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

[hasaknightjob]

It could join whatever had ended up on his shirt besides tears.

"Do my best not to," Marc said. Even as there was a twitch of worry that his best there wouldn't be good enough.

[totalwildcard]

"It's literally the most any of us can do," Harley replied with a sage nod.

[hasaknightjob]

Something about the way she said that made Marc kiss her on the top of her head.

"Nice having you back."

[totalwildcard]

The kiss made Harley's smile a little more amused in the softest possible way.

"Is it?" she asked, more as a tease than anything else. "'Cause Barbie had some killer outfits, and she was nice."

[hasaknightjob]

"You're nice," Marc said. "More interesting too."

[totalwildcard]

"Oh, like you stayed long enough to find out!" Harley replied without missing a beat. "You made sure Bruce was okay and ya left."

[hasaknightjob]

"Why would I stay if it wasn't you?" Marc replied.

He was going to skip past the Bruce thing in the hopes it wouldn't be noticed more than it had been.

[totalwildcard]

Harley shrugged, although her smirk didn't go anywhere. "I dunno, plenty of other interesting people out in the world!"

[hasaknightjob]

"Steven can be the one who makes new friends," Marc said. "He's got it covered."

[totalwildcard]

Harley raised her eyebrows at him. "And you're, what? A Harley exclusive? Limited edition? For serious collectors only?"

Not that they were friends, of course. Perish the thought!

[hasaknightjob]

"Some things are you exclusive," Marc replied with a smirk of his own. "Which you fucking know."

Did she? Well maybe now she did. Marc wasn't worrying about it.

[totalwildcard]

Oh, but now Harley was really raising her eyebrows at him. Dramatic-like!

"Sweetie, it doesn't count if it's just 'cause you never even meet anyone else!"

[hasaknightjob]

"You think I'm only spending time with you because of a lack of options?" Marc asked.

[totalwildcard]

"I think you like to ignore the entire concept of options," Harley replied, unrepentant. "In fact, I would bet good money you woulda even ignored the option of spending time with me if I'd let ya!"

But she considered some boundaries to be more like suggestions, so...

[hasaknightjob]

Marc frowned. "Why would I force you to spend time with me if you didn't wanna?"

[totalwildcard]

Harley frowned back.

And squinted.

"... What?"

[hasaknightjob]

"How would it have not been an option?" Marc asked.

[totalwildcard]

A second more of frowning as Harley tried to rewind everything in her head, and then --

"Oh, no, I meant it was always an option," she clarified. "But you might've just ignored the possibility of taking it if you'd decided to stick to bein' a fucking hermit."

[hasaknightjob]

"Gotcha," Marc said. And don't mind him as he held her a little closer for no reason. "What can I say? You're different."

[totalwildcard]

"Well you can clearly say that just fine," Harley teased, all relaxed in his closer embrace. "Because you keep tellin' me."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc rolled his eyes. "Sorry I'm boring you."

Teasing, not actually offended.

[totalwildcard]

Harley soothed him with a sneaky, quick kiss on the cheek all the same.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "I'm just so bored with ya."

[hasaknightjob]

"I'm a pretty boring guy," Marc said. Very deadpan. Oh so serious.

[totalwildcard]

"Uh huh," Harley replied easily. "I'd even say unremarkable."

A beat.

"Ha, unre-Marc-able!"

Amazing.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc gave a long, long suffering sigh.

Steven would've loved that joke.