InsaneJournal

WHO: Erik Lehnsherr and River Song
WHAT: A New Year’s Eve kiss gone awry and the initial aftermath.
WHEN: Midnight on New Year’s Eve → the morning after [backdated]
WHERE: Xavier’s School for the Gifted
RATING: PG
STATUS: Log to be completed in comments

In retrospect, the ending of 2011 and beginning of 2012 - at least in the city of Colligo - was a moment that would forever remain etched in River Song’s memories. Because with only two minutes left in the old year and with the new one right around the bend, she ran out of paper for her printer.

Normally, she wouldn’t care about such things. Normally, of course, she wouldn’t be working at such a terribly late hour either. However, when you were a time traveller, the coming of a new year just didn’t hold the same appeal for you as it did for others. So rather than spend her evening attending a slew of parties with people she didn’t know, or even settling for a quiet night in with the Doctor and little Mary Lampion, she had decided to swing by the school and catch up on some ungraded tests that really needed her attention.

Now, if it hadn’t been for the printer running out of paper, she would have actually been in her office when the clock struck midnight. All alone, without another soul around, she would have seen the new year roll in and not thought twice about it. However she had another six or so pages left to print out before calling it quits for the night and therefore was instead in the corridor, on her way to the nearest supply closet, when the sixty-second countdown began. And that is why, she would later reflect, she had managed to come across the only other person around at precisely the wrong moment in time.

Erik Lehnsherr was hardly someone that River spent a lot of time with. He seemed nice enough, she supposed, but was hardly the conversational sort and certainly not someone that she had much in common with. Yes, they had spoken in the past, and exchanged the obligatory pleasantries, but they certainly weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination. So why she opted to stop to greet him in the hallway rather than continue on her way with little more than a cursory nod was anyone’s guess. Yet she did stop. And, with a little less than thirty seconds left in 2011, she even found herself greeting him with a pleasant enough, “Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting anyone else to be here tonight. Burning the midnight oil, are we?”

Later, she would blame whatever it was that overtook the non-locals as a whole for why she engaged him in conversation. But for the time being, she simply wrote it off as her trying to be pleasant during what was typically a festive time for most humans. As well as, if she were being particularly honest, her own curiosity getting the better of her and wondering why he was not out, enjoying the holiday as so many others were.

New Years’ Eve had never been a joyful time for Erik. While most people spent the evenings out with friends, celebrating the dawn of a new day and the start of a fresh slate, Erik had spent most of them alone, lamenting the fact that he was another year closer to death and had another year without the revenge that he’d wanted. While he’d had his revenge, now, Erik still couldn’t find it in himself to celebrate something that only amounted to the cycle of one arbitrary set of numbers aligning with the cycle of another arbitrary set of numbers to create a moment that had been somehow deemed significant in the collective globe consciousness. So instead of going to one of the numerous parties and events that had been arranged in Colligo, Erik had slipped up to Charles’s study and nicked one of the premium vintages to enjoy while not pondering the events of the last year in the solitary confinements of his office.

He hadn’t expected to come across anyone else in the halls. Erik had assumed that everyone would either be sleeping, like sane people, or out on the town making questionable choices, so coming across another soul in the confines of the manor was enough to still his retreat to his office, particularly when she spoke up rather than just heading right on past him. Erik didn’t know much about River, to be strictly honest. He knew she was close to Charles, that she had taught him to defend himself in a way that Erik hadn’t even known Charles was capable of, and that she was dangerously brilliant in more ways than one, he couldn’t remember them ever having a proper conversation.

If that wasn’t more than enough reason to stop and chat, at least for a moment, Erik didn’t know what could be.

“More like enjoying some alone time,” Erik said, a quirk of a grin gracing his features as he raised the bottle enough for her to see. “I’m going to take a guess and say that you’re being more productive than I am.”

River grinned at the sight of the bottle, tipping her head a bit in acknowledgment. Part of her wanted to point out that alcohol and grading papers weren't necessarily two things that had to remain separate, but she refrained for the time being and instead focused on what he'd said in regards to herself. Much safer, that way, she decided.

"Yes, well," she retorted with a slight shrug of mild indifference, "when you've seen as many new years begin as I have, it really does lose its significance after a while." And wasn't that making her sound far older than she actually was? Oh well, nothing to be done for it now. River was hardly the sort to elaborate unless she absolutely had to, after all, and the Doctor scarcely made it any great secret that he was a time traveller besides. Anyone with any modicum of common sense would be easily able to piece together that a woman who was wed to the Time Lord would also be a time traveller in her own right. And if Erik was half as intelligent as he seemed to be, he'd likely figured as much out long before.

