Tutoring Sollux @ The Corner Cafe (open to Nepeta and Kanaya)

[coltblooded]

Dirk had arrived at the cafe early and settled in at his regular table. He had a bunch of tools and supplies scattered over the table, as well as a cup of coffee, and another box of things on the floor next to him. He was seriously behind on his commissions, both for his robots and smuppets, and he was using this extra bit of time to catch up. (Why the hell someone wanted a custom smuppet made of vinyl was beyond him, but he didn't question his customers. Vinyl was a bitch to sew, though, and he was considering taking it off the list of available materials. He'd already pricked his fingers one too many times.)

He also had Jane's birthday gift to finish, and he didn't want that to be a rush job. Most of the physical body was done, at least, he just needed to fine tune some of the coding. (He wasn't going to let Jane end up with another abomination like Lil' Hal.)

He dropped the finished smuppet in the box on the floor, then leaned back in his chair and rubbed at his eyes under his shades. Maybe not sleeping was finally starting to catch up with him... He downed the rest of his coffee. No time for a break. He needed to finish at least one more order before Sollux arrived for his tutoring.

Comments

[coltblooded]

Dirk watched impassively from behind his shades. Sollux was clearly having some sort of internal conflict, but he didn't have the time or energy to devote to figuring out what was going on. One thing was sure, though. Sollux was an even worse liar than Jane.

"Sure." He replied simply.

They were practically strangers, so it made some sense that Sollux would lie to him. But still, he wondered. Did Sollux have something to hide? Or was he just nervous around new people?

He'd look into it later, maybe. Right now, he had more work to do.

"You could put an insulator on the device for when you're wearing it. Might help with your static problem and give you a more accurate reading. Probably mess with anyone else's reading, though."

He started to gather up his supplies, dumping them into the box at his feet.

"Are we done here? I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't have much time."

[cyclopswithtwoeyes]

Sollux jumped a little, feeling guilty for taking up Dirk's time. He'd seen a list of the orders history while he was fucking with his site - he had a lot to do. And Sol had just taken up his time for a problem that neither of them could do anything to fix.

"Yeah, shit, sorry," Sollux said, ducking his head and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. He got to his feet, stumbling a little bit over his backpack when he forgot it was there. He shoved the bracelet into his backpack. "I'll just turn it in as is, it will work on the professor and that's what matters."

Sollux held out his hand awkwardly to Dirk, realizing a half beat too late that Dirk's hands were busy doing other things. Shit. He didn't pull back though, figuring that an aborted gesture would be even more awkward.

"If um... you ever need help with some coding," Sollux said, hand starting to waver from being extended too long, wanting to offer something in trade even though this whole thing had started as Dirk trading to him. "I'd be willing to do it. My classes aren't that time consuming."

[coltblooded]

Dirk's hands stilled on the table, and he lifted his head to eye the hand Sollux was offering. After a moment, he wiped his hands off on his jeans and stood to shake Sollux's hand. He noticed he didn't get shocked when they touched, further confirming that Sollux had been lying to him. Interesting.

"No problem, dude." He answered, shrugging. "It'd be pretty sweet if you could keep Lil' Hal off my site, but I won't get my hopes up. That little fucker is crafty."

[cyclopswithtwoeyes]

"Yeah, I'll do my best," Sollux said, pumping Dirk's hand vigorously and then regretting it. At least he hadn't spilled anything, or thrown up. His track record was improving. "He'll probably crack through continuously, so it'll be a challenge."

Sollux grinned thinking about it, and pulled his hand back. "It was really cool to meet you, dude. Tell Hal I said hi."

Clutching his backpack to his chest, Sollux skedaddled before he could do anything else weird.

He wasn't quite sure he had gotten away with his lies, and as soon as he got home he was going to vent on tumblr about it. About everything. But mostly the powers thing.

It wasn't like he had any powers anyways.