The Top-Secret Petrelli Family Christmas Tradition
Title: The Top-Secret Petrelli Family Christmas Tradition
Author: cameroncrazed
Rating: PG
Word Count: 700
Disclaimer: Sooo not mine, none of it.
Christmas/holiday gift for rogueguitar13: prompt - 24 hours of “A Christmas Story”
“Now, since this is Gabriel and Claire’s first official Christmas as Petrellis…”
Claire interrupts Angela. “I was a Petrelli last year, even if we did cancel Christmas.”
Angela sighs, but continues on. “Since we’re celebrating this as their first Christmas, I’d think this is the perfect time to induct them into the top-secret Petrelli Christmas tradition, one that we hold closest to our hearts and brings us closer as individuals, bonding us as a family…”
Sylar and Claire exchange dubious looks, then he mutters. “If it’s one big happy family orgy, I’m out of here.”
“Hey, I heard that!” Peter glares at them. “And, no, it’s not a family orgy. What would even make you think that we do stuff like that at Christmas?” He blushes, and Sylar notices Nathan’s answering blush too, but chooses to ignore it, like he’d ignored the mistletoe incident earlier.
“No, it’s more sacred. It’s the ‘Christmas Story’ marathon!” Angela snaps back.
“The what?” Claire has to ask.
Peter tries his best to answer her. “You know, the movie ‘A Christmas Story’? They show it for 24 hours straight on Christmas, and we all stay up and watch it together!”
“O…kay.” She thinks it’s a bit strange, and slightly childish, but if they want to watch a movie, it’s just an hour and a half long; it can’t be that bad.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Oh dear God, it’s coming on yet again.” Claire slumps against the arm of the couch. “I didn’t think you meant we had to watch the entire marathon.”
Peter just stares at her strangely. “What else would we watch?”
She wonders if they’d notice if she fell asleep; Nathan had slapped Sylar across the back of the head when he tried to nap through it earlier.
- - - - - - - - - -
“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!” Nathan, Peter, Monty, and Simon gleefully chorus along with the TV.
Claire can’t help but wince at the sudden memory of Mohinder shooting her father. Sylar notices the movement, and wraps his arm around her shoulders, letting her draw comfort from him if she wants to. She snuggles against his side, trying her best to ignore the movie and the rest of their family.
- - - - - - - - - -
“You’ll shoot your eye out!”
It might have been slightly cute the first time every guy in her family - with the exception of Sylar, of course - screamed the line along with the movie characters, but now she just wants to gouge her ear drums out. “I need a drink.” She runs out of the room before anyone can stop her.
Three minutes later, when Sylar slips into the kitchen, it surprises her.
“What are you doing, babydoll? I thought you were going to ransack Nathan’s liquor cabinet.”
“No, I’m looking for the rat poison instead.”
“Ah, good choice, but it has a chalky aftertaste.”
She just smirks at him. “I’m not putting it in my drink.”
“There you two are!” Heidi scares them both by walking into the middle of their plotting. “I need a little bitsy refill too.” She holds up the bottle of whiskey she’d been nursing all evening, turning it over to show them it was bone dry.
As she stumbles over to the alcohol stash, Sylar just whistles. “Damn. And I thought Nathan was the drinker in the group.”
“Hey, not a word from you, mister. If I have to watch that goddamned movie a thousand times every single year, then I sure as hell am going to drink through it.”
- - - - - - - - - -
“You’ll shoot your eye out!”
Sylar leans closer to her, close enough that it causes her to shiver, and whispers “If I hear 'You'll shoot your eye out.' one more time... I swear I'll hunt down the author and…" he motions at his neck, and she giggles.
"Too bad. He died in 1999." Claire doesn’t mention that she’d looked up the fact on IMDB during her last bathroom break, already thinking about that.
“Looks like we're going back to the future then, hon! Now, where's that stupid Hiro Nakamura when I need him?”
The peanut gallery interrupts them again with another chorus of “You’ll shoot your eye out!”
Claire’s eyes narrow. “When we find him, let me help you. I hate this movie!"
A/N. Most of the last few lines of dialogue are courtesy of rogueguitar13 - thanks!