caughtinanetwork

Everyone, we're coming up on a very important day, the last of its kind before we turn over to a new year.

As with all such momentous occasions, I think we at the Villa should host a holiday party. On that date, precisely.

[This is actually a message intended for other Villa residents, but whatever, the rest of the bubble will get to enjoy the rare sight of the young reaper looking, dare we say, a little jolly? A little affected by holiday spirit?

Actually, more like he's being a fanboy.]

Of course, I'm speaking of December twenty-first, being the last day of the year that is a perfect palindrome, the numbers of the month being a mirror-image of the date.

[Good old 12/21.

Death the Kid's fingers, gloved and interlaced, tuck up under his chin as he exhales with contentment (and a little longing, that total weirdo), letting out a plume of steam. The moment is abruptly shattered by a snowball planting itself against the side of his head, startling him out of his reverie.

It's a good thing the SFC cuts out when it does. No one should witness the Snowball Retribution Apocalypse (Shinigami Version).]

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[There's an involuntary shudder from her at the mention of basketball.

Then a tug on Kid's collar.]

Come up here with us, stupid.

Basketball?

[Rin just lets Maka take care of dragging Kid's sorry butt up on the couch.]

In middle school... when I wasn't gettin' in trouble for throwin' the ball too hard at the kids I hated.

[... Rin there are certain things you shouldn't admit.]

[It's a moment of Kid's gaze fixing on Maka's, her fingers tugging on the collar of his shirt, that prompts him into getting up, blanket falling from his shoulders.

This, he collects as he climbs up onto the couch, gathering the fabric onto his lap as he settles in.]

Did you? I should be safe. [Since he isn't hated, but gosh you were a lively brat, weren't you?] But perhaps we could find a game all three of us can enjoy.

[He caught that shudder, apparently.]

[You eesholes never told her the rules, even to the end.]

All three of us?

Basketball wouldn't be any good with just three anyway.

[Going to casually not bring up the getting in trouble thing again ok? Ok.]

Board games maybe? 'cept you two would probably kick my ass at anything we play...

It wouldn't be only the three of us, but if we could--

[Kid pauses, pressing his knuckles against his mouth to stifle the abrupt need to yawn. This, he attributes to the comfortable setting; all the warmth after a lot of activity in the cold, and it being the afternoon already besides.] --I think it might be nice. What in particular it is doesn't matter to me.

[He lifts his mug to his mouth.]

Maka, what do you think? You're among one of our most athletic and well-read in the EAT class, why don't you choose?

D-don't say that, I don't know about a lot of games besides ones you can play by yourself.

[Now why did Kid have to yawn, the combination of two other warm bodies and hearing him yawn is making her yawn.]

We could make a game out of our Soul Perception, but that's not one Rin can participate in either. Hmm...[she might be...subconsciously pulling Kid closer to her again so he can lean on her shoulder as she's leaning on Rin's.]

I can't really roughhouse as much as you guys either.

[Damn it Kid, that shit's contagious you know. Now Rin is yawning, and snuggling further down in the blanket, failing to fight off a wave of tiredness that's pushing him to just fall asleep right there with Maka.

And maybe Kid if he's heading that way, too. Really Rin isn't about to complain who he falls asleep with - it's pretty damn comfortable like this.]

How d'yknow if we've never tried, huh... ?

[Yes he's tiredly muttering about the Soul Perception comment.]

[Oops. Kid's patient zero, starting the inexorable spread of the contagion known as a yawn. Too drowsy to consider even the formality of fussing, the reaper allows Maka to pull him eventually against her shoulder. His head leans against her like it's the most natural thing to do, but his eyes are already almost entirely shut.]

Why not teach you how to resonate? It has a variety of uses. Besides-- [That sounds more like a sigh, with still other words waiting in the proverbial wings, but he doesn't continue his sentence.

Talking just seems like more of a chore presently than it's worth. He'd rather just experience the enveloping warmth, the living thrum of familiar souls nearby. This is nice, a luxurious new experience to redefine what 'comfort' means.]

Resonate...I don't know, my gri--grigo--[this is broken off by a yawn.]

Soul might hurt him.

[But she's asleep now, having looped her arms through Kid and Rin's out of some impulse to make sure they stay close, she couldn't continue the discussion even if she wanted to.]

Won't know... 'less we try...

[And there goes Rin, head rolling to the side as he finally falls in with the other two.]

[Time has a way of getting slippery in sleep. At some point, Kid becomes vaguely aware, in a gray area between sleep and wakefulness, that Pip has migrated from his spot before the fire to nestle in the hollow of blanketed laps and dozing bodies. That his fingers have become tangled in a handful of what later could be identified as Rin's shirt, his wrist against the lowest curve of Maka's ribcage, face buried against the crook of one's shoulder and the back cushions of the couch, a loose tangle as graceless and comfortable as can be.

His mug, empty, had long since slipped from his lap, caught in the little valley between feet crossed at the ankles, and from there tumbled harmlessly onto the floor.

Kid dreams in funerary black and bone white, in the neon brilliance of cold blue flames in deep shadow, vast as some nocturnal ocean, and perhaps as old. Of familiar voices and a lunatic moon shrieking into the night. His fingers curl, possessive of the warmth.

It's hours before he stirs awake. Minutes longer just mutely assembling the puzzle of where he is and who he's tangled up with, still and motionless and half-asleep.]

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