Who: Agent Washington, Agent York, Agent Carolina When: Mid June Where: Wash and Carolina’s place What: Ice Cream Delivery Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
York had a bag with a gallon of ice cream in his arms. It was Rocky Road. He headed up the stairs to their front door and knocked with his toe, finishing up a level of some Candy-Crush-Like game on his phone with his free hand. Thankfully the knock sounded mostly normal, and not the BANG-BANG of someone kicking the door in.
He whistled as he waited, watching the level wrap-up screen flash up at him. “That’s right,” he smirked. “I’m totally the king of Candy Island.”
Carolina had been reviewing her upcoming mission briefing when she heard the “knock” at the door. Frowning, she slipped off of the kitchen counter that she had been sitting on and set the file down. Sophie had been curled up beneath the table, but the dog was right on her heels as the Marine made her way over to the door. She couldn’t be sure why, but the knock had sounded off. Like it had been coming from the wrong direction.
Cautiously, Carolina placed an ear to the door. Was that whistling? Moments later she was rolling her eyes. York. The locks were quickly undone as she opened the door to let him in. Sophie was already wagging her tail happily in anticipation. Oh, she knew exactly who was behind the door. “King of Candy Island? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
Who the hell was kicking their door?! The noise had drawn Wash out of his room, one hand holding his side arm behind his back. He ventured to the end of the hallway just as Carolina and Sophie came out of the kitchen to answer the “knocking”. Wash took a step back out of sight, but was sure to step on that one floorboard along the wall that creaked just to let Carolina know where he was. Just in case.
There was a moment of silence and then Wash heard Carolina unlock the deadbolt(s) which was followed by a greeting done in that flat and yet somehow still teasing tone of voice. There was really only one person in the world Carolina reserved that voice for.
“York,” Wash let out a soft breath and relaxed his gun hand. He stepped backwards again to his room and set his gun back in its drawer. Then he rolled his shoulders, forced himself to relax and went to greet his buddy,
“Who’s the king of Candy Island?” He called before coming back down the hall.
“Which kids?” York asked, but then got sidetracked by the dog under Carolina’s feet.
Of course York was glad to see Carolina. And to hear Wash’s voice. But nothing lit up his face like Sophie’s tail wagging. He pocketed his phone quickly, thrust the bag of ice cream into Carolina’s hands, and bent down to give the dog a proper hello. Which, yes, involved a lot of rubbing faces and ears, and plenty of slurping. With Who’s a good girl? You’re a good girl! muffled by dog fur and tongue.
“Nice to see you too.” Carolina intoned as the ice cream was dumped in her arms. Sophie was eating up all the attention, tail batting at her owner’s legs as she went out into the hallway to greet York. Turning from the door, the human made no move to stop it from closing behind her. The two mutts deserved each other. “Make sure you don’t let Suda out.” She called as she headed to the kitchen to put the treats down on the counter.
The folder she had been reading was quickly retrieved and tucked under her arm as she headed back to put it in her room. Best to keep nosy eyes off of classified information. Carolina passed Wash in the hallway, tapping the file against his back as a sort of ‘tag, your turn to greet the guests’. Once the file was locked up in a drawer, she was free to return back to the kitchen.
Wash took the tag in stride, stepping out from the hall into the front room. He caught the door before it closed on the dog and the human. “When you’re done making out with my sister’s dog, you can come in and actually visit with the rest of us.” He glanced towards the kitchen where he could hear bags rustling. Curiosity piqued Wash let go of the door and made his way towards the kitchen. “Sophie,” he called over his shoulder, “Sophie, inside.”
Sophie gave York’s face one final lick before turning and coming inside and following Wash into the kitchen as well.
“Hi, Carolina,” York casually threw toward the redhead, but his attention was completely on the dog. York was the kind of guy who needed to own a dog. He stood up when Sophie listened to Wash and jogged back inside, and followed her into the living room. It was cooler inside than out, which was quite nice. York closed the door behind himself before Suda or the air conditioning could sneak out.
“I brought ice cream!” York called, unnecessarily, into the kitchen.
“We can see that.” Carolina leaned against the doorframe after York had (finally) made it inside. “Did you steal it from Candy Island, or was this an offering from that natives to get you to leave them alone?” Sophie had taken up a post by the table, making sure to keep one of her favorite humans within eyesight, just in case he had brought some treats for her too.
Contrary to the reception he was given, Carolina was actually glad to see York. There might - might - have even been a small smile on her face. With everything that had gone on in the past month, they hadn’t had much time to actually hang out or talk. With York or Wash. Especially now that she was commuting three hours a day. Leave it to the XO to take care of the squad.
“Did you get enough?” Wash called back looking at the giant gallon of rocky road now sitting on the counter. Wash liked ice cream as much as the next guy, but really? A gallon? How much ice cream was York expecting them to eat?
Wash moved back the living room a smirk on his face. “Candy Island, huh?” He said. “Is that anything like Candy Mountain?” His smirk grew. “C’mon, Charlie,” he said in a high voice that sounded somewhere between stoned and brainwashed, “let’s go to Candy Mountain.”
