This was the third time Evie had brought up the spectral reindeer, was how much she loved it. She danced around with it, a lot more silly than she was used to being, until she couldn’t anymore. Frozen in place, Evie narrowed her eyes and looked up. Mistletoe again! Looking around, in her line of view was only Scott that she knew. She sent the reindeer off with a message. Help Eeeevieeee! She’s stuuuuuck! it said, prancing around Scott until he followed.
Scott stopped jingling his bells (okay, he loved the sweater. Evie really knocked out of the park with this one. Every wince of Sara's face made him love it more) to catch the reindeer's message and then followed it back to Evie, wondering what she'd gotten herself stuck in. He hadn't really looked at the mistletoe as something you got stuck in, so he followed with interest in case she'd fallen into something and needed a hand. Therefore, he was a little surprised to be led to her just standing around. Then he understood. Remembering previous conversations with her, he smiled and said, "You could have just asked for a kiss, no need to go through all of this setup."
Evie sighed in relief as she saw Scott moving in her direction. His response only made her laugh, albeit sarcastically. “Oh I could never, my reputation!” She quipped, hand on her chest as she over-exaggerated the affectation of certain ladies of her original era. “You see, us in Victoria’s England often use spectral antlered mammals to send messages to our intended.”
"I need to have a word with my History professor, if I ever see her again," noted Scott, offering a lopsided smile and glad that she recognized the humor in his approach. He rocked back on his heels for a second and whistled softly. "Definitely stuck. And festive points awarded for using the ghost reindeer instead of your tablet. Plus, you're in luck; Ryders always come to the rescue. Though it's usually guns blazing and these wild biotic surges that are honestly a little scary sometimes." With that, he stepped into Evie's personal bubble as politely as possible for something like this.
“There is a lot about the day to day that falls by the wayside, I find.” Evie bowed softly at his compliment, then chuckled lightly. “Yeah, I know the style. Well, guns blazing, not so much the other one. Tiny guns, though. Easily concealed. Sometimes a gatling.”
She was now nervously rambling a little bit, cheeks flushing as he stepped forward. This had become a regular occurrence this week, kicked off by none other than Claudia Auditore but that did not mean Evie was suddenly completely comfortable here. Moving her hands to her side caused her fingers to make the bells on Scott’s shirt sound off a bit, and she chuckled despite herself. Still didn’t take the plunge, however.
"Why does it not surprise me that your brother will escalate to a gatling," asked Scott, speaking lower since, well, he wasn't far from her face and that would be rude otherwise. Truth be told, he was finding himself very interested in the Assassin culture. Specifically the culture, though he appreciated the skills, of course. The word 'assassin' had largely negative connotations in his experience, but those he'd found here were definitely honorable. He smiled again and leaned closer to Evie's mouth before pausing one last time. "You're an interesting woman, Evie Frye." With that, he closed the remaining distance.
“Because you know what it’s like.” Evie replied, matching his tone as she smiled. Breath hitching only slightly, Evie closed her eyes when Scott kissed her, still not quite done smiling about being called interesting. A great preamble to a kiss.
Thor & Valkyrie
"Ha!" shouted Thor, as he dodged Valkyrie's strike, batting her fist aside as it passed. Truth be told, he'd been learning a great deal about hand-to-hand from her and liked to think that he was getting better. Prior to this training, he'd always focused on fighting while armed, so it was something of required learning for him. Sure, he could wrestle and brawl with the best of them, but actual technique had been mostly unknown to him. His proud shot was cut short, though, when Valkyrie changed direction of her swing and clipped his ear. That got his attention and he rubbed it ruefully while grinning over at her. "Munin's pin feathers, that was a good move."
You had to fight with whatever you had on hand, and sometimes, that was, exclusively, yourself. One might as well learn to use it. Valkyrie took advantage of Thor’s little moment of pride to pull a fast one on him, and the blow mostly landed, which in turn made her smile all proud. She winked up at him while stepping backwards. “It’s why I get to train the Mighty Thor, innit?”
