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Fixer Uppers, Sunday

Well, the island had moved again, and again, Jim had no idea where they were supposed to be, except that the beaches looked amazing, and he was looking forward to running around the place and exploring just as soon as his shift let out. Yep. In about a million hours, he'd be able to clock out and familiarize himself with the new surroundings. The really, really exciting new surroundings...

He was going to be stuck here at work for forever.

At least he had things to tinker with, he supposed. A few errant parts from a handful of spiders that he'd smashed and then dismantled yesterday were keeping him somewhat occupied, and that was better than nothing.

Anybody in the market for a clockwork spider-legged waffle iron?

[Open!]

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"Ah-ha!" said Ariel, who actually might be pretty interested in the narrative's clockwork spider-legged waffle iron, though that wasn't what she was there for when she poked her head into the shop and spotted Jim with a grin. "There he is. I figured, if anything, I might be able to find you here."

"Well, I do work here on Sundays," Jim noted, perking a little as signs of human life presented themselves in the doorway. "So it probably wasn't really a difficult job hunting me down, right?"

He set down the aforementioned waffle iron, shooting Ariel a smile. "How goes it?"

"Well," said Ariel, a bit loftily as she leaned on the counter and gave a burdened sigh that puffed up her bangs for a second, "let's just say it was for the sake of a better story. And it goes well. Really well. It's a good sign when I'm too busy to hunt you down about a certain flying surfboard. I don't know if you've noticed, but there appears to be sunshine outside."

"There does," Jim agreed with a laugh as he leaned across the counter to get a better look out the window.

Ah, so much sunshine...

"And I just so happen to have a certain MP3 player all fixed up. I was extra careful with it, since I know how much it means to you."

"I should hope so." Ariel attempted to maintain the loftiness, but her excitement got the better of her and bounced eagerly. "How is it? Did you figure out a way to do anything really cool with it? It's okay if you didn't; just as long as it can play music again, I'll be happy...Do you have it with you? Can I see it?"

"Yeah, sure," there was a moment of rummaging before Jim surfaced again with a little black box with Ariel's name on it. "I waterproofed it, first off. That kind of seemed like the important part, you know? And I'm pretty sure I managed to restore all the data that was on there."

He held the box out to her.

"Some of the parts were pretty fried, so it has a few replacements here and there. But nothing you'd really notice." He grinned. "At least, not just by looking at it."

The revealing of the black box sent Ariel hopping a little more where she stood, and Jim's commentary made her smirk, complete with a little snort for the last part. "I almost want to take that as an invitation to pick it apart and see, but then you'll just have to fix it again."

Still, the comment barely had time to linger before she melted a little with gratitude. "Thank you so much, Jim, I mean it, especially if you even got to keep some of the songs! I wouldn't have minded loading them all back up again, but that's amazing! It's really fixed?"

As she talked, she pulled the box in closer to dig out the little MP3 player, admiring it with a grin as she turned it on. And the familiar little loading sign showed up on the screen and she couldn't help a little squeal of excitement.

"It really is! Ohmygosh, Jim!"

"Not half bad, right?"

Humble? Jim?

No, not so much.

"It really wasn't all that difficult. And I've waterproofed it enough that you could probably go swimming without messing it up. I mean, not that you would, but going out in the rain shouldn't be a problem, like, ever."

"Not half bad!" Ariel shook her head. "It's amazing."

Beat.

"And you really don't know me very well yet, Jim, if you think I wouldn't go swimming with it."

The grin on her face showed that she was actually kind of thinking about it, just to see how waterproof it was, but there was enough appreciation for Jim's hard work that she probably would hold back the urge.

"Well, then it's a good thing I was thorough, right?" Jim laughed and crossed his arms over his chest. Totally not bragging, here. Honest. "When I set out to fix something, I make certain that I do it right, you know."

Amazing. She'd called his repair job amazing. Oh yeah, the ego was so stroked.

"And I even work cheaply."

