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It had been a few weeks since Cindy had broken up with Jimmy. Most people would spend that time drowning in ice cream and crying. Not Jimmy Neutron. All it was, was a romantic relationship that hadn’t worked out. Not his fault that everyone else in his life were making a bigger deal out of it than he was. His parents were trying their best. Instead they ended up doing the opposite. At every little instance he wasn’t smiling, they blamed it on heartbreak. He was handling it just fine.
Cindy had made him lose focus over the things truly important in his life. His inventions, his school work, the fact that he was leading a team made up of people from different dimensions. Yeah, no. No amount of lovey-dovey eyes he used to exchange with his ex-girlfriend during AP History could ever negate that. And it wouldn’t.
He had fallen behind on his solo projects. They didn’t seem as important as spending time with his girlfriend.
A girlfriend was temporary, science was eternal.
It had been a while since he got lost in the easy going and repetitive motion of assembling a random ray. His hand-eye coordination was working perfectly, his brain humming with the active. Something new but still familiar. It wasn’t sparking that same joy and it used to, but it was better than sitting and wondering about how things went wrong.
A cloud of sparkle appeared in front of Jimmy. As it dissipated, the one and only buck tooth kid in his friend group stood tall.
“What up Dorkazoid.”
“I’m busy Turner.” He gestured to his ray on the table. He was working on connecting the battery of to the side, still not attaching it to the overall main project.
Turner groaned, “That’s all you say nowadays. I wish the invention Jimmy was working on was gone.”
“Turner!” Jimmy shot up. His eyes settling on the floating holograms above Turner. “What in the noisy Neptune are you doing?”
“Don’t look at me, I’m just following his orders!” Cosmo pointed his wand towards the teenage nuisance in the lab.
“I’m giving you a much needed heart break cure.” Turner said.
“I’m not,” Jimmy took a deep breath trying not to get angry, “Hearbroken.”
Everyone else was telling him how he should feel. Yet no one was actually listening to him. He was fine. That break up with Cindy was fine. In retrospect it was a waste of time, he knew that now. Love was a distraction.
He wasn’t heartbroken. Geniuses don’t get heartbroken. The heart wasn’t even in charge of anything except for regulating blood flow throughout the body. It was the mind that would’ve been aching from the supposed heartbreak. But it wasn’t.
Turner put his hands up, “Fine.”
“Thank you.”
“You still need a pick me up.” Turner pulled out a game from his pocket. He held it out towards his friend.
The name of the game was, I Love You Colonel Sanders! It was glittery and pink and showed an oddly attractive chef?
“What is this?” Jimmy said, still staring at the increasingly absurd game in his friend’s hand. The more he stared the more unreal it became.
“The KFC dating sim, duh.”
“We told him it wasn’t a good idea.” Wanda said.
“Let me get this straight.” Jimmy had to walk through Turner’s insane logic, “You want me, someone who recently got broken up with, to play a dating simulator based on a chicken chain franchise?”
“Would you rather play the dating sim about pigeons?” Turner asked.
“Wha–Why? No.”
“Thought so.”
Jimmy snapped back to reality, “I don’t want you playing any games.”
“I’m not going to be playing it, you are. I mean I’ve already beaten this game.” Turner tossed the video game cartridge at Jimmy. Jimmy didn’t even make an attempt to try and catch it, keeping his glare on the idiot in front of him.
“Of course you have.” That was the sort of life that Timmy led. He was always chasing the next adventure. Anything small from a high score to a video game to out running people trying to shoot him to death.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you spend your time on frivolous things.”
“Jokes on you, I don’t even know what frivolose means. Because I never lose.”
“Frivolous.” Jimmy was getting a headache. “I said frivolous.”
“Gesundheit.”
“You don’t know what frivolous means and yet you know the German word for health.”
Timmy shrugged, “Seems about right.”
Jimmy wanted to fight his friend on this but he knew where that would lead. Explosions and the end of the world. Their conflicts had a nasty habit of escalating to those degrees. While it was sort of fun from time to time, he knew a cheap thrill like that wouldn’t last. It was a cheap thrill. Yet another distraction.
If he was honest he wasn’t in the mood for that. He wasn’t in the mood for much these days.
“Sure,” Jimmy couldn’t believe the next words that came out of his mouth. “Let’s playing I Love Colonel Sanders.”
Timmy wiped a fake tear away.
The two of them left Jimmy’s lab and headed up to his room. His mom offering some snacks. Cosmo and Wanda ended up going back to their godkid’s home dimension.
It was nice hanging out with Timmy for a while. Just the two of them. No Cindy to get inbetween them. No Carl or Sheen demanding for his attention. He loved them like brothers but he did feel like the older brother most of the time, making sure things weren’t left in an absolute wreck.
