In Flames // 9-1-1 Fox (seasons 1-4)

twenty-seven

Halloween was Mariana's least favorite holiday yet she still helped decorate the firehouse to make it look like the perfect non-scary haunted house. So how would she celebrate her favorite holiday, Christmas?

"Have enough bags there?" Eddie asked, an amused tone coating his words as the pile of reusable bags entered his house.

"There's more in the car," she mumbled out as she gently laid them down on the hall floor. "This is just some stuff to bake cookies and ingredients. I hope you don't mind that I'm taking over your kitchen."

"It's practically your kitchen now, Mari. Besides, I think you and Buck and Chris would throw a coup if I tried to stop the bake a thon from happening," he teased. She brightened up and headed back to her car to grab more bags, leaving Eddie to carry the first round to the kitchen.

"How do you have so many decorations?" he asked once she set down the final bag from her third trip. Mariana let out a small huff and stood up straight, examining the piles around her. She nibbled on her bottom lip and then shrugged.

"I don't decorate my apartment because it's just me so I collect decorations with the idea that I'm gonna decorate," she admitted. "My mom loved to decorate and it was the one time during the year that she didn't seem sad. My abuela loved baking during the holidays and would make a ton and pass them out to neighbors and homeless shelters. She would play music and just spend the whole day baking while Luis and I decorated the tree. I couldn't afford a lot but I loved seeing the excitement on Luis' face."

A wistful, dreamy look crossed her face and Eddie couldn't help but tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and cup her face, tilting her chin up so their eyes met. She hummed in curiosity and he grinned, brushing his thumb against the fading yellow bruise of her black eye she received three weeks earlier.

"You don't usually talk about your family," he explained.

"Maybe it's time I start," she mused. "Now, c'mon. We gotta unpack the baking stuff before the cold stuff goes bad."

It wasn't until they were putting away brown sugar while Run Rudolph Run played from Eddie's phone that Mariana paused and realized how domestic it all felt. Here she was, standing in this guy's kitchen after getting groceries to make Christmas cookies with him and his son and their best friend. She felt no urge to run, but rather she desperately wanted to stay. That should scare her, right? She normally would feel like running for the hills.

She watched as Eddie put the flour up on the shelf, his fluffy dark hair ruffled from her teasingly messing with it earlier when he joked about putting her on his shoulders so she could reach the mixing bowls. There was no warning for her to dash out of the place and never return. Instead, she realized with that start that all of this felt right.

"You got your thinking face on," he pointed out.

"Just thinking about my favorite guy," she hummed. "I know he's going to love baking all these."

"Buck?"

"No, Chris, you dummy. Buck's your favorite guy." Mariana smirked and hopped up to sit on the counter.

"Oh, I'm a dummy now?"

He ran his fingers along her side, causing the brunette to shriek and squirm against his touch. She laughed, grabbing his shoulders. "Okay! Okay! I surrender."

Eddie stopped his attack and rested his hand on her waist, a playful glint in his eyes as she rested her head back against the cabinet and recovered her breathing from the tickle attack.

"Shannon is coming by tomorrow to talk about Christopher and I'm not sure if she's ready to be back in his life or anything," he finally said.

"Has she said anything or given any indication that she wants to be back or something?"