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Oliver nodded quickly. "Yeah, only around the labs though, since they start to dissolve if they are outside for too long. It must be pretty scary... But if you like dogs, there are lots of minipets like dogs!"

He could hardly give himself credit for something that came so naturally, especially when the focus of the island was on strength and fighting and survival. Oliver was not suited for the military or the marines or anything, and likewise had not yet found his niche on the island. But as he progressed in the lab, he was starting to get there.

"What about you, don't you do everything in your division? That seems like a whole lot to learn. I could never manage that," Oliver protested, trying to take the focus off his own abilities. Or lack thereof.

"Just... into nothing, I guess..." Oliver replied with a sad look. "I've never seen it happen myself, but I've been told about it lots." It was a topic he wasn't fond of, especially not after his own experiences. It still hurt to remember the minipets he had volunteered to put down, even though he had already shed those tears long ago. Sometimes those memories still ambushed him on a rough day, or in the lab while he cared for other creatures.

He let out a long sigh, letting those thoughts settle for a minute before continuing. "Do most Mist hunters eventually specialize in something? Like... uh, in the Life division some people do lots of research, and other people work in the infirmary a lot... Have you found something you like to do yet?"

Two chomps and the sucker Oliver had managed to hold onto disappeared. He reached for another one, hesitated, and then put his hand back on the notebook in his lap.

"Let me know if there is anything I can do," Oliver replied with a smile. The hair-ruffling was always more gentle than the shoulder pats, which he was thankful for. Arorangi was probably strong enough to snap his neck merely by being too affectionate.

The kid covered another yawn. "Maybe you could, um, talk to some of the hunters you work with, and see if you can be put on all sorts of different duties. You'll need to try stuff out before you know what you like!"

Sitting on the floor talking was fun, but Oliver could feel his earlier sleepiness creeping back. It had been temporarily banished by his moving around, but the longer he stayed in one place, the more he could feel it. He had to take a deep breath in an attempt to dispel it once again.

It only triggered another yawn.

Had the boy not been accustomed to Arorangi's loud and enthusiastic exclamations, that shout would have been enough to send him diving under the covers in fright.

"It wasn't anything!" Oliver protested quickly. "Just let me, um, run up and down the hall or something and I'll be fine!"

He ran a hand absentmindedly through his hair, but it only seemed to change the way it was messed up, rather than straightening out the wayward strands. Maybe it was something in the water on the island that was forcing his hair into a semi-permanent state of bed head.

One thing he did know, was that he didn't want Arorangi getting noise complaints from his neighbours. He grabbed his pillow and crawled onto the bed. "I'm already feeling more awake, I can still draw for awhile."

Oliver made a grab for his notebook, but Arorangi was too quick. With a small huff he sat back on his heels. "I don't need to chirp louder. Quiet isn't so bad."

He took the pillow that had been left on the bed next to his own and threw it at his friend, as if trying stubbornly to win at least once before the evening was through.

Then Oliver pushed back the covers and lay down, still not sure he was comfortable taking his friend's bed. In a way it was like spending a night in the infirmary, with a different mattress under him, different smells, and that sense of having to be careful because it wasn't his place. But once he stopped dwelling on his friend sleeping on the floor, it seemed like an entirely different experience. It was softer, and when he pulled the covers up it felt warmer, like being wrapped in a cocoon. It might not be his place, but perhaps it was a place he could sleep well.

"Are you sure, uh, you're okay on the floor?"

Arorangi was right, like usual. Sometimes Oliver felt like he had so much more he had to improve on compared to his peers, but he had survived this long. In the past year he had nearly died several times, somehow getting through relying on his own meagre strengths in addition to the timely rescues of his friends.

He put his head down. "Okay, you too," he replied, watching his friend's large shape settle in the darkness.

Oliver didn't close his eyes right away, and even when he became too tired to keep them open it was some time before he fell asleep. For awhile things were quiet.

Sometime approaching two in the morning, Oliver became a more restless sleeper, his plushie dragon falling onto the floor with all his tossing and turning. Whatever it was in his nightmares finally scared him awake, and he sat up with a yelp, disoriented and in tears as he scrambled to find something familiar.

A giant, dark figure rose up and lunged in Oliver's direction, and the boy yelped again as it seized his wrist. He grabbed hold of the closest 'weapon' he could find, and swung it at his assailant with all the adrenaline-fuelled force he could manage. Thankfully it was his pillow he found, not his axe, because even that fluffy softness could become a formidable weapon when it's wielder worked out regularly.

But within seconds of beating the figure over the head with the pillow, he recognized the voice, and all comprehension came back to him. He was in Arorangi's room. And he had just assaulted his host with a pillow.

He stopped struggling, whimpered quietly, and then began to cry. "A-Aro... I-I'm s-sorry..." he stammered through the tears, rubbing his face with his free arm.

Less force was relative. Oliver was knocked forwards as the pillow hit the back of his head, and he retaliated by grabbing the dinosaur off the floor where it had fallen.

"Ow, y-you made me poke myself in the eye," he protested with a hiccup, throwing the dinosaur at Arorangi's head. It wasn't the first time he had been startled into a less hysterical state by such an attack, had Arorangi been comparing notes with Finn it was clear Oliver responded well to having the tears gently beat out of him. A pillow was, however, more appropriate than baked goods.