Disclaimer: Get off my d'arviting case! They aren't mine!
A/N: If I can't finish this story either today or tomorrow, then there most likely won't be as many updates because April Vacation will be over. *glares* But my birthday is on Thursday the 29th, so I'll try to put up a chapter then to celebrate myself. But that's only if I haven't finished by then.
Also thank you to all my reviewers! This story has 40 reviews and all of my stories combined have 400! Thank you so much!!! *hands out cookies*
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Holly woke up nestled on Root's couch in his blanket. She smiled to herself. To *Lieutenant* Short. Holly pulled the blanket closer around herself, remembering the feeling of being in Root's arms. It was definitely worth wearing the dress and makeup.
"Makeup . . . Shoot," Holly thought to herself, reached up and brushed a hand across her lips. When she looked at it, there was indeed lipstick smeared on it. "Oh, well," she thought and closed her eyes again to try to fall back asleep, even though it was most likely time for her to get up anyways.
"There isn't a time to get up," the voice reminded her. "It's Saturday."
"Oh, right," Holly remembered. "All the more reason to sleep in."
"On the couch in Root's living room?" the voice asked her sceptically.
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Holly asked.
The voice didn't respond. Holly soon fell asleep.
*
Holly was woken up by a loud knocking on the door. She groggily sat up as Root answered the door. He was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt and Holly suspected that it was the same one he wore the previous night.
"Your furniture," the person at the door said.
Holly quickly untangled herself from Root's blanket and went downstairs to get dressed.
"It's about time," Root snapped. "It was supposed to have come a week ago."
The deliveryman shrugged. "I only deliver."
"Then you better start," Root spat and followed him out to the truck. By the time Holly had come upstairs after changing and washing off her make- up, Root was surrounded by several large boxes.
"Need any help?" she asked him.
"Yeah, thanks," he said and started to pick up a box. Holly hurried over and grabbed the other end. They carefully manoeuvred the box downstairs and then went upstairs for the other ones. After a couple of minutes, all the boxes were downstairs.
"Now what?" Holly asked.
"If you could disassemble the bed that you've been using, that would be great," Root told her as he took a pair of scissors out of the desk and started opening the boxes.
"Sure," Holly said. After dumping all of her stuff off the mattress and moving it, she started to take the bed apart with the screwdriver that Root handed her. She soon finished. "Anything else?" she asked.
"No, thanks," Root huffed. He was surrounded by bubble wrap, cardboard and parts of the desk.
"Are you sure?" Holly asked sceptically.
"Yes!" Root snapped.
Holly rolled her eyes and went upstairs, wondering why all men felt the need to assemble things themselves. She wandered into the kitchen and made herself some breakfast. Deciding that she didn't really have anything else to do, she went back downstairs.
"What're you doing here?" Root asked.
Holly rolled her eyes again. "It's my part of the house, isn't it?" she asked him. "Besides, I thought you might like some company."
"I told you I didn't need any help," Root reminded her.
"And I said that I thought you might like some *company*," she repeated. "There's a difference, you know."
"Of course I know," he snapped.
"Really?" Holly teased. Noticing the look on Root's face, she quickly added, "Actually, there's something I've been meaning to ask you about for a while."
"What?" Root asked.
"When I was reading 'Time Holders', you asked to see something," Holly reminded him. "What was that?"
"Did you finish the book?" Root asked.
"Of course," she told him. "And 'Gambling With Time'."
"Well, in 'Time Holders', there's this one passage that Nikki and I used to debate about all the time," Root explained. "I hadn't remembered that since I saw you with the book so I reread the passage. She was right."
"Which part?" Holly asked.
Root turned away from her. "It's not important."
"Are you sure?" Holly asked, concerned.
"Yes!" Root yelled.
Holly didn't say anything. Instead, she went over to the bookcase and took out the third and final book in the series, "Time's End", and went upstairs to read it.
*
Root came up from the basement about an hour later. "I'll do the bed later," he told Holly before disappearing into the kitchen to get something to eat.
"Ok," she called after him. "But next time you tell me something, you might want to wait and see my reaction!" Root didn't answer. Holly sighed and went back to reading.
About five minutes later Root joined her with what appeared to be a file from work.
"Root, it's the weekend," Holly reminded him. "You don't have to work."
"I'm not," he mumbled without looking up from the papers.
Curious, Holly leaned over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. He instantly closed the file and left. Holly stared after him, wondering what to do. Eventually she went back to reading.
