multifandom oneshots/preferences

xxxii. tech--paul gray (slipknot)

a/n: i am not an engineer or technologically inclined at all so here we are butchering the job of a stage tech; hope you enjoy it!

Paul's pov

I'm walking through the tour bus when I notice Y/n laying on the bench, taking a nap. 

As I always do when she's napping, I look around for a blanket and gently spread it over her, then pull the curtain closed behind her. I ensure she's still asleep before I run to the minifridge and grab a bottle of water, which I place in front of the bench. 

I hope she has a good nap, I think as I bite back a smile at the threshold of the living room area.

She's so cute when she's sleeping. She takes a lot of little naps around the bus and it's adorable. Sometimes the guys will want to play pranks on her, but Jim and I always stop it. 

Y/n is Jim's tech mostly because he's been having a lot of issues with his amps on this tour, keeping Y/n pretty occupied. She's always nice to everyone else, but Jim is obviously her best friend. 

Occasionally I wish that my amps would have issues so I'd have to help Y/n work on them late into the night. It would be just so inconvenient to listen to music and have a drink with her while she works. 

So inconvenient. 

I'm torn from my thought trance by the sound of a few guys coming back into the bus from the gas station. Their noise makes Y/n stir out of her nap as I greet my bandmates.

...

2nd person

You're working on Jim's amp again late into the night. Soft music is playing from a small radio as you adjust your position on the floor to lean closer to the circuit you're working on. 

You really should lay off those naps, but then again, when else are you going to sleep? As much as you love Slipknot, those dudes are chaotic and they make it hard to focus, so working late at night when they're asleep is just the better way to go. 

As you're soldering a few things onto a circuit inside the massive amp apparatus, you hear footsteps coming closer. 

"It'll be ready when it's ready, damnit," you say without thinking. 

"Jim piss you off or something?" Paul Gray's voice replies from the threshold of the room. 

"Oh, shit. Sorry, a little bit. He's just impatient," you shrug. "Can't sleep?"

"I was about to say the same to you," Paul sits down across from you, leaning against a chair. "How's it coming along?"

"It's coming...I really should have actually paid attention in college before I dropped out," you mutter, earning a little chuckle from Paul. "I mean, I know the issue. It's that these wires were 'fixed' before by someone who didn't know what they were doing, but I don't really understand how that fucked the entire system up and burnt the innards to hell. Usually it just creates a delay between the signal the guitar sends and the sound the amp creates, which leads me to believe it wasn't just a bad wiring job like Jim told me it was...sorry, it doesn't really matter."

You reach over to your case of tools to grab a small screwdriver to pick at some other older solder you need to undo in a very poor attempt to hide yourself. 

"Hey, don't worry about it. I've always thought engineers were cool," Paul smiles warmly. "I never get to see techs doing tech stuff."

"That's usually because the world isn't full of Jim Roots doing their own amp repairs," you pull off a small part to uncover the rest of the circuit you're working on.