Work Text:
Liquid sloshed in its container and a picture swam up on the photo paper, her eyes that had long adjusted to the red-tinted darkness around her saw a sparrow mindfully drinking from a puddle on a busy New York city sidewalk. The blur of the crowds shuffling behind the sparrow and the little reflections caught in the puddle made this shot worth looking like a damned fool, lying down in the middle of a busy street to capture this shot and then hurriedly apologizing to no one in particular. Therese hung the photo up to dry and wiped her hands on her washcloth. On to developing another roll of film, load it, put the developer in, wash out, stop bath, wash out, fixer and wash out again, a tedious task repeated slowly and meticulously in the quiet of a Wednesday afternoon. It was calming to Therese to be in her own dark space, in her own apartment, seeing the fruits of her work blossom on paper. The sound of the sink drowned out any other sound around her, the gurgling and churning of liquid echoed off the walls but Therese somehow felt off all of a sudden. Her apartment had suddenly gained an eerie presence, a weight in the air like something moved around within its walls. After a long minute, the door behind her opened up just a crack; she didn’t know what she was more scared of, a possible intruder or her photos potentially getting ruined. The room was small enough that if she swung around right now she could hit the person, possibly knock them out with the paperweight besides the sink. Now her ears were filled with her own heartbeat. In a moment of madness, she quickly shut the tap, grabbed the paperweight and swung widely at the intruder. Her vision blurred with by the speed at with she swung around and the sheer adrenalin coursing through her body, she couldn’t quite make out who the figure now grasping their head in pain and slightly cowering was. Sound finally reached her ears and she heard a disturbingly familiar voice.
“Jesus fucking Christ!”
Carol? What was she doing here? Why had she broken into her apartment? She could’ve called; Therese wouldn’t refuse a visit, Wait. She had hit Carol. Shit. She had hit Carol thinking it was an intruder and she looks like she’s in serious pain. This entire chain of thoughts went through Therese’s mind like a jolt of electricity and she immediately dropped her paperweight and ran to Carol’s side.
“OH my god I am so sorry Carol. Are you hurt? I thought you were an intruder.”
“God. Good to know that if someone ever tries to rob our apartment, I have you to bludgeon them to death with a paperweight darling”
Our apartment? What was she talking about? Therese carefully took them both out of her dark room, making sure her film wouldn’t be exposed to too much light. She expected the light of the afternoon to blind her so she squinted in anticipation but there was nothing but the blue of the evening and a completely different apartment. How long had she been in her room?
“This isn’t my apartment.” Therese muttered under her breath.
“Therese, are you alright? You shouldn’t be the one saying these things when I am the one with brain damage” Carol quipped as she fell to the couch with an audible thud.
It finally dinged in Therese’s mind. She had been in her dark room since the afternoon, having only recently moved in and being so used to living alone, she had forgotten that she now lived with someone. That someone had obviously come back from work and she had hit that someone on the head with a paperweight. Therese rushed to Carol’s side, removing her hands from her head to check to see what damage the paperweight had done.
“OH Carol I am so sorry!! Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I am so sorry I forgot that I lived here and that you had a key and that it was the evening. Oh god, please forgive me.” Therese stumbled and sped through her words, trying to do some sort of damage control.
The paperweight wasn’t that heavy but she had swung pretty hard and Carol seemed to have taken quite the hit. She carefully checked for any swelling or bruising as best as she could through the masses of blonde hair. She ran to the refrigerator to grab a bag of frozen peas. She gently applied the bag to where she had whacked Carol on the head. She sat beside her on the sofa and heard snickering. She looked to see Carol suppressing her laughter, Carol quickly broke down into a fit of giggles, she was laughing so hard her eyes watered up and Therese actually started to consider the possibility of brain damage.
“How do you do it?” Carol wiped her tears away with her pinky.
“Do what?” Therese was slightly embarrassed by her own aloofness.
“Be the cutest murderer in all town” Carol jabbed Therese’s side with her finger, making her jump.
Therese let her head fall, the blush on her face colored deeper. Her hands grew cold from the peas that had started to melt and slightly wet Carol’s hair. She quickly removed them from her head and replaced it with a light kiss.
Next morning, Carol woke up to quite an extravagant breakfast for a Thursday morning. Therese came out of the kitchen with a hot cup of coffee and strode towards Carol.
“Well what is this for?” in one smooth motion, Carol put Therese’s coffee to the side and pulled her close by her waist.
“For almost killing you yesterday” Therese put her arms around Carol’s neck and slightly leaned back into her arms.
“Is that so? Maybe I should’ve made more of a case out of my injury. What would be my compensation for that?” Carol leaned her head forward and moved her hands lower down Therese’s back.
“Maybe I’ll show you.” Therese said staring at Carol’s lips.
The sun had barely risen a couple of hours ago and Carol already had Therese backed into a wall and caught in a steaming kiss. Carol ran her hand down the side of Therese’s thigh and slowly dragged it up to her hip. Therese responded with tightening her hold in Carol’s hair and pulling her even closer. A growl bubbled from in between the both of them, which broke their kiss. It had come from Carol’s stomach and now she stood conflicted as to which natural need should she fulfill first. Therese laughed, pushing them both off the wall, and lead her to the dining table.
“Let’s have breakfast first. I have a late start to work today” Therese looked over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows at Carol.
Carol happily followed Therese, thinking she should scare her more often. She winced with pain when she accidently brushed against the bruise on her head, maybe she shouldn’t scare Therese lest she might actually get killed.