A/N: I feel the need to mention that I bought a new laptop, so this is officially the last thing I ever write up on my phone. That's right, children. Almost every fic I've published was written on my phone. The things I do for you all. Tsk tsk.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Two turtle doves...
The first thing Lucy registered as she stepped into Dr Vivas's apartment was the overwhelming stench of pine needles.
The fresh scent burned her nose and caused her eyes to water, and she swore she could taste the mint in the back of her throat. It was almost as if he'd taken a Christmas tree and dunked it into a vat of water to boil.
"Ah, fuck," he swore at her side, not bothering to take off his shoes as he stormed into the kitchen. "I forgot to turn off the air fresher mix."
"Air fresher mix?" Lucy coughed, placing her fluffy slippers on the shoe rack before following him into the tiny kitchen. Despite the increased burn, her eyes widened as she took in to appearance of the room. Where her counters were cluttered with dishes she never had the energy to wash, his were full of neatly arranged graduated cylinders and flasks that she could vaguely remember using in high school for science class. Though most were empty, a select few had liquids of various colours, and there were sealed jars nearby with powders and solid chunks of god-knows-what inside.
Dr Vivas held a cloth to his nose as he twisted the knobs on a Bunsen burner, glaring at the flask of bubbling green liquid on top. "I've been trying to make something a little more potent for the air wicks that you plug into the wall. This turned out to be extra."
"What is in that, raw pine?"
"Yeah," he said, unplugging the burner from the wall and sighing irritably. "There goes a good twenty down the drain..."
Lucy wisely opted to ignore that last comment. She could hear Natsu in the back of her head supplying the term 'plausible deniability'. If Dr Vivas got arrested for purchasing illegal items, there was no way she was going down with him. Sometimes, ignorance truly was bliss.
"So, I don't suppose you could tell me just how you managed to fall off your balcony?" Lucy asked, backtracking quickly when he turned to stare at her blankly. "I-I mean, it's not really my business, but I figured...if I'm looking after you-"
"I was trying to decorate the roof of the balcony by standing on the rail. Lost my footing," was his curt response as he pushed past her for the living room. Lucy stuck close to his heels, hoping to avoid setting anything off. If there was one thing she knew about people with a science-y background, it was that they were liable to make things explode. Whether accidental or not was still up for debate.
"Are you going to follow me to make sure I don't collapse while changing my clothes?" the blonde squeaked, reddening. Though his face was mostly expressionless, his eye shone with a slyness she hadn't known one person could possess.
"No! I'll just...wait...here," Lucy pointed to his sofa awkwardly. Dr Vivas shrugged. "Fine. I'll be out after a shower. Feel free to use the television. God knows you might actually make good use of that stupid deluxe package I never bother with..."
As he shuffled off for the bathroom, Lucy glanced around the room curiously. Her sharp mind catalogued every item of significance in the room, and she was somewhat alarmed to find that there really wasn't much. There were only a few worn-in looking things in the room; the sofa, the coffee table in front of that, and the dining table, which was laden with half opened boxes of Christmas decorations, obviously recently purchased.
The TV had a thin layer of dust on it, and the floor around the dining table was oddly pristine, as if the chairs had never been pulled out from their spots. There were no pictures around the room; only certificates that boasted of his achievements.
It was highly impersonal, and Lucy was fairly certain that he only lived here in name. His life was centered around his work, and that made this house no longer home.
It was odd to think that she wasn't alone in feeling so bland.
Shaking her head from her musings, Lucy stared at the Christmas tree propped up by the balcony door. Poorly decorated, the tree was a mess of heavy layers of tinsel and mismatched twinkle lights. The ornaments were of the classic round variety, and the topper was hastily shoved on, now teetering precariously from its spot.
Lucy clicked her tongue. The asymmetry bothered her. It was as if he'd never decorated a tree in his life. Judging by the many flyers open to the pages on Christmas trees that littered the ground by the trunk, it was the most likely case.
