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Plans had been made, but it had been a long while since Zeke had gotten much chance to hang out with his best friend. Conflicting schedules, mostly his, had made it down right impossible to find time, but his shifts, at least for this week, were on the lighter side. It was certainly a blessing, one he intended to take advantage of. One he already had taken advantage of.

Sprawled out across his bed in t-shirt and pair of soft flannel sleeping pants, the man grabbed his phone from the bedside table, scrolling through it until he got to her name. A quick message was tapped out, sent, and the phone was lowered to lay on his stomach.

He jumped as his door opened no more than a handful of seconds after the text had been sent out, but he settled, smiling, as Paige closed it behind her and bent to remove her boots. When she climbed up more or less beside him he abandoned the phone to the blankets and looped an arm around her to give her a fond squeeze.

"Laying here missing my favorite person," he answered honestly, smile blooming into an all out grin. "But you're here now, so that problems solved now."

He would definitely win that fight. No doubt about it.

"I have nothing but sweet things to say to you, Gorgeous. You know that." He turned his head to lay a kiss against her brow, free hand coming around to cup against the back of her head.

Then he was blinking down at her as she asked if he was alright, brows arching before the implications of her words sank in. [in]Inside source usually meant Cee, and the only intel from her Paige would feel the need to ask about probably had something to do with a certain white haired pain in the a**.

Zeke considered his answer for a moment, curious what all they knew, what Ever had gone to Cee for, though he had a pretty good idea.

"Currently. If I'm catching your meaning right." It was true to a certain point. Mixed signals and distance had given way to thoroughly enjoyable meet up, an honest to god talk, and further enjoyment. Things weren't back to how they had been before Antarctica, but they were acceptable.

He'd definitely missed this, the mindless, easy closeness. Paige had managed to dig out a place for herself in his feelings from the very start, and Zeke still wasn't sure how. Not that that he questioned it much. She as important to him, and that was that.

An agreeable hum followed, on all accounts; the islands effect on people, cutting Ever some slack, and the rest. Presently, Zeke was doing his damnedest to leave the Life hungry for more with every meeting. It seemed to be working, if the evening before was anything to go by.

Of course he certainly didn't mind the shift in topic. "I think it'd depend on what you were thinking, and how obviously her it was." A beat, whereupon the man's grin sharpened. "Incredibly homo." It was punctuated with a poke to her side.

"All joking aside though, she's already freaked once, hasn't she? I'd be careful if I was you."

Zeke chuckled, murmuring an apology that was about as sincere as her complaint. "Not sure I can turn it off." He'd always been level-headed, infuriatingly reasonable. It took a lot to rile him up.

Well, in most contexts.

"Just for the sake of my ever present curiosity, what were you thinking of getting?"

A pause in the form of a fullbody stretch delayed an answer. Long legs tensed, toes pointing as he carried the motion up through his shoulders before settling again beneath her comfortable weight.

"It's a cute bad idea," he'd finally offer mildly. "I mean, you obviously care about her, we all know that, so the thought behind it is apparent." He shifted his arm, hand coming up to smooth fingertips along the back of her scalp. "But she's a flight risk."

Zeke was not the best source for advice on this particular subject. Not only did his own experiences fall short of the emotional realm with which Paige had found herself, but his own, for lack of a better word, love life seemed to be in a similar boat. Zeke's methods for dealing with it were letting Ever work through whatever was making him twitchy. He knew what the issue was, just not why it was an issue. Everything worked, it was easy, it was both casual and sort of not.

If he didn't genuinely enjoy Ever's company, and the sex wasn't as good as it was, cutting ties wouldn't have bothered him.

Lips pressed into a thoughtful line, Zeke kept up that soft massage of blunt fingertips against the back of Paige's scalp. The girl was a goner, and she knew it. "Keeping things light is about all I can recommend, Gorgeous. I know that's not your ideal scenario, but it's better than the wost case alternative, right?"

A a certain point he knew she was going to have to come clean to Cee about just how deep her feelings went. Just not yet.

Zeke's shoulder moved beneath her head as she shrugged. "I'm saying I don't really know." He lay another soft kiss against her brow. "But if I were you," and they did seem to find themselves in relatively similar circumstances. "That's what I would do."

It was what he was doing.

"If it's working," he mused, voices going a little thoughtful before he aimed a lazy smile down in her direction. "Right?"

If things worked, if everyone was content, why change it? Why make it more complicated then it needed to be?

Fingers ghostly lightly against the short hair at the back of Paige's scalp and up ward until the tips could comb through the longer white at the top. Absent, giving and giving familiar comfort.