December 6th, 1894 - Christmas Tree Event

Annie was so charmed by this little event that she'd been practically skipping around the trees for nearly an hour. Everything was so delightful that she'd had a smile on her face the entire time.

She hardly wanted to go home, so had picked up a cocoa first, enjoying it by the fires so that she could warm up a little. She wasn't sure what to do next, go make a wreath or keep wandering or see if she could find the fairies everyone said were lurking around. Annie had been keeping an eye out for the supposed enchanted mistletoe as well, but she wasn't sure if it was to avoid it or purposefully get herself stuck. It wouldn't be so bad to try and enchant a gentleman into a friendly kiss. It would be romantic.

With her cocoa in hand, Annie hovered by the fire, enjoying the warmth, taking in the scent of the pine trees around her, mingling with the chocolate in her hands. Sighing contentedly, she looked around again, over toward the little booth where she would go next to make a wreath. There hadn't been anyone around when she'd come over and so she backed up to one of the chairs by the fire, and managed to accidentally sit on someone instead!

Annie squeaked in surprise and jumped up, sloshing hot cocoa on her hands. "Oh, ouch! I'm sorry! Ouch!" She alternated between the apology and the pain, diving to put her hands in the closest pile of snow.

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Open to anyone, hurling preferable! MCAB 28+, but I'll take anything!

  

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Nick had come here less because he was enthused about the festive season, and more because he had nothing else to do. As Christmas neared, it felt like everyone around him was withdrawing from the world, because they suddenly had better things to do – like spend time with their loved ones in their warm, inviting, happy homes.

Nick had – a rather glum day spent at his father’s house, just the two of them, to look forward to as the utmost peak of the season. So forgive him for not feeling the joy here. He had considered making a wreath to brighten up his Bartonburg place, but that was frankly too much effort, so instead he had come over to nurse his (one, free) hot chocolate moodily by the bonfire.

And apparently he might as well be wearing an invisibility cloak, because no sooner than he had gotten comfortable on his chair, a woman had just tried to sit on him. “Aargh! Blast,” Nick yelped out, half in shock at the sudden contact and half because she was squeaking like mad as she sprang back up. He might have thought her foolish for spilling her cocoa on herself, but she had managed to knock his hands in the process, too – only Nick thought he’d gotten the worst of it, because the steaming hot chocolate had spilled over onto his lap, seeping in around his groin. Fucking, he mouthed, trying to bite back the swearing as he hopped off the chair and tried to decide how best to stifle the burning sensation in his trousers, a little too dazed by the pain to notice her agony. “– Merlin!”

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Too busy with her own burns to notice what havoc she'd wrought, Annie was near tears. She hadn't done something this dumb in a while. How could she have missed someone sitting in the chair she'd been about to take? She foretold the weather for crying out loud! Fortunately the snow was cooling and she managed to get the sting to a dull ache, holding fistfuls of snow to keep the cooling sensation going, she turned back to see what she'd done.

"Oh my! I'm s-so-sorry!" All she could really see was where the cocoa had seeped into the man's trousers and then she realized where she was looking and then she blushed even redder than her hands. Oh what an absolute disaster! "Here!" She offered, holding out the snow in her hands as the only thing she could think of. She had already made a big enough mess; she wasn't about to shove her hands back in it!

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