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Ever had a system worked out, at the library - one that primarily seemed to involve doing as little actual work as he could manage, while still seeming to be busy all the time. This meant dragging a cart full of books around him, shelving one approximately every ten minutes, and reading in between actions. He was getting an awful lot of reading done, the seventh Harry Potter book now in pocket..

And those, of course, made it even easier to slack off. Sore and damaged palms, stiff fingers, were a perfect excuse to take long breaks, or to step away from his work and pout at Tony. Today, he was barely shelving anything at all. Three books had gone on the shelf, since he got to work, and otherwise Ever had sat behind his cart and read. And read. And browsed. Not a bad life.

The sound of something definitely-not-a-snore cut through his reading, though, and brought his head up, eyebrows knitting and a twitch of a smile working across his mouth. Two quiet steps brought him up and around the corner to peer out at who it was.

And his smile grew two sizes.

It probably wasn't best to sneak up on someone who'd been at war so recently. Definitely wasn't wise to move slowly and almost silently to stand behind them, when they probably had the kind of short reflexes that lead to terrible, terrible accidents. And reaching out to pinch them at the small of the back was the worst idea ever.

He did it anyway.

Ever wasn't a halfwit; he had at least stepped back immediately, three steps -- that being perfectly out of Zac's grasp, he thought -- and settled there to watch the chaos.

He felt a bit bad, actually, if only because of the broken rib. He probably should have waited until the bear was fully healed before he went poking at it again. But the reaction, the jerking, the heavy pace of Zac's breathing...well, they were all very, very much worth it.

It was a struggle, but Ever fumbled and managed to keep a straight face, somewhat bland, as he stared back at Zac. In an exaggerated fashion, he pressed one still-sore finger to his mouth and hushed the young man, eyes flicking around the nearly-empty library as he did.

"...sir..." He was working, the official tone of voice, definitely turning toward teasing, came rather easily. "...you're...damaging the books."

That look on his face was -- well -- was priceless, and it crumbled any efforts Ever made to look official and serious. Instead he descended into smothered snickers, trying to keep quiet so he wouldn't draw any official attention over toward them, so no one would actually come and offer frustrated shushing sounds.

Still biting the inside of his cheek, Ever took a couple steps out to peer around the corner toward the front desk, making sure he wasn't going to get caught. Then he came back twisting a chair out so that he could drop down to sit opposite Zac and watch the annoyance fluttering across his face. "I take it sleeping at home wasn't all that successful."

"You must not have had enough to drink." Ever offered it with a spread of injured palms, his own legs stretching out under the desk to invade Zac's personal space -- as always. It was nothing personal, he just had long legs. And not enough sense of boundaries, perhaps...

"I've been sleeping like a baby." It was hard to tell if that was true or not, but it sat comfortably enough in Ever's mouth that it didn't seem like a lie. Which meant, of course, that he hadn't been having nightmares about murdering girls. About tortured nega agents. About slit throats. Those things faded back into memory and were easy for him to avoid. Ever didn't dwell too much.

Ever tipped his head to look back over his shoulder, some of the smile fading out to wrinkled expression of frustration. After a moment, he spread his hands to show Zac. "They look a bit like I fell really hard on concrete, at this point..."

And then closed them before he could try touching them, poking or prodding or investigating further into the damage. Ever really didn't want to deal with that, at this point. "Fingers are still stiff, but, um. I think it'll be okay. Rib?"

"Uhhm." That sounded unpleasant, but -- Ever didn't argue, at least, just blinked across at Zac and thought about that. He did, in fact, need some kind of training; if nothing else, he needed information. Suggestions. Comments. He needed to know what to do with himself when a senshi started their challenging...

"Um. No offense, Zac, but..." He danced around the issue for a moment before he gave up and just said it. At least he softened his words with a flash of a smile. "Well, I mean, we can chat and all, but should you maybe toss me off to someone else for that?"

Ever fidgeted at that, not quite apologetic but -- well, obviously not something he should have said, and it left him twitchy in his chair. A struggle not to pick at his hands to get out that nervous energy. He folded them over his knee, instead.

"...ah. I guess. Mostly, I just..." This was too serious for him, perhaps. Ever made a little face at Zac to take some of the edge off of it. "Holding my own would suffice, I think."