The Case of the Neglected Laundry (Part 2)
Pairing: Damien x Maya (MC)
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: When you reblog, please don’t include gifs/images of bugs or spiders. I’m terrified of them irl and probably wont be able to read your response
A/N: So here’s Part 2! Sorry this took so long. As soon as finals were over, clinicals started; it’s only the first week in and I’m super overwhelmed.
Thank god Thanksgiving Break’s coming up!
Part 1 of this fic can be found in my Masterlist. If you haven’t read it, I’d suggest doing that first so this part will make some more sense :)
You can find my masterlist in my description.
If you’d like to be tagged in my fics, let me know!
Perma-note: In my playthrough, I renamed Hayden to Ben; so in my fics, if you see the name Ben, that’s Hayden
Summary: A misunderstanding over a basket of laundry gets a little out of control. It’s not a dinner party without some couple drama.
Warning: MORE petty arguments, Adults behaving like children.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. Characters/canon belong to Pixelberry
The house was relatively quiet, except for Nadia’s animated chatter with Sloane and Ben as they watched Desire and Decorum. Steve was busy at the kitchen putting his final touch on the dessert. Alana leaned back in the couch with a bored expression on her face.
Sloane let out an outraged shout at the TV. “And once again Duke Richards ruins a perfectly nice moment with his disgusting comments!”
“Yeah, take a hike you, pissy old ballsack!” Nadia said heatedly to the pixelated character.
Ben chuckled and turned to Alana, who was rolling her eyes at the screen. “Not a fan of dramas set in the 18th century?"
"I was promised a party,” she replied. “Not hours worth of poetry rap battles. It’s giving me flashbacks to when I had to read Shakespeare in high school.”
He lowered his voice. “Aw come on, it’s not that bad!”
“You’re not wrong.” Alana held up her newly-filled wine glass. “And I have this to thank for it.” She grinned as they clinked their glasses together.
The conversation was cut off by the sound of someone knocking the door. Nadia paused the channel to go answer it. “Maya!” she exclaimed in surprise.
“Where is he?” Her cousin demanded as she walked right past her.
“Damien Nazario, get your ass out here, right now!” Maya marched into the living room to find Ben, Steve, Sloane and Alana staring at her.
“Well hello to you too,” Alana deadpanned.
The door to the bathroom opened and Damien hurried out. “What’s with the- oh.” He stopped short when he saw Maya. “Hi, Maya.”
“You. Asshole.” She bit out, fuming.
“I take it you found the note."
"I cannot believe you would do this!”
“You hid my camera in the laundry!”
"Oh that poor camera!“ Maya exclaimed, placing her hand over her heart in a show of malaise. "So the logical solution was to lure me into the bedroom with some cryptic note for your ’surprise’?!”
“Um, guys?” Sloane spoke up hesitantly. “Maybe this is an issue that could be more productively handled at your apartment?"
"You’re right Sloane,” Maya said. “But sadly, it can’t because now I can’t go into my own bedroom!”
Damien crossed his arms, smirking. “Come on, Maya don’t you think that’s a little dramatic?”
“Dramatic?!” She yelled. “You put a tarantula in our bedroom!”
There was a collective gasp.
“You what?!” Nadia’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head.
“Oh man, you didn’t …” was all Ben could say.
Alana was resting her hands on her chin, sporting the biggest shit-eating grin. “Now this is a party,” she slurred, leaning forward as she sipped at her wine.
“Hey!” Damien’s eyes widened at Maya’s word choice. “I did not put a tarantula in the bedroom!” He asserted, pointing a finger indignantly. “I put a fake tarantula in a cage in the bedroom!”
“A fake-?” Maya’s eyes narrowed. Then she clenched her fists. “The spider was fake?"
"A beanie bag from the store,” He said. “I know how you feel about spiders, Maya. You don’t really think I’d use a real one, do you?!”
An astonished squeak escaped her as she stared at Damien in disbelief. “And you do remember who was the last person to scare me with a fake?”
Damien blinked, then his jaw dropped. "Oh come on, you really wanna go there?”
“Damn right, I will, Mr. Indescr-”
“Don’t.” He bit out. They glared at each other for a moment, before Damien’s eyes softened a bit. “Look I thought you’d have figured out it was fake when it didn’t move.”
“I don’t know Damien, maybe I was too busy screaming my head off. What about the cage?!”
