004

I was sitting next to Harry on his couch, the both of us staring out the window as we ate our plates of sticky figgy pudding while I scootched closer, making him bring his knee up to slowly push me away with it against my leg as I munched on my pudding.
It was delicious if I do say so myself and definitely not lacking in any flavor whatsoever which I should've known since I made it with lots of love... and lots and lots of sugar.
"Wanna see which raindrop will fall faster?" I asked with a hidden smile, bringing my legs up on the couch while eating my dessert as we both stared out the water pattering down against the slightly fogged, glass window since it started raining.
"That's stupid." Harry replied with a bored expression, our eyes glued to the window as he brought the fork of pudding to his mouth, chewing slowly while I contemplated which rain drop to bet on.
"I pick that one." I continued, reaching out and pointing at a really fat rain drop that was slowly making its way down the glass.
Oh you go raindrop.
"And yours can be that one." I added, wanting to count him in and picking an equally fat drop that was besides mine so it was fair as we intensely watched them both race down the glass, Harry's raindrop running down faster than mine and reaching the bottom first.
I brought my lips inward, not saying anything and hoping Harry wasn't paying attention before I heard a throaty chuckle besides me.
I turned my head to him, seeing a dimpled smirk on his face as he glanced up from his plate of pudding to look at me.
"I win." He said, sticking his tongue out at me with a serious expression before getting up from the couch with his empty plate, walking to the kitchen and leaving me sitting there with a small smile as I took the time to look around his flat.
It was like an Ikea living room set, although there was no personalization to any of the furnitures, any small knick knacks that showed that an actual person lived here.
Harry even had these white picture frames around his place with no actual picture in it that still had the measurements of how big the frame was right in the middle.
"You done?" Harry's monotone voice emanated from behind me as he approached the couch, the plate he was holding before replaced with a black expensive looking laptop as he peered down at me.
"Oh, almost sorry." I reassured him, quickly shoveling the last of my pudding into my mouth.
"Good, the sooner you finish the food the sooner you leave." He said, making my eyes widen as I froze mid chew, a fork of dessert hovering in front of my mouth.
Harry watched me with hooded eyes as I began to slow my chewing, now with only one small chunk of food left on my fork until I was completely done.
I made sure to eat super duper slow, taking at least five minutes to swallow what was left in my mouth, shifting my eyes up to Harry who was glaring at me, realizing what I was doing before I quickly looked away with an innocent expresion.
I then brought my fork up to my mouth in slow motion, not wanting to get kicked out yet.
"Oh for fuck's sake. Cazzo. You can stay here until the rain stops then alright, just finish your damn food already." Harry snapped when I began to only nibble on my piece of pudding.
"Oh thank goodness, the last bite is the best bite." I sighed with relief, devouring the last chunk of pudding on my fork with one bite, smiling and chewing with full cheeks as Harry rolled his eyes, blowing out a breath between his lips and sitting back down besides me before opening the laptop on the coffee table in front of us.
"So, what's the real reason you came here." Harry said, keeping his attention on his computer screen as he rolled his broad shoulder, his long fingers rapidly typing over the keyboard and leaning forward in concentration.
"Well I just thought, you know, since we're both off from any assignments for the next few weeks we could try and get into the Christmas spirit-"
"Bambina." He cut me off, a crease in his brow as something on his laptop began to irritate him while he ran his fingers over his pierced lower lip in a distracted manner.
"The only thing I will be working on for the next two weeks is getting past this damn firewall," He continued, turning his head to give me a sharp look with his dark green eyes.
"Nothing else." He told me in a stern voice, going back to his laptop as I curiously leaned closer to see what he was doing.
"Oh, I could help you get passed that." I offered, realizing he was trying to hack through one of the security files of our agency network making me remember how he was working on it during the time we were protecting Katia as well.
Harry paused, sending me a look.
"I've been working on this for months, if you can get past this I'll do whatever your little heart desires." He scoffed with an unconvinced tone, not taking me seriously as my eyes widened at his words.
I quickly wiped whatever crumbs were on my lips with my arm, now getting serious because my little heart actually desires a lot.
I then took a deep breath, bringing my arms up and sliding off the couch with a fierce expression, somewhat like a slug until I was on the floor, Harry not even paying attention until I crawled over and moved between his body and the table, slowly raising my head up between his arms, my back pressed against his knees as his muscles tensed.
"S'cuse me." I said with a polite tone, the both of us facing his laptop on the table in front of us, me sitting on the floor with him on the couch behind me as I took his masculine fingers slowly off the keyboard.