It wouldn't hurt to make some adjustments while she waited.
"What the fuck," she heard Dr Vivas say, just as she finished tucking the end of a strand of tinsel into a branch.
"Your tree was a mess," she responded, turning around and immediately thanking whatever diety existed that she could blame the redness of her cheeks on the hot clothes she wore.
She had been right to think that he was muscular, though the hospital gown had done him no justice. He wore a tight, gray muscle shirt that did little to hide his lean build, and baggy sweatpants that clung to narrow hips. Shaking her head, she met his gaze and smiled. "I hope you don't mind!"
"What happened to the decorations?" he asked, padding forward till he stood by her side. "There's barely anything on here."
"Your decorations were...pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie. Some of them were broken, and others were just a straight up disaster."
The tree was now mostly in decent condition. The tinsel was evenly spaced, with a neatly strung selection of twinkle lights to fill in the gaps. Lucy had managed to find several un-boxed decorations that had taken up the rest of the space. To anyone else, it would've looked like a lovely tree, but to Lucy, it was as fake and impersonal as it got.
"That's what I get for buying decorations from a garage sale," he grumbled, bending down to pick up the flyers from the floor. Lucy heard his breath hitch at the movement. The position must have been constricting his sore ribs. She quickly dropped to her knees, scooping up the papers and shooing him away. "Dr Vivas-"
"Erik," he said.
"R-right. Erik. Don't stress yourself!"
"Did you just design the tree after this?" he tapped one of the flyers in her grasp.
"Yeah. I mean, I figured you had them out for a reason, so I found one that would work well for this...did you not want it that way?"
"No, it looks fine, I guess," he stood up, tugging the flyers out of her grasp and tossing them on the coffee table as he stretched out on the sofa. "My friends decided I was going to host the annual Christmas party this year so I don't have an excuse to skip out like I usually do. Genius idea on their part, really."
Lucy frowned at that. "Do you not like Christmas either?"
"Either?" Erik raised an eyebrow. "Preppy princess doesn't like Christmas? Call the doctor, I think I just expired."
Lucy scowled. She hated being called princess. All it did was bring back awful memories of being waited on hand-and-foot by people with disgustingly fake smiles and underlying intentions that made her skin crawl to this very day.
"If you need anything, I left my number on your fridge," she muttered, rising and storming for the door. Suddenly, the light atmosphere was too heavy for her to stick around. "I have a project to finish."
"Oi-"
She didn't bother to stick around to hear what he had to say.
"What do you mean you didn't finish your part?" Lucy exhaled steadily as her vice-like grip on the phone increased.
"I didn't know that part was also due! Can we just, like, ask for an extension or something?"
Frustration bubbled in the blonde's chest. How could her group members be so utterly stupid? How could they have even gotten accepted into this program with organizational skills as lacking as theirs? Not for the first time, Lucy wished she could just crawl into a ditch and be done with it all.
"No," she ground out. "We can't ask for an extension. The professor told us the requirements two weeks ago. She gave us a checklist. You're in third year, for Christ's sake!"
"Hey," the person on the other line chided teasingly. "Don't take the Lord's name in vain! Real talk, prof's chill, she won't give a fuck. Can't you just do my part for me? It'll only take, like, an hour or two, max!"
Lucy hung up and launched her phone across the room. Then, she drew her knees up to her chest and dug her nails into her scalp as the beginnings of tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.
She couldn't take today anymore.
Why did her group members think it was okay to take advantage of her like that? Why did anyone think it was remotely okay to shirk out on their responsibilities? Lucy's breath grew ragged, and she could taste her tears in her mouth. Why was it always her? Every other group in the class managed to get along fine, but with her? No, she got stuck with the people barely scraping by with a fifty, who had zero shits to give, and didn't seem to realize that it wasn't just their grade to share.
