🔬📐Turing Love!
turing [toor-ing]
a person skilled in mathematics.
aroace coded reader [but reader does not have to be aroace] nerdy!reader, gn!reader x hobie brown
qpr [queer platonic relationship]
fluff, songfic, one curse word
“Laws of attraction? Why are you asking me that Hobie? You should already know.” You answered, not bothering to look away from the experiment you were doing.
“Y’know, attraction. An I’m not talkin magnets or anything like that.”
You glared. “You just took away my like, easiest example. Not that you don’t already know that opposites attract.” Fixing your jacket, you reached for your safety goggles, only to land on air.
Hobie dangled them over your head. “Attraction! Love, friendship—explain that science eh?”
You jumped for the goggles. “Someone needs a scientific question on why you’re so damn tall!” [if you’re tall then ignore the sentence lmao]
“Plus,” you paused, looking at him. “Love is stupid. It doesn’t even really deserve a science. And don’t go talking about familya-love ‘cause I know you meant romance-love!”
“Haven’t got a scooby doo about romance. Didn’t even mean it romantically. Or, uh, in specifics.”
In quick review, you couldn’t really answer Hobie’s question [seemingly]. It wasn’t necessarily stupid, but over the span of your life you rarely [or never] experienced a crush. At least not the one’s they show on T.V. Relationships like that just lacked appeal. They weren’t right.
“What do you mean not romantically?”
“Well we friends right?
“Yeah… platonic attraction…”
“But we got chemistry.”
“That’s literally romantic.”
Hobie dropped the goggles on your lap. “Nuh uh.”
You turned around in your seat and glared at him. “Then what? Are you trying to say there’s some type of love that transcends the labels of romantic, emotional, platonic, or sexual?!”
“Bingo.”
You had to sleep on this. It didn’t even really make sense, what he said. Don’t get anyone wrong—you weren’t one to act like scientific standards were unchanging. The opposite actually—one truth five minutes ago can change, because human knowledge is constantly changing, and the earth is constantly changing. But where could someone who never falls in love understand love? Maybe Hobie’s just stupid.
Yeah right, he made a whole watch out of scraps.
“I really don’t need my inner conscience questioning me too.”
“So I slept on it and…”
“And…”
You snatched a beaker from the shelf and slammed the door. “What you said doesn’t even make sense. Was it some sort of confession?”
“Mm, sorta.”
“In any other scenario I would’ve rejected you but… It’s you. So this confession isn’t some simple crush confession. It’s something complicated. Like everything else about you.”
Hobie spun around in his chair and smiled. “Yup.”
“Can’t you just go and tell me?” You groaned. “Pleeeeaseee?”
“One, discov’aries don’t come easy.” He handed you a test tube so you could measure. “Two… I don’t really know eitha.”
“Mm…” You muttered. “Then I might as well reject you anyway huh?”
“Will you?”
“Well I wouldn’t exactly be a good scientist if I did right?” You looked back at him. “My career revolves around enhancing life and helping people. And you… need help identifying your feelings.”
“You’re makin me sound’ll mushy n’ stuff.”
“That’s cause y’are.”
Unfortunately, love can’t be solved with a simple equation. Well, yes, the dopamine we get from seeing a loved one is a scientific component—but it needs to go further than that.
“I’m just… not really a fan of all that: you’re so sexy!!! stuff.”
“Me neitha… so… what are we a fan of?”
“A heart to heart dinner at a fancy restaurant is cool in some ways, but not in a romance movie way.”
“True…”
“So what?!”
“Have you ever felt like saying ‘you’re hot’ to one kinda means somethin’ more? Not from anotha person—from yaself—like—‘I feel so connected to you I want to form a life bond because I treasure you deeply?”
“… Actually, yeah.”
So we’ve made a breakthrough! [Sort of.] It has something to do with connection. But how does that connection diverge from other connections? The several experiments shown—touching, kissing, holding—these can all be watered down to preferences. And while you enjoyed these things with Hobie, what made you different than any other romantic or sexual couple?
“It’s a society thing, methinks.”
“Who the hell says methin—nevermind. How so?”
“Well,” Hobie pressed his thumb to his flat four fingers on both hands. “If two kiss,” he made his hands kiss, “then it’s I guess romantic. And ya like that friend. But that’s not all-the-time true.”
“Yeah, but… we’re not exactly friends. And we don’t exactly want to date.”
“Then we sorta gotta create somethin’ new here. Orrr… not label this new relationship at all.”
“We could at least call it something.”
“We could just conform to the norms.” He made a 🫰🏿with his hands. “You’re bae.” [this was said in an american accent.]
“First of all never say that shit again. Second of all… I’ve got a name: Turing Love.”
“Stupid name.”
“No it isn’t!”
Hobie scratched his head. “And even if we did submit this as some sort of ‘Turing Love,’ who says it would be accepted.”
You held his hand and looked at him.
“We’ll just have to prove it.” You smiled.
He laughed a little. “Alright then. Can’t argue with that, can I?”
[You learned a week later that it is in-fact, an identified type of relationship, and it is in-fact, not called Turing Love.]
“I thought your name for it’s better anyway.”
“Shut up.”
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