Chapter Text
The mistletoe looked a bit worse for wear after Kevin had nearly eaten it and then had pulled on it when Erin had been hiding it behind her back, but the physicist figured it still looked good enough to be used; now, she just needed to find a good spot for it, and be a bit patient, because Holtzmann would think she’d lost her mind if she called her down again two minutes after telling her she didn’t need any help after all.
Looking around, Erin decided that the kitchen would be a good place – Holtzmann would go there sooner or later, after all, to get Pringles or a drink or maybe some actual food, so all she had to do was put the mistletoe up and then wait for the engineer to make an appearance.
She absent-mindedly patting Holtzmann’s cat as she walked into the kitchen, a stunningly fat black and white tomcat named Nino who’s favourite place was on top of to the radiator in the kitchen, and earned a content purr in response; she smiled at the cat, then moved to the doorframe, making sure to fix the mistletoe above it in a way that the little damage had done to it was hidden.
She gave the cat another smile, then got herself a drink from the fridge before she went back to her desk; and as she worked, she made sure to not get lost in the numbers and equations too much, because she didn’t want to miss Holtzmann coming downstairs and go into the kitchen.
As it turned out, her focus couldn’t have been too high to miss the engineer coming down, because when she did, Holtzmann didn’t take the stairs, but came sliding down the fireman’s pole, and landed with a heavy thump; she beamed at Erin as she made her way to the kitchen, the physicist smiling back at her, and waiting until she heard the fridge open before she got up to follow the engineer.
“Niiiinoooo”, she heard Holtzmann say as she approached, “you’re always down here on this radiator. I’m starting to think you love it more than me!”
“I’m sure he doesn’t”, Erin commented, entering the kitchen and smiling at the blonde, who grinned back at her, both hands buried in Nino’s fur, the cat looking as if he enjoyed the attention quite a bit and purring loudly, “just look how he purrs at you. That big ball of fur loves you.”
She gave Holtzmann another smile, then opened the fridge and helped herself to a can of coke; she turned, and looked over to the doorframe, just to make sure… and her fingers tightened around the can, because yet again, the mistletoe was gone.
For a moment, she wanted to yell for Kevin, just to make sure he hadn’t taken it and was trying to eat it again; he hadn’t gone into the kitchen though, she then realized, she would have seen him, so it had to be somewhere else.
Trying to hide her alarm, Erin glanced around, trying to figure out where the mistletoe had gone; she had a moment to wonder if perhaps, a ghost had escaped from the containment unit and had taken it, just to spite her – before she spotted a few sad green shreds on the ground, her eyes briefly widening, then narrowing as she turned to look at Nino.
The cat looked back at her in perfect innocence, but now that Erin took a closer look, she could see bits of green hanging from his claws, and held back a groan as she realized what had happened.
As if the poor mistletoe hadn’t suffered enough at Kevin’s hands, it now had been completely shredded by Nino, and she’d have to go out and buy a new one, but she still was determined to make this work, eager to get her kiss, even if it meant she had to venture out into the cold winter day to get what she needed.