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Nastya had a habit of falling asleep in strange places. She hated sleeping—Tim still wasn’t sure if it was to avoid nightmares, because she didn’t want to stop working, or both—and would put it off for as long as possible, sometimes going days at a time without lying down. So when one of the other Mechanisms convinced her to stop and at least sit somewhere for a few minutes, she was prone to just falling asleep wherever they had pulled her.
Presently, Tim was sitting on one of the couches in the living room with Nastya leaning on him, fast asleep. Jonny sat on the couch across him, absorbed in cleaning one of his guns. When Nastya had been asleep long enough that he was confident she would be too sleepy to try to go back to work if she was woken up, he slowly shifted and wrapped his arms around her. Nastya was a tall woman—a few inches taller than him, actually—but she was also lithe and lean, and he assumed she had to be rather light. Certainly light enough for him to carry her.
And then he tried to stand up. He grunted, immediately collapsing back onto the couch. Nastya stirred, yawning and looking up at him. “Tim?”
“Hey, sorry. I was trying to carry you to your room, but—” He cut himself off, realizing that you’re a lot heavier than you look probably was not the best thing to say.
“He’s not strong enough,” Jonny supplied. Tim flipped him off as Nastya laughed.
“Don’t feel bad, it’s the mercury. It’s several times heavier than blood. I weigh…” She thought for a moment. “330 pounds, I think?”
“ Ah .” He said quietly. And then, louder, “Well, I can still carry you.”
Nastya looked at Tim with an amused, sleepy smile. “It’s alright if you can’t, Tim. I can walk.”
“Yeah, or I could carry her,” Jonny said with an infuriating grin.
Tim laughed. “If I can’t carry her, there’s no way you can.”
“Uh…” Nastya said. “Actually…”
“... No way.” Tim looked over at Jonny in all his 5’6 glory (still grinning in a way that made Tim want to punch him), then back to Nastya.
Nastya shrugged. “He’s stronger than he looks.”
Tim groaned and tried again. This time, he actually managed to stand with her in his arms. He tried to take a step, and Nastya let out a yelp as she almost tumbled out of his arms. Tim managed to regain his grip on her at the last moment as Jonny laughed behind them. “This is great,” Jonny said. “Very entertaining. I love this.”
“Fuck off, Jonny,” Tim grunted, taking a few more steps forward.
“I really can just walk, Tim—”
“No, no, I can do this!”
Nastya just sighed, resting her head on Tim’s shoulder. “You’re ridiculous,” she muttered, but he could hear the smile in her voice.
As they exited the living room, Jonny got up and began trailing behind him. He made comments every few steps. “Oh, watch out, Nastya, he’s gonna drop you!”, “Careful, Tim, don’t want to fall on your face”, “What if you drop her and damage her hard drive? Wouldn’t that be fucked up?”.
Tim groaned. “If I wasn’t carrying Nastya, I would shoot you.”
Nastya reached down, drawing Tim’s gun from his holster.
“Wait, Nastya, c’mon—”
Jonny was cut off by a loud bang . A very satisfying thump sounded behind them as Tim continued to stagger forward. “Thanks, Nas.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Nastya slipped Tim’s gun back into his holster. Finally—after much, much more time than it would have taken for Nastya to walk by herself—they got to her room. Aurora took some amount of pity on Tim and opened the door as they approached. “Thank you, Aurora.” Tim crossed the room as quickly as possible before falling onto the bed, Nastya still in his arms. Nastya laughed as Tim laid on his back, trying to catch his breath. “How are you feeling, Tim?”
“Oh, just fine,” Tim wheezed. “I could do that all day. Barely broke a sweat.”
“... Right.”