World Refugees Final Mix

Playing with one pretty feather was nice, but Song couldn't help remembering that there were quite a few more still untouched.

And a Josiah.

"A bottle of soap and a bubble wand would have been amusing."

She leaned a little closer as she spoke and idly ran her chosen feather under Josiah's chin, in what was more of a caress than a tickle. She watched his reaction attentively.

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"I'd be surprised if I didn't get that from someone later today," he laughed. Actually, all things considering, he'd be surprised if he didn't get a hamster ball too.

His eyes widened and he gave a start when Song ran the feather under his chin, and he half turned to her. "You are too damn distracting."

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"I told you. I love feathers."
She grinned wickedly, and repeated the gesture, this time wiggling the feather a little for a more ticklish effect. Again, she was watching him carefully, as if experimenting to see how much he could take. In truth, her intentions were a little kinder than that. Some people didn't like being tickled, and she'd quickly stop if he seemed irritated by it.

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"Uh-huh." He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the damned thing. "Sure you do." He opened one eye and peered at Yasha. "Bet she doesn't do this to you."

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Hmm. He wasn't reacting much at all. Either he wasn't ticklish, or he was as stubbornly resistant as her brother.
For his part, the dog just pricked his ears up for a moment and looked back at Josiah expectantly.

"Yasha gets hugs and has to dance with me. Pretty good deal if he were human, but I think to a dog it's almost as bad as this."

She tried tickling the side of his neck.

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"Almost feel sorry for him for the danci- ack!" The tickling on his neck finally got a reaction from him and he fell backwards onto the floor, trying to put as much distance between him and the feather as possible.

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She gave a short burst of laughter, as if she were the one being tickled, while Yasha edged closer to Josiah uncertainly, trying to see what was wrong.

"Sorry," she said with traces of laughter still in her voice. "I'll stop if you want."

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He glared up at her, but couldn't keep the mischievous spark out of his eyes. "Right. I can tell you're really sorry."

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"Very sorry, because that was my only plan for curing you. You see..." she raised an index finger as if explaining an important fact, "I often say that hugs heal everything, but for the toughest problems, there is a faster way. Now, it's risky. Side effects include shortness of breath and mild stomach cramps... but there's nothing like all-out, uncontrolled laughter to make a person forget all of their problems."

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"Heh, I don't think I'm that bad," he said, reaching for her and pulling her down into a quick kiss. "Next time, I'll have to use Yasha as a shield or something."

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She just chuckled lightly, easily slipping into a more comfortable position on the floor with him, then having to squirm aside as Yasha pawed his way between them. She'd said he was jealous... she hadn't specified how he would react. It wasn't aggression that she had been warning about. If the dog saw her playing or cuddling someone else, he wanted to be part of it too.

They must have made quite an odd sight, on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, with the dog crammed between them and feathers loosely scattered about by all the activity.

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Jalen's stocking was draped over Amy's arm as she walked into the room, her free hand playing with a silver locket at her throat. She'd gotten tired of waiting to give him his furry little gift, and had made off with the stocking earlier that morning. Her husband was currently upstairs, trying to pry a very nimble kitten off his shirt.

"Merry Christmas to anyone that's up!"

When she saw Josiah and Song on the floor, she stopped dead and just stared for a minute. Feathers were everywhere (Where had feathers come from? Last she'd checked, Song didn't molt) and Yasha was in the middle of the couple. Ookay.

"Or down. Am I interrupting you two?" She couldn't help the giggle that followed the question. Merry Christmas indeed.

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He was just getting used to the idea of staying there on the floor with Song in his arms and Yasha trying to get some attention too when Amy walked in. He blinked at her giggle and tried to sit up... but slammed his head on the table instead. He let out a hiss and then decided that maybe the floor was a lot more comfortable with his sudden headache.

He waved weakly at Amy. "Merry Christmas."

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Song was trying to multitask between keeping Yasha content with petting and paying equal attention to Josiah. She seemed rather delighted with the whole situation, really, and Amy's sudden appearance only made her snicker and blush very slightly.

"Don't mind us. We're just... um..." She glanced around until her eyes fell on one of the feathers. "Decorating. Yes. Only Josi seems to have decided that the table needs some repairs. Are you alright?" She directed the question to Josiah, of course, leaning over Yasha to peer more closely at him.

