Work Text:
Barnaby hears knocking on his door and gets up to answer it. "C-c-coming!" He opens the door to find his nemesis, Morgan, standing there.
"Morgan? W-what are you doing here?"
Morgan holds up an object in their hands. "I need you to fix my toaster."
"Uh, sure," he steps aside to let them in. "But why d-d-do you need my help, I know you're capable of fixing it."
Morgan sets the toaster down on the counter, and gives Kotetsu pets when the dog comes up to them. "Because I have no idea how you make it loud and I need it to be loud, louder than you've ever made it."
Barnaby gets his tools out from a drawer and begins disassembling the toaster. "Okay. How'd it b-b-break?"
"It startled Alex so they punched it. They said it was an accident but I don't believe them, so now it's got to be louder."
"Um, o-o-o-okay, I can do that. Can you hand me the p-pliers?" He asks.
Morgan gets the pliers and gives it to Barnaby, their fingers brushing on the handoff. Barnaby tries desperately to keep his composure and does his best to focus on repairs.
Morgan watches over his shoulder, breath ghosting past his cheek. "So how do you make it louder? Are you adding extra parts?"
He shakes his head. "N-no, I take this part here and attach it to this, which presses against this."
"I can't see what you're doing from here," Morgan says.
"Oh, s-s-sorry, here." He scoots over so Morgan can get closer, leaving them both cheek to cheek. He does his best to ignore the heat in his face.
"Yeah that's better I can see now. Show me again?"
Barnaby nods once, quickly collecting himself. "This piece, y-y-you attach it to-to this o-o-o-one, and it puts pressure here."
"Which makes the noise when it's finished!" Morgan says as they figure it out. They lean back to grin at him. "I could not figure out how you were doing it, but that's pretty clever."
Barnaby has no idea how to react to the praise, and stares steadily at the toaster instead. Kotetsu headbutts his leg for emotional support.
"Huh. You know, you're pretty cute."
Barnaby's mouth forms a small 'o' as he turns to look at Morgan in shock, face now completely red.
"I mean I always knew you were cute but it's really just sunk in. Do you want to go on a date?"
"M-m-m-morgan!" He's far beyond surprised, beyond flustered, beyond a lot of emotions at the moment.
Morgan, on the other hand, seems completely unaffected. "Yeah?"
"W-w-we're nemeses!"
Morgan shrugs. "So? It's not like we try to kill each other. You can say no, no hard feelings."
Barnaby looks away and mumbles something incomprehensible, finishing his work on the toaster.
"What was that?" Morgan asks.
"...are you f-f-free Friday?"
Morgan beams, and Barnaby is glad he isn't looking at them directly because that smile would blind him.
"Yeah, I am. Coffee at noon work?"
Barnaby nods and risks a glance at Morgan, and spots a faint dusting of pink across their cheeks.
"Cool," Morgan says in a dopey-happy tone.
He puts the outside panel back on the toaster and thrusts it into Morgan's hands. "H-here you go-!"
"Awesome, thank you. I'll uh, see you Friday," Morgan says as they back up towards the door.
"See you Friday."
Morgan opens the door and backs out, still smiling at him. "Bye," they say softly.
"Bye," he says softer.
The door clicks shut and he slides down to sit on the floor. Kotetsu sits next to him and wags his tag, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Barnaby wraps his arms around his dog and buries his face in his fur.