Warnings: Mild FemSlash (Paige/AJ), AU.
The cold is all permeating. It's something you get used to, but never fully accept. The constant, steady freezing cold. It'd be more endurable if it wasn't so inescapable. The cold is the worst thing about being dead. AJ had come to that conclusion some time ago. She'll never get used to how cold it is in the Land of the Dead. Paige doesn't seem the least bit affected, but she's a Reaper, born and bred in the Land of the Dead. At least AJ thinks born, she's never been sure if Paige was born exactly. It might be that Reapers just are. It's not a conversation they've ever had, and not one she wants to consider overly. She's only been a member of the deceased for a few months, and she's not entirely certain of how everything works yet, or if she's even really supposed to be here.
She'd found herself in the Land of the Dead due to an paperwork error. She'd been involved in a car accident with an old lady who had the same name, April Jeanette Mendez, same birthday too, all except the year. It was supposed to be that old lady who'd shuffled off the mortal coil, but Paige, newly on the job had reaped AJ's soul. Mistakes happen, but thankfully the souls collection department had caught the error before AJ's soul could be properly processed. Down in his lab, the Resurrectionist is trying to figure out how to return AJ's soul to her apparently comatosed body. It's not a problem that's been faced before, and the Resurrectionist is apparently very pleased to have more interesting work than normal. He's an interesting guy, and AJ quite enjoys spending time in his lab, but he's not the most interesting person in the Land of the Dead, that title belongs to AJ's room-mate, and mild crush, Paige.
"What the fuck?" Paige sounds confused, and AJ turns to her with a grin.
"It's Christmas! I'm decorating." The tree in the middle of Paige's small living room looks like something from A Nightmare Before Christmas, but the vague collection of tree shaped branches was the best AJ could find. Christmas was always her favourite holiday before her accidental death, and she wanted to recreate it the best she could.
"We don't have Christmas." Paige makes air quotes as she says the word Christmas, and looks mildly exasperated at the tree.
"I know... No holidays here, but I love Christmas, so..." AJ turns to her, all wide eyes, and a pleading smile.
"Fine." Paige huffs, shaking her head. "Have your Christmas, I've work to do."
"Have fun! Reap the right souls!" AJ calls out, and Paige makes an non-committal noise as she leaves. The tree is decorated with what AJ supposes could pass for Christmas decorations, but there's not much she could do with the available materials. There wasn't much in the way of arts and crafts supplies, so AJ had had to get creative. The paper snowflakes at least make it look somewhat festive.
"Miss AJ!" The voice that calls out to her has her jumping slightly. She's not yet used to the Resurrectionist's Assistant, and his being incorporeal. AJ thinks that being a ghost in the Land of the Dead has to be quite good fun. When in the Land of the Living most residents of the Land of the Dead are incapable of affecting anything other than those close to death, but the Assistant isn't dead, or even of the Land of the Dead. AJ isn't sure what the deal with the Resurrectionist and his Assistant is, but they've been kind to her, so she's never pried. They're definitely not in favour with the Higher Power, but it might is probably because of their work. "C'mon down to the lab, we've a surprise for you!" The Assistant vanishes as suddenly as he'd appeared, and AJ is left staring blankly at the spot he'd previously occupied.
"C'mon down to the lab, he says. We've a surprise, he says." She mutters to herself as she sets about trying to wrap up against the cold in one of Paige's spare robes. "It's fine for him, ghost-bastard." AJ snarls to herself as she starts the journey to the Resurrectionist's lab.
The main city in the Land of the Dead is a sprawling mass of mismatched architecture. Paige's home is a small, squat, little cottage, made of red bricks, with a white picket fence, but beside her little home is one of a much different style. The neighbour lives in a lavish mansion, with gleaming white walls, and long windows. The other buildings are equally uncoordinated. The Town-hall is a huge Gothic building, but the Higher Power's palace looks more like a corporate skyscraper. The whole city looks like it was designed by several committees that refused to talk to each other, but somehow the architectural chaos works. The Resurrectionist's lab is located at the bottom of a steep staircase. Every time AJ descends it, she feels like she's walking into the bowels of the Earth. It feels strangely warm down there, so she doesn't mind spending time in the lab.
"Hello!" The Resurrectionist's back is turned when AJ pushes open the thick door. She hovers near it, half in trepidation, half in awe. The lab is an explosion of colour. "He decorated." The Resurrectionist doesn't turn around, and AJ finds herself looking around for the Assistant.
"Tadah! I bring you eggnog." A steaming mug of what smells like eggnog appears in front of her, held in the slightly transparent Assistant's hands. "Your tree looked festive." The Assistant offers as he hands AJ the mug.
