Pick Your Poison; Wednesday Morning

[totalwildcard]

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, Harley had shown up at the door of Pam's store sobbing uncontrollably, fully inconsolable and incoherent with the melodramatic weight of her grief.

The evening had been much the same, curled up on the sofa in the store, swinging between bouts of sad sulking and intermittent wailing. If Pam had gotten anything intelligible out of her beyond something about breaking up - not that that was hard to decipher into a more fleshed-out story just with educated guesswork alone - and another something about hitting a door (?) it was a small miracle.

And Harley was still there now, waking up on the very same sofa with a start. It took a moment of blinking for her to realize where she was, and another for her to remember why.

It twisted her face into something sad again, but at least she didn't immediately get into another crying jag. So, that counted as progress, right?

(for that gal whose store and person were modded with permission, with an option for that guy already in the store as well)

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[joan_of_bark]

Pam was, unfortunately, not unfamiliar with the experience of having a crying Harley show up at her doorstep. In fact, she had a routine. Which was why the blankets had appeared on top of Harley in the middle of the night.

(She wasn't going to say it was an excuse to spend the rest of the night working in her lab upstairs, but... it did work out that way, didn't it?)

And why, after she came down the stairs, her first target wasn't the store, but the back room and the break-in-case-of-Harley-emergency cupboard. Ethically sourced hot chocolate mix. Marshmallows. Oat milk.

She busied herself in the little store kitchen until she was done, and then she stepped out into the store, holding a big steaming mug. "Harley?"

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah?" Harley called back.

And, oh, God was that ever the hoarse voice of someone who'd been crying all night. She made a face at herself.

[joan_of_bark]

"I brought some hot cocoa," Pam said, her voice softening as she brushed into the store, moved around the counter, and then around the shelf--

She held out the mug. "Here."

[totalwildcard]

"Thanks," Harley replied, reaching for the mug out of her sad, slumped position. Some embarrassment was starting to creep in, which was good, maybe? Meant she was a little more present than she had been.

"And for the blankets, too?"

She'd just realized, yes.

[joan_of_bark]

"Don't mention it."

Much like Pam wasn't going to mention how much this felt right on schedule. The bad relationship, the Harley coming to her after a fight, her telling Harley it was time to dump this guy, Harley insisting that no, he was great, and then-- well.

This.

"Did you get any sleep?" she asked, sitting down carefully on a part of the sofa not presently occupied by Harly.

[totalwildcard]

"I guess?" Harley offered, with a weak shrug, cradling the mug with both hands. "I mean, I woke up so I must've also been unconscious, right?"

She did not feel rested, but that was not a surprise.

[joan_of_bark]

"For a little while, at least," Pam said quietly. She looked at the mug, and resisted the urge to rub Harley's back soothingly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

[totalwildcard]

Harley shrugged, awkwardly. "I dunno."

Her lips were doing the sad thing again, though, corners pulling downwards.

"He dum--" No, nuh uh. "We broke up." Sounded mutual, much better. "Did I tell ya that much?"

[joan_of_bark]

"Several times," Pam assured her. "He dumped you?"

Well, that one was new, if disappointingly unexpected.

[totalwildcard]

Harley grimaced. "Well he's the one that left, I mean, he walked away."

[joan_of_bark]

Pam would reserve that 'told you so' for her private time.

"He's an idiot," she said instead. "Good riddance."

[totalwildcard]

No surprise in Harley not being quite yet ready to agree with that.

She buried her objection in taking a big sip from her mug. Mostly. There was still a hurt whine.

[joan_of_bark]

"And I'm sorry."

Debatable, but at least she was trying.

[witchoftheflesh]

Perhaps Adrian had sensed someone in distress and had been unable to resist the siren call to help. Perhaps the island had gotten bored of its games. Or perhaps it had simply decided that this was a better one. Perhaps the lady behind the keyboard had gotten home and slept a truly ridiculous amount. Whatever the reason, the powers that be had decided that this was the absolutely the best time for Adrian to stop being a plant and resume his human form.

Where there had been black hollyhocks in a planter on the counter, now there was a naked man sitting there instead, looking around in befuddled confusion. "Uh, excuse me?" he asked. "Might I also get a blanket?"

[totalwildcard]

If he was looking for a coherent reply, it was going to take a second.

Well, several.

Since for at least the first five, Harley was busy being startled and making an equally startled verbal keysmash of a noise.

[witchoftheflesh]

And it wasn't like Adrian could get up and get one, so he was just sitting there politely, hands positioned over his lap, waiting for Harley to reboot. "Apologies," he said. "I didn't mean to surprise you or make you uncomfortable, but, uh. I'm led to believe the island has an odd sense of humor."

He gave her his best 'I'm not a predator, so please don't try to murder me' smile. "Pam will vouch for me!"

He hoped.

[totalwildcard]

"Pam!" Harley called, loud and so immediate it might not have had anything to do with what Adrian had said right before it at all.

But this did, after some more blinking, and a big raise of eyebrows:

"Wait, are you the plant guy?! Guy that was plant?"

It was amazing she actually remembered. You could not expect her to word it any better or more grammatically correct than that.

[witchoftheflesh]

"I was a plant again?" Adrian asked, then sighed in disappointment. He'd been hoping for a black rabbit or something, y'know, more mobile. "Almost certainly yes, then. I'm Adrian. You're Harley, right?"

[joan_of_bark]

"Adrian," Pam called from upstairs - her feet were already audibly on the stairs. "I left a change of clothes behind the counter!"

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah but do ya vouch for him?" Harley hollered, for no real reason.

... Actually, maybe it was because she was starting to feel a little self-conscious about being there with all of yesterday's tear-streaked makeup all down her face and generally looking like snotty death warmed up. It was a very limited audience sort of spectator sport, after all!

Had Adrian asked a question? Possibly two? Too bad.

[witchoftheflesh]

"Thanks, Pam!" he said, starting to carefully scootch his way to the other side of the counter so he could grab the clothing without giving Harley a show. He was unfazed about nakedness, but judging from the makeup, Harley was having a bad day and probably didn't need to add 'got flashed (even accidentally)' to her list of reasons why.

"I'm just gonna throw some clothes on and then I can get out of your hair," he promised.

[joan_of_bark]

"I vouch for him," Pam agreed, a wry look clear on her face as she walked back into the shop. She did not even blink at the state of Adrian. "He's good people, Harls. He just has a habit of turning into a plant and, subsequently, a naked man, in my place of business every now and again."

She threw Adrian an amused look.

[totalwildcard]

You know, Harley had barely noticed the naked? She really, really didn't care, especially right now.

"Ya gotta get better hobbies, guy," she said, tugging her blankets a little higher, as if she had something to hide. "Plant-based naturalist shtick ain't it."

[witchoftheflesh]

He had met two different Harleys, both very briefly, and while he certainly didn't assume that meant he knew either of them, he was pretty certain neither woman was someone to cross, even by mistake. Taking care just seemed prudent.

"I'm usually a witch," he explained, sliding behind the counter where he could start pulling on clothing. Pam, you were a blessing, thank you. "The plant-based naturalism is a new, island-specific hobby, I think."

[joan_of_bark]

"I'm going to start keeping an extra set of jogging pants down there, anyway," Pam said, dry and fond at the same time. "You wouldn't happen to have some comfort food tucked away in the back I don't know about?"