Ren was having trouble sleeping.

A lot of trouble.

Tossing and turning in his beanbag, grunting when nothing felt comfortable, it was a miracle xB didn't wake up. Hopefully he was a deep sleeper, because at the moment, all Ren wanted to do was punch his pillow some more, or scream into it, and he would really feel bad if he accidentally woke xB up.

With a deep breath in and a deep breath out, he laid on his back facing the roof of his tent, closed his eyes again, forcing his shoulders to relax towards the ground and arms to go slack. He tried to make himself as deadweight as possible, letting his feet title to one side and trying to force his muscles to unclench.

That's what relaxing was, right?

Ren just had to breathe, and focus on his breathing, until it evened out and he was asleep before he knew it.

All he had to do was breathe.

And think about nothing.

And pretend that he was asleep until he actually was.

And also not move.

And remember to keep his eyes closed.

And-

Ok! Big surprise! It wasn't working!

Ren groaned as quietly as he could, clenching his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut. He put his pillow onto his face in frustration, successfully muffling a louder groan. What did he do when he normally couldn't sleep?

Play video games until he passed out: Not an option in the woods.

Read a book: The light would wake xB.

Call-

Doc.

Call Doc. He normally called Doc, who was always understanding and stayed on his phone for hours just to help Ren. Something clicked in Ren's mind that that was what he needed. Of course, he couldn't actually call him with no WiFi near the camping grounds, but now, Doc was only a few tents away anyway! Surely he wouldn't mind too much if Ren stopped by? And if he did mind, Ren could try a midnight snack afterwards and hope for the best.

Something inside knew that wouldn't work, so he really hoped Doc was cool to talk, even if it was just for a few minutes.

Ren sat up, carefully crawling around to grab a thin jacket, some sweatpants, and quickly put on the only shoes he had, before slowly unzipping the tent.

"Ok...." Ren whispered under his breath as he unzipped the tent quietly., "Now to find his tent."

It wasn't that hard, even in the dark, since he had remembered pretty much everyone's tents from the moment they came up. Plus, it was one of the bigger tents because the three of them were sharing-

Wait. Would Etho and Beef be mad if he woke them up? He was pretty sure Doc would be understanding, but the other two would probably be annoyed, and Doc might get mad at him for that, and was this actually a really bad idea?

This wasn't just some half asleep call in bed, this was the woods, walking around in slightly too cold air just because Ren was too fidgety to fall asleep.

Plus, it wasn't like Doc cared much when it was some dumb class or weekend the next day. Sleeping in class was common practice, and he had coffee when he needed it. But out here, Ren would make him lose sleep, and maybe his friends too, and he was probably more tired from walking so much and he needed sleep for all of the walking tomorrow and-

He was at Doc's tent now. Ok nope, he wasn't going to overthink this more.

"Ok Ren diggity dog." He murmured. "I just have to knock- or uh, unzip?- the tent." He took a breath and stepped forwards another step. "And hope that he's the only one awake, or something, or the other two don't hate me for buggin' 'em."

He was reaching for the zipper but paused. "My friends don't hate me, even if I'm being silly. Doc's not an asshole. He'll get it. Even if he doesn't want to get up, that's ok."

He more confidently reached for the zipper, undoing it just enough to peak inside and see if Doc was still awake or not.

"What?"

No one was there.

He unzipped it further, and rubbed his eyes before looking again. A breeze behind him made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He was not dreaming in the slightest.

They just-...weren't there. None of them.

"Where did they....?" He murmured, trailing off.

Ren stood back up, scouring his eyes back over the campsite to see if any of them were just walking around. Bathroom break? Or just needing to stretch their legs? Just those could make sense.

Should he ask someone if they've seen them?

Should he tell Xisuma?

Should he- oh he didn't know!

"Ay Ren!" A voice whispered, snapping him out of his internal panic. He turned around, recognizing her voice as he saw her blonde hair.

"Hey Falsey. Why are you up?"

"I could ask you the same thing." She looked him up and down. "I can see you're stiff, even in the dark. What's wrong?"

"Couldn't sleep."

She softened, "Oh. Wanna talk?"

"I would love to, but I think there's a bigger issue." Ren shifted to his other foot, False noticed. "Doc, Etho, and Beef aren't in their tent."

"What? None of them?" She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I haven't seen them around. I came out to fill up my water bottle. Are you sure you saw correctly?"

"I opened their tent and everything. I was going to talk to Doc."

"Hey guys! Whatcha talking about?" A voice popped out from next to them, and Ren jumped back.

Grian was peeking out from his tent, smiling innocently at the two. Ren gulped in sighed his shoulders when he realized who it was. Suffice to say he was a little bit on edge tonight.

"Grian! It is not polite to sneak up on other people like that!" False whisper-screamed, half chuckling as she caught her own breath.

