"If I were to hot glue fur to bedazzle you, would you feel it?" Stephen asked his cloak, while holding white faux fur. His cloak immediately flew into the shower, "I'll take that as a yes." Stephen pushed the fur aside. He looked in the mirror and made a knot with his tie, a sudden memory of Tony tying his tie hit him. The time he went on a 'date' with Mobius, Tony helped him get ready. Stephen shook that thought away, it's in the past now...
His cloak attached to his back, it wrapped around his shoulders, almost as if it were hugging him. He had a casual grey suit on, it wasn't too fancy. He had the choice between that suit or the suit Tony gave him. He thought it'd be weird to wear the other one since Tony will be there.
"How do I look?" Stephen presented himself to Bruce and Christine. They arrived at Christine's house early to help with decorations, so Stephen decided to get dressed at her place. Christine gasped, "Amazing as always."
Stephen let out a giddy laugh, "Stopp, look at you. You're gorgeous." They stood close to each other. "Wait, guys, stay there!" Bruce quickly left the room. They looked at each other and shrugged. He ran back with something in his hand, he lifted mistletoe above them. All of them laughed together.
"Come on, you guys gotta kiss! It's a tradition!" Bruce lively insisted. Stephen pushed the mistletoe away, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves now." Stephen said with an embarrassed expression. "The party starts in 30 minutes, I need to run a quick errand. I'll be right back." Bruce told his friends, he put on a warm coat.
"Alright, bye Brucie~" Stephen teased.
"Bye- don't call me that." He left the house. "Looks like it's just you and me." Christine had a beautiful, soft, red and white dress on. It was Christmas themed, obviously. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at him, "Want to dance?" She suggested. He tilted his head, "Dance?"
"Yeah, I'm in the mood to dance." She danced around as she spoke. "Okay, but we need music." Stephen waved his magic and made the radio turn on. Christmas music began playing. "Come on." She offered her hand out to him, he softly took her hand and leaned in close to each other. They were slow dancing, not keeping their eyes off of each other. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." Stephen sang, his voice was beautiful.
"Everywhere you go." Christine joined in, she sounded angelic. Their hands were tenderly holding each other, Stephen slid one of his on to Christine's waist. He twirled her around, her dress spun as she did. Their voices didn't harmonize that well, but that didn't stop them from singing together.
~Welcome to station 97.1! Featuring all of the best Christmas music~
The station switched to the song 'Halo' by Beyoncé. They stopped dancing and made weird faces at each other, "Christmas music?" Stephen asked while laughing. "I guess people don't know what Christmas music is... that's okay, we both love Beyoncé." Christine responded.
"True. I know this song by heart." He softly smiled at her. "I do too."
After a minute of singing, and ethereally staring at each other, Stephen confessed, "Christine, you're so beautiful."
She was enchanted by his remark. "Stephen..." She wrapped her hands around Stephen's neck and leaned in close to his lips, silently asking for consent. They kissed each other as they slowly danced around. A muffled scream called out from outside, which caused them to break the kiss. "What was that?" Stephen cautiously put his arm in front of Christine, attempting to protect her from what's coming.
They saw Bruce standing in front of them, outside of the big windows. "YES! IT FINALLY HAPPENED!" Bruce cheered from the other side, he danced around. "Bruce?!" Christine yelled in laughter. "Was he there this whole time?" Stephen quietly asked. "I guess so." Christine closed the curtains with her magic. "Hey! It's cold out here!" Bruce shouted, his words were muffled, but they could understand him.
Christine shook her head with a smile, "I'll let him in." She unlocked the door with magic. Bruce ran inside, he had snow all over his clothes, "Hey guys." He was panting. "Hey, did you finish your 'errand?'" Stephen made air quotations with one hand, the other was still holding Christine. "I did, I'd say it went well!" Bruce clapped his hands.
Stephen rolled his eyes, "Go get your cookies out of the oven." He pointed back at the kitchen with his thumb. "Okay!" Bruce literally ran into the kitchen. Stephen glanced up and down at Christine, he shyly held her hand. "So... are we...?" Christine felt too happy to continue her sentence. "I-If you want... I mean, is that okay? Do you think this is too sudden?" He inquired.
She shrugged, "No. We've known each other for about 3 to 4 months, I think that's enough time."
"Then... as an early Christmas present, will you be my girlfriend?"
"I... I would love to." They spent a decent amount of time mirroring soft looks at each other. Ding dong!! Guests were at the door!
Christine and Stephen walked up to the door, keeping their hands intertwined. Christine opened the door, it was Quinn and another girl, Bella. "Sorry if we're late, Bella wouldn't stop taking pictures of the ugly ass naked trees." Quinn complained, typical of her. Bella scoffed, "They had snow on them! They looked beautiful!"
