Christmas tiiiime

[amonglions]

Who: Bioshock Family House! (and friends)
What: ITS CHRISTMAS! And they're going to be civil to each other dagnabbit
When: Christmas?
Where: The Bioshocker House!
Summary: Everyone is happy! Food! Presents! Puppies? Proposals! WAIT WAHT?!
Rating: P for words starting with P.

Tree? Check. It's pathetic and almost half the pine-needles are missing from getting dragged into the house.

Ornaments? Check.

Christmas dinner? Well...there's food, at least! Robert and Booker might have raided the supermarket for all the microwaveable and appropriate foods to have for Christmas. There's microwaved chicken, microwaved mashed potatoes, microwaved green beans that are really soggy and smell funny, microwaved rolls, and microwaved ham. Because there should be variety, damnit. There's also a pie sitting in the microwave, waiting. And vanilla ice cream.

Booker wouldn't call it a feast or anything but it's not like there's absolutely nothing to be seen.

They haven't gone all out or anything for the first Christmas they're spending together, nobody here really has the Christmas spirit to do it. Either the Luteces don't remember how to do Christmas or they just don't care - the latter is more likely and Booker hasn't done Christmas in decades so it feels off to even find a tree. Booker doesn't know if Elizabeth ever got to celebrate the holiday in her tower but as far as he's concerned this should be good enough.

Comments

Elizabeth

[tearmeanewone]

Oh, Elizabeth never got to celebrate Christmas in her tower. of course, Songbird always brought her a present wrapped in paper with something printed on it. She'd saved that paper, every single year, and wondered what Christmas was like in Paris. Was there a tree lit on every corner? Women walking arm-in-arm with their favorite man in their long, heavy coats with fur trim?

She still didn't know of course, but she could have her own Christmas. Even if the tree was almost bare, and all of the food was coming out of the quick-cooking oven, Elizabeth felt like it was the most magical thing ever. She carefully arranged the string of little electric lights, and made an incredible fuss over where all of the little glass balls went. It wasn't that it had to be perfect... she was just enjoying doing it. But once she's done a number on the tree, she gets up on a stepstool and starts hanging little beaded garlands around the room.

The dining table was excavated out from under Robert and Rosalind's various odds and ends, Elizabeth's books and sketches, and various dishes. Elizabeth set it with a red tablecloth and candles, then lugged her record player out of her room and put on something quiet that was marked as "Christmas Orchestral".

And then she waits for the friends to arrive. Then there's food, and Elizabeth fortunately doesn't make anyone sing, but she does pull an armful of gifts out to give later in the evening.

But even if the whole party doesn't go exactly as planned, she's happy to be there with her family, celebrating Christmas for once.

..apparently i didn't post this. SORRY

[amonglions]

It was possibly the most mellow the house had been since they all had arrived here. Robert and Booker weren't at each others throats and nobody was bleeding (yet.) Booker was going to count it as a successful holiday.

It was when things had started settling down after the measly dinner that Booker approached her. He hadn't even made a hint that she'd gotten any present from him and it was probably one of his more proud moments that he actually managed to keep this secret.

"How're you doing Elizabeth?"

He's being purposefully casual, wanting more to see if she's at all irritated or not before he tells her what he's been hiding in his room for a day.

WHATEVS MAN. <3

[tearmeanewone]

Irritated? Elizabeth had no reference by which to be irritated. The night had her positively glowing as she flitted around the room from person to person, pausing to adjust something on the tree, looking out the window, eying the gifts she'd placed carefully under the tree after wrapping them... She really was all over the place.

"Wonderful! It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" Well... Booker probably wasn't going to answer in the positive, but Elizabeth thought it was a beautiful night just because they were all there together. Quietly...

"Oh! I have something for you!" She crouched down and pulled out a smallish square package wrapped very poorly in red paper. It was her first time wrapping anything, and it had been much more difficult than anticipated.

Inside was a pair of monogrammed glasses with 'BD' glazed onto them. Maybe this gift had been a little selfish--she thought, when she'd decided they might make a nice gift, that it might encourage him to leave the house less. But, she'd also got him something a little less geared towards his vices... Those had his name embroidered into the lining.

[amonglions]

"It ain't a bad one," he allowed, which, from Booker is high praise indeed. He's even cracked a smile or two in the course of the night, just out of nowhere.

