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Layla loved Christmas.
There was something truly magical about the way that Heaven celebrated the holiday. On December first, all the angels woke up to a blanket of thick, powdery snow coating the ground outside their homes. Gigantic Christmas trees were erected all along the Promenade, beautifully adorned with twinkling lights and baubles of all different shapes, sizes and colours. Carollers weaved between crowds of people cradling steaming hot chocolates, singing traditional songs in perfect harmony with one another. It was a time of year that everybody looked forward to.
The Exorcists weren’t exempt from the festivities, either. In fact, nobody celebrated Christmas harder than Adam—which, in turn, meant that the rest of the Heavenly Army looked forward to the holiday, too. The usual bickering and catfights between the sisters-in-arms were halted, replaced instead by gift-giving and random acts of kindness. It also gave them a chance to accessorise their normally dull uniforms with funky Christmas-themed jewellery and headbands.
On this particular day, Layla had tied her long hair into a high ponytail with a string of gold tinsel. Simple, but effective—and practical too, considering that despite the holiday buzz, they still had to train. After all, the Exterminations didn’t stop for anyone or anything. Not even Christmas. Her close friends had gone to a similar amount of effort, too. Vaggie had fixed a little red bow to the back of her hair. Bambi wore a headband with reindeer antlers attached. Peaches had applied eyeshadow in brilliant shades of red, green and gold, whereas Candy and Coco sported matching candy cane earrings.
In Layla’s humble opinion, they all looked damn adorable.
“What’s new, ladies?” she asked as she slid into the last unoccupied seat at their usual lunch table. “Everyone’s looking cute today, by the way.”
“How could we not get into the Christmas spirit?” Peaches clapped her hands together and grinned. “I saw the snow this morning and couldn’t help myself. Seems like everybody else felt the same, too.”
“Well, not everyone.” Bambi inclined her head to a lone Exorcist sitting a few tables away. Unlike the others, Lute had not gotten into the holiday spirit—unless faded red blood stains counted as festive. As much as she wanted to give Lute the benefit of the doubt, Layla didn’t think so, considering Lute wore her soiled uniform year-round.
Vaggie sighed and speared a piece of broccoli. “Guys, you know she doesn’t love Christmas like we do.”
“That’s because she doesn’t have anybody to spend it with,” Bambi said in a manner-of-fact voice. Layla frowned. Ever the straight-shooter, Bambi had a tendency to blurt out her unfiltered thoughts—even if sometimes they were best left unsaid. “Hard to like a holiday constructed around love and togetherness when you don’t have anybody who, you know, loves you.”
“Wow, way harsh, Bambi.”
Case in point.
Layla frowned and shifted in her seat to study Lute. Sure, at times their lieutenant could be a little…abrasive, and her tolerance for others was rather low. Still, it didn’t mean she deserved to be alone during such a special time of the year.
Nobody did. Especially if Layla had something to say about it.
“Someone didn’t get the memo that it’s December first.”
Lute looked up from her unflavoured protein shake and raised an eyebrow at Adam’s very… loud yellow and purple Christmas sweater. “And someone looks like an elf vomited all over them.”
“Okay, first of all—fuck you, bitch.” Adam flopped into his seat and pulled his helmet off, letting it fall carelessly onto the floor. Lute chewed her lip as she watched him run a hand through his hair. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that no matter how hard he tried, there was no way he was getting rid of his helmet-hair.
Besides, she kind of liked watching him do it. Lute would never admit it out loud—hell, she could barely admit it to herself—but she always found it a little sexy when he played with his hair. Luckily for her it was something that Adam tended to do quite often, especially when it was just the two of them alone in their shared office. Right now though, she didn’t have the luxury of privacy and she quickly averted her gaze to a table full of gossiping Exorcists.
“Second,” Adam continued as he reached into his bag, “here, I made you something, ‘tits. Not you specifically, or anything weird like that,” he corrected himself, and Lute was surprised to see a faint golden tinge creep up his cheeks, which she found strange. Adam never got embarrassed about…well, anything. “But I was whipping up a batch of cookies and thought you could use some, seeing as how come Christmas time, the stick that’s permanently lodged up your ass suddenly travels much higher than usual.”
