bonus part- 01

"Elettra, wake up! You need to go for a book signing, remember?" he said, pulling her blanket away from her face so that she would see the light.

"Ethan, go away!" she muttered, covering her face with her blanket again and turning away from her best friend of now almost a few months.

"Sleep is for the weak, remember? Come on, El, you know you need to wake up. I woke up at 5 in the morning just so I could wake you up and take you to your signing. You can't do this to me. El!" he shouted, hoping that it would wake her up. 

* * *

Elettra Sylvonna Benson hated many things. Waking up early was one of them. Another thing she hated was being woken up. But what she hated the most was waking up early on a Sunday. When all three of those things happened together, her mood was not in the best of conditions.

However, Elettra also loved many things. One of those things was Ethan Watson's eyes. Even though she would never tell him that in a million years, on him, she liked the color green a bit more than she'd ever liked blue. Her ex-boyfriend's green eyes never had this effect on her and she found herself wishing that he had blue eyes. But with Ethan, that was never the case.

Therefore, her bad mood at being woken up got negated when she got to stare into those green eyes first thing in the morning. Granted, everything was still blurred and her eyes were starting to water but the image of his eyes was already planted in the back of her mind, however blurry they may have seemed at the moment. 

Her lips lifted into a lazy smile but quickly changed into a frown so that she could convince Ethan that she was indeed in a horrible mood so that he would agree to make breakfast for her. That was another thing she loved, Ethan's cooking. Well, not all of Ethan's cooking because he was generally a mess in the kitchen. Specifically, only Ethan's ramen noodles were good. They were absolutely magical for some strange reason.

* * *

Ethan did have brilliant eyesight for someone who worked in a library. Plus, his reflexes were really quick. So, of course, he noticed her smile. He also noticed her smile turning into a frown but decided not to say anything about it. When she had finally finished yawning and stretching, her honey-brown eyes were completely open and they were showing the one expression Ethan absolutely adored. It was her 'I'm hungry' eyes.

If Ethan Watson could sum up Elettra in a few words, the words he would choose would be crazy, smart and hungry. When her expression shifted to that of hunger, Ethan realized why she was frowning and was smart enough not to question her. It had happened so many times now that he was surprised he hadn't realized what had happened sooner.

His work after waking her up, however, was not limited to making those noodles she was obsessed with. It also involved him lifting- well, he had to lift her or she would just kick him in all the unholy places possible- her to the washroom and then closing all the doors properly so that she didn't have to worry about him accidentally seeing her searching for clothes. 

Of course, he had to frown throughout this process because no sane person would ever do this much for his best friend without being a bit annoyed. It was a completely different issue that he did enjoy it because early in the morning was the only time she was a little calm and quiet and he would be lying if he said that he didn't like to hear her sing in her extremely out of tune voice when she was in the shower. He would, although, rather die than let her know that he liked it.

* * *

She was, in true style, ready twenty minutes later. She would later claim that it had nothing to do with the fact that the ramen was ready, as was her standard response to whenever he asked her the question. Of course, he was relentless and would ask her the same whenever she was done early.

Taking a seat at the dining table which was now so familiar to him, he asked her the question he'd asked her ever since he first learned what her full name was with minor changes, "El, your first and middle names are so unique and complex and then your surname is so mediocre. Did your parents do that on purpose so that one day, your best friend in a shining suit could tease you about it? Are they seers?"

"Okay, Watson, first of all, you've worn a suit once since I first met you. Second, my parents aren't seers because if they were, they would've warned me never to leave notes because then, I would've been stuck with an idiot. Third, you teasing me is like Watson being smarter than Sherlock, it's never going to happen," she finished, grinning at him. 

"Well, you do realize that Sherlock is not very good with the solar system and that Watson definitely knows more about it that Sherlock, right?" he countered.

"That doesn't count as someone being smarter than Sherlock Holmes. Even third graders know more about the solar system than Sherlock, does that mean they're smarter than him? Nope. Also, Watson didn't even know his own wife was pregnant and he's a doctor, so obviously, Sherlock's smarter. And so am I, actually. We make a brilliant pair, don't you think?" she said, slurping her noodles very loudly to stop any further arguments that Ethan would try to make and then absurdly fail at.

To be completely honest, Ethan never knew why he tried to outsmart his best friend when it came to fandoms. Although he was a bit of a geek himself, nobody could beat Her Highness, The Queen of Geekiness, at fighting about almost every television show under the sky. 

As though she could read his mind, she immediately replied, "I don't know why you try so hard either. You've already resigned yourself to the fact that I'm better at geeking out than you."

"Did I say that out loud or are you becoming creepier?" he asked her, not that surprised because she did know him insanely well.

"I'm becoming creepier, obviously," she laughed, twirling her noodles around her fork like villains did, except, she was still laughing which was definitely destroying the villain vibe.

