Adam Jenkins (findingmiami) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2011-01-12 21:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | adam jenkins, npc, polyhymnia, shiri eneas |
Who: Adam, Shiri/Poly and Kathy (npc)
What: Christmas Morning Conversations
Where: NJ, Kathy's home
When: *Backdated* Christmas Morning
Warnings: Fluff? That's about it.
It was early on Christmas, but not too early.
Children everywhere were already awake, shaking their gift boxes and dragging their bleary-eyed parents around the Christmas tree to begin the day.
Shiri was sneaking back into the house. She had awoke up in Adam’s arms on the couch long before the dawn and slipped out of his arms. Everything in her divine frame drove her out of the house; it wasn’t until she had her shoes and coat on that she understood what she was doing. By the time she had reached a nearby church she had properly swallowed down her pride. The conquered had to pay homage to kings but... in spite of herself, she was able to forget that fact in the midst of the chants and the incense and the fervor...
How she had missed this Maronite Church before she didn’t know. It must not have lined up when she had been trying to visit as many churches as possible that first year.
But now she was sneaking back into the house, the lingering scent of incense still on her clothing and skin. She didn’t even notice. It wasn’t that odd for her to smell of incense that it didn’t click in her mind... All that she was focused on was slipping back into Adam’s arms on the couch where she had left him.
Adam woke partly as Shiri slipped out to leave, but promptly fell back asleep. The couch wasn’t too bad to sleep on, and it wasn’t abnormal for her to leave him. However, when she returned, it was later, and he was more prepared to wake up. He let her slip easily back into his arms, and he pulled her tight against him. He inhaled, smelling the incense within her hair, and smirked just a hint. “Church?” he asked sleepily, and nuzzled against her.
“No, I had you lighting incense to me in your sleep,” she murmured with a small, teasing smile as she settled into his arms, pulled the blanket back over both of them. She was certain that that blanket had been their downfall last night. As soon as that blanket got pulled up, they both were out like lights. “Very accommodating in your slumber.”
“Anything for you, [my lady],” he murmured back to her, helping to pull the blanket properly into place and settling in once again. They probably wouldn’t actually be able to fall asleep, but Adam was content enough to simply lay there and perhaps doze until they decided to get up and do something about food and gifts.
“Is your mother sleeping in for once?” Shiri asked as she curled up more, finding the spot she had left when she had woken up. No wonder she had fallen asleep... it was an incredibly comfortable spot. “I do not smell coffee brewing yet...”
Adam had to pause and think about that for a moment. He lifted his head to listen, then settled into his spot once more. “Maybe. She might be in her room reading though. I haven’t heard her.” Not that that said a lot, since he’d been mostly asleep until recently.
She giggled, “Maybe next year I will sleep in. Then we all would have slept in once.”
He smirked. “I don’t know if you can sleep in,” he teased her.
“Can to!” she protested, pulling away from him just a little to be able to meet his eyes while still held in his arms and wrapped in the blanket. “I used to sleep in all the time freshman year. But then my internal clock reestablished itself in the summer...” But then Shiri paused. Could she sleep in on Christmas day was a more complicated question... She had found herself out the door before she even knew what she was doing...
Stupid Christian nation messing with her mind.
She never wandered off when she was in the Muslim lands like that. At least not on Christmas.
She let out a long exhale and settled back against him, “I could go to midnight mass and then make out with you until three. That would ensure me sleeping in, I would think...”
Adam chuckled at the idea, and leaned in to place a kiss to her temple. “Next year will can try it,” he promises. “I’ll even make sure there’s hot coco for you and everything.” Assuming he remembered, but that was for another year away.
“Then I will just curl up in your bed and stay there,” Shiri nodded against his chest, “Not wake up until you carry me down the stairs and I find myself with a present in my hands.”
“Is that how you hope to wake up next year?” he asked casually. He gave her a slight squeeze in his arms, then yawned as he brought himself more alert. He raised his arm to look at his watch and see what time it really was. “Do you want to nap, or eat?”