“I thought that sealing it in an enclosed space would make it less creepy than it sitting out in the open.”
“Yeah?” Maya’s tone was dripping with sarcasm in a way that rivaled Damien’s. “How’s that working for you?”
He was so wrong about it not being creepy. Even though Maya had felt maybe a tad relieved that while she was gone, it wasn’t going to wriggle under the door or hide somewhere else in the apartment.
Although now that she knew it was fake, it wasn’t gonna move at all really, but still …!
Damien could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he watched her. Then he sighed and hung his head. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I crossed a line and I’m sorry.” She turned away, scoffing at him in exasperation, but he placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her in place. “I really am sorry, Maya. I shouldn’t have done that. I was just trying to get back at you for what you did, all because I didn’t fold the damn laundry!"
"I was only trying to make you do it, because you left it sitting out to spite me,” Maya said defensively, shrugging his hand off. She could feel another argument coming up and this was hardly the place to do it. But this issue had been festering for weeks and now that she’d just flown off the handle, there was no going back.
“You know, it was your turn so I figured you would do it at some point,” Damien argued. “I don’t know why you were waiting for me to do it!"
"Oh please, you deliberately ignored me when I first told you about it!” Maya retorted. “So why should I do it?"
"You ended up coming back that same night anyway! So why should I do it?”
“Did you not hear what I said?”
“How can you know that I heard what you said? I was half asleep. This didn’t even cross my mind!”
“So you didn’t think it would drive me crazy to see the laundry just sitting around for two weeks?”
Their voices started to go up again as they went back and forth. Steve inched his way towards them, only to be pulled back by Nadia. Then the oven timer suddenly went off and he scurried in there to attend to it.
“If it bothered you this much, why couldn’t you just talk to me?!”
“Why didn’t you talk to me?!”
“Because you didn’t tell me to do the laundry in the first place!” Damien exclaimed. “You just assumed I would do it.”
“I did ask you to do it, and you did hear me!” At Damien’s confused expression, Maya elaborated the same thing she’d told him earlier. “The night I got paged into work, I told you I didn’t have time to fold the clothes and you said you’d do it."
"When did I ever say that?!"
"You heard me ask and you said ‘hmph’.”
“That’s all you’re basing this on?”
“What do you mean, 'that’s all’? You said 'hmph’.”
“But I didn’t specifically say-"
“You acknowledged that you would do it!”
“Well that doesn’t count. It’s not an affirmative answer!”
“Well it’s not a negative answer either, and you acknowledged it so that makes it affirmative.”
“That’s not- that doesn’t even make-” Damien gestured wildly in a show of incredulity. “Look you can twist my words all you like, Maya, but my point still stands. Me saying 'hmph’ doesn’t count as an answer.”
“If you feel that way then why did you ignore me instead of giving me a ’real’ answer?”
“I didn’t ignore you, I just didn’t remember what you asked!”
“Oh for the love of-” She groaned in frustration. “You have no attention span!"
Ben snorted, but quickly covered it up by pretending to cough. Sloane was looking between them with wide eyes, completely perplexed as she tried to process what exactly they were arguing about.
Alana raised an eyebrow, still smirking behind her wine glass. “People wonder why I don’t wanna settle down, I just don’t know what to tell them.”
“For the last time, it was fake!”
“Why did you have to use one at all?!” Maya snatched a pillow from the couch and swung it towards Damien. “You left me… alone … with a fake … spider!” She punctuated with each swing.
Nadia jumped in front of her. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, no rough housing in the living room!” She yelled as she snatched at the pillow.
“Maya, are you insane?!” Damien demanded.
“Don’t call me insane, spider-collector!”
“You smacked my ass with a pillow!”
“Of course I did!” Maya shouted. “'Cause that’s where your brain is!”
“Or maybe it’s 'cause you left yours in the laundry like you did with my camera!”
“Oh my god,” Nadia groaned in exasperation. “I will fold the clothes myself if you two would just grow up!” Damien and Maya gaped at her and she smirked. “Yeah, that’s right! Now, both of you behave yourselves or there’s no dessert for either of you.”
A tense silence passed as the couple glared at each other.
Ben let out a low whistle. “Damn.” He, Sloane and Alana were all standing nearby, looking between the two of them, with expressions of nervousness, confusion and amusement respectively.
