Adam was woken up by knocking on John's bedroom door.

Nine and John were both pressed against him, Nine hugging him from behind. Adam felt warm for the first time in years. John was breathing softly on his neck and drooling a little.

The knocking came again along with a voice. "John?" Sam called out. Nine grunted behind Adam and shifted around.

Adam lifted his head as he heard the door handle move. The door opened and Sam stuck his head in to look around. His eyes widened as soon as he saw Adam in between Nine and John. He quickly slapped both of his hands over his eyes. "Oh, god! I'm sorry! Uh, I'll just go!"

"We're not doing anything," Adam muttered, feeling their face heat up at Sam's assumption.

"What?" Nine said sleepily, starting to wake up.

Adam heard the door close as Sam stammered another apology and left.

Nine yawned against Adam's thin hair before sitting up. John woke up, too, and he unwrapped his arms from around Adam.

"Sam's here," Adam told him.

"Already?" John asked. "It feels like we just fell asleep."

Nine grunted his agreement and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He stretched and stood up slowly. Adam followed suit, a little flustered that neither John or Nine seemed to think that what happened was strange.

Adam shook their head and pushed the thoughts away. I don't have time for relationships, anyway, they thought. I've got bigger things to worry about. "Malcolm is probably here, too," They said.

Nine grunted and walked to the door. "Malcolm! Are you here?" Nine yelled before opening the door and walking out.

John sat on the edge of his bed and looked over at Adam. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, actually." It had been a while since Adam could say that. Sleeping in between Nine and John had been comforting once he accepted it.

"I'm glad," John told them. He stood up and Adam followed him to his door and out of his room.

Malcolm, Six, and Sam were all in the living room talking with Rex, but Nine was in the kitchen looking through everything. He seemed to be trying to make something.

"Adam!" Malcolm exclaimed and walked over to him.

It was good to see everyone again, Adam had to admit that. They missed seeing Malcolm more than twice a year. Adam and Sam never got to talk much, but they were connected together because of Malcolm. It was good to see the Loric, too, John and Nine especially.

"Hey, Malcolm," Adam greeted.

"Alright, so, Rex was just filling me in on some of the things, but I made a rough plan earlier about who we can send," Malcolm said. "Anyway, I brought a bunch of paper over so we can sketch some things out, mostly the layout of the prison."

Malcolm had brought plenty of paper to use, and Adam and Rex soon got to work on drawing the prison and the different parts of it. They sat down on the couch while sketching, the others just standing or sitting on the floor.

"Okay, so, we're gonna need all the garde that can fly," John said. "I'm not positive about how we can transport them, but I have some ideas."

Adam was drawing part of the barracks when Nine walked over. He held a paper plate in front of Adam, and sitting on it was a sandwich, which Nine was making earlier.

Adam just stared at it for a second.

"It's for you," Nine clarified.

"Oh. Thanks, I just need to finish the plan first."

"Nope," Nine said, setting the plate down on Adam's piece of paper. He walked around the table Adam was in front of and sat down on the couch next to him. "You need to eat, baby."

There was that word again. Baby. Nine had used it in Alaska when persuading them to come back with him and John. Adam knew the term was used by humans for multiple things, one of which was a nickname for romantic and/or sexual partners.

Nine picked up the sandwich and brought it up to Adam's mouth. Adam flushed as Nine seemed to try to feed him. They dropped their pencil and took the sandwich from Nine. "I can feed myself," they mumbled, taking a bite.

Nine smiled and leaned over to Adam. He pecked their cheek with his lips before looking down at the maps Adam had drawn so far.

Adam blushed, then tried to shake their thoughts away as they felt Malcolm's and Rex's on them.