glacial_queen | Christmas Day, SaDiablo Hall, Dhemlan Kaeleer

Times had lined up well enough that Karla's portal had arrived late in the night for both Fandom and Kaeleer. She'd barely stayed awake long enough to follow a footman up to her suite before flinging herself onto the bed and falling asleep.

The next morning, however, she blearily realized that her suite was decorated for Winsol, even though it wasn't the holiday season. She'd tiredly noted the same thing on her way upstairs, but it hadn't registered then. It took her a few moments to understand that the family and staff had decorated the Hall again for Christmas.

For Warren.

There was a lump in her throat as she sent out a mass text to all of her friends. Merry Christmas!

[NFB for distance, but open for holiday greetings, phone calls, etc! SP warning in effect like whoa, because, y'know, Christmas.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

wwiii

Considering the decorations, and the fact that Warren had come to the Hall specifically because he didn't want to spend Christmas alone in the dorms in Sunnydale, and how he'd gotten a proper sleep last night and all, it was probably not much of a stretch that he'd found himself a place next to the Christmas-appropriated-Winsol-tree to curl up in one of the dangerously comfortable chairs with a mug of coffee (he was still working on educating the Kaeleerans in the way of espresso) and one of the Protocol books that Saetan had given him to study.

He had his headphones in, and was listening to Christmas carols from his phone, as he read. The decorations weren't entirely the same as what one might put out for Christmas, no, but they were similar enough, and with a fire crackling in the fireplace nearby and the music and the tree all working in tandem, it actually felt more like Christmas here, in a completely different world, than it had ever felt back home when he was living with his father, after his mother had left.

And that was why he was lost in his own little world by the time Karla made it up and into that room, humming softly along with a Silent Night/Stille Nacht medley and thankful that he was allowed a pass on his training this morning. Because Christmas.

From:

glacial_queen

The afternoon, however...

Karla was yawning and shrugging herself into the big, blue robe Warren had gotten her as she shuffled into the sitting room. Even as sleepy as she was, her eyes were still drawn to Warren immediately. He was the north to her compass, always.

She froze, unsure whether she should intrude on his peaceful Christmas morning or just slip back into her room before he noticed her.

From:

wwiii

Really, though, it was difficult to miss a big, fluffy blue robe, and the fiery little blonde that was wearing it around. Warren glanced up as the blue blob entered his peripheral vision, just kind of sat there for a moment taking in the sight of her, and then bit his lip and pulled out one of his earbuds, setting his book to the side and offering her a little smile.

"Hey," he said softly, scootching to the side a little, in case she wanted to come sit down next to him. He was still upset, but it was a duller sort of upset, and it was Christmas, here in his little bubble of reality. "Merry Christmas, Karla."

From:

glacial_queen

"Merry Christmas," she said, giving him a tentative smile in return. "You look all kinds of comfy, there. Sure I won't be the way?"

Either in the chair or in general...however he wanted to answer that.

Edited Date: 2012-12-25 05:13 pm (UTC)

From:

wwiii

"You're never in the way, Karla. You might drive me halfway to crazy more often than not," and that was actually said mostly affectionately, "but you're not in the way."

He gave that spot beside himself a pat with one hand, and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Come on. It's Christmas."

From:

glacial_queen

Oh, like Karla could say no twice. Once was hard enough. She didn't quite fling herself into that spot with her usual fervor, but she didn't hesitate before heading over there and snuggling up to him. "Since it's Christmas, I'll try to drive you only a quarter of the way to crazy today," she promised, breathing in the scent on him. Cornchips and subtly expensive soap and Warren. "If that."

From:

wwiii

"If that," Warren echoed in a murmur, nuzzling his face into her hair and wrapping her up in his arms and his wings. "We do still need to talk, though, you know."

Because he was reserving the right to be upset about that whole mess from before until he could explain just why he had gotten so angry in the first place. Preferably without shaking her by the shoulders. That seemed decidedly un-festive.

From:

glacial_queen

"We do," Karla murmured, feeling that hug all the way to her toes. "No bullshit and no excuses, either. Just talking."

Because no matter how angry he got at her for what happened, it had to be better than these past few weeks of...whatever-it-had been between them.

"Can I get a Christmas kiss before we do?"

From:

wwiii

"Yeah," he replied, nuzzling up against her for a moment more before leaning down and smiling, lips just a breath away from her mouth. "You can have a Christmas kiss before we talk."

It would be a nice way to ease them into more serious conversation. You know. In a moment.

From:

glacial_queen

In a long moment. It had been a very long time since they'd even kissed and Karla wasn't in a hurry to end it. Wouldn't be, even if they hadn't had a Talk to have once it finished.

Though she was also going to be a good girl and not suggest they have a Christmas love-making bout before the talk, too. Even if the kiss made her think of it anyway.

It was a good, long kiss, tender and sweet, and Karla wasn't going to pull away until Warren did.

From:

wwiii

And Warren wasn't going to pull back until he was good and certain that he was about to smother his girlfriend to death with it, because while she was stubborn about this sort of thing, he did have a lung capacity that would make most humans pass out long before he actually needed to exhale, if they were having a breath-holding contest.

