H and P
"No longer will you citizens be terrorized by evil microwaves, toasters, and refrigerators." Hidden declares with his heroic voice as Phoenix stands beside him, the feathers whirling back into the wing.
The two just defeated a robot house that spat out smaller household appliances sent to kill them and terrorize the students.
"Up high!" Hidden lifts his hand up and Phoenix smacks it with his right hand.
"I still find it amusing that you use that voice when referring to the student body," Phoenix said lowly as everyone is cheering.
"You got to admit, it is fun using the voice."
"You sound like a pretentious shoob whenever you use that voice." Phoenix waves to the crowd as the two walk up the front steps of the school, planning on lifting the damaged robot refrigerator oven combo.
"You suck." He follows his partner and the two grab the arms of the robot.
"There's my embarrassed partner, back from his vacation I see." The two lifts up the damaged machinery.
"Wonder what happened to that polite partner I had in the beginning? I miss him terribly so." He rolls his eyes as the walk to the side.
"One, your English sucks. Two, he's out back chilling with a ebony bunny who cracks jokes about himself getting hurt." He says as the two put the robot on the small wall before pushing it off.
The robot lands with a heavy thud, the dirt flying all over and it's someone else's mess to deal with the parts. Put it into recycling or something.
Hidden dusts off his hands, "You wound me so much Phoenix, I haven't been that man in weeks."
"You're not even a man yet."
"How would you know that?"
"Your face is bare like a baby's cheek."
"Hey, let me tell you facial hair doesn't make a man a man. Plus, I can be a short man."
"You literally told me that you take classes here."
"Phoenix, you do not understand I was making a argument. I may not be a man yet, but there are men out there without a mustache or a beard or a short. You can't discriminate."
"Please, I am the last person who will even discriminate against someone. Just treat everyone equally a first and their actions will tell you how to treat them at a later date."
"P and HB, everyone is wondering if you are going to do it now." Heidi suddenly announced and the two stop their quiet bickering.
"Ms. Heidi, what exactly are you talking about?" Phoenix asks, turning up the charm.
Hidden swears the guy is smiling behind his mask, something pleasant that most people will see, and think nothing of it. He tries to not slide in front of the multicolored avian since he used to avoid any messages like the plague. Of course, with a direct statement, he knows Phoenix will answer to the best of his abilities. However, once he sees the other tap his left foot two times that means he has to get them out of there.
"The kiss of course, from the mistletoe." She says impatiently. She does seem eager to know more, Hidden notes, as Howard's sister takes a step closer to them.
Electric blue eyes lock with jade green orbs. "What mistletoe?" Phoenix whispers and Hidden shrugs.
The bunny hero looks around and doesn't see anything. He looks up and sees a tattered bit of mistletoe hanging. He taps Phoenix's shoulder and points up behind them. Phoenix nods his head in understanding.
"That mistletoe. Mhm, when did that get up there?" Phoenix asks and Hidden sees it as a legitimate question.
'That wasn't there this morning. Did someone put it up later or what?' Hidden thinks as he looks at the crowd. He sees a few people practically drooling with their phones out. He seen them before, members of the Appreciation Club. However, the members that are part of the more relationship based fandom rather than the theories he loves so much.
"I did," the custodian in the back yells and Hidden realizes that it is Anthony.
He takes a small step back and shakes his head. "Since we aren't under it, we aren't going to kiss." Once Hidden said that the fan girls all groaned, but they still had their phones out.
"As Hidden helpfully said, we aren't going to kiss. We are too far from it."
Phoenix takes a step closer to the door and he glances at him. His partner juts his neck slightly and he raises his eyebrow, not understanding why they are going through the door. Then he glances at everyone and the mistletoe and Hidden dawns his look of understanding. Phoenix nods his head, practically saying, "Yeah, they aren't going to follow us quickly if we go in here." Which is a good thing for them because most people are just trying to stop them from disappearing onto the roof.
Phoenix walks into the building and Hidden trails right behind him, everything was going smoothly until he stopped. Right under the mistletoe.
"Kiss already!" A lot of people yelled and hooted.
Hidden scowls and feels like his face turned as red as his hair.
"Sorry about that, I didn't know you were following or not," Phoenix chuckles nervously, his left hand scratching the back of his neck.
For some reason, Hidden gets the feeling that Phoenix did that deliberately. He doesn't trust his feeling because why would his partner do that?
"I'm done." Hidden announces and stalks off, his ears cutting through the air with a whish as he stalks off down the hall.
He hears footsteps run after him and he opens one of the windows before scaling the wall.
"Wait up, I didn't mean anything like that." His partner said as he climbs up after him.
Hidden waits for Phoenix's head to pop up before talking. "I hate that they were going to record it."
"So you don't mind the idea of kissing me, a guy, but people watching us."
"Right on the nose."
"You're weird." Phoenix shakes his head and laughs.
"Hey, I'm sorry if I hate it when people see me kissing people. It's our business." He rolls his eyes.
"Aw you love me," Phoenix says, hugging Hidden tightly with his left hand.
"Come on let's get to the middle. Don't want people angling their phones up to see us."
Phoenix immediately walks to the middle and says, "How are we going to do this?"
"Just uh give me a sec." Hidden said before getting close and kissing his beak.
Phoenix blinked at him and didn't say anything. Hidden coughs and took a step back. Maybe he shouldn't have done that, well it isn't like he was kissing his lips or anything, but it was weird. The mask felt cool and hot at the same time; he wonders how Phoenix could stand it whenever he is out.
"Can I get one on my forehead? It's weird to see your face up close, but not feel anything." Phoenix hesitantly asks and he nods.
"Sure." Hidden says and mentally sighs in relief.