He held out a zip-lock bag and Lute tentatively took it. She peered through the plastic, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. The bag was filled with assorted cookies, beautifully decorated with white icing. If she wasn’t mistaken, they were—
“They’re gingerbread,” Adam quipped, leaning his forearms onto the table. “I’ve had this bomb-ass recipe for fucking years, but never really had—uh, wanted to share them with anyone. Check it out.” He pointed at the bag, and Lute let out a barely audible gasp once she realised exactly what he was trying to show her.
It was a cookie in the shape of her Exorcist helmet, horns and all. He’d piped icing to fill in her features, which she had to admit, was far better a job than she’d thought him capable of. Her favourite thing about it, though, was the fact that he’d replaced the cross inside the right eye of her mask with an intricate snowflake.
“I didn’t know you could do this,” she uttered, glancing up at him. “Adam, these look too good to eat.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said smugly. Lute couldn’t help but snort as she set the bag down on the table. A compliment was never wasted on Adam. Perhaps later tonight, while she unwound—not that she was particularly good at doing that—she’d indulge in one.
A loud, high-pitched giggle erupted from the table she’d glanced at earlier. Lute whipped her head around to glare at the offending Exorcist—fucking Candy, the dumb bitch. Really, she should have known. Any time that Lute and Adam were within five feet of each other, she started laughing like a damn banshee. Unluckily for Lute, Candy might have been stupid and obnoxious, but she was oddly perceptive.
Unfortunately, she’d clocked that Lute might have had a little crush on their Commander, and hadn’t let the subject go ever since she figured it out over five years ago.
“Are you fucking right, Candy?” Lute snarled, her brows drawing closer in a frown. Her wings flared behind her menacingly, almost knocking out a passing Exorcist. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“No,” Candy said, blinking her lage, bulbous eyes innocently at Lute. “Just laughing at a funny joke, Lieutenant.”
“Funny joke, my ass,” Lute grumbled, shifting in her seat so that she faced Adam once more. “Sorry, sir.”
“Wow. Is it shark week or something?”
She shot him a glare and picked up her protein shake, taking a long swig while deliberating whether to throw it at him or not. Ultimately, drawing more attention to herself was not part of her plan, so she decided to set it down on the table instead. She could berate him later, perhaps.
“Don’t make me lose my shit at you too, sir.”
Layla watched Lute follow Adam towards the entrance to the common area. It wasn’t too long after Candy’s little outburst that the two of them had vacated their table. Considering the Exorcists had the rest of the afternoon off, they likely had a meeting with Sera, or more paperwork to complete, or something.
Though, now that she thought about it, there really was always an awful lot of paperwork that seemed to be requiring completion…
“Lute is down bad for Adam,” Peaches remarked, scraping the bottom of her yoghurt tub with her spoon. “I know you’ve been saying it for years Candy, but I’ve only just picked up on it recently.”
“Someone needs to let her know he’s the biggest player in Heaven though, and that she doesn’t stand a chance. If she doesn’t get over him soon, she’s going to get her heart broken.” Vaggie shuddered. “That’s not exactly a pleasant thought.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Layla murmured, propping her chin on her hand. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Adam and Lute stop before the door…
And then, the unthinkable happened.
Adam opened the door…and held it there, gesturing for Lute to walk through first. Layla sat up a little straighter in her seat and turned her head so that she could watch the exchange take place head-on. What was even weirder about it was the way that Adam smiled at Lute. His mask lit up like the star on top of a Christmas tree when he glanced down at her. As she walked through the door he held open, he flattened his hand against the small of her back and followed. The door slammed shut behind them as their silhouettes disappeared down the hall.
It was single-handedly the most attentive, caring thing Layla had ever seen him do, and it warmed her hopeless romantic heart more than she knew possible.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“It’s not just her, guys,” Layla breathed. “It’s him.”
“It’s him, what?!”
“Did you ladies not just see that?” She glanced around the table and was greeted by five wide, blinking eyes. “Coco, quick—when was the last time Adam held a door open for you?”
“Uh…never?”
