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Agent Carolina wiped sweat off her forehead and sighed tiredly. The pull-ups she had been doing seemed like a waste of time after she remembered watching Texas effortlessly completing one of the harder drills-- the one Carolina had never been very good at.
If she just practiced harder, Carolina knew she could be better than Texas. She would be better. Suddenly, the bar she was using for her conditioning slipped out of the rack on the wall. Carolina darted out to catch it before it hit the floor and woke somebody up, then shook her head, chastising herself for getting distracted by thoughts. She resumed her workout.
.
By the time Carolina finished her conditioning, her muscles burned like fire. She trudged towards the mess hall to grab a cup of coffee. The nap she had taken before getting up for her unregulated training and the caffeine would be enough to get her through the day, but she retreated to her room just so no one would catch her up at this ungodly hour.
Holding her mug close to her chest, she nudged the wooden door open to slip in, though she froze when she heard the unmistakable heavy footsteps of power armor. Who else would be in power armor at this time of morning though, Carolina wasn't sure.
The figure appeared around the corner and Carolina sighed quietly with relief. It was only York, wearing the bottom half of his armor.
The hallway's light reflected off the scar sliding around York's eye and turned his brown hair slightly gold. When he looked up and saw Carolina frozen guiltily in between the her room and the hall, his expression turned from exhausted to a small, smug smile and he raised an eyebrow.
Carolina narrowed her eyes at him, trying to communicate "don't you dare say anything" without saying anything. But if anything, this just served to amuse York even more. He smiled wider, eyes wrinkling at the edges, and turned to head back to the mess hall.
After sparing a glance inside her room at the bed, Carolina followed York away from the all the other agents. Sleep could wait. And besides, she knew that if she went to her bed she was just going to lay down and stare at the empty bunk above her, eyes unblinking, lost in her own thoughts until her alarm startled her out of it.
York sat at the metal bench, hands wrapped around a cup, when Carolina padded towards him and sat down. She eyed the disturbingly light coffee and met York's gaze. He let out a little snort at the disgusted look on her face.
"What're you doing up so late?" York asked, staring hard at Carolina as if he could interrogate her with his eye.
"I could ask you the same question," Carolina deflected. It wasn't unusual to meet another Freelancer when she was up late, which was more and more often now, but one- it was almost never York, and two- she preferred to avoid them and the conversation that came with it.
York dropped his chin onto his hands after taking them from the coffee and closed his eyes. "I just wasn't sleeping." Carolina could sympathize, so she didn't press it and reached up to remove her hair from her ponytail. It rippled down to her shoulders and blended in with the color of her shirt.
When York opened his eyes again, they widened slightly. The unclouded one flitted over her profile and Carolina for a second swore she saw York's cheeks go red.
"You know, maybe you should lay off the training for a night," York suggested, lifting the cup of milk with coffee to his lips and taking a sip. When Carolina tensed, York scooted slightly farther away and held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Woah, woah, it was just a suggestion.
"I think I can figure out what's best for me. On my own." Carolina replied, the previous warmth in her voice vanishing quickly. York frowned, brows still tinted gold.
"I'm not trying to tell you what you should do, I'm just saying, maybe things would go smoother if you got a reasonable amount of sleep and didn't rely on that terrible shit," York motioned to the coffee Carolina was cradling against her chest.
"The stuff you drink doesn't even COUNT as coffee, York." Carolina replied. "It's just milk with coffee-flavored creamer or some other kind of fake shit."
"Yes," York said while taking a sip from his mug. Carolina couldn't seem to remember ever seeing that mug before- on it was written 'Charon Industries- but they had a lot of mugs and there was no way she'd seen them all. It was a tradition to give everyone else mugs for the holidays."That's what makes it so fuckin' delicious!"
"You're not getting the point, York. Coffee's not supposed to be good. it's supposed to get you awake."
"Come on, Carolina," York said, "what's more energizing than caffeine with an assload of sugar?" Carolina opened her mouth and closed it several times like a fish before giving in and sighing deeply.
"I guess you might have a point," Carolina said shortly and proceeded to down the rest of the bitter liquid.
"Because I'm always right," York couldn't resist adding and smiled widely when Carolina shot a grumpy glare in his direction. "You know it's-" York's sentence was interrupted by a yawn and Carolina glanced at him pointedly.
"Maybe you should go to sleep before everyone else wakes up," she suggested, and got up to return her own white mug to the kitchen. York hurried after her and flashed his teeth."
"We could always, you know... sleep together," he suggested as he swiped the the mug from Carolina's unsuspecting hands and washed them both out. Carolina let out a little annoyed huff and tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear, but she couldn't hold it for long and soon let out a small laugh.
York grinned brilliantly as he finished drying the mugs and stuck them in the cabinet. "There's my girl. Will you get some sleep for me? We only have, what, two hours? Surely you can manage relaxing for that long..."
"I don't know." Carolina replied dryly as she made her way back to her room, York trailing behind. "Seems a bit of a stretch."
"Well, then," York said as they stopped at Carolina's door. "Maybe I'll have to stay and make sure you don't run off." He cast a look at Carolina and gave a tiny smile when she rolled her emerald eyes at him.
"Why not." Carolina pushed her door open and settled into her bed. York disappeared for a second into his own room and came back out without his power armor. Carolina watched him look at the sparseness of her room and frown, but then closed her tired eyes and heard the creaking of wood as York hauled himself into the bunk above her. He shuffled around for a minute and then as Carolina opened her eyes for a moment a hand appeared, dangling over the edge of the top of the bunk. She brought her own hand up and brushed it against York's, then let it fall with a thump. "Good night, York."
"G'night, 'Lina." York replied softly.