InsaneJournal

Who: Billy Horrible and Tinkerbell
When: May 30th
Where: Park / Pizza joint
What: Rockets!
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status: Complete



After sending off a text to Billy that he should come and meet her, Tink was in the park with one of her recent inventions. It was an air powered rocket that she was playing with. Shooting the thing up into the air and seeing how high and far it’d go, then she’d make tweaks and try it again. Pretty soon she had a few kids surrounding her, wanting a turn at shooting the thing off.

She was laughing as a couple of the kids would set the rocket in place, then run away screaming as if it was going to explode.

When Tink called, Billy came. That was not an innuendo or a metaphor. Just the literal truth. He’d shown up at the park a few moments before, but was hesitant to go and make himself known to his hopefully potential love interest friend with so many young creatures around. Oh, apparently they were called children? He didn’t like them. So he waited until she was free, sitting down on a nearby swing.

Finally, Tink ran out of some ingredient, or something, in her contraption. She had to let the kids all go away with sad faces as she packed up everything and slung the bag over her shoulder. That’s when she saw Billy on a nearby swing. She gave him a wave and a smile, heading in his direction.


“Did you see how much air those rockets were getting??” She asked, pretty thrilled by the effectiveness of her air cannon.

“I did!” Billy was sure he could work on the thing to give it a little more propulsion, but it was more a toy than a weapon, and so probably it was good how she had it. Also he wasn’t going to say so. “Very impressive. You’re a hit with the kids.”

“What can I say? People love me.” Tink said, playfully, as she shifted the bag over her shoulder. It was quite heavy--actually, a bit of a surprise that she fit it all in there to begin with. “I’m glad you came,” she added, then turned to head with him toward the parking lot. She wanted to get this bag in her car before it took her arm off. “How’ve you been?”

Billy offered to take the bag and carry it for her with an oddly awkward and vague gesture. “Oh, you know. Good. Same ol’.” Because little changed for Billy ever - he was a very stationary fellow and rarely saw reason to leave his apartment to get out and socialize.

Tink didn’t really understand the oddly awkward and vague gesture. She thought maybe he wanted to take her hand--they’d held hands the last time they were together. So... she sort of stuck her hand out there for him to take. “How’s the blog thing going?” She added, pulling her keys out of her pocket with her other hand. She was working on restoring this one, a 67 mustang. Normally she drove her motorcycle around, but she had shit to carry today.

Well, that hadn’t really been what he’d been expecting when he offered to take her things, but certainly saw no reason to complain. Billy’s hand curled around hers carefully, as if he was unsure if she’d take it back at any second. Such a strange situation. “Nice car,” he said, instead of anything else he could think on.

“Hmm? Oh! Yeah! Well, it’s missing part of the seat in the back, and I’ve got some dents to hammer out... but really.” Tink gave a little grin, her nose crinkling up. “I love her. She’s a great car. You should see her engine, man. Impressive. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.”

“Once in a while they do,” Billy said, with a weird twitchy smile. He was not talking about the car so much as he was Tink herself, though. Gosh Tink, sorry, this is awkward.

It was only awkward if you thought about it. Which Tink didn’t. She moved to the driver’s side, unlocked the car, and set her bag in beside the driver’s seat. (Where there wasn’t a hole in the backseat.) She had to let go of his hand to get her bag into the back, sorry, Billy.

“Yeah?” She asked, turning back to him. “I mean, what kind?” She thought he was talking about cars.

Billy blinked, made up for the now no-hand in his own by sticking his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “What? Oh. Uhm. You know. The kind you build on your own.”

“Right! That’s right.” Tink said, agreeing with a grin on her face. “I do like building things. Good things most of the time.” Though some of her builds didn’t turn out so great. “So... no movie today. What are we going to do with ourselves?”

He liked building stuff too. Things that varied from computers to … well. Freeze rays, he supposed. “Was just wondering that, actually. Uhm.” He looked around, as if the park and her car might give him some sort of answer. “Dinner?”

“Dinner sounds nice.” Tink said, nodding. “...where? I mean, do you want to follow me to my place so I can drop off my car? Or bring me back here afterward? Or I can drive us... wherever we want to go.” Okay, too many options, Tink.

Way, way too many options. “Uhm,” Billy said again, as if showing exactly how he felt about all those options. “I can -- uh. Just drive for now. Wherever I guess? Pizza?”

“Pizza.” Tink said, nodding. She probably could have listed off half a dozen pizza places that she liked nearby, but again, too many options. She simply turned to follow him to his car. She would have taken hold of his hand again, though his hands were now in his pockets. She definitely wasn’t going to go digging around in there for his hand. “Maybe we can find ice cream somewhere for dessert?”

Yeah, no. A man’s pockets were a sacred thing. Don’t go there, Tink.

“Seems good?” So many questions. Billy hardly knew how to manage. Look, he was already an awkward, twitchy mess of a man. Don’t rub it in. “Is there a place that does both? Or is that pushing it?”

Tink pulled out her cell phone. “Pizza and ice cream? I’m on it.” It only took a moment and a half of searching to find the perfect place. “Look at this. I tell you, there’s a shop for everything. Forget apps, man. Shops. It’s the wave of the future.” She gave him the name and address of the pizza place that also served gelato. Okay, not exactly ice cream, but close enough for government work.

Horseshoes and hand grenades! Gelato! Table flip! Not really though. Gelato was delicious.

