"The yellow one. Connect it to the yellow one."

The lights flickered and went out. The lab was then illuminated by the flickering on of the red emergency lights by the windows. Gyro sighed. "What is wrong with you!?" The bulb peaked its head out from inside the terminal, glowing red like the emergency lights. "Well, disconnect whatever you did, and connect it to the yellow one!"

Gyro heard footsteps coming towards him in the dim room. "What happened, Gyro?"

"Just the Lil Bulb screwing up again." The terminal gleamed red internally.

"Oh. Is everything alright, then?" Fenton asked.

Gyro exhaled harshly. "Yes. Thank you for the concern, Fenton." Why was he saying it like that?

"Oh… well, of course." Fenton turned away for a moment. "Maybe you should, uh, take a break though."

"What? I've only been working for, uh, some... hours, I don't need to take a break!"

"Well, maybe we could go get a coffee, or get lunch."

Gyro turned back to his work. "Don't need caffeine; not hungry."

"Really? I thought you said you didn't eat anything this morning?"

"Yes, and?"

"Come on, you should take a lunch break."

"Again, thank you for the concern, Fenton, but I think I can manage—" The lights switched back on, and the emergency lights went back out.

"...At least to talk through the problems you're having with your invention? Figure them out together?"

Gyro sighed again. There was no reason for him to be acting like such a jerk. Like always, he got so angry so fast, over something so small, and then he acted like an ass. God, he was lucky Fenton was so patient with him. "No, you're right." Gyro stretched. "A coffee and some food would be good."

Fenton smiled. Chuckling lightly, sounding almost airy, Fenton questioned, "Where to?"

"What was that place you were talking about?" Gyro stood up.

"The place by the pier?"

"Precisely."

"O—oh…" Fenton put his hand on the back of his neck, somewhat bashful, apparently, "I didn't think you were listening when I was, uh, ranting like that."

"Well, was I right?" Gyro smirked, "Do you like the place or not?"

"Their food is amazing! Do you like salmon?"

"Yeah," Gyro shrugged.

"Then I think you'll like what I got last time I went! And if it's nice out, which I can't remember, but I think it was, then if we sit outside, by the water, then it'll probably be perfect!"

"Lead the way, Fenton." Gyro swept his hand toward the elevator.

"Oh! Alright," Fenton suppressed a blushing grin.

Gyro adjusted his glasses. The Lil Bulb from before sat on his shoulder— not something he had directed it to do, but it could come along, so long as it didn't ruin anything. Despite moving on to the next project, it seemed that the Lil Bulbs still needed work, too. Maybe, if he rewrote the software for handling verbal commands, he could quarantine and bla—

Fenton leaned his head against Gyro as the elevator began to ascend, pushing the two gently into the ground, and Fenton's head into the crook of Gyro's neck. Gyro took a moment to appreciate the warmth radiating from his close body, that despite being someone who's often so vicious, Fenton could still appreciate him and could see the supposed good parts of him. (Apparently there were some) As it were, he could even help him try to contain his temper. Gyro's outbursts had decreased more than 30% since they'd started dating a few weeks ago, but who was keeping track?

But at the same time, Gyro felt guilty, as if he were tricking Fenton. Someone so optimistic and energetic and uncynical as him deciding to invest his time and energy into Gyro? Gyro had had him working out of a bathroom for months! He had told Fenton to move his work in one of his outbursts, and then, whether for pride or stubbornness or just his innately mean nature, he didn't know, but he couldn't bring himself to tell Fenton he could work somewhere else. Really, it was kind of pathetic.

Gyro looked over to Fenton, clearly still happy that Gyro was taking a deserved break, and even more so that Gyro was going to the restaurant he liked for lunch with him, to talk over food and coffee. And while Gyro's inability to make what he had done right with Fenton was perhaps pathetic indeed, he did start looking for a better place for him to work. He bargained and argued with Scrooge about the need to find a proper workspace for him in the lab, a place where he could more properly and effectively invent and pursue scientific endeavors. And in the end, it was his arm-twisting that seemed to convince Scrooge to hire Fenton as a full employee, in one form or another.

The elevator doors opened, and Fenton lifted his head back up, looking over to Gyro before the two started to walk out of the elevator and out of the office.

A gentle breeze swept over the waves, over the empty tables, and finally over Gyro's lunch and against his hair. He lifted the mug up to his beak and took a sip of the coffee— not quite as hot anymore, but still as moderately dark.

"So, what I think might help is if you consolidate the power source for the monitor and the input into one cord; that might reduce clutter and make it easier for the Lil Bulb to wire it up. Of course, you could also bundle all of the necessary wires into a composite cable, then you could use some sort of standardized cable— one that might not even need to be wired by a Lil Bulb." Fenton took a sip of his coffee— as light as his feathers with sugar and creamer. He swallowed. "And that would cut costs. Scrooge would like that."

"Of course." Gyro smirked nearly imperceptibly. "Although I would've appreciated you telling me this before."

"You should've asked!" Fenton playfully smiled.

Gyro scooped up a forkful of salmon and rice and brought it to his mouth. Chewing for a moment and then swallowing, he gazed gently at Fenton. Really, Fenton was similar to Gyro when he was less cynical. Gyro felt, in his core, that he ought to make sure that he didn't become disillusioned and pessimistic like himself.

"You know, you were right about this place," Gyro stated.

"Really? You think so?" Fenton wondered.

"Yeah. This fish is good. And it's nice out." Gyro was making an effort, implicitly— likely because of the care his former intern had directed his way, consistently, melting his wall of garish insolence.

"And there's almost no one else out here! Probably because you waited to eat lunch until past 3."

"If I recall correctly, which I do, you were the one who suggested getting lunch."

"Only because you didn't eat lunch yet!"

"And you didn't either."

Fenton's countenance was blank for a second, in a brief and mild astonishment. "Alright, you caught me; I didn't eat lunch either." Fenton smiled, "What do you want from me?

"Maybe take a walk after we're done?" Gyro took a sip from the mug again.

Fenton scoffed quietly, "We'll need to get back to work."

"We can say we were discussing how to tackle flaws in our designs— that's work." Fenton continued to gaze at Gyro. "I'll take my fifteen if it makes you feel better."

"Where did all that talk about not needing to take a break go?"

"I'm legally supposed to take a fifteen minute break; I'm not gonna end up using it otherwise. When I get back, I'm gonna have to put your genius design decisions into place."

Fenton began to visibly blush. "Come on…"

"And also put it down when it inevitably becomes evil. I probably won't clock out until sometime late. So don't worry about me skipping work— I didn't go anywhere."

"...Alright. But I'm taking my fifteen minute break, too."

Gyro smiled. He reached over to grab his mug to take a sip, and Fenton did the same, sipping nearly in unison. This whole thing was gonna work out well.