That, and it was a good kiss, the kind of heart-melting kiss that had him wondering, if only for a moment, why they ever spent time not kissing like that at all in the first place.

"Merry Christmas," he murmured, after that grudging pull back, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against hers. "You are in so much trouble."

That lack of conviction there hopefully clued her in to the fact that he was no longer clawing at walls and pacing the hallways angrily. Which was a big step up, considering the way he'd almost attempted to give Chaosti a few extra holes in his head a few weeks back.

From:

glacial_queen

Karla had her eyes closed, breathing a little faster and clinging tight to him. "I know," she whispered back, glad that he was telling her this in an embrace instead of snarling it while prowling about like a restless Arcerian. "I know. I can handle being in trouble if you keep holding me like this."

Probably not a good thing to say, since Warren preferred her not in trouble? But she didn't care, she was in his arms and all was well with the world.

From:

wwiii

"Good," he decided, because... hey, if she could handle it, and he had mellowed out, they weren't half as likely to end up screaming this time around. "You know, I still don't completely know how bad it got, and I've been running worst-case-scenarios through my head that are worse and worse every time."

Because this was Karla.

Because worst-case-scenarios were sort of something that she excelled at.

From:

glacial_queen

Karla winced. "It got...bad," she admitted. "I don't know how worst-case your worst-case scenario got, but it's possible they, umm, tied."

She didn't want to admit that, but it was true.

"On the other hand, I discovered a few things that are going to be very useful for the future. Things that helped me out, helped me pace myself, and will even help landens in the future." She ran a hand through her hair and added, "Should I just start at the beginning then?"

From:

wwiii

"I think maybe the time to start at the beginning would've been back when you were trying to tell me I was overracting and being unfair. You know I was getting more upset because you were dancing around what the hell happened back there," Warren noted, though his tone was fairly mild. "Go on, then. Tell me how bad it was. I'll figure out how much yelling I'm going to have to do when you're done."

From:

glacial_queen

"Bloody Mary nearly strangled me," Karla said baldly. "Well, no, I mean, she did strangle me. The only reason I didn't die was because I ended up blasting her with more Craft than I thought possible. I ended up falling towards my core--it wasn't even a planned thing--it was the last instinct of desperation."

He said he wanted to know how bad it was. She was just going to lay it all bare for him.

"And then Corwyn used witchfire on me."

See why she'd danced around it a bit?

From:

wwiii

Warren could see. And he was frowning pretty damn deeply when she was done talking, too. But he didn't yell. So help him, he was not going to yell on Christmas.

"Do you understand why I'm upset that you wouldn't tell me any of this, Karla?"

On top of all of the promise breaking and the having to be dragged back in Momoko's pocket?

From:

glacial_queen

"I get it," Karla said. "You were just already so angry that I didn't want to confirm your worst fears. I didn't want to talk about it, I didn't want to think about it--if anything, I just wanted to point out the parts where I did what I was supposed to."

She sighed again, realizing she was coming perilously close to making excuses again. "I'm just saying that, yes, I understand. I also know that I didn't make anything better by waiting this long to tell you, either. I'm sorry."

But the nightmares had mostly stopped by now, so yay?

From:

wwiii

Yay! Ish.

"You're more than welcome to tell me the parts where you did what you were supposed to do, too," Warren noted, still frowning slightly all the same. "It'll give me something else to focus on, right? It's just... you know... It looks pretty bad when Momoko has to cast some kind of weird spell on you and drag you back, and then you dance around what did happen."

Particularly with the whole broken promise thing compounding that.

"You push yourself too hard," he murmured. "And I understand why, about as much as you understand why it's so hard for me to not convince myself that everything that goes wrong is my fault." And that wasn't easy to say, really, no. "But what it looked like, on top of how bad things always seem to get when someone calls for the cavalry and Momoko not telling me anything and you not telling me anything..."

From:

glacial_queen

"Momoko didn't tell you anything because I kind of made everyone promise not to," Karla said, dropping her eyes. "It wasn't deliberate! I was on the ground and I mumbled something about being in so much trouble, I think."

She didn't remember all of that very well. It had been a haze of burning agony, mostly.

"But up until then, I rested and ate, just like I was supposed to. Momoko needed to remind me a few times, but I did it. No fussing. No arguing. It wasn't until we were witnessing the formal surrender that we fought about it. I wanted to see it to the end."

After nearly dying twice for it, Karla had thought she was due that much.

From:

wwiii

Warren sighed and nodded a little, not wanting to think about Karla being on the ground and in so much pain that she deliriously mumbled something that she couldn't entirely remember now. It was still difficult to keep from just heading back to Sunnydale to pull out of his classes there and then, so that he could go back to the island and play the part of on-call Healer-boyfriend until Karla's own graduation.

And he chewed his lip for a moment, and then dropped his gaze to his knees.

"You have no idea how much I've struggled with the idea of just dropping everything and moving back to the island since all of that, Karla. I want nothing more than to make sure you're safe and in one piece, and I don't feel like I can do that from Sunnydale. It's been killing me."

Kiss Kiss

Christmas Day, SaDiablo Hall, Dhemlan Kaeleer

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