Christmas Spirit (Ella)

[Deleted]

Backdated to December 22nd.

Christmas wasn’t perfect without a Christmas tree. The fact that Ella hadn’t put one in her room made him feel a bit bad. Of course it had been her own decision, but he couldn’t help but want to spread the Christmas spirit some. It was why the recruiter had found himself standing in front of the woman’s dormitory. A fake plastic tree folded together under one arm and a carton box filled with baubles and several other ornaments under the other.

It had made it slightly difficult to knock, but in the end he had been successful. “Santa’s little helpers told me you won’t be getting any Christmas gifts without a tree, so I figured you could use one,” Milan had mused while juggling both items under his arms. His grin wide and his head held high with some pride. Hey, he was sure she would get some presents! One of him included.

[Ella Robbinson]

Ella had never thought to put up a Christmas tree. It just wasn't a thought that crossed her mind. They were more suited to people with kids, weren't they? People who got completely wrapped in the holiday itself. In short, she just hadn't considered it to be a requirement.

But when she opened the door and saw one in the arms of a particularly perfect man, she was suddenly grateful for the fact that she'd never put one up.

Immediately as he spoke, she smiled. The pride he wore was so evident that she couldn't help the way it forced her smile to broaden. "We wouldn't want that, would we." She quickly reasoned, holding the door open and stepping aside for him to walk in. "Do you need help?"

[Deleted]

“Nope. I didn’t keep the retour tickets of my gifts, so it kind of would suck if you don’t have a three.” Stepping inside, the carton box got placed down on a nearby table and the tree ended up leaning against the couch. Despite his decision to bring it over, she had to decide where it went.

“Yeah. Wouldn’t want to mess your perfect Christmas tree up, so you’ll have to assist with the baubles and lights.” Blue eyes scanned the room. “Where do you want to put it?”

[Ella Robbinson]

The moment he stepped inside, Ella closed the door behind him. As obvious as it was to passing students that he visited a lot in the past year, she still didn't need an audience for the time she spent with Milan. She feigned a pout, jutting out her lower lip at the idea that he might mess up her aforementioned perfect Christmas tree.

There was little space in a dorm monitor's room, but there was enough to live comfortably.

"Over there." She replied lightly, gesturing to a vacant corner in her relatively vacant room. At least it would be close enough to a spot in a living room as she could provide. Immediately, the hemokinetic took steps towards the box he'd brought with him, cracking it open to get a decent glimpse at what colours he'd brought. "You went and got all this for me?"

[Deleted]

Travelling through the shadows tended to be easier, but the last thing he had wanted was to give Ella an heart attack by appearing in the middle of her room with a Christmas tree. Had she not opened up, however, the plan would have been that route. And he quite possibly would have made sure to decorate her dormitory to fit the festivities.

“Okay,” he picked up the tree and open its foot before paying attention to its many arms. Perfect size. Milan was still folding out its form when Ella’s voice reached his ears. “Yeah. Wasn’t sure what colors you would like. But hey, at least now you also have the option to decorate it into a rainbow tree if you wish.” Because, yes, mostly every color of baubles could be spotted within.

Thinking of putting gifts under it, his other reason for being here surfaced. “You don’t have plans for New Year, right?”

[Ella Robbinson]

Momentarily, Ella allowed her dark eyes to filter through the stream of colours available. Red and gold were so standard, but they were an apt choice for a reason. They just looked so... Fitting.

But then there was blue. Any shade of the colour worked wonders to remind the hemokinetic of the shadow traveller's eyes. She pressed her palms to either side of the box, taking strides to meet him as he worked. "It's perfect." She finally replied, "I really like the blue."

Before she could kneel down to start picking them out - or help him, for what it might have been worth - she froze.

"I do," She replied. After all, she was hardly about to lie to him over something so minor, "Why? Did you want to-" She stalled. Why would she even bother asking that?

[Deleted]

“Blue.” Milan repeated with an approving nod. “Perfect choice. There should also be blue strings in there, but you might want to match it with another color.” Unless she wanted every single ornament in the tree to be of that color. Her decision.

Either way, decorating slipped from is mind almost as fast as his question had been asked. His safe assumption of her having no plans didn’t seem that flawless after all.

“Oh.” The recruiter mouthed. The arms of the tree were sticking out now as he smoothed out the upper three branches. The second that followed, he spun around.

“Did I want to spend it with you?” Her sentence being finished for her, along with a meek nod in response. By now the pace of his heart had picked up.

“So, um… what are your plans?” His confidence a tad bit lower now, if only because he mulled on how to solve the issue with the plans he had made. He was squatting down next, carefully taking out two blue baubles.

