Work Text:
“I have a meeting with Elias.” Jon says as he walks out of his office, several papers held to his chest with the hand not holding his cane, “I should be there for an hour. I’d prefer if you didn’t die, kill each other, or let the archives go alight.” Tim and Sasha both make noises of acknowledgement and their boss takes that as answer enough, walking across the bullpen and disappearing through the door to the archives.
As soon as his footsteps have disappeared up the first flight of stairs, Melanie pulls from her desk and rolls between Tim and Sasha, “Alright, I have tea.”
Immediately the two of them are looking at her with apt attention and Tim is leaning towards her, “Give me, give me!”
“Okay, so Georgie and I invited Jon over last night for drinks and he brought a boy!”
“Jonathan Sims brought a boy to drinks last night?” Sasha hums, her eyes wide.
Melanie hums, a grin growing on her face, “Yeah, he did. It was just the three of us for like an hour before his boyfriend was able to come over. And Jon kept saying that he was too good for him.”
“Was he?”
“Oh yeah. Finally his boy came over and was this big bubbly dude. Like so fucking sweet and polite. But he somehow managed to get Jon to like calm down. Jon was leaning into him the entire night and telling him about stories. It was wild.” She leans back in her chair, “After he and Jon left, which they left together, Georgie actually called him and told Jon that Martin was far too nice for him.”
Tim hums and nods, “Yeah, Jon’s a bit of a dick.”
“His name is Martin?” Sasha asks, tilting her head.
Melanie hums, “Mhm. He was this big softie, too. Brought us a box of his favourite tea.”
“Also,” Tim starts, furrowing his brows, “Did you say that Jon was leaning into him? Jon hates touch.”
“Totally. Like Martin came in and Jon went and hugged him and everything. They cuddled in Jon's armchair the entire time.”
“Were they at least cute together?” Sasha pushes.
Melanie hums and starts picking her nails clean, “I mean, I don’t think anything that has to do with Jon is cute but they’re… odd. Like polar opposites. I’m honestly not sure how Martin managed to get through to that asshole enough to want to date him. The poor guy doesn't know what’s coming to him by dating Jon.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”
“I just can’t imagine that Jon is dating someone.” Tim hums under his breath, “I mean I know that he’s asexual but I would’ve assumed that he was also aro. And like, he’s so averse to touch and aggressive.”
“Who’s averse to touch and aggressive?” Asks a both familiar and unexpected voice from the entrance to the archives.
Immediately the three gossipers snap to the doorway, where Jon is standing and leaning heavily on his cane. He’s got an eyebrow raised and he’s looking directly at Melanie.
He must know exactly what they were just talking about.
Sasha rubs the back of her neck and offers their boss an awkward smile, “Jon! I thought you were going to be in a meeting for an hour?”
“Elias apparently forgot that he scheduled our meeting today at this time and I stood outside of his office for about ten minutes before I heard him and his husband doing things. So I figured that I’d leave them to it and wait for him to email me that he’s prepared for the meeting.” His nose wrinkles in disgust as he informs his archivists what he overheard and Tim groans, rubbing his eyes and complaining about the ‘image’ that his words gave him.
However, it doesn’t seem that Jon cares about that as he starts adventuring into the archives, “So, pray tell, who were you talking about that is so ‘averse to touch’ and ‘aggressive’, as you put it, Tim?” He opens his door and quickly puts his papers down on his desk before coming back out.
“You know exactly who I was talking about, boss.” Tim groans once again, this time in response to his friend.
“Unfortunately, I am aware, yes.” Jon sighs and walks into the break room to put on the kettle, throwing over his shoulder, “Fortunately for you, however, I can’t fire you so I suppose you’ll get to keep your job.” While the man is out of the other three’s view, Tim turns to the girls and mouths ‘see what I mean!’.
To which Melanie rolls her eyes and whispers, “Yes, we’ve all had him as a boss for a while.”
Eventually Jon comes back out into the room with a mug of steaming tea in his hands. He looks over all three of them individually, sighing, “As much as I know that you all appreciate gossip and talking shit about me, I would prefer that you leave my love life out of your gossip.”
“How long have you and…” Tim turns to Melanie, who has rolled back to her desk, “What did you say his name was again?”
Melanie sighs, “Martin.”
Tim nods and looks back at Jon, “How long have you and Martin been dating?”
“Did you not hear what I just said?”
