Most of the swim back up from Atlantis was a tired blur. After the suspense, the waiting for Sophie to make up her mind, and the relatively peaceful conclusion, Zeke had been hit with a wave of exhaustion that had made the trip to shore difficult, even for a seasoned diver such as himself. Thoughts not his own had filled his head the entire time, and he hadn't been able to differentiate if they'd a help or a hindrance. Regardless, by the time he'd reached the beach and returned his dive gear he was sick of the mental onslaught. It left him moody as he made his way towards the Life Labs. That was where Ever had taken Kim's body, that would be the first place he'd check for the blonde.

Only to be held up, temporarily, by good news. A promotion, a shift in division. It was what he'd wanted, but it was a lot to take in just then.

He was still looking a bit blank as he reached the infirmary, heading for the place set aside for those fatally injured, or dead, bound for a pod.
Ever had been there since he first arrived with Kim in arms and trainees in tow -- and, since then, someone else had taken up the duty of watching her, of checking her vitals, of trying to figure out what had happened to her.

Still, he sat not too far away, more than half asleep with his head sagging back against a wall. Eyes closed and limbs loose and tousled hair stuck to the corner of his mouth.

----

For a moment Zeke wasn't sure if Ever was still there. He saw the technician (heard them, mind going a mile a minute on some irritating rant about something Zeke didn't give a s**t about), assumed Ever would have left by now, and only spotted him as he turned to leave.

It made him wonder why he couldn't hear him as well, then he realized the other man was sleeping, head lolled back against the wall. Zeke's lips twitched in a bemused smile, and he crossed over to kneel down in front of him, hands on the arm of his chair, and debated if he should wake him up, or maybe just carry him back to the dorms.

----

The touch against his chair was enough to shake him awake, though -- the nearness of Zeke -- with a little what? in the back of his mind and a moment trying to remember where he was, and what had happened. Ever's thoughts didn't race, but that was probably because he was still half asleep, mulling things over slowly while his brain caught up. Eventually reassured that someone else had taken over all his tasks, his eyes settled on Zeke -- and he quirked just a little smile himself. "Hey."

----

Ah, there it was.

Zeke's smile twitched, something flitting through pale eyes. There and gone again before the former Mist was dropping his hands from the arms to rest on Ever's knees. "Hey." In truth, he was relieved to see that smile. It meant the swim back from the island couldn't have been too traumatic. Whatever had happened, it hadn't been bad enough. Even if he hadn't said it, he'd been worried.

"I think you're probably okay to leave," he was saying in a soft voice, glancing back over his shoulder at the tech and the pods. "Let's go see if there's anything left in my desk drawer." He'd tell him after they left, when they were walking back. Let him decide if he wanted to keep his thoughts his own. Zeke would understand.

----

Ever worried at that, though, his eyes lifting over Zeke's head and his smile fading again -- and his mind went to Kim again, still lying dead on a bed somewhere. Behind it, just a smidge of guilt; he should have done more, something to figure out what had happened. "...I'm not much use, really, so maybe......"

----

Zeke grimaced at the doubt and the guilt, smile slipping completely for a secund or two, and he was reaching to wrap warm fingers around Ever's hand before he fully realized he'd even moved. Then the smile was back in place, and he was standing to draw the other man up to his feet. "You did what you could, now it's up to them."

His free hand came up to push unruly bangs away from dark eyes. "I should fill you in on what happened, anyways. And I'd prefer to do that somewhere not here."

----

"Sure." He blinked back up at Zeke, his mind mostly awake now, with just a smidge of that lingering fuzziness around the edges. He'd been dreaming about something, and Ever worried at it, trying to remember what it was, with only a hint here and there. Something about a classroom. Something about a goat. He tightened his hand against Zeke's, shifting slightly, and used the contact to lever himself up.

----

He didn't let go when Ever had his feet under him, and instead, his thumb moved in absent passes across the edge of the leather cuff circling his wrist. A light hold that would have been easily broken. He seemed eager to get them out of the room and into the semi seclusion of the hall outside.

