A/N So some of you will have heard there was a rather large earthquake in NZ last night, but it didn't affect Auckland. I was actually awake when it hit too (4.30am) due to a sick child, but it was centered in Christchurch which is halfway down the South Island, so there's a lot of land and sea between here and there. It doesn't look like a lot of fun down there for them all, poor things, but our infrastructure in NZ is reasonably good and able to cope with stuff like that and thankfully no one was actually killed.

I was going to make this chapter longer, but I was struggling to find the time to write, so I've decided to go with what I've got for now. So I hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

EPOV

I soon found out that Sookie and I had completely different ideas about what her being in charge fucking meant. "What does the box look like?" I yelled back down to her from where I was standing on the ladder, peering into the stifling hot space in the roof of the house.

"It's brown, it's a cardboard box."

"Can you give me something else to go on? There's tons of fucking cardboard boxes up here. How do I know which one has the Christmas decorations in it?"

"Well use the torch. It should say decorations on the box!"

"What torch?"

"Flashlight? You know, the thing you're holding."

"OK". I shone the flashlight on the accumulated junk in the space. "Um, did you know there's like three doors lying around up here?"

"Yup."

"And…some kind of a metal tub thing?"

'Yeah, I think it's an old bath. That was here when we bought the place. Hey, you can't see any rats can you?"

"Rats? Fuck. No, I can't see any rats."

"Good. Because a couple of times I don't think I've found whatever it was Bob brought me. Hopefully it was just skinks."

I finally spotted the box which had Decorations neatly written on it, in letters so tiny they were almost no fucking use. I started to drag it towards me, thought briefly about whether it was now housing a colony of rats who'd been inadvertently re-homed by fucking Bob and were probably likely to see me as a kind of co-conspirator, and then decided there was no way to back out of this now without having to send Sookie up here instead. So I was stuck with getting the box and bringing it back down the ladder. Luckily when I put it down at Sookie's feet it seemed to be rat-free.

"Did you see the box with the tree in it while you were up there?" she asked.

"Tree?"

She frowned slightly. "Christmas tree. So we can actually put the decorations on something."

"You're not going to get a real tree?"

"Well, it's not easy to look after a cut pine tree in summer…plus they shed."

"So does Bob and you keep him around."

"They smell funny."

"They smell Christmassy."

Sookie looked at me, then looked down and sighed loudly. "Fine. But we'll have to go and get it in your car, as you've got the roof rack."

"No problem. I'm sure Amelia will love the drive out to go and get one."

"Drive? It's not much of a drive. There's a Christmas tree place five minutes away on Balmoral Road. It's probably the last large piece of land left in Mt Eden."

"Oh yeah, I saw that on the way the St Luke's. So it's so close and you still don't get a real tree?"

She just shrugged then said, "OK, well I'll round everybody up then and we can go and pick one. We'll have to buy a stand as well I guess."

With that Sookie wandered off. I shut the trapdoor to the ceiling space and carried the ladder back out to the shed. I was getting a real Christmas tree, I hadn't had one since…fuck, since before my mom left I guess. Dad didn't exactly do Christmas, and I didn't bother for just me. But it wouldn't have been right without a real tree. I thought so anyway. Sookie was still grumbling about the amount of vacuuming that was going to be required even after we'd bought the thing and got it home, following a long period of indecision from Amelia and a burst of crying from Felicia who, according to Sookie, was having a 'clingy stage' and therefore didn't like the old guy who sold the trees trying to pinch her cheeks. I wasn't sure that had anything to do with being fucking clingy.

Once we had the tree positioned in the living room to Sookie's satisfaction, which required almost as much furniture re-arranging as hunting a fucking rat, and Sookie poking the vacuum around while muttering about pine needles, we could finally decorate it. Or Amelia could anyway. Needless to say by the time we were finished there were a lot of baubles clumped near the bottom of the tree. And we'd had to prise several of them out of Felicia's tiny fist, much to her annoyance.

"So" said Sookie, standing back to look at the tree. "Does it meet your approval?"

"Yep, but it does seem a bit weird to get so fucking hot and sweaty putting it up." Sookie lent over and sniffed me then giggled.

"Fine, I'm going to take a shower then I have to go out."

"Out where?" Sookie asked, frowning.

"Just out. Don't worry, it's nothing bad." Sookie looked a bit put out, but didn't say anything else to me as I headed to the bathroom.

While she was the supermarket the previous day I'd spent time looking through her pile of catalogues looking for Christmas present ideas. It had helped a bit, but I had also got hold of Sookie's friend Tara who'd been very useful. So I was heading back into the city.

SPOV

Eric talked me into getting a real Christmas tree and by about lunchtime I was already regretting it. I kept fretting about keeping the water topped up, not to mention the amount of needles it was shedding. Amelia thought it was wonderful though. When we'd gone to buy it she'd been a bit confused about where it was going and thought we were going to plant it. But she'd enjoyed decorating it, even if most of our ornaments were on the bottom third of the tree.

Then Eric had disappeared for a while being very mysterious. I hoped it had something to do with Christmas, but at the same time, I really hoped he wasn't going overboard. I had struggled to find anything for him, and I wasn't really sure he'd like what I had bought. Shit, he was really hard to buy for.

He'd arrived back though in good spirits and without any obvious purchases, but he must have seen me looking for them because he offered to let me frisk him if I wanted.

"Yeah, you wish!" I said and he laughed at me, and tried to frisk me instead, which just ended up with me being tickled. Felicia stared at us curiously as I shrieked and tried to get away, and Amelia soon turned up to find out what was happening without her and Eric had to tickle her as well so she wasn't left out.