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She winced as Josiah whacked his head, and started forward, tossing the stocking onto the couch.

"Want some ice, there? I keep telling myself I should learn blizzard but nooo..." She trailed off and gave Song a look of utter disbelief.

"Decorating? I'd sooner believe you are molting."

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"No, I'm good," he replied to both Song and Amy's inquiries, rubbing his head wearily despite the fact that his head kept saying "owowowowowow".

"We were totally decorating. Can't you tell from the, uh, decorations?"

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Song wriggled around her overgrown lapdog a little further to plant a very quick kiss on Josiah's bruised head, then crawled backwards until she could sit up a safe distance from the edge of the table (learning from Josiah's mistake) and wrap an arm around Yasha.

"It's tough work, decorating. Maybe I did molt."

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"And I'm really Maleficent in disguise. Bwahahaha." Grinning a little, Amy fetched the stocking and returned it to it's rightful place before moving over to the tree to inspect the pile of gifts.

"So other than your 'decorating', have the two of you been behaving this morning? Or do I get to whap you both with Igor?" Picking up a small box, she shook it, then gasped.

"Ooh, now would be perfect! For this one, anyway." Setting the first box down, she grabbed another and waved it. "Sooong, I've got something for you. Josi boy might like it too~"

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He sat up slowly, making sure to avoid the edge of the table this time. "Why would you think we've been on anything except our best behavior?" Hell, he was going to need some aspirin at this rate.

He smiled at Amy and gave her a pointed look. "Again, you're moving pretty well, all things considering."

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Shooting one more concerned glance at Josiah - it wasn't clear whether she thought that he was hurting more than he admitted, or that he was going to slip and hit the table all over again - she went to retrieve the present, not even bothering to stand up and walk the distance, but instead shuffling over on all fours. She was surprisingly fast this way.

"If that's moving well, it's one more reason for me never to have children." Teasing Amy was becoming quite an entertaining hobby, because she never knew how her friend would decide to get revenge.

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"Look who I'm talking to! And I'm nesting, damn it." She replied to Josiah, then tapped Song on the head with the box when she got near enough. "It's a documented burst of energy in the last weeks of pregnancy." Gee, way to sound like a textbook. Amy rolled her eyes at herself before snatching up another, much smaller box and flinging it at Josi with a smirk. Hopefully it'd land on the couch like she was aiming for, and not on the poor boy's head.

"Incoming!"

She really should have tried to find him a hamster ball, but she hoped the ornament (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/dueromaxwell/Dec25_001.jpg) would do.

Edited Date: 2009-12-28 10:12 am (UTC)

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"Careful, Song," he said cheerfully, winking at Amy. "The minute she's Eli-less, she's probably going to get revenge for the past nine months you've been teasing her."

He had already learned his lesson from before and decided to err on the side of caution, ducking as the present came whizzing past his head. It landed on the couch, just barely missing him, and he ducked his head up again, giving Amy a playfully wounded look. "Trying to do more damage, I see. I swear, I get no love around here."

When he opened the gift, he nearly laughed. Spherical objects seemed to be the go-to present for him this year.

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Grinning, Song tore into her own present, showing none of the careful finesse that Josiah used. She slashed at the paper with her sharpened fingernails, seeming to find much glee in shredding it like some wild beast.

The object she pulled out, though, gave her pause. A hand-sewn plushie. No surprise there, since Amy had been threatening for quite some time to make her an Orpheus plushie.
But this wasn't Orpheus.

"Amy... you didn't..."

She held up the Josiah plushie with both hands and tilted her head at it, looking rather disturbed. "You know, these things always make me think of voodoo dolls. It's kind of creepy. I dunno... If I kiss the doll, will the real Josi feel it?" She decided to test this theory.

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"Oughta just sic my brave warrior on you two and be done with it." Amy muttered darkly, but laughed as Josi ducked.

"You get plenty of love around here!" She nodded towards Song, who was ripping open her present with wild abandon. If she liked that one...Amy cast about for the matching present, frowning as she saw it pushed back beneath the tree out of her reach. Oh for Pete's sake.

"Your other one's back-" She turned back to Song, then shifted uncomfortably at the look on her face. Oh. Maybe she should've just stuck to the Orpheus one...but at Song's words, she mock-gagged.

"Sap alert!"

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