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At the end of the artificer class, Gorgug was packing up his things into his bag when he felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. Turning around, he saw Unit standing there, waving a robotic hand.
“Bloplup!” Unit greeted cheerfully.
“Hey, Unit,” Gorgug returned with a grin.
Pretty much everyone in the artificer junior class was nice, but Unit was the nicest. He was always ready to help Gorgug out whenever he got stuck on something, and even for random favors, apparently. Unit didn’t even ask any questions when Gorgug wanted to investigate Mr. Hopclap’s desk. Plus, Unit was really smart and great at artificing. Gorgug really admired him.
“Hey, uh. Thanks for the assist earlier,” Gorgug said as he zipped up his backpack. “You were a huge help.”
“Bleebloo,” Unit said with a pat on Gorgug’s shoulder. “Blooee bloop?”
Gorgug looked around to see if anyone else was still there. Thankfully, it looked like the other students had already left, probably eager to go home for the day. Mr. Hopclap was still packing up at the front of the classroom though. Gorgug turned back to Unit, leaning in closer.
“Listen, I know I said I’d explain, but I can’t do it here,” Gorgug said in a low voice. “Do you mind coming over later? We can also study for the test on Friday.” He shrugged in a practiced casual motion he’d learned from Fabian and Fig. “I mean, if you’d like.”
“Bloop bloop,” Unit agreed, also lowering his volume with a blink of his single eye. “Plapblapboop.”
“Thanks so much, Unit.” Gorgug picked up his backpack to hide his pleased smile. “You’re the best.”
“Pleepbleep bloopblap Bloplup,” Unit countered with a poke at Gorgug’s cheek. Gorgug felt his face warm at the compliment.
“Gee, thanks,” he said with an abashed grin. This really wasn’t helping him get over his growing crush on Unit that he had absolutely no time to even think about.
Unit let out a series of beeps that Gorgug has gotten to know as his version of laughter. It sounded like music to Gorgug’s ears. He wondered if it would be a good idea to write a song to the cadence of it.
“Bleembleep. Plupblupboop?” Unit asked with another pat on Gorgug’s shoulder.
“Sure! I’ll see you later then,” Gorgug bid with a wave.
Unit returned the gesture and left the classroom. Gorgug watched as he left, admiring the way Unit’s tiny wings fluttered as he walked off.
Someone cleared their throat from the front, reminding Gorgug that Mr. Hopclap was still around. The artificer teacher had a knowing grin that made Gorgug flush a deep green in mortification.
“I know you have a huge workload, but it’s important that you enjoy other things too, yeah?” Mr. Hopclap said with a thumb’s up. “Good luck!”
In that moment, Gorgug wanted to have Hell swallow him up, but Fig wasn’t here to do that for him, so he settled for mumbling his thanks and fleeing the classroom.
—
Thankfully, he and Riz were scheduled to walk home together for the day, so he was able to share about what he saw in Mr. Hopclap’s class.
“Principal Grix’s motherboard?” Riz repeated and hummed thoughtfully. “Damn. I hope your teacher’s not involved too, with him being Ruben’s uncle. Did he seem insincere to you?”
Gorgug shrugged. “I don’t think so, but you know I’m stupid when it comes to other people.” Mr. Hopclap had sounded…supportive of Gorgug’s crush, but that didn’t automatically mean someone was a good person, right?
Riz suddenly climbed up his back in a practiced move and squished Gorgug’s face between his smaller hands while hanging off of Gorgug’s shoulders.
“What did we say about insulting yourself?” Riz demanded, his face close enough to Gorgug’s that he was getting cross-eyed.
Flummoxed, Gorgug answered the best he could with his cheeks pushed together, “Not to do it…?”
“Exactly,” Riz exclaimed, shaking Gorgug’s head in emphasis. “You’re not stupid, remember? You’re fucking killing it in artificer classes. Nobody else in our group can apply both math and science with magic like you can. People are just a whole different subject, okay?”
Gorgug felt his eyes tear up. This wasn’t the first time one of his friends did this. It was a habit at this point for everyone in their group to call out negative self-talk. But it still affected him very much every time it happened to him. He was really lucky to have amazing friends.
“Yeah, okay,” Gorgug agreed, wrapping his arms around Riz in a hug that Riz immediately returned. After a few moments, Riz let go and moved to settle on Gorgug’s shoulders from behind. It was a common enough occurrence that Gorgug knew to just roll with it and resume their walk home.
“Oh, by the way, I asked one of my classmates for help with distracting Mr. Hopclap earlier,” Gorgug brought up, a bit nervously. “I kinda promised him I’d explain, and he’s coming over later for a study session. Is it alright if I tell him some stuff?”
“Which classmate is this?” Riz asked, sounding curious.
“Unit, he’s a modron,” Gorgug answered. “He was at our birthday party.”
