The next couple of weeks were busy, but they passed more or less without incident. Raf quickly got used to his responsibilities, and the Center Omegas slowly became more accustomed to his presence. So far, very few of them (apart from Christina) seemed interested in actively seeking out his company, but at least they had stopped glaring at him or hushing all conversations the moment he entered a room. Progress was progress, he supposed.

He still had not seen Trevor since his return. Initially, he was happy enough to steer clear of the hot-tempered Omega, but after two consecutive weeks of not seeing him at all, he started to wonder if something had happened. When he asked Miguel about it, however, the Beta seemed unconcerned.

“Oh, that? Yeah, he’s probably just avoiding you. I do see him around from time to time, so I know he’s still here,” Miguel said as he handed Raf a dish to dry.

“Well, that’s a relief,” Raf said. “I would have felt really bad if he’d had to leave the Center because of me. That said,” he added, “I’m kind of surprised that he’s been so successful at staying out of sight. I haven’t seen him at all, and Dante has me running all over the place some days.”

“Well, if I had to guess, Dante’s probably helping him.”

Raf paused, setting the dish down on the rack. “Helping him do what?”

“Avoid you.” He nudged Raf and handed him another glass. “Keep going, kid, I got a whole stack of these to get through. We don’t have all day.”

Raf took the glass and resumed wiping. “I don’t understand, though. Why would Dante be helping him to avoid me?”

“Maybe because he doesn’t want to have to make another hospital trip?” Miguel looked at Raf’s confused expression and sighed. “Look, kid, Dante deals with a lot of conflict around here. You may have noticed, but not all the residents are what you’d call emotionally stable, and some of them seriously go off at the drop of a hat. If Dante were constantly reacting to every little fight, he’d never get anything done. So, he gets ahead of it.”

Miguel handed Raf another plate. “He explained it to me once. I forget the fancy therapy term he used, but the gist is that to keep the peace, he makes rules and he makes deals.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Well, take Trevor. After the fight with you, Dante would probably have sat him down and laid out a rule. Something simple and easy to understand, like ‘Do Not Fight With Raf.’ Then, he asks Trevor what an appropriate punishment would be if he were to break the rule.”

“That seems like kind of a backwards way to set punishments.”

“You’d think so, but the punishment isn’t the point. The point is that Trevor gets to decide, which helps him to think of it less as a rule, and more as a goal. Then, Dante works with Trevor to make a plan for how he will meet that goal, and he offers practical support so that Trevor is as likely to be successful as possible. The end result is that Trevor successfully avoids you, no one gets into a fight, and Dante has one less problem to solve.” 

Raf gaped at him. Miguel quirked an eyebrow and chuckled. “Close your mouth, kid, or you’ll catch flies. ”

Raf shut his jaw with a snap and turned back to the dishes. “That’s amazing,” he murmured. “I had no idea… Does he do that with all the residents?”

“Pretty much. I don’t really know how he manages it all, especially with Thomas being out and him having to play acting Director on top of being everyone’s therapist. Oh, but come to think of it, he’ll be back pretty soon. Thomas, I mean. You haven’t met him.”

“Is he the Director?”

“Yep. He’s been on leave because he and his mate had a baby girl a few months back.” Miguel finished the last of the dishes and began wiping his hands with the towel. “Honestly, I’ll be glad when he’s back. Dante’s been doing a good job staying on top of things, but I dunno, he’s been looking kind of ragged lately.”

“Really? To me, he always just seems so...in control.”

“Yeah, it can be hard to tell with him,” Miguel agreed. “Dante doesn’t like to talk about himself even under normal circumstances, let alone when he’s stressed. Thomas is pretty much the only one who can get him to open up at all, and I’d wager money that even he doesn’t know everything.” Miguel set down the towel and stretched his shoulders. “Okay, now that the dishes are done, let’s get these boxes open so we can start food prep for dinner.”

Raf blinked at the sudden topic change, but since Miguel seemed like he was done talking for the moment, he didn’t press it. 

Even so, Dante continued to remain on his mind. He replayed their previous conversations in his head, and his list of unresolved questions only grew the more he thought about it. Dante really was a tough nut to crack. Everyone at the Center seemed to trust him implicitly, but the enigmatic Omega was in many ways as much of a mystery to the rest of the residents as he was to Raf. What was more, Raf apparently wasn’t the only one who was curious.

“Did you ever wonder what happened to Dante’s mate?” a teenaged Omega named Iris wondered aloud a day later. 

Raf was in the common room, fixing the Center’s temperamental microwave for what had to be the third time that week, when a group of young Omegas wandered in to grab some snacks. His ears perked up at the comment, and he made his movements as quiet as possible so he could continue to listen.

“Not really,” one of her friends responded. “I mean, I heard they just split up after they graduated. It’s a common story. High school sweethearts always turn sour, am I right?”

“No, it was a way bigger deal than that!” Iris retorted. “I thought his mate went missing or something. Like maybe there was an accident and he disappeared?”

“That wasn’t the story I heard,” a third chimed in. “Jesse told me a while back that Dante’s mate was someone his parents considered really ‘unsuitable’, and like, they forced them to break up, even though he had been claimed.”

“Now, now, children, gossiping isn’t nice,” Raf stiffened when he heard Christina’s voice suddenly break in and interrupt the dish session. He hadn’t even noticed her enter the room. He quickly refocused his attention on his repairs and hoped she wouldn’t realize he had been eavesdropping. 

“Aw, come on, Christina, don’t tell me you’re not curious,” Iris whined.

“It’s his business, not yours. That’s enough of a reason not to poke your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“He gets to hear our business all the time. I don’t see what’s so wrong with wanting to know more about him,” Iris muttered.

“Well, when you train to become a therapist and convince him to be your patient, I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it,” Christina said sweetly. “Too bad you won’t be able to gossip about him then, though. Professional ethics and all that.”

Amidst the sullen chorus of groans that followed, Raf finished up his work and began to gather his tools. Christina caught his eye as he stood. Oh, she definitely knows I was listening. He gave her a sheepish smile and hurried out of the room to his next assignment.

That wasn’t the end of it, though. Christina finally managed to catch up to him after dinner that evening. Raf had just wrapped up the last of his cleaning duties and was getting ready to head out for the night when she appeared at the kitchen door.

“Heya, kid. Got a minute?”

“Um, sure.” Raf finished shrugging on his jacket. “I was just on my way out. Wanna walk with me?”