After Erin's confession, they had all fallen silent again, Jay wrapping an arm around Erin, and sat until Jay squeezed Mouse's hand and stood, leading Erin back to bed. Mouse had clicked off the documentary unfinished and drifted back to sleep.
He rolls out of bed in the morning, brushing off the memory of vague and undefined nightmares and wanders into the kitchen to start the coffee.
"Morning," Jay says, walking in and grabbing three mugs out of the cupboard.
"Morning. You got breakfast food?"
"Eggs in the fridge, bread, I think I've got bagels. There's yogurt, but Erin might shoot you if you eat it." Jay grins, pulling a pan out of the cupboard. Mouse grabs the half bag of bagels. "Grab the bread too?" Jay asks.
Mouse is just putting his bagel in the toaster, Jay cracking eggs into the pan, and the coffee sputtering to signal it's almost ready when Erin's arrival in the kitchen is prefaced by a distant beeping drone. She walks in, running a hand through her hair and beelines for the fridge, pulling out the container of yogurt.
"Morning," she says.
"Morning," Jay and Mouse answer back in stereo. Mouse pours the coffee, waiting for his bagel while Jay flips his eggs and Erin spoons out a bowl of yogurt.
"So I'm finally gonna ask," Erin says when they're gathered around the table eating their breakfast, "how is it I never hear your alarms go off?"
Mouse raises an eyebrow and looks at Jay.
"You didn't tell her about the implants?"
"The what now?"
Jay rolls his eyes.
"Pay no attention to Mouse's terrible attempt at a cyborg joke."
"Wizard of Oz? That's the best you could come up with?" Mouse fires back.
"Oh, shut up." Jay turns back to Erin. "You don't hear them cause they don't usually go off." Erin raises an eyebrow at this vague explanation.
"Which is to say," Mouse interjects, "that we do set alarms, but we usually wake up before them and turn them off." Mouse shrugs. Erin wrinkles up her nose and makes a face.
"Ugh. Morning people. You guys are weird."
"Not by choice," Jay says with a chuckle. "Just never managed to break the habit after we came back." Despite the light tone of Jay's voice, this causes hesitation to flicker across Erin's face.
"Terrible for hangovers," Mouse says, nibbling on his bagel, "but very good for weekend productivity."
Jay snorts.
"When was the last time you had a hangover?"
Mouse rolls his eyes.
"I was speaking hypothetically."
"And you're telling me you don't just get up and binge watch TV shows in the morning on weekends."
"Well, now you're just being rude. Sometimes I read books." Mouse mock glares at Jay before grinning, glancing over to see Erin leaning back in her chair with an odd little smile.
"What?" Jays asks. Erin shakes her head, curling her hands around her coffee mug.
"Nothing. It's just, this. You guys, like this." She shrugs, glancing down at her hands. "It makes me happy." Mouse shares a look with Jay before turning back to Erin. She peeks back up, greeted by wide grins on both their faces. "Oh, my god. Do not look at me like that!"
"Cheesy," Jay laughs.
"The cheesiest," Mouse adds. Erin pushes back her chair, struggling to keep a straight stern face.
"Shut up."
"Cheddar," Jay calls out as she drops her mug and bowl into the sink.
"Mozarella."
"Swiss."
"Brie."
"Asiago." Jay and Mouse trade cheeses, increasing in volume as Erin swishes out of the kitchen.
"See if I ever say anything nice to you guys again!" Erin shouts from the other room.
"Parmesan!"
"Gouda!"
AN: Short and fluffy... Review!
