'What about decs, then?' Iain lazily sipped from the wine glass.

'What about them?' Lily asked curtly.

He rolled his eyes. 'When, should I say. It's not a question of whether we're having them, because we are.'

She was quiet a moment. 'Not till at least the last week in November.'

'I can deal with that.' He put the glass on the side, making his way over to her.

'It's the 3rd of November, you have a few weeks.' She reminded him.

'Yeah, I'm a patient man.' He moved behind her, kissing her neck.

'I'm trying to cook.' She stirred the pasta slightly too much.

'As I said. I'm a patient man. I'm just being affectionate, you're my girlfriend after all.' He replied.

'I know your game.' She snatched the spoon away from him as he tried to take it off her.

'No licking the cooking either.' She scolded.

'What about the cook?' He flirted, sweeping a strand of hair out her eyes.

'Don't be crude. Make yourself useful and set the table.'

He frowned. 'Bossy.'

'Just set the table! I'm making your food, it's the least you can do.'

'What you putting in it?' He peered over her shoulder.

'Secret ingredient.' She wrapped her hands around the bottle.

'Secret ingredient? Secret from your boyfriend?' He pulled a face, throwing cutlery onto the table.

She glanced over her shoulder, trying to remember not to lose patience with him. 'Um, Chao family secret. How do I know you won't go spreading it?'

'Because I have better things to do with my time then tell others how to make spag bol. Besides, they probably already know.'

'Just sit down and let me cook, stop jibber jabbering nonsense in my ear.'

He did as he was told, quiet for a few seconds before piping up again.

'Work tomorrow?' He asked.

'Yes. Twelve hour shift. Can't wait.' She replied drily.

'Ooh, tough. When do you start?'

'Seven.' She answered. 'It's unusual, normally it would be 5 or 8. However, things have been somewhat unpredictable since Mrs Beauchamp's leave.'

'Yeah, yeah, everything's been all over the place. Elle tries, bless her, but the organisation isn't the same.'

'No. Mrs Beauchamp offers unparalleled management. We... we really feel the absence of it when she's not there.' Lily agreed. 'Anyway. Dinner.'

'Thanks, it smells great.'

-x-

After towelling her hair, she entered the living room.

'Hey.' She smiled.

He looked up from where he was crouched, by the small fire place in the centre of the room. 'Hi. You alright?'

'Yeah, I'm good. I see you started the fire?'

'Yeah, at long last.' He stood up, brushing his hands down his pyjamas, leaving soot trails. 'Now on to the other appliances in the house, at some point this week obviously.'

'And first job, the washing machine.' She pointed out the stains by his knees.

'Eh, these ones are tatty anyway. Look at all the threads fraying, especially by the ankles-'

'Hint hint.' Lily raised an eyebrow with a smirk, lifting the damp tendrils to the outsides of her pyjamas.

He gave a little smile back, before pausing when he noticed her shudder involuntarily. 'This room will be warmer in no time.' He said, sitting down with a sigh in the rocking chair. That's the only thing with it being so old, takes ages to heat.'

'It's home.' She replied, going to join him. 'That's what matters.'

He groaned, slightly exaggerated, the way a parent would upon the realisation their child was a lot heavier than they used to be. 'Lump.'

'I'm not even-' She begun.

'I'm messing. Wouldn't be able to call you it if it were true.' He rested a hand on her shoulder while she draped her legs over him. A pause. 'You can't be comfy like this.'

'I am.' She replied, with enough decisiveness to dissolve all the words in his mouth.

'Are your feet even touching the ground?' Iain craned his neck and saw that they weren't. 'Ooh, wouldn't it be tempting to play a game of barbers shop.'

She gave him a reproachful look, which only served to fill him with more delight.

'I went to the barber's shop, to get my hair cut off...' He begun cheekily, jiggling her up and down slightly too violently. This caused her to giggle in spite of herself, but her amusement was short lived. 'When I got there, I sat on the chair-'

'You dare drop me, Iain.'

She could almost feel the hesitation. 'The chair went pop!'

Landing on the floor with a thud, she looked to give him a scathing look.

'You-you-'

He laughed harder at the torrent of expletives that she mumbled under her breath as she climbed back up and resumed her original position. 'Well, what were you expecting?'

'A nice cuddle with my boyfriend?' She replied, with a scowl.

'Oh, you don't know me, Lily.'

'Believe me. I do.' She rolled her eyes.

In the background, the fire crackled away cosily. Every so often, a spark would fly out. Lily was mindful of this, her eyes hovering in that direction every thirty seconds or so. It wasn't that there was anything to be anxious out, but she was aware of the cottage's unfamiliarity. Sensing this, Iain finally put two fingers to her cheek softly and swivelled her head around. 'Seem tense, what's the matter?'

'I'm just watching the fire.' She replied. 'I'd hate for it to catch to the rug, or anything else for that matter.'

Both pairs of eyes simultaneously travelled to the centre of the room, observing for a while how the curls of orange and yellow danced there.

'No, it won't.' A pause. 'Don't you think I did a mini mental risk assessment? Wouldn't want to put my princess in harm's way, now would I?'

Taking a moment to remove his hand from her face and hold it in hers, she gave a rueful smile. 'I guess not.'

'I can blow it out and then try crack on the heating if it's making you anxious though.' He said.

'No.' She mumbled, burying her face deeper into his chest.

He laughed a little. 'It'll only take me five minutes. Then your precious cuddly time can resume.'