*
Holly yawned. It was ten in the morning and she had been reading almost all day. Every time she tried to say something to Root, he walked off. Deciding that it was time to go to bed, Holly walked down stairs.
"D'Arvit," she mumbled under her breath. Root had apparently forgotten about putting the bed together because it was a mess of bed parts lying around without a fully put together bed in sight. Holly sighed and picked her way to the dresser and quickly changed before going upstairs to yell at Root.
"Root!" she yelled as she went upstairs.
"What is it?" he snapped from his bedroom.
Holly stormed into his room without bothering to knock. "I want to go to bed," she snapped at him.
"Fine. Go to bed," Root told her. "You don't need my permission for that."
"No, but I need you to finish putting the bed together," she corrected.
Root stared at her in confusion and then cursed. "I'll do it tomorrow," he promised.
"That's fine with me, but where do I sleep tonight?" Holly asked.
"The couch."
"No way. I slept there last night and my neck still hurts." It was true. She'd had a crick in her neck all day and wasn't eager to worsen it.
"Well what do you want me to do?" Root snapped. "You want to go to bed now and I'm too tired to do it tonight."
Holly considered this. "Do you have another guest room?" she asked sceptically.
"Sure, Holly. I just keep spare rooms lying around the house," Root said, rolling his eyes.
Holly smiled. "It was worth a shot. Do you have a cot?"
"Not a usable one," Root replied. "I used to, but it's buried somewhere in the attic with one of the legs broken."
"Trundle bed?" she suggested hopefully.
"No," Root answered.
"Sleeping bag, then. You *have* to have a sleeping bag."
"Actually, I don't. I used to, but the last time I went to use it, I found that it was completely moth eaten," Root admitted.
"Well what do you suggest I do?" Holly asked exasperatedly, throwing her arms up in the air.
"I don't know!" Root replied.
Holly slid down the wall and sat down on the floor. "I'm tired. All I want to do is sleep."
Root sighed. "I was planning on going to bed anyways and since I still have the queen sized bed from before Nikki died, I suppose we could share."
"Umm . . . A-alright," she managed to stammer. Holly suddenly wished she had long hair so it could obscure her bright red cheeks. She willed herself to return to her normal nut-brown colour and was positive that she failed miserably as she climbed into Root's bed. She settled down so she was facing the wall instead of Root as she heard him get up to go brush his teeth. When he returned, he turned off the light.
"G'night, Holly," he mumbled.
"Night," Holly said, then mentally punished herself for the squeak that came out. She tried to relax enough to fall asleep, but quickly realized that it wouldn't be an option. Resigning herself to yet another sleepless night, she started to let her mind wander. Her thoughts quickly turned to Root and all of the different reasons they might be sharing a bed other than that he hadn't finished putting her bed together.
"No . . . You can fantasize about him all you want when he's not in the room and you aren't sleeping in his bed," the voice snapped at her. "Now is *not* an appropriate time."
This was definitely true, but how are you supposed to *not* think about something?
"Holly?" Root asked after a couple of minutes.
"Mmm?" she responded, not trusting her voice.
"Remember when you asked me if I still love Nichkola?" Root asked.
Holly's breath caught in her throat. This time she nodded, not being capable of anything else.
"Well, I finally figured it out," he said.
Almost against her will, Holly rolled over so she was facing him. "Yeah?" she asked, *very* surprised to hear her voice come out normal.
Root took a deep breath. "I still love her with all of my heart, but I'm not in love with her," he said, finalizing the thoughts that he had been thinking for the past couple of weeks.
Holly smiled widely. "Good," she said and was about to roll over again when Root added,
"I realized that I was in love with somebody else."
"Breathe," the voice inside Holly's head instantly told her. "Just breath."
"O-oh?" she asked shakily. "That's good."
"And I called Foaly earlier today and he said that she also was in love with me," Root told her.
"What?" Holly yelled. "I'm going to kill him! I can't believe he told-" Holly clapped a hand over her mouth and instantly rolled over so she wasn't facing Root anymore, bright red to the tips of her pointy ears. Instead of any number of things Root could've done, she felt him move closer to her and wrap an arm around his waist.
"I know," he told her. "He asked me not to tell you, but I thought you might want to slaughter him on Monday."
Almost instinctively, Holly felt herself move further back into Root's arms. "Thanks," she said. "I'll add that to my list of reasons to kill him."