“Right!” Layla slapped the table, sending water bottles flying. One narrowly missed poor Vaggie’s nose. She scowled and set it upright again, keeping her hand firmly wrapped around it. “Plus, they’re always hanging out…at work, outside of business hours—hell, every Extermination they might as well be practically glued together! We just need a way to force them into acknowledging their feelings for each other.”
“We could…lock them in a room together?” Peaches offered. “Say we’re not letting them out until they talk about it.”
“No,” Vaggie mused, tapping the side of the water bottle with her fingernails, “you can’t force Lute into anything. She’ll defy you out of spite.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess she gives the orders around here, doesn’t she?”
“We almost have to trick them,” Bambi said slowly. “Set them up somehow, but make it seem completely organic.”
“But how?”
Layla huffed a sigh and propped her chin in her hands. That was the million dollar question. How does one force two of the most stubborn angels in Heaven to confess their feelings for one another? It would be a Christmas miracle if they could pull it off.
Christmas…Layla sat up a little straighter in her seat as the thought of the holiday planted little seedlings of an idea in her brain. Of course…
“I’ve got it!” she blurted out, rising to her feet. “Listen up, ladies. We’ve got plans to make!”
Lute couldn’t believe that she’d been dragged to a stupid fucking Christmas Eve party.
Worse, it wasn’t even one of the painfully dull official events that Adam often invited her to as his pretend date so he didn’t have to socialise with the other Archangels and Seraphim. Contrary to popular opinion, he much preferred to sit in a corner with Lute and get shitfaced with her while they mocked Heavenly high society—or so he frequently told her after one too many wines.
No, tonight’s shindig has been planned and executed by Layla and her group of friends. Adam had been the one to tell her about it. Much like the parties he dragged her to, he insisted she attend with him. After about eight hours of non-stop nagging, Lute finally relented—if only to shut Adam up, lest he give her a worse migraine than she already had. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little giddy at the fact that he was so hell-bent on her being there with him.
As Lute pushed open the door to the pub that the party was being held at, even she couldn’t contain the gasp that escaped her lips at the gorgeous sight. As unfussed as she was about the whole Christmas thing, she begrudgingly had to give it to Layla and her crew—those girls knew how to decorate.
The room itself was dimly lit; the ambience created by numerous strands of warm, yellow fairy lights woven around pillars, threaded around the rafters and strung underneath the bar counter. Lush pine garlands lined the frosted windows; their fresh scent lingering in the air amongst the animated laughter and chatter coming from the other Exorcists. A giant Christmas tree stood tall and proud in one corner of the room with hundreds of glittering, silver baubles fixed to the branches. As Lute moved closer to add the gift she was carrying to the monstrous pile that spilled all around the base of the tree, she realised each of the baubles were decorated with different names.
The Exorcist’s names.
After a few moments of searching, she spotted hers up near the top of the tree—right next to Adam’s. A fond smile tugged at her lips at the sight of their names together, and she bent over to nestle the present she’d been carrying amongst the others in the pile.
“Yooooooo, Dangertits! Nice ass!”
“Sir!” Lute shrieked, snapping back up to her full height and whirling around to glare at Adam. Oh, he was a dick sometimes. “You couldn’t see anything, could you?”
“Babe, I hate to break it to you, but I could see everything.” His maskless face broke into his signature shit-eating grin, which Lute found both infuriating and intoxicating at the same time. Infuriating because he loved to tease her mercilessly; intoxicating because—as much as she tried to deny it—he really was rather good-looking without his mask. When he smiled, it was even more apparent than usual. “Bold move, wearing a thong under such a short skirt. It’s just too bad you had to be such a tease and wear stockings so I couldn’t get a proper look.”
“Great,” Lute mumbled, feeling her cheeks grow warm. “Merry-fucking-Christmas to me, I guess.”
“More like Merry-fucking-Christmas to me!” Adam dropped the gift he’d been carrying onto the top layer of the ever-growing mountain of presents and flung an arm around her shoulder. Lute did nothing to move it—in fact, it felt rather nice being tucked into his side. “C’mon, let’s grab a drink. I’m thirsty as fuck.”
