A/N: And now we're back to fully fun mischievous fluff! Enjoy!

Oh, and for anyone that's curious, I've drawn some NT fan art. You can find it at the following address (just replace the stuff so that it looks like a url address): ode2sokka (dot) deviantart (dot) com

The Perfect Christmas
Chapter 3/25: Parties

"But Abby," Riley drew out the last syllable of her name as long and obnoxiously as he could, inflecting it up and down a couple of times, "it's itchy!"

Abigail Gates sighed as she turned around carefully on the icy sidewalk—not the easiest feat in these tiny high heels—to adjust Riley's tuxedo jacket for what was swiftly approaching the fiftieth time.

Honestly, it was like he was trying to annoy her out of making him go to the party! And her husband, the jerk, wasn't helping either as he kept laughing harder the more Riley whined. They were like a couple of teenage boys; they positively fed off each other. The more Ben laughed, the more Riley whined, and made Ben laugh more!

"Will you two behave," she sighed, hitting Riley smartly on the back of the hand as he tried to adjust the jacket so it was more comfortable. He pouted, but she ignored him. "This is the annual Christmas party for the employees of the National Archives. I thought you two would be a little more excited about it."

"Correction. You thought he would be more excited," Riley jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Ben. "You knew perfectly well I wouldn't want to go, but dragged me along anyway."

This was a truer statement than Abby was willing to admit to, so she ignored it. "The least you two could do is try and act civilized."

"I'm sorry, Abigail," Ben smiled at her, doing his best to look sheepish. "It's just that, after last time, I never thought I'd be allowed back in here."

"Personally, I'm just tired of these suit-and-tie-parties. Honestly, you can't even call this a party. It's a bunch of stuffy people standing around and doing nothing. So not a party." Riley was full out pouting now, glaring down at the loafers on his feet with great dislike.

Abby sighed once again, reaching out to try and smooth down Riley's mess of hair. "You might as well get used to it. Celebrities have to go through this all the time."

"I'm not the celebrity. That's your hubby."

"I gave you credit," Ben smiled at his friend, taking obvious amusement in his wife's attempts to make the brown locks stay flat.

"I'm a footnote, and you know it." Riley growled, pulling away as Abby went to lick her hand. "Keep your spit out of my hair!"

"Well, if you would have brushed it like you were told…" Abby turned away, but she made sure her posture made it quite clear that she knew that Riley had skimped on as many of her instructions as possible.

It was like the boy didn't even care about making a good impression on her co-workers. Although, admittedly, Abby knew this was partly her own fault. She really didn't have to bring Riley along for this. Ben, yes, but not Riley.

Because, technically, the invitation had said 'you and family members'. That really should have excluded Riley on two counts—one because he was arguably still a child most of the time, and two because he wasn't her family in the traditional sense. These thoughts hadn't occurred to her at the time though; the first thing she'd thought of had been how she was going to convince Riley that he couldn't wear a hoodie with a collared shirt.

Now she was almost regretting the over-sight on her part. It would have spared her four Tylenol if she could have avoided arguing with Riley for nearly four hours about what he could and could not wear to this party.

She'd had to let him bring his laptop in order to get the Converse off his feet, and she was still wondering at the wisdom of that decision.

She heard footsteps hurrying up from behind her and let Ben slide an arm around her waist. "We promise to behave ourselves. Don't we, Riley?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be a good little minion and entertain myself with minimal disturbances to the other guest."

Abby couldn't help the slight smile at Riley's very put out tone. "There's just no pleasing that boy, is there?"

"Absolutely not," Ben agreed, returning her grin with some relief. "The world could be made of sunshine and populated with small adorable fluffy creatures and Riley would complain it was too bright and that he was going to get fleas."

"I can still hear you, you know," Riley yelled up to them, but followed them obediently as they entered the hall that had been used for the Gala—during which Ben had stolen the Declaration, but Abby seriously hoped no one would bring that up. As interesting a subject as it was, there was no possible way to end that conversation without it being awkward. Abby knew this, because she'd tried several different ways and all had failed.

