Who: Gwen Stacy, Tenth Doctor and Tardis When: Tuesday, Feb 5, 2013 Where: Gwen and John’s apartment What: Tara likes blanket forts. You should too. Rating: Low Status: Complete
Tara had spent a good few hours on this blanket fort. While John worked, she’d gotten terribly bored (as she does) and decided to amuse herself. She was surprised he hadn’t come out to investigate at all. Usually he’d check in every so often to make sure she wasn’t taking something apart. He was lucky that she wasn’t this time around.
Having brought some supplies from home, and also borrowing whatever they had in their linen closet, Tara had been hard at work on the fort for a few hours. It was quite intricate, using their couch, lamps and any chairs and tables they had around the place.
Stepping back for a moment, Tara set her hands on her hips and studied the build. She was quite happy with this one.
She had gone pretty quiet -- and, yes, normally that would have made John nervous after a time -- but he had been so wrapped up in his writing that he didn’t notice for the longest of times.
It wasn’t until he found a good closing spot for the chapter he was working on, and re-reading it to make sure everything was working properly that he noticed it. The Silence. It was nearly overwhelming. So much so, in fact, that he was sure that Tara had just up and done one of her disappearing tricks again.
Making his way from his and Gwen’s shared office, he poked his head into the living room. Only to find-- well. A work of art, really.
“Wow,” he said, because sometimes there were just no words.
Tara turned as John spoke, smiling widely (and proudly) at her best friend. She always appreciated the recognition that John gave her for her fort building skills. Not many people appreciated it, or really even admitted to liking forts after a certain age. But, two of a kind, John and Tara were just not the types to worry about acting a bit childish. They just did whatever was most fun.
Hurrying over to his side, Tara wrapped her arms around John’s middle, holding herself against his side. She smiled up at him. “Do you like it?”
“Far more impressive than the one at the hotel,” he said, which was a pretty big compliment considering that he’d thought that one pretty fantastic, also. He gave her a squeeze, because sometimes he was just aware enough to realize that she was possibly the cutest woman on the planet. Still kind of oblivious, but somewhat aware.
“Give me the tour?”
She squealed a bit at the squeeze because that’s what you’re supposed to do, right? “Okay!” she said as she returned the squeeze before letting go. Rushing back over to the fort, she waved him to join her before diving inside. It only had one main room, but she could always expand later.
Only Tara would consider expanding a blanket fort. And probably only John would cheer that idea on as if it were just as good as remodeling a kitchen.
“It’s roooom-y,” he said over pronouncing the o’s, because that’s totally fun. John was impressed that he didn’t really need to be down on all fours to check it out. It was more of a crouch, really.
Tara was smiles and teeth from ear to ear. She moved around on her knees, shuffling on the pillows as she stretched her arms above her head. “I think that I’ll get some more blankets and pillows and expand it into more rooms!” because that was definitely a good idea. Well, she thought so anyway.
“Well,” she stopped to think for a moment. John wasn’t exactly living on his own. “Unless Gwen doesn’t like it...”
Did they even have more blankets and pillows? John supposed he didn’t even really know. In the end, he’d just had Tara pick things he “needed” in his home and he’d busted out a credit card at the end of it all like a bad rhyme.
He snuck into the fort while she was talking and flopped down. Comfy. “What wouldn’t she like it?” he asked. Gwen was cool, and super friendly. He’d lucked out there. Good thing he was kind of a creeper who talked to anyone who was even remotely near him.
Tara thought about it. Most adults didn’t really like having forts in their living rooms, at least not for long periods of time. Gwen hadn’t ever really expressed an affinity for blanket forts, so she wasn’t going in thinking it would be up forever. As close as they were, Tara wasn’t under any assumption Gwen would love it as much as she and John did.
After considering, the brunette just shrugged and moved so she was sitting cross-legged. “You never know!”
Speaking of Gwen, she arrived home from work just then, opening and closing the front door and tossing her keys into a basket on the table nearby. “Hello?” She called out, not having noticed the fort in the living room. Work was awkward. Awwwwkward. She had to see Peter all day, which made things... y’know. Awkward. /Redundant.
She shrugged off her coat and hung it up, still not looking into the living room. It’d been a long day, and she was ready for a glass of wine and to sit on the sofa, and...
Gwen turned to walk into the living room, frowning a bit as she came across... what... on Earth? The frown on her face faded as she heard a muffled voice from inside the giant... fort... thing. “Hello?” She asked. There was amusement and curiosity in her voice.
“Hello!” John greeted Gwen from inside the fort by voice alone. He rolled over in there, to face the doorway -- projection was everything these days. “We were just talking about you. How do you feel about blanket forts?” He sounded fairly cheeky about it.
“I’m quite partial to them, actually,” Gwen said, bending way down so she could look through the opening and catch sight of them in there. “Though... I think what you need are some Christmas lights. To... y’know... brighten the place up. I’ve got just the thing.”
She kicked off her shoes and went running off into her room to dig around in her closet. She had excess blankets and pillows in there, too, in case they wanted to expand the current floorplan.
As she went running off, John looked over to Tara, grinning like a wild, mad man. “I won’t say I told you so.”
“You’d better not!” if it could, her smile expanded even further. Gwen was definitely a keeper, and she was so happy that John had decided to move in with a random. She was going to be a great friend if she was as partial to blanket forts as she said. “Or else I will be really, really cross with you.” she made a face at John (her party pooper face, of course).
“I’m behaved,” said John, giving a smart little nod, even though he stuck his tongue out anyway.
Gwen came back in a few moments later, carrying more pillows and blankets, and a box of multi-colored Christmas lights. She tossed them into the fort, then popped off to the kitchen to make popcorn. "Snacks! We need snacks, too!"
Tara picked up the Christmas lights after they were tossed in, about to thank Gwen when she rushed out to the kitchen. Turning to look at John, she just smiled widely at him. “I like her,” she whispered, because she didn’t need to go yelling that just yet.
Now excited for snacks, Tara crawled out of the fort and began setting up the lights. Because you always need a well lit blanket fort!
“Yes I thought you might.” John said, agreeably. He crawled out of the fort, and reached up to help her hang the lights. It was an utterly brilliant idea, and he was glad someone had thought of it. He was also glad that Tara and Gwen seemed to be getting on well. It’d been so spur of the moment when they’d decided to live with each other -- but seemed to be working out perfectly.
“Gwen?” He called. He just said her name so British-like. “Do we have... wine?” Blanket fort. Amazing ambiance. Wine and snacks. Good friends. It didn’t get better.
“Oh, yeah!” Gwen said. There was popping coming from the kitchen now as the microwave cooked the bag. She moved over to the doorway to grin at them with the Christmas Lights. “There’s a box in the fridge. Three glasses, then?” She beamed. Christmas Lights made almost everything better. Prettier, if not just plain better.
“Yes! Three please!” Tara chimed in, fiddling with the Christmas lights. She made sure to have them start at a plug, then draped them all over the sheets (because she knows how to hang lights and shit). Every once in awhile she would turn to John and just smile and giggle a bit, because she really was having a lot of fun. She was glad to share the fun with her best friends.
And John would just grin back -- teeth white, and tiny crows feet by his eyes, because he had spent a good majority of his life smiling. When Gwen arrived with the wine and popcorn and herself, he knew this was the best kind of all parties.