2020-12-23 - Beaston Does Christmas

Christmas is upon them, and with all the festivities at the bar, the pair has neglected bringing any of the holiday cheer into the home. They were just going to say to hell with it, but then something made Bennie chin-wobble and now there is a fire going in the potbelly, popcorn is popped for stringing into garland, and Bennie is fast at work with a pair of scissors cutting out snow flakes in a flurry of white construction paper. "So I was thinking.." Bells atop Bennie's felt reindeer antlers jingle as she looks to where Easton is, "...of getting you a tattoo for Christmas. So, the bow is just going to have to go on your butt after you get it done."

Easton is seated at the kitchen counter with a needle and thread and dutifully making popcorn garland. There is of course a bowl to the side that has butter on it that he munches on. In the background the TV plays Home Alone (also counts as a Christmas Movie) though he's not paying any attention to Kevin McAllister's antics. He looks up at the /so/ and his eyebrows go up. "Do I get to choose the tattoo or is this a you want to blindly tattoo something on me? And you know my butt's already got the USMC on it." Oh she knows, she definitely knows that one.

Bennie angles him a smirk, "As much as I'd like to mirror that with 'Bennie Oakes' to share that 'Property Of', I was thinking you should commemorate something wildly more appropriate that won't forever curse our relationship. What about getting Clint Eastwood immortalized in ink?"

"As long as I'm not ending up with you in a dolly parton wig on my ass I'm pretty open." Easton leaves open the possibility of that image somewhere else though. "Aww, babe." He's genuinely touched at the mention of commemorating Clint. "That'd awesome. Hells yea. I could get Geoff to do up some thoughts on how to work him into the sleeve that I never really made any progress on." He has a few things sketched out on his arm, but besides some smoking bullet casings there isn't much actual ink done. "I have your gift and it's amazing. But you have to wait."

"I mean it was either that or steal your leg and get it airbrushed on that, but I figure you getting stabbed a gazillion times with a needle would result in less cussing." The tip of her tongue makes an appearance at the corner of her mouth as Bennie concentrates on making her next delicate cut. The mention of a gift for her, a delayed gift, gets her blinking. "Heathen. Don't make me torture it out of you." Those scissors are used to make a threatening gesture in his direction.

"I don't know why I haven't spray-painted my leg camo yet. I mean really, who doesn't want a camo leg?" Easton blinks and the threading stops. He picks up his beer and looks at her sternly, "In this house we wait until Christmas to get our gifts.." before his eyes slide sideways, "I think? Don't we?" Drinking down a gulp he says, "Unless you ask nicely and maybe promise to do the thing with your hands tonight.."

"Darn it, you ruined your own Christmas present." Despite the fact she just promised him a tattoo, Bennie couldn't pass up the chance to joke about the hand thing. "I'll wait. Until a second past midnight and then I will attack you with a vengeance. Whaddya think?" The blonde asks as she unfurls her supposed snowflakes, but it turns out to be paper dolls. Quite explicit paper dolls going at it doggy style.

"I don't think anything could ruin that." Easton doesn't need it to be a surprise to be a great present. He grins and says, "Okay. So I can either let you open it now or get attacked in the middle of the night. I see how it is Oakes." He shakes his head and then with a motion a fully wrapped present about the size of a shoe box slides out from under the couch.

Did he want a squeal? Because this is how you get a squeal! Bennie immediately abandons her craft project - don't worry, someone will find those scissors that get discarded into the cushions eventually thanks to an unfortunate puncture wound - and the Blonde let's out a merry, "EeeeEEeeeeEEe!" That has Gunner raising his head in concern as she leans over and snatches up the present from the floor and drags it into her lap and gives it an experimental shake.

Catching sight of her 'snowflakes' doing the dirty as they flutter to the ground Easton laughs loudly, "That's filthy, I love it." He stands up and makes his way over towards the box, which gives a very unsatisfying rattle of some papers. It's not very heavy. There is something metallic in there though that jingles around. He sits down on the couch and scritches Gunner's head. "Alright, let's do this."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Bennie says with faux innocence, "Santa's going to put your mind on the naughty list." She immediately snuggles up to his side as he takes a place beside her on the couch, kissing his jawline in a preemptive thank you before she goes all Tasmanian Devil on the wrapping paper.

Easton reflexively closes one eye as she kisses his jawline and grins, "I think I've just accepted that I always will be on the naughty list and made the most of it." He pulls back as she unleashes on the box, not wanting to get caught in the fray.

And inside the box is in order:

A passport application.

A set of plane tickets for February to Mexico.

A key to a Jeep.

A folded up roadmap with a line drawn in green sharpie from Gray Harbor to the Outer Banks.

