As the week slowly went by, Jimmy found himself staring more often than not whenever he saw Scott and Zach together. In the halls, at the library, during lunch. And he could hardly bring himself to think of anything but Scott and Zach.

"Hello? Earth to Jimmy." Fwhip's voice and waving hands brought Jimmy back to reality. "Have you been listening at all?"

Jimmy blinked, slightly confused. "You were talking to me?" he asked.

Fwhip groaned and dropped his head onto the lunch table. "Why do I even try?"

"Sorry," Jimmy apologized sincerely. His eyes drifted back over to where Scott and Zach sat, Scott smiling as brightly as ever while Zach leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I don't get it. He said he didn't trust him, but he still looks so happy with him..."

Fwhip lifted his head to give Jimmy a puzzled look. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asked before following Jimmy's gaze. "Ugh, are you still moping about your argument with Scott? Listen, buddy, I don't think he wants to-"

"Shh!" Jimmy shushed Fwhip, pressing a finger to the ginger's lips. "I'm focusing." He furrowed his brows as he tried to read the couple's lips. "Dammit, I can't tell what they're saying."

Rolling his eyes, Fwhip swatted away Jimmy's hand. "Dude, you're ridiculous," he deadpanned. "Didn't Scott say he hated you?"

Jimmy waved a hand at him. "We made up this morning," he said. "Now, be quiet, I'm trying to be nosy." He squinted, staring very intently before gasping and ducking under the table when Scott spotted him.

Fwhip began to laugh uncontrollably, knowing exactly how embarrassed Jimmy must've been. "Oh my God, Jimmy-"

"Be quiet," the blonde whined, trying to shrink as he struggled to fit under the table. He knew how ridiculous he looked just staring at them. "This is so embarrassing..."

"Yeah, and you looked like a total idiot, too," Fwhip said before laughing again. He started cackling even harder when Jimmy smacked his foot.

Jimmy groaned and peeked out from under the table to find Scott was gone. He let out a long sigh of relief and began crawl out, thinking it was safe. Then, suddenly, a foot came down hard on his hand. "Ow!" Jimmy yelped, jumping back just to hit his head on the corner of the table. He could hear Fwhip laughing obnoxiously again.

"I'm so sorry, Timmy," Grian apologized quickly, kneeling down and taking Jimmy's hand to examine it. He grimaced at the shoe print left on his hand. "I am so sorry."

"It's fine," Jimmy said, finally looking up at the younger boy. He frowned at the panicked look on his face. "It didn't hurt that bad," he assured him. "I promise."

Grian glanced away. "Okay..." His hands started to shake slightly and he helped Jimmy up quickly before letting go of him.

Fwhip's laughter stopped, as he also probably noticed Grian didn't look so well. "You good, G?" the ginger asked cautiously. "You're sweating quite a bit, there."

"I'm fine," Grian said quickly. He took a deep breath. "I just need to calm down, is all."

"Calm down from what?" Fwhip asked. "Running a marathon?"

Grian let out a breathy laugh. "Something like that," he murmured. He shook his head. "Do you mind if I sit with you guys? Mumbo's spending his lunch in the computer lab and Scar stayed home sick today, so I'm kind of lonely."

Jimmy nodded. "Go ahead."

Grian let out a sigh and sat down. "Thanks."

"Of course." Jimmy sat back in his seat to finish his food when his gaze caught Scott winking and blowing a kiss at him as he walked by. He felt his face heat up, his cheeks turning bright red.

Fwhip let out a shocked chuckle. "Um, woah," he said with a teasing smile, nudging Jimmy with his elbow. "What was that about?"

Jimmy blinked, still staring at where Scott had been. "I- Scott- pretty-"

"Oh, great," Grian said, "he's broken."

Fwhip snickered and poked at Jimmy's cheek. "You good?" he asked, hardly able to contain his laughter.

"Obviously not," Grian answered for the blonde, smirking. "The guy he has a massive crush on just blew a kiss at him. I'd be a blushing mess, too, if Scar or Mumbo did that to me."

"So you admit you're crushing on them?"

