telecommute | (no subject)

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Leo was late.

Not late enough to quite worry, to call their superiors, but long enough for Ivan to start worrying. Admittedly Ivan's threshold for worry was a low one indeed, especially seeing as it wasn't like he could exactly go look for Leo. The coffee table was laid out with an empty space for whatever research Leo brought back, empty notebooks and index cards to catalog and sticky notes and all color of pens to organize waited in neat stacks to break the research down into usable and referable bits.

The small kitchen table was set up ready to take tea at. Ivan clicked a few beads on his rosary together before getting up to put the kettle on just the same, even without Leo there. Busying himself with the work would ease his anxiety, he just needed something to do with his hands.

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"Cult would track," Ivan said thoughtfully. "I'd wager this has to do with questionable magic of some kind. I should have something understandable by the morning."

He glanced up to where Leo was eating, pleased that the food was being enjoyed. He made a mental note of that to file away for future ready meals when his partner arrived. It was possible Leo was just hungry, of course, but it never hurt to be prepared.

"Were you hurt?"

"Just a little bit," Leo admitted, and again: this was strange to him. He was so, so used to no one actually caring about that, and it gave him pause every time Ivan checked on him. He'd have to grow out of that. He'd have to.

"But it was all my own fault. Didn't have enough light, and I didn't think I'd need as much traction on my shoes as I did... stuff to learn for next time." He inhaled, drumming his fingers on his legs. "What do you need? I can go get some stuff from my own library if you want, or--?"

Ivan clicked his tongue, stepping away from the table to fetch his extensive first aid kit from the bathroom.

"To ensure a thorough understanding, yes. First though show me where you are hurt, it wouldn't do to have you taken down by infection."

For Ivan it was a bit of a relief, having a partner like this. He had no problem entertaining guests, he could leave his apartment and travel anywhere within the building. It was the leaving the building itself that brought him near panic, and locked away in self-exile as he was meant little opportunity for making friends that one could meet face to face.

He treasured his online interactions, of course, but it was not the same as sharing a space with another person and at times he was terribly lonely.

"Ivan, dude, it's fine, honestly." But as much as Leo always protested, he almost never told Ivan no. So, even as he was denying the need for help, he was left rolling up his sleeve to show a crude bandage he'd made on his arm -- gauze, wrapped up in white bandage tape. Blood was soaking through, but not badly.

"Slid down a wall and scraped it up pretty hard. It's gross, but it doesn't hurt."

"Not hurting is more cause for worry," Ivan chided, drawing his chair around so he could open the first aid kit in his lap when he removed Leo's bandage.

"I am going to clean it, it will hurt," at least Ivan warned Leo before he applied the cotton ball of hydrogen peroxide?

Leo hissed in through his teeth, trying to pretend that it didn't sting quite as much as it did. "Okay, well - it does hurt, I just didn't want you to worry about it. Oh my god, dude, that hurts."

So he was whining a little. Just a little.

"Drink your tea," Ivan chided as if he was dealing with a fussy child. Once he was satisfied that the injury was indeed clean, he got about applying fresh bandages. He did know how to do that as well.

He would be useful, damn it.

He was useful, and Leo sighed as he sipped at his tea, watching Ivan apply the bandage out of the corner of his eye. Now that the sting was going dull, he was having to suppress a yawn.

"Okay, so. What books do you want me to bring over, dad?"

Ivan ignored the sarcastic response, neatly packing away the kit when finished and disposing of the old bandage. Efficient and clean.

"Do you have anything in regards to the Obrimos in your collection? I believe some of the symbolism is along the same lines."

"I... think so. I have it, or I've borrowed it before." Leo hesitated, thinking, before he stifled a yawn in the crook of the elbow of his uninjured arm. The food had been good, and the tea was soothing him. "I can go check, though."

Ivan pursed his lips again, expression turning to that of a man who had just tasted something sour.

He made that expression a lot around Leo. Usually right before fussing.

