"So, Yuri, I know you're just itching to get started. Unfortunately, though, we don't have any veterinary assistants available to show you around. Their schedules don't work well with yours, considering you're going to school during the daytime," Viktor said, looking at the younger boy thoughtfully. "How would you feel about shadowing Otabek for the beginning?"

Yuri looked up, surprised. "Otabek? Isn't he a technician?"

Viktor chuckled. "Yes, but he didn't used to be. He started out as a co-op student here, and then got a part-time job as a veterinary assistant. He went to college to get a veterinary technician degree, however, so we gave him the job when he got back. I'm sure he remembers the assistant job well enough to teach you while it's slow in the clinic."

This was good. Yuri tried to hide his excitement, but internally, he found himself feeling… giddy? What a great way to start out the new job! A cool guy who liked cats was going to teach him. He had been expecting - and fearing - that it would be Viktor, and Yuri wasn't sure he could handle spending three hours a day with the old geezer. No, this was clearly the better alternative.

"Is that okay?"

"Yes! Yes."

"Great!" Viktor exclaimed, clearly quite pleased with his solution to the problem. "I'll call him." The silver-haired man bounded to his feet with an unnatural level of energy and strode over to a phone hooked up to the wall. It had line upon line of buttons above the number pad, some of which were lit or flashing red. Viktor tapped a few numbers before saying, "Otabek?"

"One sec!" a voice responded distantly through the phone, clearly on speaker on the other end.

A moment later, Otabek's voice returned, clearly right next to the phone now. "Hey, Vitya. Sorry about that. There was a particularly squirmy puppy here for a rabies shot. What's up?"

"Come to the staff room! I'm putting you on green duty."

Yuri looked up at Viktor questioningly. The other man chuckled. "That's what we call the person who's training the new staff," he clarified. Yuri glared at him at the condescending way of talking about his training, and leaned back in his chair, propping his feet on the table with a thunk in a show of defiance.

There was a sigh on the other line. "'Kay. Coming."

A few minutes later, Otabek walked in, trying to brush fur off of his scrubs. He looked a bit worn out from the obviously difficult patient, but somehow he still looked very… good. He looked up at Yuri and gave him a short nod. "Okay, well, I have a client coming in in a few minutes. I'm working with Dr. Katsuki today. Don't worry, though, we have little time. Mister is always a bit late."

Yuri nodded, standing up.

"Come on, I'll show you the treatment area. You haven't seen it before, right?" He led Yuri the rest of the way down the hall, passing doors marked "Exam Room 3," "Exam Room 4", and so on. At the end of the hall, there was a door with a metal plate which Otabek gave a firm push, revealing the place where the action really happened. Yuri stopped, staring. The treatment area was so cool.

It was a large room which plenty of light filtering in through the open windows lining the far wall. There were lines of cages, some of which contained sleepy-looking animals; one cage had a sign that said "watch" taped to the front, and inside, a fluffy white Persian cat paced back and forth, bristling angrily. Yuri didn't know where to look first. His eye was drawn in every direction.

Along the middle of the room, there were long tables covered in drawers, and on one of them, two of the technicians were holding a guinea pig and shaving its tummy. It was squirming and chirping. "Oh, you are so mad," one of the technicians noted, laughing. Yuri thought back to the introductions and decided that he was almost certain that this was Phichit. "It's okay, miss. Shh shh shh, it's okay," the man cooed.

He then looked up and waved as the pair walked in. "Hey, Yuri! Welcome!" His moment of distraction was quickly ended and the guinea pig let out a particularly loud sound and tried to flip itself upright.

"They're gonna give her an ultrasound," Otabek explained, gesturing to the squealing rodent. "They need to shave her fur to get a good view."

Yuri walked over to get a closer look. The clipper blades whirred noisily, but the guinea pig drowned it out, clearly displeased with its current situation. It was for the best of the animal's health, Yuri knew, but he still felt bad for it.

"Here, why don't I show you around a little? I'll get a call when Mister gets here," Otabek offered, touching Yuri's shoulder lightly to get his attention.

Before Yuri could respond, however, he felt a bump against his leg and sucked in a breath in surprise. He looked down to see what had caused the disturbance to find a tiny cat sitting at his feet. It was gorgeous, with silvery blue eyes and dappled cream-coloured fur. A bengal, perhaps, but he had never seen such a light one before.

"One of your cats is loose," Yuri deadpanned.

"That's Artemis," supplied the other technician - Georgi, if he remembered correctly - in a thick Russian accent. There sure were a lot of Russian people here, Yuri noted.

"She lives here."

"We got her when she was just a kitten. Careful, she might try to climb your pants," Otabek added helpfully.

Yuri bent down excitedly, holding out a relaxed hand for the cat to sniff. She stared at him straight in the eye before letting out a long, loud "miauuuuuuuuu." She promptly turned and walked away from him.

"She likes you!" Phichit exclaimed.

"She does?" Yuri looked up, confused. His brow furrowed with annoyance at how happy the technician always seemed to be. It was overwhelming.

"Well, usually she hisses. That was her way of saying that she'll tolerate you. It's better than what I got when I started!"

"Maybe she just doesn't like how loud you are." Yuri responded snidely, turning back to Otabek. "I want to see where I'll be working."

"Oh. Well, everywhere, really. You're job is mostly going to be helping out with procedures. You know, like what the technicians are doing with the pig."

As he said this, Georgi gave a satisfied noise and the two let the guinea pig flip upright. Phichit then carried it off to another room.

"Hey, wanna watch the ultrasound? They're checking if she's pregnant."

—

Yuri didn't get much training in for the rest of the shift. He followed Otabek around wherever he went, watching appointments and procedures, and trying to help out where possible (although this usually just meant washing dishes or spraying down tables). He tried to keep his snarky comments in check, as well (although this wasn't entirely successful; when JJ decided to pay a visit to the treatment area, Yuri couldn't help but call him a douche. I mean, come on! Anyone who proudly wears a lanyard with a picture of his wife at the end is asking for it). Mostly, however, his day was taken up by trying to stop himself from vacantly staring at Otabek when there was nothing else to do. He was very fun to look at.

At the end of the day, Yuri packed his things, changed into his more comfortable clothing (he didn't have scrubs yet so they had fitted him with vastly oversized old ones) and waved goodbye to Otabek, who was now holding Artemis on his lap on one of the computer chairs. She was purring loudly, and Yuri was tempted to secretly snap a picture with how cute the scene was. He turned to leave, excited to be going through the staff entrance for the first time, when he nearly ran into Viktor.

"Not so fast, Yuri! I have something for you!" the man quipped.

With a flourish, he pulled a bag out from behind his back and tipped the contents into his hand. A single rectangular object fell out. He held it out to Yuri so he could see it.

It was small badge. It read, "Yuri Plisetsky - Veterinary Assistant".

Cool.