So Bdubs might have been procrastinating something. Or was "avoiding" the right word? It wasn't like it was hard to do physically. But it had to be perfect, and that idea of perfectionism was stopping him from doing it, and he was going to do it eventually- so yeah nevermind, procrastinating was the right word.

He was looking through the photos he had been taking, marking off the hermits he had already gotten a nice picture of. Nice being the key word.

Gem and Pearl had that shared picture before and after they noticed he was taking one, and both were nice. Mumbo, Grian, and Iskall had the one with the forest behind them, and it looked good even with how messy Mumbo and Grian looked. Cleo picking ferns, Xisuma and Ren in the tree, and all of the fern collectors with the group photo looked nice. The one of Etho over the bridge was his favorite so far, since he had never gotten such a peaceful and off-guard Etho on camera before. Scar and the fuzzy wooly caterpillar also looked very cute. The list went on!

And he was sure he'd get plenty of photos with everyone else he was missing by the end of it, because the lake was bound to have some great shots of people without them noticing.

But one person only had just the group photo, and it was a nice photo! But a little boring overall. Bdubs really wanted a nice photo of him.

"Hey Bubbles!"

"Ack!" Bdubs jumped a little, holding onto his camera tightly. "Oh Keralis, you uh startled me- yeah."

"Not scared?" Keralis teased a little.

"No! Just didn't see you come in!"

"I kid! I kid!" Keralis giggled. "Watch'a looking at?"

"Oh the photos I got so far. Gotta get one of everyone y'know?"

"Any of me yet?"

"Wouldn't you know if I got one of you?"

"Well you did that thing with Eto when he wasn't looking, and he's much more on guard than me." Keralis thought over.

"Yeah," Bdubs chuckled, "I guess. Not yet though. Tomorrow I'm gonna get everyone."

Keralis jumped down next to him, engulfing him in a side hug he couldn't easily return.

"You're so considerate, Bubbles. Don't feel bad if you miss a hermit though. They'll understand, even me."

Bdubs heart was pounding. He was used to close contact, especially from Keralis, but in the small tent, sitting on blankets, and Keralis whispering in his ear. Oh void.

He also forgot to respond, and took a moment to breathe before he did, lowering his voice to a calm whisper. "Nah, I'm getting a photo of everyone."

And he would, but a certain one had to be just right to count.

"Ah ok shoot-"

"You got the flashlights, Tango?"

"Yeah yeah. Right here."

"Shhh!" Zed shushed them. "Keep your voices down. Some people here are light sleepers."

"Our tent is the farthest away; I think we're ok." Impulse said.

"We can just stay quiet until the woods." Tango said, whispering more than before. "We can't get caught now."

They did the rest silently- well, more or less. Tango grabbed the flashlights and handed them out after double checking the batteries, which got a muffled surprised scream out of Zed who was sifting through his bag intently.

He was looking for the vials of water from earlier to see if anything was leaking or had changed. They were still dry on the outside, which was a good sign they hadn't cracked and the lids were sealed tightly, but he was a little disappointed to find that it still just looked like normal lakewater, with a few rocks and sediment collected at the bottoms of them.

Zed grumbled quietly, adding something about microscopes and the school lab as he tucked them away again. He also grabbed a small plastic bag with a wet paper towel in it and a plastic vial so he could collect a small sample of the glowing flowers to study them.

They made quick -and slightly sloppy- work of getting everything together as quietly as they could, stuffing flashlights, phones and random junk into pockets or small bags. They had spent the walk back preparing the story to get Cleo off their trail, so now they were sorta scrambling to get everything they thought they needed.

Zed, after he claimed himself as the quietest of the group (the other two would argue, but they were trying to be quiet for now at least. Arguing would also not help prove their point.) chose to peak out of the tent first to make sure everyone else was asleep.

He stepped out slowly and looked around the area, closing looking at each one. It was a little hard to see, but a flashlight would only draw attention to them, and he was at last fairly sure no one else was awake with the quick scan. Eh, good enough.

Impulse stepped out second, counting the supplies he had over again with a little more room to do so outside. Flashlight? Check! Jacket to go over his tee-shirt? Check! Snacks? Well, like a granola bar and some trail mix stuffed into his pocket, so check! Phone for low quality pictures of whatever monster they probably fall upon in the woods? Check check!

He motioned for Tango to step out next quickly, looking around to make sure no one saw them.

"Ack." Tango slightly tripped on a blanket as he tried to scramble out. He shook it off and zipped up the tent carefully behind him, not realizing that the blanket had just enough force to knock over Zed's bag. He dusted himself off and felt around for his phone and flashlight, before zipping up the tent and skipping a step to catch up with Zed and Impulse, who were already walking towards the woods. He wanted to tell them to wait up, but that might wake up someone, so he stayed quiet.

The viles slipped out of the bag due to Zed's poor organizing skills (he forgot to zip up his backpack) and rolled onto the tent floor.

Nothing abnormal really, except for the fact that they were glowing a bright sparkling teal.

Silent nods and movements described the almost-NHO tent. Of course, it would be all of them soon enough, but first they had to prepare. Each grabbed what they needed, quiet snacks, flashlights, and personal things.

