Realistic or Modern Fairweather Communications - Urban Fantasy

[Mikotsuhime]

(If you're interested in this rp, check out the Lore thread or Interest Check. Unless it says closed in the title, we're accepting.)

Normandy Fairweather was not a morning person.

Percival knew this, since they had grown up together. He had almost gotten used to it, after years of adjusting his schedule around his little sister's antics. Normandy took a long time to get ready, and she didn't really care if other people were waiting on her. Percival has long since learned not to wait on her.

But today she's hogging the bathroom, and he desperately needs his pocket comb because he's going to be late.

"Normandy," he said, using his sternest big brother voice as he knocked on the bathroom door, again, and hoping that she could feel the weight of his expression. "It's almost eight. I need to go, hurry up."

She groaned from within, probably hugging a hot water bottle while taking one of her hour long showers, and did not move to unlock the door. If Percival didn't love her so much, he might have killed her.

The penthouse they shared was just across the street from the office, so it wasn't like he had a long commute, but he had a meeting with the development team at nine and he wanted to make sure he was fully prepared by the time he got there. It was windy out, and the impression he would leave if he walked through it would be dreadful. He needed his comb.

He knocked again and Normandy cursed at him.

He was briefly considering whether he should pick the lock when he finally heard the shower turn off, and she opened the door with a put upon sigh. At least she was wearing a bathrobe, her hair still wet and falling around her face limply.

"You're so annoying," she grumbled, but Percival hardly had the time to spare her as he snatched his comb off the vanity and tucked it into his pocket.

"Don't stay in the shower for too long, or you'll feel faint," he warned, because he was a worrier and he couldn't not warn her. "Coffee's in the pot, Cynthia is coming by at two to make you lunch and clean the kitchen, so make sure you're still awake by then-- Don't fall asleep with a heat pack! It's winter, but you can still burn yourself."

He goes through the motions as he grabs his travel mug from the kitchen table, checking himself over in the mirror by the doorway before he leaves. His hair is neatly set, and even if the wind doesn't cooperate, he has his comb. His tie matches his suit, and his handkerchief matches his tie. His contacts are in, so his eyes seem a perfectly normal, natural shade of blue rather than their usual violet. He looks crisp and presentable, so all that's left to do is to head out.

Normandy has turned the shower back on, and he has half a mind to warn her again not to stay in there too long. But she doesn't have work she needs to be getting to, and she wouldn't listen to him anyways, so he takes a deep breath and heads out.


The doorman to the building waves at him politely as he leaves, and he smiles back at him. When he crosses the street and gets to work, the receptionist who he's pretty sure has a crush on him welcomes him with a blush on her cheeks.

"Good morning, Percy," she says as he passes, and he gives her a winning smile on his way to the elevator.

It drops the second he's inside, and he grimaces. He never bothers to correct her about his name, because she always wants to be familiar. People so often do. He's learned over the years that the only people who call him Percy are people who want something from him. If he has to take the time to correct them, then they're not worth the effort.

The elevator dings as he reaches the third floor, and he smiles brightly at the other employees as he makes his way to the meeting room.

They like him. Most people do, because he makes it a point to be friendly. He goes to drinks with colleagues, and he's personable enough that people see him as more of a friend than a boss. It's helpful, so he keeps it up, but it's also... exhausting.

He waves at the faerie who works in his department as she makes he way to the back of the table, and looks around to see what other faces are already in attendance.

There are a few. Most of them he doesn't care about, but one in particular looks up as he enters, and he's immediately faced with a scowl.

"Good morning, Mister Harper," he says, his tone friendly without being improper and upbeat without being too chipper. He smiles, one of his best smiles that usually wins everybody over, and is met with an ugly sneer before the other man blatantly ignores him in favour of his laptop.

It doesn't bother him. Wade Harper has been all but blatant in his dislike ever since the two of them had started working for the same company, and if anything, it might even be a little refreshing. So few people are as open in their feelings when they talk to him, but Wade has never been afraid to tell him (and his colleagues) just how much of a pompous ass he thinks he is.

It's a little unwarranted, but Percival isn't going to complain.

Wade is a year younger than him, but he looks a few older, with the constant bags under his eyes and his constant birdsnest of short blank hair. He claims he combs it every morning, but his bedhead is a constant sight, and Percival finds it a little endearing.

He also likes the thick reading glasses that sit on his nose, but he would be foolish to try and start up any other conversation, so he sits down at his spot at the table and looks through his notes.

Wade grumbles something unpleasant under his breath, and the man next to him elbows him in the ribs for it.

There's a short conversation between the two of them, and Wade's unhappy expression finally cracks a little as he smiles at the other man, and Percival pretends not to notice as the other programmer stands up and exits the meeting room. He's not somebody Percival knows personally, so he probably isn't somebody important to the project.

He checks his (extremely expensive) watch, realizing that he's made it in with time to spare, and settles in to listen to the small talk around him in the twenty or so minutes before the meeting starts proper.




Lev takes a deep breath as he leaves the conference room, somewhat exasperated with his one true friend at this company, and also not a little bit surprised. Wade could rage for hours about the topic of Percival Fairweather, and it was all Lev could do to defuse him before he got started.

He hopes the meeting doesn't turn into a one-sided screaming match, but luckily he doesn't actually have to be there, so if it does, it's not his problem.

He's glad to be out of there, honestly. Too many humans in one room makes him anxious, and the way that people look at him when they think he doesn't notice crawls under his skin after a while.

Technically, a workplace isn't allowed to ask your species upon hiring. But there are always ways around that rule, and in companies like this, rumours always find a way to spread. He had worked here for barely a week before people were talking nervously about the fox in programming, and he had done his best to smile brightly at them with too sharp teeth every time. It was what they expected, even if he kept his form strictly human for work. It was what he expected, too, after living his entire life in the heart of the city.

At least only a few of his colleagues had gotten up the courage to ask him if he actually ate human livers. He had only considered answering 'yes' to see their reaction for a few seconds.

Heading to the elevator, he went down to the ground floor once more, relaxing a bit as he was surrounded less by business elites and more by regular people who were just trying to make a living. His office was on this floor, and he liked it the best, although Wade was always trying to drag him up to the lounge on fourth so they could brainstorm ideas together.

Wade was a good guy, and Lev appreciates his efforts enough that he only refuses half the time.

He had even come in early today to go over their plans for the presentation to the marketing team, even though most of them looked at him like they thought he might have rabies, or mange or something. It was a little insulting. He got his vaccinations every year like a decent citizen.

Peering around to the coffee shop by the entrance, he glanced back in the opposite direction of the elevator to where the clinic had just opened up.

He could really use a coffee, but he knew that he had a favour to ask first. It was one that he didn't really want to ask, but he was out of options. He knew the doctor here well enough that he might be able to convince her to fudge the rules a little bit. His mom's stomach ulcer was seriously acting up again, and company health insurance wasn't quite nice enough to cover family members, when it came to non-humans.

 

[Reynarda]

The sign on the door read:

Fairweather Communications Clinic

Dr. A. Drake, MD

8:30am-6pm M-F

But the lights were off.

He glanced at his watch. His appointment was in fifteen minutes, and the medical assistant had told him to arrive fifteen minutes early. Cautiously, he reached out and tried the door. It was unlocked, so he pulled it open and peeked inside. The waiting room was empty, the only light coming from the exit sign above the door. It was a little eerie, and he couldn’t help but remember what his coworkers had said when he asked if he could come in late so he could stop by the clinic.

“Oh, you’re going to see Dr. Frankenstein, eh?”

“Oh, don’t say that,” another of his coworkers quickly said. “Dr. Drake is nice, she’s just…”

“Creepy,” the first said.

“Different,” the second corrected.

He swallowed. “Uh, hello?”

When no one answered, he adjusted his bag on his shoulder and tried again. “I have an appointment?”

The door to the back opened, and he jumped.

“Rowan Shepard?”

A short woman in what he thought might be a black lab coat stood in the doorway, framed by dim light from the hallway behind her.

“Uh, yeah. Could we… turn some lights on?”

The woman sighed and reached for the switch on the wall and flipped it up. Rowan winced as the overhead lights came on, flooding the room with sudden light.

The woman eyed him over the top of her glasses. Now that the lights were on, he could see her lab coat was black, which was definitely odd. Her pants and button-up were also black. Her hair was dark brown and pulled back into a messy bun. Her skin was the tan of Eastern Europe, but her eyes startled him. They looked brown at first, but the light reflecting off her glasses almost gave them a reddish tint.

He suddenly felt odd in his light blue button-up, tie, and trousers—like he was the one dressed oddly. “Dr. Drake?”

“Mm-hm. My medical assistant is late, which is honestly chronic at this point,” she said, her tone dry and inconvenienced. “They need to stop scheduling people first thing.”

He nodded. He had seen the medical assistant in the cafeteria and honestly could not imagine them working with Dr. Drake. They had bright pink hair and always wore bright character-themed scrubs that would fit better in a pediatrician’s office.

“Have they been working here long?” he asked, feeling the need to fill the silence.

Dr. Drake hummed, scanning the papers on her clipboard. “Two years. I like them too much to fire them, if that’s what you’re asking.” She sighed. “Well, you’ll have to come back with me, Mr. Shepard.”

Rowan followed her back to the exam rooms. She ignored the lights in the hall but mercifully turned on the lights in the exam room.

“Shoes off. We’ll take your height and weight.”

He quickly slipped his shoes off and back up against the wall. With another huff, Dr. Drake kicked a small stool over and stood on it so she could adjust the stadiometer to the top of his head. After getting his weight, she waved at the chair while pulling out a basket with several tools inside. She gave the automatic blood pressure cuff a nasty look before standing up and walking out of the exam room. Rowan sat in confused silence until she returned with a manual blood pressure cuff.

“You don’t like technology?” he ventured as she slid the cuff around his arm.

“I’d rather do it myself,” she said, pumping air into the cuff. “White coat syndrome?”

“What?”

“You’re holding your breath. White coat syndrome is what we call the phenomenon in which people get nervous around medical professionals.”

“You’re not wearing a white coat,” Rowan pointed out.

“One sixteen over sixty-three,” she said, removing the stethoscope from her ears. “Since I don’t have the paperwork on hand, we’ll have to do this verbally. Allergies?”

“Uh, most multivitamins.”

She glanced at him over the top of her glasses and then scribbled something on her clipboard. “Reaction?”

“Hives.”

She grunted and asked, “On any medications?”

“Vitamin D.”

She glanced at his pale skin as if she found this odd but seemed to reconsider when she remembered he worked inside. “Family history of cardiac disease or cancer?”

“No. Diabetes II on my mother’s side, though.”

“Any inhuman in your ancestry? I’m required by law to ask this.”

Rowan shook his head.

She glanced up at him, her eyes catching the light and looking slightly red again. “What you tell me is HIPPA protected.”

“I thought you were legally required to report it.”

“I am also legally required to drive no faster than fifty miles per hour on I-278 but I do not generally acquiesce.”

She was looking at him like she thought he was lying, but Rowan had always been very bad at lying. “No, no inhuman ancestry.”

She hummed again and scribbled on her clipboard. “I only ask because if you have inhuman ancestry and I give you a medication it could cause problems.”

“None,” he repeated, shifting in his seat.

“Mental health concerns?”

Besides feeling like this was an interrogation? “No. Well… uh, mild anxiety.”

She just nodded. “Any thyroid, hormonal, digestive, muscular, cardiac, joint, or blood disorders?”

“No.”

“Date of last menstrual cycle?”

Rowan opened his mouth and then closed it when he noticed her smirk. “Oh, that was a joke.”

“Yes, though it’s always good to ask. What brings you in today?”

Rowan was getting the feeling that maybe she had checked her computer to see who coming in and why yesterday but hadn’t bothered to do so today. He swallowed. “Uh, I’ve been breaking out in hives randomly?”

“Just randomly throughout the day?”

Rowan nodded, and Dr. Drake looked over the top of her glasses again. He wondered if she could actually see without her glasses or if she just enjoyed the effect it gave.

“Does it happen at work?”

“Well… no. Usually after work. Or on the weekends. I was walking in Central Park and then when I got home I had this burning, itching sensation. I couldn’t use my hands for the rest of the weekend.”

“Did you touch anything on your walk? Like a fence?”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

Dr. Drake hummed. Rowan tried to crane his neck, but he couldn’t read whatever the heck she was writing.

