𓈊 A Poppy By Any Other Name

Act XXXIX

Fwhip let out a shocked chuckle. "Um, woah," he said with a teasing smile, nudging Jimmy with his elbow. "What was that about?"

Jimmy blinked, still staring at where Scott had been. "I- Scott- pretty-"

"Oh, great," Grian said, "he's broken."

Fwhip snickered and poked at Jimmy's cheek. "You good?" he asked, hardly able to contain his laughter.

"Obviously not," Grian answered for the blonde, smirking. "The guy he has a massive crush on just blew a kiss at him. I'd be a blushing mess, too, if Scar or Mumbo did that to me."

"So you admit you're crushing on them?"

Grian let out a stubborn hmph. "I'll have you know, I'm dating them now," he said, grinning, though his cheeks were still pink. "I'm doing better than Timmy is."

Fwhip snorted. "True."

*   *   *

"That looks so good, Grian," Mumbo said, beaming at Grian's work. "I really like that!"

Grian smiled, turning away blushing. "You do?"

"Yeah, it's awesome!"

Grian had been working on painting the outside of their robotics project whilst Mumbo worked on building the robot part of it.

"Thank you," ths dirty blonde said shyly. He stared down at the little face he'd drawn and his smile grew a bit. He enjoyed spending this time with Mumbo, even if he knew nothing at all about how to actually make a robot. Just being there with him made him happy.

Grian looked up when he felt Mumbo tap him on the shoulder.

"I think I'm done," Mumbo said, then showed off the circuit of wires and mechanical chips. "It'll need some revisions depending on if it works properly, but for the moment, it's finished."

Grian stared at it, trying his hardest to wrap his mind around how Mumbo made it so fast. "That's... doesn't that stuff take, like, forever to do?" he questioned.

Mumbo shrugged. "It depends on the complexity and its purpose," he said as if Grian could understand him. "And generally, it isn't that hard as long you know what you're doing. It can be tedious, but not super time-consuming."

"Riiight," Grian said slowly, nodding. "I definitely understood all of what you just said."

Mumbo chuckled. "That's okay, you don't have to get it," he said. "But I could teach you if you want."

Grian smiled. "Thank you, but I think I'll just stick to being math smart," he joked.

"Fine, fine." Mumbo stuck his tonuge at Grian, and the latter reciprocated the gesture. Mumbo handed Grian the circuit. "Do you want to test it?"

Grian blinked. "Test it?" he echoed. "But that's only part of it, isn't it? How would I test it?"

"By putting Grumbot together, silly," Mumbo said. He leaned over and pecked a small kiss to Grian's temple before gathering the other small mechanical parts to assemble the inside of the robot. "Look, these are the lights for the eyes" - Mumbo showed two circular plates that lit up when he pressed a button on the back of them - "and when they're attached to the main circuit, they'll light up whenever Grumbot is turned on."