Jimmy and Timmy hanging out? That rarely happened. Not without some threat hanging over them. Or without Timmy’s holograms being close by or ready to be called at a moment’s notice. But Timmy had slowly been breaking away from those kid shackles.
Just a smidge.
“You are so bad at romancing.” Timmy said after the fourth failed interaction between the main character and the Colonel. All his incredible talents, skills, and experience went into romancing this fictional man with a chicken franchise from another dimension and he couldn’t even succeed in such an absurd task.
“I am not!” Jimmy narrowed his eyebrows, locking in. He was going to get these quick time event questions right. “I’m not used to the controls, your dimension is weird with its video games.”
“No, it’s not!”
“We are literally playing a game called I Love You Colonel Sanders! A game from your dimension.”
“All I hear is excuses. At this rate you’ll never get the good ending.”
“There’s a good ending?”
“Not like you’re gonna see it.
“I guess you put all your charisma into romancing fictional people since you can't romance any real ones.” Jimmy exhaled through his nose, a sly smile forming across his face. An extra boost of dopamine hit when he managed to get all the answers right this time.
“That’s messed up.”
“And true.”
“I’m heartbroken.” Timmy pouted.
Jimmy pushed the controls into Timmy’s hands, “Then you play the game.” He got up from his chair. “I’ve had quite enough. I mean talking dogs, girls with nonsensical names, a literal child trying to become a chief. It’s all too much.”
“But you were enjoying it.”
“I- Well.” Jimmy held back his tongue. “No. I wasn’t.” He crossed his arms.
“You were!” Timmy stood up. “Don’t think I didn’t see you trying not to laugh at the games’ jokes and shit.”
“It’s a shit game.”
“You liked it.”
“I would never admit to that.”
“You don’t have to. Your secret is safe with me.”
“I still think that’s enough for today.”
“So, we can continue playing some other time?”
Jimmy raised an eyebrow, “That’s highly unlikely.”
Timmy shrugged as he saved the game then ejected it from Jimmy’s computer.
As he was putting that stuff away, Jimmy sat on his bed. He grabbed a nearby cube. It was one of those poorly made ones from the dollar store. It was something Libby got for him to liven up his room. Instead of the traditional red, blue, and white, it was different pictures of different scientists throughout history he adored. The faces all jumbled up.
One of his friends must've undone the solved cube. Not that it was hard to solve it, just a bit disjointed with how stitled and difficult it was to turn the sides.
After the run of fun that was the dating simulator, the reality of his failed romantic experiences started brewing under the surface. The things he tried to ignore.
He never dated anyone before. Cindy was his first crush, the first girl he took a real chance on. He thought they were doing great. They did all the usual activities that couples did. They went on dates, they studied together, he even let Cindy hold his hand. That was a scary milestone for him.
Despite the fact that he had never been broken up with before. And was also completely blindsided by his ex-girlfriend wanting to break up with him.
He thought he was doing everything right.
Why was it only after saw the ruins of a relationship did he finally start researching how to be a good boyfriend?
“You know… Cindy and I never kissed.” Jimmy quietly confessed.
“Really?” Timmy sat next to him on the bed. The galaxy themed covers seemed a bit childish.
He must've known they were an item. They were dating for a while. The fact he was here trying to cheer Jimmy up at all was a sign of that.
Jimmy nodded, he continued to fiddle with the cube in his hand. Not really trying to solve it. He's shown off how fast he can complete it numerous times before. In tournaments or as a quick party trick. There's nothing to prove. Not to Timmy. Instead he twisted the different sides aimlessly.
“Why not?”
He shrugged, “She always wanted to but I… I hesitated.” He puts the cube back on his desk, still staring at the ground. “Everyone always wants to rush into it and in my head I built this– Romance is so…? I don't get it, I get it and I don't get it. I just don't want to fail at it.”
“You can't fail at romance. Believe me, I would've figured out a way. I mean I’ve failed math, science, english… The fourth subject?” Timmy titled his head, trying to find the word.
“History.”
“That one,” Timmy pointed at Jimmy. “I’ve failed all those things, believe me if I could fail at romance I would've done so by now. You’re just taking things at your own pace.”
Jimmy fell backwards onto his bed, “That makes me feel worse!”
“You’re impossible.” Timmy
They both remained quiet. Which was unsettling because when Jimmy remained quiet he was thinking, either about the interaction he had or wondering if he had conveyed his emotions correctly to get across his point. Or analyising the person he was talking to.
Timmy being quiet while not having a comic book in his hand or playing a phone on his game was… Troublesome.
“What if you kiss me?” Timmy asked.
There was the trouble.
“I beg your pardon?” Jimmy let out a breath in disbelief.
“Well,” Timmy poked Jimmy’s forehead, “You’re so in your head about making your first kiss perfect. So… What if we kissed? It doesn’t have to be anything grand, just get it over with.”
