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]

Which in turn drew a smile out of her. Also her shoulders were straightening up again.

"Cool," Harley agreed, with a much lighter nod, this time. "So don't go gettin' all confused about how much you're wanted here. Else I might have to do more than just sit on your lap to drive the point home."

[hasaknightjob]

"The lap thing is nice though," Marc said, just so that was clear.

[totalwildcard]

It was already pretty clear, but Harley never turned down a little bit of extra reassurance!

Her snort sounded soft and her smirk looked pleased. "And your thighs haven't even fallen asleep yet?"

[hasaknightjob]

"I've had worse," Marc said. He slid his fingers through hers. For no reason.

[totalwildcard]

And Harley simply had to give his fingers a little squeeze with hers.

"Then I guess I'm not movin'."

[hasaknightjob]

"Your legs aren't tired yet?" Marc asked. Because of the two of them, she had the more difficult position far as he could see.

[totalwildcard]

"Ya don't think I woulda got up already?"

Well...

[hasaknightjob]

"At least say something about it," Marc acknowledged. "I hear you talk when stuff bothers you."

[totalwildcard]

"Exactly!" Harley said, with some of that classic Harley perkiness in her tone. "My legs are fine. I used to hang in the aerial silks in my cell for hours, this is nothing."

[hasaknightjob]

"Hang in the what?" Marc asked.

He did not have a lot of experience with circus acts, no.

[totalwildcard]

"Aerial silks!" Yeah, that wasn't gonna mean anything to him just repeated like that, was it? Of course, Harley was now rolling her eyes at the memory and amending it with, "Well, they weren't real silks, I made 'em all by my little self outta most of my prison clothes, and I can tell ya they do not make that shit out of silk. In fact I'm pretty sure Belle Reve gets their fabric from Chafes-Ya-Butt-Raw'R'Us."

None of that explained anything at all, no.

[hasaknightjob]

"Sure," Marc said. He was absolutely pretending like he knew what she was talking about.

Well, uncomfortable prison clothes he got, so there was that at least.

[totalwildcard]

Harley was now peering at the ceiling with a considering look, anyway.

"I wonder if that's sturdy enough..."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc looked up as well, as though that would somehow help.

"It's a sex thing?"

In his defense he only knew of one thing that regularly threatened the structural integrity of Harley's home.

[totalwildcard]

Harley's gaze flicked back down, unimpressed. "You think I spent hours in a sex thing at fuckin' Belle Reve, the gangrenous armpit of Louisiana?" she asked, making a face like something stunk. "Please, that was like the one fucked up, deeply traumatizing thing they didn't do to me in there."

Although apparently her staying unimpressed was short-lived, because why wallow on any of that when you could be letting new ideas spark instead? So she was looking at the ceiling again. "Although," she said, thoughtful, "the silks could easily double for a sex swing..."

[hasaknightjob]

"How'm I gonna know?" Marc said, in defense of himself. "Maybe you made friends when you were in there."

[totalwildcard]

Harley snorted. It sounded a little... forceful. Derisive.

"They had my ass so deep in solitary that it was like I was in a box, inside another box, inside another box, inside the prison."

[hasaknightjob]

"Dangerous, huh?" Marc asked.

Did he sound a little proud? Probably an illusion.

[totalwildcard]

It softened some of the harsh edges in Harley's expression either way.

"I put half a dozen guards in hospital," she said, like it was no big whoop. "They really didn't like that."

[hasaknightjob]

"People tend to not like getting beat up," Marc agreed.

Not in a way that suggested he felt that meant don't do it.

[totalwildcard]

"And they start getting real overprotective of themselves after they see it happen to someone else."

So foolish, right?

"So that's how ya end up in the smallest box."

[hasaknightjob]

"But big enough to - " Marc tried to see if he was getting the mental image right " - swing."

[totalwildcard]

"A little bit," Harley confirmed. "Mostly just hanging."

[hasaknightjob]

"And that's... fun?" Marc was guessing wildly here. Didn't help that he wasn't good at defining things as fun in general.

[totalwildcard]

Harley gave another snort that sounded a whole bunch more amused than her previous one.

"Sweetie, you're really lost on this one, aren't ya?"