Yuletide Lessons

Chapter 4

December 14th

The door to Lucy's apartment was flung open with a happy shout of, "Hey guys!"

Frosch zoomed around her head echoing her happy greeting, and zipped inside intent on seeing what she had in store for them today.

Immediately Rogue was blasted with a mix of warmth, Christmas music blaring in the other room and a variety of other smells, but what really made his eyes go wide was her attire and he had to avert his eyes quickly before she caught him. Tall white and red striped stockings adorned her legs, the smallest black shorts he'd ever seen met his eyes and he had to struggle to breathe past the lump in his throat. But as his eyes trailed upwards he let out a chuckle seeing her green oversized sweater had a picture of a reindeer sitting in an armchair with a glass of what he mused was spiked eggnog. The bold words "I don't drink and sleigh, might run over your gramma" stared back at him, his gaze traveled up still and her brilliant smile brought out a small one on him but as she gestured for him to enter he stopped and quirked a brow just noticing something was on her head. They appeared to be deer antlers with a string of bells twisted around them and lights, like they'd gotten stuck.

Lucy giggled shaking her head making soft jingles fill the air. "What? Don't like my antlers?" She teased, shutting the door watching him chuckle as he shucked his shoes and coat.

"On the contrary your antlers are very adorable, lights, bells and all."

She blushed and turned to make her way into the main room.

Rogue followed her shaking his head and chuckling, the view of her floor cluttered with all the decorations they bought met his eyes as Lucy waded through the pile to stand near the tree. The night before he had placed it in the tree stand so it wouldn't have to lean against her wall for the whole night. Lucy didn't think her landlady would appreciate the sap the tree would leave behind, not to mention it probably would've come out of her pocket.

"Ok guys!" She clapped her hands excitedly. Fro stopped zooming around the room enough to focus on the blond along with Rogue.

"Today we are going to decorate the tree!"

"Yay!" Fro shouted.

"Sounds good." Rogue nodded looking around. "Where do we start first?"

Lucy picked up a few coils of lights and began unwinding them. "We put on the lights, and then the garland and after that we will put up the multicolored balls and such."

Rogue nodded as she pass the strand to him and moved to stand next to the tree.

"Ok, important thing to do first is to make sure the end with the plug is next to the extension chord and we start draping the lights on the boughs and gently pushing them in there so they stay."

She demonstrated the technique from the bottom of the tree, gently laying the strand as she walked around the tree and Rogue walked behind her, making sure the lights didn't get tangled.

"Do you always start on the bottom?" Rogue inquired their third time around the tree.

Grunting softly as she kneeled down to get the strands closer to the trunk of the tree. "Yeah, this is how we did our tree back home. It's just easier this way to go up, then down."

With the three of them working they managed to get four strands on the tree, plus the bubble ones on top of those. "Make sure and be extra careful with the bubble lights. They can be really temperamental and sometimes the bulbs break."

Standing back Lucy nodded and signaled to Rogue to turn off the lights and make sure the strands all worked. He flipped the switch and she let Fro plug them in and they all stood back for a moment and just admired the twinkling.

"Ok, now for Fro's lovely garland."

"Oooh ooh can Fro do it? Please?"

Lucy tapped her chin and smiled. "Sure you can and while you do that we can come up behind you and put on the balls. Actually that cuts the work in half."

So to the tune of many Christmas songs drifting in the background, they worked in harmony. Fro tied all the garland together and wasted no time flying around the tree in circles.

"Ack! Fro not so fast, you'll get us caught..."

"Ooof."

Before they knew it she had wrapped them both up against the tree and somehow they'd gotten smooshed together. Rogue wrapped his arms around Lucy steadying her before she toppled over and took everything with her.

"Fro's sorry!" The little cat wailed.

"It's alright Frosch," Rogue cleared his throat as he fought to keep a blush off his face from Lucy being pressed up against him so snug.

Lucy struggled to do the same as she ducked under the garland and they managed to free themselves. "That's ok, no harm done." She smiled and tickled the cats tummy, silently willing her blush to disappear.

"Just try and slow down a bit hmm?"

After the mishap the two had a hard time looking at each other in the eye without blushing, but wherever they seemed to be the other would be also, but after a while they seemed to find the situation funny and neither cold keep from laughing softly.