“I ignore any words coming out of your mouth 90 percent of the time.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Jon sighs, taking a sip of his tea before humming, “Martin and I have been dating for close to a year now. I mentioned that I was going on a date to Georgie one of the last times that she invited me out and she began to pester me about him.”
“Is that why you brought him over?”
Deciding that he’s not getting out of this any time soon--and under the words of his boyfriend telling him that he should try getting along with his coworkers a bit better, not that the three of them know that--Jon grabs a spare chair that they use for interviews and live recordings and pulls it towards the desk, sighing when he finally gets off his bad leg. He takes a couple seconds before finally starting, “I brought him over because he and I just moved in together and I figured that it was time that Georgie met him. He’s been wanting to meet her for a while and last night was a good opportunity.”
“Wait,” Sasha says, moving her hands like she’s a conductor, “You just moved in together!? And we didn’t know you were dating him in the first place?”
“No one knew I was dating him, to be fair, for our own reasons.” Jon hums, “But yes, we just moved in recently. There were some changes to his living situation recently and he’s stayed over at my apartment enough that we figured he might as well move in.”
“And you’ve been dating this guy for a year and we didn’t know about it?” Tim pushes, “Martin doesn’t sound familiar, do we know him?”
“It’s possible that you know him, he works at the Institute.” Jon sighs and takes another drink of his tea, taking a couple minutes to gather his thoughts before speaking with a glare sent in all of their directions, “And I do say that knowing you three will not be searching him out. We both care deeply about our privacy.”
Sasha furrows her brows and starts muttering to herself before she gasps, eyes widening, “Is he that one that…” She trails off but Jon knows what she means; there was a day where Jon had ventured up into the library for one reason or another and Sasha went to go find him after he had been gone for longer than expected. She had found Jon alright; he was quietly chatting away with a kind, tall library worker in the back corner of the room.
Jon hums and nods which causes Tim to snap his head towards his not-girlfriend, “Wait you know who it is?”
“I’ve only seen him a couple times, I would assume that he likes to hide away from people.” Sasha shrugs and Jon trusts that she won't cave and tell Tim before Jon himself is ready for Martin to be introduced properly to them--she is the most responsible of the three of them, after all.
“Again, he does enjoy his privacy.” Is all that Jon supplies.
“But I’ve met him,” Melanie drags out--she doesn’t whine--leaning forward in her chair, “Why can’t I figure out where he works so we can talk about you?”
“Because, unlike you, he actually enjoys my presence. Also, I know that you’re going to interrogate him the second that you find him and I’d rather you not do that.”
“When will we get a chance to meet him, boss?” Tim asks, giving Jon his best puppy eyes, which has never worked in his favour when it comes to the stoic man.
“I doubt it will be any time soon.”
“Will you be inviting him to the Christmas party?” Melanie hums.
“He works at the Institute, Melanie,” Jon starts, “He’s already invited to the party.”
The girl makes a face and rolls her eyes, “Well then will he be going as your date?”
“I suppose,” Jon sighs, rubbing his temples, “I’ll ask him if he’d like to be introduced to you as my partner.” The man then stands up, pulls the chair back into its original place, and walks into his office.
~~~~~
The door opens and a man comes in with a book in his hand, tall and large and bubbly. He walks further into the bullpen and looks around for a while before his eyes catch on Melanie, “Hey… Melanie. Is Jon in his office?”
Melanie hums then nods, “Mhm, should be.”
“Alright, thank you.” Then he walks towards the door to the office, knocking in an odd pattern and walking in after a calm voice calls ‘come in!’. He, likely accidentally, leaves the door cracked open just a bit as he heads into the office. All that the three in the bullpen can hear are the man’s gentle words as he says something about ‘the book Jon wanted’ and Jon needing to get something from artifact storage. Then the two in the office go silent for a moment before the door finally pulls all the way shut.
Sasha finally looks up from where she’s been pretending to work and ignore the conversation they could hear, making direct eye contact with Melanie, “That was him wasn’t it?”
Melanie hums, “Yup.”
Tim gasps, “That was Martin?”
“Yeah.”
“He looks nothing like I expected.” Tim hums, gazing at the closed door as if he can hear the conversation they’re having, “They’re really dating?”