“That is kinda how I want to wake up every morning.” Shiri wouldn’t even claim it wasn’t. Wake up bundled in a blanket, carried around by her attractive priest and then have a gift in her hands? No. There was just no part of that she didn’t like. She glanced over at his watch, as if she would be able to read it from her angle. “Are you planning on cooking?”
He shrugged, wrapping the arm around her again. “I can.” He kisses the back of her head, not bothering to move away until she tell him if she is hungry or not.
“But I am all warm now...” Shiri pouted. It was cold outside and she had been outside. Him cooking meant she lost her boyfriend space heater... She gripped his arm tightly when it wrapped back around her.
Adam chuckled at her possessive grip, and settled in again to stay right at her side. “Alright. We’ll wait. Mom will probably be out soon anyway,” he added.
“Do you think she will ever tire of making Christmas breakfast for us?” Shiri asked as gripped his arm tighter only then to release it to rest her head on the inside of his elbow. She stared out toward the living room proper, glancing at the tree before closing her eyes.
Adam shifted for her, and freed a hand enough to brush back her hair from her face as she settled in. He continued to smile, amused. “I think we’ll pay her back for it in time,” he answered. “We can handle dinner a few nights.”
Shiri tried very hard to resist the nuzzle into his touch as his fingers lightly brushed against his skin. Though, she also wondered if there was a reason not to nuzzle into his touch. She was more than certain that if she did, his mother would walk in on them being adorable. “I would not mind that. I am used to cooking dinner.”
As though Kathy had never seen them looking adorable. Adam smiled, as if knowing what she wanted to do. “Good,” he said simply, content to simply relax on the couch for the moment.
“We can make her favorite meal,” Shiri said in a half yawn as she pressed her back against him. His relaxed state was simply contagious. Even in her religious buzz of the holy day, she couldn’t help but yawn as she relaxed with him.
Adam only made some soft sound of agreement, and let his thoughts begin to wander, considering what meal might be best, and a dessert to go with it.
A few minutes later, the door for Kathy’s room opened, and the mother to the mortal stepped out. She smiled as she saw the pair on the couch and settled her sweater about her. Coming up behind the couch, Kathy peered down at them. “Now I understand why you didn’t turn the heat on yet...”
“Adam is a space heater. No need for additional heat sometimes,” Shiri replied quickly with a smile as her desire for yawns disappeared from her. His mother was here, there would be no more time for laying about and pseudo-napping... at least for any length of time. “Merry Christmas, Kathy. Sleep well?
Kathy chuckled some and reached down to mess Adam’s hair as she peered at Shiri. “Merry Christmas, Shiri. I slept fine.” She glances to Adam, then back to Shiri. “How about you?”
As they started to chat, Adam tried to get his hair back in order to some degree, then started to shift in preparation for actually getting up.
Shiri managed to actually get up, pulling herself from Adam’s arms without her normal reluctant sigh. Her mind decided that such an act would just be weird in front of his mom. Instead, she even found herself standing quickly enough, “I slept well enough. Then I woke up early. I find myself on an early schedule lately anyway.”
Adam pulled the blankets away and started to fold them on the foot of the couch, before standing and stretching. He glanced between the two women, before slipping past in search of the thermostat, to turn the heat within the house up a few degrees.
Kathy lifted an eyebrow to Shiri. “Oh?” She glanced after Adam, then back to her. “Is he snoring?”
“No, he sleeps like a big, snuggley rock,” Shiri giggled and then shrugged, “I just have spent most of life without electricity. My internal clock is hardwired for dawn.” When Shiri got home from this winter vacation, she was actually going to bother to write a list of similarities between her life as Polyhymnia and the fictional life as Shiri and put that one on the top. She was so proud of it. There was no lie in it at all.
“I suppose that would explain it,” Kathy smiles. “Did you go to church this year?” she asked, moving around the couch and heading toward the kitchen, slowly, to hear Shiri’s reply.
