Colin #3
“Yep, technically,” I said with a grin, and then shrugged. “Army Brat, my dad was…busy, doing Army things.”
When I shrugged again, she rolled her eyes. “Alright, come with me, the rec room is down here. Along with everything else that’s gonna be relevant on your downtime.”
Leading me back into the hallway, I followed her to a door at the end of the hall.
When she opened it, I was immediately struck by the difference.
The previous rooms had been almost industrial with stark concrete floors and bare walls.
The shift was to wood paneling, but it, and the frayed rug, were a damn sight warmer than before.
“Rec room,” she said, pointing toward an open doorway where I could see light flashing. “Used to be not much, but the boys have done their best.”
I peered in and it was…well, it was definitely an attempt at a rec room. Ratty furniture, a dented pool table in the corner, a fridge tucked into the opposite corner. The most expensive thing was the TV, which was showing… “Well, that’s porn.”
“It…Reno!” Cait snapped, coming into the room with a huff. “Turn that off, so help me God! You have so many other places to—”
I hadn’t noticed anyone on the couch since I was distracted by what had to be some of the largest naked boobs I had ever seen bouncing on the screen. His blond hair stuck up in every direction as he sat up and scrambled for the screen. “No, wait, Cait!”
“Don’t ‘wait’ me,” she growled. “Turn that off, now.”
“I can explain!” he cried, and I winced when his foot caught on something and he hit the ground with a cry that sounded more like dismay than pain. “I swear!”
“Save it,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “That is Reno, who should be fixing his truck before Xander realizes it’s still in the bay rather than outside so the outpost vehicles are on hand in case we get a call.”
“Hello,” I said, snorting as he pawed at the remote before turning the TV off. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“I, uh,” he began, his face burning red. “Hey, you must be the new guy, the medic?”
“Colin,” I said, eyeing his hands as he got closer. “Uh, no offense, but—”
“Oh,” he said, looking down at his hand and wincing. “I wasn’t…I was taking a nap. I swear, clothes were on, hands weren’t in my pants.”
Snorting, I took his hand as a show of good faith.
Plus, it wasn’t like it was the first time I’d had contact with another guy's dick, directly or indirectly. I was getting a good look at him, and he wasn’t sputtering and stumbling all over the place; I had to admit I wouldn’t mind more direct contact with his dick.
I mean, he was cute, bordering on hot even with his boyish looks, but it was the brightness of his green eyes that appealed.
Much like Jake appealed because, on top of looking good in wet clothes stuck to him, his goofy attitude and bright smile had been appealing.
Hmm, probably best not to let my eyes linger or my thoughts drift about the guys I was going to be spending weeks, if not months, in close quarters with.
Not that I was worried about being outed or anything, but I doubted they wanted to be ogled by me.
Wasn’t my fault that the first two guys I ran into happened to be good-looking.
“Colin,” I repeated. “Heard your name already, but…good to meet you.”
“I swear you’re not going to wake up to me whacking it to porn,” he said with a wince. “Promise…and yeah, I’m Reno.”
“Wake up…” I began, but shook my head as Cait gave a low growl. “Uh—”
“Yeah, I heard you,” Reno said with a wince. “I’m going, I’m going, I swear…and if I clean your office, will you not tell anyone what you saw?”
“I’m desperate to forget it,” she said, glancing at me. “Might wanna take it up with him, but you can still clean my office.”
“Damn it,” Reno said, hanging his head. “New guy, please don’t mention this to anyone, at least not until we figure out if there’s some way I can convince you to keep quiet.”
Was it still blackmail if the other person was offering something to keep you quiet? Probably, but I knew the value of casual, harmless blackmail as well, so I snorted, nodding. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep quiet, but I’m definitely gonna wanna hear what you did that wasn’t what it looked like.”
“Uh,” he said, and I saw his eyes dart away before returning to my face and then nodding. “Uh, sure.”
I wasn’t sure what that was about, but I figured it wasn’t the time for it, mostly because Cait was still glaring at him. He squeezed out of the room with a wince as Jake walked past, singing to himself again and bumping Reno, laughing when Reno cursed as he fell again. “Drink some more, Reno.”
“We’ll see how I feel when I get your ass back, asshole,” Reno muttered, his foot lashing out and sending Jake sprawling to the floor when his foot hit the back of his knee and sent him to the ground. “Like that.”
