Dopamine || Inanimate Insanity AU - 14+ [SFW]

"Relax"

  ⠀"Fan, have you seen where Paintbrush went? I was going to talk to them but haven't gotten the chance by trying to fix my sleep schedule, not to mention the outlook of my room! Microphone is the messiest object around!"

  ⠀Test Tube flailed her arms about and crossed her arms soon afterward, her lips creasing to a frown. Fan shrugged, replying back to her, "Maybe give her some time, depression can hit someone pretty hard. It's been about a couple of hours since I started helping you and it already looks good enough I would say, can we take a break?" Test Tube was reluctant but obliged, leaning to kiss at the side of his head and give a playful slap against his forehead. "Alright alright...thank you, Fan." She walked out of the room and went to the restroom to wash her face.

⠀Fan wasn't used to these affections he was constantly getting, especially from Test Tube. It's been about a few days since their newly founded relationship started and the only one who's caught on was Trophy. He put his left hand to his cheek and smiled, looking toward her bed. He noticed a slight glimmer from beneath her bed and tilt his head. 
  ⠀⠀"What...w-what is that?"
⠀He asked, talking out loud since nobody else was near. He was about to reach down before Microphone hit her knuckles on the side of the door frame and smiled. "Hey, Fan...Test Tube gone?" She asked, Fan shook his head and shook the thought away from the shiny object. "O-Oh! Microphone, you honestly startled me for a moment there, no she's not in the room as you can see but she went near the restrooms just a few moments ago, do you need to talk to her?"

  ⠀"A little, kinda? I mean it's a bit of a blur at the moment but I think she understood why I did those things if you remember me telling you what happened." 
  ⠀Fan sighed and held onto his phone just as tight as he used to hold onto Egg. "Y-Yes yes I-I do know about that...I wasn't worried at all that she wouldn't have forgiven you but you know how Test Tube gets." Fan replied in a nervous tone, eyeing under the bed over and over until he finally made direct contact with Microphone. "I should be on my way, this isn't my room." He started to walk away as Microphone took a moment to speak up to him. "Hey." He turned for a moment and rubbed at the back of his head. "Y-Yes, Microphone?" 

  ⠀"Thanks for cleaning up. You both did a really good job, I will be sure to do a bit better. You don't have to be so nervous by the way, I know how that feels to be in your own thoughts, unable to speak for yourself..." She spoke with a motherly tone, sighing she waved Fan away. "Again, thank you,"

  ⠀Fan looked to the floor and back up, giving her a thumbs-up back. "Thanks, Mic." He walked away toward the restrooms and passed them up, opening his door up to the room he shared with Paintbrush. Paintbrush was in the room taking another nap, a few small things on the floor such as their eye-cover for sleep, Baxter, and a few cheerios that somehow made their way on the ground. Fan reached down and grabbed at the eye-cover and placed it back onto Paintbrush's head, brushing their bristles back. Paintbrush tensed up in their sleep, gripping onto the pillow and holding it close. They looked stressed, similar to a dog being locked up in a cage for the first time but it seemed that they were only dreaming. That's good.

  ⠀Fan slipped under the covers of his own bed and sighed, pulling the blanket over his body as he slightly folded inwards to protect himself from the cold room. Baxter had made his way up onto the bed and in front of Fan. Fan blinked his tired eyes a few times before noticing the crab had made his way to the front of him. "Mmm...Baxter? What's the matter?" Baxter jumped down and made his way to the door, causing Fan to groan and get back up. "Alright...show me what's wrong then." Fan walked toward the door, about to open it when he saw a pair of two dark shadows casting from beneath the door, burrowing his brow in complete confusion as the door opened by itself. It was Test Tube. No knocking?

  ⠀"Fan? I know you're taking your break but I cannot find anything good to eat and not like coffee is really doing anything to calm my nerves." She spoke quickly, almost as if she was panicked. Fan frowned and took a hold of her hand, placing his other hand atop of her palm. "Test Tube, slow down you're talking like a maniac." He smiled, noticing her body slip into his soft touch. Test Tube's slow nod turned into a faster one, fixing her glasses once again. "Alright, you're right. You are one hundred percent correct, but you know me I don't know how to━"
  ⠀⠀"━calm down?"
⠀Fan finished her sentence, leaning his face into her chest that caused Test Tube to twitch and bite her lip. "Right. Calming down. I think after so long I truly forgot how to do that." She replied quietly to the other as she held onto the other lightly.

