Chapter Three: Santa Stark
After the madness that was the huge group of family and friends at breakfast, there was the madness that was everyone opening presents as well. The Summers twins led the charge to the living room and the huge Christmas tree to start giving out presents, with Gerry helping to carefully read the tags and make sure Chance and Charlie were giving the presents to the right owners. They only had to get help on a few presents, because some people had horrible handwriting that Gerry could not read.
By the time it was nearly noon, all the kids were having a blast with their new toys, and the Hale sisters got things rolling for the traditional huge Christmas feast as well ... when there was a knock at the door.
"I've got it," K said as she slipped away from Logan and James. "Been a while since this happened." When she got to the door, she wasn't surprised in the least to see Santa Stark standing there with a broad grin in full Santa Claus gear — minus the beard, of course — with a massive number of crates with bows and a slightly embarrassed Pepper.
"He's … really proud of himself this year," she said with a tight smile.
"Is this an outside thing or an inside thing?" K asked as she held the door open for them.
"For all your little munchkins? Better keep it outside," Tony said, grinning widely as he all but bounded through the door.
"Great. You can help wrestle them into their coats," K said with a smile before she gave him a warm hug. "Good practice for you, and Merry Christmas to both of you."
Tony was so proud of himself that he let the comment sail by as he followed her to where the kids were all playing, though Pepper gave K a little look and a muttered, "Don't encourage him."
"I don't have to," K replied as she linked arms with Pepper to lead her deeper into the crowd. "He does that all on his own."
Of course, when the kids saw Santa Stark, there was a bit of a mob to go find out what exciting things he had in store for them — and to clamor for his attention to show off their presents.
"Look! My car is purple!"
"Yeah, but I got a real practice bow!"
"Look what Elin made me!"
The kids were all crowded around Tony and Pepper and clearly a little hyped up on sugar as K gave Tony a smirk now that he could see for himself what a wrestling match he was in for to try and get them outside.
Still, Tony gave them all a brilliant grin. "There's some really cool presents outside, guys," he promised them, which opened up the floodgates of excited babbling and giggling — and wrestling for their parents.
By the time everyone was ready to go outside, Tony's guys had brought everything but the kids' presents inside and had even been treated to some Christmas cookies from the Hale sisters. But finally, Tony swept an arm out to indicate the bow-wrapped presents and shared a little grin with Noh. "Want to open the crates?" he asked, to a chorus of excited nods.
With showmanship worthy of his reputation, Tony plucked Sying up and set the little boy on his hip. "You've been practicing flying your dad's spaceship, right?" he asked, and Sying beamed and nodded excitedly. "Well…" He gave a little nod to one of the guys, and the crate was levered open to reveal a miniature version of Noh's ship.
"Ta da!" Tony declared as all the kids let out excited squeals and clamored for a turn.
"There's one for everybody," Tony promised as he set Sying down so the little boy could admire his ship, which looked exactly like his dad's. "Custom-build. Got Noh-Varr here to help with the controls so they're the same intuitive ones in the real deal, so everybody's got their own steering…" He trailed off and beamed at the kids.
"You're something else, Tony," K said, shaking her head as Noh and Scott rushed forward to help the kids get started.
"Hey, when a kid tells you he's learning to fly a spaceship, you gotta run with it, sweetheart," he told her with a cheeky grin. "That car I built for Gerry was a prototype model here."
She gave him a genuine smile before she walked over to give him a quick peck on the cheek. "You're staying for dinner then, right?"
"How could I refuse?" he asked with a wide grin.
"Good. Because I have something I think you'll appreciate."
Tony chuckled. "Careful now. I'm a married man," he teased.
"Don't I know it … but I think she'll appreciate it too," K shot right back.
While the kids played with Tony, Noh, and Scott with the mini spaceships, most of the rest of the adults slipped inside, though Peter was joyfully snapping photos of the kids as they tested out their newest flight training.
K slipped into the kitchen, where the Hale girls had left the spot she'd requested open, but every other inch of counter space was otherwise occupied with their preparations. She set up a rather large copper pot that had a little flame under it as she started pulling out bottles and grabbing a few spices from the rack.
