2019-12-24 - Christmas Eve

The living room has 'Grandma' watching the old claymation cartoons with the 4 year old, and... well there's Jessie's friend there too, so she says. Joey can only assume it might be the ghost of that little boy from Halloween maybe or some ghoulie named Argyle. You know what? So long as she's safe and Jaime's chill he's pretty cool with it.

That the living room is rewound every year like it is to 1994 seems to make no difference to Joey lee Kelly. it's how his mom likes it, when she was happiest with it and she can make it look however she want so long as she stops rearranging the damn furniture so people run into it in the middle of the damn night.

Unlike years previous Joey wasn't spending it alone, in jail, or at 2 a.m. out on the porch having a cigarette with his brother. As an athlete he really needs to cut that shit back. Hell he quit five times, but quitters never win right? It's disorienting, really, and when that hand slips into his there's a sharp intake of a deep breath bringing him back around to teh present. It takes him a minute to realize this in't s a takedown, his arm's not going behind his back and this isn't that year.

Looking back into those warm brown eyes that look levelly at him and enduring the dark places his mind wanders to, he asks, "Hmm? snapping out of that deep thought, and squeezes her hand back. Still with you.

With carols sung by Jesse, accompanied by Jaime, hummed along by Joey (except for when receiving a glare from the child which causes him to actually sing along and smile), and cheerfully harmonized by Nicole and movies well into playing, Nicole whispers to Joey who seems a bit lost in his own world. She gets it... this year is very different for her as well. She smiles, looking at him and that look upon his face until he turns to look at her, meeting her eyes with his. He squeezes her hand and she lifts them both up, kissing the top of his softly.

"I said... I have a gift for you that can't be opened tomorrow... want to go to your room so I can give it to you?" She nods her head in the direction of his room, the one she shares with him fairly often. "Or do we have more family things first?" She keeps that gaze on him, her eyes dancing with holiday merriment and affection for the man she sits with. "Or do you want to tell me what's on your mind first?"

The time is getting late and you know what? Joey's not her damn father. Jaime can worry about the munchkin. The voice brings him to now and his attention shifts back catching the message a second time, eyebrow arching, "Okay I definitely like the sound of that." Fingers are pulled, arm attached, bringing her closer leaning in for a smooch asking, "Caaaaaan I open it now?" Under the eternally serious expression there is curiosity, and interest in the intent here. He's never been romantic or particularly kind, but thoughtful goes a long way. He steals a second kiss allowing himself to want anything for himself; that anything being a war he doesn't have to fight. His forehead taps against hers, "Thanks for coming out tonight." Rolling his eyes ceilingward and back he elaborates, "This." Okay he doesn't elaborate much in any particularly useful fashion.

Nicole smiles as Joey pulls her closer, giving her a smooch. She kisses him back softly then looks around slyly with her eyes. "Not here..." she whispers. "Family appropriate is tomorrow." Well, if that is not loaded with some sort of promise. In contrast to him, Nicole is known to have romantic moments and to be kind more often than not, but what exactly does she have up her sleeve in this moment? The thief of kisses steals another from her waiting lips and as his forehead leans against hers, she lifts her hand to let her fingertips graze lightly against his jaw. "Do you honestly think I would rather be anywhere else?" He looks up and back, speaking that one word that leaves her looking a bit confused.

She rises up, giving his hand a tug, but lets her fingers slip from his so she can go to the little girl watching videos with her 'friends'. Kissing the top of Jesse's head, she whispers, "Merry Christmas Eve, Jesse. Make sure you get in bed soon, or you know what happens..." Then to Jaime. "Night, Jaime. Merry Christmas Eve." Then she heads back to Joey's room where she has the presents for him stashed.

Joey lifts a hand to his twin and walks down the hall having taken the first floor room in the back. Halfway down the hall an arm loops around her waist and a fuzzy, unshaven kiss is places just behind her ear. "This a present cause I landed on the very nice or the very naughty list?" Yeah, it's cliche, but he asked. There's something comforting in obvious humor he doesn't shy from, and really? If all the math lines up really the only time on holiday he's had a significant anything that isn't direct family. He even let her hang lights on the paneling of his room. Trundling in with her his heel kicks the door shut. He doesn't lock the door because it would only encourage the police to break it when and if they raided the place. Yes, that's his reasoning. The other is that no one really wants to take their well-being into their hands bothering them. Once inside he stops her from wandering off, and tree trunks of arms slide around her torso holding her there for a moment. A silent, very concrete moment in which he whispers, "You're the best, you know that?"