"Besides," she tacked on with a grin, "If I finish up my work now, I've far more time to spend enjoying myself later." Absently, she was aware of a television somewhere in the distance that was clearly set to a channel covering the countdown of the quickly approaching new year. Less than ten seconds to go, it seemed, and her daft old man was nowhere in sight. Typical, really.

And that was when she felt it.

At first, it started out as nothing more than a mere tug in her gut. A desire to draw closer to the man standing in front of her, a yearning that she couldn't quite put into words. Logically, River was able to acknowledge that something was controlling her movements as she inched closer. In that brilliant mind of hers, she knew that she was not attracted to Erik in any way, shape, or form. Yet closer she moved, until they were very nearly flush against one another. Her heart racing, she couldn't ignore the compulsion no matter how much she tried.

Eyes widening slightly, pupils dilated, she had just enough time to whisper a barely audible, "Oh, my," past already parted lips before rising up on her tiptoes and giving in to an overwhelming, wholly unable to be ignored desire to kiss him.

Erik had been ready to offer to let her join him after she’d finished grading. After all, just because he didn’t want to suffer through the so-called countdown with hoards of ridiculously overexcited people around didn’t mean that he couldn’t enjoy company who didn’t seem to put so much stock in the madness as everyone else did. He had been about to when he’d felt the desire rising in him. He’d been confused, at first, unsure of exactly where the urges were coming from since he barely knew this woman much less was attracted to her, but as they got closer, he realized that it was obviously not just him that was subject to whatever this was.

Not that there was much room to think about that now as they were practically pressed together, lips following suit quickly after. It was a split second later when the chimes of the nearby clock tower sounded midnight, each bell counting out the length of the spontaneous embrace, until the last one struck, and Eric found himself finally capable of pulling away. Placing a modicum of distance between himself and Professor River Song, Erik blinked, raising his free hand to rub over his face, smearing some traces of lipstick onto his hand, as he tried to collect his thoughts.

“Well,” He started, not really sure how else to do so, “that was...a thing.” And he was usually so much more eloquent when the situation called for it.

As her lips pressed against his, River was aware of two things with startling clarity. The first was that the clock had struck midnight and the beginning of 2012 had officially begun in the city she had grudgingly began to call home. The second, more important than the first in a great number of ways, was that something far more significant than a kiss had taken place between her and the mutant known as Erik Lehnsherr. A bond that she couldn't explain was there now, unable to be ignored even if she didn't want it to so much as exist. And distantly, even though she knew the threat was an idle one, she vowed she was going to make the being known as Asaph suffer quite remarkably for doing this to her, even if it was the last thing she ever did.

“That,” she said flatly, eyes shining with anger not aimed at him but rather the situation as a whole, “was utter rubbish.” Realizing a bit belatedly that maybe that wasn’t the kindest thing to say after having kissed someone, she tacked on an almost absent-minded, “Not the kiss, of course. The fact that it happened. I’m married and I hardly need this to muck things up.”

With a heavy sigh because, really, there wasn’t anything else to be done for it at the moment, River ran a hand down her face and tried to calm herself a bit. “Right then,” she finally said as she looked back to the mutant. “First things first, I suppose. I need to contact the old ball and chain and see if he was as equally affected as the two of us.” Starting past him, she paused when she got a few steps away and glanced over her shoulder. “Well?” she prompted. “Come along, then. Something tells me a single kiss is hardly the worst of whatever just happened and I, for one, don’t feel like testing our boundaries just yet.”

While Erik might have been affronted at the anger where the situation at all different, he couldn’t begrudge her those feelings at the moment considering he was pretty sure that this was yet another of the Collector’s ideas of what constituted appropriate holiday fair. In other words, something that was probably about as inappropriate as it could get. “I’m a perfect gentleman,” Erik said, not really sure why she was telling him to follow her, but he wasn’t really willing to protest. “You’ve hardly got to worry about me mucking around,” He said, falling in step a few paces behind her. “Whatever’s happened, it isn’t like we both had plans that are now ruined.”

After all, he was just going to spend the evening alone, and if Professor Song was grading papers, he was supposing that there hadn’t been something large looming on the horizon for her, either.