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Lucy had never seen such a rarity; Lockwood was asleep. Body slouched, head thrown back in his brown-leathered chair, Lockwood looked at peace for once in his life. Lucy felt the familiar warmth in her chest that often came along with looking at Lockwood these days. As much as she tried to ignore it, it was always there. Especially now, seeing him take such a well deserving nap. She would never tell that to his face, of course. He already has too much of an ego for her liking (that was a lie that she was not ready to admit to herself).
But, it was true. Everyone could see how exhausted Lockwood was. The dark circles around his eyes were more like tattoos at this point. And Lucy hated it. He was getting a lot better at being more open with her and George, but there were still secrets he kept close to his heart for whatever reason. It tore Lucy’s own heart to shreds if she thought about it too much.
Lucy shook her head to snap herself out of it and instead, moved to grab a blanket from the corner of the room. She stepped ever so gracefully. One wrong step and the creak of the floorboard beneath her would be Lockwood’s alarm clock. That was the last thing she wanted. Lockwood needed as much sleep as he could get.
Tiptoeing around the room, Lucy made it to Lockwood’s armchair and swiftly removed the book that lay open across his lap. Mentally patting herself on the back for a job well done, she then opened the folded blanket up and draped it across Lockwood’s legs. Nothing could prepare her for what happened next.
A distorted sound came from Lockwood’s lips before he flew upward; a fist forcibly connecting to Lucy’s right eye.
Lucy immediately hunched over, crying out in pain as she covered her eye.
"OH MY GOD. Lockwood ,” Lucy hissed. “I was just trying to be nice, JESUS CHRIST. What the hell was that for?"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, if I had known it was you-" Lucy cut him off, suddenly not in the mood for any sort of bullshit.
"Who the hell else would it be?! No wonder you can’t ever fucking sleep! You must be on edge all the goddamn time!" She waved her hands frantically gesturing at Lockwood’s being. Lockwood crossed his arms in response, his teeth clenching together making his jaw even more defined.
"Well I wouldn't have to be if someone hadn't started bringing haunted objects into my house and wearing them!" He yelled and if Lucy wasn’t already seething, well she was then. Her blood was boiling so hot that she almost forgot about her eye feeling like it wanted to implode. Keyword being “almost” as her eye began to throb when she stood up straight. She used that as an excuse to get away from Lockwood, heading to the kitchen to find some form of something cold; She continued to yell at him with no plans of stopping.
"Oh bloody brilliant. Go ahead and blame the victim, why don't you. I didn't ask for you to be so protective anyway!” Lucy shouted as she entered the kitchen, Lockwood trailing behind her.
“Well, I didn't ask to fall in love with you either and yet here we are!”
Lucy stopped in her tracks. Was the sucker punch to the face giving her hallucinations? It has to be. There are no other explanations for what words she just heard coming from Lockwood’s mouth. She turned around slowly to face him, Lockwood looking just as frozen as she was.
“Tea?” Lucy asked quietly, her mind feeling like the static that hits when you get the wrong channel on the telly. Lockwood sighed with relief.
“God, yes. Let’s get you some ice, too,” Lockwood either strode past her in slow motion or she was entering some sort of psychosis from getting punched (Lucy was hoping it was the latter).
Lucy followed Lockwood and moved to get the kettle going when Lockwood stepped in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Absolutely not. Sit,” he commanded as he moved her to the kitchen table and lightly pushed her down in a chair. Normally, Lucy would protest, but exhaustion was beginning to take hold of her. She tried to focus on Lockwood filling the kettle with water for it to boil so that her eyes wouldn’t fail her. He then moved to the freezer and grabbed a bag of frozen peas. Lucy raised an eyebrow, but flinched when her eye stung from the movement. Thankfully, Lockwood appeared in the chair before her with the bag of peas. He reached his hands over, but paused momentarily.
“Ok, um-can I?” Lockwood asked sheepishly, gesturing to her head. Lucy nodded slightly and Lockwood’s left hand was gently placed under her chin pushing her head back, his other was holding the bag of peas to her eye as if it were glass. Lucy flinched at the cold contact involuntarily, but relaxed once it settled the pain. She sighed with relief and saw a small smile form on Lockwood’s lips out of the corner of her good eye. Even with one eye covered by peas, she could still see the concern flooding his coca colored eyes.
She could blame it on the suckerpunch or the fact that it was probably 4 am and she was sleep deprived, but she felt herself falling into a trance. Some kind of ghost-lock even in Lockwood’s eyes. Except this hypnosis was warm. It was inviting. She wanted to dive in and drown in it.
Lockwood must’ve felt it too because before Lucy knew it, the peas were being dropped from her eye ever so slowly as he gravitated towards her even slower. She tilted her head back into place, Lockwood’s chocolate irises flickering down to Lucy’s lips before he closed the distance.
Lucy had kissed a few people here and there before. A boy back at Jacobs’. Even Norrie once. But, those kisses were nothing like this. This was soft. And slow. And gentle. Lucy could feel every little thing that Lockwood refrained from saying slipping into her. She mapped out the taste of him, honey and something she couldn’t quite place her finger on (Cinnamon? Tea? Lockwood?). Her hands roamed his neck, shoulders, back, anywhere they could get to, memorizing every inch. Lucy shifted her head in order to drown even more, but her eye had other plans. She winced as it throbbed, but continued to focus on Lockwood’s lips. Lockwood, however, noticed Lucy’s discomfort and pulled away immediately.
“Sorry,” He breathed, placing the peas back onto her eye gently. Lucy grabbed hold of his wrist, not wanting to break the contact they had.
“S’okay. You didn’t do it on purpose,” Lucy replied quietly.
“But, Luce I-”
“Shh, tell you what…After I've healed, why don’t you kiss it and make sure it’s better?” Lucy suggested barely above a whisper. Lockwood’s eyes sparkled in anticipation before he leaned closer to Lucy and placed his lips gently under her eye. Lucy didn’t ignore the butterflies in her stomach this time as he pulled away.
“Deal”.