Ask Meme Fic Title: Castoff Cast Iron Tub
Sorry it took me so long to answer thisone! I actually thought up the scenario that would go with this title theminute I saw it. Itās just taken time for me to talk myself into writing andposting it? @obishenshenobi helped make this as sappy as it got. :P
Send me a made-up fic title and Iālltell you what I would write to go with it:
Aimee is at a second hand store,looking for new (to her) tack and training gear. Just because thereās moremoney now doesnāt mean thereās any need to waste it. Itās also an old habit thatshe doesnāt really have any incentive to change, although it takes extra timeout of the day. Breaks are a rare thing in her line of work and this sort ofcounts.
She stops for a moment when she sees anold claw foot cast-iron tub. Itās a little chipped and rusted and doesnāt sitquite level, but it still looks solid. It only takes her a few seconds to shakeher head at herself and dismiss it as too much of a project. Ā Besides which, where would she put it?
Eliot is with her that day. Heād beenbrowsing in another part of the store, but happens to be looking when she runsher hand along the edge of the tub a little wistfully.
A couple of weeks later Aimee thinkstheyāre just out for a drive, until Eliot pulls down a long dirt driveway andstops in front of an old faded house. It needs new paint and new windows andthe porch has seen better days, but sheās seen worse. Eliotās out of the truckbefore she can ask him what theyāre doing there and by the time she gets outheās unlocking the front door.
Inside, the house isnāt in the bestshape. The old hardwood floors need work and some of the walls are stripped down to the studs. Itās obvious someone has swept and dusted though. Eliotās only waited forher to get inside before heās taking the stairs to the second floor two at atime. Aimee follows a little bit slower. They creak but hold. She wouldnāt be surprised if Eliot told her heāsdecided he needed a project, but he hasnāt given her a chance to ask.
Upstairs, heās disappeared down thehallway. The upstairs is a lot like the downstairs,except that thereās a spot in the middle of the hall that looks like theremnants of a leaking roof. Eliot sticks his head around a doorway and smiles ather before disappearing again. She canāt help but roll her eyes.
When she gets to the right door and steps through, shehas to assume itās a bathroom. Thereās no sink and no toilet, but thereās holesin the floor for plumbing and itās bathroom sized. Itās not until Eliot moves to the side that she realizes whatās behind him.
Itās the only thing sheās seen in thewhole house that looks brand new. Except she knows that itās not. Itās the castiron tub she saw in the second hand store, restored and gleaming bright white.
Sheās totally not crying. In a second,sheās going to smack Eliot in the arm and try really hard to be mad becausethis place is going to be SO much work. But heās giving her that stupid grinthat means he already knows heās won. Then heās hugging her and sheās definitelycrying but sheās also laughing because god fucking damn it, sheās crying over atub and she knows Eliot bought thisplace and of course he didnāt talk to herabout it, he just did it.
A few months in and itās a good thingEliot is the kind of person that understands the difference between āIhate you, but I love you and this stupid thing weāre doingā glares andāI am actually going to kill you in your sleepā glares.
The āwhy are we sanding at 1am again?āglare can be fixed by kisses. But theyāre going to paint the living room thatcolor over Aimeeās dead body and if the electrician cancels again Aimee isgoing to cancel Eliot so he had better find somebody who is going to show up.
Sometimesheās up all night working on the house because he hates leaving somethingundone in the middle and Aimee also has a āget your ass in bedā glare. Eliot gets grumpy when heās notsleeping and Aimee isnāt his keeper but she does try to notice if his notsleeping is becoming an issue again because there are way too many sharpobjects and power tools around for them to be getting into āweāre bothexhausted and sore and can you not breathe out loud???ā fights.
So they restore a house and Eliotāssort of semi-retired and the third story attic becomes a guest studio for Parker and Hardison. They get a dog(or two) and a couple of stray cats adoptthem and everyone lives happily ever after.
