Chapter Text
They’re not hiding.
Hiding is such a strong word. They’re merely seeking some privacy to work on a personal project, somewhere far away from the inevitable teasing (especially from Pete.)
Yep, that’s totally it.
Just one problem with their fabulously brilliant plan: they’re out of snacks. Standing between them and the kitchen is a highly suspicious Pete and a nosy Steve. Human lie detectors are not conducive to keeping secrets.
Claudia groans, stretching out of her customary troll position, which she always finds herself in whenever she’s engrossed in something (yes, its bad posture. No, she doesn’t care.) Her eyes slide to her accomplice Myka, pen caught between her teeth. It’s dark in the little corner of the B&B’s basement they’ve managed to commandeer. Leena doesn’t mind, and Pete still thinks it’s haunted, which keeps him at bay.
The walls are covered with sketches, notes and post it’s, hung precariously with patterned washi tape. There are two lamps, a brighter one for Claudia, who needs the extra light, and a more washed out one for Myka, which some might call moody. Claudia secretly thinks it suits the atmosphere of a writer, though the same could be said about her desk. There are pencil pots and art supplies, which she could swear were once organised, strewn about everywhere. There’s a sketchbook somewhere, it probably has some important notes. Several pads of paper are stacked on the light box used for tracing line art. The only thing that remains (relatively) organised are her Copic markers, which are too freaking expensive to lose.
Myka’s desk, on the other hand, which sits at an L shape from hers, is as neat as the agent herself. Despite the fact the furniture was all obtained (secretly) from yard sales, she’s made it all fit together, as if it was always there. There’s a neat stack of notebooks, a single pen cup full of pens and colour co-ordinated highlighters, and several books used for research, held up by a makeshift twizzler tub turned book end. Her wall too is covered in notes, the only sign they are both knee deep in this thing together. Actually, at this point, they may be pretty far south of that. Claudia’s pretty sure they passed that point when the project started bleeding into her dreams.
Still, it’s their baby, and damned if they aren’t going to finish it (except every time they near the finish line, there’s a new piece of the story to tell.) What started out as a collaboration between a bored Claudia and Myka, several months ago during a rather long inventory spell, has turned into a beast neither of them could have predicted.
This particular beast has taken the form of a graphic novel. Claudia, who used to draw a lot at the institution, has fallen out of the habit and she all but jumped at the opportunity to engross herself in a project. Myka had taken a lot more convincing, especially given her lack of knowledge of the genre, but she had quickly taken to the story she had begun building with Claudia and adapted rather fast. With her talent for writing (which Claudia continues to insist is far better than she realises, and she’s going to be a best selling author one day) the story quickly began to take shape. Of course, Pete will want to read it at some point, but for now it remains sacred, tucked into a safe little corner between the two of them. Claudia could probably handle the teasing from Pete, but heaven help Myka if he finds out that the great bookworm herself, who repeatedly insists the written word is far more valuable than comics, is writing a graphic novel. Oh, she can just about feel the comments coming.
“We need more snacks,” Claudia declares, rubbing her tired eyes. Myka looks up from her notes, still half lost in thought. Once she gets into the story, it’s hard to focus on anything else. If it wasn’t for Leena, who has graciously brought them proper meals on more than one occasion, they’d probably starve.
“Agreed,” Myka replies, untangling her now messy ponytail, so she can re-tame the curls back into place. “What are you in the mood for?”
“I’m craving coco puffs, don’t ask me why. Probably Pete’s influence. Speaking of, how are we gonna ninja past him this time?” Myka thinks it over. They’ve already distracted him, several times, and he’s beginning to catch on. If he’s absorbed enough in his task, they can sneak past unnoticed, but then that leaves Steve, not to mention a recently returned post-Boone-incident-that-shall-never-be-spoken-of-again Helena. To say things have been tense between her and Myka would be like saying the dinosaurs are kinda extinct. There isn’t a knife in the world sharp enough to cut through the layers of tension (probably more than a lot of it is pent up sexual tension that Claudia really does not want to think about.) The project has provided a more than convenient escape from reality, one Myka has been familiar with since childhood. That lead to an increase in inspiration, which in turn led to more time with Claudia, causing an overly curious Pete to become suspicious.
