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]

"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."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc moved one hand up and down her back. Not massaging, mainly touching. "You're better than most."

[totalwildcard]

"For you to keep in your noggin?" Harley replied, letting her hand brush against his cheek. "Damn right I am!"

[hasaknightjob]

"Shame you're so shy," Marc said. Oh so deadpan.

[totalwildcard]

Harley snorted. "If I was shy, you wouldn't have such explicit things about me in your head, now wouldya? And you need those."

In her expert opinion.

[hasaknightjob]

"Good thing I like confident," Marc said. He reached up and gave a light tug on a lock of her hair. Not painful, just saying hi.

[totalwildcard]

It just felt like a kind of pressure on her scalp. Harley welcomed that sort of thing.

"Of course you do, it leaves you just a sliver less room to back outta things without good reason."

[hasaknightjob]

"Nah," Marc said. "I love room to back out of things. You're different."

[totalwildcard]

"Are you saying you're a sliver less likely to try backing outta things with me?"

Hey, it was sort of what she was hearing.

[hasaknightjob]

"A sliver, sure," Marc said. Far too casually for it to be just a sliver.

[totalwildcard]

"Good," Harley replied, leaning forward again. All close and up in his face. "I like it when you don't back out. Or back down."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc maybe nuzzled her cheek as long as she was that close. "Or back away?"

[totalwildcard]

"Oh, that too," Harley purred, staying where she was because the nuzzling was nice, "definitely."

[hasaknightjob]

"It's not bad having you close either," Marc said.

Around the corner. In his lap. All the options in between.

[totalwildcard]

Harley was taking that as an excuse to fully flop against him, burying her face in his neck.

(If that got even more mascara residue on him, so be it.)

"Feels like I should claim I took over this place so close to your house on purpose," she admitted. "To lure ya in."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc adjusted his hold on her so she could flop as much as she liked. Could this be called cuddling? Not by Marc it wouldn't.

"Did you?"

He didn't believe it for a second.

[totalwildcard]

Harley gave a huff against his neck - and then nuzzled it. "Please, I didn't even meet you until after," she said. "... I think?"

The details were already a little fuzzy.

"So just pure dumb luck."

It was hard to imagine him repeatedly showing up if she'd set up shop across town, somehow.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc tilted his head to give her plenty of room to work with.

"You met Steven first," he said, since that was the kind of detail that stood out to him. "I met you after you had this place."

He would've had a very small likelihood of stopping by as often in the beginning if she lived on the other side of the island for sure. Luck indeed.

[totalwildcard]

"So, exactly," Harley said. Smiling, even though he couldn't see it. "Dumb luck."