Richard was going insane. Cio was leaning over some paperwork that was spread all over the lab tables and every two seconds his hair would fall forward to obstruct his view. Cio would shove it behind his ear. It would fall forward. Cio would shove it behind his ear. It would fall forward. Richard hadn’t even greeted the young man yet. He was just standing and watching the cycle.

“You’re driving me crazy,” he muttered as he approached Cio. He reached out, before he could think better of it, and with nimble fingers, had Cio’s hair plaited into a neat braid. His hair was just as soft as Richard remembered. “Do you even realize you do it?” He asked as he fastened the braid with a rubber band. He stepped back to observe his handiwork. It had been a long time since he’d braided anyone’s hair, but his hands still remembered the motions.

“Do I even realize I do what?” Cio’s voice was oddly strained as he kept his back to Richard.

“Constant. You are constantly pushing your hair back behind your ears where it stays for only seconds. Seconds, Cio.”

Cio reached back and ran his fingers over the plaited hair. “So you decided a braid was best?”

“I-” Riched felt slightly abashed at that. “Better than you constantly shoving it back. My method is at least effective.”

Cio didn’t respond. He just pushed away from the lab tables and made his way to the computer desk where he dug in one of the drawers for a minute. A familiar red package was in his hand as he rose with a triumphant grin.

“You know,” he started as he tore open the package of twizzlers, “some might consider it inappropriate to randomly decide to braid a coworkers hair. Oh wait, I mean an employee’s hair.”

Richard hid a wince. Yeah. It was absolutely inappropriate to randomly braid anyone’s hair. “Do you?”

Cio smiled at him. “Nope. You can braid my hair whenever you want, Dr. Price.”

Richard was stunned at the rush of heat that flared up when Cio said his title. He cleared his throat and in a gruff voice said, “Yeah, yeah. Come on, Augustus Gloop. No candy by the computers.” To his surprise, Cio’s face flushed. His cheeks darkened. His eyes turned downcast. Richard hesitated at the abrupt change in the endlessly cheerful young man.

It didn’t last long though. Cio shook off the down demeanor and had a smile flashing across his face again. “Does that make you Willy Wonka or Grandpa Joe?”

Richard rolled his eyes as Cio set about getting down to business, but that flash of insecurity was ingrained in his mind. He watched Cio shimmy around to a song only he could hear. Cio looked back at him with a grin and a head cock, questioning why Richard was still by the desks, but Richard just shook his head and gestured to the door. Cio shrugged and turned back to his work.

Richard left him to it. He had more important stuff to do.

*~*~*

He thought he had more important stuff to do. Apparently spinning in his office chair and staring at the photo of his wife was the only thing on his to do list. He pressed the intercom button on his phone. “Rhodes. Get in here.”

Five minutes later, Natalie popped the door open. Her chair squeaked slightly as she rolled in. “Boss.”

“Any calls for me? Papers to sign? Meetings to get to?” Natalie stared him down and said nothing. “Why have I not fired you yet?”

She grinned at him. “Go bother Cio again while I keep your business running.”

“Cio’s busy working.”

“Cio took an early lunch break in order to take a shower.”

“How do you know that?”

She just smiled at him and left his office. The squeaky wheel grated on his ears the entire way.

“How am I supposed to bother him if he’s showering!” He yelled after her. The response was his door shutting without a sound.

He could only handle the quiet office with nothing to do for so long. Not five minutes later and he stalked past Natalie without so much as a glance. Early lunch break to take a shower. Russell didn’t work with chemicals in his labs. There should be no reason for Cio to need an extra shower mid-day.

Russell was in the break room eating a small salad with too much cheese and not enough greens. “Russ.”

“Rich.”

“What’s happened to Cio?”

“Hmm?” Russell forked another bite into his mouth. He chewed slowly and swallowed. “Nothing happened to Cio?”

“Natalie said he took an early lunch so he could shower.”

Russell’s look turned speculative. “Why do you care about Cio taking an early lunch?”

“If something happened at work that required him to go home and take a shower, then I should know about it.”

“You never ask when I take an early break.”

“If I asked every time you took a break, I’d never have the time to get anything else done.”

“Funny,” Russell deadpanned. “Nothing happened. He said he could still smell the hospital on him and he couldn’t take it anymore.”

Richard sat back. “What’s his deal with hospitals?”

Russ shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. As long as he does his job, he can have whatever quirks he wants.”

Giving Russell up as a lost cause, he went to wait for Cio in the labs instead. Curiosity soon got him and he dug through the desk drawers to find a truly alarming amount of candy. Twizzlers, Whoopers, Kitkats, and Reese’s. He glanced into an almost empty bag of suckers to see nothing but the blue ones left. He snorted and unwrapped one for himself.

“Oh ho! So you’re allowed to have candy by the computers then?”

Richard grinned at Cio’s triumphant tone and spun around in the office chair to face him. He took in Cio’s still damp hair, combed back but beginning to curl. “I’m the boss. I can do what I want.”

“Mhmm. Out of my seat, boss.”

“Don’t call me boss.”

Cio’s grin flashed across his face.

Richard leaned back in Cio’s seat. “So, possible sugar addiction aside, what’s the problem?”

“Problem?” Cio grabbed the second office chair and straddled it. “I don’t have a problem.”

“With hospitals. This is the second time you’ve been weird after getting back from one. Germaphobe?”