"It's time we put some miles on you Bennie. I really wanted to take you to Mexico for Christmas but you don't have a passport yet." He pauses and makes a faux sad face here. "SO. Instead we're going on a road trip. We're driving out to the Outer Banks and uhm no, I didn't get you a car. That's just your key to our jeep. I barely use it and we can share it. Including if you want to drive any of the way to South Carolina." He winks at the last part, assuming she would much rather play radio DJ and snack-monger.

At first Bennie just pokes at the contents with confusion, but then Easton is filling in the most important blanks about how all these items go together. "Are you serious? ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?" She clutches the bundle of papers to her chest, application, tickets and and alike. "Easton Charles Marshall, this is amazing. You are amazing." She turns sideways and flops back into his lap and examines the map. "You know I'm dragging you to every road side attraction on the way, right? World's largest frying pan, dinosaur footprints in river beds, all of it."

Easton continues to scritch Gunner's head, partially to keep him nice and calm when the inevitable yelling happens. He knows Bennie pretty well at this point. "I am. Very serious." He nods and looks at Gunner, "I am pretty amazing." Gunner looks up at him and then at Bennie, clearly not willing to play favorites. "I do realize I have volunteered for more rest stop junk food and road side attractions than one man is ever supposed to endure in a lifetime within a single trip. But I love you and ... I already circled the world's largest ball of twine. It's in Kansas"

Bennie immediately flips the map until she finds Kansas and locates the circle, giving a little happy noise before she flicks aside the map and centers her attention up at Easton, reaching to give his cheek a scritch. "I promise not to drive you too crazy with road trip karaoke. Seriously. Best Christmas ever." Seeming how last Christmas is the one that Shall Not Be Spoken Of, the bar is kinda low? But that doesn't even seem to factor into the glimmer of happy tears in her eyes.

Easton turns his face into her hand as always when she runs her nails through his scruff. He kisses her wrist and says, "I promise to sing along to at least three boy band songs per state." Any more than that and he's out. "But yeah, I'm either going to shut down the bar for a week or two or see if Vic is up for keeping it running with Carmen. Not sure yet, but regardless we are driving cross the country and you get to meet Jennie and Doug. And .." He gets quiet for a moment before adding, "We bot really fucking needed a good Christmas babe."

"Not just need, deserve. And now that Gunner is certified, we can be that annoying couple that brings him everywhere. I built up some serious PTO time with the station while you were Lost, I'm sure the City will be overjoyed if I took some time off. And pssh, Vic's got this in the BAG. Nothing that girl can't handle especially if we give the staff a nice fat bonus before we ditch them. Oh my god, babe, we're going on an actual road trip! And Mexico, eventually yay! But I am pouring all my OMG'ing into one thing at a time. Oh! Speaking of, do you want to see what I made Alexander? Zoom my bag over here." Bennie makes grabby hands at her oversized purse, too damn content to get up and grab it herself.

The bag snaps to attention and lumbers over, as if it's nearly so heavy it can't be lifted. Easton smiles out of the corner of his mouth as he 'strains' to get it to her. "You're right. A little holiday bonus" little, not whopping " and things'll be fine at the bar. And yes, you and your insane overtime for the last umpteen years need a vacation or two. So here's two and we'll call that a good start." He then waits and patiently asks, "What did you make for Alexander? I don't know if you'll ever top the body outline one."

There is a good natured poke to his midsection as he mock struggles with her bag, though in truth now that she has an actual home, no longer feels the need to carry everything precious with her at all times thanks to that little 'threat' being dispelled with, at most the most ludicrous thing she keeps in there is a change of clothes, but that comes in handy between bar and the Station wardrobe changes. "It's an amazing start. Though Alexander was going to give me an illusioned vacation to a sandy beach. Now I'll just have to ask for something like Europe from him. So that'll be three!" She roots around her purse and comes up with yet another cross stitch. "I dunno about topping it, but maybe this comes close to equal?"

"Oh shit, I trumped his gift. Well, at least it was for my girlfriend and not Izzy. That would have been awkward." Easton doesn't seem that concerned. Seeing the cross-stitch he snorts and then breaks into an actual laugh. "Oh goodness. That's so ridiculously accurate it's painful. There was talk of .." he winces and doesn't want to remember the magazine names, "Possibly sexy coroner magazines? I didn't really want to know. But yeah, he's a murder-sexual." The instant it leaves his lips he looks like he regrets it. Of course because it calls to mind Isabella's Alexander-sexual term that still makes him twitch. "It's great Bennie. He will love it."

"Murder-sexual. Now I know what to stitch for his birthday." Bennie just tosses the present for their friend onto the coffee table, to free her hands to ring around his neck and pull him towards her as much as she's pulling herself up, "Now let's talk about that 'hands' portion of your Christmas gift..." Her smile fading only so she can can kiss him and show him soundly how appreciative she is of her present.