RP: Christmas and Stuff

[harley_jordan]

Date: December 25, 2011
Characters: Harley Jordan, Thad Jordan, Ariel Crabtree, Kudzu Emory
Location: Harley's place above Reen's
Status: Private
Summary: Harley hosts Christmas and a birthday.
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[thaddeus_jordan]

Thad had had to deal with an apartment full of amazing smells over the past couple days and had tried not to do too much taste-testing even though he could probably have packed it all away by himself. Kudzu had outdone himself, and it was weird to be somewhere that was always full of home cooking smells. He couldn't remember ever having that, but it seemed to especially fit considering it was Christmastime. More stuff to add to the list of things he never thought he'd have a year ago.

When they arrived he felt pretty empty-handed compared to Kudzu, holding just the bag of gifts he'd brought for everyone, and was glad to take the cookies off his hands at least. "Oh she'll make room believe me," he said with a snort. "Thanks for cooking all this stuff. We should have a pretty good spread between you and whatever Ariel helped Harley put together."

He patted his pocket for his key, which Harley had refused to take back from him when he'd moved, and opened the door, shouldering his way inside and then holding it open for Kudzu.

"Holy shit," he murmured as he got a load of the mishmash of decorations.

"Yo," Harley said, her head in the refrigerator, "come in, come in, dump your crap wherever." She straightened and grinned at them both. "Hey, Merry Christmas and everything. Do I smell ham?"

[kudzu_emory]

"You smell ham." He agreed. "And also proof that when left to my own devices I no longer know how to relax."

He looked around the apartment with a vague impression of someone's sheer Christmas glee having exploded in every direction.

"Festive." He offered with a smile. "I like the lights. Should've brought popcorn with me. Dad says a tree isn't finished without popcorn garlands."

[harley_jordan]

"Not too much?" Harley looked around her place and laughed. Cleanup was probably going to be a bitch. Maybe she'd leave it all up for a while. "Thanks. Couldn't keep the lights just to the tree I guess. But if I'd known popcorn garlands were a thing people did, I'd have popped some for sure. Getting used to this whole Christmas tradition deal."

"Dude I love that you brought so much, good looking out," she said. Sure it was just the four of them, but there'd be no problem getting rid of it all in the next few days. "Oh hey, so this is Ariel -- she was at my party in August, but you didn't stay long, so." She winked, knowing the club hadn't been his style. It was cool that he'd braved it for her.

[kudzu_emory]

"Make sure you don't use stuff that had butter and salt on it. It gets messy if you use that stuff and if you have animals they spend the whole season licking the tree." He warned, piling food wherever there was a likely empty space for it. "Yeah, I don't know what got into me. Guess I was kind of homesick. My Aunties cook for weeks leading up the Christmas."

"Hi Ariel." He said, smiling at her quickly. "Uh. Yeah. Well. Clubs. Not really my scene. Next time I'll linger longer."

[harley_jordan]

"Do they even make popcorn without butter and salt? What's the point of that?" Harley snorted. "Anyway it's probably for the best I don't have it. Wednesday would've already have torn the tree down by now." Her smile softened a little. "Yeah, well I might not cook much, but I get missing family at Christmas. You think you'll go over and visit them sometime?"

She reached out and nudged his shoulder. "Nah, I wouldn't put you through that again. Should probably find out when your birthday is, though. We could like, sit around and read or something," she teased, "or do a movie night, something like that."

[kudzu_emory]

"For making garlands? I always use plain popcorn when I make it. Add my own butter and salt so I get exactly how much I want." Which was far less salt than usually came with it. "Did you get Wednesday a little santa hat?"

"I want too." He rubbed the back of his neck, "Not sure when though. Christmas didn't work out. Maybe in February if I don't have too much scheduled. Haven't been back since I moved out and I miss everyone something fierce."

"I prefer to celebrate in a dark room with a white noise machine." He said with a grin. "If I'm feeling festive, a single candle."

[harley_jordan]

"I feel like her red studded collar is probably festive enough, and she wears that every day," Harley said, stooping to pick up the puppy when she scampered in their direction. "Okay, so maybe I didn't know where to find one." She laughed and offered Wednesday to Kudzu. "She probably doesn't eat as much as Wallace does living over there with you." Wallace had a little more puppy fat than his sister, that was for sure.

