You’re at Sollux’s place, sprawled on the couch with your phone in hand. Sollux is hunched over his laptop, multiple windows open, typing rapidly, eyes darting between code and the screen. He keeps sneaking glances at you, trying to act focused but failing because he’s lowkey excited you’re there.

“Okay, so I’m running a dual-threaded program to monitor… well, basically everything in the network. You probably won’t understand, and that’s fine. The point is, it should prevent any catastrophic failures.” he glances at you, just slightly, then back at the screen.

“See this? This is a real-time debug interface. Most people would freak out if they saw all this data, but I… I kind of like explaining it to you. Even if you don’t get it, you’re listening. I like talking about it, so... works out."

He shifts slightly closer on the couch, shoulder brushing against yours, eyes darting again. His tone stays flat and matter-of-fact, but there’s a subtle warmth underneath, a flutter in his chest every time you glance up at him.