His partner wasn't being awkward because he didn't like it. He was awkward because he takes mistletoes seriously. Usually a kiss on the lips or cheeks would do, but when half your face with a hard mask, there isn't may places to keep the tradition alive.
He puts his hands on Phoenix's shoulders and stands on his tippy toes. Phoenix angles his head down and he places a kiss right over the mask that covers his eyes. He steps back from his partner just as suddenly as he kissed him. He scratches his cheek and blames the heat to be the chill from the snow.
"Thanks, now I should offer you the same." Phoenix said, and Hidden looks up to see his eyes crinkling.
"What do you mean by that? You can't take off your mask."
"No, but I can still give you a cheek-to-cheek kiss. Most of my female relatives do it so their makeup doesn't get ruined. You don't mind if I do it right?"
"I don't mind." He shrugs and waits.
Phoenix steps close to him and bends down. The left side of his mask touches his right cheek and he gives him a hug as well. "Least I can do is show a different form of affection. I would touch your forehead with mine if I didn't want to accidentally hurt myself." Phoenix softly says as he grips tighter before letting his arms lax.
The two stay like that for a few more seconds before the lower masked hero takes a step back. They stare at each other for a moment before Hidden looks away first, coughing.
"Guess we should be going know, don't know how many people are going to find us." He turns around and ignores Phoenix's adorable laugh.
H and J
Hidden was in a rush to get anywhere besides where people were at. He just used his Hidden Luck for the finishing blow, and Phoenix already left due to using his Cursed Flames three minutes prior when they had to take down the Arachniwiz. His miraculous bracelet is losing it's red nine and he is just bolting through the halls.
'Need to find a bathroom before heading to Howard. Might need to squeeze past the window if the last stall is unoccupied.' He thinks as he bumps into some guy who took a few steps out of the boy's restroom.
He doesn't fall on his ass, but he does take a step back. His hands immediately went to his head to rub his sore forehead as he mumbles an apology.
"Hidden?" The guy said and he realizes who he is, Jacques. Who just so happens to be pointing above them.
He mentally slaps his head, he does not have time for this. Quickly he gives the guy in front of him a quick kiss. "No hard feelings man," He said as he went around him, and he sees Jacques's face flush. From anger or embarrassment is his best guess before he goes into the bathroom.
Just his luck the last stall is open, so he goes into it. The bathroom door opened behind him and he hears Jacques say, "Hidden are you okay? You didn't h-"
He doesn't listen anymore because he just opened the window and slips out of it to the ground. Just in time too because his transformation just wore off and Nommi came from his miraculous bracelet. He puts his kwami in his jacket pocket, apologizing quietly, as he runs to the nearest door to get within the school.
*Later*
"Ugh Mr. Popular Shoob looks like he got the cream," Howard groans as the two are waiting for their bus.
"What?" Is Randy's magnificent response.
"Cunningham the shoob just got suckered into this kissfest. You saw all the mistletoe Ralph and his brothers put up right?" Randy nods. "There is at least one down every hallway and it is a pain to get around them."
"You're saying that instead of avoiding them like any sane person who has best bros, you're telling me he walked into one." Randy reiterates.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. Now who did he kiss? No, who is his crush so I can destroy them. He isn't fooling me, almost all the girls want that arrogant shoob, and I caught Morgan looking at him." Howard huffs.
"H-man relax. She was maybe making eyes at someone else. She doesn't seem the type to go for him. Maybe someone who is a rule breaker, you know she respects those guys."
"You're right Cunningham, I still have a chance. Come on, you and I have to make a foolproof plan for tomorrow." Howard said and he nods in agreement.
R and P
"Holy shi-shirts!" Randy yells out as a person came bursting through the wall.
He knew that there was a stank'd student on the loose, Ding Strength, and he was in the process of finding a spot to transform. That is, until Phoenix was flung into the wall and literally got him against the lockers. He hears Nommi mutter, "Ow," from his jacket and he feels his pain. His back is killing him and he's pretty sure the lockers are dented.
He hopes that Phoenix didn't hear Nommi's voice, otherwise it will make a awkward explanation.
Randy can see Ding Strength outside and realizes he should get his attention before he hits his dinger against something and ruptures his eardrums. Phoenix slides to the ground and he grimaces as the other hero groans. At least Phoenix has his suit on.
"Bucky can you, like, give me a minute?" Randy asks, taking a sharp breath. He steps to the side, to not step on his partner. He offers a hand to the hero getting up.
"Sorry," Phoenix said as he takes the offered hand.
"Don't apologize to me, trying to get him to do that," he said from the corner of his mouth.
"Sorry Randy." Ding Strength said, looking down like he's ashamed of his actions.
"Is…the nurses office destroyed again? Is it…at the other location?" He asks, pausing to take a deep breath, and putting his left hand behind his back. Whenever he pauses he is pointing at Phoenix to go and do something as he uses his other hand to grip his side.
"Uhhh no," the stank'd student said.
"Take me there," he demands. "It's…the least you can do…for getting me hurt."
Ding Strength hesitates and Randy clenches his side. He touched it a little too hard and can feel some pain. "Come on Bucky, do it for me?"
He moves through a small hole in the wall, making it larger. Just as Ding Strength goes through the opening, Phoenix uses his feather, and breaks the dinger. Unfortunately, Ding Strength still is there, and Randy notices in Ding's other hand there is some mistletoe. Phoenix realizes that and releases another feather before Ding could throw a temper tantrum.
The stank'd student flashes green before shrinking to his previous form. Bucky fell to the ground and looks around confused.
"I-I did i-it ag-again didn't I?" He stutters as he looks around the damage he caused.
Phoenix nods his head and Randy vocalizes. "Yeah, but you didn't do much damage to the school."
"Is your ribs still hurting or…" Phoenix trails off and Randy assumes he doesn't really talk to the people he saves much.