Unfortunately, luck didn't seem to be on their side.

No sooner had they entered the room than Doctor Herbert approached them, smiling. "Doctor Chase. Mr. Brown. How curious to see you here again."

She heard Riley nearly choke as he tried to keep from laughing out loud, and Ben released he long enough to turn and glare at his friend.

Abby put on her most pristine smile, the one she used when dealing with people she was less than fond of and crazies. "I'm sorry, Doctor Herbert, you must have him mixed up with someone else. This is my husband, Benjamin Gates. Ben, this is Doctor Herbert."

Ben gave her odd look, fully aware that he had met the man last time. Without breaking her smile, Abby calmly stepped on his foot to remind him that she didn't want awkward questions asked.

He winced as the heel of her stiletto pressed down on his toes, but forced a smile onto his face. "The pleasure is all mine, Doctor Herbert."

As expected, the other man frowned. "Are you certain we've never met before, Mr. Gates? I never forget a face, and you bare quite the resemblance to a Mr. Brown that Abigail introduced me to last time."

Riley coughed behind her, once again unsuccessful in controlling his fit of laughter. Abby decided to capitalize on this.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I almost forgot. Doctor Herbert, this is Riley. Riley, Doctor Herbert."

She heard Ben cough something that sounded suspiciously like 'the stiff', but since she had no idea what he could mean by that she chose to ignore it—and the renewed bout of muffled laughter this caused on Riley's part.

"Doctor…"

"Yes, it's Gates now," Abby smiled a bit at this, and pretended not to notice the pleased look on Ben's face.

"Well, regardless of your name, you are still much too young to have a son that age."

Now it was Ben's turn to laugh, turning his face away to try and hide it. Abby stepped on his foot again, and he quickly regained control of himself.

"Riley isn't my son, he's…" She hadn't thought of this situation coming up. She was hoping people would just accept Riley at face value. She came up with the first lie she could think of. "He's Ben's younger brother."

Now that she thought about it, it was easy enough to believe. Both of them had unruly brown hair, light blue eyes, the same nose, and long faces. As long as neither of her boys ran their mouths, they could pull this off easy. It was certainly easier to believe than Riley as her son. She was only twelve years older than him for goodness sake!

She glanced at Ben, who looked too surprised that she would lie about this to say anything, and then over her shoulder at Riley, who was looking thoroughly pleased with this whole game to spoil it.

"Oh," Doctor Herbert was looking distinctly uncomfortable by this point. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid I'm not making a very good impression."

"Nah, you're making a great impression…of your foot in your mouth," Riley laughed, moving over towards the table laden with interesting looking deserts.

Abby glared at Riley's retreating back, while Ben shook his head.

"Yes, well, it was a pleasure to see you again, Doctor…Gates." Doctor Herbert nodded to them before heading off to go talk to another couple that had just walked in.

Crossing her arms across her chest, Abby shot Ben her most intimidating look.

Ben responded by assuming an innocent expression he could only have picked up from Riley. "What?"

"That could have gone better, don't you think?"

"I'm not the one that lied…twice…in one conversation." Ben chuckled, offering her his arm.

Abby took it, allowing him to lead her towards one of the tables. "Both were necessary. I don't want to admit what you did while here, do you?"

"Not necessarily," he agreed, pulling out her chair for her. "But Riley as my brother?"

"What? It's believable. You two look a like, and might as well be." She smiled at her husband as he sat down next to her. "The invitation was for family only…"

"And while we see Riley as family," Ben finished for her with a smile, "not everyone will see it that way."

"Exactly."

"Well, don't look now, but you're 'brother-in-law' is demonstrating making out to a couple of eight-year-olds using two Gingerbread cookies."

Abby whirled around, and her eyes widened as a devilishly grinning Riley pressed the two gingerbread men together again. "Riley!"