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]

Harley looked somewhere between mock surprised and genuinely triumphant.

"Oh, that's a big word from you! Think I might have to treasure that one forever."

[hasaknightjob]

"It's four letters," Marc pointed out. To be a pain in the ass.

[totalwildcard]

"Like I said," Harley replied, absolutely unrepentant with her wide, bright grin, "big word."

[hasaknightjob]

"Could think of some other four letter words if you want 'em," Marc said. As a treat for her successfully being a pain in his ass.

[totalwildcard]

Harley looked smug about it, perhaps predictably.

"Come on then, let's hear them, lay 'em on me."

[hasaknightjob]

"Now I don't wanna," Marc said. Because he was going to try to give as good as he got, even if Harley was better at this than he was.

[totalwildcard]

Okay, but Harley also had her entire face at her disposal, and that face was doing some really big and disappointed things right now. Directly at him.

"Why nooot?"

[hasaknightjob]

"I don't perform on command," Marc replied. Fake huffy. Or as best as Marc could manage fake huffy. He wasn't exactly great at performing in general, on command or not.

[totalwildcard]

"But you offered!" Harley protested, with a wounded gasp. "I was being encouraging!"

Or something!

[hasaknightjob]

It was difficult for Marc to hide his smile at that. He tried, didn't succeed. "Cool. That's one."

[totalwildcard]

Harley was much better at holding on to the way her nose stayed all scrunched up.

Still, it would not last.

"Okay."

[hasaknightjob]

"Also four letters," Marc pointed out. So helpful.

[totalwildcard]

"I can count!" Harley objected, as if that had been at all on purpose. (A laugh almost broke through.) "Rude, that's four letters too!"

[hasaknightjob]

"I wouldn't call you rude," Marc said, as though that's what she'd meant. "Nice. Another four."

[totalwildcard]

"Dick's four too."

Just so he knew.

[hasaknightjob]

"I know," Marc said. There was a smile playing about his lips. "I've heard it enough."

[totalwildcard]

Harley pointed at his face. Sure, it meant relinquishing her hold on him on one side, but it felt worth it.

"Know, that's another. But kind of a boring one."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc mimed biting at the tip of her finger. "My name. That's another."

[totalwildcard]

"Not as boring," Harley had to admit, her lips really twitching towards a smile now. She wiggled her fingers at him. "I mean, I guess."

[hasaknightjob]

"It's no Harley, yeah," Marc said.

Yeah, he knew about Harleen now. She wanted to go by Harley, he called her Harley.

[totalwildcard]

Only cops called her Harleen now, anyway. Or people who mistakenly thought they could get a rise out of her or intimidate her by showing off they knew about it.

He was none of those things.

(Which meant he could probably have gotten away with it, too.)

Also Harley was fully smirking now. "Well, it's not your fault ya gotta have more letters to have an interesting name. I mean, sometimes people call me Harls, and even that's more'n four letters!"

[hasaknightjob]

There was the full Marc Spector but the one who did that most was Khonshu and the less thought about him right now the better.

"I like what I've got," Marc said. He shifted her in his arms to indicate he wasn't just talking about names. "But I'll keep Harls in mind."

[totalwildcard]

"Oh, you should always keep Harls in mind," Harley replied, with full mischief in her smirk.

Definitely not just talking about the name, either.

[hasaknightjob]

"You're never far," Marc said.

If he was Steven that would have been a play on how she lived around the corner. But he wasn't so it just meant his thoughts.

[totalwildcard]

And that was how Harley took it, too, right before she said "Good", and tapped her fingertips lightly against his temple.

"You need good things up here."