After about a minute of silence- which was actually pretty huge for them since Elettra never stopped talking and when she did, Ethan always managed to cover up the silence- both of them realized that they couldn't afford to have idle conversation at this moment because they had a book signing to attend in fifteen minutes and the destination was definitely half an hour away. 

Thankfully, some rules were meant to be broken, or that's what Ethan and Elettra lived by, as Ethan broke about twenty laws in getting to the signing. It would've been fifty odd laws if it was her book signing that she was late for but thankfully, it was her aforementioned ex-boyfriend's book signing. However, she had to be there for moral support, or that's what he claimed it was for, although, it could've just been some ploy that he was involved in. 

* * *

She was, surprisingly, surprised to see that the parking lot at the mall was empty save for a couple of cars. Generally, Ethan had trouble finding a spot to park but today, everything that surrounded them was emptiness. 

Ethan looked just as surprised as her as he parked his car and they headed towards the mall which also looked abandoned. She wasn't expecting any of the shops to open because it was godforsakenly early in the morning but there were generally many people around, even if they were only members of the staff. Still unfazed, she went up the escalator which ended right in front of the bookstore, holding Ethan's hand as was their ritual.

The bookstore was also lifeless, save for the books which she could see despite the dark. Ethan led her inside, pulling her by the arm, seemingly curious to see what was going on.

All she had to do was step inside the bookstore before the lights went on, almost like there was some sensor at the entrance to indicate her arrival. It took Elettra some time to take in the banner which read 'Surprise! Happy Birthday!' painted in a calligraphic fashion in light blue on a navy blue sheet of chart paper. It took her some more time to realize that her family and friends were standing in front of her in an otherwise empty bookstore with presents surrounding them. Before she knew it, she was squeezing the life out of Ethan's hand which was still in hers and she heard him scream dramatically and squeezed his hand a little harder just because she could.

"I'm very sorry to disappoint all of you but my birthday is about three months away. Surely, one of my dearest friends remembered this tiny fact?" she said, still smiling at everyone gathered.

"Wait, it's three months away? Surely, I would've remembered considering you remind me every other day!" Ethan said in mock-surprise, which earned him a slap on his shoulder.

"Apparently, I have to remind you every day because every other day clearly isn't working," she said, pointing to the banner and the people around her.

"Geez, give the sarcasm a break, woman. I know how disappointed you were with your previous birthday-" which earned him another smack, "-I'm kidding, of course. I just wanted you to be genuinely surprised and the bookstore didn't have another opening like this until three months after your birthday so we had to settle for today."

Throughout this scene, her friends and family who had shown up from different parts of the world were being utterly ignored, which, of course, went unnoticed by the pair who were still bickering over Ethan's choice of choosing to celebrate her birthday three months early. However, someone decided that they'd had enough and immediately, as if on cue, had a coughing fit.

However, both Ethan and Elettra only spared a moment's glance at the poor, dying soul and were clearly far too used to people coughing in their presence and went back to their now fight.

* * *

"Mom, how in the world did they get you to come to this party? Were you really that bored?" Elettra asked her mother after finally ending her bickering in favor of her other guests who had actually just gone back to talking amongst themselves.

Mrs. Benson simply shook her head at her daughter's question. She never was the most attentive of people. Once, she'd met a relative who'd had his eyebrows burnt off in an accident and she spoke to him for close to three hours. Said relative never spoke for too long with a person ever since the accident because people usually stared at his lack of eyebrows and made him feel extremely uncomfortable. Thinking that Elettra was just being very nice by ignoring his eyebrows, he went on to talk to her. It was only later that it was discovered that Elettra had no clue that he had no eyebrows. 

Her attentiveness (or, lack of it), had clearly made a place for itself even in her older self. Elettra was so involved whenever she spoke to people that she never noticed the little gestures thrown her way until someone pointed it out to her. Even then, she would notice it for a grand total of fifteen seconds before going back to being completely oblivious.

These newest signals, however, were for her to figure out on her own, so Mrs. Benson decided to humor her daughter by giving simple answers.

"I wasn't bored, honey. Ethan called me and told me that he would die if he didn't see me and I couldn't let the poor boy die now, could I?" she chuckled.

"Mom, you should've just let him die!" Elettra groaned.

It took all of Mrs. Benson's self-control to not spill the beans. 

* * *

Emma and Aiden- or Pam and Cam, as Elettra liked to call them- considered themselves experts about all things love. They were generally scandalized whenever someone told them that they weren't the love experts they claimed to be and that the trolls from Frozen were better experts than them. 

Despite the insults, Emma and Aiden believed that Elettra and Ethan were destined for each other. They definitely didn't hide their belief either, and could be spotted in their natural habitat, Elettra's personal space, whenever they thought she needed a reminder that she and Ethan were perfect for each other. Needless to say, Elettra never appreciated it.

* * *

Jensen was the only one who could actually vouch for Elettra's liking for a person. But then, he actually couldn't, considering she was only physically attracted to him and he only liked her as a friend. He did, although, like to remind everyone that his opinion mattered, so naturally, he was the loudest when it came to expressing his views about Elettra and Ethan.

