Fic: "Treads on the Ground"
Author: leupagus
Chapters: 2/7
Wordcount: 13,022
Fandom: Babylon (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Liz Garvey/Finn Kirkwood
Tags: Fake Relationship, Christmas, Aristocracy, lol
Scotland Yard throw their own Christmas party the week after. Finn changes into his requisite sweater after work and takes himself down to the second floor, where the lackeys there have festooned the briefing hall with bunting and balloons. It's loud and crowded and he stays for precisely as long as it takes for both Charles and Liz to see him, avoiding any and all mistletoe, then escapes back to his office to finish the press release for tomorrow.
An hour or so later, Liz wanders in holding two polystyrene cups. Somewhere between when he last saw her and now she's acquired a Santa hat and reindeer antlers, and he gets a good look at her sweater for the first time: a green crewneck with, of all things, FRAGILE across the top, underneath which is a picture of the most god-awful fucking ugly lamp he's ever seen in his life, along with an assortment of snowflakes and baubles. He peers closer: the lamp has a fringe.
'What the fuck are you wearing?'
'My ugly sweater,' she says, depositing the cups on his desk. It's eggnog, of course. 'Hold on, check this out.' She presses the lamp's finial and the lampshade lights up, twinkling hellishly at him. Liz makes triumphant jazz hands. 'Tada.'
'…Why a lamp?' He doesn't really want to know, but there's a sort of morbid fascination.
'I'm guessing you've never seen A Christmas Story,' she says, making herself comfortable in one of his guest chairs. She turns the lamp off, mercifully.