Beef grabbed an extra jacket, Etho with his trusty vest and a thicker long sleeved shirt underneath, and Doc with a hoodie. It was surprisingly warm for the night, so none of them were too worried about bringing extra jackets that they would have to carry if they got hot from walking.

Doc grabbed an extra flashlight- not the one he originally stole from Bdubs because he gave that one back- and tucked it into a bag, with a water bottle he was planning to store the flowers in.

Etho grabbed his wireless headphones and hung them around his neck. He hadn't really told the others, but a peaceful night in the woods with music tuning out the sound of the woods and unneeded paranoia from them sounded incredible, and he was really excited to try it.

With some head nods and thumbs up, they slipped out of the tent silently and checked around the area. They had waited awhile to make sure everyone was asleep- and thought they were asleep -so that they could be considerate of everyone else! Yeah! Not like they were afraid of getting caught by the class president Xisuma or anything!

"Where's his tent?" Beef asked in a barely audible whisper. He wasn't talking about Xisuma's.

Etho pointed to it and led the way silently, the practiced presion of walking without sound coming naturally to him. Beef and Doc had to put more effort into keeping quiet, but with some slower steps and more careful walking, staring at the ground, they managed.

"Mmmhh!!!" Bdubs bolted upright, his scream suppressed by a hand on his mouth.

"Shhhh.." Etho coaxed, probably sounding like a kidnapper.

"It's ok, it's just us." Beef said calmly, raising his palms forwards and shaking them, trying to calm Bdubs down. Someone's phone was on, lighting up the area just enough to make out their faces, and Bdubs knew their voices.

Keralis was still dead asleep next to the 3 and Doc was outside the tent because it was already squished with 4 people in one 2 person tent, and he was the tallest. Plus, a lookout was probably smart.

"Are you going to scream again?" Etho asked, to which Bdubs glared at him before slowly shaking his head. Etho released his hand from Bdubs mouth.

"What's going-"

"Shhh!"

Bdubs frowned, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "What's going on guys? Why are you here?"

"We have a proposition to make."

"In the dead of night?"

"Shhh!"

"Sorry sorry." Bdubs grumbled, not actually that sorry. "Is this about the woods again? I already said no."

"Well, we think you may change your mind." Etho said slyly, with a grin couldn't see with the low light and mask.

"And what makes you think that?" Bdubs raised an eyebrow, doubtful.

Beef gently nudged Keralis, enough to wake him up.

"Huh? Whaas goin' on?" Keralis slurred a little as he sat up, blinking a few times as he adjusted to the dark.

"Hey Keralis!" Beef smiled. It was a much nicer wake up call than Bdubs's was.

"Oh hello Vintage Kebab! Do you need something?" Keralis said, a little more awake. Bdubs looked at Etho.

"Actually, me, Etho, and Doc were wondering if you wanted to go on a nighttime adventure with us? You and Bdubs."

"Oh Eto, I didn't see you there." Keralis chuckled quietly.

"Hey Keralis," The ninja whispered with a small wave.

"Adventure you say?" Keralis asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah," Beef continued. "We wanted to see the glowing flowers near the waterfall we went to, and wanted to see if you and Bdubs wanted to see them too. It's going to be, as Stress would say, gorgeous."

Keralis perked up more, eyes going wide as a smile formed on his face. "Glowing flowers you say?"

"Yeah, Doc heard from Gem, who's the plant expert, that they were there. Whad'ya say then? Wanna join us for a once in a lifetime mission to see the sight of our lives?" Beef asked, sort of sounding like he was trying to sell a car.

"What about Shwammy? Is he okay with this?"

"No." Bdubs huffed.

"What he doesn't know can't hurt him." Etho answered, ignoring Bdubs. "And if even I'm excited, then you know it's gotta be good, right?"

"That's a very good point. I'm in!" Keralis whispered and nodded, now that he knew this was an undercover thing.

"Well Bdubs, what do you say then?" Etho asked calmly.

"Come on Bubbles, this could be so much fun!"

"Plus it's a pretty warm night, so you'll only need a hoodie to keep comfortable. We won't get this chance again." Beef added.

Bdubs looked between Beef and Etho, varying levels of smugness and excitement. Then, he looked at Keralis, wide eyes practically begging him to join as his hands were tucked into his lap happily. He couldn't say no. this was such a stupid idea, and he would be sacrificing his precious shleep, but Kerlis was looking at him like that.

"Fine." He sighed, shoulders sagging in defeat.

"We'll let you two get ready; just flashlights and a jacket is good enough. Maybe your phone too." Beef said, and he and Etho slid out without another word.

The bastards. 

"Aren't you excited Bubbles? Glowing flowers! A whole forest of them!"

"Well Ker, I'm not sure there's that ma....." Bdubs started quietly, before looking up at him, who had a wide grin on his face.

Bdubs took a breath in and started over, "Yeah, I'm excited."

And this was a stupid idea, but as he grabbed his bandage to tie up his hair as best as he could and threw on his moss hoodie, stuffing the nearest flashlight into it as quickly as he could to keep up with the others outside, he was excited. Just a little. 

------

(2006 words!)

are you guys ready for the adventure? The main plot of the story? What everything has been leading up to for so many chapters? I sure love to stretch out everything accidentally, don't I? Eh, well, it's fun. Hope you guys enjoyed and have a great day or night! (If it's night though, don't sneak into the woods like these idiots, trust me.)