Work Text:
Remus was living with Roman, since they were kicked out by their dipshit of an uncle. Roman shut down any and all attempts at conversation about what happened, even while he was still in the sling.
The two of them managed to get GEDs after that shitshow. It was something admittedly easier for Remus than Roman. Roman also insisted he didn’t want to be “anymore of a leech than he already was” and was adamant about finding a job somewhere as soon as possible, afterwards.
Remus was glad that Janus pulled some strings and gave money for a security deposit and a few months’ expenses after. Remus knew his brother had too much pride, so he just claimed it was just a temp situation. Roman didn’t ask many questions about that.
Roman’s telemarketer job paid just barely enough for their bills and food. Roman didn’t outright say it, but Remus knew he needed to pull some of his own weight. It wasn’t for lack of trying, really. Remus was just a little too much for the interviewers and there wasn’t a lot out there that Remus could imagine standing for long.
He was also so, so incredibly bored, stuck at home. Yeah, Roman nagged him to clean up a little, at least. He’d rather roll around in the little midden made of empty cans of Monster and marathon the “Final Destination” movies than do chores.
The apartment’s laundry room had job postings, oftentimes buried under bulletins warning tenants to keep the place orderly and to make sure they don’t forget their effects for too long. Remus hated doing the laundry – the strong fragrances gave him a bit of a headache and made his skin itch a little.
It was a good idea to basically loiter there for your loads to run through, and sometimes Remus would just stare into the dryers' front load doors and zone out. He always visualized servers powered by hamsters as he watched them. For some reason he looked at the postings more closely one day, to see that Holden & Folden System Management needed some warm bodies as he loaded up his hamper with some dry clothes.
He took a slip with their contact information off the posting and pocketed it. He knew it was possible he was going to forget it in a future wash, probably. Remus shrugged, singing some off-key Bloodhound Gang (never mind how he was probably way too young to understand what the lyrics meant when he first heard their music):
Marinate the nether rod
In the squish mittenPower drill the yippee bog
With the dude piston
When he returned to their unit, all he had the energy to do was dump all of Roman’s clothes onto his brother's bed.
He was later found by Roman, sleeping on the sofa in the most uncomfortable looking sprawl. Remus’s clothes sat in the half-emptied laundry basket nearby. The clothes inside were barely dry when they came out of the machine and felt somewhat damp again from lack of air.
At least Roman’s clothes got to dry out by the time his brother was off work that day. Roman secretly ran Remus’s load through the dryer again and put it up, before Remus woke up later.
-
Logan had a pretty good thing going at the [Holden & Folden System Management]. He had been working there for about three years. They were very accommodating for his need for space and quiet.
The pay was good and he felt like he was reasonably $appreciated by those above him. The place was a little out of the way and a very small franchise operation. But the word of mouth and mostly good reviews kept this place aloft.
There wasn’t a huge workforce on the premises, also a bonus.
But that did make some service availability strained when more than a couple specialists weren’t on hand. There was always some pressure to learn more skills, just in case. Logan was way more at home pruning code and cleaning up registries than messing with busted motherboards. He wasn’t a fan of all the extra heavy metal exposure and a lot of fluxes made him $nauseous, fume hoods be damned.
It was unfortunate that one of the hardware guys was set to retire soon, he was there probably a full decade before Logan got his position. Logan was fond of him, but then again, it was mostly just the familiarity talking. He was concerned about who would be filling @Joe’s shoes after.
Nothing and no one could have prepared him for what was to come.
-
Remus did, in fact, forget he put the stub of information in his pocket. He found it later as a gnarled wad of paper and blanking on what used to be on it.
He only bothered to dig into that pocket probably weeks after the last time he did the laundry.
They more-or-less alternated, Roman was more on top of doing the pocket checks when it came to it. If only relatively. They were kind of forced into this “learning to be actual men-adults” thing and they only had a year or two of that experience, at that point.
Both of them did have a tendency to be forgetful, usually about different sorts of things. Remus would whine a lot about the tasks that involved any sort of cleaning chemicals, it left him with stuff like smelly trash and boring mail duty.
