Chapter Text
They sat in silence in the car, Erin curled up in the seat beside Holtz.
“Come on Gilbert, You’ve got to at least give me some instructions on where you live. Unless you want me to just drive around the city aimlessly and stopping at apartment blocks hoping it’s where you live. Cause I could play that game if that’s what you want.” Erin shifts so she’s more awake, and gives Holtz directions to her apartment. They arrive quickly, mostly due to Holtz going over the speed limit half the time. Erin was fully awake now, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. She was surprised she had managed to fall asleep earlier, she figured it must of had something to do with the other body she had wrapped around her. Her brain recognising the other person’s body heat and relaxing, or maybe she had just got so exhausted that she had to sleep. Either way, it didn’t really matter now.
~~~
Holtz followed her up to her apartment, she didn’t protest, just gave a small questioning surprised look.
“Just making sure you don’t die on the stairs up. I would hate to have to tell Abby that I failed my duties.” Erin chuckled in response.
Erin’s apartment was exactly like Holtz had expected it to be, clean, methodical, everything had its place. There was a pile of notebooks on a table in the corner, presumable filled with notes and theories thought up by the physicist.
“It’s not much,” Erin said, in response to seeing Holtzmann looking around. “I don’t really decorate much.”
“Nah, It’s, um, very you.” Holtz very quickly makes herself at home, slumping herself on the single sofa Erin has in the living room. Erin almost laughs at how out of place Holtz looks, her bright colourful messy self, contrasting with the plain coloured and organised space. And yet, there was a small feeling in the bottom of Erin’s gut that said that Holtz just belonged there.
“So, what do you wanna do now hot stuff?”
“It’s the middle of the night Holtz. We’ve got to be back again in the morning.”
“And…?” Holtz raises her eyebrows and tilts her head slightly.
“Okay fine,” Erin sits on the edge of the sofa, next to Holtz. “But only because I know if I leave you alone you’ll get bored and find a way to build something to blow up my apartment. Not that there’s even anything here I think you could use, but I wouldn’t put it past you.” Holtz looks around for a few minutes, taking note of all the various things in the room.
“I can count at least 4 ways that I could set this apartment of fire right now.”
“What! I- you know what, I don’t want to know, just please… don’t.”
“Ooo-kaay” Holtz rolls her eyes, and then starts rambling about what she’s currently working on. Erin finds it endearing. She loves seeing someone this passionate about something, she can notice the glimmer in Holtz’s eyes whenever she talks about her ‘babies’. She only understands about 70% of what the engineer is saying, but she swears she would listen to Holtz talking forever.
~~~
About an hour has passed, and Erin lets out a massive yawn while listening to Holtz. Holtz pauses in her explanation, wondering if she should let Erin go to bed, it is very late after all.
“I’m sorry, we’ve just stayed up so long. I guess my nap from earlier hasn’t really kept me going all that well.”
“It’s cool, natural bodily functions and all that. If you want to go to bed that fine, I just have one small request.”
“What?” Erin raises her eyebrows, worried what the hell Holtz would request of her, knowing her, it could be anything.
“You let me sleep on this couch tonight.” Erin almost lets out a sigh of relief.
“Of course Holtz.”
“Thanks Gilbert.”
~~~
Sleep alludes her yet again. Erin’s pretty sure she’s been lying in this bed for hours now, it must be nearly time to get up. Her mind keeps drifting to Holtzmann though. The small scientist currently curled up in her living room sofa. Occasionally she can even her soft snores coming from that direction. She’s not sure why Holtz seems to be on her mind so much lately, but she doesn’t mind it. In fact, she gets this kind of… Happy warm feeling when she thinks of Holtz? It’s nice to have someone who cares about her, besides Abby of course. Oh, and Patty. She rolls over to check to time, and makes the executive decision that it is late enough to get up and get ready for the day.
~~~
Holtz is out like a light when Erin enters the living room and she can’t help but notice that while she’s been making her best attempts at sleep, Holtz has managed to lose some of her clothing, stripped down to just her boxers and t-shirt. Erin finds herself staring, a pinkness coming to her cheeks. She’s not sure exactly how long she had been staring for, but Holtz has started to stir.
“See something you like Gilbert?” Erin’s face has definitely turned bright red now. She coughs and splutters
“No- I just- I was,” Erin manages to take a breath. “Breakfast. Do you want some breakfast?” Holtz smiles.
“I’d love some, sugar plum.” Erin quickly turns away and heads to the kitchen so she can’t embarrass herself more in front of Holtz.
~~~
They arrive at that lab together, and Erin can feel Abby’s stare on her. She can’t really imagine how this must look, them arriving together, Holtz wearing the same clothes as she did yesterday, and she’s pretty sure the last that Patty and Abby saw of them was her curled up and asleep on Holtzmann. Oh god, it did look bad. Part of Erin was glad that Patty wasn’t here yet. She just needed to throw hherself into her work, and get on with the day.