I then twiddled my own fingers above the letters of the laptop for a moment, looking at the screen and processing the security locks before I began to type at a rapid pace, the clicking sound of the keyboard the only sound in the room.
Windows began to rapidly appear over the screen but that didn't phase me as I continued to type, glancing at Harry's shocked reflection on the black part of the screen of the laptop, his lips parted and green eyes slightly wide as he leaned forward with an intrigued expression until his chin was gently resting on top of my head.
"Kay doneee..." I said with one last press of a button, folding my hands in my lap as I turned and looked behind me to smile up at Harry who continued to gape at the laptop screen in front of us.
I had successfully passed through the firewall that Harry had been struggling with for months in less than ten minutes.
He was almost there though so I was still very proud of him nonetheless, although, judging from the current look on Harry's face he seemed more shocked then relieved.
"How did you... how did you do that." He asked, scrolling through the accessed network in awe as I pursed my lips, blowing a breath and making a raspberry noise while staring at the screen.
"You know I don't know..." I trailed off with a shrug before I looked over to find Harry's eyes narrowed at me, obviously not buying my act.
"Oh okay, okay don't give me that look mister. All I did was execute Uversion.exe, then activated U86.exe, U87.exe and JonDo.exe which then lead to the software trying to connect to the proxy servers and in turn opening a default web page in your default browser upon the successful connection." I explained in one breath, looking up at Harry with wide eyes hoping he got everything as he furrowed his brows at me in confusion.
"But I don't- I don't know..." I repeated again, quickly looking away with pursed lips as I busied myself with the rain outside.
"You act so ditzy and cheerful all the time I forgot you were a fucking genius." Harry said through gritted teeth, running a hand through his waves of brown hair making them stand up ever so slightly as I snapped my gaze back to him.
Oh my stars and garters Harry just said something nice to me.
Okay Malu, don't make a big deal out of it.
"December 9, 2016, Harry has just told me I was a genius, marking this the first nice thing he's ever said to me." I recorded on my phone on my voice memos with a joyful smile before Harry grabbed my wrist, pulling my hand that was holding the phone to his mouth as he met my gaze.
"December 9, 2016, Malu is still a child." He said into the speaker of my cell, releasing my wrist and raising his brow at me as I sent him a weak smile.
It was somewhat true, one of the reasons why I was one of the most popular agents in our facility was because of my abnormally high IQ.
I slowly turned to shield my phone away from Harry, looking over my shoulder to check to see if he was paying attention to me which he wasn't, seeming to be caught up in his laptop again as I lowered my mouth to my phone that was still recording.
"It was a compliment and I am not a child." I quickly whispered before stopping the recording, quickly tucking my phone back into my pocket and turning to Harry with an excited grin.
"If I only knew you were just trying to hack into our agency's secret network I would have helped you out. I passed through that firewall years ago, that's how I know where all my co-workers live." I informed in a gentle friendly tone, hoping I didn't sound like I was bragging as Harry slowly turned his head to me, giving me a weirded out look.
"Oh no, no not like that of course. It's only so I can stop by and give my partners gifts after every mission. Did you ever get the gifts I got you?" I asked, blinking in realization as he closed his laptop, leaving it on the table and standing to his feet before he went over to a closet in the room, making me follow his movements.
"You mean these." Harry said, turning to face me with a straight face as he stepped to the side and opened the closet, an avalanche of colorful muffin baskets and stuffed animals that I had sent him falling to the ground in a heap.
"You never answered so I kept sending you more of them thinking you never got them- but hey you kept them!" I celebrated, crawling back onto the couch, sitting and folding my legs together and turning to him with a smile of endearment.
Harry just gave me an unamused look, not bothering to clean up the mess as he stepped over the pile of gifts, stepping on a caramel colored plush brown teddy bear in the process as it began to sing the 'Don't Worry be Happy' song.
He bent down and picked up the singing stuffed animal with a look of distaste before glancing over in my direction to find me tilting my head side to side with the beat of the music and humming along with a smile.
Harry's hard gaze flickered to the window behind me for a brief second as if contemplating whether to jump or not.
"A promise is a promise," He suddenly said, turning his attention back to me and tossing the singing bear my way when he noticed my eyes on it making me quickly catch it before hugging it to my chest as he joined me on the sofa again.
"I'll do that Christmas thing you wanted since you helped me- but nothing else after my debt is payed." He told me with a stern voice as I eagerly nodded my head at him.
