Tales From The Laboratory: A retro fic compilation
Authors note: The stories in this fic are only meant to be one-shots and do not connect in any way, shape, or form. some stories also might take place in an AU, which in such case it'll be mentioned; but in general, most characters (Astro and Reno especially) in these stories are aged up to be teenagers. Astro also in every chapter uses they/them pronouns, thanks for reading! ~Emily
Swooning Over Astro
Synopsis: Astro and Reno get invited to a dinner party and the two can't stop falling for each other [AU where Astro and Reno work together]
After spending the past three days out camping, the two had finally returned home. But to their surprise, they saw something tacked onto the door of the lab when they peered out from the elevator.
Reno took the paper off when he got to the door and read it.
"Oh." He exclaimed.
"What is it? Something up?" Astro asked.
"No." Reno folded the paper up, "There's another dinner party tomorrow— we're invited." He smiled.
"Oh! That's nice." Astro said as Reno opened the lab door so they both could go inside.
Astro quickly plopped down onto the couch with a sigh of relief.
"You're tired already?" Reno jokingly asked them.
"A little." They shrugged.
"I could pull the couch out if you'd like?" Reno offered.
"No no it's fine," Astro lied down, "This is nice anyway…"
"Suit yourself." Reno shrugged.
…
The next night, Reno was in the bathroom busy checking himself out in the mirror as both Astro and him were getting ready to leave for the dinner party.
Astro came in not too long after.
"Oh! Someone looks nice." Astro smirked.
"You know it!" Reno exclaimed, "Really compliments my form," He finger gunned at himself in the mirror.
Astro chuckled, walking in further to get a look at themselves in the mirror as well.
"Hey, you're looking good too, 1200 ants!"
Astro blushed, only to be swept up by Reno and swarmed with kisses.
They couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably in response before being let back down onto the ground again.
They both subsequently left the bathroom and headed out the door
…
The dinner party.
The place was nicely decorated with each table in the center of the room having a cream colored tablecloth and an ornate centerpiece.
Around the perimeter there were long tables with plates upon plates of food, most likely insinuating the dinner was being served buffet style.
The front of the room had a stage with a single mic stand on top, no one was there yet to speak, though.
When Astro and Reno got there, there was a considerable amount of people already present and conversing with one another.
Reno motioned to Astro who then followed him to a table.
"I'm surprised the professor hasn't shown up ye—"
Suddenly Astro could hear footsteps from across the room.
Looking over, he, sure enough, found the professor heading up the steps to the stage where he made it to the microphone.
"Testing… testing… one two…" O'shay tapped on the mic.
"It's working?" He asked.
After getting an okay signal, he left the stage and headed to one of the tables.
"Professor!" Astro called out.
"Astro!" O'shay exclaimed, walking over to Astro and Reno's table.
"For a second I thought you hadn't shown up yet— guess I was wrong." Astro joked.
"Oh no— I was busy setting this whole thing up, you two look very nice."
"Nice? Whatever happened to handsome?" Reno awkwardly chuckled.
O'shay cleared his throat, "Um, yes— well, I have to keep setting things up so I'll stop by again later." He walked away.
"You—you okay?" Astro asked.
"Uh yeah, why?" Reno looked over at them.
"I'm just a little worrisome over you."
"It's fine." Reno smiled, "He just hasn't gotten it yet, you know?"
"You sure?"
"Yes yes, I'm sure." Reno sipped a cup of water.
"Oh well, that's— great."
"Trust me, the only validation I'm looking for is from you, and you've already given it to me."
Astro blushed.
Reno scooted over and pressed his forehead up against Astro's.
He could hear Astro sigh with delight and saw them crack a smile as they pulled away.
"Better?" He asked.
"Yeah," Astro replied.
…
"So how's the workload?" Someone sitting at the table asked Astro.
"It's not bad." They shrugged.
"I'm sure Reno gives you lots of things to do, hmm?"
"Oh! We work together on everything— it's easier that way." Reno interjected.
"Together you say? Hmmm… perhaps that would be a better way to do things with my new intern— he's beyond annoying with his god-awful puns, but maybe working together will teach him to shut up."
Astro tried not to laugh, "Well, It's all about good collaboration, Reno and I are already dating— so it's obvious we'd have a good chemistry and workflow going."
"Maybe you should talk to him about it? Like, tell him the only way things can productively work is if you establish good collaboration." Reno suggested.
"Oh I doubt it," the man pushed up his glasses and then sighed, "It's hopeless."
"Why do they even let college kids intern here?! That's by far the stupidest idea since chopped up fish!" He looked at Astro and Reno as if he was slowly losing his sanity.
"Hey, at least you can make sushi with it— which taste pretty good." Astro commented, "And besides— you never know until you try?"
The man sighed "Perhaps so…"
Reno got up from his chair, "I'm gonna go get more water, you want?"
"Ummm…" Astro looked at his cup, "Nah, I'm good."
"Suit yourself." Reno shrugged, grabbing his cup and walking away.
Astro sighed as they watched Reno walk away, "You ever meet a man that leaves you speechless without a fail?" They asked.