And then stopped them, once they were alone. Turning to lean his back into the wall, and using the loose hold on Ever's wrist to draw him in closer. Stealing a kiss before he warned him about the telepathy, because if he chose to keep away while the effects lingered (and Zeke wouldn't blame him if he did), he wanted this, at least.

----

"Hmm." He settled his other hand against the wall next to Zeke's head, leaning into it just a little -- gently, still, because his thoughts were distracted. Warm and not unwilling, but distracted, by Kim and the swim and the monsters and the slight dampness that still clung to his socks and -- "What happened?"

----

The distraction made it brief, but not before Zeke set teeth against the soft bud of Ever's lip. A bid to draw his attention away from Kim, even before he was asking about the mission. Licking his own lip, he traced his thumb across the thin line of skin between leather cuff and the heel of the other man's hand.

"Well it went a lot more," he paused to consider his word choice, nose wrinkling a bit. "Smoothly, I suppose, than I was expecting. But there are some lingering things that need mentioning first."

----

A joke was the first thing that bloomed in Ever's head, and the first thing that came out of his mouth: "Deep sea STDs?" But behind it was something a little less glib, a slow spread of worry that didn't quite come into words.

----

It brought a smile to his face, slowly spreading across dark features, and he chuckled. "Naw." How even..? He didn't want to know what something like that might look like. There was something about the confirmation of worry that felt decidedly good.

Or maybe it was a worry about catching deep sea STDs.

"I don't know what the purpose of it was, maybe to see inside our heads to see if we were lying, but while the thing in charge of the gate was questioning us, she gave us the ability to hear each others thoughts." The smile slowly faded away through the explination, leaving Zeke looking tired and a bit wary. "Which seems to extend beyond just those of us that were down there." He was still running his thumb along warm, soft skin, and it could very well have been a nervous gesture at that point.

----

"Ah?" Ever was usually a fairly open book; Zeke didn't need to read his mind to tell that he was a bit perplexed, that he didn't quite understand what that meant. "How'd that go?"

----

"Interesting," he conceded. "But it's still there. I can still hear what people are thinking." With his free hand he reached up to touch Ever's temple, tapping faintly. "I can hear what you're thinking." The wariness was still there, but there was the shadow a smile as well. An attempt to make light of it all. "I wanted to put that out there, so you knew. Cause it's one hell of an invasion of privacy."

----

Another beat, just a moment's hesitation -- and then it processed, Ever's eyebrows relaxing and his expression going more thoughtful, instead. It wasn't that he minded, exactly; it wasn't like Ever kept secrets, exactly, or at least not intentionally. But knowing that someone was listening in made your mind go to the unpleasant moments, made him linger over some small discomfort. His father's hands and stealing someone's wallet off a nightstand and sitting next to a toilet with his head in his hands...

He had to take a moment to redirect, to focus on Zeke's face instead. "Uh. Okay."

----

It was a credit to how important his relationship with Ever was, that prompted Zeke trying to block out the random rush of thoughts circling aorund events and deeds of the past. He was curious, but he was always curious.

"I want to fill you in on everything that went on down there, but it can wait, if you'd rather keep your thoughts out of my head." The hand at Ever's temple had fallen to rest at the side of his neck. "You knowing about it gives you the choice."

----

"How about you just don't...listen?" He still looked quiet, maybe a little uncertain now; slightly tense where Zeke's fingers settled against his neck. He didn't say anything, he never did, but the magic always made him just a little bit uncomfortable. It sent him back to quiet but furious sermons, a time in his youth when anything different was crushed out. It was, almost, a secret. "Plug your ears, so to speak."

----

With a sigh he let the hand on Ever's neck fall away, using it instead to push his own hair back. He needed a shower, and some sleep. "I'm not trying to listen, but I can't just turn it off, either. It's like there's a radio in my head." He leaned back a little more heavily against the wall.

----

He was definitely awake, anyway, his mind shifting, now -- sifting through the implications of that. Mostly, his thoughts were organized; not like he had anything to hide and he knew it, but at the same time a small part of him had wandered to an old, ingrained belief, one he couldn't shake. Thought was the same as action; just as bad; if you had the thought you might as well have said it, have done it, and he rubbed at his eyebrow as he picked that old scab in his mind. "Okay."

