Yuletide Lessons
Chapter 7
December 17th
Lucy hummed along to 'Andy Williams' as she rolled the gingerbread dough out in flat, small circles and handed them to the two standing next to her. Frosch and Rogue were tasked with cutting the shapes of the gingerbread men and placing them on cookie sheets ready for a trip into the oven.
"Hey Fro, how about we make some gingerbread girls too, so the guys won't get lonely?" She asked bringing out a tree cookie cutter.
"Yeah!" Her eyes went to Lucy's hands watching as she demonstrated how to make the girls.
Rogue frowned as he studied the cookie cutter in her hands and glanced down at the dough in confusion. "How's a tree cookie cutter going to look like a girl?"
Lucy giggled and brought the cutter down on the dough with flourish. "Just watch and see. I had the same dilemma a few years ago when I couldn't find one for the girls so I improvised."
Her hands worked deftly pushing the cutter down and removing the excess as she picked it up leaving a tree in its wake. "Ok, now look here. The bottom of the tree will be the skirt so all we do it cut the trunk off and replace it with a few pieces of dough for the legs. The two boughs on the side can be shaped a little more to look like arms, and for the head we just add a few pieces and shape them like so, and voila! We have created a gingerbread girl."
"Wow," Fro shouted. "Can Fro try too?"
"Sure you can. Here, go nuts." Lucy handed the cookie cutter over and watched as Fro mimicked her actions, her little tongue pushed out the side of her mouth in concentration.
"I would've never thought to use such a thing in that way, that was truly ingenious." Rogue said softly as he stepped up beside her watching his exceed fondly.
Lucy blushed waved her hand dismissively and went back to rolling out more dough. "Oh that wasn't so impressive. I just used what I had to make what I needed."
Rogue smiled at her embarrassment and her avoidance of his gaze as she continued to stare down at the dough as he loaded a cookie sheet into the oven to bake and leaned against the counter next to her. "Well that to me says you're intelligent, resourceful, and able to adapt to any situation, all impressive in my eyes."
Lucy froze and lifted her eyes to lock on his and suddenly couldn't breath at the warm gleam shining back in his red eyes, like he was staring into her soul and could read her every thought. She really hoped he couldn't at that moment because her thoughts manifested as a chicken with its head cut off running around and squawking. A disturbing image, but one that matched her scrambled thoughts.
"T-thank you," She whispered.
Her eyes went wide as he leaned in closer and for a split second hope bloomed in her chest that he was going to kiss her, but instead he brought a hand up and brushed a thumb across her cheek. He pulled it back and showed her the flour on the digit with a smile. "You're very welcome, Lucy." The deep timbre of his voice sent pleasant shivers down her spine as he moved back over to Fro who demonstrated the right way to make the cookies, his eyes kept locked onto hers until he broke the gaze to respond to Fro.
Lucy twirled back around and clutched her chest as her heart felt like it would burst out of her rib cage. What on earth was that just now? She peeked at him out the corner of her eye and gasped as he seemed to be doing the same and met her gaze with a knowing smirk. She pursed her lips holding back a smile as she snapped back to her work and noticed she was done. A thousand questions raced through her mind. Did he know how she felt about him? And if so, how did he feel about her in return? What did all this mean? Round and round they whirled in her mind without an answer in sight and she sighed softly shaking the confusion off with determination. She would test the theory and see just how he felt about her with gently prodding and touches just to see his reaction.
Lucy nodded to herself and squared her shoulders, she could do this. She just wished she could confide in someone and to ask some questions because she felt so lost and over her head. Her brow furrowed as she made a mental note to think of someone she could confide in with all this but for now she had guests.
She shook her head and sighed as she cleaned her utensils in the sink, watching as Rogue and Fro popped the rest in the oven, put the appropriate time in and set the timer. Drying her hands off she turned to them with a smile.
"Now while those bake I have something else we can do."
"Oooh, what? What are we gonna do now?" Fro bounced on her heels excitedly.
"Follow me." She led them to her living room and noticing all the different things scattered on her coffee table plopped down on the floor and immediately zeroed in on the three red socks sitting there.
"Frosch." Rogue said as he sat down next to her.
She paused, her paw hovering over the sock in curiosity and looked up at him with wide eyes.
"It's not nice to touch things without permission, you know that." He reprimanded gently.
"Fro's sorry." She replied, timidly retracting her paw.
Lucy settled down across them and smiled gently. "Oh that's alright. Those socks are our next project in fact." She nodded to the one Fro had been reaching for.
