This request was for Harlock/Yama in the prompt mistletoe. Ew gross.

In his free time, Yama stitched together flowers by unraveling DNA and testing a rainbow of chemical mixtures. He worked well into the night, and I always found him asleep against his desk with buds sitting in the fresh soil of a clay pot beside him.

As December sank in, Kei asked him if he planned to make mistletoe for the season. "I've never seen a real batch," she said. "It would be fun to have, right Captain?" I didn't see how I had anything to do with this, so I stayed quiet.

Yama's lips twisted into a frown, and his nose wrinkled at the thought. "Mistletoe is a parasite. I'd rather work on things that can grow without feeding off another plant." I found this to be a reasonable explanation. In fact, I was content with any excuse that kept the plant away from any doorways.

Kei looked less enthused. After Yama headed to the small room called his lab, she walked over to lean against the side of my chair, her arms crossed. "You should have backed me up there. I'm trying to help you out."

I breathed a sigh through my nose. "I don't need help with anything, Kei," I said.

"Attitudes like that are exactly why you're both so clueless." She clicked her tongue in disapproval. Apparently my feelings toward him were more obvious than I would have liked, but no matter. They would pass. It was better that they did.

I told myself exactly that every time I found him asleep in his lab, arms cradling his head. I reminded myself of it when I tapped his shoulder to wake him and watched him rub the sleep from his eyes. He blinked unevenly for a few breaths, deep and slow as he eased his way into the waking world.

"Fell asleep again," he murmured through a weak smile, as if scolding himself. Dark swipes of purple stood out under his eyes like blotches of watercolor.

"What were you making this time?" I asked as I stepped closer to the small bushel of green sealed in a Petri dish.

"It isn't quite right," he said through a yawn. "I'll have to make some more adjustments, but I gave a shot at mistletoe since Kei seemed so interested. Not that I'm going to let it touch anything else for now, so it will die pretty quick." He shrugged and picked up the round container, turning it over in his hand. "I don't get why she's so interested in it. Kind of an ugly little plant."

I frowned, wondering if he honestly didn't understand. "You know what mistletoe is used for, yes?" I asked.

He cocked a brow and rested his cheek against his knuckles. "It's a holiday decoration for some reason." He didn't seem to quite understand what I was getting at.

"Yes, but do you know what people are supposed to do with it?"

"Put it…places?" He placed the dish back on the desk and stood, grabbing his coat from the back of the chair. His eye flashed over me with unbound curiosity. For whatever reason, he honestly did not know the use for mistletoe, and it was enough to put me on edge like some nervous schoolboy. Running my hand through my hair, I tried to think of the best way to explain.

"People are supposed to kiss under it," I muttered in a rush, as if getting the words out fast enough would stress me out less.

"Oh, I thought holly was the kissing one. Guess I had them mixed up." That was all, such a calm reaction. All my worry that it might somehow cause him a mass realization as to why Kei wanted it, and his response amounted little more than a shrug. "Well I won't be putting it up anywhere, so you won't have to worry about kissing someone you run into," he said with a grin. "I'll just leave it here." Something weighted his eye, a curious warmth that forced me to remind myself the burning in my chest would go away eventually.

But I felt my expression weakening until my eye mirrored his, heated by lust. "God, I give up," he said through a breath of a laugh. His hands grabbed both sides of my collar, dragging me toward him as he rose to his toes. I pulled off my glove just to run my fingers through his hair as the warmth of his kiss burned in my gut.

He temptingly parted his lips, hands sliding down my chest, but I needed to take a second to breathe. I pulled back to find him smiling in a daze, his eyes lidded. "This is a bad idea," I felt myself say. I expected him to step back, to keep us from going down this path. Instead he hummed in agreement and pushed himself up for another taste. It was a terrible choice, but at least we were in agreement.