It didn’t stop Remus from being bored out of his skull the majority of the time. He kind of wished he could move in a workbench and tinker with something. Last time he snuck in some soldering equipment, he tripped the smoke detectors so much, the neighbors complained to the manager.
Only reason why Remus stopped fucking around with that was the look of terror and stress in Roman’s everything about the idea of them getting evicted again. Roman was probably the only person in his life that made him want to “behave”.
Suddenly, that made him remember that job listing again. Mid-conversation with his brother about something, he just walked out of the unit and went back to the laundry bulletin board. He would address Pissy calling him rude for the bajillionth time later, he had to do this before he forgot, otherwise.
Remus was happy to find the post was still up. This time he held the slip in hand when he made his way back to a fuming brother.
“You know about the whole “getting a job” thing? Think I found something I wanna check out.”
Roman took a deep breath and then a second before he looked at it, blinked, and looked at Remus, “O-okay?”
The car they had access to was under Roman’s name. Since he was the one with the income stream to pay expenses on the thing and only barely. Remus had a knack for doing some of the maintenance, but wasn’t exactly swimming in moolah, space, or equipment to help much there. Also, Roman didn’t always trust him breaking out tools in any context. Which was fair enough.
It took Roman a moment to register what Remus was probably trying to ask, “Need a ride?”
-
There weren’t actually very many queries for the position, as they started sunsetting that specialist for his last days of uptime.
It was one of those not having nearly the same market share as the likes of [Geek Squad], sort of things. Most of the people who wanted to get into these lines of work went to those operations, or worked for [Apple], or something. Logan did have a couple stints working at those companies, but the culture wasn’t the most welcoming for someone like him.
Especially before he really started the medical part of his transition. And other unchangeable facts of his existence.
Anyways, working here was “nice” and the benefits were great. They were incredibly helpful and supportive of his own medical goals, too.
He was often sequestered into the back offices and not customer-facing, but he did catch the occasional new face following HR into her office for an interview. Most dressed appropriately for such an arrangement. Professional.
Except for one of the very last applicants seeking the retiree’s spot.
They were loud and obnoxious the very moment they entered the vicinity.
-
Before Remus was corralled in for the interview, he caught a glimpse of a few of the people working there staring at him. He assumed it was mostly in irritation, a safe bet when it came to him.
He did catch at least one guy that stared at him the longest, with furrowed brow and clenched fists. He wasn’t sure what exactly crawled up in that guy’s access panel- Remus was on like day three of not sleeping, so he wasn’t firing all the cylinders. He was too amped about this Herculean Labor, after he was told when to come in.
He didn’t have the best track record with this sort of stuff, he tried to minimize his expectations. He was so anxious and out of it that he wound up rushing out in whatever he could slap together (including a binder that was getting a little rank). He wasn’t even sure when he last showered so he sprayed himself with probably an excessive amount of deodorant. It was either that or run late, he missed several interviews that way, already. Roman got sick of it after a while.
So there he was, seated in front of the interviewer, who also looked at him funny. She had a name tag sticker, J. “Dorine” Whitaker. Her introduction was redundant and boring. “I’m the Human Resources Manager here and part of my job entails processing applicants. You shall call me Dorine. Pleasure to meet you.”
“Yeah, sure. Remus, Remus Sanchez.”
“What about our company and this position drew you in to apply?”
“Boredom. I guess? And I needed money, or else my brother wouldn’t let me hear the end of it. Oh-oh, and also I’m pretty good with my hands?”
Remus wasn’t sure what to make of her expression, already feeling like he was fucking up, as usual. “Care to elaborate on that last reason?”
“Look. I know I have pretty much non-existent employment history and only recently got my GED. But you could say I’m a tinkerer? I like figuring out how shit works. It’s fun.”
Before Remus realized it was happening, he wound up spilling about some of the stunts he pulled in high school. It all just flowed out unbidden, like AXE body spray in a school’s sprinkler system. Unlike a lot of interviewers, she didn’t cut him off and move to the next question. All of a sudden he felt self-conscious, “Lo siento. I just-”
“Believe it or not, you wound up answering a lot of the questions I was going to ask. Even if it was a bit… non-standard.”