The excitement suddenly dropped like a weight into Ariel's stomach and she stared for a moment at Jim, panicked and worried that she'd forgotten if they'd decided on a price, which means she really shouldn't have spent that money on those really cute new shoes the other day...

But she went back into their conversation, trying to remember it as she tried, "You're going to let me see your surfboard for letting you work on my MP3 player, right?"

Oh, please let that have been it and that she wasn't just remembering based on wishful thinking.

"That is what we agreed on," Jim mused, in that slow, deliberate tone that suggested that he was at least pretending to mull that answer over. "I know it's a bit of a hardship. I mean, who wants to play around on a flying surfboard, right? But these are the things you do for a functional MP3 player."

Ariel's body nearly sagged with the relief she felt, and she would have let out the breath of air she was holding in a huff, but she didn't want to give herself away. She pulled it up with her shoulders, instead, giving the gravest nod she could manage. "It could be a lot worse," she agreed. "And far be it for me to go against my word, Jim. I suppose we should just go and get it out of the way..."

She trailed off, before peering over at him inquisitively. "You do have it with you, right?"

If Jim's smile got any broader, his face was going to crack.

"Well, of course," he replied, jamming a thumb back over his shoulder to indicate the back room. "You didn't think I was going to walk here on a nice day like today, did you?"

Okay, not even Ariel could admit that walking was going to be better than flying, but she still felt the need to defend one of her favorite pastimes at a least a little. "Hey, don't take walking for granted," she said. "But you're right, it's pretty good flying weather and I'd probably be disappointed if you hadn't. Which now begs the next question: what are we still doing standing here? Go get it! Let's go!"

Really, there would be something the matter if Jim didn't at least put up some kind of argument, even if he was already backing up so that he could go and collect his surfer.

"What, right now? While I'm at work, Ariel?"

The grin on his face was probably a fairly good indication that he fully intended to take off to fly around with her for a while, yes.

"Of course right now!" Ariel insisted, but the grin on Jim's face made her laugh. "I mean, I know you're sooooooo busy and everything, but I'm a customer here."

"And the customer does know best," Jim laughed. "It would be pretty terrible customer service if I didn't take your payment here and now, while it's convenient."

He ducked into the back room for a couple of seconds, and then stepped back out front with his board tucked up under his arm.

"You're not afraid of heights or anything, I hope," he teased.

Oh man. Those few seconds felt like whole, long, grueling minutes and Ariel was half-worried that Jim wouldn't emerge and she'd have to go back there and drag him out, but then there he was, board under arm, and the bouncing started anew.

Her head shook with eager conviction.

"Not even a little bit, I swear."

"Well, that's good to know, because I'm planning on taking you up as high as my surfer can handle the both of us, on our first run," Jim decided. Because he was a horrible showoff like that. "Think you can handle that?"

Did Jim speak Girlish Squeal at all? Because, if he did, he would know that Ariel's answer was a resounding yes.

It was a pretty universal language, though she felt it would be helpful to prompt his understanding with a cheerful, "Only one way to find out!"

All this delay, though, was making Ariel a little anxious; she reached out for Jim's hand to help get things going, especially now that the board was out. "Come on!"

Really, it wasn't like Jim had to be told twice. Though, in all fairness, the last female who had ever reached for his hand had been his mother when he was a little kid, so the gesture got a bit of a baffled blink before he started for the door.

"Right! Coming!"

Oh, man.

"You're going to have to do exactly as I say while we're on the surfer, okay? Flying is awesome, but you probably don't want to fall."

"No falling," Ariel agreed easily with a nod; her eagerness probably made the statement sound a little unconvincing, but she did mean it, honest! "Got it. I'll pay really close attention, I promise. Falling off of one of these has got to be a lot more painful than falling off a jet ski."

"Way more painful," Jim decided.

Not that he had any idea what a jet ski actually was.

"It's going to be a long way down," he continued, as he stepped out into the street and looked for a clear space where they wouldn't have to worry about running anybody over. "But we'll probably stay low, at least until you get the hang of it, okay?"

[So sorry this took so long to get back to! The week kind of went insane on me.]

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Fixer Uppers, Sunday

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