Sunset came in soft purples that did not rush anyone, and gold that slid across the floor like it had been instructed which corners to warm.
By the time they reached the dorm, the day already felt finished in the right way, like it had learned what it was supposed to learn and could now be put away without argument.
The door opened on that familiar quiet that meant the room had been waiting and approved of them doing the ordinary things in the order they always did them.
Ethan dropped his pack on the bench, checked the latch because habit had long since outlived its reason, and let himself fall sideways onto the couch with the kind of careful collapse that protects sore joints while pretending they are not sore at all.
He scrolled through training logs he had already read twice, not for new information but because reading what had gone right and what needed tightening let the rest of the noise in his head settle to the same level as the room.
