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The Zaun Museum of Natural History was a bit of an anomaly. Caitlyn had never been all that interested in museums, despite appreciating art and history, and had never seen herself working in one either. But, quite simply put, her dream career in enforcement had fallen to shit after her mentor, the city sheriff, had been exposed as deeply corrupt and entirely unapologetic. With a bitter taste in her mouth, and a degree in sociology that had left her feeling aimless, Caitlyn had scoured job ads for anything she could do that did not involve a blue uniform.
‘Security Guard’ had caught her eye before she’d even seen who it was for. Black suit, black tie, stand in a corner and tell people not to touch the art? Yes, all right, fine, she could do that for the summer, until she figured out her next steps.
Except.
It was three years later now and Caitlyn had her routine, her habits, her friends, and a great amount of respect for every single person who worked for the ZMNH, from the general staff to her colleagues in security and operations.
The museum was a marvel of architecture, with its gorgeous archways and balconies, but with over four vast levels it was also a stunning display of collaboration and passion. With its plethora of exhibits housing the world’s oldest and largest skeletons, fossils, relics, and prize-winning presentations for their plants and geology exhibits, the museum had earned the right to boast about their collection.
It had been overwhelming at first, to say the least, but despite the gargantuan nature of her workplace, Caitlyn had found a tight-knit community of people. Her boss, Loris, was empathetic and approachable; a consummate professional that Caitlyn had learned a great deal from.
There was turnover of course, as any security job could get tedious despite the setting, but Caitlyn had forged life-lasting friendships with the faces that had been here since her first day, including Steb, who mostly worked in the Marine Life section, and Sky, who worked here part-time while she continued her studies in environmental science.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
Caitlyn’s heart jumped—because it always did, no matter how many times she heard that voice say that word.
Where could she even begin with this story? How did she summarize the extent of her feelings for the museum’s most beloved tour guide?
“Coffee machine’s busted in SR. It looks like World War Z in there.”
Right. Maybe Caitlyn could start with that. Vi was charming because she never pretended to be anyone she wasn’t. She said something mundane and somehow it became the most interesting thing in the world.
“Do you want to go to Toast for lunch?” Vi asked, then arched a brow. “Cait?”
“Uh. Sorry. I was thinking about my-” Caitlyn shook her head. “Yes, I’ll definitely need the caffeine.”
Vi gave her a soft smile, glancing around the room. They were in the marine section of the Prehistoric Predators exhibit, where Caitlyn was keeping an eye on a mother who, five minutes ago, had nudged her child behind a barrier to take a picture with the mounted skeleton of Deinonychus. She'd huffed and puffed at Caitlyn's sharp reprimand, clicking her tongue and stating, "There's no sign saying we can't," which Caitlyn had then pointed to on the adjacent wall.
“She giving you trouble?” Vi asked quietly.
“No, she's giving me a headache,” Caitlyn muttered.
Vi grimaced, herself disliking entitled visitors.
Coincidentally, it was in this exhibit that Vi spent most of her time, too. Caitlyn rotated with Sky in the Giant Insect Dome more often than she liked—creepy crawlies were no favorite of hers—but she'd definitely made the Predators her territory, so to speak. Visitors were trickling in now, but it was only thirty minutes past opening and Vi’s first group wasn’t for another twenty minutes.
“I’ll catch you later?” Vi asked.
“You'll catch me right here."
Vi chuckled low, leaving the room with a little shake of her head and a goofy grin on her face.
If Caitlyn had to start somewhere, the simple truth was that Vi had become her best friend her very first week. Granted, Caitlyn had never made any close friends before her, which meant by default she'd been the best one, but eventually she’d grown close to many of her lovely colleagues and yet… Vi had always topped the list.
But there were other feelings, so much stronger and sometimes dizzying, that she still couldn't put words to. How could she even define a woman like Vi? It was her passion that had attracted her first, like a moth to a flame. Only, Vi's fire never burned her. It was a warm, comforting glow that, once touched, stuck with you.
Of course, you’d have to see it to understand it. Vi didn’t just do her job, she poured her heart into it. She turned bland texts into sweeping stories, but more importantly, she cared. 'You know those kids who go crazy for dinosaurs and then grow out of it?' she'd once told Caitlyn. 'Well, I missed the memo. Just never got bored.'
Caitlyn was pretty sure she’d fallen for Vi the day she’d shown a field trip of 5-year-olds the dinosaur skull of Silco the Allosaurus and they’d all fired a thousand questions at her. She’d crouched down to answer each one, showing visuals on her tablet and gesturing with her hands like only someone in love with their work could.
Above all, it was because Vi wasn’t a particularly patient person when it came to herself, but when it came to others? She could wait hours, weeks, even years.
“Does anyone have any questions so far?” she asked her group of retirees later that day.