"Well I hope you can get back to see them. Figure it's been long enough that you wouldn't be tempted to stay there forever, right?" He'd had to make a pact with his bestie to get out of there, so she figured it had to have been a concern at some point. "Bet having Peony visit made it harder too."

Harley laughed. "Sure thing, we can arrange for whatever you'd call celebrating."

[kudzu_emory]

He took the puppy gingerly and accepted the offered kisses.

"Well, I express myself through food. The puppy benefits. I think it's a good friendship." He felt a little guilty for that, but the dog didn't seem upset about it.

"Couldn't stay even if I wanted to. Peony would murder me and my father would kick my ass over the state line." He would too, Kudzu had no doubt about that. "Yeah...she's kind of. Home. For me. And let's talk about something else. Birthdays are good. Something small is fine, it's not a big one this year."

[harley_jordan]

"Hell, he's probably crazy about you," Harley told him. "It won't hurt. He's probably burning half of it off anyway if he's anything like Wednesday. Kinda miss having him here running around with her. I should bring her over sometimes if it wouldn't be weird."

She winced. "Yeah, whatever you want. Far be it for me to start conversations about emotional shit," she said, imagining herself in his shoes. If she were, this conversation wouldn't even be happening. "Small we can do. So what are you like, a spring baby? Don't make me pick your pocket and find out, because I totally did that to Ariel." She didn't know if it was good or bad that she could joke about picking pockets now.

[kudzu_emory]

"You're always welcome as far as I'm concerned." He offered. "It doesn't bother me to have more company around the house. Gives me someone else to shove leftovers on if nothing else."

"Nope. Winter, according to my driver's license." His actual birth date was up for argument since his mother hadn't bothered with anything so normal as a hospital visit. On legal documents they'd settled on the day he'd arrived in foster care. "January 20th."

[harley_jordan]

"We wouldn't make too much noise," she said with a wink. "I'll have to drop by soon anyway because I might finally let Thad do my tattoo. Mostly so he'll stop bugging me about it."

"Oh, jeeze, glad I asked. That's not far off, I'm barely going to have time to book a DJ and sell tickets," she said, setting Wednesday down on the floor to run over to Thad. "I did get you a little something for today, though." She headed over to the tree and retrieved his gift, which was a soft leather bound journal with unlined pages, around which she'd tied a bow. "For more poems and shit."

[kudzu_emory]

"What's he going to do on you?" He asked. "I've been thinking of getting something else, but I can't settle on an image. Peony chose my last one."

"Oh." He took it, rubbing a thumb over the soft leather. "Harley...wow. Thanks, really."

He flushed, but leaned over to quickly brush a kiss over her cheek. "That was really nice of you."

[harley_jordan]

"It's going to be a bird I think. A while ago he drew me this phoenix thing? It was pretty cool looking." She nodded fervently. "It's way too big a commitment not to be sure about the picture. I've only got one little one right now, never been like Thad where I wanted to have a lot of them. It's so....permanent, you know?"

His reaction surprised her, mostly because he didn't seem a touchy-feely type. Not in the same way she wasn't, but because he seemed to get spooked by that sort of thing. "Yeah, well," she mumbled. "Figure we've known each other awhile now. Glad you like it, I'm new to this type of thing."

[kudzu_emory]

"I've got my newts." He pushed up his sleeve fractionally to show off the end of an orange tail. "I like them. Liked getting tatto'd too. Probably a little too much. Could wind up with one of those guys totally covered."

"It's good." That someone had paid attention to his interests and deliberately purchased something for him was...different. Only his family and Peony did that. It was worth a little discomfort to express his pleasure. "You could be our matriarch in a couple of years if you keep gathering up a circle of people like this."

[harley_jordan]

"You and Thad are like two peas or something," Harley said with a laugh. "And yeah, the whole tattoo process I wasn't a huge fan of. I'm not that squeamish about pain, but still." She'd had it done twice, once to get the gang tat and again to get it covered up. "You'll figure it out, though. Maybe words this time, instead of pictures."

She groaned. "That a good thing to be? I can't tell. I don't think I'd ever qualify to be something that kinda sounds like 'mother'."

[kudzu_emory]

"Not sure there's anything said that I like enough to grind it into my skin." He mused. "And yeah, guess we are in some ways. Makes us decent roommates."

"It's an excellent thing." He reassured her. "Every big family has one where I'm from. You get to be in charge and be smarter than everyone else."