Remus was already forgetting just how much he told her, “I-I did?”
She nodded, “However I do have a few more, before we can conclude, alright?”
“O-okay.”
“Are you on any drugs? … the recreational and/or illicit kind?”
Remus was more sure he wasn’t getting the job, “No? Unless you count pounding a fuckton of Monsters.”
Remus giggled about his own word choice, momentarily forgetting he was in the middle of an interview.
She took a deep breath, “When was the last time you slept?”
His speech slurred a bit, “Somewhere between turning in my application and when you guys called me in? Probably. I think?”
“Noted. I have a few more questions.”
The interview continued with more standard questions, stuff Remus looked up beforehand but halfway forgot by the time he was in the building. He may or may not have shared his entire life story upon being asked, “Tell me more about yourself?”
It took a moment before the two of them collected themselves after that nuclear bomb was dropped. He may or may not have been a snotty mess by the time he ran out of steam on that prompt. He may or may not have taken the offer for a hug from Dorine at some point, during.
Dorine finally asked, “Do you see yourself as a long-term team member at our company?”
“Why? I’m pretty sure I didn’t-”
“We believe in giving people chances and I think you might be a good fit around here.”
Remus’s brain basically blue-screened, “Huh?”
Dorine smiled at him, “When can you start working?”
The unholy squealing noise Remus made at that had to’ve been heard throughout the entire building.
(It wasn’t. The office had soundproofing installed, Remus would later find out, to his immense disappointment.)
-
That fool got the job.
Logan couldn’t believe it.
Not only that, but the first thing this person did after his orientation was fall asleep. At Logan’s very desk, INSTEAD of his own. The word “$upset” didn’t cut it, as he stood there listening to the unholy snoring and watching their disgusting drool get into his KEYBOARD.
He was $apoplectic.
After about ten minutes of standing there $seething, he grabbed his OWN chair and pulled it away from the desk and started violently shaking it side-to-side. It was only when the centrifugal force had @Remus sliding onto the floor did he respond, mumbling and bleary, “Did I pass out on the floor again? Oh well.”
Logan corrected him, “Your. Desk. Is. Over. There.”
@Remus slowly propped himself up, “Oh. Oops?”
Logan couldn’t suppress the whole body shudder over the very thought of coming into contact with anyone’s saliva, “Oops? Oops doesn’t even begin to cover it! Now I have to-to- replace my keyboard! Do you have ANY idea how hard it is going to be to find that model again!? And set it all up again!?”
@Remus blinked one eye at time before synchronizing and looking at the thing more closely, “Right.”
Logan had a very specific split set-up with custom key-binds, switches, key caps, and everything! It was a pain-staking effort to make the thing feel and sound perfect. And there goes @Remus, tainting it.
“What was your name again, Specs?”
“Logan. And I’ll have you know-”
@Remus fell back to sleep, on the floor.
@Dorine wanted to see Logan, ever since @Mr. Sanchez showed up in a business casual T-shirt.
The sheer $disbelief and abrupt and obvious change from the previous saint of an office neighbor was more than a little overwhelming. Logan insisted on seeing this new guy without consulting her.
He didn’t want to admit that that was probably a poor decision.
-
Remus didn’t know what Nerdy Wolverine’s deal was, but it was pretty funny pissing him off.
Sometimes, Remus would poke around on Logan’s desk, whenever the guy left it unattended. Remus noticed there were some neat looking toys on it. Like a Newton’s cradle and Rubik’s cube. He noticed similar knick knacks on the other coworkers’ desks, too.
He only did that between fulfilling service orders and naps, though. Remus was warned that he had to help with several months’ backlog, starting off. He was still surprised that he was even required to nap here. Many of the tickets were pretty easy to knock out, he wasn’t sure why they estimated it to take him longer.
He may or may not have taken Logan’s tirade about the keyboard to heart.
Did he actually want to smooth it over with the guy? Did he actually care about his work partner’s feelings ? Or did he just want to see if he could fool him with a perfect replica of the thing – without Remus’s spit all over it?
