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Ivy didn’t have enough fingers to count all the times that Carm had saved her life. She was, however, still keeping count. At this point she kind of figured that it would be impossible to completely repay Carmen for everything that she'd done, but... it still meant something to her to try.
They had just arrived back from a caper in Belgium, and everyone was decompressing in their own way. Carmen was taking a much deserved bubble bath, Zack was likely playing video games upstairs, and Ivy suspected that Shadowsan was making a visit to his favourite cafe. Ivy was currently sitting on the couch in the den, adding to her seemingly never ending list. The newest entry read: '22. Pulled out of the way of some MAJORLY deadly VILE tech arrow at last minute.'
Once she was done typing it out, she opened a much shorter list, which was made up of observations about Carmen, and ideas for how Ivy could thank her for everything. These ones weren't numbered and included entries like ‘flowers??????' and 'fav ice cream = hazelnut'. If Ivy was being honest, most of the entries were just foods that Carmen liked, because as far as she was concerned, food was definitely a love language, and no one could change her mind.
Ivy had just typed out 'strong feelings about pineapple on pizza', when she heard someone enter the room, and looked over to see Carmen toweling off her hair and wandering over to the kitchen area. She watched almost studiously as Carmen threw the towel over her shoulder and went to open up the fridge. Ivy knew from her own experience of having eagerly looked for food earlier that Carmen was currently staring into a fridge stocked with exactly three things: a long expired jug of orange juice, a comically large bottle of ketchup, and a jar of pickles that she couldn't recall any of them buying.
"Don't worry Carm! I ordered pizza about half an hour ago, should be here soon!" After a beat, she added, "Hawaiian for you, mushroom and pepperoni for me and Zack."
"Man, you're the best." Carmen turned around and smiled broadly at her, and Ivy couldn't help but beam back.
"Eh, anything for you."
Carmen made her way over to where Ivy was sitting and plopped herself down comfortably across from her on the couch, stretching her legs out onto Ivy's lap. There was a certain sense of familiarity that came along with moments like this, and Ivy couldn’t help but blush a little at the gesture. Carmen looked comfortable, hair still slightly damp from her bath, stretched out across the couch with her hands folded behind her head. Carmen caught Ivy staring, and she quickly looked away, back at her phone and the list she had been putting together for the last few months. She let out a small sigh and then closed the app.
"So," Ivy began, setting her phone down on the coffee table and turning to face Carm, who raised an eyebrow in response. "Bad action movie or bad horror movie tonight?"
-
In the end they had actually landed on bad romcom, and after copious amounts of pizza and candy (which they had convinced Shadowsan to bring home for them), they were indulging in a second bad romcom.
Over the course of the evening their occupation of the couch had taken many forms, and currently Ivy was resting her legs on the coffee table with a comically large bag of skittles in her lap, while Carmen was laying with her feet over the arm of the couch, and her head resting against Ivy's thigh. Every so often Ivy would get the urge to run her fingers through Carmen's hair and she had to force herself to concentrate on the movie instead.
The movie itself was not very good, which was of course the criteria for a good movie night, but there was something about romantic comedies that Ivy just didn't get. Maybe it was that she couldn't suspend her disbelief that these people could be so bad at communication. Maybe it was just that the love interest was always a man. Whatever it was, she would suffer through it if Carmen was in the mood to watch one.
Currently, they were watching the big final gesture of the movie, where the love interest comes back after their falling out and shows the protagonist how much he loves her.
"I know it's silly, but sometimes I wish I just lived a normal life." Carmen suddenly said with a small sigh. Ivy blinked and looked down at her. "Not that I'd give up helping people for anything, but," she paused, "I wish I could have something like this. Fall in love like normal people do."
Ivy didn't know what to say, she wanted desperately to say something, comfort Carm or commiserate or anything. Her brain unhelpfully supplied: "I mean, I don't think this is very realistic, Carm."
"Oh come on, you know what I mean. Just... to not have to worry about all the big things that come with this job. Just... feeling like you're special and the centre of someone's attention, and not in a life threatening way." Ivy was silent at that, her brain was trying to have several thoughts at once, and she had to resist reaching for her phone to add to her Carmen note.
Carmen looked up at her and gave a small smile. "I mean... don't you miss that?"
"Miss - ?" It took a moment for Ivy's brain to catch up with what Carmen was asking. "Oh! Well..." She looked away sheepishly. "Honestly I never had that much experience with all that stuff. Too busy with racing and everything I guess."
