Disclaimer: The real Steve Jobs wouldn’t be caught dead making dirty love to Bill Gates. This is all just the particularly twisted imaginings of Jezebel, who is way too fond of typing the words "making dirty love to Bill Gates". Props to the insanely great Robert Anton Wilson, who doesn’t know Steve borrowed the title of his play but probably wouldn’t mind if he did.
Author’s Note: This episode takes place after "I Have What You Need", but before the "this is like doing business with a preying mantis" scene in the movie. My version of Multiplan is probably a lot more MS Office-esque than the real one, but since we’re not talking about reality here anyway…
Multitasking
by
Jezebel T. Slade
"Steve, nice to see you again," Bill smiles. A casual observer, noticing the gleam in his eye, would probably attribute it to Bill’s innate passion for his work.
Steve knows better. "Yeah." His gaze locks with Bill’s. "What’ve you got for me?"
"Oh, I think you’re going to like this." He turns, motioning for Steve to follow him.
Steve falls into step beside Bill. The two don’t say a word as they make their way from Microsoft’s front lobby back to the project lab. "Take a break, guys," Bill tells the three bleary-eyed programmers sitting in front of the Macintosh prototypes.
"How long?" asks the least-scruffy one.
"Until I say so. Now scram." The young men scurry out of the room. Bill locks the door behind them, and gestures toward the computers. "Please… have a seat."
Steve sits down in front of the closest machine. His hand goes immediately to the mouse. Bill stands behind him, his hands resting on the back of Steve’s chair. Steve opens the program menu and launches Multiplan before Bill has time to say "Presenting… Multiplan for Macintosh."
"Hmm," frowns Steve. "It takes a while to load."
"It’s worth the wait." Bill gives Steve’s shoulder a squeeze, and leans down to whisper in his ear. "Trust me."
If Steve is flashing back to the last time he heard those words from Bill, he doesn’t let it show. The program finally starts, with a blank spreadsheet. Steve studies the toolbar. "Nice interface."
"Yeah, I thought you’d like that." Bill’s hand slides down Steve’s arm to settle over the other man’s hand on the mouse. Steve looks at Bill, but Bill’s attention is focused on the screen as he clicks on the FILE icon and selects "Demo". "The beautiful thing about this," he continues, as sample data fills the screen, "is that it’s got a fully integrated word processing capability." He clicks on the Text icon, bringing up a blank page. "Type something." Bill lets go of the mouse, trailing his fingertips down the back of Steve’s hand as he straightens up.
Steve types: -Reality is what you can get away with.-
Bill smiles. "Words to live by."
"They’re not mine."
"Since when does that matter?" Bill’s voice is playful-deadly teasing, like a cat with its prey.
"Are you being randomly bizarre, or is there a point to all this?" Steve’s hands clench on the edge of the table.
"Yes," says Bill, then leans down and whispers, his mouth almost touching Steve’s ear: "Go to the Utilities menu and select ‘Import Data’."
Steve follows Bill’s instruction, clicking the mouse button with more force than necessary, and selects the demo spreadsheet. A chart of the spreadsheet data appears below his typed text. "Interesting."
"Now play around with the Chart Wizard utility." This time Bill’s lips do touch Steve’s skin, brushing his earlobe and nuzzling at his neck.
Steve tenses, opening the Utilities menu and using the wizard to change the chart into a bar graph. "Great. What else does it do?"
Bill pulls the collar of Steve’s t-shirt down to nibble at the junction of the other man’s neck and shoulder. "Go back to the spreadsheet and change some of the data."
Steve flips back to the other page, steadfastly ignoring Bill’s hands creeping down the front of his shirt. He doubles the numbers in the Overseas Sales column and switches back to the word processor.
The bar graph now shows the new figures. "Linked documents," Bill explains, sliding one hand up under Steve’s shirt to slip into the waistband of his cutoffs.
Steve bites back a gasp, and flicks through the menu bar. "Doesn’t this have a database component?"
"We’re working on it," Bill lies, running the fingers of his other hand over Steve’s fly.