“Okay, gang—Pigeon has arrived. I repeat, Pigeon has arrived!”
“Wait…” Candy twirled a blonde curl around her finger and frowned. “Which one is Pigeon, again?”
Layla sighed and slapped her palm to her forehead. Why? Why did Candy have to make the evening more stressful for her? They’d been going over their plans since the start of the month! She was already stressed enough as it was, and if she didn’t stop fretting, she was going to develop an ulcer.
“Lute,” Vaggie said, narrowing her eyes at Candy. “Lute is Pigeon, and Adam is Eagle, remember? We’ve discussed this.”
“Oh, right!”
“Thank God we only let her do the decorating,” Bambi muttered under her breath. She turned to Layla and jerked her head towards the door. “Eagle has landed, by the way.”
Layla followed the inclination of Bambi’s head. Adam stood in the doorway of the venue, frowning in concentration as he scanned the hundred of black halos bobbing up and down in front of him. A wide smile broke out across his face after a few moments; Layla didn’t need to look twice to know that he’d found Lute amongst the crowd. He ran his hand through his wild, ashen hair, took a deep breath and started weaving through the gaggle of Exorcists towards her.
Oh, it was positively romantic how enamoured he was with her! If Layla weren’t so stressed about pulling their plan off without a hitch, she would have squealed in excitement.
“It’s time,” Layla breathed, clapping her hands together. “Listen up. In five minutes, I’m going to grab the microphone and announce that it’s time for gift-giving. Peaches—what’s your job?”
“Make sure that Adam stays next to Lute at all times.”
“Perfect! And Vaggie, what are you going to do?”
“Make sure Lute doesn’t turn into the Grinch and decide to stab someone because she’d had enough.”
“Wait, when did the Grinch do that? I thought he was just, like, lonely, not violent—”
“Oh my God, Candy, shut up—”
“And I’m going to stand behind them and eavesdrop on their conversation, in case they drop any hints that we need to revert to Plan B,” Bambi interjected loudly over the top of Coco and Candy’s incessant bickering.
“Right.” Layla nodded. “Candy, Coco; remember, you two are going to start herding the other Exorcists out the doors once you see me move from the tree towards Adam and Lute.”
“Got it!” they chimed in unison, high-fiving one another. Layla exhaled in relief; while the inseparable best friends fought often, they usually forgot very quickly that they were even arguing with one another in the first place.
“Okay, girls. It’s time to perform a Christmas miracle!”
“Sir.” Lute cleared her throat. “This is taking forever. Permission to leave?”
“Permission denied.”
Scowling, she shot a glare at him out of the corner of her eye—though her expression softened when he glanced down at her and chuckled somewhat affectionately, pulling her tighter against his side. He hadn’t let go of her all night, not since he guided her away from the Christmas tree and towards the bar. Thankfully, if the others noticed, they showed no sign of caring. Probably because they were all starting to feel the effects of the free-flowing wine.
“Don’t you make angry eyes at me, bitch.”
Admittedly, it was hard to keep the angry facade up; especially when he looked…well, utterly ridiculous. One of the girls had handed him a Santa hat at the bar, which he immediately jammed onto his head with glee. To top it off, he’d worn his signature cassock, but had added a festive element to his outfit by layering it with a knitted sweater that looked exactly the fucking same as the top half of his usual garb. Lute didn’t see the point in it at all, but decided against starting an argument with Adam about it.
She found his enthusiasm kind of adorable, anyway.
Her eyes flickered back to Layla, who was standing, microphone in-hand, on top of a barstool near the giant Christmas tree—why she couldn’t just hover in the air using her wings, like a normal angel would, Lute didn’t know. She was probably just doing it for the theatrics.
“Not long to go now, sisters, there’s only a small handful of presents left!” Layla picked up a neatly-wrapped box and checked the tag, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. “Lieutenant, get on up here, we have a gift for you!”
Sighing, Lute begrudgingly removed herself from underneath the comfort of Adam’s arm—a cruel and unusual punishment, she thought—and trudged towards Layla. “Thanks,” she said, accepting the present her subordinate held out to her.
“You’re so welcome!”
