When Zeven woke up, he found himself holding Chris in his arms, which is definitely not how he remembered going to sleep. Before beginning to untangle himself from her, he took a deep breath thinking about how bad it would look if she were to wake up right now.
Other than the fact that at some point he had migrated over to her, his night had been restful. There were no dreams that he could remember and no achy feeling in his chest.
Sitting up, he scooted himself to the edge of the bed and swung his feet to the floor. On the ground was a discarded shirt, and to Zeven's dismay he realized that it would have looked incredibly bad if she had woken earlier. As he moved to grab it, the bed creaked underneath him. Freezing, his head turned to make sure that Chris had not been distrurbed. A loud snore told him that she had not. Nimbly swiping the shirt he let himself out of the room.
He began to make his way towards the kitchen, shirt still in hand. It was still fairly early in the morning. Zeven couldn't remember the last time he had been willingly awake at this hour that wasn't a result of staying awake through the night. Even during his days in the army his sleep schedule was perfunctory at best.
He swung around the corner and into the kitchen. The sunlight from the windows illuminated the kitchen fully. And in that was Gunter. He was leaned over the table reorganizing the heaps of paper that seemed to grow everyday.
"That's cheating."
Gunter hadn't heard Zeven enter, nor had he seen him leaning against the wall.
"I'm merely fixing the table so that she can destroy it again later." It was said with humor, but Zeven also knew that having so many things practically thrown in a place they didn't belong stressed Gunter. The papers rustled as he stacked them.
Zeven's eye was caught by the one piece of paper that sat on the countertop. It was the letter from Chris's father. He moved almost unconsciously over to it. Picking it up, he read it again. But the words had not changed.
"What are you going to do about that?"
"What is there to do?" Zeven raked his fingers through his hair, and spoke under his breath.
"Does that mean your giving up? I never thought I'd live to see the day you settled for less."
Zeven and Gunter looked at each other. Gunter knew what he needed was someone to support him, and respect his choices. But he couldn't help but give him a push in the right direction.
Grabbing Gunter's shoulders Zeven gave them a squeeze, a passionate looking flooding his face. "Ha! I'm a genius!"
Zeven explained his plan to Gunter. He had two, depending on how certain things happened, that were equally beneficial. However, he would be lying if he said he didn't have a favorite.