The waitress was making a point to thoroughly clear their table as the restaurant’s 9pm closing time rolled near. Orion guiltily avoided her gaze, not wanting to stop Bellamy from talking. He could definitely get used to seeing his colleague this unguarded. He was currently rambling about… an influencer? Or his thoughts on how corporate VADR was in its infrastructure? The two topics seemed to intermingle and somehow relate.

Orion didn’t need to chime in much; Bellamy seemed content to yap with the occasional nonverbal encouragement as well as Orion’s steady eye contact. Orion found Bellamy’s manner of speaking quite soothing, and was practically melting into his seat as he listened, arms crossed, head a little tipped back.

“Guys,” the waitress finally said pleadingly, “I wanna go home.”

Petal-pink color shot across Bellamy’s cheekbones. “Oh gods, sorry!” He checked the time on his phone. “I didn’t even notice. Orion, why didn’t you tell me!”

Orion shrugged, not providing an answer, simply smiling as he picked up his scarf and wrapped it around his neck. Without thinking, he scooped up Bellamy’s coat and helped him into it.

Bellamy turned to face him with a thank you poised on his lips. It came out a little soft. A little shy. His gaze met Orion’s and lingered. Orion noticed he had a ring of sea foam-green around his blown-out pupils.

Orion cleared his throat and twisted toward the door, a hand naturally going to rest on Bellamy’s back but not quite touching him.

Bellamy glanced over his shoulder. “I know you’ve been careful since Shimmer,” he said mildly, “and I really, really appreciate that. Most touch doesn’t trigger me, and the safer I feel, the less it happens.”

“Oh.” Orion nodded. “Thanks for sharing. So does that mean…?”

“Hover-touches can just be touches.” Bellamy shot a smirk up at Orion, who felt his cheeks grow warm.

“Because you feel safe with me.” Orion allowed himself a satisfied grin. “Nice.”

Bellamy rolled his eyes and pushed open the restaurant door, immediately wrapping his scarf across his mouth. “Despite all your food choice red flags, somehow, yes.”

Orion’s grin faded. “Do you wanna talk about what happened to you?”

Bellamy shrugged. “I did plenty of trauma therapy on it. Nobody doubted me when I said what happened. It’s sucked that I’ve felt so on-edge this week, but these things ebb and flow, you know?”

“Totally.”

Bellamy glanced up at him again. “What about you and your nonprofit?”

Orion felt the tension hit his shoulder blades and breathed through it, rolling his shoulders up and down. He swallowed, his hand going to his left antler. “Ah. Lost Lore Foster and Protection. My pride and joy.”

“Aw,” Bellamy sang, “that’s such a cute name!”

Orion smiled wistfully. “Thanks. I honestly thought I was doing great. I was able to pay my bills, I was ready to employ another case manager, even put away some money into savings…”

Bellamy frowned, kicking a chunk of ice down the sidewalk. “Then… what happened? From the sounds of it, you lost it pretty abruptly.”

Orion felt himself at a crossroads. He could be evasive. He had plenty of angles he could pull from. Or he could level with Bellamy. After the day they had with the valkyries and Dr. Williams, maybe Bellamy wouldn’t be too shocked.

Shit. Who was he kidding? Of course he wanted to tell Bellamy.

“VADR shut me down,” Orion said flatly.

Bellamy tripped to a stop. He pivoted to stand in front of Orion, eyes growing big and round and his lips parting. “Why?”

“They convinced the licensing board that my work was redundant and encroaching on VADR’s mission to serve Eldwick.” Orion shrugged. “It’s been, like, a six-month legal battle that they finally won.”

“What the FUCK!” Bellamy shrieked, the sound making Orion’s glasses vibrate on his nose. “Sorry, but, what kind of corporate bananas bullshit is that? God, I fucking hate them.” Bellamy shot his hand up and said with disgust, “How are you working for them now?”

Orion shrugged. “They offered to hire me after shutting down my organization. I guess they thought they were doing me a favor.”

Bellamy gave another cry of outrage. “And the kids you were servicing—?”

“Their cases are being transferred to VADR’s CPS division. I would imagine a lot of them are staying in the children’s ward instead of with my fosters and respite families. I refused a job there. I couldn’t bear to see kids I knew and worked for getting forced into a whole different system. Losing placements with fosters that I’d vetted but who we were nervous about working with VADR, whose stipend is honestly considerably smaller than what I paid, which is just…” When he noticed the red fog closing in around his vision, Orion shut his eyes and fell silent. He managed a brief shake of his head.

“Deplorable,” finished Bellamy with a harsh sigh.

Orion smiled unhappily down at his coworker. “Precisely.” He hadn’t looked away yet when he noticed the shiver wrack through Bellamy. “Oh, gods, come on! Why did you stop?” Orion slung his arm around Bellamy’s shoulders, spinning around the much smaller man and pulling him forward.

“Don’t pity me, I’m ferocious!” Bellamy shrieked.

Orion jerked his head to the side, laughing. “Ow, stop shrieking, I yield!” Despite his ringing ear, and despite Bellamy’s outburst, Bellamy stayed comfortably nestled under Orion’s arm, and the cold chill rolling off Bellamy’s shoulders slowly subsided.

