Room 43// An Inanimate Insanity College AU

8- The Fantube Special (please throw the confetti this is getting awkward)

(I just had to get this chapter out early)

Test Tube sighed, looking toward Fan sitting alone on the couch with a controller in his hand, hair mussed. The sun was setting; Lightbulb and Paintbrush had both left to their respective friend's dorms. Test Tube is convinced they're doing it just so they can 'get the ball rolling' as Paintbrush had put it.

"My teacher asked if anyone knew where the roof keys were last lesson," Paintbrush said to them. "If we don't give these things back soon there's gonna be problems, and as much as I enjoy hanging out with you guys I'd rather do it outside of a holding cell."

"Alright," Test Tube relented. "I'll find time to do it soon. This was so stupid, why did I agree to this?"

"I dunno, Lightbulb's just that good at convincing people," Paintbrush mused.

Paintbrush was most definitely right, and Test Tube hated that fact. Now they were in the dorm alone with Fan, and normally, they'd be completely comfortable with that arrangement! They didn't get much time to hang out one-on-one recently, and Test Tube would've appreciated the time well spent if it was on any other occasion.

However, they had this... whatever it was, hanging over their head, the keys to the roof in their pocket. They should just give them back to the teacher; say they found them lying in the courtyard. Classes had ended for the day throughout the campus, though, and there wasn't much Test Tube could do until the next morning.

However the buildings were still all open for free study 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, meaning that Test Tube could still follow through with this plan that Lightbulb and Paintbrush were taking all too much glee in orchestrating.

She walked over to where Fan was sitting, seating herself beside him and watching the screen. A retro Mario game was on the screen. Fan probably knew the title of the game; Test Tube was unfamiliar.

It was their dynamic, of sorts; Test Tube had knowledge in academic fields (namely science, although she was at the very least decent in mathematics if she did say so herself), where Fan knew about trivia and otherwise 'geeky' subjects.

He paused his game, the TV emitting a mechanical beep as it registered his command. He turned to Test Tube. "Hey, you wanna play?" He offered, pulling another controller from the box underneath the coffee table.

Test Tube shook her head, mind preoccupied. Fan shrugged, putting away the controller and unpausing his level. "Suit yourself. If you wanna join, just say the word."

Test Tube watched Fan work through the level, jumping on moving platforms and destroying the little 8-bit enemies that popped up from the side of the screen until the level was completed with a score flashing across the screen.

Fan celebrated silently, or, well, as silently as you could get with Fan. Test Tube felt the key in her pocket digging into her thigh, convinced that by the end of the day there'd be an imprint of it on her leg unless she took the key out her pocket.

"Hey Fan?" She asked, a simple start to what would hopefully be a simple conversation.

"Hm?" He said, putting the game on standby. The home screen of his console flashed and solidified on the screen, a little square with the game cover in the corner of the screen suggesting that the game was still in play.

"You wanna go somewhere?" She asked, not yet pulling out the key from her pocket.

Fan hummed, completely switching off his console (though not without saving; he was very particular about that, regardless of the fact that his game was already 100% completed.)