The Perk, Sunday Afternoon

[pocketpretzels]

With Marc off taking care of business in London (exactly what business, Watts didn't ask and Marc didn't offer, beyond letting him know he'd text Watts if it took longer than originally anticipated), the house was quieter than usual. Which perhaps explained why Watts was currently at the Perk, notebook open and Polish dictionary in hand as he worked through some language lessons on his mobile telephone, pausing occasionally to take a sip of his mocha or to put on headphones and listen to an audio clip.

Ooh, was that a half-eaten danish the patrons at the next table over had left behind? Watts leaned over to snag it before the staff could come by to tidy the table and toss out a perfectly good snack.

[ooc: open, of course.]

Comments

[totalwildcard]

Harley was still living through the wildly swinging ups and downs of her whole... recovery process, or whatever it was.

Sunday was apparently an upswing: sure, there was some kneejerk abject terror in her about returning to the scene of the worst thing to have happened to her in quite some time, but on that particular afternoon, Harley was also feeling like she wasn't going to let some guy both break her heart and keep her from getting her favorite horrific coffee order when she had a craving.

So in she marched, her head held high.

... And then she spotted Watts.

And then she had to make the split-second decision to stay fast with her course towards the counter, throwing him a polite(? she was a bad judge of these things) nod on the way, along with a simple and even, "Detective Fancy Hat."

[pocketpretzels]

Said Fancy Hat was currently dangling off the back of the empty chair opposite him, for the record.

"Dr. Quinn," he replied, glancing up from where he was scrawling something in his notebook.

[totalwildcard]

Who was to say Harley hadn't actually been addressing the hat?

Okay, no, she hadn't been. But it would've been funny! She did, however, vaguely raise her eyebrows at the whole setup he had going on.

"Important detectiving?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Mmm?" he asked, around a bite of that danish he'd snagged from the other table. "Ah. No. Uczę się polskiego. I'm attempting to learn the Polish language."

[totalwildcard]

Harley had originally been asking much less as a genuine question and more as a feigned... something or other.

But the answer she got was unexpected enough to jar her out of it, at least for the moment.

"Huh? Polish? What for?"

[pocketpretzels]

"So that I am able to speak and understand it when it is spoken to me." Clearly!

[totalwildcard]

Nonsense!

"Okay," Harley replied, slowly and with a clear lack of understanding about whether that either was or was about to be a common situation in his life, and no inclination to actually ask. "Well. Good for you? Nice to keep yourself busy."

She didn't entirely sound like she meant it, but the tone of it was more 'continued confusion' than anything else.

[pocketpretzels]

There were no plans in that respect but then, one never knew.

"Yes," he replied, his own tone one of genuine agreement. "I much prefer it to being idle, myself."

[totalwildcard]

Harley was finally drifting properly towards the counter again, but still:

"Ain't you got a home to study in?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Yes," Watts acknowledged. "But I've only the regular coffee machine," he nodded towards his mocha. "And besides, I like- the noise."

For all that Fandom could be said to be noisy.

[totalwildcard]

Yeah, Harley was most recently from present day Gotham, so... That statement got a little squinting out of her.

"You sure the noise isn't just in your head?"

[pocketpretzels]

"Quite sure, yes."

The Perk might not be the level of busy of a Gotham city coffee shop, but there were still the occasional comings and goings, the whine of the espresso machine, the chatter of the baristas talking amongst themselves...

[totalwildcard]

There was no arguing with Harley's perception of things. After all, occasionally the noise was just in her head.

She just shrugged. "Well, I guess Steven yappin' away can't always be enough of a soundscape, anyhow."

[pocketpretzels]

That got a scowl out of him.

"He doesn't yap," Watts replied. He debated, for a moment, whether to say anything more, and then decided he might as well. "And besides, he isn't home."

Both literally and figuratively in the sense that it was Marc in control of the body at the moment.