She was partially through pouring the third bottle of red wine into the copper pot when one of the sisters had to ask what exactly she was doing. "Glögg," K replied as she cracked open a bottle of vodka and started to pour that in too. "Traditional Swedish Christmas drink." When she was done, the fumes were pretty thick already, but she started putting spices in too: orange peel and cinnamon sticks, cloves … a tiny bit of sugar... "It'll be ready around dinner time."
"You are going to put people on the floor with this," Rachel said, shaking her head.
"Hey, there is no reason not to try new things. Besides, the fire probably burns some of the alcohol off." K shrugged a bit her way. "It's good. Like mulled wine with a little more Viking to it."
"Logan did tell me you were old. But Dark Ages?" Theresa asked with a teasing smile.
"Well, not quite," K said. "But it's my father's recipe. So. Maybe." She returned the smile Theresa's way. "Of course, maybe this is what keeps me looking so young."
Theresa tipped her head to the side before she broke into a smile. "I'll bite. Save me some for later to stave off the wrinkles," she laughed.
"There's almost three gallons of it — unless Logan, Wade, and I get into a drinking contest, there will be plenty." K shook her head and stepped back. "I'm going to guess asking if you three need help would be an insult of the highest order, so …"
"You'd be guessing correctly," Annie said with a smirk before she waved with the tips of her fingers. "See you at dinner."
"Have fun, girls," K said with a smile before she very nearly bounced out of the kitchen.
Dinner that evening was, of course, a huge event. The Hale sisters always went all out, and with a large crowd to feed, everything looked delicious. The adults spent the whole evening congratulating them on outdoing themselves once again — but the kids spent the whole evening gushing to Santa Stark about their spaceships.
Most all of the adults had gotten a cup of K's glögg, and no one could argue that it was very good — but it was also pretty potent stuff, and even those that had only taken one mug were already feeling pretty darn good. K had just returned with refilled mugs for her and Logan as they sat back and just … watched.
"Your bestie's a little wasted," K said to him with a smirk, to which Logan simply laughed.
"So's your little sparkle pants or whatever the hell you're callin' him today," he replied.
Further down the table, Kate was giggling as a very snuggly Kurt rested his head on her shoulder, but she wasn't giggling nearly as loudly as Jubilee was as her own husband had started to fall into a bit of dizziness.
"Come on, Noh — this is a drink for warriors," K called out to him.
He was grinning crookedly as he pushed a mug her way to refill. "Clearly it is a test to defeat gravity itself," he said, definitely a little unsteady.
"Just a gift from the gods to make sure we know they love us," she countered as she topped him off with a fresh mug.
He beamed at her, and Jubilee giggled even more, knowing what was coming as he swayed a little bit and held onto her to stay upright.
"How are you doing, Tony? Need a topper on that mug?" K asked.
"You trying to get me drunk and take advantage?" he called back.
"Absolutely," she teased. "For Pepper's sake."
He laughed outright and kissed Pepper's cheek as even she seemed to be feeling pretty good and had a light red blush. "Hear that, honey? She's dangerous. I don't think I should accept any drinks from her."
"Well, if you're not going to, I am," Pepper said, extending her arm with the mug in it. "It's been a long week."
K grinned at her and topped her off. "This stuff has been taking the edge off since the 1100's. Enjoy."
Tony stared at Pepper as a very, very wide grin started to spread over his face. "Oh, I'm enjoying it," he said, and Pepper blushed a bit deeper and smiled at him over the edge of her mug as she took another sip.
At the head of the table, the Hale family was getting into even deeper Southern than before, which seemed to shock those around them as they simply couldn't understand them for long intervals, though they were also clearly having a good time as they traded stories and listened to Annie's dad regale them with old wartime tales that seemed to get more ridiculous as time passed. If anything, the women in the family were outdrinking the men — a fact that didn't go unnoticed by the few adults who either didn't drink or weren't as affected by it, all of whom were watching and growing steadily more amused.
K and Logan were properly snuggled up with each other and chuckling to themselves at the entire scene, though seeing as they were both drinking at a fairly good clip, even they had a nice little buzz going on.
