[Kiska]

( Thank you! I was just thinking because of the current ratio of Omegas to Alphas that another Alpha might be needed, but I'll just work with Calix for now, and if we need another Alpha later, I really don't mind. )

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The early bird gets the worm.

Or that was the old adage anyway, and Calix lived by it as ironically as possible. Yes, he was usually up at the crack of dawn. Yes, he was a siren, and yes sirens were technically descended from birds. Of course that made him an early bird, but unless the worm was a few hours of peace in the library with a cup of cocoa caramel sea salt tea before professors and students began to leak in and demand guidance to reference material, then he wasn't really interested. Selfless as he was, and as much as he loved being able to assist in the education process however he could, he still treasured those quiet moments. And the next time someone likened him to the early bird, he was probably going to explode.

That morning, he had managed to get in two cups of tea, curled with his knees to his chest and his wings tucked protectively around his body to keep himself warm before one of the professors came in looking for a reference book on secondary gender biology for a lecture he was writing up. After that, three or four students entered over the next half hour to use the computers, and at least one of them was browsing social media while two of them were standing at the printer, and the last was typing furiously, likely needing to finish a paper last minute for an early class. Calix sighed to himself, wishing for just a moment more of quiet tranquility before he had to fix the jam in the printer and then watch the two students squabble over who would get to make copies of their posters for some extracurricular activities first.

In a library this big, handling so many tasks on his own would be impossible, so on the one hand he was very appreciative of the second librarian. On the other, the man was always late, and Calix wondered if he wasn't punching in and then taking a nap in one of the store rooms so he could keep his job and still get paid. He strolled in with a yawn and watched Calix, watching the two students fighting over the photocopier. "Are you going to fix that?"

Calix's only reply was a soundless sigh and a wave of his hands. Of course he was going to fix it; he just needed to mentally prepare himself. When he intervened, it was with a soft hand on each of the students' shoulders and an even softer look between them. He took one of the students' pages, motioned for him to hold out his hand, and then wrote precise, even letters into it with the tip of his finger, "How many?"

"At least three hundred. I have to cover the whole campus." The student didn't look very impressed, especially when Calix's jaw dropped. Three hundred. Another breathy sigh left his lips and he shook his head, motioning for the student to wait there; he'd go up to the faculty lounge and make copies there. Later, he'd look into his request for a second photocopier in the the library--having only one was trying, even for someone with patience as strong as the siren's.

When he entered the lounge, he found that it was already occupied, and immediately felt terrible for running three hundred copies of a student's poster--which he probably shouldn't have been doing anyway--just to keep the noise level to a minimum in his library. Figuring it would be a while, he made himself up a cup of tea, holding it close to his chest as he sat on the edge of the sofa nearest the copier, and specifically to keep an arm's length away from Amadeus Smith. Not that he was afraid of him, but more because he could see that the professor was grading papers and wanted to be as polite as possible. Not to mention, he was just a little on the shier side, especially where a good-looking man was concerned.