“Do you have hives right now?”

Rowan slid his sleeve back and presented his arm to the doctor. The skin had broken out in a bright-red rash on his forearm. “It burns and itches,” he supplied. “The internet said it was hives, anyway.”

She arched her eyebrow. “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. When did you get this?”

“Yesterday. I was shopping, that was all.”

“For what?”

“A new skillet,” he said, not sure what that had to do anything.

To his surprise, she chuckled under her breath. “Hang on, I have a cream that could help this.”

She spun on her stool and dug in a nearby drawer until she produced a tube of cream. After pulling on some gloves, she carefully spread it over his arm, and the burning and itching soothed almost instantly. Dang, he needed some of that.

“You’re new here, yes?”

“Yes, this is my second month.”

“Talk to your family much?”

“No,” he admitted, then frowned. “What does that have to do w—”

“Emotional states can influence mast cells. You don’t seem like a city boy to me. Are you getting enough time outside?”

Rowan pressed his lips together. He had hoped that going to school in the big city and then living and working here would cure him of his country-boy airs. “Probably not.”

“Do you have any plants inside your home?”

“I had a succulent, but I think I watered it too much,” Rowan sighed. “Why, how would plants help? Should I get an aloe?”

“They are good for your mental health. Stress could be contributing to your mast cells over-reacting. Have you mentioned this to your parents?”

Rowan scowled.

“Not on good terms?”

“They didn’t want me to leave their little ‘paradise’. My dad grew all the food we ate and my mom is a holistic healer.” When she glanced up, he frowned. “Yeah, that kind, I know. They’re suspicious of anything new. I never even went to school until I left for college.”

Dr. Drake made a face he couldn’t interpret and then kicked her rolling stool backwards so she rolled over to the cupboard. “I’m going to prescribe a mild allergy medicine but I want to run a blood test as well.”

“That’ll help you figure out about my rash?” That didn’t sound quite right.

“I want to see what sort of allergy markers are in your blood.” She pulled out several tubes and a needle.

Rowan swallowed. He hated needles. “If—if you think it’ll help.”

“Relax,” she said, swabbing the inside of his elbow. “What are you going to do this weekend?”

He tried to look away and ignore the sharp device she was holding and planning to stick him with. There was a painting on the wall of a seascape. It was crooked. “Uh… probably just watch TV or something.”

“No big dates?” She stuck him and he jerked.

“Uh… no?” He tried to keep his mind on the conversation.

“Have you been to Broadway?”

“Once.” Oh, no. He was feeling dizzy.

There was a knock and the door opened, but he couldn’t see who it was. He should probably tell the doctor he was about to faint, but that was too hard.

“Heya, Doc, sorry I’m—Oh.”

“Yeah, we got a fainter. Elevate his legs while I pull this needle out.”

“Hey, buddy, hang with us.”

He blinked, trying to focus on the pink apparition before him.

“What’d you do to him, Doc? I can’t leave you alone for five minutes.”

“You were forty-five minutes late, Thea. Stop scheduling people so early.”

“I brought you coffee so you wouldn’t be grumpy. It’s in your office.”

“I have his legs, go get him some water.”

As soon as the medical assistant was gone, he felt something against his chest. His heartrate shifted. It slowly sped back up and his mind grew less and less heavy as his breathing increased. He still didn’t feel great, but he was able to focus his eyes on the doctor.

She was holding his legs up and looking annoyed. “Vasovagal syncope?”

His mouth felt dry. He rasped, “I don’t know what that means.”

“You faint because you freak yourself out,” the medical assistant said as they returned. They were wearing Sleeping Beauty scrubs that day and had pink glittery eyeshadow that stood out on their dark skin. Rowan really had no idea how they got along with Dr. Drake.

“Oh, you’re cute, aren’t you? Such pretty green eyes.”

“Thea—”

“Don’t flirt with patients, yeah, I know.” They rolled their dark eyes and then winked at him as they handed him water. “I’m just getting his blood flowing.”

Rowan felt heat creep up his collar and he quickly took a sip of the water.

“Thea, we want his blood flowing to his head.”

“Did you get blood?” he asked flushing red. Hopefully she wouldn’t stick him again.

“Plenty of it,” Dr. Drake said, easing his legs back to the floor. “You should drink more in the morning.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Rowan said automatically. “I feel a lot better, now. I should get to work.”

Dr. Drake put a hand on his shoulder. “Sit for a few minutes.”

“I can go ahead and take your insurance card and driver’s license so I can get you checked out,” Thea said with a grin.

He wriggled around in the seat until he could pull out his wallet and pass the medical assistant the two cards.

“Have Thea get your pharmacy on your way out as well,” Dr. Drake said. “I’m going to prescribe you a copper supplement. Have you been diagnosed with anemia before?”

Frowning, Rowan shook his head. “I never really went to a conventional doctor before college.”

“I wouldn’t really consider myself conventional,” Dr. Drake muttered as she made more notes on her clipboard. “You also need to spend more time outside in nature.”

“Are you diagnosing me with anemia?” Rowan asked.

Dr. Drake made a face. “Not exactly. You do have a copper deficiency, however. I’m prescribing some cream as well. It will be generic, though. What I have here is expensive.”

She looked him up and down and nodded to herself. “You can go. Make sure you drink more water. I’ll let you know what I find out with your blood test.”

Rowan got shakily to his feet. He was still feeling not super great, but he was also anxious to get out and get back to work. “Thank you.”

Dr. Drake waved her clipboard dismissively at him.

As he approached, Thea looked up from their computer and smiled. “I guess I need your pharmacy, huh? Oh, and don’t let the doc worry you. She cares a lot more than she pretends to.”

“She’s a bit odd though…” Rowan said.

Thea shrugged, and he supposed they were the wrong person to say that to considering their hair color. “Yeah, but people come to her clinic by choice. No copay today. Doc has a note in here for me to contact you once she has your test results. Might only take a few days depending on her workload and how many more tests she’ll have to run this week.”

“She runs everything herself?”

Thea nodded. “She prefers to do things herself so she knows how it was done. Do you have a pharmacy?”

Rowan shook his head.

Thea tapped away on their computer and then nodded. “There’s a Walgreens one block from the address you gave me.”

“That works,” Rowan said. He was pretty sure he knew where that was.

“Okie dokie. Looks like Doc put in a prescription for a copper supplement, an antihistamine, and—oh. She’s being real particular about this cream.” Thea squinted at the clipboard, and Rowan wondered how they could read that, much less tell Dr. Drake was being particular. “I’ll make sure the pharmacy gets it by the afternoon. Anyway, you’re good to go. Looking forward to seeing you back soon.”

“Thanks.” Rowan hurried out, hoping Thea wouldn’t notice he hadn’t said he hoped to be back anytime soon.

He just hoped what Dr. Drake prescribed would work. He took the elevator up, running his hand over his no-longer burning rash. He slipped out at the third floor and hurried over to the meeting room. With the weird doctor and fainting and everything, he had forgotten to be nervous. Right. This was big. He was in a development meeting with one of the bigwigs.

He peeked in before hurrying inside. Good, they hadn't started yet. Rowan quickly took the empty seat next to Wade. He smiled nervously and turned his attention on Mr. Fairweather.



Thea tapped on Dr. Drake’s office door before pushing it open. “You want the prednisone cream with activated charcoal and witch hazel?”

Dr. Drake nodded, taking a sip of the coffee Thea had brought her. Thea had learned a while ago that if they were running late, bringing the doctor coffee would assuage her irritation.

“But generic.”

“Yes, it’s called—” Dr. Drake started lifting various papers on the nightmare she called her desk until she found a sticky note. “Oh. ‘Auntie Imelda’s Itch-Be-Gone’.”

Thea wrote that on the patient’s chart. “I take it you meant to write the ICD-10 for heavy metal poisoning?”

“Yup.”

“Cool. You want me to call it in or you want to?”

Dr. Drake made a face. “You need to get your BSN so you can legally do it.”

Thea snorted. “You don’t give me enough time off to go to school, Doc.”

Dr. Drake shot them an unamused look over the top of her glasses.

“Would you give me a raise?”

“You’d have to arrive on time.”

“Never mind, then. I’ll call this in so he can pick it up after work. Your next appointment is in fifteen minutes. Do you need the lab prepped?”

Dr. Drake shook her head. “I can run his blood right now. Take the next patient back once they arrive.”

“You got it, boss.” Thea paused and stuck their head back in. "Oh, and that fox guy is outside, eyeing the clinic door like it might bite him."

Dr. Drake didn't look up, but she frowned. "'Fox guy'?"

"Yeah, the cute one."

"Thea, I have never heard you describe anyone as anything other than cute."

"The one with the crush on you." That did get the doctor to look up, and Thea grinned at her. "You know who I'm talking about now. You should ask him out."

Dr. Drake pushed her glasses up her nose and rubbed her eyes. "He does not have a crush on me and that's not ethical."

"I ship it. Anyway, I'm just trying to get you to get out more. You told me you'd rather drink hydrogen peroxide when I mentioned the cute Fairweather guy. Or! What about Lynda from accounting? She's... nerdy. And not a patient!"

"What about you go get the next patient before I fire you?"

Thea sighed. "You are so boring. What do you want me to do with Lev if he works up the courage to come in here?"

"See what he needs. My next slot is open."

 

[Vexumin]

The alarm clock goes blaring as it usually does on another basic workday. Odhran wakes up and promptly sends the annoying device across the room. Had another bad night again and it was most definitely going to cost him later on in the day. Guessed he was going to have to make another trip to an electronics store or something. It made him miss the simpler days. Nonetheless, until he was in a good spot to laze about, he was getting up and ready to get a move on.

Things were all still unimaginably big in his small apartment space, though being as big as a house cat on its hind legs tends to make anything seem excessively big. Odhran walks to his bathroom, towel over his shoulder. As the bath waters begin to run, he leaves his towel on the lid of his toilet. Climbing a step stool, thankfully provided by the neighbors, he stands before his mirror and sink. He looks at himself for a few moments, three fingered hands rubbing at his smooth green face. His mouth was curved into a frown forcefully and he nods his head. Usually he liked to grin. Just something that his race does. However, it didn't take long for his colleagues to dislike his mischievous smile, so he started doing this. Must be something with his perfectly curved lips and sharp teeth. Not many can last long looking at them without growing nervous.

he starts with brushing his teeth, going over the sharpened fangs until they were sparkling and white as always. By the time he was done with that, the bath was filled with water. He rushes over and slips in, stopping the water as he swims past the faucet. The one things his size came in handy for was that he required less than humans or really any other large creatures in terms of resources. Less water, food, space. That is why he enjoys the pleasures of having more. His bath was a swimming pool for him and everything else made him feel indulgent.

Cleansing time being long over, and Odhran smelling as fresh as a daisy, he gets dressed in his usual attire. Jacket, shorts, scarf and finally his special flat hat from home. It clothes suited him so much he just had many of the same thing, but always one hat and scarf. They were both special to him after all. He grabs his flip phone, just big enough to fit his pocket, and heads for the door. His job doesn't need him to bring much from home, and he didn't really need much aside from his wallet that he easily strings over a shoulder like a messenger bag. Took a little work to make it look nice and official though.



Next was travel. He always had to take train in his commute. It pissed him off sometimes. Sharing a train with humans. Where humans might see him as a pest, he often sees them as the same way. Perhaps it's the more troublesome humans he sees this way. It was his human neighbors that gave him his step stool. As the doors to the train slides open, he steps inside and takes a place close to the door. He readied himself for the short ride to the next station, but his desire for a nice calm ride was interrupted as a human practically kicked him. Odhran goes tumbling across the train car and comes to a stop only to rise a bit and glare at this human punk who looked down at him with a smirk.

"Watch where you stand, you nasty goblin," the human man says with that wicked smile. Odhran stands, rubbing his side a little before he stares at the human with his large, round amber eyes. "I'm ah Púca, rat bastard. An' I'm Irish, so I'm not opposed to knockin' some sense into no good punks." Odhran then unleashes that sinister grin, glistening teeth sparkling from that malicious grin. "Know what? I haven't even had breakfast yet. You look mighty tasty. Can probably take a nice bite out of ya." Odhran give a gnash of his teeth which click together. The man starts to sweat as the little púca drew near. He takes a step back before he raises a hand. "W-Wait, it was just a joke. I'm sorry." Odhran stops his slow pursuit and nods his head. "Right. Don't let me catch ya picking on the little folk around here again," he says before he starts walking to another train car.

