Work Text:
coincidence
by Kata Avalon
Blair sat on a chair in a diner and sipped at his coffee. He really should not have criticised Chancellor Edwards publicly. Add to that his mother’s reputation for causing trouble and chaos, and his chances of landing a respectable job in any university in the region were pretty thin for the foreseeable future.
Blair turned his eyes back to the newspaper on the coffee-stained table. It was time to look for something else to do while the ripples calmed down. A large ad caught his eye. The Sentinel & Guide Institute was looking for guide instructors. Blair took a sip of his coffee. He had guided since he was old enough to do so and had actually taught a preparatory course at the university last summer. This could be just what he was looking for.
***
Blair took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He really hated going through the pair applications. He had been an instructor at the Institute for five years now and he still considered pairing up sentinels and guides to be the most frustrating part of the job. You could be really careful, use logic and intuition, and the fates could still screw up everything. If they were lucky, most of the pairings would be successful, but some would always turn out to be failures. Luckily, practically everyone who so wanted would find a guide or a sentinel within a year of reaching maturity as a guide or a sentinel, but then there were those few difficult cases.
Blair sighed and got up to get some coffee from the lunchroom. The hallways were empty due to the winter break and the few instructors present mostly stayed in their offices, preparing for the spring semester and doing paperwork.
The guide instructor thanked the spirits that the coffee carafe was still half full. Why did McClintock assign Ellison to him, anyway? Ellison had come to his senses late, but that was no excuse for snubbing just about every guide at the Institute. Just what had he done to the old man to get *that* case?
Blair filled his coffee cup and thought about it. Maybe he should first find out just what Ellison was looking for in a guide, why he kept refusing the guide candidates.
Blair turned to walk back to his office, determination radiating from him. *Okay, I don’t know why this was assigned to me instead of one of the sentinel instructors, but I’m not going to admit defeat before we’ve been through every guide in the state.* Blair really hoped it would not come to that.
***
Jim walked up the hallway to the office of Guide Instructor Sandburg. He had been tempted to just ignore the summons, but he really doubted he had much of a choice. His father had practically kicked him out as soon as his senses reappeared around his 16th birthday. He was officially a mature sentinel, so he could not get a job or apply to a school unless he graduated from the Institute and to do that, he needed at least a temporary bond with a guide. So far, every guide candidate had smelled or felt wrong. Jim was well aware that he had acquired a reputation for being picky and snobbish, and just plain difficult. At times, he admitted to himself that a not so small part of his reluctance to choose a guide was due to the fact that he was reluctant to admit to *needing* a guide. His father had made it clear that one should not need *anyone*.
Jim reached the right door, and knocked.
***
"Come in!" Blair said as he put the final touches on a pairing recommendation. He did not raise his head as the door opened and someone entered. "Just a moment, please." He signed the recommendation and raised his head. The guide froze.
Blair could *feel* his spirit animal howling in joy as he stared at the young sentinel, his sentinel. Ellison walked slowly towards him, sniffing the air. The sentinel looked confused and puzzled.
"It’s the recognition," Blair said as he shook his head.
"Oh. You mean, we’re –" Ellison stammered, motioning with his hand between the two of them.
Blair rose from his chair and walked around the table to stand before his sentinel.
"Yes, we’re a true pair." Blair took Ellison’s hands in his own. Warmth spread across his body and he could hear a panther’s roar. "My sentinel."
"My guide."
Maybe McClintock had known what he was doing when he assigned Ellison’s case to him, after all.
***
End (of the snippet)