Falco reminded Cam of his little brother. Redheaded. Highly trained. An expert in human nature.

And being a total fucking dick about it.

Hermes and Cam were assigned separate temporary quarters with bonus beds to accommodate their bodyguard-babysitters and Falco had somehow tricked Cam into choosing the bed by the door instead of the bed by the window even though this particular sleeping quarters had a unique, coveted view of the Whathen constellation.

Dr. Wha’s family was actually named for it.

And Cam, instead, willingly chose the bed that faced a slightly textured gray wall. He wasn’t even sure how it happened. Reverse psychology bullshit.

“Do you think you’re smarter than me?” asked Cam, curled beneath his blanket, big blue eyes narrowed to slits.

Falco didn’t look up from the digipad in his lap, reclined atop his bed with his ankles crossed. “I can’t do math as quickly as you can, no.”

“That’s definitely not what I asked.”

The corners of Falco’s mouth tilted up.

“I’m sorry; is something funny?”

“No.” He was outright grinning now.

Cam punched the pillow behind himself and rolled over so he no longer had to look at Falco’s annoying, smug face. “Whatever. I’m going to sleep.”

“It’s only 2000.”

“I’m tired,” Cam said—and he honestly was. “And we need to be well-rested for training tomorrow.”

Falco snorted.

Cam rolled back over. “Do you have something to say?”

“You’re so touchy,” Falco mumbled, tapping at his digipad. “Go to sleep, Cameron.”

Falco was a trained Earthguard combatant and could definitely kick Cam’s ass, but Cam was still very tempted to jump him and start swinging. Soen could probably beat Falco in a fight. He wondered if he could ask, on the down-low, for a “demonstration” during their combat training in the morning.

The concept of Soen laying Falco out flat settled Cam’s frayed nerves enough for him to finally close his eyes.

When he opened them again, it was six in the morning.

He sat up with a gasp, rubbed his eyes, and looked around in the darkness, heart thundering. His hands outstretched to find something, but his sleep-addled brain couldn’t figure it out—

The realization bubbled up, finally, and he sagged back against his pillow.

He was reaching for Hermes.

He groaned in touch-deprived anguish. “Hold a guy for thirty hours and suddenly you wanna hold him for the rest of your life,” he mumbled into the quiet.

“Are you talking in your sleep?” Falco asked from the neighboring bed.

Cam groaned, but loudly this time. “Why are you here?”

“Well, I was sleeping, but I suppose that’s over with, now.”

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Cam ignored him, made his way to the bathroom, and got ready for the day. He took his sweet time showering, styling his hair half-up, and trimming his nails, all of which took nearly an hour. He was pleased to find a visibly-annoyed Falco waiting outside the door when he opened it. “Oh,” Cam feigned shock. “Did you need to use the bathroom?”

Falco didn’t reply. He pushed past Cam and shut the door with an aggressive click.

They didn’t exchange any other words until they reached the training quarter. Cam led the way to the combat mats—which were cleared save for Soen and Hermes. Cam’s heart skipped a beat when he saw Hermes and he smiled in honest joy.

“Hey,” he said, and Hermes turned. When they met eyes, Cam nearly threw himself into Hermes’ big, strapping, bare arms. He was a sight for sore, horny eyes, wearing a cropped tank that showed off the hard line of his abs above a fitted pair of high-waisted leggings. Cam, through sheer force of will, didn’t let himself do more than glance at the well-shaped cup between Hermes’ legs.

Hermes’ hands twitched like he had an identical compulsion to jump into Cam’s embrace, but he restrained himself and, instead, bowed his head politely. “Good morning, Cam.”

Cam gave in and glanced at the leggings again. He’d never seen Hermes wear something so fitted and it was honestly more erotic than him being outright naked. He was glad Hermes wasn’t reading his mind, because it was simply screaming, in the highest possible pitch, Tight leggings very fitted look nice look soft he’s so hot look at the size of his bulge that’s his dick right there it’s right there I’m dying dear sweet god help me.

Soen burst into a laugh and Cam pulled his eyes away, face going fully cherry red.

“Shut up, Soen,” he barked.

Hermes tilted his head, confused. Falco moved over to the mat and began to stretch, ignoring them all.

“You should thank me,” said Soen. “I talked him into changing into something fitted. Less fabric for attackers to grab.”

Cam shot Soen a very embarrassed glare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He snorted. “Let’s stretch for a few—” he glanced at Falco and nodded. “Then we can start the training.”

Cam made sure to turn away from Hermes as he bent over, because he didn’t need to go through the next few hours of combat while fully torqued.

It turned out arousal wasn’t an issue because Soen worked them mercilessly hard. The combination of Earthling and Medese martial arts was tricky enough to keep Cam fully engaged for two hours, sweat plastering his hair across his face, muscles aching, breathing heavy. He wound up fighting opposite Falco because the size difference between him and Soen and Hermes was too great to accurately learn the moves.

“Now if you swing left—” Soen directed Cam, “You can duck here—”

Cam lifted the flat of his palm like he’d been taught and hit Falco squarely upon his solar plexus, which sent him stumbling backward. Cam raised his fist, “Yeah!”

“Nice,” Soen agreed. “You’re not bad at this.”

Technically he’d taken rudimentary combat classes while in the Earthguard, but his success here was because Soen was a surprisingly good teacher. Cam smiled and turned to find Hermes, to see if maybe he was impressed—

And saw him staring at the space behind the treadmills.

Cam blinked, confused, and walked over. “Hermes?” Hermes turned away from the space he’d been analyzing. “What is it?”

Hermes shook his head. “Nothing. I keep feeling like I am going to see Dr. Wha walk through the doors. Like she is going to go on her daily run.”

Cam’s heart felt shattered. He wanted to reach out and pat him in comfort but—

He couldn’t. Not with Hermes’ telepathy still untrained. Not in public.

Cam looked back to the treadmills and remembered the conversation he had with Qhat, when she asked him to join the mission to T-446. She seemed so confident it was going to be safe—there’s no way she would have risked Cam and Hermes’ lives—

He still felt like he was missing something.

“It’s going to be an easy one,” Cam mumbled, her exact words floating through his mind. Even the ghost of her memory was warm and kind. She wanted her protege to have a friend and a confidant in Cam. He knew now that she wanted an ally because Hermes was being maliciously threatened by someone else nearby.

She probably knew Cam was well-liked on Soter, and she probably believed he would help Hermes’ overall reputation. And despite all the tragedy that came after, Cam would never fault her for trying.

“I think we can call it a day,” Soen said, stepping between Cam and Hermes, clapping his hands to break their brooding silence. “You guys did good. You’ll be sore tomorrow.”

Hermes nodded and Falco gestured to Cam when he turned away. “We have to go change and head to the investigation HQ in conference 2. I’ve got some data to go over. You can bring a digipad to watch TV or something, if you want.”

Cam sighed. He didn’t want to leave Hermes. Especially like this, with him staring with hollow eyes at the memories of his surrogate mom.

Soen stepped in front of Hermes and said, “Let’s go grab an early lunch.”

Hermes was quiet for a moment before he said, voice soft, “Alright.”