Catching sight of his mother’s movement, Adam crossed into the kitchen ahead of her and began the tasks of starting coffee, or at least hot water. He knew what each of them would want, and hot water would be the best way to cover the bases.
“Yes,” Shiri replied softly, keeping at Kathy’s heels as she led them into the kitchen, “You have so many places of worship near your house and I simply could not help myself. I have rarely had the liberty to just stroll into one and visit. But when I visit you? Different.” Ooh, Shiri was putting that one on her list, too. This was a fun game. She couldn’t help but smile in her amusement.
As they entered the kitchen, however, she moved passed the actual owner of the house and began to take out the mugs for the warm beverages. Guest she may be, but she wasn’t a stranger. She knew where everything was now, “But it was cold outside...”
Adam lifted his head as them came in. Watching Shiri, he waited until the water was in the coffee maker, though there was no coffee in it, and moved to stand at her side, kissing the side of her head before he settled to lean back against the counter, arching his eyebrows up a bit.
Kathy smiled and, seeing that everything else was started, reached for the small french press, and the tin of coffee grounds near it. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” she commented, then looked around the kitchen, before pointedly looking eyes with Adam. “Who’s cooking breakfast?”
The son glanced to Shiri, then back to his mother. “Are we doing that before presents?”
Well, well. His mother was keeping them on their toes. To think Shiri simply assumed it would be Kathy cooking breakfast. Shiri placed the mugs at their rightful places at the table and then moved closer to Adam, placing a gentle kiss to his jaw before shooing him toward the table. “I can cook if you want, Kathy. We could always cut the difference and bring our plates into the living room closer to the gifts...”
Kathy shook her head slightly. “No need, dear. I’ll make breakfast,” she smiled, her question from before more teasing. “But,” she added, “You two have to do the dishes.”
As this sounded more of a threat than it was, Adam nodded. “Sure.” The dishwasher was a good friend to have. He started to settle himself at the table where Shiri had shooed him, before standing again to find the hot chocolate, which he knew often ended up on a high shelf.
Shiri knew where she was going to go then. She had been properly verbally shooed and with Adam getting the drinks prepared, she simply sat, stretching her legs under the table to rest them along the other chair on the opposite side, taking advantage of the fact that kitchen tables came with even numbers of chairs. “I claim drying if we are washing in the sink. I am good at drying.”
Adam chuckled as he brought down the hot chocolate and set it on the counter. “Alright,” he agreed, starting to search for the small marshmallows he knew had to be somewhere.
Kathy only glanced between the two, then moved to the fridge and started to pull items out, deciding what she would use for breakfast. “Will anyone want orange juice?”
“It is too cold outside for orange juice...” Shiri murmured half under her breath, but at the same time loud enough to be heard. Even though she was inside, even though the heat was on and she wasn’t cold... it was cold outside and somehow cold drinks had become unacceptable to the muse with that knowledge.
Kathy turned to peek at her. “Do you think milk is too cold too then?” she asked.
“Milk is different,” Shiri lifted her gaze and pink eyes to meet Kathy’s gaze, “It does not taste weird if you let it become warm.”
Finding the marshmallows, Adam joined Shiri at the table, though he stood for the time being. “It also goes well in hot chocolate and with coffee,” he added.
Kathy looked at both of them, then set the milk on the counter with everything else, smiling at she did so. “I’m assuming that bacon and eggs are alright then?”
“Of course.” Adam glanced to the coffee marker, brewing its hot water, and back to his mother. “Are you doing scrambled eggs or omelets?”
She looked to each of them. “Which would you prefer?”
Shiri couldn’t help but glance over her shoulders. She could still smell the incense when her hair came too close to her face and that made her think about her religious college friends and their jokes that she was a terrible Muslim whenever she broke the dietary rules. But they wouldn’t here. No one who would give her any grief about anything was here. With a grin, she answered, “Yes, bacon and eggs sound fine.... I would like an omelet. They are all some piece and fun.”
