Forge & Laurie, Saturday afternoon

[x-forge.livejournal.com]

Laurie ventures down to the lab to chat with Forge, and attempts to extract gossip.



Laurie knocked before opening the door to Forge's lab, having noted in the past that the scientific types, even the doctor types at times, tended toward distraction when working on anything that caught their concentration. Looking carefully around the door, she smiled at her friend and walked in.

"Long time, no see, stranger." She said.

Forge arched an eyebrow, then looked at the clock, then down at a calendar below it. "I'm pretty sure I saw you at dinner not two days ago. In fact, I distinctly remember you trying to rap my knuckles with a spoon because I reached for the salt instead of asking Shan to pass it. Long time?" He cocked his head in interest, perusing Laurie carefully. "Did I miss another land mass vanishing from the spacetime continuum in the last forty-eight hours?"

"Well, okay, long time since I talked to you without assorted food style products being involved. By the way, I only rapped your knuckles because you were about to get your sleeve in the gravy." Laurie replied, grinning as she moved further into his lab.

"Be that as it may," Forge digressed as he typed a few commands into the computer and set the machine press to run an automatic routine, "what brings you down to the picturesque yet gloriously sterile environs here? Surely not maintenance on your air scrubber, you haven't used that much in the last few months," he deduced. "You're not bringing me food... could this perhaps be a social call?" His eyes dramatically glanced up towards the ceiling, and he smirked at Laurie. "Devoid of out-of-season viscum album, it might even be safe to consider."

"Well, I'm a very social person I'll have you know. I talk to people all the time. Sometimes, I even 'converse'." Laurie replied before looking up at the ceiling in a semi alarmed way. "Now, before I assume the worst, what exactly is 'viscum album'? You've not been cavorting with unholy beings, have you?"

"Viscum album, my dear Laurie, is the taxonomic nomenclature for the common European mistletoe. A rather... problematic sample of seasonal vegetation, so I'm given to understand." Forge smiled as he rambled off details, as he tended to do. "As for unholy beings, well, I suppose Doc MacTaggart's freeze-dried haggis with some El Diablo salsa might fit that bill. But that was breakfast."

"You are a very bad man." Laurie said, gaze moving from the ceiling to take a glance around the lab with a wide grin. There was almost nothing there that really looked familiar to her, apart from the lab coat currently hanging off the back of one of the chairs. "But I forgive you, considering how many very bad men I've come to know recently. I'm actually surprised that they've all turned out to be rather trustworthy, considering everything I was warned about."

Forge just shrugged while he coiled a length of wire onto a spool. "So aside from me being a bad, bad man - what's on your mind?" he asked. "If you say boy trouble, though, I'm going to have to laugh at you."

"No boy trouble...No boys right now, terribly frustrating, I assure you." Laurie said, smiling as she thought about the guys currently on campus. There were a couple that she liked the look of; just no one had made their interest known yet. "Although, why would you be laughing at me?"

"Because it's funny," Forge explained, then stifled a yawn and waved a hand apologetically. "Sorry. Got in late last night, and probably should catch up on sleep over the weekend. That's what they're for, I'm told."

"Oh, hot date?" Laurie asked, nose almost twitching with sudden curiosity. Now this was way more interesting then the English homework she was currently meant to be doing.

"Yes," Forge said matter-of-factly, placing the spool of wire in a drawer. "Quite so.

"Well, you really should get out more." Laurie began before blinking for a moment and then staring at her friend. "Wait, what? You mean you...Who was it with?"

"Hm?" Forge looked up and raised an eyebrow. "Crystal and I went ice skating. What, is that suddenly somehow hard to believe?"

"Way to go Crystal." Laurie said, grinning widely, and then snickering at the raised eyebrow. "And not at all, you just have a bad habit of making us do all the work, Mr Mistletoe. So, was there smoochage? I bet there was smoochage. Do I need to give you two the traditional friend talk?"

Some time ago, before Forge had gotten lost on an island, she might have felt quite a bit different about him finding the interest of someone else. Now though, she was glad he was happy even if there was still a small sadness, everyone seemed to be pairing up lately.

"Do I seem like the type to kiss and tell?" Forge mock-protested, hand pressed to his chest in faux-innocence. "And I already got the talk from her sister, the Queen. No, seriously, it was... more than all right," he said with a goofy smile.

"It would depend on the bribe, I'm thinking." Laurie replied with a grin, pulling herself up onto one of the benches. Standing around was alright but a good gossip session required sitting down. "I didn't know you could ice skate."

Forge shrugged, hopping up to sit across from Laurie on another work bench. "Not well, but I can get by with a little help. It's... it felt nice," he admitted. "I decided it was long past time I quit telling myself that I can't have what everyone else has, because of who or what I am. So I just decided to go for it."

He chuckled quietly to himself. "Scared me half to death, I'll admit. I'd almost rather have faced down one of those allosaurs again."

"That's because facing an allosaur, the worst that can happen is you die. Facing something like dating, that's a whole lot scarier." Laurie replied her head tilting slightly as she looked at him. "You know, Crystal's probably the best girl you could have chosen. She'll never lie to you to make you feel better, and she'll let you know if you screw up at all."

Had it been anyone else, Laurie might have been more cautious. Forge was so used to machines and knowing exactly what they did that she thought sometimes that it was the reason he always considered himself bad at things like human contact. She could have told him though that it didn't take being able to know exactly how someone worked to do well with them.

Forge snorted slightly. "It's not like picking from a menu. At least, I don't see it that way. You're right, I appreciate Crystal's honesty and her forthrightness. She keeps up with me in a conversation, she's open to trying new things, and it doesn't hurt that she's really, really hot," he concluded with a smug smile.

Laurie snickered, shaking her head at the man across from her. Not that there wasn't a lot to be said for admiring the finer qualities of your date's looks. "Of course not, but it doesn't hurt to have someone who compliments you. Especially since you've got the giant brain and need someone who can keeps up with you. There's only so long you can look at a pretty face."

She gave him a measuring look, as if sizing him up for something, and then she grinned widely.

"So, do I get details of your date, or will I have to ask Crystal to spill? She's my ex-suitemate, you know. Means she's got to at least give me the bare details, it's in the rules."

"Then you will have to go with that," Forge replied with a smile. "I can say that I had a wonderful time. I can say that much."

Laurie pouted, trying out the puppy dog look for a second before shaking her head and kicking her feet a bit. "Meanie, how am I meant to win the beating pool if you give me nothing to work with? So, apart from you taking a step into dating, what else is new? Working on anything interesting? Willing to help me build a trebuchet?"

At that, Forge smiled. "No joy on your betting pool, but as for a trebuchet, I do believe I still have the Jell-O launcher that Julio and I employed in one of these lockers..."