Title: "Some Assembly Required"
Author: Kat Lee, the author formerly known as Pirate Turner
Dedicated To: This is the 5th Christmas story of my 12 Days of Christmas 2012 series for my beloved and wonderful husband, Jack aka Drew, who's always such an inspiration, and also our sweet children! Thank you, my darling soul mate! I love you!
Rating: G
Summary: Sometimes, love takes some assembly.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: 244. That's the number of stories that were sitting on my hard drive collecting dust because I lack the energy and time to take care of them as I once did. My betaing pattern has always been to write, then type up if written on paper, the story, read it aloud to my beloved Jack and our children, editing as I go, and then finally format and post. Sadly, this part is simply taking too much of my time and energy, and my beloved Jack and I have too little time together in person these days to be able to keep up with my stories. So what to do? Give up writing? I actually considered it for a while, tried to make excuses to myself other than the large number of stories collecting cyber dust on my computer, as to why I lacked the energy and Muse to write new tales. And then, with the turn of the new year, I decided to stop running and face the problem. The problem is, quite frankly, that once one gets so bogged down in formatting and editing that writing is no longer a pleasure but the actual posting of those writings becomes a hassle and - egad! - work, it's time to cut something out, and that will never be the writing process. So, in short, yes, there will be mistakes in this tale. Yes, it's missing about half of the header information I usually include. But I wrote it for pleasure and am posting it in hopes of sharing that pleasure with others. Do with it as you will.
He loved the sensation of wriggling his furry, blue toes in the soft and freshly fallen snow as he walked bare footed across the lovely grounds of the mansion and school he was blessed to call his home. This was his favorite time of the year, and there really was no other Christmas like Christmas in New York.
He could have hopped into his car and drove just a few miles to see lights bigger and brighter than any other decorations in all the world. There, too, he would have been swept up into the hustle and bustle of shoppers who had come from miles around, and some even from whole states away, as they searched, in a frenzy for the very right present. He could have gotten lost in those crowds, and at this time of the year, few would have screamed if he'd tipped his hat to them and grinned a fang-filled smile. Well, maybe not just a few, but certainly less than at any other time of the year.
But Hank didn't want hustle or bustle or pushing crowds, any kind of screams, or even the right present. As he grew older - and Mama McCoy's bouncing, baby boy certainly did have a consider number of years underneath his proverbial belt now -, he found himself more concerned with what others considered to be the lesser things in life.
He found himself often these days searching for peace and reveling in quiet happiness when he found it. Surely, few places in life could be more peaceful than walking through a snowy landscape that looked close to what one would read about in a Charles Dickens novel where geese flew overhead with only the occasional honk and more gentle snowflakes drifted slowly down. A good book nestled underneath Hank's big, fuzzy arm, waiting eagerly to be read when he found the perfect, and surely slightly slippery, tree limb from which to either hang upside down or stretch leisurely out across its top and read.
The scene was almost complete, but Hank knew what was missing the moment he saw the sign up ahead. Black coal formed the words: Some Assembly Required. A top hat, carrot, and cob pipe lay in the mounds of snow just beyond the coal, and the snow in that particular patch seemed to be bundled closer together than all the rest of the snow that had fallen that day.
Hank smiled sweetly; his blue eyes sparkled delightedly. Some would be puzzled by the sign, some perhaps even stumped, but Hank understood it immediately. None could say justifiably that Hank McCoy was not a genius, but it was not his brilliance that took part in solving the cute puzzle. His heart knew the answer the moment he saw the parts of a snowman waiting to be built.
Purring, he crouched down. His lithe, blue fingers nimbly and swiftly shaped the balls of coal on the ground into a smile. He leaned down; kissed those hard, frozen lips; and was immediately rewarded with the man he loved shooting up out of the snow.
Hank fell back, laughing, to give his cherished Bobby room to play. Bobby had grabbed the pipe and top hat as he'd exploded upward from the ground and now clenched the pipe in his teeth and tipped his hat. "He came to life one day," he sang at the top of his lungs, winking at Hank.
Hank continued to laugh as he rolled back to his fuzzy feet and then pounced his man. As he brought him down to the snowbank he'd created, he grasped his pipe in his sharp fangs, took it from Bobby's mouth, and tossed it to the ground. Hank continued purring but stopped laughing as he replaced Bobby's pipe with his own lips, scorching the Iceman's mouth as his own lips and tongue ravished him thoroughly.
His eyes, heart, and soul danced as he rolled his lover in the snow. There was no wonder he wasn't interested in finding just the right present for he already had it right here in his soul mate in his arms and would keep it forever!
The End