“Oh, that dude.” Gorgug felt Riz starting to fiddle with his goggles. “Yeah, he seemed pretty cool. He got you that music box thing, right? The one that’s shaped like the Hangvan and plays My Van is a Boat?”
“Yeah, he did.” Gorgug felt his pulse race at the reminder. He was suddenly glad that Riz couldn’t look at Gorgug from his position. His blush would probably give him away. “He’s really awesome.”
“You can just probably tell him we’re investigating what happened with Principal Grix. It might not be safe to tell him everything,” Riz said as he stopped fiddling with the goggles and leaned his arms over Gorgug’s head. “If he turns out to be evil, we’ll just have to kill him.”
Gorgug winced at the idea. “I really hope he’s not.”
“Well, you can try to gauge him better at your study session then.”
“I’ll try.”
“Hey, you got this, man.” Riz held out a fist for Gorgug to bump with his own.
Riz’s words managed to calm even his nerves over suddenly having his crush over, not that his friend knew about it. Though, knowing Riz, he’d probably find out soon enough somehow even without Gorgug saying anything incriminating. “Thanks, Riz. You’re a great friend.”
“So are you!” Riz returned, the grin evident in his tone.
For a couple of minutes, Gorgug continued to walk them home in a comfortable silence. Then, Riz piped up with another thought.
“Hey, you said Hopclap knew your parents at conventions and stuff, right?”
Not sure where Riz was going with the question, Gorgug answered, “Yeah? They run around the same circles.”
Riz was quiet for a moment. Then, he asked, “Do you think your teacher’s been involved with your parents’ machines?”
Gorgug wanted to retract his earlier statement. Riz Gukgak was not a great friend.
—
After resolutely ignoring Riz’s question and gracefully accepting his apology, they went their separate ways when they arrived at Strongtower Luxury Apartments. When he got home to the Thistlespring Tree, Gorgug was relieved to see that his parents were still out for the day. He wasn’t sure he could keep calm seeing his parents after Riz’s insinuations. Still, he knew to at least text them that he was having a friend over for a study session.
Wilma and Digby were quick to reply that it was fine. But then they also texted some things that made him want to scream.
‘And if it’s a different kind of ‘study session’ ;) we’re happy to stay out of the tree for a while longer ;) ;) ;)’
‘Just remember to stay safe! You know where we keep those safety stuff, bud ;)’
Gorgug resisted the urge to throw his crystal out of the second floor. He was already reminded of his parents in relation to sex once today. That was already beyond his threshold of zero times.
Also, the thought of doing that with Unit…nope, Gorgug was not going there at all.
He was somehow able to reply, ‘it’s an actual study session, okay?? we have a test on Friday, PLS don’t make this more stressful’
‘Sorry, bud, you know we’re just concerned,’ Wilma replied.
‘We’ll pick up some pizza for you and your friend on the way home. How does that sound?’ Digby messaged.
‘good thx but I don’t think Unit eats normal food,’ Gorgug answered. ‘do we have anything for modrons?’
‘Oh, your friend who gave that adorable music box is coming over! How sweet!’ Wilma texted.
‘Are you sure it’s just a normal study session, bud? You can just tell us honestly,’ Digby followed up.
Gorgug planted his face into his pillow and screamed.
—
Gorgug had managed to calm down and tidy up his room by the time Unit arrived. He and his parents had worked on making all the doorways and hallways wider than they appeared, so Unit had no problem getting in. They were still in the planning process of extending his room with the use of dimensional physics, so he made sure to move some of his things so he and Unit could comfortably sit on his carpeted floor.
“So, here’s my room. We can just study here since all of my books are here.” Gorgug pointed to his bookshelf that was now full of artificer and tinkerer books. “Do you want some water or snacks? Or something?”
Unit put down his shoulder bag on the floor. “Blopblopbleep.” He turned a bit, his eye looking around. “Blupbluloowoo!”
“Thanks,” Gorgug said shyly. “It’s a pretty great room, though a bit small for me. We’re working on it.”
“Bleewoowup! Blumluplup.” Unit sat on the floor, crossing his spindly legs in front of him.
Gorgug tentatively joined him, taking in a deep breath to steady himself. “So, you know how Principal Grix went berserk at the Frostyfaire Folk Festival?”
“Bloop,” Unit confirmed.
“Well, we’re trying to look more into that to see what happened. It’s kinda what we do, you know, investigating.” Gorgug shrugged sheepishly.
“Blupblupbloo,” Unit said with a blink of his eye.
“Yeah, exactly. And, well, Mr. Hopclap mentioned he worked with Principal Aguefort to make Principal Grix, so…” Gorgug trailed off, unsure how to say it without making it sound like he was blaming their teacher.
“Bloomblupblup?” Unit asked, jumping to that possible conclusion anyway.