Then Maya nodded at her cousin. “You’re right Nadia, we’re sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.” Damien scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “Talk about bad timing, huh?” he joked half-heartedly. Maya’s eye twitched at that and he winced.
“Actually your timing couldn’t be more impeccable,” Alana quipped, gesturing to the TV. “Because now I didn’t have to watch that horrendous finale.” Sloane elbowed her in the ribs and she stumbled a bit, courtesy of all the wine she’d been drinking. “What? We’re all thinking it!”
Maya closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Damien did the same and he stepped toward her. “I’ll get rid of the fake spider once we leave.” he said softly as he placed his hands on her shoulders. “Okay?”
“Once you leave.” she corrected. “I’m gonna stick around a little longer. And when I get back home, your beard better be the only furry thing in the apartment.”
They continued to stare at each other. Although this particular issue had resolved quickly, their eyes were still communicating the challenge that remained. All of this had just been a misunderstanding that had spiraled so out of control that it was hard to tell who was wrong at this point. Someone had to end it before they made even bigger fools of themselves.
Question was, who would be the one to end it?
The sound of Steve hustling around the kitchen broke everyone out of their trance and they turned to find him coming out wearing an apron and oven mitts, holding a large tray. “Lemon bars, anyone?”
“Ooh I want some!” Sloane exclaimed and Ben followed her as everyone rushed excitedly to the dinner table, all the recent chaos suddenly forgotten, to partake in the delicious meal laid out for them.
Surprisingly, the rest of the party went off without a hitch. One would think that a couple’s spat could completely ruin the evening. Not for this crew, though. The whole mess with Eros had brought everyone together in a time of extreme stress. They had become a sort of makeshift family. Plenty of arguments had been witnessed in that time.
So at this point, a little family drama was nothing new to them.
Still, that didn’t stop them from exchanging awkward glances, struggling to hold in their laughter, as Damien and Maya ate their dinner and maintained conversation with everyone but each other.
This was going to be a long evening …
Damien looked up as the door opened and Maya walked in and set her purse on the table. “Hey,” He said as he stood up from the couch.
“Hey.” Maya walked past him into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water. She could feel him approaching her from behind but said nothing even as his arms encircled her waist.
“I got rid of it,” he offered.
“Thanks,” she said quietly.
Damien stayed still, unsure how to continue. This had to be the most ridiculous fight they’d ever had, but thanks to his latest prank, she was angry at him. Now that he thought about it, he sort of remembered her casually saying something about doing the laundry but he’d been so tired that he ended up forgetting altogether.
As days passed, Damien had noticed the basket was still sitting there. As organized as she was, Maya tended to be forgetful sometimes so he’d brushed it off at first, figuring that she’d get to it at some point. Normally, this would be bothering her. But she never mentioned it, so neither did he.
Still Damien would find little ways to test the waters by wearing clothes specifically from the basket, only to get little reaction from her. Soon, it became obvious that she was avoiding it and waiting for him to do something; especially when from time to time, he would catch her glancing at him curiously whenever he would go anywhere near the basket.
Damien had taken that as a challenge and what started as a minor miscommunication had turned into a two week passive-aggressive war that escalated over a few pranks. Once the dinner party was over, he’d come home and thrown out the toy spider and cage as promised.
At least after moving all the small objects Maya had put in front of the door as a barricade.
That was when the guilt had really settled in for him. “I didn’t mean to scare you, Maya,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She placed one of her hands over his as he held her close, kissing her temple.
“Soo about the laundry …” She suddenly turned around and he fell silent at the hard look she was giving him, her expression incredulous. Then she closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she opened them, her expression had calmed.
“You know what Damien?” There was a new resolve in her voice. “I will do the laundry."
He blinked. "Wait, what?”
“For the record, I’m not giving in to that little note you wrote.” Maya replied. “I’m gonna do it.” Her lips twitched into a smirk for a split second before she held it back. “Because I will be the one who did it.” Her hair whipped around as she strode over to the laundry with purpose.
Damien watched her, both confused and wary at her tone. All this time, she’d refused to do the laundry just like he had. Then after his prank, and with the way she’d let loose on him today, he’d been prepared to go ahead and fold the clothes with her. Now she was insisting on doing it herself? No way, she’s definitely up to something.
