“Thank you, Dr. Williams,” Orion said, desperate and awkward, “but I really don’t need my own office.” He held both hands up, one elbow jammed into his side and holding his new VADR-issued laptop in place.

“I insist,” said Dr. Williams. She was an older woman who looked like she used to be a cheerleader, tall and slender in a way that resulted from trendy diets and pilates with the gals. Pulled up with the illusion of effortlessness, her blond hair was darker at the roots, and her big blue eyes were framed by heavy mascara. It was Orion’s second day at VADR, and she was aggressively making up for her absence on his first day. Gesturing toward the open door next to her room, she said, “It’s just an empty office.”

Orion frowned. Down the hall from here, he’d happened to see the little closet Bellamy worked out of yesterday. The intern hadn’t invited him to see it; Orion had just been trailing after him between groups and seen inside. Bellamy had been embarrassed by it, blushing crimson and muttering something about “comparable to other internship sites” before shutting Orion out in the hall.

“I’ll take it,” began Orion, “if Bellamy can share it with me.”

“Who?” Dr. Williams made a face. Then her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, right! The trainee.”

“Intern,” Orion corrected dismally. “So you’re not opposed to him sharing this office with me?”

“If that’s what you want.” Dr. Williams shrugged, sounding bored. “Okay, next up is I’ve got all your onboarding stuff for you to do today.” Dr. Williams’ voice became little more than a buzz in the background of Orion’s thoughts. He gave her fake laughs and acquiescence as he moved through the stack of paperwork she was explaining.

“Also,” said Dr. Williams finally, her gaze flicking toward his antlers, “I’d like to get the company photographer to do some PR pictures of you and me. We don’t have many shifters working for the organization, and it’ll be good for our image.” Not concerned with Orion’s consent on the matter, Dr. Williams excused herself and closed herself in her office.

Orion held his stack of VADR employee stuff in both hands, lips pressed together in a grimace as all the insults he would have loved to have said clanged around in his head. As a shifter working in social work, particularly CPS, Orion was used to being tokenized. For the lead psychiatrist at this location to be so blatant in her exploitation of his species, though, was not a good look for her.

 His goals with VADR were going to be easier to accomplish than he’d thought yesterday, before he’d met Dr. Williams. At least that meant he wasn’t going to be stuck here long.

He took a few steps into the empty office. While he was sure that Dr. Williams’ room was bigger than this, compared to Bellamy’s closet in particular, this office was luxuriously large. It had a couch, two armchairs, and a large desk equipped with phone and desktop computer. The long window had the blinds pulled up to show another gloomy overcast morning.

Orion set his stack on the corner of the desk and then turned on his heel, bustling out of the Psychiatry department. He checked his watch for the time and confirmed by leaning his ear into the group room door that Bellamy was busy for a few more minutes running the process group.

Past the group room was the unmarked door into Bellamy’s closet. Orion silently turned the handle and let himself in, closing the door behind him without turning on the light. He pulled off his glasses and hooked them through his collar.

The faint light spilling under the crack in the door let his vision absorb everything he needed to see to quickly pack up Bellamy’s belongings. A briefcase and winter outerwear draped over a broomstick in the corner; the laptop on the desk; some décor that in Orion’s vision looked purple and brown. Orion had a big arm-span, but he wasn’t going to be able to get this all in one trip without spilling all of Bellamy’s belongings on the floor. That would hardly be the good-faith gesture Orion intended.

He elbowed the doorknob open and shuffled back down the way he’d come from. He came back for the second haul while the hallway was still quiet, but then, with the final pile of stuff in his arms, the group room door opened.

Bellamy was the first one out, smiling bemusedly at something a client said until his fair face turned toward Orion.

“Hey!” Bellamy yelped. “What the hell are you doing with my stuff?”

Orion swore under his breath, gave a wordless, nervous laugh in response, and dodged the small intern’s lunging hand. Orion was scampering now as he zig-zagged through the spill of clients toward the Psychiatry door.

“You fuzzy-eared goon, get back here!” Bellamy’s footsteps were more of a hasty hustle as he politely excused himself and dodged clients.

On the phone, Dr. Williams’ receptionist looked up with an annoyed frown when Orion burst into the office. They were an elf with a small afro, finger lifted to their lips.

“Sorry,” Orion whispered, hurrying into his new office. He quickly hung up Bellamy’s jacket and bag on the coat rack next to the light switch, which meant he was facing the door when Bellamy exploded into the room.

Orion heard the receptionist groan while he restored his glasses to his face to reduce the glare and the way his vision grayed out under these horrid fluorescent lights.

Bellamy hesitated in front of the reception desk, first looking at Dr. Williams’ closed door. Then his gaze swung toward Orion. His pale eyebrows rose and vanished under his bangs.

Quieter, Bellamy crossed through the waiting room and into the doorway. He scanned the desk, which was piled with stacks of his belongings and décor from his closet.

“What’s going on?” Bellamy stood by the door, awkwardly flexing his hands open and closed.

“You got an upgrade,” explained Orion. He started setting Bellamy’s handful of books on the empty bookshelf.

“What d’you mean? Did Dr. Williams advise this?” Bellamy crossed his arms.

“Not exactly.” Orion glanced at Bellamy and, realizing there was nothing to be gained from setting up the rest of Bellamy’s things for him, he straightened and rubbed his dark hair. “We’ll have to grab the desk chair from your closet.”

“Orion, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll explain now,” demanded Bellamy with a stamp of his bratty little foot.

Orion sighed wearily. This might have been a mistake. He might end up wringing this guy’s neck. “Dr. Williams tried to give me this office.”