'Or he's guilty about hurting someone.' He thinks as he touches his ribcage. He wasn't lying when he said it was hurting, he had to take shallow breaths to not feel sharp pain from his lower ribs. Only thing to lessen the pain is by getting in his suit, and then he would be right as rain. "Yeah, I'm good." He said with a forced smile.
Phoenix raises his eyebrow and he was about to say something when Bucky cuts in. "Oh geez Randy, you got hurt? I didn't mean to hurt you!"
Bucky freaks out, waving his arms, and stuttering out his apologizes. If he continued to be this upset, well they would find themselves face-to-face with Ding Strength. Randy really wants him to stop his episode, no use in Bucky—who's exhausted and already feeling horrible—to be put in a worse state. With that in mind, he takes a step forward to try to calm him down. He winces when he accidentally moved his upper body, and covers it up with a strained smile.
"Come on, let me take you to the nurse." Phoenix said as he scoops him up in his arms.
He would normally flail if his ribs didn't hurt so much, but he does protest. "Hey! I said I'm okay! I don't need to go to the nurse!" Then Randy looks at Bucky. "Dude, I' good, but can you go warn Howard? Tell him it'll be awhile until I get those chips. Thanks man."
Randy is lying as straight as he can in Phoenix's arms. His friend is supporting his upper back. He glances at the large weapon that his shoulder is partly on before looking up at Phoenix and sighs. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but you really shouldn't have done this in front of him. Bucky is crazy nervous most of the time."
"Here I thought your concern would be not getting hurt from my wing." Phoenix said, looking down at him.
He notices how slim his face looks with the beak pointing down at him, and immediately expels the thought. Randy resists the urge to roll his eyes, if Phoenix really knew who he was he wouldn't be putting much effort for him. Sure the guy would be worried, but if he knew his suit will heal him, he wouldn't be taking these measures. However, he has to remember that this is his first official encounter with Phoenix, and he is known for his hero worship. He can be a bit casual with him, and he can blame it on his injury if he isn't going full out fanboy.
"Well yeah, I don't want to get sliced up from the thing." Randy says as he watches the ceiling. Phoenix passes by four mistletoes already and he knows that people are bound to look outside their classrooms to see their hero. Looks like he is going to go down with the tradition from everyone already spotting them. "Nice that I have a free ride to the nurse, carried by Norrisville's number one hero."
'Smooth Randy. Self-proclaimed number one fan not being that excited? At least you got the words out.'
"Not really a free ride and more 'concerned of some guy damaging one of his strongest bones in the human body' type of deal." Phoenix retorts and Randy's eyes widen.
"Wait until I tell everyone that Phoenix is snarky."
"That tends to happen when things don't go right; especially when Hidden is usually the first to respond to a stanking. For goodness sake shouldn't you be freaking out since your hurt?"
Ignoring the question he suggests, "Maybe he's on a lunch run? Could be a junior or a senior for all I know."
Phoenix pauses momentarily before continuing on his way. "Why do you think he's a student?"
"Well either you two are students, live nearby, or your entire family hangs around somewhere underground. Some kind of ghost-human hybrids where you guys disappear once everything is done, and wait for the next emergency to come up. Of course, you or Hidden Bun go on lunch runs or medication runs to a witch to get food since you guys are weird hybrids."
Phoenix snorts, "You sure have an active imagination."
"Bruce." Randy says as he is gently put on the ground and his friend eases him up. "Hey can you open the door for me and come close for a sec?"
Phoenix complies to his request and Randy pecks the side of his mask.
"That's for passing under all those mistletoes. I'm no pretty damsel thanking her hero, but I'm grateful you took me here." He winces as he walks through the door. "Well thanks again."
He doesn't hear what Phoenix said for a moment before hearing, "You're welcome. Don't make it a habit to kiss strangers."
"I won't as long as I avoid mistletoes." Randy doesn't close the door behind him as he calls for the nurse. "Ms. Mather, I kind of got into some trouble in one of the monster fights."
R and J
He truly doesn't know how he ended up in this precarious situation. Everything was going alright for him today. He slept through Nommi's usually rude awakening, got on time to the bus, played Knock The Monkies against Howard, got a B in math, and he didn't deal with Bash in the morning.
He can't really pinpoint where everything spiraled out of control. Was it the mistletoe pranking on some junior? Someone setting up two people up who are definitely not their crushes/ Not intercepting Theresa's note from someone who's definitely not a ninth grader? Not shoobing up a prank by pushing against some people?
These things Randy doesn't know what caused the situation he is in. What he does know is that he is that he is struck inside some kind of weird force field that comes from the mistletoe hanging above to trap two or more people inside. All because some guy got upset and the necklace he was going to give his crush after their kiss got corrupted by some stank.
He's stuck here with the only guy who happened to not like him with everyone in the hall in the same predicament.
"How exactly do we get out because I for one, do not want to be where when a robot attacks sometime today." Randy says as Jacques is touching the force field, pink coming from where his hands are at.
"Either we do what Mr. Love forced on all of us, or we try to get the mistletoe off." Jacques says as he walks the perimeter of the force field.
Randy nods and looks up at the floating mistletoe. It is nine feet in the air, not quite at the ceiling, but it is close. "Let's go with plan B. I'll be the base and you grab it okay?" Randy said and Jacques gives him a startled look.
"Why don't we throw something at it instead?" Jacques suggests.
"It would take some time to actually hit it and I don't know when we throw something from our bags that it would be effective." He voices some of his concerns, and keeps his main reason concealed, mainly he needs to destank Mr. Love.
If he doesn't get out of here soon, then others will be wondering where Hidden is. He can only hope that Phoenix is already out there and fighting Mr. Love.
"I am a good shot from playing football." Jacques said as he opens his backpack and grabs one of his books.
