"A-Ah…Achoo!"

"Bless you, Emmy."

A trail of viscous fluid trailed down the young woman's nose as she shivered from the sneeze. Layton, being courteous, took some tissue from a box nearby and held it up against Emmy's nose. After noting the prompt, she blew it (a tad bit too hard) and groaned. He made a frown in concern. He could only hope she wasn't getting too sick. But a question he had to ask was…

"Not to be rude, but what possessed you to come here? There were snowstorm warnings on television and it is fairly close to the evening…"

"Oh uh… just wanted to pay a visit since it's been a while… you know."

She watched his lips form a pout. It wasn't a fair excuse, and even he could see through it. But she knew him him well; he'd drop the topic all the same and not press further. And that he did, walking off to make a fresh pot of tea. He suddenly turned back to her.

"How are your clothes fairing?"

"Still kinda wet…" Emmy gazed over the fireplace to see her clothes hanging near to dry.

Her rushed trip over to Layton's caused her to fall off her moped (twice) from quickly freezing roads, the snow to melt and soak through her rather light winter wear, and lastly a possible head cold. She blamed her own lousy luck for the series of unfortunate events. At the same time, her own will got her into trouble, which was most likely the case. When she finally arrived, she was battered, wet, and cold.

Once she was let into his warm abode, he urged her to take a warm bath and provided a change of clothes. It felt foreign to her, wearing his sweater and pants for the time being. However, she wasn't going to deny it was much more comforting and warm than staying in her own. Being in those clothes felt like she was receiving a personal hug from the gentleman. The thought alone made her smile.

"I'll be fairly honest, I thought I was going to be alone here for the winter," he mused. "WIth Luke home with his parents, I've been grading reports and reading to pass the time."

"You don't celebrate the holidays?"

"Not as…avidly as I used to," his eyes looked spacey and far away,

"Usually there's a reason to celebrate. Most of that reasoning was lost with age."

He chuckled to himself and sighed slightly. Taking a poker and a block of wood, he went over to the fire and tended to it. His eyes were trained on the embers that suddenly burst into active flames. Standing up, he went back into the kitchen to fetch a kettle and tea set.

"Oh," was all she said.

Silently, he hung the kettle over the fire and allowed the water to boil.

"Er… I'm not imposing you by being here am I?"

Layton turned to meet her. "Oh no, no, no… In fact, I…" He began to trail off.

How to describe her being with him? It made him happy that she came to him first. Surely, she had other friends and family to go home to. His heart fluttered when he noticed her idly kicking her feet as she sat in place waiting for him to finish.

"Er… Professor?"

He snapped from his thoughts, "Ahem, yes?"

"You were going to say something else but you stopped."

"Right, erm… I was going to say that I am happy you came over to visit me. Not many do nowadays unless it was about a puzzle that needed to be solved. I just wish the circumstances could have been on a much lighter note. Meeting together during snowstorms is… unwise."

She rushed her way to his home, somewhat afraid to be alone. On top of that, he happily took her in, allowed her to warm herself up, and clothed her when she was wet and freezing cold. Soon, he'll be sitting next to her and offering her tea and company (an opportunity easily missed had she done nothing). To be this close to the man she respected the most was the wisest decision she had made in a long time.