York (badlocksmith) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-09-22 14:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, agent washington, agent york |
Who: Wash and York
When: Early August
Where: York’s Apartment
What: Playing games (York also mentioned something about marshmallow fluff)
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Marshmallow fluff. Wash really didn’t understand the appeal. He’d never eaten a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich, never had a dollop of fluff in hot cocoa (that he could remember, anyway). A jar of melted gooey marshmallows. All Wash could see was sticky mess. What York wanted with it, Wash couldn’t even begin to guess. He wasn’t really worried. York was an adult (most of the time). But that being said, whenever York told him “don’t worry about it”, Wash couldn’t help but at least be a little bit concerned.
But, he stopped at a grocery store on his way to York’s apartment and picked up a jar anyway. Maybe York wanted to have something kid-friendly when his nephew came to visit or something. Who knew?
A few minutes later, Wash was outside York’s apartment. The last time he’d been there, he’d been drunk and a mess. He’d babbled at York for about an hour and he couldn’t remember if he’d made any sense. Then he’d promptly fallen asleep on York’s couch. He felt bad about that. He needed to be there for York, especially as the Dreams continued. Especially with Carolina back in service. Especially since York’s latest girlfriend seemed to be a thing of the past. Wash hadn’t been a great friend recently.
Wash took a breath and knocked.
So, York had been introduced to the recipe at his nephew’s birthday party. Plain rice cakes, marshmallow fluff, and sliced strawberries were served to the older kids. Alas, poor York didn’t have a chance to try it, since the kids gobbled up the food like they were starving. He’d acted mature and insisted that the kids could have his portion, as they so obviously wanted, but inside he really wanted to try it. York had rice cakes in his cupboard, and strawberries were in season, so he stopped by a local patch and picked up a crate of them before heading home.
Then he and Wash made plans. Ah, two birds, one stone. He asked the younger man to pick some up on the way, then set about washing and cutting the berries. At the sound of the knock, York headed to the door, wiping his hands on a paper towel, and pulled it open.
“Hey. You got the stuff?” York asked, straight faced, in a tone that spoke more of illicit materials than marshmallow fluff.
Really? Wash deadpanned at him. York’s neighbors, from what Wash could gather, kept pretty much to themselves, but seriously, man? Right out in the middle of the hall? The last thing Wash wanted to come across as was a drug dealer. “Here,” he slapped the jar of fluff into York’s palm, then pushed back into the apartment so he could enter as well. “What did you want this stuff for again?” He asked as he pulled the door shut behind him.
“Yessssss.” York made a fist pump in the air before closing the front door. He couldn’t help but grin now, knowing that he’d sorta embarrassed his good friend. After all, what were good friends for, anyway? He turned to walk into the kitchen. “Dude, we’re totally grown-ups, having a grown-up meal.” While he spoke, York opened the fluff and proceeded to get it all over his fingers as he took the plastic off the top of the jar. “You’ve gotta try this, man.”
Then he grabbed a knife and put together one of the little “pizzas” for his friend.
“Do I?” Wash asked. He’d followed York into the kitchen and was eyeing his friend’s now sticky fingers a little distastefully. Usually Wash wasn’t the sort to turn down food. There were really only three things he refused to eat: Chef Boyardee, Cup-O-Noodles, and pineapples on pizza. That being said, the jar of white goo didn’t exactly look appetizing. It reminded Wash of those bottles of Elmer’s Glue. Not something you really wanted to put in your body.
Wash kept a fairly safe distance from York and his marshmallow fluff fingers. Folding his arms and leaning against the counters. “What are you making?” He asked. “Besides a mess?”
“It’s like a fruit pizza. Kinda. Sorta. Okay, not at all.” York finished up one of the rice cakes with the fluff and the fruit on it, then carefully slid the plate across the counter toward Wash. (He used his elbow so as not to make the edges of the plate sticky. “Go on, then. Try it.”
Wash looked down at the concoction York had made. Fluff covered the top of the ricecakes. Careful not to get his own fingers sticky, Wash picked one of the cakes up and took a bite. The fluff was a lot sweeter than he thought it was going to be. The fruit kept it from getting all over the place too. Wash couldn’t say it was his new favorite treat -- a little too sweet for him -- but it wasn’t bad.
“Pretty good,” He told York.
“Right? Riiiight?” York looked like a kid on Christmas morning, showing off brand new toys to his little brother. “And it’s better when the strawberries are in season. I mean, these are the best strawberries in the whole world. Fresh, practically still warm from the sunshine.” York turned and put together another of the rice cake contraptions for himself, getting the sticky stuff all over his fingers. He just chewed it off--he had clean hands, after all.
“Right,” Wash laughed. York could get excited about the strangest things sometimes. But that wasn’t a bad thing. He had kept them all from going insane on a few of those long nights while they’d been deployed.
Being treated like a little brother, whose big brother was showing him something new and exciting was nice.
Wash still wasn’t a huge fan of fluff, but he thought the snack would be something Anna would like. And it was easy enough to make, so Wash filed it away to make for her next time she was over. He’d have to get some rice cakes and a jar of fluff. He finished off the rice cake fluff treat and went to wash the sticky from his fingers. “Are we going to play games?” He asked.
“Heck yes we are.” York said, then put the stuff away. He’d probably eat more later, once Wash was gone. The strawberries had a pretty short shelf life, and had to be eaten as quickly as possible. Because the window of perfect ripeness was pretty narrow. The fluff would probably survive a nuclear holocaust. It would be jars of marshmallow fluff and twinkies for the cockroaches that ruled the Earth after all that.
“You have anything in particular you want to play?” York asked, after putting the berries in the fridge. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything new.”
Wash was thoughtful a moment. He and Carolina had played most of the games York had packed for them for their “trip” last September. Wash cracked a small smile. “Don’t tell me all you have to play is literally children’s games, man.”
“No no, of course not.” York said, shaking his head. “I said I didn’t have anything new, not that I sent everything I had with you to the cabin.” He motioned for Wash to come and follow him, then led the way to a linen closet. Sine York lived alone, he didn’t have all that many linens. Some towels, an extra set of sheets or two, a blanket… they only took up about half the closet. The other half was filled with games and puzzles. York liked to do puzzles on his own to pass the time, normally listening to music or podcasts. He didn’t do a lot of television, though he had one. And he had some video games, too.
“Or we could play XBox.” York added, nodding at the sofa.
Wash looked at York’s library of various games. His brows furrowed together. “Wait a minute, if you had all of these why did you send just the kids games with us to the cabin?” He asked, turning to look at his friend. “Not that it wasn’t appreciated or anything. It’s kind of hard to stay mad at someone while playing Candy Land. But it’s also hard to take anyone seriously when they announce they’re in Candy Cane Forest.” But, maybe that had been the point? Considering the nightmare that had followed the next couple of days, an afternoon of playing games and not taking anything seriously may have been exactly what Wash and Carolina needed, even if Carolina was just as competitive with Candy Land and Shoots and Ladders as she was with anything else.
Puzzles weren’t something Wash particularly enjoyed. He could do them well enough, even without a picture to follow, but there was something about potentially missing a vital piece that could keep you from finishing the project that kind of made his skin itch.
Then York mentioned the XBox and it was like the decision had already been made. He raised a brow at York as if to ask Really? Is that even a question?
The question was pretty much answered by Wash’s next couple of sentences. York simply grinned. He didn’t need to explain his decision. It’d worked, either way. Then he closed the linen closet door and moved to the living room to boot up the video game console.