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¡Tink! (tinkhatespink) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-10-17 20:26:00

Who: (Tinker)Belle and Frank Hardy
When: After these tags
Where: Tink’s place
What: A surprise
Rating/Warnings: Low/Frank accidentally walks in on a shirtless Tink, adorable awkwardness ensues!
Status: Complete


Belle realized that she hadn’t showered in like, three days, and probably smelled like a bag of onions. Things got crazy when she was working on a new project, and she’d been eyeballs-deep in something new--working tirelessly in her father’s garage workshop all waking hours. Her dad was going to help her with the next patent, too. So that would be a good thing.

Shower. Belle showered quickly, and rushed back into her bedroom to get dressed. She yelled through the open door at her brother (she had two older brothers, and a couple younger siblings who were off at school) that she had a guy named Frank coming over to see her. The part about how she’d be out in just a minute got lost somewhere on the stairs.

Belle’s brother (the fat one, not the one with bottle-like glasses) was hanging out in the living room, playing video games. He heard the first half of Belle’s yelling, but not the second. So when the knock came at the door, he paused the game to answer. His game friends were all waiting for him to come back, putting pressure on the big lug. So when he answered the door, he barely looked twice at the man standing on the other side.

“She’s upstairs in her room, second door on the left.” He said, and then rushed to get back to his game.

Frank blinked at the open entryway before shrugging. It was the first time that he had been to Belle’s house, but he was well-versed in sibling apathy when it came to visitors at the door. “Thanks!” He called out in the direction the man had headed before stepping into the house itself. It was a nice place and it had that energetic vibe of a place where people did things.

Heading up the stairs, Frank looked around while trying not to appear too nosy. It was a habit honed from decades of reporting and playing detective, even before the Dreams. He could see that the second door on the left was open so he figured Belle was making some last-minute adjustments or putting things away. Which was why he did not even think before walking up to the doorway, one hand already poised to knock on the frame.

“Hey Belle, you-” Frank cut off abruptly as he got his first glimpse into the room. Or rather, at the very much not-covered person currently changing in said room. “Oh! Sorry!” Immediately, Frank spun on his heels, placing his back to Belle and the open door. He even closed his eyes for good measure. Except, that was likely a mistake as his memory was a bit too keen about everything he had seen in that split-second. Like the towel that had been tossed onto the bedspread. The reporter tried desperately to focus on that to beat down the blush he already knew was likely racing downward from his ears.

Belle was a normal sized girl with large breasts and hips. By the time Frank stepped into her open doorway, Belle had pulled on panties, but aside from the purple, cotton, hip huggers, there was not a stitch on her body. The voice came from the doorway, and instantly Belle's body was flooded with panic. She'd been reaching for a t-shirt from her closet when she turned and saw Frank standing in her doorway. He sure got an eye full. It took Belle a whole second to realize she should cover up, and she did so almost frantically.

"Oh, Frank! Jeez, I'm sorry!" She said, disappearing into her closet to pull clothes on in there. Of course, Belle would be one of those girls who apologized when something was completely not her fault. She could feel her face growing red, and hated that. When Belle's face went red, it went red. If only she could be like normal girls! The kind who close their bedroom doors and don't change into beets when they get angry or embarrassed!

Jeans! Shirt! Bra! SHIT. Her bra was on the bed. She had to peek around the closet door to make sure he wasn't looking, and grab it as fast as she could.

“Just...tell me when it’s safe to turn around.” Frank swallowed, desperately wanting to run a hand through his hair but not daring to move just yet. The towel. He reminded himself for the hundredth time in as many seconds. Focus on the towel, not on the other side of the room. Where one topless engineer had been standing when he had arrived. The towel, laying on the bedspread, right next to a bra.

...Shit.

Giving up, Frank removed one hand from his pockets to run down his face in surrender. This was stupid and juvenile. Regardless of what his brother thought, Frank had seen his share of naked women. Granted, there were only a handful of those women whose nakedness had been more personal in nature as opposed to a nude art model or an African tribe woman, but that was beside the point. He was acting like a schoolboy at Prom and he did not like it one bit. Good job, Hardy. Way to turn a simple tea outing into a beacon for embarrassment.

Clearing his throat, he resisted opening his eyes for one last glance into the room before methodically filling the memory away. Once that was done, Frank began running various complex math problems in his mind. They were interesting and served to steer his thoughts away from dangerous territory. He could feel the flush slowly fade, leaving his neck and collar and returning to the tips of his ears, where it refused to go away.

Thankfully, Belle was one of the fastest dressers she knew. Pants, bra, t-shirt. She had long, straggly, wet hair that started soaking through the shirt the moment she pulled it over her head. At least it was just the back. The front was a big, artistically faded Captain America shield. It was soft and stretchy, and provided just the amount of comfort that Belle needed when she was a little embarrassed about being naked in front of Frank Hardy.

After dressing and taking three deep breaths, Belle turned to poke her head out of the closet again. She saw that he was still standing in the doorway, his back to her room. Belle’s room was a little messy, with tools and half-concocted inventions on all the surfaces. There was a rock and roll Nikola Tesla poster on one wall, and a large mirror covered in handwritten equations on another.

Belle snuck out of the closet, and walked across the room to join Frank in the doorway. “Hey.” She said, then cleared her throat. Her face was still very red. “It’s safe now?”

