Work Text:
>December 23rd, 2 days before Christmas<
“WHAT WAS THAT FOR??” Fan shouted, rubbing the (very much not so) aching pain now apparent on his left cheek.
“I dunno.” Lightbulb giggled.
“You DUNNO?”
“You were talking too fast, Fanster, I couldn’t pay attention!”
“You could’ve TOLD me instead of pinching my cheek.” Fan said with a bit of wince in his voice, rubbing the point at which Lightbulb pinched him.
“I could’ve.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Yep!” Lightbulb said with glee beaming on her face.
“Yep.”
“So, mind starting at the beginning again?” Lightbulb pleaded.
“…Just pay attention this time.”
“Aye aye, captain!”
Fan twiddled with his thumbs, staring up at his room’s ceiling before starting to talk. ”So, uh, as you might know, I may or may not have a sort of romantic interest towards a particular object characterized by the color green- or I suppose blue now, but for the vast majority of the game, she was green, so I’m sure you understand my misspeaking-”
“Yes, yes, your crush on Test Tube, tell me something new,” Lightbulb (justly) interrupted, her voice disinterested.
“Ahem-” Fan coughed. “Yes, my crush on her.”
Lightbulb tilted her head slightly backwards, allowing her body to fall into the softness which was Fan’s bed. “What about it?’
“I need your help.”
“You? Needing my help?” Lightbulb perked up, wondering where exactly this was going.
“Yes, well, it’s about Test Tube, if you couldn’t have guessed. I plan to ask her out, and to do that, I, uh, need you to do something for me.”
Lightbulb was getting more intrigued by the second. “What’d ya need me to do, exactly?”
“It’s quite simple, just a small teeny tiny thing really, all you need to do is get her to come to the Christmas party!” Fan said, awkwardly smiling.
LIghtbulb shot herself back up to be sitting on the bed instead of laying on it, looking at Fan to judge if he was being serious or not. Eventually, her consensus came to him being serious.
“She NEVER goes to parties, never ever ever! You can’t expect me to find some magical dandy way to get her to come!”
“Please Lightbulb, I’ve even talked with OJ to set everything up, I need this! You’re the final ingredient!”
“Why can’t you just… ask her yourself?”
“She’ll get suspicious! She’s– she’s smart like that!”
“What’s there for her to be suspicious about??”
“She’ll know, trust me.”
“...Well, if I do help you out, I’ll need something in return.”
“A-anything! Just please!”
“Anything? Well, there is one thing you could do.”
“Really? What is it?”
Lightbulb chuckled. “Get on your knees.”
“W-whAT?”
“Get to it, Fanister.”
“U-u–uh- I’m not sure if-”
“Fan.” Lightbulb said with the most serious expression she could muster. “You should really see your face right now.” With that, Lightbulb burst out laughing, getting off the bed.
“LIGHTBULB, WHAT THE FUCK!?”
“You are so gullible, Fan.”
“MEAN! That was just mean, Lightbulb.”
“Fan, Fan, calm down. After all, now I’ve got to get Test Tube to come to the party with ya!”
“R-really!?” Fan spoke ecstatically, his tune changing in an instant.
“Yerp, I’ve got it.” Lightbulb shot fingerguns at Fan before leaving the room, the male continuing to sing her praise as she left.
>December 24th<
With a deep breath in and out, Lightbulb wiped the nonexistent sweat off her forehead as she stared at the beverage machine in front of her. She made a promise to Fan, and she really didn’t feel like letting him down.
Each click of the soda and water buttons met Lightbulb with a different idea of how exactly she’d get Test Tube to come, although most of those ideas weren’t exactly the brightest (heh).
With the final click, the tube which Lightbulb was already so familiar with opened up and swallowed her whole. Just a fraction of a second later, she plopped onto the ground of Test Tube’s lab.
Luckily for Lightbulb, Test Tube was in her lab! Unluckily for her, she looked very busy.
