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Sloane nodded. “I’ll get a few hours in, but then I’ve got the night to myself. You?”

“If you can believe it, this will be my second day in a row with a normal, single shift.”

Sloane snorted. “A miracle. Doing anything tonight?”

“Mmm, wild orgy.”

Sloane smirked. “Get all your slots filled?”

“That’s kind of the point of an orgy.”

“Alright, smartass.”

Dean grinned, capping the injector. “No, got nothing to do, why?”

“Maybe come on over, and we can watch some shitty action movie, drink beers and chill?”

It had been a while since their last movie night. It was almost exactly as Sloane had detailed. The two of them found some movie, usually a bad one, and sat around, drinking beers idly and spending time together. The ritual had begun when the two of them had been on watch together, staring up at the sky andtalking about their lives. When they’d graduated, it had become nights spent in the barracks, playing cards and talking. Now that they had their respective places, they could spend actual alone time together, doing absolutely nothing.

And they were the highlight of Dean’s week.

Dean winked, going to dispose of the injector. “It’s a date.”

SLOANE

Shuffling about in the small space that made up his kitchen, Sloane grabbed the hamburger buns. As the patties sizzled away in the pan, he unwound the plastic bag and pulled out a few buns to spread a thin layer of butter inside each. With that done, he dropped them in the other heated pan.

He looked up at the sound of his door opening but didn’t bother to check. Only a few people had a key to his apartment, and only one would walk in unannounced.

“Christ, that smells delicious,” Dean called, followed by the thump of his shoes being kicked off.

Sloane sighed. “Put them?—”

“On the shoe rack, I know, I know,” Dean grumbled.

Sloane chuckled as he listened to Dean mutter under his breath. Having grown up in small, close quarters with three other people, Sloane learned early on how important it was to keep everything tidy and organized. The less space used up, the more room there was, and that tidiness had been ingrained even further into his personality by the rigors of basic training and then military life. Dean, however, was considerably more lax. While the man was meticulous and attentive to detail in his work, in his casual life, Dean left clean laundry in a basket for aweek straight, and his kitchen drawers were organized in a way that made sense only to him.

Dean stomped into view, shaking a damp lock of blond hair free from his forehead. “Again, I say, that smells delicious.”

Sloane glanced at him. “Raining?”

“It was just a sprinkle at first, and then it decided to piss all over me, which was great.”

Sloane snorted, plucking the toasted buns from the pan and laying them on plates. “You know where the towels are.”

“Yeah, I’m not listening if I get your couch wet,” Dean huffed, turning and stomping off.

Sloane shook his head as the man, who probably didn’t weigh more than 160lbs, somehow managed to make enough noise for someone twice his size. While Sloane had never worked alongside Dean in the field during their almost simultaneous deployment, he knew Dean could move with grace and great stealth. Yet, take him out of the field and put him in a casual setting, and the man stomped around like an ogre.

As Sloane dropped the burgers onto the buns and grabbed the bag of chips, Dean reappeared. During the few times Dean had been over and used one of his towels, the sight always amused Sloane. Due to his size, Sloane bought the biggest and usually fluffiest towels he could find. They suited him, but on someone of Dean’s stature, they looked like blankets wrapped around him, or in this case, a cape that started as a cowl.

Dean rubbed at his head vigorously. “I’m surprised they haven’t yelled at me for my hair yet.”

Sloane raised a brow. “I keep meaning to ask you who you’re bribing to let your hair grow more than a few inches, let alone longer.”

Dean shrugged. “I keep forgetting, and no one has corrected me yet. I think I’m the only guy on base with actual hair instead of just a suggestion.”

“A suggestion, huh?”