“X!” Gem shouts over the speakers, tearing herself away from a conversation with Grian and Pearl to catch Xisuma’s eye from across the room. That’s unfortunate, as Xisuma’s sort of focused on keeping Evil Xisuma away from anyone he can corner about cryptocurrencies. “X— Xisuma— good lord, who put this on, does Etho have the aux, why are we playing Earth, Wind & Fire— we’re out of food! I’m calling in that favor!”
Xisuma’s not exactly sure what the purpose of this party is. He’s here to be supportive, and also to encourage Evil X to be sociable with maybe a little less of the crimes and psychological terrorizing, and so— he supposes he doesn’t need to know the reasoning behind the red and silver streamers and the Bundt cake and the charcuterie board, and the gaggles of mutual friends crammed into Gem’s apartment? It’s all got a reason, most likely. Gem’s a focused person.
He says, “Er,” and then, to be polite, “Right, of course, I can do that. I’ll just pop over to the shopping center, yeah?”
“Uh, sure, that works! You haven’t been drinking, right?”
Xisuma’s as sober as he’s ever been. Though if he’s being especially honest, after what Evil X has put him through tonight, he doubts anyone could blame him if it drove him to drink.
Some sort of barely seasonally appropriate song about Santa Claus and serial murder drowns out what he tries to yell back next. Xisuma settles for nodding thoroughly.
“Hey, and try to grab something that like, suits the occasion?” Gem adds, ducking Pearl’s casual punch to her shoulder and fiddling with the portable disco ball on the table. “Like, if you can find something! Cookies, I don’t know!”
“What occasion?” Xisuma calls back, confused, and Gem stares at him like he’s crazy for a moment. Then Grian says something Xisuma doesn’t catch, and she is distracted into dumping her drink on him, and Xisuma winces and figures he’ll just give it his best guess.
He’s on his way out when he notices Evil X showing Zedaph something on his phone, and oh, dear, that’s a bad combination for a party when select individuals might be feeling scientific or whimsical. The fire department made themselves very clear after the last incident, across the street. As did some local tax authorities, as a matter of fact. Xisuma makes a mental note to check on Scar before the end of the night. But first—
“That’s it,” says Xisuma, taking Evil X by the back of his collar and simply plucking him out of the conversation to tug him along. “You’re coming with me.” He won’t deny this is largely motivated by the desire for company; Evil X might be quite a handful at the best of times, but Xisuma is fond of him nonetheless, and he is very experienced at weathering whatever nonsense Evil X has most recently decided to get up to.
“I am not— coming with you, you buffoon,” Evil X protests furiously, “I am in the middle of a conversation—”
Xisuma pays this no mind. “My truck’s out front,” he says cheerfully. Luckily he thought to move it out to street parking before the guests started arriving, so he won’t have trouble getting out.
read the rest here! [2k — christmas-themed fluff and silly shenanigans — xisuma & evil x]
cowritten with @droidofmay — my second piece for the @mcytblrholidayexchange , a gift for @justglacier12 !!!!!
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
izzy806
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
2087
