Overland Park, KS, Christmas Day 2011, Sunday FT

[vanillajello]

It was Christmas Day, fucking finally. It even felt like it: there had been some pretty impressive snowfall earlier in the week, so it was a seriously white Christmas, and Kate had really done her best to get the house looking Christmassy (and less creepily than when Grandma Sandy had been around some months before). The living room looked postcard perfect, with the tree in the corner and other decorations all around.

There'd been some Skypeing with Boston, earlier, and even the parentals had been pretty impressed with how things looked, when Kate had insisted on carrying her laptop around for a webcam tour. They were alone again now, though. Moosh was in the kitchen, putting finishing touches on what he had deemed gift-giving snacks, while Kate, in her adorable/ridiculous bear dress, was sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, a camera in her hands. Because a lot of these things just called for being immortalized as pixels.

She looked pretty happy. And sort of bouncy, even though she was sitting down.

"Sorry if I'm all hyper or whatever. I kinda always eat too much sugar over the holidays."

[ooc: NFB. For thems that are here!]

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[therewaslife]

"I can go, if that's all right."

Bod had to push Marshall's gift over to him since it was in a large box and there was no way he was going to pick it up and give it to the other boy.

Now, he didn't know Luke very well but he knew him somewhat through Kate so his box was heavy but he thought it fit the person he knew through Kate. Bod hoped he had a place to store those knives.

And for Kate, Bod passed a large gift that was practical and small gift that he just thought was gorgeous and would fit her.

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

Luke, of course, tore into his gift immediately. He didn't know Bod all that well so he was surprised to find a gift that was so perfect for him. "Wow, Bod, these are awesome. Thanks."

[vanillajello]

"Also why we could never have let our parents witness this," Marshall noted wryly, because seriously. Knives. He was a little more restrained about unwrapping his gift, thought the size and weight of it had him more than a little curious. "... Oh, wow," he said, once he'd broken through the wrapping to see what it was. "I –– thank you. This is way too much."

Kate snickered. "What, you're gonna need all that stuff when you move." And of course, she'd kind of been tearing into her larger gift while Marshall had been unwrapping his. She was impatient like that. "Aww, thanks, Bod," she grinned at the bag. "It's like you're expecting me to travel or something."

Yeah, there was a good chance she'd thought along the same lines when picking out his gifts, too.

The necklace was met a gleeful little squeal as well. "Oh that's so pretty," she enthused, getting up on her knees so she could reach over and give Bod's cheek a kiss. "Thank you, boyfriend."

[therewaslife]

"You're welcome," Bod said, smiling warmly over at her. "I'm glad you all like them. I'm a little inexperienced at gift giving so I do try my best so I'm glad you like them, I really am."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry, I'm new to it too." Which was a clear warning when he passed out his gifts to give. He wasn't going to mention how he got the gifts, though Kate probably already knew without him telling her.

He knew enough about how Marshall dressed to know that his gift wasn't completely out of place, but he got him gift cards for a few stores that he knew was in the area just in case. For Bod, Luke got a couple of nerdy book gifts and a gift card to Barnes & Noble.

You probably didn't want to know what went into stealing a gift card. It involved borrowing someone's wallet. Or the money in it, rather.

For Kate he first handed over a small gift and then held up a finger so he could get up and lug a huge box out of the other room. Seriously, the only reason Luke was able to carry this box himself was due to the godly half of his DNA. And the whole thing was filled with vanilla pudding cups. Yes, the whole thing.

[vanillajello]

Kate raised a curious eyebrow at him as he got up, while she was already unwrapping the other gift (so impatient). She didn't get to actually say anything about that one, because when she saw him dragging a box into the room, she naturally had to scramble to her feet to get a closer look. "What the...? Oh my God!"

There was much, much incredulous laughter, and also launching herself at Luke for a hug. "You are insane. Thank you. That's totally ridiculous."

Everyone knew she was going to eat all of those, too, didn't they?

[therewaslife]

Even Bod was amazed at that gift. Amazed in a completely good way, of course, because he hadn't thought of that and now he didn't have to think of that.

"That...is a lot of pudding," he said, still laughing. "We might have to get an extra refrigerator for just the pudding alone. What an amazing gift."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Luke said, laughing a bit himself. "I can't resist those giant stores that sell things in packs fifty."

[vanillajello]

"That is genius," Kate decided, letting him go so she could go back to her own stack of presents, the last one remaining. "Or crazy. I can't tell which. I just know none of mine seem like such original ideas anymore. But, you all love me so you'll just deal."

It helped to have a massive ego.

For her brother, she had a medium sized box and a flatter present. (Moosh was hard to shop for, she thought. She was still unsure whether that book was going to offer anything new to him.)

For Bod, she had one of those practical big presents, which had a smaller one attached. And naturally there was a flatter gift for him as well. "And, I might have something else for you," she added, once she'd handed all those over, "that I'm gonna save until way later so I don't cause you death by blushing or traumatize anyone else."

