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There was someone in Evan's bed. It was Evan, because it was his bed.

Tuck was most definitely not in the right room and Evan had never once considered sleeping in Tuck's room--although he did, occasionally, consider sleeping in his sister's--and even though he missed them both equally (almost equally), of the two of them, there was only one he would have crawled into bed with willingly and knowingly.

The body in bed with Evan certainly didn't feel like Gnat's--or Chel's, or Nora's, or any of the other women on the island he would have happily welcomed into it--and so obviously (obviously) it didn't belong there.

So he shoved it out. His bed wasn't really big enough for the two of them, anyway.

One problem was immediately replaced with another, as the blanket had wandered off and now Evan was cold. Rolling over with a grumble--and nearly falling off himself, because the bed was definitely not big enough for the both of them no it was not--he draped his arm over the side and blindly felt around for it.

The floor was a little lumpy, Evan noted as he awkwardly groped for his blanket. Not nearly awake enough to be curious--or cautious--his arm flopped around until he was able to catch a corner of his blanket and pull it off the floor. Whatever it was could wait until morning; Tuck probably didn't need his eyes and nose anyway, right?

His quest complete, Evan rolled back over. The blanket was still half on the floor, but the other half was covering him, so that was okay. He dimly registered a voice, but was too asleep to parse what it was saying. "Shut up," he mumbled.

Evan's legs were cold, but that was okay. It wasn't enough to rouse him from the peaceful--if eventful--few hours of sleep he had managed to get.

Some a*****e pounding on the bed next to him managed to do it, though. He jerked immediately into a hazy hyper alertness, his fist instinctively lashing out to smack whatever the hell that had been. Fortunately for Tuck, Evan hadn't been in any kind of position to get a good windup on it, so he only punched him in the face a little bit.

It took a little longer than that for Evan to register exactly who he had just punched in the face, and he felt an unsurprising lack of regret about it. "You dumb son of a b***h," he grumbled with equal parts irritation and fondness as he sat up, the blanket sliding off of him. "When did you get back?"

Evan paused halfway out of bed to give Tuck a quizzically raised eyebrow. "Where have you been, that you forgot what women look like?" He shook his head and padded over to the desk chair to retrieve his clothes. He was careful to keep the bed between them as he continued, "Besides, she's got a nicer rack than I do."

He nodded as he pulled on his shirt and pants, giving Tuck a quick once-over just to make sure he came back in the same condition he had left in. "Glad to see you're back in one piece. Your deployment go okay?"

"Think it's Wednesday," Evan offered helpfully, sitting down to pull on his socks. "And you're gonna have to try hard to remember, because I haven't seen Heidi since I got back. I kind of figured she was with you," he admitted.

Boots were last, pulled on and tied with brisk efficiency. "I wouldn't look too hard for wood to knock on," Evan advised. "We've had some s**t go on here the past few months, but mostly it's just been ******** high school drama bullshit all over the place. I'd volunteer to go back into the field just to get away from it most days."

He barked a laugh at Tuck's question. "Yeah, I'm making breakfast," he said with good-natured reluctance. He rose and shook his head on his way to the door. "Guess some things never change, huh? Like you doing dishes."

"Stay off Twitter," Evan suggested. "It's like a black hole combined with a car crash made out of people: it'll suck you in and you won't be able to look away, no matter how horrible it gets--and it will."

He grinned over his shoulder at Tuck's uncharacteristic--but definitely understandable--willingness to clean. "Yeah, I guess that is one benefit of living on the island. If I never have to eat another MRE, it'll be too ******** soon. That s**t has to be as bad for us as the things we're sent out to fight."

And damned if Evan hadn't missed the big man, both his easy camaraderie and the sympathies that only they, among few others on the island, could really share and understand. It was more than worth the rude awakening and foregoing the morning's training. "We got hot water back a couple of months ago. Guess someone got it up and running between missions. I don't know where you were stationed, but it got pretty busy in the desert. Got eaten by a sandworm, firebombed, and lost one to the ******** monsters all in, oh, a month or so. Hope your trip out was less eventful."