"Just um, I'll stand right here," He literally stands behind Jacques, no way he's going to take a risk. They have only twelve steps in diameter, and he doesn't know if the mistletoe would make the book bounce back or not.
He looks around to see a few people looking uncomfortable in their own bubbles. He finds that he can't really hear what they are saying, but he can definitely see that people are freaking out. It's funny, he can hear people outside of the force fields, from how a few students are screeching about their friends trying to get out, but not those within it.
Suddenly, the idea strikes him. He slams his fist in his hand. "Oh, a private moment."
"What?" Jacques said and the corner of his textbook clips the plant, and it falls like the mistletoe was like a stone wall when an object hits it. "Can you repeat that?"
"Like the mistletoes makes it impossible for use to hear everyone behind them. Everyone not trapped is what we can hear."
Five people are banging on one of the force fields on the other side of the hall, yelling the name, "Jamie! Susanne! Johnny! We'll get you out!"
"You're right," Jacques says under his breathe.
"Alright, so I'll hold you up and you can grab it."
"No!" Jacques turns around and he takes a step back. "I mean, no. You saw the book didn't do anything to it. What's the point of going up there, and I doubt you can hold me. Let's just see if cheek kisses will work."
"Okay." Randy says as he is directly underneath it.
He doesn't know if he should initiate the kiss—wow that sounds bad in his head—when Jacques kisses his cheek. He blinks before moving to the side, his hand up to touch a now visible pink wall.
"That did not work," Jacques states with disappointment laced underneath his neutral but respectful tone.
"Wait." He leans in Jacques's space before pecking his cheek.
The mistletoe disappears, but he finds something else appear. There is some kind of cord between his left wrist and Jacques' right wrist. It is lax between the two of them and the two nod.
"Whatever someone does, it needs effort on both people," Jacques notes as the two go down the hall.
"Bruce. Hey everyone! Just kiss whoever's cheek, both of you, and you'll get out!" Randy yells as the two are running down the hall.
The moment they hit a crossroad, Randy goes right and Jacques left. The moment they stretch the pink cord—slightly glowing like the force field—they are slammed together.
Jacques yelps and Randy rubs his back. He notices that the cord got a little shorter. 'Great, whenever we hit each other our lifeline gets shorter. More like a flexible prison. Worse thing is that I can't get out unless I actually kiss him. How exactly would that go? Not like a lot of dudes are fond of other guys kissing them, and I would have to make some kind of excuse to take the cord out.'
"Which way do you want to go?" Randy asks, trying to formulate a plan to get out of this.
He can always deliberately mess up the cord. Keep testing the limits or see if it gets shorter if he bumps into Jacques. He just hopes that he doesn't completely screw up his relationship with Jacques, well worse than it already is. He wonders if there is some kind of memory erasing akuma. He can try to convince them to select that memory—if it happens—and it won't be awkward between them.
"Let's go left, there should be others who fell for his trap." Jacques said and he guess he can follow him.
He follows Jacques, and the two are running, not the best move on Jacques's part. He can follow the Frenchman's pace, but he did provide the perfect opportunity. The only thing he's going to regret right now is when they are going to be knocked back about a dozen times.
Just like he suspected, as the cord becomes tight they are knocked back.
"Sorry," he says.
"It's alright. I'll go slower so this won't happen again."
His ears aren't fooling him, Jacques actually sounds irritated. The pleasant, lax, and honest teen is annoyed at him. He is going to screw everything up, but he will do it if he can be Hidden within the next ten minutes. People are getting suspicious and he hopes that Phoenix is out and about. Unless he is trapped under one of the mistletoes and can't get out because of a simple cheek kiss.
He jogs beside Jacques, who is going slow, and they come across other students who are trapped.
"Kiss on the cheek to get out!" Jacques said as the two stop in front of some trapped people.
"Or you know, do a proper kiss," a girl outside the force field said as she holds her hand with a boy.
"Not all of us can be like you Lauren. You kissed your boyfriend." Randy said, "Especially whenever the cord is strained we get knocked back. Allow me to demonstrate."
"Randy no." Jacques pleads but the purple haired teen dashes before he is crashes into the other.
"See."
"Randy why did you do that? It just got shorter."
He grimaces. "Oh. Sorry man, didn't know that would happen."
A lie. At least he can scrunch up his face like he is disappointed about the cord getting shorter. The only thing that causes him relief and he has to be careful now. Not to keep making the cord taunt because the moment Jacques feels it not having some lax he will definitely stop. That still doesn't mean that he can't get a rise out of him, be annoying so he can get a kiss.
That sounds really bad in his head. Like he can't get a date with someone unless they forcefully shut him up.
"Hello Randy? What is up with you today, usually you aren't like this." Jacques waves his hand in front of his face.
"Wha? No, sorry just wondering how many more people are trapped." He doesn't even want to ask how long Jacques has been watching him. Maybe days or weeks. He kind of hopes not because he could make a connection with him being Valor Messenger. Why would he go to the library constantly? Something like he goes there just for the computers, always in there for around ten minutes when he doesn't have to be in there.
"You seem distracted."
"No, no. It's okay. Let's go help others."
He needs to actually try to help, even if he can't be affective in it.
The two of them have been traveling down the hallways to help people, especially when there are same gendered teens are trapped together. During that time he finds himself getting involved in a few…misadventures. How did he know that going to the cafeteria meant that Mr. Love was in there, and the akuma was furious about being interrupted with his work? Worse of all, they are currently being chased by him because they allowed Mr. Love's crush to get away from him. Mr. Love is waving his mistletoe cane and he does not want to get hit by it. Sure he knows that it fires barriers, but he does not want to get familiar with a can. Especially when he won't know how much it will hurt.
