Work Text:
"So Ivy's playing Red Harring?" Zack asks, twisting his wrists to turn the truck along the groove of the road.
"You're not the only one who can nail a role, Duke." Carmen taunts, resting her chin against the palm of her hand. Her gaze is preoccupied, even as she stares at the boundless passing of trees and snow.
-
Ivy shivers and slams her side into the door, "Zack! Open up!"
The door creaks open, a sliver of dim lighting slips out. Carmen's alluring grey eyes meet Ivy's bewildered green ones. Ivy shoves her way through the door, eliciting a tiny gasp from Carmen.
Ivy steps into the room and peels off the wet coat from her escapade as the Red Harring and tosses it aside.
She swivels her head around, "Tell me they've got a warm towel service here," she pleads.
Carmen only shrugs.
Ivy shakes herself off like a dog, spraying the walls and floors with half melted snow.
"You gotta be careful around that big honkah wearin' freak," Ivy huffs, earning an incredulous eyebrow raise from Carmen.
"Who?"
"I mean I knew the French were crazy," Ivy continues, shaking the remaining bits of snow out of her hair, "but he was ready to plow me like a field full of weeds with that snowmobile!"
Carmen laughs, "Yeah well, no one's ever very friendly to thieves," Carmen reminds, smiling sheepishly.
"You oughta watch out for him, he's more insane than I thought." Ivy warns before beginning to pull back the damp sleeves of the stealth suit.
Zack creeps in around the bend, his fingers digging into the windsor knot of his tie. "Sis? Why're ya soaked like that?" He yawns and watches his sister pause and whip her head up aggressively.
"Oh I dunno, Zack, maybe cus there's like, 20 feet of snow out there? And guess who left me out there like a snowman?" Her tone is playful, but painfully accusatory.
Zack cringes and recedes from the room, whimpering out a soft apology.
Carmen throws herself into one of the seats and watches Ivy with interest.
"I didn't realize how thin your coat was Carm, I've gotta sew one of these with fur lining," Ivy says, turning around to stare at her boss.
Zack tosses his sister a towel, which lands on her head. "I'll getcha a change of clothes?" She hears him offer from the other room.
"That'd be great," She yells back, voice faltering as she notices Carmen wince at the sudden shift in volume.
Carmen pauses, and her eyes do that thing where they glitter with fascination.
"You know how to sew?" She inquires suddenly.
Ivy continues kneading her hair out with the fluffy towel and quirks an eyebrow, "You don't?"
Carmen lets out an airy laugh, "Tell me how many sewing lessons benefit a thief and you'll have your answer."
"Jeez we're like two sides of the same coin, but we're so different," Ivy declares aloud.
Carmen crosses her legs, "Meaning?"
"Like, we're both orphans but we're like, super different?" She offers while squeezing her hair dry.
Zack steps in again, his face flushed with frustration and eyebrows scrunched together.
"How the hell am I supposed to untie this?" Zack's hands gesture uselessly around his tie.
Carmen gestures for Zack to come, he whines and shuffles towards his boss.
"That was the first party I've gone to that royally sucked," he pouts and slouches his head downwards in a fit of exaggerated defeat.
Ivy stops drying herself, "Ya ate some fish and sat next to some dude wearing a botched lip-filler job, big deal."
Carmen throws her head back to guffaw at Ivy's comment.
"It was so a big deal!" Zack gripes while Carmen's thin fingers meticulously work out the knot.
"There, now please fetch Ivy something else to wear," Zack sighs and pulls the fabric free from his neck and shuffles back into the other room.
Ivy turns to Carmen wearing a cheeky smile, "I'd teach ya to sew, but my mitts are frozen solid." Ivy places her cold hands between her thighs to warm them.
"Come here," Carmen pats the side of the cushions next to her. Ivy obliges the order and sits far on the edge to be considerate (as Ivy is still soaked to the bone).
Carmen tugs at Ivy's wrists to pull out her hands. She gently sandwiches the frigid freckled ones between her own and blows on them.
"I'll thaw them out for you," she whispers between blows. Ivy's cold pink cheeks blossom into a rich shade of crimson. She ducks her head bashfully to murmur a thank you.
"Do you have a sewing kit with you?" Carmen asks, voice rather eager.
Ivy grins, air escaping her nose in noises of amusement. "Why do ya wanna learn so badly?"
Carmen shrugs her shoulders, "I've always wanted to, I guess," Ivy watches her boss with a tender expression.
"How'd you learn to sew?" She asks, pulling Ivy out of her gaze.
Ivy stammers, "I was in an all girls home for a while, ya learn to do all sorts of girly stuff in a place like that." Ivy retorts and turns away.
She frowns, recalling the younger girls running in from the yard and begging the older girls to help them sew up their tattered clothing (mostly to avoid scrutiny and lectures from the caretakers).
She expects Carmen to be disinterested in a lowly, Oliver Twist like orphanage backstory, but instead she cocks her head like an intrigued puppy.
"I've always wanted a sibling, it must've been like having a bunch of them in a place like that." Carmen says fondly.
"Trust me, one sibling is enough." Ivy groans, throwing her neck out to gesture to Zack.
Carmen giggles, (Wow, two laughs in one night, look, no hands ma! Ivy thinks).
"But who am I kidding? I've got all the family I need right here."
"D'aww you've gone all sappy for us, have ya?" Ivy teases and Carmen rolls her eyes.
"I guess I have."