----

Zeke waited, mostly patiently, with that one small worrying stroke of thumb over skin. Until Ever spoke again. "Okay?" Acceptance, perhaps. Zeke's wariness lingered, gnawing at the back of his mind.

It was a bit of a shock, realizing how much he didn't want the ability to go digging around in other people's heads. Maybe before, back when he didn't care as much, but not now.

----

Ever's reply was just a little shrug, his head tipped to the side and eyebrows raised. Behind it, of course, that discomfort still. Thought as action. Something made it tense. "It's not your fault, is it?"

----

Zeke shook his head, lips pressed in thin, lopsided line. "Everyone that went down got it." How long was it going to last? There was a small kernel of worry in the pot of his stomach that he was choosing to ignore for the moment. Regarding what could happen if it didn't fade in time.

----

Why?" He dragged a hand up the back of his head and focused, idly, on the sensation of hair pushed the wrong way, of the way it curled around his fingers, the brief idea that maybe he should crop it all down to short stubble like he had once upon a time, when he'd slept somewhere terrible and something had gotten stuck in it.

----

That made him frown, lips twisting thoughtfully as he considered it, and after a moment he gave another small shake of his head and a helpless shrug. "I don't know. I think maybe the AI did it so she could hear our thoughts, to know if we were lying when we stated out intent." Which was logical, but why did they have to hear each other as well. That had actually seemed to make things worse, rather than do any good.

Pale eyes had flicked to watch Ever's hand as it had moved to brush his fingers along the back of his head. It was the thought about cutting it completely, sheering it short, that had him reaching out again. Not a conscious decision, but an automatic one. Hands brushed across cheek bones, sliding back so half his fingers were buried in curls and the other hand smoothed over soft fuzz, and he drew him in, breathing a protest against his lips. "Don't cut it."

----

It would have been unsettling, maybe, except for the intimacy of the touch. Instead, it made Ever sigh a little against his mouth, head bent obligingly, his own hand dropped to curl gently around Zeke's wrist. "What did they say, down there? How'd it end?"

----

There lips parting made Zeke sigh, hands sliding a little, but only until his palms rested on either side of Ever's neck and his thumbs drew along the rise of his collar bone where it peeked through his shirt collar.

"She said a trust had been broken, and we needed to make amends. Wanted a gift of good faith, like an artifact or something like that, but no one had one they were willing to part with." His head had tipped, gaze unfocused as he recalled it all. "After a few minutes of not knowing what to do, she said the alliance could be mended if Melvin stayed behind for a while and helped her, them? There aren't any people living there anymore, but there's artificial intelligence linked through the entire city." It was all a bit surreal still. "She called us Avalon. Deus maybe, or any surface dweller. I'm not sure." That came with a small shake of his head.

----

"Tied in to the Merlin stuff and mythical weapons, maybe." Ever's mind went there immediately: the old Welsh version of the King Arthur stories he'd read. A passage about Avalon playing over slowly, unintelligibly, through the back of his mind. His fingers shifted a little against the inside of Zeke's wrist. "How long is Melvin there? I could go digging..."

----

Brows creased, and he gave a small shake of his head. "I don't know. She didn't say. Not indefinitely. Longer than a few days, shorter than a year?" But it was a guess. Zeke had no way of knowing how long Melvin would have to stay. Just like he had no idea what the AI was doing with the other Life hunter.

"Do you think it might be connected, Merlin, the Legacies, Atlantis, Avalon?" This wasn't the former Mist's field of expertise. He'd have to deffer to Ever's judgement on it.

----

"Seems more likely than coincidence." But his mind went to other options: stories that were told because of something else, things that were connected and so they inspired fiction, someone's creative endeavors. At least he wasn't thinking inward too much, wasn't freaking out; just frowning a bit. A puzzle settled him a bit. "Maybe Melvin will get more information."

----

Zeke's brows creased at the cycling of thoughts. Not the content, just the extra noise in his own head. Even with more people around him it hadn't seemed so bad, but they'd all been scared. Adrenaline and dread pushing back anything else, but even aside from that, every thought had seemed to echo another. It had all been the same thing. Now was different.