"I did the best I could." She mutters, and follows him over to the console the Resurrectionist is working on. "Have you found anything?" She stares at the scrolling numbers, and then at the sloppy scrawls on a scrap of paper beside the Resurrectionist's elbow.
"Nothing worth reporting." He mutters, pushing back from the console. "I'm running a simulation at the moment. We're hoping it'll give us something."
"Well, here's hoping." The Assistant perches on the console, his feet swinging back and forth slightly as he sips at his own mug. "You want some now?" He asks the Resurrectionist.
"Yeah, yeah, just a little." The Assistant vanishes in response to the Resurrectionist's response, and he shakes his head. "He wasn't like this before." He smiles at AJ.
"Before?" AJ wanders over to the couch shoved up against a wall, and takes a seat.
"Before." The Resurrectionist repeats, and sighs. "He always hated Christmas, but I suppose people change on the other side."
"Do you..." AJ takes a drink, and considers on how to ask her question. She's not entirely certain what the deal with the Resurrectionist and his Assistant is. She knows that the Resurrectionist is dead, but most souls don't hang about in the Land of the Dead. Normal procedure is for a soul to be processed, and sent to wherever it is souls go. The why of the Resurrectionist's hanging about isn't something AJ knows, nor does she know how the Assistant manages to visit the Land of the Dead from that of the Living so easily.
"Do I?" The Resurrectionist prompts her.
"Do you miss living?" She offers a slight smile to try to mitigate what is probably a stupid question.
"Do you?" He asks, and AJ stares at him blankly for a few seconds. She's not sure if she does miss being alive or not. She misses being warm, but actually being alive is a difficult question. If she was alive she'd have never met Paige, and she doesn't think she'd enjoy a life without the Reaper in it.
"One mug, and a present for you, AJ." The Assistant reappears, saving AJ from answering the Resurrectionist's question.
"A present?" She takes the large duffel bag that's being held out to her. "What is it?"
"Surprise!" The Assistant grins, and returns to his perch, and mug of eggnog. "So... Have you gotten Little Miss Can't Read into the Christmas spirit yet?" The Resurrectionist glances over at his Assistant, and takes a swipe at his head.
"Be nice, Punk." The Resurrectionist mutters, scowling as his hand passes through his Assistant's head.
"Well, she wouldn't be in this mess if Paige just read the right numbers, and we'd be focussed on more important matters." The Assistant, Punk, snaps. AJ smiles awkwardly at the Resurrectionist.
"I'm sorry." She offers, the Resurrectionist shrugs, and sips at his eggnog.
"It is how it is, nothing much is gonna change even if she wasn't here." He mutters, and the Assistant looks deeply offended.
"Don't say that! We can-"
"So, AJ?" The Resurrectionist looks pointedly at the Assistant, and offers AJ a familiarly broad grin. "Do you think you'll be able to get a present out of Paige?"
"Christmas spirit, presents and all, seems to be lost on everyone here... Well, apart from you two." AJ waves her hand around the lab, gesturing to the festive explosion that's happened in there.
"Yes... Well..." The Resurrectionist smiles awkwardly, and the Assistant beams at her.
"It's nice to remember the traditions of the Living." He chuckles, and the Resurrectionist snorts dismissively.
"Didn't celebrate Christmas when I was alive, I don't see why I have to now I'm d"
"AJ! I've got you an actual present, and I think you should open it now." The Assistant doesn't let the Resurrectionist finish, and AJ is once more struck by how odd the pair are, even considering the fact they're in the Land of the Dead, they're odd. He hands AJ a brightly wrapped parcel.
"Uh... I didn't get you anything." She mutters, and the Assistant shakes his head.
"It's nothing... It's not like you could get me anything anyways." His smile looks slightly strained, and the Resurrectionist turns back to the computer, typing at the keyboard idly. The Assistant glances over at him, and strange look on his face. "Go on, open it." AJ unwraps the present, and lets out a surprised laugh.
"It's hideous! I love it!" The package contains a bright red and green sweater, covered in a vibrantly festive print. It's soft, and AJ doesn't doubt warm.
"I had a feeling you'd like it." The Assistant smiles, the strange look still in his eyes. "We were planning on popping up later. Will you need help carrying the bag?" He waves his hand at the duffel bag AJ had set down on the floor by her.
"No... No, I'll be fine." She's getting the feeling she's being dismissed. There's a distinctly icy air in the lab, despite the warmth. The sort of aura that hangs around a long term couple before they have an old, familiar argument. "I'll see you guys later?" She makes it a question to give the Assistant, or the Resurrectionist a way out of the proposed visit.