Add to the fact that she now had an injured neighbour to look after...Lucy felt a pang of guilt at that thought. She hadn't meant to blow up at him like that. She was just so frustrated with everything, and the word...she knew he didn't understand why she loathed being called princess so much, but it still had her lashing out at him.
Perhaps she would go apologize after this sobfest.
"I know you're mad, but curling into a ball in the middle of the kitchen won't solve anything," Lucy screeched, jerking her head up so quickly that she bashed it against the cupboard behind her. She blinked back the tears furiously, just barely able to make out Erik crouching in front of her.
"Did you hit your head that hard?" he muttered, reaching for her jaw and pulling her forward. His fingers prodded her skull, and she winced when he found a sore spot. "No. J-just...my group members..."
She was surprised to see him shudder visibly. "Say no more. Let me guess. They forgot the due date."
"And they want me to finish their half of the work!" Lucy said, wiping at her tears with the back of her hand. Erik stood up suddenly, shuffling into her living room. Lucy scrambled after him, making sure to pick up her phone from the floor on her way out. She was surprised to see the screen was as pristine as ever, a testament to the prowess of the Otter case she had wasted nearly forty dollars on.
"This is your work?" he pointed to the neatly organized pile of papers on her desk. She nodded. He then pointed to the file on the other end. "And this is theirs?"
"Yeah. Wait-!" Lucy shouted when he pulled out a lighter from the depths of his pockets and waved the fire on top of the file. Cold horror flushed through her veins as the work literally went up in flames. That was part marks gone down the drain. "Why would you-"
"They never handed in their work to you," he shrugged. "So you had absolutely no idea they weren't done. You couldn't do anything about it."
The blonde was sure her jaw was unhinged at this point. How was it possible that he was so brutal? Even the likes of Natsu would have difficulty pulling this off so nonchalantly.
"That was savage," she murmured. Erik grinned. "You think this is bad? You should have seen the shit I did to my group members in school. They called me Cobra for a reason."
"Again," Lucy said, suddenly somewhat lightheaded. "Savage. I need to sit down. Wow. I...wow."
She fell back into the plush cushions of her sofa, covering her mouth with her hands. For the first time in days it was like she could breathe easy. Her shoulders sagged in relief. Her head was suddenly so uncluttered that it was painful to be able to think freely.
"You're an angel," she said in a muffled voice. "A literal angel from the heavens above."
"Never been called an angel before. Guess there's a first time for everything," she bounced slightly as he fell back next to her, thumbing through her report with a calculating eye. "This isn't half bad, actually. Some errors, but nothing glaring."
"Wanna edit for me?" the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Erik shot her a vaguely amused glance as he held out his hand. "Pen."
"How did you get into my house?" she asked after several silent moments.
"Balcony," he responded. "That string of lights is very strong and I feel the need to call in a physicist to check it out."
He yelped when she smacked him square in the chest. "Oi! Injured person here, find your chill!"
"You climbed into my apartment from my balcony while injured?" she snarled. "Oh my God, what if you broke-"
"I'm more concerned by the fact that you're not concerned that I confessed to breaking into your apartment."
"Natsu does it so often I'm used to it," she curled into a ball in the corner of her couch, burrowing herself into the warmth. "At least you haven't snuck into my bed while I was sleeping."
"You need new friends," he said. Lucy laughed, turning her head to stare at him. "Trust me, they're like cockroaches. Impossible to get rid of."
"I did an experiment in roaches in my first year, trying to find what poison would off 'em. I shit you not, it took tetrodotoxin to finally get kill them," at her confused look, he clarified. "Puffer fish poison."
"Natsu once dragged me to this sushi joint down by the waterfront in grade eleven with a couple of our friends. Ordered some fugu as a dare for one of us to try," Lucy smiled when her charge of sorts groaned. "Don't tell me..."
