-Devin-

The next morning, his alarm went off at 7:30am. He promptly pressed snooze. He never got up this early, and he didn't understand why they couldn't start later in the day. When he finally stopped pressing snooze and rolled out of bed, it was 7:52. He took his time getting dressed and brushing his teeth and then wandered outside. He saw Avery waiting by the white pickup truck they'd been in the other day.

"Hey, Devin," Avery said, giving him the smile he seemed to have constantly plastered on his face. "Are you ready to go? It's important for us to be out of here by eight."

Avery said it cheerfully, but Devin could see that his smile was tense. He glanced at his phone. It was 8:17, hardly anything to get worked up about.

"What's for breakfast?"

"There are some muffins that Sam made still sitting on the counter. Go grab one and come back to the truck."

"Okay, boss."

When he came back outside, Avery was already in the truck with it running. He climbed into the passenger seat, stuffing the muffin in his mouth, and then they were off.

After a few minutes of silence, Avery spoke up. "How was your first night? Was everything okay with your cabin?"

"Other than it sucks? Nah, I was just bored."

Avery seemed to flinch at his words. The dude really needed to lighten up and stop being offended that he wasn't giving the place glowing reviews. It's not like he had chosen to be here.

"We didn't see you at dinner," Avery said. "I was hoping you'd join us."

"I came by later and found some food. Hope it wasn't someone's lunch."

"Was it in a Tupperware container? That's what we do with leftovers, so most things in the fridge are up for grabs."

He nodded, and then stared out the window. It was just trees. And then more trees. Never ending trees. He sighed, knowing it was going to be a long day.

-

Several hours later, they had finished up their work at the first site. It was a lot of dumb forest shit that he didn't care about knowing. Avery had enthusiastically explained how to do a few tasks, but he had barely been listening. He was starting to get hungry after only having a muffin for breakfast.

"When's lunch?"

"We can stop and take a break now if you want."

"We're not going back to get food?"

"No, we're usually too far away for that. Since I wasn't sure if you were going to bring anything, I made you a sandwich."

Avery opened the tailgate of the truck and sat on it, his feet dangling off the back. He took two sandwiches out of a small cooler in the back and handed one to Devin. "I hope you aren't a vegetarian. I should have asked."

"Nope, I'll eat anything."

The sandwich wasn't anything special, but he wolfed it down anyway. Avery had also packed some water and Gatorade in the cooler. At least he was prepared, but he seemed like the type to be prepared for everything. He was annoyingly cheerful and way too smiley, and it was starting to get on Devin's nerves.

At their next work site, they walked out to a stream. The water murmured as it ran over the rocks in the stream, and there was bright green moss growing along the edges. "It's gorgeous, isn't it?" Avery said wistfully.

Devin had to admit that it was pretty, and the sound of the water was soothing. He stood next to Avery for a couple minutes just watching the stream.

Avery eventually spoke, turning towards him. "I have my own project that I'm working on, which is something I'd like to do more of here and around the state. Mitch is letting me develop it and we're hoping to partner with a construction or engineering firm later. So, you know how we have a lot of salmon in Washington, right? Well, the salmon need to get downstream to spawn, but sometimes there are obstacles that prevent them from doing that. If too many of them can't get where they're going, it can lead to salmon populations declining."

Avery's face was lit up, and he seemed more excited talking about this project than about anything else. "What I'm trying to do is improve some of the structures used to help salmon in their passage down streams, especially in more urban areas. But we're going to be testing some of it out here first. Are you familiar with culverts and baffles?"

"I know what a culvert is," he replied. It was a big pipe in the ground. Nothing complex or anything to get too excited about. This all seemed like a giant waste of time listening to Avery go on about this.

"Great! There are different ways we can design culverts so that the salmon can get through more easily. One way is -"

"Why do you care so much?" he interrupted. "They're just a bunch of dumb fish."

Avery's face fell, and he could tell he'd struck a nerve. At least he'd finally got the guy to stop smiling, and maybe this would get him to shut up also.

Okay, maybe that was too mean.

Avery had been nothing but nice to him since he'd arrived, so he should probably be a little nicer to him in return.

"What else do we have to do today?" he asked, changing the subject.

Avery smiled, but it was a hesitant smile and it didn't quite reach his eyes. "We need to get some samples from this stream to take back for testing. I'll get you a couple of the tubes, and I'll do the rest."

As they were filling the sample tubes, Devin spotted movement a few feet upstream along the edge of the water. "Is that a salmon?" he asked, trying to make up for being a jerk to Avery and cutting him off when he was explaining his project.

Looking up, Avery saw where he was pointing. "It is, and it looks like he's stuck. Poor guy." He set down his sample tubes and began making his way over to the salmon.

The fish was caught on something in the stream, and it was flopping around wildly trying to free itself. Avery leaned over as much as he could, setting one foot in the water. "It's plastic," he said, sounding dismayed for once. "I hate when wildlife get hurt because of people littering."

He watched as Avery gently tried to free the salmon from the plastic it was caught on. Avery leaned over more, concentrating hard, and then lost his balance and fell in the water. Devin couldn't help but laugh. The guy was so pathetic.

Avery got up and then knelt down near the salmon, apparently deciding that if he was already wet, it wouldn't hurt to stay in the stream. In a few seconds, he had the salmon free. Devin had to admit that it was satisfying to see the fish swim away unharmed.

Avery waded back over to the shore carrying the offending piece of plastic, his clothes dripping.

"You're such a dork," Devin scoffed, shaking his head.

"At least he's free," Avery replied. "But we're going to have to head back early now." He tried to wring the water out of his clothes, but it looked hopeless.

They stored the samples in the back of the truck and got in. He noticed that Avery had started shivering. It was May, but temperatures could stay cool throughout the month, and as Avery had explained to him earlier, most of the water was still ice cold from snow melt. As he watched Avery look around the truck to see if he had a spare jacket stashed somewhere, an idea came to him.

"I'll warm you up," he offered, but with a somewhat menacing tone to his voice. He put his hands on Avery and pushed him back against the seat. First he began to slowly rub Avery's upper arms, and then rubbed one hand across Avery's chest. Most guys would enjoy this, but Avery looked terrified. He could feel Avery's heart beating hard and Avery seemed to be making the effort to look anywhere but at Devin's face.

"I can't do this," Avery blurted out.

Devin continued rubbing, gradually moving downwards. "Why not? It's not a big deal. I'm trying to help."

His hand dipped lower to the front of Avery's pants and Avery froze. 

"I - I'm okay now," Avery stuttered. "I'm warmed up. I don't need any help."

"You don't feel okay," he replied, raising an eyebrow. He waited for a few more seconds, and then removed his hand.

Avery's face was bright red as he started the truck.

"Don't act so innocent and scandalized," Devin scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You're the biggest prude I've ever met, which is saying something considering you're a gay man." Then he made a face. "You're not a virgin or something like that, are you?"

"No, I've had boyfriends," Avery replied, avoiding his eyes. "But I'd never do something like this at work."

"It's not like anyone's going to know. But since you're such a rule follower," he began, a mocking tone to his voice, "then where do you like to hook up?"

"I don't. I never have. I'd rather be in a relationship with some trust and commitment."

He snorted. "Well, I guess we're even. I've never had a boyfriend."

This time, it was Avery who turned in disbelief. "How have you never had a boyfriend?"

"Easy. I don't want one. It's a waste of time when I can fuck a new guy every week."

Avery looked like he was bothered by this information, but he didn't say anything. He was quiet the rest of the ride back.