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what else is on it?" Root asked.
"Well . . ." Holly trailed off, wondering if she should tell him or not.
"Why not?" the voice asked. "He loves you . . ."
"Well, I kinda asked Foaly to arrange it so we would dance together at the dance but the song he had the band play was really sappy and I can't believe that they dedicated it to 'two very special fairies' and he also kept on winking at me," Holly mumbled all in one breath.
"So *that's* what the winking was about," Root mused. "You could've just asked me yourself, you know."
"I wasn't originally planning to dance with you at all," Holly admitted. "Foaly insisted on it. And then once we were actually *at* the dance, I was going to ask you, but Foaly showed up first."
"Oh," Root replied.
"If you don't mind telling me, when did you figure out that you weren't in love with Nichkola anymore?" Holly asked, although what she was thinking was "When did you figure out that you love me*?"
"When we were dancing," Root told her. "Why do you think I asked you for a second dance?"
"You wanted to 'keep up an impression'?" Holly asked, doing a poor imitation of his voice.
"Well, of course there was that," Root added as an afterthought.
Holly laughed softly. "Y'know, I still don't see why I had to dance. Not, of course, that I'm complaining anymore, but still."
"Like I said before, take it up with the Council," Root told her. "I just do what they tell me to."
"Yes, I suppose," Holly replied. She smiled. "But I can't help but think that the next dance will be at least a *little* more fun."
Root smiled as well. "Yes, I should think so."
Holly rolled over in his arms so she was facing him and settled in again, leaning her head on his chest like she had been when they were dancing. "Root?" she asked.
"Hmm?" he replied.
Holly blushed slightly as she asked, "Can I call you Julius?"
Root laughed. "Of course."
Holly smiled again. "Then good night, Julius."
"Already?" Root asked.
Holly blushed again. "Unless you'd like to show me what you did with buttons."
"Holly, I'd like nothing more than to show you what I did with buttons," Root said and began to slowly unbutton her shirt, either kissing or touching her after each button. Holly moaned as Root finished unbuttoning her shirt and started greedily sucking on her breast.
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Alright, alright. I know it's a little short, but that's ok because the one before it was *really* long. Please review! And let me know if you still think there should be an Epilogue, although I know I'm going to write one.
A/N: If I can't finish this story either today or tomorrow, then there most likely won't be as many updates because April Vacation will be over. *glares* But my birthday is on Thursday the 29th, so I'll try to put up a chapter then to celebrate myself. But that's only if I haven't finished by then.
Also thank you to all my reviewers! This story has 40 reviews and all of my stories combined have 400! Thank you so much!!! *hands out cookies*
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Holly woke up nestled on Root's couch in his blanket. She smiled to herself. To *Lieutenant* Short. Holly pulled the blanket closer around herself, remembering the feeling of being in Root's arms. It was definitely worth wearing the dress and makeup.
"Makeup . . . Shoot," Holly thought to herself, reached up and brushed a hand across her lips. When she looked at it, there was indeed lipstick smeared on it. "Oh, well," she thought and closed her eyes again to try to fall back asleep, even though it was most likely time for her to get up anyways.
"There isn't a time to get up," the voice reminded her. "It's Saturday."
"Oh, right," Holly remembered. "All the more reason to sleep in."
"On the couch in Root's living room?" the voice asked her sceptically.
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Holly asked.
The voice didn't respond. Holly soon fell asleep.
*
Holly was woken up by a loud knocking on the door. She groggily sat up as Root answered the door. He was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt and Holly suspected that it was the same one he wore the previous night.
"Your furniture," the person at the door said.
Holly quickly untangled herself from Root's blanket and went downstairs to get dressed.
"It's about time," Root snapped. "It was supposed to have come a week ago."
The deliveryman shrugged. "I only deliver."
"Then you better start," Root spat and followed him out to the truck. By the time Holly had come upstairs after changing and washing off her make- up, Root was surrounded by several large boxes.
"Need any help?" she asked him.
"Yeah, thanks," he said and started to pick up a box. Holly hurried over and grabbed the other end. They carefully manoeuvred the box downstairs and then went upstairs for the other ones. After a couple of minutes, all the boxes were downstairs.
"Now what?" Holly asked.
"If you could disassemble the bed that you've been using, that would be great," Root told her as he took a pair of scissors out of the desk and started opening the boxes.