Lightbulb stood up, Test Tube still ever enthralled in her work, each of her hands holding a cyan colored beaker. Lightbulb slowly walked up to Test Tube, tapping the scientist on the back once she did.
“INTRUDER-!” Test Tube splashed one of the beakers onto Lightbulb’s face in record time, Lightbulb having no time to get out of the splashzone. Although, it was also in record time which Test Tube realized her mistake.
“LIGHTBULB!” Test Tube shrieked, placing down the other beaker onto her workstation as she cupped her face in shock.
“Hi, Test Tube!” Lightbulb still somehow said cheerfully.
Test Tube ignored Lightbulb’s pleasantries, going across the room to grab a roll of paper towels, ripping off a few to clean off Lightbulb’s face.
“I am so sorry, please forgive me for my behavior. I have been quite stressed these past few.. months.” Now that Lightbulb really stared at Test Tube, she looked even more worse for wear than usual. Her eyebags were practically pitch black, her hair also frazzled despite the fact she tried to keep it neat and orderly in a bun.
“Test Tube...” Lightbulb started. “Do you need to talk to someone..?”
“What are you talking about? I’m FINE!” Test Tube said, obviously not fine.
“Y’know, you really don’t look the part.”
With a final swipe, Test Tube placed the dirty paper towel down on her workstation, looking up and down at Lightbulb.
“Do you feel weird? Any odd feelings on your face? Any sensations reminiscent of heat?” Test Tube listed off, stretching Lightbulb’s cheeks as she spoke.
“Njooo, I dojn’t think ssjo..” Lightbulb said with difficulty, considering Test Tube was currently “playing” with her face.
“Good, good, so that WASN’T the poisonous one!”
“What?”
“Anyways, anyways, why are you here, exactly? I have my hands full figuratively, and until you came in here, that phrase would’ve also been literal.”
“I came here to ask you something… but never mind all that! Are you okay, Test Tube?”
“I.. don't understand?”
“You, uh, just don’t look alright.”
“Like I told you, it’s just the ol’ stresses of being a scientist!” Test Tube tried to say enthusiastically, though it mostly just came out tiredly.
“Test Tube-”
“Lightbulb, I am fine. Now, may I politely ask you to leave the lab if you have nothing else to ask of me?” Test Tube said, gritting her teeth.
“Please-”
“Lightbulb.”
“..Okay.” Lightbulb walked away from Test Tube and went towards the exit, looking back at Test Tube as she left.
>December 25th, 12 hours before the party.<
Lightbulb’s meeting with Test Tube was, well, a disaster. It had only been three days before then since she had last talked to her, so Lightbulb wasn’t sure what exactly happened to her in that timespan.
Lightbulb regretted not being so insistent, gosh, she had failed both Fan and Test Tube. Lightbulb continued to lay on her bed, watching her spinning fan rotate what seemed to be hundreds of times a second.
Maybe she could go back, to try Test Tube again, but she didn’t even know if she was as close to Test Tube as she thought. Maybe this was delirium, maybe she needed to go take a breather.
And that’s exactly what Lightbulb went to do.
Plopping off her bed, Lightbulb groggily approached her door, only stopping when she heard a knock from it on the outside. At first, she thought that perhaps she had accidentally made that sound herself, but the knock repeated again.
Seeing as she was already at the door, she opened it up. And there came a pleasant surprise.
“Hey, Lightbulb.” Paintbrush said, leaning on Lightbulb’s doorframe as if they were trying to act cool. Lightbulb thought they were more silly than cool for doing that, but she digressed.
“Paintbrush, can I tell you something?” Lightbulb said, ignoring Paintbrush’s greeting.
“Huh?”
“You don’t have to pretend to enjoy leaning on my door frame, I already know you’re cool.”
“Who said I was-” Paintbrush was interrupted with a peck on the cheek from Lightbulb, her giggling after-the-fact.
“So, why are you here?”
Paintbrush stopped leaning on the doorframe, standing up like a regular person as they spoke. “I was wondering if you’d wanna come to the kitchen with me. To help me cook for the Christmas party and all.”
