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"Alright, it's that time of the year again." Pepper announced, his voice was more tired than happy, adjusting his cleaning gloves.
"That time of the year?" Glee tilting her head as she inspected Pepper's new appearance; he was wearing a neat, light blue apron, sanitary gloves- and most importantly, tied up his front bang with a clip.
He nodded, "Spring cleaning day."
"Spring... cleaning, day?" Glee parroted, her voice laced with hesitation.
"Yep," Pepper nodded, tightening his gloves, "It's that time of the year again. I've got a list of chores I need to do."
She groaned, sinking down the sofa, "Uuugh... chooooores....?" Glee sunk down the sofa as soon as she heard the word. She hated chores.
Pepper didn't react, "You don't have to help me if you don't want to."
"No, no! I want to help you, Pepper!! I want to help you clean!" Glee huffed, immediately jumping right up from the sofa, staring at him with determined eyes.
“Sure,” he said flatly, tossing her a broom without missing a beat. “Grab a spare apron from the laundry room.”
Glee's eyes glistened with happiness as she saluted playfully, "Yes sir!"
Pepper sighed, it was the first time he's had any kind of help around the house, and though he should be glad to have this, it was Glee.
He stared with a twinge of regret, contemplating whether or not he should take back his words, before looking at Glee. Who was already excited to start something with him, his strong gaze faltered a bit, before he inevitably let out a defeated sigh.
Surely, this would end in complete disaster.
GLEE'S POV
"Right, first off, let's get some materials from the laundry room." Pepper huffed, to him, it seemed like protocol at this point.
Glee nodded, to be honest--she didn't really visit the laundry area that much, ever since the incident with the bath bombs, Pepper hasn't allowed her anywhere near the area since! But now, this was the chance to finally prove herself and make Pepper proud!
She adjusted the apron Pepper fitted him it, it was a little loose on her, so Pepper taught her how to tighten it, the thought of learning something new about humans every day excited her. She inspected each part of the laundry room, it seems to be tidy and compact just as she had expected, Pepper always said he hated doing such mundane things--but here he is, keeping the room in squeaky clean shape!
The room had an inherent twinge of silver to it, human furniture was still so new to her, large silver squares were placed in the middle of the small, tidy room. They had little holes in them, even more metal-y On top of that, shelves that held various "human appliances" designated the area in a tidy format, bottles and baskets of different colored hues, they were all so magical to her. If Glee wasn't surveillanced by Pepper right now, she'd surely want to mess around with them.... even have a little taste?..
"Alright!" She huffed happily, before using the stool next to the laundry machine to lift herself up, supplies, supplies, it's surely up on the shelf, right?
She stood tip-toed, gosh, why did the shelf have to be so high up? Lucky for Pepper, he's so tall and could reach it easily! But her...? Just impossible!!!
After a few wobbly attempts and a near miss with a stray sponge, Glee finally managed to grab hold of a big, pink bottle with a peculiar shape. Aha! This had to be it!
“I got it!” she cheered, holding it up like a trophy, grinning ear to ear.
Pepper didn’t even look up at her. “No, Glee. That’s laundry detergent.” His tone was flat enough to iron her inside-out!
Oops. Glee's cheeks flushed red, before placing it back quickly. She used even more of her strength to get the basket of cleaning supplies, tucked tightly in the corner, with much trial and error and exerting her arm, she finally caught onto it.
A square-shaped basket with various small soaps, bottles and necessities inside, Glee looked at it with awe,
She tilted the basket from side to side, the objects inside rustling like restless secrets. “Hmm…” Glee mused, eyes sparkling with mischief, before giggling to herself. “You know what would make this way more fun?”
Pepper murmured a small response, though his attention was on organizing the other parts of the laundry room. "Yeah?"
With a grin that promised trouble, Glee reached into her pocket and summoned Beam Heart — a shimmer of light bursting into form between her fingers. In an instant, the air filled with color: a rainbow arched overhead, a paintbrush twirled in midair, and a tiny, glittering model of a house spun slowly before them.
Her eyes gleamed. "We could totally give this place a makeover!"
Pepper froze, then sighed the sigh of a man who’d already lost this argument in several alternate universes. “Absolutely not, Glee.”
She pouted, the rainbow fading behind her like a sulking sunset. “Awww… it was worth a shot.”
The next couple of hours was spent cleaning the house, scrubbing the kitchen floor, organizing the messy laundry, obviously--at times, Glee would mess with something every now and then, but it seemed quite fun to work on with Pepper! She excitedly listened to every instruction with pride, watching as the corners of Pepper's mouth subtly turned into a smile every time she did well.
It filled her with a sense of enjoyment that usual boring tasks Father would make her do back home, it felt.. nice, doing this with someone she enjoyed being with!
Lastly, they cleaned the living room. It was only moderately dirty, but the afternoon light caught every mote of dust like tiny sparks in the air. Glee crouched down with determination, brushing away the dust bunnies hiding beneath the sofa, her ponytail swinging as she worked. Pepper followed behind her with a damp cloth, wiping down the table to side,
Pepper wiped off the sweat from his head, huffing victoriously. "There. That must be the last of it."
“Yay! We did it!!” Glee cheered, bouncing in place, her grin brighter than the freshly cleaned floor. She was so proud of herself — and honestly, a little surprised she hadn’t made a bigger mess.
"...You did better than I thought you would," Pepper admitted, his tone subtly betraying him, sounding very satisfied with her.
Glee practically lit up like a Puppy, chuckling happily, "Hehehe, I know! I did great~" she said with a smug little puff of pride.
Pepper sighed, his cheeks flustering a bit, instantly regretting the compliment.
Glee's eye scanned over, proudly looking at the work they've done together, before her eyes paused at the door to Pepper's room, her face dropped, before she pointed towards his room, "What about your room, Pepper?"