They were seniors in their eighties, a part of an outing organized by their retirement community.
“Yes, sweetheart, is there going to be anything about the saber-toothed cat? It’s my grandson’s favorite. I’d like to get a nice picture for him.”
Vi flashed the woman her sweetest smile. “Camille, I’ve got something even better to offer, because Smilodon is one of my favorites too. I’ll make a note right here—” she wrote something on her tablet “—to walk you over to our Ice Age exhibit. There’s a diorama there that I know will score you the coolest grandma points.”
Camille gave a bashful grin. “You’re a proper charmer.”
Vi winked, then led the group over to the display of aerial predators, right in front of a reconstructed skeleton of a giant carnivorous bird.
“Funny you mentioned our big cat friend, because this massive fellow here dominated with a strike-and-tear approach that made Smilodon gracilis look like a kitten. We call him Titanis, but you may be more familiar with the term ‘terror bird.’”
Caitlyn had to look away, moving from her corner of the room toward a young man trying to touch a pterosaur fossil. She cleared her throat, watching the man retract his hand like a kid caught reaching into the cookie jar. “Uh, sorry.”
She kept an eye on him until he moved to the ocean section, then watched a group of preteens enter. Well, time to focus.
🐅
“What are you two doing this weekend?” Sky asked around lunch in the staff room the next day. The coffee machine had been fixed; the crisis averted.
“I’m going to a Monkey Gunpowder concert with my sister,” Vi said, tearing into her ham and cheese sandwich. “Don’t call me on Sunday because my ears will be fucked.”
“If only ear plugs existed,” Caitlyn quipped, enjoying a pasta salad.
Vi smirked. “Where's the fun in that?”
“What about you, Cait? Not a fan of punk rock?”
“No, I think I’ll be enjoying a bubble bath with the latest LeBlanc crime novel.”
“Oh gosh, I’m still stuck on the one that was made into a movie last year,” Sky admitted. “It’s too grim for me honestly.”
“Have you tried her second, The Black Rose?" Caitlyn asked. "It’s much lighter.”
“Is that the one you stood in line for to get signed?” Vi asked after taking another bite. Somehow she made that endearing too. “Where you mumbled your name was Callie and then told her she was pretty?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn sighed, “though I regret telling you that story every day.”
“Nothing wrong with being a fangirl,” Vi teased.
“That’s adorable,” Sky chuckled. “How old were you?”
“Uh, well I was young…” Caitlyn blushed. “Just a shy kid, really.”
Vi snorted. “She was 20.”
Caitlyn glared at Vi, who glanced at her watch and stood. “Would you look at that? Got to get ready for my 2 PM.”
“Yes, you should,” Caitlyn replied thinly.
Sky grinned at the exchange, finishing up her energy bar as Vi walked out of the room. “Is it me or is there something different in the air?”
Caitlyn finished up her meal. “Are you referring to the smell of exhaustion?”
“Aw, are you worried about talking to Loris? Or... something else?”
“All of it, I suppose,” Caitlyn said, glancing toward the door. “Three years ago, I never thought I'd even stay here so long. But eventually I found my home. I just worry I'm... rocking the boat."
“It's a lot of change,” Sky pointed out. “But being nervous doesn't mean you're not ready, it just means you're a pretty normal human being.”
“Oh, I am more than ready to lay it all out,” Caitlyn sighed. “I suppose I just want it… to be perfect.”
🦕
“Hey.”
Vi found her in the staff locker room that evening, slinking toward her with a sheepish smile. She grabbed her coat and shoulder bag.
“It’s pouring,” Caitlyn said, grabbing her small umbrella from her locker.
“Hm. Listen, did I... put my foot in my mouth at lunch?”
Caitlyn glanced at her, frowning.
“That LeBlanc story,” Vi clarified.
Caitlyn chuckled at her nervous expression. “It’s not even in my top ten embarrassing stories, Vi.”
“Ah,” Vi said, relieved. She adjusted her shoulder bag. “So can I bring up that time you walked into a brothel when you were looking for the movie theater?”
Caitlyn huffed. “You know, I was going to buy you something very nice for your birthday, but now I think I’ll just swing by the gift shop and get you a raptor figurine.”
“Those are actually great quality, please go nuts.”
They met each other’s eyes and smiled. Caitlyn looked at her watch. “I guess there’s no avoiding the rain.”
It had progressed into a downpour when they left the museum. The streets had a wet shine and the gutters were overflowing, spilling out into the narrow alleys.
Caitlyn opened the tiny umbrella with the museum logo on it. Vi huddled close to her, hand on her back, and then laughed heartily when a strong gust of wind made the umbrella flip inside out.
Caitlyn would never tire of that laugh or that playful glint in her eyes, but did she also have to look so damn handsome with wet, windswept hair?