"…Maybe…"
"Well, you should do something about that!" Astro chuckled, "Who knows? Maybe it'll be more rewarding than you think."
…
Reno made his way to one of the long tables and picked up a pitcher of water.
"Hey, Reno." A feminine voice greeted.
Reno looked up, "Yuko! I didn't notice you were there." He chuckled.
"Well I figured perhaps maybe a little party would prevent the professor and I from going psycho– how's you and Astro?"
"Doing pretty great, actually."
Yuko snickered with a wheeze, "Tha–that's very good," She cleared her throat, "Well…"
Reno looked at her, confused.
"Ummm… I'm glad it's uh– worked out for you! You would not believe the effort it takes to get O'shay to do anything, how do you and Astro do it?"
"Oh! Well, it's just really good collaboration."
"Really? I have a hard time believing that." Yuko put her hands on her hips with a raised eyebrow.
"No no– it's true! Astro and I get along really great, so it's easy to collaborate well."
"I see…" She slowly nodded.
"It takes time, but…" Reno looked behind him to see Astro still at the table, talking.
His cheeks went red.
"It… it… it's worth it." He smiled.
"Well, I'll leave you to it then." Yuko headed off with a smile.
Reno let out a sigh, putting the pitcher of water down and heading back to the table.
"And then last week another robot came in fo– Hey Reno!" Astro greeted.
"Hey." Reno sat down.
"I was talking about the robot that came in last week for stimuli issues." Astro began.
"Oh yeah, they came in all out of whack, they weren't able to properly sensor things so we spent the whole work day trying to re-calibrate them." Reno elaborated.
"Well to save time, you could've–"
Suddenly they heard the sound of a spoon being tapped against a glass, they all instinctively looked to see where it came from.
"Um… good evening, everyone." O'shay began, he stood in front of the mic stand on stage.
"It is with my pleasure to thank everyone who has come to the dinner party—"
Everyone in the room broke out into a cheer.
Reno raised his glass of water and then brought it up to his mouth so he could take a sip.
"…It took a lot of planning from decorations to picking the food and setting up, but the robotics department and I hope you enjoy and have a great night." The professor waved and walked off the stage.
Everyone yet again erupted into cheer.
Reno looked down at his phone and saw what time it was.
"Oh! It's getting a bit late, we should probably get going?" He looked over at Astro.
"Uh… yeah yeah– It's fine."
"Leaving so soon?" The man asked
"Yeah, we have tons of things to work on tomorrow and Tuesday, so we need as much sleep as we can get."
"Hmmm well, um… I hope to see you two around sometime." He replied with a smile.
"Yeah yeah— you were really great to talk to this whole night, from a young person standpoint that is." Reno chuckled.
They all said their goodbyes before Astro and Reno left to go back to their lab.
…
Reno opened the door to the lab and waited for Astro to come up the stairs.
"Did all that eating slow you down?" He joked.
"No…" Astro sighed, "I just wasn't walking as fast as I normally do." They shrugged, walking into the lab.
Reno walked in as well and closed the door behind himself.
"You gonna go shower?" Astro asked as they plopped down onto the couch.
"Yeah, why?" Reno turned around.
"Nothing, just wondering." Astro picked up a nearby book.
"Oh." Reno shrugged before turning back around to walk into the bathroom.
He came back a while later to Astro attempting to pull the couch out, they had already changed into pajamas and the book they read earlier was now on the desk.
"You need help?" Reno asked, rubbing his hair.
"No no, I got it." Astro finally pulled it out.
Reno chuckled, "I'll go get the sheets.
…
They both finally got in bed not too long after setting the whole thing up.
Astro leaned back and let out a sigh of relief.
Reno looked over at them,
"Hey. Um…" he stuttered.
"Hmm?" Astro opened an eye.
"It… it was nice— today, um…"
"Yeah," Astro chuckled, "But…" they sighed.
It went to silence for a moment.
"It almost… didn't quite feel right… it was like— I was caught in a tunnel vision?"
"I was caught in a tunnel vision— severely," Reno replied, scooting closer to Astro and resting his head on their shoulder.
Astro kissed the top of his head, "I wouldn't blame that on me." They snickered.
Reno looked up, "Oh come on, give yourself some credit!"
"Mmmmm… no." They smiled.
"Pleaseeeeee— I mean, really, you looked nice today— I mean not that you don't look nice any other day." He urged, then continued, "But I mean… looks aren't everything. I just…"
"I feel like it's getting increasingly harder to tell you how much I love you."
Astro looked confused, "What do you mean? Reno…" they sighed.
"I already know you love me, and more importantly, how much."
Reno looked over at them, "And you me–"
"I mean everything I say– honest."
"God I could swoon over you all day."
"But you already do." Astro looked over at him and chuckled, shimming over so Reno and them could meet without one being taller than the other. ((Reno's taller than Astro BTW ~Emily))
Reno looked at them and sighed with rosy red cheeks.
"I guess…"
Astro reached over and rubbed Reno's cheek with their thumb.
"Don't worry Reno, you pull your weight."
Reno looked at them and smiled.
"I'd still swoon over you anyways."
xx