Bellamy’s lip curled for a moment. Then his brow crinkled. “Well, as Vere so kindly told me, you’re my superior.”

“Oh, my gods. Fine.” Orion waved him toward the door. “Go back in your closet, you brat.”

Bellamy bit his lip to stifle his giggle of surprise. He glanced at his jacket on the coat rack. “You’re… really willing to share?”

“I don’t know why you were working in a closet for six months if this office was just sitting here open. I asked Vere yesterday, who confirmed it’s been empty as long as she can remember.”

Bellamy’s complexion greened around the edges. Eyes narrowed and aimed at Dr. Williams’ office, he started to speak a snapping rebuke, then clamped his mouth shut. He stepped further into the office and shut the door behind him, standing with his back against it as he took a ragged breath. His wide-leg trousers shuffled against each other, and he shoved his layered sleeves up over his slim forearms till they were bunched at his elbows.

“Look, Orion,” Bellamy hissed, “I’m out of here in three months. Okay? For the past six months, I have been able to bury my head in the sand and pretend this place doesn’t suck. I appreciate you getting me out of that closet, I do—but that opens up all those feelings about my,” he made air quotes, “‘supervisor’ and how little she fucking cares.”

Orion nodded, silent. He felt a familiar pressure building under his ribs.

“Like, it literally seems,” continued Bellamy as he placed the rest of his books on the bookshelf before turning his attention to sorting his pile of knick-knacks, “like VADR has never had an intern before me. Or do they treat all of them like me? If so, then why the fuck does Thricevale make excuses for her and let her keep basically exploiting me for labor?”

Bellamy took a ragged breath, shut his eyes, and held up his hands. “Nope. I can’t do this.”

“No, I know,” agreed Orion. “My intention is to make your last three months here suck less. I saw the opportunity to get you into a less shitty office, and I took it. I hope that’s okay.”

Bellamy’s head dropped down between his shoulders. His hair really was a marvel; he claimed to be human, but it didn’t look like he dyed it to its unnatural hue. Overall, it was the silver-white of fresh snow, and the light from the office window glinted in hues of pale pink, soft blue, and sea-foam. Its texture was almost… frothy like that, too.

“Yeah,” Bellamy sighed. He knew how to dress to complement his hair, too; with a silver-white turtleneck and a waffle-knit button-down in mint-green, he looked like he’d washed up on a beach, a mystical creature tangled in a fisherman’s net. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

He lifted his head to look up at Orion, smiling bitterly. “For losing my shit.”

“This was you losing your shit?” Orion grinned. “You got more pissy yesterday when Edie offered you a bite of salad.”

Bellamy jammed an emphatic pointer finger in Orion’s direction. “That’s because salad fucking sucks, and she should have known better.”

Orion laughed, too loud, he knew, but it couldn’t be helped. This guy was ridiculous, and unfortunately, Orion sort of loved it.

“So, here’s some rules you need to follow if you’re going to share an office with me,” said Bellamy. “One. Salad is prohibited.”

“Bellamy,” laughed Orion, “I’m a vegetarian. I’m gonna eat salads.”

“You can eat them in the hall, then,” he sniffed. “Also, no sniffles. If you’re sick, stay home. I stay sick for weeks and I get sick enough without someone else’s germs on my keyboard. Speaking of, I’ll make a schedule for who gets to work at the desk.”

“I don’t need to work at the desk. I can do my documentation from home.”

Bellamy looked dubious and somehow also offended. “Why?” He checked his watch. “Shit, we have another group to run.”

Orion picked up a brand-new legal pad and slid a pen into his breast pocket. He’d left the blazer out of today’s wardrobe but was sticking to button-downs till he had a better read on the vibes of the professionals at VADR. So far, he hadn’t really noticed much cohesion, and everyone was all over the place. Some folks at the admin desks looked too made up, while the valkyries were usually in athletic wear if they were out of uniform. Orion was probably going to end up dressing like Bellamy, polished but comfortable.

“My house is set up for running a nonprofit social work organization,” said Orion, careful to keep his tone neutral and avoid falling into Bellamy’s snotty attitude. “I can work in my office.”

Bellamy rolled his eyes. “Braaag. How old are you, anyway? Seventy-nine?”

They were bickering all the way to the group room (Orion was only two years older than Bellamy, thank you very much), and as Bellamy smiled and gestured the last patient inside, he paused and let the door close with them still in the hall.

Orion hugged his hand to his chest, since he’d almost gotten his fingers pinched. He raised an eyebrow at Bellamy.

“Any suggestions?” Bellamy asked.

“On...?”

“My leadership style.”

“Oh.” Orion thought for a moment. “Give me till the end of the week, okay? I want to see what you’re like as you start to relax around me. Then we can schedule some time to focus on feedback. I will email you a copy of the forms I used for my supervisees so you know what I’ll be watching for. I can’t supervise you in any formal capacity since I’m a social worker and not a counselor, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do you some kind of good.”

Bellamy was silent, chin tipped up as he studied Orion’s face. “You don’t have to do all that,” he finally said softly.

“But I want to.” Orion had been told time and time again that his wide features were too open to hide his feelings. His big elk eyes let lots of light in, making them shiny and earnest. His jowls moved when his lips so much as twitched with a smile, so you couldn’t miss it.

Bellamy smiled in the slow way that told Orion he had thoughts he was keeping to himself. “You have no idea how much I appreciate that.”

Orion felt his cheeks warm. “Cut it out.” He waved a dismissive hand and opened the group room door, ushering Bellamy in first.