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!]

Comments

[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."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Pudding doesn't really count as food anyway," Luke said. "No way you can get full off of it."

[eyelidkisses.livejournal.com]

"Don't give her ideas," Marshall sighed.

Kate wrinkled her nose at him. "Hey, I'm totally not that easily influenced."

He just shook his head. "No, but you always eat too much sugar over the holidays. And that says something about you."

[therewaslife]

"Don't give yourself a stomachache," Bod said, dropping a kiss against her hair before he started gathering up wrapping paper. "You'll be miserable if you're sick."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"She's tough, she can handle it," Luke joked, getting up and grabbing handfuls of wrapping paper. "And I'd probably tease you mercilessly if you whined."

[vanillajello]

"Hey, I run this house right now," Kate pointed out, ignoring Marshall's mild protests to the contrary. "You wouldn't want to tease the lady of the house, would you? That'd go against Christmas spirit!"

And hey, overindulging in foodstuffs was totally in the holiday spirit.

[therewaslife]

"You have a lot of assistance in running this house," Bod told her, still gathering up the wrapping paper. "Don't upset your loyal helpers now."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"You'll have a mutiny on your hands," Luke said as he wrapped up the wrapping paper he had into a large ball.

[vanillajello]

"Oh pfft," Kate responded, in her highly mature manner. Come on, they all loved her. "Just go take out the trash, boys. I might go look for board games while you're gone."

[therewaslife]

Bod started heading out towards the garbage cans, hands laden with wrapping paper. "And we will happily come back and beat you at any board game you choose, dearest."

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"I'm going to cheat, just fyi," Luke said, following Bod. Might as well be honest about it.