Currently they are running away as fast as they can in sync, but pretty much running at different speeds. That caused them to bump into each other a lot thus the cord gets shorter and shorter. The two of them are barely a foot apart, and they have to make sure they are close together.
"Get back here you little shits! You'll pay for Tori leaving!" Mr. Love shouts from the end of the hall.
'I swear that line get's old after a few minutes of him repeating that.' He thinks as the two manage to stop behind a corner.
"Okay I cannot do this anymore." Jacques said and he suddenly stopped.
"Come on we got to keep going. Do you want to be beaten by a cane? We could get some kind of weird love tra-"
He finds himself being kissed and is stunned. Just as sudden as he can see how green Jacques's forest green eyes and his lips on his, his is out of his sight. He blinks to see Jacques sprinting down the hall and he touches his lips.
"What just happened?" He whispers as he touches his lip.
He was bracing himself to do it, but it looks like the brunet beat him to it. He got his nerves wound up for nothing and his mind must have slipped from Mr. Love literally behind him. Instead of getting a cane clocked behind his head he sees a bright green hand on his upper arm. That is before the cane hits his back.
"Now you know what it feels like when someone who loves you has to leave." The stank'd student said as he runs down where Jacques went. "You're welcome."
He still stands there, speechless before snapping out of it. Mainly from Nommi literally hitting him and he remembers he has a job to do.
Howard and Debbie
"Alright, show time." Howard rubs his hands together as he has his eye on Morgan who is leaning against the lockers looking like her usual hot self.
"You can do this buddy, we've been planning this forever." Cunningham said as he cheers from the side.
"Of course I know I can, I am one bruce guy." Howard states as he suavely walks toward the girl of his dreams.
He is so ready for today. Wearing his lucky boxers, picked out his two day old shirt, gelled his hair, and took a breath mint specifically for today. He saunters over to where his Queen—Morgan—is at, as she finally left her annoying group of friends that cannot even make her smirk. He finger guns everyone surrounding her, winking, before sliding right next to her, like a smooth bruce dude from all those romance flicks he forced himself to watch for this day.
"Hey there Megan," he said as he raised his eyebrows once. "What's going on with you?"
His Queen rolled her eyes, pretending to be disinterested, but he knows he has her. He always gets the girl. "What do you want?" Morgan said, popping her hip to the side as she gives him the most uninterested but interested look she could manage.
Too bad the two of them are not under the mistletoe yet, just a few feet from it. Looks like he has to wait before he can put any moves on her.
"I was just wondering why a lovely lady such as yourself was doing all her lonesome self here when we can be over there." He points to the vacant area in the hallway.
The violet haired teen glances at where his finger is at, before scanning him, like she was planning to kiss him there or at some other place later on.
"Sure Howard, why don't we go over there now?" The moment she spoke those words with a curl of a smirk on her lovely lips he was astonished. He thought he had to work harder for his Queen.
They took two steps together before Morgan lingered behind him, and when he got to the mistletoe he found Kang there instead of his Queen.
"Tch like I'd ever do that. Loser." Morgan said as she walks away.
"Ugh Howard," Kang groans and he shares her sentiments.
"Kang. What are you doing under here with me? I was going to be here with Morgan."
"For your information Howard, she dragged me under here when I was waiting for the coast to be clear to go into the Journalism room." Kang said rolling her eyes.
"Like I would ever believe that, you just want a piece of-" Howard gets cut off by Kang kissing him on his lips and then punching his nose. "Ow." He clenches his slightly bleeding nose.
"That was for shutting up, and I don't like you. Have fun going to the nurse." Kang smiles before heading inside the classroom.
He rubs his nose and reads the sign on the door, journalism, and he rolls his eyes. Kang might be right by going to her little club room before heading to Mr. Banister's class, but he knows she wants him.
Later on that day when he watched his sister's Me Chat he swore up and down how unfair and cruel the world was. At least Cunningham bought him two bags of McSquiddles to cheer him up, even if they were the chocolate and bubblegum flavored ones.
Howard and Nommi
"Cunningham this is wonked up!" Howard screeches as he is faced with the small demonic fur ball that is always ruining his fun.
"I have to agree for once with Large Larry here. I refuse to even defile my mouth with your strange human customs." Nommi crosses his arms as he floats away from the offending object he found himself flying under.
"Guys, just one kiss on the cheek. Let bygones be bygones. Come on, it's the holidays, well almost," Randy corrects himself when Howard opens his mouth. His friend huffs and he takes that as his cue to continue, "Just one little kiss. It doesn't even have to be a kiss. Just hug it out."
"I fail to see why I should even do this. Both of us have mutual hostilities toward one another." Nommi says as he lounges on his human's hair.
"For once I agree for the flying rat."
"Bunny." Nommi hisses.
"Whatever. Cunningham this is stupid."
"No. You are both going to hug it out! I'm not going to give both of you your presents or feed both of you until you do."
"You are taking this out of proportion Randy." Nommi states before nimble fingers plucks him by his ears out of his comfortable post.
"Seriously Cunningham? You are going to take away Venturing Geoff's Cave Exploration from me? All because of one little hug?"
"Wait how did you know about that?"
"Not important. Just…hand over the stupid rat." Howard concedes with a sigh, holding out his hand.
"Good."
"I love how both of you are making decisions without my input."
"Can it you kwami. Let's just get this over with."
Howard holds out his hands, attempting to grab Nommi, but the kwami flies away. The bunny goes to his cheek and holds his arms out. Randy is "aw-ing" in the background.
"I'm only doing this because I want my cherry dump pudding." Nommi whispers, "After this we are back to our animosity got it gorilla."
"Loud and clear rat. I just want my game." He says from the corner of his mouth and Randy takes a picture.
