25 days of fic days 16-21

I realized that I forgot to update. Whoops.

16.            Fireplace

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire… Hmm. Rock Lee wasn’t entirely sure he had ever seen a chestnut before. But it was snowing outside, and he knew that it couldn’t be a classic Christmas without the roasting chestnuts. Surely, in the spirit of the season, there would be some at the corner store. It usually had a festive air about it.

So Lee adjusted his leg weights and challenged himself to make it to the corner store so fast that he did not even have time to get cold.

Well, he did so, but once he was inside, he forgot about chestnuts. There was Kurea, buying a bunch of Christmas cookies!

“Kurea!” He called. “It is a great surprise to meet you here!”

“Lee!” said Kurea. “It is not a great surprise to meet you here because I saw you coming.”

“Is that so?” Lee didn’t know what to say next.

Kurea bought her cookies and left. Lee started to remember why he came. Just then he remembered something more important. Kurea wasn’t supposed to have sugar! He dashed outside. Where was that girl? He dashed all around town. Finally he found her swinging off of trees from her toes.

“Calm down!” he said. “How many cookies have you eaten?”

“A half.” Kurea said, her fingers twitching.

“You had better relax a bit.” Lee said, taking the rest of the box of cookies out of Kurea’s reach.

“Aw but”

“Nope.”

It was a sad day for Kurea, but a relieved day for everyone else.

17.            Stockings/socks

The Teen Titans woke up to find that they each had a brand new pair of thigh high fuzzy socks in interesting patterns. Star Fire’s were purple and had polka dots. She immediately put them on. They were perfect! And oh-so-cozy! Which mysterious friend had left them?

Raven’s were an inky blue, almost black. She thought them atrocious, mostly because of the fuzz. But due to the fact that her outfit was basically a leotard, she was secretly glad for the warmth. She wore them under the guise of “making Star Fire happy.” Which it did.

It was even weirder for the guys. But Star Fire insisted that everyone wear them.

Beast Boy actually didn’t mind. His were green and covered in white shapes that were probably /supposed/ to be various animals, but they just looked like fuzzy venus fly traps. He soon began slipping and sliding around the newly clean floors of Titans Tower.

Cyborg was very perplexed. His were pink and had stars. He was pretty burly, so they wouldn’t even fit over his legs/boots (not that he wanted to wear them). What could he use them for? The answer became clear. Oven mitts! He tried to bake pies for everyone. But the socks just caught fire. Oh well. He didn’t really have a use for them anyway.

Robin’s socks were green and gold striped. He had to admit they looked pretty cozy, but there was no way he’d wear thigh high girl socks. So weird! So uncool. Star Fire was insisting, but she just /didn’t understand./ It was no good. He secretly “lost them” by giving them to the delivery girl when she brought a package. The delivery girl felt honored to get something from the super cool Robin of the Teen Titans, so she wore the socks a lot.

18.            Cookies (milk)

Once upon a time, there were so many cookies at the house of my house. I did not eat a single one of them.

That was it; that was the fan fiction; I am a fan of cookies and the fiction was that I didn’t eat any.

19.            Santa

Pootnic was on a predicament ledge. It was a special sort of ledge on which one stood when one wanted to be in a predicament. The predicament was not, predictably, the height or crumbliness of the ledge (though those should have been taken into account since the ledge was made of pop tart and was going to fall apart any second). The predicament was whether or not Santa was real. This really was a very pressing question. It was like when you took a playdough and put it in the play dough mold and smashed it, pressing it. Pretend the play dough is  question. Pressing question. Have you got it yet? In any case, Pootnic pressed the play dough I mean the question while he pondered it. If Santa wasn’t real, then why was Pootnic’s long lost brother Buddy the Elf? If Santa was a fake then so was Buddy, and Pootnic knew that Buddy had been there when he was born. That was because they were twins, born at the same time. Their werewolf father hated Buddy for all his Christmas cheer and banished him to the north pole.

Since Pootnic heard the story straight from Buddy, it was undeniably, undoubtably, indubitably, unquestionably true and right and not fake at all. There was no question about Buddy and Santa’s friendship either. Buddy and Santa were such good friends that it was almost frightening. They knew EVERYTHING about each other. Like even what deodorant they hated. It was because one time they were in the military together, and everyone is in close quarters there. The quarters were closer than the quarters in a roll of quarters that you bring to the washing machines in public washing machine rooms like laundrimates, and those quarters are pretty close. In any case, the close friendship of Santa and Buddy made Pootnic a little jealous sometimes. Hero was good friends with Gangster and Obi the White was good friends with Gandalf Kenobi, but Pootnic was not close with anybody. He wished for a best friend. His wish was granted when he realized he was STANDING ON A GIANT POP TART. It was kind of ridiculous how awesome the concept was. Then the pop tart crumbled.

Betrayal wrenched Pootnic’s fragile ice cream heart into two perfectly shaped paper cranes. The two cranes nuzzled and cooed and kissed and it was almost adorable until they melted because they were ice cream and they made the large pop tart crumbs soggy and so when Pootnic finally landed, it was on a giant slab of soggy white enriched bleached flour. It was the grossest thing of all grossville, and that was saying a lot since Pootnic lived there for six days without even noticing. Even Pootnic knew that if he came home like this, Buddy the Elf, Santa Claus, his werewolf dad, and Hero and Gangster and both the elderly wizard buddies would crush him in anger and rage.

So Pootnic did the unthinkable. He took

A BATH

In peanut butter.