Melanie opens her mouth to respond--something along the lines of ‘that’s what I’m saying’--but the door opens and Martin steps out without the book he carried in. He’s got a smile on his face and says something over his shoulder that the archivists can’t quite pick up. When he turns back around, he nods to each of the people in the room and starts walking back through the bullpen and towards the door.
However, before he can reach it, Tim calls out, “Hey, you’re Martin, right? You work in the library.”
Martin turns around, his eyebrows furrow, “Yeah… Who are you?”
“Tim! One of Jon’s archivists, I worked with him in research too.” He pushes himself up from the desk and reaches out a hand. Brows furrowed in confusion, Martin shakes his hand and Tim pushes, “Nice to meet you.”
“You as well?”
“What did our dear friend Jon need from you?”
Martin hums, “Just a book for a statement he was looking into… Why?”
“Just curious. We don’t usually get people down here other than Elias and sometimes Rosie.” Tim shrugs, feigning nonchalance, “And I mean Jon doesn’t really talk to anyone outside of us archivists.”
“Well… I was the- the first person that helped him at the library several years ago and since then he’s asked me for things.” Martin shrugs again. He casts his gaze towards Melanie, “Is he always like this?”
Melanie sighs and nods, “Usually.”
“I see. Well, I need to go back to the library if you don’t mind…” Martin says, starting to walk back towards the door.
“Wait!” Tim calls out, almost reaching out to grab the other’s wrist, “Are you and Jo-”
“Tim, please stop harassing Martin.” Jon says, appearing in the doorway to his office. Sasha and Melanie make eye contact and both have to hold back a laugh as Tim’s eyes widen and Jon sighs, starting towards the two. The room is filled solely by the gentle tap of footsteps and Jon’s cane against the floor for a moment before the shorter makes it to where Tim and Martin. He places a gentle hand on Martin’s jumper-covered arm and nods at him, “You can head back to the library, I’ll text you later.” Martin nods down at him and Jon turns to Tim, “Get back to work, Tim. As much as you seem to think so, Elias did not bring you down here to goof off.”
Martin huffs a near silent laugh behind his boyfriend before offering a small wave, “Alright, I have to go now.” Then he’s walking out of the room and disappearing up the stairs.
When his footsteps are no longer audible, Tim seizes Jon by the shoulders, “That was your boyfriend!?”
Jon hums, “Yes, that was my boyfriend, though I’d appreciate it if, in the future, you didn’t throw yourself at him with the intention to interrogate him. He’s not aware that you know I’m dating someone yet.”
“You haven’t told him?” Sasha asks, leaning on her elbows and seemingly throwing out an illusion that she’s working.
“No, you discovered my relationship three days ago and we do both have things to do outside of work. Of course he knows that Melanie is aware of our relationship and I’m sure he can assume from that interaction that you’re likely aware, but I’d like to speak to him about it first. Now, get back to work. You all are not paid to get into my personal life.” Then the man is back in his office, loudly shutting the door behind him.
~~~~~
“Do you think Martin and Jon are coming together?” Tim asks Sasha as they sidle up to Melanie and Georgie, drinks in hand.
Georgie hums, “I could see it. I took the two of them out for lunch the other day and they were talking about what they were going to wear to the Christmas party. I take it your boss has an odd sense for formal clothing?” She says, gesturing down to her own body, clad in a long, tight-fitting dress that Melanie had her wear. Of course she needed to add her own flare, several silver chains wrapping around her waist and heavy amounts of jewelry around her neck and adorning her fingers. Melanie herself is wearing a pair of suit pants and a red shirt under a dark jean jacket.
Tim shrugs, “The rules are weird but we can be weirder.” He gestures proudly to his own outfit, puffing out his chest. He’s wearing a Hawaiian shirt under a too-tight suit jacket and a pair of slacks. Sasha rolls her eyes, wearing a nice, short purple dress. The conversation between the four of them flows easily after that, with Tim occasionally glancing around the room in search for either Jon or Martin.
He doesn’t have to worry, because all four of them are able to see the couple walking in hand-in-hand from where they’re standing considering they walk in and Elias is immediately calling their names and pulling them into a conversation with the large sailor man that’s been with him the entire time--the archivists have reason to believe that he’s the husband that Jon has mentioned several times.
As soon as the two are out of the conversation with their boss, a bit pale faced but otherwise unscathed, Georgie calls them over and the groups meet in the middle. Jon and Martin are wearing something akin to what they normally would: Martin with a long-sleeve cable knit sweater and a pair of slacks and Jon with a sweater vest over a white button up. However, replacing the slacks that he would normally wear, he’s wearing a long black layered skirt that twirls around his legs with the speed he walks at.
