"Come here woman, give me some of that sweet, sweet lovin'," Artie said, grinning.
Quinn grinned back. "I hardly think that sweet, sweet lovin' is appropriate right now...we said we'd help Linds with her diorama!"
"Fiiiine," Artie said. "Sweet lovin' later?"
"You are impossible," Quinn said, reaching up and grabbing a box of craft supplies that was in Lindsay's closet. "And I can't believe you said that in your sister's bedroom!"
"What?" he asked. "It's not like I was going to DO anything in here!"
"ARTIE!" she said, throwing the box at him. "Stop that! And take this!"
"What, another box?" he asked, placing it on the pile on his lap. "I hope this is the last one, because I won't be able to see if we pile another one on. Why do we need all this stuff?"
"That's the last one," she said. "And we need all this stuff because Linds is going to have the best diorama ever!
He laughed. "That's not possible...because I had the best diorama ever when I was her age!"
She shook her head. "THAT isn't possible," she said. "Because everyone knows the best one that year was mine!"
He gasped. "That's a lie and you know it!"
She shook her head, trying not to laugh. "I'm pretty sure my beach diorama beat your dinosaur one."
"Wait...you remember what my diorama was?" he asked, surprised that she had remembered something like that.
She nodded. "I also remember that you won something for best design for it."
"See? BEST!" he said, peeking out from behind the stack of boxes on his lap.
She laughed. "Ok, fine. It was the best."
He grinned. "How about we were both best that year, and Linds will be best this year?"
"Works for me," she said. "Now, let's go."
As they set out the diorama supplies on the table, Artie went to go see what was keeping Lindsay. She had arrived home shortly after they had, and had then promptly disappeared.
When he finally found her, she was sitting on the couch hiding under a blanket.
"Linds? Diorama time!" he said, pulling the blanket off. "Wait...what's wrong?" he added, noticing that her face was wet with tears.
"Cindy said hers was better than mine!" she said, throwing herself at her brother.
He thought for a moment. "But...Linds...you haven't made yours yet," he said, hugging her as she cried into his shoulder.
She sat up, wiping the tears from her eyes. "But she said hers was better than mine!" she repeated. "What if it's true? She said she knows it!"
"But Linds...how can she know it if you haven't even made it yet? Yours is going to be better than everyone's! You come from a long line of diorama champions!" He grinned. "Come on, let's go do this thing!"
She hugged her brother for a second, before hopping down off his lap. "Can we put sparkles in it?"
"Of course!" he said, as they headed to the table, where Quinn was waiting.
Quinn had been sitting quietly at the table listening to the exchange between brother and sister. She smiled as she listened to Artie talking to Lindsay, and laughed when he had proclaimed that she came from a long line of diorama champions. That was such an Artie thing to say.
She found herself, once again, thinking what a wonderful father Artie would be one day. She thought about it all the time. At first it had concerned her a bit, because she didn't think she should be thinking about things like that, but eventually she had just given in and decided that it was ok to think about it, because it was the truth.
She was just about to go grab a glass of water, when the pair entered the room.
"Quinn!" Lindsay said, running over to her. "We're going to make the best one ever! Better than Cindy! Oh...I have to go to the bathroom before we start," she added, running out of the room.
Artie turned to Quinn. "You're really going to have to watch that I don't take this thing over, ok?" he said, grinning. "You know how much I like to win...but this is Linds's, and it needs to be what she wants, not what I want."
Quinn laughed. "I'll keep an eye out for your takeover tactics, but I don't think it'll be much of an issue. She pretty much has you wrapped around her little finger...you'll do whatever she wants."
"Are you saying I'm...wrapped?" he said, a mock look of horror on his face. "How could you even think such a thing?"
She grinned. "Yes, that's what I'm saying. And you know it's true."
He shrugged. "Well, you know I believe everything you say, so it must be true. Apparently Linds isn't the only one who's got me wrapped."
She threw a pompom at him. "Yeah, your mom kind of does too."
He burst out laughing. "Where did that come from?"
She grinned. "I've been spending too much time with you, yo!"
"That is not proper usage of yo," he said, grinning. "Don't use it if you're gonna abuse it!"