“Wait.” he maneuvered around her and blocked her path. “What’s with the reverse psychology?”
“I’m not up to anything, I’m just ending this stupid fight, and then getting some sleep - on the couch of course.” She hastily added at the end. “I’m not going into that bedroom for at least the next few days.” Then Maya picked up a few clothes and threw them into the basket with some force. As she reached for another, she turned to find him dumping everything back onto the floor. “What are you doing?”
“Put down the pantyhose."
“I’ll do the laundry.” Damien reached for the pantyhose she was holding, but she swatted his hand away.
“No, you don’t get to pull this on me now!” She snapped. “You got what you wanted, now I’m doing the laundry by myself whether you like it or not.” She moved away from him as he reached forward, but this time he managed to get a grip on the long stockings.
“If I’m not doing it, then neither are you. Wasn’t that how this whole thing started?!"
"Yes, and it was stupid! Now I wanna be the bigger person and end it.”
Damien narrowed his eyes. “I won’t ask you a third time,” He said evenly, tugging at the pantyhose. “Let it go. I’m doing it.”
“You are not touching that laundry, Damien!"
Whatever they’d been angry about before was long forgotten. Clearly they were just fighting for the sake of fighting at this point.
With a pantyhose. They were fighting over a pantyhose.
They tugged back and forth, their glares slowly turning playful as the tension from before lifted and the ridiculousness of this situation fully settled in.
Damien slipped the article of clothing out of Maya’s hand and held it above and behind him, grinning triumphantly as she reached across his chest to try and get it. "Give it up, Park. Your panties are mine."
Maya leaned close to him, whispering seductively in his ear. "Not if I can help it …” She heard his breath catch and took the opportunity to snatch the garment back and dashed towards the basket. “Ha! Now they’re mine!”
“Wha- oh you’re gonna pay for that!” Suddenly, Damien charged forward, tackling her to the floor and holding her waist as he tickled her. Maya shrieked with laughter, squirming and wrestling with him until they were tangled in the pile of clothes that were undoubtedly crumpled up by now due to their antics.
At some point, Maya was straddled on top of Damien, pinning his hands on either side of his head. He smiled and intertwined his fingers with hers. "Seems like we’ve reached an impasse.“ They looked to the lacy garment lying somewhere far from them, then at each other … and burst out laughing.
"I agree,” she said, surveying the mess they’d made around them. “Looks like we’ll have to wash these clothes anyway. They’ve been on the floor for almost a month now.”
“We really are a couple of idiots.”
“Some of us more than others,” Maya giggled. “I still can’t believe you took the time to get a cage and bedding for the toy spider.” Her expression sobered just a little at that. “Just … don’t do that again, okay?"
"I won’t, I promise.” He tilted his head towards one of her hands and gave it a gentle kiss. “I’m sorry I scared you with a fake spider."
"And I’m sorry I hid your camera,” Maya said, smiling shyly before shaking her head. “God, Nadia is never gonna let us live this down.”
“You got that right. But you know …” Damien pushed her hands back, grabbed her forearms and pulled her closer to him so their noses were almost touching. He grinned as she caught herself with her hands splayed across his chest. “Seeing you get all worked up like that actually got me thinking. Why waste all that energy fighting when we could be doing … other things?” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Other things?” Maya rested her arms on his shoulders as she pretended to think. “Like the laundry?”
“Maya …” he whined at her teasing, and she laughed even harder.
“Perhaps.” She gently trailed a finger down his cheek. “It’s certainly something to think about.” She brushed her lips against his, sighing softly as his fingers trailed along her back.
“Hey,” he tugged her hips gently. “What do you say we take this to the bedroom?”
“You’re wondering if it’s still in there, aren’t you?” He laughed when she smacked his shoulder. “Maya, I swear I got rid of it.”
“Who needs a bedroom?” Maya whispered, kissing along his jaw as she slid her hands under his shirt. “When there’s a perfectly comfy pile of clothes underneath us?"
"Maya Park,” Damien raised an eyebrow, his breathing quickening as she felt up his chest. “I like the way you think.” He reached for the zipper of her dress. “And did I mention how amazing you look in that dress?”
“I knew you would. But first,” She’d just slipped off his tie and was now finishing unbuttoning his shirt. “You’ve got some making up to do.”
“All right then,” he said with a devilish smirk. “Show me what you’ve got.”
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