20.            Sled

A young man was sledding down a big hill with snow. The hill did not have snow, just the young man. The young man was holding the snow. But it was still with him.

21.            Snowman

“You’ve never built a snowman?!” Erica grabbed the sleeve of Thor’s big comfy sweater (a gift from herself) dramatically. “That’s it, we’ve got to build one now.”

“It sounds most enjoyable,” Thor agreed.

“Just let me get my coat and gloves and all that.” Erica disappeared back to her bedroom. Gail was sprawled out napping on the bed, drooling some. Under normal circumstances, Erica would have let it slide, but the drool was unacceptable. She shoved her sister a little as she put on her coziest boots. “Hey. Go sleep on your own bed, or come outside and build a snowman with us.”

“Ugh.” Gail forced her eyes open. “I was having a nice dream.”

“You chose the wrong spot.” Erica chided her. “Now get dressed for going out.”

“Why.”

“I told you, we’re building a snowman. Thor’s never done it.”

“I was under the assumption that was one of two options.” Gail dragged herself off the bed and started towards her own, on the other side of the divided room.

“Nope, it’s decided now.” Erica said. “Boots, coat, scarf, whatever you choose.”

“Wow, I can choose my own clothes now.” Gail mumbled.

“Shut up. I’ll be expecting you in six minutes.” Erica wrapped a salmon colored knit scarf around her neck. It perfectly complimented her long, simple and black felty looking jacket with big buttons. Of course, nearly anything complimented black, but it was classic. She pulled a beige beanie over her ears and headed back out to the living room.

“I like the hat.” Thor had learned to compliment Erica on her fashions, because he could tell it made her happy.

“Thank you!” Erica skipped over to Thor and took his hand as she passed, pulling him to the door. They went out and immediately she began to show Thor the art of perfectly making big, round snowballs. He got the hang of it pretty fast and soon the bottom part of the snowman was as tall as she was.

Just then, Loki came back with the groceries. How had he been given this task again? Oh yeah, Gail was sleeping, Erica was too busy staring dreamily into Thor’s eyes, and Thor was too busy staring adoringly into Erica’s. Heaven forbid they… -gasp- GO TO THE STORE TOGETHER.

Loki dropped the bags on the floor in the twins’ kitchen. Inside were the fixings of a Christmas dinner. They were probably the wrong brands and the wrong sizes, but that’s what you get for sending an asgardian prince to the grocery store by himself. Loki reasoned that even if the small amount of thought he put into his choices led to the incorrect result, it would everyone else’s own fault.

He figured the best idea now was to sit by himself or go see what Gail was up to or what Thor and Erica were doing with that ridiculously large ball of snow outside. All three options had their merit. Just then, option two came out from the back of the apartment, still looking groggy and a bit annoyed, and in the most mismatched outfit she possibly could have been wearing. She either didn’t notice or pretended not to notice Loki there (the latter was more likely) and went to the grocery bags on the floor. The perishables found their way into the fridge or freezer, and the rest was lined up on the counter. Nothing was said about them. The air didn’t seem right for conversation.

Gail walked to the door and just before opening it, breathed in and out, preparing her countenance to face a more cheery audience. “You coming out?” She asked Loki, and stepped through the door without waiting for an answer.

It was now down to option one or a combination of two and three. Oh well. There would be time for sitting in solitude later. Loki went down to the lawn.

“Gaiiiiiiiiiil!” It was difficult to tell whether Erica was sobbing or laughing or both. Her sister who only wore hoodies now stood before her with a black and white striped scarf (which wasn’t bad) and a blue cat-eared hat (which wasn’t too bad either) and an orange and totally different shade of blue shooting-star sweater (which was never a very good sweater) and plaid pajama pants over bootcut jeans with sweatpants beneath (this was very puffy and painful to look at). To finish off, all the gloves and boots were mismatched.

“This is what happens when you don’t dictate my style choices, Erica.” Gail said, monotone.

“How long did you spend choosing the worst combinations ever?” Erica snorted. “I don’t believe you could have put that together even by accident.”

“Well of course I chose things that would make your stomach churn.” Gail said. “But I bet I’m more comfy than you.”

“Whatever.” Erica laughed it off. “Help us with the snowman.”

“Nope.” Gail said. “My work here is done. I want to go snuggle with a blanket.”

“Oh no you don’t.” Erica grabbed the back of Gail’s terrible sweater as she turned to leave.

“But it’s coooooooold.” Gail whined.

“When it’s hot you complain!” Erica said. “You’re always excited for it to get cold!”

“That’s because cold lets you get warm in blankets and fireplaces and steamy cocoa and cuddling.” Gail pouted. “Hot is just hot and it’s gross.”

“Loki!” Erica called over to the slightly bemused onlooker. “Stop her!”

Gail had made a dash for the apartment.

Out of pure obligation (only because he was asked to, really, that’s it), Loki’s arm got in the way of Gail’s trajectory and slung her around to face the other direction. It did become a sort of hug thing.

“Noooooooooooo.” Gail complained, but it was a half hearted complaint. At least it was a bit warmer being in contact with another human- well, not human, but another being… Not that it mattered.

She wriggled out of obligation, but soon gave up because OKAY LET’S FACE IT SHE LIKES LOKI HUGS EVEN IF SHE WON’T ADMIT IT IN FRONT OF HER SISTER.

“Aw.” Erica grinned. Then she made Thor hug her, too.

There were hugs all around.