Stephen laughed, "You're actually the first ones here!"
"Really?" Quinn and Bella stepped inside, they sat their gifts on the table. "There's more people outside." Bella told Christine. She peeked her head outside, Bella was right, half of the party arrived! "Stephen, check on Bruce and the cookies. I'll greet everyone in." Christine said, Stephen nodded and walked into the kitchen.
"Bruce-" He froze as he saw Bruce holding a pan with a big cookie in it. "Okay, what the fuck." Stephen exclaimed while stepping closer to him. "I've never baked before and um... I made the clumps too big." Bruce was embarrassed at this creation, which Stephen noticed.
Stephen sighed as if he were exhausted, which he wasn't, "It's fine, I'll use my magic to fix it." He made the cookies into individual ones. "Wh- why didn't you just do that in the first place? I could've avoided baking!"
"Eh, I didn't feel like it." Stephen took a cookie and bit off of it, he smiled at Bruce and went back into the living-room. There were a lot of familiar and unfamiliar faces walking around. No sign of his roommates yet, however there was somebody he knew... he squinted to make sure he was seeing her correctly, "What the..." Stephen mumbled to himself and approached her.
The Ancient One was conversing with another guest, she had a yellow coat on. "Ancient One?" He was so confused, why would his mentor be here? "Stephen! We were just talking about how lovely the decor is." She casually told him. Stephen lifted up a skeptical brow, "What are you doing here?" He calmly asked. The person the Ancient One was talking with, left to talk with someone else.
She sipped from her smoothie, "I was invited."
He blinked multiple times, "Okay- what? Christine invited you?"
"No, I invited myself." She walked away, examining the food. Stephen didn't know what to think, he was shocked. Christine approached him, "Heyy, enjoying the party?" She asked while taking his hand. He was still freaked out, "Um... my mentor is here."
"What?" She looked around, "Where?"
"Right there-" He pointed at nothing, "Ah, what the hell. She left."
Christine snickered, "Okay? Did you have any alcohol before the party?"
"Nope, I don't drink." He kissed her cheek, as his lips were touching her skin, he saw Tony walk in. He backed up, "He's here." Stephen whispered. "Who?" Christine turned around and saw Stephen's old roommates. "Ohh... I'll greet them." She walked over to them. Stephen stood still, he watched her talk to his roommates.
He hasn't seen them in awhile, all of them looked the same. However Tony, seemed much happier, Stephen could tell due to his energy reading ability. He smiled at that and looked away, he's glad that Tony's mental state seemed to improve. He felt nervous leaving him at his worst time, but he had to do it for the sake of his own mental health. The three of his old roommates were wearing matching sparkly suits, in different colors.
Tony was wearing a purple sparkly suit, which didn't match Christmas at all... Loki was wearing a green sparkly suit, meanwhile Mobius wore an orange one. He wanted to approach Tony so bad, but he didn't know if that'd be weird or not... Stephen watched the three go into the kitchen, of course, they're food motivated, who isn't though.
Christine gave Stephen a thumbs up, he smiled back at her. They walked in sync to each other, "I'm so sorry for inviting them... I wasn't thinking when I did. If it gets too overwhelming for you, let me know." Christine told him, she was always considerate of him. "Don't stress about it, they're your friends, don't let me get in the way of that."
"Yeah, but still... I know how awkward it is to meet people you were close with..."
He put his hand on her cheek, "Christine, it's okay."
Stephen managed to avoid his roommates 30 minutes into the party, he's been busy with talking to other people, and looking out for the Ancient One, wherever the hell she might be. "Haha yeah." Stephen left a group conversation. He was walking forward while looking back, he accidentally bumped into Loki. "Oh-" Stephen turned his head, "...Sorry."
Loki blinked twice, he had an orange juice in his hand, "Stephen!" He exclaimed, "How have you been?" He kindly asked.
Stephen rubbed his neck, "Uh..." He wasn't ready to converse with his roommates yet, he had it planned for the last 10 minutes of the party. "Umm, I've been doing good. H-How are you doing?"
Loki drank from his juice, "Very well. I hope you're enjoying your time here." And just like that, he left him. Stephen was relieved and felt respected, he's glad Loki didn't try to push too many questions on him. He wanted to ease back into the relationships of his roommates. "Hah, you too!" He said back, he was happy inside.
"I see you're finally talking to your roommates." The Ancient One said out of nowhere, she was standing behind him, sipping on another smoothie. Stephen jumped back, he was startled by her sudden appearance. "Ancient One, what the hell-" He faced her.