Which was probably for the best.

And finally, for Luke, she had a fairly heavy yet not terribly large gift, and something much smaller in a small box. As she gave him the latter, she said, "That's... kind of a symbolic one. To round out the year. Because I'm lame like that."

She also still had the stuff for Percy, but she was going to hold onto those for the moment.

[therewaslife]

Bod gave Kate a warm smile and started opening his bigger gift first. His eyes lit up and he ran a hand across it.

"This is amazing," he said sincerely, pleased. "It's very sleek and distinguished which means I won't look like a tourist everywhere."

The wallet had him looking in fascination at it because of the material and the gorgeous octopus on the front. He opened the other gift and was pretty sure he wouldn't stop smiling. He ran his fingers across it and laughed.

"Thank you," he said and couldn't help blushing anyway at her potential promise. "And I'll...look forward to seeing what else you might have for me."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Dirty," Luke said while he was working open his gifts. He didn't mind embarrassing people. He laughed when he opened up the cup. "I'm not planning to go to college, but I think I'll be able to put this to use anyway."

He got a little bit quieter when he opened up the pendant, but was smiling all the same. It was more appropriate than Kate probably realized, since she had never seen Annabeth's knife. "Thanks, Kate. I love it. It's pretty damn appropriate."

[vanillajello]

Kate gave him a shrug and a lopsided smile. "Well, I started out 2011 with you giving me a knife," she said, "so it felt like a good idea to end it by repaying the favor." Even if 2011 had been a really confusing year when it came to multiversal timezones, she neglected to add.

"Might I just say," Marshall interjected, "that I'm actually glad people are giving me cooking stuff instead of weapons or miniature versions thereof?"

"That's 'cause we're the troops and you're the catering, bro," Kate replied, flashing her brother a little smile as well. "So are you gonna make us cupcakes today?"

Marshall looked down at his new mini cupcake factory. "... So is this why you were obsessing about whether cupcakes were Christmas appropriate, yesterday?" he wondered. "Because I thought maybe you were having a random craving. And that you were maybe going to announce you're pregnant or something."

Kate wasn't even going to dignify that with an answer outside of a snort and a shake of her head. Instead, she picked up the last two small presents, and offered them to Luke. "And these are for the brat. The bigger one is the one he'll hate for sure. The smaller is one that I actually like, and he maybe might too if not for the fact that I'm not his mom."

[therewaslife]

"You're so thoughtful, Kate," Bod laughed, shaking his head. "Calling someone a brat is so loving coming from you."

He was teasing her, of course. "I'm sure he'll like this gifts."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"He's going to say he hates them whether he likes them or not," Luke said lightly. "It's just the way he is. But I'm happy you got him something."

[vanillajello]

"See, and that's really all I need," Kate declared, smiling. "Because I'm not crazy enough to expect him to fawn over me next time I see him." She glanced at Bod. "It's really not that kind of an operation with Percy."

[therewaslife]

"I don't know a lot of your friends," he said and shrugged. "I do my best with what I know, though, and I hope he would appreciate being thought of, at least."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Oh Percy and Kate aren't friends. They only tolerate each other 'cause one's my boyfriend and the other is my best friend," Luke shared. "Though I think they both get a kick out of antagonizing each other, I can't imagine why."

No he could imagine why. Antagonizing people was fun.

[vanillajello]

Kate rolled her eyes at that. "Yeah, right." She shook her head, then shrugged at Bod. "Other than that, he's totally right. Percy's not my friend. I called him a kid when I first met him and he's never forgiven me."

"Really?" Marshall deadpanned, galncing up from the book he'd been leafing through. "I'm sure you've been nothing but charming."

[therewaslife]

Bod snickered at that and didn't say anything because he kind of agreed with Marshall there. "Well, perhaps there's hope for a friendship in the future?"

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Luke said lightly. "But I'm okay with the hate so long as they don't kill each other."

[vanillajello]

"I don't even have anything against him." She just hadn't had a chance to show any of her newfound respect! (Also, it was just too hilariously easy to annoy Percy.) "Also seeing as he's all powered and I'm not, it'd probably be me who died."

[therewaslife]

"Let's not talk about anyone dying," Bod requested easily. "It is Christmas, after all. Would you like me to take the wrapping paper out to the trash cans?"

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"I can help," Luke offered. "Try to contain your shock."

[vanillajello]

Marshall was about to offer as well, but Kate held up a hand to stop him. "Don't, I'll get abandonment issues." Then she waved the hand at Bod and Luke. "Go on, then. Submit to your unnatural urge to be useful. I'll be here eating pudding."

[therewaslife]

"Don't eat too much of it," he said, getting to his feet. "You'll lose your appetite and you'll make your brother sad."

Wait.

"Never mind that, you will never lose your appetite, girlfriend."