the season to be jolly

[keyed_up]

All supernatural excitement aside, it's almost Christmas!

Soph shows up on Tony's doorstep with a bag of gingerbread house ingredients and a big smile. "Hi Jarvis! Where's Tony?" she asks.

Comments

[poeticterms]

"He is downstairs. Shall I direct him to meet you in the kitchen?"

[keyed_up]

"Yeah! Thanks." In Soph saunters. She did not actually prearrange this activity, but she's pretty sure it will meet with approval.

[poeticterms]

"It's no trouble," he says modestly.

[keyed_up]

Soph pats a wall affectionately on her way to the kitchen and hums to herself and starts unpacking gingerbread and icing and candy onto the kitchen table.

[toblameforit]

Tony bounces in a few minutes later.

"Did somebody say gingerbread?" he asks, grinning, and hugs her before she can answer.

[keyed_up]

Hugs! "I didn't! Did Jarvis say it? I deny it completely!"

[toblameforit]

"The evidence is against you," Tony informs her, letting go.

[keyed_up]

"Pff, you sound like Sherlock. So, yes on the housemaking idea?"

[toblameforit]

"Hell yes!"

[keyed_up]

"Fantastic. I baked it, even! I mean, and I burned it and had to fix it with magic, but baking happened."

[toblameforit]

Tony giggles.

"All right, let's get to it!"

To no one's surprise, he gets really enthusiastic about structural engineering even when it is made of baked goods and rock-hard icing.

[keyed_up]

Soph is more about the cosmetic features, which makes them a fine team. She makes tiny candy cameras and tucks them into corners.

[toblameforit]

"That is the most adorable thing I've ever seen," Tony declares when he realizes what she's doing.

[keyed_up]

Soph giggles. "Well, why not, right?"

[toblameforit]

"Totally! Think the ground floor's ready for a ceiling yet?"

[keyed_up]

"Yeah, go for it," she grins.

[toblameforit]

Tony applies icing to the tops of the walls and carefully lifts the ceiling into place. It fits perfectly.

"Time for the second floor!"

[keyed_up]

Soph busies herself with more candy cameras and wee gingerbread furniture. "You up to anything lately?"

[toblameforit]

"Nah, not much. You?"

[keyed_up]

"I met Bella's weird gardener minions! They're friendly. One of them gave me a flower."

[toblameforit]

"Awww, that's adorable," says Tony. "Was it a nice flower?"

[keyed_up]

"It was some kinda demon flower. It was big and yellow and it smelled like lemon curd and it looked awesome in my hair."

[toblameforit]

"That is maybe even cuter than you turning our gingerbread house into Gingerbread Jarvis."

[keyed_up]

"I think," says Soph, "that every time you see a cute thing your potential to appreciate cute things grows, so that every cute thing you see can be the cutest thing you have ever seen."

[toblameforit]

"Is that a general philosophical statement, or specifically about me and how everything I see is apparently the cutest thing?"