Small Hands
As the cold wind brushed through Lucy's hair, she noticed the night to be particularly quiet that midnight in London.
"I don't like this Lockwood, we shouldn't have come out here without all our equipment." She told her fearless leader as they approached the graveyard.
Lockwood glanced at her with his signature warm smile. "You worry too much Luce, if you keep that up you'll be having kittens."
"Explain to me again why we're out here in a abandoned cemetery on our day off?"
"We're here to investigate a special request given to us by Penelope Fittes last night remember? We had tea and your sugar cookies in our kitchen while George was worried about her finding out about our friend the skull." Lockwood replied with a chuckle.
George was out at the archives gathering up reading materials Lockwood sent him to fetch, while research wasn't necessarily his field of expertise he gave George a pleasant surprise of a reading list.
"I've never seen someone so happy to visit a stale aired and cold library." Lucy commented, dodging a low hanging tree branch as they entered through the rusted gates.
Lockwood shrugged, "Are you really surprised about his enthusiasm for the archives Luce? Knowing him for as long as you have?"
No. She wasn't surprised in the least. But that didn't mean she didn't worry about how much information he was absorbing in each one of his trips to that cold aired building. She didn't want him to get even cockier than he already is.
"This is it. The grave of Mr. Alan Hopps. Died just a few years after we were born from a horrific stabbing in Chelsea." Lockwood announced in a low whisper.
The grave was covered in vines and cracks, nobody has been in this cemetery for a good 16 years because of all the activity coming from it. But from what they understood, Mr. Hopps didn't have any living relatives left to question or investigate. Which was normal considering the average family size began to dwindle in recent years.
"Are you alright Luce? You've been awfully quiet for the last couple of minutes. Penny for your thoughts?"
"It's just...I don't understand why anybody would come to this place anymore considering it's a hotbed of activity that could easily lead to someone getting ghost touched if they're not an agent."
Lockwood wiped away some of the moss from the tomb stone, "Well there're the grave diggers and robbers who look for hidden goods stored away with these poor souls. I've been to funerals where agents are decorated with silver necklaces and bracelets to keep their souls from rising if they try to return. Our good pal Flo is a expert in extracting silver cursed pieces from dead corpses and making it look exactly like it did before. It's in her profession and if she wasn't sick she'd more than likely be in this exact cemetery looking for new goods."
"She's not exactly my friend as she is yours Lockwood."
"She's not all bad once you really get to know her."
Lucy rolled her eyes. Even though her relationship has been getting better with the Relic woman, she didn't care for her snarky insults she would always throw at her.
"Let's get started shall we?" Lockwood took out several iron chains and threw it around them as a protective barrier. They drew their rapiers as Lucy took out the thermostat to check the overall temperature of the grave area.
Lucy watched as it began to tick slowly down as the grave area began to act up in activity. The frost began to thicken as they noticed their breaths became more and more visible in the full moon's light.
"Lockwood..."
"Shh. It's forming."
Out of the ground came the appearance of a business man with a bowler hat. His eyes were hollow and his suit was bloodied with stab wounds. But the one trait that made Lucy want to hurl was the hanging out piece of intestine that hanged out front, revealing white bone and rotten ghost flesh.
"Just like we planned" Lockwood whispered, bringing his rapier to a defensive position and advancing slowly. Lucy followed in his lead.
They entrapped the ghost on both sides of the grave, ready to impale him.
A horrifying screech filled Lucy's ears as she heard the ghost yell "Revenge! I must have...REVENGE!" It took all her willpower not to drop her rapier to cover her ears.
They advanced and just as it seems they were about to finish the poor soul off, he quickly advanced onto Lucy and made her trip backwards. Causing her to fall into a batch of sticker bushes growing near the grave site.
"Lucy! Are you OK?" Lockwood called out as he rushed to her side, driving back Mr. Hopps from Lucy and bringing her back to the circle of iron chains.
Lucy nodded her head, "I'm fine. I haven't been ghost touched but my hand got a nasty cut from that fall."
"We'll take care of that when we get back home. Right now I need you to get the containment seals ready alright? Think you can handle that?"
"Yes."
So as Lockwood did his best to solo the screaming Mr. Hopps, Lucy brought out the silver seals and prepared to advance despite trying to keep her own blood off of the seals at the same time.