As Joey loops his arm around her and asks about which list he's on that warranted the upcoming gifts, Nicole smiles at him and leans in to kiss his cheek, whispering, "both, of course." And she totally did hang lights on the walls of his room. And with any luck, she'll convince him to keep them there long after Christmas.

Once inside and the door closed, she moves to fetch said gifts, but he catches her and pulls her close; strong arms wrapping about her. Leaning into him, her arms lift to lightly drape over his shoulders, fingers playing at the back of his neck. Eye to eye, she smiles at him after his whisper. "I know," she humbly answers, then leans in to steal a kiss from his lips, pulling back with a light graze of her teeth on the lower one. "You," she starts then just smiles at him a moment before leaning to touch her forehead to his.

She never ends up saying more to that thought, her hand slips up into his hair as she presses against him and steals another, more passionate kiss. Fingers snake down from there to his shoulder, along his arm until she reaches behind her to grab his hand, stepping back away from him to break that kiss, trying to pull him with her towards the bed. Instead of whatever she might have said, she says, "You can be distracting as fuck. Sit. Present time." She lets go of his hand then leans over to a big duffle bag, one she often brings with her when she knows she might be staying overnight (or a day or two or... what is time?). She pulls out three gifts wrapped, of course, in Nicole's careful, signature style. Each is covered in black glitter paper with red glitter stripes and decorated with a festive green bow, hand-tied, of course. One is in the shape and size of a tie box, another of a jewelry store box, and another appears to be a generic shirt box. She doesn't hand them all to him, no. There's an order to them, apparently.

Come here, go there, sit there, hold this. Right. This he can do. Yard Boss is absolutely happy listening to her and doing what she asks of him. She endures a shit ton and asks for so little. He watches the amazing, tall, leggy blonde that has the ungodly high tolerance for his life's bullshit and even will hold his purse and earrings if a street fight breaks out. Proverbially speaking at least.

The items are stacked in his lap looking like gift wrapped rock & roll, "So there's a process to this?" Picking up the one on top he stares blankly, though the words, subtle, has emotion in them, "Dunno how you open something that looks this nice without ruining it." He does, however watch her with those dark green eyes, and drags out the unwrapping just a bit taking the end of the ribbon in his teeth and giving it a pull with a turn of his head watching. Eyebrows waggle once with a bounce and he unwraps the first one without much more pretense.

"Well, yes, there is. Sort of. Just an order. This one first..." Nicole says about the tie box shaped one. "It's just paper, you can ruin it. That's what it is meant for, isn't it?" But then he's giving her that look, pulling the ribbon slowly. She bites her lip and looks into those green eyes deeply. "You can't make me want to unwrap you until after you're done with the gifts. That's totally not fair."

But then he has unwrapped the box and lifted the lid. It's very light, and now he sees why. Inside is one of those slightly cheesy handmade coupon books. This one is titled A Very JoeCole Christmas Coupon Book.

Flipping through it, he sees Nicole's attempt at artwork adorning each page. It is fairly clear she has used stencils with her colored pencils. He also finds coupons, each of which says:

This coupon entitles Joey Kelley to....(FILL IN THE BLANK) ... from Nicole Stein.

And the blanks are filled in with things like:
Breakfast served in bed
One oiled back massage
One (affordable) weekend trip to the place of your choice
Dinner out and a movie
Dinner IN and a movie (aka, Netflix and chill)
You Don't Need to Buy Me Flowers - the get out of jail free, no apology required coupon
One Bikini Car Wash (when it is warmer)
One lunch delivered to the gym
One spontaneous quickie
WILD CARD (Joey's Choice)
One Fantasy Fulfilled

Her reaction gets a wide grin on his swarthy mug, "Oh, I assure you, I can." And he will too. Playing fair is not what a Kelly do. He looks at the coupon book and blinks, both eyebrows go up and oh there's a parade of emotions playing out on his face reading though him and then? Looking up fucking surprised he holds up the Fantasy Fulfilled coupon and asks, "You can make the Seahawks win the superbowl?" He's...likely joking.

The paper discarded to the floor reaching over, chin tilted up to look at her and fishing for her hand. "This is," He pauses and sums up, "bitchin. Thank you. I'ma have to think about some of these and let you know." He doesn't move onto the next one, but instead pauses to flip through the book page by page again. There's a grunt yeah... cool, oh, hey!...this needs some thought...

The book is set aside on his dresser and he opens the next. "Really hope you like your present. You can open it tonight but I have to fish it out from teh tree."

"I mean... of course you can... Easily. So easily it's unfair really. It's your secret weapon against me. One I am defenseless against. In fact... I should take that get out of jail free coupon out. You don't need it. One look from you and I melt and next thing you know, naked happy fun times....

