“Well, you’ve got an answer for everything, don’t you?” He mused, leaning back in his chair to create a space that felt bigger than it should. At least the feeling’s mutual, the dance will continue.
“Got a lot to say about Billiards.” She stated, standing up and pulling her bag over her shoulder. “You just happened to get a girl talking about one of her favorite subjects.”
“Only one, huh? And what are others?” He tilted his head to the side, unmoved as the bell rang.
Nat tightened her lips with a only slightly real look of disappointment. “Sorry, Handsome, but you’ll have to reach a higher achievement letter to find that out.”
she left then, making her way around the table when she was stopped by one of those hands around her forearm. Pausing, she kept the smirk off her face and looked at him with a slightly bored expression. He didn’t let go though, instead, guiding her towards his chest, now that he was standing. If he thought the height was going to give him an advantage he was wrong, but damn if there wasn’t something interesting in the closer unreadable gleam to his eyes.
Also holy crap guys it’s been a little over a year since I worked on this story, and first I god some aesthetics done, and now I have a chapter! I missed my baby snakes so much!!
It was Harley’s favorite time of year: Christmas. Which meant going all out on decorating everyone’s houses, lockers, and doing all sorts of crafty little things for the other serpents throughout the month, but she also made a big deal out of secret santa. Mind you it was only the six of them, since they added Ratchet and JD to the list, but Harley always made sure everyone kept it to themselves until they did a big reveal Christmas Eve at Nat’s. Usually, there is booze involved, so no one really complained.
This year was no different. No reveals had been made yet, and no gifts exchanged until the reveal, though Dax broke it and she’d gotten a promise ring,and she had no idea what people got. Okay, so maybe this year being no different is a lie, since this year they decided to forgo any limits they had set the past couple of years, making it a wild card gift based on who you had. Where Nat and Harley didn’t really care about the money, the boys did, the older two especially. There was also the fact that wrapping was a dead giveaway, or least Nat’s was, so they decided to keep it simple. Fit your gift in a certain sized box and that’s it. No wrapping involved, nothing too too bad.
The others were sure that Harley regretted that though as Dax ‘unwrapped’ his gift from Nat to find a bunch of packaging peanuts and one of those dinner and a movie gift card packages at the bottom. JD hadn’t been much better with her gift, but the necklace he’d gotten was far more than what she expected. Now, it was Ty’s turn as he shoved his box towards Nat, scratching at the back of his head.
“So, I did kinda cheat this year and tell someone I had you.” He admitted earning a glare from the raven haired girl. “But! It was my mom who isn’t in this and it’s because I needed her help.”
“Dear God what would you need Gloria’s help with?” Nat grimaced, looking at the box like it was a pipe bomb.
“Just open the damn thing, yeah?” Dax punched his frustrated friend in the arm, getting a laugh from the others. “It ain’t gonna kill ya.”
She raised an eyebrow as if to question the validity of the statement, but pulled the box’s lid off anyway. The top had a couple of pieces of tissue paper along with a card. Nat took it and read it, a small crinkle appearing in her forehead.
“A tribute to the most Badass Chick I know.” She read aloud, pulling at the tissue paper here eyes widening as she saw underneath it. “You sentimental dip!”
Sitting in the box was a small scrapbook that read “Nat’s Serpent Tail” across the top of it. As she took it out and flipped through it, they saw various pictures of her from during her initiation, tastefully leaving out the female version, and various after fight chats they’d had. Nat was trying not to smile, but failed as she looked at a picture of her holding the baby tooth she’d lost in her gauntlet, grinning wide with a split lip and shiner on her forehead.
“Wait…these are pictures from my camera…” she realized, looking at him accusingly. “Is that what you needed my SD cards for? I thought you said you were making a collage for Harley of all the pictures I got of her and Dax together.”
“It was, and it is.” He nodded, ducking from her impending fist. “But I couldn’t tell you it was for your own present!”
“He’s got a point, you know.” Ratchet stated, passing his box over to Ty, “But I still think I did better.”
“I doubt it, do you know how long it takes to scrapbook?” Ty exclaimed, taking the box and shaking it gently. “This does feel kinda heavy though.”
