It's important to me that you know that A. Emily is a very specific type of smart and it's not always in the science department and B. This fic basically belongs to Shores and Basil now because they give me serotonin now. So we'll be trying to fit as much of them into the fic as possible :D
"So, you've spent your whole life trying to crack the multiverse?" It was a late night, a Tuesday, and Emily had homework and a test in the morning but she was staying up working on recreating Julian's frustrating machine so she could get her classmate home and her new spider friend back to his own universe. Noah wasn't exactly her friend, per se, but he had loaned her his "web-shooter" to replicate when he noticed she didn't have one. In turn, she had said she would hook him up with some nanotech before he left, a promise she wasn't sure she could fulfill without screwing up the multiverse. But right now she didn't have to worry about him or the nanotech she had foolishly promised him. Right now, she was on the phone with Julian, trying to put the pieces of her own life back together.
"I mean, yeah. My parents dedicated their lives to the multiverse. It only made sense to do the same. I mean, what about you? Your dad dedicated his life to nanotechnology and now you're saving the world with it."
"Yeah, but that's different. I'm just using technology he's already made. I'm not an innovator like you, I'm an imitator. A copycat. Everything I've ever done someone else has done first. My greatest so-called innovation is an AI chip that Shores helped me attach to my brain when we were teenagers, and I literally just found it in my dad's workspace."
"I have so many questions right now," Julian said with a surprised laugh.
"Ask away. We have the time."
"Okay, these questions have varying degrees of importance so I guess I'll ask the more pressing one first. How exactly did two non-science people attach an advanced piece of nanotechnology to someone's brain? How did that not kill you?"
"Well, as for how I didn't die, I don't know? I think bionanotechnology is how I got my powers, so when the nanocomputer entered my head it quickly bound with something that was already there. I mean, that's my theory. In reality, Shores jabbed the AI chip into my head with the elegance and professionalism of a teenager DIY piercing someone's ears. And somehow that worked."
"Wow, oh my gosh. How old were you?"
"Fourteen. And Shores was 15."
"And you were like, 'Might as well shove a dangerous supercomputer into my subconscious?'"
"Yeah."
"And I thought I was the risk-taker…"
"I guess I can't fully blame you for chasing something exciting and dangerous," Emily admitted, mellowed by tiredness, "Maybe when you're back in this dimension we should both just… Chill out a bit. Take a break from breakthroughs and risks."
"I'd like that. Obviously, I want to keep innovating, but this is a good first step. I can probably take a break for a bit. You and me could just relax."
Emily didn't quite register it as flirting, her obliviousness possibly another side effect of exhaustion.
"Yeah, let's take a step back and relax after this."
"I have one more question if you don't mind?"
"Shoot."
"Is Shores your boyfriend?"
Emily burst out laughing.
"Oh my gosh, no. We're just friends. I wouldn't be interested even if he was interested in me, but as of this weekend he's in a relationship, anyway."
"Oh? How do you feel about that?"
"Indifferent? I don't know. I guess I'm a little nervous that he started dating someone he met on a random hike but if Basil makes him happy then I'm happy for him." She hadn't finished her background check yet, so she didn't fully know how she felt about that, but she was trying to be open-minded.
"Right. Right. So, uh… Do you have a boyfriend? Or girlfriend? Or partner?"
Emily laughed again, "Nope. Single all the way."
"Huh."
"You?
"Single as a Pringle. You know they don't have Pringles here?" Julian chickened out from pursuing the topic of dating.
"No Pringles and no nanotech? Sounds like the dark ages," Emily said solemnly.
"It feels like the dark ages! I'm still trying to help 2lian. He's so hard on himself… I think it's been a long time since someone told him they were proud of him. It's been a long time since someone has cared about him…"
"Well, he lost his parents too, right?" Julian had given her the whole backstory. They'd spent a lot of time talking since the first call on Friday.
"Yeah. But… It's different for him. He didn't go to college and make friends. He didn't meet Deke or you or anyone. He doesn't have anyone."
"Maybe he needs some family. Maybe…" Emily fell silent, suddenly getting a wonderful and terrible idea.
"What? What's on your mind?"
"Maybe you can't help him, Julian. Maybe he needs someone from his own timeline. And maybe he needs his own family back. Noah's a superhero from that timeline, right? He has some similar powers to me but he also has the ability to communicate with the dead, which was awkward and awful when it was my dead dad he was talking to… But maybe that's just what 2lian needs, you know? Because if he's throwing too much of himself into the multiverse because that's what your, er, his parents did, maybe he needs to hear from them that he should take a step back."
"Do you think that would work?"
"Maybe. But we could at least set it up so that Noah and 2lian can be a sort of support system for each other."
"Does Noah need a support system?"
"I don't know, maybe. He's a superhero. All superheroes need a support system."
"Do you have one?"
"Well, I have my brother. And Shores."
"Does Shores know you're a superhero?"
"Not yet. But I think I'm going to tell him after we get the multiverse sorted out. I'm getting really tired of secrets."
"Yeah, me too. I hope when I get back and we're chillaxing, that I can also be part of your support system."
"Hm… Probably."
"Is it late there? You sound tired," Julian commented.
"Yeah, I guess I am. I have a test tomorrow, I should probably stop working on the multiverse and get to bed."
"Good luck on your test tomorrow!"
"Our test. It's in English."
"Damn. Maybe she'll let me make it up."