"Well you two aren't being as quiet as you think, and you're right next to our tent."

"G has a point." Another voice spoke up, and though they couldn't see them from behind Grian easily, the green peeking from behind clearly said Iskall.

"Are all of you up then?" False raised an eyebrow.

"Mumbo's out, but not for long." Grian said, immediately kicking Mumbo's legs to the side as he said it. Mumbo jerked and stiffened, eyes shooting open.

His shoulders relaxed and he sighed deeply when he heard the snicker of Grian and figured out pretty quickly who woke him up.

"What do you need... again." Mumbo asked tiredly.

"False and Ren are here. They're up to something I think."

Ren looked at him quizzically. And then made eye contact with False, who mostly looked annoyed.

"What are Ren and False up to?" Another. New. Voice. Asked from behind, then the voice chirped, "Hello Iskall!"

"Hallo Stressy!" Iskall waved from behind grian. The tent had been fully unzipped now, and so everyone could pretty much see everyone else, save for Mumbo, who was still laying down in a weak attempt to ignore everyone there.

"We're not up to anything." False said. "Why'd you two come over anyway?"

"You were taking too long." Cleo said.

"Aww were you worried about me?"

"No, you can take care of ya'self luv. Just curious." Stress answered.

"Doc, Etho, and Beef are missing." Ren blurted out, turning all heads towards him.

"Missing?"

"What?"

"Who?"

"How did you find out?"

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Missing?"

"What?"

"You sure?"

"What?"

There was silence after the last repeated "what" and Ren kept talking. "I couldn't sleep- I went to his tent and none of them were there. I still haven't seen them or smelled them and it's been awhile since I left my tent- I'm kinda worried dudes."

Stress shuffled closer to him. "Hey hey relax luv." She cooed. "Doc's a big boy, he can take care of himself and I'm sure we can find him and the others, okay?"

Ren took a deep breath and nodded.

Cleo was furrowing her eyebrows, looking up slowly at the group that was standing. The Architects were listening more intently now, looking through the tent opening and the mesh window Iskall opened.

"I have a theory." Cleo saiding, thinking it over again. "Do you know if Zen, Tango, and Impulse are still here?"

"No. Why?" Ren asked.

"I'm checking." Was all Cleo said, before walking off to the direction of the team ZIT tent. Stress shrugged, following right after as Ren and False shared a look. Ok then, they were curious, and had nothing else to do, so they were following her.

Grian shook Mumbo again, waking him up right again just as he was possibly about to fall asleep again.

"Whaaaaaat?"

"Get up, we're going to the ZIT tent."

"Wha...? Where- Why?" He said drowsily, acting like a ragdoll as Grian tried to hoist him up by pulling on his arm.

"Come'on Mumbo. Don't be a "parrot"." Iskall chuckled, grabbing a hoodie from the pile before leaving the tent first.

Mumbo took a second to get the joke- "oh Ha Ha, Iskall Eighty-Five. Real clever."

"Come on Mumbo." Grian gave up on pulling on his arm. "We're just gonna check it out." He started to crawl out of the tent after Iskall, who was looking towards the Hermitgals and Ren, following Cleo as they waited.

Mumbo groaned dramatically, shivering as he reluctantly scrambled out of the beanbag to follow them. He mumbled something incoherent under his breath, and it was probably best that it was incoherent actually.

"They aren't here." Cleo said, aftering taking no time whatsoever so ever to barge in the tent without warning.

"Where could they have-.." False muttered. "Is everyone gone then? Not just the two tents?"

"I'm not sure," Ren said, "But....."

He stepped farther away, slowly inching towards the forest trail entrance.

Stress looked closer at the tent, noticing a soft light partially under a blanket. "Uhm... I think I found something, luvs.."

"It took a second to drag Mumbo out. What'd we miss?" Grian asked in a quick whisper as he got closer to the group standing around the 3 person tent.

Stress held up the vial of water, slightly shaking it as the water swirled around in a glowing array of teals.

"What's that?" Iskall asked.

Cleo's eyes went wide, clicking things into place right as Ren spoke.

"I smell them this way."

"Those buffoons." She swore, letting out a forced sigh towards the night sky.

"What. What's happening?" Mumbo asked as everyone was silent for too long, most of them staring at the woods or the vial, still in Stress's hand.

"I heard them talking about going into the woods, something or other adventure." Cleo started. "They didn't know I heard so much, and when I said hi to scare 'em, they made some excuse of making a scary story. "

"Is that why they-" Grian started.

"Probably, yeah. They wanted to go to the waterfall." Cleo interrupted quickly. "The idiots wanted to go to the waterfall at night to see the glowing flowers."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" False asked, putting her palm to her forehead.

