Somewhere on the Mainland; Sunday Early Evening

[totalwildcard]

You asked Harley, it was a pretty good Sunday, so far.

She'd started out her day with no plan, and yet by happy accident (and it was definitely an accident, and not someone somewhere making room in a shared schedule to facilitate things, or anything deliberate on the part of anyone directly involved!) she'd run into Marc, and that had sparked a simple and easy plan after all: to drive him to the mainland for dinner, at a restaurant she'd overheard someone talking about on one of her off-island jaunts earlier in the week. It was supposed to be a family-run, no-nonsense little Italian place, and exactly the sort of thing Harley was in the mood for, especially right now with the company she had.

So life was indeed pretty good!

And Harley's mood wasn't soured even by finding out there was actually no parking available right by the restaurant. After some searching, she'd managed to find a spot some blocks away - which was to say, she'd sniped it from right under someone's nose with a truly reckless move. Which had led to some blaring horns from other cars. Which was all good in Harley's book! She had more important things to be thinking about, anyway!

"And the tiramisu's supposed to be amazing," she was saying, as they got out of the car. "Like, 'someone's 97-year-old tiny little Italian grandma made it' kind of amazing. D'you think they'd let me order that for an app and not just dessert?"

(NFB for distance, for the one modded with permission + some NPCs)

Comments

[totalwildcard]

"Almost!" Harley said, leaning against the door jamb.

So she could make a beckoning gesture towards him.

[hasaknightjob]

That was one of those moments where the word charmed came into play.

Marc walked over to her. He reached for her hand in case that was part of what the gesture was about.

[totalwildcard]

It hadn't been, necessarily, but it was now! Since Harley took his hand, and cleverly used the little squeeze she gave it as also a preamble to tugging her into the room with her.

"Hi again."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc let himself be pulled in. If the result of that involved him standing close to her, oh darn.

"Long time no see."

[totalwildcard]

Harley practically leaned right into his chest to reach out and close the door behind him, to keep the bath-warmed air from escaping into the rest of the apartment. So the closeness may have been by design.

"Did ya miss me?"

Only teasing.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc may have used that lean to slip his arms around her waist and then leave them there.

"It was really quiet," Marc said.

It still surprised him that he didn't like that.

[totalwildcard]

Oops, there went Harley's arms, sliding around his shoulders in turn.

She snickered a little. "You shoulda said, I coulda made more noise."

[hasaknightjob]

Some of those lingering wisps of tension eased when Harley's hands came to rest on him.

"Think if you made noise in here I would've thought you fell in."

[totalwildcard]

"Maybe, but then you would've come in here quicker and discovered it wasn't the case."

So there was only winning ever on the table, as far as Harley was concerned.

[hasaknightjob]

Funnily enough that was one of the things Marc liked about her.

(Yes, liked. No point pretending it was a not dislike or whatever.)

"Sorry I kept you waiting," Marc said. He moved one hand up and down her back, taking in the fact that she was near.

[totalwildcard]

They'd kind of been going for a personal record in not touching all that much until now, huh? Through no fault of their own, of course, but it did mean Harley found it particularly sweet to be in his arms right now.

"I was waitin' on the tub even more," she said. "But both of you are here now!"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc was refilling his own internal tank of Harley contact for sure.

When she said that about the tub he looked at her, looked at the tub, looked back at her.

"Did it actually have to show up or...?"

Considering the place he lived in, Marc was assuming nothing. Even if he had been in Harley's bathroom plenty of times before.

[totalwildcard]

And it had definitely been there every time, safe and sound and secure.

Harley snickered, in the particular way where her eyes actually closed for a beat during it, before fluttering open again to up at him. "No," she said, " just the water, this time."

[hasaknightjob]

Her laugh got something like a smile out of him. He moved his hand up and around to brush his fingertips along her cheek.

"You're something else."

[totalwildcard]

Harley's head tilted sideways into it, just a bit.

"I know, you keep tellin' me." Weird how that didn't mean - or sound like it meant - that she was in any way tired of it. "And yet I never ask, something else compared to what?"

[hasaknightjob]

"What I expect," Marc said. "What I'm used to. It's good. You're good."

[totalwildcard]

"Or what you're used to is shit," Harley retorted, but with a lightness that said she wasn't actually about to argue about it.

Her hands pulled back a little, but not away. Instead, they pushed underneath his shirt. The first half-step towards getting him out of it.

[hasaknightjob]

"Not saying you're wrong," Marc replied.

He offered no resistance to her working on getting his shirt off. He'd be working on the same with her once he was able.

[totalwildcard]

With the lack of resistance, Harley just got him fully shirtless much quicker than she'd initially anticipated - and that was not a complaint.

There was a convenient little countertop within arms reach. What she took off ended up there, and then her hands ended up running down his chest because they could.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc didn't mind that at all. Physical contact helped him feel present in the body right now. Physical contact from Harley was enjoyable all on its own no matter what was happening.

So Marc let her hands roam for a bit before he tried pulling off her shirt next.

[totalwildcard]

So Harley's hands roamed, for a bit, feeling muscle and smooth skin wherever they went, down to his stomach then up towards his shoulders again - before pulling back to let him go ahead with his efforts.

Harley was back in a sports bra under her shirt, this time. Thankfully, considering their little fight interlude.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc pulled her shirt up and over her head and put it down on the counter beside his own. He ran his hands over her newly exposed skin, lightly over the bra, then slipped a finger under the elastic band of the bra in a silent question of whether that could come off too.

[totalwildcard]

Of course, Harley's response was not going to be as silent.

She scoffed, amused. "Only thing I'm gonna be wearin' in that tub is, at most, you."

[hasaknightjob]

"Just checking," Marc said. He peeled the bra off as well and put it with her shirt. Then he took a long moment to admire the view while running his hands over the exact same spots he'd done before. "Kinda curious how we're gonna fit."

In the tub, obviously.

[totalwildcard]

And Harley was going to take the excuse and opportunity to run her own hands up along his arms. Just appreciating every inch.

"We're gonna fit great." In the tub and otherwise. She tilted her head a little again as she considered it. "There's the boring option where we each get one end to sit in, and have a turf war over who gets to put their legs where. Not my favorite, though does have some underwater touching potential."

Of course she would consider all the angles like that.

"But then there's the generally more fun --" And cozy, but she wasn't going to use that word right now. "-- option, where one of us sits back and the other one gets to sit in front and lean back into them. Way more efficient use of all that precious tub space!"