Chapter Text
Kinger walks down the hallways of the circus. It is silent because it is technically night time, this however does mean that the bright lights are slightly dimmer than normally. He walks past the doors with big red X painted on top of the characters.
Kinger comes to a stop and looks at the door, ember eyes looking back at his light blue ones. He reaches for the door handle, he has done so many times before.
He is surprised when a golden butterfly lands on his hand…
However..
The little bug brings a smile on his face.
— — — — —
Grant was watching as the teacher wrote on the board a coding format that he hadn’t seen before. He had taken interest in coding right after he had heard of it, it didn’t make sense to him at first and god did he hate the different bugs he got when he was trying to finish his codes at 3 am.
“Whose idea was to pull 3 all nighters again without coffee… oh.. right.. mine.” Grant sighs in annoyance of the thought.
Grant gets shoved on the shoulder and turns to look at the man sitting next to him. They met on the first day of this new class. His name is Evan. Evan was, in Grant’s opinion, a young genius. Somehow after just seeing code once he was able to recreate it and even alter it to be more efficient.
Evan confused Grant with his abstract ideas, sometimes the teacher would also be confused by what he was saying.
“Sooo.. what are you doing after class? If you are not doing anything we could go to my place and brainstorm this new code like we did last week” Evan said, with a huge grin on his face.
Grant shook his head, “I am sorry Evan, but I have a small project I need to work on today” He says with a chuckle.
“Come on Grant! Maybe I can help you with that code problem you have been having for half a year” Evan winks at Grant with a small smile.
“You know I like to figure this code out myself, you have already given me a lot of pointers” Grant says with a sigh.
Evan sighs, he lays his head down for a moment then looks back at Grant “Did you remember to send your letter for that internship? To that new tech company that opened like a year ago?” He asks.
Grant nods “Yes they said that they would get back to me as soon as they reviewed it”
Evan nods and leans back on the chair and Grant shakes his head. Evan really wants for him and Grant to intern together in a company named C&A.. apparently its a new tech start-up so that means Grant and Evan would be doing a lot more coding.
Grant’s attention turns back to the chalkboard and what the teacher is explaining. How in code you can alter how the program handles cause and effect as well as how codes cannot stay up running for a long period of time because of the chances of crashes.
Evan sighs annoyed, he is about to say something else to Grant but then the class bells ring. Grant shrugs and picks up his bag and closes his laptop before heading out of class. He looks back and sees Evan walk up to another group. Grant shrugs and exits the classroom.
— — — — —
He absent mindedly walks outside to a small apple tree that is in the university’s courtyard. Grant sits down and opens his laptop again. There is a specific line of code that has had him on over drive, for some reason he cannot figure it out.
Grant is almost pulling his hair out in frustration… that is until a monarch butterfly lands on his keyboard. He looks at the little bug confused, till he hears someone behind him.
“Oh my goodness! Where did it go! I am sure I saw it fly somewhere here…” Grant turns to look at who is speaking and it’s like everything around him freezes.
There is a lady. Her hair is as black as ebany, her skin is dark and glowing like the starlit night sky, her eyes like embers. and her voice.. soft and gentle.
“Who is this lady?.. Wait-” Grant shakes his head, his thoughts overwhelming and lets out a sigh.
“What the hell am I thinking, I don’t know her and she doesn’t know me!” He yells at himself in his head. However he doesn’t notice that she is next to him.
“So here it flew..” She says with a chuckle.
Grant blinks a few times, his brain catching up to him, maybe those 3 all nighters were not a good idea..
He looks at the lady and she looks at him.
He lets out a startled yelp and falls down with an “OUF”, the butterfly flying away from the pair.
“Oh! I am sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you.. My name is Penelope, what is yours?” Penelope says with a kind smile.
“I- Um-, Hi!” Grant says and scrambles to sit back up “My name is Grant, nice to meet you Penelope”
She looks around, probably for the butterfly but then her eyes fall on the screen of the laptop “Oh! Is this code? I have heard of it when I have walked in the halls.” Penelope asks, her voice showing excitement.
“Yeah, I am trying to figure this one.. It’s a little confusing.. especially the different bugs.” Grant says with a sigh.
Penelope tilts her head “Bugs? I thought that entomology was different from coding?” Her voice filled with confusion.
Grant looks confused “Entomology? A branch of zoology? No no, I don’t mean bugs like the butterfly you were looking for” Grant says with a slight chuckle “A bug in coding is a mistake or a defect that gets into the code.”
Penelope lets out a small “Oooh… I see.” Before looking back at the screen.
A comfortable silence falls between the two.
“Would you be able to teach me some?” Penelope asks. Grant almost doesn't hear her surprised by the question before nodding with a smile.
“Of course, here is my phone number so you can text me”