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Matt woke up to the sound of his alarm clock at 5:30, but he couldn't force himself awake right away. After pawing at the snooze button for at least 15 minutes, he finally got up, shook himself off, and went to examine himself in the mirror. Considering his career choice, Matt thought his body was in pretty good shape. He didn't quite have the lithe runner's build from his high school days, but he wasn't nearly as paunchy as he had a right to be, based on how much time he spent in the laboratory. Of course, he did run to clear his head most nights, which kept him in decent shape, but he completed the runs more for mental health than for bodily maintenance.

This morning, Matt wanted to make a good first impression on the new member of the laboratory, so he took the time to brush out his fur and look his best. He paused briefly over his sheath and played with it for a couple of minutes, but quickly realized he didn't have time for such things if he wanted to clear a space in his bay before the new fox arrived. After getting dressed, making some instant coffee to take in his trusty to-go mug, and pawing a few handfuls of cereal, he was out the door and hurrying off to his laboratory.

As Matt had expected, the lab was still quiet when he arrived. He flicked on the lights, grabbed an ice bucket, and retrieved yesterday's samples to thaw on his bench. He worked quickly, having finally figured out where everything in the lab was located. Pleased he still had time to make room for Malcolm, Matt finished collecting his reagent bottles into a more reasonable amount of space on his bench.

Just as Matt was beginning to wonder when others would begin to arrive, he heard something in the hallway outside and turned expectantly towards the laboratory door. The door opened and closed quickly, and a clearly very excited fox stepped through the doorway.

"You must be Malcolm," Matt said, immediately extending a paw.

"Yep, that's me," Malcolm answered as he scurried over to Matt's bay to shake paws with his new supervisor.

"How was the trip? Did all of your stuff make it okay?"

"Oh, there weren't any real problems. I was having a bit of trouble carrying my bags yesterday, so I decided to call a cab, but it worked out all right."

"Glad to hear it," Matt said, grinning slyly. "Make sure you save your receipt for that cab and charge it to the lab account. Technically, you're only supposed to do that if you're returning from a conference, but I don't think anyone in the business office checks up on the reimbursements that carefully."

"Really? That's great!" Malcolm said as he set his messenger bag down where Matt indicated. "Thanks for the tip; that was an expense I wasn't really planning on, so I could use the help."

"Well, why don't you take a couple of minutes to settle in, and I'll just pop the recombinant DNA I was making this morning into the fridge. Then, we can go grab some breakfast and discuss the project you'll be working on."

"Sure thing," Malcolm said as he took out his laptop and newly purchased lab notebook and sat down at his desk.

Matt, meanwhile, shot the fox a furtive glance once he was sure Malcolm wasn't looking. He felt more than a bit guilty checking out someone who'd be answering to him in the lab, but he could hardly help himself. The grainy headshot in the fox's file just didn't do him justice. His orange-russet fur shined in the harsh laboratory lighting, and what he could see of the fox's build was very promising. He wasn't muscular, but he clearly took care of his body -- or, equally likely, the fox threw himself into his work often enough that he forgot to eat regularly. Matt didn't care which; he simply felt fortunate that someone he'd be spending a lot of time with wouldn't be much trouble to look at.

After realizing he'd practically been mesmerized by the gentle swishing of the fox's tail as he unpacked, Matt darted back to his side of the bay and grabbed the DNA samples he'd mentioned earlier. In all likelihood, they'd have been fine left at room temperature for a few hours, but best practices and force of habit dictated they be placed at four degrees.

Having completed that simple task, Matt returned to his bay to find the fox had stood up to await him.

"Okay. Ready to grab some breakfast?" Matt asked, trying to suppress the musicality that often crept into the tone of his voice when he found himself speaking to someone he found attractive.

"Yep. Not much else I can do here until you show me where things are and give me something to do!"

"Great; let's just grab something from the café downstairs, and we can take it back up here to the conference room."

The two of them exited the lab without bothering to lock up and headed for the elevator. Matt pressed the button, knowing full well that they'd probably be waiting five minutes at least. To his chagrin, Matt found that no matter what time of day he pressed the call button, the elevator always took forever. Even as the lone soul working late on a Friday night, Matt would be forced to wait interminably for the elevator car to arrive. One day, Matt decided to get into the car without pressing any buttons, just to see where it would go. Naturally, it rode all the way to the top of the building before descending to its target floor. All Matt could do was shake his head at the poorly optimized routine the elevators were using, knowing full well how consistent such inefficiency was with the rest of the way the JCCSR was run.

Matt had just enough time to explain about the elevators to Malcolm before a car finally arrived. The ride down to the café, at least, was mercifully quick. The wolf and the fox ordered some croissants with egg and cheese and purchased coffees before heading back upstairs.