He wasn't really expecting presents, so Elizabeth has managed to catch him off-guard and see him get bashful. He's quick to speak and shifts awkwardly from foot to foot after she tells him she has something for him.

"Elizabeth, you didn't have to...," he stops his protests as she hands him the package and smiles (again), it's possibly the happiest he's ever looked and he mutters a quiet "Thank you." before carefully peeling the packaging apart - as if he was going to save that as well.

The glasses eek a soft snort of laughter from him and the gloves earn a particularly impressed rise of his eyebrows. "These are really nice." He's still quiet as he rubs the buttery leather between his fingers, as if he were contemplating something.

She wants to love you too.

This was possibly the only Christmas he's ever enjoyed. It's a little bit of a shock to his system to have some genuine happiness pulling a smile instead of a sneer across his cheeks.

"You're a good girl, Liz."

[tearmeanewone]

Watching all of those emotions play over Booker's face would have been worth any amount that she could have spent on a present. He looked surprised, happy, he smiled even.

"I thought that... well, you never know when it'll be cold on a draft or a mission. And those won't mess too much with your trigger finger," she said, watching Booker feel the gloves and feeling a tiny, happy flutter in her heart. He liked them, the first Christmas gift she'd ever given, and he liked it.

But she hadn't expected the second thing he said, and Elizabeth blinks in surprise for a moment before blushing and smiling again. Her turn to be bashful. "Thank you, Booker."

For some reason, it felt like it meant more than what was actually said.

[amonglions]

"Welcome."

It was a good moment, a quiet one, something he would gladly place on top of the bad. If he could start making more memories like this, maybe he'd be a better...father, for Elizabeth.



"Hey, I got something for you too." He deposits his presents carefully onto a table, as if they were made of wet tissue paper - liable to break at the slightest indication - and went to his bedroom door, each step growing slightly heavier with hesitation than the last till he rested his hand on the knob and looked back at her like he wasn't so sure if it was a good idea after all.

"It's... if you don't want it, I'll -- I'll keep it." It seems like he wants to say more, or at least is anxious about something before he opens up the door and steps inside and back out with a large box in his arms.

Said box has holes punched in the top and is making noises. This would probably mark the one time Booker actively behaved as if he was afraid of Elizabeth, as he slowly set the box down in front of her and stepped back looking this way and that before gritting out under a red face.

"You said you wanted one."

[tearmeanewone]

Elizabeth watched curiously as Booker wandered to his room and back with a strange box. A strange box with holes in it, making shifting and thumping noises. Truthfully, Elizabeth knew almost immediately what the gift was when she saw the holes in the top of the box, and she was surprised that Booker remembered that off-hand comment she had made all that time ago. She gleefully opens the box and gasps at the contents.

"Oh, he's so cute!" she gushed as she reached in to help the puppy out of the box. It yapped happily at her, apparently glad to finally be out of the box and in the arms of a person. While she was trying to get a good look at him, the puppy was trying very hard to lick her face. Elizabeth was laughing at the effort. "Of course I want him! Look, he's even a scruffy-looking mix of colors. I bet if you were a dog, you would have fur like his."

[amonglions]

At least those mission points he chalked up with the Luteces were good for something. This was probably the most satisfying thing he could have possibly gotten for them, just being able to see her this happy.

Elizabeth telling him she wanted a puppy, initially, hadn't stuck out in his mind very much. However, as their "adventure" played out - the conversations they had were the focal points in his memory because they were the only thing that wasn't constant fighting and waves and waves of an army.

It had occurred to him, in the interim between getting the dog and presenting him to Elizabeth - that she hadn't actually been wanting a puppy but well... she seemed happy enough with the little guy.

"Never thought of that." The dog is a total mutt, which is fitting for Elizabeth's thoughts on what Booker would look like as a dog.

"You'll have to think up a name for him."

[tearmeanewone]

"He doesn't have one yet?" Not that Elizabeth was surprised by it, Booker probably had intended for her to give the puppy a name. But she wondered what Booker had called him as he had, no doubt, struggled to get the puppy into the box and quiet.

