Faltering Fantasies (Wally Darling x Reader)

14. With Boughs of Holly!

You giddily stared at the finished product; you had just finished Julie's gift. It started with a homemade doll of her, and then you added some chocolate, and some crayons, and a pink scarf, and then you got a hold of yourself and stopped adding things.

You wrapped the item-full box with pink paper and hid it in a paper bag. Then, you heard the familiar knocking on the door. "Come in, Wally."

He peeked in, only opening the door a crack, "Done yet?"

"Yes, actually," you answered for the first time after just about two thousand "no"s. He was a bit clingy, but it was cute how affectionate he was.

"Who did you get?" He—once again—asked for the two thousandth time.

"Nope, we're exchanging in two hours. Be patient!" You did your best not to think of the neighbor. At this point, Wally was so good at interpreting your expressions he might as well be able to read your mind.

Now, you, dear reader, might be wondering how you managed to determine and grasp onto what time it was with all your past failures. That, turned out to be much simpler than the mountain of paranoia you'd given to it. That day where you took a break from Wally and stayed at Julie's. She used a stopwatch. Afterwards, you meagerly asked if she'd lend it to you and she excitedly insisted you keep it instead. Ever since then, you'd just ask a neighbor what time it was—which they always miraculously knew without a glance at really anything—and then did some math depending on how many minutes had passed on the timer. It was indeed a very convoluted and extremely inconvenient path to telling the time, but it was worth the lack of panic attack.

"Do you want to go ice skating with me and the neighbors?"

Your eyes lit up like a child on Christmas Day—which in itself, wasn't too far from the truth, "Yes! Yes! Definitely!"

"Ha, ha, ha. You're just the most, darling." He took your hand and pulled you off the bed and out the house—er—Home.

You took a moment to reminisce in the familiar surroundings. The trees weren't artificially bright, the sky wasn't the wrong shade of blue, everything was so like reality.

Wally took you to the very edge of the forest, and there it was. The lake the two of you met up at a few days prior, but frozen. Except so much closer to the neighborhood. How did it get there? You'd never seen it before, but it was right behind Julie's house. It didn't make any sense, but you decided to push it aside, like most things those days.

Sally skidded towards you from across the ice. "Here," a pair of skate's materialized behind her and she handed them to you.

"Thanks!" You knelt down and carefully laced up the pastel f/c ropes around your feet. They fit perfectly and in no time, you were on your way to join the others.

You noted where everyone was in case you accidentally got too close and bumped into them. Sally was confidently zooming in straight lines across the lake, like a rook in chess except more aggressive. Eddie and Frank were on the edge of the makeshift rink, one of which being clumsy and the other not knowing how to skate at all. Their dynamic made you grin and giggle like Julie. Speaking of, Julie and Poppy weren't on the ice at all. Rather, nearby enough to tell what was happening, but opting to make snowmen. Or, in this case, a neighborhood's worth of snow puppets. It seemed they were working on you, actually. Barnaby was nowhere to be found. And lastly, Wally. He was also nowhere to—"Hello, love."

You jumped a little at his unexpected appearance and nearly fell forwards. After a few strange leg maneuvers though, you successfully shifted your weight back to standing upright. "Please don't come up from behind me again."