There was a little too much pep in Layla’s response, even for her. Wincing slightly at the enthusiasm, Lute made her way through to stand beside Adam once again. On her other side, Vaggie coughed.
“What’d you get?” he stage-whispered, leaning over to inspect the tag. “Bet it’s a dildo or some fucked-up shit.”
“Can you fucking not?” Lute growled, elbowing his waist. As Adam doubled over dramatically, wheezing loudly, she got to work unwrapping the gift. Ripping it open wasn’t her style. Instead, she carefully lifted each piece of sticky-tape, ensuring that she didn’t tear the wrapping paper.
“Fuck, we haven’t got all night! Move it, babe!”
“No!” Lute removed the last of the paper, revealing a plain cardboard box. She opened that with care too, and was pleasantly surprised to find a new water bottle inside. It was quite sturdy, with a silver stainless steel body and a flip-up straw lid. “Hey, this is actually kinda neat.” She turned the bottle over in her hand, admiring the hefty weight of it. This thing would be basically indestructible—and when you were training with a bunch of weapon-wielding women, that was very important.
“Check the inscription,” a voice hissed from behind her. Lute turned around; Bambi stood there with her arms crossed and a devilish grin on her face. Tiny, engraved letters caught Lute’s eye towards the bottom of the bottle as she inspected it once more.
Thirsty for the First D.
Her cheeks flushed gold almost immediately, and she clutched the inscribed side of her bottle to her chest. There was no fucking way she could even look at Adam if he caught wind of what it said. Luckily, he’d struck up a conversation with Peaches next to him and was busy waving his arms animatedly in mid-air.
“What the actual fuck?” she hissed, glaring at Bambi—who had started sniggering, the back of her hand pressed against her mouth. “Why would you go and ruin a perfectly nice drink bottle?!”
“It wasn’t my idea.”
“What wasn’t your idea?” Adam interrupted, trying to pry the bottle from Lute’s hands. “Lemme see.”
“No sir.” Lute angled her body away from him, hugging the water bottle closer to her body. “I-it’s nothing. Just a silly inside joke with the girls, that’s all.”
“Inside joke, my ass. Besides, it’s not an inside joke unless I’m in on it.”
“Trust me,” Lute said, feeling the tips of her ears begin to burn. She set the bottle down on the floor behind her. “You—uh—don’t wanna know about it. Secret women’s business—moon week stuff.”
“Oh ew no, fuck that.” Adam wrinkled his nose and pulled his hands away in disgust. “Don’t tell me about that shit. I already gotta deal with you bitches being in sync once a month, I don’t wanna have to hear about it anymore than—”
“Lieutenant? Commander?” They both snapped their heads up to see who had addressed them. Layla stood before them, sans microphone and holding two wrapped presents—one of which Lute recognised as the one she’d brought for Adam. “These are the last two gifts, and they’re for you. We thought you might like to open them together.”
“Oh, sure. Thanks.” Lute took the present from Layla’s outstretched hand. It wasn’t quite as nicely wrapped as what the drink bottle had been, but that didn’t matter. Not when her eyes fell to read the tag and she broke into a smile, recognising the untidy, spiky handwriting immediately.
For Dangertits aka the baddest bitch in Heaven.
Glancing up at Adam, Lute opened her mouth, ready to chastise him for even buying her a gift in the first place. The only issue was, she couldn’t get the words out. Not when his golden eyes were twinkling brilliantly with what Lute could only describe as boyish excitement. He was practically bouncing on the spot, waiting for her reaction. For a moment, it felt like they were the only two angels in the room.
Lute blinked and looked around, frowning. They were the only two angels in the room. At some stage—perhaps when she was inspecting the tag—Layla had passed Adam his present and left the room. When did the hundreds of other Exorcists leave, though? And what about the handful of bartenders who also seemed to have disappeared?
“Where’d everybody go?”
“Apparently they’ve got some surprise organised for us or some shit.” Adam shrugged. “I dunno, I wasn’t really paying attention to what Layla was saying. One minute, she’s shoving this gift into my hands, the next she’d taken off outside with the rest of ‘em.”
