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Another week of ridiculously long shifts in the infirmary. It was only the first day, and already Ezekiel was over it. The busy work, the bitching patients, the mess, all of it. This was not work he enjoyed, but it was work he was good at, so his name kept turning up on the infirmary duty rooster. A few months back, he'd have done more to get out of it. Now, no matter how much he disliked it, he recognized the merit of it as a personal skill. Useful should a situation arise that called for some sort of medical training.

Not that he gave a damn about 98% of the hunters he worked with, but personal survival, and the safety of the select few he was attached to mattered.

Regardless of valuable knowledge, it was still a pain in the a**. By the end of the first night he was wiped out--clocking out at 5:00 in the morning, the sun was just warming the horizon as he trudged back to the dorms. He almost walked right past room 104. Almost forgot the text he'd sent some seven hours previously requesting the Life leave his door unlocked that night. There hadn't been reply, Zeke didn't know if Ever had even seen the message before going to bed, but there was a chance.

The handle turned under his hand, and an all too pleased grin flashed across tanned features as he let himself in. Quietly, the door was shut behind him, and he crept across the room to set his phone soundlessly on the bedside table before shedding coat, boots and scrubs and silently as possible. Then, the weight of his twelve hour shift pressing down on him. He crawled up from the foot of the bed slowly, mindful of the long limbs hidden beneath the blankets, and eased down into the stripe of space available with a quiet groan. <********> it felt good to lay down.

Zeke responded to that tension by lying very still until Ever settled again. There was nothing, not even banter, only pale eyes watching the the other man in the dark, not at all in the mood to receive a dagger through the heart. He was tired, maybe later.

When that slow breath came, and the fingers against his hip relaxed, Zeke finally moved again, reaching through the collective warmth between them to smooth the backs of his fingers along the contour of Ever's side, following that line until he could hook his hand at the small of his back and try to drag him forward.

Or close the gap himself if Ever didn't move for him.

He thought about making a dirty joke as he drew in the familiar scent of smoke and skin, but he just didn't feel that witty at the moment. Instead one shoulder moved in the laziest excuse for a shrug as he yawned, answering through the tail end of it. "Blame Sunny, she writes the schedules." To be fair, Zeke hadn't mentioned what time he'd be heading over, just that he intended to. "I was trying not to wake you, almost worked."

He thought about it, the hand on Ever's back drifting upward until long fingers disappeared into soft hair, the tips kneading against the base of his skull. Smiling in the darkness. His own bed was comfortable enough, and certainly he'd have a lot more room, but here he got to curl up around a warm body, breath in the blonde's scent off the pillow, the blankets, him. "Why not?"

A few hours good sleep, the chance for a little fun when Ever woke up for the day. Zeke couldn't remember what Ever said he was scheduled for in the later, or if he'd mentioned it at all. Maybe it'd be something that let him sleep in a few more hours.

"Alone in a cold bed, or here with you, hmm. I wonder." His tone suggested it should have been obvious, even drowsy and softly gruff. "Also doesn't hurt your room is literally just inside the doors. Admittedly that made the choice easier."

The amused hum that followed was muffled against the side of Ever's throat as Zeke slid in to take advantage of the shift. One arm snaking under the pillow under the other man's neck, the other drifting down until his hand was resting on Ever's hip, thumb rolling in lazy back and fourths across the bone.

He had to think about the question, because no matter what his intention might be originally, they had a tendency to blur and shift with proximity. It usually was only a matter of time before his hands began to wander.

As he considered the Mist trailed lip along the warmth of smooth skin, following the prominent line of Ever's collar bone. "Dunno," was the honest answer, low and soft. He was tired, the weight of long hours on his feet dragging him down, but...

"Do you have a preference?"

It seemed neither of them had much trouble sleeping on the tiny, Deus sanctioned bed. Zeke had spent many a night warming Ever's blankets, and the Life had shared a few night's in Zeke's They were about the same size as a standard dorm bed, which was what the Mist had been sleeping on for the last three years.

Zeke yawned, breath leaving in a warm puff against pale skin. His hand wandered lower, following Ever's thigh down to his knee, and he drew it up higher along his own as the comment pulled a rumbling chuckle from him. "Like I care." Wouldn't have been the first time.

With a tip of his head he nipped at Ever's chin.

Sleep still sounded like a good idea, out weighing the desire, for now, to do anything more strenuous, but there was a certain charm to Ever half asleep that made the idea of sleepy make-outs rather appealing.

Another amused hum, but Zeke didn't push. He didn't have the energy for it, and there wasn't much of a point given he wasn't actually trying for sex at the moment. Instead he replaced his hand on Ever's hip, blinking into the dark as a proposition was made. "Deal." If they could manage to drag themselves out of bed.

A moment of quiet punctuated by the sound of a deeper breath escaping, then Zeke was drawing the other man closer and pressing his face back against the side of his neck. Breathing in smoke and soap, and beneath that skin.

It didn't take long, after that, for the Mist to lose his battle against sleep. His breathing evened, the hand on Ever's side twitched, drifting, then relaxed completely.