"Lay down in the guest room to catch some sleep first. It will do me no good if you pass out and get mugged on your way home. I can begin sorting these just fine without further documents," he said, gathering up the scrolls in a precise order and carrying them over to the coffee table where he had his materials ready to go.

"I don't need a nap," Leo protested, twisting slightly to lean back into the arm of the couch. "I'll just rest my eyes here for a few minutes, and then I'll be good to go. It's just the adrenaline wearing off."

"If you insist. If you get a cramped neck that will be your fault," Ivan said dismissively, not looking up from the scrolls as he began to work.

... Maybe he'd get a blanket once Leo fell asleep.

"I will accept one hundred percent of the blame if I get a cramped neck," Leo granted him, sort of just quietly watching him work as he began to half-doze. Eventually, he murmured sedately: "Why don't you ever wanna go out in the field?"

Ivan didn't mind being watched as he worked. He had a system in place, and Leo dozing lightly on the couch next to him hardly interrupted it.

"The same one where you get dirty and injured? That field?" Ivan scoffed faintly as if that could cover the slight way he tensed at the question. "Assuming I survived, my babushka would kill me for the folly."

"I wouldn't let you get hurt," Leo scoffed half-heartedly, but it wasn't like he had any say in that. "Guess I kind of just feel bad. You gotta get bored being stuck with all the crappy paperwork."

Not that it wasn't fascinating in its own way more often than not. It still didn't break it of the tedium.

"That is where you and I differ," Ivan said, somewhat relieved for the easy out from addressing his lack of field work. "If I had an endless supply of scrolls to translate and archive I would be happy for the rest of my days. Going out and gathering them seems like the punishment as far as I'm concerned."

"Mmm." Leo shut his eyes, humming thoughtfully under his breath as he considered how he wanted to answer that. "I don't mind it? I like it, most of the time. But I think trying to juggle everything was making my brain melt out through my ears."

Ivan stood, going over to his bookshelf to rifle through a few of his own tomes and bring over ones that were well-worn, edges of the paper soft with handling and sticky flags in all the colors of the original pride flag dotting along the edges.

"Then it was wisdom that paired us up, I would be useless if I had to do field work, which is where your talents shine best."

Leo tilted his head back, watching Ivan with heavy-lidded eyes as he did. He hummed thoughtfully again, which seemed to be his go-to for 'I'm falling asleep but trying to pretend that I'm not.'

"You callin' me dumb, Ivan? That hurts my feelings."

Ivan scoffed, muttering something unintelligible under his breath. It sounded like a curse though as he looked over to Leo and away from the book.

He adjusted his glasses, sliding them down his nose just a bit to look Leo in the eyes. It actually made Leo blurrier, but it often got the point across to people who did not wear glasses.

"I am saying that I have a particular skillset that you lack, just as you have a particular skillset that I lack. Neither are 'dumber' than the other, and as we are both deficient in the other's strengths it is a good match to have us working together."

Leo couldn't help it: he felt the corner of his lip curling into a grin when Ivan actually peered at him from over the rims of his glasses. "Okay, okay, thanks. You've successfully soothed my budding self-esteem problems."

He twisted to sit up then, rolling his shoulders back to try to wake himself up.

"Okay. Okay. I'm up. I'm good. I'm ready to go."

"Are you certain you will be able to make it out and back again safely? Text me when you make it to your apartment so I know you aren't dead in a ditch," Ivan said with a huff, turning back to the work before him once more.

He didn't like admitting that he worried, but he worried.

Leo gave his back a sleepy stare.

"Ivan... with what phone?"

Ivan paused, then cursed for certain.

"Pick up a burner phone at the 7-11 like a drug dealer, then. Until you can get a new one."

"You want anything while I'm out? You want a burger? I could pick up burgers."

He could definitely go for burgers. Or anything, just to wake himself up.

Ivan paused, tapping his pen against the coffee table before admitting - "A burger would be nice."

