Merry and Bright (Bernard the elf x me)

Chapter 10: Stress-braiding and trouble in the workshop

𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚝𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚎...♡

Emily's POV:

It had been a few days since Bernard asked me to the dance and I felt giddy around him every time we are together. I noticed I smiled around him more uncontrollably. It was kind of annoying but I don't mind it. No Emily, you're just friends. Keep it that way. But man, Bernard makes me get butterflies in my stomach. We are working and chatting in his office when suddenly he asked...

Bernard's POV:

As we were talking, I watched Emily's soft hair swish around as she talked. She looked so at ease. I felt stressed about everything with Jack Frost and him being at the North Pole and then just completely blurted out, "Can I braid your hair?" She gave me a weird look, puzzled and then said, "Sure?" "Sorry, I've found I like to stress braid hair when I am stressed. I would braid mine and I have, but it's more difficult." "I get it." She said. I walked over to her and brushed out her hair with my fingers. I then begun to braid.

Emily's POV:

I can't believe it. Bernard is messing with my hair. I got tingles and chills all over my body as he played with my hair you know the good kind you get when a friend messes with your hair, but with Bernard, it was a whole new level of chills and tingles. He occasionally brushed the backs of his hands against my neck a few times by accident as he started to braid. Even more chills. It was very relaxing but I had a job to do. I was currently working on more fan mail to Santa and read a funny note. Bernard continued to braid my hair.

I giggled at the sight of the note and then Bernard leaned over me to see what I was laughing at. I don't think he realized how close his face was to mine but then he asked, "What's so funny?" "This note," I started. "All this kid wants for Christmas is a full grown apple tree in his backyard by Christmas morning." "Is the kid's name Billy?" Bernard asked knowingly. "Yes, how did you know?" I asked. "A few years back he asked for a group of cattle in his barn on his farmland." I shook my head in disbelief.

"That's impossible! Did Santa make it happen?" "Yeah he did, with lots of hard work and magic." "That's crazy." Bernard chuckled and continued braiding. It was so relaxing I couldn't take it, I took a deep breath and then closed my eyes. A few minutes later, Bernard finished.

Bernard's POV:

I was genuinely proud of this braid. Her hair was already pretty before but braids do look good on Em. What am I saying...?! We are just friends. I tied it off and noticed her eyes were closed. I whispered in her ear, "Hey Em, you can open your eyes now. I finished." She opened her pretty brown-hazel eyes and looked into mine with a small smile. I smiled back at her and felt my cheeks getting red. We started to get closer to each other and then...

The door swung open. It was Curtis. "Bernard! Emily! We have a situation- oh. Was I interrupting something?" He asked inquisitively. "N-no! Not at all!" Em said stuttering. "Yeah you weren't interrupting anything...what is the situation Curtis?" I asked, trying to change the subject. "I think you should just come see...Hurry!" He said and then started running away. Em and I looked at each other worriedly and then took off after him.

Emily's POV:

The workshop was a disaster, all of the elves weren't where they were supposed to be, machines weren't working, the naughty nice list was spewing out of the place it is stored. It was terrible. I could only imagine what Bernard was feeling like right now. Just then Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up. Mrs. Claus's (or Carol as she wanted me to call her) eyes widened at the sight. Santa walked over to Bernard and I and asked (mainly him) "What happened?" In a very serious tone. "We don't know Santa, we just arrived here, I believe Curtis saw more than we did." Bernard said. Santa nodded and then walked towards Curtis and asked the same question.

"It's like the machines have a mind of their own, sir. We don't know what went wrong, progress was moving along as scheduled and then it all just went haywire." Curtis said. I then saw Frost come in from the hall. "Oh dear, this does look like a disaster, doesn't it?" He said worriedly. Call me crazy, but I think he had something to do with all of this. "We don't need your input thanks." Bernard said coldly. Jack Frost just giggled and smiled creepily as he sipped on his 'cold chocolate'.

Just then, Judy came running towards me, crying as she did. I bent down to her level and gave her a big hug. "The kitchen!" Was all she could make out through her tears. Bernard and Curtis looked at her worriedly. As did I. Santa, Carol, Bernard and Frost raced off towards the kitchen. I released Judy from the hug and Curtis took her into another.

I then bounded off after them. I got to the kitchen a few seconds after the others and saw Bernard's hand over his mouth and his eyes wide. The same thing happened. Something is going wrong with all of the machines. There was food flying everywhere. "What if we just try turning them off again and then turning them back on? Maybe they just haven't been restarted in a while." I said to them. "We can try that but I don't think that would work." Santa said while we were all dodging the flying food.

We restarted all of the machines that went haywire (which took forever, mind you) and it actually worked! "Nice idea Em! Sorry I doubted your idea. I really thought something was wrong with them." Santa said after they all started functioning normally. The last one to restart was in the kitchen and after I turned it back on, I noticed water dripping from it. Bernard noticed too and bent down where I was and then I whispered in his ear, "Frost."

Bernard's POV:

I got chills as her voice was in my ear...but not important. I knew immediately it was Frost too. We needed to report it to Santa, immediately. We both ran to Santa's office and opened the door and were shocked to find Jack Frost standing next to Santa's desk sipping hot chocolate.

"Oh! Bernard! Emily! You're just in time. Frost was just telling me about how the machines went crazy, there was probably some snow outside that melted and got into all of the outlets on that side of the workshop, that's why we saw water coming from the machines, it was melted snow!" Santa said. "That's right!" Frost started, "Happens all of the time in winter!"

Em and I looked at each other, not convinced but there was no going against what Santa said, at least not without proof. "Oh okay then, well that takes care of that! Em and I have a lot of work to do so we'll get back to it. I quickly grabbed her hand and dragged us out of there closing the door quickly as I did. "You don't really believe that bull, do you?" She asked as we started walking slower down the hall. It then hit me that we were still holding hands but for some reason, I didn't want to let go.

"Of course not, but we can't go up against Frost without proof, but that's not our concern right now. We really need to get back to work after the stop down we had." I said. Then we ran into 3 elves giggling and laughing together. Why weren't they working?! We just had a huge stop down and they're laughing it off?! The fate of Christmas is on the line here! "Excuse me, are we on a coffee break?" I asked seriously. "We don't drink coffee..." One of the elves said, (his name was Griffin). "Then I guess the break is over." I said rather coldly. I then felt Em squeeze my hand.

Emily's POV:

"B, don't be so uptight."  I said looking him in the eyes. "Hey guys, glad you are having a good time and laughing, but make the break quick please. We have a lot of work to do before Christmas and we fixed the problem from earlier." "Okay." The elves said sadly. Bernard rolled his eyes at me playfully, then squeezed me hand back and said, "I had that one covered!" Then I heard the elves whispering as they walked away, "Did you see them? They were holding hands!" One said. "Curtis was right! They are a thing!" Another one said.

They all three giggled. Bernard heard too and we both looked at each other wide-eyed and quickly dropped hands, much to my dismay, wait what am I saying?! Bernard and I both forgot Curtis saw Bernard braiding my hair earlier this morning.  We both knew that Curtis can never keep his mouth shut. Who knows how many other elves he told?! "Dammit Curtis!" Bernard said under his breath. He took the words right out of my mouth.