Arriving at the station, Odhran was quick to break into a jog. Walking to Fairweather Communications was a feat for him and his tiny legs, so getting a bit of exercise was good for him. Although he didn't really need it. Walking through the front doors, he could see the desk lass blushing, meaning that the boss man had already passed through. "QA Engineer comin' through," he says as if trying to elicit some kind of response from the desk lady, but she was still daydreaming, so he continued on. He takes the elevator up to his floor and he round about until he finds his little cubical in the corner. He was likely placed here because he was so abnormal to other employees, and that served him just fine. He kicks back in his extra small chair and brings his hat over his eyes for a few minutes before he started his shift.​

 

[LumenTellus]

"QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK"

A loud and annoying alarm rang at the top of a bedside table. Tucked in, with a floral patterned blanket covering her head. "Ahhhh, just a few more minutes," Momoka said silently, but the alarm still rang loudly. With a groggy sigh, she pulled her blanket over and set aside her pillow she was holding onto. Slowly she turned off her alarm, and let out a loud yawn.

"It's morning already?" She questioned the time, even though she knew it was clearly time to get up. She opened the pink laced curtains by her window and covered her eyes as sunlight filled her darkroom. She went to the bathroom and washed her face while applying a cleanser and lotion.

Momoka went to her bedroom once again, picked out a white blouse, and took out one of her favourite matching top and skirt. She took her red bag which was adorned with 3 heart-shaped keychains and one tiny-bunny plush keychain. Heading to the kitchen, she took out and quickly ate a small piece of pudding that was leftover from yesterday.

Even though she was clearly late for work (or so she thought), she took her time getting ready. As she tied her up into two loosely tied knots. The ribbon she used was hanging lazily from her hair as she went out to get to the train station. Ah, the busy mornings was always one of her favourite things to take in. As she breathed in the fresh air while walking to the train station. She took out her phone and took a selfie while walking to the station.

The train wasn't as busy as it normally was, so it wasn't that hard to find a seat as it normally was.

Sitting down on a seat, she took out her phone to look at her social media. Momoka wasn't too surprised, there was barely anything new. Something else definitely did pique her interest, as she saw a creature threatening to eat the person in front of him. She snickered a bit because she thought it was funny that the guy was breaking into a sweat because of something so adorable.

She sneakily took a picture of him because she wanted to see if she could get a keychain similar to him.

By the time she realized, she had already made it to her stop. Getting off the train, she looked at the time on her phone. She was basically on time so she took her time walking to the building.

As she was making her way to work, she thought about what she might eat when she gets home. A Strawberry Parfait? That would be too sweet. Honey butter fried chicken? Too greasy, maybe she could eat some street food? She wondered if there were any takoyaki stalls nearby. Of course, they probably don't sell that here.

Before she knew it, she was already at the entrance of the company. She saw as the creature she saw by the train walked into the elevator. "So he works here too!" she said to herself, if someone walked by, they'd probably think she had a loose brain. The desk lady seemed a bit dazey when the girl walked by her. "Goodmorning Ma'am!" she said to the lady at the desk with a bright smile, though she might as well be talking to herself.

On the anyhow, Momoka hadn't gotten her schedule yet, so she thought it was okay to just head to the cafeteria. She did barely eat any breakfast so it's okay to get a small snack to last the workday.

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade looked up as Rowan slipped in beside him and squinted. For a second he thought Lev had come back, and he opened his mouth to welcome him before he found himself squinting at the intruder instead.

"Oh. You're, uh... New kid, right?" he asked. He didn't quite recognize him, but he was also terrible when it came to connecting names to faces. They had had a get together to celebrate the start of the fiscal year a little while back, and the new hires from the big departments had been introduced, but Wade had been more than a little drunk that night and doubted he would remember them.

God, did he work in his department? Wade squinted at him further, trying to place his face. Maybe. He looked vaguely familiar, in the way that most people kind of blended together into the general category of 'I know that guy'. Wade hoped he wasn't supposed to remember his name. He was horrible with names.

He was also a little surprised such a new employee was here, but then, talented newbies wasn't an uncommon thing.

He realized he was probably doing that thing where he made people uncomfortable again, and tried smiling instead. It was supposed to be reassuring and welcoming, but his face wasn't really good at that, so most times his smiles came across vaguely threatening instead.

"First inter-department meeting, eh? These things suck, but you get used to them," he added in an awkward attempt at small talk.

Percival watched them idly for a second before he peered down at his watch once more. Most of the contenders had filed in by now, so he hummed and stood up to close the door.

"Right then, I think we're ready to begin," he said, causing Wade to turn from Rowan to scowl at him instead. He didn't seem at all bothered, and instead kept his pleasant smile on his face. "Thank you all for coming when you're so busy. This shouldn't take too long, I just wanted to touch base with the development and programming team about the latest..."

Wade zoned out immediately, turning back to his laptop. It was technically rude, but nothing Percival had to say was usually very important. Something about profits and better functionality to draw in more people. The friends function was already enough to bring people in, but competitors were starting to get a headway on that...

Percival was very polite and droning as he went on, and his marketing cronies took the stage to talk too about the new function they wanted to implement. The older man with the receeding hairline who hated Wade on principal was going on about a timeline, and he snorted without even looking up from his laptop.

"Hell no," he said bluntly, and only half the table turned to stare at him. The other half was mostly programmers, who were more than used to this sort of thing.

"Mister Harper, we're going to open questions in--" Percival, began, and Wade gave him the stink eye.

"There's no way my guys can do something like that with that timeframe.

The older man looked furious with the interruption, but also not entirely surprised.

"Your team is paid to do these things on a tight schedule," he began, and Wade slammed his laptop shut with a snap.

"Yeah? Well if you expect that amount of work in that amount of time, we'd need a hell of a bonus to agree. It's not feasible and we're not doing it. Come up with something else."

Wade's voice was solid and did not leave any room for argument.



Lev considered the coffee, but somebody had just left the clinic, and it would probably be better to get this over with fast. Dr. Drake was a pretty good person. She was usually pretty reliable, and helped him out when he needed it.

He took a deep breath, then headed to the clinic and waved.

"Hey Thea," he said brightly, deciding that the best way to get this done was cheerfully. "Is the doc in? I was hoping to see her, uh, if she's got time."

He winced, because the last time he had done this he had been reminded that appointments were a thing, but really, it wasn't like he was expecting his mom's health to take a turn.

"Or uh. I could come back at the end of the day, or on another day? Don't want to take up too much of your time, ya know? Nice scrubs today, by the way. I like the colours."

He smiled again, leaning against the counter in his best attempt to be friendly.

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan swallowed when Wade addressed him. He seemed like a good guy, but he intimidated Rowan a little. "Uh, yeah. Uh, Rowan. Shepard."

But now Wade was squinting at him, and Rowan wondered if he had done something wrong. He had just nearly passed out, and now his boss was giving him an unnerving smile. Rowan smiled back, but it was the smile of a scared rabbit.

"Y-yeah, first one," he confirmed, trying to think of something else to say. "I hope so--I'll get used to them, I mean."

Rowan was actually just hoping no one would ask him any questions. Sure, it was his code they were using for the one aspect, but he didn't actually want to explain it in front of everyone.

Mercifully, Mr. Fairweather started the meeting. Rowan paid careful attention because that was what you did when someone else was talking, but once the marketing guy got up, he started thinking about lunch. He was wondering if they would have that Caribbean salad again when Wade cut into the other man's speech. Rowan startled and looked at him.

Rowan quickly rewound the conversation in his head. Oh, yeah, no, that would mean a lot of very late nights if they wanted them to complete that before then. Thank goodness Wade had said something. But the other man was pushing back and Rowan had never left a team member to fend for themselves.

"Uh--Mr. Harper is right." Rowan felt heat rush to his face. "It would mean a lot of really late nights. We could all end up sick," he added, remembering the doctor had told him he needed to get outside more.




The clinic had a receptionist once. But to Thea's understanding, the last one had quit in tears. So that meant Thea doubled as receptionist. It wasn't that big of a deal. It wasn't as if the clinic saw hundreds of people each day.

Thea had thought about narrating Lev's approach loud enough for Dr. Drake to hear, but they could hear the murmur of the radio in the lab. That didn't bode well. They popped "Cleveland, Ohio news" into the search bar and something about a raid gone wrong popped up. They sighed, but they didn't have to spend too long figuring out a distraction tactic as one presented itself in the form of a nervous fox.

Thea gave him their best stern look, but their lip twitched too much for it to be serious. "There are cheaper ways to court a lady, you know."

Not that Thea thought Dr. Drake would charge him.

"And thanks. I like the colors, too." Thea made a show of checking their computer. "Oh, look at that. You're in luck. She doesn't have anything until ten." They paused, because it was only fair to warn him. They leaned forward and in a stage whisper said, "Hey, just between you and me, something happened in Cleveland, and she's from there. She always gets kinda... morose when stuff happens there. But your cute face should cheer her up."

In actuality, Thea had no idea where Dr. Drake was from, but they did know she had done her residency at the Cleveland Clinic and that often she would get upset after listening to Cleveland news. They did think it was fair to warn him, though, because they had made a comment about the fox-guy-eating-livers rumor, and Dr. Drake had laughed and said she was far more dangerous than Lev was so not to worry. Thea believed her. Especially with how nervous Lev was. Dr. Drake could say all she wanted, but Thea chose to believe he liked her. It was more interesting that way. There was a lot less romance in this office than Scrubs had lead them to believe.

"She's back in the lab. Come on with me." Thea slid from the chair and pulled the door open. "Hope you're ok with blood."

As they approached, Thea could make out what the news anchor was saying. "--of the SWAT team had blood completely pulled from his body. Several of the team are in the hospital in critical condition. One was airlifted to Cleveland Clinic, and they are doubtful he will survive the morning. Mayor Smith has raised the reward for anyone who comes forward with information on any of the Dreix family."

Dr. Drake was standing in the middle of the small lab, a vacutainer of blood in one hand and the coffee Thea had brought her in the other. She was staring at the tube of blood like it was telling her all its secrets. This was actually not unusual, so Thea assumed it was a doctor thing.

"However, authorities warn that these vampires are extremely dangerous, so if you see one of them, do not approach. We have pictures of several of the members on our new website. The address is www dot—”

Thea turned off the sound system. They seriously regretted whining about not having anything to plug their iPod into. Dr. Drake just used it to listen to news and then moped around the office for the rest of the day.

“Wow, no drinks in the lab, didn’t you read the sign?”

Dr. Drake blinked and turned. “I’ve never accidentally run a urine analysis on my Mountain Dew.”

Thea held up a finger. “That was one time. Let it go.”

“You came running into my office sobbing because Ms. Dora’s glucose level was through the roof.”

Thea regretted nothing. That was the one and only time they'd ever heard Dr. Drake laugh. They had considered centrifuging Hawaiian Punch to see if they could get a similar reaction. Still, how dare Dr. Drake ignore the sign she, herself, had put on the door.

Thea moved, revealing Lev. "You have a visitor. He wants to talk to you," they said as if the pair of them had not already discussed it.

Dr. Drake arched her eyebrow at Lev.

Thea sighed. Maybe if she actually smiled at people there would be more romance in this office.

The centrifuge was blinking, so they opened it and pulled the other tube of blood out. It looked... "Does this look purple to you?"

Dr. Drake glanced over at the blood. "It's the lighting."

Thea shrugged and stuck the tube in a tube rack. "You going to use the Blood Countess?"

Dr. Drake sighed like she always did when Thea brought up the name they used for the hematology analyzer. "You going to go back to the front desk before I fire you?"

"Wow, after I brought you coffee, too." Thea winked at Lev as they slipped past him. "You two behave."

Azrael Drake closed the door after her medical assistant and waved Lev onto one of the lab stools. "I'm guessing by your elevated heart rate that you are not sure how I'm going to take what you're about to say, so go ahead and spit it out. What's going on? Are you sick?"

