Work Text:
Sebastian had said he’d come round for a movie tonight but it was now past 7pm and he was yet to materialize. You had rang but it had gone straight to voicemail – he was pretty bad at charging the thing. Maybe he was asleep? You thought about ringing the house phone, but you knew that would involve Robyn going downstairs and Sebastian felt self-conscious about that, so you settled on walking over to his house.
It was summer, so the evening was light enough for you to take the back route to his house in under ten minutes, rather than going through town and definitely getting waylaid with everyone else. You also thought in case he was now rushing over to yours, you’d at least collide.
As you approached the house, you saw your boyfriend leaning up against a tree out of eyesight of any windows – deep in thought as he puffed away at a cigarette. It was the one thing you didn’t like, but he was working on cutting down at least.
“Hey, good-lookin’!” You called when you got close enough, startling the black-haired man. He blushed – god, you loved when he got all flustered – and he bent down and retrieved the soup can from the trunk that he used to stash used cigarette butts. Although he would joke about it, really the last thing he wanted to do was burn down the place.
“Y/N, hey…” he smiled shyly, pulling you forward for a kiss. He’d also switched to menthol cigarettes after you’d confessed you hated having to wait for him to have a mint or brush his teeth to kiss him after he’d partook. “Where are you off to?”
“Did you forget?” You frowned.
He stared blankly at you for a moment before cursing. “I’m so sorry, is that tonight? I completely forgot. Ugh, I’m such an idiot…”
“Hey, it’s okay,” you interrupted, taking hold of his hand. “It’s fine, the evening’s still young. What’s got you so worked up anyway? I tried calling but your phone was off too.”
“I can’t get this piece of the module working. I’ve spent all day on it and it’s still not doing what I want it too. I’m meant to have it in tomorrow morning. I’m really sorry, I’m gonna have to cancel on you and spend the rest of the night trying to work it out. I only came out here to see if a smoke break would reset my mind.” He let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’m a terrible boyfriend.”
“Only I’m the judge of that, and I disagree. Please, how many times have I cancelled our plans for a farm emergency? Remember when I made you spend the whole evening finding the chickens? A terrible boyfriend would never.”
He grimaced at that – you were meant to head into Zuzu City for the evening on his motorcycle, but when he’d arrived to pick you up, he’d found you in a complete panic. Something had spooked the chickens and a few had failed to return home. You couldn’t bear for them to spend a night out in the open and the result was you and him trawling Cindersap Forest in the pitch black tracking them down, eventually collapsing in bed at 3am after safely returning them to the coop.
“How could I refuse when you were sobbing about being a terrible chicken mama?” He jabbed you in the side, teasingly.
“Chicken Protective Services would’ve been right on me!” You chuckled at your own joke. “Can I help in any way? I’m no coder, of course, but…”
“Thanks, but it’s okay. I’d ask you to come in but trust me, it’ll be boring and I’ll just be muttering angrily to myself about why the stupid thing doesn’t work.”
An idea suddenly popped into your head. Back in the dark days of working in the Joja Corporation offices, you’d overheard a couple of the developers chatting at the water cooler as they filled up their cups in the 2.5 minute hydration “break” you were allowed. One had been grumbling to another about some of his code not working. “Gotta rubber duck it, man!”
“Oh, please,” the other sighed. “No-one really does that.”
“They do, and it works.” He stressed in reply, before they headed back towards their computers.
Upon return to your desk, you’d quickly pulled up a web search for “rubber duck coding” and read an article about the so-called rubber duck theory where programmers would read code aloud, or explain the process of which, to a non-judgmental rubber duck and, more often than not, the error would reveal itself.
“Well, what if I’m your rubber duck?”
He raised an eyebrow at that.
“I mean, I heard about this thing years ago – rubber duck theory?”
“Oh…” He smiled. “Yeah, I’ve heard of it.”
“Well, I can be your rubber duck! I know about as much about coding as a rubber duck does, but I could smile back…? At least give it a go,” you pleaded, grabbing hold of his hand and squeezing. “I hate to see you so frustrated.”
“It’s worth a shot, I guess… I’ve tried everything else. Only if you sure, you’re gonna be so bored, Y/N.”
“I don’t know, you listen to me ramble about farm stuff all the time. Plus, I’m never bored when there’s such a cutie to look at.” Sebastian’s face flushed pink once again.
“See, that’s gotta stop. Rubber ducks do not flirt.”
“Maybe I’m a themed rubber duck, they have those, you know?”
He grabbed hold of your hand and started pulling you up towards his house, “No, I’m pretty sure this theory only works with a standard rubber duck.”
“Ugh, fine. I promise to be a normal, stoic rubber duck.” You held up your free hand in an oath as your boyfriend unlocked the front door and led you down towards his bedroom.
--
It took a couple of hours but you stayed true to you word and only smiled, with the occasional nod as Sebastian took you through all the code, explaining what he was trying to achieve in complete layman terms - briefly explaining arguments, algorithms, arrays, functions, variables – until he paused mid-sentence and scrolled back a couple of lines.
“Ugh, it’s right there!” He typed furiously, explaining what had gone wrong. You really hoped he wouldn’t ask you to reiterate the problem because it had gone right over your head at the speed he’d explained it… After a moment, he enthusiastically hit enter, running the module and beamed.
“There – finally! Ugh, that’s a relief. Thanks, sweetheart.” He got up and sat next to you on the bed and leant in for a kiss which you happily accepted, before pulling back after a moment, a curious look upon your face.
“What?” He frowned.
“Just thinking about that if rubber ducks don’t flirt, how can they kiss?” You pondered.
Sebastian rolled his eyes before patting you on the head. “Good rubber duck.”
“No… I’ve changed my mind. I think I’m ready to go back to my human life.” And you pinned him down on the bed in a passionate kiss.