Gorgug shrugged. “We don’t really know if he’s involved. Principal Grix targeted his nephew after all. I just wanted to see if I could find any more information on Principal Grix.”
“Bluploowee?”
Gorgug nodded. “Yeah, thanks to your help, I saw one of Principal Grix’s motherboards in Mr. Hopclap’s desk. Don’t know why it was there, but at least we know where we can find it.”
“Plublupbeewoo,” Unit said with a nod of his cube body. Gorgug tried to keep his mind off of how cute the gesture was. “Blupluploom.”
“Y-Yeah, no, I’ll definitely let you know if we know anything else about it,” Gorgug said, clearing his throat and looking away.
Suddenly, he felt robotic hands ruffling his hair. He glanced back to see Unit sitting a little bit closer now, his single eye closed in a way that made it look like he was smiling even without a mouth.
“Bloplup, blooweeblupblup!” Unit exclaimed with a pat on his head.
“Thanks, Unit. You’re really awesome.” Gorgug really hoped his blush wasn’t too obvious, but he was never good at subtlety. “Um, do you wanna work on reviewing infusions? That’s the main topic for our test on Friday, right?”
“Bluplup!”
For the next couple of hours, Gorgug and Unit focused on reviewing. At one point, they quizzed each other on the types of artificer infusions, then worked on their homework for the following day. Unit, as usual, was extremely helpful whenever Gorgug found something confusing. Gorgug was proud to say that it happened less now, and he even ended up helping out Unit with a couple of things in turn.
Once they were done with homework, Unit suggested a break. Gorgug was reluctant since he knew he still had a lot of stuff to memorize, but Unit was insistent.
“Plooeyblumbplup,” Unit pointed out, which made sense. His parents often emphasized the importance of breaks for brain function as well. So, Gorgug acquiesced. Sadly, he didn’t really have any food or anything to offer Unit, but Unit didn’t seem bothered, confirming that he didn’t really eat the usual kind of food. He encouraged Gorgug to get his own snacks, though Gorgug felt a bit weird being the only one eating.
Neither of them had the energy to play crystal games or something, so they just sat beside each other, leaning against the side of Gorgug’s bed as they talked about random stuff. It was really fun for Gorgug. Unit was so easy to talk to, and he had interesting ideas.
“Bloopbloop bleembleep,” Unit suggested, gesturing with his hands. “Blupblupblee.”
Gorgug considered it. “You mean so we can ride dolphins like horses?”
Unit nodded his cube body a bit. “Bloomblupbleep blopblep.”
“Yeah, that sounds cool,” Gorgug agreed. Then, exhausted as he was, his fried brain gave him a crazy idea. “Okay, but what if the saddle would be for horses so they can ride dolphins?”
“Bleepbleep?”
“Hear me out: horses are always the ones to wear saddles, right?” Gorgug said as he started a sketch of the idea. “Don’t you think they deserve to also experience riding a saddle? And having it on a dolphin means they can also experience being in the ocean!”
Unit let out a hum. “Bloopblup. Bleemleem bloopbloop?”
Gorgug paused from sketching and turned back to Unit with a sheepish grin. “I hadn’t thought about the size difference. I’ll have to workshop the idea.”
Unit laughed. Gorgug couldn’t help but join in.
“Sorry, that was a silly idea,” he apologized with a shrug.
“Bloop. Bleepbleep bloombloop,” Unit said in all seriousness.
It took Gorgug a moment to get it.
“‘Even cowgirls get the blues?’” he repeated.
Unit nodded, then let out another laugh that made Gorgug want to grab his drumsticks to copy the rhythm of it.
“Bleepbloopblum blupblupblup bloloo,” Unit explained enthusiastically.
“‘The Wild Red Waste’ you said? I haven’t watched that one yet.” Gorgug hadn’t even known there were movies set in the Red Waste. There really wasn’t much to see in the actual place beyond a few towns, not counting the whole Night Yorb thing anyway. “What’s it about?”
Gorgug swore Unit’s eye had light coming out of it as he talked about what was apparently his favorite movie. It turned out that the line was from Unit’s favorite character who said it to her love interest. She said it when she was wrong about her love interest not liking her back. Gorgug tried not to read much into that, especially since Unit said he used that line whenever he made a mistake. Gorgug didn’t really get all of Unit’s explanation with how quickly he was speaking, but he was happy to let Unit talk since it seemed to make him happy.
“Bloopbluplup bloopeep?” Unit eventually asked as he finished sharing about the movie.
Surprised but not wanting to miss the opportunity to hang out more, Gorgug nodded. “Yeah, I’d like that! Maybe after the test?”
“Bleepbleeplup!”
Gorgug resisted the urge to call it a date. It was definitely just platonic. There was no way Unit liked him back.
Right?