"Probably not. But hey, it was worth the risk, right?"
"Yeah, the greatest scientific breakthrough of my lifetime was probably worth failing English."
"Well, you'll have plenty of time when we're chillaxing to get back on track. Good night, Julian."
"Good night, Emily." Julian stopped short of saying he missed her, holding on to the hope that one day he'd get the confidence to confess.
While Emily and Julian went to bed in separate dimensions, another duo was awake and alert
"I can't believe we're already having our first late-night date night," Shores said, picking at french fries as he and Basil sat in a greasy diner, the only thing that was open at this hour. Shores had gotten a burger and fries that were already mostly devoured, and Basil had gotten two fried eggs (over easy) and a plate of french toast that hadn't come out yet. Good food, especially breakfast, was something that Basil deeply appreciated.
"I can't believe you wanted to see me again," Basil said, smiling slightly and keeping his hands folded in his lap.
"Why wouldn't I? I had fun Saturday." Shores popped his last fry into his mouth with a bit of gusto and then occupied himself by studying every detail about Basil. He liked Basil's neat blond hair and stormy gray eyes and the way that Basil mostly only smiled when he was looking right at him. It was cute.
"Yes, Saturday was… Exciting. But I was more referring to the fact that you've had time to think about my proposition and you're still agreeing to help me."
"Oh, I haven't really thought about it. I told you I would help and I intend to. I don't go back on my word. We're partners, right?"
"Just to clarify, do you mean partners professionally or romantically?" Basil seemed a little tentative. He looked nice, he was wearing a dark blue button-up with a gold fleur-de-lis nanodesign he had created. Shores was wearing threads again, a one-note pastel red shirt with a blue chest pocket tucked under a warm light blue denim jacket. They both had a different idea of what date outfits were but Basil thought his partner made the laid-back hiker look work.
"After Saturday night? I was hoping for both."
"Yes, both is good…" Basil fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. He desperately wanted to stretch his limbs but he managed to contain himself in public.
"Both is good."
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Basil said abruptly, studying Shores' outfit. There was an ink pen tucked into his t-shirt pocket that Basil had just noticed.
"Here?" Shores asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nothing inappropriate," Basil said hastily, looking nervous.
"Sure, yeah. Don't worry, Baz, you can ask me anything."
No one had ever given him an affectionate nickname before, and it made Basil light up and regain his confidence.
"Why don't you wear nanogarments?"
"I wore that shirt you gave me Sunday," Shores said with a shrug.
"With the exception of that, though, I've only seen you in threads."
Shores smiled at Basil, "Well, we can't all be nanodesigners."
"But I have this strange feeling that you could afford high-end nanodesigns."
"Well…" Another shrug.
"If it's too personal you don't have to tell me."
"You work in the nanogarment division of Oscorp, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"That means you work for my mother. Bless her heart, she's a piece of work. Wearing nanogarments would be like trying to appease her, and for what? She only loves me when she can trot me around as her perfect business son or when she can one-up my dad. But when I'm in Portland with dad we go hiking and we buy threads from thrift stores and it just feels good to own something that someone made, something that takes work to keep and customize. Not that what you do isn't work. It's just different."
"I think we like our clothes for the same reasons. My clothes are customized to my, er, unique proportions and your clothes are unique for you as well. It doesn't matter if you're wearing threads or nanogarments as long as your clothes fit your body and make you happy, right?"
"Right. I've never talked about that with anyone... I guess I never really thought about how important clothes were to me."
"Clothes are important to everyone, or at least they should be. Designers like me just realize it more than other people."
"I think it's cool how and why you got into designing. But you're not all that unique, Baz."
"Huh?" Shores had said that very nonchalantly, without any malice, but it still came out nowhere.
"I mean, you must know about the Spiderling, right? She's a local superhero and she can grow extra limbs just like you." Shores spoke quietly, but no one in the mostly deserted diner was paying attention to them.
"Hm. Interesting. That might be something else to look into. Maybe our origin stories are interwoven."
"Yeah!" Shores spoke a little more excitedly now, "We'll solve a mystery and unmask a hero!"
"I really appreciate you working with me, Shores."
"Anything for my partner." The dim glow of the diner lights reflected in Shores' vibrant blue eyes and Basil was overcome with emotion, leaning over and kissing Shores quickly, and then, with a surge of confidence, a bit slower.
When they broke apart they gathered up their trash, left a good tip on the table, and headed out to Basil's car. Shores was the heir to an empire but that empire couldn't materialize a driver's license so Emily and now Basil were pretty much the only way he got anywhere he couldn't walk to.
"I brought the robo tentacles just in case," Shores commented.
"Why? I think I have us covered with tentacles." With no one watching, Basil let his extra limbs stretch. Shores looked at him with complete adoration.
"Well, I was just thinking that I could get some practice out in the woods if I went back to your place. If this was nanotech I could probably find a way to control it with my mind, my friend Emily would probably help, but dad does things old school so I have no idea how I'm going to control these things long-term."
"I'd be happy to help, dear, but don't you need to get back to campus?" Basil asked when they got in the car. He used the word dear tentatively, not sure how Shores would feel about pet names, but it made Shores light up.
"I don't have any classes tomorrow," Shores said, beaming from ear to ear, "I can stay up and do some research."
"Professional or romantic?" Basil asked, almost breathless.
Shores really had the prettiest blue eyes and the most gorgeous smirk, "Both."
"Both is good."