 

[Vexumin]

Odhran took his hat off and with a single easy throw settles it against a hook on the wall placed down closer to the floor. His work space was just like his home, built and intended for normal sized people. He doubted that anyone would go out of their way to prepare him small person work equipment. All day he worked like a kid climbing about a jungle gym. Hopping from space to space up his desk chair and then back down. No wonder he was always so exhausted at the end of the day.

He clacks at his keyboard as he goes over a program on his work computer. He had pulled out a par of glasses that helped against the brightness of his screen. His eyes were large and sensitive, and the last thing he needed was to have to wear glasses full time. No one would take him seriously with glasses of all things. Though one thing that helped him look more serious was when he looked over the frames disappointingly at someone. He perfected that technique.

"Uhm... Oddie? You have a moment?" Speak of the devil, it was time to break out the over the glasses look of disappointment. The poor guy who was likely elected to go to Odhran flinched at the look. "We have... we have a new version of our program we need you to give a look over before we start testing. We tried to ask yesterday, but..." The little green man scoffs as he reaches to a drawer and starts digging.

In no time flat, a small binder was pried free from the storage space and promptly shoved in the direction of the fellow. "Right, right. You lot left that annoying little note on my desk when I was on break. Well I'm done with your little review, so get to work on these fixes." Without even waiting for a response, the púca hopped from his chair and started on his way for the elevator. His stomach was roaring at him to eat. It has been a day or two since he worked up the appetite to actually eat anything.

Down the elevator he went until he arrived at the cafeteria. He meandered a little, looking over what was available until he realized that he honestly hated the food humans made available. He still had so much butchered meat at home. He should have cooked some of that up and brought it with him today. He instead settles for something very sweet. He grabs a wrapped pastry from a small retail shelf and tosses it up near the register. Doesn't take long for him to get rung up so he could find a small table.

He grabs the plastic wrap of the small apple pie and pulls with all his might. This means of packaging was always so difficult with nothing but three fingers. He struggled to pull it open, but when it finally budges the treat flies out of the package, soaring through the air for a moment. Some might try and catch it or fumble and drop it, but he instead brings his legs underneath him and launches at the small frosting glazed apple pie, catching it between sharpened teeth. Not even bothering to use his hands, he just leans his head back and lets the pie slide the rest of the way into his mouth. His manners were piss poor, just plain awful sometimes. It sometimes made him look unintentionally cuter that he wishes, or it is just plain disturbing to watch him eat. This time around was one of the cuter times.​

 

[LumenTellus]

Walking down halls was always fun for Momoka. Taking things step by step and cherishing every single second of something so minuscule made her feel as if she were special.

Her phone buzzed loudly as a simple "Ding!" like noise loudly exclaimed itself. She got a text from her sister, well, stepsister.

"Morning Momo! Training is starting late today, wanna go grab a bite to eat before you go to work?"

"I'm already at work, so can't really do that" Momoka replied. Even though her sister was always the first person to send messages to people she had a knack to reply 30 to 60 minutes late. So Momoka just put away her phone expecting to wait for an hour before she gets a reply.

When she looked up in front of her, she was already in front of the cafeteria's entrance. So much for enjoying every single step. The Cafeteria's menu wasn't anything too fancy, and even though Momoka liked almost everything on the menu she wasn't in the mood for something fulfilling. So instead she went to the vending machine and got a can of soda.

Nothing like a simple soft drink to enjoy in the mornings. Plus, the graphic's design department didn't send out anyone to find her, so that meant there wasn't anything important for her to do right now anyway. She sank into a chair, happy to no longer be standing.

Momoka checked her social media page to check if anything was interesting. To her surprise, there were a few things. Something about Vampires, but not of her interest. Something that did pique her interest was the upcoming debut of an idol group by the name of "Sugar Stars SS" consisting of three members. She wondered if her sister was gonna debut this time.

Ding!​

Her phone rang, as she had received a new message from her sister. She replied earlier than usual. "Ah shucks, I thought you only started working like 2 hours later? Or was that your last job? Did you change your job again???" Her sister questioned, Momoka was pretty sure she made it clear that she stopped working at the Café.

"I'm pretty sure I told dad to tell you that I was going to stop working there once I moved out" She replied, "He did tell you, right?" she typed right after.

The clacking noise of the door loudly hitting against itself caught her attention more than her phone ever could. She thought someone came in but didn't see anyone. Maybe a ghost?! She didn't know whether or not spectres or banshees worked here. Either way, she just brushed it off as her imagination.

Though, her suspicions of someone entering the cafeteria would soon be confirmed as she heard the loud tearing of plastic, as she looked up to see that that tiny person from the train was eating an apple pie. Somehow they looked even cuter than when she first saw 'em.

She couldn't help but squeal at how cute they were, probably loud enough for them to hear and notice. It probably wouldn't be a good first impression if someone was basically screeching at you, but Momoka rarely cared.

"Eek! They're so adorable!" she said to herself, though she was most likely being disrespectful by stating this she wouldn't have said it loud enough for anyone to hear. "Hm, If I'm gonna make friends with a potential colleague, I'll need to have a great first impression." She thought to herself, to anyone from afar, she'd seem like she would be plotting something deviously, but on the anywho, she was keen on most likely disturbing someone's lunch in attempts to make friends with said person.

She packed her phone and rushed to basically the other side of the cafeteria, extending her arm with a gleeful expression on her face. She thought this out carefully, approach the person with a friendly demeanour, greet them with a handshake and voila friends, or so she had hoped. "Goodmorning! Uh... Uhm- I'm uh-" She had already failed with the most simple part of the plan and blanked out.

Stumbling upon her own words, she tried to change the topic, "Nice weather we're having today, right?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade was not super encouraged by Rowan's meek attitude. In this world, people expected programmers to be able to work miracles for nothing, and it was important to stand up for yourself. Wade was usually the only one who took that to heart, and wasn't afraid to piss people off for his team.

So he wasn't expecting Rowan to defend him. He turned back to look at him for a second, a little surprised, before he clapped one hand on his shoulder and nodded.

"See? Even the newbie knows I'm right," he said, and the man who had been opposing him turned a little red in the face. It was one thing to insult Wade, who had one of the worst reputations in the office for being beligerent, but it was another when the team was banding together.

Percival made a tutting sound in the back of his throat, seemingly not entirely pleased either way.

"Well, it wouldn't be good of us to put your health at risk," he said, then turned to his employee. "We'll postpone the launch date by two weeks."

Wade looked far from pleased with that.

"I want three," he said, not particularly because he needed three, but because he refused to just accept whatever offer Percival gave him. Percival's smile twitched and his eyebrow ticked a little bit, but his expression remained perfectly pleasant.

"I don't think that big of a delay is wise--" he began, and Wade growled at him.

"I don't think your face is wise," he snapped, and somebody to Rowan's right groaned. The man who had been presenting gave Wade an obvious stink-eye.

"We are not in elementary school, Mister Harper," he warned, but Percival waved him off.

"You can accept two weeks, or we can use the original schedule," he said, his voice polite but holding a note of finality. Wade considered arguing just to be contrary, but he didn't actually want to make things harder for his team.

"Fine, then. Two weeks. And better coffee in the break room," he added as a final note. The stuff they usually stocked in there was shit.

Percival bit his tongue to mention that this wasn't a negotiation the way Wade seemed to think it was. But arguing would do nothing, so he kept his mouth shut. He did nod to Rowan, though, clearly pleased that he had spoken up. Most of the development team referred to Wade as 'the bulldozer' because of how he pushed ahead in meetings without taking no for an answer, so it was nice that there was somebody more sensible on his side.

Wade, for his part, clapped Rowan on the shoulder again, grinning at him as if to say 'nice win'.



Lev stiffened, then rolled his eyes.

"Hey. I am not in the habit of flirting through doctor's appointments. You don't flirt with someone when they can't run away," he said wisely.

Not that he would really object if she asked him out. But he had standards, and cornering somebody at work for a date was below them.

"Cleveland, huh? Never been out of the city myself," he said with a shrug, though he kept his voice conspiratorially low. He grinned as he listened to Azrael and Thea banter, and when they returned to the front desk he felt the nerves slip back in.

Right.

"Oh. Well. I wouldn't go that far," he said, although he very much would go that far. "I mean, I'm not gonna ask you to commit murder or anything."

Ok, maybe not a good thing to say considering the news that was playing, about murder. In the doc's home town. Lev winced and wished he could step on his own foot to shut himself up.

"Haha, bad joke. Ok, so, uh, the thing is, I kind of need a prescription for, uh," He dug in his pocket, pulling out the paper he'd scribbled the name down on. "Metronidazole and lansoprazole?"

He was 99% sure he was saying those wrong.

"It's, uh, for a stomach ulcer. For me."

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan jumped a little when Wade settled his hand on his shoulder. It was a good thing, he supposed. And the marketing guy was turning redder than Rowan which was a little satisfying. Rowan straightened a little and smiled. That's right. They were on the same team. They couldn't be pushed around like this.

And Mr. Fairweather was agreeing--but Wade was pushing it. Rowan shot him a pleading look. They got two extra weeks, that was helpful. But Wade had struck him as the sort of person who pushed things just to push things. And then Wade actually said "your face" to the very important son of the company's founder, and Rowan would have squeaked in protest had he a voice. As it was, he just cleared his throat, hoping his team leader would back down.

He did, and Rowan let out a sigh.

Better coffee would be nice. That stuff tasted like dishwater that had once interacted with a coffee pot after a drunken night. But he didn't want to push things any further.

Heat rushed back to his face when Mr. Fairweather gave him a nod. And Wade grinned at him. Rowan smiled back, his smile more certain than it had been earlier. It did feel good to be part of a team.





Azrael's left eyebrow arched as Lev began to explain. "Good, because the first part of my Hippocratic oath is, 'Do no harm'. Murder is harm, last I checked."

She set the vial of blood in the tube rack next to its partner and looked Lev up and down. Elevated heart and breathing rate, blood rerouted to muscles, and both epinephrine and norepinephrine. If she were paying close attention, she had no doubt she would feel the blood shift to the creative part of his brain.

If there was one thing Azrael hated, it was being lied to. It wasn't so much that the person was being dishonest. It was that they thought she was stupid enough to believe them. It was insulting to her intelligence. She'd give Lev's performance a solid 5/10. She would have given him a 6/10 if he had memorized the medication names. She'd had to dock a point for the scrap of paper. But she was willing to overlook the mispronounced names. She didn't fault people for mispronouncing something they had only ever read. That of course left the question of where he had read it. Surely medication names weren't just on the internet these days.

"Ulcers, hm?" she asked, her tone dry. "That does sound serious."

She cast about for a clipboard and found one on the counter under a glove box. She flipped the paper on it over and pulled a pen out of her pocket. She clicked it a tad aggressively and began writing notes. "I didn't diagnose you with ulcers, so we'll need to do an endoscopy to get a look at what type they are. That's where they stick a camera down your throat," she added, pausing in her scribbling to glance over her glasses at him. "And I don't do surgery, so you'll have to see a specialist. Dr. Hondros is a brilliant upper GI surgeon, I'll refer you. Oh, and I should run a blood panel to check your cortisol levels since it's likely stress-induced. Or you could have H. pylori. That would not be good. Let's hope it's not bleeding. We might have to just do a total gastrectomy. Oh, and I'm going to need to you pee in this cup."

Azrael grabbed a random cup off the lab counter and held it out to him. People always hated peeing in a cup. She never understood why. It wasn't like it was that hard.

She watched his face, letting him panic for a few seconds. She had already broken her main rule today with Mr. Shepard. She had a feeling that wouldn't be the last rule she broke today.

Azrael looked over the top of her glasses at Lev. "Or, you can stop lying to me and tell me the truth. I don't just write prescriptions for funsies, Mr. Choi."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade did not get Rowan's hints, because he never took hints if he could help it. He drove through everything with bull-headed determination and a lack of social awareness that others dreamed of.

He did settle, though, because Rowan had stood up for him and that was a novel experience. Wade could get used to it, even if the kid kind of reminded him of a scared bunny rabbit or something.

The rest of the meeting sort of droned, and Wade only spoke up to be combative and argumentative about three or four more times, and it was mostly on principle. Things had gone particularly well, even though only the people in the development team really seemed to care much about whether the site worked and not how it worked.

By the time the allotted half-hour was up, Wade was more than happy to get out of there.

He shut his laptop and made to leave, before he remembered that Rowan was still there, and he was the newbie. He was supposed to show him around, or something. Or was it too late for that. Oh well.