Wade was on the floor with all of the kids as they were wrestling and playing and generally having a good time — though he popped his head up when he noticed that Charlie had a sort of concerned look on her face and stopped pretending to be 'dead' from when Sying had 'defeated' him with Krissy's help. "Hey, what's up, teeny Summers?" he asked, and Charlie stuck her lower lip out and inclined her head toward where Jubilee was gigglingly trying to set Noh down on the couch after he had clearly lost his battle with K's glögg.
"He's not feeling good," Charlie said with a frown as she watched Noh lean back with a groan and mutter out to Jubilee that he "regretted the decision to trust that warriors' challenge."
Jubilee was giggling madly. "It wasn't a challenge, you goon. You just took it that way."
"Yes, well, I have properly learned my lesson," Noh groaned.
Charlie watched the interaction for a while nodded to herself at last. "Inna help him," she told Wade, patting his head. "You play," she instructed him before she all but skipped off to go upstairs, returning a few minutes later with her favorite blanket and a stuffed bamf doll.
Noh had his eyes closed and was clearly trying to remain very, very still, though he couldn't help but sway a bit even in his seat after he'd stood up for just a moment and very quickly regretted it.
Charlie very carefully tucked the doll into his arms and covered him with her blanket as best she could, patting his arm. "It's okay," she promised him. "You can watch movies all day when you're sick."
Jubilee was grinning through the whole interaction — and was only grinning even wider when Krissy came toddling over with a full water bottle, which she set down on the floor beside the couch. "Mama says you needs lots and lots of water."
At that, Logan and K burst out laughing, tears running down their faces, and Kurt didn't look to be too far behind them.
"I've trained her well," Kate whispered to the three of them, half propping up Kurt.
The two ferals were a wreck, strictly speaking, as they kept laughing and trying to hold it back — and failing. "I think the Hale girls need another cup," K said. "How are you two troublemakers holding out?"
"That sounds like a marvelous idea," Kurt said with a wild and wicked grin as Kate fell into giggles again.
"Ooh, yes. Please liquor up my Elf."
"That's the plan," K admitted. "We really shouldn't let any of this stuff go to waste, right, sweetheart?" Logan just nodded, and both men handed over their mugs for K to top off yet again. "They're both getting wasted tonight, Chicken Hawk."
"Hey, what did I do to get that name tonight?" Kate complained.
"Nothing really; you're just close enough to Clint that I don't want to confuse the two of you," K said sweetly.
At that, Clint beamed and reached around Kate to offer his mug for K to top off. "It ain't hard. One of us is taller."
"Yeah, but if I call out Hawkeye, both of you have your heads pop up. If I call out Chicken Hawk, she glares and you laugh. It's a system," K told him as she took his mug too.
"Whatcha call me if you want me specifically?"
"'Other hubby;' I thought that was established," she replied as she handed him his mug back. "Or Sweet Clint."
"I like it. First time I get the better end of the names shtick with this one," Clint said, tipping his head at Kate. "Last time, it was 'don't like Clint-Hawkeye'."
"We could go back to 'Little Hawk' for her, since she's shorter and younger," K supplied as she sat back with Logan's arm around her shoulders.
"How 'bout we don't do any of those things and you just call me Kate or Hawkeye," she grumbled into her mug.
"Mrs. Elf."
"That one I will accept."
"Mrs. Elf, Tamer of the Nightcrawler."
"Yes, this is my full title," Kate said, grinning as she leaned over to kiss Kurt, who did his level best to look the part as he nuzzled into her.
"With an obvious thing for highly flexible gymnasts; we'll hold our conclusions," K continued. "But note that the chandeliers need help suddenly."
"No idea how that happened," Kurt said without looking K's way as he continued to play the part of tamed Nightcrawler and nuzzled in deeper.
Before the conversation got too far gone, K enlisted Kate's help to make the rounds with her, refilling the Hale's mugs without asking if they needed it. "Something about hitting a whole family at once is satisfying," K muttered to Kate. "And I think Annie's dad likes it."
"I think he's just enjoying watching his girls outdrink them all," Kate whispered back.
"It's adorable," K said. "Makes me sad that I can't honestly participate in that contest."
