The Archer

Mastermind

As the door clicked closed behind them, Kai leaned against its frame, taking several deep breaths to steady themself. Their body was thrumming with energy and their mind was flooded with memories of the way Mouse moved under them, the small noises she made, the taste of her skin. Kai hadn't lied when they said they had thought about it before, of touching their best friend as if she was something more. None of their fantasies came anywhere close to the real thing. Memories of pre-teen fumbling kisses had done a serious disservice to the way their lips connected like pieces of a puzzle, the chemistry they shared.

"Fuck..." Kai breathed out before pushing themself off the door and taking long strides down the hallway.

They tried to rid themself of the thoughts of Mouse as they left the building and got in their car, but their entire ride back to the Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus was filled with all of the thoughts of Mara that they had never let themself fully explore before. There had always been inklings in the back of their mind, gentle nudges and fluttering butterflies that they quickly and firmly squashed down. Mouse was their friend, their best friend, the one person they never wanted to lose– they couldn't risk all of that by letting a crush develop. If Kai took that jump, the fall to the bottom would be the end of their friendship as they knew it and Kai knew that there was only a small chance that it would be for the better.

Kai pulled their fingers through their hair, trying to calm it from the tousled mess it had become as they sat in their assigned parking spot near the neuro clinic– soon to officially be The Grey Center for Parkinson's Research. Within moments, they were able to bring themself back under control. Mind over matter. It was the mantra they had used time and time again throughout their life to shove things down and push them away. They had ignored so many things over the course of their life to varying degrees of success– their gender, their sexuality, their strained relationships– but in the short term, their own strong will had yet to fail them.

"Dr. Bartley, I'm glad you could make it so quickly," David Hamilton said as Kai was shutting their car door, startling them. They turned to look at the older doctor, who was just getting out of his black Mercedes. He was disheveled and not wearing his normal lab attire.

"Did you just get here? I thought you said there was a problem with the lab equipment," Kai replied, confused as to why David would just be arriving, as well. There is only one way that he would know there was an equipment malfunction on the day that all the workers were scheduled off– if he had been the one to break it.

"Yes, uh, about that," David started, shifting on his feet and putting his hands in the pockets of his pants. "I may have stretched the truth just a bit, but it was urgent that you come and I know how protective you are of the machines."

Kai furrowed their eyebrows and drew a frustrated breath through their nose, their mouth pressed in a line. David Hamilton was a ruthless, ambitious, shark of a surgeon who would stop at nothing to reach success. The tall neuroscientist could not say this was the first time that their boss had interrupted their valuable, limited personal time nor that it would be the last. Usually, however, he would at least be telling the truth about whatever was so urgent that Kai needed to return back to work.

"David, it's my only day off. Is the unpaid overtime I do the other six days of the week not enough?" Kai asked, their exhaustion and frustration glaringly obvious as they looked at David, following behind him as he opened the main doors to the clinic.

"This isn't the first time I've called you on a Sunday, Bartley, I don't know why you're reacting like this," David said without turning around, continuing the journey to The Grey Center.

"Maybe that's the issue," Kai muttered under their breath, their long legs easily keeping pace with the hurried surgeon.

"What's that?"