Work Text:
“Do you think he’d mind me wearing my pride shirt to work tomorrow?” Sasha asks Tim over the phone, holding said shirt up in front of her. It’s an atrocious thing that Tim got her when she came out to him, it’s got a big 404 on it and under is ‘attraction not found’ in the aroace colours.
“I mean, it’s the first day of pride month, he has to.” Tim hums in response, then swears and there’s some sort of gun sound from a vintage video game that comes through the call, “If he has a problem with it, we could just report it as workplace discrimination or something.”
“I mean… I don’t think Elias would do much about it.” Sasha cringes, throwing the shirt on her bed, “He seems particularly happy about Jon being the head archivist. I’m pretty sure that Jon could murder someone and keep his job.”
“True.” Tim sighs, “Nepotism at its finest.”
“Is it even nepotism? Jon seems to hate Elias just as much as we do. Also, don’t you have to have like a close relationship with the person for it to be nepotism?”
“Either way.”
Sasha hums, “I think I can hide the shirt for the most part if I wear a blazer. Most of what you’d be able to see is the 404 and I could just explain that it was a nerd joke if Jon asked…”
“That might work.” Tim acknowledges, “But me, I’m going all out. You know that bi flag button up I got last year.”
“Don’t tell me.”
“I’m gonna wear it tomorrow. If Jon has a problem with it, he can fight me. I could take that little nerd in a fight.”
“Maybe don’t fight our boss.” Sasha sighs, “I don’t think that would end well for your job.”
“Elias can’t get rid of me even if I wanted him to.”
“True.” Sasha snorts, “I’m hungry, gonna make some food then head to bed.”
“Alright. Night Sash.”
“Night Tim.”
~~~~~
“Oh my god, Tim.” Sasha sighs upon her friend walking into the archives. He’s wearing his bright bi flag button up and a pair of sweats on. On top of that, he’s got a little rainbow flag tucked in his breast pocket, “You couldn’t even try to be subtle about it?”
Tim shrugs and throws his stuff down on the floor, flopping unceremoniously into his chair, “Why should I? It’s pride month, baby.”
“Because it’s unprofessional to wear such things in a workplace, Tim.” Jon says, walking out of the room, “At least Sasha is wearing something subtle, though she does always have her she/her pin on her bag.”
Sasha hums, “Didn’t think you saw that.”
“I pay attention to the pins that people put on their things. It’s a good signifier of a person.” Jon raises an eyebrow, beginning to walk towards the breakroom, “Tomorrow, if you wish to wear something brandishing your sexuality, Tim, please make it a bit less obtrusive.” Then he disappears behind the door, the clicking of their cane against the ancient floorboards and the sound of them grabbing a mug from the cabinet being the only sign of them in there. A couple minutes later, they come back out of the room with an apple and a mug of coffee, walking into his office and slamming the door.
Tim turns to Sasha, “Well, that turned out better than I expected.”
“Yeah, he was a lot more calm about the whole thing than I would’ve guessed.” The two of them begin working--well Sasha begins working, Tim starts throwing shit around the office, telling both Jon and Sasha they’re being homophobic if they tell him to stop and actually get to work. The day goes by just about as fast as it always does--which is to say, at a mere crawling pace--and they’re leaving work without any sort of workplace incident or argument with the higher ups. In fact, Sasha swears that Rosie is wearing a lesbian flag when they say goodbye to her as they leave the building.
The next morning, neither of them see Jon for a while. It’s only at lunch does he come out of their office wearing… a skirt?
Upon seeing him, Tim’s eyes widen, “Whatcha wearing boss?”
Jon hums and begins making themself tea, “An outfit much more professional than the one that you are currently wearing, Tim.” They gesture to Tim’s outfit, which is a black shirt with ‘it’s not a phase, mum’ written across it in rainbow letters in a downright criminal font and a pair of ripped jeans.
“I’m not sure you could say that skirts are professional.”
“Why is that?” Jon challenges, raising an eyebrow, “If you were to check the dress code in the workplace handbook, you’d see that there is no rule saying that only women have to wear skirts. The only clause there is with skirts is that they’re not see-through and that they reach past the mid-thigh. I do believe that this follows both of those requirements.” They gesture to the long, brown plaid skirt he’s wearing, “You’re outfit, on the other hand, I do think I could find a couple dress code violations.” The kettle goes off and they turn back around, pulling it off its stand and beginning to pour water into their mug, “I don’t think you have room to talk in terms of professional attire.”