“This is why I don’t trust the gift shop!” Caitlyn yelled over the sound of the rain. Her own hair stuck to her face, tangled and heavy. She’d look like a frizzy mess while Vi would just run a hand through hers and be ready for a Vogue spread.
“Just a little spring storm!” Vi grabbed the umbrella to bend it back and fix a wonky rib, then opened it over Caitlyn’s head. “Come on, gorgeous, let’s get you home.”
Caitlyn’s stomach swooped.
☔️
This was a problem. Vi was giving a tour to six-year-olds. Little adorable pints who wow’ed and ooh’ed at every dinosaur bone, life-size model and interactive display.
Frankly, Caitlyn felt her womb quiver.
“Is it true there was a shark that was… thirty feet tall!”
They asked questions without really asking them, exclaiming things between sentences, at any time, even while they looked at entirely unrelated parts of the exhibit. Vi handled every interruption smoothly, like she had dealt with it a thousand times before, which, after five years at the museum, was more than accurate.
“Can I tell you a secret?” she lowered her voice, looking around like someone was going to stop her. “Thirty feet isn’t even close.”
“Ohhhhh.”
“Forty?”
“Bigger.”
“Sixty!” the children screamed.
Vi crouched down. “And you know what? We have one of the biggest sharks ever still living today.”
“Noooo way!”
“Uh-huh, she’s called the whale shark, and some of them can grow to sixty feet too. She’s what you call a filter feeder—that means she just opens her mouth like a big vacuum and eats tiny organisms and krill without even chewing!”
“Eww.”
“Ah, but you weren’t thinking about the whale shark, were you, Jack?”
He shook his head.
“I wonder if you were thinking about…” Vi walked backward into the adjacent room, where the children all gasped at the massive diorama of a shark in an aquarium-like display, with blue lights mimicking water and waves. “The megalodon!”
The children shrieked in delight.
Caitlyn smiled, looking back toward the now emptier room. She could relate with the kids in a way; that was her favorite part of the tour, too.
🦈
It wasn’t that Caitlyn was… a jealous person. She was not. She’d been a bit possessive as a kid, mostly because she’d never had siblings to share anything with, but she’d outgrown it eventually. Friends and girlfriends in high school and college had been a good learning curve.
So, she liked to think she had a good grasp on the green-eyed monster. But Vi didn’t just attract attention—she commanded it. Her pretty face was one thing, her charisma and passion were the knockout punch, so to speak. Day in and day out, Caitlyn was keenly aware that she wasn’t the only smitten one in the room.
Parents and teachers adored Vi for making their children laugh and engage with natural history, seniors fawned over her like she’d become their favorite grandchild in a matter of minutes, adults were won over by her expertise and cheeky jokes (somehow Vi knew which groups would be receptive to humor and which preferred a more serious approach), and teenagers, the toughest crowd, seemed to gravitate around her like the planets around the sun. Vi often rolled up her sleeves, knowing they’d get a peek at her tattoos, which was her very unsubtle way of showing she was one of the cool guides, not like Stuffy McSerious up in Human Evolution. Somehow, it always worked.
(Which… of course it did. Caitlyn had fallen for the tattoo trick hook, line and sinker the first time they’d met.)
But there was a thin line between appreciation and outright flirting, which was crossed by single—and not so single—women more often than not, and even by oblivious men. That was when the green goblin residing in the pit of Caitlyn’s stomach started announcing its presence again, though she did her best to shut it up. Vi was just doing her job and it just so happened she could charm your pants off with a grin. That wasn’t her fault.
So this afternoon Caitlyn watched without watching as ‘Maddie, the group coordinator’ thanked Vi for the tour a little longer than needed, smiling and asking about this and that, how long she’d been working here, what made her so interested in being a tour guide, and oh, and ah, and–
“Ugh,” Caitlyn muttered under her breath as Vi finally escorted her out of the exhibit, trailing behind the group.
She was not the jealous type. Absolutely not. Vi was her own person. She set her own boundaries. But some women could learn the art of subtlety, damnit.
🦖
“Hey,” Vi slid next to her in the locker room. “That was weird today.”
Caitlyn shrugged, schooling her expression quite well as she put on her coat. “What was?”
Vi grabbed her coat and shoulder bag. “That last group coordinator? She came on to me pretty hard.”
“Oh did she?” Caitlyn asked, trying for nonchalance.
Vi bit her lip. “I think I should ease up on the jokes. I must sound like some kind of bar comedian when I’m trying to teach them about damn Spinosaurus.”
Caitlyn was surprised by her sudden frustration. “You don’t need to change a thing, Vi. You have a magnetic way of speaking, you make lessons entertaining, and kids adore you. That’s a rather deadly combination for anyone watching you.”
