The Estate, Sidra, Glacia, Thursday (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

Winsol had been going on now for several days. The family had just decamped from SaDiablo Hall in Dhemlan back home to Glacia to continue the festivities in their own home. There would be several more days of formal events, but this evening was just for family and close friends (specifically friends close enough to be family). The children were tumbling around like puppies, a mix of Earth and Kaeleeran carols were playing from floating music spheres scattered throughout the suite, fires crackled in the large hearths, and food and punch and hot spiced rum were piled high on the sideboards throughout. "Happy Winsol!" Karla said, holding up her cup in a toast.

"Happy Winsol!" the room chorused back to her.

[Open to residents of Glacia, dear friends, and anyone who thinks they'd have gotten an invite]

Comments

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime reached up and tapped his temple. "I've got a pretty decent running commentary going."

[heromaniac]

"Aww. I forgot. It's not headache-making, though, right? I can see if I can get Karla to make a safe space or something if you want?" She mused a moment. "I bet he's having fun with it, though. Can he detect psychic chatter or the Winds?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Nah." Jaime shook his head, chuckling. "And he wouldn't put it that way? Like, he never knows what people who use these sorts of powers call things, so he's got his own terms. It can make it hard to know what he's sensing, you know?"

[heromaniac]

"He's lucky he's got you. Imagine if it were poor Paco who he'd bonded with."

"Well, if you two ever need it explained to you, I can totally try. The Protocol books Warren lends me include a lot of history and explanations." Plus, well, she'd basically lived here for a year. "But not right now, of course. Right now is for snuggling deep in your arms and pretending we aren't going to be away from home for days."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Why pretend that?" Jaime asked, voice teasing and sympathetic. "You have any plans?"

[heromaniac]

"Besides helping with Christmas dinner and church with your family and then the week of New Year cleaning and First Visits with mine?" She snorted lightly. "After tonight we probably won't even be able to sneak more than a quick kiss until New Years."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Oh, is that what you think?" Did you have so little faith in Jaime's creativity, Momoko?

[heromaniac]

She had faith in their two pesty little sisters and his fear of her dad... Still.

"Yeeees?" She temporized, but an obvious tone of curiosity and heightened interest.

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, no specific ideas, but I've got a lot of faith in our creativity." Especially if they had enough motivation.

[heromaniac]

"That's all you've got to go up against our sisters and my dad?" She snorted, shaking her head and snuggling closer. "And you had me excited."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Excited?" he prompted, waggling his eyebrows outrageously.

[heromaniac]

"I was. But if your plan is just to wing it, it's no use, is it?" she teased. "Also, the room is full of telepaths, so you may want to watch what you're thinking." As if he hadn't already blabbed.

[weldedtomyspine]

"Ugh. I know. That's probably the most stressful part of the night. Trying to keep things under wraps."

He hadn't said anything.

[heromaniac]

"Don't stress too much," Momoko softened her tone, but still teased: "If you get a headache, you'll be unbearable for the whole holiday."

"So if you've kept it under wraps, how did Dinah find out?" Hmmmm?

[weldedtomyspine]

"I didn't say anything!" Jaime declared quickly.

But it was overreactions like that that had probably given the game away.

[heromaniac]

"It's a party full of telepaths, remember?" Momoko laughed and poked him. "And you thought I'd be the first one to break."

Honestly, so had she... the wines here in Glacia were verrrry sweet and tasty.

"Though that does mean you were probably thinking about it or she wouldn't have picked up on it as having actually happened." Momoko dropped her voice. "Were you?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Thinking of you?" Jaime asked, grinning just a bit.

Because, yeah. Duh.

[heromaniac]

That got a chuckle. A delighted one, but a chuckle nonetheless.

"If you were only thinking of me, Dinah wouldn't have been so sure. You were totally thinking about us, weren't you?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Hmm. I suppose that that's possible..."

Or, you know, definitely what had happened.

Was still happening, really.

[heromaniac]

"Totally your fault if you get teased by the Karla and the Boyos, then." She snuggled closer to him, his sort-of confession making her infinitely happy. "Though they're more likely to offer suggestions and techniques than to really tease you." Or toys. And if Jaime used any of those, Momoko totally didn't want to know who they were from. "And Priestly... Dinah said to warn you she was going to tell him."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Priestly's cool. He probably won't, um, tease me too much?"

Yeah. Right, Jaime.

[heromaniac]

"Probably not. More likely you two will just compare how many blankets to use when it's 50 degree outside."

"Oh, but speaking of people who won't tease... Are you and I driving down to visit your grandmother this Christmas? I brought her gift along just in case, but I can mail it from El Paso if you don't want to go." On a long road trip. The two of them. Alone.

[weldedtomyspine]

"Hmmm." Jaime pretended to consider that.

"We'd probably have to drive, you know. To keep up appearances."

[heromaniac]

"That's a really long drive. We'd have to take breaks because of the heat."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Maybe we should plan to stop overnight during the drive," Jaime mused. "You know, so we aren't too tired."