smash_logs | merry merry christmas, and I want you to know

Entry tags:

merry merry christmas, and I want you to know

Who: YOU
What: KISSLETOES
When: December 14th - January 1st
Where: Everywhere
Warnings: Sloppy makeouts.

SUDDENLY, AND WITHOUT WARNING...

title or description

The entire school has become covered in mistletoe overnight. It grows out of the walls! The ceilings! Everywhere you least expect it? HOW CAN THIS BE??

It's probably best not to think about it. Attempts to uproot the plants or burn them away only makes the plants grow back faster. For the time being, it seems the school must live with it.

[OOC INSTRUCTIONS:
+ Post dudes, get kisses!
+ Some (NOT ALL) plants are cursed. If you manage to step under a cursed plant, you will exchange a memory when or if you exchange a kiss. The memories will be first-person and very vivid, and characters will feel like they are experiencing the memory in real time, though in reality the transfer is instantaneous. Memories can be as short, long, happy, sad, or traumatic as you like.
+ If you'd like to participate, we highly suggest making a list of a few memories (with accompanying links/descriptions) that are up for grabs, and linking or posting the list in your top-level comment. Memory exchange is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL. When in doubt, OOC communication!
+ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAG YOUR CHARACTERS
+ That's it, we love you.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was more tender than she had anticipated. Not practised. Not as nervous as she'd imagined hers had been. And as she had stood there waiting in her silent ocean of anxiety, she realised that sharing a kiss with Henry had been something done intentionally. On her part. On his part. Discovering what that really meant was something else entirely. Books spoke leagues of the difficulty with giving voice to sentimental concept and while Olivia had often wore her heart on her sleeve, trying to speak up about something she had little to no experience in was far more difficult.

If she knew of her feelings, then she could at least attempt to address them. And while she had felt the awkward flutter in her chest before, such as the night she and Henry danced and smiled and laughed, it felt as if it had grown thirty fold more in the mere moments that lips met soft flesh and left their very mark.

One good turn deserves another.

And it truly dawned on her how much Henry was always surprising her. She couldn't figure him out. She didn't know what his intentions were or what his aim was. She had no way of understanding his motivations because she hadn't truly known him. She had wrongfully once or twice (and shamefully) judged him poorly and regarded him with suspicion, all simply because he was a man who came from the country that had caused so much heartache for Ylisse and Lord Chrom.

Yet Henry was more than a Plegian. He was more than his robes and his most often cackling laughter. He was more than squinted gazes and sly curves of the mouth. No person could ever be described in a mere few words and for whatever reason, it took up until that kiss for Olivia to realise it. And it began to show Henry in a completely different light. And even better, it made her want to know more, to see more.

But one step at a time.

She heard him plainly. Didn't understand, of course, but heard him. In acknowledgement, she leaned over and set her cheek to his with a small, shy smile. "What are you thanking me for?"

It was just a kiss. Except it wasn't.

"I should be thanking you." She fished for his hands to hold against her own as gently as she could muster, which would be no difficult feat for her to accomplish. "I feel much less lonely with you here, Henry. I'm... sorry I haven't said it much."

He shook his head. "You've said something like it before. But it never hurts to hear it twice," said Henry with the mark of a light giggle. He did like hearing her say that. Being lonely was the worst feeling.

"I hope you'll never have to be TOO lonely, so if I help make it better, then I'll make sure I don't let that happen. Cross my heart and hope to die!"

He squeezed her hands briefly - maybe a bit hard, but he enjoyed the feeling of her hands in his too much to resist. He just wasn't ace at affectionate gestures quite yet.

Had she? Yes, perhaps so. Probably at the haydance, when she really thought about it. It was right in that category of sentiments that threatened to have her weep with an odd kind of joy and delight. And to be honest, she was rather relieved she had yet to do that in front of anyone. Vaike hadn't been completely understanding of it, and the academy seemed to full of a few types who were like him.

"Don't die," she argued. "That'd defeat the purpose." Even though she knew it was a saying, Henry seemed like the type who'd take turns of phrase too literally if given the opportunity. "But I'll make sure you're not lonely, too."

Her fingertips wove between his with a gentler version of his squeeze. She was the delicate one. She was the flower and he was what, the stem? Her support, so yes, the stem.

He would've been happy to think of himself as a stem, even if nobody tended to appreciate them. It wasn't the beautiful part of the flower, sure, but it was an essential part to play. Being her support would make him happy.

The sorcerer shook his head, shutting his eyes. He found himself paying close attention to the way her voice sounded, the touch of her fingers against his hands, the things she said. An unusual heat touched his cheeks. All of this, the kissing, sweet sentiments, and gentle touches had him blushing: she was doing a fine job at making his feelings for her grow and grow like a splendid flower itself.

"Okay, okay. I won't die just yet. I can't!" Henry looked back to her with a smile, but the heat at his face had him feeling just a little bashful. He wondered why. "Especially if you say you won't let me be lonely. I can't pass up your company~"

She couldn't claim to be a great judge of character. Observant sometimes, yes, but not as much as she should have been. If anything, Olivia always felt things a little too much. Perhaps she took things more seriously than she should have a lot of the time. But in those moments with Henry where she listened and looked, she saw yet another side to him.

