A First Christmas Date

[Tim Tawfeek]

Clearly Tim had run out of ideas. That was what he kept telling himself as he walked along downtown, hand in gloved hand with his girlfriend, Luxanna Viera . Admittedly, downtown looked as though it had nearly been ripped from a Christmas movie. They'd strung lights and decorations absolutely everywhere, practically draping the storefronts and all that. Several stores even boasted elaborate holiday displays. Tim usually ignored stuff like this, since he usually saw Christmas as one big cash-grab and all.

But he didn't normally have someone special to share it with. Now he had Lux, who had, of course, been thrilled at the prospect of seeing the lights with her boyfriend. Tim hoped that she didn't also know that he'd totally brought her Christmas present along with him. He wasn't exactly an expert at jewelry, but he figured that the beautiful silver necklace he had tucked away in a box in a pocket would look awesome on Lux. It held a single sapphire in a delicate teardrop thing, and he thought it looked pretty good. Failing that, he figured he could always go digging into his emergency gift stash...

...which was most definitely not a giant pile of Furbies in every conceivable hue.

"It really does look all Christmasy, doesn't it?" said Tim, looking around and grinning. The winking lights reflected off his glasses, and his thrill at spending the holidays, or at least part of them, with Lux made his face light up nearly as brilliantly as the lights twinkling around him. why not? Things seemed to be going pretty good lately, and he really, really liked Lux. Might even love her, if it came down to it...

[Luxanna Viera]

To some, Christmas was a time for family, presents and decorations, which in truth, was fair, because in theory, that was what it was. But to Lux, Christmas was so much more. It became all the more special, not knowing how many of them you'd live to celebrate. Luxanna wanted to spend them all the best way possible, and this year, having a boyfriend just made it all the more special.

She had stopped feeling so awkward around him, and she seemed to have come to the point where their relationship, holding hands and kissing came more naturally. It was a nice feeling that warmed her up inside and filled her stomach with butterflies.

Walking down the street like this, holding hands like that, just made it even more special. At least to her it did.

"Yes, yes it does," the brunette said, breathless as she looked around with a huge grin on her lips. "Makes me feel like I'm a kid again," she chuckled. "Or like we're part of some stupid movie." That didn't contain zombies. Man, wouldn't it have been cool if a horde of zombies came running down the street right then? Real romantic, right? Wrong. Pointing at the several lights along the way, Luxanna grinned. "I think the lights are the best part. They make the usual cold and white Christmas -- or winter, look all warm and cozy."

[Tim Tawfeek]

"Well, they probably, like, based movies off this and stuff," said Tim, adding a little shrug. He grinned at the little kid comment. He was tempted to tease Lux, suggest that she was pretty much like a little kid all the time. He had the giant collection of Furbies to prove it. But he had definitely learned at least one thing: you do not tease the girlfriend about her age. Not if you wanted to keep getting the kisses and such.

"I bet they got mutants to help them with it," he said pointing. "Actually, that's less 'bet' and more 'know'. I was totally around to keep track of it and stuff. Got some good footage and stuff, mutant relations and all," he shrugged. He actually had a lot of footage he needed to edit. He'd been mostly filling his blog with, well, filler: stupid mutant tricks and a remix of his second most famous vid set to music.

"So you got plans for Christmas? Gonna go home and see the family, come back for the ski trip or whatever?" Tim's own parents had offered for him to come home, and he was considering it. He'd done it in the past, but then again, he hadn't had a girlfriend to make plans with (and they loved Lux, something that had been made very clear [though there had been a bit of "why don't you ask that nice girl from that video out?" Which had led to some truly fun conversations]).

[Luxanna Viera]

Her eyes widened slightly in obvious awe as she squeezed his arm. "Really?" she asked, "That is so cool!" At least no one couldn't fault the girl for not being easily excited. Sometimes she wondered if people found her annoying when she acted this way. Though, she also trusted her close friends enough to let her know if she ever did. "I wish I could have been there too. You should show me the pictures sometimes. I'd love to see them." Just as she loved to see just about anything Tim made or wrote, or whatever.

"Well," she began, furrowing her brows as she directed her glance forward. "My mom's going to spend her Christmas in the hospital. She got a new doctor and they wanted to try something new," she shrugged. "Nicky's spending his Christmas with his dad, so it's just me and Jack." Jack didn't go home for Christmas, so Luxanna had invited him to stay with her instead. "I haven't really made up my mind about the ski-trip. It kind of depends on when my mom comes home and all." She turned to look at Tim and grinned. "You're more than welcome to join us if you want."