"Thanks for that, newbie," he said with a grin, giving him a thumbs up. "Marketing assholes never care about what our team has to go through. Best to show them who's boss now than complain later."

The 'marketing assholes' in question were giving him rather scathing looks, though Percival only seemed a little bothered as he stood up himself.

"Yes, well, I believe we've gotten through enough for now. You make meetings as energetic as always, Mister Harper," he said, dripping sarcasm but still smiling like he was a perfect gentleman. Wade would have given him the finger, but Rowan was there, and he was supposed to be a good example. Or something.

"Suck my balls, Percival," he said instead, and Percival's smile grew a little sharper as he gathered his notes together.

"Anyways, Mister Shepard," he said, ignoring the taunt as if this happened every day. "I can't claim to be a programmer myself, but I was looking over your contributions to the coding for the new project. It's good work. If you keep that up, you'll make a good name for yourself."

Wade scowled at him, and grabbed Rowan by the shoulder as if to claim ownership over his newbie.

"Yeah, whatever. Newbie, we're heading down to get coffee on the first floor. How long have you been here again? You've met all the guys already, I guess. You know Lev? Lev's a great guy. Anyways, we can go over the meeting together and shoot ideas, how's that sound?"

He didn't really leave much room for disagreement as he steered Rowan towards the elevator. Percival grit his teeth, but sighed and decided not to push it. His father had been begging for him to discipline Wade for the full three years he had worked for them, but for the past few months the pressure of 'fire that ungrateful son of a bitch' had been getting heavier. He might have to go to make a comment to HR about the language, though he doubted Tina would be surprised.



Lev paled further and further the more Azrael spoke, and he very nearly turned around and left the office right then and there. She wouldn't... She wouldn't actually do that, would she?

Finally he cracked, and he clapped his hands together in a pleading gesture.

"Ok, ok, it's not for me! I'm sorry, doc, but my mom's retired and her insurance stopped covering her meds and the price of non-human tested medication without insurance is super, super high! You know? You work in medicine, of course you know. I wasn't trying to lie to you, I swear, it's just, I thought if I just asked then there'd be no chance of you gettin' in trouble or anything, you know? You're a good doc, you always help me out, the last thing I want to do is cause you problems."

He stopped to take a breath, because he was talking a mile a minute the way he did when he was nervous, and he was pretty sure he would stop making sense soon.

"If it, if it's not possible I don't want you to go out of your way. I don't wanna do anything that'd get you into trouble, and admittedly, I was kind of out of line coming down here and all. But you're the only doc I know who isn't an asshole, yanno?"

He was gesturing wildly as he talked, because he talked with his hands when he was nervous. At least he hadn't started pacing yet.

 

[Vexumin]

Odhran, caught in the middle of choking down his breakfast, suddenly has someone at his table and trying to meet him. He looked around the cafeteria for a few moments, wondering if this person that had approached had no one else to choose from before they happened upon him. After his quick glance around the room, his eyes return to her. One last gulp and he was done with his breakfast. He honestly intended on enjoying the treat a bit more. Not everyday that he goes for dessert for breakfast and it ended far too quickly.

While his breakfast was quick to pass, he had already delivered his report for the day, thus giving him plenty of free time before he had to go back upstairs and wait for the next review to pop up. He really had no excuse to turn the woman away. He could tell that she was already fried and blanking on conversation topics when she approached about the weather. He couldn't help but smirk a little before his frown returns.

"Right. Weather's nice and all. Thankfully it isn' one of those rainy days. Would hate to get swept down to the sewers again." He regret talking about one of those days, because it reminded him of when he had to fight a few rats in order to get out of that hell hole that lingers beneath the streets. Wind and water were by far his greatest natural enemies. He shakes his head, long and scarred ears swaying back and forth.

Soon enough, Odhran points to the only other chair at his table. If he wasn't so polite, he'd push other chairs to other tables so that he could get some alone time. Who knows though, this person might not be all bad. Though her stuttering over her words only meant that approaching him was some sort of hardship. "Well, settle on down there if you'd like. No one else would bother with sharin' a table with me, so it's open."

He crumples the wrapper in his hands into a ball, holding it between a finger and a thumb before he reels his arm back and tosses it into a open trash can a fair distance away, making the shot with ease.​

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan's heart slowed as the meeting progressed. Wow, this was stressful. Each time Wade spoke up, he wondered if he should say something. Perhaps Wade was just making sure people didn't try to push the team around. That was good. Marketing didn't know how programing worked any more than he knew how marketing worked.

But he did wish Wade would be more polite to Mr. Fairweather. At least Mr. Fairweather wasn't making a big deal of it. He wouldn't know what to do if a fight broke out, verbal or otherwise.

Rowan stood up as well, glad that was over. He smiled back at Wade. "Yeah, of course. We have to stick together," he agreed even though he wished Wade wouldn't call people "assholes" within their hearing.

He turned as Mr. Fairweather spoke, and his face paled at Wade's response. Wasn't that like... Well, way out of line. You didn't just tell an important person in the company to... Oh, man, this was too much.

His complexion warmed at the praise. "Thanks," he said, not really sure what to do with praise.

It wasn't that his parents had never praised him, they had. But they had been very disappointed in him when he had decided to leave their "paradise" for the big city and go into computers, which they claimed would rot his brain and kill the earth. But someone in this tech world thought his work was good, and warmth spread through his chest.

Rowan nodded and opened his mouth to say that sounded great, but Wade was already propelling him from the room. He gave Percival a small farewell smile before he was escorted to the elevators. Once they were in the elevator, Rowan wondered if he should say anything. It really wasn't his place. Wade was essentially his boss. But it was also impolite to act like that.

"Don't you think that--" Rowan stopped and cleared his throat. "I mean, I just think that they may respond better to more... polite language. I mean, they might not try to push us so much. If that, uh, if that makes any sense. I mean, I appreciate you sticking your neck out for us, I'm not being ungrateful I just think that maybe being polite would--but of course you're, um... Anyway thanks for standing up for your team. We appreciate it."




Ok, so she may have gone too far with the gastrectomy, Azrael admitted as she watched Lev fidget. Still, she doubted he'd ever lie to her again.

Ah. His mother. Azrael sighed. Of course.

She just wanted to help people, but they hadn't bothered to tell her that the system would make it so hard. No one had mentioned that she would prescribe necessary medication only to have it rejected, or that she would spend hours studying up on a treatment only to have insurance pay her barely minimum wage to use it. No had told her she would have to have conversations about options with patients who just couldn't afford chemotherapy.

She glanced at the notes she had made--which were really just the names of the two medications and what she thought he could possibly need it for.

The problem was that the insurance company had a whole division just for wriggling out of paying for things. Someone would catch that she had not diagnosed him with ulcers before. Either she would look like an idiot or a criminal. Personally, she'd rather not get thought of as either, but she'd choose the latter if she had to. She could just diagnose him with it, but then some astute person might wonder what tests had been run. They could both go to jail for insurance fraud.

That was presuming that that was all they caught her for.

Azrael remembered being a wide-eyed freshman, excited to learn so she could become a researcher who focused on clinical trials on inhumans. But that had all gone to hell. Her gaze drifted to the radio.

Well, if she was going to get her medical license revoked for something, it might as well be for insurance fraud because screw insurance companies. She could find something to prescribe metronidazole for fairly easily. Lansoprazole would be more difficult.

"I appreciate your high opinion of me and my profession," she said dryly. He was right, for the most part. The ones that weren't assholes to inhumans had no idea how to treat them. The inhuman course in medical school had only lasted half a semester and had generalized to the point that even Azrael had known several things were dead wrong. There were precious few drugs that had been clinically tested for all the inhuman species.

Which lead Azrael to her next question. "Did her doctor prescribe this? I still do not like prescribing medication without knowing the details--especially not antibiotics. Do you have her medical records? Who's her doctor?"

Before he could answer, she waved her clipboard at him. "Hang on, come with me."

She pulled open the door and was not at all surprised to catch Thea doing a 180 to look like they had not been sneaking towards the door. "Thea, get me Mr. Choi's chart."

"Aw," Thea whined. "You sure you don't want some wine or something?"

"It is not even ten, Thea," Azrael called over her shoulder. "Is there coffee in the pot?"

Thea sighed dramatically but left the record stacks and headed for the break room.

Azrael led Lev into her office and waved at the one chair without a stack of papers on it. She set the clipboard on her desk and pulled a large medical textbook off her shelves. Plunking it down on her desk, she opened it and scanned for the two drug names.

"I would prefer to see and treat your mother myself, but I understand the insurance predicament. Have you ever had..." She thought about asking him if he'd ever had trichomoniasis, but decided she'd been mean enough for one day. "Mm... indigestion?"

Thea appeared with a red folder and coffee in a mug adorned with a medication's logo, their expression displeased. "I was rooting for you."

Azrael shuffled them back out of her office and closed the door. She should probably apologize to the entire building for her medical assistant's attempt to spice up her personal life. Taking a sip of the coffee, she closed the textbook, satisfied those drugs were safe for kumiho.

She scanned Lev's chart and then asked, "Are you stressed? Is Mr. Harper causing trouble again? I know that can be stressful, so I'm not surprised. We should run a quick blood test to diagnose an acute H. pylori infection."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

It was a miracle they were the only ones in the elevator at this time of day, but Wade sure didn't mind it. A little bit of quiet every now and then was nice, even if it was only for a few minutes, and he sighed as he leaned back against the wall.

He opened his eyes when Rowan addressed him, although he seemed generally calmer now that they were alone.

"I'm not gonna eat ya, newbie," he said teasingly, though his tone was a loft softer than before. "If you have a problem with how I run things, I want ya to say something. I can't read your mind, so I won't know if I'm screwing up unless ya tell me."

He knew he could come across as belligerent, but he at least wanted his staff to be able to approach him.

And he was also kind of expecting this. New guys tended to come out of their first meeting a little shell-shocked. He understood that his approach was... unconventional, and wouldn't work in any other company. But here, he knew what he was doing, and he knew how to balance things. Mostly.

"The thing with marketing is, they see guys like you, and they think you're easy. You're nice, you're polite, you want to make a name for yourself. So they think oh, that guy's not gonna complain no matter how much work I throw at him. So it's my job to tell them to suck it, so they don't go trying to take advantage of you or the other guys on the team."

He watched the numbers flick down. He wished the elevator ride was longer.

"Besides that, I've known Percival a long time. Uh, Percival the head of marketting, that is, the pompous annoying blond guy. He's an asshole, and I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire, but he's got a good hold on his guys, and he's..." He wrinkled his nose, clearly disgusted with what he was about to say. "He's reasonable, somet--"

He broke off because the elevator had reached the first floor, and his mouth snapped shut as the door opened.

"Anyways, they're all dicks, and somebody's gotta keep them in line so good kids like you can get your work done," he said with a grin, flashing Rowan a thumbs up as they headed into the lobby.



Lev deflated with relief as soon as it seemed that Azrael wasn't about to boot him out of her office or call security or something. He hadn't really been expecting that she would, but still. He was asking a huge favour, and he knew it.

"Most docs are nice as long as you look like them inside and out," he pointed out, flashing his fangs in a wry grin. "You, though, you help everyone the same. Means a lot to a guy like me working in a city like this."

He hesitated then, because he didn't have medical records. He didn't even know how he would get medical records, or how hard that would be.

He waited until they were alone again before he nodded his head.

"Yeah, her doc prescribed it. Insurance said they'd cover a cheaper med, but it doesn't quite like folks like us. Gives a nasty rash, yanno?" He shrugged his shoulders. It was impossible to make a medication that interacted safely with every single species out there, and he respected that. Didn't mean it wasn't frustrating.

He did laugh at the indigestion comment.

"Yeah, once or twice. All that fried cafeteria food can be hell when you're used to eating hearts and livers, you know?" he grinned, though after a second it faltered. "Er. Chicken hearts and chicken livers, I should clarify. No human eating in this household, we're a modern family adapted to the times."

He turned pink when Thea came in, and rubbed the back of his head. Well, that was a little embarrassing. Not that he minded, but--

"I told them I don't flirt at work, I swear," he added, crossing his hand over his chest.

Already the tension was starting to relax, although he was still a bit nervous. But knowing that Dr Drake was at least hearing him out was a godsend.

