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 Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:56 am
Quote: Walking home one night, you happen to come across a rather cozy looking holiday pop-up store. Sweet and wonderful smells waft out from its doors, and once you step inside, you find a rather jolly looking man in a snowman costume handing out free samples of what he would like to call “Frosty Frappes”. It seems trustworthy enough, as there are multiple people already happily sipping away at their drinks at nearby tables and you decide that you’ll take one and go about your way. It’s sweet and cinnamony with just a hint of something cold. Mint? Ginger? Well, whatever it is, your body feels cooler, and there’s an itch in the back of your throat. You clear your throat, and first it comes out normal… Then you find yourself humming, then whistling… And finally, you can’t stop, every word you say comes out in song. No matter how hard you try, your thoughts come out in song as if you were born to sing! An hour passes, and soon enough singing dies down and you can talk normally once again. For the next week or so though, you find yourself humming or singing softly to yourself while doing mundane tasks. Luckily for you, it also seems like you can hit the notes for now!
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:23 pm
Harley usually spent the holidays home alone. She was old enough not to believe in Santa, and her parents liked to work now for the extra pay. It didn't really bother her, they left her a good allowance for christmas. Plus all the cards for christmas from family. She was sitting on a good 500$ in cash now, and there wasn't really anything she wanted to completely blow it on.
Except she knew there was someone in her family that wasn't getting christmas cards or anything, so who better to harass for the holidays then her newly found long lost cousin?
Besides they had kept in touch, regardless of her fathers disapproval. She didn't care, she wasn't her parents. Hitch was cool. He had one eye, she had yet to found out why.
But she was so curious anyways. She wanted to learn more about her cousin. As soon as she was able, she sent a text message to him to meet her at downtown Destiny City. They were going to walk the streets and do christmas things.
OR ELSE.
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:40 pm
Hitch's first reaction when he saw a text from Harley was to throw his phone on the couch face-down - and honestly, it was a gut reaction, an instinctive, irrational one that made him groan and grab for it a few seconds later. It wasn't like he was some goddamn teenage girl waiting on a crush from the most popular boy in school or whatever the ******** got people flinging their phones like that. She was his cousin. Somehow. His younger cousin, someone who all of a sudden wanted to be there for him and - Why did this freak him out so much? - oh, right, because her aunt was a youma, not dead, he was lying to her, he didn't even know where the ******** that youma was, he was literally so ******** up lately, he needed help but where the ******** did him and Rhys even begin to look for someone like - He had a sweater for her anyway. 'Fine, ' it was a curt text back, but to the point. He wasn't far anyway, and it didn't take him long to clean up. At first he made to tie his hair back, but then he realized that only drew more attention to the whole missing eye thing, so instead, he opted to leave it down. Hat, scarf, big puffy coat. The whole nine yards, and he was on his way, a lumpy, poorly wrapped present tucked under his arm.
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:45 pm
She loved his curt text back. Made her think her cousin was going to stand her up.
BUT AS SHE LEARNED FROM THEIR FIRST ENCOUNTER, Hitch wasn't one to leave someone out in the cold. That was good, cause she would've gone to his house and harassed him and his gay lover as well.
She looked at her phone at the time and waited till she saw the man. his hair was down in his face, which was a shame. It wasn't like her cousin wasn't handsome, and she was sure it had to do with the eyepatch.
"OI!" She waved her hand over and met him halfway. "Take any longer and I might've had to come over and harass you to come out." She bounced over to him, looping her arm through his and smiling.
"Is that a present for me Cuz?" She smiled sheepishly, "I got one you for you too!"
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 8:49 pm
Hitch snorted rather inelegantly, and he didn't need a cigarette to summon an indignant puff of smoke from his lips in this cold. "It's only been, what, twenty ********' minutes? It ain't like I live next door." He tensed, initially, when she touched him, and for a minute he contemplated shrugging her off. - but in the end, he didn't, even if his face burned for it. She smiled like his mom. Maybe that was part of the problem. "Didn't have to get me s**t, " but he didn't deny the other present was for her, and if there was any doubt, the way he held it out to her made it plain as day. "Nothin' special, just... there."
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 10:58 pm
"Hasn't anyone ever told you not to leave a girl waiting anyways? Jeez." She was joking, as she rolled blue eyes at him. "Yeah you're right, you do live far away, but whatevs, so do I. Think I can stay the night again since I'm out here?" She didn't bother giving him a puppy dog look, he'd say yes or he'd say no.
She could always find a club to hang out in until early in the morning.
She could feel the tenseness of her hanging off his arm and chose to ignore it. Whether he liked it or not, she was his cousin and this is how she was. Plus she was ******** cold and he was not.
It was weird cause he had a slight smell of tobacco and smoke, something neither of her parents had. She had smelled it on casual boyfriends but here it was just kind of comforting. It was nice to have family. It was nice to have someone be there, even if he didn't know about why she cared he was.
"Yeah I do. It's christmas, season of giving." She didn't bother mention that she was sharing what should rightfully be his too. He should be getting money and gifts from her family too but their stuck up the a** backwards ways would make sure he'd never see anything from them.
