Christmas Spirit [Athena]

[Deleted]

The air was freezing cold, everyone was wearing some kind of heavy, overstuffed coat with scarves and gloves trying to keep themselves warm. Everyone, but Vivian. She wasn't wearing any kind of jacket or sweater, just a thin, blue, short-sleeved shirt. She never got cold, if it was snowing she wouldn't even shiver. That was one of the advantages of being a half vampire.

She was sitting on the bench with a pocket knife in one hand and a bracelet in the other. Everyone who walked by stared at her with a wondering look, but Vivian didn't even glance up at them, she was too busy working on the bracelet to notice.

The bracelet had a mixture of small, round river rocks strung on the string like beads, all of them being a different color and size, not one being the same. Attached to one of the larger rocks was a small wooden wolf figuring that Vivian had carved herself.

Her father had taught her the art of wood carving as soon as she could hold a pencil and she was grateful he did. She was now adding the last few details to the wolf like the fur pattern and the body's curves. This wolf had been the best she's ever done, usually she couldn't get so much detail into a figuring this small, but this was for someone special.

It was for Athena, it was her Christmas present.

Vivian gently blew on the wolf charm, blowing away the wood shavings and smiled at her finished product. The wolf was about as big as a half dollar coin and it had it's muzzle pointed towards the sky in a silent howl.

Vivian ran her finger over the figuring and flipped the blade back into it's slot, shoving it into her pocket. She wasn't sure what Athena would think about, but hoped she would like it. She was glad she had gotten it done before Christmas and she wished the day would come quicker.

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Athena - not Shift, since the Teen Titan had on her holo-watch right then - strolled down the side of the...well, sideway. The cold breeze ruffled her short hair a little bit, and she debated trimming it again, as it was actually starting to make her look a little - well, feminine. It wasn't liked she disliked girly-girls, but the shape shifter didn't consider herself one. Plus, she really liked her hair cropped very short. It looked nice, and showed off her cheekbones (something she would never, ever have admitted thinking to somebody else).

And that was when she spotted Vivian. Or, rather, the back of Vivians' head, which the teenager didn't that she recognized until her pace had sped up. Unlike the werepyre - or whatever you called a vampire-werewolf mix, she wasn't really sure - Athena was wearing actual winter-time clothes. It hadn't started snowing yet, but the weather was cold enough for it. Either way, the disguised Titan had on thick, dark blue jeans with her usual tall, scruffy black boots zipped over them, and a silver long-sleeved shirt with a plain faux-leather coat/jacket topping the ensamble. Plus all of her regular peircings, though they might have looked a bit odd, with her ears looking pointed right then.

Not that Athena was pondering her ear peircings, since she was raising her voice to get the attention of her crushed-on best feind. "Hey, Vivian! It's me, Shif - um, Athena."

[/size][/color]

[Deleted]

Vivian wasn't paying attention to anything around her and jumped at the sound of Athena's voice. She looked behind her, quickly closing her hand around the bracelet and tried to hide it from Athena's view. "A...Athena, Hi. W..What are you doing here?" Her voice was slightly nervous and it sounded like she didn't want Athena there.

She quickly cleared her throat and tried again with a smile "It's good to see ya. How you've been?" She scooted over to one side of the bench making room for Athena to sit, while keeping the bracelet somewhat behind her back. She hoped Athena wouldn't notice her odd behavior, though a part of her wanted Athena to notice so she could have an excuse to give her the gift now instead of waiting.

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

"I'm good." The holo-watch wearing teenager paused speaking and moving, as Vivian scooted over to make room for her on the bench. "Thanks.", she said, glancing a bit confusedly at her longer-haired freind, wondering why she was sitting with her arms behind her back. Maybe it was some odd quirk she had; Athena wasn't quite sure just how much of a grip Vivian had on human behavior - and with the shape shifting Titans' usual group of freinds, that was actually a valid worry - but supposed that it didn't matter.

"How about you?", Athena asked, glancing back into Vivian's face. She shivered slightly as a cold breeze whistled past, and then realizd that the werepyre was wearing just a t-shirt and jeans; not even a long-sleeved shirt. Her eyebrows - peirced, even with the hologram over her - shot up in realization. "Aren't you freezing, wearing just that shirt?", Shift gaped, nearly tripping oer her last sentence.

[/size][/color]

[Deleted]

Vivian laughed at Athena's reaction to her outfit and shook her head. The question wasn't actually that funny, but Vivian was still a bit nervous about trying to keep Athena's Christmas present a secret and laughing always helped. "Nope, it's barely even chilly for me," she said, finally calming down her laughter, "My skin's already cold, so the temperature here doesn't really effect me."

