Kink Me! #4

[merlinkinkmeme]

Kink Me! #4 Closed to new prompts Welcome to Kink Me! Merlin #4!

Read the rules before you post anything. We freeze or screen anything that breaks the rules! Got a question? Ask the mods! So you want to post a fill?
Your attention to detail helps make our archiving possible, and also tells us you've read the rules.

• Click for rules on posting fills!

Comments

Nobody knows why birds sit on wire - part 4 (of?)

[anonymous]

There’s no malice in the words, just curiosity, and Aretha is too hungry to work up any emotion but annoyance right now. “Yes,” she clips out, glaring at the screen and hitting Delete to remove the last number she wrote in that hadn’t worked either.

To Aretha’s surprise, instead of leaving, Merline plucks the next chair over, flips it around, and straddles it to look over Aretha’s shoulder to her screen. Merline stares at the screen in concentration while Aretha stares at her. Aretha is taking a breath to ask her exactly what is she doing, when Merline makes a triumphant little Ah and pokes at the screen, leaving a smudge. “There. You are using the wrong concentration. We’re using a pH of +7 for the second experience, not the first. We’re doing acidic first. That’s why nothing worked.”

Aretha frowns at her numbers and tweaks the ones underneath Merline’s fingerprint on the screen. She redoes the calculations and finds them to be working now. One done, three columns to go. She starts filling them with the same info, in case it also works. Merline stops her. “No, that’s going to be acidic too.” Before Aretha can ask, or perhaps ask her to bugger off, she explains. “See, we’re retaking a bit of the same liquid and mixing it further. Since conventions calls is acidic when it reaches…”

It takes a few minutes, but Merline is patient: Aretha finishes the first table at a record time for her. While she formats it properly, Merline fishes out a snack bar out of her messenger bag. Aretha tries not to make googly eyes at it. She must fail, because Merline snaps it in half and hands her a part of it wordlessly. Aretha nods her thanks around the first mouthful. It is not much, but Aretha nibbles on it as slow as she can while Merline watches her do the second table in silence, correcting the numbers only once by taping the screen at the error.

In twenty minutes, it’s all done and printed. Both screens and keyboard must be smudged with fingerprints and crumbles, but where Aretha would care at normal times, now she feels relieved. She takes an instant to beam at the pages, holding them at arm’s length, ink still fresh. She finds Merline looking at her with a warm smile when she lowers them. She feels shy all of a sudden. They make small talk as they packed their bags, when putting on their jackets, shouldering their bags, until they reach the exit doors and Aretha thumbs in the direction she’s going.

“By the way. Thanks. For tonight. Thanks, Merline.”

“You are welcome.”

They turn from each other. Aretha takes a few steps, and turns around. “Merline!” She calls out. Merline stops and face her. Aretha waves a few fingers. “See you tomorrow.”

Merline grins, and waves with her whole arm. “See you!”