moreofaponchoguy | Midnight Manor Boarding House, Room 1C, Wednesday

Midnight Manor Boarding House, Room 1C, Wednesday

Last night, as planned, Cal had gotten to experience a Central Park Christmas Eve with Arden, complete with getting to ride a horse-drawn carriage and learning all the carols his brain could handle. Crashing together made the most sense, and getting to wake up cuddled with Arden was just about the best morning gift he could ask for.

He tried to open his eyes for a moment before the hot chocolate-equivalent to a hangover hit him and mmm maybe a few more minutes of sleep would be a good idea.

[For she who is being snuggled!]

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"Mmmm," Arden murmured, cuddling a little closer. Consciousness was creeping in, but these few minutes between full sleep and full wakeness were nice. She was warm and snuggled and safe, and boy were those wonderful feelings. "Merr' Chrimmas," she mumbled, giving the arm wrapped around her a sleepy kiss.

"Merry morning," Cal said, pulling her closer. "Happy Christmas. Tell me we don't have to get up right away?"

"You mean you're not in a hurry to jump up and get to your Jedi workout?" Arden teased; he could feel her shake with a laugh. "Here I was gonna offer to move so you could run around the island bright and early." She twined around and pressed a kiss to the underside of his chin. "We can stay like this as long as we want."

"I mean, it's a holiday, right? I don't have to workout right away. I should at least wait until it's warmer outside." Arden was kind and wouldn't question his logic, right? "And I wouldn't want you to get cold, that would be awfully mean while I have you as my guest."

Considering Arden had no desire to be left alone, he would find her positively questionless, so far as logic went. "I would be very cold," she agreed, pulling the blankets up higher over her shoulders. "Cold and lonely and that's a terrible way to spend a Christmas morning."

She'd have to get up and go to Gray's house later that afternoon, he'd have plenty of time to work out then.

"I do have presents for you, though," she said. "Whenever we're ready to get up and do Christmas proper."

The mention of presents got Cal to stir a tiny bit and open his eyes. "Oh right, gift time... maybe in five minutes?" Presents sounded great, but a few more minutes of sleep couldn't hurt.

"We can push it back fifteen, even," Arden teased, leaning in to brush a kiss over his forehead. Sleepy Cal was adorable. "No rush, right? Not on Christmas."

Sleepy Cal was big and strong, as evidenced by the strength of his cuddles and the way he kissed her neck. "No, no rush. Unless any of my presents are alive?"

No, it wasn't likely, but the question made sense in his sleepy brain.

Right, right. Absolutely what she'd meant. Sleepy Cal was big and strong (and also adorable).

"I did not get you any living presents, no," Arden promised, trying not to laugh. Next time, she was going to grab her phone and record one of their conversations when he was half-asleep and play it for him when he was awake and watch him try to protest that he didn't sound adorable and ridiculous. "Pretty sure there's rules about giving alive presents."

She settled down in his arms and closed her eyes, sliding back into sleep herself for a bit.

Cal would continue to deny any adorableness because he was stubborn like that.

"BD, wake us up in 15 minutes, okay?" Cal said, nestling back under the covers with Arden.

After 18 minutes (because it was Christmas), BD got under the covers as well and poked Cal in the side. "Wake up! It's present time!"

Cal was allowed to be wrong about things.

Arden, who still didn't speak beeps, mumbled something incomprehensible and buried her face deeper into Cal's chest. Mmm, yes, this was very good.

Cal snickered and attempted to pull himself, very reluctantly, from the bed. "BD is making me get up."

"Am not! This is all your fault!" BD-1 replied with more pokes.

"He says he's jealous and wants to cuddle you in my place while I make tea."

That... well, BD couldn't argue with that. "If you insist," he said with a happy trill.

The promise of a cuddly BD got Arden to stop making whiny noises as Cal leveraged himself away. Instead, she opened her arms for BD-1 to come snuggle. She didn't even need to speak beep to understand what he was saying there. "You know how I like my tea?" she asked, blinking open one big, amber eye at Cal and giving him a sweet, albeit sleepy smile.

"Of course, I've been paying attention," he said, giving Arden a forehead kiss. "BD will do his best to keep you warm."

BD beeped happily and got into Arden's arms to wiggle and snuggle her while Cal disappeared down to the kitchen. A few minutes later, he came back with two steaming mugs of tea and a plate of cookies, because food rules didn't apply on holidays. "All right, let's get you up. But not out of bed, we should stay in there."

Arden lo--adored Cal, but rarely thought of him as perfect; this morning, though, handing her an expertly made cup of tea while she lounged in bed and stayed warm with the sweetest droid she'd ever met had her rethinking her stance on his potential perfection. Even moreso when he insisted that they should stay in bed.

"Brilliant," she told him. "Just brilliant. And did you notice? Santa came." She pointed at the trio of stockings that had found themselves hanging on random bits and bobs in his room, and the small pile of presents below them. "Some Jedi protector you are," she teased. "Sleeping through strange men creeping into the room."

Or, at least, sleeping(?) through girlfriends smuggling things from her room a little after midnight last night.

"Hey, those songs all say Santa's an old man, and I know we're both on the nice list this year. That puts him down as a pretty low threat," Cal said, slipping back in bed beside her. "And Santa did a pretty nice decorating job. Who am I to stop someone on an important mission?

"Did you leave him milk and cookies?" Arden asked, tucking herself against him, her arm around his waist, the silk of her hair scarf under his chin, her cheek pressed against his chest. "Or did something - or someone - happen to them?"

"I figured if he wanted milk and cookies, the kitchen was open," Cal said. He pulled her in a little more, his hand resting on her back, feeling the way she moved with him as they breathed together. "Do the stockings have to be fancy ones, or can you just hang any clean socks up for presents?"

"I think the tradition started with any clean socks, but now people get special ones that are bigger and can hold more things." She kissed Cal's throat. "Very kind of Santa to bring us some, since we didn't have any of our own."

"Oh yeah, I can definitely tell that was Santa's doing, and not one of his very pretty helpers," Cal said, tilting his head to give her more room to kiss. "There was a lovely worker in here, but I didn't think it was nice to disturb her work."

"Checking out one of Santa's elves, huh?" she teased, replacing a kiss with a quick nip. "Pretty sure that gets you put on the naughty list for sure."

"And yet, there are still presents, so I must not have been that naughty. Maybe the elf appreciates being looked at?" Cal suggested, sliding his hand down her back. "Or maybe she knew there would be gifts for her too."

"Both are maybe true," Arden said with a slow smile, breath catching at that gliding hand. "At least, depending on who was doing the looking."

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Midnight Manor Boarding House, Room 1C, Wednesday

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