Adam shrugged. He didn’t really care, and his mother only gave him a mockingly annoyed look when she saw the shrug. Deciding that would be something everyone could have, she looked back to their supplies.
“What do you like in your omelet, Shiri? We have cheese, some mushrooms and tomatoes... some green onions...” She pulled out the choices as she named them, and paused to hear what might be requested.
Adam wasn’t doing anything and wasn’t in arm’s length? Shiri frowned only slightly as she reached out for him... If she didn’t also respond to Kathy, she would have probably begun to make baby bird sounds to beckon him closer as well, but the muse had to multitask, “Ooh, ooh, cheese and mushrooms.”
Seeing her reaching for him, Adam moved closer, and kissed her on her forehead, before turning to get the hot water to mix the coco. Mugs were down, and he filled two with the water before setting it back for his mother, then brought mugs and coco mix, marshmallows and all over to his girlfriend. “I’ll take everything,” he mentioned, and fetched a spoon to mix everything together.
Kathy cast him a quick glance, almost as if to say ‘duh’, then closed the refrigerator door to turn and start getting things together, heating elements needed to cook the food.
The muse wanted her mortal boyfriend but hot chocolate and marshmallows would do as a substitute... for now. At the very least they would occupy her hands as she made her drink, filled it with marshmallow and then wrapped her pale hands around the mug to drink it like a child would. “Are you sure you do not need help, Kathy?”
“No, I’m fine.” She glanced and smiled to the albino. “Unless you want to get my coffee started for me...” She moved the breakfast items closer to the stove, and started to break a few eggs into one of the pans, scrambling them with a spatula, before reaching for the bacon.
Taking the hint, Adam moved to the french press and quickly made the start to the coffee. He returned to take a seat next to Shiri, and prepared his own hot chocolate. “Should we move into the living room, again?” he asked.
Shiri couldn’t help herself but lean a little against Adam when he sat at her side, “When everything is done we can move into the living room. It would be easier that way.”
Adam nodded and kissed Shiri’s temple again, wrapping a free arm around her as his mother set to work in the kitchen. He was content to simply sit and sip the hot chocolate.
It didn’t take long for the food to finish cooking and everyone to have a plate with their breakfast desires of eggs, bacon and fruit, plus a full hot drink. Holding plates and mugs, the tiny group moved into the living room, and Adam passed out the few gifts to each member. Once more, he looked between the two women in the room, swallowing a drink of hot chocolate. “Fast or slow?”
Gathering her gifts around her like a little holiday nest, Shiri turned to Adam incredulous, “Have we ever opened these gifts slowly?” She then turned to Kathy with a grin, “I think this may be your son’s first Christmas with us.”
Kathy smiled and sipped her coffee. “Didn’t we go at least a little slower last year?” she asked, then looked at Adam. “But this year, all at once is fine.” Carefully she set the mug down, and looked at her gifts.
Adam shrugged and gathered his own gifts within reach. He tended to be slower than Shiri when it came to opening gifts, but this was a well accepted fact. “Fast then.” He looked ot Shiri. “Do you want to count down, then?”
“Okay, okay...” Shiri brought her gifts closer and made sure her food and drink were far enough away from where the paper would be flying to as she grinned. She did love opening gifts. There was very little that could beat the pure, simple pleasure of taking a brightly colored box, tearing away such paper and find a hidden gift inside. It was the simple things that made her very complex life so much more enjoyable sometimes... “Three, two, one...”
She always opened Kathy’s first and broke out into a brighter smile at the brand new scarf and matching mittens. They were even the fancy ones that had the mitten flap that could open and close over gloved fingers. That fact drove the muse’s thoughts into a delighted frenzy as she imagined how warm her hands were going to be if the weathermen were right and some crazy storm did hit the house tomorrow.