Unless he of course, like normal kids, went home for Christmas. Unlike her and Jack, who didn't have anywhere else to go. Jack didn't talk much to his dad, and well, Lux wasn't going to let him spend Christmas alone.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim chuckled, feeling that Lux had probably taken his statement a bit too literally. Oh well, he didn't want to burst her bubble, especially when it made her look as adorable as she looked right now. He just gave her arm another squeeze, then nodded as she talked about the pictures. "Actually, I think that one girl, the one who was on my show, Zoe? She took some. She's supposed to be doing some kind of art show in January, so we could totally go check that out. I volunteered to do a few photos, but I bet she got a lot better looking models."

Tim laughed at that, though the smile didn't hold for long, as Lux explained. It sucked to hear about her mom, especially as he was pretty sure Lux had the same power and all. He didn't want to think about what that meant for Lux in the not-so-distant future. He had a brief image of himself standing by a hospital bed, but he should just shake that off. There was no guarantee that they were going to last that long after all.

"Wait, Jack?" repeated Tim. He adjusted his glasses and looked over at Lux. "As in Jack McCa---yeah, uh," Tim licked his lips. She clearly wanted him to join them, but he really, really didn't want to go. His parents were going to be coming up for the holidays, as they always did, but that only increased it, as they were very likely to insist that Tim go see his girlfriend. "Yeah, I can make it and all. My parents are going to be in town and all, but they'll be cool with it." Tim nodded, giving his girlfriend another squeeze. "And it sucks that your mom is in the hospital. Want me to go with you to visit her sometime?" Because that was totally what boyfriends did, after all.

[Luxanna Viera]

Her grin only widened at that. "Really? It won't be too much trouble?" She thought the idea sounded amazing, as everything did, when presented to her, but that was hardly the point. She really wanted to go, not only because that meant she got to see a fancy art show, pretty pictures and all that, but also because that meant she got to spend more time with Tim. She had come a long way, she thought. She wasn't nearly as hesitant about social interactions, though, that was mostly because she was so easily distracted these days, with her head being filled with a certain hunk.

With a tilt to her head, Luxanna met Tim's gaze. "Yeah, Jack McCarthy," she nodded. Jack was, and had been her best friend for a really long time and the guy held a very special place in her heart. A lot of people didn't seem to like him, which made the brunette sad, because honestly, she couldn't understand why. He was kind, he was loving and he was super cute. She was totally not biased either. Everyone deserved to have Jack in their life. Of course, she didn't actually voice her opinion of the Irish boy, as she'd rather not make Tim sad. "Really?" she beamed then, practically grinning from ear to ear. She was about to reach up and plant a peck on his cheek when the topic was turned back to be about her mother.

Frowning a little, Luxanna shrugged. "It sucks, but..." she hesitated, sorting through her thoughts. "Is it bad if I say that I'm kind of used to it by now?" She looked up at her boyfriend, a worried furrow growing between her brows. "I mean... She's been like that my entire life and I've always kind of...been prepared..." she trailed off with another shrug. "If you really want to," she said, testing. "Like, I'd love to have you there, and she probably would too, but..." It was very depressing. Awfully depressing. And... Honestly? Luxanna was a little scared that Tim would turn around in the doorway and never look back.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim nodded. "Yeah, it's totally fine. No trouble at all, really," he shrugged, trying to look and act like it wasn't a big deal. It really wasn't: Zoe would probably love to just have people there. Tim was also willing to bet that Lux and Zoe got on like gangbusters. Plus, he loved the idea of doing something cool and kind of mature with Lux (would be even better if his pictures were actually there, but again, he wasn't exactly holding his breath).

Yep, Jack McCarthy: bane of Tim's existence. Tim still hadn't quite figured out what he' done to earn that crazy guy's ire, save for actually dating Lux. They hadn't even done anything besides a lot of hand holding and some fairly chaste kisses. Not that Tim wouldn't want to do that sort of thing with Lux, but, well, yeah, definitely not the time or place to be thinking about that. Though he did feel his spirits soar as Lux grinned again, not to mention the kiss.

Plus, he was totally earning more boyfriend points with the offer. "Nah, it doesn't sound bad," he insisted. "It's gotta suck for you though, heading there and all. I'm perfectly glad to provide emotional support and all. It's like I said, I'm there for you. It's part of the whole relationship thing. Kiss a little, go on dates, give each other support," Tim shrugged, trying to make it sound like he wasn't utterly terrified at the prospect of A) meeting Lux's mom B) going into a hospital and C) seeing Lux's possible future. Yeah, that didn't sound terrifying at all.