“Hey.” Frank shot a tentative glance in her direction before turning to face her. “Sorry, the door was open. I didn’t mean to… well...” He cleared his throat again. Funny, he had never previously had any difficulty keeping his eyes above her shoulders. Now Captain America’s shield felt a lot more like a bullseye, trying to draw his gaze back down. He barely registered that her face was still as red as his ears. In the hopes of being able to meet her eyes sometime in the next few hours, he looked back into her room. Thankfully, there was plenty there to distract his brain back to safer waters.

“That’s a great Nikola Tesla poster.” Hands back in the pockets of his jeans, Frank nodded at her wall. “I’m pretty sure the last time I saw a Tesla poster it was for the band, not the scientist. I have to say, I think I like yours better.” He recognized a few of the equations decorating her mirror, but a great many more were completely foreign to him. While he greatly enjoyed dabbling in engineering and physics, Frank had far more experience with computers and the digital world than the electrical circuits that powered them.

“Wow. Your math is unreal.” He really wanted to get a better look at the mirror but Frank had a feeling he would likely spend the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out what it was and they were supposed to go out for tea. This time he had no problem meeting Belle’s eyes when he turned back to her. “I bet you could turn the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution into a ballad.”

"Hey," Belle said, breaking into something of a smile. She wished her cheeks weren't burning so badly, but she was going to try and ignore it. Try not to feel awkward that he'd just seen her... y'know. Without clothes. She took a half step back and let him into her room, letting him look up and around at her things. It made her feel almost more exposed, more vulnerable, to know that he was seeing her things, her poster, her bed. And then she noticed his eyes drifting down to her Captain America shield, and... well. Well, that felt good, actually. In a weird way. She was proud.

"Oh, thanks. He's kind of my hero." Belle tucked her messy hair behind her ears, and the grin spread. She followed him over toward the mirror with the equations on it, and beamed even more proudly. The awkward was melting away a little, because Belle was much happier talking about STEM stuff than thinking about being naked in front of a guy she had funny feelings for. "I'm impressed," she said, turning her own eyes up to the mirror. "You know your way around statistical mathematics."

“Don’t be. I’m afraid I only dabbled in it for a week or two last year. Just long enough for me to know when I’m completely outclassed.” Most of Frank’s hobbies only lasted a week or two. Although this last hobby had required a bit longer to complete; fermentation could not be rushed, even if he was tempted to try. He had not expected to dabble in home brewing as long as he had, but even that had been tempered with smaller projects as he waited for the fruit of his labors to mature.

“Tesla was a genius. Most people said he also possessed an eidetic memory. I’ve enjoyed the mystification that Hollywood has spun of his inventions and contributions. He was an eccentric, for sure, but probably not some sort of alien or magician.” Probably. Considering he had recently been exposed to both sorts in Orange County, Frank found that he was not yet ready to count those two possibilities out anymore. He gave Belle a sheepish grin. “Plus, I’ve always wanted to figure out a way to use a Tesla coil to play music.”

Seemed that Frank had a lot of interests. Belle was intrigued, and always surprised at when they popped up. She watched him as he spoke, her face still flushed from before. His words only prolonged the red on her cheeks, flattery welling within her. “You’re too kind.”

Then she turned to look at the Tesla poster, thankful that her eyes weren’t on him or her own work. She felt the color slowly start to drain from her cheeks, the burning fading ever so slightly. “You mean like Arc Attack? I’ve seen them at Maker Faire.” She said, giving him a smile. “Really awesome stuff.”

Frank shook his head in wonder. “You got to see them? Man, I bet that was truly boss.” He had built a few Tesla coils in his day, although he was forced to dismantle the last one after it kept accidentally sending a bolt into the kitchen, interrupting the person who had been trying to make dinner. “I’ve never been to Maker Faire. I’m guessing it’s an engineering festival?” It sounded a lot like the World Fairs of old, but that was likely just his own wishful thinking.

His dark eyes met hers with a smile. He was still very much aware of the bullseye sitting at the bottom of his vision, but enough time had passed that Frank’s gaze was no longer obviously pulled downwards. Watch without watching, as his friend Chet had once advised him. It was sage advice for any man, although not something he had expected to need to follow today. “Are you ready to head out?”

At least Tink wasn’t aware that he was still paying attention to her chest. She felt the red draining, the heat that accompanied it melting away. But slowly. “You’ve never heard of Maker Faire?” Tink asked, eyes going a little wide. “You’re coming with me next year. Road Trip! They have it up near San Francisco. I normally go up there with my brothers. It’s freaking amazing.” With a nod, Tink moved over to her dresser now, and started digging around for keys and wallet and phone. “It’s like… like a county fair, only with people who make things. All kinds of hand-made things. Robots and crafts and huge sculptures. Adam Savage usually talks. Sometimes they have other amazing guests.” Then she turned back around to face him, wearing a smile. “Ready to go.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun!” Frank grinned. A road trip also sounded fun. He was quite a fan of road trips, regardless of the distance. Shoulders relaxed and hands back in pockets, Frank waited for her to gather her things before turning to head back to the door. Still, he kept himself partially turned toward her to show that she still had his attention. “So where is this tea place, anyway?” Considering that Belle was in a t-shirt, he figured his own buttondown would not be underdressed wherever she planned to take them.

Belle had nearly forgotten about the tea. Nearly. What with being caught almost completely naked by a guy she had strange feels for… it was distracting. Frank was distracting. Anyway, she joined him as they headed out the door. “Not far. I think you’re gonna love it.” She gave him one last grin before turning out her bedroom light.