“You? Cooking?”
“Yeah, apparently no one else signed up for the job, but hey, at least we can bake cookies. If you come with, that is.”
Lightbulb chuckled. “You know me so well, Paintbrush.”
“You are my girlfriend, I would sure hope so.”
Lightbulb took Paintbrush’s hand, the couple walking towards the kitchen. The two continued to make small talk, but Test Tube’s ailment never did fully get off Lightbulb’s mind. At least Paintbrush was an ample enough distraction for her, though.
And in seemingly just a second, they had already arrived in the kitchen.
“The list of everything we need to make is here.” Paintbrush grabbed a slightly wrinkled piece of paper from out of their pockets, a list of exactly 18 items contained on it.
But shockingly, something was missing from it.
“You said we were gonna make cookies!” Lightbulb protested, seeing as none of the 18 items were cookies.
“Hey, this is OJ’s list, but I’m sure he won’t mind if we add an addition or two.” Paintbrush grabbed a pen from their other pocket, shakily writing “cookies” at the bottom of the list.
“Better?” Paintbrush mused.
“Way better.”
And with that, they began.
Lightbulb was someone who enjoyed cooking, sure, but cooking for a swell however many hours she was in the kitchen really did rinse out every piece of enjoyment from the process. And half the fun was in eating what you made immediately after, which Lightbulb didn’t even get to do!
The pies, the cakes, the mashed potatoes, the parmesan pasta, every piece of food made, all put into the fridge for later consumption for the party. Lightbulb understood why she had to put the food away, but she wasn’t happy with it.
But, through what was mostly Paintbrush’s words, Lightbulb persisted, and they were finally at the final step of the final item.
“Andddd done!” The oven turned on, Lightbulb staring at the three trays of cookies inside now cooking.
“I think I miss having MePhone instantly generate us our food.”
“I.. think we all do.” Lightbulb said, joining Paintbrush on another one of the stools in the kitchen.
The two sat in silence for a little, both exhausted from everything. Lightbulb stared out of the window, the moon outside being a waxing crescent. Lightbulb had learned the phases of the moon from Test Tube some time ago, in part because she wanted to understand even a little of Test Tube’s scientific jargon about space.
“Lightbulb.” Paintbrush said, putting their hand softly on Lightbulb’s shoulder.
“Hm?” Lightbulb responded, still looking out the window.
“Whatcha thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
“Really? You seem.. pensive.”
“…It’s about Test Tube, that gal.” Lightbulb turned around to face Paintbrush, Paintbrush gently moving their hand to soothe one of Lightbulb’s legs instead.
“What about her?”
“When I saw her yesterday she seemed.. stressed.”
Paintbrush chuckled, if only slightly. “Stressed? She’s always stressed.”
“No, I mean–more stressed than usual. I know that gal’s busy, but she at least had a smile through it all!”
“...More stressed?”
“Odd, weird, off, other cinnamons for unconventional.”
Paintbrush glossed over the fact Lightbulb said “cinnamons” instead of synonyms before responding. “…Y’know, I think I may know why.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll tell you, but you have to promise to not tell anyone.”
“I won’t, I won’t, pinky swear!” Lightbulb held out her pinky towards Paintbrush, and they intertwined theirs with hers.
“Well, it’s about Fan.”
“Do tell, Painty.”
“Remember when I broke my drawing tablet?”
“Yeahhh..”
“I went to get it repaired by Test Tube, but when I went into her laboratory, she was gone. Now, this is the part you can’t tell anyone about.”
“Okay, okay, just continue!” Lightbulb pleaded.
“I found her logbook, her journal, whatever she calls it, and I saw it open. Now, I don’t try to intentionally snoop, but it was open. So, being the person I am, I went to close it.”
“Anddd?”
“I saw the word “crush” in big, bold, letters on top, and, uh, I regret what I did, but I read the entire thing.”
“PAINTBRUSH!”
“YOU ACT LIKE YOU WOULDN’T DO THE SAME TOO!”