Holding the puppy out and away from her, Elizabeth looked for any kind of mark or shape that might make for a good name. Eventually, she gave up and settled on something else. "Nemo," she said with a little grin. "I can tell he's an explorer, and he'll want to be treated like a little prince no doubt. What do you think?"

[voidseeing]

Under normal circumstances, the sight of Christmas decorations of any sort - lights and trees especially - brought a deep sense of unease and discomfort in Gai. His very first memory of them had been the year of Lost Christmas, when Japan had nearly been destroyed and he had lost all of the things that had been good in his life. The association was so deeply ingrained in him that even now, even a decade later, he still bristled slightly at seeing them all over the house... but he could set all of that aside for Elizabeth's sake.

Besides, she looked so genuinely excited and happy that it was hard for him not to be happy as well, dislike of Christmas or not. And, he had to admit, she'd done quite an impressive job with the decorating. There was no question as to whether or not it was festive enough.

"Having fun?" he asked her when he caught her up on the stool hanging the garlands.

[tearmeanewone]

Elizabeth looked back down over her shoulder at Gai and grinned. With Booker, Robert, and Rosalind off to bed, Gai had taken the dishes and Elizabeth had set to fixing some of the decor and cleaning up the various paper from the few gifts that were exchanged. The room was nearly back to its original state, though Elizabeth was tired enough that she was considering calling it 'Done for Now'.

"Maybe too much fun. I think most people would think this was kind of a chore. But I really like doing it."

[voidseeing]

"That all depends on how much they like the holiday. I've heard of people in my world getting even crazier with Christmas decorations and covering their entire house with lights," he said with a smile, picking up a stray piece of wrapping paper off the floor and crumpling it into a ball.

... which he then couldn't resist playfully tossing at her in the hope of getting her to come down from that stool so that they could cuddle on the couch.

[tearmeanewone]

"Their entire house? That must take hours!" Elizabeth stretched up to re-hook the last bit of the garland when she took a wrapping paper ball to the shoulder.

"Hey! I'm on a stool here, what if I fell?" Though clearly, from the grin on her face, she wasn't worried about falling two feet. She'd fallen much, much further--into water no less--and survived it. "Is this a subtle hint that you want your Christmas present?"

[voidseeing]

"It might be." Although in all honesty, he was willing to wait if it meant they got to cuddle first. She really had domesticated him, he thought with no small amount of amusement. Never before had he imagined that he would be content to just sit in front of a fire and do absolutely nothing beyond relax with his girlfriend... no, his fiancee now, he reminded himself.

"Although I'm hoping mine doesn't have paws and a tail. I think one of those in the house is enough."

[tearmeanewone]

Elizabeth snorted and turned around on the stool. "No, just the one you have to deal with now."

Said present with paws and a tail was actually sleeping rather soundly on his back with one of his legs awkwardly in the air. Elizabeth reached out to Gai to help her down. She could jump, of course, but any excuse to make Gai hold her.

"I got you three things, none of which has paws and/or a tail, I promise."

[voidseeing]

"I'm glad to hear it."

Gai didn't need any further invitation to reach up, get his arms around her waist, and lift her down... but not before spinning in a quick, playful circle. What could he say? She set herself up for that one. (Not that he expected her to mind.)

[tearmeanewone]

It was hard for Elizabeth to mind anything--she was too happy to let anything change her mood, honestly. Even after they had returned and the knowing glances had been passed around, Elizabeth had felt nothing but warm elation. She was spending Christmas with her family. All of her family.

Though she was a little glad that she and Gai had a few minutes alone together, even if they were still in her house. Because two of Gai's gifts really couldn't be given with Booker or Robert around... Once Gai let her down onto her feet, she stretched up to give him a pleased kiss that lingered for a few seconds longer than might have been considered strictly polite.

"Alright, I have to get the other two. They're in my room," she cast a glance at the fireplace. "Maybe put another log in, and I'll be back before you're done," she said, swaying in Gai's arms a little, as though they were dancing.

Christmas Eve - A Very Important Question

[voidseeing]

Gai Tsustsugami is not a man who is intimidated by many things at all. An intense firefight is barely enough to get him to break a sweat; even having dozens of lasers fired right at him hadn't earned more than a bored blink or two. In combat, he's the picture of practiced ease and experience, calm and collected and always seeming to be five steps ahead of anything his opponents can throw at him.