She smiled at her shape-shifting friend, and crush, and asked,"So, are you doing anything fun for Christmas? Like you having a party or you just hanging with family?" Vivian was beginning to feel more relaxed now so she slowly took her hands from behind her back and rested them on her lap, still making sure to keep her left hand closed around the bracelet.

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

'Either I was being funny or she's got a weird sense of humor.', Shift thought to herself, though her smile didn't droop a bit. "Lucky you. Even with my usual - um, padding - I still get cold during the winter.", Athena said aloud, her voice dipping down a bit when she mentioned her padding - her fur. With her holo-watch on and all, she didn't feel comfortable mentioning it outloud, even in a place as undercrowded as their little bench in the park.

"I think I'll hang out around here for Christmas.", she said, after Vivian got around to asking about her plans. "But I'm going to spend Christmas Eve day with the 'rents, or else they'll throw a hissy fit about me never coming home." The Titan rolled her eyes, but the warm tone never left her voice. She didn't really mind; it was nice to go home once in a while, and nicer even to have a flesh-and-blood home to go home to, unlike a good few of her teammates. "What about yourself?", Athena asked, glancing ito Vivian's face.

[/size][/color]

[Deleted]

Vivian slowly nodded her head as she listened to Athena and said "Well that sounds like fun." She looked up at Athena when she asked what Vivian was going to do for Christmas and said "Well, I think I'll just hang at my place for Christmas Eve, play a few Christmas songs on my guitar maybe even desperately try to make some cookies without burning them into charcoal." Vivian smiled and leaned back against the bench, looking up at the sky and continued, "Then on Christmas Day I'll go visit my parents and little sis, which reminds me I still have to get them each some flowers today, but I'll do that later. Then after that the fun time of dumpster diving begins."

Vivian closed her eyes for a second and lightly licked her lips at the thought of the "feast". Then she looked back at Athena with a small smile on her face,"Humans always throw away the best part of food. Oh, and the best place to go is Hometown Buffet. They have the best turkey there!" The werepire softly chuckled to herself as she went over the delightful plans of Christmas, though it wasn't really much of a Christmas. Vivian hasn't had a real Christmas since her family was killed and it didn't help that she didn't have the money to have a real Christmas either.

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

Athena's face - disguised by a hologram, but still clearly her, just not green - went from sympathetic about her family (and burnt cookies) to outragedly sympathetic. The mixture was a little odd looking; she was trying to be understanding whilst also being angry at the long-haired werepyre for not even mentioning anything about her lack of food, and anything else she might have been lacking - like, apperantly, living family. Normally Shift would have thought going to visit her mother and sister would have meant their house, and thus living relatives - but it was the just-so catch in her voice, the note about the flowers and the later mention of dumpster diving that tipped the shape shifter off.

So her hand was on Vivian's before the teen knew what she was doing, holding it tight. "You are so not going dumpster diving, Vivian. No way.", the peirced femme fatale stated, her voice brooking no arguement. "You're going to come by the Tower on Christmas. I won't take no for an answer." The shape shifter paused, then tried to cast some humor into her seriousness; she didn't have quite the flair her father did, but it was an attempt, at least. "Anyway, I'll need help eating my soy chicken."

[/size][/color]

[Deleted]

Vivian was a bit surprised when Athena grabbed her hand and "demanded" that she go over to the Tower, no one had ever invited her to anything. The werepire gave a small laugh at Athena's last statement and said "Soy chicken?! Well then I'll definitely have to go then."

Vivian smiled again at Athena then directed her gaze to their hands and slowly intertwined her fingers with Athena's saying in a low, quiet voice, "Your hand's so warm," She paused for a moment, gently tightening her grip and making a quick glance at Athena, "It seems like forever since I've felt something so warm."

[Athena 'Shift' Logan]

A hard to define mix of freindship-like warmth and a mix of hormonal crush-filled warm squigglies rushed through the disguised shape shfter. The hologram projector picked up on her blush, which was hard to see on her darker skin tone - for which she was eternally grateful. She looked horrible when she blushed, but really thought that Vivian looked cute when she did it. or maybe that was the warm squigglies talking.

"Thanks." Athena said, then stalled, feeling awkward. Was that just her, or did everyone else in the immediate vicinity feel it too? "For both things. It's - um, no problem. Fur, you know. It's a good insulator." Mentally, the teenager macked her forehead. 'It's a good insulator' -- how lame was that? Athena felt like she was channeling her parents or something; they said stupid stuff like that when they were being all flirty and -- the Titan blinked. Oooh. Oh, she really hoped Vivian hadn't thought that was weird or something.

[/size][/color]