Midnight Manor Laundry Room; Sunday Morning

[totalwildcard]

Boy, had that gone poorly! Harley hadn't slept much, and some of the reasons why could maybe be inferred by how, come morning, her makeup looked like perhaps she'd been caught in a heavy bout of rain. Rain that also made your eyes look kinda red and puffy? It was Fandom, okay, genuinely much stranger things happened all the time! Leave her alone!

Also, thanks to the aforementioned lack of sleep, Harley wasn't actually feeling all that much better, come morning. She actually kind of felt like she needed to bite something.

Or maybe go egg the Wayne Foundation building in town.

Set something on fire?

... Or kick a dryer, apparently. Sorry about the occasional clanging noises (and the accompanying swearing), Midnightites! Midnighters? Midnightees...? People of Midnight. Sometimes you just had to laundry aggressively.

It was so much better than actually dealing with your feelings.

(open!)

Comments

[hasaknightjob]

"You're okay," Marc said, still soft. "You've handled worse shit and survived."

[totalwildcard]

Harley made a little noise, not quite of protest, so... Maybe just generalized frustration at the world?

She slipped out of the kiss to flop her face into the crook of his neck instead. To nuzzle the skin there, to hide, to steal more of his comfort, whatever. All of the above.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc moved a hand up to massage the back of her neck. "It's okay. I gotcha."

Not normally two statements Marc thought went together but there they were.

[totalwildcard]

They went together just fine if you asked Harley.

Not that Harley was saying so. She wasn't saying anything at all, actually. Just making more of her noises and trying to snuggle closer, still protectively cradling the pancake container close, too.

[hasaknightjob]

Something about Harley holding on to him and the pancakes in equal measure was charming. (Always charming. Nothing else.) Marc tried kissing the side of her head without dislodging her.

"Stay as long as you like."

Good thing the chair wasn't actually rickety.

[totalwildcard]

"Okay," Harley said, like it was a suggestion.

Whatever, her voice was soft. More quiet than a lot of people got to hear her sound like, too.

She'd felt the kiss. There was warmth here. Something really comfortable, regardless of the folding chair or the general detergent-y ambiance of the room.

[hasaknightjob]

It'd been an offer at the very least. One Marc might have some second thoughts about the location, or at the very least a realization he should've gone for folding chairs with built in cushions. But, much as he'd told Harley, he'd lived through worse. And with worse benefits along the way.

He kept rubbing at her neck, occasionally toying with strands of her hair when they got tangled in his fingers.

[totalwildcard]

"'m not gonna fall asleep," Harley claimed, mumbling the words into his neck. Slow and quiet, and clearly really selling what she was saying. "Not this time. Don' worry."

[hasaknightjob]

"Gonna drop your pancakes," Marc pointed out.

[totalwildcard]

In response, Harley hoisted the container more squarely onto her own lap. It did not lessen the impression that she was cradling them like some sort of security blanket.

"No I'm not."

[hasaknightjob]

"If you fell asleep," Marc said. He rubbed his thumb along the side of her neck. "I can tell you've got a good grip now."

[totalwildcard]

"So do you," Harley replied. It sounded like a sigh, in the good way.

Like she was relaxing.

[hasaknightjob]

"I don't want you to fall," Marc said.

Speaking entirely about the effects of gravity there. No other possible meanings could be applied.

[totalwildcard]

"Noooo," Harley agreed, really drawing the word out, shaking her head (nuzzling his neck) to really drive it home. "That'd be terrifying."

[hasaknightjob]

"All the way down to the ground there," Marc said.

It likewise said... something that he didn't tease or jokingly move in a way to suggest dropping her. Just kept holding her, nice and secure.

[totalwildcard]

"Floor don't look comfy," Harley murmured, a little indistinct. If she paid any special attention to the lack of teasing, she didn't show it.

But she knew she was safe.

And that... That was not nothing.

[hasaknightjob]

"Like you've never woken up on the ground before," Marc said.

That was lightly teasing. But clearly from a guy who had himself woken up on the ground more than a few times.

[totalwildcard]

"If I start out on the ground," Harley retorted, "it don't count."

[hasaknightjob]

"You have to start on the ground to wake up on the ground," Marc said. "Don't you?"

[totalwildcard]

"I don't like it when it's a surprise." Did that clarify something? In Harley's brain it did. "And I usually I love surprises."

[hasaknightjob]

"Got it," Marc said. He shrugged with the shoulder she wasn't curled up against. "Whole life is a surprise so I'm used to it."

[totalwildcard]

"But y'agree that sometimes wakin' up on the ground can be a surprise?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Sure," Marc said. "But that's whether you remember starting on the ground."

[totalwildcard]

"Not necessarily!" Harley objected, animated enough that she actually pulled her faceaway from his neck to look at him. "In my case, it's more likely I've been knocked out so there's nothing to remember!"

[hasaknightjob]

"You should try the random blackouts," Marc said, like pointing out something in a menu. Though he didn't move his hands to actually point. "Keeps things interesting."