MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS I hope you have had a great day and hope you like this chapter, you can count this as a random flashback that Sparrow has to just a random chapter but either way I hope you like.
warning: ooc Ruvik
Ruvik is age 30 and Sparrow is 18 in this chapter
Christmas Special
Sparrow stared out of the small window as white flakes floated down from the sky.
'It's that time of year again' she thought to herself as she watched the snow fall. Sparrow couldn't remember a Christmas with her family, she was too young at the time and she can't remember a nice Christmas at the hospital either.
'What do people even do at Christmas?' She thought to herself. Unfortunately the hospital never celebrated Christmas, it apparently distressed some of the patients, and so, Sparrow never experienced a Christmas worth remembering, until today.
"It's time for your treatment Sparrow" one of the nurses Tatiana said as she unlocked the door and greeted her with a gentle smile,"just the same as last week, nothing to fear"
The 18 year old walked out of the room, her bare feet making light slapping noises as she walked.
"Today Jimenez will be celebrating Christmas with his brother and due to most of our staff spending Christmas with their families we've had to rely on volunteers" Tatiana explained as they stood in front of a treatment room, it was painted a light green and had a desk in the middle of it with pencils by it. This was the room they usually brought Sparrow to for her treatment, one of the lower grades of treatment that is.
Sparrow walked over to the desk and sat down, tucking herself in like usual as the familiar scent of minty toothpaste filled her nose, the room always smelt like that.
Sparrow glanced to the left and inspected the large mirror beside her, knowing some volunteer who had no clue as to what to do was sat behind it probably not taking any notes for the report for her file. Shaking her head, she grabbed a pencil and brought it down on the paper in front of her. Drawing anything that invaded her mind.
A few minutes into the drawing she heard the door to her room click and open, turning around in her chair she instantly smiled to see the bandaged man wearing his usual white shirt and trousers but this time with a white lab coat.
"They asked me to look after you, isn't that lucky" he said as he walked in and crossed his arms, smiling slightly at her,"so, it's Christmas, the worst day of the year, got any plans?" He asked casually.
Sparrow shook her head but smiled afterwards, knowing Ruvik was kidding when he asked her.
"As much as I would love to continue my work on spying on you for 3 hours" Ruvik started making Sparrow soundlessly giggle,"let's go out"
Sparrows eyes widened at that 'go out? As in outside in the yard or actually outside of this building?!' She thought, half excited and half terrified.
"Come on let's go to my room first" he said, like it was no big deal.
'GO OUT ARE YOU FOR REAL?!' Sparrows mind excitedly freaked out to a point where her legs felt wobbly. She followed silently behind Ruvik as they trod through the hospital, luckily not passing any staff since most of them had gone home.
"If we go out and you're still dressed like that, there is a 99% chance you may freeze to death" Ruvik smirked, seeing her stiffen,"and although there would be one less annoying occurrence in my life Jimenez wouldn't be very happy"
Sparrow scowled at him before sticking her tongue out, making Ruvik chuckle. When they got to his room he walked over to the closet and picked out some clothes.
"These are mine, you can borrow them for today" Ruvik said before throwing her a long dark blue coat, seemingly landing on her face and restricting her vision and a pair of black boots "if we are going through the front entrance it would do us good to cover your face, so wear this"
Ruvik then tossed her a black fedora before grabbing himself a black coat and a crimson scarf with matching Crimson fingerless gloves. He then looked over to Sparrow who still had the coat draped on her, her arms under the coat trying to find a way out.
Ruvik chuckled before walking over and put the coat on her, finding that the sleeves were way too large and the bottom of the coat barely lifted off the ground. Fitting the fedora on her, it completely covered her eyes and the only thing that stopped it from slipping further was the bridge of her nose.
"You look...pathetic, poor, outrageous and child like" he stated harshly, making her frown,"but it will have to do"
Sparrow stuck her tongue out at him before turning around and waddling towards the door, nearly tripping over the long coat.
"Now, just stay behind me and let me do the talking" he teased, knowing she couldn't talk anyway.
As they entered the reception area a nurse at the desk turned her attention to them.
"Mr Victoriano, please don't forget to sign out of the log book, and your companion" the nurse called, Ruvik turned around and gave the nurse a long and hard stare making her tense.
"Can't you just write my name down? You know who I am" Ruvik's rough voice made him sound threatening and mean.