  ⠀The two objects stayed in this standing-cuddle position for a few moments before Fan realized this wasn't the best place. He leaned away slowly and squeezed her hand. Both of their faces were completely tinted with pinks and reds. Fan was the first to speak up, "Let's go downstairs to settle down on one of the comfy sofas. Maybe it'd be nice to watch a movie?" Test Tube listened carefully to the other speak to not lose focus in his voice. She drowned out all her thoughts to reply back.
⠀⠀"That sounds like something new and, honestly something you'd do...so let's do it."

⠀They were about to leave before Baxter came crawling out and onto Test Tube's rim at the top of her head. "Hmm?" She questioned the small crab that snipped at the air. Fan chuckled and closed the door. "I think he wants to stay with us for the movie, will that be alright Test Tube?" She groaned a bit but noticed that Fan had never let go of her hand and was continuing to slightly squeeze. She couldn't say no. "Not to his face, not to that cute face," she thought to herself. 
⠀⠀"Of course, he can. Let's get downstairs and choose a spot before anybody else gets to it."
⠀Test Tube and Fan walked downstairs and towards the empty sofa that had their name on it. Walking around the corner and sitting down on the sofa, Fan reached over and grabbed at the remote. "So what are we going to watch? Sci-fi? Seems like something we'd watch anyway." Fan spoke up, smiling at his offer. Test Tube looked at the TV and shrugged. "Sure, why not. I wasn't too into shows or movies, I mainly watched a lot of documentaries but hey I'm not complaining." ⠀She leaned back onto the sofa and watched him flip through the recorded movies. "Object Wars is a good one you just have to see this one." He clicked a singular button on the remote and set it to a good volume before setting it down. 

⠀ ⠀━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⠀Once the movie had hit its end, Fan had completely fallen asleep in Test Tube's arms. She was absolutely obsessed with the movie that she was hurt that the movie had to end so quickly. "Fan that movie was amazing! Fan did you see the...part..." She looked down to see the other had fallen asleep, carefully she got up from her spot and picked him up like a big bag of laundry. ⠀"Let's get you into bed, Fan." Test Tube walked back up the stairs toward his room and noticed the door was already open. Paintbrush was gone from the room, making it easier and less awkward for her to set him down and pull the covers over him. Even Baxter was curled up in his arms as they slept. She was hesitant at first but leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.
⠀⠀"...Love you, Fan."
⠀Test Tube moved away from the bed and turned, noticing Paintbrush with a chocolate muffin in their hand and a huge bite taken out of it and in their mouth. They were absolutely stunned. Test Tube started to rush out quickly from the room but Paintbrush shut the door quietly and followed her, yelling in a loud whisper. "What was that!? Where were you━ don't just leave me here with THAT as our starter━ hello!?" She turned and put a finger to their lips, sighing. "Hush! Okay okay, hi, it's been a while but just give me a moment to explain."
  ⠀"Tick tock, scientist." They swallowed their bite and moved her finger down in a slap, crossing their arms and staring her down. She sighed and put a hand against her head.

⠀"Listen, Paintbrush it's a long story, and I bet Fan has already told you the most of it so if you'll calm down and not burn the hotel down that'd be fantastic. I wanted to keep it a secret about our...relationship." She retorted toward the other, scowling. "So if you'll keep your mouth shut about it then nothing else can come between us, got it!?" She almost raised her voice, taking a few deep breathes before shaking her head and pulling Paintbrush into a hug. She seemed stressed, Paintbrush wanted to push her off, completely confused and upset by her outburst but their look seemed to soften up as they let out a long and hard sigh, their free arm wrapping around her, almost resting their chin on the rim of her head.

⠀ ⠀"I missed you too. I missed you a-and Fan. I miss Lightbulb...you think she'll ever get eliminated? Do you think she'll win? If she even wins...what would I even do about it, would she ever even want to see me again?" They started to shake, Test Tube noticed and squeezed them, feeling the back of their hardwood that Paintbrush was made out of, groaning. "Quirkity, don't say that. Don't be a big weebleweezer about it, it's really not a big deal I know how much she misses you and she would pay that million easily to even see a picture of you again."