She was about to respond, when Lindsay re-entered the room.
"Quinn, did you find the purple sparkles? Those are my favourite," she said, sitting down at the table. "And can we have some of those googly eyes?"
Quinn nodded. "I think we can do that. I forgot to ask you...what's your diorama about?"
"I was gonna have fairies and unicorns, but my teacher said it has to be something real, so I want flowers and a butterfly in it," she said, picking up a package of pipe cleaners.
"That sounds good," Artie said. "What are you going to call it?"
The little girl thought for a moment. "Can I call it my garden? With a butterfly?"
He nodded. "I think we can arrange that. I think we have enough stuff here to make a lot of flowers, and you could make a butterfly with these," he said, holding up a package of brightly coloured shapes made of soft foam."
"Yay!" Lindsay said, pulling out a pipe cleaner. "This can be a stem!" she said, holding it out to Quinn.
"I think this can be lots of stems," Quinn said. "Do you want me to help you cut it? Those are kind of hard to cut with little scissors sometimes."
Lindsay nodded. "They have to be little," she said. "Artie, can you help me make the butterfly?"
"Sure, but I think we should make the flowers first so we know how big it has to be," he said, sorting through a bag of various sequins, jewels, and other things he thought they might be able to use for flowers. "Oh," he said, "here we go. These are shaped like flowers."
"This is going to be the best garden ever!" Lindsay said, jumping up and down slightly in her chair. "I think we should put purple sparkles on everything! For the fairies!"
"Um...fairies?" Artie asked.
She nodded. "Duh, Artie, every garden has fairies! They're just really little and you can't see them because they are avisable!"
"Avisable?" he said. "You mean invisible?"
She nodded again. "Yeah, that one!"
Quinn grinned, thinking that both of them were just too cute.
They worked for about an hour and a half, and finally Lindsay sat back and proclaimed her garden finished.
"Except for the butterfly," she added. "We need to make Mr. Crinkles now."
"Mr...Crinkles?" Artie asked, biting his lip to suppress the grin that threatened to spread across his face. "What made you name him that?"
"Because I want this on him!" she said, holding up a small piece of crinkly, shiny fabric. "It can be on his head!"
Quinn and Artie laughed.
"Here, why don't you guys make the butterfly," Quinn said, holding out her hand, "and I'll see if I can make that into a hat or something."
Lindsay handed over the fabric, and Quinn started trying to form it into a hat that would fit onto the pompom they were going to use as Mr. Crinkles' head.
Finally, the butterfly was made, and the hat had turned into something resembling a small cape. Lindsay squealed when she saw it.
"Mr. Crinkles is a superhero!" she said, holding it up to show Artie when Quinn handed the butterfly, complete with cape, back to her. "Just like you, Artie!"
He grinned. "It looks great, Linds!" he said, "but I'm really not a superhero."
"Of course you are!" Quinn said, throwing a piece of pipe cleaner at him. "At least, we think so, don't we Linds?"
The little girl nodded.
Artie grinned. "Well, if you both think so, then it must be true," he said. "Now, we'd better put Mr. Crinkles in here, and then have a look at the finished product!"
After the butterfly was secured onto one of the bigger flowers in the shoe box, the three sat back to admire their work.
"Well, what do you think?" Artie asked Lindsay and Quinn. "Because I think this is another example of something that belongs in the Abrams family diorama hall of fame."
Quinn grinned. "I think so too. What do you think, Linds?"
The little girl studied the box for a second. "I think mine is better than Cindy's. But I won't tell her, because that's not nice."
Artie smiled. "Good plan, Linds! Now, let's get this mess cleaned up."
Later, Quinn and Artie were lying on Artie's bed watching a movie. Quinn turned to him, a smile on her face.
"So, what's this I hear about sweet, sweet lovin'?"
He grinned. "I think that can be arranged."
A/N: QUARTIE FICATHON NOW IN PROGRESS! All the fics that have been posted so far are AMAZING, and anyone reading this should go read them all!
Or...better yet...join us and write some! Details can be found in the Quinn/Artie Forum, or you can PM me!