Ruvik knew the reputation he carried around the hospital, and used that to his advantage.
"Y-yes certainly, c-can you tell me the name of y-your companion please?" The nurse stuttered, knowing exactly what they do to patients here at the 'hospital'.
"Her name is... Miranda Shuttingham" Ruvik replied, knowing one of the names of the nurses here.
"H-have a nice day sir" she said before scribbling down in the log book, not looking to see if they actually signed in when they entered.
They exited the building, the cold crisp air hitting them like a football to the face. Sparrow's eyes widened as she looked around, the area around her covered in a thick blanket of snow, a substance she hasn't touched before. Ruvik observed her as she bent over and poked her finger in the snow, immediately retracting it feeling how cold it was. She stood and tilted her face towards the sky, snow flakes settled on her face and she opened her mouth, sticking her tongue out towards the sky go catch the flakes. Mesmerised by how they melted as soon as they came in contact with her.
Ruvik grabbed her sleeve and tugged her forward, wanting to go out of hospital grounds,"we're not even officially out of the hospital and you're already distracted by everything"
Sparrow simply smiled before trudging through the snow with Ruvik, unconsciously gripping his sleeve as they walked as if she was afraid of sinking into the snow.
As they walked out of the main gates Sparrow gazed at the sky scraper hovering over them, entranced by the fact that men would build that high. They made her feel like an insignificant little ant.
"Most of the stores are shut, well all of them actually" Ruvik stated, no plan whatsoever on what they were going to do. Sparrow stared at the slow traffic passing by her, the snow being a lot shallower on the road as if pushed away, and it was slushy and muddy, making Sparrow frown.
"You didn't think the snow would stay crystal white forever did you?" Ruvik asked, swiping the snow from his coat. Sparrow simply looked at him before shrugging her shoulders, looking off into the distance she caught the sight of many colourful lights in the reflection of a building which had many windows. Nervously she tugged on Ruvik's sleeve before pointing to the lights.
"You want to go there?" Ruvik asked and she nodded eagerly. Knowing that she probably had no experience with traffic at all, he grabbed her wrist before guiding her across the street.
Nearing the lights they turned a corner, immediately Sparrows eyes glistened at the discovery.
In the middle of a place usually called Krimson Park there stood small buildings and colourful lights decorating the area, various rides were in action with people on them, spinning around or lifting off of the ground, the people on the rides screamed from the thrill and excitement.
A sign above them declared the place 'Winter Wonderland'.
"I didn't realise people would be here on Christmas Day" Ruvik stated followed by a sigh, he didn't like big crowds of people at all.
Sparrow stood and stared towards the middle of winter wonderland, watching as people swirled around in an area boxed off by some sort of barrier.
'Those people... Seem to be gliding? And why do they have blades on their feet does that help them glide?' She wondered, trying to figure out what exactly they were gliding on,'It couldn't be snow, that's too soft...' Without giving Ruvik any warning she started striding forward like a woman with confident determination written all over her face.
"Hey wait" Ruvik muttered before following her. Sparrow jogged up to the barrier and watched some of the people grip onto the barriers for dear life and others who could glide gracefully.
Ruvik eyed her curious expression from the corner of his eye, although he hated people, ice, snow, winter, presents and all things associated with christmas, he couldn't help want Sparrow to experience the best of those things at least once in her life, like Laura had done for him.
Without him saying, Sparrow tugged on his sleeve like an insecure child before pointing to the ice rink.
"You can go if you want but I'm not" Ruvik declared as he folded his arms, ignoring the people who stared at him when they passed.
Sparrow frowned before turning to him and sticking her bottom lip out.
"You will not catch me ice skating in your life" Ruvik stubbornly replied.
"Size 7" Ruvik stated as he handed his shoes over to the skating staff, ignoring their eyes wandering over his bandages,"she's size... 5" he guessed as he stared at Sparrows bare feet before handing over her shoes as well.
"Your feet aren't that big, yeah o think you're about a size 5" Ruvik said as Sparrow stood by him, the tips of her fingers clutching his sleeve for comfort, all these people made her, nervous.
The staff member plonked two pairs of ice skates before tending to the next person. Ruvik picked them up and walked over to a bench nearby before Sparrow sat beside him.