"Welcome to two weeks of joyful holiday experiences-"
"Don't push it." Harry warned, a look of regret already flashing over his attractive features as I immediatly toned it down.
"Right, okay well here's what I have planned for us." I began, grabbing my coat from the floor and taking out the thick, overstuffed journal from the pocket, showing it to Harry who gave it a questioning look.
He opened the book, glancing up to me with furrowed brows when I began to sing in a high pitched, opera voice, mimicking an angelic chorus.
He closed the book and I stopped.
Harry opened it again making me sing once more.
He watched me with a skeptical expression, quickly opening and closing the book making my singing come out choppy as I adruptly stopped and continued singing to match with the opening and closing of the journal.
I opened my mouth again only for Harry to quickly reach out and pinch my lips together between his fingers seizing my singing all together, his grasp surprisingly gentle as he leaned forward ever so slowly, our eyes never breaking contact.
"What the fuck are you doing." He said in a low tone as I attempted to smile with him holding my pursed lips.
"That journal is our holy grail to a perfect, stereotypical, Christmas." I breathed out when he let go of my lips.
"I have clipped and cut every holiday recipe, Christmas tree coupons, and lists of holiday traditions all in the span of two days. Imagine how much we could get done in the two weeks we have." I said, unable to contain my excitement, gripping hard onto the soft teddy bear in my lap as I watched Harry flip through the journal.
Despite our different personalites we had a few things in similar, like how the both of us had no friends or family and were raised to kill at a young age.
"Haven't you ever wanted to experience a regular Christmas with people you love?" I asked, trying to connect with him as he locked eyes with me.
"I have to love someone first." He said in a deattached tone, dimming my smile momentarily before I quickly regained my composure.
"You will." I reassured him with a nod, bouncing slightly on the sofa making the cushions underneath us move as he watched me.
He then turned back to the journal in his large hand with a grim expression, green eyes skimming over the pages before he brought his head up back to me.
"Alright, let's do this." Harry said, closing the book making me spring up from the couch about to tackle him in a celebratory hug.
"One condition." He said, placing his hand over my forehead, stopping me from advancing towards him with my arms still outstretched as I opened and closed my hands, trying to reach for him while he glanced down at the journal.
"No hugs." He told me in an even tone, dropping his hand as I retracted back with a deep strangled breath at his request.
"Not even a side hug-"
"No."
"A back hug?"
"No."
"Mental hug."
Harry paused.
"Sure, whatever, as long as you don't touch me." He decided in a hesitant tone, making me smile before I brought my arms to my chest, scrunching my shoulders up and closing my eyes.
Harry was silent for a moment.
"What are you doing now." His exasperated voice filled my ears.
"Giving you a mental hug." I answered in a small voice.
"Are you done-"
"Not yet." I said, taking in the moment.
"Can you feel my mental hug? Feels good right." I asked, my eyes still closed as I released a sigh of content.
"Fantastic." His monotone voice said.
I finally opened my eyes, meeting Harry's irritated gaze as I grinned at him.
"You give the best mental hugs." I truthfully told him making him inhale slowly, closing his eyes for a moment as if to collect himself before he raised the journal between us.
"I need you to go over what exactly you want us to do, the pages are jumbled together." He informed, making me nod before we settled into the cushions more as I began to explain, opening and showing him all the pictures and lists while he rested his elbow on the back of the couch behind me, patiently listening to me and giving a few nods here and there to let me know that he was listening.
It wasn't until I was halfway through the journal that I heard heavy, steady breathing besides me, making me turn my head to find Harry asleep, his head resting against his arm next to me as I smiled at the sight, feeling like everything was right at the world just watching him like that.
I slowly closed the journal in my hand, not wanting to wake him up before getting up from the couch, careful not to move him while I searched for a blanket or anything to cover him so he was warm.
That's when my eyes zeroed in on the pile of stuffed animals that I had gotten him from the closet.
With very wary movements I gently placed the softest stuffed animals over Harry's sleeping body, making sure he was all warm and comfortable as I positioned the toys over and around him until the only thing that wasn't burried in plush stuffies was his face.
I had effectively covered the most dangerous assassin in america in a stuffed animal cocoon.
I then moved to the far side of the couch, opposite from Harry as I yawned, scrunching my body up and hugging one stuffed animal to my chest, the one that sang and clearly annoyed Harry as I felt my eyelids droop while staring out at the rain outside the window.
This will be a very special Christmas now that I finally have a friend to spend it with.
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AN: I'll update every week or more if I have time. Super excited for this story man.
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