It was a well known fact - that although never mentioned - Lily loved cuddles. She thrived off any kind of attention he directed towards her. Above all though, being held was high on her priority list. In the first few weeks of their relationship, Iain had found it cute. It was flattering that she wanted to be so close. However, as time had passed, it became more of a routine. He never saw it as a chore - affection was nice, and it was one of the reasons he loved her. One of. On occasion, it did feel suffocating, quite literally. He joked about her being a limpet, about him becoming desensitised to them, about her having ulterior and unusual motives when she suggested an "early night" (by his books, it meant something much more strenuous than lying comatose). All to no avail though. Nothing deterred her or in any way changed her behaviour. In fact, the more he brought it up, the more clingy she'd get. Experience taught him that it was easier, for the sake of his own sanity and peace, just to oblige.

Still, Lily seemed grumpy at the prospect of having to move from the position they were in.

'I'll be too warm.' She complained. 'And then what if you can't turn it off?'

He frowned a little, tapping her on the nose affectionately. 'If I can get it on, I'm fairly sure I can get it off. Your feet are freezing, so I think temperature-wise you'll do just fine.'

Slumping slightly, she pulled a face. 'Iain!'

'I'll be like, three minutes, let me put out the fire-' As he moved to get up, Lily, with force, pulled him back down by the arm.

As their lips collided, he moved backwards jerkily.

'What?' Her eyes widened, face already beginning to fall.

'Well, nothing, it's just... it's early.' He said. 'And, I need to sort out this heating debacle.'

'Oh, leave the heating.' Her mouth was on his again, and he had no choice but to surrender.

'If it catches fire, don't blame me.' He said.

'You said you did your mini risk assessment.' She replied, not missing a beat.

'I'm just saying, safety first and all that.'

After a few more seconds of kissing, she moved away first. Wiping her mouth confidently with the back of her hand, she locked eyes with him. 'Do you want this, or not?'

She was teasing, knowing too well she had the upper hand. His eyes screamed the response she was trying to worm out, while his words said otherwise.

'Actually...' He begun, voice still an octave lower than usual. 'Maybe I will go sort out that fire. Just to check.' He scrubbed at his own lips with the palm of his hand, then met her outraged expression with a cool one of his own.

The sparkle in his eye gave his game away; playing hard to get was something they both loved doing. It was flirting at its most piteous, juvenile kind, yet the thrill was equally anticipated by them both. As he rose from the rocking chair, she followed him, taking two steps for every one huge stride of his.

Glancing over his shoulder, he had to fight to resist a smirk appearing. 'Go on, I said I'd be five minutes. Go wait there.'

There was something about his commands that amused them both. Defiant, stubborn Lily was not going to listen. This, they both knew.

'Don't boss me around, I can follow if I want to.' She played back, uncertain for a moment if he thought it was a game too. Though she knew him well, it was still early days, and sometimes there were obvious grey areas and misunderstandings that happened because of these.

He'd long stopped replying, fiddling with the fire aimlessly instead. The silent treatment. It worked in his favour, as she found the quiet unbearable. He was better at the game than she. Within the first minute, she crouched beside him.

'Can I help?' Her face was inches away from his. Three, innocent words.

He froze, stuck for a response. Both were left there, staring at each other, until they simultaneously giggled and looked down. He recovered himself, squinting his eyes slightly to see her through the refracted glare of the flames. 'I don't know, can you help?'

She noticed the dilation of his pupils with silent satisfaction. Something she was doing was working. 'Uh, I'm good with fires.'

Silence for a few seconds, followed by his spluttering. 'Oh, I have to give it to you. You're good with fires? Pick up line of the year, Lily.'

Her eyes fell to the floor. 'I didn't know what to say! You can fire these one liners back at me and I don't know-'

'Sorry, you said fire again. You've got a thing with fires, haven't you?'

'Stop!' She whined, even more embarrassed. He laughed lightly in response, turning back to the fire. To distract from the awkwardness she felt, she leaned into the wooden basket that he was getting the fuel from. Wood, stones, logs and bits of paper of all different dimensions.

With little thought, she threw what she thought to be paper onto the fire. As the flames leaped upwards, she had just enough time to watch the horror that filled his face before he knocked her backwards onto the rug with an arm. Catching sight of an old pint glass of water, conveniently left on the mantel, he threw the contents on with one quick movement. In a second, the colour was gone. The heat had ebbed slightly. All that remained were embers in the bed of the fire place.

Slowly, he rotated his head round to look at her from where he was knelt. 'Good with fires, you.' As he stood up, he threw a tea towel in her direction and left the room.

Ten minutes later, after no sign of her, he went back to the living room.

'Lily?' He called, into the open.

Hearing sniffling, he followed his ears and crouched down aside where she was curled up.

With a gulp, he rested a hand on her knee. 'Don't be upset. It could've been so much worse.'

After a moment, she raised her head to look at him. 'You were mad though, weren't you?'

He shook his head, confused, until he realised how he'd left. 'No, no. Just a bit panicked and dazed, I- no. Really, I just had visions of it going so much worse. If I hadn't seen...'

Face still firmly in her hands, he realised he wasn't doing anything to make her feel better. 'Way to put the insurance up though, hey? What did you even put on?' He asked, with a gentle nudge.

'It was this paper, or so I thought.' She explained miserably.

'Was it triangular shaped?' He asked, thoughtful.

'I-I don't know, why?'

'If it was, they were coated in plastic. I noticed and I wasn't using those. They'd been left by the old tenants. Dangerous, really. Not your fault though.'

'Sorry I killed the mood.' She mumbled, drying her eyes roughly with the sleeve of her jumper.

'Who says?' He stood up, outstretching an arm for her to take. Reluctantly she did, and he pulled her up with little effort. 'Maybe let's skip the awkward half-hearted flirting bit - just for tonight anyway.' He smiled a little.

She giggled. 'Okay.'