Either way, Logan seemed to be interesting, every time he caught a glimpse of the guy focusing so intensely on his coding that he unwittingly let the coffee at his desk get cold. Remus wasn’t too adept at programming, he could get a BASIC idea (he snorted to himself, thinking that). He had some experience with common languages, like C++. He mostly focused on low-level stuff like machine code and assembly – but that was just because of how often they’d be needed to make the hardware and equipment actually do shit.
Remus just liked having something physical to work with. He couldn’t resist shouting “It’s ALIVE” whenever he got his latest gadget online. Never mind whether it had any utility for anyone else. Having access to the company’s inventory and facilities made these little side projects all too tempting.
What Logan was doing may’ve been witchcraft, working in some seriously esoteric languages he’d never seen before. Cranking out and proofing thousands of lines of code at a speed he’d only seen in his brother’s creative writing spells (personal taste notwithstanding).
Remus may or may not have been caught staring at Logan working a few times.
When caught, it usually ended with an aggravated, “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
Remus was still under the probationary period, so he’d just go back to his own tasks after that. He found himself liking this job too much to fuck it all up too badly.
-
There was a [gym] a few blocks away from [H&FSM]. The owner, @Mr. Sanders, was doing a good job fostering a generally welcoming atmosphere.
Logan took advantage of it, especially after he recovered from his first major affirmative surgery. Before then, he was often not personally $comfortable with showing up without a binder. He knew it was ill-advised and made things $miserable and unsafe. He wouldn’t recommend that to anyone.
His recovery was difficult and left him $restless, so hitting the mat after medical clearance and feeling so much more $comfortable with himself was a source of incredible $joy. $Joy he oftentimes tamped down on, to focus on his purpose there and not draw too much attention.
He met @Patton there for the first time, a few weeks after he returned. Patton was a little too gregarious and effusive to be around all the time, but Logan still respected him and was on $friendly terms. When they first met, he learned @Patton was in the middle of training to be a primary school teacher.
@Patton would talk about his various “kiddos” brightly. Logan was never quite sure who he was talking about half the time. He did allude to a few of them being gym regulars, some new faces there, including a pair of twins he met. He didn’t really pay close attention to who @Patton interacted with, more focused on putting in his time and reps while there.
Logan had taken to the High Intensity Interval Training paradigm on the stationary bikes and treadmills there. He had a specific unit he preferred to use, because it was closest to the water fountain and restroom. It legitimately shaved the time he needed to spend there down, he $liked the efficiency and the routine.
One month and one week into @Sanchez’s employment, that machine had the impeccable sense of timing being out of order. Logan notified @Mr. Sanders about this a week prior, but it still wasn’t addressed. The display’s readout and the belt resistance were all wrong. Logan was $not-impressed by the unprofessional snorting coming from @Mr. Sanders over the mileage being stuck at 69.
He was already $annoyed by @Remus’s latest bullshit and having to deal with some customers questioning his credentials as a technician. He swore he was going to need a [Rage Room] or else he was going to get himself arrested, at that point.
Yes, he rationally knew the bike next to it was working and didn’t make a huge difference in the grand scheme. But he was not operating in that mode.
So when he overheard a conversation between Patton and Remus, talking about him standing there, he was just about ready to chew someone’s head off. Maybe not just figuratively.
-
Remus knew Patton from before he was employed at H&FSM. Roman introduced the guy to him at the gym. It was Roman who gave Remus the idea of going there too, though for the time being he had to lean on his brother or Patton footing his fee.
Pat seemed neat, Remus really wanted to pick that guy’s brain over his war stories. Probably the only bead of immediate interest Remus had for someone so saccharine in manner. He supposed it was nice knowing that the teddy bear cared about his brother so much, though.
Jump forward about a month since Remus started working and he was at the gym chatting with Patton again. Okay, Remus had to remind himself how long it had been based on the date of his first paycheck. Time was frisky like that.
Patton was asking him about his sleep. All Remus wanted to talk about was an exciting foreign horror film he recently watched. Remus didn’t expect to see Logan standing stock still with his hands on his hips glaring daggers into one of the exercise bikes.
