A/N: Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter guys :D. Yes Peter's past is pretty sad and he does need some love and comfort and he will get it but not yet. Bryony's still in denial about her feelings for him and Peter still thinks that Bryony is just a crazy wrapping elf;). I know y'all are anxious to see some Peter-Bryony loving but that won't come till later chapters as this will be a long fic :D.
Disclaimer: I don't own Arthur Christmas or any of the known characters, the only characters I own are my oc's which include, Sabrina, Tanya, Kathy, and Kevin.
"Got any fives?"
"Nope, go fish."
"Do you have any nines?"
"Go fish."
"Do you have any threes?"
"Go fish."
Tardy and William went on back and forth with the card game while Bryony and the rest of the gang watched with mild interest. The groups wrapping elf had her chin resting in one hand while her elbow rested on the table. Although her eyes were locked on the two card players, they held a distant, far-away look as if she was in deep thought.
What was it about Peter lately that she couldn't get her mind off him? Ever since they got stuck in that forsaken room, her opinion about him had begun to change. It seemed as if the need to constantly get on his nerves was now gone. Such as earlier today, she only threw one remark at him when he entered Arthur's office and after that…nothing. Maybe she was just getting used to seeing and working with Peter so often. Yes that had to be it, there was no other reason why she was no longer annoyed by him.
Perhaps she was just giving up on fighting with him. If that was the case, then hopefully he too would lose interest in arguing with her and they would have a decent working relationship.
"Are you in there Bryony?" Deborah asked while looking at her friend in concern. Bryony blinked before smiling, "Oh, yeah…I was just thinking about some stuff." She replied dismissively before taking a bite out of her chicken sandwich.
"What kind of stuff?" Tardy asked innocently as he picked up another card with a frown. He was loosing big time. Norah furrowed her brows, "Is it about Kevin and the wedding? You know you don't have to marry that him. Just tell your parents what a jerk he is and that you could always marry someone else. Someone better." She reasoned.
Bryony shook her head. " Unfortunatly, my parents have never seen his rude, jerky side since he always acts like an angel in front of them. If I went to them saying those things to them, then they'll think I'm lying just so I could get out of the marriage. I already promised them I would go through with the marriage and give them some grandchildren, so I can't back out of that now." She paused to sip on her soda, "Besides, I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking of something else."
"Of what? That's if you don't mind me asking?" Andrew questioned.
Biting her lip, Bryony responded, " Nothing really…I was just thinking about…Peter."
At this, all her friends looked over at her. " What did he do this time?" Kathy questioned while looking her friend over. Normally when Peter upset or angered Bryony, the first thing the wrapping elf would do was complain to her friends or rant on how the right hand elf was driving her crazy. This time seemed a bit different.
"Well he didn't do anything in particular, it's just that ever since the…mishap yesterday, things have been off between us. Like today I saw him when he dropped off some letters for Arthur and for once, we didn't have a petty argument!" Bryony explained with a thoughtful look before adding, "And last night, Kevin was making fun of Peter behind his back and for some reason, I decided to defend Peter. It was weird."
Sabrina smirked, "It would seem that you are developing a crush on our little right hand elf, also known as Peter." She crossed her arms and her smirk grew when Bryony gave her a shocked look. "Sabrina! Don't even say stuff like that! There is no way I have can have a crush on Peter. Besides, I'm engaged…I can't have crushes…especially on elves like Peter." Bryony stated while crossing her arms.
William shrugged while shuffling the cards, "Maybe this is just the start of a friendship. There's nothing wrong with having a male buddy as long as your just friends."
The wrapping elf nodded numbly. Normally she would agree that it was okay to have guy friends while married but after having a talk with Kevin earlier on in their 'relationship', and apparently he was the jealous type and didn't like Bryony hanging around so many men even if said men were just friends. After learning this, Bryony had confided to Norah about this upcoming issue and the paramedic elf insisted that Kevin wasn't only being jealous but he was also starting to show signs of possessiveness.
If I were you, I'd call off the whole engagement thing with him cause it's only going to get worse. Those words still rung in Bryony's mind and Norah was giving her a look after hearing William's comment which clearly said, 'Break it off while you still can!' but Bryony ignored it. While her and her friends weren't happy about the upcoming marriage, her parents were and it would be a big let down if she just walked up to them and said 'Yeah Kevin is a complete a-hole while your backs are turned. In fact, he's already trying to separate me from my friends. So…I guess what I'm saying is that I want to call off the wedding and possibly marry someone else. Someone that you two won't like and won't meet your high standards.' Mm-hm, that would go so well.
"Bryony?" Carlos asked while waving a hand in front of his friends face.
Blinking herself out of her thoughts for the second time that day and turned to her friends. "Sorry. What were you saying?"
Deborah adjusted her glasses, "We were asking if you were doing anything else later after work."