Nommi releases his hold on the human and flies back to Randy, this time to the hood of his jacket. He thrashes in there, getting Howard's germs off of him, as he listens to Randy stating his reason for taking a picture of the two of them. He doesn't understand why his human thinks that the picture is the first step in commemorating their "friendship" when in actuality it is just a step to their means. However, he won't say that he doesn't feel happy from hearing how excited his human is acting.
Heidi and Bash
It is safe to say the Bash does not know what just happened. He was with his bros and whenever there was those green and red things hanging from the roof they would move away. He knows that those green things are not the itchy green ones when he went into a patch when he was smaller. The weak Bash couldn't stop scratching and the color red was all over him.
He did not avoid walking under the green and red plant, he is Bash Johnson. No little thing can defeat him. Except when the orange hair girl that makes all those funny shows that he loves to watch wasn't paying attention and walked under one of those plants. She was recording one of her shows, and wasn't paying attention to where she was going.
"Hey watch it, the Bash is walking here," Bash said as he glares at the junior.
"Excuse me, I am filming my next segment, 'Lives of Norrisville High in December,' and you are in my way." The girl glares until she looks up to the side of them.
His bros are all gasping like something bad happened, and he doesn't understand what just happened. He does not like not understanding, it makes him angry.
Just before he opens his mouth to yell why she's making a stupid face, she gets on her toes and kisses him. She then leaves to go somewhere else, practically running, and he just stares at her.
"Imma date that girl bros," he says confidently. His entourage nod and slap him on his back, after he is away from that weird plant.
He likes a girl who knows what she wants, and since she wants the Bash, he's going to give it to her. He makes a note in the back of his brain to find out what those plants mean. Unfortunately for him, he already forgot what he wanted to find out from his dad's science man.
Heidi and Morgan
"Excuse me, would you mind a short interview for my new segment on Me Chat?" Heidi says to the lead dancer of the Dancing Fish.
"Sure." Morgan said as she grips her backpack's strap.
"Thank you, it's not going to take much of your time." Heidi said as she turns her video recorder toward the slightly taller sophomore. "What up Norrisville! Here we have Morgan, leader of our dance team going to tell us about what she does in December! Tell us, any kind of traditions leading up to winter break or anything your family does?"
Morgan flips her fringe and walks next to the peppy junior. "Yeah. My family just loves to put up decorations the week before, just to show our neighbors who owns the best Christmas decorations." Morgan said in her monotone voice and Heidi nods.
"What kinds of decorations do you have this year? Or is it a secret."
"We are going all out compared to last year. Tinsel was everywhere with some moving reindeer on the roof. It was a pain to get them up last year."
"Oh, you have the house with the inflatable Halloween After Christmas decorations with the elf zombies coming from their graves." Heidi said, recognizing the other's house.
"Yeah. You saw that?" She lifts her eyebrow.
"Did I see it? It was the cheese your decorations, I even took selfies with them." She said as she pulls up her phone and scrolls to October of last year.
"That looks really nice. I almost forgot that it was a pain to hall everything outside at night. Oh. Um." Morgan is speechless as Heidi is oblivious to what is happening.
"What's up? It isn't that bad to help out, especially when you are rivals with another house. Oh, wait. Again." Heidi realizes why Morgan stopped and her face became a pallid color. "Well it isn't too bad."
"It means we have to-"
"Kiss either on the cheek or on the lips. The movie industry is so overrated with that."
Heidi gets on her toes to peck Morgan's cheek and the stoic teen has a slight blush.
"So we are going to continue my segment right?" Heidi said before Morgan leans down and kisses her cheek.
"Sure. This year we are going to be doing something a bit different, and if the Wilson's are watching this, well I can't say it. Maybe after you turn off your camera I can give you an idea, as long as you don't say anything." Morgan said.
Heidi nods, and resists the temptation to touch her cheek. She is glad she managed to get the cool teenager to at least speak more than before.
FG and Steven
'Okay FG you can do this. Steven's right there and it is smooth sailing. I don't have to avoid Bucky this time around and he is still in the band room.' Hannah thinks as she nods to herself. She checks her compact mirror to see if the salad she had for lunch is caught in her braces. Nothing, good, put she can't be too careful even if she checked five times before.
Her flute is in its case where she has a firm grip, and band just got finished practicing for their next performance. She doesn't have to avoid Bucky like she has the past two days since the mistletoes have been out, and Steven is directly under one as he is leaving the hall.
"Hey Steven!" Hannah calls out and the sunglasses wearing teen stops.
She sees him raise one of his eyebrows and his body language screams, "What is it Hannah?" God, she loves the strong silent, but talented, types.
She catches up to him in no time and takes a deep breath. Goodness she needs to work on her athleticism, at least then she won't have to take breaks when fleeing from akumas or robots. "Give…me…a minute." She manages to breath out, holding her chest. "Okay I'm good."
Steven angles his body towards her, a way of showing her to continue on with whatever she needs to say.
"Oh here's what I have to tell you." Hannah says before quickly kissing his cheek and rubbing the back of her neck. "You were under the mistletoe."
Hannah then smiles as Steven's mouth opens up, and she guesses that he is baffled by her actions. Her face feels like it is on fire and she quickly walks off to go to her dad's car.
She kissed his cheek instead of his lips, not wanting be too bold and scare him away. Just make a point to show her affections before all those other girls who are eyeing her man to back off. The very least she managed to kiss Steven first. However, she mentally beats herself up, she should have said something cooler to him before walking off. Maybe "You're a gift to the world," or "I like you," are possible choices. No, never mind. Her cheeks feel hotter as she quickly opens the front doors and the winter wind chills them.
She was so happy to do that, but she kind of wishes she didn't that right then. Now she has to wait until tomorrow to see if he would react positively, negatively, or neutral after her little impromptu kiss. She was planning on seeing if he can kiss her sometime that week or the next, but today she was the one who initiated it. No one will ever say Hannah Finnegan ever wasted an opportunity, or as people like to call her Flute Girl.