Sasha snorts, “He’s got you there, Tim.”
“They.” Jon says, making the two turn to them once again.
“What?” Tim furrows his brows.
“I don’t blame either of you for this, as I’ve never talked about it, but I do prefer that you use primarily they/them pronouns for me. I don’t mind he/him, though I ask that you use that less.”
“So you’re a they/he?” He clarifies, “And you’ve just never thought about telling us that?”
“I-” Jon starts, then stops themself, “I knew that, although you two would be alright with it, that it would be… unprofessional of me to ask that you use those pronouns in this building. I’ve… there have been past jobs of mine that have been less than friendly about that so I’ve kept it quiet as a precaution.”
“You could’ve told us.” Sasha hums, voice quiet, “You didn’t have to just let us keep misgendering you.”
“Yeah, and it would’ve caused us a lot less stress.” Tim throws out. When Jon turns to him with a questioning gaze, he clarifies, “We were both nervous about what you’d say about us wearing our pride stuff. If you had told us that you weren’t cis, we wouldn’t have worried.”
“What made you think I was homophobic?”
“You just… you give the vibes of a stuffy, stuck in hi- their ways, person.” Tim shrugs.
“Did I take issue with you flirting with men at any given point?”
“Yeah, you did.”
Jon rolls their eyes, “I took issue with you using company funding to take someone out on a date just for information, Tim, not the fact that the person was a dude. Besides, did you not know that I’m queer?”
“What!?” Tim shouts, eyes widening once again.
Jon furrows their brows, “Did you really not- I wear an asexual ring,” they bring his hand up to show a black band around their middle finger, “I have a demi flag on my bag.”
“Okay, to be fair, we’ve never really seen you with your bag. You get here earlier than us and you leave after us.” Sasha defends.
But Jon levels her with a glare, “My bag is hung up by my door. You see it every time you walk out of my office.”
“Touche.”
“Wait, so you’re…” Tim starts, raising his hand then letting it flop.
Jon rolls their eyes, “Yes, Tim. As is my boyfriend.”
And Tim nearly spits out his drink at the words because, “What!? You have a boyfriend.”
“Yes, Timothy.” Jon sighs, making their way over to the table Sasha and Tim are sitting at and slipping into the free chair, “I have a boyfriend. He and I have been dating for about a year and a half.”
“Why didn’t you tell us about this?”
“Once again, I thought you knew. Why do you think I keep talking about Martin?”
“Martin’s you’re boyfriend?” Sasha outbursts, “The sweet, big guy from the library? You’re dating him.”
“Yes, that’s why I go to visit him and why he’s the main connection between us and the library.”
“I need a minute.” Tim says, standing up and walking out of the room, “I’m going to lay down on the shitty cot we have.”
“Don’t take too long.” Jon calls after him, “You still have work to do, revelations aside.”
As he disappears into the hallways of the Institute, Sasha turns to her boss, “So you’re really just as gay as us?”
“If you wish to put it that way, I suppose.” Jon rolls their eyes once again, taking a sip of his tea, “To be fair, Elias has been married to and divorced the same man about seven times within their knowing each other. Though, he only seems to care about his own sexuality.”
“He only ever cares about himself, so I’m sure.” The girls rolls her eyes.
Jon hums but doesn’t verbally agree with her, “But, if you experience a problem with him when it comes to a situation like that, or your attire, please let me know and I’ll deal with it accordingly.”
“Did you have to deal with him seeing you in a skirt?”
They grin, “He hasn’t seen me today. If I’m lucky, he won’t see me at all and I won’t have to deal with his bullshit.”
Sasha laughs, “I don’t know how I ever thought you’d be upset at Tim or I for expressing our sexuality.”
“I don’t either,” Jon hums, gesturing to their body, “I mean… look at me. Martin describes me as an ‘overworked, single gay dad professor,’ my ex calls me Victor Frankenstein, who was believed to be into men alongside women.”
The girl snorts, “Both of those are scarily accurate, though you’d be a horrible father.”
“Both of them have known me quite well.” Jon hums, “And I don’t want children. God forbid I give any of my problems to a poor child, and the foster system doesn’t like people like me. Though, I am quite a good father to my cats.” Sasha laughs once again, Jon joining her with their own silent chuckles as they lift the mug that reads ‘Update: Still Gay’ that Tim bought on a flash sale three years ago with the black ring on his finger catching the dim light of the breakroom.