"I didn't think they were stupid enough to go through with it!" She argued. "Plus I thought it would be colder than it is now and they would chicken out. It's actually pretty nice out tonight."

There was a pause of silence as the air hung thick. Stress put the vial back where she found it and Mumbo looked like he was going to fall asleep standing up.

Ren stared at the woods. There was a faint hint of everyone they thought left hanging there, only stronger evidence they did. He processed that Doc was out there, with the others, going on some cool adventure at night.

Without him.

Oh.

Ok.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm actually pretty awake right now. I'm not sure I could go back to sleep actually." Grian hinted, interrupting the silence slowly.

"It's a pretty warm night too, and this could be our only chance." Iskall slyly grinned.

"Oh my god." False breathed in what sounded like both a sign and a chuckle. "Well then, are we also stupid enough to go through with it?" She asked.

"Bioluminescent flowers are actually known to be around here." Stress mentioned. "Couldn't hurt to find out if that's true."

"Hmm? What are you guys talking about?" Mumbo mumbled.

"And well, I did bring my night vision goggles on the trip." False said, ignoring Mumbo. "It would be a waste of space to use them at least once."

Ren stared at the forest again, and felt a rush of excitement as he looked back at his friends. He was tough too. He was adventurous and wild and rebellious too! He could go into the forest too! With or without Doc. He was just as brave!

"We only live once dudes." Ren started, "Save for Cleo, but you're excited too, right?" He looked at her, and she chuckled and nodded.

"Then let's do this gang!"

There were whisper-woops of agreement, except Mumbo who was barely present.

Cleo chuckled. "I guess the answer is yes then. Yes, we are dumb enough to go through with this."

They had to get ready pretty quickly. It was easy for most of them; the Architects and Hermitgals both had their whole tents to go through, but Ren wasn't so lucky. xB was still sleeping in their shared tent. And he really didn't want to wake him up.

Before, it would be a quick apology and explanation if xB wanted one about him having trouble sleeping. But now, Ren would have to grab stuff as well, which would be suspicious, and if xB asked, he'd have to explain everything and risk being caught and shut down for everyone, or he'd have to lie, which he was horrible at. xB would see right through him. There was no win to this.

A breeze whizzed by, pricking up the hair on the back of his neck and reminding him he needed something warmer to do this.

A hoodie, a flashlight, and shoes for those who were walking around in slippers originally. That was all they really needed, and carrying other stuff wasn't worth the weight.

Ren was back at Doc's tent. It was on the way to his.

He left it unzipped. He really should zip it up, because that would be polite, especially for breaking in in the first place. He walked over to do so, accidentally catching sight of exactly what he needed. (minus the shoes, but he had put real ones on to begin with anyway)

Well, xB was still asleep. And it would be so rude to wake him up, even if it was an accident. Plus! He'd been over this, there was a huge risk going back to his own tent and waking xB up. Really, that was the only real reason he was considering it.

Doc wouldn't mind. Ren was only borrowing it for a night anyway. Doc wouldn't miss his hoodie for a night.

Glancing around, making sure one last time that Doc wasn't around, that he hadn't imagined this entire thing and really fallen asleep, imagining that Doc had left without telling him-

It was a quiet night, his thoughts were the loudest thing around.

Without letting his thoughts ramble any longer, he grabbed it and threw it on quickly, leaving his original thin jacket there in its place.

Oh god. It smelled just like Doc. He expected it to, but it was so strong and comforting, he practically melted into it.

He grabbed it and the flashlight next to it, stuffing it along with his hands into the hoodie pocket.

Ren zipped up the tent again, ready to look for the others again.

Iskall tapped his shoulder, silently signaling him to follow them. They had agreed to stay as quiet as they could until they left the camp, to be extra careful they didn't wake anyone up. They were probably being too loud before actually, even if most of them were whispering or talking quietly. They didn't need to stretch their luck any more.

This was it. They stood at the edge of the forest.

"We're really doing this, aren't we?" Mumbo groaned softly.

"Yeah." Ren said confidently with an excited grin, ignoring Mumbo's tone. "We're going on an adventure."

"Hey Pearl, did you hear someone talking outside?" Gem murmured, barely opening her eyes to look at the lump next to her that was Pearl.

"No. And if they are, I don't care. Night."

Gem hummed and decided to brush it off as well. "Ok. Night Pearl."

"Night Gem." 

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(2748 words)

Hehe cliffhanger for the last chapter! Not my favorite, but necessary to be able to drag out more idiots into the woods. (Jeez my notes for this were so unhelpful I swear)

Peal and Gem's part was originally going to be Jellie staring at one of the groups going out, before getting bored and going back to Scar. But then I realized the difficulty a cat might have with unzipping and rezipping a tent up.

Comment or vote maybe? Have a great day or night friends!