Raining Indoors
i said i was writing mr lawrence fanfiction and now here we are. i regret nothing. yumeshipping myself w him is not a crime... or is it!? might post this on ao3 if i continue writing. be the first to break ground over there i guess...
this takes place in like 1999 during the production and release of the first season of bob l'eponge
//
Lou was hunched over her desk with her nose comically close to her painting when a drop of water landed on the crown of her head.
She looked up from her work to see a steady trickle had started in a corner of the room without her noticing; a small pool was already forming on the floor. She jumped from her seat and moved all the computers nearest to the leak, but her panic only worsened when she noticed the drip above her desk had also begun to pick up speed. The entire background painting department had been struck with a flu that she had somehow managed to dodge, so she was completely alone in the studio.
After pushing tables out of the way of the leaks which were worsening by the minute, Lou’s palms began to sweat. So much work and equipment would be ruined if she didn’t move all the art and computers out soon. With nothing to be done about the leak at that moment, the one-man background painting department would just have to move into a different room.
Lou stuck some buckets under the leaks and ran to the office manager to inform them about the situation, hurrying back to the studio to rescue her work. She loaded a rolling chair with a stack of folders and carefully placed the pieces she had been painting on top, and then carried as many manila folders as she could manage in her arms.
Lou made her trek across the carpeted hallways precariously, one arm pushing the chair and another straining under the weight of the folders. She wasn’t even particularly sure where she was going, just hoping to come across an empty studio, though she was focusing most of her gaze on the papers loosely taped to the top of the folders. She hoped the gouache had dried down by now.
"You need help with that?"
She looked up at the familiar voice and saw her coworker Doug Lawrence, his eyebrows raised and arms held aloft.
“Uhh, yeah! Thanks." He was taking the folders out of her arms before she was even halfway through her sentence.
"Where to?" He smiled, falling into step beside her as she wheeled the chair sheepishly. Her arms felt quite empty now.
"Actually, I don't really know." She laughed. "Just any empty studio I could use, I guess?"
The two of them walked slowly through the hallway. It was strangely quiet and desolate. Had everyone at Nickelodeon fallen sick?
"I'm Doug, by the way," He piped up after a second, turning to smile at her. "Nice to meet you?" he smiled apologetically.
"I'm Lou," she replied, laughing. She understood his tone: the two of them had barely exchanged more than a few words during the years working here, being in different departments, but were peripherally aware of each other’s existence in the office. “Nice to meet you, too.”
"So, why exactly am I doing manual labour right now?" Doug readjusted his grip on the stack of folders.
"There's a leak in the background painting studio," Lou said. "My entire department got wiped out by that flu that's going around so I was alone when it started raining indoors."
"Well, you should’ve remembered an umbrella," Doug said, shouldering a door open for her. She slipped past him, pushing the chair ahead of her through the door and squeezing past his lithe frame. She could feel his gaze on her as she brushed past.
Doug set the stack of folders down on a desk and started to arrange them arbitrarily.
“Thanks for the help, Doug,” Lou said, unloading the rolling chair. “But I do have another two or three trips to make if you’re still feeling gallant.”
“Suddenly I regret helping you,” Doug joked, stretching out his arms.
Lou giggled, and the two of them hurried their way back with the rolling chair in tow to save the rest of the work and supplies.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding about raining indoors,” Doug said as he set a computer down on the floor by the doorframe.
“Yeah, I probably could’ve acted with a bit more urgency.” Lou pushed a couple of fabric office chairs out of the room, leaving the plastic ones inside to fend for themselves against the downpour.
Once they had moved most everything into the safety of the hallway, they started the slow process of relocating the necessary things to the temporary studio. After three more trips, they were officially done. Lou chose a desk at random and taped the pieces she was working on onto it. Doug looked over her shoulder.
“You’re really good at painting,” he said, and leaned back into his chair. “You’re good at what you do.”
“Thanks, so are you.” Lou looked over at him. He was reclined in his seat with his arms splayed over the armrests and long legs straightened out in front of him: the picture of ease and nonchalance. “You comfortable there?”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Doug laughed, sitting forward and leaning his arms on his knees.
“I mean, I’ve been here just as long as you but I can’t for the life of me feel relaxed in this building,” Lou said, sighing and leaning back into her seat. “You just always look so relaxed.”
“Oh, so you’ve noticed me!” Doug grinned and leaned towards Lou, making her roll her eyes. “I think it’s just the way my face and limbs fall. Always loosey-goosey.”
“Like a rubber hose cartoon,” Lou said. She hadn’t had a response to his teasing but it was true - she had noticed him. He had a nice smile and was cute in a lanky and slightly nerdy sort of way, and he was funny and a good writer, which Lou admired about him from afar. She had started at Nickelodeon as an animator working on Rocko’s Modern Life a little bit after he had left the team as a writer and director, but they had never worked on the same show again until Spongebob came around.
“It’s kind of weird that we barely missed one another when working on Rocko,” Doug said suddenly, as if he had read her mind.
“Yeah, we just sort of passed each other by.” Lou wondered what it was like to work with him. “If you ever need layouts or backgrounds done, I’m your girl. You know where to find me now, I guess.” Lou gestured around the empty room.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Doug laughed. “Not that much of anything I’ve been pitching has made it past the pilot, though.”
The end of the workday caught them by surprise. Apparently, Doug hadn’t gotten that much done that day, especially with his detour into helping rescue Lou’s work. He elected to stay back late, but walked Lou to the parking lot.
“You’re nice,” Lou piped up as they exited at the side entrance of the building.
“Gee, thanks,” Doug replied, feigning delight at her meager compliment as they came to a stop at the edge of the parking lot.
“I mean it. You’re nice and you're easy to talk to. I guess you wouldn’t know but that’s a lot coming from me,” Lou said, pulling hair out of her face as the wind picked up and decided it was determined to blow it every which way. “Didn’t mean to sound so defensive there, my bad.” She laughed sheepishly.
“It’s all good. You’re nice to talk to. I like you. Kinda wish we had met sooner.” Doug smiled. “Need me to walk you to your car?”
“I think I’ll be alright. Feel free to stay here on the lookout for evildoers until I’ve driven off, though.” Lou smiled, readjusting the strap to her bag on her shoulder.
Doug laughed, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets. They exchanged goodbyes and Lou walked to her car, throwing her bag onto the passenger seat and then clambering in herself. She started the car and waved to Doug, who waved back. He mimed scanning the vicinity for criminals and then gave her a small salute, making Lou giggle. As she pulled out of her parking spot, Doug smiled and waved goodbye, and then made his way back into the building.
