OTP Quarantine Edition #06: "Your attempts to enter my cushion castle have been repelled once more. Retreat to your pillow fort lest I strike at thee with a righteous fury-- and shave you while you sleep."
Obviously, this is very rough and not beta-read. So be kind...or at least be amused. Because I know I was. ;)
Again, we’re here for the fluff of the matter to make people smile. There are plenty of other places on Tumblr to go to commentary on all things in the world right now.
Working from home is not easily accomplished, Darcy is finding. So much of her job revolves around Jane’s high tech and highly custom machines...all of which were on the compound and slumbering quietly, only giving off the occasional readout that they could analyze in a matter of minutes. So, Darcy’s been taking the time to organize Jane’s digital files. Which at least keeps her busy because Jane has never been the most organized of scientists, but good lord she feels like her eyes are about to start bleeding if she has to look at any more of Jane’s scanned in chicken scratch documents.
Darcy slams her laptop shut and drops her forehead onto the case, letting out a sigh that sounds incredibly close to a whine. She knows full well that she’s lucky to be in her position right now, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get to her sometimes.
A minute later her phone vibrates, the FaceTime notification popping up with an obtrusive glare. Darcy answers it without looking, because there’s only one person who would be calling right then. “‘Sup, boss lady?” she says, knowing that Jane’s getting a screen full of her tangled and probably one day past a shampoo hair.
“Okay, be honest,” Jane asks, voice sounding tiny and echoing from the compact screen, “how are you really doing right about now?”
“Mehhhhh,” Darcy groans. She pushes some hair out of her face and lifts her head up just a bit to meet Jane’s face head-on. “I know it’s only been a week and a half, but this feels really weird, right?”
“Oh, this is beyond weird. This is…”
“The internet calls it collective trauma,” Darcy interjects. “I call it I don’t know what the fuck to do next. I never thought I’d actually miss the quiet lab days, but there you have it.”
“Same.” Jane frowns at the screen, then bites her lip in that way that Darcy knows she’s thinking hard about something. “You know what I think we need?”
“Blanket forts and a movie.”
“Janey, I like the way you think.”
It’s not the best blanket fort Darcy’s ever built, but hey, it’s not like she can run out to pick up appropriate blanket fort building supplies. Still, between couch cushions, kitchen chairs, all of the extra blankets, an extension cord, a plateful of cookies, and a random string of fairy lights, she’s managed to do up a neat little cavern that’s doing a great job of blocking out the world for a little while.
On the other side of the laptop screen Jane’s hunkered down in her own blanket fort, with the same movie playing in sync with Darcy’s tablet. “Okay, but...and how...that doesn’t even make sense with time travel!?” Jane blurts out, waving slightly pixelated arms at the screen.
Darcy just shakes her head and rests her chin on her folded arms. “Stop trying to science a movie. You’ll never make it make sense. Just sit back and relax.” Which she’s now actually managing to do quite handily, really. The low lights, warm cookies, cozy blankets...she can feel her body unwinding from its tense state and start sinking into the cushions instead.
“How can I relax when the logistics of their own rules aren’t playing nicely with each other?”
“It’s the magic of Hollywood.”
She’s just about to fall asleep, actually, the comforting sound of Jane’s voice in her ears and the scent of cookies in her nose, when she hears the front door clicking open, followed by Steve kicking his shoes off and thumping along the baseboards. Next comes what could possibly be a bag being set down on the dining table, then the kitchen sink being turned on for the necessary handwashing.
The water turns off, eventually, and Steve’s footsteps start to wander back towards the living room. “Five, four, three,” Darcy starts to murmur. “Two…”
“One,” she whispers with a smile. Darcy jabs her hand through the flap of the blanket fort, hoping that she’s aiming in Steve’s general direction. "Your attempts to enter my cushion castle have been repelled! Retreat to your pillow fort lest I strike at thee with a righteous fury-- and shave you while you sleep," she cries out.
The flap peels back and Steve crawls into the fort, settling himself in next to Darcy and getting comfortable, a warm, solid weight against her side. “Hey, Steve,” Jane says, saluting him with her popcorn. “How’s your corner of the world right now?”
“Well...I got to witness Tony trying to convince the governor that disinfectant droids are a good idea earlier today.”
Darcy and Jane share a worried look at that one. “He’s built numerous fail safes and a kill switch into the programming, right?” Darcy asks. “Because we know what happened the last time his bots got out of control.”
“I’m now picturing little drones flying around carrying a can of Lysol and spraying it into everyone’s face who’s not wearing a mask,” Jane adds, nodding.
“That may just be a public health hazard,” Steve says, running a hand up Darcy’s side. She snuggles back into him, enjoying the chance to just be close to him.
“Let me have my fantasies,” Jane fires back.
The back and forth banter is comforting enough to lull Darcy back towards drowsiness again, just for a little bit. She pulls Steve’s arm over her and lets her eyes fall shut, feeling safe and secure inside her little blanket fort with her loved ones as close as they could be given that the world feels like it’s on fire outside right now.
Right before she drifts off, she hears Steve say one more thing. “What are you watching, and why does that one guy look like Bucky?”
(yes they’re watching Hot Tub Time Machine. Because why the hell not?)
More ficlets to come soon. I’ve got a lot of good prompts to dig my teeth into...