"Put these on" Ruvik said handing Sparrow her pair. She fitted her bare foot into the skate, not really knowing how to strap it on but with some experimenting she managed, finding the skate to be the perfect fit.
"Can I help you?" Ruvik glared at the couple nearby who stared at his face, finding his piercing white iris' unnerving they looked away. Ruvik sighed, suddenly reminded of why he hated people in the first place. They both stood up in their skates.
'This is... Pathetic, Ruvik you cut open brains for Christ sake what are you doing frolicking around with a mental patient?!' His thoughts echoed in his mind, but even when his thoughts seemed to point out the worst in his actions there was some part of him that made up excused as to why it was alright,'she's been in that hospital her entire life, the least I can do is give her a decent Christmas'
Suddenly breaking from his day dreaming his foot stepped on the ice, immediately making his wobble and lose his balance as said foot glided away from him unwillingly.
The eager Sparrow couldn't be bothered to be cautious at all and stepped onto the ice, finding her legs slipping forward suddenly and falling backwards on her bottom whilst hearing some of the crowd around her chuckle and laugh.
Ruvik regretted the ice skating idea immediately, discovering he had absolutely no balance he awkwardly glided over to Sparrow and helped her up. Sparrow soundlessly giggled when Ruvik slipped, grabbing her shoulders and unknowingly gripping tightly to prevent him from falling down. Once realised what he was doing he roughly shoved her away more harshly than he intended.
Sparrows smile faltered at the gesture before his expression softened.
"...I apologise" he muttered, being sorry felt alien to him.
Sparrows smile soon returned as she gripped his hand and helped him become more steady on the ice. Despite Sparrow being totally oblivious that ice skating actually existed before Christmas, she was actually becoming quite used to it and found her valence quickly, unfortunately the same could not be said for Ruvik.
"I hate this" he muttered mainly to himself as he once again slipped, tightening his grip on Sparrow's hand. Sparrow smiled brightly, finding the ordeal rather amusing and as much as it bothered him he also found himself slightly smiling as well.
The two skated for the whole of their hour long session, Ruvik still slipping and sliding but not as much toward the end as he was smirking whilst watching everyone else fall down.
By the end of their session they walked around Winter Wonderland, enjoying each other's company and ignoring everyone else.
By the end of their adventures Ruvik knew he had to take her back before the nurses got suspicious, luckily the staff was a bare 7 people so they all had little time to give anyone who was capable to look after themselves attention, but that didn't mean they wouldn't find out. Then Marcelo would probably find out and would tell him that he couldn't interact with the patients if he wanted more resource materials.
The trudged back towards the hospital but before they entered the front gates Ruvik held her back.
"Sparrow, there's something... I'd like to give you" Ruvik felt an alien emotion creep up on him, was it nervousness?
She looked up at him and smiled, waiting for whatever he was about to give her. Ruvik reached under his coat before pulling out a 2 small A5 sized books, one seemed to be a sketchbook of some sort and the other had pictures of arms, legs, noses, mouths etc etc.
"It's a book about different body parts in the human body and how it works, I thought it would help you with your drawing or... Something" Ruvik said in a hurry, finding his eyes wandering around her face, waiting for her reaction.
Sparrow could feel her tear ducts springing into action before rushing forward and hugging Ruvik tightly around the waist, surprising him a lot. Her head rested on his shoulder as she continues to hug him, slowly feeling his hands sneak around her shoulders. For a while they stood there, neither of them wanting this day to end, but unfortunately it had to at some point so Ruvik stuffed the books in his coat pocket so that no staff would see them and walked inside.
Ruvik strides past reception, giving the receptionist a hard look who in return scribbled their names in the log book.
Stopping at Sparrows room door they went into the room, giving Ruvik a final hug he left before giving back the gifts and going down into the hospitals basement.
Sparrow sighed as she sat down in her all too familiar bed, looking out of her barred window and watching the snow slowly drift down in the night.
A small smile crawled onto her face as she gripped the small books that Ruvik gave her, thankful that he spent the money, time and effort into making this Christmas special just for her, knowing that they probably won't be able to do it again.
Her fingers still a little cold from behind outside, she didn't mind at all, wanted to keep every feeling and experience fresh in her mind, probably one of the best days of her life in this miserable hospital.
'So that's what people do on Christmas' she thought as the snow continued to fall quietly and softly, into the darkness of the night.