[Ella Robbinson]

Pursing her lips, Ella quickly reasoned that too much of one thing was probably bad. Without much necessary thought, she amended her choice. "Gold, too then." Just a fraction.

But the lighter moment for decorating had passed. At least, the topic did. The little sound that dropped from his mouth worked to spike her own worry. His heart as he tried to finish her sentence - and did so practically perfectly - only added to the fact. Should she have brought it up sooner? Made it known? Was New Years really so important to everyone else but her?

"I was invited to go to New York." She moved on, reeling back up as he shifted to keep working, "I've never been. I'll be gone for a week."

[Deleted]

Milan was not as ‘excited’ about New Years as he was when it came to Christmas. At least not during the last couple of years. Being in a relationship did change that though, as well as the plans he had settled on a little over a week ago.

“A week?” At that point New York slipped one ear in and the other out again. The thought of being alone for a week during Christmas break… Even he, with the job he had, hadn’t been that long gone.

“Who invited you?” Rising to stand up, the recruiter had replaced the two baubles with a string of lights. “We have to put this on first, or we might end up breaking some of the baubles…” His voice a tad bit distant as blue optics drifted from the item to find her darker ones. He tried to stay casual, but in reality his heart beat had reached his ears by now.

[Ella Robbinson]

Immediately, Ella wondered if there was something bad about being gone for a week. Since she'd started working at Hammel, she'd never taken time off. Truth be told, it was completely warranted, but the context might have been something that could burn. At the time where she stood in this exact room with James and he offered what he had, she hadn't really thought of anything else.

Now, had she the capacity to blush, she most definitely would have been. Because it felt a little stressful.

"Right, yeah." She replied, momentarily avoiding the question asked of her. She moved to stand at the other side of the tree, that way he could hand it to her and they could wrap the lights around to the best of their ability.

She took a slow breath in, keeping everything in check. "James invited me. James Lawrence."

[Deleted]

Nothing bad about being gone for a week. It just caught him completely off guard. Just not as much as hearing James’ name did. Having been about to hand part of the lights string to Ella, his grip tensed around the decoration. The fact that one of the lights was inconveniently being squeezed into his skin hardly got noticed. The pain this caused… It could not compare to the way his heart squeezed together.

Ella could probably sense just how tense his fists were; knuckles turning white. “Why… why did he ask you?” All good and so on and so forth, but Milan did not like that guy. At all. And he definitely did not trust the reasons for such proposition.

His voice softened a tad bit after that, if only because fear and a torn feeling shone through. “And… why would you want to spend it with him?” Out of all freaking people.

[Ella Robbinson]

Reaching for the lights, Ella waited with her hand out. It took a second or so longer for her to make contact with them; she herself reached out and curled her fingers around the string in order to remind him where he was. Or where they were. Or what they were doing.

"Because he thinks it would be good for me." Ella replied, honestly. It was clear enough how this prior decision was affecting him.

Why she hadn't thought this through probably didn't make much sense. Really, it wasn't a consideration at all. It was a spur of the moment, she was sure. But the second question deserved a rightful answer; "Because I think he's right."

[Deleted]

Despite her attempt, Milan didn’t let go of the lights. Maybe because the pain that one light digging against his skin caused kept reminding him that this wasn’t a dream, and that his girlfriend really had just told him she was going away for a week. To New York. With another guy.

“It would be good for you…” The recruiter mumbled with blue eyes aimlessly staring at the Christmas tree while hands let go of the string of lights altogether.

“But with him, Ella… With James Lawrence. Out of all people.” His pulse had never been as fast and irregular as it was now.

“I could have taken you…”

[Ella Robbinson]

Waiting for him to let go of the lights seemed to take forever. Glancing over his features told Ella that he was lost in transit completely. Like the news had really struck him so intently. The implications of what she'd offered might have seemed strange, she knew. If not strange then certainly worrying. At a baseline, she registered that that made sense.

She fought the urge to argue that he never offered. But that was too harsh - she never gave him the chance.

"I don't understand." Ella reasoned instead. Or rather, she hoped to find the reasoning, "You of all people know we aren't who we were in high school. You know people change. If you can change and I can change, why can't he?"

[Deleted]

Really? Was she defending James now? It drew a deep sigh out of the man and he rubbed at his face to at least bring him somewhat back to reality. If it made her feel any better, Milan didn’t understand either. Like, at all.

“I didn’t say he can’t change,” the recruiter shook his head and stepped over the box of baubles. “I am saying that I don’t trust him.” While blind to certain hints from women, he was not when it came to the way James had looked at her during the Holiday Bash. So even while the invitation might have been ‘innocent’, he did not believe going away for a week would keep it like that.

“You’ve only started talking to him for a month now…”