As he'd predicted, Ravi apologized and things went back to normal, mostly. Ravi decided to keep sleeping in the spare room, but he busted his butt at work and was becoming quite proficient at running errands and making copies. He was also not taking any nonsense, and while Mr. Spencer had received quite a few complaints about Ravi's attitude when people tried to talk to him, he dismissed it all once Trever sat down and spoke with him about it.
Ravi wasn't there to be anyone's friend. The only person he had to be around and at least be willing to talk with sometimes was him. Anyone else could just get over his little attitude. He was his helper. No one else needed to pay him any mind.
They can go find their own dog.
Looking up from his messy desk, Trever saw Ravi slip in through his office door, then nudge it quietly closed before heading his way with a determined expression. It was the look he usually wore when helping him out at work. He had actually been gone the previous day, having requested to be dropped off in town, then picked up after Trever had finished everything he needed to do at the company for the day. He'd been quite dirty when he'd climbed back into his car, too.
Trever had asked what he'd done all day, but Ravi had just smiled and said he'd been looking around town. It made him even more curious, but he let it go since it was obvious that Ravi hadn't wanted to share his activities.
"I delivered the paperwork," Ravi said as he stopped in front of Trever's desk, waiting silently for his next requested task.
It had only been a couple days since their awkward situation had transpired, but the guy had really put his mistake behind him and was honestly one of the best workers he currently had at his disposal. He'd also set up an employee account for him and got a 401k savings plan started, as well as a timesheet for pay. Mr. Spender saw how well he worked and how much he helped Trever get his job done, so he'd gladly agreed to pay him a wage. It was just the entry salary, but Ravi was more than happy to start earning some money and Trever thought that it was a fair amount.
"Look over these papers for me real quick? I made some notes and just need a second pair of eyes to double check me," he said as Ravi reached forward and took the proffered items.
He quickly nodded and gave him a "yes sir" before sitting down in one of the seats across from him and beginning to read.
He still struggled a bit with reading and understanding certain things, especially when it came to work related topics, but the guy continued to show improvement and powered through the documents. It took him a while longer than it might most people, but that was perfectly fine with him. Ravi took any task he was given very seriously, and as Trever skimmed the papers that were handed back to him with only a few small extra marks on the pages, he was quite happy with the guy's work.
"Perfect, you caught a few things I hadn't noticed. Thank you, Vivi," he said as he pulled up the documents in his computer and fixed the errors.
Once he was done, Trever leaned back in his chair and gave a good yawn as he stretched his arms over his head. He could feel eyes on him as he did so, and wasn't too surprised since his previously tucked-in shirt pulled up just enough to free itself from the waistband of his pants. When he lowered his arms and opened his eyes, Ravi was just finishing looking away with a faint blush on his cheeks.
Cute pup.
Ravi glanced back at him with a slight head tilt, making Trever purse his lips for a moment as he realized that the guy had picked up on his thought.
"Um, want to head out? I can do the rest of today's work from home since you've already copied everything else I needed and we've already checked the reports for today," he said as he got up and began cleaning up his desk.
Ravi gave a quiet sound of agreement and stood, too, then leaned over to help him clean up the mess he'd made throughout the day. Their fingers brushed each other's a few times as they worked, but Trever didn't really pay much mind to it. He was getting used to simple things like that with Ravi.
Once they were all set, they headed for the door and Trever gave Ravi an appreciative nod as the guy held it open for him. They rode the elevator in silence and walked quietly to Trever's car, but it was obvious that something was on Ravi's mind. The guy was chewing nothing, which was pretty much a dead give away.
Thankfully, as soon as they got heading back home, he spoke up.
"Can we stop at a clothing store, please?"
Trever glanced around and spotted a decent one right after he'd spoken.
"Sure, there's one right here," he said as he pulled into a parking lot a few moments later.
It was just a normal chain store, but it was quite large so he was pretty sure that Ravi would be able to find something he liked. It was pretty busy inside since it was around four in the afternoon, but to his surprise, Ravi didn't seem to mind all of the people milling about. One of his hands was clenched at his side as he began looking through racks of clothing, but that was really the only visible sign that he wasn't a fan of the crowds.
Trever followed him around for a little bit, but when Ravi didn't seem to ask him anything or request he look at certain clothing with him and give his opinion, he wandered off to look for a few things for himself.
By the time he'd selected two new pairs of pants and a dress shirt, he figured that Ravi would have had enough of the place and be ready to go. Except, when he went back to find him, the guy had actually retrieved a shopping cart and had quite a bit of stuff inside it.
He was just about to call out to him when he saw him turn and head toward the dressing rooms.
He's actually going to try stuff on, too?
Trever paused in the middle of the aisle, holding his few articles of clothing draped over his arm as he watched the guy walk away.
What happened to my shy, nervous Vivi?