It was easy to just stop paying attention to ole Padre’s concerns to keep looking over at Logan. At that point, Remus was probably not firing the most cylinders, either.
Eventually Logan glared back at them, daring anyone to say something to him.
Remus was probably being foolish when he snapped back, “How much dead code is in YOUR back end!?”
Logan just angrily pointed at the bike, complete with eye twitching, “This is THE perfect spot. MY SPOT. And SOMEBODY around here is dragging their FEET!”
Patton seemed confused about what to say about this mess. Remus was of a few minds, fighting the flinch reflex he couldn’t fully unlearn from his Uncle, curiosity about what was wrong, and amusement in Logan losing his cool again.
The latter two won out.
“Alright, Nerdy Wolverine. Can I have a look?”
-
As @Remus approached it and studied the offending piece of machinery, Logan was getting $restless and $impatient.
“Well?”
“What’s more important? That spot or that specific bike?”
“Uh… the spot? But it’s the principle-!”
“Cool. I’m gonna go ask the staff a quick question and I’ll get right back to you.”
Logan furrowed his brow, he was the one who put in the complaint! What was-
The staff person gave him a shrug and a nod, and then @Remus walked over to @Patton to ask him something. Logan was getting kind of $annoyed with the secrecy.
That was until @Patton politely gestured Logan away, “If you’ll excuse me...”
Logan stood there watching as @Patton went in and swapped the broken bike with its functioning neighbor. It was clearly strength-demanding, but it was such a simple idea that it broke Logan’s brain a little bit. Logan stared at the bikes and back at the two of them, “Thanks? I-”
@Remus looked back at him and the replacement bike, looking $restless? Logan suddenly felt $awkward being stared at as he sat down on it and attempted to get his mind back on his routine.
A few head shakes and just as Logan was about to start his warm-up, he watched as @Remus left for the [locker room], only saying, “¡Uno momento!”
@Remus was back carrying a giant tool box with him, practically in an instant. Logan was still going easy enough to hold a conversation, “W-why did you bring that in the gym?”
@Remus shrugged, “Never know when you want to fuck with something or someone.”
“@Mr. Sanders didn’t order our services?”
“Do I look like I care?”
With a loud thud, @Remus dropped the tools near the broken bike, still on the mat. @Remus was $surprisingly orderly looking it over, even though he seemed to be elsewhere while he was servicing the thing. Logan thought it was strange and deeply unprofessional how @Remus was still dressed in what could loosely be called typical workout wear, doing this.
@Remus pulled the little computer module out and noticed one of the batteries had corroded, as he pulled them out of the case and in a bag. He dabbed the crusted contacts with vinegar saturated cotton swabs. Remus stared at his watch for a little while and cleared the battery case out with a toothbrush and dry swabs. He set the component aside to dry further.
Logan was used to a lot more noise and $cheerful chaos coming from him, he was also $worried if Remus was going to worsen the state of the thing. $Worried about how this would reflect on [H&FSM]. @Remus was sitting on the floor, cross-legged during that process. Logan couldn’t make himself continue to look at @Remus’s face, so his gaze wandered to other features. @Remus glanced back at Logan, he was almost positive the tone was $flirtatious, “Enjoying the show?”
Logan cleared his throat, “To be determined.”
@Remus snorted and continued working. Logan looked at the fact @Remus was clearly wearing a barely hidden sports bra, and realized his coworker had been binding while clocked in. Logan wasn’t sure how to even broach the subject, but he felt $something about it. The dangling sensation of $kinship?
Logan shook his head some more and tried to focus on ramping things up to his first active interval. @Remus had moved on to replacing the batteries, checking the sensor wires connecting the computer with the machine and resistance cable. @Remus went on to check the tightness of all the nuts and bolts and tested the thing out.
Logan’s mind wandered to wanting to actually learn more about @Remus, to extend an olive branch, and to see more of what @Dorine clearly did in him.
Before long, it was working again! Logan was banking on it being on a wait list for ordered parts or otherwise languishing in the bottom of some competitor’s ticket queue. But if it was just going to be that simple and fast? Logan was back to being a little $annoyed over it.
