Work Text:
A little after five, Kim opens the front door with an exasperated groan.
“Thought you said you were gonna be late tonight,” Jimmy says, raising an eyebrow as he gets up off the couch to greet her.
“Yeah, well…” she rubs her face and scowls. “I still have work to do, but I’m so fucking done with Kevin.”
“I see.” He grabs her briefcase and goes to take off her blazer. Kim looks at him with an I can do this myself glare, but lets him do it anyway. “Want me to beat him up for you or anything?”
“Jimmy…”
“What? Just give him the old one, two, he’s done for,” he says, smirking as he mimes the punches.
Kim considers for a moment, a tired but happy smile slowly stretching across her face as Jimmy drapes her blazer neatly over his arm. “Fine, just don’t get arrested, okay?”
“Got it, never again.”
She rolls her eyes but smiles in spite of herself, then kicks off her heels and leaves them by the front door. “I’m gonna go shower and get to work,” she says, grabbing the briefcase and blazer. Jimmy begins to follow her down the hall, so she adds an “alone” and laughs when his face falls.
“That’s not why I’m sad!” he protests. “Okay… a little bit. But also, you shouldn’t have to do any more work tonight, Kim! Today has been stressful enough, right? Why can’t you just finish up tomorrow?”
“I can’t just… I need to…” She shakes her head and sighs softly. “Fine, you’re right.”
Jimmy smiles, gloating silently as he takes the briefcase back from Kim and gently rubs the small of her back. “Why don’t you go lie down or something? I can go grab food and a movie maybe?”
She opens her mouth to protest, but something in his eyes stops the words before they come out. “Works for me,” she says instead.
“Any movie requests?”
“Surprise me. Grab the first thing you see.”
***
An hour later, Jimmy is back and unlocking the apartment door, bags in hand. He sets everything down in the kitchen and quietly steps into the bedroom. Kim is fast asleep on top of the covers, still in her work clothes. He smiles to himself as he walks back out, pulling the door closed behind him.
Jimmy puts their deli sandwiches and pasta salad in the refrigerator, then grabs the package of Tollhouse cookie dough he’d picked up at the store on the way back from Blockbuster Video. He goes about unwrapping the dough and grabbing a baking tray, then decides he should probably read the directions.
After shaping the dough into vaguely round blobs and putting them into the oven at what he hopes is the right temperature, he sets their dinner out on the table and goes back into the bedroom to wake Kim.
“Hey,” he says softly as he sits at the edge of the bed. She moves but doesn’t wake up, so he tries again, a little louder. “Hey, Kim.” He places a hand on her shoulder and laughs when she sleepily swats it away.
“What?” she mumbles, eyes still closed but a smile on her face.
“Dinner’s ready.”
“Okay,” she says through a yawn. “I’ll be out in a few, yeah?”
“Got it.” Jimmy leans down, placing a small kiss on her forehead before standing.
When Kim walks down the hall five minutes later, changed into pajama bottoms and Jimmy’s university hoodie, she smells the faint but unmistakable scent of something burning. “Jimmy?”
He looks at her, frustrated, as she comes into the kitchen. “Kim, where’s the fucking grabby thing…? For the tray, the–”
“Oven mitt, Jimmy,” she says, shaking her head but smiling. “Top right drawer.”
Jimmy groans and grabs the oven mitt, then quickly pulls the tray of cookies out and sets it on top of the oven. He makes his way to the table and starts to sit down when Kim motions to the oven and smiles wryly. “You might want to turn that off, just a thought.”
“Fuck.”
Once they are no longer in immediate danger of Jimmy setting the apartment on fire, they sit down and start eating their sandwiches. “You saw none of that, okay?” he says, taking a bite.
“None of what?”
“Thank you.”
The rest of the meal passes mostly in silence, with them exchanging smiles as Jimmy brushes his foot playfully against hers every now and again. When they’ve finished, he throws away the trash and piles the burnt cookies onto a plate. “So, uh… as you may have noticed, I tried to make you some cookies. Cheer you up or something.”
He sets the plate down in front of Kim, so she grabs a cookie and takes a bite. “Crunchy,” she observes, chewing loudly. “Very crunchy.”
“Sorry about that,” Jimmy says, laughing embarrassedly.
“It’s fine!” she assures him. “They’re a lot better than they look.”
“I’m just gonna go ahead and pretend that was a compliment,” he says, glaring playfully and grabbing one for himself. “As long as they’re edible, I suppose.”
They continue crunching away when a wide smile stretches across Kim’s face for reasons unbeknownst to Jimmy. “What?”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever baked me cookies before.”
“Really?”
“Nope.”
“So what you’re saying is…” Crunch. “What you’re saying is that these are, hands down, the single best cookies anyone has ever made you ever?”
“Yeah, that is certainly one way to put it.” Kim giggles, and Jimmy smiles triumphantly. He reaches across the table and takes her hand in his own.
***
Finally, after more cookies and kitchen cleanup and a bit of red wine, they flop down onto the couch with the bag from Blockbuster. “I kinda saw two movies at the exact same time, so… we’ve somehow wound up with a double feature of Punch Drunk Love and To Have and Have Not,” Jimmy says, pulling out the two films.
“Wow. That is… quite a combination,” Kim giggles.
“Which one first?”
“Maybe if we start with the old one, I’ll have a much better chance at staying awake for both.”
“Works for me,” he nods, setting up the movie and pressing play. He settles back down onto the couch beside Kim, and she lays her head on his shoulder. He wraps an arm around her, pulling her closer, and kisses the top of her head.
“Jimmy?”
“Hmm?”
She looks up at him, kisses his cheek softly as the black and white glow of the screen washes over them. “Thanks for making my day better.”