I actually found this one quite hard to do, I've struggled with it all day and this is as much as I can get out. So here you are, the product of my labours.
Thanksgiving in the Tracy household, like all family gatherings when all five of the brothers are on the island, is a noisy affair. Though they are all grown men none of the boys are adverse to horseplay when they can and even International Rescue takes a break during the holidays unless there is a call out. The Tracy men enjoy themselves and Hollie, Tin Tin and Grandma join Kyrano in the kitchen where the four focus on Ashwyn and preparing a family dinner. The split is one made out of choice, the women and Kyrano preferring to work together than dodge out of the way of the seemingly limitless energy of the men of the Tracy family. The boys, on the other hand, stay out of the way because Grandma has made it clear that if they come into the kitchen for any reason they will be slapped knuckles and jobs dealt out.
Not all of the brothers listen.
Virgil cannot help but laugh when Hollie uses a wooden spoon to bat Scott's hands away from a pie she has cooling on the side. He can see the way that his brother pouts at his pregnant fiancée and how she presses a kiss to knuckles that he is rubbing in mock pain. Usually Scott is good at sneaking food past their grandmother and Kyrano, particularly on a day when there is so much to do, but with Hollie and Tin Tin helping out it is difficult to sneak through even this large kitchen.
"Go and keep Ashwyn occupied," Hollie tells him as she brushes flour dusted fingers along his jaw and Virgil feels a surge of jealousy. He cannot help but wonder how Erin would have fit herself into the family dynamic here and he wonders when he lost himself so completely to her. "Don't think I don't see you hiding in that corner, Virgil," he hears Hollie address him and he grins at her then withdraws from the organised chaos that is the family kitchen.
Virgil has guarded his heart for most of his life. Like all of his brothers he had relationships in school and college, like all of them he had the childlike loves of youth and inexperience, and like all of them he has grown into his own man with his own thoughts on the subject. Virgil is not frightened of commitment, much like he has realised Alan is, but he has never been the sort to fall in love at the drop of a hat. Remembering his father's agony after the death of his mother was a deciding factor in Virgil's views on love. He never wants to feel that, never wanted to put himself into the kind of position where he might go through that. So he has guarded his heart and it amazes him that somehow Erin has slipped past every defence that he put in place.
Erin calls not long after dinner, the chirrup of his cell phone earning a disapproving glare from his father and grandmother. This is a family day, traditionally cell phones are banned during these kinds of celebration. He excuses himself from the living room and makes his way out on the balcony, letting the sound of her voice wash over him as they chat idly for a while.
~Are you talking to a guy?~ Virgil hears a man's voice in the background.
~Go away, Flynn,~ he hears her respond. This is one of her brothers, then, and he grins when he hears the next words.
~You're really talking to a guy? Jordan, Erin's talking to an actual man!~
~Are you sure?~ Another voice queries, this one female. ~Can you see a face or is it all how she's reacting? Because we'll never know for certain until we see actual man parts.~
"Should I be worried?" He asks Erin and hears her sigh.
~I'll kill them both myself so you won't have to be,~ she assures him.
"Stay with us at Christmas," he offers impulsively, the same way that he asked her to come to the island for Thanksgiving. This time, though, he suspects that his timing might be exactly right. This time he is thrilled to hear her tell him that she will before he hears her outraged squawk and another voice sounds more clearly in his ear.
~You must be this Virgil she's mentioned, am I right?~ This man's voice is different from the one that he has already heard. He replies to the affirmative and hears Erin telling him to give her back her phone. This is her oldest brother, Eric, a man who joined WASP at eighteen years old and is still serving at thirty-seven. What follows is a scuffle for possession of the phone and he can hear Erin berating her older brother for a short while before she takes the phone back sounding slightly breathless.
~I'll see you on Sunday?~ She asks, the sounds of her siblings and their partners increasing in the background.
"First thing in the morning," he agrees, laughing when he hears her contending with Flynn once more. She says goodbye and he can hear her shouting threats at her brother as the line goes dead. It is something of a relief to know that he is not the only one with a family seemingly set on maximum levels of embarrassment and he returns to the living room with a grin on his face. Erin will be joining the family for Christmas and it is something that he cannot wait to tell his father.
Artemis