Unfortunately, the elevator car that retrieved them smelled strongly of biological waste, likely from one of the animal pens upstairs. The combined odor of the croissant sandwiches and waste was nauseating, and almost enough to ruin their appetites completely. Matt and Malcolm slowed their breathing and exchanged knowing glances; whoever had inflicted this odor upon them should have used the service elevator. Woe to the technician responsible if either of them found him. Somehow, despite the stench, they managed to make it to the conference room without retching.

"Ugh. Sorry about that," Matt said as he set down his food. "Sometimes I think I am the only canid in this whole building who follows the rules even half the time."

"It was like that in my old laboratory, too," Malcolm replied as he sat down across from the wolf. "You'd think scientists would be rational and do what is best for everyone most of the time, but the tragedy of the commons seems to hold as much sway in our profession as it does everywhere else, unfortunately."

"Hmm. That's very well said. I'd not thought about it that way before, actually. You're quite well-spoken for a fox from the outlying part of the empire," Matt said, realizing only too late that he was flirting.

"Heh. Not all of us foxes from Eastern Vulpine are as folksy as you wolves seem to imagine," Malcolm said with a sly grin playing across his muzzle. "I know we're a technical institute, but we *do* have liberal arts classes. I even took some poetry courses during my undergrad."

"You don't say? I was almost an English major myself! I decided pretty early on that I wanted to have some career prospects when I graduated, and I fell in love with research, so here I am. But we should discuss your favorite poets some night after work," Matt said, before thinking about what that invitation might sound like. As soon as the thought occurred to him, Matt's eyes widened and his ears whipped back. "You know, for the sake of collegiality," he finished lamely.

"Sure, that sounds like fun," Malcolm said with a playful swish of his tail. "I'd probably have to spend some time thinking about it, though; it's been a while since I studied poetry seriously."

Relieved that Malcolm seemed not to have interpreted his invitation as an advance, Matt spoke again more confidently, saying, "Oh, I won't be grading your remarks. We'd just be speaking casually over a beer."

"Yeah, okay. Maybe later this week, then," Malcolm replied cheerfully. "Once I've had some more time to get settled, I'd love to."

"Okay, it's settled. At least once you are," Matt said with a laugh, hoping to diffuse any lingering tension with one of his trademark witticisms.

"Ha, ha. Great," Malcolm said. "And speaking of settling in, maybe we should discuss that project you said I'd be working on."

"Right. Of course. We aren't really here to chat, are we? Matt said as he leaned forward. "You know why this institute was set up, and I know from your application that you are familiar with Dr. Stoneking's work, so we don't have to spend long on the basics."

"I know all about the sterility problem. That's why I'm here," Malcolm said, with a bit of impatience creeping into his voice.

"Yes, yes. We'll skip over the case reports and initial studies and get right to what it is we're working on," Matt answered, his pace picking up as he became more enthusiastic. "Currently, no one has been able to identify an infectious agent that could be responsible for the condition. The epidemiology shows that the cases are localized to groups of people who have had more or less direct contact, though, so it almost certainly has to be infectious. That's where our lab comes in: We are trying to develop a high-throughput screening assay using cells in culture of different types to determine whether there's any infectious agents present in the samples we are getting from the epidemiologists in the field."

"And that's basically where I come in, then I suppose," Malcolm said as his ears perked up, quickly putting the pieces together.

"Precisely. We hired you because you published some really seminal papers on propagating unknown and poorly characterized viruses in cell culture, and that's essentially what we're trying to do. Except, the problem is even harder for us, as we don't know what the virus is, whether it exists, or even what cell type we should be using to propagate it."

"Yeah, I suppose our work is really cut out for us, isn't it?" Malcolm said, sitting back in his chair as the magnitude of the problem facing him sunk in.

"It sure is, but I'm glad you're with us now." Matt said, his tale wagging almost imperceptibly. "Having two minds working on the problem should make it a bit more tractable, and you bring a unique skill set to the lab that we were lacking previously. I've never been much good at culturing unknown viruses; my background is less in virus discovery and more in the basic science of characterizing viruses once we know what they are. So we should make a great team."

"I hope so," Malcolm replied, grinning. "That is, if I don't burn the place down first. I still don't know where anything is in the lab!"

"Right. Well, we seem to be all done with breakfast," Matt said as he stood and cleared the table. "I'll bet Dr. Stoneking and the rest of the lab have shown up by now. I can make the introductions, and then we can get to work."

"Okay. I'll be right behind you," Malcolm said, visibly relaxing. His relief that he wouldn't have to face the rest of the lab for the first time by himself was almost palpable.

The two finished cleaning up in the conference room and headed back to the laboratory, finding that indeed the lights were on and the rest of the lab must have arrived to begin the day. A loud crash heard through the laboratory door startled them, and Matt hurried inside, Malcolm trailing close behind him.