Apartment Above Needful Things; Later Friday

[totalwildcard]

It was not as dusty in the upstairs apartment as it had been the last time Marc had been up there. Like, sure, it was still dusty in places because Harley and her attention span had prioritized the spots that she actually used on a daily basis, but still! The living room slash kitchen space that they entered into from the stairs was actually looking lived in now, with stuff like cereal packages and coffee on the kitchen counters and some empty takeaway cartons littering the coffee table Harley had hauled up from the store.

Hey, the narrative had said it wasn't that dusty anymore, not anything about there being no mess. It wasn't too bad, anyway, there was just a little bit of clutter!

So far.

Whatever, Harley had put some personal touches in. Some eclectic decor pieces around the place, a pop art style painting on one of the walls, that sorta thing. (And a taxidermy beaver in a tutu on the counter, but Beaver wasn't decor.)

"Well, here we are!" Harley announced. "I promise this place isn't as much of a sneezing hazard anymore."

(for that guy, continued from here! NSFW)

Comments

[hasaknightjob]

"And it's not personal," Marc said, since that'd been why he mentioned it. "Nothing about you."

At least she'd always be getting a blank canvas?

[totalwildcard]

"Why would it ever be personal?" Harley asked, confused. "Didn't you just say you guys just... do it?"

Yeah, okay, it was going to take a while for Harley to process that he was telling her these things as a courtesy towards the insecurities she'd already shown, instead of just as fun facts.

[hasaknightjob]

"I dunno," Marc said, because he knew better than to point out when you were trying to be mindful of someone's possible insecurities. "Never came up before. I'm just guessing here."

[totalwildcard]

So Harley just gave it an easy little shrug (easy in spirit, a little awkward in practice), happy to let it go.

Tracing a line down the center of his chest, she said instead, "Well, good to know anyway. If I ever need to mark you up real good."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc stretched out again, giving himself more ability to trail his fingers back and forth from Harley's shoulder to her back. "And why would you need to do a thing like that?"

[totalwildcard]

Why did Harley do most things?

The answer was immediate and bright: "For fun."

[hasaknightjob]

"Never heard of it," Marc replied, with a look that said she'd nobody but herself to blame for giving that easy layup.

[totalwildcard]

Harley snorted. "You're lyyying," she sing-songed at him. "Anyway, I don't need you to think it's fun for me to see a perfect body and wanna vandalize it a little bit for kicks."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc knew Harley was only having fun in the moment. Even so,

"You can want," he said. Not upset. Just a nudge to let her know something they had in common was not being into the suggestion of things happening to them whether they liked it or not.

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah, that's what I said," Harley agreed, not following.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc felt a spark of annoyance as any remnants of languid afterglow dissolved.

"I have enough shit happen whether I like it or not," he told her. "It's not a turn on to hear someone gets off on the idea it doesn't matter if I don't think it's fun."

[totalwildcard]

Harley blinked at him.

Then her head actually lifted off of his arm because how else was she supposed to do her usual confused head tilt?

"When'd we get onto me gettin' off on that?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc rolled his eyes. "Didn't realize you meant you were thinking about vandalizing someone else's body whether or not I found it fun."

[totalwildcard]

Oh, just lifting her head wasn't going to do for this one: Harley needed to actually sit up, now.

"But I sorta was?" she said, her face all scrambled with confusion mixed with... was that concern? While she tried to retrace her conversational steps. Which made her frown even more. "Well, not really," she hedged, "but I wasn't saying what you think I was saying! 'Cause what I think is fun and what you think is fun is one thing, and actually doing whatever it is -"

And now the arm was involved, gesturing towards the opposite wall to signify something really far away.

"- is a whole different thing! But I can still find the idea fun even if you don't, I just can't actually do it then because I don't force people into doing sex shit they don't wanna do!"

And of course she'd gone real shrill and loud at the end there, sorry to his eardrums.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc sat up as well, which he'd kind of been thinking of doing anyway so hey that worked. Her look of concern helped dial down the tension he'd been feeling and how quickly his walls were going up.

"Wasn't saying you would," Marc told her, more patient than he'd been a moment ago. "Didn't think you would either. All I'm saying is the phrasing didn't work for me. Because I figured you're not into saying shit the other person isn't into anymore than you are into doing it, right?"

[totalwildcard]

"But I didn't phrase it like that, either!" Harley claimed, which was not her best argument and not even entirely accurate, but in her defense, a lot of her attention was suddenly snatched by the noise that could only come from a giant hyena sprinting up a flight of stairs.

So now she was scrambling her way off the bed so she could try and go intercept the incoming exotic pet missile, muttering, "Great, now I gotta keep Bruce from trying to eat you."

[hasaknightjob]

And Marc hadn't meant he'd actually do whatever he wanted to Harley without her permission back at the beginning of this. But when she'd told him she didn't like the way he put it he'd listened and immediately adjusted because how she felt was more important than what he'd meant. All he'd been asking for was the same courtesy in return.

But that was obviously not a conversation that was going to happen with the hyena around. So Marc got up and started putting his clothes on with military style brisk efficiency. "One way to fix that."

[totalwildcard]

Sadly, Harley didn't see him start doing that, too busy darting out the bedroom door to catch Bruce as early as she could. But it was surely going to make for a great surprise in just a moment!

"Bruce!" she called, as the hyena bounded to her across the living room. "Brucey! Everything's fine, baby, it was just... talk."

Well, at least the hyena seemed to be buying what she was saying. (Not that that was the heart of the issue with Marc, but, you know.)

[hasaknightjob]

Marc might do a lot of things wiser people would never get near - including things that involved significant harm - but being naked around a hyena that wanted to eat him wasn't one of them.

As such he prioritized getting underwear and pants on, for what were perhaps obvious reasons. Whether he got much further than that depended on how long Harley took to come back.

[totalwildcard]

So far, it was taking at least a significantly lengthy moment. Harley was trying to just send Bruce back downstairs, but he seemed awfully keen on checking out the bedroom, which she was now actively blocking him from doing.

"No, Bruce," she was saying, firmly, crouching to his level, "we're all good here, okay baby?"

[hasaknightjob]

That got Marc up to shirts then.

Of course there was a flaw in the plan to leave to diffuse the hyena situation. Namely that leaving would require going past the hyena. So even if Marc got all the way dressed by the time she got back, he might be standing there kind of uselessly.

[totalwildcard]

He could also have saved them both a little drama and embarrassment and gone out the window?

"Fine, I'll get you a treat," Harley said, getting up and coaxing Bruce to come with her closer to the couch, where she could grab some Twizzlers off the coffee table. "See? Everything's gotta be okay if there's treats."

This seemed to appease Bruce. Once he had a Twizzler in his mouth, Harley was finally able to guide him back to the stairs. "Come on, back you go, Brucey, good boy."

She closed the door after him, this time. Just in case.

Then, with a Twizzler for herself in hand, she finally returned to the bedroom - only to promptly stop right in the doorway, her face falling a little. "Oh."

[hasaknightjob]

Leaving without telling Harley wasn't anywhere near high on the list of acceptable options as far as Marc was concerned. Worst came to worst it wouldn't even have been the first time an animal (or something like it) tried attacking him.

"Figured that was a hint I'd overstayed," he told her.

[totalwildcard]

"He gets worried when there's yelling," Harley said, fidgeting with the candy in her hand.

She was just suddenly feeling really naked.

[hasaknightjob]

"Gotcha," Marc said. "Wasn't sure if he was speaking on your behalf."

Marc noticed the fidgeting. He hesitated, then slipped off his button down shirt and held it out to her in a silent offer.