[ChicletPrime]

- are you telling me Caleb is *nesting*? that's... so on brand. high acheiving rising meteor of the military branch, eats his subordinates for breakfast, makes his direct superiors incredibly nervous for lunch, has a locked five page report about him somewhere with words like 'acceptable collateral damage' and 'civilian casualties' for when and/or if he goes rogue... who panic orders four fluffy blankets on 24hr direct shipping because his meimei expressed dissatisfaction of the texture of his couch in passing.

- i love your overview of a general fandom that i am completely unaware of. did you notice (of course you noticed) that the pills were ready? that he opened and closed the door without actually leaving to lure her out? he knew she was going to be up to something that night because it was probably written all over her face and he knows her. Caleb has probably tried to be two steps ahead of everything his entire life.

I wonder what "Final Cleanup" really means in its entirety. I guess we're about to find out!

Night Unending
Chapter 1: Awakening

• only 182MB for this one.
  
• excellent. lets start off with a dream/flashback of Caleb-of-then, just to establish how much i loved him and how much i missed him when he was gone.
  
• "Caleb, stay where you are!" don't move dont move don't go please don't leave me
  
• aaand its morning. cold meds, man. they really take it out of you. i feel worse now than when i went to sleep For Some Reason.
  
•  /stares at ceiling. calculates about 35% chance the girlfriend actually realizes what happened
  
• /wins that bet handily
  
• yeah, there we go. several missed calls from Zayne. sorry, beloved, i got ambushed.
  
• ohhhhh right, KEVI. and Zayne's not answering which.. actually isn't technically ominous but is still ominous to me. What if Zayne tried to go get Kevi himself while the Fleet was doing their sweep? 
  
• hey, the apartment does look more lived in now! there's stuff on the floor and everything. throw pillows on the couch!
  
• hiii Caleb! and Caleb's hard chest that i've just run straight into. weird question. did you knock me unconscious yesterday and like, kiss my fingers? asking for a friend.
  
• "Caleb's emerged from the bathroom. Steam is still coming off his body."  Tragically, the on-screen visual is just him in his dumb sweater. This should be towel-around-the-hips, damn it, or at the very least old cotton shorts where the band is slipping just a little. 
  
• /employs active imagination in lieu of
  
• i lie SO TERRIBLY. gawd. just embrace blunt honesty girlfriend.
  
• news channel says Kevi 'has been rescued by the Farspace Fleet.' well, damn it. 
  
• Caleb, you casually smooth motherfucker. alsooooo, his haaaaands. 
  
• "... I notice the faint scent of something metallic."  hmm? that's an odd thing to notice during breakfast. "almost drowned out by the fragrance of his shower gel, it reminds me of blood." 
  
• sadly, since i have been watching the intro trailer for a month now, i know whereof metal and blood. Caleb, Caleb, Caleb. what did you doooo last night? 
  
• awww. she's worried that he got into a fight, that he might be hurt. i love this dynamic; even when she's trying so hard not to harbour suspicions (she's harbouring so many suspicions) she's still ready to pat him all over for injuries.
  
• she doesn't even take his word for it and checks his hands. i guess Caleb has/had a thing for using his fists? 
  
• a cold hand to my forehead and my fever, she is gone, broken in the night. i had a fever? 
  
• oh crap. i was talking in my sleep, calling for him. (calling for him to come back, not to leave)
  
• ah, my heart.
  
• girlfriend you are a terrible liar. i have got to stop mentioning that but ooooh, frustrating.
  
• Incoming Message For Colonel Xia. 
  
• what the everloving fuck. Mia's DEAD?
  

/reels back a little. like, wut? what the hell? she was FINE. injured, but fine, under medical care in a state of the art hospital.

• oh Caleb, you better feel that like a knife in your heart, if you let that happen. if you ordered that to happen. i will never forgive you.