"So unfair...

"Really."

Nicole pouts at him as if it is just so horrible. (Pro Tip: It's the opposite of horrible). She has her own arsenal too of course, but, Joey has a way of making her weak in the knees that never ceases to amaze her.

"I can.... try to think of a way to make them win the Superbowl? No guarantees on that one. But if I fail... I'll let you choose a different fantasy." Nicole winks at him and cuddles up, resting her chin on his shoulder. She is in happy, cozy, holiday mode and content to just be here in this space with him in their less than extravagant but perfect for them in this moment space. When he takes her hand and looks to her, she smiles at his appreciation for her thoughtful but cheesy gift. "I am glad. I can't wait to see what you got me. But I will wait, because right now, this is about me giving gifts to you."

When he unwraps the second gift, the largest of three, he finds a frame inside. It's a simple, modern, black metal frame, but it is what is inside that counts.

"A long long time ago, I sent you a close up of a patch of this part here." She points at a blueish gray spot that ends up being a curtain. "My intention was to send you multiple little close-ups and leave you wondering, but well, life kind of pulled us along running and I forget what it was that distracted me from that, but.... Dylan painted it and I thought... well, maybe you'd like to have it. Could keep it at my place if you want to hide it from Sprout eyes."

What he sees under the glass is:

Joey unwraps the second present and Peels just the corner back. "Piece by piece?" He pauses and squints to her with a wry smile. "You know how many times I'd replace my phone thinking there's something wrong withthe screen? That's a great way to get a Verizon guy shot in teh thigh." Maybe a bit extreme, but it's amusing to him. Peeling it back both eyebrows shoot up and his face unreadable aside from impressed. It's a long moment where he lets her do the talking. He likes her doing the talking really. There's a quality to her voice that cares about the content and it's piercing like glass in his eardrums but warm like coffee if it had a voice.

"This is some fine fucking art" He looks down, and back up and down again and back up and shakes his head, "Naw, this is gettin hung up here. Besides if she comes in here when I tell her do not just come in here? That's a Jaime problem, not a Joey problem." Shaking his head he reaches out with his hand taking hers to press a kiss to her palm and setting her hand on the stubble of his cheek. "See, now I'm worried mine won't be as good. This is awesome. I love it. Thank you."there's more though and he is, at his core, a fan of more.

Nicole can't help but laugh. "I mean, I was planning on giving you some hints, so maybe you wouldn't have thought that... Maybe." She leans in and kisses Joey's cheek as he finishes opening the gift, looking at the piece of art inside. She smiles at his reaction. "I was a little worried it would be like, I dunno... too weird. I am so glad you like it." He lifts her hand to his lips, kissing her palm before placing her hand against his cheek. She leaves it there, fingers lightly caressing his cheek, thumb brushing against his stubbled jawline. "I am sure I will love your gift. Even if it's a rock, it'd be a rock from you."

There is indeed more. One last gift. It is wrapped in the same paper but has a small store-bought bow on the top. It's roughly the size of a jewelry box, and when she hands it to him, she pulls the corner of her lower lip between her teeth. "This one is just... well... I should let you open it."

And so she does. Whenever he gets to the box inside and lifts the lid, he'd find a single key resting atop a pad of cotton. It's a normal-looking silver key, the letter 'N' painted carefully in black on one side of the bow of it.

Biting her lip again, Nicole whispers, "it's just... you know. A spare. In case...." In case a lot of things really. Things that might not need be said living here, living in the trailer park, living alone. But it is more than 'just' anything as well. And perhaps it is something that Joey would understand. It's not just the gift of a spare key in case, it's representative of the trust she holds for him.

Joey takes the box and his generally hard expression pauses and softens around the edges. He picks up the key in his fingers. While nothing magical or magnanimous occurs with it precisely there's something that slaps him with a gale force awareness. Glass bottle green eyes lift and watch her in that waiting.

It takes so much for Nicole to really trust people and Joey is a very, very easy person to be afraid of. He's built his business on terror and assault and a strong defense meaning he is really not an easy guy to like or get close to. This is her nose-baping him with an olive branch though.

The key rolls in his palm and with his other hand and free fingers reach out to take her arms, and slide loosely to her hands giving her a tug on this here unboxed and perfectly good lap. His hands fall around her back and rest behind her ass (Hey it's nice and he doesn't want her to slide off). Leaning forward he promises, "Best gift. I will, Ms. Stein, take very, very good care of it." Taking initiative he leans forward for a kiss adding, "And the contents."