“I think one of us should stay here, it will arouse less suspicion if we aren’t seen together. How about I scope it out, see how distracted he is, and we’ll go from there?”
“Eye eye captain.” Claudia gives her a mock salute, spinning in her chair. Myka grabs her cell phone, weaving her way through the storage area of the basement their base of operations, as Claudia has dubbed it, is hidden behind. Truthfully, she’s never been more glad for her friendship. She’d been miserable and moping since Helena left, (she’s big enough to admit that now), even Pete didn’t know what to do with her. The story breathed a new life into her she didn’t even know she needed.
She avoids the two stairs that creak, carefully pulling open the door so it doesn’t make a sound (Leena had oiled the hinges for them, always so thoughtful.) She cautiously peeks out, the hallway is thankfully empty. She can make out the sounds of a video game as she draws closer, two figures sitting on the couch. That’s both good and bad, Steve and Pete are both distracted, but they can both see into the kitchen from the shared living space. She considers it, then decides it’s worth the risk (mostly because she’s hungry.)
As quickly and quietly as she can, she pilfers a box of Pete’s cereal (Claudia will eat it out the box, no bowl necessary.) There’s a bottle of apple juice left unattended in the fridge, so she snags it, along with an appetising looking kombucha for herself. Myka approved snacks seem to be in short supply, so she’s forced to put her quarries down so she can quietly rifle through cupboards. There’s plenty of instant ramen, which reminds her far too much of her college days, chips, dried fruit snacks that don’t taste the best. Her eyes quickly scan the packages until, bingo, a box of muesli bars, the kind that pretend to be healthy, but have chocolate on the outside to cover it up. Not what she’d buy, but a perfect writing snack. She balances the box carefully on top of the cereal, then tucks both under her arms so she can carry the drinks without making a sound. She glances quickly at the pair, who are still too engrossed in their ongoing battle against pixelised aliens to notice her, and she safely retreats, prizes in hand.
She almost makes it back too. The problem, it seems, is that the space HG (and sometimes Claudia) have chosen as a gadget workspace, is too close for comfort to the hideaway she’s currently retreating to. Of course, the universe has a sense of irony, and they keep running into each other. If it had been a year earlier, Myka really wouldn’t be complaining, but it’s not and Helena left. She doesn’t want to admit how much it hurts, but oh it does. Just the sight of the inventor, sleeves rolled up, top three buttons undone, hair falling out of it’s bun, makes her stomach flip. Where there was once excited butterflies, it now feels like a knife twisting. HG smiles tentatively and Myka sighs.
“Just grabbing some snacks,” she says, hoping she can escape before the others overhear. Helena tilts her head to the side, the same confused look that she always has whenever Myka disappears off somewhere. She’s not sure if it’s the tension between them, or her victorian sensibilities that keep her from following, but Myka is grateful regardless.
“I can see that. Isn’t that Pete’s cereal?” She points to the definitely stolen box and Myka just shrugs.
“So that’s where it’s been disappearing. You know, he keeps complaining about that.” Myka grits her teeth, of course she knows, she’s been on the receiving end more than a few times. She simply has no shame when it comes to pilfering things from Pete (he’s done the same to her food on many occasions. Payback is a sweet, sugary cereal.) She bites back the comment she knows she shouldn’t make, feeling a tension headache beginning to take root.
“Well then I hope you don’t narc on me.”
“Narc? I’m not familiar with the term.” God, now she sounds like Claudia. She swallows a retort about how no-one likes a rat.
“Just don’t tell him, OK?” Helena’s smile, which had been plastered on in an ever growing attempt to put Myka at ease, falters at her tone.
