It's been a long day, very long. Around January, many more people enter her class-- probably a side effect of people buying classes as gifts for people interested in self-defense for whatever reason. Teaching new people how to get the basics down is tiresome and a little boring, however rewarding it is to watch as they get better thanks to her. Right now, she's cold and tired and just wants to settle in in front of the TV with Hatter and drink some hot chocolate, watch some mindless TV and doze off before the grind begins again tomorrow.
She's so busy dwelling on this that she almost doesn't notice the form stretched out on the sidewalk outside of the apartment until she almost steps on him, yelping at the last moment and skittering away. "Hatter!" she reprimands once she's sure that she hadn't stepped on him. "What are you doing? It's freezing outside!"
He peeks up at her with an impish grin on his face and shrugs. "You've never taken the time just to sit out and look up at the stars?"
Her jaw drops. "In 20 degree temperatures?! No I can't say I have! Are you trying to make yourself sick?"
He looks thoughtful for a moment and then stands up to join her. "Why don't you warm me up then?"
She shies away, shaking her head. "Sorry, but no way, not out here. Get inside!" she tells the shivering, still grinning man. He pouts at her a bit but follows her inside anyway, shrugging off his snow-drenched coat at the doorway and kicking his boots off, well versed in how unhappy she gets when he tracks snow through the apartment. "How long were you out there?" she demands, bringing a towel out and running it through his soaked hair repeatedly, leaving it looking even crazier than it did in Wonderland when she first met him. She has to admit he looks cute as he shakes his head, ears probably stinging from her brisk rubbing. She'd never admit it though, and risk encouraging behavior such as this.
"Fifteen minutes, maybe?" he asks thoughtlessly, moving towards the vent that's filling the apartment with hot air and extending his hands over it like it's a fireplace.
She rolls her eyes, pushing him towards the bathroom. "Take a shower, but keep the water only a little warm... then turn it up slowly, don't want to shock your system." He grins at her but she cuts him off immediately. "No, I'm not joining you." A hot shower sounds nice but they'd probably get distracted so... Best to go solo this time. He looks downtrodden but heads to the room anyway as she goes the other way, finding a change of clothes for him to be ready once he gets out, to keep the chill completely at bay.
Once she has the clothes prepared, she settles in at the door of the bathroom and just listens as the water runs, shaking her head at him. He's definitely the most infuriating boyfriend she's ever had but she still loves him, all of his quirks just making things interesting. It's only stuff like what he did tonight that worries her, the general impulsiveness of it all that could seriously harm him one day that makes her breath seize in her throat, makes it hard to consider what she'd do if he ever did hurt himself or worse.
Things in Wonderland and earth are distinctly different-- what could kill in Wonderland are vague nightmares here, and most afflictions in earth are unheard of over there and she's taken great pains in explaining to him the general things to look out for-- cars being at the forefront of that list. Now she supposes she has to add hypothermia to that list.
After a minute the water stops and she perks to attention, listening as sounds of him moving around in the room next to her echoes in the quietness now filling the apartment.
When he speaks, she jerks. "Stars are different in Wonderland," he calls out to her, voice muffled through the door.
"Oh?"
"Yes. They're only visible in a couple places... The hardest places in Wonderland to reach..." His voice fades away quietly.
She frowns, suddenly understanding a little better his actions from earlier with this simple statement.
Jellybean, look at the stars, aren't they pretty? she remembers her father whisper to her late one evening as she forgoes sleep to stare up at the night sky, perched on her father's shoulder. The stars would become something she takes for granted more the older she gets.
Her throat closes up a little at the memory and the thought of Hatter never having something like that as a kid to remember. She shakes it off as the bathroom door opens a little, and she stuffs the clothes into Hatter's arms as he raises his eyebrows at her. "Put those on to stay warm." She smiles tiredly at him as he shuffles the clothes and reenters the room. As he rustles around behind her, she leans against the doorway and sighs. "Spring's only a couple months away," she says thoughtfully. "We can stare at the stars all you want then."
When he comes out fully dressed a minute later, he doesn't say anything but kisses her intensely, the appreciation in his expressive eyes overwhelming her.