They all looked in anticipation as he opened his gift, a frown sagging across his face as he pulled out a bunch of papers and a large journal out of the box. At first he papers seemed random, then they started to become apparent. In the box sat dozens of crumpled paper receipts and notes, bits and ends that he probably left at Dax’s during a cram session or something. The girls laughed, and the boys looked confused.
“Oh! Sorry, uhm open the book.” Ratchet said enjoying the look on Ty’s face a little too much. “I may have been a dick about the wrapping.”
“May have?” Nat rolled her eyes. “How long have you been collecting his trash for?”
“Long enough to cover that.”
He said, nodding towards Ty who had discovered that the journal was actually a box, bright chrome shining brightly. Everyone scurried over to see what it was, letting out gasps as they took in the gleaming new set of socket and C wrenches that sat there, a few other mechanical tools in there as well. Ty went to wipe a tear from his eye, the new tools something he’d never had before, always getting JD’s spares or hand-me-downs from the various serpents. They were new, and they were his. They even had T. Brooks monogrammed into them.
“That is fantastic, Marks...thank you.” He murmured looking at his shiny new toys. “Now I kinda want something to be wrong with my bike.”
“Never say such things.” Came the serious reply from JD, who turned to his friend. “Dude, you never got me anything this nice before, what the hell?”
“You never asked.” Ratchet shrugged, “All he’s ever done is complain about how crappy his tools are when he’s hanging at the trailer.”
“Whatever.” He waved a hand in frustration, his finger moving between the group, okay so, Nat is done, Ty is done, and we have given two other gifts? So...Dax or Harley, you give your gifts, I guess, then we’ll reveal whoever is left. Then you all can get the hell out of my house.”
“No need to be a grinch!” Harley protested, scooting towards her boyfriend. “You go first babe.”
“Well, I got JD, so-” He groaned, standing up and making his way over to his mentor. “Kinda a thank you for things more than a secret santa.”
“You have nothing to thank me for Kid.” He said, opening the box with a laugh. Pulling out another box and spun it to show off a very nice whiskey set. “Damn but you can keep doing so if you want to, and I don’t even want to see you breath on this Nat.”
A pout spread across the blondes face, as she stared lovingly at the stones and one of the glasses. “But it’s a set for two! There are two of us!”
“Not gonna happen.”
“Okay!” Harley jumped up, moving her box over to Ratchet. “I also kinda cheated, so your present is outside, but there is a part of it in the box.
Everyone looked at Harley with shock, slack jawed and eyes wide open. She had broken the rules? Her, the enforcer of said rules? This had to be good. They all turned as Ratchet opened it, finding a small booklet and paperwork in side. Moving it around, he found a key and his eyes snapped towards her.
“You didn’t.”
“Look outside.” She grinned, I most certainly did.”
Everyone scrambled, limbs tangling into each other as they followed him out, trying to see what the two were talking about. Dax however, saw the key and instantly knew. He went over to his girlfriend, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Giving her a soft squeeze, he spun her around to face him.
“I’m pretty sure you just made his year if that’s what I think it is.” He said, “Given he’s been looking for that thing seven years, maybe the past few.”
“Mom was able to pull in a favor with the Sheriff.” She shrugged. “It wasn’t even doing anything, just being stripped from all the ghoulie mods from when they stole it off the original buyer.”
“You amaze me, you know that.” He touched his forehead to hers, letting out a sigh. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
She closes her eyes, falling into his embrace. “You and those goofballs outside are the family I choose, I should be asking how I deserve all of you.”
Dax merely kissed her forehead, “Merry Christmas, Harls.”
“Merry Christmas, Dust.”
“Oh geeze get a room you two!!!” Nat shouted, the door slamming open as the other piled in. “And preferably not mine.”
Harley broke away from her boyfriend to roll her eyes, and grab her drink. “Merry Christmas to you too, ya filthy animals.”
They all toasted to that, taking the time to clean up and sober up before driving home, Ratchet driving Harley to her house in his shining, almost brand new car that looked the same as the day that he’d sold it seven christmases ago.
Yeah, Christmas was Harley’s favorite time of the year.
Summary: Ty and Sweets talk discuss Nat when the two take a break from the serpent community present wrapping.
