Camping in General

Day Three

Jadeite blinked his sky-blue eyes before sitting up in his camouflage sleeping bag. His eyes lazily scanned around the tent he was in before resting their gaze upon Zoisite's old diary, which was safely tucked away in Nephlite's arms. Silently, he slithered across the tent and gently plucked the diary from his grasp, beginning to flick through pages of the past. His eyes widened in surprise as he read the entry from the previous night. With a shocked gasp, Jadeite leapt up and out of the tent, scooting in a circle outside, and rapidly entered the neighbouring tent, diary and pencil in hand.

He crouched in the doorway, paralyzed in awe at the scene before him. It was nothing like the description Nephlite had written, yet it was just as romantic. Zoisite was curled up in a tiny, defensive ball, snuggled against Malachite's bare, tanned, muscular torso. He had one huge arm wrapped around her shoulders protectively, his thumb and forefinger still delicately pinching a lock of her golden hair. 

"They were just meant to be, weren't they?" someone whispered with a hint of sadness colouring his tone.

Jadeite, unprepared for the sudden interruption to the serene picture he was looking upon, jumped ridiculously high upon hearing Nephlite's voice. 

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" he hissed angrily.

Nephlite shrugged his shoulders and stuck his tongue out in mock apology. It wasn't long before he noticed his Zoisite's diary being clutched by Jadeite's hand.

"So that's where it got to," he murmured, gesturing to the diary. "You can write something if you want."

"Write? Can't I draw instead?" Jadeite pleaded hopefully, already picking a good place to sit without disturbing the soundless couple. 

"Sure," Nephlite agreed, taking a seat, before adding. "I didn't know you could draw."

For half an hour, the only sound that could be heard was the faint scratch of pencil on paper as Jadeite skilfully sketched the couple before him. He expertly drew each and every detail, including the individual strands of both Zoisite's and Malachite's hair. When just adding the finishing touches, like eyelashes and realistic shading, Nephlite forgot that they were both sat in the same tent as their fearsome leader and his partner, who were both still sleeping.

"That's amazing!" he exclaimed, astonished by the work of his student.

"What...?" Malachite asked groggily, rubbing his eyes before noticing the small bundle of beauty lying by his side. 

"Good morning, Malachite," she mumbled contentedly as his fingers brushed through the coppery mass of bed-headedness.

He appeared to be taking up a habit of playing with her hair. Zoisite didn't find it annoying in the slightest; well, not until a whiny squabble caused her to instinctively sit up and get Malachite's fingers snagged in her hair.

"Hey! Let me see!" Jadeite complained loudly as Nephlite snatched the diary from him, scribbling down a commentary of the present events. 

"GET OUT NOW!"

Even the tent shook with fear as Malachite roared at the not-so-silent observers.
Obediently, they scampered out of the tent, not wanting to risk the possibility of either them getting obliterated. 

"I suggest you get dressed. Queen Beryl won't be best pleased if you get sent back in whatever scruffy sleepwear you deem fit."

"Pleeeeaaaase don't send us back to that evil cow!" they supplicated in sync. 

"I won't if you can come up with an idea of how to spend our day that does not include annoying anyone or rubbing it in everyone's face that you are writing in Zoisite's diary, Nephlite," Malachite compromised, beginning to pull out his steel-grey uniform, identical to every other one he owned, out of his bag.