11/30 Instance: A Christmas Carol

[Svartfreja]

Before the hospital blows up sometime.


<Carol> Carol had constructed a fortress of solitude in the rec room, a fortress with snacks, a coffee machine (that could be refilled at her leisure with the bottled water, coffee and spare filters she'd hoarded), and several piles of paperwork that mostly just required her eyes and her signature.

<Cessily> "Hey, Carol, you in?" Cessily knocked against the wall constructed out of gathered cushions. She stretched her neck to peek into the makeshift fort/office. "I can hear the coffee machine brewing."

<Carol> "Yeah, I'm here... please come in and save my sanity from all this paper..." She put her latest reading to one side, carefully so she didn't knock anything over.

<Cessily> "If it's nothing too important, I have just the right idea to save your mind." She wiggled her fingers-turned-scissors and grinned. "Just let me know when you need a paper shredder again." Her shifting body moved across the wall and reformed as a sitting silver girl on the other side. "But for now, I brought bagels."

<Carol> "None of this gets shredded... normally they'd just make me fax over the last page all signed when I finish reading but my office is in a crater so... they deliver, I read and then I send it back and I get more. It's a neverending horrible cycle of boring. Just, for the love of God, do not knock anything over. I already did that once. It took me four hours to fix it." She held out both hands for the bagels.

<Cessily> "Don't worry, I can be sticky when I want to, so no worries of knocking aything over." Cessily demonstrated what she had just said by keeping the bag of bagels glued to her palm before dropping them in Carol's hands. "You know, I could probably make some room in my office..."

<Carol> "You don't want me in your office. You saw what mine looked like, do you want to live in that? Or do your counselling thing in that?" She ripped into the bagels and looked around for a clean mug for Cessily.

<Cessily> Cessily put on a thoughtful face. "You're right, having you hurl insults into your phone might not make for the most therapeutic setting when my students try to talk about their most personal fears. Also, I'm not sure they would appreciate your inevitable comments."

<Carol> "Exactly. I wouldn't be able to help myself... and I'm pretty sure they want to complain about me a lot and they won't do that if I'm in the room." She found the elusive clean mug and poured some coffee for Cessily.

<Cessily> "They're not nearly complaining as much as you'd think," Cessily replied with a chuckle. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're still scared of you, but since they started to figure out we're more than just coworkers, they seem to no longer trust my neutrality."

<Cessily> "Thank you." She gave Carol a smile as she took the cup from her. "At least where you are concerned."

<Carol> Carol laughed, "Well at least you won't have to get sick of defending me to everyone... at least here." She took a bite of a bagel.

<Cessily> Cessily found some sugar and milk to toss into her coffee. "I would never get sick of defending you." She gave her girlfriend an affectionate nudge. "It's what I signed up for when I became your supplier of greasy food and snuggly times."

<Carol> "Yeah but it's not really fair... I don't have to do that for you because you're so nice... I tried being nice once - hated it."

<Cessily> "No, that makes us the perfect team." Cessily grinned over the rim of her cup. "You don't like to be nice, and I don't like to be mean - but either way can't solve every problem in life."

<Cessily> "Together, though, what could stop us?" When she couldn't find a spoon, she simply reshaped the tip of her finger to stir the coffee.

<Carol> "Probably no one unless they got really good at building indestructible walls..." Carol gave her a grin.

<Cessily> "And then we can still fly above them." Cessily snickered, then took a sip from her coffee. "Speaking of unbreakable walls, though; I think we could really use some of those." She looked around to take in Carol's makeshift office-fort.

<Cessily> "Any word on how long they'll take to repair your place?"

<Carol> "Can't do anything until it stops snowing..." She sighed, looking around at the mess, "I guess I could get them to bring in a portable office for the time being."

<Cessily> "I'm sure we could find an empty room for you in the spooky parts of the hospital - if you don't mind the ghosts interfering with your wifi." Cessily giggled. "I actually like this fort, though. It's really cozy."

<Carol> "It is cozy but I'm better in a smaller space... because there's less room to make mess. I don't even know if the wifi would be any good down in the basement... though it would stop people just walking into my office like I give a damn what drama they've involved themselves in."

<Cessily> "Yes, as long as you don't mind the results of Broo's latest out of control experiments running wild through your office instead." Cessily giggled. "I'm not sure if that would be better or worse..."

<Carol> "... I prefer to pretend I don't know what he's doing. I'll call in for that trailer."

<Cessily> Cessily nodded. "Yes, I think that might be for the best. And no worries, I'll help you set up all your stuff and make it cozy." The silver girl cracked a grin. "And when the students get too annoying, you can just hitch it up and drive off."

<Carol> "Driving is for suckers, I can pick it up and fly it somewhere really far away."

