Dante was feeling nervous. Really nervous.

It had taken him some time to even work up the nerve to message Raf and Christina with his apology. The whole situation felt incredibly awkward (and more than a little embarrassing). Several times, he even came close to giving up on the endeavor altogether, but he finally got it over with once he realized that Thomas wasn’t going to leave him alone until it was done.

Once the messages had been sent, all that was left was to mentally prepare himself for whatever responses they might send his way.

Christina, at least, had been relatively gracious. She didn’t mince words over Dante’s decision to leave them wandering around searching for him (“In the cold, Dante! For over an hour!”), but she forgave him once he had shown the appropriate amount of contrition.

Raf’s reaction, on the other hand, was harder to gauge, because he didn’t respond to Dante's message at all. Instead, he sent a perfunctory email to the Center's main account and proceeded to drop off the face of the Earth for a week.

To be fair, Dante reminded himself, the absence was not wholly unexpected. When Raf had first started working at St. Margaret’s, they had agreed to work around his school schedule. As long as he was on track to meet the requirements of his probation, Raf had every right to take some extra time now and then to prioritize his studies. 

Still, the lack of communication was concerning. After the initial barrage of messages following the run-in with Alexei, the sudden silence felt...deliberate. Dante was certain that he had offended Raf somehow; but no matter how many times he went over it, he couldn’t figure out exactly where he had gone wrong, let alone how to fix it. 

“You just need to give him some time,” Christina told him as they ate lunch together on Thursday. 

“I’m trying, but I just have no idea what he’s thinking.” Dante rubbed a hand across his face in frustration. “Did I really upset him that badly?”

“Kind of.” Christina shrugged. “I mean, we were both really worried when we couldn’t reach you, and I think he took it a little personally. He felt like you had rejected him.” She took a large bite of her roast turkey sandwich, then chewed and swallowed it before adding, “Which, to be fair, you kind of did.”

“I know, I know,” Dante groaned. “I realize it was wrong of me to leave you both hanging like that. I did say that I was sorry.”

“And I accept your apology.” Christina smiled primly and then gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. “He will, too, eventually. You just need to give him time.”

Dante had tried -- really tried -- to follow her advice, but by Saturday he was pretty much bouncing off the walls. How much longer did Raf intend to stay away? Would he really be back by Monday? When would this stupid silent treatment finally end?

Dante stared angrily at his phone, checking back and forth between his email and texts for the hundredth time, on the off-chance that a new message had appeared in the last 15 seconds. It hadn’t.

Of course not, the negative voice in his head needled at him. He clearly doesn’t want to talk to you. Just take the hint already. 

Dante gripped the device hard in his hand and resisted the urge to throw it against the wall. 

This simply couldn’t go on. As much as he wanted to give Raf time, Dante knew he had officially reached his breaking point. If Raf wasn’t going to talk to him, then he would just have to make the first move; otherwise, he was going to go crazy. He picked up his phone and opened the messaging app.

Unfortunately, crafting a message that adequately expressed his feelings was much easier said than done, and it ended up taking him over an hour to come up with the three lines of text that he ultimately sent to Raf. When Raf replied mere minutes later, Dante was filled with equal parts relief and annoyance that the Alpha did not seem to share his struggles with message composition. 

From his response, it sounded like Raf was indeed planning to return to the Center on Monday, although the request to “talk” sounded vaguely ominous. As he read over the message again, Dante’s heart started to hammer in his chest. What exactly was it that Raf wanted to talk about? Was it possible that he was still angry? What if he didn’t want to be friends anymore?

It’s okay, don’t panic, he told himself firmly. Talking it out is the right thing to do in this situation. The two of us will just sit down on Monday and clear the air. I’ll explain what happened, and I’ll apologize again if I need to, and then I’m sure everything will be fine.

Dante flopped down on his bed with a groan. Oh, who was he kidding? Even in his own head, the self-reassurances sounded hollow. He desperately wanted to believe that everything would work out, but if something went amiss again and Raf really did want to end their friendship... 

Well, then what? his brain prompted him. It’s not like I’ve never walked away from friendships before. Hell, when I was younger I used to do it all the time. I always got over it. What makes this any different? Surely I’d be fine without him.

The answering pang in his chest quickly put a stop to that line of thought. Although the why of it still eluded him, Dante knew he felt a keen reluctance to let this particular friendship slip through his fingers. Whatever else he’d feel if Raf chose to terminate their friendship on Monday, it definitely wouldn’t be “fine”.

