Work Text:
Crash!
Archie almost couldn’t hide the smirk that came to his lips when the low, angry, mumbled ranting reached his ears from the other room. Getting up from his spot on the couch, he made his way, slowly to keep the amusement hidden from his face and trying to replace it with a look of worry, to the kitchen where the noise came from. Upon entering, just as he’d expected, a frustrated, red-faced Maxie was angrily cleaning some broken dishes, swamped in the meal that had been previously inside the now shattered bowl.
“Need some help there?”
The violent glare from the much smaller man caused Archie to back up a step, throwing his hands up in defense, “c’mon now, no need for that look, I just wanna make sure you don’ get hurt in all that broken glass.”
“I do not need your assistance! I am perfectly fine on my o-yeow!” Maxie’s self-assured rant ended abruptly, a broken piece clattering to the ground again and a small dot of red bubbling forth from the relatively small cut.
Sighing heavily, though the amusement never fully left his body, Archie walked over, crouching down to help the redhead to his feet and reaching over to pull the bleeding hand to his lip, giving it a small kiss. Maxie’s face reached a boiling point at the notion, though made no effort to pull his hand away, as Archie smirked down at him, “sometimes I feel like I outta wrap you in bubble wrap to keep you safe. Go git yer finger wrapped up, you clumsy nerd, I’ll take care of the mess.”
Maxie opened his mouth to argue, but a raised eyebrow from the much larger man silenced him, though only briefly. Huffing with indignant contempt, he turned sharply, nearly crashing into the counter on his way, and stormed off towards the bathroom to take care of his cut. On his way out, however, he made sure Archie knew how much he didn’t require the help by yelling about how he could have handled the situation just fine without him. Archie, however, only grinned that much wider as he began cleaning the mess up. It wasn’t the first time the previous leader of Team Magma had hurt himself with an everyday task and Archie highly doubted it would be the last.
Maybe he really should invest in some bubble wrap.