“Corey?”

“Hm?”

“Lunch went well, didn’t it? We all had a good time, right? No one made anyone mad or disappointed or…anything like that, did they?”

“Seemed to go perfectly to me, sure.”

“You’re sure I didn’t do something that annoyed Mrs. Abby? Didn’t say the wrong thing?”

“Pretty sure, yeah. Seemed really happy to me.”

“So all this work isn’t her getting back at me for something?”

“Oh, no, I can promise you that’s not the case.”

“You can? Really?”

 “Mmmhmm. Believe me, she doesn’t really do passive-aggressive.”

“Well I guess that settles it, then. Your mom’s just evil.”

Melody’s proclamation, delivered from a huddled posture that saw her forehead pressed unto the top of her desk as a signal of ultimate defeat, drew a snort from the young man resting a thumb’s width away.

“Really? Don’t think you’re being a touch dramatic?” he teased.

“Nope,” Melody replied, eyes still tightly shut from the moment her head had sunk in exhaustion. “Only thing that makes sense. How else could we have such a nice time out only for her to spring this on me the moment we get back?”

“Easily, I assure you,” Corey remarked, experience clearly lending a certain confidence to that answer while it elicited a low grunt from Melody herself. “And c’mon, this isn’t that bad.”

“It’s a ten page report on employee distribution efficiency,” she reminded him, putting special effort into allowing her tiredness to seep into her voice. “And that’s just what she wants today.” A soft, acknowledging smacking of Corey’s lips was the Beta’s immediate response.

“Sooo,” he started, and with a tone that couldn’t have been more leading if he had tried, “what I’m picking up on here is that you could use a recharge.”

“Mmmhmm,” Melody sounded pathetically, taking an imaginary knife to the smile that had momentarily threatened her.

“Little bit to the right, then,” Corey instructed kindly, and Melody slowly obliged as her forehead slid along her desk’s smooth surface, lifting as it did so until it was replaced upon the surface with the tip of her nose. Her mind’s eye worked its usual magic as it teamed with a spatial awareness that at times bordered on omniscience, leaving her with no reason to open her resting eyes. Her love was a thumb’s width away? Then she would move just a hair’s width shy of that. She could see it perfectly in her head as it happened, the side of her nose sliding into a gentle rest directly at the side of that metal capsule – so close that any would say they had to be touching, with Melody’s own senses being the only source of disagreement as the presence of touch proved vacant.

It was a vacancy that was quickly filled by a small pair of lips upon her skin, and this time Melody took no efforts against the smile spreading across her face. The Omega took the moment to revel in this lingering demonstration of her love’s affection as her spirits lifted and her fatigue lessened. Even the warming of her cheeks in a satisfied blush didn’t faze her, and that in itself brought the young woman some relief. After that first shared kiss a month ago, they had…stepped back, a little, so that when Corey had become more affectionate just a week ago it had overwhelmed her all over again. And while that was nice in its own way, it didn’t compare in the least to just being able to enjoy the shared moment.  Of course, that moment had to come to an end. She had imagined it would be through a tender parting.

Instead, it came with the advent of a loud cooing that jarred Corey loose just a bit too soon as he looked for the source. Melody’s eyelids came under the same effect, opening in a combination of annoyance and disturbed modesty that furthered the encroaching redness of her cheeks.  Immediately, her right eye shifted, just enough to bring the office – and the perpetrator – into view.

Alexis caught her gaze immediately, and in a flash the heiress had clasped a hand over her own mouth in comical realization of what she had caused. Within another second, her auburn-haired colleague had hunched behind her own monitor as if sinking into a pit, removing herself from Melody’s gaze while still, amusingly enough to the larger woman, being vulnerable to the stink-eye fixed upon her by Kyle from his neighboring desk.

“So I guess it turns out the office isn’t the best place in the world for that,” Corey commented with a snicker, drawing Melody’s eye away from her hiding coworker and to her smiling boyfriend below. Actually, I think it’s the perfect place, she thought to herself, staving off the cooling of her cheeks a bit longer in the process.

“Maybe,” she responded as Corey’s little hand reached out to give her nose a selection of tender pats. “But I probably should get back to it, huh?”

“I’d consider it,” he advised with one last pat, drawing out a small snort from Melody before she sat up once more in her chair, regrettably leaving Corey behind as her fingers returned to her keyboard and continued their draining task.

“Thanks, by the way,” Melody warmly commented. “Might actually get through this now.”

