Steampunk Shenanigans

Evie felt a little guilty for sleeping in later than normal, but she had forgotten that beds could be soft and it was very hard to rouse herself from the one in Damien’s guest room. But she knew he was basically trapped in his room until she got up, so she finally released the pillow she’d been snuggling her face into and rolled out of bed. She and Damien had been regularly working in the lab for the past three days, alternating between the remote for the cuffs and creating their fake spider machine. Today Corbin wanted a report on their progress, so they’d have to deal with that first. Evie was a little disappointed; she found that she liked spending time in the lab and learning things from Damien.

She dug carefully through the clothes Sylvia and lent her, pulling out a black skirt and a silky dark green blouse. She was tying a matching bow in her hair when she opened the door. Minnie came over to give her ankle a nuzzle; they had apparently become good friends. Damien was lounging in the doorway of his bedroom and she gave him a sheepish smile.

“Sorry. I know I keep taking too long to get ready.”

“Not at all. I haven’t been waiting long.”

“Liar,” Evie grinned. He reached out and batted a curl that had come loose while she was trying to tie her hair back. They walked downstairs, Minnie bounding ahead of them. Damien gave her some breakfast and then hunted around for his jacket. Evie took the opportunity to study some photos lining the mantle that she hadn’t looked at before. She couldn’t help but smile at all the happy family pictures.

“You played rugby?” she asked suddenly, arching an eyebrow. Damien had finally found his jacket, grimacing a little as he put it on.

“Yeah, I did,” he said. When the Mycrofts had told Evie she was kidnapping a guy from the University she had expected someone older and less…like Damien. She supposed this explained a little.

“So, you got brains and brawn, huh? No wonder Jimmy keeps assuming you must be married.”

Evie realized how flirty that sounded and cleared her throat. “So, um, are you ready to go?”

They headed out to the seedy apartment building and up to the top floor to meet with Corbin and Olessa. Even though it wasn’t even quite noon, Olessa was sipping a glass of brandy. She looked up when they entered and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, I almost didn’t recognize our little Evie,” she laughed. “Corby, doesn’t she look cute dressed up all…respectable?”

Corbin just grunted in reply. Olessa stood up and came toward Evie, circling her like a well dressed vulture.

“What’s with the costume, Evangeline?”

“It’s called blending in,” Evie said stiffly. “You don’t want our project being delayed by people asking a bunch of questions, do you?”

“No, and speaking of which. How is the project coming along?” Corbin asked.

“It’s going smoothly,” Damien replied.

“Good to hear it. Because we’re currently working up what we need in the way of adjustments.”

“Can’t wait,” Damien muttered. He looked wary as Olessa turned her attention on him.

“I’m so glad to see that your face healed up so nicely,” she cooed. “I was worried Corby had done lasting damage and that would be a shame.”

She was standing entirely too close to him and he looked about three seconds from running out of the room.

“Can we maybe get back to work now?” Evie asked. “It’s a long cab ride to the University.”

“Ah, yes, the University. That’s why our Evie is playing dress up.” Olessa flicked the ribbon in Evie’s hair contemptuously. “I do hope, for your sake, that you don’t forget your place.”

“How could I ever?” Evie mumbled, keeping her gaze on the floor to hide her embarrassment. Olessa always talked down to her but there usually wasn’t an audience.

“Good.” Olessa patted her head before flashing Damien another smile. They were told to report back in a couple of days and then they were finally able to leave. Evie was quiet as they walked, staring at her feet.

“Hey, are you okay?” Damien asked softly.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? Olessa doesn’t tell me anything I don’t already know.”

“Evie-“

“I know we have a lot of work to do but do you mind if we stop for lunch first?” Evie asked quickly. He sighed and followed her as she ducked into a little pub on the corner. Evie ate there a lot and the waitress who flounced up to them greeted her.

“Hi, Evie. Haven’t seen you in a while. I guess now I know why.” She shot a glance at Damien, smiling. “Going to introduce me to your charming new friend?”

“It’s a business thing, Dorothea,” Evie muttered. Dorothea perked up a little.

“Oh, yeah? Well, if you get bored doing business, I’m off at four,” she said.

“I think we’ll just have some food, Dorothea, if you don’t mind,” Evie said, feeling prickly. Dorothea just winked and flounced away again. Evie resisted the urge to scowl as she ate her sandwich. She was still feeling a little sullen when they got to the lab, and was surprised when Damien showed her some little clockwork hopping frogs that he and Gilbert Devon had made instead of getting straight to work on the spider.

“Sometimes when we were bored we’d have them race,” he explained. Evie laughed as she watched the tiny metal frogs leap across the table.

“It’s nice to know some geniuses have a sense of humor,” she said, reaching out a hand so one of the frogs jumped into it. She lifted it up to study it closer. “These are really cute.”

“Glad you like them, Ducky.”

They finished up late again, running into Jimmy the janitor on their way out.

“Good night, Dr. Hart. Mrs. Hart.”

“Good night, Jimmy,” Evie smirked. They’d more or less given up on correcting him though Damien sighed.

“He really just won’t accept that I’m not married.”

“Someone should really tell him that you could do a lot better than me,” Evie replied dryly. Damien frowned a little as he opened his front door.

“Evie, you shouldn’t let the Mycrofts get into your head so much. You know they’re just being cruel.”

“Just because they’re cruel doesn’t mean they’re wrong,” Evie pointed out, heading toward the stairs.

“Oh, come on. Are you really going to take anything Olessa says seriously? That woman is legitimately scary. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t believe in safe words.”

Evie couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, well. I should warn you that she’s relentless. She’s a collector of scary tech, fancy dresses, and handsome men, so she’s not going to-“

“You think I’m handsome?” Damien turned as they reached the landing and looked at her. Evie felt her face turn bright red.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” she said quickly. “Not that I didn’t mean what I said. About you being handsome. You are. But I didn’t mean to say it out loud. Twice. Oh, would you look at the time it’s getting really late we should probably get some sleep.”

She was so flustered that she didn’t realize they hadn’t walked down the hall to the bedrooms yet, so the door she opened and then quickly closed wasn’t to her room.

“Evie,” Damien called after a moment. “That’s the linen closet.”

“I know that. I like linen closets. They’re a good place to think.”

Or a good place to wall up her body when she died of mortification, which felt like a real possibility.

“Can you please come out?” Damien asked.

“No, I think this is just the right size for me so I’m going to live here now.”

“Okay well, I hope you didn’t put down a deposit because this closet is more than twenty feet from my room, so that’s not really going to work out.”

“Dammit.”