"I'm always stressed," he said, and it was only half a joke. Though he had to laugh at the mention of 'Mr Harper causing trouble'. "And Wade's always causing trouble. I think he'd die if he had to go a full day without insulting one of his bosses. And I'm cool with blood! Got a lot of it. Don't mind giving some to spare."

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan's eyes widened a fraction when Wade said he wouldn't eat him. Was Wade an inhuman? Having grown up on a farm with only humans had made it difficult to pick out inhumans. His freshman roommate in college had been a selkie and he hadn't even realized until one of his friends asked what it was like to room with one.

But no, Wade was human, he was just messing with him. Rowan let out a breath, glad he wasn't mad at him for saying something. He nodded. That made sense. Still, it was a lot to deal with in his first meeting. He wished the others would have warned him more.

"Well, thanks," Rowan said. Because he probably just would have nodded and taken it had Wade not been there.

And he had sort of got the feeling there was some kind of history there--after all, you didn't just tell the head of marketing to suck it if you didn't know him very well. Still, it was more... crass than Rowan would have chosen to be. He thought about asking where Wade and Percival had met, but that topic was quickly closed as they reached the ground floor.

The sudden change in manner was a little jarring. He supposed that was how Wade rolled. He seemed like a good person, so Rowan thought he could like him a little. Even if he was incredibly rude.

"Where are we meeting the others?" he asked. He was sure Wade had told him, but that was after the meeting he could hardly keep track of.





Azrael glanced at Lev's fanged grin and pushed her glasses up her nose. Well, he wasn't wrong. "Yes, well, there needs to be more scholarships for inhuman premed students," she muttered half to herself.

She thought about retorting that she treated everyone the same because she disliked everyone the same but decided that might be melodramatic and just to take the compliment instead of deflecting it.

"You could have her doctor fax me her records." Azrael dug around on her desk until she located a business card. She handed it to him. "As long as your mother releases it, they'll fax it without any questions. I would just rather be informed, and no offense to your mother's doctor, but I have probably studied more on the subject than they have."

She smiled slightly at his laugh, and the smile spread into a smirk at his clarification. "There are several people in this building whose hearts I'd like to eat if I'm being honest. The only thing stopping me is my Hippocratic oath. And cannibalism, I suppose."

She glanced at Lev's flushed features once Thea had left and sighed as she pulled on a pair of gloves. "No, it's not you. It's--well. Thea..."

She pulled a sharp approved for inhuman use from her closet--which was considerably more organized than her desk--and attached a vacutainer to it. "The blood is just so I have a test to show. I'll only take one tube. I may run a panel on it just to check since you're here. I have some reagents about to go bad anyway."

She should probably apologize for Thea. It was embarrassing, but she kept the blood very away from the capillary beds in her skin. Today had been a long day already with breaking her one rule and then the raid last night and now insurance fraud. Normally she would just apologize and leave it at that, no explanation. But. Maybe it was how tired she was or how emotional she felt. She had been very careful to remain aloof from everyone, but Thea had broken through and she was just so tired.

"Thea has taken it upon themself to make my personal life more interesting," she said, tying a band around his arm. "Make a fist. Anyway, they have decided that since we chat occasionally that means we... are compatible, I suppose." She didn't actually need to palpitate for a vein, but it was what people expected. Once she had poked the inside of Lev's elbow five times, she cleaned his skin and slid the needle in. "Thea just likes to meddle. If it bothers you, I can ask them to stop. I generally just endure it. They mean well." She pulled the band off. "At least I actually like you. The last person they tried to set me up with was the delivery guy who picked up my lab specimens. He was always mishandling the packages and I hated his guts. When I first hired them, they thought I had a thing for Percival Fairweather because I went upstairs to talk to him a few times. We were purely talking business and somehow I don't think I'm his type. He's too old money for my taste, anyway." Azrael pulled the needle out and pressed gauze to the inside of his elbow. She grabbed a Lilo and Stitch band-aid--she made a mental note to personally order the next shipment of band-aids--and placed it over the gauze. She grabbed a sharpie and wrote down his name and birthdate on the tube. "At least Thea picked a person I haven't wanted to put through a shredder for once." Azrael glanced over the top of her glasses at Lev. "You lie to me again and that might change, though."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade shoved his hands into his pockets as they headed to the coffee shop.

”Well, Lev said he’s gotta do a thing. He’ll text me when he’s done. For now, I’ve got everything in here,” he said, tapping his laptop. ”We had an early start, so it might be a good idea to get breakfast. Get coffee here though, not the caf. Cafeteria coffee is the same as the stuff in the break room.“

He shivered for dramatic effect as they stepped in line.

”For now I wanna look over your code with Lev, then look at the requirements marketing sent us. After that we’ll head up to the shared office on the fifth floor and come up with a game plan for the entire team. It’s easy stuff, more or less. You’ll probably be workin’ with Lev, since you two have the same job. Don’t be afraid to ask him stuff, he’s got a good head and a lot of experience.“

The barista looked up as Wade approached, and immediately her customer service smile faded.

”How many shots of espresso you want today, Wade?” She asked dryly, and he tilted his head back before holding up four fingers. It had been a long week and would probably be a long day. The girl rolled her eyes and went to make his order, while Wade turned to look at Rowan.

”What do you drink? Coffee’s on me today.”



Lev nodded gravely. Honestly, there needed to be more scholarships for non humans in every field. He had managed to snag one in the 80s when he was in college, but it had not been easy. The conversation was already a bit of a downer, though, and he didn’t want to make it worse.

At least his heart joke had lightened it up a bit.

”I’ll get her to call the doc, then,” he said, then flashed another grin. “And I’ll let you know when I’m in a really bad mood, and you can give me a list.”

Ok, dark again. But black humour wasn’t quite as depressing.

And then Azrael was embarrassed, and Lev felt his cheeks growing a bit pink too.

“Nah, it doesn’t bother me,” he said with a chuckle as he followed her instructions. “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind getting to know you better, honestly. As a friendly thing, you know. You seem kinda tired lately when I pass by, and I figure you could use one. Uh, if that’s not, like, crossing boundaries or anything.”

He grimaced, because he had already crossed boundaries by making her break the law.

He did snort at the mention of Percival, though.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know the guy personally, but I hear every day about how much of a prick he is. I think Wade’s biased, though. He seems nice enough,” he said, eyeing the band-aid with a little smile. It was cute. A bit embarrassing, but cute.

He was glad he was in his human guise when she mentioned the lying, because if his ears and tails were visible, he was certain that they’d be drooping.

“Yeah, no, I won’t do that again. I just thought... I don’t know. That if I didn’t say anything you’d have plausible deniability, or something. But it was a dick move.“

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan nodded. Breakfast was a good idea. He had a granola bar on the way, but that hadn't been satisfying. Wade was right, the coffee had been disgusting. His fingers twitched, but he decided taking notes would probably look weird.

He wondered what Lev was doing. Rowan liked the other man. He was a little more even-keeled than Wade and friendly.

Rowan paled a little when Wade said he wanted to look over his code with Lev. They were like... the smartest people on the programing team. What if they found a lot of mistakes? What if it was actually awful? It was one thing to do his part and submit it into the faceless void but these would be two senior programmers looking at his work.

He stammered out a protest when Wade offered to buy his coffee, but eventually he turned to the barista and said, "Uh, can I get a hazelnut macchiato with uh... the normal amount of coffee?"

He glanced at Wade. "You really don't have to pay for mine, you know. But I really appreciate it. Thanks."





Azrael snorted when Lev offered to eat people's hearts for her. "It's a long list. You might actually get indigestion."

She paused, glancing over at him when he said he wanted to get to know her better. Her knee-jerk reaction was to tell him he did not want that, but he mentioned how tired she'd been, and she had been dragging her feet a little more than usual. She just thought she'd been better at hiding it. Though, Thea had been bringing her her smoothie and saying they were going to stand there an watch her drink it. Which was always awkward because they had no idea what was in it--Azrael, paranoid Thea might drink it without thinking one day, had told them it was filled with banana peels and beets and broccoli stems until they had made a disgusted face and walked away.

She wanted to take the out he had given her--tell him it was unethical to be friends with someone she treated, but that wasn't exactly true. And she was so tired. And lonely if she were being honest with herself. And it wouldn't really be so wrong to make friends. New York was a big place. And Lev was discrete--heck, they were already in cahoots together.

The meaner, self-doubting part of her brain pointed out that his opinion would change if he knew the truth.

She crammed that down and decided to ignore it. Then he would just never find out. Problem solved.

"Yeah," she said, studying the vacutainer very carefully. "That would be nice. I could use a friend."

She chuckled and picked up her prescription pad. "Oh, I have nothing against Percival Fairweather personally." Beyond mutually-assured destruction, she supposed. She did resent him and his corporate world though, but that wasn't really his fault. The tired part of her brain wanted to make a very bad pun about ectotherms that only she would get, but the part the coffee had reached suggested that was unwise. She settled on, "He's just... a bit uppity."

Glancing up from writing she smiled--an actual smile for once. "I appreciate that, but doctors don't get plausible deniability. Anyway, I'd rather be seen as a criminal than stupid. Thea, however, does get plausible deniability, so not a word to them. I'll call in this medication myself. Do you want it at your normal pharmacy?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade shook his head at Rowan’s protests.

”No way,” he said firmly. “You actually stood up in that meeting, so you get coffee. Besides, I have to treat my newbies right, otherwise what kind of boss would I be?”

He grinned as he paid for both their coffees, then headed towards the cafeteria. There were a number of different food vendors and stations, and he headed for the bakery.

“This place sells the best muffins,” he said wisely, grabbing one for himself and one for Rowan as well before he headed over to a free table.

He set his laptop down and was unwrapping his muffin as he looked Rowan over.

”So, you must be fresh outta college, huh?” He asked, the corner of his mouth quirking up. You seem like an upright kid. I think you’ll do well here.”



Lev brightened when he wasn’t immediately refused. Honestly he’d expected worse.

“Great. I’m always here, if you need someone to talk. You’ve helped me out a ton, so I‘m always up to help you out if you need it,” he said, then hesitated. Would it be rude to ask her out for drinks? Would that be creepy flirting behaviour? He didn’t want to be the creepy guy that caused problems for people just doing their jobs. Boundaries. Those were important.

“In fact, uh, if you wanna get drinks or something sometime, I’d be open to that. Just casual, you know? Drink some wine and destress. Thea could come too, if they’re up for that. It’s been a while since I’ve gone out with someone who isn’t Wade, so it would be nice. Uh, if you’re up for it.”

Wow, he was terrible at this. No wonder all his friends were the weird ones who harassed him first.

At least she gave him an out by talking about Percival.

“Uppity... Yeah, I can see it. I always hear the girls at reception gossiping about if he has a girlfriend, so he must be popular. But I guess money can do that to a guy.”

He wouldn’t know. He’d never had much of it.

“Normal pharmacy is fine. And I won’t say a word. I really do appreciate this, I can’t tell you enough. I will buy you coffee for an entire year. I’d offer to buy you flowers too, but then I think Thea would really get the wrong idea.”

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan couldn't help feeling a little silly that Wade was rewarding him with coffee. Still, it was sort of nice having someone proud of him. Especially since he didn't think his parents were currently proud of him. He had talked to them through college, but they had seemed convinced he would see the errors of his ways and the dangers of "the big city" and come home. They had been shocked when he had told them he had gotten a job working with Fairweather Communications. He hadn't spoken to them since, though they had sent him a birthday card.

Rowan made a note of which place had the best muffins. Attempting to navigate without knowing what was good had resulted in a fair amount of bad food.

Rowan sat across from Wade and eagerly unwrapped his own muffin. He missed his mother's baked goods. He crammed a bite into his mouth just as Wade asked him a question. He chewed as fast as possible and swallowed. "Um... yeah. I went to Columbia U. Just graduated this past year. What about you? Where did you go?"




Azrael smiled. "Thank you, I appreciate that." But her burdens were hers, and she wasn't about to dump all her troubles on poor unsuspecting Lev. "I hope you are prepared for rants about people who refuse to follow what I suggest and insurance companies, because that's pretty much all my life consists of. I think I need to warn you that I'm not that interesting."