"Chef wasn't licensed to cook the stuff, so our buddy Gajeel ended up poisoned. Thank God Wendy was there. I'm not sure what mumbo jumbo she worked, but she kept him kind of safe until the paramedics got there. Gajeel is fine now, but he hasn't eaten sushi since," Lucy paused. "Neither have I, actually."
"I know a place by Oak Town, sells the best goddammit fugu this side of the hemisphere. I'll take you sometime," Lucy blushed at that. It was nice to hear that he had no immediate plans to cut her out of his life. He seemed like a rather intriguing person. In the brief hours that she had know him, he had proved that he really didn't care much for what was considered normal. How many people could she safely say owned a lab in their kitchen, and found no wrong in lighting project papers on fire?
"Why did you come visit me anyway?"
"Oh, right," he dropped the pen in his lap, looking away somewhat shyly. "My tree is fucked up. It looks fake as hell and doesn't sit right. Figured you'd blow a gasket if I went out to shop for more decor without you knowing in case I kicked the bucket on the street."
"I'm coming!" Lucy exclaimed. "J-just to make sure you don't tax yourself."
The disbelief was clear on his face, but he let the matter drop in favour of scribbling in the margins of her paper.
"We spell 'colour' with a 'u', genius."
"Blame spellcheck!"
"The glitter will stick to my floor for the next three thousand years, no."
"Every Christmas decoration has glitter on it, Erik!" Lucy threw her hands up in exasperation. "You are being so difficult, oh my God."
"Those ones don't," he poked the window display. "See? Reasonable, too."
Lucy's eye bugged out of her head as she read the crisp price tag. "Fifty bucks is not reasonable. I get that you're a doctor and probably able to wipe your ass with hundreds, but no."
"Fine," he tugged on her winter coat and lead her up the street. "I forget how cheap university students have to live to survive."
It had been approximately two hours since they had ventured into downtown Crocus. Lucy had to disguise her laughter at his attire as a cough when they first met up in the lobby, because he was wearing at least three coats under his final jacket, and his earmuffs were as fluffy as Plue before his grooming. For lack of a better word, Erik was adorable. Though now, she wished she had thought as far ahead as he had. She was freezing.
"You're acting as if it's been decades since you were in my position," she muttered, huddling close to him. Her coat was doing little to ward off the chill, though she supposed it was her fault for getting it off the sales rack at a warehouse. She eyed Erik's sturdy looking North Face jacket with envy. At least he was toasty.
"True Religion is having a sale?" Lucy gasped. "We have to go after!"
"Kids your age know what True Religion is?" she heard him mumble. "Damn, here I thought it was just a thing of my era."
"Oh, bugger off, gramps," she shoved him lightly, giggling when he retaliated with equal force. "Again. Injured person here. Don't abuse the defenseless."
"Defenseless, my ass," Lucy laughed. She grabbed his arm and pulled him away just in time for a frazzled looking mom speed by with her double stroller, yammering a mile a minute into her phone.
"Someone's in a hurry to hit up Macy's," he commented, shoving his hands into his coat pockets. Lucy tucked her chin in, hoping to hide her blush in her scarf. His adjustment trapped her hand between his side and the arm she had pulled, and he didn't seem to notice it. If he did, then he didn't care much for the implication.
"Sale!" she squealed, spotting a chalkboard advertising fifty percent off tree ornaments. Erik sped up, grabbing the door and opening it for her. Reluctantly, she pulled her hand back to herself and shuffled in, sighing in relief when the heat of the shop hit her frozen cheeks.
"You're gonna get frostbite again if you don't fix your scarf, genius," Erik chided, unwinding the thin material and eyeing it with disdain. "I've seen thongs made of thicker material. Where did you get this, Victoria's Secret?"
"Thrift shop, actually," she snatched it back. "And it's just old. It was made of stronger stuff way back when!"
"Now who's the grandpa?" he called as he moved to examine the shelf of ornaments. "We don't need much, do we? The round ones are there already."
