his fingertips begin expertly rubbing that tiny mound above the flood of wetness between her legs, Lili couldn’t help another louder gasp and arch of her back. Her fingers were nearly bringing Jared to his climax, while Ian’s fingers were very nearly bringing her to her own at the same moment then.

Overwhelmed by the desire she was feeling right then, Lili gave into all of that passion at last. Rather than continuing to just caress Jared into that final moment, instead she re-adjusted their positions ever so slightly. In the next moment, she moved to brace her own body with one hand while moving to use the other hand to slide him deep inside her, right below where Ian was caressing her into that first orgasm.

Both of them were more than a little shocked by her sliding Jared inside her but they had little time to even comprehend before she then guided Ian up to his knees, her hands on his hips, pulling him closer still. She then caressed Ian’s own hardness for a long moment before bringing it to her lips as she took all of him into her mouth, causing a loud gasp from him as well then.

As she began bringing Ian to his climax with her mouth, she also began moving above Jared’s hips, coaxing him deeper and deeper into her ever growing wetness as he easily forgot all those fears, grasped her hips tightly above him and also began thrusting into her from below, also needing that feeling just as much as they all seemed to right then.