Work Text:
leaves their dirty clothes on the floor
It’s late, getting on for almost one in the morning, when Angie slips through the door. She’d taken the late shift at the automat because there’d been an open audition earlier for an off-Broadway play she’d only heard good things about. It seemed promising, and that thought had kept her energised all through her shift.
Now, however, she slips her shoes off with a groan and pads quietly through the apartment to the bedroom. She can hear Peggy’s deep breathing and smiles tiredly as she closes the door behind her. Her uniform is pulled off in seconds and she leaves it in a pile by the door. She’ll pick it up tomorrow and put it with the rest of the laundry, because neither of them like an untidy house, but for now, she doesn’t have the energy to do anything but slip into bed beside Peggy and snuggle close.
Peggy makes room for her, she always does, and Angie’s body gives in to the comfortable warmth of Peggy’s arms and she falls asleep within seconds.
forgets to
run the dishwasher
do the washing up
They don’t so much forget, as—
‘You know we’ll only have to do it tomorrow?”
“Don’t care,” Angie says. “I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“I was away for two days.”
“Feels like weeks.”
Angie tugs on her arm, and it doesn’t take much for Peggy to turn, and somehow, in between the kissing and the clothes landing haphazardly on the floor, all the way to the bedroom, neither of them remember about the dishes still soaking in the sink.
pumps gas for the car
It’s a little strange, but there are definitely stranger things, Peggy thinks, than finding someone pumping gas to be as stimulating as Angie seems to find it.
Somehow Peggy always seems to be out of the car before Angie even has chance to volunteer.
She absolutely does not stand up a little straighter and flex her arm a little when she feels Angie’s eyes on her. That would be quite embarrassing.
drives when they’re going somewhere
"Where in God’s name did you learn to drive, Angie?"
Angie takes her eyes off the road to grin in Peggy’s direction. “My brothers taught me everything I know.” She takes a moment to consider something; Peggy glares and holds onto the door a little tighter. “Must have been ten years ago, though, last time I was behind a wheel. It’s a lot more fun than I remember.”
“Yes.” Peggy says, then grits her teeth as Angie swerves around a bicycle. “What do you say, darling, that I do the driving from now on?”
Angie shrugs. “Sure, Pegs, if that’s what you want.”
Yes, Peggy thinks. That is what she very much wants.
rearranges the furniture
“It helps me relax,” Angie says, the first time Peggy walks in on her tugging the bureau across the living room.
Peggy doesn’t question her further, just picks up the other end and together they rearrange the room until Angie’s happy with the new layout. Peggy doesn’t care one way or the other which wall they’re sitting against, as long as Angie’s the one sitting next to her.
falls asleep with the
TV
radio on
Sometimes the quiet bothers Peggy. When it’s dark outside, and the streets are so silent that she can hear the small sounds of her own body and the creaking of her apartment building as it settles in the night.
She’s spent so much of her life surrounded by other people at all times of the day and night that it can be difficult to get to sleep when there’s no background noise to relax to. It’s better when Angie’s there, but when she’s on a late shift at the automat — which doesn’t happen very often now, because the evenings are the only time they have together, and they’re too precious, what with Peggy sometimes having no choice at all in the hours she works — the quietness is often too much for Peggy to take.
She sleeps with the radio on, low and comforting, its humming guiding her to sleep until Angie comes home to switch it off.
gets to use the bathroom first
Most days their bathroom routine is infallible. Their schedules are such that there’s no need at all for overlap, and both can be showered and ready for work promptly. Some days, however…
“Angie, if you’re not out of there in the next three seconds I’m going to be late.”
She can hear the shower still going and knows Angie probably can’t hear her. Also knows there’s no way Angie’s going to be out of the shower in time.
Of course, it would save time and water if she were to just join Angie…
…No one’s interested in why she’s getting to the office twenty minutes late, but just in case, she mumbles something about the blasted subway being utterly packed and how she completely missed her stop.
decides the temperature for the ac/heater
They’re both pretty in tune about the temperature, but sometimes Angie feels the cold a little more than Peggy. They have a gas fire in their living room, and if Peggy’s not there, she might light that for some warmth. If Peggy is there, though, there’s no need. On days when they’ve got nowhere else to be, they’ll share a blanket, pulled up to their shoulders, or sometimes they might not even make it out of bed, and Angie finds she doesn’t need the extra warmth when there’s the weight of the bedsheets settled over her body and Peggy pressed tightly against her side.
sets up holiday decorations
Decorations have never been a big thing for Peggy. There was never really the time or the inclination to put them up, even when she had a place of her own to decorate. It’s a surprise, then, when she comes home one day to a seven foot tall tree standing proudly in the corner of their living room, and Angie currently covered in more decorations than the tree.
“Tinsel?” Angie asks, holding out a gold strand for Peggy to take.
Between them, they get the tree decorated in no time, and when Angie switches on the lights and sighs at how pretty it looks, Peggy can’t help but smile. Maybe decorations are worth something after all.
leaves the lights on
It’s not a thing either of them ever really forget, but sometimes when Peggy’s working strange hours, Angie will leave the bathroom light on, with the door partly ajar, because despite being a super secret agent who can clock a man unconscious with no problem at all (which Angie loves), Peggy’s also the biggest klutz Angie’s ever known, and more times that she can count, she’s been woken up to the muffled sound of Peggy cursing a stubbed toe or a banged hip.
The light helps everyone out.
uses the bathroom with the door open
It isn’t by choice.
“It fell off its hinges,” Peggy tells their landlord. “Just about took poor Angie’s eye out.”
The landlord glances over at Angie and she nods, doing her best not to blush. It wasn’t her fault she’d been so pleased to see Peggy she’d practically tackled her the moment she’d walked through the front door. And who would have guessed the bathroom door was not at all sturdy enough to take the combined weight of both their bodies crashing against it.
“I’ll have someone in to fix it in the next few days.” The landlord still looks a little dubious, but with probably another dozen issues to take care of, he leaves quickly and without fuss.
“Next time you’re explaining away the broken furniture,” Peggy says, once their fit of giggles has died down. “You’re the actress after all.”
fixes the plumbing (or calls the plumber)
“You don’t have to do that, Pegs.”
Peggy grunts and shimmies out from under the sink. “I know, but you fixed it last time so it seems only fair.”
They should have complained about the leak weeks ago, they really should. Angie watches Peggy — stripped down to her slip so she doesn’t get dirt anywhere that matters, and expertly wielding a wrench — and can’t think of a single reason why they keep putting it off.