After dinner Eric asked if I was still going to be in charge tonight. "Yep" I said. "So I thought we could go and sit in the living room."

"Oh…really?" Eric asked, looking a bit confused.

"Yeah, don't you want to snuggle up and watch the lights on the Christmas tree?"

"Well, I guess. But it's still light, so you don't exactly get the full effect."

"Yeah, but they're still pretty to look at."

"OK, well. You're in charge." He didn't seem overly enthusiastic though.

So we sat on the couch and I snuggled into his side and we watched the lights, which, yes, looked pretty but weren't spectacular given we had another two hours or so of daylight yet. Eric was doing that thing where he rubbed my lower back again and made me feel really warm and gooey. I just stroked his leg, occasionally letting my hand drift down to his inner thigh.

After a while Eric leaned over and started kissing me and I took the opportunity to swing my leg across and straddle him, which perked him right up, shall we say. He kissed the skin visible in the v-neck of the t-shirt I was wearing, then decided that wasn't enough skin, so he pulled the shirt over my head. I did the same to him, which caused a small tangle of our arms as Eric was now attempting to remove my bra.

I pushed his hands down and said "Hold your horses" while I managed to finally get his t-shirt off. Eric groaned, "We're not back to that again are we?"

"Back to what?"

"You slapping my hands away."

"No, no. You can have free rein with the bra now."

"Excellent" Eric said, and I lost my bra in the next instant. He palmed my breasts and then took one nipple in his mouth, while continuing to roll the other between his fingers. I put my hands in his hair and moved my hips a bit to get some friction.

After a few minutes Eric stopped and looked at me. "Bed" he said huskily.

"No" I replied.

Eric started placing wet kisses across my breasts again. "But Sookie" he said "I want to fuck you."

"I know. I want that too. But not in bed."

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me as the penny dropped. I pulled out the condom I'd stashed in my pocket and showed it to him. "Are you sure?" he asked. "What if Amelia gets up?"

"Door's shut, and we should hear her coming. I think it's unlikely though. She was fast asleep when I last looked."

Eric grinned. "Couch it is then." He unzipped my shorts and I raised myself up a little so he could reach in with his hand. I lent down and whispered in his ear "Can you feel how wet I am?" Eric nodded, as he slipped a finger inside me. "Well, that's what you do to me. You make me so turned on that I can't even wait to get to the bedroom and I'm going to have to fuck you on the couch right now. So I need you naked. Quickly."

Eric didn't say anything else, just grinned as I undid his shorts and underwear, and then lifted off his lap to push them down, leaving him to kick them all the way off. I was just glad I'd got my little speech out without being overcome with embarrassment. I still wasn't really very good at this kind of stuff. Eric seemed to appreciate it though. And he made really appreciative groaning sounds when I stroked his penis while sucking on one of his nipples.

I opened up the condom and rolled it on, then stood up so I could lose my shorts and knickers, before slowly lowering myself onto him. It always felt so much better when he was inside me. I savoured the feeling for a moment or two before I started to move.

It wasn't long before I was overtaken by my orgasm and all I could do was cling to Eric for a bit. He kissed my collar-bone and pushed my now damp with sweat hair out of my eyes, before he murmured "Lie down".

"Hmmm?"

"Lie down on the couch."

I wondered if I should remind him I was in charge, but I decided that maybe abdication wasn't a bad thing about now and just went with it. Although I didn't like the feeling of climbing off him, it was lovely when he pushed back in after I was settled on my back.

Eric began to move in and out, at what seemed like a snail's pace. I reminded myself that patience is a virtue.

"I've wanted to do this since…the night I tickled you so you'd give me the remote" he said.

I really wanted to say something pithy, but all I got out was "Oh" because he chose that moment to increase his speed and I was hit with another orgasm which he didn't slow down for at all, but instead hooked my leg up and just kept going, so that I was going over the edge again as he finished.

After a few seconds of heavy breathing from the two of us, Eric looked at me and said "I think the couch worked out well. You have some pretty good ideas too."

Not sure what to say, I went for flippant. "Oh yeah" I said, in an exaggerated manner, "don't you know, I'm awesome!" I giggled, but Eric just looked at me and stroked the side of my face. "Yeah" he said, seriously. "You are."

Our eyes were locked for a few seconds and then he said "Don't you dare!"

"What?" I asked, struggling to rein in all my emotions.

"Cry. I can see your lip starting to wobble. It's the same thing Amelia does."

"Humph" I said. "I was not about to cry. You're imagining things." Yeah, I had felt the telltale heat behind my eyes start to build, but that just seemed lame and girly.

Eric just narrowed his eyes, suggesting he didn't really believe me. "OK, whatever you say" he said finally. "Shower?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. For some reason I'm all sweaty now."

"I think it's the Christmas tree lights" Eric said, pulling out and sitting up. "I never realised they gave off heat before."

"Yep, well they're going to kill that tree off if we're not careful. But you're right, the smell is not that bad."

"The smell is Christmassy." Eric said, leading the way to the bathroom.

"Whatever. Thank you for the tree anyway." By this time we'd reached the bathroom and Eric had turned on the shower.

"You're welcome" he said, and he kissed me before holding the shower door open so I could step in first.

Eric stepped in after me and promptly knocked half the bottles off the shelves. "Fuck" he said "So can I talk you into getting a bigger shower next?"

"Yeah, and how would that work exactly?"

Eric shrugged. "Amelia and Felicia could share a room?"

"Good luck selling that idea to them!"

He laughed and then busied himself making sure I was clean enough for bed.

Thanks for reading!