It's the morning after, and the younger kids are already planning to make use of Da'mik and Spider's new privileges. Mostly to check out more islands nearby.. or unseen areas they weren't allowed prior.
It even gave Tuk a chance of exploring new things, and it lifted her spirits a bit more day by day.
And you were definitely thankful for that.
Losing her smile was the most devastating thing to see.
Much like Jake trying his best to keep you going, because he couldn't bear seeing you so down and hard on yourself.
....Sort of how this morning is going.
The kids are all gone for the afternoon, and neither of you had things to do for the day.
It usually left you the time to sleep in unbothered, snuggled up to Jake's chest for a while.
He hears how you sigh, and he rubs his thumb along your shoulder as he calls your name.
"What's wrong?"
Your fingers trace out the patterns of his stripes, perhaps stalling yourself with that rather than answer right away.
"Sorry, it's been hard to sleep."
"Nightmares?" He tightens his grip a bit more.
"No, actually." And he can feel the way you inhale so deeply against his side.
"-Sex dreams."
"Oh?" His voice rises a bit, rather intrigued.
"What's so bad about those?"
"I miss .. it. I miss us. It's been so long since we last-"
He needs no direction as he pulls you up and kisses away at your neck.
As much as you enjoy the feeling... your eyes even closing as he reaches up to fist against your hair and bring you in closer... it's just a let down when you can't get there mentally.
And he feels that in the way you sigh with defeat.
"I want to." You barely whisper. "So badly... I just.. can't. Like I'm blocked from feeling it."
He looks up at you with a small frown, knowing he's unable to help take that feeling away.
"I do.. like the kissing, though. I love the affection.. im just not.. there.. yet."
You melt into his arms as he sits up a bit more, and takes advantage of it while peppering as much of you as he can with sweet, delicate kissings.
He's sarcastic at the end, attacking your face with them as you jokingly push away at his chest and laugh.
"There's my baby." He says so sweetly against your lips, favoring the smile you wear.
"Look, there's no time limit on how we get through this. But we're here, together. I'm not going anywhere.-" and he jokingly gestures as his pelvis. "-and neither is he."
Another kiss to your lips before he pulls back and lays down.
"I can't promise I won't get you pregnant the next time we do."
And you sigh yet again at how he teases you.
"-I'll have a lot of pent up hormones angry with need."
"Jake." You slap against his chest, and he pulls you back in by your wrist as you two are now wrestling amongst one another.
"I swear."
"Maybe it'll be twins this time. Considering my mother had me and Tommy - it looks like the sully line is very fertile." He stops to realize what that may mean for Lo'ak, though.
Just another thing to stress over as he has become so close with Tsireya lately.
"Jake, Jesus, no.
No twins, no triplets, no singlets.
I'm done, we are done, there is nooooo way in hell-"
He grasps around your neck and grins like a stupid frat boy.
"You say that now but you just wait, once we're at it again - you'll be begging to have more of my children."
"No, absolutely not. I do not care how big that ego of yours is."
You already regret what you've said as he side eyes you.
"I mean, something is big alright."
"Ugh, I can't stand you sometimes." You push up to get away from him at this point, knowing he's not gonna let up.
"Which is why you're usually laying down when I'm fucking you, right?"
He calls out as you finally stand, and he smiles.... Completely unbothered as he watches the whole scene of you grabbing for a fruit and tossing it right at him.
He shortly grunts and grabs it as it comes close enough, and before you know it you're down at the shore trying to run away from him.
It's no use, though. His legs are longer and he's taller in general which gives him a stronger lead.
You're both covered in sand before you know it, rolling around and grabbing for one another.
Until he's straddled on your hips and pinning you down, staring at you so lovingly.
"Seriously." He roughly breathes out with a dry throat. "Don't worry about it."
And he closes the distance to push his forehead on yours. "-whenever you're ready.. I'll make it worth it."
"I'm not having any more kids, though." You clarify, pushing at this chest as you further shove him off.