She arched an eyebrow at his rambling and chuckled under her breath. When she bothered speaking, she was generally fairly blunt, but Lev seemed determined to make sure he didn't make her uncomfortable. She thought about telling him that he didn't need to worry about offending her, but decided she found it refreshing. Her assumption that people only wanted to spend time with her to get her notes from class had gotten her into some awkward situations in both undergrad and med school.

"That sounds nice," she said once he had finished assuring her he just wanted to hang out as friends. Part of her resisted the idea of going out and chatting with another person over alcohol, but she pointed out to that part that she had been in fight-or-flight ever since she caught the news on a metro TV that morning. She needed to unwind. "And I'm sure Thea would love that."

Thea had been pestering her to go out for drinks with them for a while now, but Azrael had always used dictating her notes as an out. They would be absolutely thrilled when Lev invited them.

"My evenings are flexible, but I know you're busy, so you let me know a time that would work for you and I'll make it work."

Azrael nodded in agreement with his assessment of Percival. Money would do that. Honestly, sometimes she just wanted to knock Percival's and Wade's heads together. But then Thea wouldn't have as much to gossip about. If Thea wasn't such an open book, Azrael might recommend them to the FBI.

"Yes, Thea gets some of their information from the receptionists, but they tend to disagree on the topic of who the secret girlfriend of the week is," Azrael said dryly. She personally couldn't care less, but Thea liked sharing information, so she listened and made comments where necessary.

Azrael finished writing. "I'll see if I can get a preauthorization from your insurance so they don't kick up any trouble." She did chuckle a little at his mention of flowers. "Yes, that would excite them beyond what I think I could handle."

Azrael waved as if dismissing his offer of coffee. "But don't mention it. It's my job to heal people, and I'll do that regardless if the system helps me or not. You just take good care of your mother. If her condition worsens, bring her to see me, insurance be damned." She fixed him with her firmest doctor frown. "Do you hear me? If I find out her condition changed and you kept it from me, I'll hunt you down, Lev Choi."

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade paused with a buttered muffin chunk half-way to his mouth.

“Oh. Well. That was a long time ago now,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head in a bit of embarrassment. “Uh, I went to a local community college back out near my mom’s. Certainly nothing fancy like yours.”

He said it in a teasing but good-hearted way. He didn’t want Rowan to think he was being seriously hard on him.

“That was out In the boonies compared to here. Stayed out that way in the country for a few years before I decided to risk it all on the city. Glad I did, because I like the city a lot more, and this job is pretty decent, aside from some of the people.”

He probably shouldn’t be bad-mouthing the marketing guys to the newbies so much. He might pick up Wade’s bad habit.

He licked a bit of butter from his thumb and smiled.

“But even if you’ve got the more fancier education, don’t go thinkin’ I don’t know what I’m doing, ya hear? I’ve been head of development for two years now, and been working here for five. I may have taught myself a lot of it, but I can hold my own even against the bigwigs.”

His tone was lighthearted and bragging, but he was clearly pretty pleased with his accomplishments. He didn’t care about education or what led a person to get to the point where they were. God knows his own path was twisted and messed up along the way.

”The important thing on my team is that you’re good at what you do, and you’re willing to try hard. And from what I read of your contributions before the meeting, you seem like you’ll fit in just fine.”




”Well, all I’ve got is complaints about guys who don’t know how a computer works trying to lecture me about how to do my job, so I’d say we’re equally boring,” he said with a conspiratory smirk. He had a feeling that there was more she wasn’t letting on, but he wasn’t about to push. Everybody had secrets in life, and he wasn’t out to uncover any that might hurt people.

He was pleased when she accepted his offer, and he couldn’t help the grin on his face as he nodded.

“This weekend should be good for me. We just got our newest project, so Wade likes to give us a few days to brainstorm and plan before dropping into the real thick of it. The calm before the storm, you could say.“

One of the things he appreciated about Wade was that, for all his social ineptitudes and inability to remember anyone’s name that was longer than three letters, he didn’t put too much pressure on his subordinates. He made sure everybody got enough time off and days to distress between the bigger projects, even if he had to take on the brunt of the work himself to do so.

Lev wished sometimes that he would take a leaf out of his own book and take his own day off every now and then rather than binging coffee until the end of a project and passing out for a whole day straight. He wasn’t going to mention that to Azrael, though.

He gave the doctor a salut when she demanded he call her if anything changed.

“Yes ma’am, scouts honour. I’ll keep a close eye on her, and tell dad to do the same. She’s had ulcers before, so we kind of know what to look for.“

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan flushed, realizing it sounded like he had been bragging. He had been very fortunate, he had gotten a great scholarship.

"Oh--no! Of course not. I wouldn't dream of it," Rowan said in a rush when Wade told him not to look down on him for his lack of a fancy school. He paused, not sure to say he had immense respect for the older guys on the team without sounding like a suck-up. So he just stuffed more muffin in his mouth.

He nodded enthusiastically when Wade told him hard work was more valuable than education. He could do that. He had put his head down and worked his tail off in school. He had been a bit too awkward even for the popular IT majors, so he hadn't had many social distractions. But maybe it didn't have to be quite like school. He did flush a bit at praise.

The muffin was good, as was the coffee. Rowan rubbed his sweaty palms on his pants. He had a senior developer right in front of him. He really should get some advice and tips from him. He wasn't really sure how to go about it, though.

Taking a sip of his coffee, Rowan cleared his throat. "So uh... what are some things you wish someone had told you when you first started?" He smiled a little. "I'll take anything you can give me--even if it's like which water cooler to avoid."




Azrael snorted. "Now that I can commiserate with. I have business people in here telling me what their friend's aunt's brother's grandmother's dog thinks they have."

She smiled back, her eyes creasing a little. "This weekend, then. I'll pencil you in."

She sighed and nodded. H. pylori infections were fairly common in kumiho. It was infuriating that they didn't have more kumiho-safe medications for it. "Good."

There was a timid knock on the door and Thea poked their head in. "Hey, I'm really sorry, but You-Know-Who is here and he's complaining about his hemorrhoids and I can't hardly take it anymore. I even offered him a lollipop."

Azrael frowned. "Did he not go to Dr. Yves?"

"He says he didn't like Dr. Yves. I put Dr. Yves' note in his chart." They passed her a blue folder.

Azrael twisted her mouth in displeasure as she glanced over the note. Dr. Yves had recommended removal via electrocauterization, which was normal procedure. "Dr. Yves is far nicer than me, and she's the best lower GI surgeon in this city."

Thea sighed. "Yeah, well, he's being..." They glanced uncomfortably at Lev. "...y'know."

"Are you bloody kidding me," Azrael growled. Dr. Yves was djinn and one of the few practicing inhumans Azrael knew.

"I asked him to be more respectful," Thea said helplessly. They figured they better go in the room with Dr. Drake as her eyes were looking a little red.

"What does he think I'm going to do, snap my fingers and magically make his hemorrhoids disappear?" She got a very chagrined look on her face at that before continuing, "I'm not a GI surgeon."

Thea shrugged and made the "I dunno" sound in the back of their throat.

Scowling, Azrael snapped the man's chart closed. Shooting an apologetic look at Lev, she sighed. "I'm sorry, I need to go handle this. It was nice talking to you, though."

Thea glanced between Lev and Dr. Drake with with big eyes. They let out a quiet but drawn out squeal. "Enough to do it again?"

Azrael rolled her eyes. "Yes, this weekend. You're invited. Mr.--Lev is going to let us know a time."

Thea was torn between being so excited about being invited and being disappointed it wasn't a date. They decided to be excited that Dr. Drake was doing something besides working. Thea squealed again. "Oh that's going to be so much fun! I can deal with You-Know-Who knowing we have weekend plans."

"Speaking of, which room is he in?"

"One."

Azrael nodded, sliding the man's chart onto an empty clipboard. "I'll go deal with him. Have a good day, Lev." She paused and leaned back inside her office. "The new kid on the development team, Rowan Shepard. Keep an eye on him for me, will you?"

"Maybe if you weren't so scary he would come to you himself," Thea said.

Azrael eyed them over the top of her glasses before stepping out into the hall.

Thea turned back to Lev and nodded. "Good. I'm very proud of you. I haven't been able to get her to do anything that wasn't work for the past two years. She came to the caf with me once and hated it." They heard a door open and close and Dr. Drake greet the room's occupant very coolly. "Uh, I should probably go remind her of her Hippocratic oath before she slaps him or something. You know how to get out of here or should I take you to the front?"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade laughed and lightly slapped Rowan on the back.

“I’m just teasing you,” he said. “You don’t seem like the kind of guy to get a big head.”

He was a bit too earnest, maybe, but Wade found it refreshing. It was nice to be a mentor to the new kid.

“The biggest advice I have for you is to say no,” he said, his tone going serious. “Other people don’t always understand our work, and want you to do miracles for nothing. If you can’t do something in the time they’ve given you, you can either refuse, or tell me and I’ll refuse for you. Sometimes they’re sneaky, so if anyone’s giving you a hard time, just let me know.”

He frowned then, leaning forward and swirling his coffee around in his cup as he looked down at it.

”Look, I know I shouldn’t be saying this as your boss or anything, but don’t go making work your whole life. You get two weeks of vacation days a year. Use ‘em. Even if you just use them to sit at home and sleep, you use ’em. If you’ve got obligations outside of work that need being taken care of, let me know. Even if it’s just, your girl really wants a date night and we’re near the end of the project and you don’t have time to finish everything and take an evening off. Lemme know and we’ll work something out. The last thing you want to do is work here for ten years and then realize you’ve got nothing left outside of it.”

It was advice he should probably take himself, but well. Somebody had to pick up the slack, and it wasn’t like Wade actually had a girlfriend, or any friends outside of work.

“Anyways, that was a bit heavy, wasn’t it? I figure it’s best to get it out of the way first, though. In university they tell you this job has to be your whole life, but it’s a crock of shit.“



Lev was pleased as punch, and he beamed as he nodded.

“Yeah, sounds great. Looking forward to it,” he said brightly.

His face fell a little when Thea came in and described the problem patient, but it wasn’t anything he wasn’t actually used to. People were prejudiced jerks all the time. If the man wanted to suffer hemerhoids rather than let a non-human stick things up his ass then that was on him.

He blushed when Thea turned to him with the full force of their attention, and he rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.

“Well, everyone needs some time to unwind with friends, right?” He said, though he was still smiling proudly. “Besides, I think we could both use one. A friend, that is.”

When Thea turned to leave he nodded his head.

“Yeah, I’m good, I can head out,” he said, giving them a wave as he went back to the front of the clinic. Checking his watch showed him the meeting should be over, so Wade was either getting breakfast or waiting for him in his office. Hm. He should head down to the car and see if he could find him.

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan felt his face heat up again. Oh. Right. Wade was teasing him. He scratched absentmindedly at the rash on his forearm. He was going to have to remind himself that Wade was not generally being serious when he said stuff like that.

When he took his question seriously, though, Rowan relaxed a little. He knew he came off as eager to please--and, well, he was--and people tended not to take him seriously because of it. His advisor had told him he didn't need external validation, but Rowan couldn't help it.

Say "no"? He was not good at that. The only time he had ever said no was when his parents tried to get him to come home after his first year of college. It had been so hard, but he had loved what he was learning in school. He wasn't sneaking off to the library to play on the computers anymore. He even had his own laptop. He was in the big leagues--or, it had felt like it. He knew he had hurt his parents, but he didn't think about it.

But he would try to get better at it. Still... it was nice knowing he could essentially be like, "I asked my boss and he said no." Which did make him feel like a kid a little bit but he decided to think of it more as training wheels. Eventually he would be able to say no without his heart pounding in his.

When Wade looked into his coffee like it held the secrets of the universe, Rowan found himself leaning in. He nodded. That was good advice. He did appreciate Wade assuming he had a girlfriend, even though he did not. Most people assumed he had crawled out of his parents' basement until they met him. Then they assumed he had never seen a computer in his life.

"Yeah," Rowan said with a sigh. "My parents said that work wasn't life, too."

Instead of going down that morose path, he asked, "So what made you want to go into programing?"




"Well Lev Choi looked like the cat that ate the canary," Thea commented once they had checked out the problem patient.

Azrael glanced at the waiting room to make sure it was empty.

"Oh, wait, that's not rude is it? Cat idioms? No, that's the fox and hen house, right. Fox idioms are rude."