"Sure," Holly said. After dumping all of her stuff off the mattress and moving it, she started to take the bed apart with the screwdriver that Root handed her. She soon finished. "Anything else?" she asked.
"No, thanks," Root huffed. He was surrounded by bubble wrap, cardboard and parts of the desk.
"Are you sure?" Holly asked sceptically.
"Yes!" Root snapped.
Holly rolled her eyes and went upstairs, wondering why all men felt the need to assemble things themselves. She wandered into the kitchen and made herself some breakfast. Deciding that she didn't really have anything else to do, she went back downstairs.
"What're you doing here?" Root asked.
Holly rolled her eyes again. "It's my part of the house, isn't it?" she asked him. "Besides, I thought you might like some company."
"I told you I didn't need any help," Root reminded her.
"And I said that I thought you might like some *company*," she repeated. "There's a difference, you know."
"Of course I know," he snapped.
"Really?" Holly teased. Noticing the look on Root's face, she quickly added, "Actually, there's something I've been meaning to ask you about for a while."
"What?" Root asked.
"When I was reading 'Time Holders', you asked to see something," Holly reminded him. "What was that?"
"Did you finish the book?" Root asked.
"Of course," she told him. "And 'Gambling With Time'."
"Well, in 'Time Holders', there's this one passage that Nikki and I used to debate about all the time," Root explained. "I hadn't remembered that since I saw you with the book so I reread the passage. She was right."
"Which part?" Holly asked.
Root turned away from her. "It's not important."
"Are you sure?" Holly asked, concerned.
"Yes!" Root yelled.
Holly didn't say anything. Instead, she went over to the bookcase and took out the third and final book in the series, "Time's End", and went upstairs to read it.
*
Root came up from the basement about an hour later. "I'll do the bed later," he told Holly before disappearing into the kitchen to get something to eat.
"Ok," she called after him. "But next time you tell me something, you might want to wait and see my reaction!" Root didn't answer. Holly sighed and went back to reading.
About five minutes later Root joined her with what appeared to be a file from work.
"Root, it's the weekend," Holly reminded him. "You don't have to work."
"I'm not," he mumbled without looking up from the papers.
Curious, Holly leaned over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. He instantly closed the file and left. Holly stared after him, wondering what to do. Eventually she went back to reading.
*
Holly yawned. It was ten in the morning and she had been reading almost all day. Every time she tried to say something to Root, he walked off. Deciding that it was time to go to bed, Holly walked down stairs.
"D'Arvit," she mumbled under her breath. Root had apparently forgotten about putting the bed together because it was a mess of bed parts lying around without a fully put together bed in sight. Holly sighed and picked her way to the dresser and quickly changed before going upstairs to yell at Root.
"Root!" she yelled as she went upstairs.
"What is it?" he snapped from his bedroom.
Holly stormed into his room without bothering to knock. "I want to go to bed," she snapped at him.
"Fine. Go to bed," Root told her. "You don't need my permission for that."
"No, but I need you to finish putting the bed together," she corrected.
Root stared at her in confusion and then cursed. "I'll do it tomorrow," he promised.
"That's fine with me, but where do I sleep tonight?" Holly asked.
"The couch."
"No way. I slept there last night and my neck still hurts." It was true. She'd had a crick in her neck all day and wasn't eager to worsen it.
"Well what do you want me to do?" Root snapped. "You want to go to bed now and I'm too tired to do it tonight."
Holly considered this. "Do you have another guest room?" she asked sceptically.
"Sure, Holly. I just keep spare rooms lying around the house," Root said, rolling his eyes.
Holly smiled. "It was worth a shot. Do you have a cot?"
"Not a usable one," Root replied. "I used to, but it's buried somewhere in the attic with one of the legs broken."
"Trundle bed?" she suggested hopefully.
"No," Root answered.
"Sleeping bag, then. You *have* to have a sleeping bag."
"Actually, I don't. I used to, but the last time I went to use it, I found that it was completely moth eaten," Root admitted.
"Well what do you suggest I do?" Holly asked exasperatedly, throwing her arms up in the air.
"I don't know!" Root replied.
Holly slid down the wall and sat down on the floor. "I'm tired. All I want to do is sleep."
Root sighed. "I was planning on going to bed anyways and since I still have the queen sized bed from before Nikki died, I suppose we could share."
