Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Please close your eyes?" Ziggy tried again. He was behind her, but he could tell she wasn't closing her eyes at all, unless she could type with her eyes shut. Which was possible, he supposed.

This wasn't going exactly as he'd planned, but then, so much didn't, really. He generally got bored when he started planning things, so his plans would go along the lines of:
1. Walk down stairs
2. See Dillon
3. Say, "Hi, Dillon, how's it going?"
4 through 12. ...
13. Dillon responds, "Why yes, Ziggy, of COURSE you can borrow my car!"

Whereas that particular day it'd gone more like:
1. Walk down stairs
2. See Dillon
3. Say, "Hi Dillon, how's it going?"
4. Dillon says, "Fine, what do you want? I can tell by the look on your face."
5. Laugh nervously and say, "Well, it certainly isn't to borrow your car!"
6. Dillon nods, says, "Good," and walks off.

Yes, that hadn't been a particularly successful plan.

He sighed. "I have something for you, Dr K. Could you please close your eyes so it's a surprise?"

"If I keep them open, this will take less time," she said tightly.

He sighed again, more heavily. "It's something stupid?"

To his great surprise, that actually worked. "Oh." She sat back in her chair, with her hands over her eyes.

Ziggy beamed, and took her hand gently. He placed the tiny weight in it, then said, "You can open your eyes now."

She opened her eyes, looked at her hand, looked up at the string which was tied to the weight, then looked all the way up at the bright green balloon which bobbed at the end of the string. "A balloon."

"Yes."

"Why? What does it do? Does it talk, or something?"

Ziggy shook his head, and started to wonder if he should be backing slowly out of the lab about now. "Uh, it doesn't do anything. It just is. It's pretty, and makes people smile. You can run around with it and it'll bob in the air. You can tie it to your computer or something if you want."

Dr K gave him an extremely doubtful look, but she nodded, eventually.

* * *

When he stuck his head back in a few minutes later, she did indeed have it tied to a railing, next to her computer. He saw her look up at it, then poke it thoughtfully with a ruler, giving it a little grin.

He ducked back through the doorway quickly before she could see him.

* * *

When he stuck his head back in a few MORE minutes later, she had it attached to some kind of projectile weapon, and she was aiming at a target at the far end of the lab.

"Well, everyone plays in their own way," he murmured to himself philosophically.