Right now, though, his heart is pounding so loud he swears it must be audible to everyone else in the room, the small box in his pocket feeling like a leaden weight with every step he takes. It's not that he has any doubts about what he's going to do... no, those had all vanished long ago. Now he's more certain than ever that this is what he wants to do.

No, it's the thought of the process leading to that next step that terrifies him, because somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, there's still a deep-seated fear that she'll say no, not yet. It's irrational and he knows it, yet he still can't seem to quiet it down no matter what he does.

But even that isn't enough to keep him from moving to Elizabeth's side where she's watching the falling snow out the window, just a casual approach to see what she's up to.

"Why don't we go out for a walk?" His suggestion is equally casual: the snow is lovely, and the night is chill and clear. It's the perfect evening for what he has in mind, really. Now if only he could calm himself down...

[tearmeanewone]

Watching the snow out the window had lulled Elizabeth into a sort of stupid awe. It was a peaceful thing to watch the snow pile up outside, and even more so to watch every surface be covered in a soft blanket of white. When Gai approached her, she had a very clear feeling that nothing could be better than watching the snow with Gai until she fell asleep. She didn't expect the invitation to go outside.

"Alright," She grinned and swept over to the collection of coats on the wall by the door. "But only for a few minutes--it looks freezing out there!"

[voidseeing]

"That's fine by me. I didn't plan on staying out there for long," is Gai's response, in a tone that's so level it almost surprises him. He feels like a giant ball of nerves right about now despite every mental attempt he's made to stamp out his anxiety. Honestly, he has a feeling that both of them will laugh about it afterward... if he survives that long.

For now, he'll just follow her over to the coats and pick out his own from amongst the selection on the hooks. It's just a walk. Just a stroll in the snow, Gai, keep telling youself that...

[tearmeanewone]

"Just want to watch the snow for a bit?" Elizabeth grinned as she wrapped her scarf around her neck and put her gloves on. She'd be happy for some alone time with Gai, honestly. He'd been catching her eye all night, it seemed, and with Booker and Robert watching them both like they were about to attack one another Elizabeth couldn't so much as find it in her to put a kiss on his cheek.

"I don't blame you, if it wasn't so cold I couldn't get enough of it!"

[voidseeing]

Gai grinned right back, shrugging his coat on and pulling the gloves out of his pocket so he could put those on as well. "Something like that. It's a rarity to get snow on Christmas Eve where I'm from, so we might as well enjoy it here."

He'd spent most of the day trying to hide his dislike of the holiday and what it represented for him, but when Elizabeth smiled like that, suddenly it became that much easier for his own smile to be genuine. In truth, that was part of why he'd chosen this particular day: to give himself some good memories in the hopes of overwriting the bad ones. The snow was just the icing on the cake; he couldn't have imagined a more perfect evening for this.

If it made her happy, he could put aside all of his unease about the date and just enjoy the moment.

[tearmeanewone]

"Weather is rare in Columbia. Rain was exciting. Snow is mind-boggling!" Elizabeth finished dressing for the weather and pulled open the door. When Elizabeth had realized she could have Christmas with her family and Gai, she'd also remembered Gai had told her something about Christmas when something terrible had happened to him. And so she'd been trying so hard to be positive and make the evening a happy memory. Their first Christmas together, their first Christmas in love.

Elizabeth ran out into the snow, then started off for the other side of the house--so she could see the tree from outside.

[voidseeing]

"Then you'd better get used to it, because Luceti gets a lot of snow in the winter," Gai bantered right back, following her out into the snow at a more leisurely pace and shutting the door behind them. At first he's not quite sure what she's doing until he realizes that she's heading around to the window, no doubt to look in at the Christmas tree.

It was far from the most beautiful Christmas tree Gai had ever seen, yet in his eyes it made even the most elegant and elaborate trees in Tokyo pale in comparison due to what the tree represented. It was their tree. Their imperfect, slightly lopsided, heartfelt tree.

And, he had to admit, when you looked at it from the outside, it didn't look half-bad.

[tearmeanewone]

"Give me a few snow days, I'll get used to it!" Elizabeth grinned and took Gai's hand as they admired the tree. "Not bad for my first time working with those tiny lights. Next year, more ornaments in the window side."