Azrael didn't look up from the notes she was making. "No, I said your 'foxy' puns were rude. But yes, those idioms can be rude if used negatively. Best practice is to put yourself in their shoes and err on the side of caution. Fax this to Dr. Randolph's office."

Thea looked at the stack of papers Azrael had handed them. "Are you really referring Mr. Jacobson to Dr. Randolph? Isn't Dr. Randolph the person you said you could murder and never get caught?"

Azrael sighed. That was before she had learned that Thea had remarkably good hearing for a human. Joshua Randolph had been senior resident during her first year of residency, and she had hated his guts ever since. He was a passable doctor--as long as the patient was human. "Dr. Randolph doesn't see inhumans, so I figured birds of a feather flock together. And I'm not sending him back to Dr. Yves. She doesn't deserve that sort of treatment."

Thea frowned. "I thought it was illegal to refuse to see people based on their species."

"It is. But there are ways to get around just about anything."

"Speaking of animals that flock, I was watching a documentary on vampire bats--"

"Is that why you were late this morning?"

"--and they said females will sometimes vomit blood back up for weak or sick females to eat. Think vampires do that?"

Thea could feel Dr. Drake looking over her glasses at them with exasperated unamusement. They suppressed a giggle.

"No," Dr. Drake said after a few seconds, her tone final.

"What's this say?" Thea pointed to a scribbled word. They had found that Dr. Drake tended to write messier when she didn't want anyone to know what she was writing--which of course made Thea want to know what it said all the more.

Azrael glanced at it. "'Blastopore.'"

"'Has not progressed past blastopore formation'?"

"White that out before you fax it," Azrael said.

Thea's face split into a grin. Dr. Drake had a habit of using vague scientific terms to insult people. "What's blastopore formation?"

Azrael sighed again, this time in resignation. "It's the formation of the first gut opening in the embryo."

Thea frowned. "That would be the mouth--no! It's the anus! You're calling him an asshole!"

To Thea's endless delight, the doctor's cheeks reddened. "Yes, in deuterostomes, the anus forms first. Don't yell. White it out."

Thea pulled the white-out from their desk drawer. "I've been trying to get you to let your hair down for two years but it only took Lev Choi one try. Not that I can blame you. He's cute. Way cuter that the delivery boy. Don't look at me like that, enemies to lovers is a thing. Anyway. I approve, you have my permission to date him."

Azrael was quite used to Thea's conversational hopscotch. "We aren't dating. We have agreed to become friends."

"Are you serious. 'Agreed'?"

"When you're my age, that's how you make friends."

"Does that mean we're friends?" Thea asked with a grin as they leaned back in their chair to look up at Azrael.

"Get back to work before I fire you," Azrael said, turning around and walking back towards her office.

Thea's grin only widened. They knew that Dr. Drake only threatened to fire them because she would never ever actually do that. They called over their shoulder, "I'm making us all friendship bracelets and you have to wear it!"

 

[Mikotsuhime]

Wade blinked, not expecting the question. He opened his mouth and then closed it again, his brow creasing.

Why had he gone into programming. Why indeed.

He hadn't really thought on it in a long while.

"Mmm, well, I like computers, for one," he said with a shrug. "And as they advance, things get easier and easier, and the options we have for everything get wider and wider. I've always found that kinda cool."

He looked down at his coffee again, wondering if he should actually elaborate. He had already freaked the kid out enough today, so it might be better to just leave it at that. Still...

"I didn't want to go into sales, or anything that involved sweet-talking people. I could have been an engineer or something, I guess, but I prefer programming to physical labour, that's all."

His mother had nervously asked him if he planned on going into politics when he was in high school, and he had told her very emphatically that he would rather die.

It was then that Lev headed into the cafeteria, and Wade quickly waved him down. He seemed a bit surprised to see a newcomer at the table, but Wade just pulled out a seat for him and handed him the extra muffin that he'd grabbed from the bakery.

"Right! So, newbie, this is Lev. Lev, this is the newbie. You guys have met, right? I think you might have met, but no problem with extra introductions," he said brightly. Lev gave Wade a wry smile as he took his muffin.

"Newbie's name is Rowan," he said, and Wade scowled at him.

"Oh, can it. Once we hit the next quarter I'll remember your name, newbie. Nothing personal, I promise."

"He can't remember anyone's name," Lev said with a shrug. "I lucked out, mine's short. Yours might take a few months."

He didn't seem too bothered by the additional member to their group, and he hummed as he stretched his arms out.

"Anyways, how was the meeting? Did you kill anyone?" he asked next, and Wade scoffed at him.

"As if I would waste my time. Meeting went well. Newbie has a backbone, and he's pretty good. I was looking over his code earlier, and I think it's basically perfect. I just wanted to go over the plan with you before we go up to the team and hash out duties and timelines."



Percival usually did not like going down to the clinic during the day. Normally, he would either call Azrael up to his office, or wait until after the office closed and most people went home to actually go see her. People spread rumours when he did something unusual, so he went to great pains to avoid it. But unfortunately, it was January, and the space heater in his office had broken. He found out when he went to work on some paperwork after the meeting, and after trying to stick it out for a good twenty minutes, he decided that he did not have the patience to deal with this today.

He'd been moody lately already since his sister had begged him to drive her and her friend home from the club two days before, having not decided to mention that her friend was a naga who had just shed skin after coming out of an aborted hibernation and that she lived over an hour away.

He was fine. He was not actually an animal and could deal with this sort of thing easily. Normandy was his baby sister and he loved her, even if sometimes she was selfish and didn't think about how her actions affected others. Whether his hormones were out of whack and his heating was on the fritz was all fine, they were things he could deal with. But then, after the meeting, he had gotten an email from his father's assistant that their usual blood supplier had run into issues, and that he wouldn't get his monthly allotment until next week.

That, normally, would also be fine. He didn't need blood nearly as often as a full-blooded vampire. He could go two months without if he really needed to, or push it to three before his health was in immediate danger.

But it was one thing after another, and he was annoyed. The cold made him feel terrible and sluggish, and if he wrapped up in his coat and scarf inside his employees would talk.

So he took the elevator down to the first floor, smiling pleasantly as always as he knocked on the door to the clinic with his knuckle before entering.

He just hoped Azrael had a heat compress or he might end up killing somebody by the time the day was through. Probably one of his team members, or the girl at the reception desk who was still giving him doe eyes and--

He needed to relax. Just smile and be polite until the day was over. Maybe he could drive out to his mother's home in the rich part of the city. She had a heated pool that was large enough to use in his natural form. He just had to get through the day first.

He smiled at Thea, putting on his best 'I am a good boss and a perfect human being who is always nice to everyone' face.

"Good morning. Is Dr. Drake in by any..." He frowned as he spoke because the circulation in here was not great, and there was the scent of something that was putting him even more on edge than normal.

He recognized it from this morning, and he had to fight the urge to scowl.

The annoying programmer. Or, well, he wasn't really annoying, so much as he just seemed to be Wade's friend. Which was fine. Wade was allowed to have friends. But Percival was already moody and grumpy, and Wade was his friend first. It wasn't fair that some nobody fox down in accounting got to get all his attention while all Percival got was arguments and--

God he needed to get a hold of himself.

"...chance," he finished, hoping the pause wasn't too obvious. "If she has other appointments, it's not a problem."

 

[Reynarda]

Rowan nodded. That tended to be what most people said. They liked computers. He agreed. Ever since he had played a math computer game on the library’s computers, he had been hooked. To his parents’ horror, he had brought home several books on computers that day. They had thought it was just a passing fancy, but it had blossomed into an obsession. And, of course, their dislike of it had made it all the more interesting.

But they didn’t see that computers were the way of the future. Worse, they didn’t see that he was good at computers. He liked nature, he liked the outdoors, but they just didn’t have the organized complexity of computers. Nature was too messy, too unpredictable. But with computers, if something was wrong with them, it was your fault. Stupid in, stupid out. There was no rhyme or reason to nature. Sometimes crops just failed for no reason. That didn’t happen with computers. It could take forever, but you could find the messed-up code and fix it. And he was good at it.

He did chuckle a little at the thought of Wade sweet-talking anyone. It was more likely that he’d bully them into buying whatever he was selling. Still, there seemed to be something about it that made Wade uncomfortable, so he didn’t point that fact out.

He smiled as Lev joined them. Lev was nice—and remembered his name. He had begun to think he would have to legally change his name to “Newbie”. Some people had warned him Lev was a fox, but Rowan had no idea what that meant. His parents had taught him to always be kind and to keep around good people. Lev was good people, regardless of whether he was human.

“Sorry, my name doesn’t shorten well,” he said with a small smile. He couldn’t help but add, “Rowan is the same number of syllables as ‘Newbie’.”

Rowan wasn’t really sure what constituted as “well” in Wade’s book as that had been the most nerve-wracking meeting of Rowan’s life. Granted, he hadn’t been in many meetings. But still. Nerve-wracking.

Rowan did brighten and then flushed crimson at Wade’s praise. “He’s being too generous,” he said, face turned towards his mostly-eaten muffin. “It needs work.”





Thea scanned the messages in the chat room they had with the receptionists. “You’ll never believe what Wade Harper said to Percival Fairweather,” they yelled back towards the lab.

“I probably will,” they could just barely hear Dr. Drake say. “Tell the chat room you have charges to file so I can pay you.”

Thea had started the habit of yelling back and forth with Dr. Drake when no one else was in the office within their first few weeks of working there. Dr. Drake had resisted it as she never yelled, but Thea could hear her just fine as long as she raised her voice just a tad. Sometimes Thea figured Dr. Drake was just responding to the sound of their voice, but it made the working day go by faster.

“I bet you won’t! He said—oh. Speak of the devil.”

“Which devil?” Dr. Drake asked.

Thea didn’t answer as they were too busy smiling back at Percival Fairweather. Thea had always been good at reading people. It was part of what made them such a good medical professional. But Percival Fairweather had always been a tough read. They felt like they had been able to read Dr. Drake more easily more quickly than him. Granted, Dr. Drake had three moods—neutral grumpy, pissed grumpy, and morose grumpy. Percival Fairweather was always in a good mood. They might have bought it if he had worn brighter colors and was less stuffy. But right now the lines around his eyes were too strained to be as cheerful as he pretended.

“Hi, Mr. Fairweather,” they greeted. “How is life treating y…”

They trailed off as something seemed to catch his attention and then the lines around his eyes deepened. Ok, that was weird. He had almost, just almost, looked slightly annoyed.

Thea eyed him. They had been instructed to make excuses to anyone calling from upstairs. When they asked what they should say, Dr. Drake had said, "I don't know, whatever. Tell them I'm dead." Which Thea had done, with great delight. One concerned person had sent flowers. But they weren't sure what to do when the man himself was in the office.

And anyway, Percival Fairweather needed to know that that ship had sailed. Dr. Drake was clearly going out with Lev. As friends, whatever, it counted. Maybe that's why he had looked annoyed. Somehow he knew Lev had been here already.

"Dr. Drake is otherwise engaged," Thea said tersely.

"Who is it, Thea?" Dr. Drake said from the lab.

"You have another gentleman caller," Thea yelled back. "Want me to let him down easy for you?"

"Thea, I swear," Azrael said, appearing at Thea's elbow.

They jumped. They hated it when she did that. Dr. Drake could move soundlessly when she wanted to, and it was unnerving.

Azrael took in Percival's elevated heart rate and blood pressure in a glance then locked eyes with him. Now was very much not the time for Thea to be their delightfully infuriating self. It would be so unfortunate if she had to stop Percival Fairweather from biting her medical assistant.

"Join me in my office, Mr. Fairweather."

"Doc," Thea started to protest. "What about--"

"This is business, Thea," Azrael cut off her medical assistant before they could mention Lev. Whose blood was still in her lab coat pocket. Aw, hell. Why did none of these people believe in appointments?

She ushered Percival back to her office before Thea could say something that would result in her having to shove Percival Bloody Fairweather into a wall. Not that she thought he would actually crack, but Thea had a habit of being good at digging at people without meaning to. Azrael found it endearing, but she also had very little interpersonal interaction outside of work.

After closing the door to her office, Azrael leaned against her desk and folded her arms across her chest. "Alright, Percival, who urinated in your cornflakes this morning."

If it were Wade, she would probably have to declare the man a health risk.