Henry Townshend is a ghost magnet (room_302) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-01-10 18:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, chloe saunders, henry townshend |
Who: Team Monster Movie
What: Gifts
When: Last week of December
Where: Henry's apartment, which is behaving itself, surprisingly
Rating/Warnings Total fluff.
Status: Complete!
Christmas was always one of Chloe’s favorite holidays and she was even more excited about sharing it with Henry this year. It had been a bit of a weird month with her powers being wished away and all the random snow. Was it like this every year for the month of December? She had gone to see her parents alone for the Christmas holiday, but she was back to her apartment and ready to spend time with Henry. When she walked into her apartment she realized that everything was still setup and it made her smile to still have a touch of Christmas magic in her life in case Henry wanted to come up here at all. Instead she was going to go surprise him down at his place.
After a quick change of clothes she grabbed his presents she had left under the tree and Craven. There was a bit of shuffling as she made her way downstairs and down the hall to his apartment. Craven had gotten really good at being calm when it came to moving between their apartments. Her hand reached up to knock on his door and she waited for him to answer. Her anticipation was rising because she hated going multiple days without seeing him.
Henry had no real feeling about Christmas one way or another. He wasn’t a Scrooge by any means. It was just that Christmas for Henry, especially in his teen years, had never been filled with “comfort and joy”, as the saying went. His parents each tried, he couldn’t say that they didn’t. But the constant push and pull as though one parent having him during the holidays was some kind of victory over the other never made Henry feel particularly great. He had stopped visiting his parents for Christmas when he graduated high school and had the excuse of college to avoid going to either of their houses.
This year he’d gone to see his father over Thanksgiving to introduce him to Chloe. The visit had gone pretty well. His father seemed to like Chloe and the two got along as far as Henry could tell. However, as Henry suspected, it was only a matter of time before his mother heard about the visit (most likely from his father) and was calling him to ask when he was going to visit her in Maine. He should come for Christmas! It had been a long time since they’d had Christmas together. Bring his girlfriend, she insisted. A mother needs to meet the woman dating her son, after all! It isn’t right for him to only introduce her to his father!
Henry wasn’t so sure that would have been a good idea. Taking Chloe on a long weekend to Phoenix to meet his father was one thing. The elder Townshend was a lot more laid back than his ex-wife. His ex-wife, however, had a few bad habits. Passive aggressive behavior being one of them. It had been a few years since Henry had visited her in Maine and he thought it would be best to test the waters before bringing Chloe.
So while Chloe visited her family, Henry flew to Maine and spent Christmas with his mother for the first time as an adult. It went basically as he expected. His mother was gravely disappointed that Henry hadn’t brought Chloe with him and gave him an earful about how it wasn’t fair that he’d brought her to see his father first. Was he ashamed of her? Was he ashamed of Maine? Both were ridiculous accusations, but Henry had been expecting them anyway. He was able to placate his mother by saying in a few months she could come visit him in California. She’d never been to California before. It might be good for her to get away from the grey desolate winters of New England. “Well, I might be able to take a few days off,” was the non-committal answer he received. “My patients need me, so it can’t be for too long.” Of course it couldn’t.
Henry stayed with his mother over the extended Christmas weekend and was back in California the following Tuesday. In fact, he had gotten back only a few minutes before Chloe had arrived at her apartment upstairs. After the extended stay he was really looking forward to seeing Chloe again. He had missed her so much while he’d been away. So much so that he hadn’t even considered what state his apartment would be in after being away from it for so long. He had the doll with him, packed away in his carry-on, and he’d hoped that would have been enough to keep the hauntings at bay as much as possible. However, now that he was approached his door, he did so with a little bit of trepidation, fully expecting to walk in and be blasted by blaring alarm clocks, buzzing radios, rattling windows, blood pouring out of the sinks, what few Christmas decorations he did have (and a few that Chloe had gotten for him) strewn about, that creepy hum that could be felt more than heard...
Much to his surprise his apartment was silent when he walked in. Dark since he hadn’t left any lights on for himself and a little chilly since he’d turned the heat down before he left, but otherwise strangely peaceful. It was almost as though the hauntings themselves had gone on a Christmas break as well. Relieved, Henry went about unpacking after turning the heat up to a more comfortable 72 degrees. The last thing he put away was the doll. “Merry Christmas,” he told it before placing it back in the trunk. He’d just closed the lid when he heard the knock on his door. Eagerly, he went to answer it. His heart soared when he saw Chloe through the peephole and wasted no time on opening the door for her, pulling both her and Craven into a hug. “Welcome back,” he said before giving her a kiss. “I missed you.”
The moment she saw Henry’s familiar face her heart soared and she happily stepped into his arms for a hug. It was a little awkward with Craven in one arm and presents in the other, but they made it work. “I missed you too,” the words escaped breathlessly as she struggled briefly with a wiggling cat and set him down to go run around the apartment. And once the cat was out of her arms she set the presents on the floor so she could properly wrap her arms around Henry’s neck, “How was your mother?” Might as well get that out of the way now and then enjoy the rest of the day if the discussion was going to be unpleasant. But, before she allowed him to answer she gave him another kiss - she had really missed him.
Henry hugged her tightly and kissed her deeply, telling her in both just how much he had missed her while he’d been in Maine. It was several moments before they broke to breath and Chloe could come inside properly and make herself at home. Craven already had already made himself comfy on the back of the couch. Once Chloe was inside with the door closed, Henry could answer her question.
