Emotional Connection

cheerios

Ashley was used to spending Christmas on the road, in the middle of nowhere, even used to being attacked by some hostile creature they happened upon. She'd never spent it away from her dad since she was eleven, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it, especially considering she was still sick.

Charlie had, however, cancelled his plans to go home, despite her protests and objections that she could take care of herself for the few days he'd be gone, or even head over to the hospital for the duration. He wasn't having any of it, saying his parents understood, and it was actually safer for him to stay in Romania with everything happening. Ash couldn't tell if he was just using that as an excuse to make her feel better or not. She made sure he knew that if it was, it didn't, but she appreciated it anyway.

And, she couldn't tell him how anxious she had been trying to find him a Christmas present, especially when she still found herself out of breath and exhausted simply from walking the twenty metres or so from her bed to the sofa.

Waking up on Christmas Day, however, Ashley-Rae was in a good mood, pulling on a Christmas jumper over a plain top, black jeans, and Christmas themed socks. She sighed at her hair, running a brush through it. It was being stubborn recently; she'd forgotten how much she relied on magic to keep it in check until casting so many spells a day left her drained and she'd had to cut down. She tied it back in two bunches, rolling her eyes at her reflection. It would have to do.

She walked to the kitchen to one Christmas had completely exploded across the two rooms, with tinsel everywhere possible, a fully decked out tree that was much too big for the house, and scenes of Santa in fake snow on the windows. "Holy mother of God, what happened."

Charlie looked up from where he was already prepping Christmas dinner for the two of them. "I decorated."

"So I see." Ashley blinked, grinning slowly, "it feels weird, to stay in one place long enough for decorations. It feels good." She turned to see him staring at her. "What?"

"You have your hair in pigtails."

Blushing, she nodded, taking a seat on the sofa, making sure she could still face him, "it was being stubborn, and I didn't feel like wasting my energy on wrestling with it today. I'm well aware that it makes me look like a child."

"I could braid it for you if you'd like?"

Now it was Ashley's turn to stare.

"My sister Ginny used to ask me to braid her hair all the time so she could play rough with my younger brothers, so I learned how. I had fairly long hair, even back then." He explained, casting a few spells so the cooking preparations would work themselves, and she wondered briefly why he hadn't done that before. He washed his hands and she turned her back to him so he could do her hair.

It felt strange to have someone do her hair for her. It seemed it was the day for that kind of feeling, with the Christmas decorations and now this, but it felt nice to have him do her hair for her without magic or having to pull half of it out with a hairbrush before it would stay put.

In fact, Charlie didn't seem to have any trouble with it at all, and she had to think again about him not using magic. She hadn't heard him using any spells, nor had she felt them, so maybe he really was just good with hair. Still, it surprised her when he was finished so quickly.

"All done." He said softly, with a small smile. Ashley turned to thank him before he went back to cooking.

"Why don't you just leave the magic to do that? Surely it would be easier for you."

He didn't respond for a few seconds, simply pausing. "I feel pretty useless just sat around all the time, so I tend to do a lot of my chores myself rather than by magic. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'd do with myself."

Nodding, she looked down at her hands folded in her lap, "that makes sense." She froze as her stomach growled loudly, making Charlie laugh a little under his breath, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Hungry?" He didn't wait for a response before making her a bowl of Cheerios and handing it to her along with a spoon. "Here."

"You do too much for me."

He laughed again, before realising she was completely serious. "Oh, no, Ash, you're sick. Even if you feel a lot better you still get exhausted pretty quickly, this is the very least I can do to help you get better. Besides, no use me actually going to work if you're not in the hospital to fix me up and lecture me about doing dangerous shit again."

She tried to hide a smile, silently agreeing with him. She wasn't sure how Pete had put up with his shenanigans before she was available for him to palm Charlie off to. "Are we doing presents? You have a lot from your family, I'm curious about what they got you."

Charlie raised an eyebrow, amused. "Sure that's the only reason you're asking?"

Ashley fell silent, giving him his answer.

"Finish your Cheerios."