“Today is weird,” Leo muttered. He resisted the urge to kick the office cubicle divider as he leaned back in his rolling chair.

The progress slider on his screen inched along. Goddamn department resources didn’t allow for fast computers, which meant a lot of waiting around for image processing.

Getting back to work after his blissful weekend with Dustin had been strange. The weirdest work week Leo could remember, really. He was covering for someone flying out of state for a family funeral, too. The overtime money was good. He liked that part. But the job itself? He was starting to wonder.

Leo pushed through a few average tasks, meticulously creating the reports demanded of him while he waited for image processing.

At least he didn’t have any court appearances. Not so much at first, but now that the gears of justice were grinding on and he’d been here a while, he’d been called to testify more. Which meant a suit and tie, and a waste of a day.

“Leo?”

It was Dustin, hanging back from the entrance to Leo’s cubicle like he was afraid of getting too close.

Leo hadn’t seen him since Sunday evening, and it was Wednesday now. He’d started to worry that he’d scared him off. “Oh. Hey, what’s up?”

He fully expected a work question, but instead, Dustin stepped forward and awkwardly handed over a small box. “Something… for you.”

Leo glanced around. Nobody around in earshot, so he smiled and glanced back at Dustin. “Yeah? Payback for the bakery treats?”

“Well, not that fancy. Just something… dumb little thing,” Dustin mumbled and waved a hand, backing off already. “See you.”

He was gone before Leo could call him back. Leo shook his head, watching Dustin power-walk back to the laboratory.

“What do we have here?” He tore open the plain wrapping on the box and lifted a layer of foam up. The back of a picture frame.

After he lifted the frame out and turned it around, Leo paused. He’d recognize that photo anywhere: Ansel Adams’ photo of the face of Half Dome. It had launched his career into one of the bestselling and most famous photographers of all time.

Leo smiled to himself as he gazed at it for a few seconds, reminiscing about his photography classes all those years ago.

Then he put the frame on his desk and pursued Dustin to the laboratory, pausing when he got to the doorway and knocking on the open door.

“Hey.” Dustin jumped to his feet from his computer and awkwardly smiled. “I wasn’t sure if it would be your thing, since you don’t do… landscapes… and whatever.”

“No, I love it.”

“I thought it could brighten up your house. Since it’s such a bachelor pad right now.” Dustin grinned at him.

“Oh.” Leo grinned sheepishly. “I was thinking of putting it on my desk here at work, actually. A little inspiration. Since I’m here more than I’m at home.”

“Oh?” Dustin leaned on the desk, which Leo took as an invitation to mirror his body language and lean on the filing cabinet next to him. “Why not?”

“College,” Leo said simply, then remembered he might not have brought that up over the weekend. “Uh, I’m going back to school. VA’s dime.”

“Oh, cool… for a different career?”

“I don’t know yet,” Leo admitted. “Other than photography, I’ve never been able to see myself doing anything else.” It was the kind of late hour in the office when the 9-to-5ers had left, and everything seemed a little surreal. Words came easier, and more freely. “I still can’t.”

Dustin nodded. He was sitting on his desk now, hands folded in his lap. “So why go back?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping I’d stumble on something else I loved doing. But so far…” Leo trailed off, then sighed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to dump my woes on you.”

But Dustin just firmly shook his head. “I asked. I want to know. I mean, I did my forensics degree, and then I kind of… I don’t know. Stumbled straight into this. But I feel like I’m here more than home, too. It’s easier.”

Leo blinked. “Easier to be at work?”

“At home, I just remember that I’m… well, I don’t have much of a life. My brothers are great, but they all have hobbies and stuff. I just do this.” Dustin gestured around the lab.

“And it’s important work,” Leo told him. It was his turn to be firm. “We all rely on you. Couldn’t get anything done without the forensics team.”

“You’re part of that,” Dustin countered.

“I am. But I’m just documenting.”

“So am I.”

Leo scoffed and rolled his eyes. “If you’re going to be stubborn like that…”

“I should have warned you, by the way: I can be stubborn.” Dustin smiled cheekily at him. “Probably why I avoid being alone. I need someone to butt heads with. I always thought going back to classes would be interesting.”

Leo nodded. “It can be, but it’s very… well, freshman year. And all the kids are eighteen or nineteen or something. The professors talk down to you like you are, too. It feels like you’re a league away from anyone else.”

“Well, you can take evening classes in hobby-based stuff. Dancing, art, whatever,” Dustin suggested.

Leo had had that thought before. “That doesn’t lead to a career, though.” He fidgeted with the drawer handle next to him.

“You looking to get out of this place?” Dustin gestured around. “How couldn’t you love the bodies and blood?”

Leo laughed under his breath and tried not to let the old memories slip in. Dustin’s sentence had opened the cracks he sometimes forgot still existed in that wall in his mind.

Dustin seemed to sense it, because he moved closer—a little too close to be strictly appropriate at work. “We all have those things that haunt us. Getting out of here before you break down about it is smart.”

“I’m fine,” Leo scoffed. “I’ve gone through all the treatment options. I’m not having flashbacks or nightmares or anything. I just don’t like to think about it.”

“Just making sure,” Dustin murmured. His hand slid into Leo’s, fingers filling the gaps between Leo’s. “I’ve seen it a lot.”

Leo squeezed lightly. “Me too. That’s not the main reason I want to get out. I’m just… done with all of this. I feel like I’ve done my time. I need something that will make me feel more connected with people, not more distant.”

Whoa. He’d never said that out loud, or even thought it to himself. Something was making him spill his guts to this guy he barely knew—a guy he’d spent one weekend with.

He trusted Dustin. He wanted him.

Shit. It had to be his dick talking. That was what had been broken or missing all along—incomplete, maybe. That was a good word. He’d defaulted to his attraction to women and it had totally blinded him to anything else he might experience alongside that, like… men.

Now he was overcompensating for all the attractions he’d missed out on.

It was a good, sensible explanation for the sparks between them as they held hands, Leo’s body sheltering them from view of the door. But it didn’t explain why he trusted Dustin as much as many of his buddies he’d spent months or years of intense action with.

“It’s big of you to admit that,” Dustin told him. “I won’t say a word, of course. If you wanna stay on here or leave, that’s your call.”

“You have a good spirit,” Leo finally settled on. He squeezed Dustin’s hand, tracing his other hand along the veins on the back of his hand, then over his knuckles. “Thanks.”

Dustin winked. “Thanks, yourself.”

Work, Leo reminded himself. That image was definitely done processing now, and this was the wrong place and time to hit on him. Why did he have to be a goddamn coworker, anyway? Why couldn’t he have run into literally any other guy in that bar that night?

But they’re not him.

Leo smiled and let go of Dustin’s hand, then gave him a quick wave. He strode back for his cubicle, trying not to feel like he was mirroring Dustin’s actions earlier and running away from him.

This was something he wanted to treasure—a real friendship, where he could share what bothered him before he even figured out what that was. It was utterly new, but the idea of losing it was already scary.

And that feeling could only grow stronger, right? That had been his experience up until now, anyway. No reason for it to be different because it was another man.

Leo shook his head as he fired up the printer. He was still distracted by thoughts of Dustin at work just a minute’s walk away, wondering how late Dustin would stay and what Dustin’s plans were for after work.

This was a thing. A crush, probably. A feeling he hadn’t expected, and one that was sure as fuck inconvenient for coworkers.

I have to figure out who I am, and how I deal with this… pronto.