"Really?" He smirks so handsomely. "—Cause here I thought we were making our own football team."
"Ugh." You push even harder on him, and he falls beside you between the water and sand. "I'm good with the ones we've got. They give me enough trouble as it is."
"Damn." He jokingly yells out as he brushes sand off of him.
————————————————————
"The map dad gave us says it's ... down ... this way." Da'mik points out on the tablet as he unfolds it entirely. "A bit to the East."
Tuk is alone, but still within view of her siblings as she plays with a few different textures in the plants.
"Doing okay over there?" Kiri calls to her, and she gives her a wide smile as she answers with a smile in return.
Tuk seems to be mumbling something to herself, but the others can't hear what it is.
She leans down to pick up a few fallen flowers, and sniffs them briefly.
There's nobody else around, despite her talking as so.
"Remember when you added these to my necklace for me? These have been my favorites ever since."
"They are every bit as beautiful as you are, baby sister."
A voice answers to her, and it's only when she looks back up that it all shows through her eyes.
Niikeym.
Crouched down as he grabs for his own flowers, and fumbles through them.
Almost mirroring every movement she does.
"I should take some to mom, you think she would like these?" Tuk asks.
"Absolutely." He smiles, and leans in to press the back of his hand to her head.... His smile unfortunately fading as he does.
"What's wrong?" She asks him, and he doesn't even so much as move at first.
"Tuk, you need to stop doing this to yourself. It will only make it hurt more." He regretfully says.
"Stop what?" She says so innocently, and reaches out to grab a hand that suddenly isn't there any longer.
"—-it's time to stop pretending I'm still here, and move on so you can get stronger.—"
He barely whispers to her.
She would never be convinced that her images of him were just that, fake. Her own conscious and mind trying to fill in something she no longer had.
Nothing but heavier wind in the air is touching her now. Carrying the last thing she hears as she snaps back to reality.
"—I know you can, my mighty warrior."
A moment passes to collect herself — although her heart still races with panic.
She can see only Lo'ak and Da'mik now.. no idea how much time she let pass in her own daydream.
As she joins them, she realizes something is off about the way they're acting.
"What's going on?" She asks, and Lo'ak brings her in with a gentle side hug.
"We're waiting on the others to come back." Da'mik explains. "Bathroom break before we set off downhill, the ikrans need to rest so we're walking."
"Do you need to go, Tuk?" Lo'ak asks her.
"No, I'm ok."
She still turns, looking around her entire view and peeking around lo'ak's body... as if she's trying to find where Niikeym went.
Her imagination has always been so vivid, that sometimes it's hard to tell when she tiptoes the line between reality and fantasy.
Tsireya finally returns, but, she's alone.
Spider and Kiri aren't anywhere around her.
"Something happen?" Da'mik asks, concerned as to what's going on.
And Tsireyas face shifts so drastically with confusion, noticing they're two people short.
"Where are Kiri and Spider?" Da'mik asks. "I thought they were with you."
"They were.." her voice seems to trail off as she looks around. "They were right behind me."
They all share a look amongst one another.
"I-ill go back and check, stay here."
And she races off into the distance, calling their names.
Lo'ak really hopes they've just stepped off the path or took a wrong turn and would find their way back, maybe.
"I'll help." Da'mik offers. "Keep Tuk safe and don't move from this spot, I'll find you."
Lo'ak notices the worry on her face, and leans down to meet her height.
"Tuk, it's okay. They probably just stepped down the wrong path, we will find them."
He tries for his comms, but realizes he can't get it to work for some reason.
Static, and nothing else.
Maybe just bad signal all this way out?
Tuk presses her face into his chest as she's going through a set of emotions she didn't realize she would face so soon again.
"Hey, they'll be right back, Tuk.
You want to climb up one of these trees? See if we can find them before they do?"
It's more a distraction than anything, and technically they'd still be in the area Da'mik asked them to stay at.
