I pull out of the hug and look up at him "What are you doing here?" I ask now giddy. He opens his mouth to answer but I cut him off "Wait! Actually, how did you get here? Oh my god, do you have wings?" I grab his shoulders and turn him around to look at his back. I slump my shoulders in disappointment "Damn, no wings?" I pout and he laughs loudly. He spins back around, making my hands drop from his shoulders, to look at me.
"No wings unfortunately Aria." he smiles "But I can teleport pretty much anywhere." He awkwardly puts his hands in his pockets as I stare at him in awe. "Do you have any clue how cool that is Bernard?" I move to sit on my bed tucking my feet up "So you can just snap your fingers and pop! Hello France." I drag out the last word. He shrugs his shoulders in response "I suppose so." he softly laughs.
Once our laughter dies down, silence fills the room and the only sound is the muffled conversation between Mom and Neal downstairs. "So my other question elf boy? What are you doing here?" I say jokingly and quirked my eyebrow with a smirk on my face. I resituate myself to sit crossed legged on my bed.
Bernard reaches out to my hand resting on my leg and grabs the bell I forgot I was holding. The bell softly rings as he does this, he holds it up beside his face showing off the bell. "You rang this, didn't you? It was going off like mad, I couldn't ignore it." He gently shakes it and tosses the bell back to me, I catch it easily in both my hands.
I tilt my head in curiosity at him "So you mean you can hear every time I ring this?" I question him. He starts subconsciously swinging his arms "Yeah.." He clears his voice awkwardly "Forgot to mention that bit didn't I?" He mumbles looking everywhere in my room except me.
I let out a loud laugh "Bernard don't be so tense. I mean a magic bell? This is so cool." I smile and move to the other side of my bed to make room for Bernard. I pat the spot next to me "Now come on stop looking like you got caught for committing a crime, sit down." I giggle.
He looks at me hesitantly and pulls his bottom lip between his teeth before slowly approaching me. Lowing himself to sit down, he kicks off his brown shoes before bringing his feet up mimicking the way I'm sat. I softly laugh at this and at how tense he's being.
The single lamp on my bedside fills the room with light and highlights one side of Bernard's face. His high cheekbones are now more visible than ever. He stares down at his lap seemingly in deep thought playing with the ends of his sweater. I feel my heart flutter ever so slightly before pushing that feeling back down.
He clears his throat looking up at me, appearing more comfortable "So why were you ringing the bell?" He looks curiously up at me. My heart began to beat faster, it was my turn to be shy "I-well I was panicking and I remembered that you gave me the bell and I figured that would help." I finished explaining to him fumbling over my words.
He pauses for a moment "Well why were you panicking?" he asks curiously. He shifts his body and looks at me with anticipation. I look away down at my lap. "Mom and Neal want to take away Dad's" I hesitate for a moment "I mean Santa's visitation rights to us." Calling him Santa without judgment feels like a weight off my shoulders.
I see Bernard's body tense for a moment. I begin to feel tears swell in my eyes and quickly move off the bed to my window seat. I wipe away my tears when I sit down in hopes he doesn't notice. I peek up at him through my eyelashes and see a sorrowed and awkward look on Bernard's face. His lips pulled down in a frown and his eyebrows furrowed at me, clearly noticing my tears. "They think Dad is a lunatic that's luring Charlie to him by saying he's Santa Claus. I haven't said anything, of course, I'd imagine it would make the situation worse." I finish my rant and Bernard doesn't reply right away. He brings his hand to his mouth and thinks for a moment.
I must have made him uncomfortable, he doesn't seem to be someone to express his emotions, let alone handle others. I'm cut off from my thoughts when Bernard jumps off the bed and comes to sit right next to me. His shoulder just brushing mine "You know Aria, your Dad has been given a wonderful gift that's so powerful." He pauses for a moment thinking of his next words. "It's foolish of you to think some judge can keep you guys apart. I can assure you that the other elves and myself won't let that happen. The spirit of Christmas is stronger than anything else." He speaks looking down at me, his voice confident. I feel my heart warm in comfort at his words. I take my eyes off him and lower my head down on his shoulder. I feel his body tense before eventually relaxing from my touch. "You know Bernard you've got a way with words." A small smile grows on my face.
Without missing a beat "I would hope so I'm hundreds of years old." He claims. I lift my head from his shoulder so fast that I see stars for a few seconds, after blinking the spots away from my eyes "Hundreds of years!" I exclaim "Bernard you're so old!" I joke slapping his shoulder and he rolls his eyes at me not being able to hold back a smile. "I am an elf Aria." He says bluntly.
I smirk at his reply "I suppose you don't look bad for your age though, I'll give you that credit." His cheeks instantly turn a bright red trying to avoid eye contact and I burst into laughter. "Bernard you're so easy to mess around with." I giggle "But seriously thank you for the reassuring words, it's something I needed to hear." He gave me a slight nod still embarrassed but managed to look me in the eyes again "Ye-yeah of course Aria." He tries to say annoyed but failing. I jump down from the window seat and grab his arm pulling him up with me.
"I very much like that arm, Aria. I'd like to keep it." He says sarcastically before allowing me to pull him up. The full moon outside now shined through my window and made his eyes and sparkles on his cheeks shine. His hair now all over the place from him continuously playing with his hat. He stared at me with his lips in a sly smile as I dragged him back over to my bed to sit down.
"We have things to do now Bernard, things to watch." I retort after he finally resituates himself on my bed leaning back on my pillows. I walk over to my nightstand that holds my tv to search through my VHS tapes. Seemingly already comfortable "Watch?" He quirked an eyebrow before concern comes over his face when he turns his head and looks at my clock on my nightstand "What time is it? I need to get back to the factory." He slaps his hands on his face "Oh my god. I can only imagine the disaster." He rants getting himself worked up. He begins to resituate himself to jump off the bed.
I roll my eyes at how foolish he's being "Bernard calm down!" I scold him walking to the foot of the bed staring him down "I've seen the factory and I'm sure they can manage a few hours on their own. I mean they're like robots, they've got this." Pointing at him threateningly with my VHS tape in warning. His whole body stops for a moment thinking my words over before putting his hands up in defense and settling back down. I cheer internally at my victory.
Turning around on my heels I turn on my VCR and place the VHS tape into it. "Now Bernard I need you to do one very important thing for me." I drag out walking back to my bed and sit next to him moving my face inches from his face. He looks up at me nervously gulping and his eyes wide at our proximity "What is it?" He asks like he's about to hear life changing news "Just relax and watch this movie." I nod at him pulling away and turn back to the tv as the main menu pops up and I don't pay attention to his reaction. I only hear a soft "Deal." but I can hear the smile in his voice.
"So what are we watching?" He finally asks. "Only the greatest movie franchise of my lifetime. Star Wars." I reply, still staring at the tv. I see him look at me in confusion from the corner of my eye "Star Wars?" he questions raising his eyebrows. I simply nod in response and lay back beside him as the movie starts.
As the theme song blares through the speakers, I turn my head to the left looking directly at his side profile inches away. "Hey Bernard." I whisper "Yeah?" he replied, giving me a quick side glance and moving his eyes back to the tv. I softly pat his shoulder, his sweater soft against my hand "Thank you for coming." A shy smile grows on his face but he doesn't say anything in reply. I smile softly and turn my eyes back to the movie.