“Oh. That’s kinda weird. Maybe they’re doing one of those lame dances they did a few years ago, or some—”
A soft rattling sound interrupted Lute, and her eyes flew to the source of the noise. She snorted and rolled her eyes. Of fucking course Adam was shaking his present, trying to figure out what it was.
“You can open it now if you want,” she chuckled, shaking her head. “Don’t get too excited, it’s just something small I thought you might like.”
Lute watched on in amusement as Adam ripped through the wrapping paper with the enthusiasm of an over-excited toddler; only taking mere seconds to reveal what was underneath. His eyes crinkled and the corners of his mouth curled up into a grin as he studied the box.
“Aw, fuck yeah! A basketball hoop for my office door! You know there’s shit-all chance of me getting any work done now, right?!”
“The idea is that you use it when you need a short break from your work, to reset,” Lute reprimanded, watching as he set the box on the floor next to his feet. She attempted to narrow her eyes at him, but Adam’s enthusiasm made it extremely difficult to keep a straight face. “Not as a distract—ow!”
Layla gasped as Adam pulled Lute into a bone-crushing hug; her breath fogging up the window she had her nose pressed against.
“Oh, nooooo,” she whined, pulling the sleeve of her coat over the heel of her palm and rubbing the glass frantically to wipe it clear. “Okay, phew, that’s better. Crisis averted.”
A small group of Exorcists were huddled together around an exterior window of the pub. Most of the party-goers had decided that staying out in the cold to watch their superiors confess their undying love for one another wasn’t worth getting frostbite over. Instead, they’d moved on to another venue to continue drinking merrily.
Which, honestly? Was totally fine by Layla. The less people there were watching, the lower chance they had of getting caught and the whole plan being ruined. Besides, Peaches had offered to film the whole thing, anyway. It was highly likely that the video would go viral in the Exorcist group chat once she shared it with everybody.
“What happened?!” Coco asked from behind Layla, her voice frantic. “I can’t see! Did they—”
“No, but they’re hugging,” Vaggie butted in. “I couldn’t make out what she got him, but whatever it was, he looked pretty happy with it.”
“She could give him a sack of coal and he’d be happy with it.”
“Bet he’d like it if she played with his sack—”
“Ugh, Bambi, that’s fucking disgusting.” Vaggie wrinkled her nose and shuddered. “Excuse me while I go and be sick behind that bush over there.”
“Oh, dammit,” Peaches sighed. “They’ve stopped hugging now.”
Layla groaned. This was going to take forever. At this rate, they’d still be waiting outside the pub by the time the next Extermination rolled around. She pulled her coat tighter around her body and moved forward, her forehead leaning against the cold window.
“Just…hurry up,” she pleaded, her breath fogging up the window again. “Hurry up you, stupid, lovesick idiots.”
Adam was generally a handsy kind of guy. He constantly ruffled Lute’s hair, grabbed her hand while she was talking to interrupt her and frequently used her shoulder as his own portable armrest. All of those things irked Lute from time-to-time—especially when she was elbow-deep in paperwork—but occasionally he’d indulge her in genuine acts of affection that had always seemed purely platonic. A casual arm around her shoulder or a playful bop to the tip of her nose, perhaps.
This, however, took Lute completely by surprise. Sure, it wasn’t the first time that they’d hugged, that was no big deal. What was significant though, was the way he pulled her against his chest. One hand flattened just below her wings holding her flush to his body. The other smoothed over the shorter strands of hair at the back of Lute’s head, softly stroking them over and over.
He’d never done that before. Lute secretly wished he’d do it again.
And again.
And again.
After some time, Adam pulled away; much to Lute’s disappointment. He inclined his head expectantly towards the present she still held in her hand. “You gonna open that?”
Attempting to steady her racing heart with a deep inhale, shaky hands carefully separated the sticky tape from the bright, festive wrapping. It wasn’t a large gift—in fact, it was a small, thin square shape. Lute had no idea what it could possibly be, but the anticipation certainly had her on edge.
As the paper fell to the floor, her hand flew to her mouth. She couldn’t believe what she was holding. It was cheesy. It was old school. It was…
“A mixtape,” she breathed, flipping the CD case over and reading the tracklist on the back. “Adam—it’s the pump-up playlist that we play on repeat in the lead up to the Extermination!”