Lucy hummed along with the music and started singing softly, her fingers laden with different glass balls as she hung them from boughs. Her gaze was drawn to Rogue doing much the same, but instead he seemed to be hanging them in a set pattern and she wondered if he even knew he was doing it or if he was doing it without even thinking about it. He always seemed so calm and collected in every situation and figured he had always a plan forming in his mind. He was never impetuous, hardly did anything without considering the bad and good, but she knew he was trying to be more open to things. He was so different from when she'd first met him and thought he acted too aloof and cold towards everyone except his exceed. But after spending some time with him and gently nudging him to talk to her and share things with her, she found he had many different aspects to his personality that were overshadowed by the shy person he was when first experiencing something unknown to him.

That cold front is what he'd used over the many years to keep others from getting too close, but with some hard work she managed to gain a bit of his trust and broke through that façade to see the true Rogue buried deep down. She knew he didn't show this side too much and appreciated that he trusted her enough to not make fun of him, and just accept him for who he was. From what she could gather his past hadn't been too good,so when the opportunity to help him break out of his shyness and teach him about something like Christmas came about she jumped on it. From the look of wonder and thought that seemed to cross his face from time to time she knew he was enjoying himself and learning everything he could. But she hoped he wasn't just doing it for her sake but also for his own. She wanted him to smile and laugh and experience as many good things this life had to offer, he deserved that much.

Subtlety, Rogue kept an eye on the blonde swaying and singing along to her radio, enjoying her voice as much as her movements, and more than once he had to catch himself from openly staring. His hands moved automatically, hanging the glass balls on each bough as he kept his gaze riveted on Lucy. He still couldn't believe someone like her was even giving him the time of day and he had to stop himself from pinching himself in case he was dreaming. He knew he wasn't exactly a social butterfly, no that was more like her, flitting from person to person much like the insect did to gather pollen. Her smile was infectious, her laugh made everyone join in and you couldn't help but gravitate towards her enthusiasm. At first he hadn't known how to approach her and thought to just be content to watch her from a distance, but with a shove from his partner Sting, literally, he'd introduced himself.

From there she'd coaxed him into conversations and he'd been pleasantly surprised at her quick wit and intelligence in everything she said. Contrary to the jibs she made against herself being a blonde with a big (ahem) chest, she had the brains to delve into deeper and meaningful conversations with him than he'd ever had with anyone for a long time. Everyday he was finding new and exciting things about this beauty that just made him gravitate towards her more, and loved to make her laugh and smile. It became something of a goal to make her smile as much as he could within his presence and along with his exceed Frosch, it seemed to be working. Idly he wondered what it would be like to be able to see her everyday instead of when he had time off. His eyes caught hers and he smiled as she blushed, a shy smile on her lips as she continued to sing softly. To always be in her presence, that would make him happier than anything this world had to offer, and he knew he had to make that happen with every fiber of his body.

"Alright guys, the final moment is here." Rogue and Fro gathered around her as she picked up the last piece and the exceed squealed happily.

Laughing she handed the cat the angel. "Ok, Fro, lets put your angel on top and then the tree will be done."

"Ok Lucy!" She smiled as she flew at a slower pace and with gentle paws set the angel down making sure to adjust her just right.

"Good job Fro. Now come here and Rogue come stand here."

Both followed the instructions with confused looks but as the room was suddenly plunged into darkness they were startled as the tree came alive with the lights. It was a truly magnificent sight to behold and you could tell Fro seemed to be thinking along the same lines with her little 'oohs' and 'ahhs'. His breath seemed to freeze as the bubbles started floating up the small tubes just like she'd said, and the garland reflecting the twinkling and danced along her walls. Silently he felt as Lucy came to stand next to him.

"Do you like it? "She whispered.

He turned to look at her and with a smile and nodded. "It's beautiful Lucy. Thank you."

She giggled and pushed his shoulder playfully. "Hey, I'm not the only one who worked on this, both of you did your part so give yourself credit too."

"But without you, we would've never known this feeling in the first place." He said softly, his dark eyes held a hint of warmth and she flushed being told such a praise.

"I only offered to teach you guys about the holiday, it's not a big deal." She ducked her head blushing at his praise.

He shook his head with that fond smile. "You're doing so much more than that Lucy." He turned to see Fro flying around the tree giggling happily and clapping her paws at the display. "You've given us a precious gift that we will remember for years to come."

Her blush grew deeper but she didn't know what to say to that, so instead she kept quiet and gazed along with him at the tree only to jump slightly when she felt his fingers lace with hers.

It was a new feeling, the butterflies swirling around in her stomach at such a small gesture but at the same time it felt so right, being here with him and Fro. Just like they were a little family and she wondered what it would be like if they could be a family.

'That would be a wonderful Christmas present.' She thought to herself and gently squeezed his hand.

(¯`¥´¯`·.¸.:¨NIchiki ¨:.¸.·´¯`¥´¯)