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hopeshoodie · 4 years

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So I was inspired by a headcanon @fuseboxmusebox posted about Carl not liking Chelsea, so I wrote a little fic about that conflict.

~2000 words

Paring: MC/Carl

No warnings, just light angst and then them making up.

As Carl unlocked the front door of he and MC’s apartment, he knew MC either had or currently was hosting friends. More specifically, Chelsea. The overpowering wall of perfume, something burnt, and loud pop music encased him and grimaced.

Walking into the entryway, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief as Chelsea’s tennis shoes and jacket weren’t sitting by the door. It eased his annoyance only slightly to know she had already left. He hung his overcoat and set down his bag, rubbing his face and mentally preparing to walk into the kitchen.

Their cleaner worked on Tuesdays, so they’d just came through and straightened things up for the week yesterday. Carl could feel his anxiety rising as he looked around the kitchen, which had been spotless when he left before sunrise this morning.

Instead of sparkling stainless steel, flour was haphazardly dusted over everything. Cookies sat on top of the stove cooling, but when he walked over to them and tried to pull one off it stuck to the pan. He pried the cold, hard lump from the pan and grimaced as it broke in half, the blackened bottom broke into a million bits in his hand. He dropped it and held his hand aloft, more aggravated by the crumbs now coating his hand than he should’ve been. Walking over to the skin, he groaned loudly at the pots and pans that were piled high, blocking the water.

Wiping his hand on his dress pants, he turned from the kitchen and wandered into the living room. MC was sat cross-legged on the floor, her hands in some kind of glass bin that was filled with soil. She looked up and beamed at him, “Hey babe! How was work?”

He looked at her with exhaustion in his eyes and started fidgeting with his fingers, hands tightly pressed in front of him, “fine. Long day and all that. Do you think that’s the best idea to be doing on the carpet?”

“Oh,” MC looked down, as if noticing the open bags of moss, gravel, and potting mix for the first time, “no it’s fine, I’m being careful. I bought snails!” She loudly proclaimed the last part, springing up to retrieve her laptop, but Carl could only stare at the bag next to her foot. MC stepped adeptly around them as she walked over to him, and he finally tore his eyes up to meet her.

“They haven’t shipped yet, but I got three of them! I figured safer than two if we want to breed them ever- one could die in the mail or something. They’re otala lacteas.”

“You bought… Snails…?” Carl slowly repeated, looking from the computer screen to MC’s excited face. She nodded, not catching his apprehension. To her credit, Carl didn’t emote much normally.

“Yeah, Chelsea and I were talking about the perfect pet. Obviously it’s a cat, but we can’t do that right now with the security deposit. So we were like ‘what’s quiet, clean, low maintenance, but still interactive. You know how I can’t keep fish alive to save my life. And she told me all about these tik toks of people getting snails- I didn’t know you could keep snails as pets! It’s actually really easy to buy them online, especially in the UK for some reason. I dunno, we must have a high snail population or something. But I had them shipped within two days so we had to create an enclosure. Chels and I went to the garden store and you actually need to make a proper terrarium with dirt for them to dig in, so we got this,” she’d set the laptop on one of the couches and was now lifting the glass container, making Carl’s eyes get wide with stress as she hefted it up, “and isn’t it so cute? I love the steel frame for all the different panels. They had boring square ones, but Chels pointed out it’d look way better in a room if we went with something more geometric. And it’s gonna be totally chill keeping them because they just eat scraps of veg and fruits and egg shells!”

He didn’t mind when MC went off about a special interest, but when Chelsea came over it always seemed to dumb her down. Normally MC would talk about an article she read or a podcast or the book she was reading, but post-Chelsea it was always something irrelevant like internet drama or tv shows. Carl tried to keep up, but he couldn’t help but think the snails were just a temporary interest that MC would immediately drop after not seeing Chelsea for three days.

“Babe,” he cut in, as MC was still talking excitedly and holding it up with her hip, “can you put that down- maybe not on the-”

“Oh sure-” she carried it over to the kitchen counter and sat it down.

“Maybe not- MC, we eat off there…”

“Oh relax, it’s separated by glass.” She dusted her hands off on her jeans, and he felt like he could see the particles falling to the floor. “I’m just excited. I’m sure you don’t really care-”

“I care,” he replied, unconvincingly.

“Tell me about your day, how’d the meeting with Eddie go?” She walked back into the living room and sat down, patting the spot next to her. He stayed standing where he was, still staring at the open substrate and gravel bags on the floor. MC looked at him, confused for a moment, then followed his gaze.

“Oh.” She sprung up and grabbed the bags, causing Carl to inhale sharply as he worried the open bags would spill, and carried them into the kitchen as well, putting them on the counter.

“Fine,” Carl rubbed his face before sitting on the couch. “Today went fine.” MC walked over and laid next to him, placing her head in his lap and looking up at him. “Just fine?”

“Yeah,” Carl gently wove his hands into her hair, idly stroking her scalp and staring at the off TV. MC reached up and gently poked his chin, making him glance down for a moment, “hey. What’re you thinking about?”

Carl sighed, “it doesn’t matter.” “It does to me.” “I don’t- promise you’re not going to get upset?”

MC gently squished his cheek, “what?”