"Aye," he responded, setting his feet again for another go. To his credit, he never fell for the same trick twice, which meant she'd eventually run out of tricks (hopefully). Instead of lunging at her, though, he stopped and stood, brushing his hands together to clear any loose dirt while looking at what just appeared over his head. "I guess training's over today."
“Aw, so soon? Got somewhere better to go all of a sudden?” She protested. Now finished adjusting her handwraps, Valkyrie glanced over at Thor to see him looking up, and she followed suit. “Ha! You think that gets you out of training? I don’t bloody think so.” She said, already stepping forward, stopping only inches from Thor and having to crane her neck to look him in the face. “You’re kind of really tall aren’t you. Well, all right.”
Using her hands on his shoulders as a boost, Valkyrie jumped up and hooked her legs around Thor’s waist, then tilted her head to plant a kiss on his lips. A Valkyrie protected her king, and saved him from magical little plants and whatever else.
The reason they trained out by the lake was because of the fearsome strength the two of them could exhibit even in simple sparring -- so when she lept, he half-expected a kick to the chest while she grabbed the mistletoe. But that was not at all what he got. In fact, he was taken a little off-guard by the maneuver and how she had basically wrapped herself around him. He'd admired her speed and resiliency, and this was certainly not quite the training he'd expected today.
Still, Thor wasn't going to pass up an opportunity. He put his hand to the back of her head, giving himself over to the kiss, then shifting his weight to cause them to fall to the ground. When the impact separated their lips for a moment, he chuckled. "Yield?"
Valkyrie had not been expecting to tumble forward while on Thor, which caused her eyes to open wide as things went ass over kettle. She didn’t break the kiss, however, that was sort of a point of pride. The impact took care of that, and Val had the presence of mind not to hit the ground knees first, shifting them to the side as one of her palms fell onto the ground next to Thor’s ear. She chuckled back, almost endeared by Thor’s wishful thinking.
“Never.” She hissed, and kissed him again.
Parvati & Oliver Wood
Christmas in Atlantis. She was going to miss this, but her decision to leave hadn’t changed just because this place kept pulling her here. But still; she would miss it if she remembered it. What she wouldn’t miss, however, were the island’s little mischievous streaks, and how it liked to force people into things. Like now, where she stood by a wall with her arms crossed and a refill of her drink in hand. At least she had that until someone came along!
Oliver had his hands full with manuals and procedures and processes and guidebooks, trying to absorb as much as he could regarding his new role - which apparently meant learning that there were a considerable number of sports that weren't Quidditch. It almost felt like cheating on his one true love, but it was important for the job. He had his nose buried in paperwork and nearly brushed right past Parvati without noticing. At the last moment, he glanced sideways and grunted a "'Lo, Parvati," before returning to his papers and taking a step to continue on his way.
Parvati smooshed one of the mini-buns in her hair against the wall, sighing, and took a drink. Just as she did, Oliver Wood came into view carrying a pile of books and things like she hadn’t seen since Hogwarts. Her eyes widened, but he didn’t seem to notice her predicament and was about to move on. Parvati swallowed her tea almost too quick and made a sound vaguely like “Hmmmm! Mmmmm!” at him as she couldn’t speak yet. She waved her hand palm-down, urging him to stop and come over.
While he wasn't entirely sure what kind of music Parvati was humming, she did manage to get his attention enough to glance her direction again. He stopped and turned to walk over to her, reaching his hand out to retrieve the mug from her hands and shunting the pile of papers and books to his hip. With an appreciative smile, he took a sip of the tea - it was delicious. "Thanks, Parvati, I really needed that. Is that Chai I taste?" Lowering the mug from his mouth, he also lowered his voice and spoke conspiratorially. "Did you know you're under mistletoe?"
Even after becoming able to speak again, Parvati was stunned into silence by Oliver’s reaction to her calling him over. She hadn’t been offering him tea. And she had a feeling he knew it. Parvati narrowed her eyes and sighed through her nose. “I didn’t call you over here for a spot of tea, Oliver Wood. Go on! Kiss me!”