<Cessily> Cessily laughed. "Don't say that around Broo, or he'll insist on giving your office a rocket drive or worse."

<Carol> "It doesn't need one, it has me... maybe for Christmas I'll move my office to an island somewhere."

<Cessily> "Ooh, can I come, too?" Cessily asked, putting down her coffee so she had both arms free to wrap them around Carol. "We could spend our vacation like mutant trailer trash."

<Carol> Carol laughed, sliding the arm that would only spill a bagel around Cessily, "You don't have better things to do in your vacation time than make sure I actually use mine? I mean, you like your family."

<Cessily> "I do, but I also like you." Cessily pulled Carol close enough to kiss the blonde woman's neck and cheek. "Besides, there are some presents I'd like to unwrap when my family isn't around to watch."

<Carol> Carol laughed and shook her head, "Yeah, I'll bet."

<Cessily> "I'm sure my family would like you, too," Cessily said. "So if you don't mind spending some winter days at the frozen coast of Maine, I'm sure you'd be more than welcome to visit us."

<Carol> "I don't mind frozen anything - I grew up in Boston. It's like this every year," she gestured vaguely toward the window and all the snow that lay beyond. "I don't get cold so it doesn't bother me at all."

<Cessily> "Well, in that case, consider yourself invited to visit me at home whenever you like," Cessily replied, a smile on her silver lips.

<Carol> Carol smiled back, leaning to press a kiss to her cheek, "Okay so... how about, we go to your family so they don't hate me for keeping you away... and then we can go on an adventure in a SHIELD issue trailer?"

<Cessily> "I like this plan." Cessily smiled as she rested her head on Carol's shoulder. "This way we can gorge ourselves on my mom's annual roast and stock up on my grandma's Christmas cookies before we go on our great trailer adventure."

<Carol> "I like the sound of that. Food is awesome. My mom's cooking is great but I can't deal with my dad for long enough to enjoy it..."

<Cessily> "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure my parents will like you." Cessily snaked a flexible arm around Carol to pick up her cup again for another sip. "Of course, my last dinner dates were a big wolf mutant who preferred to hunt his own food and a guy who eats with the help of symbiotic maggots, so I bet they won't even notice the fact you're a girl."

<Cessily> "Not that they have any issues with me dating girls," Cessily added. "As long as they don't shed all over the couch and leave dead squirrels as gifts, anyway."

<Carol> Carol stared at Cessily for a long moment, "Wow.... I'm seeing a theme here. Are they going to mind that I'm not an obvious mutant?"

<Cessily> Cessily snickered. "Are you kidding? If I were you, I'd be more worried about them spontaneously hugging you." She ran a hand through her hair. "It's not that they didn't like my old partners, but I always had the impression they felt... I don't know... a little sorry for me."

<Carol> "... Hmm, now I'm not so sure... I'm not a hugger..."

<Cessily> "As if they thought no one who's not freaky looking themselves would want me."

<Carol> "Anyone who doesn't want you is an idiot," Carol assured her, "Which I'm sure you know... I can tell your folks if you like."

<Cessily> "That only shows how smart you are," Cessily replied, a grin on her lips before she pressed them to Carol's for a kiss. "And thanks for the offer, but I don't think that will be necessary. I know my family loves me - they just don't always understand how to deal with the whole mutant thing."

<Carol> "Yeah, I know what you mean there... not the first part, the second bit."

<Cessily> Cradling the coffee cup between both hands, Cessily glanced up to give Carol a smile. "Hey, I'll gladly be your mutie wingman for family events if you'll be mine."

<Carol> "I'll be yours for free, I don't even want to go to my own family events."

<Cessily> "That's so sweet of you," Cessily replied and grinned. "My backup plan was to bribe you with cookies."

<Carol> "I will totally accept cookies as a supplementary," Carol replied quickly.

<Cessily> "I assure you, my grandma will feed us with so many cookies, even you might have them trouble flying both of us home."

<Carol> "This is starting to sound better and better!" She laughed, "It could be fun to see how much food I can eat before I don't want anymore."

<Cessily> Cessily giggled. "Just know when to stop," she supplied helpfully. "Kyle tried to do that. It didn't end pretty."

<Carol> "I promise I'll be sensible, I know when to say when."

<Cessily> "Besides, I'm sure we'll have our own room, so there'll always be dessert." Cessily grinned and rested comfortably against Carol's side.

<Carol> "Good," she set her coffee down to wrap both her arms around Cessily, "Seems like next year's looking up already."

<Cessily> Cessily leaned back into the other woman's arms. "Shh, don't jinx it," she whispered, wearing a smirk as she turned her head to press her lips to Carol's.