Work Text:
“Heeeey, HG,” Claudia said in her best wheedling voice as she came upon Helena at her worktable.
“Absolutely not,” Helena said without looking up from the parts she was tinkering with.
“You don’t even know what I was going to ask!” Claudia said.
“You were going to ask me to be part of your ill-conceived plot to get around Artie so you can sneak an artifact out of the Warehouse to show your former boyfriend so you can impress him with how cool your job is.” Helena said it in a fairly deadpan voice as she reached for a tool and began making adjustments.
“What? Noooo, I would never--” Helena did look up at this and Claudia cut off what she was saying in response to that no-nonsense look. “Okay, maybe I would. Why did Pete tell you anyway? He swore he would keep it a secret.”
Helena rolled her eyes as she reached up and adjusted her lamp to a better angle. “Pete didn’t tell me. He told Myka, who then told me, and the answer is still no. I won’t help you with your plan.”
“Phooey,” Claudia slumped onto the spare stool situated at the end of the worktable. “Are you going to tell Artie?”
“No,” Helena continued with her tinkering.
“Are you going to try to stop me?”
“No.”
Claudia frowned. “Are you going to say ‘I told you so’ if it goes wrong?”
“Almost certainly.”
“It’s not that bad a plan,” Claudia felt compelled to protest.
“If you say so,” Helena glanced up at the pieces laid out on the table and then indicated one nearer to Claudia, “Could you hand me that, please?” When Claudia had complied she nodded her thanks and started fitting the new piece into place.
Claudia stayed for a while, watching her tinker and not saying much, obviously thinking, before she eventually slipped off the stool and quietly wandered away. She missed seeing the small smile that graced Helena’s lips as she went.
Some time later Myka wandered in, coming over to give Helena a kiss on the cheek before settling herself on her stool to the side of the table. “So Claud has decided not to go through with her big plan.”
“Is that so?” Helena was putting the pieces remaining on the table into a semblance of order before grabbing a nearby rag and attempting to clean some of the grease and dirt off her hands.
“Yeah,” Myka said, watching closely, “she was all for it and then suddenly she just changed her mind. Pretty quick shift considering that she was pretty adamant about it when she was arguing with Pete and me.”
“Maybe she just needed time to think it through,” Helena suggested as she came over to stand between Myka’s knees, kissing her and wrapping her arms around her.
“What did you do?” Myka asked between kisses.
“I gave her no resistance,” Helena explained, drawing back a little so they could talk. “She was unsure about the idea but your immediate resistance to it made her feel like she needed to defend it and once she got set on defending it, she stopped thinking it through.”
Myka began slowly, “So by not arguing…”
“And not agreeing to help,” Helena interjected.
“She took the time to step back and look at it objectively.” Myka concluded. “When did you get so good at psychology and manipulating people?”
Helena pretended to be affronted. “Darling, I have always been good. I wooed you rather successfully, didn’t I?”
“Is that so?” Myka grinned at her.
“I won you over with a grappler and an intelligent mind, and here you are,” Helena gestured to Myka sitting on the stool, “wooed and waiting, so yes, that’s so.” Helena stepped in closer again.
Myka laughed and leaned forward to kiss her again. “Yes, that’s fair.”
They stayed pressed together for a long moment before Myka broke the quiet saying, “Still waiting, by the way. You owe me lunch.”
“I should never like to leave a lady waiting for lunch,” Helena said, with a suggestive curve to her lips that indicated she was thinking of something else. “By all means,” she stepped back with a grand gesture, “after you.”
She paused only to turn the worktable light off on her way out.