"Why do you insist on drinking that?" Lysandre nodded to the cup in Sycamore's hands as they walked across Lumuiose. "You know perfectly well I'd give you one on the house at my café."
Augustine smirked. "Oh, you can buy me coffee later, mon cher. I know you love to treat me."
Lysandre stiffened, keeping his gaze facing forward. "The fact remains that we went out of our way for this sub-par coffee."
"It's chilly this morning, and I like it," Augustine said. "If it really offends you that much, though, I'll skip it in the future."
A sigh escaped Lysandre's lips. "No, you needn't do that. I just don't understand you, I suppose."
Augustine shrugged, much less theatrically than normal, and said, "What's there to understand? We all have our creature comforts." He slipped the hand that wasn't holding his coffee around Lysandre's arm and squeezed, looking up at the taller man.
Lysandre, unsurprisingly, shrugged out of his hold, and put several centimeters of distance between them. "Professor Sycamore, that is incredibly familiar behavior for work associates such as ourselves, and you know why we cannot engage in such."
Now it was Augustine's turn to sigh. "Yes, I understand, appearances. But we're not movie stars like Anthy is, she's the only one who has to worry about paparazzi for real. I don't see what harm there would be in as little as that."
"And I do not understand, Professor, why you cannot just accept the boundaries I have asked for."
The rest of the walk was weighed down with a tense silence, until they finally made their way to Autumnal Avenue, and inside the door to Fleur-de-Lis Labs.
Sycamore scarcely had time to put down his coffee before Lysandre's hands were on him, holding him close, lips pressing against his own- then just as quickly broke away. "Patience is a virtue, Augustine," Lysandre whispered into his ear, sending chills up his spine.
"We should get to business, though," Lysandre said, and walked further into the lab.
It took Augustine a moment to catch his breath and catch up, saying, "You know you are an ass, Florian."
Lysandre shot Augustine a look, but didn't respond. Sycamore knew Lysandre hated his first name, which was why he'd used it now, but perhaps he was starting to actually irritate Lysandre... maybe it was time to back off himself. So he took out his keystone, the one he got all those years ago at the Tower of Mastery... and never managed to master, after all. He and Lysandre got to work.
During their (somewhat embarrassingly, employee-enforced) lunch break, Lysandre said out of approximately nowhere, "You really are starting to take them young, you know. At least Sina and Dexio are, what, their late twenties?"
Augustine blinked. "Twenty five and twenty six, actually."
Lysandre sighed. "Ten years is a bit much, but that Calemine girl said she was only twenty. Sixteen years' difference is nearly half your life, and you're actually considering dating her."
"Now, hold on- I explained to you yesterday, that wasn't a date." Augustine huffed in irritation. "You've been telling me things I know 'perfectly well' all morning, and yet here you are. You know perfectly well that I really do take new employees for a day on the town."
"Yes," Lysandre said in a sarcastic drawl, "And yet I've never seen you in my café with one before yesterday. Nor do you usually have that love-sick expression. Others might not see it, but I know you, Augustine. I am quite aware she's just the sort you're drawn to, but she's practically a child, man. And a vile one, to boot."
Augustine looked away uncomfortably. Was he really that obvious? That was... unfortunate. He'd have to do better about showing her favoritism in the lab. He'd... already shown in some capacity, months ago when he gave Calem the Charmander- but that had had legitimate reasons, regardless of whether Calem was attractive- as a man or a woman, given the unfortunately long case of mistaken identity.
"So I am right. Nothing good can come of this, Augustine. She's childish, impulsive, trouble-making, and a poor study. The type of person that ruins everything they touch. You'll push her out the door the instant her internship is up, and keep her on desk duty until then, if you're wise."
With a frown, Augustine said, "That's entirely unfair, Lys. You've barely even spoken with her! I'll take the legitimate concerns into consideration, but you are quite out of line." He angrily took a drink from his coffee- a second cup, this one the promised one from Café Lysandre. "And why can't your café be connected to the labs, anyhow, when they're in the same building." It was a total non-sequitur, but something that did genuinely upset Augustine- and would hopefully take Lysandre off of Calemine's case.
Lysandre just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fire codes won't allow a door to be built between the two. I've explained this before."
They bickered some more before returning to work. The mood was soured, though, and even bouncing ideas and doing chemical tests and all of that didn't have that same joyful energy as it used to. Granted, even this morning, before Lysandre had to bring up Calem, hadn't been the playful discovery of their youth.
Still, Augustine could at least try to lighten the mood. "So, how has life been treating you, lately? I saw a new update for the holo caster went out a few days ago, has it helped- ah, whatever it was supposed to help? I've never noticed any problems, so I'm afraid I can't tell the difference."
A grunt from Lysandre, which for a moment Augustine was going to be his only answer, then- "Business is fine. The update... patched a security risk."
"Oooh, sounds bad," Augustine said, "I'm glad to hear it's taken care of." Another grunt, and this time it actually wasn't followed by anything, so Augustine continued, "How about personally? I hope you're not over-working yourself, or at least not as much as I tend to."
Augustine laughed at his own joke, but Lysandre didn't seem to react much at all. "I'm fine," he said, "just busy."
Lysandre did tend to focus when they were working, so Augustine could understand the clipped answers, but he'd had so little time with his oldest boyfriend lately. "We're both so busy these days... we should take a break, a real day off, just for each other. Soon, mon coeur, I hardly know anything about you these days."
"That's probably for the best."
Augustine blinked at Lysandre's response. "What? You don't want to-?"
Lysandre's eyes widened just a bit, then looked back at Sycamore for the first time this conversation. "No, ah- we should make a date. That's all I meant."
Maybe they could have an actual conversation, then, that wasn't bickering. If only working together on projects were as fun as it used to be, when they were in college, when they were getting their doctorates, before they'd gone their separate ways- back into the education field for now Professor Sycamore, or into the business sector with Lysandre, focusing on profits more than knowledge, innovation only when it was lucrative. Augustine sighed. Perhaps.
A/N: fun fact: I stopped updating calemine because I wrote and lost the beginning to this chapter on three separate occasions. perhaps now, with the ch posted and saved, the curse is broken.