Bryony furrowed her brows in thought, "Well I've got to wrap some presents before I'm done for the day but after that I think I'll be free. Why do you ask?" she questioned with a small smile. "Well, we were all going to head out for a walk later on and we were wondering if you wanted to join us so that the whole gang went. So are you up for it?" Tardy asked with a grin.
"Sure, I'd love to. When are we going?" Bryony replied. She could use a nice walk out in the snow. Walks always helped calm her nerves and it would be a good chance to truly hang out with her friends without Kevin randomly walking up and interrupting. She just really hoped that her fiancé wouldn't try to stop her from being with her friends or worse, try to join them.
Andrew stood up while the rest of the group did the same, "We all get done at five so lets all meet up at the entrance around five thirty. Bring a flashlight just in case it gets dark." He instructed while they all dispersed and walked off to get back to work.
Bryony smiled as she headed off to where the gift wrappers worked. There was no way her good mood could be ruined now. Not by Kevin and not even by Peter.
Letting out a content sigh she opened the door to the large work station and headed over to her assigned spot. Pressing a button on near her, a toy landed on the table; Bryony then pulled out a roll of wrapping paper and began to wrap the gift.
"Pieces of tape, one." She counted before making a couple of folds.
"Two." Fold, fold.
"Bryony!" Damn, there goes her good mood. Not looking up, Bryony could hear Kevin sitting next to her and started his wrapping. "I missed you at lunch today, I assume you were with those friends of yours?" he mused lazily.
"Three. Yes we decided to eat in the lounge since the cafeteria is always packed." Bryony responded while working on another gift. 'One, two and three, done! Next!' She looked over the gift and pulled out some more wrapping.
Kevin sniffed while he wrapped his gift daintily, "Is that so?"
"Yes it is so." One, two, three, she grabbed another gift and did the same thing but faster. 'Lets see how many I can do today.' The female wrapper thought while finishing her wrapping. So far she had wrapped four gifts in the last five minutes. It was pretty good compared to the one gift Kevin managed to wrap in said five minutes.
The male smirked, "Well, since you've spent most of your free time with your…friends," He sneered as the word, "I assume you wouldn't mind spending some time with your future husband." He stated while finally taking another gift and started working on it.
Bryony gave a small snort, "Actually since I haven't seen much of them since we became engaged, I decided that today was the day that I would spend as much time with them as I could before youstole me away again." She grabbed her now twelfth gift before continuing, "So in other words, I can't spend time talking with you today because I already have other plans with my friends."
Kevin pouted and went back to working . After a few moments of complete silence, he glanced at his fiancé, "So what are you planning on doing with your dear friends?" He wondered out loud as Bryony worked on her twenty fifth gift. The female paused for a second before replying slowly, "We're just going to hang out for a while. Nothing much." She answered without stopping.
"Well then, I hope you enjoy yourself." He relied with sarcasm which caused Bryony to glare at him before she decided to keep quiet and hope that five thirty came around soon so she could get away from this jerk.
'Maybe Norah's right. Perhaps I should break off the wedding and find someone else to be with.' She thought but then mentally slapped herself. No, she really had to stop second guessing this whole marriage thing. It was completely obvious that marrying Kevin would bring her parents great pleasure and all Bryony wanted was to make her mother and father happy. And they honestly thought that she would be happy with a strong, handsome, elf like Kevin.
Bryony gave a small eye roll, 'If only they knew the real Kevin, but oh well.'
The rest of the work shift went without any other problems and Bryony was pleased when five'clock came around. As soon as her wrapping commander dismissed her and the other elves, she jumped up, cleaned her area and ran out of the room and made straight to her room to pick up her flashlight.
As soon as she had her light source, Bryony jogged out of her room and headed towards the main entrance, being careful to avoid the security cameras and dodging the elves that now littered the halls. It wasn't long till she found herself with her friends at the main entrance alone. No one really left the headquarters so the main entrance was left alone. As it was, the elves weren't allowed to leave the factory unless it was for work. After work hours, everyone was free to do as they pleased except wonder around outside especially when it was dark.
However, Bryony and her friends didn't really care and they would have their little 'rebel' moments and leave the safety of the headquarters and enjoy the fresh air. So far the sneaky elves had never gotten caught breaking the rules and had always managed to avoid being spotted by any humans (not that many came exploring the North pole) or mangled by any polar bears which were the number one danger to the tiny elves.
"You ready?" Andrew asked while unlocking the door and peaking out before pushing it open all the way once he saw the coast was clear.
Everyone nodded and whispered, "Ready."
With that, the nine elves quickly and quietly left the safety of the underground building and walked out while closing the door behind them. What none of them noticed was that Bryony had been followed by her fiancé who remained hidden around a corner and in the shadows.
"Oh Bryony my love, it seems as if you and your damn friends have been naughty." Kevin smirked before running off to find one of the Clause boys.
A/N: And there's chapter 4, please review and chapter five is coming soon:D