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The final result was that, when Zac came back to his room, he'd find Ever carelessly sprawled across the empty bed, fiddling with an ancient stuffed panda in finally-healed hands. At a glance, he might have been there for a twenty minutes, shoes dangling off the edge of the bed and his attention apparently wrapped up in the creature.

The simple fact of the matter, though, was that it had been hard to sneak into the Hillsworth dorm room -- much more than he'd expected, certainly, when he'd planned this little escapade. 2b meant that Zac was on the second floor, and not on the corner, either. There was a tree, yes, but it was still just starting to sprout leaves, and the first branch was a bit of work to get to. Ever had experience climbing trees, his home having been practically rural he was so close to the edge of town, but that had been when he was eight, before the discovery of books...

In the end, he'd had to give in and power up to get the first grab on the branch, to gain the balance and strength to haul himself over to the second story window and to drag it open. Fortunately, powered up he looked a bit like an emo kid, and around here, people braking into rooms probably wasn't a rare sight. He'd made it in and dropped down to sit, back in civs, as he heard footsteps padding down the hall...

He'd scraped an arm on the tree trunk. It might give him away, dirty and red but at least not bleeding.

Zac was shocked by the familiar face on his spare bed; Ever was shocked by the sheer ridiculousness of Zac's shower outfit. Straight out of comedy, his mouth hung open, the panda dangling from his hand, his eyes dancing over the young man, and a hundred comments running through his head. So many comments that he couldn't pick just one.

Yeah, Zac, real sexy.
You look like my father.
What the ******** are those shoes?
s**t, are you afraid this'll turn into a prison shower scene?

Sorry to interrupt your shower.

The end result was silence and staring and Ever too distracted by that final thought of shower-interruption to even tease Zac by jerking the panda out of his grasp. His cheeks gone just a little flushed, it went out of suddenly limp fingers too easily.

More wide-eyed staring. The humor of the situation still hadn't properly cut through to Ever. Instead, he seemed transfixed by the fury encapsulated in some a small package, the righteous indignation wrapped up in too-huge robe, the unbound tumble of blue hair over Zac's eyes and dripping down his neck...

"...uh. Sorry." He must have been really distracted if that was his only reply. He blinked owlishy a couple times, scratched at the scrape on his arm, still not really seeming to notice it was there. "Sabine went to sleep, I thought I'd take advantage..."

Oh. Oh, there it was. The humor, finally slapping him across the face. It started with a strangled sound and turned into a cough -- and from there, degraded into much worse, the laughter bubbling up out of him like he couldn't help it, catching in his throat and his noise and both hands slapping over his mouth as it escaped out of him.

Ever laughed until it hurt, shaking his shoulders and aching in his chest, his stomach gone tight and eyes definitely damp. Combination of that robe, the pants, the shirt, the blank black eyes of the plushy panda. It all made it impossible for Ever to catch his breath.

Tumbled over onto his side on the bed, it was easy to catch him with the pillow, sideways across his face, the blow hard enough to get a pause in the laughter, at least. Ever watched him as he struggled to catch his breath, expression back to its usual teasing, at this point -- with just a little bit of an edge behind his smile.

"...Zac...." It was hoarse, strangled, like more laughter was lurking behind his words. Like it was a constant struggle to keep it back. Maybe it was. "Zac, you would have been better off staying in your towel..."

The water splatting across his face calmed Ever again, left him breathing deep and working to recover, the last of that laughter splattering away. His eyes still on Zac, very close now, his smile slipped and he blinked a few times, trying to think.

After a moment, he reached out to tug on the front of Zac's shirt, shaking his head and still not sitting up. He was comfortable on the unmade bed. A strange thing to have in a dorm room. He didn't think about it. "I might not be the king of fashion but..throw out this shirt, Zac."

And there went the last of his smile, Ever huffing out a breath as he curled fingers in the shirt. Still sprawled on his side, his own eyes narrowed and following Zac, he licked his lips and made a small sound. Finally tucked the mess of fabric under his head as a pillow, no intention of getting up off the bed, apparently.

"Much better, yes." Humor still lingered, but it was certainly warmer, now. He shifted to curl hands near his own chest and go quiet, blinking a little. "I think you aged about five years, just by taking that off..."

"I don't know. You were glaring at me...." He cleared his throat, finally going more sober and serious himself, not sitting up but at least tugging his legs up out of the way so that Zac could settle down next to him on the bed. Fingers smoothed through his hair; it had gone curly from the brief splash of water, messy, standing up in crooked tufts.

"And you're always stopping by my place without calling." So fair was fair, right? He shrugged and settled, halfway-turned so that he could watch Zac.