WHAT: Enjoying the Serendipity Hills viewing experience and theorizing on their own story WHERE: Black Widow House WHEN: Backdated to the last SH plot day WARNINGS: Nah, they're cuties STATUS: Complete
The Black Widow house currently looked like something straight out of a Hallmark (or Serendipity Hills) movie. Emily and Yelena’s yuletide decorations were everywhere, with none quite so magnificent as the Christmas tree. Eight feet tall, it was decked out with twinkling lights and an eclectic mix of ornaments. Neatly wrapped presents were nestled beneath it, and snow drifted softly down outside the large windows. It was perfect.
Sporting one of her favorite Christmas sweaters, Emily was currently cuddled up on the couch with Kate and Lucky. The three of them were bundled up together under a ridiculously large blanket, with half-drunk mugs of hot cocoa on the coffee table. To complete the holiday tableau, the Serendipity Hills channel was playing on the TV in all of its hokey glory. Emily smiled contentedly as yet another happy ending played out across the screen.
She didn’t think she’d mind getting pulled into the little magical bubble of holiday tropes, but she was more than content to snuggle up here with Kate and watch it on the screen instead. Their romance was already perfect in her eyes. Though sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder. She turned away from the couple kissing on screen to gaze at Kate instead. “What do you think our love story would look like in Serendipity Hills?”
Kate had missed the last showing of Serendipity Hills by a bit over a month last time it had happened. She’d heard stories about it, even seen clips of it uploaded online, but she figured getting the chance to witness their fellow Outlanders sucked into a world of Christmas cheese had passed her by. A lot of the weird things that happened around here were one-offs, and most of the time that was something to be grateful for.
This one seemed relatively harmless. Some overpowered, lonely witch sucking people into her sappy romance bubble wasn’t that big of a deal. She’d heard this time around, she wasn’t even going through some dramatic break-up; it was a celebration of Miss Hallmark finally finding that one true love she craved so badly.
Good for her.
She was definitely okay with not being sucked into all for herself, though. Having Emily wrapped up in her arms, watching the tropey shenanigans on TV together, was more than enough. ‘Tis the season and all.
Her first answer to Emily’s question was a smile, a hand lifting to cup her jaw. “What, you mean me being an awkward, drunken dork kissing you on the cheek while crushing on you isn’t enough of a love story?”
Emily’s nose crinkled with a smile. “It’s my favorite love story, thank you very much. But that still doesn’t mean it’s not fun to imagine what else could have happened for us.”
She was ridiculously comfortable in Kate’s arms, but after an internal debate, Emily leaned forward just enough to reach her arm out and snag her cocoa mug before snuggling back in against Kate’s side. “Come onnnn. Humor me. Pretty please?”
“Okay, okay!” Kate laughed, snagging that mug out of her girlfriend’s hands for a drink before handing it back over. Her fingers shifted to thread into Emily’s dark hair, and she let out a dramatically thoughtful hum. “I mean, realistically, it would probably be ‘out-of-touch rich girl-slash-maybe-Fortune-500-CEO meets adorable, small-town Christmas dork, who may or may not be secretly some sort of Christmas elf, and learns the true meaning of Christmas’.”
Emily’s eyelids lowered slightly as Kate’s fingers found their way into her hair. She loved it when Kate did that and it had always been a way to instantly relax her. She took another sip of her cocoa, then smiled mischievously as her girlfriend finally gave in.
She took a considerate pause, then nodded her approval. “Definitely the out-of-touch rich girl,” she laughed, then made a silly face in Kate’s direction. “Going on a weekend ski getaway in the mountains to seal some business deal. But,” Emily stressed the word dramatically before she continued on. “You’re not a very good skier and you end up alone on the trail one afternoon. The snowstorm is rolling in, and you’re about to be in very big trouble when the adorable local Christmas dork-slash-elf rescues you and brings you to a little cabin tucked away in the woods. And there’s only one bed.”
“Ooooh, only one bed,” Kate echoed with a slow, approving nod of her own, her voice almost reverent. “We’re really getting into fanfiction tropes here, huh? I’m a little out of practice these days. But I’m thinking that leads to cuddling for warmth since, you know, the snowstorm’s going to make it impossible to start a fire.”
Em had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at Kate’s response. But after a brief struggle with the giggles, she managed to compose herself again. “With the most magical cup of hot cocoa that the out-of-touch rich girl has ever had in her life. And we stay up through the night cuddling and talking about our lives and Christmas.”
“This is sounding eerily like our real life,” Kate pointed out with a grin. “Minus me making business deals. Not that I couldn’t,” she went on thoughtfully, “but I’d kill it if I did.” She leaned forward to seal her lips briefly to her girlfriend’s. “Any life, any world, I’d be crazy in love with you. That I know for sure.”
Emily smiled into the kiss that still tasted faintly of hot cocoa. “Of course you do. I’m your favorite Christmas Dork-slash-Elf. And you’re my favorite big-city-gal.” Lucky woofed his approval of this statement and Emily leaned down to press a kiss to the top of his fuzzy head as well. “And you’re our favorite Christmas pup.”
“Not much pup about him,” Kate chuckled, ruffling the fur at the golden’s neck. He gave her a big old smile, and she ruffled one of his ears next. “He does look good in a Santa hat, though, I’ll give him that. He could totally have been Santa Paws in that old Disney movie.”
Emily let out an overexaggerated gasp and threw her arms around Lucky protectively. “You hush, he’s always a pup. No matter how big he is.”
Kate let out a very dramatic sigh. “Fine, fine,” she agreed, giving Lucky a last, apologetic head pat. She planted a kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek. “I’m sorry for even implying otherwise.”
Emily’s hand shot out and looped itself around the collar of Kate’s sweater and pulled her back in close. “I’m not done with you yet.” Her smile widened mischievously as she tugged Kate in for a longer, far less chaste kiss.
Still in between them, Lucky began wiggling and pawing at the both of them in a bid to win back their attention.
Kate didn’t resist for a second, sinking into Emily against her and wrapping both arms around her, hands splaying across her back. Lucky’s wiggling, unfortunately, was interrupting the romance of the moment and she pulled back just to shoo him to the ground.
“Go find Licorice,” she told him, ushering him off the couch. He gave her an affronted ruff before trotting out of the room, and Kate turned her attention back to Emily. “He’ll forgive me in like ten minutes,” she grinned, “now c’mere, elf.”
Once her lap had been freed from the large golden that had been half occupying it, Emily practically pounced on Kate, her long, dark hair swinging in a curtain around them.
The magic of that Hallmark spell must have rubbed off on them, too.