⠀Paintbrush seemed to have already been welling up in tears, shaking the feeling off by stuffing their face with the rest of their muffin and chewing quickly. Test Tube moved away and looked up at them. "She'll be okay. She always comes back, Paintbrush." Finishing up their slice of muffin they wiped their mouth and nodded, turning to go back to their room. "I hope so. I don't know how much longer I am able to wait without her."

⠀⠀"Relax. Everything is fine."
Test Tube replied with a frown, pulling her glasses down to wipe them with her own fingers, disgusted at the amount of oil that was on her lens she growled. "Stupid lens..." She went back towards the restroom again and opened the door wide, seeing Salt and Pepper trying out makeup for the third time that wasn't ending up well. She ignored any grimaces from them and turned on one of the sinks and took a bit of soap to rub onto her lens and start cleaning. Salt and Pepper turned at each other and back at Test Tube.

⠀"Uhm, like, what are you doing in here? Don't you have your own personal bathroom in your lab or something? You don't have to be here you know." Pepper started off with a horrible start, Salt grabbed some eye-lash lifters and was doing her best to grab onto them. Test Tube narrowed her eyes to focus more on her lens from her glasses to ignore the two that started to bicker about who should try out the black lipstick. Test Tube made her way out of the bathroom and set her glasses back onto her head, things were starting to get on her nerves.

⠀She went to her room and held her hands behind her back, turning to look at Microphone who was writing in her diary. Microphone looked up from her diary and in a surprise Test Tube was directly in front of her. "W-Woah, hey. Personal space?" Test Tube ignored her and smirked. "Sure. I wanted to ask something from you, however." She reached below to grab at her diary and raise it above and over to stop Microphone from grabbing it, setting it back down on the table next to Microphone. "Hey! What was that for?" She questioned Test Tube, looking absolutely puzzled before she looked back up to see that Test Tube wasn't smiling anymore. She looked nervous toward her but stood her ground. "I asked you a question Test Tube, why did you do that?" She sounded frustrated and even stern. Test Tube did not budge and started to walk over to her bedside. "Microphone. I've been on my last nerve for the past hour, so listen to me." She leaned down and reached beneath her bed to pull out a sharp object, pressing at the base of what looked to be...a syringe? 
⠀⠀"You're going to shut up. You're going to not speak to me for the next hour, understand me? I have something I need to do." Test Tube glared at her, left hand placed behind her back. Microphone started to panic instantly and shake her head. "W-What!? No no, hold on what do you mean. What are you doing with that?" Microphone got up from her bed and moved a foot closer to Test Tube. She didn't like that. Test Tube walked up toward Microphone and grabbed her by the arm, wasting no time to stab at the inner part of her arm and inject the toxin into her body. Microphone tensed up and gasped, looking around at her surroundings, only able to see Test Tube's feet.

⠀Test Tube seemed to be frowning the entire time as Microphone's eyes felt heavy, as did her body. 
⠀"Don't worry Microphone it was only some Tetrodotoxin. You'll be just fine...as long as you listen to me, and only my voice..." She snapped her fingers in front of Microphone's face, noticing she was unresponsive she leaned down and pulled the needle out from her body, taking a bit of Microphone's blood on accident, placing it on Mic's bedside.
⠀⠀"I wanted to test something out, however, it wasn't supposed to be you. I did ask for you to shut up, and you didn't. Don't emit a word to anybody, don't write it in your diary, keep it to yourself. Do you understand me, Microphone? I know you can."
⠀Test Tube's smile returned on her face, completely unalarmed that there was an object almost completely passed out near her own feet, trying to focus on something but it wasn't clear.
⠀⠀"Good. Now have a goodnight, now." She moved all of her fingers as if each one of them was waving at different times, watching as Microphone's eyelids dropped down and so did her entire body. The only thing left of Microphone was her slow breathing.

⠀⠀"Relax. I'll be back later. We'll talk then...I have a date to plan tonight."