Chapter Text
"I'll be home with my love
This Christmas
I promise, I promise, I'll be home"
- I'll Be Home by Meghan Trainor
December 20th
Their bedroom window has a wintery frost which is yet another sad reminder of the upcoming holiday. Eve clutches her ceramic mug, piping hot with fresh coffee as she gazes out of the window. She looks down on the sidewalk below and spots a few young couples that wear matching hats and happily stroll down the snowy pavement. A few carolers fill the background with traditional songs and the jingle of bells.
The blur of the winter frost makes the streetlights’ yellow hue seem like faraway orbs, and Eve herself feels like she isn’t quite present either. She takes a sip of her coffee, inhaling the hot, fragrant steam of her beverage. Eve exhales and fogs up the glass; she reaches up and lazily draws a line on the window, waiting.
Eve sighs once more, walks over to the bed, and sets down the almost-empty cup on the cluttered nightstand. She purses her lips and runs her hand through her curly hair as she reminisces on the pictures of her and Villanelle on the side table. Taking the fleece blanket on the bed, Eve folds it over and sits down on the now vacant spot. She tucks her socked feet into the covers and hugs her knees to her chest, wiggling her toes in the comfortable warmth of the blankets. Her laptop sits beside her idly, screen dimmed with the Skype app open.
The Skype jingle begins. A call is waiting.
Eve brings her hands and fluffs up her hair, ready to answer. She smooths out her flannel shirt as if she was about to go on a business call then moves her mouse to hover over the accept button.
“Eve! God, I can’t stop thinking about you.” Villanelle’s smile warms Eve’s heart more than the hot black coffee ever could. Eve can see that Villanelle’s hair is loose and slightly puffy which usually means that she is at the end of her workday. It makes sense as it is already 5 pm in Villanelle’s time while it is still morning in London. Eyebags also sit tiredly under her beautiful green-hazel eyes; the trip is getting to her.
“Hi, darling. How is Singapore?” Eve tries to muster up her best smile but even through video call, Villanelle probably knows that Eve’s heart is in despair with them not being together.
“Hot and humid. It isn’t very nice to hair”, she points dramatically to her tied back blonde hair, “as you can see.”
Eve laughs softly, and Villanelle joins in as she flattens her flyaways and adjusts her camera. Behind Villanelle, Eve can see a shelf full of decorative plants and pictures; it looks like Villanelle is still at the office. She swears she does not know a harder working human than her girlfriend.
“Your hair looks amazing as always, Vee. I just-- I can’t stop pacing the rooms and missing you beside me. Are you one hundred percent sure you can’t make it back here?”
Eve looks at the screen with pleading eyes, searching for an answer. Villanelle had been stuck in Singapore for the past few days, and her stay was extending because her client wanted a meeting on Christmas Eve. In these cases, Eve is glad to be stationed in London as a criminal psychology consultant for the government but also devastatingly sad since Villanelle just had to be one of the best financial analysts in the world and traveled often and worked on weekends.
“Eve.” Villanelle lowers her voice just barely above a whisper, “it hurts me to not celebrate the snow and the presents with you, I mean you know I love gifts.”
Eve nods enthusiastically and takes her finger to lightly graze Villanelle’s jaw through the screen, “yeah, you do.”
“And that is why I promised to make it up to you and more. If we need to have Christmas until February, so be it. As much as I despise corporate because they are keeping me from my love, this deal is super important because it buys us enough time. Freedom to do whatever we want.”
“Even if I want to sit on the couch for a week to watch the Great British Bake Off?” Eve wiggles her eyebrows because she knows Villanelle would much rather watch a movie or even go skydiving than slothing around on the couch for days.
Villanelle sighs, of course out of love, and pretends to stroke a beard, “hmm. I suppose GBBO is freedom for some people. Sure, Eve. I will lay on that lumpy couch of yours to watch idiots drop cakes.”
Eve pumps her fist in the air excitedly and then remembers the comment about the couch, “Wait. Hey! My couch is perfectly fine. Better than any of your luxury leather seats that are probably as hard as a rock.”
“Now, now, Eve. We agreed to compromise with the decorations and while the aesthetic is totally off, I appreciate that couch. We had some…” Villanelle licks her lip and winks through the screen. Eve can’t help but giggle and bite her own lip, ruminating on all of their steamy nights and mornings too. As much as Eve misses those times, it is still the little conversations and moments that she so dearly misses when Villanelle is gone. Eve sighs.
“If you told me two years ago, I would be missing someone this much who is across the world, I’d tell you you’re crazy,” Eve declares this as if it is the first time she has said it. Except, of course, it wasn’t because every day she gets to wake up and see pictures and evidence of Villanelle in her life, it seems impossible she found the love of her life. But here they are.
“Oh my god, Eve. You miss me?” Villanelle grins amusedly on the other side of the screen, and Eve rolls her eyes in retort. She misses even the annoying parts of the love of her life.
“It feels just like yesterday that you almost accidentally pushed me off that ski lift.”
Eve reddens at the mention of the ski lift and throws her hands up in the air, “are we still on that? Really?!”
“I will never get over it,” Villanelle puts her most serious face on but then throws her head back in a hearty laugh, and her cackle is so contagious that Eve just has to join in. Their first time meeting each other really does feel so close yet so far. The chilly bite of that day matches the cold sting of the London air, except without the anticipation and giddiness of meeting Villanelle and rather is filled with the longing of missing Villanelle.
“I have to go back to my hotel now and get some dinner. I will call you again tomorrow okay?” A sullen, exhausted look returning to Villanelle’s face. Eve understands and frowns at the end of their short time together. She gazes out the window from the view of her bed. If only they could be like those couples out there, enjoying the holidays together. They will when Villanelle comes back, just not now.
“Okay. I love you so much, Vee”
“Love you so much too. Stay warm!”
Eve nods dejectedly and hangs up the call. She closes her laptop and crawls under the covers. It is Sunday which means Eve technically could sleep in. While it is already nearing 11 am, Eve is already pulling the fleece up to her chin and fixes her gaze on the framed picture on her side table of her and Villanelle at a ski lodge.