"You dragged me all the way up here for a half-completed program?" Steve demands, through clenched teeth.
"I figured you’d want input into the creation process." Bill undoes the button on Steve’s shorts and eases the zipper down.
"Okay, you want my advice?" Steve inhales sharply as Bill’s fingers slip inside his boxers. "Get it done right, and get it done fast."
"Of course," Bill smiles, tightening his grip on Steve’s swelling flesh. "Quality is job one, here at Microsoft."
Steve tilts his head back to rest on Bill’s shoulder, his hand dropping from the mouse to clutch the edge of his chair. "I think it needs a clipart gallery."
"I’ll get right on that." Bill runs his tongue over Steve’s throat, moving his fingers in tantalizing rhythm.
Steve twists in his seat and reaches up to take hold of Bill’s hair. "Why do I let you do this to me?" he murmurs against Bill’s mouth.
"Because we’re insanely great together?" Bill nips at Steve’s lower lip.
"No, we’re just greatly insane together." Steve’s hand finds its way to Bill’s belt and works at the buckle, as his mouth takes Bill’s in a possessive kiss.
Bill straddles Steve’s lap, his body responding readily to the other man’s touch. Bill’s own hand strokes faster, drawing a low growl of need from Steve. "It doesn’t tie up as much memory as running separate applications," Bill whispers when Steve’s mouth leaves his.
"What?" Steve slides his hand inside Bill’s trousers.
"Multiplan." Bill shivers when Steve’s fingers wrap around his growing erection. "Because it’s all run off the same program, it can do more tasks with less memory."
"That’s great, Bill." Steve moves his hand slowly, teasing the other man’s body to full arousal.
"It can convert documents from other office applications, too." Bill nips at Steve’s neck hard enough to bruise.
"Bill?" Steve quickens his caress.
"Yeah?" Bill breathes, never slowing his own rhythm.
"Tell me about it later." Steve presses his mouth to Bill’s, silencing him.
***
"Bill?" Steve somehow manages to sound tired and energetic at the same time.
"Hmmm?" Bill opens his eyes, bringing the ceiling tiles into blurry focus, and turns his head to look at Steve lying next to him.
Steve’s eyes are still closed, but a smile plays at the corners of his mouth. "How old were you when you first realized you wanted to change the world?"
Bill closes his eyes again. "I don’t remember." He reaches across the coarse carpet to find Steve’s hand. "My whole life, I’ve known I could never be satisfied with being ordinary." His thumb traces random patterns over the other man’s palm. "I think some people are just born never to be content."
"Contentment is overrated." Steve turns on his side, leaning on his elbow to look down at Bill. "Wouldn’t you rather be a tormented god than a happy peasant?"
"That’s your problem," Bill grins. "You only know how to think in extremes." He reaches up and pulls Steve down on top of him.
Steve combs his fingers through Bill’s disheveled bangs, finally giving up and leaning down to kiss him. "So what were you saying about converting docs from other applications?" he asks when their lips part.
"Oh, it’s brilliant." Bill’s hand slips under Steve’s shirt, his fingertips playing over the other man’s back. "We’ve developed a function that translates the formatting instructions from foreign apps into the Multiplan equivalent."
"Very innovative." Steve shivers as Bill’s nails rake down his spine. "I think I underestimated you."
"A mistake made by many," Bill smiles. "We’re more alike than you give me credit for."
"Maybe."
"Definitely." Bill’s other hand reaches up to pull Steve down for another kiss.
Steve caresses Bill’s tongue with his own, slowly and thoroughly. Bill’s fingers run lazily through the soft hair at the nape of Steve’s neck.
"Hey, Steve?" Bill asks as Steve’s mouth leaves his and nibbles a path along his throat.
"Yeah?" Steve looks up, meeting Bill’s glittering blue eyes.
Bill grins. "I really love working with you."
-the end, for now-
Bill and/or Steve will return in "Reach Out and Touch Someone, Part 00000010."
Tags: bill/steve, infamy
