TVD/TO Oneshots

Rubber Duck (Enzo St. John)

Prompt: "Isn't it time for you to go to bed?" "Isn't it time for you to mind your business?" "...Okay. Bed, now."

Summary: Y/N's been up for hours working on a final project for their coding class, and they're starting to go more than a little crazy. Thankfully, their boyfriend Enzo is there to help them, in more ways than one.

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I squinted at my computer screen as I hit enter for the seventeenth time tonight, hoping against hope that this time my code would work. I'd been trying to write my final project for an upper-level computer science class for hours, and no matter what I did, my code never worked the way I wanted it to.

I was going absolutely crazy.

I watched my program run line by line, trying to focus on my breathing to keep from screaming out loud. When the program output an error, I failed, and couldn't hold back a shout of frustration.

I put my head down and scowled as I started scanning back through my code. I'd read through this a thousand times already, what the hell was I doing wrong?

A second later, the door to the bedroom flew open. My boyfriend, Enzo, came flying out of the room at top speeds, looking ready to kill anyone in sight. He whipped his head from side to side, looking for whatever threat had made me yell, but I barely even registered that he was in the room.

"What's the problem?" he barked. I didn't look up from my laptop as I responded.

"The problem is this stupid code is fucking with me!" I cried, throwing my hands up in the air. The other alternative to deal with my frustration was throwing my laptop across the room, which I narrowly kept myself from doing.

"So there's no emergency, danger, or threat? And you just screamed for no reason?"

"What about my answer made you think I was screaming for no reason?"

Enzo sighed, and out of the corner of my eye I saw him run his hands through his hair as I kept scanning through my code. I heard him move into the kitchen and start doing something in there, but I tried to block him out as I kept reading through my code.

I could feel myself getting more and more worked up, so I broke my gaze from the screen and forced myself to take a breath. I closed my eyes and ran my hands through my hair, and after I'd taken my moment, I opened my eyes to see Enzo walking towards towards me with two mugs in his hands.

"You seemed like you could use some nice, calming tea," he said with a smile. He carefully sat down next to me and offered me a mug, which I took. I stared holes into the floor as I sipped it, and Enzo watched me patiently. Finally, I looked up at him, an idea springing to mind.

"Do you want to be my rubber duck?"

Enzo's eyebrows rose. "What on Earth does that mean? Don't tell me you've finally lost it over this coding you're trying to do."

"No, it's a thing in programing. Programmers have a little rubber duck that sits on their desk that they explain their code to, and it helps them figure out whatever the issue is that they're not seeing. But I don't have a rubber duck."

"Ah, I think I get it," said Enzo, giving me a smile as he leaned back into the cushions. "Fire away, love."

I grinned, then set down my mug and turned back to my code. I started at the top, working through every step in my process and explaining it carefully to Enzo. He had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, but he nodded along like he did, which was all I needed.

Finally, after what felt like forever, I found my tripping point. I had to go back and reread the line of code a few times after I'd found it, since it was such a simple, stupid mistake that I'd been staring at for hours and hadn't caught. I swore loudly, then moved to fix it.