Unfortunately, no one except his boyfriend actually cared about his opinions. That boyfriend managed to take over the overprotective brother role in preparation for when his daughter grew up and for when Elettra's brother was away. Therefore, it got frustrating when even his usual biggest supporter threatened him about his opinions on a possible relationship between Elettra and Ethan.

* * *

Ian did not like the thought of one of his closest friends becoming best friends with some stranger who she'd met while leaving random notes in even more random books. It didn't matter that they'd now been friends, and then best friends, for nearly 9 months. All that mattered was that Ethan could be a mass murderer or a psychopath for all he knew.

This did make him public enemy number one because, except Elettra and the stranger, no one else supported his views. His own daughter was against him because even she had taken to the stranger! The thought of her meeting her own future (well into the future, like 50 years into future) husband the same way terrified him. However, the fact that he had Elettra on his side made him slightly more relieved, even if she was the one he was supposed to be angry with for bringing Ethan into their lives.

* * *

Ashley, very much like every sane person on the planet, cried when she was told that she had to wake up early the next morning. However, she was consoled by the fact that it was Elettra's birthday party and that Ethan was going to be there. A child's birthday party is very different, she learned a few minutes into the party. 

Soon (five minutes later soon), Ethan became her favorite adult and favorite person in the entire room as he gave her a big Hershey's bar. She didn't notice the stolen glance Ethan gave Elettra and she didn't notice Elettra smiling at the back of Ethan's head. All she was worried about was her bar of chocolate and finishing it before her father spotted her.

* * *

"You know, you haven't asked me about your gift yet. I would've thought that was on the forefront of your mind," Ethan asked a now alone Elettra.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that renting the bookstore must've cost a fortune so why would I expect a gift? I'm greedy, but I'm not that greedy. Plus, I've been distracted by all of these books and if that was your plan, it definitely worked. Maybe I'll ask you for gifts on my actual birthday," she replied, smiling softly and still looking at the books even though her head was elsewhere. 

"Damn, that would've been a pretty smart plan. Maybe next year I could use that plan," he joked. "However, for this year, I do have a gift for you."

It had taken him about three months to think of a gift for her. His first idea for a gift was to give her a book but on further thought, he had realized that almost everyone who knew her would get her the same book and it was highly possible that she'd already read the book he would potentially have given her. He then contemplated giving her merchandise from one of her thousand fandoms but then struck off that idea as well. However, all those days of thinking did give him an idea.

"What is the gift? Where are you taking me? Answer me, Watson!" Elettra said, ever the impatient child.

"Patience, grasshopper. You will know when you know," he replied, knowing that it would only rile her up even more. They had reached his car by then so her questions had thankfully stopped.

He opened the hood of his car very slowly so as to annoy her even more and it worked, as she pushed him out of the way and went on to open the hood herself. Her gift was completely wrapped so he could see the confusion on her face as he lifted it and handed it to her. She sat down on the sidewalk, excited to see what it was, and he sat down next to her. She all but tore the wrapping paper right off and he was too busy staring at her to notice that the gift was fully opened. His only indicator was her gasp and shock.

As she looked down at the open book, tears threatened to fall from her eyes. In that book, were all of the notes she'd ever written with each page titled with the book she'd put the note in. There were 85 pages in all, 83 for her notes, 1 as an index (she would never understand his organization skills) and 1 page with her birthday message.

* * *

Dearest Elettra Sylvonna Benson,

I've known you for a grand total of 9 months in which time, even a mother becomes fully acquainted with her child. Obviously, I'm also acquainted with you and that was the only reason for that analogy. I'm not pregnant with your child, I swear. 

I didn't realize when I picked up that first note that I would meet someone as crazy as you and that you'll actually become my best friend. I also didn't know that I would be commissioned with making you ramen every time I woke you up (which is quite) often and I definitely didn't know that I would love every bit of our friendship.

I spent some time thinking about what to get you because you're clearly picky but you do have the best choices (obviously!) and I didn't want to give you a subpar gift. Even though this is not technically your birthday and not technically your birthday gift, I still wanted to make it extremely special because on your last birthday, I didn't even know your name (even if it's such a weird one) and this was the first birthday I was celebrating with Elettra, rather than Her. 

Since this is not your birthday, the actual sappy message will be saved for three months later. You do have a chocolate to make up for the lack of sappy messages and don't worry, I have a copy of all your notes so that I can tease you in the future about your abysmal grammar in the future!

Happy Birthday in advance, El! 

All my love,

Ethan Watson

"So you're not pregnant? Bummer," she said through her tears, hugging him after carefully placing the book on the sidewalk.

* * *

"They still haven't confessed, guys. They're not kissing. You would think such a thoughtful gift would do it!" Emma said while the rest of them collectively sighed. Ashley didn't, because she was obviously busy eating her chocolate.

Everyone in Elettra's life definitely had their priorities straight.