"We should get some elves. And maybe candy canes and gingerbread men!" Lucy clapped her hands. She could remember the first time she had decorated a tree. Igneel Dragneel had been horrified to learn that she had never decorated one in her life, and had all but refused to let her leave the basement until she had helped set up. By the end of the day, Lucy had learned how to string popcorn and properly wrap a tree with lights, and she had never been happier to do something so mundane.
"Do we have to?" Erik looked almost petulant. "It's so...childish."
"Do not try to make Christmas of all holidays an adult situation! We are going to be literal five year old for this. Ooh! This is cute," Lucy pulled down a box of assorted ornaments, pointing out the various objects displayed on the box. "See? We even have little drummers! Oh, this is so cute, please? If I pick out the ornaments, you can make it as bland and professional as you want later!"
"Fuck, fine," he dropped down to a crouch, hissing lightly as the breath was forced out of his lungs. Lucy thwacked the back of his head as she followed in suit. "You're going to break your ribs again! Remember what the doctor said?"
"Last I checked, I was the doctor here, you're still the starving student."
"Thought you weren't that kind of doctor?"
"Don't get cheeky with me, brat," Erik held out an angel figurine towards her. "For the topper?"
"Angels are so outdated and freaky," Lucy's fingers danced over the small shelf of toppers, finding one hidden behind two angel statues. "This one!"
"A star? That's just cliché as fuck."
"It's a pretty star," she said, only half-hearted in her earnestness. The star really was beautiful. With ten thin points, each capped with a small glass ball, it differed from the traditional five-pointer. The points alternated gold and red, with the glitter that sprinkled it being the opposite. It reminded her of a dress she once wore to a Christmas ball as a young girl.
Everybody had called her a princess that night.
Everybody including her proposed fiancé.
"We'll get it," Erik's soft voice brought her out of her musings. She cleared her throat, blinking back another onslaught of tears. "Thought the glitter would stick around your floors for a couple millenia?"
"Not if I set up a plastic sheet under the tree. We could have a fucking rave in there and my floor would be safe, so..." he held out his hand. "Gimmie."
"Hell no, I'm paying for this!" she protested as he snatched it, careful not to break off any of the points as he stood with that and the box. "You're living off ramen and by the looks of your kitchen, you've not eaten in a while. Leave the extra spending to me and save up for something that won't result in sodium poisoning."
"I've not died yet, have I?" she sighed as they walked up to the counter with their purchases. Erik paused and grabbed a woolen scarf in the most garish shade of pink she had ever laid eyed upon and added it to the pile. "What?" he said defensively at her look. "How are you supposed to look after me if you're the one with pneumonia?"
"Will that be all, dears?" the kindly old man behind the counter interrupted them, a small smile on his lips.
"Yes," they both said at once. "Thank you," Lucy tacked on, poking Erik in the side. "Don't be rude."
"How is that rude, you insane-ugh, never mind," he grumbled, pulling out his wallet and flipping it open. "Do you take debit?"
"The machine broke," the man said apologetically. Erik shrugged. "Fine. How much?"
"Thirty dollars and forty-nine cents," he pulled out two twenties and slid it across the counter. "Keep the change."
One part of Lucy wanted to shake him for treating ten dollars like it was nothing. That was at least thirty packs of maggie she could've bought at the local convenience store gone down the drain. Another part casually reminded her that he was loaded and could clearly afford a missing ten.
"Before you go," the old man stopped them, digging under the counter for something. "I noticed you two were having a little ornament trouble. Not unusual when a fresh-faced couple like yourself is doing something like this for the first time, but..."
Lucy's first instinct was to turn firetruck red. Couple? Her and Erik? She opened her mouth to protest, but found that no words would leave her mouth. Erik looked just as flabbergasted as she did, but did nothing to stop the old man from his shpeel.
"It's certainly the first time I've seen a couple so right," the shop owner placed two ornaments on the counter. The white birds were clicked together, and Lucy stared at them in awe. The craftmanship was unparalleled. This had been handmade. She had never seen such a level of intricate carving in regular store bought items in her life.