Nat laughed and rolled her eyes at the exuberance of her fellow serpents. Never being one to wrap things very well, she had been placed at the bag table, where she still managed to rip up the tissue paper in the most frustrating of ways. Finally, FP and Tall Boy took pity on the girl and bad her move to writing all the tags. Thankful for something she couldn’t screw up, she made her way over, taking no notice in her actions being observed. She gave a brief nod to Ty, and a flirtatious wink over in Pea’s direction, but that was the end of it.
For her, at least; the boys had only just started. Ty nodded for the silent giant to join him at the bar, ordering a drink for them both. Once he was accompanied, he turned to see her crouched at a table, using her uncharacteristically neat handwriting to give Holiday cheer throughout the Southside. Both boys drank from their bottles taking in every inch of her, smiling when she punched Ratchet in the ribs when he came to make fun of her.
“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” Ty muttered, trying to see a difference in how Sweet Pea looked at her. Where he tried to find lust, he did, but there was more to it than that, there was a respect and slight fear of her that threw him off.
“Brilliant, one could say.” The other boy agreed, turning the bottle in his hands before continuing. “Not that I don’t like a free beer, but why did you call me over?”
“To tell you something that Nat can never know,” Ty Sighed, running a hand down his face as he looked to her and back to her boyfriend.
“Dude, if you’re about to tell me you’re in love with her, I already knew that.” He shrugged, not seeming offended or threatened by it. It was the second thing that pissed Ty off. “Figured that was why you tended to avoid me.”
“I don’t avoid you I avoid wishing I was you.” Came the correction without thought. “Before she got with you, I was there for everything, ya know? Her ups her downs, her father’s imprisonment. Her mom skipped out on her and JD when they were kids, forcing her brother to give up a lot of shit to take care of her. Always blamed herself for it, it’s why she hides behind that attitude of hers.”
“I’m not replacing you if that’s what you’re worried about.” Sweet Pea turned away, leaning his arms against the bar. “She cares about you too much.”
“Is that Jealousy I hear?” Hope flew through Ty quickly, falling as soon as a laugh sounded next to him. Damn it, was this guy arrogant.
“Jealous? No, but I respect the people she has her in life, I’m not about to rip her away from it to be with me.”
Ty’s jaw clenched, hating how much he could understand and appreciate the thought. The two sat in silence for a minute, finishing their beers as they took in their surroundings. Fangs and Toni were introducing Jones to the event, FP and Tallboy were talking at the other end of the bar in hushed tones, and Harley was trying to put a bow on Dax’s head only for him to deftly steal it from her hand and capture her lips with his. There wasn’t a lot to be happy about in the Southside, but this was something the serpents took pride in, helping each other through tough times and still providing some happiness so that fewer kids ended up like them.
And there, right on the outskirts of it, but entangled in battle, sat Nat. Ratchet and JD had become quite the destraction for her labeling job, but she didn’t seem to mind. Instead they were tossing the pen back and forth to each other, grunting as she made moves to get them to drop it. The brothers turned Guardians only laughed though, tossing the pen over to Fangs who pocketed it with a laugh. This caused her to stop holding back, and just got into a straight out sparring match with the two. Though no one moved from their stations, Ty was positive that there were bets being placed around the place.
He turned once again, to Sweet Pea, deciding to finally comment on what he’d said. “Good: Because loving her is like loving the stars.”
Sweet Pea let out a huff, tearing his eyes away from his amazonian viper. “Now he speaks in riddles.”
“Look, I still don’t like you, but it’s christmas, so I’m feeling generous.” He explained seriously. “The burns brighter the farther away you are, but as you get close? You’ll see how dark and empty she really is.”
They watched as she stood victorious over one of the men only to be tossed over her brother’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes, beating at his back the whole time. Smiles found their way onto both boys faces. After drink, Sweets put his beer down and faced his girls right hand.
“There’s a reason I call her Spitfire, my friend.” He clapped at Ty’s shoulder, heading back to his station.
Ty sat there, watching the taller man scrunch over the table to wrap a few presents. He was called away a few moments after by FP, but he still found himself staring at the empty space. Downing his drink, Ty decided to stop being lazy and went to join his friends.