"If I had a sickle for every time I've heard that," he responded, mocking his own sigh. "Well, far be it from me to deny a lovely woman." He started to lean in, then raised a finger (the rest of the hand was still holding the mug). "I almost made an ungentlemanly mistake, didn't I."
Oliver stepped back for a moment and carefully stacked all of his crap in a little pile, then set the mug on top of it. Straightening, he moved back over to Parvati and put one hand on her hip and smiled. "There, better. Lips, cheek, or forehead? I wouldn't want to presume and get slapped. Once today was enough."
Parvati was getting horribly bored. She was ready to kiss Oliver when he stopped them, which made her exhale sharply in frustration. Parvati rolled her eyes at the question: so he would put a hand on her hip to kiss her on the forehead? Didn’t seem likely. She was going to go home eventually, and a kiss with Oliver Wood would be a fond memory to take with her (maybe). Plus, she was now firmly exasperated.
“Bloody hell!” She exclaimed, hooking one hand around his neck to prop herself up on tiptoes and kiss the damn man at last. On the lips.
Shamara & Marceline
"Shaaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaraaaaaa," came the shout as Marceline found herself, of all places, stuck on a roof and under mistletoe. She could see her best friend down below and had been planning to prank her a bit from above. It seems the holiday had other plans. She waved and whistled, trying to get Shamara's attention while simultaneously thinking it was completely unfair that mistletoe could even block her teleportation ability. "Help me, Shamrock. You're my only hope!" She'd probably get tired of Star Wars quotes one day, but it would not be today.
Shamara had stopped dead in her tracks as she heard her name, elongated though it sounded, coming from above her. She blinked, looking upward. Squinting, she finally spotted Marceline up on the roof. She put her hands on her hips, rolling her eyes at the famous quote. “Okay, okay. Hang on I’m coming.”
The process of getting up to the roof wasn’t exactly breezy, but she got up there eventually, rubbing her arms as the cold was obviously stronger up here. “Okay, hi. What are you doing here?”
"Nothing," was Marceline's sweet and innocent-sounding reply. Then inspiration struck and she turned to face Shamara. "Actually, it was a fiendish plot to get you to come up here and make out with me under the stars. I am a criminal mastermind, you know." She tapped her finger on the tip of Shamara's nose and glanced back down at the ground. It was a little higher than she intended and her original idea of pelting Shamara with a snowball started to sound like it was poorly planned. Mostly she was just glad she brought a blanket. With a sly smirk, she raised one side of the blanket to invite a cuddle.
“A mastermind who commits the crappiest crimes imaginible. The police wouldn’t even let you off with a warning, they’d just shake their heads and tell you to go home!” Shamara replied, eyebrow raised knowingly as she slowly tilted her head. Of course the blanket was too tempting to ignore, and Shamara would have been remiss if she hadn’t immediately hopped onto a sitting position right beside Marceline and under the blanket.“Okay, let’s make out!”
"And thus the perfect crime is committed. No arrests, no suspicion, and the prey is lured into the spider's web," intoned Marceline, snuggling up against Shamara and leeching away the delicious, delicious warmth. Mistletoe or not, she was happy sharing a blanket with any of her close friends, it being her oldest and dearest friend was just like icing on the cake. Once Shamara was settled and Marceline was able to intertwine herself, she leaned her head against that red hair and grinned. "Kiss me, you beautiful fool!"
Shamara’s laugh was open and hearty as she tried to imagine Marceline as some kind of mean spider-themed criminal. She settled herself next to Marce and put one of her legs over her friend’s for good measure. It was cold, and Shamara appreciated the warmth brought to her body and heart from being so close to this particular friend of hers. She turned her head to look at Marceline upon her demand, snickered and finally obeyed. The kiss caused Shamara to make a “Mmmmmmwah!” sound, and afterwards she wrapped an arm around Marce’s shoulders. “Okay now snuggles, it’s cold. But pretty.”
"That'll be in my villain bio. Cold, but pretty," answered Marceline, wrapping her own arms around her Shamrock.