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]

Marc had one hand on the small of her back, the other arm wrapped around her shoulders so that she could be held close in more than one place. When there was a moment to breathe, he said, for her ears only, "Good seeing you again."

That was possibly not entirely about the past weekend.

[totalwildcard]

Harley pressed her forehead to his like being any less close than that was not even an option.

"Yeah," she murmured, "you too."

It wasn't at all about the weekend, with her.

[hasaknightjob]

What do you know? That got something like a smile out of him.

"Both here now," Marc said.

Then, because Marc's life was what it was, he specified, "You and me."

[totalwildcard]

"Me and you," Harley echoed, smiling back. Bigger and wider than he did, as was often the case. "The best way."

[hasaknightjob]

Harley saying that made Marc feel something in his chest. Nothing he was going to name, but something.

"Kind of a good team?" he suggested.

What? They'd beat up guys together last time they saw one another.

[totalwildcard]

"Great team!" Harley confirmed, and wrapped her arms a little closer around his shoulders. "And two's a manageable size for a team, too. That makes us ideal."

[hasaknightjob]

"I don't do good in groups," Marc agreed. He was doing that thing where he was looking at her and simply enjoying the view again. "Besides. Get too many and then you're a bunch of assholes like the Avengers."

[totalwildcard]

"Ugh, I hate those guys," said Harley, whose entire knowledge of the Avengers relied on a few mentions from him. She'd grokked the 'like the Justice League' of it all, that was enough for her to make up her mind about it!

Whatever faces she'd pulled smoothed back out into a smile soon enough, anyway. "No, we gotta keep this thing nice and contained."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc may have found the faces she made to be endear - charming. The word was charming.

"Right," he said. He held her a little tighter. "Contained."

He'd deny that was a pun.

[totalwildcard]

He could deny whatever he wanted to, Harley was still going to give it a faint snort.

"And you're pretty good at keeping me contained," she noted easily. "With your strong arms and everything."

[hasaknightjob]

"Took my eye off you and you turned into another person," Marc pointed out. "No telling what you'd do next."

[totalwildcard]

Harley laughed in a way that betrayed she hadn't expected that. Good show, Spector!

"Aww, ya gonna have to keep an eye on me for a bit now? Like real close?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc was openly proud of that laugh.

"Best I can," Marc said. "Don't think anybody could lock you down for good."

[totalwildcard]

"Oh, no," Harley agreed, "and they shouldn't even try, I am far too slippery and wiley for that."

However, she smirked a bit.

"But I'm good if you wanna keep watch today."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc placed a kiss on her jaw. "I can hang for a while. Make sure you don't turn into a unicorn."

[totalwildcard]

Harley snickered. "Good, I'd hate for that to happen."

That was a lie.

[hasaknightjob]

"Liar," Marc said.

He didn't need to read the narrative to know that. He'd seen the onesie.

[totalwildcard]

Harley snorted.

"Okay, okay, I'd hate for it to happen while I could be spending time with you, instead?" she offered. "Is that better? More believable?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Better," Marc agreed. He placed another kiss on her jaw, next to where the first had been. "I like you better when you can talk anyway."

Ignore how she probably still would be able to talk based on how the island handled people turning into pastel colored horse like creatures.

[totalwildcard]

Harley gave an exaggerated gasp. Weird how it didn't jostle his kissing efforts at all. "Are you saying unicorns can't talk?!"

[hasaknightjob]

"Do horses talk where you're from?" Marc asked.

[totalwildcard]

"Unicorns aren't horses, you know that!" Harley argued. "Everyone knows that!"

[hasaknightjob]

"They're a horse with a horn," Marc said. "Right?"

Marc didn't pay attention to mythology.

[totalwildcard]

"No, they're their own thing!"

Harley was not so much basing her take on mythology as just vibes, of course.

"If they were just a horse with a horn, doncha think we'd have them around?"

[hasaknightjob]

"I dunno," Marc said. "But they're still animals, right? Those don't talk where I'm from."