“She’s doing alright,” he said. “A little disappointed that you weren’t with me. Actually, she was annoyed with me because I took you to see Dad first and didn’t take you to see her. I told her she was welcome to come out here and visit. She might. She might not.” Henry shrugged. “How were your folks? Did you have a good time?”
It was one of the best kisses that she had with Henry and she was thinking that perhaps they needed to spend more time apart if they were going to reunite like this. But that also sounded horrible, so it might be something that got shelved for awhile. Her kiss returned his emotions in kind and she was slowly realizing how much of a presence Henry was in her life and that she didn’t want to lose it. Once inside she picked up the presents that she had placed inside the door and moved to set them down on the coffee table and glanced over at Craven who was loving life. The comment about his mom actually being disappointed that Chloe was around surprised her and she turned towards him with raised eyebrows, “Oh really? Well, that’s quite interesting. I like to think that maybe she will come to visit, but if it’s a year from now we can go see her if you want. And my folks were fine - the usual. Still weird going home and just sitting around with them before I can finally drag them outside to do something.”
Henry tilted his head a little as Chloe put the gifts on the coffee table. Then a light went off in his head. “Oh! I have a few things for you!” He darted towards the hall towards the bedroom. He was gone a few moments before he came back with a few gift bags. Henry was absolutely terrible when it came to wrapping. Thank god for festive gift bags. One of the bags was a gift from his father in Phoenix, who shared Henry’s inability to properly wrap even the squarest of boxes, the other two were from Henry himself.
He glanced over at Chloe with a look of unease. His visit with his mother hadn’t gone spectacular, but it hadn’t been bad. She hadn’t bad mouthed his father too much, and in fact, they’d had a fairly cozy Christmas morning together. Maybe a visit to Maine wouldn’t be so bad, if Chloe really wanted to go. That is, if Mrs. Townshend didn’t surprise Henry and show up next month. “She might come. I don’t know. I told her I’d call her in a couple of days. I’ll ask her again.” Then he smiled at Chloe. “I’m glad your visit was good. Where did you drag them to?”
Henry’s sudden remembrance made Chloe laugh because of the expression on his face. As he darted off to his room to grab the presents she moved to sit down beside Craven and give him some pets. It was completely okay that he couldn’t wrap gifts and she gave him a smile when he came out with them. Hers were decently wrapped but only because her mother had forced her to wrap gifts when she was a young child. But if she was feeling lazy she totally went the gift bag route as well, “Do you want to exchange now or a little later?” Hopefully he said now because she was excited to see what she got from him.
That look from Henry made her purse her lips, “Well, I’ll be around if she does show up. I’ll meet her because that’s the proper thing to do especially since she is all huffy over not meeting me. I don’t want to make her mad with me. And I dragged them out for a few walks and a couple movies. You can’t sit me on a couch for too long or else I start to get antsy.” It was nice to be lazy for about a day, but then she couldn’t take it anymore and she needed fresh air. And no matter what she didn’t want to sit and watch football on the tv for hours on end. Why did Christmas have to fall on the weekend?
“She isn’t mad at you,” Henry assured his girlfriend with a small smile. “She wasn’t really even mad at me, either for not bringing you. The relationship between my mom and dad is complicated. They get jealous of each other. When I was younger, one way to keep them from being at each other’s throats was to split my time between them. One year with Dad, the next with Mom. It kind of worked, but,” Henry shrugged his shoulders. “The feelings between my parents are deep, old and bitter. They can’t help but hate each other. I just get tired of getting put in the middle like some kind of prize.”
Henry reached across the coffee table and picked up one of the gift bags. “I’m glad you were able to get your parents out of the house a little.” He smiled at her. He understood very well the need to move. “Next year, I’ll go with you and we’ll both get them out of the house.” He glanced down at the bag in his hands. “We can do the gifts now, if you want.” He said and looked back up at her. His father had sent a gift this year, which was a little out of character for him, and Henry was curious about what it was. “This one is from my dad to both of us.”
“It’s a bit of a pissing contest between the two then? And I’m still sorry you had to go through all that as a child,” Chloe did feel guilty that her childhood had been an easier ride than Henry’s. The strain of what his parents did to him growing up was still on his shoulders and she hoped that maybe her meeting his parents would help to ease a bit of that. It wouldn’t help if they tried to keep one upping each other, “And it sucks for them because the person’s prize you get to be is mine.” A smile flashed across her face as she leaned over to kiss him.
“That would be quite nice. I think we’ll be ready for that, I didn’t want to overload you on our first holidays together,” Chloe explained to him. They moved fast in their relationship, but she didn’t want to put too much pressure on him when they were still fairly new.. She took the present from him and began to open it as it sat in between them, “Interesting he would give you something for both of us, but let’s figure out what it is.”
Henry smiled back. “I like being your prize,” he said happily and kissed her back. Then he leaned his forehead against hers lightly, “and I really appreciate that you didn’t want to overload me this year.” He smiled “but I am looking forward to spending the holidays with you next year. You, me and Craven.”
The cat on the back of the couch lifted his head slightly when he heard his name, yawned and stretched. Then he crawled down to the cushion between the couple purring for all he was worth. He rubbed against Chloe and invited himself to sit in her lap.
“Dad usually just sends a card,” Henry said as he reached into the bag. The paper with in rustled loudly as Henry pulled out a metal picture frame. The frame itself was simple and metal. Inside the frame though was a picture of Chloe and Henry taken during their visit to Phoenix. The little note tucked into the frame stated:
“Merry Christmas, Henry & Chloe,
If I know my son, there are probably plenty of pictures of Chloe, but not so many of the two of you together. I hope you like this one I took.”