"You can have that one if you want sweety." She reached over and pushed another in Rogues direction and grabbed the last one.
"What are we gonna do with big socks?" Fro asked, curiously.
"Are these the same socks we've seen in some of those movies?" Rogue inquired, studying the oversized sock.
"Yup," Lucy nodded happily. "These are called Christmas stockings. They're usually hung over a fireplace since that's where Santa comes down," She paused and laughed at their incredulous expressions. "Oh right, haven't exactly explained all that, have I?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded. "Ok let's make our stockings and I'll tell you about Santa. Now, there aren't really anything you have to put on them, except to put your name at the top, after that anything goes. I have lots of glue so you can put sparkles and glitter on to your hearts content, and anything else you can think of."
Lucy started putting her name in frilly print in glue on the top and sprinkled gold glitter on top before shaking off the excess and started her tale s the two watched from across the table.
"Santa, or Santa Claus is a magical being that has a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer that flies all over the world in one night, delivering toys to everyone. His favorite point of entry is a fireplace and even though he's a rather large sort of man he can somehow fit down the chimneys with his huge red sack on his back full of gifts to put them under the tree and fill the stockings with goodies. But for the people without a fireplace, like say for instance me, they say he just comes in the front door..." She paused as Rogue helped Frosch spell her name with the glue and watched as she picked out some glitter accidentally spilling a large portion of it on the table.
Rogue looked up from cleaning the glitter and scrunched his brow as they seemed to stick to his hands and refused to let go. "So, this Santa Claus," He paused shaking his hands in frustration making Lucy and Fro giggle. "Flies around the world and delivers gifts, all on one night? That's indeed quite a feat."
Lucy pushed a rag across the table to him and he grabbed it trying to dislodge the pretty decorations from his hands. "That's right. Over the years the legend of him has grown and evolved into what it is today." She said resting her chin in her palm smiling as Rogue succeeded in scattering glitter all over the rug.
"Don't worry about it Rogue, once it gets into anything it's there to stay," She laughed and jumped up as the oven dinged. "Be right back," she shouted, dashing into the kitchen.
Rogue nodded and brushed his hands in his hair in frustration and then grabbed a bottle of glue, his eyes went to Lucy's sock and smiled as hers was covered in stars and keys. He looked over and noticed Fro had tried to do her own stars that came out sort of misshapen, but the overall shape was still there.
He tilted his head and considered what he would put on his own, finally deciding on a tree and a snowman, barely noticing the doorbell ringing in the distance until
Lucy entered the room with a familiar looking box.
"Is that another present Lucy?" Fro asked, her fur sticking up in places, pieces of paper stuck to her frog suit and glitter scattered around her.
Rogue looked up and noticed her blush. Seemed she was hoping to get the box by them without them noticing and she was stuck now.
Lucy smiled weakly and nodded before she dropped down gently and opened the box. The other two gathered around and as she pushed the packing peanuts aside a glass ball stared up at her. She gently picked it up and gasped at the snow globe.
The snow flurried inside and she squinted seeing an island inside.
"Fro thinks that's pretty." Fro hovered near the ball and oohed as she shook it again making the snow fly around wildly, before handing it out for the cat to take. "Here, you try."
Fro gasped softly. "Just be careful not to drop it." Lucy offered softly, and the cat nodded taking the globe with tender hands, walked over to Rogue to show him the treasure.
"Is there a note with this one too?" he asked, peering into the globe, but keeping an eye on the blonde.
Lucy shoved the packing peanuts around and spotted the paper. She pulled it out and scanned the words.
"What's this one say?" He asked and she lowered the paper with a becoming blush across her cheeks.
Biting her lip she wondered if it was a good idea to even accept these anymore. Perhaps she should just toss them out as she got them so Rogue wouldn't have to witness this every time, and she wouldn't feel so torn about the situation.
"Lucy." She started at his voice and cleared her throat.
"It says: There's no one I'd rather be stuck with on an island, than you."
"Hmm," he mused, his face reflected curiosity as he studied the globe. "Whoever this is, has a way with words it seems."
She bit her lip harder. "Boy, that's for sure." She murmured silently, but not quite enough to miss a dragon slayers ears.
Lucy looked back up and burst into laughter, confusing Rogue.
"You've got glitter all over in your hair," She wheezed out and Fro turned to look at him with a smile.
"Rogue matches Fro!"
Rogue chuckled and ruffled the cats hair fondly. "Yeah, I guess we do."
(¯`¥´¯`·.¸.:¨NIchiki ¨:.¸.·´¯`¥´¯)