“Hey, the natives love me.” With a grin, York finally followed Wash and Carolina into the kitchen. “I’ll have you know it was on sale. Even if we don’t eat it all, it was still cheaper than buying a smaller pack of the other brand.” Whatever that brand may have been.
Then Wash busted out the quote from that silly internet clip. York snorted. “No one’s taking my freakin’ kidney.”
“That remains to be seen. Is that all rocky road?” Carolina poked her nose closer in curiousity. Damn. Not a green leaf in sight. Rocky road always seemed like the catch-all flavor to her. It was like everyone picked their favorite ice cream topping and threw it into chocolate ice cream to try and make it less boring. In her opinion, it didn’t work.
So she was an ice cream snob. They could shove it if they had a problem with that. “I bet that starfish would love you more if you had brought a variety of ice cream instead.” Carolina pushed off of the doorframe and went to pull out some bowls. Might as well start dishing out the inevitable.
“What’s wrong with rocky road?” Wash asked. He honestly didn’t care what kind of ice cream anyone handed to him. Ice cream was an elusive treat that Wash hadn’t gotten very often as a kid. There was usually a pint of something in the freezer, but that had always been off limits and there had always been hell to pay if it was even suspected he’d been in it. Even if there was nothing else in the house edible.
Carolina got the bowls and Wash got the spoons and the ice cream scoop. The sound of things happening in the kitchen was like a magical summoning for Suda the cat, who was very attached to snacks.
“What you think it’s part Rocky Road part something else?” York asked, finally sauntering into the kitchen. He loved that all he had to do was bring ice cream, and they’d serve him up. It meant less for him to do, which was nice. “Have you ever seen a gallon of ice cream that was part Rocky Road and part anything else?”
It was said with a grin. York leaned against the counter and watched the brother and sister in the kitchen. “Besides, someone told me once that chocolate wasn’t good enough,” he quirped at Carolina. “I thought this was a good step.”
Carolina frowned down her nose at York as she passed the bowls to Wash to fill. He got the scoop, he can dish the damn things out. As long as he wasn’t stingy with the scoops, that is. After a moment, the memory clicked. God, she hadn’t thought about that night in months. Even longer for the ice cream comments that had apparently spurred this new phase. “Just chocolate can get monotonous. It needs something to balance it out.” Like mint.
“So what’s the occasion?” Green eyes kept a sharp eye on the bowls. York’s birthday wasn’t for another week or so and it wasn’t as if either Carolina or Wash celebrated Father’s Day.
Wash glanced between his former commanding officers, confused. Clearly a conversation about ice cream had taken place at some time and had maybe ruffled a few feathers? The relationship between the two was sometimes confusing.
“What’s wrong with chocolate?” He asked as he finally started scooping up ice cream into the bowls. “I mean, it’s still ice cream, right? And ice cream is good.” That was his opinion, anyway. There may have been gross flavors of ice cream out there, but he hadn’t found any yet. Perhaps it was because he’d been denied the frozen treat as a kid, even threatened if he looked at the carton in the freezer wantingly, but chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, rocky road...it was all good, wasn’t it?
Wash handed the first bowl to York. He was the one who brought it to them, it only seemed right he get the first scoops. The second bowl went to Carolina and yes, Wash had been quite generous with the amount of ice cream in the bowls.
York shrugged. “No occasion. Start of summer? Is that enough?” He dug a spoon out of the drawer where Wash and Carolina kept the silverware, then started in on the ice cream as Wash passed Carolina another bowl. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with chocolate. Chocolate is amazing.” He gave Wash a little smirk then triumphantly shoved a spoonful into his mouth. Take that, Carolina. Wash agrees with me.
“So your only qualification is that it’s cold?” Carolina gave York a flat look that clearly stated that she wasn’t impressed at the ‘solidarity’ for plain chocolate. In her opinion, if it didn’t have mint, chocolate was just a substitute. She took the bowl Wash handed her, poking the scoops with her spoon for a moment. Well, it wasn’t as if she couldn’t eat rocky road. “Thank you, York.” She also had manners, which meant sitting on the counter was out. Leaning against it instead, she finally took a bite. Not bad.
Wash still felt as though he was missing something, but shrugged it off. The last bowl went to him and he dug in with enthusiasm, as if someone might actually take it away from him. Rocky road was a pretty good flavor. It had a bunch of things going for it. Chocolate, marshmallow, nuts. It wasn’t boring. Not that Wash thought any ice cream was boring.
Wash ate quickly, and somehow managed to avoid giving himself an ice cream headache. By the time York and Carolina had gotten in their first round of bites, he’d made it halfway through his bowl. “Thank you, York,” he parroted Carolina’s words around a mouthful.
York shrugged. “What kind of ice cream isn’t cold?” He asked. Though, the conversation had sort of turned, hadn’t it? Now they were talking about what constituted ice cream instead of personal preferences toward flavors? (With the hint of long past conversations over what was deemed boring...)
But York didn’t really care. He was with two of his favorite people, enjoying a bowl of Rocky Road. In response to their thanks, he held up his bowl in a toast. “Cheers.”