Chapter Text
“And all I want for Christmas… is yooouuuuu”, Holtzmann sang, perhaps not quite hitting the notes, but making up for that with enthusiasm; smiling fondly, Erin watched her as she danced around the firehouse to the song blasting from the radio, stringing up Christmas lights with a speed that was quite impressive.
She’d never been a big fan of Christmas, especially not ever since she had moved out of her parents’ house, the two elder people insisting to pretend that they were a perfectly happy family during those days of the year and barely bothering to hide their dismay about her life choices for the rest of it, but Holtzmann was so enthusiastic about it, she couldn’t help herself, but just had to let the engineer’s joy infect her, too.
“Behold!” Holtzmann cried, distracting her from her ponderings about Christmas and how it might be much better this year – she had told her parents that she couldn’t risk going to Michigan, what with the possibility of a ghost haunting someone during the Christmas days being so high; this might not have been completely honest, Abby and Patty both would visit their families, but Erin figured that a little white lie couldn’t hurt if it was for her own well-being. And Holtzmann, she knew, had no family she could’ve visited, so it was only right and nice to stay with her, make sure she wasn’t alone.
Not wanting to leave Holtzmann to be on her own on Christmas was a big and good reason for why Erin didn’t want to go to Michigan; there was another, equally big or perhaps even bigger one though, and as she watched Holtzmann push a button hidden somewhere on the endless string of lights and her bright, happy smile as they flickered to life, her second reason grew even bigger.
Erin really wanted to kiss Holtzmann – had been wanting to for a while now – and had made the perfect plan to get a kiss and have an excuse in case the engineer wouldn’t want her that way after all.
Now all she had to do, she thought to herself as she complimented Holtzmann on her new and improved Holtz X-Mas Lights, was to put her plan in motion, and hope it would work out the way she wanted it to.
She waited until Holtzmann had retreated back to her lab – for work on their equipment, she had reassured the physicist, and not to make more Christmas lights, because while they were very beautiful, there were also so many of them, all over the walls and ceiling and door frames of the ground floor, and Erin was pretty sure they were bright enough to light up their neighbours rooms, too – before she opened her desk drawer and smiled at what she had hidden in there, her heart skipping an excited beat.
Careful, not wanting to damage the object which was crucial for her plan, Erin took the mistletoe out of the drawer; she glanced towards the stairs again, making sure Holtzmann was nowhere in sight, then moved to the doorframe near the entrance and hung it up there, Kevin watching from his desk with slightly baffled interest, an expression he seemed to be wearing most of the time.
Erin gave him a brief smile, but didn’t bother to explain anything – if he had gone this long without learning about mistletoe, she figured he would survive a few more days, making sure the mistletoe was properly fixed in place before she walked to the stairs and called out. “Holtz! Can you come down here a second? I need your help with something!”
“Be there in a minute, hot stuff!” Holtzmann called back down, and Erin smiled to herself, then cleared her throat; keeping her eye on the staircase, she walked backwards until she stood in the doorframe, Holtzmann coming down a few moments later and walking over to her, smiling at her as she asked what she needed help with.
“Oh I just wanted to…”, Erin started, glancing up as she spoke – and falling silent, because the mistletoe was gone.
Holtzmann was looking at her questioningly and a bit confused, confusion only growing when Erin frantically looked around – before she spotted the missing item, just in time to keep Kevin from taking a bite from it.
“Kevin!” she yelped, rushing to stop him, Holtzmann looking more and more confused, “don’t eat that!”
“Aw, I thought you put that up there for me”, Kevin said dejectedly, “you were smiling at me after you’d hung it up so I thought it’s mine!”
“Um, Erin?” Holtzmann inquired, apparently having no idea what Erin had been trying to do; she turned and hid the mistletoe behind her back, smiling a very fake smile at the engineer in response.
“Nevermind Holtz”, she then said, grip on the mistletoe tightening when she felt Kevin tug on it, “sorry for interrupting your work.”
“Um, okay”, Holtzmann gave back, not questioning her though; she smiled at the redhead instead, still looking confused though, “I’ll go back to work then…?”
“Have fun!” Erin brightly replied, earning another questioning look; her fake smile widened, and after a moment, Holtzmann turned and hurried back upstairs, Erin letting out a heavy sigh the moment she was out of sight and bringing the mistletoe out of hiding, looking at it unhappily for a moment before she figured that one misfire was no reason to give up her entire plan, telling herself that all she had to do was find a spot where Kevin wouldn’t get the idea to eat the mistletoe to make this work.