Of Movies and Mischief (In Progress)

       Of Movies And Mischief

"Don't you DARE burn that popcorn, Tarzan," Nikki's voice was filled to the brim with warning. Rich grinned.

"I am a past master in the art of popping popcorn, m'dear," he shook the skillet harder and a furious popping was heard within. "So. What are we watching?"

"The girls gave us a stack off movies here," Nikki flipped through them, contemplatively. "Uh... How about Fast and Furious?"

"Sounds good to me," Rich pulled the skillet from the stove and removed the lid dramatically. "Taste and be amazed, Sunshine."

She laughed in his face. “Not until you butter it, buddy, it’s only halfway popcorn without butter, and I refuse to taste it before it’s all there!”

He sniffed haughtily. “I knew THAT. Didn’t I say just I was a past master of the art of Popcorn??”

He paused, uncertainly. “Ummm…. Where do you keep the butter? 

She gave him an exasperated look.

“You see me get it out of the cupboard every single day at least three times, how do you still not know where it belongs???”     She fished it out of the cupboard as she spoke, waving it under his nose.

"Ha! Of course," Rich snatched the butter. "Just seeing if YOU remembered," and he ducked out of habit. It was a good thing he did too, cuz she did take a swing at him. When he came up again, he just laughed and pressed a kiss on her cheek and she melted visibly.

"Aw, you," she rolled her eyes. "Finish that popcorn and let's get on with this." And as he turned back to the popcorn, she leaned forward and returned the kiss.

"Pillows and blankets," Rich called as Nikki crossed into the living room. "And did you get tea ready?" The last bit he mumbled around a mouthful of popcorn as he ambled into the living room after her.

She came staggering out of their room, half buried under every blanket they owned, and even a few he didn’t recall ever seeing before.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Think you got enough, Sunny Dearest?”

She stuck her nose over the top of the mountain, with some difficulty.

“Oh, you hush. You’re gonna help me make the bed again later, don’t worry!”

"Of course," he groaned dramatically as she dumped the heap on the couch. The next thing he knew, he was hit smack in the face with something soft and squishy and looked up to see her back again with an armload of squishmallows, beaming them at his head one at a time. He promptly threw them back and for the next several minutes, they had a full-on squishmallow war. And in between rounds, Nikki paused to rant about the overwhelming amounts of squishmallows in their possession and why on earth did the girls see fit to give them so many? 

The battle was promptly ended then as Rich took a flying leap and tackled his opponent. Squishmallows went flying in every direction and Nikki went down like a ton of bricks. An very angry ton of bricks who gave him a thorough chewing out until she was stopped cold right in the middle of her tirade by a method he was even now perfecting, and then she grew quiet and even allowed herself to be helped up from the floor.

"Now." Rich plopped into the middle of the mass of blankets and grinned comfortably up at her. "Are you going to start the movie like a normal human being?"

She sat up very properly, crossing her legs at the ankles, fluffing her hair, (he still hadn’t gotten over the curls, even after seeing them every single day for months, and she was doing it on purpose) and finally, giving him her most ladylike of faces, delicately and with great deliberation set the disc in the player, and hitting the button at very long last. Very, very properly.

The screen flickered to life, but Rich didn't notice the beginning.  He was still staring at those curls. He didn't notice either that the music playing was not the Fast and Furious theme. In fact he didn't notice anything at all until Nikki gave a little shriek and he turned to look at the screen in utter confusion.

Because that was none other than himself on the screen, walking through the woods, and in the next moment, he was upside down and dangling in midair.

Nikki was howling with laughter now, and it only made matters worse when he huffed indignantly at her. Seemed to wind her up…. She was gasping for air now.

“I had forgotten….”  

There was a desperate attempt at a full breath in the middle of peals of hysterical laughter.

“Ohh Rich, I forgot how ridiculous you look upside down.”

He fumed to himself. He’d been trying to make sure she did forget, that was what, and now he was mad. Furious. En—well, he wasn’t exactly enraged. He couldn’t be when she looked like that. But she was LAUGHING at him, and the memory of it stung until she noticed how grouchy he was being and coddled  him back into a good mood by a method SHE was working on perfecting. Practice was always a good idea, after all (;

This made them miss the switching of scenes, and it was with a gasp that they returned to the real world to find that the screen had gone black.

Rich was about to bang the screen upside the head when it started talking. When HE started talking. But he was pretty sure his mouth was closed, and this was just too weird.

Nikki thought so too, especially when Rich started contradicting himself, and sounding very exasperated.

And then Nikki's voice was yelling and Rich turned to look at her in surprise. She shook her head equally bewildered. 

"I ain't saying nothing," she whispered, just to prove that she certainly wasn't yelling.

"It's the time they got us," Rich snapped his fingers. "The duct tape. They were recording us!"

"Those little scamps," Nikki whispered back. "Imma get em for that..."

"You were so mad," Rich laughed. 

"And getting mad all over again remembering it," Nikki huffed. On screen, Rich started choking and spluttering and threatening to chop Nikki's hair off. Off screen, Rich grinned at a furious looking Nikki and reached out to run his fingers through her curls.

"Hey, I was totally kidding! If anyone so much as laid a hand on these I'd wring their neck," he said emphatically. "They're MY curls now!"

He said the right word at the right time, and saved himself a fearsome battle. Granted, he liked battles, battles were great fun. Especially the endings. 

But that didn’t mean he wanted one right now

Which was lucky, because as Real Nikki went quiet, so did the Nikki on screen. The only difference was that His Nikki was very much awake, and the other one…. He grinned to himself, remembering. She still snored like that, some nights, but he’d never told her that.

"Hey!" Nikki cried indignantly, glaring at the screen. "I snore! You never told me that!"

"What, and interrupt the sleeping beauty?" Rich chuckled and ducked as a squishmallow came flying violently at his head. "Hey, careful where you aim them things! Death by squishmallows is not exactly my preferred way to go."

"Well then," Nikki stuck her nose in the air. "Squishmallows ain't dignified enough for you? Do ya mind telling me how you DO want to go?"

"Demise by sunshine sounds pretty good to me," Rich grinned teasingly and ducked again. "Hey, calm down, the scene's changing and I, for one, can't wait to see what else those turnips came up with."

“Cuz it has to be them, nobody else woulda got all this together. Unless maybe Eric helped.”

Nikki peered at him, nose wrinkled in bemused silence. 

“What?” 

“Rich…. Why but why oh why do you call them Turnips??? That makes ABSOLUTELY no sense whatsoever.”

He patted her hand soothingly. “Never you mind, it’s a long story and it’ll keep til later. Maybe while we—here there was a faint grimace—make the bed again.”