It was like @Remus held the user manual in his head and it took him barely longer than it took Logan to finish his workout. @Remus looked $pleased with himself for a moment, and then passed out.
@Patton went in to extract @Remus from the equipment, before he could hurt himself. It was then that Logan realized just how $tired @Remus looked.
-
Remus barely remembered the whole “unauthorized repair of gym equipment” thing. If he didn’t hear it from both Pat AND Lo, he’d think it was just a weird ass dream.
Then, he remembered Logan pointedly staring at his tits several times during it and flushed a little.
He was in front of Dorine reviewing what happened there.
“Let me get this straight. You just did free work because... you wanted Logan to not have a very public meltdown and, I quote, to like you?”
“And because I was bored. Don’t forget that. That part’s important.”
“Right. You do realize we’ll need a second party out there to make sure you didn’t leave that gym liable for any malfunction-related damages?”
Remus shrugged, “Sure? I don’t think I missed anything TOO important.”
Dorine sighed, “Let’s hope you’re right about that. Legal is trying to smooth this out with them, in the meantime. You’re lucky Mr. Sanders is a pretty understanding guy.”
“What now?”
“I want to think if this gets smoothed out, and it is a big IF, Mr. Sanders may actually contract us for their future maintenance requests. We’re honestly just crossing the Ts and dotting the Is, here.”
“… I did good?”
“You didn’t hear it from me. But, quite possibly.”
Remus chuckled, “Alright. I guess I oughta keep a condom on the pro-boner shit, huh?”
“I’m going to pretend I heard something other than that, but- please.”
Remus liked Dorine a whole lot more.
-
After what Logan assumed was a disciplinary meeting with @Dorine, he had to face @Remus looking at him funny more often.
Logan eventually snapped, “W-what!?”
“You were totally looking at the fun bags, mister. Didja like what you saw?”
Logan cleared his throat, “Okay. I’m not in the habit of asking this kind of personal question, but I need to know so I can respect your wishes going forward. But. Are you trans?”
@Remus gasped, “What’s it to you?”
Logan took a deep breath, “Because I am. And I felt like, maybe-”
“He/him and whatnot still, Lo?”
“Yes.”
“Cool, you can basically use anything but ‘she’ at me and we’ll get along swell, there.”
Logan felt himself flushing a bit, a strange $fondness forming underneath, one that really wanted to try to be friends with this very strange individual. Logan felt like a small child, thinking about such tender $emotions.
He grabbed his Rubik’s cube and was determined not to make anymore eye contact.
He heard @Remus chuckle, “Oh. And I may or may not have replaced that keyboard of yours at some point.”
“Y-you did what?!”
Logan didn’t notice at all, as he stared at it and back at @Remus. Logan had sworn @Remus $hated him from the jump – or at least just saw him as some kind of punching bag to embarrass. Which was a song and dance he had an intimate familiarity with growing up autistic.
“Yeah. I know I’m a disgusting slob. Kinda my brand, actually. Ask my brother!”
@Remus erupted into a cackle at that, Logan felt a little more $open to it.
“A-and yeah. I also want to dispel something first before we get back to our duties.”
“Hm?”
“I don’t wish to lead you on. I'm told I don’t exactly experience attraction like most people do. It’s nothing personal.”
“Y’know that sounds familiar. Not sure why?”
Logan gulped, trying not to get $emotional at this point, $furiously sliding the squares around on the cube, and simply nodded. He was not expecting all of this to come out all at once, this soon. It was like meeting each other properly for the first time. He had a newfound $appreciation in how honest @Remus appeared to be. He needed time to process it.
@Remus simply smiled widely back, “Neat!”
Logan’s mind was stuck echoing incessantly, “I made a new friend? A new friend? Friend?”
@Remus winked at him as he rolled himself back to his workbench.
Logan’s thoughts were interrupted with, “Okay. What the hell was that supposed to mean?”
Logan shook his head and just went back to work, himself.
He found himself actually wanting to see where things would go with Remus...