Carl glanced down at her, taking her hand, “you just always get so manic when Chelsea comes over.”

MC frowned and sat up, turning to face him, “what does that mean?”

Carl sighed again, “nothing. Nevermind. Forget it.”

“No. Go on.” MC crossed her arms, “I get all manic when Chelsea’s here?”

“I mean… I’m not wrong. Have you seen the kitchen?”

“Yeah,” her voice was starting to get sharper, “my friend came over and we baked cookies.”

“Not just the cookies- the snails, the music-”

“So what? I can clean it up.”

“I’m not saying you won’t, I’m just saying it always seems like you start a million things and get really excited about-”

“So it’s a bad thing that I’m excited?”

“It just doesn’t seem like you.”

“Me being excited isn’t me?”

“Not being excited, it’s what you get excited about.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Whenever Chelsea comes over it feels like you’re dumbing yourself down.”

MC’s jaw dropped and she just stared at him, subtly shaking her head. He didn’t take the hint, still staring at the rug and talking, “Like normally you’re really smart and calm but when Chelsea gets in your head suddenly you’re talking about celebrities and-”

“Stop talking, Carl.” He glanced up at her, staring blankly at her face, which was twisted in rage. The both looked at each other in silence for a moment, before MC stood up angrily.

“Don’t you dare call me or Chelsea stupid.”

“It just seems like you get really into silly things when she-”

“Are they silly because you don’t like them? I don’t call your marvel movies or obsession with elon musk dumb. I don’t shame you for what you enjoy.”

“I’m not saying you can’t enjoy things. Surely you’ve noticed how the things you’re interested in never are what Chelsea talks about- you don’t even care about internet drama until she comes-”

“I like spending time with my friend, and I like learning about what she’s interested in.”

“That’s fine. I just think-”

“I don’t want to hear it.” MC snapped, then stormed to the kitchen. He remained sitting in the living room, listening to MC angrily dropping and shoving pans around. He stewed in the tension for a bit, then took his phone out and reopened an article he hadn’t finished during the day. After MC finished cleaning the kitchen, she stood waiting for a bit. Either she thought Carl would come and talk to her or she didn’t want to walk past him. Eventually, she walked through the living room and pointedly looked away from him as she walked to the bedroom.

A few hours later, Carl shuffled into the bedroom and started to undress. After putting on his pajamas, he brushed his teeth and brought two cups of water into the bedroom. He walked around the side of the bed and offered one to MC. She huffed and turned away. He put it on the bedside table and walked around to his side. MC turned away from him again.

“MC, I’m sorry.” He said, assuming she was still mad.

“What are you sorry for, calling me stupid or saying you hate my friends?”

“I don’t hate your friends, I just… You know Chelsea stressed me out. And I’d never call you stupid, you’re one of the smartest women I’ve ever met-”

MC sat up suddenly, turning on her lamp, “Yeah, we’ve talked about how Chelsea stresses you out. That’s why I go out of my way to have her over when you’re not here. I don’t have to do that, but I thought it was a good compromise. Now you’re trying to insinuate that spending time with her makes me worse.”

She paused, clearly waiting for Carl to respond. He didn’t take the hint.

“She doesn’t make me worse.”

“No. I don’t think- not worse, MC. It just seems like you’re not yourself- you start a bunch of new projects and then abandon them three days later.”

“I’m not going to not spend time with her anymore. She’s my best friend, Carl. I not going to choose between you and her and I cannot believe you’re trying to make me.”

“I don’t want you to choose or anything. I was just irritated. You know I like to keep the apartment clean, and I come home after a long day of work to see everything destroyed-”

“I cleaned it up!”

“I know. I was just annoyed in the moment. I’m sorry.”

She stared at him silently for awhile, then sighed exasperatedly.

“You should be, you were way out of line. Chelsea isn’t dumb or silly for liking things that you don’t, and I think it’s rather misogynistic of you to imply.”

“I wasn’t-”

“Carl. Sit with that for a minute before you argue with me, please. There’s nothing inherently dumb about being interested in snails or interior decorating or celebrities or whatever else- they’re just things that majority women like. Is your distaste for them based on condescension towards women?”

He sat on the bed, genuinely thinking about it.

“You know we had this conversation about pumpkin spice and ugg boots-”

“No. I know. I’m thinking about it.”

“Good.” MC laid back down again, pulling the covers back up. Carl laid down quietly beside her, unmoving. After forty five minutes, MC turned on her side to face him, “still thinking?”

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

“Ok. Well. I’m going to bed. Thank you for apologizing. I’m not sorry I got mad, but I’m sorry that I didn’t think to clean up before you got home. I didn’t think how that would stress you out.”

“That is fair.”

MC giggled lightly, “Alright, good night.”

“Good night, MC. We’ll talk tomorrow, I’ll try to get home at a reasonable hour.”

“Mmmhm.” MC slowly turned to her back, stretching her legs before curling up. “Please remember to close the closet door before turning the light on tomorrow.”

“Of course, anything for you, dear.”

“Oh and if you get the mail, please be careful with it. The snails are coming either tomorrow or the day after. We’re going to be parents soon.”

Carl chuckled, then leaned over and kissed her cheek, “Anything for you.”

#litg #litg fic #love island the game #litg carl #my fic #carl hcs #chelsea hcs

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