Title: Do It Yourself
Author: tromana
Rating: T
Characters: Cho/Summer
Summary: Cho and Summer, doing DIY. A recipe for disaster, right?
Disclaimer: Not mine
Notes: Written for alternaterocker in a meme on LiveJournal.
Do It Yourself
Cho quickly surveyed the damage. Briefly, he considered whether or not he should have been calling the bomb disposal unit, just to be safe. He shook his head as he took a few steps forwards. Summer wasn't the most tidy of people but she had been in her new apartment for less than a week. How she had managed to practically destroy the place in such a short space of time was beyond him.
And they hadn't even had the chance to put the furniture up yet.
That was mostly because it had literally only just been delivered that very morning. Summer had called him, frantic, while he'd been at work and naturally, he'd assumed it was something important to do with the case they were currently working on. After all, she was still his confidential informant. So, he'd hurriedly cleared it with Lisbon, rushed to her new place, only to find her in the middle of her lounge, surrounded by several large cardboard boxes.
Apparently, she hadn't expected them to be flat packed. She hadn't realized that she would have to make up her new furniture by herself, when she didn't even own a screwdriver.
He sighed. This wasn't what he had signed up for when he'd left work.
"Kimball," she whined the moment he suggested going back to the headquarters. "I need your help."
She placed her left hand on his waist and drew small circles with her fingers on right hand on his arm. Summer fluttered her eyelashes at him as he stared back at her. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd told her that his job was important, that he couldn't just up and leave whenever he wanted to. However, that didn't stop her from being so damn distracting. As she spoke, she put on that voice which made her sound like she was five years old. Cho wondered when he was going to learn to say 'no' to her.
Part of him doubted that he ever would.
Once she realized he had relented, Summer dragged him into her apartment, keeping a tight grip on his wrist. Cho rolled his eyes; she was acting like a kid in a candy store, but again that didn't surprise him. She was just in an excitable mood, which, with Summer, happened more often than not if he was entirely honest.
"First, tidy up," he instructed.
Summer pouted, but soon saw sense. However, when she disappeared into the kitchen to make them a coffee and didn't return for a good hour or so, Cho grew irritable. The idea of a coffee was nice, but she was using it as a distraction from actually getting the job done. He theorized that it was her way of ensuring that he stayed for as long as feasibly possible. Even so, he did want to get back to work at some point during the day. After all, he wasn't paid to tidy Summer's apartment, nor was he paid to make furniture for her.
"Summer," he said and she jumped in response.
"Oh, Kimball! I'm sorry, I was just…"
He glanced over her shoulder and saw the instructions for the wardrobe spread over the kitchen work surface. The coffees which she had dutifully prepared were sitting beside it and looked as though they had been there for a long while. Quickly, Cho grabbed the mug with a picture of a pug on it and took a sip. Before he got any further, he promptly threw the rest of the drink down the sink. It confirmed his beliefs that Summer had made them before she'd been side-tracked by the instructions. Still, he consoled himself with the fact that she had actually been doing something useful instead of avoiding work.
"Room's tidy. We can get on now."
"Good, great!" she enthused and threw her arms around him for a brief hug. "You do know how to do this, right? I mean, you've done it before?"
He nodded and her grin widened.
"I borrowed the screwdriver from Steve next door. He said it's fully charged and ready to go."
"Good," he said and he meant it. The last thing he needed was another delay while they waited for the damn screwdriver to charge.
Summer tore open the first package excitedly and Cho stood back to watch her. Once she had carefully laid out all the pieces – more than he had anticipated for just a wardrobe – she turned around and looked at him, frowning.
"What do we do now?"
"We put it together."
"I know that. But how?"
Cho shrugged his shoulders. "You're the one who spent the past hour looking at the instructions."
"In French," she answered defensively.
"Why in French?"
"Didn't have any English instructions."
Cho disappeared into the kitchen and picked up the instructions sheets which she had been studying while he'd been working hard. Summer hadn't been lying; in fact, they had only come in just the one language. He frowned a little; this could cause a few difficulties.
"Do you speak French?"
"No. Do you?"
He shook his head in response. At least it had come with some diagrams to assist them. That was going to help, right? If nothing else, he knew that he had to at least try and look at the situation with some optimism otherwise they were going to fall flat on their faces at the first hurdle. He smiled when he watched Summer tentatively wielding the screwdriver, testing it out in thin air. Then, he questioned whether or not it was actually wise to have her in control of such an instrument. Sometimes, it seemed like she attracted chaos and danger. However, that was half of what made her so interesting. Before he'd met her, Cho had almost felt like he was stuck in a rut. Get up, go to work, and come home. That was all he'd done day in, day out. Or at least, it had been that way ever since he and Elise had decided to end things. Now, he had something to look forward to. Summer had gotten his heart pumping faster and gave him that adrenalin rush whenever they met up.
Even if she did try and twist him around her little finger virtually all the time. And even though she was practically demanding that he help her make up her new furniture.
A couple of hours later and Cho found himself panting with exertion. Who knew just how difficult it was to make this kind of thing? And he wished that somebody could have warned him just how tiring it would be as well. On more than one occasion, Summer had shrieked his name, insisting that he was doing it wrong. Then there was the issue with the missing screws. And of course, the instructions being in another language caused more problems than they generally should have.
But, as he stood, admiring his handiwork, he was pleased with the results. When Summer kissed him with fervor, her hands raking through his hair and his fingers dancing across her back, he decided that it had been worth it after all. Too soon, she pulled away and took a look at her new wardrobe. The smile on her face practically lit up the room.
"It looks great, thanks Kimball," she answered with a warm smile.
"It's fine."
"Now, I also got the computer desk which matches. I'll just get the instructions out…"
Cho turned his eyes to the heavens. It was going to be a long, long day.