"Really?" Carmen seemed surprised and Ivy was flattered for a moment.
"Turns out girls don't consider fixing up an old racecar to be an ideal date night." Carmen snorted in response.
"I don't know, sounds pretty fun to me," she added with a laugh, and gave Ivy a soft smile. Ivy felt lightheaded.
"Well in that case let's scrap movie nights, we can have garage nights instead."
"I think you're underestimating how much I'd actually enjoy that."
"I think you’re underestimating how boring it is to watch someone tinker with an engine for hours on end."
Carmen shoved Ivy's leg slightly, "I'm telling you, I'd enjoy that. It's something you're passionate about." As if trying to show that she was being sincere, Carmen sat up, swinging her legs around from where they were hanging off the couch, crossing them underneath her, and facing herself towards Ivy. "Plus..."
"... plus?"
"Plus... you're good at it. It'd be like watching a master painter at work." Ivy let out a big laugh at that.
"Carm, I think you're giving me a bit too much credit here."
Carmen shrugged in response. "Either way, I'm nearly certain you aren't being serious. I refuse to believe that's the kind of date you'd take someone on."
"Yeah? What kind of date would I take someone on?"
Carmen put her hand up to her chin and made a thoughtful noise. "How about," she said, pausing for a moment, "one where you let them have all the candy!" In an instant, she had grabbed the bag of skittles out of Ivy's lap and was holding it away from her on the other end of the couch.
"Hey!" Ivy leaned after her, bracing her hand on the edge of the couch and reaching out with the other. Carmen relented easily, and it wasn't until after she was holding the bag of candy again that Ivy noticed the position that they were now in.
Ivy was hovering over Carmen, held up by her one arm, which was close enough to Carmen that it brushed up against her side where her shirt had ridden up slightly. Carmen's giggles subsided after a moment, and when Ivy looked back at her face, her eyes were wide and still.
Ivy was trying to think of something to say, or to will herself to move, but before she could do either Carmen surged upwards to kiss her. In an instant Ivy dropped the bag of skittles, which unceremoniously spilled all over the couch, and kissed Carmen back, if somewhat awkwardly. Carmen let out a small noise, and, grabbing at the collar of her shirt, pulled her down. Ivy followed easily and her hands instinctively came to rest at Carmen's waist, at that spot where her shirt had ridden up before. She was distractedly rubbing her thumbs in small circles against Carmen's skin when -
"Jeez you guys are still up?"
The two of them shot apart at Zack's interruption, and in her attempt to quickly separate herself from Carmen and sit up at the same time, Ivy somehow managed to land them both on the floor. Zack was absolutely none the wiser, and when Ivy looked over at him, he was completely preoccupied with filling up a glass of water and grabbing a leftover slice of pizza. By the time he returned his attention to them they were sitting a perfectly respectable distance apart on the couch.
"Hello? Please don't tell me you two have been some kinda brainwashed, I do not want to have to wake Shadowsan up right now."
"What? Of course we aren't you fish for brains!" Ivy took this opportunity to throw a pillow at him. "Maybe we were just busy enjoying the movie!"
"Rude!" He easily avoided the attack. "Plus it's over!" Zack gestured to the screen, which was very obviously in the middle of the credits.
"I think we're just tired, Zack," Carmen said distractedly as she pulled a skittle out of her hair. "Probably time to turn in for the night." She stood up and glared at the piece of candy in her hand and then turned her attention to the couch still littered with the rest of the contents of the bag.
"No worries Carm, you go to bed, I'll clean all this up."
"No, I-"
"Nuh-uh, I've got this," Ivy said, waving her away from the couch. "It was my fault, anyway." Carmen looked like she wanted to argue, but after a moment held up her hands as if to say 'alright, if you insist'.
"Well, I'll be sure to make it up to you later," Carmen said with a small smile, and then turned to leave the room. "Good night Zack! Night Vermeer!"
Once she was gone, Zack walked over to where Ivy was now picking half melted skittles off the couch (and making a mental note to turn over the cushions before Shadowsan saw). "Okay sis, if you don't wanna tell me I respect that, but what on earth was that all about?"
Ivy waved his question away, signalling that she’d explain everything to him in a moment, and went to pick up her phone before she forgot. She then typed out a quick entry before returning her attention to the couch and her brother.
It read: ‘loves cheesy romcoms??’.