#the movie ella wanted to wtheatch is called 'the shop around the corner'

[ateneawrites]

Christmas OTP drabble thingie: Rivella 7-12

Note: here's batch number two in my attempt to mask my lack of holiday cheer with mindless otp fluff and to hijack my brain into writing serotonin into existence, prompts from this challenge are here, explained in a bit more detail here but long story short is i don't believe in posting schedules and I'm making these in batches of six as i finish them, this time I'm going with rivella; next batch should be rosenali *knocks on wood*

7. Mistletoe

River wanted the earth to swallow her alive. She'd though she'd gotten rid of all the blasted mistletoe Choriza and Vanity had put all over the place but clearly she hadn't as her loudmouth coworkers, drunk as could be after the office holiday party, were catcalling them and cheering while her and Ella Vaday had a stare down under one of the very few that had survived her purge.

River was the first one to break the eye contact, decided to concentrate better on looking at the floor as her face turned burgundy.

If they hadn't had an audience, and if River were delusional enough to think Ella wasn't out of her league, it would have been rather romantic but the situation at hand was nothing short of mortifying.

"Please don't look so pained, dear" Ella had said "You might hurt my feelings"

It was a nice attempt at trying to put River at ease because Ella was kind like that, but River was not willing to take advantage of Ella being too well mannered to rebuff her and her painfully obvious crush.

So River decided she'd do it herself. Save both of them the trouble, as a Christmas present to both Ella and herself.

She gave Ella a small pained smile, got on the tip of her toes and gave Ella a peck on the cheek while the catcalls turn to booes once their friends realize they're not getting a show.

"I don't want you to kiss me just because you have to" she said before she excused herself to get some air.

8. Making snowmen (+ Wally, bc Ella's miserable looking dog owns my soul)

Ella has a perpetual enemy in the cold weather once it gets under certain temperature. English autumn is lovely and there is something she finds rather romantic in the rain that she wouldn't change for anything but she's just never done well in winter.

Her nose and her fingertips turn perpetually pink from all of the blood trying in vain to keep body heat and every time she comes back home she spends an embarrassingly long time just cuddled onto herself in front of the heater and even longer under the hot shower trying to burn a layer of her epidermis in an attempt to encourage circulation to come back into her limbs.

River jokes that if she'd had it her way Ella'd fly south like the birds come December first and honestly that's not even too far off from the truth but there's certain perks to cold snowy England. Like getting to wake up River the first day of proper fresh snow.

River's eyes light up in delight when she looks out of the window and her excitement is probably one of the few things Ella does enjoy about the cold weather, she'd move mountains to always see River as happy as she is when there's fresh snow in the morning after a storm.

They put on warm clothes and boots (and wrap Wally in the coziest doggy sweater he's got) and play outside in it, even make a snowman (that Wally destroys several times before River gives up on it entirely).

When they get back home, Ella's face is numb and she can feel her eyeballs burn from how cold she is but River kisses her nose and each of her numb fingertips. It's tender and sweet and Ella has never loved anyone else this much in her life. She hopes she never does.

9. Wearing ugly Christmas jumpers

River chokes on her tea as she sees Ella enter the living room wearing what must be the most offensive garment her eyes have ever seen.

"Oh my god. What. Is. That"

"A jumper, dear"

"A hideous jumper" River amends.

"Yes well, we can't go to an ugly jumper Christmas party without hideous jumpers, can we?"

River is immediately alert.

"What is this we you're talking about" Ella smiles. River doesn't like it one bit.

"You have a matching one"

"No"

Ella pouts.

"Please?"

"Absolutely not"

"You did promise to come with me"

That she did. It was extorted out of her after she had gotten one of the best orgasms of her life.

"You'll have to catch me first!" she says as she jumps from her sitting place at the sofa and tries to make a run for it. She doesn't make it far, Ella catches up with her on the hall, traps River between herself and the bedroom door and kisses her breathless.