Pepper swatted the idea almost immediately, "..I'll just clean my room some other time."
Glee whimpered, "What?! Nooooo! Pepper, we should clean it now!"
He shook his head, "You’ll just snoop around!"
"I wont! I promise!" She retorted immediately, "Besides, we've cleaned basically everything else!!"
Pepper shook his head again, refusing to budge on his decision,
Glee clasped her hands together, eyes marbled in desperation as she leaned in closer towards him, "I promise, I promise, I promise I promise I proooomise!!!"
He quickly pushed her back, "OKAY! Okay--Fine, fine!" Pepper grunted in defeat, he quickly picked up his mop and tugged onto her, "Let's go." He sighed, gesturing her to follow him as she cheered,
As soon as they opened the door way, Glee could feel the dust pile over in his room from miles away.
Out of all the places in the house, this was clearly the one Pepper almost never cleaned. Empty cans of Monster were stacked like modern art sculptures, week-old clothes lay draped over furniture like forgotten ghosts, and a fine, shimmering layer of dust coated everything.
Glee let out a loud sneeze after loud sneeze, Pepper massaged his temple lightly, "Yeah, I know. It's.. it could be better."
Glee quickly shook her head, feigning stability in spite of the heap of dust she just inhaled, "No- no! It's-- ACHOO!!" She sneezed violently, "It's o--ACHOO! OK, Pepper! It's not that-- ACHOO! Bad...."
He stared at her for a long beat, then silently handed her a tissue.
“…Right, okay."
He sighed, his attention taken to the floorboards, "Let's start with cleaning off the dust on the floor," He instructed, to which Glee saluted playfully in response.
The next few minutes was spent cleaning Pepper's room, cleaning his bed, throwing away cans of monster energy drinks, Glee had always been curious about the architecture of human rooms, they seemed much less... extravagant than her room back in Emotia. Oh, how she missed her beautiful queen-sized bed, but it was also just as nice to cuddle up with Pepper, taking up all the space and annoying him,
The thought of it made Glee giggle, and also made Pepper glance at her, "What are you giggling about?" He questioned,
"Nothing, nothing!"
She quickly averted his gaze, choosing to focus on something else in the room, suddenly, her attention locked onto a small board next to Pepper's desk. The board was covered up by a lavender-colored tarp that fell to the floor. It was a little odd, something out of place that felt like it didn't belong in the mess that was Pepper's room, an ominous air loomed over it.
"Oooh, what's this, Pepper?" She questioned, tugging at the end of the tarp, tracing the soft fabric at the end of her fingertips. Glee was always able to sense a little bit of Pepper's affinity through his objects, but this one in particular had still air to it. It freaked her out.
"Don't touch that." He snapped, his tone sharp enough to cut Glee in half. It held a lot more malice than the usual Pepper-patented-silence, which prompted Glee to tilt her head, "Why?" She asked.
"It's nothing important." He vaguely explained, his tone softening just enough to hide his emotions once again. "Just don't mess with my stuff."
Glee nodded, although, that reaction enough was sufficient to pique her subtle interest. Though, she really really didn't want to upset Pepper.
"..I'm going to get some more paper towels, I'll be back." Pepper said plainly, standing up from the floor, before he made his way out, he peaked through the doorway, giving Glee a piercing glance. "Whatever you do, please don't snoop around, Glee."
"Okay doks!" Glee gave a thumbs up, before continuing to sweep the floor.
Admittedly, her interest still peered over to the mysteriously covered board. Every now and then, she'd glance back at it, as quickly as possible.
But it was just--there! How could she not be interested in it? What kind of secrets was Pepper hiding from her?
She walked in closer, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, before slowly reaching her hand at the end of the tarp. She turned around, lifting it up and peering her head at whatever was hidden inside,
There, she saw it.
It was a bulletin board filled with ripped newspapers readings, messy notes and even stranger; photographs of locations; a bridge, then a cafe. Then an odd-looking woman, who looked so, so much similar to Pepper.
Red threads stitched the fragments together into a tangled web of secrets. The board loomed high, just out of reach, and the remaining tarp kept its full contents hidden. Glee's brows furrowed, who was that woman? Her curiosity got the better of her, and she pulled the tarp away slightly more...
THWACK!
All of a sudden, she was suddenly taken aback by a hard crack -- The broomstick cracked against Glee’s head before she even saw it coming.
“I thought I told you not to snoop around!” Pepper’s voice snapped from behind her, sharp with urgency and thinly-veiled annoyance. From afar, Glee could sense his intense emotions on high alert.
"Owww.." She recoiled back almost immediately, holding over the newly-formed bump in her head.
"Just-- just get out! I'll finish up the cleaning myself." Pepper scolded, his tone reminiscent more of agitation than real anger at Glee, but either way, she scuttled off.
Pepper opened the door, he had finally finished cleaning. He sighed, a twinge of guilt obvious in his face, he looked to his side, searching for Glee.
She was crouched down on the floor, sobbing a bit, feigning more sympathy from Pepper like a puppy, who sighed softly, he could tell it was a bluff, but still felt the guilt strengthen in his heart. He crouched down and approached her,
"...Sorry." He muttered to her softly, suddenly, Pepper pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head, almost as a punctuation mark to his words, pressing his lips on top of the bump.
Glee paused, her cheeks reddened a bit, before wiping her faux tears away and giggling happily, her demeanor changing like a flick of the wrist, which surprised Pepper--she suddenly jumped up and hugged Pepper, "Hehehe~ I knew you couldn't stay mad with me, Pepper!!"
Pepper's face flushed a deep, beet red as she held him tight for embarrassment, she tricked him, "You-- !! Ugh. Whatever, but thanks for cleaning with me today." He returned the hug,
"..It was nice."