Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One:

Safari sighed as they rushed down the street. They couldn't be late to work, not today. They were supposed to be training a new employee, George or something like that. They crossed the street, not bothering to look both ways. A car honked at Safari, but they were already gone, rushing down the street, through the automatic doors. They strode to the elevator, about to press the up arrow, but someone was already there. Safari and the stranger brushed hands, before Safari quickly drew back.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." they said, fixing their hair. "I'm just in a bit of a rush, you know how it is."

"No problem at all," said the stranger smoothly. That voice... Safari looked up and locked eyes with him. He had rectangular glasses with thin wire rims and white, almost silvery hair in an undercut. His eyes were a startlingly shade of blue-green, like something they had never seen before. He seemed calm, almost meditative. Safari blushed and looked away.

The elevator doors opened and the two of them stepped inside. Safari's heart was beating fast, but it must have been from the jog to work just minutes ago. No other reason at all! At least, they hoped. It was too early to catch feelings. Besides, they had a career to pursue! Love would only get in the way of that. Love? They were getting ahead of themself. They had just met this guy. They didn't even know if he worked here. Before they could stop themselves, they said, "My name's Safari, they/them pronouns. How about you?"

The man turned and smiled. It was a serene expression. "I'm Google, he/him. Nice to meet you." He extended his hand out to them. Safari shook his hand, and blushed yet again. Ahrgh, get a handle on yourself! they thought to themself. The elevator dinged- they had arrived at their floor- and Safari turned to leave. Unfortunately, they had forgotten to let go of Google's hand, and in some sort of complicated ballet-esque maneuver, they spun away, nearly fell, and Google pulled them back. They stumbled forward, tripping and collapsing onto his chest.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" Safari pulled away as quick as they could, accidently pushing Google back against an elevator wall. "Oh! Sorry!" They turned and dashed out of the elevator. "Sorry sorry sorry sorry! Sorry again! Nice to meet you! Sorry!"

They relaxed once they were finally in their office, sinking back into the black office chair. They pulled out a mirror and fixed their hair, Their cheeks still held a slight tint of red, which was embarrassing personally, but they doubted anyone would notice. Now, to train George or Greg or whatever the new employee's name was. They picked up the phone and dialed the receptionist. "Please send in the new employee."

A moment later the door opened and- oh no- Google walked in. Why was he here? Unless- oh no- he was the new employee. Safari rubbed their face with their hand. It was too early for this. After the earlier fiasco, this was so, so embarrassing. They had hoped to never see Google again.

"Well," said Safari, then couldn't find the right words to say.

"Well," said Google, "this is a little awkward."

"Yeah, sorry again." cringed Safari. "Anyways, lets-"

"Oh it's no problem," Google replied, accidently cutting Safari off. "Oh, sorry, go on."

Safari restarted: "Anyway, let's get to work. So we work in the archives and we're basically private librarians. Someone from one of the writing offices or reception will write a request form, either for a specific file or information about a topic. Then you go to the archive and find the information."

Google nodded.

Now that they were doing their job, Safari could put the earlier romantic ideas out of their mind. "Follow me and I'll show you the archives."

Chapter Text

Safari leaned back onto the couch. "I just don't know, Firefox."

"Sounds like you've got a crush," their red haired friend said. She was sitting on the couch too, but her feet were up in the air and her head was dangling almost to the floor. Firefox also worked in archives, but at a different office.

"No, that's not it-" Safari flustered as Firefox made knowing eye contact with them, wiggling her eyebrows. "That's not it at all!"

"Are you sure..." Firefox said, drawing the words out.

"You know what? I bet he's a jerk. I bet underneath that calm exterior is a- a jerk! I don't like him, I hate him!" said Safari, in a very flustered tone.

Firefox laughed. "Haha, sure." She grinned mischievously. "That's what's going on."

Safari frowned. "Let's talk about something else. Let's talk about you!"

"Same old, same old. Work has been slow lately, there's not much that needs to be done." Firefox sighed.

The idea of less work sounded nice to Safari. Well, they supposed, with Google working now, they'd have less work to do. They'd been working at their office for about two years by this point, and while the work was monotonous, it paid well and Safai found it fulfilling. The quiet of the archives was a calm place to search. The work had slowly built up, and they found themselves surprised at the responsibilities and respect they conducted at the office. Hiring another archivist had been a fairly recent decision; Safari could generally handle the work just fine by themselves, but the office had recently hired several more researchers. The more archivists, the faster searches for resources could be completed. Google seemed like a good hire, responsible. He was a fast learner and had already memorized the layout of the archives. Safari thought back to when they had begun their job. It had taken them days to figure out the layout of the archives. Google was good, almost too good. He said he'd never done this job before, that he'd worked in economics before, but his abilities spoke otherwise. And he was good looking too- Safari shook that thought away.

Firefox, catching the motion, laughed. "You thinking about Google?"