Don't be Salty (A SaltTube fic)

Salty Air

Taco's confrontation had pushed TestTube to work on her machine again, but she just couldn't seem to focus.

Salt couldn't seem to help but bother TestTube while she worked.

"So, come here often?" Salt leaned over TestTube's shoulder as she tried to work

"..."

"What're you, like, doing?"

TestTube began explaining, but Salt quickly lost interest and dismissed her with a "Stop, like seriously, you're boring me with your science talk"

"You're the one who asked"

"And I regretted it immediately"

Salt stuck around, mostly doing stuff on her phone, occasionally making conversation, but she'd been quiet for awhile now.

Eventually TestTube looked up from her work and realized Salt had left without her noticing.

She couldn't seem to focus currently anyways, she kind of missed Salt distracting her, at least then she had a feasible reason to be unable to focus. Her mind felt clogged and she was sick of trying to repair the thing.

She stared at the Time Machine, then set it aside. She decided she was done trying to figure out what was wrong with it, and she'd just cut her losses and make a new one. If she was going to do that she needed more parts.

Her train of thought was broken by Lightbulb approaching

"TestTube! Heyyyy, I wanna help!"

"Lightbulb you can't-" Oh wait she can "this is perfect timing actually, I need to find parts for the machine"

"Alright! I'll get the others!" TestTube would rather she didn't.

Lightbulb ran off and soon Salt was leading the four of them to her dock. Apparently a nearby land had a big city where they could find anything they needed.

Salt took hold of TestTube's hand as they walked, an unusually pleasant expression on her face.

Taco lagged behind everyone else, Lightbulb slowed down so she was walking with her "So Taco, how'd you pass all of that time?"

"I observed."

"What'd you observe?"

"Nothing pleasant."

Lightbulb may as well be talking to a wall.

Salt walked faster, forcing TestTube to walk faster to keep up. She then whispered "You know, I miss when like, we used to hang out one-on-one! Don't you Testy?"

"Um-"

"Ah there's my boat!"

Before them was a ridiculously elegant ship.

"How have you not run out of money yet?" TestTube pondered "Did you really make so much from your reality show?"

"Oh I made some money from my reality show, but mostly it was all these, like, brand deals on my socials once I was famous, like this one makeup company, they were nobody until I endorsed them. Their makeup sucks but like, they paid for this ship so who am I to complain?"

TestTube took note of the ship's decor as she walked on. It was very maximalist, it had a table littered with cups and random trinkets, and some cozy seats. It was pristine and clean. How often did Salt even use it? Couldn't be often, it looked like it'd never been inhabited before. Salt hadn't even acknowledged this ship once until today, it was a shame, it was a nice ship.

Maybe Salt just liked owning a boat. She seemed happy to be showing it off.

"Do any of you, like, know how to drive a ship?" Salt questioned, taking a seat on one of the cushions.