[Luxanna Viera]

How had she managed to find such a cool and chill boyfriend? He hardly seemed phased by anything, and Lux really envied that about him. She wanted to be more like that too, instead of being an awkward mess of smiles and flushed cheeks. She actually had to bite her lower lip to prevent the squeal from reaching the surface. "I can't wait!" she said, in obvious high spirits. This was the best day ever!

Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear; at the mention of relationship things; kissing, to be exact, Luxanna's cheeks flushed crimson read and she dropped her gaze to her shoes, feeling her hands grow clammy. "That makes me really happy," she said, trying to contain the growing smile; she failed. Miserably. "But I mean... If you really want to, yeah." She wasn't too sure about it still. It didn't seem like such a good idea and she was extremely worried what might come of it, but if he wanted to, she wasn't going to stop him.

"Well," she began, looking upwards towards the sky. "It does suck; I mean, of course it does. It's my mom, after all, and well, I don't have a dad, so she's all I got-- except for Nicky anyways, but that's not the same." She frowned. "But I think... That... I've come to terms with it, as stupid as that probably sounds. I don't want her to be in pain, you know?"

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim smiled, glad that he'd managed to lift Lux's spirits again. he'd been seriously worried that she'd start drifting into gloomy thoughts, and that definitely what he didn't want for these dates. The last thing Tim wanted was for Lux to associate him with something bad or anything. He'd rather see her flushing as she thought of relationship stuff.

Tim ended up nodding again. "I want to, yeah," he insisted, giving her another squeeze. part of him really did. He'd been wishing to have a girlfriend for a while, and, yeah, he'd "dated" a few girls in the past and all, but those had mostly been gamer chicks. Then it had been less "do relationship stuff" and more "make out between playing video games." Seeing as he'd also sort of stalked Lux for ages and essentially dreamed about being with her, well, he didn't intend on fucking up any time soon.

Which just made him wonder what he should be doing when she did stuff like look at the sky and all. "Yeah, I--yeah," he said, nodding. "Like, it's rough and all," yeah, he definitely didn't know what to say. so he fidgeted. "But I'm here for you now, if, like, you need me for anything. Really," or at least he'd try, which was hopefully enough, or close to enough. or something.

[Luxanna Viera]

Tilting her head to the side so that she could look at him, without, really, moving her face, Luxanna smiled. "You're adorable," she said, chuckling softly. She really did appreciate him and his ways of making her feel better. "Sorry. Cute. Errr.. Handsome?" No, wait, maybe it was supposed to be cool... Either way, she was glad she had him around. And really, despite her worries, having him there, would probably make things easier, and well, her mom would be thrilled, so there was that. Then again, Luxanna and her mom were practically the same entity, so anything that thrilled Lux, thrilled her mom...which sounded really messed up, come to think of it...

"If you want to come, you're more than welcome to then," she nodded and tugged at his arm for a bit before smiling. Lifting her free hand, Luxanna patted her beanie and pulled it further down her ears and huffed. 

She didn't really need the beanie. Her body sort of... Adapted to the cold. Like, it didn't make her any warmer or anything, she just didn't freeze as much. It was pretty neat, if you didn't take the whole doom and gloom part of it into consideration. "Oh! How is the bat doing?"

[Tim Tawfeek]

Adorable? Cute, handsome? "I'll take any of them," insisted Tim, leaning over to give lux a peck on the cheek. he definitely understood the difficulties that came with adjusting to the whole proper terms for relationships and stuff. They'd learn about it, really. Like going to visit sick moms and stuff. Tim just nodded again, looking askance as Lux patted her beanie down. Did she even need that? With her power and all? Then again, Tim wasn't even going to pretend to understand the intricacies of Lux's power.

"oh, she's doing pretty good," said Tim, nodding. He moved his arm to situate around Lux, pulling close. "She's decided that she wants to stick with me though. Living around the dorm and all. I've technically got a cage for her, but it's pretty well left open and she just hangs around. You've probably seen her in the common room and all," since technically Tim and Lux dormed together and all, a fact that they kind of tried to pretend wasn't actually true. "I still haven't figured out a good name for her. Think I should call her Furby?" it was half a joke, but Tim figured that a little levity could definitely be used about now, what with all the talk about hospitals and death and all.

