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Stark Industries | Saturday

Topher was having a bit of difficulty with one of his projects at Stark Industries today. For whatever reason, he was under the impression that a particular tool set would be all that was required to fix a fridge, and it was turning out that that was not quite the case, based on the way it kept shorting out when he tested it.

After his fourth attempt, which left his hair sticking straight up in a very mad-scientist sort of way, Topher took a breather, glared at the squirrel who was judging him, and said darkly, "Don't report that."

And then he went right back to work.

He'd get it eventually. Really.

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Samus was feeling glad that she was getting toward the end of her list of employees that she still had to meet, and she hoped that, once that was taken care of, the problems would be a minimum and, correspondingly, so would the interactions, though they weren't bad so far. She made it back into the shop sometime that day to check in on the guy with the Saturday shift.

"Topher Brink?" she presumed and wondered, holy Metroid, what is this kid doing to that fridge?

....Probably nothing worse than what you've done to your own fridge, Ms. LED lights on everything.

Excuse Topher for a second, Samus, as he was just a bit preoccupied with checking if the fridge was working after this last trial. He watched with bated breath as he opened the door -- and then whooped in triumph. Because he had been working on this all morning, okay, and finally it looked like it was working.

"Yes!" he exclaimed, followed by a triumphant sing-song of, "I am a genius, I am a geni-- oh. Hello."

Awkward.

He really needed to pay attention to the ding sound that announced visitors, huh?

Samus drifted--as much as six-foot-three woman in a giant metal suit could drift, anyway, which you'd be surprised at how well she could--closer to the fridge for a closer look, sending her scanner over it to check the handiwork and was surprisingly a little bit impressed.

"Good job," she said. "What was the problem with it?"

"It was broken," Topher explained. Helpfully.

There was a bit of a pause.

"Imagine that."

And after another moment, Samus asked, "Now that you fixed it, what are you going to do with it?"

Topher shrugged. "Give it back to whoever brought it in to get fixed."

Beat.

"Is that... you?"

"No," Samus assured him. "I can fix my own fridge. I'm your new boss."

Huh. "What happened to Tony's fake dad?"

"He went back to the even more archaic time he was from." Samus shrugged a little, still baffled as to why anyone would want to revert even further back in technology than this. "So I'm keeping an eye on the place for him."

Topher shrugged. "'Kay."

Sounded straightforward enough.

And it mostly was. Samus nodded and gave the repaired refrigerator a little pat. "Keep up the good work."

"Yup."

Man of few words, Topher was.

The past few weekends had spoiled Billy in terms of having to find food on his own, and when he went to get lunch, he realized that maybe he should make sure a certain someone else was eating. That was how he ended up coming into Stark Industries with coffee and bagels, looking around for Topher. "Hello?" he called carefully. He didn't necessarily want to interrupt if important science was happening.

Billy was the best. The best.

"Hey!" Topher said, looking up from the fridge he was working on. "You're, uh, here! Hi."

Billy was possibly cooler than science. Take note, world.

"Hey! I, uh, I thought I'd stop by and see if you were hungry," Billy said, looking Topher over. "Do you need a comb?"

So, so badly.

"Nah, I'm okay," Topher said, patting his hair down once and accomplishing nothing at all. "But lunch sounds great, yeah! Apparently fixing a fridge makes you hungry. Kind of makes sense, right?"

"Yeah, I guess that does make sense," Billy said, setting the bag down on a counter and opening it. "I got some bagels, and coffee, because that's like, always needed." Fiddling with the bag totally helped fight the urge to pat Topher's hair down more, even with how adorable he looked all frazzled.

"You are the best," Topher informed Billy solemnly, reaching for a bagel. Then he took a coffee cup too and tilted his head at it in consideration. "You know I've never actually tried coffee before?"

Weirdo.

Billy tried not to stare, but that was pretty weird. "You...you are kind of naturally energetic," he said, laughing. "I figured you ran on caffeine like the rest of us. Also, coffee is kind of magic after nights with Tony and Warren and Bobby." Ugh, hangovers, why hadn't anyone invented a cure for them yet?

"Usually I run on Mountain Dew," Topher admitted. "Or Red Bull or something. Coffee seems all... grown-up and stuff."

But he trusted Billy, so maybe he'd try it this once. Or... take off the lid and at least sniff it. Yeah, he was going to go with that.

"Huh."

"Was that a good huh or a bad huh?" Billy asked. "If you don't like it, I can totally get you some Red Bull. It probably won't even mess with you today."

Topher grinned. "Nah, I'll try it," he said. Bravely and all that.

And he took a sip, and, drumroll, please...

"You know, it doesn't suck."

Billy grinned at that, looking kind of triumphant. "I'll totally bring you Mountain Dew next time, still," he said.

"Nah, you don't have to," Topher decided after a moment of evaluating the coffee taste. "This is kinda good."

Needed more sugar, but that was an easy enough fix.

"But okay," he said, setting down the coffee cup in favor of asking a Super Important Question, "if I was gonna bring you lunch in the library sometime, what, like, would you want?"

"You don't have to do that," Billy said automatically, before realizing that that wasn't really the question. "I mean, if you want to, anything from the bakery would be awesome. It'd be like a mid-day pick me up." And Topher as a bonus!

Topher grinned. "Cool. I mean. That's good to know. Just in case."

BE DORKIER, BOYS. TRY.

"So... what's up?"

"Not much," Billy said with a shrug. "I just...wanted to come by and see you."

YES, THAT MIGHT BE DORKIER.

"Um, why are you working on a fridge? If I can ask, I mean."

[Good lord I fail at notifs today. Sorry!]

"You can totally ask," Topher affirmed. "Um, someone dropped it off to get fixed or whatever? I assume? Because it was... here, so..."

So that meant he fixed it. Basically.

"I'm glad you came," he added. "To. Like. Visit. You know. We should... hang out more. Go places. Or whatever."

[[THAT IS OKAY I BAILED TO SEE THE AVENGERS AGAIN SO WE'RE GOOD.]]

"Like, on another date?" Billy said, beaming again. "We should keep trying until we have one that doesn't end in disaster. Or Doombots. Or something else weird. It's got to happen at some point, right?"

[I APPROVE OF YOUR LIFE CHOICES.]

Topher grinned. "We could keep trying until it does," he offered. "And change up some variables. It'll be like science."

Beat.

"Not that the Doombots weren't awesome, I mean." Hi, best date ever?

"They were really awesome. I'd just, you know, like to take you out without putting you in mortal danger," Billy explained. "I don't think that's so much to ask of the universe."

"Fandom might argue," Topher pointed out teasingly. "But. Um. If we have to, you know, keep trying, that... isn't the worst thing ever."

"Definitely not the worst thing," Billy agreed. "Do you, um, maybe want to try again next weekend? Somewhere here in town?"

"That sounds a lot safer," Topher decided.

Yes, Topher, jinx the date. That would go swimmingly.

"Chilly Boulder maybe? They have this one oreo flavor that's seriously the best."

"That'd be awesome," Billy said. "I seriously do not get to Chilly Boulder enough, and it'll be nice to, you know, get to go with you."

Dooooork.

"Well, obviously," Topher said with certainty. "I mean. With you. Not, you know. Me."

Clearly, Topher. Clearly.

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Stark Industries | Saturday

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