Work Text:
“It’s too early.”
Carmen’s groan barely split the morning silence and she rolled over in bed, reaching for Julia, who scooted out of the way with a grin. Carmen’s eyes peeled open and she sighed through her nose, grinning back in spite of herself. Julia laughed- her hair was, somehow, three times its normal volume and she was practically swimming in it.
“Carmen, it’s almost noon.”
Carmen groaned. “Not on Madagascar time…”
Julia sat on the edge of the bed, running her fingers through Carmen’s explosion of curls and watching with a gentle smile as Carmen sank into the touch contentedly, still half buried in blankets. “Love, I hate to break it to you, but sleeping until three in the afternoon will not fix your sleep schedule.”
“Mmngngh.” Carmen muttered, not bothering to argue because she knew it was true but also not wanting to validate it in the hopes that this tactic somehow made it false. “I don’t want to get up.”
“Yeah.” Julia said sympathetically. “I’d normally let you sleep, but we have to leave again tonight and I figured you would want to be conscious.”
“Yeah.” Carmen sighed, and Julia smiled as she saw Carmen stretch, the toes of her fuzzy rainbow socks peeking out from the comforter momentarily as her girlfriend’s long frame extended to its full height. “Alright, I’m getting up.” She sat up and was greeted by her mane flying in every direction.
“Oh no.” She half laughed, eyes still shut sleepily in an attempt to salvage a bit more rest. “This is why I wear my hair in a bun at night…”
Julia smiled and scooted over, rubbing Carmen’s back. She felt bad for waking her up when a faraway fight in Madagascar the other day had exhausted her in addition to giving her other-side-of-the-world jetlag, but she also knew that Carmen only slept long and hard like this when she was feeling safe, so that was good enough for her. Too many nightmares and dangerous situations had taught her that Carmen could wake up in a second if necessary. Yes, she needed the sleep, but Julia figured fourteen hours was enough, especially when they had to leave for their next flight in just four.
“Come on, Carmen. I’ll do your hair.” Julia gently took Carmen’s hand and tugged her towards their bathroom. Carmen took in a big breath like she always did when trying to get out of bed.
“You don’t have to, Jules. I can take care of it.” Carmen murmured, moving slowly to sit on the edge of the bed and rubbing her face with her hands.
“Love, you can barely keep your eyes open. Let me?”
Carmen nodded quietly with a small smile and little fight, leaning on Julia for a second before she pushed herself off the bed and moved into the bathroom. Julia dragged a chair in from somewhere so she wouldn’t have to sit on the toilet and looked around for one of the many products Carmen used to tame her hair, gently running her fingers through all the while.
“I don’t understand how you manage to put this into a bun. Or a wig.” Julia sprayed in a detangler…conditioner thing and carefully began pulling at tangles.
“...’m magical.” Carmen said, and when Julia looked up she saw Carmen’s eyes drifting shut again in the mirror.
“Yes you are.” Julia leaned down and tilted Carmen’s head towards her, placing a kiss on her lips. That got her awake, and her eyes opened with a red-faced but mischievous glance.
“Not fair. You’re kissing me like that and telling me we can’t get back in bed. Contradictory.”
“Carmen!” Julia gasped in a fake scandalized tone, keeping her straight face for two seconds before they both started laughing. Julia quickly tried to still her hands, realizing that the brush was potentially about to be lost forever in the sea of curls if she didn’t do something, and retrieved it, continuing to brush out Carmen’s hair with as few snags as she could.
Every so often the thief winced when Julia caught a bad snag, but she could work it out with little trouble after she found it. Soon Carmen’s mass of hair was tamed into a less tangled and slightly less voluminous mass of hair, and Carmen was coherent enough to apply the huge amounts of product that kept it from completely self-destructing during their long, hard days (Those could range from sabotaging global threats and fighting supervillains to having to fly 14 hours. Both were considered Long Hard Days).
Julia, already ready, let Carmen finish her morning (now early afternoon) routine, the thief rounding off her look with her signature red lipstick. She got up and smiled at Julia.
“Thank you, love.” Her still sleep-deepened voice sent a thrill up Julia’s spine and she could tell Carmen caught the pink that flooded her face. Her girlfriend grinned, closing in on her until she was pressed against the wall, cheeks pink, their arms draped around each other. “Like what you see?”
“Well, it’s a far cry from the Carmen of half an hour ago who looked like she had been struck by lightning.” Julia laughed, running a hand down Carmen’s cheek and just barely pausing before her lips touched the ruby red. “Damn. You just put lipstick on,” she whispered.
“And you dragged me out of bed.” Carmen said with a smirk. “We can change both of those things right now if you want to.”
Julia glanced at the clock. “Ah, to hell with it. We’ve got time.” She murmured, moving closer and kissing Carmen deeply. They both stumbled backwards and fell onto the bed, laughing, before Julia met her lips again. “You’ll just have to reapply.”