“Anyone, hm?” Vi repeated, not missing a beat.
Caitlyn wrapped her thick scarf around her neck, smiling. That sounded more like Vi. “Well, she’d have to be interested in women.”
“Ah, shoot. Thought I could try my luck with Mel for a second.”
Caitlyn gave her a glare, which had Vi smirk. “What? She doesn’t work directly for the museum, so it’s not against the big book of rules.”
“Right. I’m clocking out.”
Vi put on her coat quickly and followed her out of the museum. They walked side by side down the street.
“What d’you think about the bone bit?” Vi asked, yawning at the end.
“You’d have to refine it, honestly,” Caitlyn replied. “Tired?”
“Beat. What do you mean ‘refine it’? They laughed their little socks off.’”
“Yes, but, well, don’t try it on your seniors. Last time you joked about creaky joints, you got an email from an angry daughter.”
Vi tried to recall it, then grimaced. “Ah shit, you’re right.”
They crossed the road a few blocks down, turning into Bluebottle Street.
“Did you talk to Loris?” Vi asked.
“Hm, we have a meeting on Monday after lunch to discuss it further,” Caitlyn answered, already nervous about it.
“Cait, that’s good. I feel it in my bones,” Vi said, nudging her shoulder.
Caitlyn hoped that was true. After three years, it was time she took her career more seriously.
"It's just... so much at once."
"I know, but lucky you, having me in your corner through it all," Vi smiled.
"Very lucky," Caitlyn hummed.
They arrived at the stoop of a building. Caitlyn glanced at her watch.
“Want tea or chamomile?” she asked a bit mindlessly.
“Yeah, chamomile,” Vi answered.
They went up the stoop and entered the building, then stuffed themselves into the narrow, TWO-PERSON MAX elevator. Vi caught her eyes and smirked as the doors closed.
She pretended the space was more snug than it was, staying close, resting her hand on one side of Caitlyn’s head. With the other she pushed back the strand of hair tickling Caitlyn’s nose. Caitlyn felt her cheeks pink.
“D’you know what that kid asked me?” Vi murmured. “The one who pointed at you?”
“Did he want to yank my tie?” Caitlyn asked, always ridiculously affected by Vi’s proximity. Her warm breath; her smell; her naughty smile.
“No,” Vi chuckled. “He wanted to know if you’d go on a date with him.”
“Oh, well, that’s new. I’m usually the scary lady.”
“I know.”
The door opened. Vi stepped out and held it open for her. They slunk to apartment 22.
“What did you tell him?”
Caitlyn pulled out her keys and opened the door. She took off her scarf and unbuttoned her coat. Vi followed inside, toeing off her shoes. The apartment was small and stuffed with well-worn furniture, bookshelves, replica artifacts and tired-looking plants that Caitlyn tried her best to keep alive.
“I said, that’s gonna be tough, mister, because that’s my girlfriend and I know boxing.”
Caitlyn snorted. “Poor little guy. You could’ve let him down gently.”
She walked to the kitchen, where she put the kettle on. Vi wrapped her arms around her waist and rested her head on her shoulder. “I don’t play around with serious threats.”
Caitlyn turned her head and gave her a long, deep kiss, just because. “I think you can rest assured.”
“Yeah?” Vi asked, looking kiss-drunk.
“It really annoys me how perfect you are with children.”
Vi arched her brow. “Oh? You wanna try for one tonight?”
Caitlyn laughed in surprise. “That’s quite the leap.”
“Well you know I’m persistent.”
“That you are.”
Vi turned her around, inviting Caitlyn to tuck herself in her arms. She closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, letting the long day melt off her shoulders.
“Another week in the books with you,” Vi murmured.
“Tired of me yet?”
“Ha, if there was a Caitlyn Kiramman exhibit, I’d be the goddamn specialist.”
“That wouldn’t be very exciting, I’m afraid,” Caitlyn mumbled.
Vi pulled back and lifted her chin up, meeting her eyes. “Cait, they could uncover new dinosaurs, Atlantis, or the damn Fountain of Life - they could send me back in time to meet Hatshepsut or find the tomb of Alexander the Great, and I’d still spend my days daydreaming about you.”
The kettle bird whistled. Caitlyn kissed Vi’s cheek and grabbed their favorite mugs. “Save it for your vows, charmer.”
“Oh, have I got the speech for you. Not a dry eye in the room, you’ll see. Figured out yours yet?”
“I think I’ve finally cracked where to start, yes,” Caitlyn smiled. She felt both content and nervous for the big day to finally come. There was still so much to square away, so many calls to make, but for now they could enjoy their tea and biscuits. “Three weeks to go, darling.”
“Three weeks to go,” Vi repeated, kissing her forehead.