Of course River ends up wearing the matching hideous thing.

10. Baking holiday treats

River stares in alarm as she sees every surface of both the kitchen and living room taken by various kinds of carefully crafted treats.

There's gingerbread walls and roof pieces that she can tell Ella has painstakingly measured with rulers and sanded with the baking sculpting tools that Scarlett got her for her birthday, cookies cooling on racks, cakes already set on stands waiting to be iced.

It smells like sugar and cinnamon and like River's favorite parts of being cozied up inside when it was cold out.

It also smells like a cry for help.

"Ella?" she calls.

"Riv? Is that you?" she hears from upstairs. River sees Ella walk down the stairs, in her favorite jumper and her hair carefully pinned away from her face and River literally jumps to her.

"Hi" she says in a small voice. Ella hugs her back.

"Why are you here?" Ella finally asks after a minute, looking as confused as she does happy "you were not supposed to be back till tomorrow"

River has a whole speech prepared. About how Vanity had texted her about the crisis they had at work and Kitty telling her about Ella baking her feelings away when she was under stress (although she had kind of worked that one out herself) and that she really needs to get better at not bottling up her emotions but she decides against it.

"I missed you" she simply says, because it is the truth after all, she has missed her terribly so she got an earlier train back. She knows she made the right choice the way Ella's face slowly lights up. River nods in the general direction of the kitchen "need some help?"

Ella nods. There'll be time to talk later.

11. Snogging in front of the fireplace (continuation of prompt number 7)

There was something comforting about being alone in front of the fire for River. She had volunteered to be the one to leave last since she already lived close by so she had decided to relax for a bit in front of the fire, thinking she was alone at last.

"Hey"

Her shoulders instantly shot up and her head moved to face the door in alarm.

"Oh, sorry, I must've startled you" Ella said, she sounded genuinely concerned and normally River would have made more of an effort but she was quite frankly all out of strength to pretend so she just relaxed her shoulders again and stared back at the fire.

"It's alright" she simply said. She heard Ella step closer, carefully, the way you'd approach a wounded thing.

"Mind if I sit down?"

River shrugged as an answer. They stayed in silence for a while, just sat down besides each other on the floor. It's almost companionable, River though.

"It looks to me" Ella started "like there might have been a bit of a misunderstanding, earlier"

River furrowed her brow, looked at Ella again, this time a bit more carefully, taking notice of the curious glint in her eyes and the ever so slight fidgeting of her fingers.

"Oh?"

"With the mistletoe" as if River could forget "I didn't want to kiss you because I had to" she continued "Truth is I—" she bit her lip "I have been trying to figure out a way to ask you out for months, actually"

River's mouth fell open.

"I still would like to if that— if that'd be alright. Not just the kissing" good god was she actually blushing? "but the asking you out bit. We could go grab a bite. Or go out and do something. Anything you'd like if that's" Ella looked down to her lap "something you'd be interested in"

It's been a while since River wanted to smile like someone was physically yanking the corners of her mouth. She crawls closer to Ella, saw the fear of rejection be replaced by the confusion then the anticipation when she realized what River was going to do. It had started out slow but the kiss grew passionate, all the yearning of however long they'd both wanted to do that catching up with them.

When River hid her face in the crook of Ella's neck with a small, overwhelmed sigh she felt Ella tighten up the hold she had on her.

"I'd like that very much" she answered softly at last.

12. Watching a classic holiday film

They really had different definitions of what made for a holiday classic.

Ella had vetoed Shrek the Halls and River had vetoed the black and white thing from the 1940s Ella had tried to pitch to her as "You've Got Mail but it's letters instead of emails and Jimmy Stewart instead of Tom Hanks" but they had found a compromise somewhere in the middle.

Did Meet Me in St. Louis count as a holiday film? River had her doubts but it mattered very little when she was held in Ella's lap, all cozied up under a blanket, feeling safe and happy as Ella hummed along softly to Judy Garland singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in the background.