Get it over with. Easier said than done. Yet, there was the offer. A chance to do something with no consequences…
“For the first time today I can understand your reasoning behind what you are saying.”
“I have good ideas sometimes.”
“Rarely.”
“I cheered you up, even for a little bit.”
“That you did…” Jimmy pressed his lips together, not wanting to smile and give Timmy that satisfaction.
Timmy adjusted himself, facing more towards Jimmy.
Oh, okay wow they were going to do this.
Jimmy closed his eyes, embracing for the impact on his lips. He had never been kissed before. Yes, he read up on articles on how to be a good kisser but reading about it and experiencing it were two completely different things.
The two of them bumped their heads together.
“Ow.” Timmy winced.
Jimmy pulled back and rubbed his forehead, “Why did you tilt left? You’re supposed to tilt right!”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know that! I never kissed anyone.”
“You haven't?” That came as a bit of a surprise to Jimmy. He was sure with how often Timmy flirted or bragged about getting all the girls would lead to something.
“I thought we already established that my ability to romance fictional characters does not work with real people.”
Apparently not.
“Hm.” Jimmy took this new information into account. “This is true.”
Timmy glared at him, “You’re the one with a big head.”
“The size of my cranium has nothing to do with kissing.”
“Wrong, I’m gonna give you a big ol’ forehead smooch.”
“Please don’t say smooch again.”
“ Smooch .”
“Alright!” Jimmy cleared his throat, “Attempt number two.” He closed his eyes.
The laughter from in front of him broke his concentration.
“Turner!” He ripped his eyes right back open.
“I’m sorry,” Timmy didn't even bother trying to stifle his laughter, letting it holler out instead. “But you saying ‘attempt number two’ like this is sort of experiment got to me.”
“Well it is a ‘sort of’ experiment.”
“Usually people experiment in college, but of course a nerd like you have to get the jump on that.”
Jimmy was about to give back another snarky quip when he paused. He never took a deeper look into his sexuality. It was hard trying to navigate romantic attraction and trying to remember what made it different from his platonic relationship. He knew there was a difference, but sometimes he barely felt like there was any desire for romance. Friendship was good enough.
And sometimes he wasn’t. An irrational part of his brain made his hand inch towards Cindy’s hand. Imagined a life where they didn’t have to leave each other’s side. There was something that wasn’t so neatly put in the category of friend, not like with Carl or Sheen. That was scary.
What good did it do him anyway to focus on romance? That wasn’t even unpacking whether or not he was attracted to Timmy. Scientifically speaking however… He wasn’t that bad looking. Aside from the teasing, he was actually quite pleasant to look at. Scientifically speaking of course.
“Just shut up and kiss me already.” Jimmy coughed into his hand, heat drawing it’s way up his neck and across his face.
This was so dumb.
Timmy gave him the middle finger, “Yeah, yeah.”
Jimmy took a deep breath. They locked onto each other’s eyes. His friend’s face went from annoyed to a bit more nervous. This was it.
This was going to be Jimmy’s first real kiss.
Their lips touched, then they parted ways.
Nothing special. Which… Oddly soothed his nerves. It was just a kiss with Timmy Turner. No sparks flying, nothing dramatic, or world ending.
Although his heart wasn't acting like that was the case.
Timmy blew a raspberry, “Cool.” He nodded.
“We could do better.” Jimmy was already formulating a new strategy based on the knowledge gained from that first kiss. There several factors that lead it being an okay kiss but they could do better. The first thing of note was their hands. The placements of their hands were awkward. Kissing was a skill and it was one he intended to get better at.
Timmy started sputtering, “Hello?”
“According to my research–”
“You did research on kissing?” He let out a tired laugh. “I just remembered who I’m talking to, nevermind. Of course you did.”
“Before you so rudely interrupted, I was going to suggest adding more tongue.”
“Tongue?” Timmy shrieked. He covered his mouth.
Jimmy rolled his eyes, “I thought you said it didn't matter.”
Timmy grabbed one of Jimmy's pillows and slammed it into him.
"Hey, quit it!"
To his credit, Timmy stopped. “We agreed to one first kiss, not multiple first kisses.”
“You can’t have multiple first kisses.”
“Exactly.”
“So…” There went his plans to try and improve his kissing skills. “I guess we’re done here?”
Timmy nodded, “So… Do you want to watch a movie or something?”
“Sure, but no romcoms.”
“But those are the bestー” Timmy grimaced while Jimmy raised an eyebrow. Quietly trying to communicate and remind him the whole reason why he was avoiding romance. “Sci-fi then.”
“You know I’ll just put point out all the flaws in them.”
“That’s your nerd way of having fun.”
Jimmy smiled, “It is.”
And if Jimmy’s eyes flickered toward his friends lips during the movie, wondering what it would like to kiss again… Well. No one else had to know.