“Yeahhh, turns out there’s a bit of a twist to that, babe.” Adam rocked back and forth on his heels. “I recorded them all, so I’m the one performing them. Took me fucking forever to do it, but…” he trailed off, his brows drawing together in a frown. Lute watched the bulge at the front of his throat strain against his skin as he swallowed. His nerves were incredibly endearing to her, for some reason.
“I love it.” Lute turned the case over again, smiling at the front cover that Adam had chosen. It was simple; a photo of the two of them after an Extermination some years ago. She’d just been promoted to her position as lieutenant; and she’d broken the Exorcist record for most Sinners slaughtered in a single outing. Adam had perched her atop one of his shoulders, and they both held their weapons in the air in a victory pose. They were both positively beaming; their LED masks aglow with joy.
It was one of the happiest moments of Lute’s life.
“Really?”
She nodded, a tight lump forming in her throat. The last thing she’d been expecting was such a thoughtful gift. Usually, Adam opted to give her upgraded weapons, or something equally as practical. Not that Lute complained about those—after all, she was a practical kind of angel—but to receive something so personal and thoughtful…
Well, she’d never really been given anything like that before. Lute blinked rapidly, trying to clear away the tears that had pooled in her eyes. Not that she was crying, of course. She was probably just allergic to the Christmass tree, or something.
“I do, yeah,” she said softly, peering up at him through damp lashes. “Thank you.”
“Don’t get all sappy on me now, bitch. I’m not drunk enough to deal with tears and shit.”
“Better make sure you don’t cry, then,” Lute teased. “Last thing I need is your head in my lap.”
“You’d love my head in your lap.”
“Grow up, Adam.”
He threw his head back and laughed; which tended to be his usual reaction whenever Lute attempted to scold or chastise him, much to her annoyance. She felt her face warm at his innuendo—or was it at the brief mental image that flashed before her eyes? It didn’t matter. Whatever the reason for the blush creeping up her cheeks, she turned her head away from Adam and focused on the warm, ambient glow of some fairy lights looped around a pillar. They really did make the room seem kind of cosy.
At some point while Lute had been busy staring at the fairy lights, Adam had stopped laughing. She’d been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed; nor did she realise when he took the CD from her and set it on the floor. She only registered that he’d gone silent when he tugged on her now-free hand with his own.
“Lute?”
“Hmm?” She glanced at his face, and her eyes widened when she realised that his cheeks and bridge of his nose were now faintly tinged with gold. Whatever for, she had no idea.
“You, uh, wanna look up for a sec?”
She cast her eyes to the ceiling. Suddenly, Lute understood why Adam had started blushing. Almost instantaneously, heat enveloped her entire body as she stared at the offending green and red plant that was tied to a rafter directly above their heads.
“Mistletoe,” she groaned.
“Do you know what’s supposed to happen when two people stand under mistletoe, Lute?” Adam took a step closer to her, bringing their hands to his chest. Her mouth was dry—probably because her breaths were coming in short, shallow bursts. Lute wasn’t dumb. She knew exactly what was supposed to happen next.
“Yes.”
“It’s not like we can pussy out of this.” He moved forward yet again. The only thing that stopped their bodies from touching were their intertwined hands sandwiched between their chest. Oh God, he was so close now. Lute could make out each individual strand of facial hair; count every single one of the very faint freckles that dusted his nose. She couldn’t recall a time where she had been so acutely aware of their personal space overlapping like this.
“Nobody would know,” she argued weakly, her fingers tightening around his. How could they? It was just the two of them, all alone in the room. It would be easy enough to laugh the whole thing off and scoff about how ridiculous Christmas traditions were.
“Nah, they won’t,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers lingered on her jaw for a moment before tracing their way to her chin. “But I’ll know, and then I’ll hate myself for-fucking-ever for not shooting my shot when I had the chance.”
“Oh,” was all Lute could manage as Adam dipped his head and closed the distance between them. His mouth hovered an inch from hers, just enough for him to whisper,
“Merry Christmas, Lute.”