WELL NOT ON HARLEY'S WATCH.
"Oh s**t, no way!" She reached over, taking it and immediately unwrapping it. It was a soft sweater, and she opened it up to look at it and laugh. "Oh holy s**t, that's ugly. I love it." She shrugged out of her jacket, where she only wore a thin camisole and put the sweater on before replacing the jacket over it. Now she was super warm.
"Sweet, it's a bit big but I like it." she let the sleeves fall and then reached into her purse. "This is for you from me." Inside was a cheesy christmas card with 200$ of cash that she had been given. "I don't know what you like yet so....and before you turn me down, it ain't just money from me. It's money from the otherside of family. I won't lie to you, it wasn't meant for you but they didn't tell me what I was suppose to do with it so you know." She shrugged, "Have a nice ******** dinner with your husband or we can do something fun, I don't care."
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Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 6:51 pm
The sigh that left his lips was resigned, and the kind of sigh that really gave the answer before Hitch ever opened his mouth: " Fine." Because he really didn't want to invite another sit-in on his porch, for one thing - and for another, it got dark early and Destiny City was dangerous, especially for a girl like her. Not that he said that, but he thought it. Her excitement made Hitch smile, something that hadn't come easy to him the last few months - hell, with somebody that came crashing in like Harley, bringing in a s**t ton of mixed up emotions as a souvenir, was it any wonder he'd been more crabby than smiley about it? But he was, in the moment, beaming, looking very much immensely pleased. "Yeah? - seemed like somethin' you might be into, so I figured..." Then the smile immediately died, and he fixed a hell of a look at her. "The ********? - it's ********' ball freezin' weather out here, an' that's what you wear?? For ******** sake, Har - " and he immediately tugged off his scarf and draped it over her shoulders, sighing in an agitated way. "First the porch an' now this. ********. You gotta ********' take care of yourself." Then, there was the card in his hands... and the card made him smile, too, but then there was that cash, and coupled with the explanation, his chest immediately grew tight. "No, " he said, shaking his head and pushing the wad of green back at her. "Thanks, Har, but no. Meant for me or not, I don't ********' want their money. You go do somethin' nice with it, the card's plenty."
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Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 10:37 pm
Harley liked that her cousin let her hang out. It just make sleeping over cool. She hoped though his husband didn't mind, she could sleep with headphones in or something. If she knew his train of thought, she would've admitted she had a way of handling anyone trying to corner her at night.
But only Helen and they're former teammates knew what she was, and she wasn't about to drag Hitch in with whatever stuff he got going.
"What?" She looked at him and then back down at the sweater and then knocked her hands together. "Oh you mean the camisole? I mean the jacket is okay enough...." She maid small sounds as he wrapped his scarf around her and then sort of laughed. "Okay okay Dad. I take care of myself just fine." She didn't push him away though and sniffed into the scarf. Yep, smelled like tobacco, but not overwhelmingly so.
"Thanks Hitch, but no." She repeated back at him, "I'm free to do with the money as I please, and if you get me a chill sweater, the least I can do is give you this to get a better looking coat. Or a gift for your husband." She waved the card at him and then stuck it in his coat pocket, even if it meant crushing her card for him.
"I got plenty of nice things to content myself with, you just get to get over it cousin." She snorted and then her attention immediately shifted.
"Oh my god. We should get one of those." She pointed towards a pop up store decorated in all sorts of christmas decor and candy. "Come on Cuz." She took his hand, half dragging, half leading him towards the shop. "We can spend some of that money here."
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Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 3:59 pm
"Sure you do, " Hitch snorted in probably the single most believable tone ever with a dramatic roll of his eyes. Well. Eye. That didn't work so well with one of them, he guessed. Annoyance and shame twisted in his gut, battling for dominance. "The sweater didn't ********' cost that much, " he snapped, although as usual, he was finding himself in a classic no-win scenario. Taking it from her was taking money from the family, a family that had never been there for him or his mom in her years of struggle because she'd decided she hadn't wanted to give Hitch up. Rejecting it was rejecting a nice gesture from the only blood family he had that actually wanted him around and hadn't been twisted into a monster. Rejecting it could ******** this up. Taking it ******** him up. "Har, I really - " Maybe there was a way he could say it without being an a** about it? - but she wasn't going to take no for an answer, and he knew he wouldn't be able to get the right words out, and - Then abruptly she was dragging him towards a pop up shop, which, fine. At least it'd buy him a little time to sort this s**t out, sighing heavily not for the first time. "Whatever." He'd buy her some stuff there, maybe find a way to slip the cash back into her pocket. Something. In the meantime, he tried to save the card, the real important thing here to him.
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Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 8:27 pm
He was right, hard to take a one eyed roll seriously.
"It cost more then you think...." She said quietly before moving on. She never got something where someone actually thought about her, or what she liked. It was cold hard cash. Spend on yourself. Cards were always generic.
He probably wouldn't understand, but Harley's loneliness stemmed from the fact that no one knew her. Actually knew her, never bothered to get to know her. She as just some granddaughter that they could easily send money and forget.
