Hours upon hours passed as you continuously threw your gaze around, sniffing at the air and flinching at the slightest of sounds that the forest made. The air was so heavy, you find yourself breathing harder with each moment that passed.

You felt as if the island was watching you.

You felt a chill sweep through your body just staring at the darken jungle that practically loomed over you. Repressing a small groan of discomfort, you find yourself pulling steven and sadie closer to your body.

Looking back at Sadie, she seemed a lot more smaller and vulnerable now then she looked when she was awake. You watched as she shifted her weight and rested her cheek against your midarm's bicep, humming softly in contentment. You felt a subtle warmth flare in your chest and face at this simple action. That's odd... you knew she was much older than steven, therefore more experienced with hardships, yet you still felt a foreign need to keep her protected. She was around the same size as him after all...

Speaking of steven, you heard him murmur faintly in your sleep, prompting you to shift your attention to his small body in your forearms, watching as he nestled himself deeper into your chest. Instinctively, you cradled him closer to your, smiling as he murmured again, but more relaxed. So precious. Even so, you couldn't help but frown at him. Even though he's well-meaning, he didn't think this all the way through. It is a remote island, with an unseen danger... But still.. he did this so his friends would relax and be happy... you huffed softly through your nostrils, feeling your face tense up subtly. and yet... Looking over your shoulder, you glared at the tall shape sleeping just a few paces away from you in frustration. There's him... you grumbled in frustration.

Despite Steven's unwavering friendliness towards him, Lars just continues to be difficult. He couldn't even acknowledge the fact that Steven had gifted him a free vacation! Instead he just continues to be distant and nit-picky. He's so rude...

So bitter...

The more you stared however, the more troubled your expression became.

So... Why do I worry about him as well?

~~~~~~~[next day timeskip]~~~~~~~~

"Boy, this is harder than I thought..."

Spinel muttered, pouting at the fish that had just slipped out of her grip. Sadie groans in frustration, after failing to catch a fish that had temporarily leapt out of the water at her, startling steven that was sitting on a rock a few paces away from her. "Ugh, Tell me about it!"

She sighed in defeat, pushing her sodden bangs out of her face, before turning to steven. "What about you?" Steven looks down at his foot, which had a string attached to his big toe. "Mmm... no... but I can see why." He unties the string from his toe and pulls it out of the water, revealing a purple worm tied at the other end of it. However, unlike a regular faceless worm, it bore an odd long nosed face, wearing an odd smiling expression. "My bait is too adorable to eat." Spinel giggles and pokes at it, while Sadie just stared at with discomfort. "Everything on this island has such a bright happy smile on its face." lifts his head and turns to you, who was standing just a few steps away from the group, watching as you lifted your head out of the water. "Right, (name)?"

You looked over your shoulder, and flash him a thumbs up.

The group giggled at this, watching as you store your catch into your satchel and turned back to your task at hand, dunking your head swiftly into the water.

"She makes it look easy..." Sadie mutters, rubbing the back of her head. before looking back at a very disgruntled Lars, stubbornly searching for a phone reception to no avail. "Hey! Uh, maybe you should help out!" Sadie calls to him as he wanders away from the group, his back facing everyone. "If you wanna eat!"

Lars doesn't respond. Instead, he covers his ears, ignoring Sadie completely as if he didn't hear anything.

"Well that's just mean." Spinel pouts, crossing her arms. Sadie growls in frustration, gripping her head in one hand and stabbed her spear into the water, startling spinel. However, when she pulled her spear back up, she had somehow neatly skewered 3 fish in one go. At this point you had your head lifted from the water, looking over at Sadie's catch in surprise. "Nice catch!" Spinel cheerfully praises, clapping her hands.

Recovering from her initial shock, she storms over to Lars, who still had his ears covered and thrusts the speared fishes into his face, glaring at him with exhaustion. "(Name) catches, you cook."

Lars stares in defiance. "You ain't the boss of me."

The then heard a loud growl from a distance, and looked up to meet your gaze from across the ocean.

The glare you gave him not only froze his blood, but it also told him how thin your patience was running.

Sadie however, was absolutely done with his bitter attitude, grabbing his shirt and began to drag him away, with an expression or malicious frustration.

At this point he finally realized he had no other choices.

"...whatever."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't know, It looks done to me."

Lars mutters, poking at a fish that was cooking alongside four others over a fire that was nestled a patch of smoldering crystals you had started with your heated breath. He picks up the fish and sets it on a leaf, yelping as the heat of the cooked meat bled through the makeshift plate. "Who's first?"

At once, steven and spinel shot their hands up eagerly. "Me! Me! Me!"

Lars hands a fish to spinel, who smiles and thanks Lars, almost instantly starting to dig into her meal while Steven stared at his food, lip quivering at the vacant expression it gave him. "It won't stop looking at me!"

"Maybe it knows its your fault for getting us lost." Lars grumbles, setting another hot fish on a leaf, flinching at getting his hand scalded again before handing it off to Sadie, who thanks him and starts eating. At that point spinel had already finished her fish, wiping fishy residue off her lips, watching curiously as steven covered his fish's eyes with a leaf.

A few minutes go by as Lars cooks the food with a look of annoyance, occasionally flicking his gaze to your form whose back was facing the group, watching as you looked back and forth, sniffing around whilst grumbling and whining to yourself. You seemed quite troubled at the moment. There was a moment of hesitance, but with a sigh/groan, he lifted the stick he was using and lightly started poking you in the back. "hey... uhm.. alien... yak..?"

There was a soft grunt and you turned to look at Lars, your expression looking exhausted yet indifferent. "Uhm..." He stared uneasily for a moment, before clearing his throat awkwardly, impaling a cooked fish onto his stick, and holding it out to you. "Here." You looked at it in surprise, your eyes flickering between him and his offering. This was the last thing you expected from the cranky teen, seeing how he can't seem to he bothered to remember your name.

But looking at him, you saw that he had what looked like pity in his eyes. Odd... however, who we're you to waste a perfectly good fish? After giving it a light sniff, you gently bite into it, taking it off the stick and chewed on it slowly and tentatively, nodding to him in gratitude, before turning back to scan the area around them. He in turn gives a small, barely visible nod, his expression softening subtly as he saw you relax a bit. A pleased hum suddenly caught his attention. "Lars, this is really good!"

"Hm?" Lars turns to Sadie seeming taken aback by her praise.

Sadie smiled at him. "You can really cook!"

You nodded, sparing the boy an approving smirk over your shoulder. "Yeah. Not bad, Donut boy."

Lars stares in astonishment for a moment before letting a smug smirk enlighten his face. "Heh, fire. Nature's microwave."

Sadie snickers lightly at his statement, making him chuckle as well.

Steven and spinel take notice of the positivity between the two and exchanged wide, excited smiles to each other. That was when Steven jumped to his feet, and spread his arms out excitedly. "Could this night get any better?!"

To answer his question, he takes his ukulele off his back, and started playing a gentle rhythm on it, making the group smile in approval.

Including you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry. This one was a smidgen difficult to write out-