RESEARCH ( barry berkman.. ) ✔

o29. santa shooter part 1..

"Alright, done," Barry stepped away from his mirror, turning around towards his bed with one wide spread of his arms to the side, "Tell me how I look and be honest." He raised his eyebrows, expectedly and waited in eagerness while Adelaide, tucked in his bed, put his laptop aside and finally got a good look at the costume for that night's Halloween play at the Cousineau's theater.

He mirrored the way her eyes widened, the way her mouth fell slightly agape in a round shape, however, while her lips pursed into the beginning of a faint smirk, Barry was realizing she was properly checking him out. The shock of self-awareness was puzzled. Wasn't he wearing a puffed costume of a fairytale character turned dark?

Addie was seeing the exact classic Santa costume, red in screaming for attention and fluffed up by white fur in accents around his neck, wrists and waist, yet she still chose to notice how absolutely adorable Barry looked, clueless and hidden in Santa hat a bit too big for his head. Of course she felt the tug of mischief and shifted her seated position into a kneeling one, closer to the foot of the bed.

"Honestly?" she asked for Barry's confirmation to continue her opinion, but the fact that she was grinning all along got him rather nervous to hear what she'd say, in the privacy of their room made out of just a locked door and thin walls freshened by an open window, welcoming the chills of autumn.

He could not phantom how Adelaide has not yet lost the skill of making him fall shamelessly in love with her as if it was their first time sharing an intimate trust. Barry gulped. His red gloved hands placed on his waist and he gave her the nod of consent firmly.

Adelaide's smile widened, obviously thrilled to turn his self-consciousness into well funded confidence. "I think I am starting to get real nervous about whether or not I made it on your naughty list this year, Santa," she winked, exaggerating such that even she was holding back a good laugh.

As for Barry, one gloved hand covered his cheeky smile. He bowed his head and almost turned around, stiffening embarrassment into the urge which needed a reminder: he could not take off the costume he just put on unless he could afford running late for the play preparations. That was entirely off the table of options, but Barry played along the mood him and Addie have been setting since her birthday, marking the beginning of their longest yet time of normalcy.

"Give yourself some credit," he mumbled, far less loud and confident, compared to her previous comment, "I think you've been quite the good girl."

Adelaide embraced her blush, dramatically clasping her hands at her chest, over her heart. "What if I told you I am highly curious about what you are not wearing underneath that handsomely shiny red suit?" she continued, just as borderline tempting as before. Contrasting Barry's overboard preparation, she was still in pajamas, making the just-woke-up style work.

That raw beauty was what Barry tried to avert his eyes from, "I would tell you you have to wait until I get off the stage, because this costume is harder than it looks to tie together."

"Wait," Addie was already slipping off the tall bed, "so you really have nothing under that?"

"Of course I have something underneath!" Barry argued back, turning to the mirror in his room, hearing Addie walk around the bed to join him. With the boots on, he was now even slightest taller than before, appropriately fitted for his first role on that stage, almost central. "It's a full costume underneath too. I borrowed Nick's suspenders for this-"

"You're wearing suspenders?" she gasped, nudging him from behind with an embrace. It was her sneaky way, against which Barry did not fight, to sense with her hands if indeed he was telling the truth. "No way," her excitement bubbled into a giggle and her curious touches turned into a squeezed hug.