“Thanks, Kathy...” she murmured, confident that the mortal woman wouldn’t have heard her as she opened her own gifts by politeness was sometimes automatic. She then turned to Adam’s gift and giggled as she read what the strange package actually contained. Hair Tinsel. Hair tinsel that she was just going to half cover with the more delicate head scarf that he had also gotten her. She was going to be shiny and warm if the storm did come. Something she could live with.
Kathy couldn’t help but partly watch as the two opened their gifts, and turned to do hers as well. She looked at the gifts from Adam, the classic watch and book that was tradition, but also some nice gloves and a picture from the year before of the three of them together. She then moved on to Shiri’s gift. Opening it, she found another book, and lifted to examine it, before looking to the book beneath. She stared for a few moments, then looked up to Adam, then Shiri, surprise clear on her face. She looked down to the second book again, lifting it out, and opened it, to find that not only did she hold in her hands a coffee table book of art by her son, but that it was the first book in the set.
Adam had glanced up from his own gifts at the look of surprise on his mother’s face. It was more dramatic than his own, as he looked at the gallery book in his own hands, and the stickie note on top telling him to wait to open. He glanced to Shiri at this, curious, but trusting, and simply settled with looking it over on the outside. This caused him to also notice the metallic sharpie set that was tucked within. His gifts from his mother included the standard book, collection of comics, and watch.
As each finished, Adam grinned and stood, going to each and thanking them with a kiss on the cheek.
Shiri gave Adam a hug when he came into range of her, but knew to release him. They weren’t home. He had to thank his mother. She couldn’t just cling. No matter how fun it was. Besides, she did have breakfast to eat and she promptly brought her plate to her lap and her hot chocolate in arm’s reach. “Adam did not know about the printing of the book, but he did know about the art show that it goes with.” She then glanced to him, “Did he tell you about it?”
Kathy kissed her son’s cheek in return, then set things aside to gather her plate once again as he turned and walked back to his own seat. “He did. My son seems to be doing well, landing a number of art shows so quickly and often,” she mentioned, looking to him as she mentioned this.
Adam only shrugged as he gathered up his own plate, looking to Shiri, since she had been the cause of the recent shows. He then looked back to his mother. “I guess once you get one show and a decent review, they are more willing to help you with others,” he offered.
“And they are even willing to print a limited edition print book of the collection on the faith that they will regain their investment.” Shiri had complete faith on that matter, but to convince a gallery in New York City of that same faith had been harder than she had expected... but not much harder. She had been ready for the dismissive New York attitude toward her New Jersey born, Florida trained mortal. Next time the gallery wouldn’t get as much of a cut of the profit margin... not that she especially care about profit margins.
That was strictly a matter of pride at this point.
But Shiri smiled as she cut her omelet into pieces, “Have you made plans to go see it then?” She assumed yes, but one could never know.
Kathy lifted her eyebrow. Of course she had plans. “Yes, though we hadn’t decided on what night.” She glanced to her son. “Would it be better on opening night, or another night?”
Adam only shrugged, still not completely familiar with the workings of galleries and their attendants. He simply went where Shiri told him to, as a good mortal should with his muse. So instead of answering he turned to his food, and began the process of making it disappear.
Shiri resisted arranging her omelet pieces into a little agricultural scene no matter how much one of them had accidentally been cut almost into the shape of a cow. Oh, opening nights. Just the sound of the words made the muse feel alive inside. It caused her skin to tingle in anticipation. Her mortals were so diverse in her wake and in their individual pursuits but the first night of any of their endeavors always made her excited like a child on Christmas....
That made her giggle. It was Christmas.
She took another bite of her food and then glanced at Kathy, “Well, if it is anything like how it was in Miami, opening night will be very crowded with artsy types. If you do not want to deal with them, another night would be better.”
Kathy nodded. “Another night then. I’m sure the two of you can handle the crowds on your own.” She glanced to Adam and smirked, knowing how her son did in crowds, but also knowing that he’d be in the spot light, with Shiri there to help. He didn’t need his mother as well.
