Work Text:
Otto choked back a yawn as he entered his main quarters, haphazardly putting on his work coat and slumping right into his desk chair. He rubbed a bit of crusty sleep out of his eye with his gloved hand as he reached across the desk in strain and grabbed his dearest notebook. He attempted to ignore the rumbling of his stomach as he flipped to the most recent page; a bright nothingness that only made him feel more tired upon seeing it.
Suppose it was time to decide on his next project.
Before his pen could touch the paper, his heart practically jumped in surprise upon a loud knock on the door. Of course, he should have expected this, and he'd usually come down from the scare pretty quickly. However, he ended up staring wide-eyed at the door for longer than he'd like. Regardless, a "Come in" left his mouth and a machine much taller entered the room, boisterous and proud. He carried with him a small plate of handmade fruit sandwiches and set it on the table as he sat himself down next to Otto in a much neater fashion.
The scientist took a brief glance at the sandwiches, but averted his eye in little time. Just from looking at it, he was sure these were much too sweet. It was Dandy's kitchenwork after all, they had to be just as utterly sickening as he was.
Dandy reached for one of his little masterpieces and took a bite as he began to ramble. The words went in one ear and out the other for Otto as per usual as he attempted to shut him out of his mind and finally get this wall of white some words on it. All he could do, however, was continue to blankly stare at the little blue lines in his exhaustion as his mind remained just as blank.
What his mind could find in itself to latch onto and listen, however, was that sweet, sickening voice of his less-than-little employee. Otto did not turn his head to face him, doing everything in his power to make it look like he was not paying him any attention. He spun the small pen around in his hand in a white lie of focus, the only thing actually marking the paper being a small teardrop of tiredness that couldn't stay in.
The gentleman would go on all sorts of tangents, always under the often clear pretense that Otto wasn't listening.
What new adventures he had gone on lately...
"It would have been so lovely to bring you along, you know!"
The dates that never went through...
"Such horror! I might rather spend my time with you..."
Sheesh, just how often did Dandy talk about him so positively without his knowledge?
"Who knows...? Maybe that just means... it's you who will make my heart bloom?"
He takes the last swallow of his sandwich and voice suddenly becoming rather dejected.
"Ah, but that's never going to work out, won't it?"
Otto ceases spinning the pen in his hand, gripping it with a small force, even. The last thing that Dandy heard after his own little question was the sound of that unopened pen dropping and hitting the stack of blank pages as he was pulled in by Otto. He had never been caught so off guard by his boss until now, who had brought their lips together for a moment of softheartedness. Otto tilted his head a bit, giving the other mixed signals as he thought this was the queue to try and share some tongue. Otto pulled away before he could do this, but didn't seem to harbor any anger.
Though naturally, he was still as stubborn as always. "Will you shut up and let me focus if I say 'I do?'"
"You heard all of that??"
"Dandy, you are so lucky that everything is against me working today..." He continued. "If I had an ounce of food in my stomach, your voice would be white noise."
The cheerful, charismatic demeanor returned incredibly quickly for the taller man.
"If that's the case... then eat up, buttercup!"
Dandy grabbed a fruit sandwich from the plate and quickly brought it to Otto's mouth. He backed up a bit in surprise and annoyance, but it didn't take long for him to mumble something stupid under his breath and cave in, finally taking a bite. To his bewilderment, it was actually a lot better than he originally gave it credit for. The strawberries were the perfect levels of sweet and tart, and they meshed with the whipped cream and the white bread like a charm.
Perhaps he could fill his blank page tomorrow.
"This is... Goodness, just where did you get these berries, Dandy?"
"I'm glad you asked! Their little location could be our first official date spot, surely...!"
Otto rolled his eye, only half annoyed.
"Anyways, it was simply..."