Dabble 09: Lab Partners

“Hey Artemis!” shouted the white-furred Corgi. “I got those lab components you wanted, where do you want them?”

“Put them on the table right here,” pointed the lupinicdeer without looking as her eyes stared at her notes.

Sol nodded and carried the box over to the table, then wagged his tail as he stretched and looked around. He'd been helping Artemis in her lab for about a month with experiments and helping her with the environmental issues plaguing her village deep in the forest. He had come to feel at home surrounded by the large open space of the lab and outdoors. He looked over his partner watching as she wrote her thoughts on paper furiously, biting the end of her pen if equations and patterns didn't match what she was thinking.

“So, Artemis?” Sol said, coming over to her chair.

“If this is true then… no, no that can't be right. But what if...” she trailed off, oblivious to the yellow eyes trying to get her attention.

“Artemis?” Sol asked again, resting his head on the armrest with his ears up as he looked at her. He grew amazed at how focused she was on her work. He could see how focused she was, but also how easily she could get engrossed in her work when she wanted to. Sol reached over and poked her shoulder, failing to get through to her. “Artemis~” he sang with a hopeful tone, light and angelically but it didn't tear her eyes away from the paper, nor stop her pen from writing as she leaned forward in her chair in response.

Sol tried to think of a different approach, flattening his ears as he couldn’t shake her free. His eyes sparkled when he got an idea. He turned and ran out of the lab to get something but smacked against the doors face first, making a dent that made the deer jump out of her seat.

“Sol!” she said, at last, seeing him lodged into the sliding door with only a crack of it opened. “Didn't I tell you not to run in the lab? The doors aren't made to open as quickly as you move; we talked about this,” she said as she walked towards him. Sol shuffled around, hiding a tear as he knocked on the door pretty hard in his excitement. Artemis put a hoof to the door and grabbed Sol's blue jacket. She pried him away and landed on the floor with him. “What in the world were you trying to do?” She said, lightly touching his slightly red nose. Sol flinched and rubbed it, flattening his ears as he made her mad.

“I was going to get lunch for us,” he said slightly muffled. “It's lunchtime and you were busy.”

“I was not busy, I was...” she stopped herself as she looked to her workstation. Piles of paper and discarded books lay everywhere from the tables to the floor. There was a larger mess around her chair where a notebook, pen, and several crumbled-up pieces of paper followed her towards the door after falling out of her pocket. “Oh… yeah… I'm sorry,” she said, petting the small Corgi on the head. “Let's get lunch on me.” She smiled, to which Sol's eyes lit up. She immediately froze in place and looked at the Corgi “No, no, wait I didn't me-”

“FOOD!” Sol said, jumping up as if nothing happened. He grabbed Artemis' arm and yanked her off the ground, running with her to get food. He left a small dust cloud behind him. Artemis flailed in the air as Sol moved fast enough that the wind caught her flying as they made it to the town cafe to eat.