Kate chuckled and shook her head at K. "I think you're just trying to get everyone drunk so you can have more minions in the kitchen," she teased.
"Yes. Yes that's exactly it, so top off and go assault your Elf," K said without missing a beat.
"I think I will," Kate replied just as quickly before she headed off to go snag herself a super snuggly Nightcrawler.
"How you doin' Annie? Girls?" K asked, addressing the girls since the men were further gone... Scott was positively red-faced and laughing harder than she'd seen him do before.
"Oh, just fine an' dandy," Annie assured K as she had a good hold of her husband and was giggling madly every time he fell into another fit of laughter.
"Gonna make one more round with the glogg," K said. "Don't want to see it go to waste, and there is honestly more there than Logan and I can finish alone."
"We'll put it 'way for ya'," Theresa assured her with a crooked smile as her own husband was almost asleep on her shoulder.
"Well, you're taking your time," K said, shaking her head. "We're up by six to your three."
"Keep gettin' distracted," Rachel said, tipping her head at her father, who was apparently having a 'dangerous stories' contest with Anton.
"You ain't never had to deal with what happens after the supervillains make a pass, Dad," Anton was insisting.
"Yeah, they sound like some good ones," K said to the girls.
"Saw Jubes takin' her young thing off — he really can't hold a thing, poor dear," Annie laughed. "You're horrible to 'im, really."
"I'm wonderful and you know it," K replied. "I get him out of far more trouble than I get him into."
"That's true," Annie had to admit. "That's true for most of us 'round here, actually — and we love ya' for it."
"You're getting sentimental, Annie. I think I may have to cut you off," K warned as she wrapped her fingers around Annie's mug.
Annie beamed at K for a moment. "And here I thought you been sayin' I'm made of sugar an' spice an' everythin' nice. Sentimental seems like it'd be part of the deal."
"It really is," she agreed before she paused and tipped her head Annie's way. "One last round, or are you ready to take that poor boy upstairs and take advantage?"
Annie's older sisters both laughed outright at the look K's comment got from their parents — and laughed even harder when Scott just beamed at Annie and the look got even worse.
"What about you two?" K directed to the other girls. "You're about to the same point, I think."
"Anton holds it better'n Craig," Theresa giggled, indicating her nearly-asleep husband.
"Then Anton needs another round," K decided as she topped off his mug and he half chuckled at her. "Particularly since I already took everyone's keys — and no one is going anywhere."
"An' I noticed you already got Wade an' those two blonde rays of sunshine watchin' the kids. Don't think I ain't payin' attention," Annie pointed out.
"I'm glad to see you're on top of things," she agreed. "Though no one noticed when I took their keys. You're slippin' Annie."
Annie grinned over at K with a hint of trouble in her eyes. "Wasn't me holdin' the keys tonight."
"I know — but he didn't notice either, did you Scotty?" K challenged.
"Guess I didn't," Scott said with an easy shrug and a grin, not even looking her way when his focus was on Annie. "Must not have felt it."
"Sure I shouldn't be investigatin' you for the rash of petty crime 'round here?" Anton laughed, shaking his head at her.
"You can," K said with a shrug. "But I think my criminal record is already pretty damn public already."
Anton chuckled as Douglas started to let out a booming laugh. "Yeah, I read the book," he said as much to Anton as to K. "She could give you a run for your money, son."
"I could give anyone a run for their money," K corrected him before she wished them a Merry Christmas and slipped back over to Logan to watch the rest of the adults start to split off — especially the couples — and to smirk at the bamfs' attempts to help them finish off the glögg; several of them were in similar states to Noh.
By the time the ferals were ready to head up, it was pretty clear that the buzz on them had deepened, and both were grinning at each other when they weren't simply kissing. "G'nite," K muttered to Kate before the two of them picked up their little ones and started toward the stairs, both of them looking totally relaxed as K had James on one shoulder and Logan had Elin passed out on his shoulder. "Sorry we didn't get far enough for singing."
"It was a valiant effort," Kate said as she and Kurt were making their way upstairs as well to the room next to theirs. "Maybe next time," she added with a little impish grin before Kurt decided he'd had enough of walking and teleported them the remaining 50 feet into their room for the night.