“What can I say? I am here to help,” Corey confidently replied, bringing a little grin to Melody’s lips as she continued to type away. Just a bit more, then, and she’d be done – at least temporarily. And then...well, she’d be done. For several days, in fact. And then it would just be her, Corey, and hundreds of miles of alone time together as they trekked southward for a series of meetings with several of the friends Corey had made over the course of his studies.

But really, it was the trek itself she was most looking forward to. Melody had always loved going on extended walkabouts when the free time had presented itself, enjoying nature in all its beauty and splendor. She was particularly fond of the mountain ranges of Appalachia, of delicately traversing across them while basking in the natural atmosphere that was so…different from the bustling city she called home. And this particular trek, she decided, would be the best yet.

Because this time, Corey would be there, to experience it all with her. With her. Not only that, but it would be his first time seeing it! So it was up to her to pool her experience, creating an itinerary that would showcase the greatest beauty the region had to offer to him. It was up to her to make the trek – more of a prolonged date, she considered with a pursed-lip grin - an enjoyable one, and she welcomed the task. The thought made her positively bubbly, not to mention thankful that the Lindons had always favored coastal vacations so as to make this possible for her.

Though of course, Melody realized as she shifted into autopilot in referencing the various figures and data she was pulling from, she was getting a bit ahead of herself. They wouldn’t be leaving until the next evening, and they had much more pressing plans for tonight. With Mr. and Mrs. Lindon finally back home, Claire had planned a wonderful little party to welcome the two back, and turnout was expected to be high. A selection of Omegas would be there, of course, including Jenna’s parents and Melody’s mother (a surprise to her, given…past events). Kyle, Alexis, and Angela, too. Then there were all the Alpha and Beta guests, most of them friends of Mr. Howard. Claire had really wasted no effort and left no contact unreached as she had compiled what looked to be a rather large guest list of promised attendees.

It looked to have every hallmark of a fun evening, with good food and drink, and Melody was looking forward to it. Corey, too, was especially eager to see his father again, a sentiment Melody agreed with. Mr. Howard was so funny and sweet, and even now she could fondly remember when he would read to her class of young Omegas at the Institute, as short-lived a stint as it had been.

One little problem had almost gotten in the way of the reunion, though, and the recollection of it halted Melody’s fingertips in place. Corey’s baths were on a…less than ideal schedule for this occasion, they had found. So that little fact had necessitated a change in it and…had they done that? Had she? Had Corey? She wanted to say yes, but…for the life of her, she couldn’t. It was a moment of absent-mindedness that actually perturbed the busy Omega quite a bit – it certainly wasn’t something that she should be forgetting. In fact, it was precisely the type of detail she had been taught to consider above all else (the “little things,” and all that).

So, biting her lip, Melody minimized her work and brought the control panel for Corey’s Chamber into view. She had actually been quite giddy upon being given access to it a few short weeks back, taking it as an early signifier of the new relationship the two found themselves in. She had acquainted herself with it fully, and in short order had navigated through the rather friendly interface to the change logs – the quickest way to tell if she’d have to go through the much less friendly process of beginning a schedule shift.

The logs hung on her screen, then, recording the various routines of the little machine. Painkiller applications, hydration and feeding processes, past baths, and a variety of other information. Carefully, her eyes scanned each line, looking for schedule change amongst the mass of data. Finding her target did not take long, thankfully, and Melody exhaled in relief as she confirmed the new time for much later in the night, as it had been set just a couple of days ago by Corey.

Best get back to work, then, she thought, casually dragging the mouse downward so as to exit the helpful little program. And as her eyes often did when it came to small things, they locked onto the pointer with almost amusing focus as it tracked downward and through the alphanumeric sea of logs, her mind registering each little change it passed over. She gave them little thought, for the most part – if there was a problem, they’d be colored red, after all. But that didn’t stop her from processing what each entry was for.

No, what stopped her in this little journey was a perfectly innocuous little entry from just a few hours prior. It was one that caused her breath to catch, her eyes to squint, her mouth to dry. That can’t be right, Melody thought while rereading and reprocessing, trying to grasp what she was looking at, why it existed, what it might mean. And soon enough, her gaze shifted downward to the little capsule resting before her, and its occupant. Her attentions did not go unnoticed, and the smile that appeared on his little face threatened to melt her.

“Corey?” she questioned, almost without realizing it, while what she had just read caused a slight quaver. And Corey did two things, then, amidst an almost smothering silence that had seemed to overtake the office. The first was that he readjusted himself in his bed, turning himself so he could look at his back. At the screen. And he did that for more than a little bit of time.

The second was that he turned to face her once more, that friendly smile wiped from his face as if it had never existed.