"Honestly, Myka," HG said exasperatedly. "Is this really necessary?"
"Unless you want that annoyingly perfect skin of yours to end up all pockmarked, then yes," Myka answered, dabbing a final spot of calamine lotion on HG's cheek. When she was finished, she couldn't help but smile at the sight. HG sat on the bed with her hair up in a ponytail, her skin covered with large pink calamine polka dots. She wore white tube socks on her hands and an extremely unamused expression on her face.
"How positively undignified," HG said with a huff as crossed her sock-covered arms and fell back onto the stack of pillows. Myka set down the calamine and sat on the edge of the bed.
"You'll thank me later," she insisted with a smile.
"I may as well thank you now," HG said, looking up at Myka from her reclining position. "I suppose that despite all this humiliation, I may have been bored stiff without your company today. Not to mention very itchy." She raised her hand to her forehead, scratching ineffectively with her tube sock-encased hand.
Myka smiled, a faint blush rising in her cheeks. "I'm sure you would have found something to do," she said as HG moved over and motioned for Myka to lie down on the bed next to her. The agent happily obliged, sinking into the pillows with a sigh.
"When I was little and I had to stay home sick, I would build forts from pillows and read for hours inside," Myka remembered. "My dad would come upstairs from the book store and leave me a sandwich before going back to work." She glanced over at HG. "Not exactly the most careful parental attention."
"Perhaps not," HG agreed, "but it certainly sounds like fun. I was never permitted do such things as a child. Growing up in Victorian England under strict supervision of a nursemaid did not allow much room for silliness."
"I can imagine," Myka said. "But you know," she continued, looking over at HG with mischief in her eyes, "it's never too late…"
Moments later Myka had disassembled the couch in HG's room, placed its cushions upright on the floor and balanced the mattress from the bed on top as a roof. Meanwhile, HG crawled inside and spread out her comforter and a variety of pillows. The two women crawled inside their fort, giggling as they settled themselves among the bedding on the floor. Lying on their backs in silence, HG sighed.
"It is quite peaceful, isn't it?" she mused. "Almost as fun to be in as it is to build."
"The perfect spot for reading," Myka added. "Or napping."
"The latter strikes me as a brilliant idea at the moment," HG said, stretching out and nestling into her pillow. "I do hope you won't mind."
"You're sick, Helena," Myka replied, "you have license to sleep all you want."
HG smiled and closed her eyes, her face slowly relaxing until her lips parted. Her breathing became heavy and rhythmic.
The agent couldn't help but study the sleeping figure next to her– even under all of the ridiculous calamine spots, HG's exceptional beauty was evident. Myka couldn't stop the rush of affection that shot through her as she watched HG's fingers straining against the tube sock, rubbing in vain at her chest. Myka laid her hand on HG's to still its movement.
"No scratching," she whispered softly before carefully climbing out of the fort and leaving Helena to sleep.