Grian let out a stubborn hmph. "I'll have you know, I'm dating them now," he said, grinning, though his cheeks were still pink. "I'm doing better than Timmy is."

Fwhip snorted. "True."

*   *   *

"That looks so good, Grian," Mumbo said, beaming at Grian's work. "I really like that!"

Grian smiled, turning away blushing. "You do?"

"Yeah, it's awesome!"

Grian had been working on painting the outside of their robotics project whilst Mumbo worked on building the robot part of it.

"Thank you," ths dirty blonde said shyly. He stared down at the little face he'd drawn and his smile grew a bit. He enjoyed spending this time with Mumbo, even if he knew nothing at all about how to actually make a robot. Just being there with him made him happy.

Grian looked up when he felt Mumbo tap him on the shoulder.

"I think I'm done," Mumbo said, then showed off the circuit of wires and mechanical chips. "It'll need some revisions depending on if it works properly, but for the moment, it's finished."

Grian stared at it, trying his hardest to wrap his mind around how Mumbo made it so fast. "That's... doesn't that stuff take, like, forever to do?" he questioned.

Mumbo shrugged. "It depends on the complexity and its purpose," he said as if Grian could understand him. "And generally, it isn't that hard as long you know what you're doing. It can be tedious, but not super time-consuming."

"Riiight," Grian said slowly, nodding. "I definitely understood all of what you just said."

Mumbo chuckled. "That's okay, you don't have to get it," he said. "But I could teach you if you want."

Grian smiled. "Thank you, but I think I'll just stick to being math smart," he joked.

"Fine, fine." Mumbo stuck his tonuge at Grian, and the latter reciprocated the gesture. Mumbo handed Grian the circuit. "Do you want to test it?"

Grian blinked. "Test it?" he echoed. "But that's only part of it, isn't it? How would I test it?"

"By putting Grumbot together, silly," Mumbo said. He leaned over and pecked a small kiss to Grian's temple before gathering the other small mechanical parts to assemble the inside of the robot. "Look, these are the lights for the eyes" - Mumbo showed two circular plates that lit up when he pressed a button on the back of them - "and when they're attached to the main circuit, they'll light up whenever Grumbot is turned on."

"Woah, that's really cool," Grian gasped, beaming at Mumbo, who had a fond expression on his face. "Can you put it together?"

"Of course I can," Mumbo said confidently, then began to put everything together. "And, voila! The endoskeleton of our robot."

Grian carefully took the strange-looking array of wires and bolts and what-have-you into his hands. "Wow," he breathed, moving it around to look at it from different angles. "This is so cool!"

Mumbo smiled. "I'm glad you think so," he said, "because soon it'll have the beautiful exterior that you've made and it'll look even cooler."

"Oh, stop it." Grian waved a hand at Mumbo, blushing a bit. "It doesn't even look that good." He looked down at what he'd been working on, and his smile faded as a sudden wave of embarrassment washed over him. "It looks like a child painted it," he said, slumping a bit in his seat. "Scar could've done a better job... Maybe you should've invited him inste-"

"Stop that," Mumbo said sternly, swatting at Grian's shoulder. "Just because it doesn't look like something that someone else can do, doesn't mean it's bad. And if it worth anything, I love it and I think you did a great job."

Grian stared at Mumbo for a moment. "...Thanks," he murmured, smiling a little bit.

Mumbo snickered. "I see that smile, cutie," he teased, reaching to tickle Grian's sides.

Grian let out a small yelp, squirming as Mumbo tickled him. "Okay, okay, I get it," he whined between laughs, desperately trying to swat Mumbo's hands away. "Mumbo!"

"Alright, I'll stop." Mumbo smiled at Grian, then turned to their project. "Ready to see if it works?"

Grian nodded eagerly.

"Three... two... one!" Mumbo pressed a button labeled with writing that Grian couldn't quite make out. The lights for the eyes lit up, and it started to make little beeping noises as if it were talking. Then, a small slip of paper came from what looked like some sort of mouth.

"Is that it?" Grian asked.

Mumbo shook his head. "Take the paper."

Grian did exactly that, gasping when he saw what was written on it. "I-"

"Cool, right?"

