BAB 15

"What's the real deal, man? Don't want to shell out for bedding? I've got extra sheets you can have. And probably a blanket."

Oh yes, a blanket that smelled like Pino. That was all his evening needed. And Pino being nice was almost worse than Pino being flirty. "I've only ever had a twin," he admitted. "At home, then college and the barracks. I wouldn't know what to do with the extra room."

"I've got suggestions." Pino gave him another wink that went straight to Zaki dick, which had suggestions too. "No, seriously, you're not a small guy, Muscles. You're going to love the extra space."

"Maybe." Zaki chewed the inside of his cheek.

"Surely you've shared a double before, right? When you've hooked up?"

Jesus. Could Pino be any louder? He shook his head, knowing he was blushing like an idiot.

"No?" Pino eyes went as wide as Zaki favorite compass. "Like never hooked up or they all had twin beds too?"

"I don't do that," he muttered, looking around to make sure they didn't have an audience. "Hook up, I mean. Just not into that whole scene."

"But you'd be into having a girlfriend? A longer term thing?" Fuck. Pino was not letting this drop.

"Someday, sure." Zaki shrugged his way through the lie he usually delivered pretty damn convincingly. I don't hook up. Not into one night stands. Just looking for the right girl. He'd said all those things before and never once felt this hollow afterward. And yeah, maybe this was his problem with the bigger bed sure, the extra space would be nice, but it felt like an admission that he might be going to share it with another person at some point. Which wasn't happening.

"A virgin SEAL"

"Shut up." He shoved Pino shoulder.

Pino neatly sidestepped his grip. "I'm just saying, you must be rarer than a fucking unicorn. I thought you guys got all the ass of any gender you wanted."

"Hus" Zaki went to shove him again but slid on a throw rug, sending both of them tumbling onto the bed. The really big bed. Next to each other. In a heap, in the middle of IKEA.

"Comfortable, right?" A salesperson in a blue polo shirt chose that moment to check in with them. "That's our top of the line mattress. Especially if you guys are sharing"

"We're not." Zaki jumped off the bed. "Where do we pick up the mattress and the parts for the bed?" Get me out of here. Fuck, he was done arguing about bed sizes with Pino. Done with people thinking they were a couple. Done with this night.

"You know my sheets aren't all rainbows and half-naked cowboys," Pino said as he carried in the stack of new bedding Zaki had insisted on getting. The closest things to plain white they carried, natch.

The look Zaki gave him was indecipherable. He was hefting the box containing dresser parts like it was nothing more than a pile of notebooks.

"Wanted to make sure they'd fit," Zaki said as they entered his room. The mattress was propped against one wall, with the parts for the bed stacked neatly in the center of the room.

Pino set his load down next to the mattress and knelt by the bed parts. "Okay, that was the last of the stuff from the truck. Let's assemble this bad boy so you can sleep tonight."

"I've got it." Zaki all but muscled Pino out of the way.

"You don't want help putting it together?" A hint of hurt crept into Pino voice. Fuck. He didn't want to care whether or not he helped assemble the bed. He didn't want to like working with Zaki so much. Other than Zaki stick-in-the-ass moments whenever someone assumed they might be a couple, shopping with Zaki was fun. They had bickered over dressers and entertainment units in an amusing way, and Pino had enjoyed snarking on the other shoppers while Zaki snorted and tried to hide his smiles.

"Nah." Zaki motioned at the door. "Go work on the entertainment unit maybe. Or just chill. You've had a really long day."

Aww. That was sweet of Zaki to notice, really, since this was a guy used to forgoing sleep for days for the sake of his team. But at the same time, Pino felt a bit dismissed as he fled back to the living room. Despite what Zaki said, chilling in his room with his laptop didn't seem right. After all, Zaki and the senior chief had helped assemble his bed. It didn't feel right to simply go and put his feet up.

He started by removing all the laminated particle board parts of the stand for the TV and gaming systems. He'd assembled enough stuff by himself to know that getting started was the trickiest bit, but he used the box of games to help brace the first side panel. He was just lining up the pegs for the shelves when a stream of curses came from Zaki room.

Unable to resist, Pino went to check on him, finding Zaki surrounded by stacks of boards and piles of screws, a pissed-off expression on his face. "Goddamn piece of shit directions," he said.

"Want help?" Pino offered, mainly just to watch Zaki grimace and try to work though whether or not to accept the offer. Zaki tilted his head one way then the other, sighed heavily and kicked at the boards.

Finally, Zaki sighed again. "You speak Swedish and read hieroglyphics?"

"I speak fluent IKEA-ease," Pino assured him as he came into the room. "And I'm a whiz with a hex bolt. But mainly I think these boards are so long that you just need a second person to keep it level."

"You can do that," Zaki conceded, because of course Mr. Big Bad SEAL would get to handle the tools. Mr. Big Bad Virgin SEAL. Wow. Pino knew he'd probably been wrong to press him about his sexual history in the middle of IKEA, but holy cow, the kid had never even shared a bed with anyone. What's more, he didn't seem to find anything weird about the fact that he didn't seem at all tempted to either.