[totalwildcard]

Harley rolled her eyes, but there was something a little half-hearted about it. "Please, he yaps, he's a yapper," she said. "Takes one to know one."

Take it from an absolute champion yapper.

Who was now processing the rest of what he'd said. She'd turned to look at the menu, but now her eye wanted to dart back to Watts anyway. "What do you mean he's not home?"

The question was technically about Steven, but it wasn't really. Hence why she was asking in the first place, because she couldn't stop herself.

[pocketpretzels]

"I mean precisely what I said," Watts replied. "He is not, at this moment, present in our home."

[totalwildcard]

"Right, sure," Harley replied, with a slightly different half-hearted eye roll as she turned to face the counter fully. "Forget I asked."

[pocketpretzels]

Again, that temptation to just leave it be. And again, going against it to continue the conversation.

"Why does it matter to you?" he asked. He knew why- or at least, he had his suspicions.

[totalwildcard]

"If you have to ask," Harley replied without looking back, "you really haven't been paying attention to the news on this rock, have ya?"

Yes, he knew why.

But also, she was now rattling off her lengthy coffee order to the quietly despairing barista behind the counter. Were they one of the ones that had been present that day? Thankfully Harley had not been paying enough attention to the staff then.

[pocketpretzels]

"I've been paying attention," Watts noted, following a sip of his own beverage. "You're angry with Steven, and you're no longer involved with Marc."

[totalwildcard]

Harley's shoulders were just eeeever so slightly stiffening.

"That wasn't exactly my choice, now was it?"

[pocketpretzels]

"The first most certainly was," Watts pointed out. "Unless it were some outside force compelling you to come storming in to the museum on Thursday to yell at him."

[totalwildcard]

"Why would you even bother assuming I was at all talkin' about the Steven thing?" Harley replied without looking back. (Maybe she should just ask them to omit some of the stuff in her drink. It would make the process go faster.) "Obviously I wasn't. You're a cop but to the best of my knowledge you're not stupid."

[pocketpretzels]

"You're right," Watts acknowledged. "I do know what you were referencing."

[totalwildcard]

Harley gestured with one hand, like 'well, there you go'.

"So don't play dumb, it's annoying."

[pocketpretzels]

"Well, what would you like me to say?" Watts said. "Yes, he elected to stop seeing you."

[totalwildcard]

"Yeah, he did."

Yup, tension in the shoulders still rising. Her hands settled onto the edge of the counter.

"You wouldn't still be thinking about Steven and how he was doin' if he unilaterally elected to boot you out onto your sorry ass? Gimme a break."

[pocketpretzels]

"I suppose I would," Watts admitted. "But that doesn't answer the question of what you expect me to say regarding the matter."

[totalwildcard]

"That I'm expecting you to say anything is just something you came up with," Harley pointed out, hazarding a glance back towards him over her shoulder. Probably just so he could get the full effect of her pointed eyebrow raise. "All I was doin' was answering your own question about what it mattered to me if they're off somewhere not at home. Jesus, keep up."

There would likely always be at least a hint of ambient irony around her getting huffy about people not following her conversational train of thought.

[pocketpretzels]

"So when you asked me 'what I meant' by the statement that they're not at home, that was not, in fact, a request to elaborate?" Watts questioned.

[totalwildcard]

"What? Of course it was." And here was the big eyebrow raise again. And the squint. "Are you -- are you new to basic questions?" Rude, Harley. "Obviously I wanted to know the difference between 'gone out for groceries' and 'gone out to China', and you didn't feel like tellin' me, so whatever, I'm not gonna force ya."

Shouldn't have given into the urge to ask in the first place, probably, she was feeling.

In fact:

She waved a hand. "Feel free to forget I asked. Or that I was even here."

[pocketpretzels]

"If that's what you wish."

[totalwildcard]

Something about this was starting to feel real familiar. But even Harley could tell pointing that out wasn't going to do anything.

She squared her shoulders, and tapped her fingers against the edge of the counter.