Hand in Hand || Stanford x Reader

Chapter 11 • Ford

The next morning, my alarm clock beeped, but I was already up and running.  There was no way on earth that I was sleeping last night, not with the portal test happening this evening.  Even better, it was my two year anniversary dating Y/N.  Things were finally falling into place.

I owed it all to my muse.  He appeared one night about a year ago, choosing the form of an eye of providence. To my eternal gratitude, he chose me, out of all people, to bestow his knowledge upon. He helped out from time to time by whispering ideas into my head for the portal, or correcting my rare mistakes in the equations. By far his greatest trick is the ability to take over my body while I sleep, making up for the time lost by sleep.

I hurried down the the staircase and into the kitchen, eager to get a start on the day.  Only twelve more hours to see if all our hard work pays off.  Y/N was the only other one awake, sitting silently at the table with an untouched cup of coffee. 

"Hey, Y/N, are you alright?"

She sighed and ran her robotic hand through her messy hair.  Her eyes were slightly bloodshot and had bags, looks like she didn't get any sleep either.  "I'm fine, Stanford, it's you I'm worried about."

"What do you mean?"

"After calming F down somehow, for some reason I can't remember how, I went to the fair to try an relax, myself.  I was passing by the palm reader's tent, run by a short old woman with an unhealthy obsession with hands.  She called me inside, noticing my prosthetic."  Y/N took off her glasses for a second to rub her eyes.  "That's when things got weird.

"She pulled out four tarot cards from a deck, and seemed horrified by the results.  The first one was a moon overlooking a forest, to represent being lost and lonely.  The second was snake wrapped around a triangle, supposedly for eminent danger.  The third, a knight with two swords crossed, representing a life-changing choice coming, both options deadly.  The last one..."  Y/N paused for a second.  "It was midnight black, with a skull symbol in the middle.  I don't have to explain that one to you."

A shiver of dread went up my spine.  Her words had a certain familiarity to them, and that's what scared me.  "How do you know she wasn't lying?"

"Because of these."  Y/N reached into her lab coat and pulled out two identical rings, both obviously very old.  "As I was leaving, she pressed them into my hand- my real one, that is.  She said 'Someone very close is deceiving you.  You have chosen the wrong allies.  You will live two lives, and both of them too short... unless you choose wisely.  Keep one for yourself, and the other for your partner.  If possible, Sixer is in more danger than you. 
When these are blue,
You may pull through.
When these are black,
You can't turn back."

I turned over my ancient ring in my palm.  The stone was sky blue, shining far too cheerfully for the dire situation.  "How did the palm reader know my nickname?"

Y/N shook her head.  "Your guess is as good as mine. But it got me thinking about the portal." She pushed her napkin towards me, with something doodled on it. It was a line graph, labeled "Probability of Failure." It started out as a straight line towards the bottom, but skyrocketed upwards.

"What do you mean?! The math has been stable all along-"

"The point is, Stanford, it's not stable now. We skipped over some important things in the beginning of the project, and it's too late to fix our mistakes. The risk is too high, we can't go through with it."

"Y/N... we've been working on this the entire past two years. I can't let that all that effort go to waste. Let's run the test, and if there's any sign of trouble, we shut it down. Is that a compromise?"

Y/N let out a sigh of defeat. "Alright. We run the test. But I just can't shake the feeling something's going to go wrong." She slipped her ring into her pocket. I glanced at mine, and the gem darkened as I watched, from a pale blue to midnight black.

I shook my head. I am a scientist, I reminded myself. I don't believe in superstitions.

"Did you tell Fiddleford?"

"No, he doesn't need this extra stress after the Gremlobin attack. Have you seen his cube? It's still scrambled from the night before he went."

"He'll recover, I'm sure of it." Even as I said that, I was losing certainty. I hoped poor Fidds could pull through his trauma. "Let's talk about something else, look on the positive. It's been officially two years since we stared dating, and that's not counting senior year of high school."

Y/N smiled faintly. "Has it really been that long?"

"I suppose it has. I've managed to get reservations at the fancy French restaurant, what do you say?"

"Quite frankly, that sounds amazing. I need something to get my mind off of the palm reader, anyways. You always have something up your sleeve."

"You called my bluff, I do have a little surprise planned..." I said nervously. I hoped she would like it, I picked it out just for her.

"See you for dinner, then." She got up and headed up the stairs, leaving me alone in the kitchen. I was supposed to be happy about the big date, but her tale had filled me with dread. I took a last look at the midnight black ring in my hand. Superstitions could be pushed aside for one night.