Needful Things Building; Monday

[totalwildcard]

The Dream House was gone by morning, replaced again with the antique store and the apartment above it, both with all four walls intact, and the color scheme decidedly less pink.

And in said apartment, late in the morning, Harley woke up with a start. Like fully bolting upright and everything, with a gasp.

"... Barbie looks like me."

She couldn't believe it. She brought her hands up to her face, smooshing her cheeks.

"Like me."

This jaw! These cheekbones under her skin!

Something about it was making her eyes well up.

At least, until something else about the weekend came back to her. "Bruce!" Oh, God, he'd been eating something obviously plastic, all weekend long! Harley scrambled out of bed to find him - only to, yes, find him curled up in one of his usual spots, seemingly right as rain.

She still ended up taking him on a long walk around town. It took a while for her to be convinced that just as magically as he'd turned into a toy dog for the weekend, whatever the plastic stuff he'd been eating (and, to be fair, pooping out at what seemed like an alarming rate for a fully functioning gastric system) had just as magically turned into actually edible stuff in his guts when he'd turned back. He seemed fine! He was leaving behind dog shit that was the usual level of disgusting!

Still, between the long walk and then breakfast for both him and herself, the morning had already turned into the afternoon by the time something occurred to Harley, and sent her bolting down the stairs into the store.

There, she found the display of dolls of varying ages and kinds.

And there, tucked near the back, was a Barbie. Harley carefully pulled her out from between a Victorian-ish porcelain doll and a fairly creepy 1950s baby, and smiled down at her.

It was a little watery, but there was no one here to see it, was there?

"Oh, there you are."

Something in her chest ached a little.

(expecting one!)

Comments

[totalwildcard]

And maybe that made Harley smile a little.

"Good to be back!"

Even if it was hard to tell from all the crying.

[hasaknightjob]

"You remember being gone?" Marc asked, curious. "Watts didn't."

[totalwildcard]

"Well I didn't just guess I'd been Barbie," Harley replied with a bemused little huff, as they entered the apartment, "or that Bruce ate plastic, 'cause lemme tell ya, only one of those things would even ever occur to me as a possibility."

The apartment looked the same as it had last time he'd been here. Bruce was curled up by the couch and lifted his head at their arrival.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc gave Bruce the usual bro nod when he saw him.

"I meant - never mind. Not important."

[totalwildcard]

Oh, but Harley had already turned to face him again, a question on her face.

"What? What'd you mean?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc knew Harley well enough by now - or he liked to think he did - to know trying to keep avoiding wasn't going to go far. So he went for the simplest answer.

"If you lost time. Blink and it's Monday. That kind of thing."

[totalwildcard]

He wasn't wrong.

"Kinda?" Harley mused, her head tilting as she considered the question seriously. "I mean, I definitely wasn't here for the weekend. But then I got all of her memories to fill that gap in, yanno, if that makes sense?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Kinda," Marc said, deliberately echoing her reply. "Easier when you know who was subbing in for you."

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah," Harley agreed. "It's not lost time."

And if it felt like she squeezed his hand when she said that, no she didn't, you couldn't prove anything.

[hasaknightjob]

"You get used to it," Marc said, going for wry but not quite getting the gold in reaching it.

Nobody could prove he rubbed her hand with his thumb in response. Just like nobody could prove he'd maybe been curious about bonding over varieties of blackouts.

[totalwildcard]

"Do ya?"

Okay, so maybe this bit of curiosity was a little more obvious. Soft, though.

[hasaknightjob]

"Not like I got an alternative," Marc pointed out. "Least it's not as many these days?"

[totalwildcard]

"Did it use to be real bad?"

Maybe even Harley knew that might be too personal to ask, because she also tugged him towards the couch, like a distraction.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc kept following where she led. He had no objections sticking close to her.

"Depends on what you'd call bad?" Marc said. Not deflecting. Acknowledging there were levels. "Time, yeah. Days, weeks sometimes. Nothing that long now. Far as we know."

[totalwildcard]

"Weeks?" Harley asked, and made a small 'oof' noise to accompany that. "Must be scary."

She was making a little pit stop at the shelf. Still holding the Barbie, after all.

[hasaknightjob]

"You get used to it," Marc said. "Steven had it worse than me. Least I knew why I was blacking out."

[totalwildcard]

"'Cause you knew he was there."

Still with just the one hand, Harley bent the doll at the waist, so she could set it on the shelf - next to the framed picture, no reason.

She patted the doll gently on the head.

And considered, for once, whether she should ask the question she wanted to ask.

[hasaknightjob]

"And because my brain is made of Swiss cheese," Marc said, since both were true.

He waited patiently at that point, figuring if she was quiet it was about the doll.

[totalwildcard]

"Oh, your brain is much more delicious than Swiss cheese," Harley quipped, choosing - for the moment, anyway - to let her question go, as she turned to him again, giving him a little nudge to sit down on the couch.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc sat where she indicated.

"Pretty sure anybody trying to make a meal outta that is gonna get indigestion."

[totalwildcard]

"It's a metaphor," Harley replied helpfully, flopping down beside him. Close. "I'm no cannibal."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc went to put his arm around her. To make room if she wanted to be close.

"Considering how often something of mine has been in your mouth, good thing you're not."

[totalwildcard]

So Harley just had to scoot even closer to him, happily plastering herself against his side.

While snickering. "Aw, but the threat of it would keep you in line! Gotta stay nice to me or your dick's gettin' bit!"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc held her closer. Because even though it'd been weeks since they'd seen each other, this weekend it wasn't even an option. And that made it different.

"I need keeping in line now?"

[totalwildcard]

"Not usually," Harley admitted, smirking up at him (with her makeup still all smeared onto her cheeks, but drying now), "but it never hurts to have a little something in my back pocket just in case! It's just smart thinking!"