But she didn't think too harshly of it, at least they sent her s**t....Hitch never got that. The feelings were between the two and she was determined to make a meaningful relationship with him. They WOULD know each other. They would be a family.
She could have someone that cared for her, like Helen did too.
"It's called compromising." She said instead and looked around the shop, "We could throw it in the street for all I care." She hummed and hawed at candy and cookies and treats before grabbing a couple. "Snacks for tonight! OH HEY, Do you want one of those?" She was already holding up a finger for one frappe for her stickler cousin.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:36 pm
Hitch shot her a look when she made that comment about price. More than he thought, no, because he'd ******** paid for it. He knew exactly how much it was. 24.99 before the sale, 19.00 with, in a super special deal where he got four sweaters and the fifth came free. But he let it go... for now. "One breath compromise, next breath goin' in the street, " he grunted, although he was hardly going to ******** let her do that. Snacks though, those were nice - although Hitch did offer in a surprisingly mild tone before he thought to stop himself, "I can make dinner tonight if you want - you gotta tell me what you like though, " and his face burned a little when he realized he'd said it, quickly amending it with, "Ain't nothin' special, but I mean - if you got somethin' you like eatin', I'll try an' make it. If you want. Or pizza. Whatever." Dumbass.Then before he could even really process what one of those was, there was an overly cheerful looking guy holding out a cup of something to him; Hitch regarded him for a second with a suspicious squint before he finally caved and accepted the cup. "Thanks man. How much do we - " "Don't you kids worry. It's on the house, son!" and with a wink, the guy was off peddling his drinks to someone else. Oh. Well.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 7:46 pm
She almost stopped in her tracks, piling her arms with goods. She couldn't take the drink, so it was all for Hitch before beaming at him.
"You can cook? That's ******** wicked! Are you really good, or like heat up the frozen pizza kind? Can we stop by the store then on the way back? I really want..." She wanted something amazing, if he could cook. But she also wanted something homely.
"Uhm, gimme like a second okay! Usually I just eat out and stuff. Can you make chili?" Chili sounded really good actually! It was cold out and they could let it heat up while she chilled at his house.
"I can't cook, but I can help or whatever. No free meals without some labor. Or like I can do the dishes and stuff." She shuffled her goods. "Can I borrow some pjs too, I forgot to bring some." Maybe she could borrow a pair of shorts.
"Score, a free drink. Try it try it. Let me know how it is!"
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Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:42 pm
The image of her just about tipping over with s**t was a little hilarious - and he snickered, but anyway - "Yeah, I mean, I cook." To say he could cook would be like saying he had skill at it, and it wasn't like he was bad or anything, just... "I mean, I cook from scratch if that's what you mean, yeah. So yeah, we can use some of that cash for dinner s**t." Seemed like a good compromise, right? "Never made chili before, but I'll find a good recipe an' we'll be golden." Just in case he did ******** it up, there was the disclaimer. Chili did sound pretty awesome considering the cold, though, and it couldn't be that hard to make. He'd done sauces and stews and s**t before without any problem, so... Then, there was a hint of wickedness in his grin - just a little something that might have been kind of playful. "Do the dishes an' the PJs are all yours, Har." Yes, Hitch did the dishes and didn't complain. Mostly. That didn't mean he liked doing them. He regarded the drink curiously for a second before sipping at it. His brows arched a little. "Huh. It's sweet. Kinda nice... " Hitch was a coffee guy and all; he preferred it kind of dark and strong, but considering the festive air, this was pretty damn nice. He took another sip before, "Wanna try it?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:49 am
"We got a ******** chef in here." Harley was actually amazed. Her cousin was talented, and he made food. Well so he claimed, but she'd be a judge later tonight.
She did like food after all. "We can google search or something." She nodded, and then laughed at his face. "Wow, Making ya younger cousin work for some night clothes, I see how this is." She snickered, "I'll do your dishes, I'll make them squeaky clean. Then I get your BEST pajamas."
She liked that he was opening up a little more, it made her think that he was starting to care. Perhaps, she could really have someone in her family she could trust.
She watched him sip the drink before scrunching her nose up. "Nah. It's cold out, I don't want a cold drink." She would've waved her hand away but her arms were full of christmas goods. "Plus, we still gotta stop by the store, I'll pick up hot chocolate from there."
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 1:08 pm
He outright snorted. “Chef. Right. Nah, that’d mean I do it for like - work or somethin’, “ and he didn’t have the training or the experience for that. (Not that he’d actually tried. He just knew how it was going to turn out, so he’d never bothered.) His grin was wide. “******** yeah I am. Ain’t that what young family’s for?” It’s how his mom had looped him into working with her in the kitchen to begin with. - granted it didn’t take much. He’d been a clingy little ******** as a kid. “Nothin’ but the best for family.” Never mind he didn’t actually do pajamas. Some sweatpants floated around, but it was mostly just boxers and wife beaters. She didn’t have to know that, though. “Your loss, “ he declared as he chugged down more of the s**t; hot or cold, it was pretty tasty. It did leave a tickle in his throat, like he wanted to cough but not quite - nothing that weird though, considering he was a smoker bringing cold s**t in the cold.
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