After the curator left us to our own devices, we began to relax.

  That is until Love began to squeak and flail,

  "Our first assignment, you guys!!" She grabbed Edge's shoulders and began to bounce around him like a crack-addicted bunny.

  "Yea, yep, first assignment!" Edge smiled at her crooked grin in spite of his usually stoic nature, her energy was always so contagious, but after a bit of it, Edge stopped her bouncing, "why don't you pick a bunk huh?"

  Love looked around, then laughed, "Why bother? I'm not going to be sleeping in it, am I?"

  Wolf took Love's hand, "Yes but if we know which one's yours we'll be able to know which one to leave abandoned."

  Love saw what Wolf was doing and rolled her eyes, "Ugh...alright, bottom right."

  Green grabbed the metal bar on the side of the right bunkbed and hoisted us up into the bunk above, "I get top bunk again then!"

  "Then that leaves you and me, Edge." Says Wolf, "Bottom or top?"

  Edge raises an eyebrow, "Don't you usually get first pick?"

  She shook her head, "Not today, soldier, today it's recon's pick."

  Edge sat uneasily down on the left bottom bunk, "I think I like this."

  Wolf patted Edge on the head, chiding, "Don't get too used to it." And tossed her stuff into the bunk above him.

  "Guarding a mermaid...and one with such lax containment protocols..." huffed Edge, to which Love responded, "Yea, that thing might as well be a swimming pool...do you think they'd let us put in a diving board?"

  Wolf tossed one of her freshly removed socks at Love, "didn't you hear what the curator said? She kills with her voice, I don't want to think of what would happen to your pretty little butt if it fell into her tank."

  Green shrugged as he climbed back down to begin undressing, "I dunno...she looked lonely to me, maybe she'd like some company."

  Everyone looked at us in abject horror and he held up our hands, "Joking! Just joking!"

  Wolf rolled her eyes and went back to undressing, "I can never tell with you, Green."

  After a prolonged silence, We had finally all stripped down to our undershirts and underwear and it was time to divy up shared bed space, as I said before.

  Before I could cast my vote for who should sleep in who's bed tonight, Edge had grabbed my hand, wrapped my arm around himself, and sat down in my lap, which caused Love to glomp onto Wolf, sending both of them tumbling into Edge's bed, laughing as they cuddled up together.

  I looked at Edge, "Uh...I'm on the top bunk."

  He turned and looked up at me with a smug smile, "But we're on the bottom bunk."

  I sigh and lay down, "come on then."

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  As I lay down, Edge snuggled up into me, pressing his back against my chest as we cozied up together, an affectionate sigh permeating his being as he finally relaxed against me, turning slightly to peck me gently on the lips before once more doing his best to burrow into me.

  Before we knew it, we were asleep.

  Morning came without an alarm, without a schedule, without delivered breakfast, and we found ourselves waking up closer to noon.

  The moment we realized how late it was, we immediately got dressed and reported to the main entrance, but there was nobody there, not even the curator.

  "I'm sorry What!?" Green huffed, "Where's morning detail?"

  A voice from behind us made us whirl around, "There is no Morning Detail."

  We all turned to see Doctor Sharp standing there with that churro still in his mouth, leaning against a wall, "No morning detail, no morning PT, no early grass smack in the ass to get your overly regimented butts into gear, no sir." He began to walk towards us, puffing his Churro,

  "In my facility, the only person in charge of getting you up in time for breakfast....is you...beyond that...lunch is just as good if you didn't wake up in time."

  Green squints at Doctor Sharp as he saunters up to us, "no morning bell, no active schedule, is this an assignment or a vacation?"

  Sharp smiled widely at us, "Oh sweet, Naive Agent Green, you have duties here...they're just not gonna be regimented."

  Our jaw dropped, "what?"

  Sharp patted us on the shoulder, "Kid, this is a level 1 assignment...feed the mermaid, clean the filter, sweep and mop the facility, make sure nobody gets in to see the mermaid, end of day, good job, come back tomorrow."

  I blinked, "But why?"

  Sharp gave me a look that told me more than he said, that somehow, he truly understood us, "Because the higher-ups want to see how well you adjust to a nonviolent environment because sometimes all you need is a little peace."

  After letting that sink in, Doctor Sharp smiled widely, "That being said, You do have jobs to do...so get with the curator, he'll get you guys some food and assign you guys jobs."

  The next few weeks were a simple routine, as Doctor Sharp described, it was tedious work, but it felt nice to be in charge of when I woke up in the morning, a sentiment that the others of my squad echoed every night we turned in.

  "Hey, Green?" Wolf asked as she watched Edge kissing Love from our bunk, "Yea?"

  She turned to look at me, her eyes, glistening pools of electric blue water, "This is nice."

  I nodded, leaning my forehead on hers, feeling her breath on my face, "yea...it is."

  She suddenly rolled over on top of me, pinning me to the bed, "I feel like it could be nicer." She giggled as she dove into my neck to nibble on me, all while working her sleep shorts off.

  We wouldn't get much sleep that night.

  Not having much to do outside of check-ins, Doctor Sharp became very interested in our doings, One day I was woken from sleep at 6:00 AM, I sat up and saw Doctor Sharp standing there, when he saw I was awake, he smiled at me, "Good, you're awake, come with me."

  I was very confused, but as he left, I checked in bed next to me to see if Love was still asleep (she was) and then followed him into the administrative side of the residential area (where I wasnt allowed to go) where we sat down on a massive couch in some sort of game room, I look at the TV with game systems piled in front of it, at the ping-pong and air-hockey tables, and then back at Doctor Sharp.

  He smiled at me, "Do you play video games?"

  Green goes to shake our head, but I remembered playing games on my family computer back home and on my game systems before we left, it was one of the many things I remembered, that my mind went back to near constantly, "I used to...before all this." I said.

  Doctor Sharp sighed sadly, chewing on his weird Churro/cigar, "they took so much from you...tell you what: you keep doing your job and you guys can come over here whenever you want and play for as long as you like...as long as your workday is done."

  As if to prove his point, he started up one of the game systems and turned on the TV, a heavenly chorus echoed through the speakers and I beheld a sight that would be forever burned into my brain, that for copyright purposes I cannot disclose.

  "So, what do you say?" He asked, his eyes never leaving mine as I nodded emphatically, "Yes!!" I laughed, "can I?" I hesitantly motioned towards the controller, which he handed to me without hesitation, "But you have to bring the rest of your squad...ok?"

  I left to go get my squad and by the time I came back, Doctor Sharp was gone, only a hint of cinnamon smell was present.

  Edge saw the console active on the TV and immediately went into a prone dive that landed him directly on to the couch, "First!!" He shouted with laughter as we all joined him on the couch.