Chapter Text
“No, that’s not right. Let me start over.”
“Uh, Buzz, don’tcha think it might be faster to just let me do it?”
“Jessie. Please. I’ve defended entire galaxies. I think I can braid some yarn. Uh, hair."
She had to fight to keep from rolling her eyes when he began to separate her strands of yarn for what could quite well have been the hundredth time, running his plastic fingers through them to remove any tangles. Bonnie had decided to let her hair down during playtime this evening, and he had wanted to ‘help’ her by braiding it for her again once she had gone down for dinner. Initially, she had been touched by his wanting to do so for her, but now she was close to strangling him with her pull-string.
In the time she had been waiting for him to learn to do it, she could’ve done it ten times over herself, but she’d fought the urge. She had come to learn that part of being a wife was having patience with one’s spouse, and he had given her more than enough opportunities to practice over the past couple months. If she didn’t love him so darn much, she thought to herself as he cleared his throat behind her, she was sure she would have hog-tied him by now and tucked him away in the closet for a while.
Nah, she was only kidding.
Well, kinda.
He was completely silent on his next attempt, and she knew for a fact that he was knelt there with his tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth while his fingers worked, hyper-focused on getting it just right. The thought was enough to make her smile to herself, honestly, ‘til he pulled a bit too hard.
“Bu-uzz!” She winced, glancing over her shoulder at him.
He shot her a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”
She held his gaze for a moment before turning back around and allowing him to continue, both hands playing idly in her lap as she stared at the opposite wall. Surprisingly, there were no more mishaps, and once he had her braid secured with her hair-tie, he moved to sit beside her on the bed with a sigh.
“Dolly, the mirror,” She told their friend who was sitting on the floor, in the middle of a game of cards with Potato-Head and Pricklepants. Dolly turned her hand face-down and got up, walking over to the hand-held mirror Bonnie had left on the floor earlier, and when she returned with it she gave it to her. With the mirror in one hand, she heard her husband hold his breath as the other grabbed her braid.
On bringing it forward over her shoulder, she noticed it was a little wonkier than usual and there were a few strands of yarn that he had missed out, but she smiled nonetheless. Setting the mirror down carefully next to her atop the quilt, she laid her hand over his between them before leaning in to press her lips against his. She lingered for a moment, and when she pulled away he was grinning.
“Thanks.” She said, taking his hand properly.
“It, uh…it’s not as good as you do it.” He rubbed at the back of his neck with his other hand.
She snorted, dropping his hand so that she could hop down from the bed and back onto the floor, the two of them falling into step with one another as they made their way across the room once he had done the same.
“Buzz. It’s perfect.”
And it was.
To her, at least.