[Luxanna Viera]

Her cheeks flushed crimson red when he leaned forward to peck her cheek; she had a very long way to go yet, to feel comfortable with that. Well, she wasn't uncomfortable, per say, but it still made her all sorts of awkward and jittery. In a way, she actually liked the feeling. It made her entire body feel warm and fuzzy, and it felt like a billion butterflies had moved into her tummy. It was a nice feeling; though, she was worried when said feelings would develop, and her power would kick in. Her power was tricky that way, as she also adopted to emotions, and not only the physical stuff.

When Tim's arm came around her, Luxanna leaned her head against his shoulder and nodded at his words. A warm smile spread across her lips. "Now that you mention it, I have; though, I'm not sure what the dorm monitors would feel about it." She frowned. "Then again, I suppose there could be worse things to be done than letting the cage be open." Things she'd rather not discuss. Like the awkwardness surrounding the fact that they were dormed together. Seriously. As if Luxanna wasn't awkward about relationships enough as it was, now she had to think about that too? "Furby?" she laughed. "Well, if she likes it. I mean, it's a good name and all, obviously, but..." she grimaced.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Man, this whole having your arm around your girl and walking down a romantically lit winter wonderland thing definitely felt awesome. Tim could feel Lux just leaning against him, all the trust and affection that motion entailed. It brought its usual load of worry too, that Tim couldn't possibly be actually worth a girl like this. No, no, he'd totally live up to it. He so had the potential, and Lux seemed to really like him, so he'd do it. Definitely. Totally.

Tim was tempted to dismiss the dorm monitors though. He didn't really care overmuch what they said so long as they didn't do anything too drastic. Most of them were pretty cool about stuff like that anyway, unless you got unlucky and got the cat. Not like Tim and Lux would ever actually take advantage of their living situation... ever.

"Furby it is then," agreed Tim, nodding. He smiled "Should be fun. She'll go with pretty much anything," because of her giant crush on Tim for no discernible reason. Plus, Tim definitely loved naming the bat after the girl she hated. "So, that's out of the way," he nodded toward the lights. "Any displays in particular you wanted to check out? There's a pretty cool mini-santa's village at one of the clothing stores, and I think there's a candy shop that went all Peppermint winter or something," Tim had been a bit more focused on actually helping, surprising, helping and recording (more of the latter, actually) then actually paying attention to what was going on.

[Luxanna Viera]

Grinning, Luxanna couldn't help but secretly fangirling at the name. "I think it will suit her." It was actually rather amazing how Tim had embraced her little addiction to the toys she collected. Most people would find it weird and laugh about it. Or do what Jack did and find them utterly terrifying. But Tim? Nah, he seemed to embrace it and accept it, and it made the brunette extremely happy, which showed on her entire posture. And come on, the bat was just as adorable as her furbies and she was really glad they had managed to save her life too. To think that they could have just left her there or never met her at all. It was kind of funny how those things worked out.

"No, I'm okay with whatever, honestly," she smiled. "Whatever you want to do is fine with me. We could always like, wing it or something. Don't really have to make any plans." She figured they'd be fine with simply going there and taking it from there. Either way, Luxanna was more so looking forward to spending more time with Tim. The displays were just another added bonus, really.

After all, it was their first Christmas together and Luxanna wanted to make the best of it. She wanted them to have plenty of memories to look back to and be happy about. Even if their relationship was more or less doomed, thanks to her power, Luxanna didn't want to hold anything back. She wanted to do all the things while she still had the chance to.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Oh yes, Furby was so going to enjoy her name, just so long as Tim didn't give the slightest hint where it came from. He certainly did not relish that conversation. Why couldn't he have just gotten the retarded bat that attacked the glow-worm girl as a pet? No, he had to get the jealous one that thought his girlfriend wasn't good enough for him. Because that was Tim's luck.

And said girlfriend was making the date difficult too. "oh c'mon!" said Tim, shifting to hug Lux for a moment, rubbing her arm slightly. "You're always fine with whatever, and it's really sweet and makes you kind of awesome and all, love the world and all that, but sometimes I really do want to do what you want to do. After all, seeing you smile is kinda awesome," Tim leaned over and gave Lux a peck on the cheek, then rubbed her arm.

"So at least humor me or something," he said, nodding. "What looks like the most fun to do now? Just pick something, and this time I'll go along with it," and internally, Tim was dancing, because clearly this was awesome boyfriend behavior right here. Making his girlfriend be assertive and do what she wanted. Oh yeah.