“Genius. Shops.” He grinned a little grin, blushed for no reason at all, and then memorised the address enough to get there, even as he unlocked his own car doors for the both of them.

“Something I should have invested in years ago.” Tink said, pulling open the door and climbing into the car. She tugged the seatbelt on quickly. Funny how no matter what the car was, she felt at home sitting in it.

Billy got in and buckled his seatbelt up, too. He knew how cars worked, could probably fix one if he needed to, but had no great love for them one way or the other. “In - shops?” What were they even talking about again? Sometimes he forgot. Either way, he was driving.

Tink nodded. It didn't really make sense. She moved into the next subject quickly, staring out the window. "I've been thinking about saving up for one of those 3D printers," she said, turning to give him a grin. "What do you think?"

“Depends,” Billy said, frowning at a red light. He really hated red lights, man. “What are you thinking of printing in 3D?” Those things weren’t cheap. But they were kind of cool. Sort of.

Who doesn’t hate red lights? “Oh, I don’t know. Everything? Anything. Things that I can’t find or make out of other components. Things for my contraptions.” Tink said, giving a little shrug. “I’ve got a few ideas. It’s green.” She added, motioning to the light.

“Oh,” So it was. Pedal to the metal, and he was off into traffic again. “I mean. Cool. I dunno how reliable or sturdy the stuff that prints out is... I guess I haven’t looked into them much.” They made it to the pizza gelato place, and Billy parallel parked into a tight little spot on the road.

“Yeah, I don’t really, either... but aren’t you curious? We could do anything with it. You know?” Tink said, waiting until they were parked to climb out of the car. “Figuring out what we could do with it would be half the fun, wouldn’t it?”

“Of course it would.” Then again, Billy thought most of his interest would be in taking the thing apart to see how it worked, and if he could improve upon or replicated it more than what exactly it could do. But then, he was just that sort of person.

He locked his car doors and then opened the door of the pizza place for her as they entered. “You should definitely get one, then.”

Tink laughed. She wasn't site how she convinced him it was a good idea, but she was glad she had. "I will." She moved up to the counter. They sold pizza by the slice here, and gelato by the cone. "Pepperoni?"

Billy squinted at the slices of pizza, as if topping flavor might be the biggest decision of his day, and he had to choose quite wisely, lest problems arise. “I guess,” he said after a minute. “Or maybe that spinachy looking one. I can’t tell what else is on it though.” Sad.

“Feta, I think. And tomato?” Tink leaned over a bit to get a closer look. “Any of the pizzas here, though, are going to be fantastic. Oooh, maybe I’ll have the pesto chicken instead.” She gave Billy a smile, then moved to order a slice of the pesto.

Billy was sure that pesto was just some unnaturally colored nonsense of paste, but didn’t think it was prudent to tell Tink that (why spoil her fun?).

Once they’d ordered (Billy had given up and gotten pepperoni. He wasn’t the most adventurous, he supposed), they took their slices of ‘za and found a seat. “So.” Billy said. But didn’t know why or what to follow it up with.

“So.” Tink slipped into the booth and settled down. “...Those... those crazy dreams... have you had any of those?”

“Yeah.” Billy seemed pleased about it rather than hesitant, even if he did offer up a little twitch as well. “Haven’t you?” At this point he was just pretty sure everyone around here had.

“Oh, no.” Tink said, frowning. “I don’t know whether to want to have them, or to be afraid of them, considering all the crazy things I’ve read about them on Valarnet.” She said, reaching for her slice of pizza to start nomming. “What are yours about?”

He sipped their shared soda. Because they did that now. “I’m a mad scientist with a blog.” He seemed so smug.

“What??” Tink asked, breaking into the brightest grin ever. “Really? A mad scientist with a--well.” She set her pizza down, looking almost as smug. It was more pride than anything. “I shouldn’t be surprised. That fits.”

“Yeah. I mean. I’m basically the same person. Except my life goal seems to be to get into an evil league. Of evil. That’s run by an evil horse.” Well, now that he said it out loud...

Tink was following along, listening to him as she sipped from their shared soda. Basically the same person she liked, because she liked him as he was. And evil league? Of evil? Sounded kinda cool, actually. Her face screwed up in confusion, though, as he mentioned... “...an evil horse?”

“He’s bad horse,” Billy explained, and probably should have looked more abashed than he did. “The Thoroughbred of Sin.”

That actually made Tink laugh. After a blink, she let out a gentle guffaw. “The Thoroughbred of Sin? Really?”

“Really,” Billy couldn’t help but laugh too. It did sound a bit silly. “I had a letter of condemnation from the deputy mayor and everything.”

“Oh, well, I bet that’s impressive,” Tink said playfully, nodding and grinning. “Wow, your Dreams are crazy. I mean, they’re not scary or anything, are they? I’ve read some pretty weird things on the ‘net about those Dreams.”

“So far I like them? I mean. They’re just like here, except I have high hopes for taking over the world, I guess.” And talking to that girl in the laundrymat. But Billy felt kind of like he shouldn’t tell Tink that part. Because.

Tink might get jealous. Might work to his advantage. Might not. She gave a little laugh. “Well, who doesn’t want to take over the world, right?” She asked. “I have no idea what my dreams are going to be. Maybe I’ll be the ruler of the world in them.”

“If not,” Billy said, with a little twitchy smile, “I’ll share once I take this one over.”