He helps her a few branches up, and between the two of them — they can only make out Tsireya as she is making her way back.
And the look on her face worries him.
This wasn't supposed to be a long trip, maybe an hour at most since her mothers due at any time now — and it's definitely worrying her with every passing second her friends go unfound.
"Tsireya!" Lo'ak calls to her before he drops himself to the ground, and catches his own fall before helping Tuk back down.
He offers to let her on his back, and the two head over to Tsireya as she gets closer in.
"I'm sorry." Her face falls so devastatingly. "I don't see them anywhere. I couldn't even find Da'mik."
"He has his map, he can find us, it's fine."
At least her worries regarding him smooth over when he finally comes back.
"Shit." He says under his breath as he notices Kiri and Spider still haven't come back.
"Okay, okay. Did you try calling it in, Lo'ak? Let dad know what's going on? Or mom?"
"My comms won't work this far out, and I can't get a response from Spiders."
"We need to go back, then. tell them what's happened." Da'mik more than suggests with the heavier tone in his voice.
"We're not splitting up." Lo'ak almost argues with that tone of his.
Da'mik mirrors Jake with the way he looks so frustrated, his lips tightening as he clenches his jaw. As much as he'd prefer someone stay behind, it's no use if they can't call anything in with the weakened signal out here.
"Okay, we can go back to the ikrans.
We will take yours, and I'll have kiris look for her. That way at least she's here for them should Kiri and Spider show.
We go together."
They each hold on to one another as they take flight, and Tuk is shaking against Lo'ak when they're finally mid-air.
He wraps one arm around her torso, and rubs his palm gently along her as she sobs.
"It's going to be okay, Tuk. We will get our parents, and they will know what to do."
Lo'ak would have usually gone head first into trying to find them, but the weight of what happened to Niikeym was enough to keep his impulsive or intrusive thoughts at bay all together.
Another sign of becoming more mature, however sadly it may have developed.
Their other friends happen to be at the main docks, and Lo'ak pulls his Ikran in to land where they did when his family first arrived here.
"Rotxo! Aonung!" He shouts out just barely loud enough before he helps everyone off his Ikran.
He shortly turns to Da'mik as he lands on the sand, and finds his footing pretty easy.
"I'll go home first and see if anyone's there, can you catch them up on what's happening?"
"Of course." Da'mik says as he's adjusting his mask.
"Go."
He waves a hand out as if he's pushing Lo'ak.
"—-Go!"
And even Aonung is worried by just how fast he races off past them — Lo'ak nearly tripping over his own feet on his way.
As he finally makes his way in, he happens to find you repairing one of his fathers nets. Thankfully.
"Mom." He calls out, panicking at this point.
"Where's dad?"
"He's at the far end of the shore, just out that way-" You gesture. "Why? What's wrong, Lo'ak?"
"Spider. And Kiri. They've gone missing." He fumbles around for the tablet you gave him before, and has a hard time getting to the digitized map window.
"Here- here-" he brings it to you and points. "We were visiting this island, and Tsireya, spider, and Kiri left for just a moment, but when Tsireya came back we noticed they weren't behind her- they-"
"Okay, I got it, Lo'ak." You console him as you brush a hand against his back.
"Da'mik didn't want us to split up any further than we already were, so we took my Ikran back but kiris is still there trying to help find them—"
"Lo'ak, go get your father and tell him what's going on." You shortly ask of him. "— I'll get Arohk and go."
Just as you set off, the kids all pile in to the pod as Lo'ak takes a second to breathe.
"What did she say?" Aonung asks.
"She's going ahead after them, but I've gotta find my dad. She said hes down this way, fishing I think."
"Okay, let's go then." Da'mik insists, and pushes at Lo'ak to get him going.
The crowds are too large today, and you think it would help considering he's the only bright blue guy here — but no matter how many they pass, he isn't showing anywhere.
Only worrying Lo'ak further as he's afraid something, somehow, has happened to him too.