FG and Bucky
Bucky waited anxiously for this day, he could hardly contain himself after his first couple of failures. It's day five out of ten, halfway down the mark until he cannot bask in Hannah's presence or receive a sweet kiss from her. Not to mention the halfway mark until the end of the current school year, where he won't be able to see his flute playing angel until January.
Drastic times calls for drastic measures, so he had to employ a certain technique handed down throughout his parents' family lines. The last line of defense to get what they want. He feared implementing it, but he has to do this. It is the last time—for the week, he still has another—to do this unless he has to wait next year. Who knows what would happen the following year. Aliens could be taking over, a new student taking over the school, someone making minions, animals attacking, or, worse of all, Hannah having a boyfriend.
His easily frighten heart cannot take the calamity of any of these fall outs. Well, the third one doesn't count because technically someone already did that and she was taken over by that stank. He was kind of worried that someone will actually look like a human doing that—regular human skin color—and not the destruction of a bracelet to take everyone out of that person's control. Thus, he has to use it, and he takes a few breathes. In out. In out. In out. Okay, he's ready.
Now, he just needs to find FG, and he scans the crowd. Immediately he pinpoints her straight brown hair, her beautiful cat eye pink glasses, and her adorable casual green sweater with the golden quaver. Bucky then realizes something, despite how cold it is, Hannah has yet to switch her skirt for warm pants. He can't exactly do the last thing that everyone has done in his family, but he can do the essential, beg. He doesn't need to latch onto her leg for that.
He makes a beeline for her and immediately she seemed to back up. "Wait," he calls out to Hannah, "please wait Hannah."
That made her stop, the use of her real name instead of Flute Girl, which everyone seems to use. She is tapping her foot and crosses her arms. He flinched at how irritated she looks, and he'd admit he would be as well. Being pursued the whole week, he flinches a bit from how desperate he has been acting this whole entire time.
"What's with you Bucky, I don't want you following me anymore."
"I-I just want us to be under the mistletoe with you. No-not lik-like that. Just y-your cheek Hannah." He waved his arms around as he sees her fist clenching.
"Let me think." She gives him the evil eye and he immediately shrinks from her look. Usually she doesn't act like this and he thinks he might have done something wrong. "Will you leave me alone after this?"
"Y-Yes!" He pipes up and he sees her frown.
"Good. In the Science Hall, second mistletoe from the stairs. Four minutes from now, and I better not see you, hear your, or even think you are going to plan this again."
"R-Right." He nods and FG turns on her heel.
Well, he didn't exactly have to beg for it, and he will make sure not to get on her bad side from this. He can't help but feel elated about this, even if he feels a tad downhearted about causing FG stress. He shakes his head before heading to the Science Hall, where his crush is at. He is practically skipping and his hands are trembling from how nervous he is to finally cross out something from his bucket list after four years.
He finally sees FG close to where the mistletoe is at, but not directly underneath it. She is scanning the crowd and giving a suspicious eye toward anyone who seems to be stopping around the mistletoe. However, he always sees her looking off to her right. He waves his hand to get her attention, but she glares at him. He yelps at it and thinks that this is a bad idea, ruining FG's morning and with how sour she is towards him. He wants the two of them to stay friends—even if they can't get to the boyfriend and girlfriend status he longs for—not the start of rancor between the two of them.
He sees FG walk underneath the mistletoe and he quickens his pace when he notices some people giving her a weird look. They then turn their heads to the right where their eyes widen in understanding, and Bucky doesn't understand why they are doing that. Then again, most people avoid them unless they want to be under it with their significant other, or avoid random people kissing them on the lips.
He goes under the mistletoe with FG and quickly kisses her cheek. The moment he does he smiles wide, filled to the brim with happiness as FG only huffs. "We are still going to be friends after this right?" He asks, trying to get an answer as his eyes close. He is waiting for her to do the same because everybody needs to kiss the other person.
"Yeah as long as you stop heckling me about kisses and the like." FG said and he pumps his fist in the air.
"Bruce!"
Bucky still has his eyes closed as he waits for his crush's soft lips to descend to his own cheek. He doesn't know how long he is under there, but he starts to fidget. 'Maybe Hannah is doing this to test me?' He thinks as he can't seem to hold still.
"Wa waa waaaaa," Steven's trademark trombone playing happened and Bucky immediately opened his eyes to see the other band student standing by the nearby lockers.
He thinks he is staring at him, but he can't be too sure as the other constantly wears his dark sunglasses. He sighs and gets away from the mistletoe before Steven could come over. The other male pats his back in reassurance and he holds his head down.
"Well, at least I got to kiss her," he said, trying to pitch his disappointed voice up. "You don't need to comfort me Steven, I'll just go on my way."
He moves away from the other band student with his shoulders slumped. He clenches his teeth to keep from chattering as he thinks if FG lied about them still being friends or that they could still talk to one another.
Bucky and Steven
He is so psyched for today! He has heard from his cousin that the first day of December is when the janitors decide to hang up mistletoe throughout the whole school. Finally he will have his change to kiss FG, or as she likes to be called her real name Hannah, and show her that he can be her boyfriend.
So far, Bucky has spotted FG in the halls four times and it isn't even lunch time yet. He can do this, he can go up to her, and convince her to go under the mistletoe with him. That's all he has to do and he is going to be happy once he can cross off one thing from his bucket list. Maybe after he kisses her he can confess, it has been four years since his little crush on his glasses wearing beauty. She is just so passionate about what she does, and it is inspiring. Her flute playing rivals his pride of being the sole user of the triangle in the band.
