Tales From The Laboratory: A Retro One-Shot Complilation
Authors note: The stories in this fic are only meant to be one-shots and do not, unless stated otherwise, connect and/or are part of a linear universe. Some stories may belong to AUs, but all come with the basic assumption that both Astro and Reno are at least teenagers (16+). Astro also uses they/them pronouns in every story due to my personal headcanon. Thanks for reading! ~Sage
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 and live 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 takes the paper off when he gets to the door and reads it. "Oh," He exclaims.
"What is it? Something up?" Astro asks.
"No." He folds the paper up, "There's another dinner party tomorrow— we're invited."
"Oh! That's nice," They follow him inside before quickly plopping down onto the couch with a sigh of relief.
"You're tired already?"
"A little."
"I could pull the couch out if you'd like?"
"No no it's fine," they lie down, "This is nice anyway…"
"Suit yourself." He shrugs.
…
The next night, Reno's busy in the bathroom checking himself out as both Astro and him were getting ready to leave for the dinner party.
Astro walks in, "Oh! Someone looks nice," they smirk.
"You know it!" Reno exclaims, "Really compliments my form," He finger guns at himself in the mirror.
They chuckle and walk in further to get a look at themselves in the mirror as well.
"Hey, you're looking good too, 1200 ants!"
Astro blushes, only to be swept up by Reno and swarmed with kisses.
They can'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 is nicely decorated with each table in the center of the room having a cream colored tablecloth and an ornate centerpiece.
Around the perimeter there's long tables with plates upon plates of food, most likely insinuating dinner is being served buffet style.
The front of the room has 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 motions to Astro who then followed him to a table.
"I'm surprised the professor hasn't shown up ye—"
They whip their head around at the sound of footsteps from across the room.
Sure enough they saw O'shay heading up the steps to the stage where he made it to the microphone.
"Testing… testing… one two…" He taps on the mic.
"It's working?"
After getting an okay signal, he leaves the stage and heads to one of the tables.
"Professor!" Astro calls out.
"Astro!" O'shay exclaims, walking over to Astro and Reno's table.
"For a second I thought you hadn't shown up yet— guess I was wrong." Astro sneers.
"Oh no— I was busy setting this whole thing up, you two look very nice."
"Thanks! We spent ages trying to think of what to wear, and then we spent an even longer time checking ourselves out because we looked so good!" They laugh as they gracefully tap Reno's arm, which prompts him to laugh as well.
…
"So how's the workload?" Someone sitting at the table asks Astro.
"It's not bad." They shrug.
"I'm sure Reno gives you lots of things to do, hmm?"
"Oh! We work together on everything— it's easier that way." Reno interjects.
"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 tries 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." He suggests.
"Oh I doubt it," the man pushes up his glasses and sighs, "It's hopeless."
"Why do they even let college kids intern here?! That's by far the stupidest idea since chopped up fish!" He looks to Astro and Reno for confirmation that he hasn't lost his sanity yet.
"Hey, at least you can make sushi with it— which taste pretty good," Astro comments, "And besides— you never know until you try?"
The man sighed "Perhaps so…"
Reno gets up from his chair, "I'm gonna go get more water, you want?"
"Ummm…" Astro looks at his cup, "Nah, I'm good."
"Suit yourself," Reno shrugs, grabs his cup and, walks away.
They sigh as they watch him walk away, then look back at the man "You ever meet someone that leaves you speechless without fail?"
"…Maybe…"
"Well, you should do something about that!" they chuckle, "Who knows? Maybe it'll be more rewarding than you think."
…
Reno makes his way to one of the long tables and picks up a pitcher of water.
"Hey, Reno." A feminine voice greets.
He looks up, "Yuko! I didn't notice you were there."
"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 snickers with a wheeze, "Tha–that's very good," She clears her throat, "Well…"
Reno gives her a look of confusion.
"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 puts 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 nods.
"It takes time, but…" Reno peers over to see Astro still at the table talking, which slowly brings heat and redness to his cheeks.
"It… it… it's worth it." He smiles.
"Well, I'll leave you to it then." Yuko walks away contently.
Reno sighs, putting the pitcher of water down and heading back to the table.
"And then last week another robot came in fo– Hey Reno!" Astro waves.
"Hey," He sits.
"I was talking about the robot that came in last week for stimuli issues."
"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 elaborates.
"Well to save time, you could've–"
A spoon tapped against a glass startles all three of them. Instinctively, they all look to see where it came from.
"Um… good evening, everyone." O'shay begins, standing in front of the mic on the stage.
"It is with my pleasure to thank everyone who has come to the dinner party—"
Everyone in the room breaks into a cheer.
Reno raises his glass of water, then brings 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." O'shay waves as he walks away from the mic and strolls down the stairs.
Again, everyone cheers.
Reno looks down at his phone and sees the time.
"Oh! It's getting a bit late, we should probably get going?" He looks over at Astro.
"Uh… yeah yeah– It's fine."
"Leaving so soon?" The man asks.
"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 replies with a smile.
"Yeah yeah— you were really great to talk to this whole night, from a young person standpoint that is." Reno chuckles.
All three say their goodbyes before Astro and Reno leave to go back to their lab.
…
Reno opens the door to the lab and waits for Astro to come up the stairs.
"Did all that eating slow you down?" He jokes.
"No…" Astro sighs, "I just wasn't walking as fast as I normally do."
They both walk inside, with Reno being the last one, thus closing the door behind himself.
"You gonna go shower?" Astro asks as they sit on the couch.
"Yeah, why?" Reno turns around.
"Nothing, just wondering," they pick up a nearby book.
"Oh," He shrugs before turning back around to walk into the bathroom.
He comes 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 asks, rubbing his hair.
"No no, I got it." They finally pull it out.
Reno chuckles, "I'll go get the sheets."
…
They both finally got in bed not too long after setting the whole thing up.
Astro leans back and let out a sigh of relief.
Reno looks over at them, "Hey. Um…"
"Hmm?" Astro opens an eye.
"It… it was nice— today, um…"
"Yeah," They chuckle, "But…" they sigh.
There was 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 replies, scooting closer to Astro and resting his head on their shoulder.
Astro kisses the top of his head, "I wouldn't blame that on me," They snicker.
Reno looks up, "Oh come on, give yourself some credit!"
"Mmmmm… no," They smile.
"Pleaseeeeee— I mean, really, you looked nice today— I mean not that you don't look nice any other day," He fights back the opportunity for discourse, then continues, "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 looks confused, "What do you mean? Reno…" They sigh after a short pause.
"I already know you love me, and more importantly, how much."
Reno looks 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 looks over at him and chuckles, shimming over so they could both meet without one being taller than the other.
Reno looks back at them with rosey cheeks and a loving sigh, "I guess…"
Astro reaches over and rubs his cheek with their thumb.
"Don't worry Reno, you pull your weight. Even if you didn't, I'd still swoon over you anyways."
xx