*"Ah, the laughter of the lovers
As they run through the night
Leaving nothing for the others
But to choose off and fight
And tear at the world with all their might
While the ships bearing their dreams
Sail out of sight."*
*
While Daniel was upset he'd had to leave his old clinic behind, he realized now was the time to pursue what he really wanted out of his career. Before deciding to become a veterinary technician, he had toyed with the idea of becoming a behavioralist for animals. When he learned he could be working with animals hands on within the first few days of starting the vet tech program, versus strictly book learning for 4 years, he had wanted to dive in right away. He'd always been a one to learn better by hands on means than written word. Daniel sat at Michael's computer surfing the web for a job, specifically one where he could expand on his love of behavior.
Michael came home late from classes, staying late in the library to look up some information for an upcoming test. He stepped in the door and was hit with a wonderful smell.
"Hello? Honey I'm home!" He joked.
"Kitchen!" He heard Daniel call.
Michael walked into the kitchen and came up behind Daniel. He kissed his bare neck and slid his arms around his waist.
"Now don't start that otherwise I'll burn the food..." Daniel said leaning back into Michael's embrace.
"Mmm smells great." He paused looking down at the pan. "What is it?"
"Eggplant Parmesan" Daniel said.
"Um. Okay." Michael said.
"What? I know you don't really like vegetables, but seriously, if you don't like my eggplant, I may have to disown you."
Michael laughed.
"I'll set the table."
A few minutes later, Daniel arrived at the table with a steaming serving plate of food.
Michael tentatively took a small piece, and a larger portion of the spaghetti Daniel made for the side. He cut a piece off and popped it into his mouth, getting ready to spit it into his napkin. The moist piece of eggplant practically melted in his mouth, the breading and the marinara a complement to the slight bitter bite of the vegetable. It was absolutely delicious, and he moaned in delight.
"See. Told you so." Daniel gloated.
"This is practically orgasmic!" Michael reached for another piece.
Daniel chuckled.
"Hey, just curious, but do you think you should talk to someone about the clinic firing you?" Michael asked after he'd eaten the second piece.
"Well, I thought about it, but they did offer me all my unused vacation as a severance pay, and I think it would be a stretch to prove that they fired me for being gay. I am technically an 'At- Will' employee, and I did violate the handbook rules. It feels like it would be a waste of time, and I'd rather just leave everything behind, you know?"
"I get it I guess. I just am so mad that I never realized how bigoted they were there."
"I don't think they all are, but I suspect the image of the clinic is more important."
"Their loss."
Daniel nodded.
After dinner, the two men retired to the living room to watch TV. There wasn't much on so Michael just left the news on and turned down the volume.
"So, besides cooking my now favorite meal, what did you do today?" Michael asked.
"Well I cleaned up a bit, and looked online for jobs in the area. Found a few clinics I applied at. I'm still hoping to find something in behavior, but not a lot of general practice places work with that too much. If I could get specialized without working at a clinic this would be a bit easier, or I could go into business myself."
Michael mused on that a bit.
"Well, why don't you find a place that will be a good fit for you in general practice, and then once I graduate, we can either stick around here, or we can move to a place where we can both find something. Or we could wait until I'm hired, I can convince them to do behavior work and we can go about getting your VTS (Veterinary Technician Specialty) together."
"I'd hate to not be working in the meantime though. I'd drive us both nuts, but I think maybe you're right. I should see about either convincing a new employer to consider behavior, or like you said, we can try to get hired together."
Daniel yawned and leaned over onto Michael's shoulder.
"Bedtime?" Michael said into Daniel's hair.
"Yeah, I'm tired even though I didn't do much today."
"Well, you did show up at like 1am yesterday, and we didn't get much sleep."
Michael led Daniel to the bedroom and both men stripped down to their underwear, brushed their teeth and crawled into bed. Daniel spooned up behind Michael, sighed and almost immediately fell asleep. Michael took a bit longer to fall asleep, mostly because his body was turned on by the feeling of Daniel's cock against the small of his back, even though it wasn't hard. His brain wouldn't stop thinking either. Daniel had never been comfortable going past mutual masturbation and knowing his history and how he was raised, Michael had figured out Daniel was a virgin. He was such an introvert when they first had met, and with him not being able to figure out his sexuality or even explore it, there was no way he'd had much experience if any. Now that they were sharing a bed, it wouldn't be long before Michael would want to take advantage of that situation. He needed to plan out a seduction- and make Daniel feel comfortable so he could take their relationship to the next level.
Daniel finished his first interview since he'd been fired, feeling that things went pretty well. Everyone seemed to be nice there, he'd explained his situation with Michael and the office manager seemed to be okay with it. Of course Madison was quite a bit more liberal then the small town up north was. He told his side of the story of why he left his other clinic, impressing on how he thought it had to do with his relationship. The office manager here was sympathetic, 'but that doesn't always get you the job' Daniel mused. Buried in his thoughts, he unlocked the door to the apartment and walked in. He'd been living there about a week now. The lights were low, but Daniel knew that Michael usually stayed after classes to meet up with study groups. He reached for the light switch, but there was a note taped to it.
