[C][AU] No Harm In Camping

Amr let out the same loud laugh.

"You don't have much luck with exes, do you?"

The planet they approached was vastly different to the Earth-like one they landed on. It was void of any greenery or water. It looked like just on big giant rock.

"Do you want me to land anywhere in particular?"

"If I did they wouldn't be exes. And I wouldn't have been on a three week camping trip in the wilds drawing plants when you found me."

His luck was nil in that aspect at the moment.

But maybe space was his lucky pickup location. You never knew.

"Fly around low for a little, see if we can't spot the lion or anything that might hint towards it before we touch ground."

Amr raised an eyebrow. What type of ex made you want you to take a three week camping trip to look at flowers?

"Sure."

He lowered his lion as Fleck instructed. Just high enough to have a wide view, yet low enough to see clearly. The lion kept at that level as they looked.

"Spotted anything yet?"

"Nothing yet."

Fleck shivered and gasped a breath. Something was pulling him.

"Over there." His arm shot out over the top of the chair, and he pointed to a cavernous hole on the planet's surface.

"Its in that hole, I know it."

Amr jerked the lion in surprise as the arm shot out in front of him.

"Hey, hey, not obscuring the pilots vision!"

But he followed where Fleck was pointing and lowered his lion into the hole.

"Complain about how terrible I am to fly with when we don't have an unknown time limit on our heads."

Complain later. Find the lion now.

He didn't want to be trapped out here because they'd missed their deadline.

"Please don't make me panic about that or we will miss it and be stuck on this rock forever."

Amr wasn't dumb. He knew panicking was the last thing they all needed to do. And the best way for Amr not to panic was through jokes and not thinking about possible doom.

"End of the line, boys."

He landed the lion at the bottom and switched on the lights. Inside the cave were more caves - all too small for his lion to go through.

Lucas grunted. If he knew they were going to end up in more caves today he wouldn't of come. He was getting very tired and bored of them.

Caves. Yay.

Fleck dropped out of the lion and stood akimbo before the caves.

"How do I go about this? Igne Migne Magna Mo? Or should I touch the walls and see if they light up?" he asked the others.

What was the best way to do this?

Lucas rolled his eyes. Wasn't this man older then him?

"Igne Migne - what?"

"Just touch the walls," said Lucas. "We can't risk going down the wrong one."

"You don't know if it's going to work."

Thankfully, though, it did work. When he touched the cave wall, one wall lit up with an eerie yellow light.

"Guess I'm going down this one. See you in a bit."

He waved over his shoulder as he began down that cave at a jog.

"You can't just wonder off - hey where are you going?!"

He watched Lucas begin to jog to catch up with Fleck.

"Stay here with your lion," was all he said, leaving a pouting Amr.

"I'm following the creepy glowing wall to get to my Lion. The whole point of being out here."

Wasn't it obvious?

"If you wanted to come along, you should have said so."

Lucas raised an eyebrow.

"And if we run into any problems? Amr will be fine, he has the lion. Right now, you don't have your lion."

He was jogging side by side with Fleck now. Keeping up with him easily through the caves.

"Besides, I didn't want to be stuck with him much longer." It wasn't that hard to admit. Amr was grating and he just didn't know when to shut up.

"And in thirty seconds I will have the lion." He slipped into Italian without thought.

His lips quirked upwards and he laughed.

"He's not that bad." Amr reminded him of Jay. he enjoyed the familiarity of it. Especially knowing that he wouldn't be able to see Jay for a long time.

A lot can happen in thirty seconds.

Lucas snorted.

"He is literally one if the most annoying people I have ever met, how can you stand him?"

He talked too much, laughed too much, went on about wanting to meet aliens then looking like he wanted to cry when he did. Yeah, not his type of person.

"He's just like my brother."

He and Jay would probably get along famously if they could get over the big age gap between them.

Fleck stepped over a large rock in his path.

"He's got that sort of personality that grows on you."

Lucas let out disbelieving grunt, dogging over the same rock.

"When donkeys will fly."

In all honesty, that applied to the majority of the group of people he has met tonight... Or today. Whatever time it was. The only ones he has found respect for were Anna and Fleck. Maybe Giacinto.

"Space donkeys might fly, you know."

Now he was just teasing the younger man. He couldn't help himself.

He just knew that Lucas would get to like the older man. And he knew that he would most likely comment on that when Lucas finally did realise that he liked him.

Then he would laugh.

Lucas eyed Fleck.

"I will shoot it down," he grumbled.

He wasn't going to let Fleck have the satisfaction of being right - if he ever was. Lucas highly doubted that he will be the way Amr continued to act.

"Do you think we are almost there?"

"Possibly?" He had no idea how close they were.

They just had to keep going and hope they reached the lion soon. Walking for an age didnt soubd appealing.

"Thought you said it will only be thirty seconds?" He cocked an eyebrow at Fleck.

He then fell into silent jogging. No point distracting themselves with chattering when they needed to focus on their breathing. Especially with an undetermined distance in front of them, while they have an undetermined amount of time.

"So I miscalculated a little."

He shrugged his broad shoulders. They couldn't have been jogging for more than two minutes. It was hardly like two minute was going to make too much of a difference this early in the game.

There was no way that they had been given two minutes for a deadline.

He opened his mouth to make another comment, but was cut off with a yell when the ground crumbled beneath his feet.

He was getting tired of falling.

"For fuck's sake," Lucas hissed.

He gingerly lifted himself up, rubbing his arm. Then winced. If the bruise was bad before it was going to look nasty now. In all honestly he was suprised he hasn't broken anything yet.

"Fleck?" He called out.

He had dived towards him to try and grab him before he fell down. In hopes of being able to pull him back up. But the ground gave way under Lucas as well.

"If another cave collapses under me, I'm giving up life and becoming a bed burrito," he grunted as he brushed dust from his shirt.

That shirt was never getting clean. Though there were a good few holes in it now.

"There you are."

Like in the last cave, his Lion was stood waiting for him. He walked towards it purposefully, and grinned when it crouched and opened its mouth for him.

"Need a lift back up, Lucas?"

Lucas snorted.

"Dont mention that to the aliens."[i]

He was sure the one that said he was a prince was going to have heart palpitations when Anna said she was going.

Lucas dusted off himself and turned to where Fleck was admiring his lion. It looked slightly bigger then Amr's lion, and more heavy duty. It definitely was one built for defence.

[i]"As long as you don't start referring to it as yellow." He used the English word here. Like how Amr called his lion Blue.