Crazy Little Thing Called Love (3/?)

Words: 600~ || CW: Completely made up science || During his third year of college, Ford meets someone called Bill. Things progress dangerously and quickly after that. (Billford fic) || CH 1 | CH 2 | CH 3

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“Whatcha working on, poindexter? Looks a lot more active than usual.”

Ford glanced up to see Stan. He was sitting among a rather wide arch of papers and some Chemistry books opened up for reference. “Just trying to figure out the chemical composition for something.”

“A four book problem. Your Chem professor must have decided to drop a real bomb.”

“Oh, no. This isn’t for class.” Ford said. “Is it your lunch break?”

“Lunch? Sixer, I already finished my shift, check your watch.”

“Wait, what?” He pulled his hand over surprised that the time confirmed as much. “I could have sworn my last class wasn’t even an hour ago.” He said gesturing to his own watch as though it could be wrong.

“Don’t think you can pin this on a ripple in time or anything.” Stan said, holding out a hand, carefully leaning over the flood of papers. “Come on, ten bucks says you skipped lunch.”

“Not a fair bet, Stanley.”

He rolled his eyes. “So, it’s easy money.”

“Okay- okay, just a second.” He found the paper he’d been writing on and jotted down a quick set of notes. Meanwhile, Stan waved his hand impatiently.

“Arm’s getting stiff. Wind… so cold.”

“You don’t have to keep holding it out, knucklehead.” He put the pencil down as he finished writing, and grabbed Stan’s hand. “Okay. I’m up, I’m up!”

Stan grinned, helping Ford over the papers and books back to clear ground again. “There ya go out of the sea of nerdom.”

Ford adjusted his glasses, smiling. “More like a moat.”

Stan clapped him on the back. “Same thing.” He said waving a hand. “Whatcha feel like eating?”

He made an uncertain face.

“Eh. Let’s walk and see what we see.” Stan said going towards the door.

“Sounds fine.” Ford said, going to grab a coat.

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“Mmm, nope. Nice try though.”

“What??”  Ford pulled the paper back from the glass to look over the formula again.

He’d come to the asylum again, this time without the class. The security guards were rather fine with letting him through though when he mentioned being there earlier for his psych class. It wasn’t the reason he was here now, but that was unnecessary information.

“What’s wrong with it?” He asked, though he was still looking at the paper. It was admittedly a bit messy, but he’d written the final formula in thick, emboldened lines.

There was so much more math to it than he had on this paper though obviously. He couldn’t exactly check over all of it right now, though he was almost hoping to spot a minor mistake he could have missed. He supposed he hadn’t extensively checked it over….

“You went and made it overcomplicated, smart guy. Jumped right past third level organics right to complex compound integrations.” He pointed out.

“The complex compounds are what’s keeping it together though!” Ford told him, turning the paper back to him.

Bill looked it over once again, humming. “Yup, that’s your problem right there.” He pointed at the formula. “It’s too stable.”

Ford paused at that. “…Too stable?”

“Well, yeah! It can’t be too stable or else it won’t bother reacting with anything.” It seemed like a bit of a simplified reduction, but he understood what Bill was getting at.

He frowned, pulling the paper back to look at the formula again.

“Two chances left.” Bill said, drawing his attention as he held up a couple fingers. “Want a hint?”

“I’ll get it.” Ford immediately replied.

Bill wound up smiling widely at that, and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“Didn’t you even say no hints earlier?” Though, frankly, that hardly mattered provided that he didn’t get absolutely stuck.

“What can I say? I changed my mind.” He said simply. “Hints make the game more fun.”

Ford considered it, holding in a breath for a moment. He let it out. “No hints, not yet, at least.” He wanted to say he could get it without one, but he wasn’t entirely certain about that anymore.