The door to Peter’s office opened, and as luck would have it, Michael walked in.
“What are you sending me those spreadsheets for?‘My kind and considerate opinion’?Also, why is everyone taking pains not to have to walk past your office, Peter?What is going on?”
Peter opened his mouth to inquire about potential exes Michael might be hiding, then closed it.Damnation.I can’t ask that.
He frowned, ordering his thoughts, then said, “I dislike summer.It is too bright.”
Michael gaped.Then he shook his head in that cute, exasperated way he had, a way that normally lifted Peter’s spirits but barely did anything today.
“Could you please go eat someone before Dina starts crying?”
“Dina?Who’s Dina?”
“The succubus.One of the new first-years?Apparently, you sent her an email at three o’clock in the fucking morning, asking her if she could ‘kindly pop by your office for a performance review today.’You do not do formal performance reviews, Peter, and everyone knows that.”
Michael was using air quotes.If Michael was using air quotes, things were likely on the serious side.Michael wasn’t the kind of person to use air quotes lightly.
Peter exhaled slowly.The bother.It was true about the performance reviews.Peter didn’t do them, given they were a lot of work, much of which involved caring and a personal touch.
“I just wanted to make sure Dina feels at home here, give her some special attention.”Peter had thought about making her cry in the hopes it would make him feel better.It’s not like I was going to make her cry a lot, just a little bit.If she’d sniffled, maybe leaving Puck behind wouldn’t have felt like such a big mistake.Not that it was a mistake.Taking him with me probably wouldn’t have been good.In fact, one might argue that it would’ve constituted kidnapping.Peter folded his hands in front of him and tried to smile.“You know I care about all our supernatural first-years.”
Michael gaped.“What the fuck is that?”
“What, Michael?”
Michael pointed.“On your face.Are you showing me teeth?”
Was he?Peter was reasonably sure he’d just been smiling, though there was still that fantasy of finding another evil ex in Michael’s past.
“Oh.I was just…thinking.”
Michael had an excellent “please do not bullshit me because I like to sue people” face.Peter liked to think he had done his part in developing it.Michael was turning that face against Peter now, and all Peter could do was…smile.
“Thinking.Well, how about you do your ‘thinking’ elsewhere and take the day off?Get some human to take their sunglasses off for you and compel them to let you drink their blood?And I’ll tell Dina the ‘performance review’ got canceled.”
Michael was using air quotes again.It had to be rather bad indeed then.The bother.
“Perhaps that’s advisable.”
Michael breathed a sigh of relief.“Good.That’s good.Everyone here knows how hard you work.We all have your back.”
Peter sat there, half admiring Michael who, a year ago, would never have spoken to Peter in this manner.Then again, a year ago, Michael hadn’t found Corvin yet.Now those two were living in a true love story, and all Peter could do was watch from the sidelines and enjoy.
Some joy might in fact do me good if I can’t have violence.
Peter brightened.“I’ll go by the university.Students never have anyplace important to be.”
And if I happen to accidentally end up at the library…well, I’ll have to get Corvin to let me buy him coffee.
Michael rolled his eyes.“You do you, Peter.”He turned.“Have a nice human.”
“A nice human…” Peter remembered Puck, and how the young man, scared though he so clearly was, had sat on Peter’s lap.“Yes.A nice human.”
Michael shook his head as he left.
Peter, so rudely thrown out of his own office, left the spreadsheets behind to worry over later.
Peter parked in the employee lot of the linguistics department.Everyone but the linguists did.Most of the employees in that department biked to work, and the semester hadn’t started yet, so the place was even emptier than normal.