He awkwardly wandered over to the dressing room area, then took a seat outside to wait. It wasn't two minutes later that he felt a hesitant nudge in the back of his mind, as if Ravi's dog wanted to get his attention.
You want me to come over?
He felt another nudge in response, and when he heard a door creak open a second later, he slowly stood up. It was a bit weird walking into the long hallway of dressing rooms, but when he spotted Ravi at the end, glancing at him as he hid mostly behind a door, he felt a bit better.
You wanted me to come but couldn't quite voice it, then.
He was okay with that. As long as he was supposed to come, how the guy got him there wasn't an issue.
"Can I see your outfit?" he asked with a small smile, honestly curious about what he'd decided to pick out.
Ravi hesitated for only a moment or two more before he stepped out into the hallway. At first, his eyes stayed on the floor, but it wasn't long before they rose up to meet his. Trever wasn't exactly focused on those eyes, however, and was instead a bit taken aback by the outfit Ravi had picked out.
It wasn't that the clothing looked bad or didn't fit. Nothing was technically wrong with it, but there was something a tiny bit off...
"That looks really good, but can I see what else you got? I think they might look better split up," he said as he waited for the guy's permission to walk forward.
Ravi hesitated for a few seconds, but then seemed to get over his his nerves and nodded as he disappeared back into the dressing room but left the door open.
Accepting the silent invitation, Trever stepped inside... and had to keep his eyes from going wide and his jaw from dropping at the sheer amount of stuff Ravi had brought into the dressing room.
I swear there was a sign about a limit of six items or less.
There were at least twenty different articles of clothing in the little room.
"Okay, let me see," he said as he set his own things down and he heard Ravi shut and lock the door behind him.
The guy joined him a moment later as Trever held up a black turtleneck shirt.
"This might also go with those pants, if you want to try them together," he suggested, honestly wanting to see the two garments together on him.
Ravi stared at the shirt, then at the hot pink one he was wearing. The pink one was soon on the floor as he tugged the black one over his head. Trever averted his eyes for the few seconds it took Ravi to finish getting dressed, then looked back at him with a grin.
"That looks really good. I knew black would match those jeans well," he said as he reached forward and carefully adjusted the faded blue jeans on Ravi's hips just a bit.
"This outfit would work great at the office, too."
It wasn't sophisticated or dressy, but it was decently stylish while not being overboard in any way. It was a basic, nice-looking outfit.
"Do you like it this way? You can always switch out the pink and black, too," he said, hoping that him stepping in to switch the shirt didn't make him upset in any way.
He was getting much better at understanding when Ravi was getting frustrated or upset, and could normally avoid causing any undue stress pretty easily now, but sometimes some things just didn't go the way they needed to. For those now-rare moments, Trever would just try to keep Ravi as calm as possible until he was able to pull himself out of the stressful darkness he slips into.
He was honestly surprised that the faint background music in the store wasn't bothering him, now that he realized it was there.
"Mm, yes. Master Trever should try his things on, too," Ravi said as he grinned and tugged off the black shirt, then removed his pants as Trever hurried to turn around.
The dressing room he'd picked was likely the biggest one they had, so there was enough room for him to change, too, but...
"It's okay if you don't want to. I changed again already. Can you tell me what you think?" Ravi said, making Trever stop momentarily panicking as he slowly turned back around.
Oh.
Ravi now had on a pair of white jeans that hugged his legs perfectly. The top was a dark purple and black sleeveless shirt with little wisps of dark blue swirling around down the left side.
"That looks really nice," he said honestly as he tucked his hands behind his back to keep from reaching forward again.
There really wasn't anything that needed adjusting on the outfit. He just wanted to reach forward for some reason.
When Ravi smiled happily Trever couldn't help but mirror his expression. The guy began to strip again, but this time, Trever didn't bother looking away... completely. He turned his attention, instead, to the clothing Ravi was likely going to try on next.
It seemed like the guy had already set most of his stuff in specific piles, now that he really looked, so it was easy to know what he was wanting to try on together and what was fine to test with anything opposite it.
When they got down to the last few items, however, Trever paused.
That... definitely doesn't look like it would fit him.
When he looked sideways at Ravi, the guy had a plethora of emotions flitting across his face.
He picked it out for me.
It definitely didn't look like something he would normally wear with his plain wardrobe of mostly black and grays, but what the heck, trying something on couldn't hurt.
So, turning around, Trever tugged off his black dress slacks and quickly pulled on the pair of black jeans. Thankfully, they weren't too tight, and honestly fit quite well.
When he tugged off his shirt and tossed it onto one of the benches, then turned around to grab the shirt Ravi had picked out for him, he realized something and paused with his arm outstretched.
He was about to ask himself if he felt eyes on him, but the answer slapped him in the face without him even needing to respond. Of course there had been eyes on him, Ravi was in the dressing room, too, and he hadn't exactly told the guy to turn around!
