~Christmas, Christmas time is here, time for joy and time for cheer~

"Turner!" Mr. and Mrs. Turner heard their son snicker from the living room at the sudden shout from their guest room. Upstairs someone slammed a door before stomping down the stairs. As his wife giggled at the childish prank, Mr. Turner walked into the next room to find his son holding a cat between him and his angry roommate.

It was a comical sight really, there was a small smile on the brunette's face as he held the cat up higher so her head blocked part of his face, holding her under her front legs. A quiet mew from the cat added to the silliness of it all. Then there was the fuming redhead with her phone raised as if she was going to throw it at him but thought better of it for the sake of their cat. He'd changed every notification noise on her phone to a different Chipmunk song with the ringtone for him being the Christmas one and changed the pin so she couldn't fix it. Squeaky, sped up music drove her insane.

Returning to the kitchen to help set the table, Mr. Turner couldn't help but feel relieved his son agreed to spend Christmas with them. The family had grown apart after years of Mr. and Mrs. Turner leaving him with the woman yelling at him one room over or by himself. Three years of not speaking finally broken when he replied to the email his mother sent, wondering if he would come home for the holidays. At first he was tempted to leave the message sitting in his inbox until his roommate, who regularly used his computer for a variety of reasons that included snooping, found it and, with her sister's help, convinced him to go. Their own parents had disowned them and if his were willing to try to make amends, they would make sure he gave them the chance. One condition was that they come with him but Tootie had already planned to stay with her girlfriend's family so it was just Vicky. Which meant bringing Psyche with them, that hadn't sat well with his mother who did not want an animal in the house she would have to clean up after, but the friends made sure she didn't cause trouble. She stayed upstairs mostly, cat had some weird thing about going down stairs although she had no problem going up them, unless carried down.

"Fix it."

"Only if you agree not to cause me harm for messing with your phone."

After a moment the woman gave an exasperated sigh before going back upstairs. Shortly after their son came back into the kitchen, tapping away at the phone in his hands to put it right again.

"Timmy you better not be letting that animal destroy my living room." His mother warned, neither of the twenty somethings would agree to come until his mother agreed to let the cat run around upstairs and reluctantly she gave in, but having her downstairs without supervision was another matter.

"Vicky took her upstairs."

"Oh…well that's alright then." Yeah she wasn't happy about a cat in the house but with no one to pet sit it was let them bring the cat to stay for a week, or they got in late, hung out the next day, and were gone first thing the following morning.

Later when dinner was over the four of them were watching a holiday movie in the living room; Mr. and Mrs. Turner on the loveseat and the couch occupied by the friends. Before everyone came in, the brunette had stretched out on the couch so rather than ask or demand he move, the pink eyed woman sat on his middle.

"Get off."

"No."

"Come on I can't breathe!"

"Difficulty breathing isn't the same as not being able to breathe Turner."Still she did readjust slightly so her butt was between the back of the couch and him, legs on his middle instead.

It didn't take long for the younger pair to grow bored with the sappy romance movie. About halfway through the cliché drama of guy the woman is supposed to end up with finding her with the man of her dreams, the pink eyed woman began to play with her phone, inadvertently prompting her companion/leg rest to play a game usually played with the roles reversed. The point was to pester whoever was trying to distract themselves, bonus points if they freaked out and no one suspected the one pestering was at fault. First he needed to get in a better position, scooting up so he was sitting upright against the arm of the couch rather than his back he chuckled when she fell over a bit and had to move so she was sitting on his lap. Her glares had long ago lost the ability to intimidate him, instead he stuck his tongue out at her. For a few minutes he didn't try anything else, patiently waiting for her to get lost in whatever she was doing, and once she was he poked her in the ribs. Unfazed, Vicky continued to browse on her phone.

More attempts to get a reaction followed with the same result. No amount of poking, probing, or pinching distracted her from whatever was so interesting on her phone. How could she stay so composed when he struggled to last more than ten minutes? With a dramatic huff he hugged his friend to him, head on her shoulder, glancing at her phone to see what she was doing.

However the screen was blank, she'd locked it, more to annoy him than to keep him from seeing anything. "Brat," She muttered.

"You do it to me all the time."One of those loud music parts when the girl realizes which guy is right for her while she rushes to find him was going on so they could whisper without his parents getting upset with them.

"Yeah," she pulled back to look at him, mischievous little smile, "and you love it."

"So you tell me."

"So I know, I'm very good at what I do."

The movie ended moments later, while the ladies went upstairs, Mr. Turner made his son stay behind. He turned off the television and went over to the Christmas tree to turn the lights off; Timmy was unplugging the lights outside.

"Okay, what did I do?"

"What makes you think you're in trouble?"

Leaning against the wall, the brunette shrugged. "Normally that's the only reason, other than leaving me with Vicky, you want to talk to me alone."

Those words stung, they were true but it didn't lessen the sting. "Well I was wondering why you didn't tell us the two of you were dating."

"Hold up, we're not dating, just friends."

Skeptical, the older man gave a look his son was all too familiar with. Plenty of people gave that look, not believing the friends weren't dating, and as usual it slowly changed into a high and mighty but-you-will. "Is that right?"

With a nod the two went upstairs. Normally this kind of thing being asked didn't bother him, most people mistook them for a couple anyway, but for some reason having his parents think it was more unsettling. Speak of the she-devil, sitting on his bed, using his computer was Vicky, playing a paranormal movie with their cat in her lap. Woman had no problem making herself at home anywhere.

"Take it your old man asked the question."

"Mom too?" She made a face at the screen. "What are you doing?"

"Need to watch something decent before bed. And before you ask, yeah I did forget the charger you reminded me about."

Putting the computer on the side table that once held a fish bowl, Vicky laid down on her side to watch her movie. Psyche jumped off the bed in favor of the pillow left on the floor for her to sleep on. A stern look from him had the redhead moving to the far side of the bed so he could lie down on his back. Paranormal movies weren't his favorite so he closed his eyes and concentrated on making the noise fade. He was succeeding until the bed moved and there was suddenly a weight on his stomach and hands on either side of his head.

The smirk on her face made him groan, annoying bitch, "what are you doing?"

"Want to run a proposal by you."

"And you had to sit on me to do that?"

She pretended to think for a second, "it helps with the effect."

"Effect of what?"

"My proposal, keep up Twerp."Cue her Cheshire grin reserved for special occasions, "What do you say me and you become friends with benefits?"

Two things happened in the split second following that question. One, the brunette's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his skull and two, there was a gasp from the doorway. Mrs. Turner had been coming to say goodnight but was now making a hasty retreat to her bedroom.

Timmy groaned, "Fuuuuuuuck."

"Night lover." Cackling, she scooped up the cat and went to the guest room.

And that is the reason why everyone, and I do mean everyone, thinks the pair aren't a couple yet, because being friends with benefits is a lot less complicated.