"Ready Luce? Because this is your shot right now!"
Lucy leapt toward the grave stone with her intertwined seals and once they were secured around the stone the apparition dispersed. Lucy did her best not to show how relieved she was but it was hard not to when you wanted to rub it in its face.
"Now come over here, I need to inspect your hand." Lockwood demanded, beckoning her over to his side with a open hand.
She walked over and Lockwood tenderly took her hand in his to inspect her wound. It was a nasty cut that would probably leave a lasting scar for at least a few months. Maybe even half a year. Thankfully though Lockwood had some first aid tools at the ready to at least make sure it didn't get infected.
"You know what's funny Luce?"
"Hmm."
"Now that I'm looking at it, our hands have quite the difference to them."
Lucy raised her eyebrow at him, "Where're you getting at?"
"Well for starters your hand is smaller, much more delicate and smooth on top while your palm is much rougher from your constant practice and sword fighting."
Lucy blushed at his words. This wasn't like Lockwood to bring up something like this out of the blue without a reason. "And...what about yours?" She asked after a moment of silence.
"You tell me."
"Well...your hands feel rough but tender, like I can trust you to guide me through the dark anywhere in the world. And despite the cold you have this warmth to your hands that makes me feel like I'm safe-" Lucy stopped herself from speaking any further. Her face was bright red and she felt like she was going to die from embarrassment.
Lockwood looked at her curiously, "Why'd you stop?"
"B-because I just remembered that George is probably waiting for us back home by now! We don't wanna keep him waiting all alone with our hidden stash of chocolate bars we bought without him right?"
"You're lying Luce. You're gonna have to come up with a better excuse than that."
Lucy felt her face grow hotter and hotter, "I stopped because I-I can't feel my lips anymore! They're completely numb from the cold."
Lockwood gazed into her eyes in a way that made her feel paralyzed. Like she couldn't move and as she felt herself grow more and more self aware, she noticed that Lockwood linked their fingers together after finally applying the medicine on her skin.
With the moon out in all its glory and the Gothic architecture all around them, Lucy felt like they were a pair of forbidden lovers out meeting in secret. And her Romeo was about to declare something important to her.
"What would you do right now if I did something out of the blue?" Lockwood finally asked softly.
Lucy looked at him curiously while slowly answering his question, "It would depend on what you'd do to me."
After a few minutes of silence between the two of them, Lockwood sighed and chuckled softly. "I can't believe I wanna do this now. I really have the worst taste in atmosphere."
As Lucy began to ask him what he meant, Lockwood wrapped his hand around her waist. Bringing her close to his body and while leaning his head down he gently brought her chin up to his with his other hand and kissed her softly on the lips.
Lucy felt her entire brain freeze from emotion. She couldn't believe what was happening to her at that moment: Lockwood was kissing her.
At first it started out gentle, but slowly began to turn tender and more passionate. At first it was only on Lockwood's side of the kiss, but as soon as the cobwebs began to clear in her mind, Lucy began to kiss him back. Soon they were in an embrace almost two whole years in the making.
As they began to part, Lucy noticed that Lockwood was blushing just as hard as she was. Like the kiss took as much out of him as it did out of her. That thought alone made her smile with love for the man she grew to respect and care for above all others.
"Something like that..." Lockwood whispered breathlessly from the kiss.
Lucy nodded her head slowly, almost nuzzling him in response. "And I guess you have my answer."
"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that."
"I think I might."
"Really?"
Lucy stopped him from talking with a gentle kiss on the lips and a smile, "That's a conversation for another time away from this grave site. Besides, we're still on business technically with our good friend Mr. Hopps."
"Right. How naughty of me to forget about a killer ghost right behind us." Lockwood replied with a chuckle.
Unwrapping themselves from each other, they made the call to Penelope Fittes to tell her Mr. Hopps was sealed and needed transfer. She gave them her thanks and told them that she would send out DEPRAC to take care of it for them.
"Are we in agreement of not telling George about what happened between us?" Lockwood asked, his fingers intertwined with Lucy's.
Lucy nodded her head with a deep blush, "Definitely. Can you imagine what he'd do if he found out we kissed?"
"I don't want to think about it."
So as they walked pass the creaking gates that opened their way back home, Lucy looked back to the sealed grave site where she received both love and pain out of the blue. With a gift of a kiss because of her small hands.