Work Text:
Tim has never seen a new hire work quite like Jonathan Sims. There’s normally a learning curve, a stretch of time in which they learn the ropes, ask a lot of questions, get turned around looking for the countless rooms in the massive Institute building, but not Jon. He’d absorbed everything on his first day like a sponge, and from his first hour on the clock after shadowing Tim for the morning, he’s moved around the place like he’s always been here, like he knows it already.
It’s equal parts annoying and endearing, really. Tim’s always trained the newbies--he’s not the most senior, but he’s the easiest to approach, the most eager to ask questions, and loves nothing more than to spend a week following some poor new sod around giving them pop quizzes about how to answer the phones and where the coffee maker is. He likes it, and the new hires usually like him.
Jon was different. He’d asked very few questions, answered even fewer about his hobbies, his personal life, his interests. By the time they’d spent a whole day together, where Tim usually had a fairly good read on someone, he’s got almost nothing on Jon.
Now, the curiosity is driving him crazy.
Tim invites Jon to lunch on Monday, and he turns him down. Again Tuesday, Wednesday, and just when he’s starting to think it’s personal, he checks the break room refrigerator for an unlabeled snack and realizes that Jon doesn’t appear to be bringing a lunch. When he thinks about it, he hasn’t actually seen Jon take a lunch break at any point. Sometimes he’ll grab a packet of crisps or a granola bar from the break room, but he hardly even breaks to eat it, just nibbles absently while he reads.
The next odd thing he notices about Jon is that he simply cannot leave in the middle of a task. Often, when Tim leaves for the day, Jon is still sitting at his desk, completely absorbed and looking like he’s not planning on stopping soon. One night, Tim forgot his wallet in his desk and found Jon only just packing up his things at 7:30 p.m. He’s the last to leave and the first to arrive, and hardly seems to rest or eat or even leave. Tim wonders when he sleeps.
Friday, after watching a clearly exhausted Jon pour over his work all morning without so much as looking up, Tim decides he’s had enough.
He’s either going to make a friend or an enemy of Jon, but he hates to have an in-between.
“Hey, Sims,” he greets, leaning up against Jon’s desk a bit after noon. “Lunch plans?”
Jon looks up and shakes his head. “I’m alright, thank you.”
“Not what I asked. Are you planning on taking a break to eat today?”
Jon gestures to an open packet of sunflower seeds on his desk which he’s been picking at throughout the week, and Tim rolls his eyes. “I’ve—”
“Nope,” Tim curtails. “That’s not food, and you need to take a break.”
Jon tenses. “I don’t think that’s your concern.”
“Jon, I’ve worked here for a while, now, and I can tell you that this place will swallow you whole, if you let it. There’s always more to do, it seems. I can’t make the choice for you, obviously, but it’s up to you to decide how much of yourself you’re going to give it.”
He waits for Jon to think it over. For a moment, he thinks he’s not going to get a response at all, but eventually, Jon sighs, rubs a thumb over his temple, and begins to stand, but hesitates.
“This… this is an invitation, correct?”
Tim laughs and grabs Jon’s coat off the back of his chair. “Come on. There’s a great little bistro not far from here. Only rule is that we’re not talking about work.”
Surprisingly, Jon smiles. “Okay.”
It’s one of the most awkward lunches Tim has ever had, but Jon stays true to his word. They have nothing in common, really, but by the end of it, he’s got a read: he does, in fact, like Jonathan Sims.