Bellamy groaned. He massaged his right eye and said, “My screaming gave me a migraine. Siren probs, am I right?”

Orion chuckled. He suspected Bellamy hadn’t simply adjusted to the notion of not being human so quickly. These things went in waves, though, and if Bellamy had held onto what he’d learned from doing work on his trauma, he might have some reasonably effective mechanisms to cope with things quickly. Such as being completely unserious about it. “I’ll take your word for it.”

They seemed to make it back to Bellamy’s apartment in no time, which was a shame. Bellamy fit neatly against Orion’s side, and their strides had little difficulty synchronizing. At some point, Bellamy’s hand had slid onto Orion’s waist under the hem of his jacket, his fingers cold but warming quickly.

If Orion were even just a tiny bit more of a shit than he was, the opportunity to tease Bellamy was right there. Oh, who’s desperate now? Feeling desperate tonight, Blue? Orion snorted at his own imagination.

Bellamy glared up at him. “What are you laughing at?”

Orion fought to stop his lips from creeping up with a smirk, but every time he tried, it pushed its way onto his face even harder. “Nothing, Blue.”

The offended way Bellamy’s mouth fell open suggested he might have known exactly what Orion was thinking about. Orion bit his lip and schooled his features, and hung onto Bellamy’s shoulder when he tried to jerk out of his grip.

“You can’t be mad,” Orion exclaimed, “I didn’t say anything!”

“I know you were making fun of me in your head!”

Orion raised his eyebrows and gave Bellamy an appraising look. “Would you guilt-trip a client for having an inside thought?”

“Oh my gods,” groaned Bellamy, and this time he successfully squirmed out of Orion’s grip. He faced Orion, and the annoyance slowly melted from his expression. He cocked his head to the side and said quietly, “I’m home.”

“Oh…” Orion looked up. “Yeah. I guess you are.”

Bellamy slipped his hands into his coat pockets. “Thanks for making me go out with you. I was desperate for a pick-me-up.” His voice sharpened on the word ‘desperate,’ and although his expression was sly, the streetlights danced playfully in his gaze.

“I see what you did there,” Orion said with a laugh. 

Bellamy grinned, silent for a moment. He pulled the photo back out of his breast pocket, cupping it in his palm. “Do you think I’m safe from… whoever gave me this?” He replaced it to the pocket and pulled out a tube of chapstick from his crossbody satchel, gliding it across his lips in a practiced manner before zipping it back out of sight.

Orion chewed his lip for a moment. He started to answer, then jolted and looked down at his chest, to the necklaces that were hidden under his scarf. He snagged them to separate the one he wanted from its two neighbors and followed the gold chain around to the clasp.

As he held it out toward Bellamy, he explained, “I make jewelry when I have the time. Sometimes I design my own runes, other times I borrow from other languages for inspiration. This one is my own design for protection. Trees are really stabilizing for me, so as clichéd as that is, it factored heavily into the shape of the amulet. The circle it’s welded to is based on the Native American medicine wheel.”

Bellamy listened with interest, his eyes wide and bright, catlike. Then he leaned forward, offering his neck. Orion stepped closer, bending slightly so he wasn’t towering over Bellamy quite as much, and he could reach his neck without it seeming aggressive. Orion breathed in the scent of coconut, dizzyingly strong. The fibers of Bellamy’s hat tickled his nose as he leaned over to see his fingers better.

He let it drape over his hands so he could drop it under the hem of Bellamy’s scarf. The links tinkled softly together.

When he moved away enough to see Bellamy, a stillness had settled over his features. Turquoise eyes slowly lifted to meet Orion’s gaze. Orion was positive Bellamy could hear the wild thudding of Orion’s heart against his ribs.

Bellamy pushed up on his toes, clasped Orion’s cheeks, and kissed him. Orion froze, afraid that by moving, or even breathing, he would shatter this illusion. But no. The lips on his were warm, tasting of honey chapstick, pillowy and sweet.

When Bellamy didn’t immediately pull back in regret, Orion twined an arm gently around Bellamy’s slim waist. He pulled Bellamy in against his chest, partly for warmth, but partly out of greed. Greed for more of this decadent affection. This startling connection after the intensity of their first days spent together.

Bellamy separated after a moment. His laugh barely made a sound, but the puff of steam from his mouth ghosted across Orion’s slick lips.

“Um,” Bellamy murmured, his whisper a little husky, “is… is Dr. Williams gonna get me in trouble for this, too?”

A faint smile spread on Orion’s face. “Bellamy, I will do whatever it takes to make sure that there is nothing that could ever spoil this kiss. Especially not that bitch.”

Bellamy grinned, unwinding himself from Orion and lowering down to the soles of his boots. “I should go. I’ll see you in the morning, though, ’kay?”

Orion nodded, his hand trembling slightly as he rubbed his stubble. “If anything feels weird in your place tonight, just text me, okay?”

Bellamy hooked his finger through the necklace as he nodded slightly. “Thanks for this. I’m more of a silver guy, but it’s sweet.” His eyes glittered as he back-stepped toward his apartment door.

Orion blew a rude noise but couldn’t keep it up when he started grinning. “Noted, you brat.”

“Good night, Book.”

Orion’s grin widened. “Night, Blue.” He tapped his pointer finger to his forehead in a dorky little salute. “Stay safe.”