A side she thought was... Dare she even entertain the notion? Cute. That was what it was. Henry was being cute. Or he always had been cute and she was just blind to it. Or just that the situation hadn't had the opportunity to crop up. Hearing him made the features in her face soften, if such a thing was even possible, for Olivia was almost certain that nothing else was as soft as her.

"No..." she began with a sharp little nod. "No, you can't." Because she wouldn't let him. Even if he'd tried to, it wasn't difficult for herself putting in the effort to ensure that he failed. But when her nerves got the better of her, she couldn't disguise shy laughter as she brought her gaze onto the floor beneath their feet. "I-I was thinking... There's supposed to be some kind of holiday. Hand-in-hand with the plants—the mistletoe, I mean. W-what... if... what if we just spent the holiday together?"

He blinked at the suggestion. He'd been luring himself into this state of silence, where he should keep hidden most of his inclinations toward Olivia secret. He understood enough to know that coming out with a love heavy like his would scare her at this moment, so he never imagined that she'd invite him to spend time with her on a holiday.

Had that kind of thing ever happened before? No, it hadn't. Being included in something like a private get-together was new for him.

He tilted his head while he tried to come up with a response that wasn't so simple as yes. "Is that what people do on the holiday? Spend time with a friend or loved one?" he asked before the tilt of his head turned into a nod. "Even if they dooon't, I think I'd like to spend it with you~ It sounds nice. But what do people DO during the holiday?" If it was similar to a holiday of their homeland, he wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't clued in on the rituals. Plegians celebrated different things and had different customs than the other countries.

The invitation was almost like common sense. They came from the same world—and so did that Yarne person. There had been Inigo as well and Olivia would have invited him along as well if he was still there. And she still had plans of trying to track Yarne down and stammering out an invitation his way as well. Since they all came from the same place, it did sort of make them out to be a family.

...Didn't it?
...And weren't families supposed to spend those kinds of days together?

"Here?" Olivia asked him in the beginning. And then even as she released his hands as carefully as she could, she offered a subtle shrug. "I don't know how they celebrate. But back in Ferox when there were celebrations, Basilio made sure I knew I was welcome to spend the time with him." Because Basilio was something of a brother or a father, and he was most definitely family.

"We can bring Yarne along," she continued with a nod. "And I can bake us something to eat. It'd be nice." And then she paused, because her doubts were already creeping up on her. "Unless... you don't want to? M-maybe you already have plans or maybe you think that sounds stupid." Because in hindsight, it did sort of sound stupid and heartfelt.

His hands were still holding hers, and he brought them closer to his chest reflexively. Henry didn't want her to have the wrong idea about what he wanted.

"I definitely want to," he maintained with a smile. "I don't think it sounds stupid. It sounds great! I bet Yarne would like to go, too. That way, none of us will be lonely on that day~ AND we'll get to try your cooking, hee hee!"

It was more than a little flustering for him to draw her in again, like he magically thought she was going to withdraw. But then that had always been a poor habit of hers. At the first sign of uncertainty, she was usually quick to attempt going into hiding. Until the present moment, anyway. Henry was likely onto her.

"O-oh, good! I hope he'd like that..." Because truth be told she knew even less about Yarne. She knew his name, that they were from the same world, and that was about it. (Some kind of rumour that he was Henry's son, but she was still back and forth about future children.) Then her eyebrows rose, "...Are you saying I've never cooked anything for you? I did a lot of that stuff when I was little. I guess not so much nowadays..."

He looked away thoughtfully. "Hmm... I don't know. In fact, I'm not entirely sure WHO did a lot of the cooking during the war," he admitted. "Oopsie~ I really should be more aware of that stuff." He bowed his head forward and slightly to the side, a sheepish smile adorning his features. "Lots of stuff to keep track of. Like who I'm not supposed to curse, who I AM supposed to curse... Things like that!"

He meant it partly as a light-hearted joke. Too bad it was also the truth. Robin's off limits, Sully wants to be cursed, Miriel needs data... Those types of things.

"You've been eating food that you didn't know who it was prepared by?"

He was either incredibly trusting or foolish. Or maybe she was just too paranoid. (It could have easily been some of both columns, because Olivia knew her suspicious behaviour had a way of getting out of control.)

"...Isn't it just easier to not curse your friends and if you have to curse anyone at all, curse bad people?" Naturally 'bad' was subjective and Henry's definition must have differed a great deal from hers. But then if she was Henry, she probably would have been the worst mage.

The only mage ever who wouldn't cast offensive spells.

"That's the general rule," he agreed, but his tone of voice carried with it evident doubt. Like it wasn't as clear as that. "I've come a long way since I joined the Ylisseans. Robin forbade me from cursing the lot of you, even if it's for Miriel's experiments or Tharja's desires~ It was kind of a bummer at first, but I got used to it."