Cio’s face was walled off and cautious. “I just don’t like the smell. It sticks to everything and distracts me.”

“Then why go?”

“Because I’m the ‘assistant.’ Assistants do what their boss tells them to do. Besides, it’s just a quick trip in and out usually.”

“You dislike it enough to keep a change of clothes handy and to voluntarily leave early for an extra shower. Tell Russell to do his own errands.”

“I can’t. Building good relations with the people in the hospital is just as important as building the machines to help them. Also, Russell’s an ass. If he went, the doctors would be switching to someone new and then I won’t get to see this through.”

Richard chuckled. Cio’s grin stretched, lighting up his face and making him look even younger than he was. Unease settled low in his gut at the attraction he felt flickering to life. Unable to stay where he was, Richard shot to his feet and stalked out of the room ignoring Cio’s bewildered look.

He wasn’t able to stay away for long though. Russell let his early lunch break drag on until the end of his regular lunch break. Natalie kept giving him looks and dropping information that he chose to ignore. When his phone rang, it was a blessing, for exactly 3 seconds. Just long enough for him to hear that it General Ibernathy again looking for him to reconsider his decision to focus on medical advancement. He’d spent the last decade building this lab up to the level he had, he wasn’t about to go back to weapons engineering.

It was after that phone call, when, irritated and restless, he made his way back down to Cio’s floor. Natalie’s words followed him the entire way, ‘Russell’s down on the first floor chatting with Greyson.’ As though he wanted nothing more than to know Russell’s whereabouts at all times. He slammed to a stop though, when he realized Cio wasn’t alone in the room.

Shiny, black hair plaited into a neat French braid that fell to midback. Dark skin, a tone matching Cio’s, and a soft-spoken voice reached his ears. Too soft to hear what she was saying. About to back out and let Cio keep chatting with the woman in the room with him, he stopped when he noticed the slightly panicked and cornered expression on Cio’s face.

“What’s going on here?” He strode across the room. Cio’s face changed from slight panic to full blown freak out. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” He held a hand out to the woman. “Dr. Richard Price.”

Her eyes, dark and shrewd, glanced down his body. A light of understanding came to life in her dark eyes. “Amelia.” She gave his hand a firm shake. “Dr. Richard Price you say? It’s great to finally meet you. Cio’s spoke highly of you.”

Richard scooted closer to Cio. He recognized her, now that he was closer, as Cio’s sister. The current look on her face reminded him vaguely of how Natalie would look when she told him where Cio was, as though she knew something he didn’t. “Yes, well.” He looked for the right words. “I’m lucky to have Cio.” There. Suitable praise for a young genius.

A triumphant smile stole across her face, softening the harsh features. “Yes. Cio’s a great person. Very nice. He said he was meeting his boyfriend for dinner tonight? Right, Cio?”

“Ye-“

“And I said if he’s meeting his boyfriend for dinner tonight, then it’s as good a time as ever to invite him to the wedding.” Her look turned innocent. “That makes sense, doesn’t it, Richard?”

Richard glanced back at Cio who stared at him with wide eyes. “Uh, yeah. Makes sense to me.”

“Great! Wedding is next month. I look forward to stealing a dance from you. Have a good night guys!” She was gone before he could find his voice.

Cio looked to be as speechless as Richard felt. “Did I just get invited to a wedding?”

“Yeah. You did. Sorry, Dr. Price. My sister can be a little bit presumptuous.”

“You might want to tell your boyfriend about the wedding before she corners him like that. She might scare him away.”

Cio’s face darkened in a flush. “Ah, yeah, I’m still not seeing anyone right now.”

“No? And your sister thought you were meeting your boyfriend tonight, why?” Richard bit back his smile as Cio darkened ever more

“I’ve been using the excuse to get out of Friday dinners,” Cio muttered.

“And-“

“And I now see how that might be backfiring on me.”

Richard shook his head. “Why did she think I was your boyfriend?”

Cio’s cheeks darkened. He busied himself selecting a very specific twizzler before he spoke again. “We haven’t really talked about what happened, before.” He glanced up. Worry was evident in the crease of Cio’s brows. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be pretending it never happened or what, and I’m not expecting anything! That’s not why I applied here. But, at my undergrad graduation I told her about, uh, us. Then she spotted you in that coffee shop and…”

Richard didn’t like to see Cio so unsure of himself. He remembered every moment of that. Seeing Cio holding the little girl who looked just like him. That fear that he’d taken advantage of someone in a committed relationship. Fuck. What was he doing now? It was the same as that weekend. Cio just captivated his attention in a way Richard hadn’t experienced since he was with his wife.

“I’m sorry she got the wrong impression. I know you’re married. I’ll let her know and maybe see if Ash would want to come with me to the wedding. At the very least it’ll get them off my back for a while, y’know?”

“I’m a widow.” He was a little abrupt with it. The thought of Cio taking Greyson’s assistant made him jealous. He didn’t want Cio to take Greyson’s assistant because of a misunderstanding. “Lucy, my wife, died eleven years ago.”

This was why he hated talking about her. That instant look of pity that crossed people’s faces. It’s been 11 years. He still missed her, but people didn’t need to look at him like that. Cio gave him a hesitant smile, but before he could respond, Russell entered the room again. Richard nodded a greeting and left. He let Natalie know he was taking an early day and left.