The son only glanced up at this mention, catching the ‘we’ from before, and realized that his mother was intending to go with her boyfriend. Oh. He wiped his mouth, and glanced to Shiri. “How long are they running the show?” he asked.
“From the first to the ninth. Weekend to weekend.” For now. Shiri kept those words to herself. She had seen his work before it was sent to New York City and she hadn’t viewed it with the pleasant eye of a girlfriend, but with the critical eye of a vain muse and with that judgment, she had no doubt the gallery owner would be asking for an extension.
She also kept the smirk this wanted to bring to her hidden. Kathy wouldn’t understand her amusement. Instead, she reached out and touched Adam’s hair, “You will be fine with the crowd.” Assuming he didn’t browse through that book she gave him until the note told him to. Of course, it was a 50/50 shot as it was a Greek goddess telling a mortal not to open something so she’d see.
When it came to orders from his muse and goddess, Adam could be very good with doing what he was supposed. He had every intention of waiting until opening night as he was bid. He wondered idly if he wasn’t supposed to see the book at all, or just that something was hidden within him. He’d ask Shiri later. He reached a free hand out and brushed back his hair, then returned to his food.
“Plenty of time to see it then,” Kathy commented, and picked up her coffee to take a drink. She smirked behind the mug. “Unless they are limiting the number of people who see it...” she added with a small chuckle.
If Adam asked his muse later, she would simply giggle at him and tell him not to open that book until the day of again. There was something hidden inside, but as soon as he opened it and began to thumb through the pages, the magic hidden there wouldn’t be hidden any longer. She decided to be a little practical with his gift this year and give him all the eloquent words he would need for opening night.
Shiri heard her fork clink against her plate and frowned. Aww, all her omelet was gone. With a suffering sigh, she put her plate aside and reclaimed her hot chocolate The sigh was then gone from her with a giggle. There was just too many marshmallows in her drink for sighing. “If they do make that kind of limit, Kathy, maybe if someone got trampled...” Oh, be still her heart if someone got trampled to see her mortal’s work. She loved when that happened so much! “I think Adam could talk to the gallery owner and get his own mother in. So you do not need to worry.”
Adam chuckled and his own plates cleared. He moved to sit next to Shiri, his own hot chocolate in hand. He kissed her temple and looked to his mother. “I don’t think that it’ll be a problem, Mom,” he agreed.
Kathy seemed satisfied with the answer. “I hope not. I need to break in my new camera anyway.”
Adam couldn’t help but drop his head back and roll his eyes. He knew the night she came, she’d take far, far too many pictures, and only half would turn out. He blinked as he thought about it though, and looked up to her. “You might want to go Tuesday night,” he mentioned casually.
Shiri couldn’t help but perk up at the suggestion. She glanced to Adam, her clever, clever mortal. Yes, if his mother was out of the house on Tuesday night, her night, that would be a great. She nodded as her gaze shifted to Kathy, “That might be a good idea. The opening night fervor should have died now a bit by Tuesday...”
Kathy looked from one to the other, then considered the idea, before nodding, and taking a drink of her coffee. “Alright. Tuesday should be fine. I trust the two of you can take care of yourselves?” she asked, though she knew they would be more than fine.
Adam simply nodded. “We’ll get a video or something,” he offered, shrugging slightly.
Shiri shifted and leaned against him a little, resting her head against his shoulder as she carefully took another sip of her hot chocolate. It wasn’t especially hot anymore but it was still a chocolate drink and that was good enough for her. “I promise I will make sure we do not burn down the house while you are enjoying the show and New York City.”
Kathy smiled. “Thank you dear,” she said, and stood with all of her dishes, and headed into the kitchen to place them into the sink.
Adam simply kissed the top of Shiri’s head. They both knew why he’d suggested that day. It would give them more then enough time with the house to themselves, and still be able to pretend all they’d done was a movie and dinner.
Summary: It's Christmas. So Shiri goes out to the churches, and comes back to cuddle with Adam. Then his mom gets up, they make breakfast, open gifts and chat over Adam's newest art showing.