If Lute was being completely honest with herself, there had been a handful of times where she’d wonder how this exact moment might have played out. Sometimes they were in their office, alone, at the end of a particularly hard-working day. In other scenarios, they were in the pits of Hell together; fuelled by adrenaline and a mutual love for bloodshed. Never once had something so wholesome, so—dare she say it, romantic as mistletoe cross her mind as a potential catalyst for her and Adam sharing a kiss.
Yet, as he pressed his lips to hers, Lute couldn’t think of a more perfect setting. Maybe something soft was exactly what was needed to bring them together. Something soft and whimsical—
Like a little bit of Christmas magic, perhaps.
Heart positively hammering away in her chest now, Lute threw her arms around Adam’s neck with such force that she almost knocked him off his feet.
“Someone’s been dying to make out with me,” he whispered, grinning against her lips.
“Well, that’s a…slight exaggeration.”
“So you’ve thought about it?”
Lute hummed and fiddled with the white fluff on the bottom of his Santa hat. “It might have crossed my mind once or twice.”
“Know what? Mine, too.”
Her hand dropped to the nape of his neck and pulled his head towards hers. It was nice to know that he’d harboured similar thoughts and feelings as her, but talking wasn’t important right now. They had all the time in the world for that. In this moment beneath the mistletoe, all that mattered was the thrilling sensation of his lips devouring hers while she pressed her body firmly against his.
Or at least, it would have been had it not been for the obnoxious, deafening cheers and screams that reverberated from just outside the pub. Lute and Adam’s heads snapped towards the frosted windows, where about a dozen pairs of golden eyes were staring at them. Upon being discovered, somebody yelled, “duck!”, and the eyes—now wide with shock—disappeared beneath the windowsill.
“Adam,” Lute said slowly, turning to raise a brow at him, “do you get the feeling that we might have been set up here tonight?”
“Something tells me that we might have been, yeah.” A hand slid down the sleeve of her dark, navy sweater until it reached hers. He led her over to the window, and when she got closer, Lute had to suppress a noise that was somewhat of a cross between a laugh and a groan.
Despite all their teasing, she really did love all her sisters dearly—and if they were responsible for forcing her and Adam to meet under the mistletoe that evening, she would have to think of a way to repay them all. Less burpees next training session, perhaps. Though, she had half a mind to give them double the amount for their sloppiness. They may have ducked so that their bodies were out of sight, but their black halos were still visible through the window. If she was evaluating them all on their stealth right now, they’d fail miserably.
“I think,” Adam whispered, pulling Lute close once again. “We put on a show and get the fuck outta here. I got a fireplace at home. We could crack a bottle of wine, get comfortable on the shag rug in front of the fire and see where the night takes us…if you catch my drift.”
Lute looped her arms around his neck and grinned, standing on her tiptoes as her lips sought his once more. “I could think of worse ways to spend Christmas.”
“We freaking did it!” Layla sobbed hysterically, throwing her arms around Vaggie. Tears of happiness freely streamed down her cheeks—and so was her mascara, probably. She didn’t care, beauty standards be damned. “I can’t believe we pulled it off so flawlessly! I’m a matchmaking genius! I’m—”
“A fucking mess,” Vaggie laughed, patting Layla’s back as she continued to weep. “Jesus Christ, does somebody have a tissue for Water Works over here?”
“Water Works? That’s a space on a Monopoly board!” Candy said brightly.
Layla ignored her and accepted the tissue from Peaches’ outstretched hand. She pulled away from Vaggie and dabbed at her eyes. “Do I look like a panda?”
“Uhhh…”
“Well…”
“Yes,” Bambi said bluntly. “Vaggie’s right; you are a hot mess.”
Layla sniffled and turned back towards the window, watching as Adam and Lute clung to each other like their immortal lives depended on it. If she were a mess, it didn’t really matter. What was important though was that she’d succeeded in her mission of bringing her two superiors together. She’d call it a Christmas miracle, but frankly, none of what had transpired that evening came down to luck.
It was all due to meticulous planning, expert coordination and above all?
A keen eye for spotting true love.