Shaking his head slightly, Trever shrugged off a wave of oncoming stress and grabbed the shirt. Thankfully, it settled over his body comfortably.
Oh?
He hadn't noticed the design on the front, but now that he saw it, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit as he looked over at Ravi.
"You would find the one shirt that had a dog on it," he said as he turned to face him in his new outfit.
Thankfully, the dog was actually perfectly placed and didn't look odd in its little corner. It was also embroidered in dark red as a partial outline, so it honestly looked pretty nice on the lighter red shirt.
Slipping his hands into the pockets of his pants, Trever gave a boyish grin and shrugged one shoulder.
"How do I look?"
Ravi was already wiggling, even in his human form, so it was no surprise when he gave an eager humming whine from his dog in response.
"I'll take that as a positive review," he said with a grin as he quickly pulled the shirt off, then replaced it with his previous one.
A moment later and he had done the same with his pants. Once he was back in his regular clothes, Trever looked back at Ravi and was a bit surprised to see that he had changed back, too.
"All set?" he asked.
When the guy shook his head, Trever furrowed his brow in confusion.
"What are we missing?"
When Ravi pointed past him to where he'd left his own few items, Trever felt his face warm slightly.
Ah, right.
He hadn't really planned on trying them on. He knew what fit him and what not, so there was really no need. Except, those puppy dog eyes of Ravi's were making a rare appearance.
Reaching over, Trever mussed up the guy's soft curly hair.
"You're a bratty pup, you know that?" he said before pulling his shirt off again.
Those familiar hungry eyes didn't hesitate to watch, but Trever just shrugged them off as he pulled on the white collared shirt he'd brought with him, then tugged his pants off to pull on a similar pair of gray dress slacks.
I... really don't have much diversity in my wardrobe.
It was always black or gray with a rare splash of white. He only owned a few pairs of non-dress clothing, too, and they were mostly just black jeans and black shirts...
"Master Trever is very handsome," Ravi said, drawing his attention away from his bland outfit.
He was about to respond with a generic set of words, but they got caught in his throat as he simply stared at Ravi. The guy didn't look any differently than he normally did. His hair was tussled but beautiful, his smile wide and dimples clearly visible...
Why do I feel weird looking at him all of a sudden?
He didn't really want to dwell on the awkward situation, so he decided to shrug it off and quickly switched back to his original outfit. Once he was done he turned back to the other man and was relieved to see that Ravi had gathered up a big armful of clothing and was waiting by the door with a content smile.
Trever walked forward and opened it for him and then helped him load up the stuff he wanted to keep... which was all of it. He had to hand it to the guy, he had picked everything out very carefully. Setting his own things in the cart, they headed for the check-out at the front of the store.
"Want to go get something to eat?" he asked as they waited in line.
He wasn't too hungry, but if they had an early dinner they probably wouldn't need to go out later or cook the little bit they'd bought from the grocery store a few days ago. Of course, he should cook, but he was lazy when it came to such things.
"Sure, I saw a sign for Chinese?" Ravi said with a hint of excitement to his words.
Chinese did sound good. They'd done quite a few fast food places and some sit-down barbecue, but not Chinese yet.
"Sounds good," Trever said as they finally got to a register and began loading up the counter.
He was just about to step over to where the cashier was ringing things up to get ready to pay when Ravi ran up first.
Eh?
Before he could even consider that Ravi had brought enough money to pay for all of their stuff, the guy whipped out a brand new wallet and handed the cashier their entire total... in cash.
I know that we're paying him and he has money now, but when did he buy a nice wallet? And why did he bring so much when he knows that I have plenty to pay for whatever he needs?
"Thank you, sweetheart. Here's your change. Have a wonderful day," the lady behind the counter said as Ravi quickly took it and the receipt, then finishing setting the rest of their bagged clothing in the cart. Once that was done he took Trever's hand as he began pushing the cart toward the door, snapping Trever out of his surprised daze.
He couldn't find words until they were outside beside his car.
"V-Vivi, I could have paid," he said as he awkwardly unlocked the car trunk so that they could put their things away.
Ravi just gave him a beaming smile over his shoulder as he set another bag in the trunk.
"I can pay now, too," he eventually said after finishing loading up their remaining items.
It feels so weird when you pay, though!
Trever forced his strange thoughts to the back of his mind as he gave a silent sigh, then put a smile on his face.
"Thank you for the clothing, Vivi. Ready to go eat?" he said as he shut the trunk and they headed back toward the store to return the cart since they'd parked decently close.
Ravi gave a happy hum and nodded as he skipped ahead, seemingly overjoyed with their little outing. The guy's excitement alone made Trever smile honestly as they then headed over to the restaurant next door.