He drew in a breath, let it out, and tried to just let Ever's thoughts flow in and out, focusing on his own, instead. "Probably. That seemed to be part of the reason he stayed. We can visit, if we want. Not into the city, but at the gates." Well, Zeke could visit. He wasn't sure even calm waters would get Ever into dive gear willingly.

----

Ever had a way about him that probably made people think the inside of his head was quiet -- and that wasn't entirely wrong. His thoughts weren't loud, or aggressive, but they did move. He chewed on puzzles and ideas and jumped around, putting things together without saying anything at all. It was internalized. Thoughtful. "How would we visit, exactly?"

----

"The same way we got down there today, diving. Considerably less dangerous though, with the golems being gone." He let the arm Ever want holding onto lower until he could hook a finger in the other man's belt loop. Habit. "In a few days I was going to head back, check on him." Or try to, at least.

----

There was a long pause, Ever's thoughts gone blank -- just listening to his own heartbeat and focusing on his own breathing. Behind it was panic that he was carefully not indulging in. "...I don't think I'm going to do that."

----

Zeke chuckled softly. "No, I didn't think you were." Better in the water didn't mean ready to throw on an air tank and jump in.

"If you wanted to have me deliver a message, though." How close were they? Zeke wasn't sure. Melvin had helped with furniture shopping, but Zeke hadn't asked too many questions. He was curious, but he hasn't waved to come off as jealous, or possessive. There was truth to the latter, but not in that sense.

----

"It's okay." His mouth was still dry, and Ever focused on that, too: on swallowing, and wetting his lips, and then down onto Zeke's face, instead. "So long as he's okay, I guess."

----

A peculiar smile slid along Zeke's lips, and while Ever spoke, hazel eyes dipped to the other man's mouth, his tongue as it flicked out to wet dry lips. Yes, Melvin would be fine, they didn't have to worry about him. Probably.

"There's still more news," he said lowly, but there was a definite light in his eyes now, a certain smug twist to his lips as he slid his hand back to cup along Ever's nape so he could draw him in again. And as he tipped his head, he flicked a wet line across the other man's lips, murmuring against them. "I got a promotion."

----

It took a while for Ever's mind t ocome around to that statement -- to abandon Melvin and being trapped underwater and everything that came with it. "...does that mean it's time for me to kick your a** again?"

----

Zeke's grin sharpened, a quick flash of teeth, before he nipped at the other man's lip, tugging at it once as letting it go. "To try to, at least." He'd lost the last time, but that he'd minded, but he'd won as well.

----

Not while you can read my mind, I think. He thought it, and then he said it, too, a hand sliding up into Zeke's hair. "I doubt I'd win while you were cheating."

----

He laughed, head young back against Ever's hand, and smoked roguishly back at him through half lowered lids. "You think I'd cheat? I'm offended." No he wasn't. He couldn't even muster up any feigned indignation at the notion.

----

"So. When it fades, I guess." It was light-hearted, teasing -- and then his eyebrows knitted, and it came around again, while he wondered if it was going to fade. Or if this was just forever, now.

----

There was a response there at the top of his tongue, but the sudden knit of Ever's brow, that needling, worrying doubt that crept into his mind—the same worry Zeke had, to be honest—had the new Life moving to banish that thought from the other's head. Or trying to, at least.

The kiss was immediate and demanding. He pulled Ever into him, even twisted his wrist out that loose, pale fingered grip to press hand into the small of the tall man's back. Greedy, all tongue and nipping teeth.

----

It wasn't going to be completely successful, of course. Aside from deep in the moment, Ever was the kind of person who chewed on things, who picked over old scabs. But it'd take the edge off, distract him, draw him into Zeke. He made just a tiny sound. "Shower, maybe?"

----

Distracted was better, easier. Not just for one, but for both of them. If he could keep Ever's mind away from it, even if just for a little while, than he didn't have to think of it himself, either. It would resurface, he had little doubt about that, but he didn't want to dwell on it if he could help it.

He didn't draw away to answer, not immediately, but mention of a shower reminded him that he probably treated like salt. That his skin felt dry and itchy with it, clothing stiffening as it dried. Reluctantly, tongue flicking across Ever's lips, he'd nod. "That'd be great." It really would be.