Christmas, Christmas time is near

[bringinghopewithme]

Who: Dan, Bunny and you!
What: Dan celebrates Bunny’s favorite holiday of all. The best one. The greatest season.
Where: All over the Pole.
When: After the Halloween plot.
Warnings/Notes: None yet.



I. Time for Toys and Time for Cheer

Bunny tunnels into the Pole and cringes at the Christmas intensity of the assault on his senses. The Pole is always a lot, but this close to the actual day the noise is louder, the hustle is faster, the smells are more intense, and goodness they do this every year? He dodges yetis on his way to checking in with Jack before conducting his rounds through the new Guardians he hasn’t had time to check on in a while.

“Can you believe they do this every year?” Bunny mutters, dodging yet one more Yeti with arms stacked almost too full of toys to see over.


II. No, That’s Enough, Let’s Not Overdo It

As a sort of retribution for being left to his own devices at the Pole, Dan’s decided that he’s going to be extremely annoying this Christmas, and that keeps him motivated and peppy through the darker part of the year in an already dark and cold part of the world.

He can’t help it that Bunny makes it easy to find a ‘bit’ and just dig in. He can’t help it that Bunny makes it so entertaining. That’s why he spends a few hours a day for a week working on hand-embroidering a sweater that manages to thread that needle between legitimately well-made and unwearably tacky. He spares no thread, no sequins, no glitter. The final result is a labor-intensive catastrophe of needlework snowflakes, woven tinsel, fluffy pom-poms dangling from the sleeves and the centerpiece, a patchwork image of Bunny himself wearing a Santa outfit.

Bunny won’t wear it, naturally, which means Dan has decided to rally by going up to anyone at the Pole who doesn’t appear busy and pushing the sweater into their hands. “Can you make my husband wear this? He’s hurting my feelings.”


III. Yeah, Why Can’t We Sing It Again?

“Come on, honey, You got such a beautiful voice. Don’t leave me hanging.”

Dan’s dragging Bunny by the paw room to room, grinning ear to ear, wearing a Christmas sweater with actual blinking lights and felt reindeer antlers on a headband. The more Bunny acts like a stick in the mud, the more Dan amps up the obnoxious holiday cheer, and right now, that means caroling.

Dan doesn’t give anyone an opportunity to object when they open their door. He did, being considerate, bring gifts for each person he stops by with, either something hand-made and intricate for people he knows (coats, wooden puzzle-boxes, a quilt) or cute and useful (a drink cozy, a festive handtowel, warm socks) for those he doesn’t, all wrapped.

It’s a little apology for subjecting them to his rendition of “O Holy Night”, which he starts in on immediately upon the door opening.

Comments

[hallelujahjunction]

"Me too. I'm surprised I ain't runned into you, except the Pole's a big place. Usually my day starts at four in the afternoon and then I lie down when I lie down." But the deep, long nights of the Pole have thrown Dan's internal clock a little askew, so he's finding himself sleeping in shorter stints and napping frequently. "I didn't get none of the myth powers of not needing no sleep or food. All I got was the ability to summon my horse, which is fine by me."

The idea of stewarding that kind of power freaks Dan out; the idea of immortality freaks him out all the more.

"If your body's telling you to sleep, you should listen to it. Bodies are smarter than brains half the time." Dan spends a lot of time ignoring his body's cues, but that's what happens when you're an addict.

[forceforlight]

The corner of Dick's mouth kicks up in a half grin. "Honestly? Probably the main reason you haven't run into me is because I tend to hang out in the rafters more than most people."

He's always preferred high places, after all. And not many other people do.

"Pretty much the only power I have, other than the general myth powers, is access to an intradimensional pocket I can store things in, so long as I have something I can open and close."

[hallelujahjunction]

"Ah, that's the difference, then. Shorties like me ain't got no business getting higher than six feet up." Dan grins. That's a lie; with his poledancing background and general athleticism and lack of fear of heights, he's quite comfortable climbing up into the rafters. "But yeah, I mostly been keeping to the workshop or the stables."

Dick's power sounds quite handy, the sort of thing Dan would have really wanted to have when he was living in a car and in and out of jail. "How are you and your bat-kin doing?"

[forceforlight]

"Never stopped Tim." Who does, still, have a couple of inches on Dan, but not a lot. "Nor our sister, Cass." Who probably has an inch on Dan. And is far scarier than any of them. "But I've always had a thing for heights. Probably comes from the fact that there are actual pictures of Mom having me in a sling across her chest and taking me for my first swing on the trapeze."

He blows out a breath. "We're...doing good. I mean, we're maybe a little better suited for the cold here, but it's still damned cold. We're mostly staying in the workshop or the training room. Kon's probably handling it best, though he'd probably laugh himself silly if you called him 'bat-kin'."

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan smiles at that mental image. He doesn't want to dig too deeply into Dick's family history, knowing how tragically Dick lost them, but he does love to get a window into people's loved ones. He loves when people around him are happy, joyful, comforted, even just warmed by a beloved memory. He loves seeing the effect that has on people.

"Well, Kon ain't around to correct me, so bat-kin he is until he tells me otherwise." Dan grins. "I been better. I been worse. Winter's rough no matter where I go, but the North Pole don't pull no punches. Reckon it's nice to have other folks actually acknowledge it's cold as shit instead of trying to tell me it ain't so bad."

[forceforlight]

"Even in Gotham or 'Haven, we normally wear insulated uniforms during the winter." Though he'd probably been better at handling the cold when he was a kid. Or, at the very least, hadn't been out as late. "But this is a lot colder than south Jersey is."

[hallelujahjunction]

"You can't could get me on the East Coast after November. Way too cold. That's where Gotham and Haven are, right? Y'all sound kind of East Coast." Dan's drawl, by contrast, frequently gets mistaken for Southern instead of western rural. He drinks some more coffee and ruffles Hayley's fur again.

He steels himself to broach a subject he doesn't like to get into, but in the name of group harmony, he feels beholden to assess the situation and explain himself.

"I'm glad we run up into each other, though. I wanted to be clear that I ain't against helping the group, you know that about me, but this talk of reporting to Miguel and centralizing everything makes me gun-shy, after, you know. I didn't handle the last attempt to organize things with much grace or dignity."

[forceforlight]

"South Jersey, yeah. Right on the border with Delaware and right across the river from Gotham." Dick's accent says it all, really. "Honestly, though, it's pretty much all I remember. Haly's used to winter in Florida. I think I technically had a house there at one point, but I'm pretty sure it was sold when I was still little as part of probate."

Because, of course, it would have been in his parents' names. And he was very young when they'd died.

He takes a sip of his coffee, letting Dan handle whatever mental sorting out he pretty obviously needs to do before speaking. Haley pads over to Dan, nudging against his knee for pets.

"If it's any help, I don't think he wants to be a group leader, no matter what he may be used to back home." The fact that he'd handled Dick's swearing and grousing the way he had said a lot to Dick, after all. "This isn't the same as what was going on in the other place. We're not struggling through on next to no information and trying to figure out what direction to even go." He makes a motion to himself, then to Dan. "We all seem to have powers here. Knowing what people can do, what knowledge they bring to the table? That might be what we need in order to get the right people to the right places, where they can do the most good."