It had looked like a fast food place, but it was actually sit-down, which was fine with him. The moment they were seated they were handed a menu. It was a bit pricey but it seemed like a lot came with a meal.
Ravi grinned over his menu after a moment and said "get whatever you want."
Trever raised an eyebrow at the guy's words.
Gonna pay for this too, huh?
Ravi gave an overjoyed nod in response to his thought, making Trever chuckle as he set his menu down and looked it over closely.
"Alright, the bill's all yours, Vivi."
The waiter came back a few minutes later with waters and to take their orders. Trever got spicy pork and vegetables while Ravi got sesame chicken and crab wantons.
Their food came with sides of ginger salad and miso soup, so there wasn't much time for talking, but neither of them minded. The food was delicious and they both ended up cleaning their plates.
"Wow, that was fantastic," Trever eventually mumbled as he heaved a content sigh.
Ravi looked just about ready for a nap. His head began bobbing slightly once he finished all of his food, but he quickly shook it to snap himself out of his oncoming doze.
He then took out his nice wallet and after glancing at the bill, set a fifty on the table. It was a bit of a steep tip, but when Ravi got up, clearly ready to leave, Trever decided to let him do as he pleased. The waiter had been great, and the food had been amazing, so twenty percent wasn't unreasonable.
Trever got up, too, then followed Ravi out, thanking the hostess on their way for the great food. Once back outside they both stretched and yawned, then headed for his car in content silence.
The drive home was also quiet, but that was probably because Ravi had conked out almost immediately and was now snoring softly as he leaned against the window. The sun was on its way down and the warm breeze from the slightly opened back windows made it quite a nice, peaceful ride.
Today was a good day.
For some reason, Trever smiled the entire way home, then carefully carried Ravi upstairs in his arms. It was a bit tricky to get the door open, but he managed. Once inside, he slipped his shoes off, then headed for the couch. Except, when he got there, he hesitated to set Ravi down.
The guy was completely out cold, so if he set him down on the couch, that's probably where he would sleep all night.
That's no good.
Turning, he walked toward the hall and into his own room. They had long-since gotten over that awkward situation several days ago, so he didn't really mind Ravi sleeping with him again. Thus, he gently laid the guy down on top of the blankets, since it was a tad warm, then carefully tugged off his shoes.
Once he was done, he went back outside and brought up all their stuff, then walked back into his bedroom after locking the door and turning off the lights. Except, instead of just getting into bed like he'd planned, his feet took him back over to where Ravi was sleeping. He'd rolled over, but looked a little uncomfortable...
Ah, his phone.
Reaching down, Trever removed the large device from his pocket, then watched as Ravi got a bit more comfortable, then sighed contently.
My bad. I should have grabbed it right after I set you down.
He was just about to put it on the nightstand after having plugged it into his charger when the screen lit up.
Digging Person: Hey there, kid! Thank you again for helping us out the other day. Your dog was fantastic with digging the holes we needed. Even better than our broken machine! We wanted to see if you'd be interested in helping us again this Saturday around noon? We'd pay one hundred again. Let me know!
Oh, and I hope your date went well! You're a good guy and I'm sure whoever it was loved spending time you with you.
Trever stared at the message for a long, long while before slowly setting the phone on the nightstand, face down.
Was that what that had been earlier? Did he pay for everything thinking that we were...?
Licking his lips slightly, Trever stared down at the sleeping man in his bed. Yes, he'd enjoyed the time they'd spent together, but if he'd known that Ravi had considered it a date, would he have still gone? He wanted to think no immediately, but as he finally pushed himself to walk around to the other side of the bed and remove his outer clothing, he knew that he was being foolish. The second Ravi had offered to pay for their clothing, he'd known that he considered the situation important.
The guy had been getting paid each day he went to the office instead of setting up a bi-weekly system like the other employees. And he'd evidently been working the day he hadn't gone, too.
Digging holes... No wonder he'd been so dirty when I'd picked him up that day.
Sitting down on the bed in just his pair of boxers, Trever lifted his legs up onto it and laid down. His head immediately turned when it hit his pillow, though, and his eyes soon fell upon Ravi's sleeping face.
How did you even find that odd job? Why did you even take it?
Of course, he knew why. He'd wanted to take him out on a date with his own money, but he probably hadn't been sure exactly how much it would cost, so he'd tried to make some extra money while also taking a break from the people at the office.
A faint smile curled the edges of his lips as Trever turned onto his side and nuzzled into his pillow, then finally closed his eyes.
I guess I can't be mad. If he wants to think that we went on a date, then so be it.
The food had been excellent and the shopping had been nice, too. As he drifted off, Trever replayed their evening together in his mind. The last thing he remembered before drifting off was the look in Ravi's eyes when he'd turned around in the dressing room. The attentiveness and honest yearning in them had made his heart fidget in his chest... and as he fell asleep with that image firmly settled within his mind, his heart moved a little more.