He sees FG talking to Steven up ahead, and he sighs when he realizes that the mistletoe is right there. Literally two yards (~1.8 m) away from them, right on the edge of the bubble. Okay, he can do this. Quickly he digs in his pocket and takes out a stick of gum, unwraps it, and quickly chews it. He really should have brought a breath mint or something with him today, but he was in a rush this morning. He spits out the gum in its wrapper before putting in the trash. He smooths out his uniform for the fourth time today and flaunts his arms as he walks toward her. He's been practicing it for a long time, specifically for either talking about something important with FG or putting more confidence when he is playing at all the sport tournaments. Stage fright sucks and he has been working on it.
Bucky nears the two teens with his head up high and his arms swinging, even if they are shaking a bit. He can overlook that, it's not like it is that obvious. At least his legs aren't shaking—no no no, do not think about it. 'Do not cause a false alarm Bucky, you do not need this right now. Think about how cute puppies are or the nice symphony that you went to. Oh it was just perfect, the conductor was godsend. Alright, good everything is back to normal. Look at that, they're so close. Time to bust out those moves.'
Bucky runs to the two of them, and was going to slide to them at the last second when FG saw him. She took a few steps back as she was talking to Steven, and he may have miscalculated where he would stop as he bumps into Steven. He knocks the two of them down, Steven managed to stop himself when he had one knee to the floor until he lands on top of him.
Bucky groans, "Sorry Steven did not mean it. Oh hey Flute Girl."
The brunet sunglasses wearing teen shakes his head and he thinks he sees his mouth twitch to a smile.
"Bucky what are you doing?!" FG shouts, a few steps away from them and puts one foot forward, but doesn't get closer.
"Uh apologizing." He says sitting halfway up on Steven's knees.
The blond hears the brunet play a familiar tune as he blows his trombone from the ground. He almost got hit by it, and then wonders why Steven would do his "wa waa waaaaa". Usually it is when someone does an epic fail and he doesn't consider barreling into someone a epic fail. It is a fail definitely, but not to the expense of having him play his trombone.
He is about to get up when Steven sets aside his trombone and points up. His baby blue eyes follow the finger and sees the innocent device he was going to get under. Huh. He did not realize he was under it...Holy shit he's under the mistletoe with Steven!
Bucky starts to panic. 'Okay okay this is just a minor set-back. I can still try to kiss Hannah later, but I'm under here with a guy! It's just Steven, so calm down. Not like he is going to make fun of me or he isn't freaking out yet. Nothing bad has happened, like me getting shoved away, and it looks like he isn't really annoyed, just amused.' With that in mind, Bucky takes a deep breath before leaning down to kiss Steven's cheek, his nose almost hitting his sunglasses. He gets up from the male and offers him a hand up.
"Why did you do that Bucky? You aren't supposed to do that with him. Now his innocence is destroyed on the first day of mistletoe season," FG complains dramatically, hiding her face. If she can't see what happened then it didn't happen.
His hand starts to shake a little as Steven grabs his hand, trying not to let what FG said dig into him. She's just upset that this happened in front of her, and if he could open his clenched mouth—his teeth would be chattering—he would say his aim was her. 'Too bad I'm too much of a coward and easily started. I need to be confident for her,' he thinks as he pulls Steven up.
The other male brushed his clothes off from the ground and grabbed his trombone. Then he did something that shocked Bucky, he kissed his cheek, even though people who get caught under it by accident tend to only have one person do it. Then everyone will be on their merry way, but Bucky guesses it is Steven's nerve-wracking way of thanking him. The brunet clamps his hand on his shoulder, another way of saying thanks Bucky thinks, before steering him away from the mistletoe. The two leave FG behind, even though the blond glances at her direction. She looks downright irritated, the verge of being pissed, and Bucky gulps.
"Y-You know, you didn't have to do that. I mean-I already kissed you," Bucky says lowly. He's trying to not get anyone else's attention who weren't there to witness his spectacular fail of getting FG under the mistletoe.
Steven just shrugs and tilts his head like he's saying, "So."
"Usually people do it once you know, unless they are, you know, dating." His voice starts off strong before becoming near inaudible. He doesn't think that Steven even heard him.
"Hey Steven can you turn around for a sec?" Bucky asks and the other male complies. He steels his nerves before signing, 'Thank you for G-E-T-T-I-N-G me out of T-H-E-R-E."
Steven raises his eyebrow and opens his mouth before giving him a small smile. He puts his trombone down and signs, "Didn't know you could sign."
"I wanted to talk to you." Bucky signs and Steven smiles as he takes his trombone and he jerks his head to the side. Signaling for the other to follow him so they can sign together later on, well that is what Bucky assumes that is what Steven wants.
End.
These are out of order kisses/hug and they take place the first two weeks of December in Norrisville. Definitely R & P and R & J happens either a day or two after the one prior. Howard & Debbie happens the day after Heidi & Bash and Heidi & Morgan. I like all these pairings, but for the sake of keeping people sort of in character I will keep to cannon relationships—besides my own—and a few I like aren't up here. I ship Randy platonically or romantically with almost everyone and I can't have that in here.
Hannah Finnegan is the best name I have come up with a character to be honest and I'm happy it's for FG. When I wrote Bucky and Steven I did it as a joke, but I honestly want to see a fic of them. I love crack ships, or them being bros because either will work for me. Maybe I can type that up later when I have some rough idea of Bucky not liking FG much and pursuing a low key pining with Steven who knows about it, but he's a tomcat. Shenanigans ensue and I'm going to leave the idea at that before it plagues my mind.
The cheek-to-cheek kiss is a real thing. Mostly women do it in my family when we are visiting sort of distance relatives. I kiss my close relatives—those I see almost weekly—on the cheek and they do the same. It's a cultural thing for us, and to be honest, I have no clue how many other people do this. Shake hands with the men and family friends who you aren't really familiar with is another thing.