The way Henry's treating this situation is as though cursing people is a totally normal thing to do to your allies in Plegia. (Hey Tom, how are you doing? Oh, you're SICK?! Haha, that curse got you good! Have fun not moving for another day.) The truth is more likely that skilled mages like himself are just too messed up to realize or care, and disadvantaged or weaker soldiers have to suffer at the hand of their whimsical spell casting. Such is the way of the food chain, or something.

"Now I just do it if somebody asks me to. Yup."

Olivia's eyebrows shot up ~~almost off her face~~ and at first she wasn't sure how to respond. Like, she got the message, but she couldn't imagine what living in Plegia must have been like if he had to be told not to curse people he called friends. A way of life there must have been something drastically different.

Nibbling upon her lower lip with some thought, she found her weight shifting between her feet, the way an anxious child would have. "Things were really different for you before the Shepherds, I guess... Did... I mean, do you like it in Plegia more?" Because maybe what Henry was really getting at beneath his smiles and squinty eyes was that Ylisse was too strict.

Maybe he would go back to Plegia if he had the chance. And if he did, would he willingly turn himself against the Shepherds? Would he willingly turn himself against her? It was a chilling concept.

Henry hummed and glanced away thoughtfully, even though his answer hardly took any thought. He'd already thought of this kind of thing: Ricken had asked about it, and countless others wanted to know the same. It used to be a more difficult assessment for him to make, but he was fairly certain now of his true answer.

"Nahhh," he replied airily. "Plegia was alright, but I think I've grown to prefer Ylisse over it. Ahaha~ Ylisse has more forests, and the animals are friendly. Plegia has that too, but there's lots of desert." As though this was the most important factor.

Truly, his preference ran deeper than that. The people of Plegia behaved differently in comparison to the people of Ylisse. In both places, Henry would be a black sheep but for different reasons: Plegia's people were terse, suspicious, and unfriendly, while Ylisse's people were polite and usually nice. These were generalizations, but it was based on his experience interacting with villagers and such. He wasn't terribly loyal to Plegia to begin with. It was a country that held good memories of his past, but plenty of bad to outweigh the good. He felt like Olivia would have been able to guess which he preferred, but she was without the knowledge of his past. It was no wonder she asked.

He could, at the very least, offer explanation further than his preference of their animal populations. "Plegia's not so great anyhow." Henry waved a hand dismissively. "I don't miss it or anything." Being Plegian and therefore being Grimleal, however, he could understand her thinking that he might have some attachment to his country. Grimleal thought of it as holy ground, or something.

She was oblivious to the deeper reasons behind it all, or what Henry really thought, so she had to take everything he said at face value. And that was probably for the best. Other people probably questioned the sincerity of his explanation and truth be told that if they'd not already spent the time together that they had, one of those people equally would have been Olivia. But in those moments that she stood with him and waited patiently for his verdict, she didn't feel any sense of wariness that she otherwise could have.

Instead, she gave him a small smile and she nodded. "I think it'd be understandable even if you did. People can miss homes. You can dislike memories there, or people there, and still miss the place itself. Or maybe it's not the place you miss, but what it stands for." Homes meant families, right? Olivia supposed a home could mean anything to anyone and not everyone would view one as the same.

"Plegia doesn't know what it's lost," she continued gently. "But Ylisse is just beginning to know what it's gained."

Henry laughed. "You think so," he mused, tilting his head. Even if she was certain, he couldn't put his faith in the idea that he had any place there. He had no plans of going back.

But, of course, he had that thought when he first arrived at Smash Academy. Then Yarne came along with some claims he didn't know anything about. About him being his father in the future. Then he went back to the Ylisse looking for Panne and anybody else, really, trying to figure out what he'd missed along the way. What he'd neglected to learn.

Thinking along that train of thought reminded him about his supposed future with Panne, and the muscles in his face tightened. Was he supposed to fall in love with Olivia, then? Only to marry Panne instead? He thought he'd fallen in love with Panne just by pure thought alone, staying awake and letting his thoughts wander about the possibilities. It was true, but having Olivia physically there, standing in front of him...

All of this occuring to him at once left him feeling confused.

Henry stood in front of her awkwardly, distantly.

It was true, that had Olivia known of his sentiments, she could have agreed. She'd spent plenty of time trying to turn over the concept of Inigo in her mind. She never forgot anything he said. According to him, she was to be the future queen of Ylisse. She was nothing like a queen, though. She didn't look like one or act like one. It was hard to picture it. And she'd thought about asking Henry what his opinion was, but maybe he wouldn't have one.

And considering how he sometimes made her feel, she had to admit that she thought it'd be more than a little awkward. About as awkward as it would have been to ask Hayato or anyone else who seemed to take an interest in her.

Henry's silence didn't go unnoticed and as per the usual, Olivia took that to mean it was, in some way, her responsibility. "O-oh! Should I not have said that?" On the verge of a frown, she lessened it to something not quite so transparent, but still held a noticeable amount of concern and uncertainty. "I-I guess that sounds silly when I think about it. I mean, Plegia was your home and everything. It's not like just because you spend years in Ylisse that it feels like home, after all."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

merry merry christmas, and I want you to know

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This made me laugh so hard. Thank you; you are WONDERFUL.

(o˘◡˘o) I'm glad, huehue

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