"Turtle doves," she heard Erik say. "These are beautiful. Where did you get them?"
"My wife used to love making these little figurines. Bless her soul, she would waste away days in the workshop building these things. Didn't ever understood why she liked turtle doves so much, but she told me she would never sell a set to anyone she didn't think was deserving of it. Never went to any of those lust-crazed teens. This is my last set, and I know she'd want you to have one."
Immediately, Lucy began to protest. "We couldn't! We're not even-"
"They're far too precious for us to-"
"I won't hear a no," the old man said firmly. "They're yours. What will I do with 'em? I have my own set on my tree. First ones Marion ever made."
"Thanks," Erik said, surprising Lucy. She had expected him to flat out leave without the ornaments, but instead, his lips were curved ever so slightly, and hers followed in suit. He looked nice like that. Smiling.
She hoped to see it more often.
"Done!" Lucy exhaled heavily, stepping back to examine their work. "It's amazing!"
"Of course it is, I helped," Erik held out a mug of coffee towards her, sipping at his own. She gagged as the bitter liquid hit her tongue. "Coffee? Really? Couldn't be normal and make hot chocolate?"
"Don't have any, but feel free to buy some and help yourself," he made his way over to his sofa and sat down, propping his feet up on the coffee table and flipping through a nearby file. Lucy almost snorted when she saw that the socks were patterned with little reindeer.
"Where are the turtle doves?" she asked.
"Table. Wasn't sure where to put them," he mumbled as he turned the page slowly. "Go nuts."
Lucy rolled her eyes and picked up the glass figurines gingerly. There wasn't much space available on the tree, but she wasn't above picking away some ornaments to make room for these ones. They were far too rare and meaningful to ignore. Finally, she opted to loop them through a free branch in the middle of the tree, tugging off a drummer beneath to make room for it. It seemed inherently wrong to separate them.
"Looks great. Don't touch it or you'll fuck it up," he called from the sofa. Lucy scoffed. "Ass."
"You aren't denying it."
"Again. Ass."
"Whatever, princess," they both froze as the word was dropped. Lucy bit back the urge to storm out. He didn't know. She couldn't fault him for using it again in casual conversation. She hadn't explained why she hated being called that in the first place.
"You like Discovery?" he asked suddenly.
Lucy knew an offer to drop the matter without question when she saw it.
"Sure. Why?"
"They're running a documentary on feral and isolate children, according to the guide," he held out the remote to her in invitation. "Little miss psychology interested?"
"We could always just watch Magnolia's Funniest Home Videos," she pointed out, curling up on his sofa. She could see him staring at her out of the corner of her eye, and did her best to hide her shiver. "Sounds like a plan."
Lucy switched the channel and leaned back, jolting up when she felt a heavy fabric being thrown at her. "The heating goes bust around this time of day when the junkies tax it out. Give it an hour or two."
"What about you?" Lucy asked as she cocooned herself in the afghan. Erik wiggled his toes pointedly. "These cost me ten bucks, and they're the warmest things I've ever owned. I'm also in about three layers, both top and bottom."
"You're a snake," she yawned sleepily. The exhaustion of the week was finally catching up to her. With the stress of her group project effectively neutralized, she had nothing to stay up to fret about. Perhaps she would close her eyes for a moment, just to let that sink in.
Lucy barely registered her feet being pulled so she didn't lay at an awkward angle on the armrest, and she couldn't muster the energy to open her eyes to watch as Erik adjusted her blanket. An extra five minutes wouldn't do her any harm.
"...deprived idiot," she heard him whisper.
"Not sleep...'prive..." she moaned. "Jus...five min...s..."
She was so warm, after all.
A/N: Plot (ish) and fluff. My usual MO. Ten points to whoever catches the movie reference this time!
High-key, didn't like this chapter as much. Eh.
-Touko