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“Chirpy?” Sloane arched an eyebrow at Cael, holding back a laugh.
“You dick!” Cael’s murderous glare was at full strength, and Sloane was relieved it wasn’t aimed at him. For all his timidness, Cael could be pretty scary at times. “You swore you’d never call me that in public! I can’t believe you.”
“I didn’t know anyone was here!” Dex replied in a panic. “I’m sorry!”
; Cael declared loudly, “When Dex was fourteen, we walked in on him with his penis in the vacuum cleaner hose!”
Dex let out a dramatic gasp. “Judas! How could you?” He turned to Sloane, who was desperately trying not to laugh. “It’s not what you think.”
“It’s exactly what you think,” Cael said with a smug grin. “He tried to fuck the vacuum.”
“It was an accident,” Dex insisted.
Cael rolled his eyes. “Really? You were vacuuming your room, slipped, and ‘oh, look at that. Vacuum fell on my penis.’ Please.”
Sloane burst into laughter. He doubled over, covered his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking as he tried to control himself. Oh, fuck. He didn’t have words. The brothers continued to argue, until Cael gave in, apologized, and they made up. On the ride back to HQ, Sloane had to bite the inside of his cheeks to keep himself from breaking out into spontaneous laughter, especially since Dex sulked the entire way. That had been hours ago.
Now, he lay sprawled on his bed in his sleeper bay, staring at the ceiling. With Unit Alpha working overtime to find Isaac, squads were taking turns catching a few hours of sleep in the bays. It was easier to spend the night here than waste time going home, not to mention less dangerous. The THIRDS didn’t want any of their agents falling asleep behind the wheel. Not that Sloane’s apartment was far, and he could always take a cab. Unlike many other agents, Sloane really had no need to sleep here, but he found it comforting.
Since Gabe had died, he’d spent a lot of rough nights here at HQ. He’d made countless excuses to himself as to why that was, but now he knew the truth. He didn’t want to go home to his big empty apartment. He wasn’t one of those guys who always needed to have someone in his bed, but he’d be fooling no one if he said he didn’t like having a certain someone in his bed. It was his own fault. He’d been spending too much time with Dex, either sleeping in Dex’s bed or having Dex in his own, but there was something about the guy that made it hard for Sloane to stay away. The last few days had been fucking miserable.
Sloane rolled onto his side with a huff. God, look at him, sulking like some teenager infected with puppy love. So he liked having Dex around. So what? Who the hell didn’t like having Dex around? Ash of course, but well, it was Ash. Eight months, and his team had accepted Dex as one of their own, as if he’d always been there. Rosa fussed over him as much as she did Cael, acting like a mother hen despite being a couple of years older than Dex. Letty teased and roughhoused with him as if they were siblings, jumping on him, hugging him, asking him for advice on whatever hot guy she had her eye on, while Calvin and Hobbs followed Dex around like a couple of groupies.
Dex walked around with a smile on his face, giving his undivided attention to whoever approached him, going out of his way to help however he could. He wasn’t arrogant or cocky, but playful. At times, he was shy, hiding behind his humor or that dopey grin of his. He was weird, no doubt about it, what with his bizarre fixation on music released before 1989, his unhealthy obsession with cheese snacks, and his inability to shut up at times, but somehow, that made him more attractive in Sloane’s eyes.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Sloane groaned at himself, rubbing his hands over his face. He should have been sleeping, instead he was thinking about how great Dex was. If the guy was so goddamn great, what the hell was Sloane doing alone? He kept telling himself he wasn’t ready to label whatever he had with Dex, especially since it was strictly between them, so what was the point, but what else was Dex if not his boyfriend? They weren’t sleeping around. Hell, the thought of Dex being fucked by someone else made him want to punch something.
Dex was a good guy, faithful, smart, funny, sexy, and he was crazy about Sloane. What more could Sloane want? He should be counting his lucky stars that a guy like Dex wanted anything to do with his miserable ass, and what was he doing? Disciplining him, and beating the shit out of him for saving a teammate’s life. Cael’s words kept coming back to him. The kid had really called him out on his behavior. And he was right. Sloane was being a complete chickenshit.
He was such an asshole. If he wasn’t with Dex, he had no one to blame but himself. No matter how many times he told himself Dex had disobeyed orders, deep down, he knew that wasn’t it. Had anyone else on the team done what Dex did, Sloane would have been royally pissed off at first, but then he would have been proud of them. He sure as hell wouldn’t have taken disciplinary measures.
It had been easy to let his anger get out of hand and turn into something else. Was he taking it out on Dex because he was too scared of where things were heading? This was their first real fight. Sure, they’d argued plenty of times before, but it never resulted in this… this horrible feeling in his chest. He sat up and shifted to the edge of the bed with a frown. Getting up, he pulled back the covers, determined to get some sleep, when he heard faint music. It was coming from the room next door.
The rooms were heavily insulated so occupants could go about their business without disturbing their fellow agents. He doubted his Human teammates could hear the tune, and if Sloane’s room hadn’t been silent, he wouldn’t have either. Curious, he pressed his ear to the wall, his heart lurching when he heard the familiar power ballad. He closed his eyes as he listened to the faint lyrics of Journey’s “Faithfully.”
Straightening, he left his room, closing the door behind him, and with a deep breath, he knocked on the door next to his. He ran his fingers through his hair in a feeble attempt to comb it back then told himself to stop being such an ass. The door opened, and a tired, disheveled-looking Dex sporting a distressed Back to the Future T-shirt and gray sweats stood on the other side.
“Hi. I heard the music.”
“Oh.” Dex walked over to the desk and tapped his tablet, turning it down. “Sorry.”
“No, I didn’t mean it was bothering me. When I heard it, I figured it was you.”
Dex nodded.
“Can I come in?”
“You’re the Team Leader. You can do what you want.” Dex took a seat on the edge of his bed, his gaze going to his bare feet.
“I didn’t come here to fight,” Sloane said with a sigh, closing the door behind him and locking it. He joined Dex on the edge of the bed.
Again, Dex nodded, but didn’t say anything. Sloane watched him worry his bottom lip, close his eyes, and release a heavy sigh. “You have a job to do, I get it. I’ve been a THIRDS agent a few months. You’ve been one for years. Who the hell am I to question your judgment?”
“I deleted the reprimand.”
Dex stared at him. “Why?”
