Apartment Above Needful Things; Tuesday Late Morning

[totalwildcard]

Harley had spent most of the weekend on the mainland. Not just Baltimore, either - she'd taken the kid out on a little road trip. Yanno, for life lessons! Most of them criminal, of course, but that was sort of how their mentorship worked, so someone else could handle the boring stuff. Anyway, they'd had fun!

So much of it, in fact, that Harley had only landed back on the island late on Monday evening. Technically probably Tuesday? Which meant that after she'd passed out and slept her fill, the day was already well on its way. She rolled groggily out of bed, shambled her way into the living room --

And groaned when she saw the glitter bomb still waiting on the coffee table, and not downstairs attached to the front door ready to explode on Frenchie if he showed up again this week. Whether he'd already shown up or not, Harley was not in a state to go set it up now.

She shuffled around some more, in search of her phone, which she found discarded on the kitchen counter. No calls, no messages apart from Cass informing her she'd ordered breakfast delivery on Harley's account. Harley looked at the phone for a long moment more anyway, tapping her thumb against the side of it in thought. Groggy, still sleepy, not yet caffeinated thought.

And pulled up a number she'd had for a while but never actually texted before.

(Successfully, anyway. There was that time on her birthday.)

You awake yet?

(expecting one but can be open for other stuff as well!)

Comments

[totalwildcard]

Harley wasn't thinking about much at all, except how nice the rubbing felt, and how good he smelled, and how warm and solid he was under her...

Okay, so maybe she was thinking about a few things. But in a distant, relaxed sort of way? She wasn't going to fall asleep on him again, but she was just about that level of relaxed.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc knew it was a level of trust for her to get like that around him. Around anyone, probably, but he was the one she was sitting on. He let that wash over him as he went from rubbing his hand up and down to doing it in idle circles.

[totalwildcard]

Harley hummed her approval. Her own hands were remarkably still, like the rest of her. She was just holding his shoulders, not doing anything more complicated than that.

Yeah, there was trust here.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc kept going then. Wasn't like it was difficult to do. And she felt nice where she was.

He maybe put a kiss on the top of her head too. Long as she was in reach for that.

[totalwildcard]

"You fuckin' softie," Harley teased.

Kind of quiet, for her, and like she was smiling.

[hasaknightjob]

"Fuck you," Marc replied, not with any rancor.

[totalwildcard]

Harley huffed, and just barely shook her head. Or nuzzled his shoulder. Or both.

"Not when you're soft ya won't."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc dropped his lower hand down and pinched her ass in response to that.

[totalwildcard]

"Ow."

Weird how that didn't sound like it actually hurt. Or like she was at all offended.

[hasaknightjob]

"Now we're both a pain in the ass," Marc told her.

[totalwildcard]

Harley made a great big huffy noise that was only extremely thinly concealing that she was holding back a laugh.

"I coulda sworn I'd been warming ya up enough to take the pain away."

[hasaknightjob]

"You're tolerable," Marc said. Of course he was basically cuddling her at this point so tolerable was clearly an understatement.

[totalwildcard]

"And you're doin' a great job tolerating," Harley told him. Not at all being an obnoxious tease about it. "I feel so thoroughly tolerated."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc stopped the back rub long enough to give her a few pats, like one member of a sports team greeting another. "Good. Glad to hear it."

[totalwildcard]

Harley didn't manage to hold the snicker back any longer. It was like it just pushed its way through her and out of her mouth.

"Oh, God, the bro pat, really? That's what it's come to?"

[hasaknightjob]

Marc was possibly laughing as well. Hard to tell. It was mainly a huff of breath by her hair. "What? We're not bros?"

Marc was not remotely the kind of guy who could say 'bro' naturally.

[totalwildcard]

"We could be," Harley replied cheerily, "if I fit the bill at all and if you sounded like you'd ever used that word in a sentence before!"

[hasaknightjob]

"Not really 'bro' material," Marc said. Which he managed to do in an easy, tossed off manner. But then the words caught up to him and the joking mood deflated. It was Marc so not obviously. But someone close - in both senses of the word - could probably pick up on the shift in energy. Particularly when the way he rubbed Harley's back seemed to be about distracting himself now.

[totalwildcard]

Being both more perceptive than a lot of people gave her credit for and a lot more tuned into paying attention to Marc specifically than she maybe would have credited herself, Harley picked up on something.

She might've still claimed the subtle way her fingers were now kneading at the back of his shoulder was a complete coincidence, though. Plausible deniability and all that.

"Like ya better as you are, anyway," she said, but it lacked a lot of the mirth from just a moment ago.

[hasaknightjob]

That... actually eased a little of the tension that had appeared. Marc paused the backrub long enough to hug her. Again someone attuned to him would know that was a little more about what he needed than her at that exact moment.

[totalwildcard]

And someone attuned to him might even know he didn't often make moves towards anything he needed.

Harley kept her 'oh' to herself. She shifted, instead, straightening up a little, only so she could wrap him up a little better. Still rubbing something a little soothing into his shoulder.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc kissed the top of her head again. "See? You're pretty okay."

A vague attempt at getting out of the sudden mood and back to what had been a few moments earlier. Or something new entirely. Whichever.

[totalwildcard]

"And tolerable to boot," Harley murmured. "The ideal package."

[hasaknightjob]

"Don't forget hot," Marc told her. "You bring a few things to the table."

[totalwildcard]

"I did bring them to the table, but then ya wanted me off it."

Hilarious, but hey, that was less of a murmur again.