Leo ducked his head to mask a smile, even if he wasn't entirely sure why. "Yeah, okay. Write down what you like on 'em."

Ivan glanced at Leo out of the corner of his eye, averting his gaze just as quickly. Notepaper was easy to be found and soon enough Ivan's neat and legible handwriting that looked like it could have come off of a printer was holding out his aggressively plain burger order for Leo. Meat, cheese, lettuce, bun. Nothing else.

Under that the clarification of no sauces, no tomatoes or onions, no other meat except the one patty was underlined several times.

"French fries? Soda?" He skimmed the order, amused as he folded the paper up and slid it into his back pocket. "It's on me, you're the one busting your ass here while I run errands."

"Fries," Ivan said after a bit of thought. "Just a little one. No soda. I have soda here."

Strange Russian brands of soda, anyway. He liked it, it was what he grew up with, in spite of never visiting the country.

"Thank you, Leo. I should have something more by the time you get back. Be safe. Pick up another phone."

That was the most important thing, clearly.

Fries, he added to the mental checklist. Probably no ketchup, but he'd get some anyway, just in case. Little by little, he was doing his best to learn Ivan's idiosyncrasies.

"I'll pick one up if I see one," he promised, "but I'll just head to the store tomorrow if I can't. I'll be back in like, an hour tops."

Ivan snorted in displeasure at the dismissive concern about having a way to communicate. Utterly irresponsible.

"I am going to time you!" he said, which would have to function as a goodbye while he buried his nose in the scrolls and books.

It would be a solid hour and forty minutes before Leo would return. Not to be impolite, but he'd gotten a little lost and overwhelmed in all of his books before packing up the ones they needed, and then of course the all-night diner he'd decided to stop by was packed. He slipped in, two greasy paper sacks in hand. "Hey, sorry," he murmured. "Time got away."

"An hour and forty minutes!" Ivan yelled as soon as Leo returned, storming up to him with worry and anger alike crossing his features. His normally messy hair was in even more disarray than usual. He had given up on his paperwork around the hour and ten mark and had been working himself into a fit in the remaining time.

"This is why I say you need phone! An hour and forty minutes is not an hour!"

And Leo, for his part, was briefly stunned into silence. He'd been expecting a complaint, or a grumpy remark, or- well, for Ivan to have not noticed, because why should he care if he was gone one hour or three? Dumb. Dumb, dumb. They were partners, he had to... remember that.

"Hey. Hey, look, sorry- it's hard to keep track of time without a clock in your pocket. I'm fine, dude, there aren't any monsters between your place and mine. Calm down- eat with me?"

Ivan's hands clenched and unclenched into fists, trembling as the adrenaline-fueled anger faded into just worry, then to regret at his outburst.

"... I ... I apologize," He said finally, choking out the words and turning away quickly. "We do not yet know each other well. I worry. I should not have yelled. But please - get a phone as soon as possible or - or find someone else's you can use if you will be later than you say you will be."

Turning on his heel, Ivan went to the kitchen area as he frantically tried to smooth his hair back into some sense of order, setting out plates and cups and grabbing the kvass he kept in the fridge.

"No- no, it's fine. You're right. That's- that one's on me." Leo could feel his face flushing hot with something like embarrassment, as if he were a teenage boy breaking curfew. "That's how people in our job get into really stupid situations. I'll get one first thing in the morning."

He had been growing extra sleepy again, but now he could feel the blood pounding in his ears, and so he just took a seat at the table and began to silently unpack their food.

"Thank you," Ivan said quietly, the gratitude in his voice deep and genuine.

"... Have you had kvass before?" it was a shitty attempt to change the subject, but it was there. The argument had been resolved and passed, only thing to do was move on.

While grabbing the dark brown soda he also took a few more condiments and vegetables from his refrigerator, taking his aggressively plain burger and adding his own fixings himself.

Ivan liked his things in a very particular way. He didn't trust fast food places to get them right, even if it was a nice treat. UberEats had raised his variety significantly and yet he rarely branched out.

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