“Ow! I’m trying to deliver the new guy’s stuff!” Jake complained from the floor.
“I’m sure you’re used to idiots after being in the Navy,” Cait said with a shake of her head.
“I was a corpsman attached to a few groups of Marines; this is uh…practically philosophical debate and scientific progress compared to what I’ve seen,” I assured her.
I thought about adding that I had participated in my fair share of stupidity in the past. Cait at least seemed to believe I was reasonably intelligent and capable; I didn’t want to tarnish that image by telling her about the past.
If I was going to ruin my budding reputation, I’d prefer to earn it in the present.
“Get moving,” Cait told Jake, shoving at his side with her sneaker. “He’s going to want to shower and change.”
“And what about me?” Jake asked with a wide-eyed stare. “I’m wet and cold too!”
“Good, then show him to his room and where the showers are, got it?” she asked with a huff. “I’ll talk to him later.”
“That was quick,” I noted as Jake got up.
She jammed a finger toward where we’d come. “Hear that?”
Now I was listening, I could hear trilling. “Call coming in?”
“Non emergency, so don’t worry your pretty head over it,” she said with a smile. “But it’s still important for me. So get cleaned up, Xander will figure out you’re here and stomp over at some point. Word of advice? Don’t push him, but don’t take him too seriously either.”
“I…don’t know what to do with that,” I admitted to Jake as Cait walked off.
“C’mon,” he said, leading me further down the hallway. “She just means that Xander is uh…well, he’s kind of an asshole. Okay, he is an asshole. But you know, he runs the place, and he keeps it running, and he runs it…uh, efficiently.”
“So, hard ass, no sense of humor, responsible, and doesn’t take anyone’s shit,” I cited as he reached the end of the hallway.
“Bingo,” he said, booting the door open with a heavy thunk of his boots. “I knew drill instructors with a better sense of humor than him.”
“Mmm, the ones I knew with a sense of humor were usually pretty evil about it,” I noted as we stepped into the room.
It was bare bones, like most of the place, but it wasn’t like I’d expected a five-star hotel.
There were two beds, and the space was clearly delineated.
One bed had only a blanket and a pillow, and the desk and bedside table were completely bare.
The other had what had to be one of the most comfortable blankets I had ever seen draped haphazardly over it, a laptop on the desk, a few cans, a couple of small frames on the bedside table, and a Switch dropped in the middle of the bed.
“Reno’s your room buddy,” Jake said with a shrug as he dropped my bags on the floor. “Why don’t you grab whatever you’re going to change into? Meet me in the hallway.”
“Sure,” I said. Everything personal was in the other bag.
I hesitated before leaving the room and drifted over to the bed to look at the frames.
In one picture, Reno was with a group of people, making a face at the camera.
The other took me by surprise when I picked it up.
It looked like two Renos side by side, one of them with the wild hair I had seen earlier, albeit a little more tamed; the other had his hair cut short, probably so it didn’t look like his brother's.
There was no doubt in my mind that I was staring at twins, one grinning and throwing up a mocking peace sign, the other looking like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
“Interesting,” I said, ignoring the slight interest in the twins before setting the picture back onto the table and grabbing the Switch.
Ah, correction, Switch 2, apparently someone had upgraded and a look through his library told me he was a fan of Pokemon and…
farming simulators, interesting. I would have to exchange friend codes with him later when I dragged my system out of the other bag.
Jake was waiting in the hall. “Feeling alright about sharing a room?”
“I’ve shared less with more,” I said with a snort.
“Oh, right,” he said. “How many tours did ya do?”
“Just a couple. Decided to get out while the getting was good.”
“Good idea, settle back into being a normal person, alright?”
“It was a little weird the first few months, but I adjusted.”
“Right, well, hope you got some old habits because, uh—”
He trailed off as he led me down to the last door on the right and pushed it open to reveal a small locker room.
There were only a few lockers and a bench in the center of the room.
I peered through the doorway and saw that my suspicions were correct; the showers were just showerheads, no stalls or even a half-assed attempt at dividers.
“Ahh, communal showers, how I haven’t missed thee,” I said with a laugh as I peeled off my boots and let them drop to the floor while I worked on my socks. “Been a while.”