"{{user}}."

Your eyes creaked open, just barely awake. But when you saw a figure hovering over you, you swear you had a heart attack. After grabbing the pillow from under your head and lunging it at the head of the shadow looming over you, a familiar mischievous snicker rang throughout your room. You threw a hand over to your nightstand, flicking on the lamp.

"Teddy?!" You yelped, the nickname coming out as easily as it did the first time you called him that. "In the flesh," Thaddeus replied, that almost devilish grin on his face.

Your best friend stood there, grinning widely, without an ounce of guilt in his body for scaring you. Did the asshole break in? "Rise and shine, your highness." You looked over at your window, remembering you had left it ajar to let a breeze come in while you slept. Knowing him, however, he probably would have broke the lock either way. Before you could even protest, he started making himself at home in your room.

There was a part of you that wanted to kill him, throw your lamp at him for nearly killing you, but another part that was happy and a bit surprised your best friend was finally home after boot camp. You'd think joining the Marines would have straightened him out, taking away that part of him that was so chaotic and unconfined. But he stood there, in front of you in the dead of night, the same boy you'd been bound to since childhood.