"Yeah... Couple of hours... Hopefully this'll come to something." The Resurrectionist doesn't turn around, and AJ leaves the pair to their work.
She lugs the bag up the stairs, cursing the fact she'd not accepted the offered help. The bag is surprisingly heavy, and she'd rather not have to be carrying it on her own.
"You want some help?" Paige's voice interrupts the rant AJ was having in her own mind. "You look like you could use some help." She laughs, and easily takes the bag from AJ's pained hands. "What's in this? Rocks?" She hefts the bag, and falls into step with AJ.
"I've no idea... The Assistant gave it to me. That, and my beautiful sweater!" AJ grins at her.
"It's hideous." Paige mutters. "You know hanging out with them looks bad..." She follows AJ into the cottage, and sets the bag down carefully.
"Hopefully, I won't be here long enough for that to matter." AJ resists the urge to open the bag until Paige had pulled her robe off, and hung it on the hook.
"It's been months... Though they've been there for as long as I can remember so maybe time has less, or more meaning to them? I dunno... They're weird." She mutters, and comes over to the bag, watching AJ unzip it. "What the fuck?" Inside the bag is a mass of tinsel, and other sparkly decorations. AJ can't keep the grin from her face.
"Weird, but good friends." She cackles, and starts pulling the decorations out. "Now we can have a proper Christmas."
It takes them what feels like hours to decorate the house. Every available surface has received a dose of festive cheer, and when she's finished AJ's fairly proud of herself. Paige looks torn between disgust, and amusement. She'd simply watched AJ as she'd bustled through the house, but now AJ is regarding her with keen interest, and Paige looks uncomfortable with AJ's gaze.
"Why are you staring at me?" She shifts from one foot to the other, and AJ brandishes the last decoration.
"I can't reach, and this needs to go above a door." AJ holds up a single sprig of mistletoe, and a hook to hang it from.
"You want me to stick it where?" Paige doesn't even bother arguing, and AJ laughs triumphantly.
"Any door with good foot traffic." AJ considers the house, and gestures to the kitchen door. "This one." She points up at the lintel, and Paige sighs dramatically, but she does obediently hang the mistletoe in the right spot. "There! Now it's good, and Christmassy in here."
"Christmassy..." Paige mutters, and rolls her eyes. "What's the point of all this stuff?"
"It looks nice..." AJ mumbles, and tweaks one of the baubles hanging on her skeleton tree. The Assistant's bag of tricks hadn't included a tree, but it did include the necessary decorations for one.
"And this? Because it looks like a stupid plant stuck to my door for no reason. It does not look nice." Paige gestures to the mistletoe pinned above the door. AJ bounds over to her, a grin on her face.
"Well..." AJ moves in closer, nudging her to be perfectly under it. AJ leans up, and presses a kiss to Paige's cheek. She rushes over to the other side of the room quickly, leaving Paige to gently touch her cheek, a confused expression on her face, and a blatant blush making it's way across her pale face.
"Well?" She prompts, her gaze turned up to the mistletoe. "Is it some kind of aphrodisiac? I'm guessing it only works on the Living if it is..." She plucks the little sprig down, and turns it around and around.
"It's not..." AJ takes a slight step closer once more. "It's more like a tradition... You guys have those here, right?"
"Something we do, because we always have?" Paige laughs, and puts the mistletoe back up in it's place. "Of course, we've lots of them." She chuckles, and beckons AJ over to her. Once AJ's close enough, she moves her into position under the mistletoe. "So this is the tradition?" She kisses AJ's cheek gently.
"Well... A kiss under the mistletoe. That's is the tradition, so yeah." She smiles brightly, and Paige nods absently. "So, I've other awesome Christmas traditions we can try, and then the boys in the lab are gonna come up." AJ tries to move away, but Paige holds her fast. "Huh?"
"I like this tradition." Paige says calmly, her eyes narrow slightly, and her tongue flicks out to wet her lips.
"Uh... Okay? That's good... There's lots of other tradi-" AJ's cut off by Paige's lips brushing over her own. It's a soft if slightly cold kiss.
"Like I said, I like this tradition." Paige smirks, and leans in for another kiss.
My Christmas collection this year is once more fics inspired by Christmas Songs.
First up we have Making Christmas from A Nightmare Before Christmas. I love that movie far too much
Not much is set in stone for these fics - so if you'd like to fire me a song and pairing combo in a PM, I'll have a listen and see what I can come up with.