The Weekend Arrangement

Make Your Home With Me

"Are-are you ready to leave?"

Startled from his paperwork, Martin looks up in confusion. He knew the end of the day had been approaching, but a glance at the clock tells him it's only 3:30. He peers up at Jon, hovering nervously in front of his desk.

Today has been... odd; everyone in the building knows now. The long speculations about them had been confirmed, and now the staff was in a frenzy.

At the gossip minded Institute, news of the newly revealed relationship in The Archives had torn through the ranks like wildfire. New theories about when it had all begun emerged and people had quietly exchanged folded pound notes as various wagers came due. All day people had been descending into the basement seeking any morsel of information not yet known by their colleagues and the dusty silence of the basement had been disturbed by their intrusions.

The first of the unaccustomed visitors had arrived not even an hour after Jon and Martin had turned in their 'Consensual Relationship Agreement' forms, and the increased scrutiny had left them both with a vague uncertainty on how exactly to act around one another, worried that anything they might do or say would be misinterpreted and endlessly discussed by the rest of the Institute.

"Jon? It's a bit early, you never want to leave this early."

"Well, I can't get anything done. I've had three 'drop ins' since lunch, Martin. And you've been off hiding in the stacks, so they all want to talk to me." Jon's face contorts in a pained grimace.

"Oh- uh. I'm sorry...I was just trying to- I don't know; keep up the appearance of normal? I didn't think we'd get so many people down here. Are you angry?" Worried he's made a terrible misstep, Martin colours in embarrassment

"Not at you, Martin. I'm just... frustrated by the situation. That prat from Accounting was down here." Jon scowls at the thought of being the centre of the maelstrom of Institute gossip. "And you should have heard the load of codswallop he was trying to sell me. We don't keep accounting records in the Archives- if they're going to interrupt my day fishing for information, they had better come up with more plausible reasons." Jon is clutching his briefcase and shifting from foot to foot, and his brow has developed a furrow deeper than Martin has ever seen.

"We're just a bit of fresh news right now. It'll die down soon enough, Jon."

"I don't have to like it while we wait for it all to 'die down', Let's just- go, Martin."

"Oh! Oh- uh, were you wanting me to -"

"I mean I had thought..."

"I stayed last night, though. Did you want me to stay tonight as well?"

"Yes. Ah- if you wanted to. I had thought you would. I had thought you might like to. Do- do you not want to?"

It's endearing how quickly Jon had shifted from perturbed anger to nerves- almost like he was asking Martin out for the very first time and Martin falls just a little bit harder for him.

"I would like to! Of course I want to. I-I was just thinking maybe you would have wanted to- I don't know, let things settle maybe?"

"I mean, it's officially official now isn't it, Martin? There's no one to keep it from any longer."

"No, no- I guess there isn't."

"We have our paperwork in, the gossip has already spread through the building- I had thought you'd be coming home tonight."