“Hey you two!” Georgie calls, handing them both glasses of wine. Martin takes his gratefully but doesn’t say anything.
Jon, on the other hand, thanks her for the drink and immediately takes a sip, “I already wish I was drunk.”
Martin laughs next to him, wrapping his free arm around Jon’s shoulders--to which the man blushes but leans into nonetheless--and rolls his eyes, “It wasn’t that bad.”
“Any conversation with the double boss is horrible.” Tim groans.
Jon hums, “Martin’s able to get out of his conversations pretty well.”
“Lotta lying, love.” The taller man shrugs, finally taking a drink.
Sasha laughs, “I like you. Martin, right?”
“Mhm, and you’re Sasha. The girl that comes to the library to fight with Brayden all the time.”
“Ah, my reputation precedes me.” She smiles, “So you’re Jon’s boyfriend?”
Martin nods, “Have been for a while.”
Tim grumbles next to his not-girlfriend, “So Jon told us… just a couple weeks ago.”
“I don’t understand why you’re so upset about that,” Jon sighs, “I’m a private person. You three hardly knew about Georgie before Melanie met her.”
“But you at least alluded to her existence.”
Jon furrows his brows, “I’ve alluded to Martin’s existence as well, it appears you’re all just too dense to realize.”
“Be nice, Jon.” Martin scolds, but he’s smiling and the smack that lands on Jon’s arm is light and immediately his thumb starts to move up and down.
“There’s no way you’ve alluded to him.”
Jon hums and takes a moment to think, “When I started leaving early because, and I quote, ‘I have someone at home’. When we were talking about Georgie, I mentioned that I had a type and just shrugged when Sasha asked me what that meant. When I, the man who cannot cook, started bringing in nice meals to warm up…” He starts listing off. Tim groans and cuts him off, making Martin and Sasha laugh.
“Fine, fine. You win. I guess you did make comments about him.”
Jon smiles, triumphant, “Either way, to officially introduce you all. Martin, this is Tim and Sasha, and you know Melanie and Georgie. Tim, Sasha, this is Martin--though it does appear that you’ve already met.”
“Just a couple times.” Sasha winks, directed at Martin.
The man smiles back and gestures with his chin, “If you want to pick a fight with Brayden, then he’s over there. Brought this girl that I’m 90 percent sure is cheating on him from what he says at work.”
“No shit? Oh, I love you.” Sasha claps, “You’ll have to me all about that situation.”
Martin shrugs, looking around the room before his eyes land on hers, “Sure.” Then he turns to Jon and pulls his arm away from the shorter, “I’ll be right back, love. One of my coworkers is waving me over.” Jon hums and allows his boyfriend to walk away from them. He takes one look at the four standing in front of him and makes the wise decision to chug the rest of the wine in his glass. Georgie laughs and claps her ex on the shoulder.
“I like him.” Sasha grins, “You found a good one.”
“You just like him because he agreed to gossip with you.” Tim whines, draping himself over the girl, leaning to her ear and stage whispering, “Are you sure this is our Jon?”
Sasha rolls her eyes but Jon is the one to speak up, “I don’t understand why you can’t believe that I could be anything outside of the professional that you see at work.”
“Yeah,” Georgie starts, a teasing smile taking over her face, “Jon was quite the riot when we were younger.”
“I don’t buy that.” Tim pouts.
Melanie hums, “I agree with Tim. I mean, you’re showing affection and wearing a skirt.”
Jon hums and crosses his arms, “I’ll have you know that I actually enjoy wearing feminine clothing when I have the excuse to. I don’t when at work as we tend to work with men who don’t enjoy anything that breaks conventions and I don’t care to face a drop in respect.” Melanie hums, like she does the same thing when she’s more the type of person that doesn’t give a single shit about how people view or respect her.
“Speaking of the skirt, that’s a new one.” Georgie comments.
“Martin got it for me a couple weeks ago. This is the first time I’ve had a reason to wear it so far.”
“You should wear skirts more often, boss.” Tim says, “All the more excuses to piss off Elias and you look hot in it.”
“He does, doesn’t he.” Martin says, walking up behind Jon and gently tapping his arm to announce his presence. Jon turns around, smiles at him, and rolls his eyes.