He rolled over and covered his face with his hands. One way or another, he’d have to face the Alpha soon. The rest would just have to sort itself when the time came.

-----

On Monday morning, Dante arrived at the Center hoping to see Raf as soon as the Alpha clocked in for his shift. However, his plans for the day were thrown off-track when he was swept into the unexpected return of another long-absent friend.

After four months of leave, Thomas had finally decided it was time for him to return and resume his duties as the Center’s Director. 

“You could have taken another week or two, Thomas,” Dante said as they walked down the hall toward Thomas’s office for a quick debrief. “It really would have been fine.”

Thomas glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “So you’ve been saying every week for the past month.”

“I mean it!” Dante pushed open the door for Thomas and then followed him into the office. “Given how much you’ve done for the Center, you’ve more than earned the right to spend some extra time with your family. Anyway, I’ve been handling everything.”

Thomas sat down at his desk with a sigh. “That’s sort of the problem, Dante. While I appreciate the coverage, you’ve been handling everything by yourself for the past four months. I didn’t realize it until I saw you in person last week, but you are looking seriously worn down, my friend. It didn’t feel right to stay away any longer.”

“That was a special circumstance, and you know it,” Dante retorted, folding his arms across his chest. “Yes, I know I was a complete mess the other night, but that has nothing to do with how well I can do my job on a day-to-day basis. After all--”

“Dante.” Thomas stopped him with a wave. “Come on. How long have we known each other? As distressing as seeing your ex-mate clearly was, it’s obvious that’s not the only thing that’s been weighing on your mind. Plus,” he leaned back in his chair, “I should know better than anyone how taxing it is to keep this place running, even under the best of circumstances. It wasn’t fair of me to leave it all on your shoulders for so long.”

Dante flushed and looked down at his feet. He knew Thomas was right, but he was still loath to concede the point. It felt too much like admitting failure. No matter how impossibly demanding it was in reality, it was still his job, and he took pride in doing it well.

“Hey now,” Thomas leaned forward and tilted his head up to try and catch Dante’s eye. “Whatever’s going through your head right now, stop it. I’m absolutely not saying you didn’t do a good job. Got it?” 

Dante’s mouth twitched. He hated how well Thomas was able to read him.

“Honestly,” Thomas continued, “I’m pretty amazed at how well you’ve held things together. Everyone I’ve talked to so far today has had nothing but praise for you. I was also reading over your daily reports, and it sounds like you handled every incident that came up at least as well as I would have, if not better.” He stood up again and circled around the desk to stand in front of Dante. “I’m just worried about what it’s all been costing you.”

“I’m fine,” Dante muttered, stubbornly keeping his gaze fixed on the floor.

Thomas sighed heavily and settled his hands on Dante’s shoulders. “Dante, look at me,” he said firmly.

Dante hesitated a moment, then slowly looked up. Thomas squeezed his shoulders. “Right now, I’m talking to you as your friend, not your boss,” he said gently. “I want you to know that I see how hard you are working, and I know you take pride in what you do; but if you keep burning the candle at both ends like this, you will burn out. You’re human, Dante, not a machine. It’s okay to know your limits.”

Dante opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by a quick rap at the half-open door. They both looked up as Miguel stuck his head in. 

“Heya boss”, he said to Thomas. “Welcome back! I saw the door was open, so I thought I’d swing by and introduce you to the new recruit…” He looked back and forth between them, taking note of Thomas’s hands still resting on Dante’s shoulders. “Sorry, am I interrupting?”

“No, not at all.” Dante quickly took a step back from Thomas, who let his arms drop. He shifted his gaze down and to the side, his cheeks reddening as he looked anywhere but at the two of them. How embarrassing. “I was just heading off to another appointment anyway, so I’ll head out now.”

He quickly stepped around Miguel and made to leave the office, but almost immediately bumped face-first into someone else. 

“Ouch.” He stepped back and rubbed his nose. “Sorry about that.” He looked up at the newcomer, only to realize in horror that Raf was staring back down at him, a complicated expression on his face. 

Dante blanched. “Oh,” was all he managed to say. 

Raf opened his mouth like he wanted to reply, but then his eyes darted over to where Miguel and Thomas were both staring at them, and he quickly closed it again.

“Um,” Dante said hesitantly. “I...I need to go to my appointment now. I’ll see you...later?”

Raf nodded mutely, his eyes never leaving Dante’s face.

“Right, later then.” Dante stepped back, gave a curt nod in Thomas’s direction, and promptly fled the room.