Locklyle, George, and a Haunted Coffee Shop.

9

I, Lucy Carlyle, was not okay with Lockwood stopping me from fighting this pervert.

"Damnit Lockwood!" I curse, sidestepping him and shoving my rapier in the man's direction.

"Lucy!" The man cries, seeing my face, "You look absolutely stunning." He slowly brings his gaze up and down my body.

That's when I realize I'm wearing a nightgown. A really short nightgown.

"If you don't take your eyes off her legs I will personally rip them out with my rapier." Lockwood threatens.

The man curses.

"Seriously Lucy? Why did you bring that tool out here! The only thing he's doing is infringing on our impending love..." He says.

Damn this dude has problems.

Lockwood has obviously had enough. He lets out an animalistic growl, lunging at the man.

"Lucy go get George." Lockwood spats through gritted teeth.

..................

George, no matter how quickly he ran, did not get outside quick enough with his fancy handcuffs. Apparently while he was out yesterday, he decided to buy a pair of hand cuffs.

George and his toys. Ew, that sounds wrong.

I turn to the boys, shaking my head to clear my thoughts.

"Lucy, you need to go somewhere else. He knows where you live and we can't keep you in that danger." Lockwood heaves, sounding worried.

"No. I need to stay here, to see if we can draw him out. It's better for him to be caught here than at the shop messing with more evidence." I say.

"Bu-" Lockwood begins, only to be interrupted by George.

"She has a point, Lockwood. We just can't leave her here by herself, and we can't let her in any rooms of the house alone, lest he finds his way inside."

"But I need time to myself!"

"Sweetheart, you can keep arguing, but you're not going to win. You will, at all times, have me or George with you." Lockwood finalizes.

"And when you're taking a shower, we'll stand outside your door, and you'll have a rapier on you." George adds.

"And we'll make a pallet on the ground in my room. You can sleep there." Lockwood finishes.

"Fine," I say, tired and grumpy," I'll do whatever you want me too."

I turn on my heel and storm into the house.

.................................

Lockwood, as I just found out, sleeps shirtless. VERY shirtless. The shirtless where you can see the V of his hips from the low hanging sweats he has on.

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

"Good night. Sweetheart." He calls out, getting ready to go to bed.

"Whatever." I respond.

He turns to look at me, his hands on his very enticing hips.

NO. Bad Lucy.

"Awww... what's up with little baby Lucy?" He begins in a baby voice, squishing my cheeks., "Is she tired? Does she need a nappy?"

So I punch him.

"Oww. Jesus Lucy, you have good arm." He says, rubbing his cheek.

"Jesus Lucy, You have a good arm." I mock in a high pitched voice.

"That is no way to talk to your boss."

"That is no way to touch your employee."

"Touche."

"Damnit, stop flirting and let a ghost sleep." The skull mumbles from his perch on Lockwood's bookshelf.

Lockwood decided to bring it down here so that he could wake me if he sensed any danger.

Apparently he doesn't understand that The ghost doesn't give a shit about me

.................................

I'm shaken awake by Lockwood too early in the morning, with him telling me that I can't be anywhere alone, leading me to curse him out in my groggy stupor.

When we're dressed [Lockwood refused to let me put a skirt on, mumbling something about my legs] we go downstairs to find George already at he table scribbling away at the thinking cloth.

he looks up and says, "After you told me what happened at the coffee shop yesterday, I went back to the shop and got a few pictures of the foot, and I'm just getting down some notes. I'm going to go to the library to analyse the handwriting."

"Wait so he can go alone but I can't?" I ask.

"Shut up Luce, we aren't having this argument." Lockwood stops me.

Kind of.

"Oh, so he can sneak out to a scene and keep his job, but I can't?"

"Damnit, shhh."

We discuss what we're going to do today, and we end up agreeing that me and Lockwood are going to stay home and have a day off, and George is only going to have a half day.

...................................

Me and Lockwood are sitting across from each other in the basement, a bowl of popcorn each. We're trying to throw pieces of the snack in to each other's mouths.

After Lockwood tried and really failed at throwing it at me, ending with popcorn all the way across the basement, we end up having fits of giggles.

Lockwood leans closer and closer to me, and we end up forehead to forehead, heaving out laughs.

Eventually, we realize how little distance is between us, and we catch our breath in our throats.

"Lucy.. have I ever told you, that you have the most beautiful eyes?"

"No..." i trail off.

"Remind me to start doing that."

"Okay..."

We get closer and closer, until there's just a hair between our lips, and I'm beginning to close my eyes in preparation for a kiss, but he abruptly pulls away, looking at his watch.

"It's about time for lunch then, tea and sandwiches? You'll make the tea, and I'll make the sandwiches."

I nod my head, still stunned into silence.

..................

For the rest of the day, I keep taking glances at him, and occasionally i catch him doing the same.

We immediately started acting like normal people again, coming up with an unspoken agreement to never talk about the almost-kiss.

"Luuuccyyy," Lockwood whines, "I'm soooo boreeedd."

"You sound like a little kid."

"You look like a little kid."

"You know I hate when you make short people jokes."

"That's why I do it sweetheart."

He can be so frustrating.