“Well, fine, but who’s her crush?”
“Fan, duh.”
A giggle escaped Lightbulb’s mouth as she heard that. “And, what else did it say?”
“It said that she thought Fan didn’t and would never like her back.”
“...I think I know what I gotta do now.”
“Huh…?”
“BYE PAINTY, GOT TO GO!” Lightbulb screamed, running out of the kitchen.
“WHAT?? I NEED YOU TO HELP ME SET UP THE FOOD TOO!”
>December 25th, 5 minutes before the party.<
Lightbulb continued running, finally reaching the vending machine outside. Rapidly, Lightbulb inputted the code to go down into Test Tube’s lab.
With a woosh, the tube appeared and Lightbulb slid down it in record time. Lightbulb caught herself, dusting her legs off as she got up.
“TEST TUBE!”
“INTRU- Oh, it’s you. Again.”
“I NEED YOUR HELP!!!”
“..With what?”
“FAN- HE– HE NEEDS YOU!” Lightbulb continued to scream.
“What happened to Fan?”
“I– I DON’T KNOW! JUST COME ON!”
“O-OKAY!”
Test Tube grabbed Lightbulb’s hand, the both of them rushing out of the laboratory.
“TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM, RIGHT NOW.”
“YOU JUST NEED TO SEE FOR YOUR YOURSELF!”
With a slam, the both of them were now in the lobby of the hotel, the party only now just commencing. Paintbrush was currently placing food at the serving tables, other objects scattered about talking about whatever came to their minds. And then there was Fan, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.
With a slight push, Lightbulb urged Test Tube to go to Fan to see what was “wrong” with him. The moment Test Tube ran for him, Paintbrush ominously appeared behind Lightbulb.
“LIGHTBULB!”
“Oh, hi Paintbrush!”
“WHY’D YOU RUN OFF FROM ME?”
“SO I COULD GET FAN AND TEST TUBE TOGETHER!”
“WHAT?”
“Watch.” Lightbulb grabbed Paintbrush’s head, tilting it towards Test Tube and Fan, who were currently in the corner of the room.
They both seemed to be talking about.. something. Considering Lightbulb and Paintbrush were across the room from them, they couldn’t infer whatever they were talking about. Their bodies also seemed awfully stiff.
“..How’d you get Test Tube to come anyways?”
“Magic.”
The duo continued to watch the nerds, every slight movement being noticed. Naturally, the two scooted closer, trying to get a larger piece of the action.
“Do you know when something’s going to happen between them..?”
“Fan told me all I had to do was get her to come and he’d do the rest.”
“The rest, as in, asking her out?”
“Probably!”
“As if Fan could-”
“PAINTY!” Lightbulb squealed, smooshing their face to be looking directly at Fan and Test Tube.
And the two were kissing.
Just as quickly as it happened, they pulled away from each other. The two continued to look at one another for a little longer, before turning their gazes towards Lightbulb and Paintbrush.
“WE CAN BOTH SEE YOU.” Test Tube shouted from across the room, causing the couple to start giggling.
“YOU’RE WELCOME.” Lightbulb shouted back, grabbing Paintbrush’s hand as they made their escape into the kitchen.
There was still more food to be slightly reheated and put out, but neither of them could really care for that at the moment.
Instead, Lightbulb grabbed herself a cookie from the now finished tray and sat on the floor, Paintbrush joining her.
“Huh.” Paintbrush blurted out.
>December 26th, the morning after.”
The party, ultimately, went amazing as it usually did. Lightbulb and Paintbrush did eventually get themselves to place the rest of the food out, and it was a jolly grand time.
Fan and Test Tube were nowhere to be found once Lightbulb came back out, but she supposed they just wanted their space now that they were supposedly dating and all.
As Lightbulb thought back to the party, her eyes randomly darted towards her door. And it seemed there was a letter at the bottom of it.
Standing up from her bed, she approached the letter, carefully opening it up. The letter only contained a single word, being “thanks.”
Lightbulb smiled.