"Umm . . . A-alright," she managed to stammer. Holly suddenly wished she had long hair so it could obscure her bright red cheeks. She willed herself to return to her normal nut-brown colour and was positive that she failed miserably as she climbed into Root's bed. She settled down so she was facing the wall instead of Root as she heard him get up to go brush his teeth. When he returned, he turned off the light.
"G'night, Holly," he mumbled.
"Night," Holly said, then mentally punished herself for the squeak that came out. She tried to relax enough to fall asleep, but quickly realized that it wouldn't be an option. Resigning herself to yet another sleepless night, she started to let her mind wander. Her thoughts quickly turned to Root and all of the different reasons they might be sharing a bed other than that he hadn't finished putting her bed together.
"No . . . You can fantasize about him all you want when he's not in the room and you aren't sleeping in his bed," the voice snapped at her. "Now is *not* an appropriate time."
This was definitely true, but how are you supposed to *not* think about something?
"Holly?" Root asked after a couple of minutes.
"Mmm?" she responded, not trusting her voice.
"Remember when you asked me if I still love Nichkola?" Root asked.
Holly's breath caught in her throat. This time she nodded, not being capable of anything else.
"Well, I finally figured it out," he said.
Almost against her will, Holly rolled over so she was facing him. "Yeah?" she asked, *very* surprised to hear her voice come out normal.
Root took a deep breath. "I still love her with all of my heart, but I'm not in love with her," he said, finalizing the thoughts that he had been thinking for the past couple of weeks.
Holly smiled widely. "Good," she said and was about to roll over again when Root added,
"I realized that I was in love with somebody else."
"Breathe," the voice inside Holly's head instantly told her. "Just breath."
"O-oh?" she asked shakily. "That's good."
"And I called Foaly earlier today and he said that she also was in love with me," Root told her.
"What?" Holly yelled. "I'm going to kill him! I can't believe he told-" Holly clapped a hand over her mouth and instantly rolled over so she wasn't facing Root anymore, bright red to the tips of her pointy ears. Instead of any number of things Root could've done, she felt him move closer to her and wrap an arm around his waist.
"I know," he told her. "He asked me not to tell you, but I thought you might want to slaughter him on Monday."
Almost instinctively, Holly felt herself move further back into Root's arms. "Thanks," she said. "I'll add that to my list of reasons to kill him."
"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what else is on it?" Root asked.
"Well . . ." Holly trailed off, wondering if she should tell him or not.
"Why not?" the voice asked. "He loves you . . ."
"Well, I kinda asked Foaly to arrange it so we would dance together at the dance but the song he had the band play was really sappy and I can't believe that they dedicated it to 'two very special fairies' and he also kept on winking at me," Holly mumbled all in one breath.
"So *that's* what the winking was about," Root mused. "You could've just asked me yourself, you know."
"I wasn't originally planning to dance with you at all," Holly admitted. "Foaly insisted on it. And then once we were actually *at* the dance, I was going to ask you, but Foaly showed up first."
"Oh," Root replied.
"If you don't mind telling me, when did you figure out that you weren't in love with Nichkola anymore?" Holly asked, although what she was thinking was "When did you figure out that you love me*?"
"When we were dancing," Root told her. "Why do you think I asked you for a second dance?"
"You wanted to 'keep up an impression'?" Holly asked, doing a poor imitation of his voice.
"Well, of course there was that," Root added as an afterthought.
Holly laughed softly. "Y'know, I still don't see why I had to dance. Not, of course, that I'm complaining anymore, but still."
"Like I said before, take it up with the Council," Root told her. "I just do what they tell me to."
"Yes, I suppose," Holly replied. She smiled. "But I can't help but think that the next dance will be at least a *little* more fun."
Root smiled as well. "Yes, I should think so."
Holly rolled over in his arms so she was facing him and settled in again, leaning her head on his chest like she had been when they were dancing. "Root?" she asked.
"Hmm?" he replied.
Holly blushed slightly as she asked, "Can I call you Julius?"
Root laughed. "Of course."
Holly smiled again. "Then good night, Julius."
"Already?" Root asked.
Holly blushed again. "Unless you'd like to show me what you did with buttons."
"Holly, I'd like nothing more than to show you what I did with buttons," Root said and began to slowly unbutton her shirt, either kissing or touching her after each button. Holly moaned as Root finished unbuttoning her shirt and started greedily sucking on her breast.
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Alright, alright. I know it's a little short, but that's ok because the one before it was *really* long. Please review! And let me know if you still think there should be an Epilogue, although I know I'm going to write one.