Topher's Office | Aperture Science R&D Labs | Wednesday Afternoon Fandom Time

[dollpocalypse]

The cool thing about one guy quitting on "moral grounds" right after the flyers had gone out about Take Your Daughter to Work Day was this: Topher now had said scientist's office for the rest of the summer. It was a little too fancy-schmancy for him, and it could use a fridge and a trampoline and maybe some posters of superheroes and cats hanging off of , but it was a place to hang out that wasn't the conference room when the team was working on "intern-unfriendly" (i.e., high-clearance-level) projects in the labs.
 
Also, his chair was insanely comfortable.
 
When he got a call from Billy in the middle of the day, Topher was pretty excited about the opportunity to show off his new digs, so his response to Billy's weirdly-worded request to stop by was a resounding "Duh." Making out in an office was supposed to be hot, right? He just... might want to turn off the surveillance feed out of his office first.

Vital testing apparatus disabled.

Perfect.

[[for the reality warper, and NFB for distance, please! thread may contain mentions of what amounts to dubcon.]]

Comments

[selfhelphero]

When Topher hadn't said anything about the weekend, Billy had thought that maybe the whole thing he'd talked about with Astrid hadn't happened. But then he realized that Topher wouldn't know anything had happened and wouldn't know if anything was different and if nothing was different then what if nothing had been different and basically, by the time Billy got to Topher's office and knocked on the door his hair was practically standing up from nervously fidgeting with it.

[dollpocalypse]

"Billy!" Topher was super excited to see his boyfriend, in fact. Which... maybe wasn't the most encouraging thing from Billy's perspective. He scooted his chair over to the door and swung it open. "Welcome to this office that I did not earn," he said. "Awesome, right?"

Then he went for a quick kiss, because hi, it had been like half a week since they'd seen each other, god.

[selfhelphero]

Billy smiled softly and kissed Topher back, not wanting to give off the wrong impression. "You earned it by sticking around long enough to be here when it was open? That kind of counts?" he said.

[dollpocalypse]

"That is true," Topher granted. "You wanna spin in the chair? I'm totally willing to surrender my awesome spinny chair to you for coming to see me."

[selfhelphero]

"No no, it's okay. You can have all the spinny action," Billy said, looking Topher over for any sign of a headache or bruising or something worse. "So uh, how's it going?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Pretty good," Topher said, spinning in the chair some more. "It sucks to not be invited to the turret meeting, but seeing you is cooler than most confidential turret facts." Most. "You?"

[selfhelphero]

"I'm doing okay," Billy lied smoothly. "That was a really strange weekend we just had, huh?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher... didn't seem to know what Billy was talking about it. "Oh, man, did I miss the weird?" he asked. "What was it?"

[selfhelphero]

"Um, some weird girls making people feel different," Billy said, trying to stay outwardly calm. "Did you feel any different?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Wait, the Ramona shippers?" Yeah, he'd met one of those. "Uh... no. Why, did you?"

[selfhelphero]

"Yeah, kind of like the Ramona shippers," Billy said. "Did you feel any less in control than usual? Or like you, I don't know, liked me more?"

[dollpocalypse]

"I always like you," Topher said, frowning, but that sounded... possible, yeah. "I guess it could have been a little... extra on Sunday, maybe. I was gonna bring you coffee when I was in the middle of a Galaxy Quest marathon, which is normally a big no."

He fiddled with his bracelet, then asked, "Why, did you like me more?"

[selfhelphero]

"I... I guess I did?" Billy said uncertainly. "One of the girls said something to me and... I felt different about our relationship."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher fiddled with his bracelet some more, mostly as a means to not have to look Billy in the eye.

"Dealbreaker different?"

[selfhelphero]

"Well, it depends." Yeah Billy, that was reassuring. "Do you think you like me because you really like me, or do you feel like something makes you like me?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Uh." Topher squinted. "Is this a religion question?"

Topher was, obviously, lost.

[selfhelphero]

That got a smile out of Billy as he shook his head. "No, it's a question of my abilities. Over the weekend, you liked me because I wanted you to. Because... well, I guess I made it happen, with my powers," he said. "And if you didn't feel any different than normal..."

Topher was a smart guy, surely he could see where that train of thought went.

[dollpocalypse]

"Oh," Topher said, unsure, and then, "Oh."

Yeah, he guessed Billy's powers probably could manage something creepy like that.

"I don't think I fake-like you," he offered after a minute, aware that that probably wasn't worth much. "I mean, didn't Tony have to trick us into dating at first? You weren't even on board from the beginning."

[selfhelphero]

"I know. And I don't want to be doing anything weird," Billy said. "Over the weekend I wanted to but... what if I don't know I'm doing it? There are so many things I don't know about my powers. I mean, right now I make stuff happen by wishing really hard. What if that's how we happened?"

[dollpocalypse]

"No offense, but I think that's a crappy hypothesis," Topher said. "I'm not that good of a boyfriend, dude. Why would you have even wanted that?"

[selfhelphero]

...okay, that was something Billy hadn't considered. "Because I wanted a boyfriend?" he said, but he didn't sound quite so convinced anymore. "You're one of the first guys who's ever liked me back. And you're not a bad boyfriend or anything, for the record."

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, but I'm not great," Topher countered. He could admit to that. "Probably if you were going to pick someone, it would've been someone you wouldn't have to, like, shepherd around and, like, show all the boyfriendly ropes to. Not dirty."

[selfhelphero]

"So, you're not worried about this?" Billy asked, looking a lot more relieved.

[dollpocalypse]

"Nuh-uh." Topher wrinkled his nose. "I mean, no offense, because I think you probably could, if you wanted to and all, but the cool thing about you is you totally wouldn't want to."

[selfhelphero]

"I don't want to, I really really don't," Billy said. "I've been so worried that I was hurting you somehow, and I don't want to do that ever."

[dollpocalypse]

This felt weird, but Topher had seen a lot of movies, so he thought he knew what to do. He stood up and wrapped Billy in a somewhat awkward, but overwhelmingly well-meaning hug.

"Kind of not possible," Topher assured him. "You're the white-hattiest white hat, dude."

[selfhelphero]

That hug was awfully nice, and Billy hugged Topher back easily. "Thank you. I needed that reminder, I think. I'm glad I came to see you."