Grian looked up at Mumbo. "Cool? Are you kidding me?" He looked down at the paper again. "'Hi, my name is Grumbot...'" He shook his head in pure disbelief. "Mumbo, this is amazing."

Mumbo laughed. "I'm glad you like it."

Grian turned back to the naked robot. "I can't wait until it's finished."

Not long after, Mr. Hermann announced the end of robotics club, and it was time for the students to leave.

"I can take Grumbot with me so I can finish painting him at Timmy's," Grian offered as he and Mumbo began gathering their things. "I don't doubt Lizzie has some at least semi-decent paint."

Mumbo nodded. "That sounds good," he agreed, helping Grian lower their project into a cardboard box. "By the way, did you finish writings those math formulas? I want to start on the chips tonight, and the math one will probably be the hardest, so I want to start with that one."

Grian nodded and let Mumbo finish putting Grumbot into the box so he could rummage through his bag. "Yeah, I have them in my..." He trailed off, his eyebrows furrowing as his searching became almost frantic. "I could've sworn I put them in here."

"It's fine if you don't have them now," Mumbo assured him. "I can work on the other subjects until you do have them."

Shaking his head, Grian closed his bag and tossed one strap over his shoulder. "I probably just left them in my locker," he said. "I can grab them and send you pictures later."

Mumbo shrugged. "That also works."

They left the workshop, said a few quick goodbyes, then walked their separate ways.

Once at his locker, Grian carefully set down the box with Grumbot in it so he could put in his combination. Just as he suspected, all of the formulas he'd written down were right there in his locker.

He sighed and grabbed the small stack of papers to put them in the box with Grumbot. "I really need to stop forgetting things," he murmured to himself, then closed his locker and got ready to leave.

However, when he turned around he was met with the faces of three, much older looking boys.

"Hey, cutie."

*   *   *

Lizzie sighed, letting her head fall onto the steering wheel. "Where is he?" she groaned before sniffling loudly. She was still sick, but she claimed to be well enough to pick Jimmy and Grian up from school. Though, Grian was taking a rather long time. Too long for Lizzie's liking.

"Maybe he went home with Mumbo?" Jimmy offered, shrugging.

"Jim, the worst thing to do is assume he already left with someone else," Lizzie said, then she sighed. "He's probably just caught up at robotics." She turned to face the passenger's seat and reached over for a bottle of cough medicine. "God, this headache..."

Jimmy watched her carefully as she opened the bottle and drank directly from it. "Dad said not to take anymore," he reminded her, to which she waved a dismissive hand at.

"It's fine, Jimmy," she said, her voice nasally. "I didn't drink that much."

Huffing, the blonde turned to look  out the window again. "Oh, he's coming," he said. "He's... crying?"

Lizzie looked over and squinted. "Why is he crying?"

"How would I know?"

Lizzie rolled her eyes at that.

Grian was running, clutching a box in his arms, and his backpack was falling off his shoulder. His face was red and wet, his hair was a mess, and he wasn't even wearing a coat.

Jimmy opened the car door for Grian and slid to the other side so he could get in. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Grian huffed, throwing the box onto the seat and tossing his bag on top, whatever was in the box jangling around. Grian got into the car and slammed the door shut. "Can you take me to Etho's?"

Lizzie sniffled. "Why do you want to go Etho's?" she asked.

"Because I want to see Joel," Grian answered as he buckled himself in.

"Why?" Lizzie failed to hide the disgust in her voice.

Grian groaned. "Because he knows how wires and stuff works." He paused. "Sort of."

Jimmy hesitated before asking, "Why do you need to know how wires wor-"

"Because I do," Grian interrupted harshly, grabbing the box and setting it on his lap. He looked like he was going to start crying again. "Can you please stop asking questions and just go?"

Lizzie and Jimmy exchanged glances through the rear view mirror.

"Etho's, it is," Lizzie sighed.

*   *   *

Cliffhanger! Love those :) /lh

The end will make a little bit more sense next chapter (if you didn't already put the pieces together), so don't worry too much about it! The beginning will be cleared up, as well. /cl

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and the Grumbo fluff, and I wish you all a wonderful rest of your day! <33