She cocked an eyebrow, "What?"
"Why are you here? Don't you have to protect Kamar-Taj?" Stephen questioned. The Ancient One's smoothie disappeared in thin air, "There are many sorcerers who protect Kamar-Taj, not just me." She responded.
"Right. Respectfully, can you leave? This is so weird... you have no reason to be here."
"Fine, but I wanted to stop by and say hi to little cloaky." She waved at his cloak, "Hi cloaky." She said in a baby-talk voice. Stephen rolled his eyes, he was surprised that his cloak actually waved back. "Okay, leave now."
"Alright, good night." She created a portal and left. "Why do I feel like she's going to come back..." He muttered under his breath. "Is your name actually cloaky?" He asked his cloak, it didn't move or do anything. He lowered his eyebrows, "Hm. I will find out."
"We're going to have dinner now!" Christine announced to everyone in the living-room. Stephen and the guests sat down at the large table. He sat across from Bella and next to Christine. Another dude sat on his right. Tony was sitting all the way at the end, far away from him. Stephen wondered if Tony knew he was at the party. Food floated around everybody with the help of Christine's magic, everything looked delicious.
Christine and Stephen secretly held hands under the table, they softly looked at each other. "This looks amazing!" One guest said. "Christine made it all by her self!" Stephen announced to everyone, which they gasped to. She blushed, "Yeah... it wasn't easy." She humbly said.
Stephen looked over at Tony, who looked at him. He freaked out and looked away, his heart was racing, they both made eye contact! They haven't made eye contact in a month. He shielded his face with his hand while resting his elbow on the table, ignoring his bad manners.
He carefully picked out the foods that are more beneficial to his health. The dinner was timid and friendly, everyone got along great. Besides Tony and Quinn, they'd have arguments every now and then, which were entertaining and hilarious.
After an hour of eating, dinner was over and so was the party. It had that 'feeling' even though it wasn't officially over, it was starting to get boring. Stephen sat outside on Christine's balcony. Despite it snowing, he's been outside for 15 minutes now, looking at the night sky.
He heard the slide doors open, he assumed it was Christine, but whenever he turned around he saw that it wasn't.
"Hi." Stephen looked back at Tony with a smile.
"Hey..." Tony had his hands in his pockets, he slowly made his way next to Stephen. They stood in silence, observing the beautiful view. Stephen broke the silence with, "How are you doing?"
Tony looked down while smiling, "Believe it or not, I've been doing well. A lot better than I expected."
"That's good, I was worried."
"How about you? What have you been up to lately?" Tony asked him.
Stephen bit his lip, "I've been enjoying my time with Bruce and Christine, they're really great friends. Or well... Christine and I are an item now." He hoped saying that wouldn't be awkward.
"Really? Wow... Uh, that's awesome heh... I just thought maybe... something could happen between us again."
"Sorry Tony... but I'm with someone who's loyal to my love." Stephen walked back inside, not giving Tony the chance to respond. He instantly regretted saying that, he wondered if it came across as cold toward him, which wasn't intended. He saw Tony come back inside, his energy felt sadder than when he arrived. Stephen sighed, it's for the best to separate himself from Tony.
The party didn't go as good as Stephen hoped, but it wasn't terrible. It finally ended after Christine's announcement, "Everyone can start heading out now, thank you all for the gifts and thank you for coming!"
Mobius was already at the door, he turned the doorknob and attempted to open the front door. It didn't open, almost as if it were stuck. "Uh... how do you open this?" He asked Christine, who was across the room. Everyone became silent. She ran up to him, "It's unlocked." She tried to open the door, same thing happened.
"You guys are just weak." Loki grinned, Mobius moved out of the way. Loki tried opening the door, he used all of his strength while groaning. "Okay... this is rigged." He said after giving up.
"Here, I'll just make a portal." Stephen tried to make a portal, the magic disappeared. Everyone began to freak out... "What the hell?" Stephen muttered, he looked up in shock at his girlfriend. Christine attempted her magic, nothing happened.
"We'll just open a window." Tony said while walking up to a medium-sized window, he tried to force it open, it wouldn't budge. He noticed that it had a distorted look on the outside of it, there was ice frozen on the window.
"Hold up... there's ice covering the window." Tony told the room his observation, he squinted closely at the ice. "It's snowing, idiot." Quinn rebuked.
"I think Tony might be on to something." Stephen and Christine travelled to the window. He looked at the big windows, "Ice is covering those as well!" He pointed at them.
"Don't panic mortals, you're safe." The Ancient One told the people. "Not for long though..."