“Of course,” she replies, and Myka takes that as a sign to end the conversation and retreat before they’re overheard. She glances over her shoulder, making sure she isn’t followed (it would be pretty easy for Helena to find them if she really looked, so she wants to make sure that doesn’t happen.) The silence of the basement is a welcome relief, and she sighs as she makes her way downstairs.
“Mission accomplished,” she declares, placing her haul unceremoniously onto her desk since it’s the only available space. They really need to find another desk, but it’s hard getting one the right size, used, in small town Univille. They’re lucky none of what they’ve procured so far has been an artefact.
“You took a while, did you get caught?” Claudia snatches the box, tearing open the top in her rush to chocolatey goodness.
“Good news and bad. Pete and Steve are playing a video game, but Helena was coming out of the workroom again.”
“Oh damn.” Claudia pauses, treat halfway to her mouth. “What did she say?”
“Not much, just the usual awkwardness. I made her promise not to tell Pete we’re the ones stealing his snacks.”
“You think she’ll narc?” Yep, she’s definitely been spending too much time with Claudia.
“With how tense things already are, I doubt it.”
“I take it we’re still mad at her.” Myka idly opens her drink, fiddling with the metal cap but making no move to take a sip.
“I’m mad at her, that doesn’t mean you have to be. I know you’ve missed her Claude.”
“Hey, if you’re mad, so am I. Besides, she left both of us, remember? So even if you weren’t big mad, I still would be.” Myka smiles hesitantly, receiving a mega watt Claudia grin in response.
“Thanks.”
“Anytime. So about the next panels, I was thinking we should do a bit more of an experimental colour palette, really emphasise the fact they’re in another dimension.” She puts the box down, shuffling through papers until she finds her swatches and thumbnails. She holds both out to Myka, who leans down to take a look.
“The purple’s nice, but it reminds me too much of neutralising goop.”
“As the last person to clean out the gooey, agreed.”
“I think we should go with the red, the blue is too close to our original colour palette.”
“How much red? I can give everything a red undertone, so it sort of looks like a glow, or change the colours completely?”
“I think the glow, that way it’s still cohesive, but it gives the reader the sense that something has changed.”
“Subtle, me likey.” They share a customary fist bump, a requirement of the still untitled project. It doesn’t take long until snacks are consumed and they’re both engrossed in the project again, so engrossed that Myka almost doesn’t notice her phone buzzing. She fishes it out from under one of her notebooks.
It’s a text from Pete: HG says somethings up, u ok? And about three emoji’s Myka doesn’t understand. What the hell does an upside down smiley face have to do with anything? She glances over at Claudia, who looks up at the disturbance to their work flow.
“Who’s texting us when we’re busy being creative geniuses?” She asks, brandishing the marker in her hand like a weapon. Myka smiles, shaking her head at the younger woman’s antics.
“It’s Pete. Apparently he’s been talking to Helena, and he knows something’s wrong.” Claudia scrunches up her face.
“Since when does she talk to Pete? I thought he was mad at her too, because he’s your partner and all.”
“I thought so too.” She bites her lip, thinking back to the conversation in the hall.
“Maybe she’s the one who approached him, and managed to convince him she’s worried about me?”
“That makes sense. What are you gonna do?”
“Lie to him, kinda.” She types out a message, showing the screen to Claudia before she sends it.
Myka: I’m fine, just a little sick of running into her.
Claudia nods and she sends the message. Unfortunately, Pete isn’t one to let things go that easily.
Pete: U wanna talk about it? Only two emojis this time.
Myka: Thanks, I’m good. Just the usual.
Pete: You’re still mad at her?
Why is everyone asking her that today? Has the past miraculously ceased to exist in the hours she’s been holed up down here?
Myka: No, we hugged it out and had sex on your bed…Yes I’m still mad at her!
Pete: Woah, tone down the sass.
Pete: But seriously, after what she put you through, I am too.
Myka: Thanks Pete.
Pete: Anytime.
Having appeased Pete (at least for now) they go back to work, neither one noticing the time that passes as they remain lost in their fantasy world.